“Flying Morrison” Mural Launch & “WAKE UP!” Photography Exhibit Celebrates Jim Morrison’s 70th Birthday

Artists, poets, musicians, and fans will gather in the East Village Arts District in Long Beach, CA for a unique celebration of Jim Morrison’s 70th birthday (upcoming December 8), cheering encouragement to the ladder-climbing paste-up crew doing the second-story installation of photographer Jim Coke’s new “Flying Morrison” photo-mural.  The public event attendees will be enjoying performances given by spoken word artists and acclaimed Rock and Blues bands playing their original music, honoring the inspiration received from  the creative intensity and originality of the late Rock icon and brought to the world by the groundbreaking music of The Doors. 
“O great creator of being,     Grant us one more hourTo perform our art  And perfect our lives”
—James Douglas Morrison

Two coordinated events on two dates will take place on the 400 block of 4th Street, both events with poetry and music, both free to the public:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2pm-5pm: Park(D) Plaza [425 E. 4th Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802] An afternoon outdoor party with Blues and Rock bands during the second-story paste-up of the new photo-mural by Jim Coke.  Coke presents for the first time a unique reinterpretation of his Jim Morrison photographic montage, “Scream Sequence”.  A 20-foot- long printed image of Morrison captured in full, ascending scream will be turned horizontally, freed to “fly” weightlessly over the festivities. 
Performers will include:   Marc Ford (Black Crowes) and the Neptune Blues Club; rising harmonica star Catfish and his Hollywood Hound Dogs bandmate, Mark St. John; and singular punk-folk singer/songwriter Kern Richards and his band.  Chris Boyle, who worked closely with Jim Morrison in the office of The Doors as assistant publicist after the disastrous concert in Miami, will open with a spoken word performance of stories and Morrison poetry, backed by Blasters bass player John Bazz.      
“WAKE UP!”  Jim Morrison

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 7pm-8:30: Fingerprints Music [420 E. 4th Street, Long Beach, CA, 90802] An evening in-store event with poetry and music performances and reception for the “WAKE UP!” exhibit of Jim Coke's original black and white photographs of The Doors in concert, taken in July, 1967, two weeks before "Light My Fire" went to #1 in America.  Twenty silver prints will be hung along with the “Scream Sequence” of eleven Jim Morrison figures on a blank background, composed to show the singer progressing from contemplative silence to a full-bore scream.  Artistically, the work can be seen as a melding of the pioneering sequential photographic studies of Eadweard Muybridge and the contemporary expressive large figures of painter Robert Longo. Performers will include:  Michael C Ford, renowned “audio journalist” and laureate of film noir lore, who has performed and taught nationally, will open and close the show that presents three exciting Long Beach Rock bands: eco-delic inventions of Slushbox, one-armed guitar wonder of Natural Hi-Fi, and multi-faceted favorites of Move.        
About Photographer Jim Coke:  Decades after shooting the iconic Jim Morrison, he remains a photographer focused on finding the expression of inspiration in musical performance.  When, as a 20-year-old photographer, he found himself onstage with The Doors at LA’s first Rock festival, the Fantasy Faire and Magic Music Festival, he made the most of his two rolls of 35m black and white film, saving almost none for the other great acts that day.  He lost track of the processed negatives for nearly 25 years before finding them in storage after seeing Oliver Stone’s film “The Doors” and having his memory jogged by a younger friend asking about his 60’s experiences.  The photographs in the “WAKE UP!” exhibition were all taken at that concert at Devonshire Downs in Northridge, CA on July 15, 1967, just two weeks before The Doors song “Light My Fire” reached number one on the pop charts in America. More info can be found here: www.jimcoke.com. 
Support  for these  events comes from the immediate community of businesses and numerous individuals, including  JR van Dijs, Inc.,  Arts Council for Long Beach, City Fabrick, Lyon Art Supply/Graphaids,  Fingerprints Music, Vice-Mayor Robert Garcia, and  Berlin Bistro.