Exactly twelve years ago..to the hour.....I last saw my friend of many years, Hillel Irving, making his last visit to Atlanta after having been diagnosed with a terminal malignant brain tumor...that he attributed to anxiety, depression and his sense of abandonment.......we had slices of carmel-pecan-turtle cheesecake at a trendy Buckhead eating place on Grandview Ave, while Hill unfolded to me his Saga of Anonymous-Cake-Making for Sylvia Weinstock, after his move to NYC.....Then, handed me some of his drawings, a couple of paintings, and a sculpture of an Irish Potato before he departed, proclaiming "You GET this stuff, so I want you to have it, Reed!...my brothers will either toss my Art to the trash, or..if they think it may be 'worth something' .....just sell it." Alas, I wish that one of his spectacular cakes had survived......I'm in the mood for a taste of Hill's Cake Art.......and miss our conversations about mutual interests......After his death, his ex-wife's new husband, also a good friend of many years, brought me a big cardboard box of Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Mothers of Invention and Wild Man Fischer Albums as well as some obscure Warner Bros. recordings from the late 1960's, that had languished in a dusty attic for many years.....
