Dear Bob,

Hello. How are you doing? I was thinking of you last night when
I ordered a Cape Codder at Kennedy’s Restaurant & Bar on West
57th Street. They made it exceptionally strong, I think, which
may have contributed to my falling head first into a pile of
garbage bags outside the place afterwards. Otherwise, we had a
swell time.

I’ve played your Valse Mirage a few more times, always to the
delight of the audiences I am somehow able to gather at 3:00 on
weekday afternoons. I am planning more gigs sion, and I hope to
do your Nocturne and Valse, along with Philip Glass, Kaikhosru
Sorabji, David Lang (if I can get the score to While Nailing at
Random), and heaven only knows what else.. I may actually rent
the Bruno Walter at Lincoln Center and try to make money there
for once. Money, of course, is the most important thing in the
world. The Greenwich House gig would cost me considerably more
up-front than the Bruno Walter, so I’ll have to consider that in
my plans.

Have I told you I’m working at Avon Cosmetics as a word processor
and marketing trainee? It’s rather fun, and somehow, it’s what I
wanted when I moved here. I wanted to live a life like Robert
Miller did. Did you ever know him? He was a big wheel on Wall
Street while recording all that Cowell and everything. I just
heard he died of liver pseurosis, though he was never an
alcoholic. Anyhow, the Avon gig is pretty soft, but the pay is
grand, and the location is also great — 9 West 57th. It’s that
big building with the huge orange number 9 in front of it. It’s
quite a facility, and I’m enjoying working my way up the
corporate ladder, though I expect to bail out sooner or later.
In the meantime, I’ve got babes galore, and all the lip balm I
can carry out at one time.

I’m restructuring my A to Z program to include taped confessions
received by the Apology Line in New York. Apology is this free
telephone call where people call in to apologize for crimes and
misdeeds they committed against other people. Sometimes muggers
will call just to say they’re sorry for scaring all those
people. Other times murderers will call and say they’re sorry
for the shit they pulled. It’s way intense, and it has this cult
following. It’s actually an art project, and “Mr. Apology,” as
he’s called, uses the taped confessions as material for
performance art pieces. Anyhow, I am thinking about making the
tapes from this project a central theme to my next gig. I am
hoping to get something on the Victory Music Series at the old
Victory Theatre in Times Square. It’s a converted pornograpic
movie theatre that now has a pretty hot looking new music
series. I only learned of it recently, so haven’t seen any of
the performances, but it looks pretty strong. Have you heard
about this? Have you heard of Apology? It’s not a pay service,
and it’s been going on since 1980. HBO made a movie about it in
1986.

So what’s new with you? I hope all is well for you. I hope this
letter reaches you before you head out to San Francisco, assuming
that’s what you planned for this summer. Perhaps you heard that
Phil McReynolds is getting married. Strangely enough, he asked
her to marry him while they were on the campus of my old high
school, and one of the priests who I knew very well there will be
performing the ceremony. Inky-dinky world, ain’t it?? Phil is
talking about making his own CD. Maybe he did that since last we
spoke.

Anyhow, just thought I’d say hello. Again, I hope all is well
and that you are getting life’s premium cable channels for free.
Let me know if you’ll be in town soon. I don’t keep up with the
concert scene like I used to, so much of it is so boring and I
finally gave up on it. Bye.

Victoriously,
-mt