"My Friend"

 
           My passed away friend Simon Loekle above. I miss him so dearly.

                                     
                                            My own self Uncle Sidney.

Today I remember Simon Loekle. Today is his birthday. Simon is my dear so dear passed away friend in art life, and radio. I remember him with much love.

Here's something he wrote, and broadcast for me after my forced retirement. 

(This posted on September 10th 2014.)

"A good portion of this show is dedicated to Sid Smith, so beloved, so revered, so respected that Management took special steps to make sure he would enjoy his retirement. His absence from the air is a sure sign of the lack of intelligence of management at WBAI, at Pacifica . . . indeed, in general. But he can be found on Facebook, thank goodness.

Sid has been one of my best buddies for a long long time; he knows without undue explication what Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" is all about. Sid is alive, and fairly well, thanks, and ranks among the best. I am better for knowing him, and maybe he's better no longer involved with BAI. What do you say, Sid??"

I said: "Youbetcha...Bleep 'em."

Towards the end. When it became clear we were going to lose him they moved his program to just after mine. This to give a more convenient time-slot for him to come by. Well we developed the habit of him coming on in the last 15 minutes or so of my program. We had a ball. It was a separate little show just for us. Brilliant wonderful wise man.

It's strange. Even now today I still expect to run into him get a call a card hear his show. We were both paper artists. He would often lay some exotic sheets of paper on me to do something with. I just came across a bundle of these.

How I miss him.