After graduating New York City's Music & Art High School in 1985, I took a two-year hiatus to work before attending SUNY Purchase college where I eventually switched my major from art to film and the legendary J-51 Posse was formed. J-51 was our apartment # and the trouble we caused brought us campus fame. Too many tall stories to tell here but it could fill a novel. Come 1989,
larrondo, starsixtynine, and Blazm, hatched a plan to cut their senior thesis films into a 3-part feature length horror movie dubbed PILLARS OF RAGE. While that was in effect, Dablo was culling ideas for an ambitious feature length low-budget horror film called LOST PROPHET: http://www.rockvillepictures.com/prophet.htmlIn honor of the long haul to Dablo's parents abandoned hotel in Lake George [which would set the sole stage for LOST PROPHET], I bought a cassette tape of "The Desolate One," a new album produced by Boogie Down Productions master of ceremonies, KRS-1, featuring the lyrical madness of JUST-ICE, who's previous hit "Cold Gettin' Dumb," was the anthem to every Raf & Cooly table bug. I must've played that album a million times during the drive and filming of LOST PROPHET. Earth, Wind & Fire balanced out the set, but when we wanted to wag our heads to hard beats, JUST-ICE came correct.
I held onto "The Desolate One," popping it into my tape deck every so often, reminding me of days of old. J-51 may have turned into Rockville Pictures, but the old J-51 posse photo of us shirtless punks standing akimbo atop the haunted hotel hill in Lake George, still hangs smug on my living room wall. Recently, I was introducing JUST-ICE to
zegas, when I discovered that the plastic cassette was dogged and the brown magnetic tape was stretched thin. Worried, I looked online for a CD version only to come up nil. Was that possible? Had "The Desolate One" not made the CD format cut? Shaken, I felt more ancient than I cared to admit. "The Desolate One" was a skeleton from a closet door I never wanted shut.
