2/2/1967 "Night of the Provos" Transcription by Taylor Jessen 2001 ANNOUNCER: This is KPFK listener-sponsored Pacifica radio for all of southern California, in Los Angeles. In accordance with KPFK's policy of providing a forum for all responsible points of view, we now present Radio Free Oz. MUSIC: WAY-OUT SCI-FI THEME, WIGGED-OUT LAUGHTER EVANGELIST (TAPE EDIT PIECE): I'm having the most perfect hallucination...green and blue patterns are pouring all over me like a deck of cards. Ha ha, I have a feeling this is what Allah's paradise must be like. I don't feel I'll ever be the same again. All over the ceiling are geometric patterns of light...to say they are beautiful is a word too shallow to use.... Next morning my arms were very long; long, long arms covered with beautiful feathers. All about me was nothingness - absolute empty space. I was floating on a solitary island in the ether, no part of my body was subject to gravitation. Ah, it was love itself - it was Oriental women such as I have never known...fat and langorous beyond belief, lucious beyond man's power of normal imagination. My conscious mind was sort of sitting on my shoulder watching everything I was doing.... Taking other drugs is like climbing a sand dune. Ah, taking LSD is like scaling Mt. Everest. Marijuana is another great problem in our nation today, and we find that we could spend days discussing this with you as well but we have only this tremendous group beginning with the blue glue sniffing among the younger children, the blue heavens and the reds, the se-CON-als, the ampheti-mynes, the barbit-urates, the marijuana, the mes-ca-leen, the peyote, and finally LSD called "the aristocrat". Of all of the haluci-NO-gens.... You know while some users may have lofty ambitions and hopes, that the drug or HELL-S-D will bring them some miraculous transformation, make them poets and artists or Supermen - there are many others looking strictly for escape: escape from life that has become too painful for them to bear. What are we gonna answer these young people today, the young people that are crying out "Live fast, look beautiful, die young, the bomb may drop tomorrow"? Friend, you and I MUST find an answer. And thank God we DO have an answer. RECORD: The Beatles "The Word" BERGMAN: Funny thing happened to me about two or three days ago, I got a... I got a letter which looked actually like a piece of, of junk mail, but it wasn't, it was just kinda the appearance, but it was actually a letter addressed officially to me, and I uh, and I opened it up, and it was a - kind of a poster, it was more of an advertisement. And it said "You'll love Mike Agnello (here and throughout Bergman pronounces it Ag-NELL-oh), he's your Provo. Have him on your show and show the people what a fine guy he is and what a great group he's got and do a boy a favor. For inquiries...", he left a telephone number. I called him up, asked him what he was doing and he said that he was involved in an operation that, uh, would be of interest to people all over the world, particularly if I could have HIM on, and as long as I had HIM on I could have everybody else on. And he said that he'd like to sell out tonight, on Radio Free Oz. So in just a few minutes we'll be presenting Michael Agnello, who is the first man in the history of Radio Free Oz who absolutely required that I pay his taxi fare over here also. I did it only because I'm trying to give you at least both sides of every opinion. And uh, he'll be with us in just a minute on the Thursday thing called Radio Free Oz. Did you see an article in the Free Press about, uh, a week ago that had been ghost-written by the, uh - was it the - which one was it - wasn't Derek Taylor, it was the other guy that writes all those articles for the groups. Well he wrote this up and had it sent in as an independent news story, it goes something like this: "It happened on Saturday. This time they had a smoke-in on Fairfax in front of the Kazoo Bookstore. Hollywood Provo arrived with 2,000 or so joints handrolled in a variety of cigarette papers. They contained chervil, dill weed, thyme, eyebright leaf, oregano and various teas." And then there's a footnote here to general newspaper editors saying that "While most of this is not true it makes good, flashy copy, and put it within the first section." "Santa Monica Provo brought a fog machine which produced a shroud of scented fog over the entire area, and a band, The Factory... the virtual certainty that somewhere in the crowd of 300 to 500 people were smoking marijuana was a source of considerable police frustration. Undercover cops roamed helpless and teenyboppers and incongruously delighted Fairfax Jews...the scent of herbs in the dense fog lent a ritual atmostphere to the whole surrealist scene. Three people were ultimately arrested: one a twelve-year-old girl, for dancing in the streets, as a public nuisance" - it's come to that? - "while the other two, booked on possession of marijuana were released when their joints turned out to be catnip. Beyond that the police could discover no violation more potent than one forbidding public entertainment without a permit. The band, duly warned, ceased its criminal activity about five p.m. and the crowd gradually dwindled away." I have, uh, been instructed by one member of the Provos to read this article in its entirety, and it's long and very dull, over the air, because he wanted his name mentioned, and, uh, I'm not going to do it because it's really just a pack of lies, I think it's a bunch of show-offs. And I hate to read show-offs' material. But, uh, I'm going to give Mike Agnello a chance to speak for himself. Uh, he won't come in at the present moment, there's a problem of money again which we can't seem to solve. Uh, I tried to tell him it's a show in which we can't pay for talent. It's listener-sponsored, Mike. It's, it's KPFK. It's a radio show that, you know, wants to let a lot of people know what's happening, and would like to support your group if they knew precisely where they were at. Unfortunately there's just no money for your appearance. So we'll have to do without him tonight, and, uh... maybe we could play three or four hours of uh, classical music, or maybe we could give you the stock report. Maybe we'll give you a Love-In promo and I'll see if I just can't get someone in the studio to raise the necessary five dollars to get him on the air. LOVE-IN PROMO (with Phil Proctor as Elf 1, Peter Bergman as Elf 2, Barbara Smith as Virginia): HAMMERING NOISES ELF 1: "Whistle while you work..." ELF 2: Oh God. ELF 1: "...Da da dap dap da dap dap..." ELF 2: What a drag... ELF 1: What a bummer this is... ELF 2: Oh God... oh shoes... ELF 1: "De de dump dump dump dump dump dump dump dump whistle while you work..." ELF 2: Two o'clock, elves, take a break. (they stop hammering) ELF 1: Oh boy. Whew am I tired. ELF 2: If I have to look at another pair of baby booties I'm gonna go buggo. ELF 1: These, uh, Jungle Charlie dolls are really driving me crazy. VIRGINIA: Me too. ELF 2: I dunno what to do. And it's COLD up here in the North Pole. It's COLD, it's COLD. ELF 1: Anybody seen the Fat Man lately? ELF 2: Ah, the Fat Man doesn't come around until, uh, like, the evening, and then he takes the - his whole bag of stuff... ELF 1: You know what I've heard? ELF 2: ...and pops out. What? VIRGINIA: What? ELF 2: What? ELF 1: I've heard that the Fat Man doesn't even EXIST. VIRGINIA: (gasps) No, really? ELF 2: Well ask Virginia, she knows. Huh? ELF 1: What about it? VIRGINIA: It's... it's true. ELF 1: Well I've got a way to get back at him and his whole rotten system. VIRGINIA: Yeah? What is it? ELF 2: Lemme, lemme - lemme close the window. ERRRCH! ELF 1: Look at this. (paper crinkling) I smuggled it into the workshop... VIRGINIA: What's that? ELF 2: What is it? ELF 1: You don't know what it is? It's an Oz Love-In Kit! ELF 2: An Oz what? ELF 1: An Oz Love-In Kit! You know most people have to send a dollar in to KPFK, Los Angeles 38, California to get one of these - ELF 2: It's warm in California...ahhh... VIRGINIA: Oh I wish I was there... ELF 1: Oh yeah! But listen - here's my plan... VIRGINIA: Oh look - hey - ELF 2: Hey, hey... ELF 1: I'm gonna get a whole buncha these... ELF 2: You don't have to sew them, do you? ELF 1: Don't have to sew them! ELF 2: You don't have to do any of that... (hammer noise) VIRGINIA: Don't have to hammer? None of this? ELF 1: Don't have to hammer them! No schtick with the hammer! Nothing! They're ready-made! ELF 2: Oh God... VIRGINIA: Wooowww... ELF 1: See? Now what we're gonna do is, we're gonna fill the bags with Oz Love-In Kits! ELF 2: Oooh. ELF 1: And the Fat Man will drop âem all over the city! ELF 2: And he won't know! ELF 1: Right! And then we can get off early! ELF 2: Yeah! Beautiful! ELF 1: We can go home for Christmas! VIRGINIA: Hooray! ELF 2: Christmas?... What's that? RECORD: The Beatles "A Hard Day's Night" (Noises - microphone cuts in and out) BERGMAN: ...he did. Okay. We finally did get him in. I got, I had to go out and ask that man across the street, the guy that runs the filling station thing on the oil credit card to get you in here. All right. As long as you're in here, now, do it for the fat lady, Agnello and tell us what it's all about. That's Ag-NELL-oh, isn't it? AGNELLO: (off-mike) An-YELL-oh is the way the name is pronounced... BERGMAN: Yeah, well sure... AGNELLO: Little "n". BERGMAN: Yeah, by, by, by Italians, but we're in America, you understand. Ag-NELL-oh is good, good enough for this show. Okay? Go ahead. AGNELLO: Well, I wonder what you have against Joseph Byrd's article. (comes on-mike) You know I think it's a rather good article and it's unusually good for the Free Press, so... BERGMAN: Well, that's, that's hardly enough. AGNELLO: Well there's one thing that I had to say about the Free Press and that is they're wonderful facilities of cutting. Uh, they have a philosophy over there and that is that nobody's words are sacred, so they cut out the most important heart and soul of Joseph Byrd's article, and the first thing I'd like to do tonight is to read the last three paragraphs which they cut out: "At the same time it would be naive to believe that Provo is apolitical. It is intensely political, in the same way and with similar methods that Dada was political: that is, it seeks to shake the foundations of our "culture". But where Dada was nihilistically destructive, Provo is gloriously, delightedly, innocently destructive. It has reinjected the Dada spirit into the mid-century. It pushes against such boundaries as legality and good taste in ways even Tristan Tzara would not have dared...ways more reminiscent of Berlin Dada's countless provocational encounters with authority. It has welded together the protest materials of our time, and the artistic materials of our technology, and aimed them toward life. Well, when that weapon is fired, many people are going to get hurt. Some on their side and, yes, some on ours. But the fireworks will be beautiful.".... That's the part they cut out... BERGMAN: (applauds) AGNELLO: Oh, c'mon. (laughs) BERGMAN: (Granny voice) That was very nice Mr. An-yello. It's always a pleasure to come to these meetings and hear you young people talk. Fills me with a fervor and a fire that only people of my generation can understand. AGNELLO: (laughs) BERGMAN: I don't at all think that the way you dress has anything to do with the validity of what you say. And I don't think that you're working through a cycle, I think that you're a hero. I'd like your... AGNELLO: It's true, it's true, I have to admit I am a hero. BERGMAN: Would you move over there so I could take your picture? AGNELLO: I'm a hero. Uh, actually, you know - BERGMAN: (click) Thank you. AGNELLO: Remember when we were on the Louis Lomax show? BERGMAN: Sure. AGNELLO: Yeah, wha'd you think of that? Wasn't it terrible? BERGMAN: They didn't, uh - they didn't do halfly as badly as I thought they might do. AGNELLO: Well one thing is they cut Provo short ten minutes time. And, uh, we were gonna - what we wanted to do of course, w - as we to - talked to the producer is that we wanted to pa - paint Louis Lomax white. We thought that would be a very powerful gesture to do, an - an - as a Provo t - television happening. And, uh, Louis loved it. He laughed, reportedly, but for some reason he decided that it was inconvenient for him to be wet that long. And, uh, so he decided that he d - he wasn't going to do it on that basis. BERGMAN: No, you had misinterpreted him. What he meant was this, is that what he wanted to do and what he achieved to do is to spend an hour and a half of his show presenting to the audience, uh... "Real World". And Provo doesn't make any sense unless there is a "Real World" and that's made up of people like Eisendarth, who says uh, things like uh, "Stop the bombing in Viet Nam, and after that, well, we'll figure it out." And people who are professional divorcees, and people like that. Those are the heads you have to turn. What if Louis Lomax' show was two hours of Provo? Urrrrrghh! AGNELLO: Yeah... (laughs) BERGMAN: Arrrrrrrghhh! You wouldn't have any ice cream to run around in at all, baby! AGNELLO: Yeah, but Peter Lief was gonna come on at the end with all this fog. It was - and we were gonna end the show in fog. And he couldn't get a chance to come on. And I think, you know - I think, I think it's kind of unfair that we couldn't even paint his show white, you know, and, and, just becase - uh - I think they just, I think they did us a raw deal, you know, I think Lomax is basically a kind of very realistic sort of person, y'know he wants to become involved in issues like Al Mitchell at the Fifth Estate. BERGMAN: Well you're not saying anything new at all, everybody knows that, Louis Lomax will tell you that himself, that's not one of his sacred cows. AGNELLO: Sure, so... so he sat there and he grinned at us throughout the whole thing. BERGMAN: But you knew, but you knew very well, by doing, by being what you were... AGNELLO: Anyway we're going to be on this coming Sunday. Aren't we? (laughs) BERGMAN: Yeah, right, you should get - you're sure you don't wanna frame that? - Uh - AGNELLO: You know Peter Lief once - Peter Lief is here, by the way, why don't you say hello to the people Peter. LIEF: (off-mike; clears throat) Hello. AGNELLO: Uh, Peter Lief once was off to, to the Human Be-In to do our Provo event there, and uh, and he said something about the fact that he felt like, uh, he was a criminal, and uh, and he found that a very strange sort of thing for an artist to feel, because he's a very fine artist, and draws and paints and doodles and uh...'cetera... LIEF: (unintelligible) farts around.... AGNELLO: And so anyway I thought maybe Peter would, uh, like to tell us what he meant by the fact that he felt like he was criminal. LIEF: I, I'd like to tell you, I really would... AGNELLO: (laughs) LIEF: Gee I dunno, it was uh, it's just that every time you have to, uh, make any sort of um, real motion in society... (on-mike) ...you've gotta be a criminal. BERGMAN: Yah, it's quite true. Actor, painter, pariah, criminal, that's part of the excitement. LIEF: It certainly is. BERGMAN: How can you be an actor, baby, if you're - again part of the Real World scene? They're your audience. So what's the surprise that you find yourself a criminal? What's the bitch? So (tape cuts out) âelf a criminal too. LIEF: Lovely. BERGMAN: Huh? LIEF: It's lovely. It's uh - BERGMAN: Well, well, well - but there's - LIEF: - it's quite nice carrying a parasol and being a criminal. BERGMAN: There's more. There's - the thing is, is that as the Roshi says, before Utopia comes, and I'm a STRONG believer in Utopia, at some point, uh, before the Utopia or the Armageddon, whatever they might call it may come, EVERYTHING has to be enlightened, not only you and I, and all the painters and all the people, but all the audience and every bird and every stone and every blade of grass. And I don't think - it's criminal, I'm impatient. That's it. With me it's a criminal impatience. I look around and I get angry over ugliness. AGNELLO: Yeah... uh - BERGMAN: We have a phone call on one, and we have to see what the cat's got on his mind, if you don't mind, hold on - AGNELLO: Oh fine, sure - BERGMAN: Okay, let's see. I, I would have something so you could hear the call, but I really don't care, you know what I mean. (switches to call-in phone line) Okay, you're on the air. CALLER: Uh, this is uh, an announcement that Provo of Hollywood has just painted Michael Agnello's door...and uh, it's at 56 Sunset, and we feel it to be a gesture against the phoniness that is expressed...it's black. BERGMAN: Thank you very much for your call. Good night. (hangs up) Just announced that Hollywood Provo has painted your door black as a gesture to stimulate and simulate the phoniness of everything that you're putting down tonight. AGNELLO: Gee... LIEF: (laughs) That's really, that's really excellent. BERGMAN: It seems that there is a bit of dissention in your ranks. AGNELLO: I hear this, I hear, I hear this thing, you know, uh Joseph Byrd was ta - writing about, his article about all these Provo groups existing, but, uh, I wanna get it straight, you know, uh, we started Provo on, on exactly on, on Christmas Eve, and Provo started at that time. And there've been a lot of events that we've announced, and, and they were you know circulated in, in leaflets, but then I hear these other things going on and uh, and our suspicion is that some of the people have caught on to this name, and have de - have decided to like, you know, uh defame the good name of Provo. BERGMAN: Oh, there is a good name of Provo, huh? AGNELLO: Sure, sure there is. BERGMAN: Uh huh, what is it? AGNELLO: Uh - Provo, you know, is, is artsy, you know. It's artsy, and, and uh, you know, I, after all I'm, I'm a musician and I'm a happening artist and all that sort of thing and so I wanted to do things in the street like Alan Kaprow did, and I figured that Provo might be a w - good way to do it. So uh - suddenly - suddenly becomes, you know, involved in this, in these political issues, becomes involved in, in the things that are going on in the street, in, in, and uh criticizes the Fifth Estate, you know, with their sign "END POLICE AND PSEUDO-HIP SELL-OUTS", uh, writes, uh, obscene notices on the front of Pandora's Box, and things of this sort, you know. Uh - we're, we're hearing about this sort of thing and I wanna tell, you know, anybody who's, who's carrying these activities on that it's causing - causing me a good deal of harrassment by the authorities and uh... LIEF: Lay off Mike Agnello. Really. Lay off. AGNELLO: Well... uh... BERGMAN: Well you see, boy, that's the, uh, position you put yourself in when you become a great revolutionary leader, I wanted to tell you this... AGNELLO: (laughs) BERGMAN: ...earlier but you were so impetuous and such a brilliant young student of the arts that I couldn't get to you âtil now. AGNELLO: Well - I dunno, uh - the only thing I, the only thing I actually heard about Provo was the thing that was in the uh - published in the Free Press on the Amsterdam Provo. And then, you know, I decided to, to call, uh, this thing Provo, and of course then I meet you and I hear that you know something about Provo. BERGMAN: Yeah. AGNELLO: And uh, uh...tell me, you, you know, do you know any of the events that Provo did that weren't published in the article? BERGMAN: Uh... I know a lot of events that Provo pulled that weren't published in the article, âcause the people then didn't know that they were Provos. Same group. Basically - same core. But they didn't have a name - called themselves the Magic Circle, called themselves by each other's names, they were a group of, well musicians, artists, painters, writers, and uh, street people... and s - well, what is it that held them together? What was the thing that's making the big change in the country, what is this whole thing about, why for example do you have Provo now and Dada then? You know? Why is it happening, why does it have the sense of humor it has, and what's bringing everyone together? You can ask the sociologists and they'll tell you all things about subculture and on and on and on - but as far as I'm concerned - basically - the thing that has been most responsible for the new vision is grass. AGNELLO: Grass? BERGMAN: Yes. AGNELLO: You heard of that group called Meadowlands? BERGMAN: Yeah, sure, you know, I have. Tell âem about Meadowlands. AGNELLO: Well Meadowlands is, uh, is a group that uh, I dunno, they, they were called a group by the Evening Outlook, and uh, they went into the libraries and they planted a thousand joints, uh in four major libraries in the city, each one stamped "Meadowlands", and uh, they proceeded to, uh, notify various reporters and things of that sort, uh, and uh, the Evening Outlook published a long, long article in which the uh librarian said, this thing like this continues, uh, there's no way we could possibly check it. BERGMAN: Would you like to take a telephone call? AGNELLO: Oh - yeah. BERGMAN: All right. Put those over your earphones. AGNELLO: Thank you. BERGMAN: Okay. Take the whole call, would you? Handle it. (switches to call-in phone line) Go ahead. Tell âem they're on the air. AGNELLO: You're on the air. CALLER (MALE): Oh yeah, hi. Yeah I wanna find out a couple of things, I've been to only one Provo happening so far, and it was the second an - the second monthly annual Christmas Caroling happening - AGNELLO: Hm, yeah - CALLER: - and, uh which I assume was your Provo group. AGNELLO: Yes it was. CALLER: I'd like, uh won - where do I send this application they gave me? AGNELLO: Oh - the application is, uh - is an application which we made, and you fill it out, and, uh then find a Provo and give it to him. CALLER: Uh huh. AGNELLO: Uh huh. CALLER: And, uh, what happened with the Oracle? BERGMAN: You're doing very well... AGNELLO: Uh, the Oracle was, uh, uh, I, I don't, I haven't got all the information but it appears that the, it was interfered with a couple days ago, uh by the uh Los Angeles Police Department, uh, I'm not, I can't say this for sure, I j - I'm n - but except that I, I was notified that the police went into the place where the Oracle was - BERGMAN: Speak up, be a little more bright, give him the heavy stuff now. You know, c'mon, sell yourself. AGNELLO: (laughs) BERGMAN: Okay? AGNELLO: Uh... and uh consequently the Oracle is no longer in operation and we're hoping that, uh, maybe five or six Oracles will now appear in its place. BERGMAN: He doesn't really sound like a Provo at all, does he? CALLER: (laughs) AGNELLO: Oh Peter...(laughs) BERGMAN: You see, when he get... AGNELLO: Provo is what Provo does, of course, I mean... BERGMAN: See, see when he gets into the establishment, when he gets in front a microphone and everything like that he gets very just and very kind, you see. CALLER: And you know, there is a place that I think is very definitely ready... BERGMAN: (tsk tsk tsk) C'mon, carry on the telephone call. Do a good job now. Do it for the fat lady. AGNELLO: Mm hm. CALLER: ...very ready for a Provo happening, and that is Glendale. AGNELLO: Uh, yeah, uh - we're thinking of uh, something to do in Glendale, but uh, at the moment, uh, uh we feel that we need to get a little bit stronger. Uh the last Christmas Caroling event we had 300 people that joined us, and uh, maybe next, uh month there'll be a thousand. CALLER: Have you ever considered a spindle-in? AGNELLO: Considered what? CALLER: A spindle-in. AGNELLO: A spin - CALLER: Get a hold of a bunch of IBM cards, and you spindle them and mutilate them... BERGMAN: ...wind up the telephone call, now... wind it up... CALLER: ...and fold them and staple them, and I don't know what you do with them after you've done all this, but... it's an idea. AGNELLO: It's a very good idea. Well we'll have to sign off now and uh, thank you very much for your call. CALLER: Okay, right. BERGMAN: Tell her you hope she stays along with the show. AGNELLO: (laughs) BERGMAN: Okay? Say goodbye to her now, say goodbye. We're going to go to another call. (dialtone) Okay. You give me the headphones and you won't hear it. Okay, hello, you're on the air. CALLER: Ah, yes, I'd just like to report that um - BERGMAN: Wha'd you say? CALLER: I'd just like to report that Woodland Hills Provo has just, um, changed its name to the Woodland Hills Loving and the Anarchy Society - BERGMAN: They've just painted their door. CALLER: Ah, no we haven't had a chance yet. BERGMAN: Would you say that again? CALLER: We haven't had a chance yet. BERGMAN: Well, what are you calling to tell me about then? CALLER: Well, mainly, uh I was kind of, um, questioned b - uh, I was kinda questioning this thing about um an application to be Provo? BERGMAN: Application to be a Provo? CALLER: Yes, uh - BERGMAN: Oh, it's a hoax man! CALLER: I don't really understand this - BERGMAN: It's a, it's a, it's a total cop-out hoax, they got a printer to print them up on a sort of a scholarship kind of deal which I can't go into. I would suggest that you destroy it immediately. CALLER: No, I don't have one... I was... BERGMAN: You don't have one? CALLER: No, that, no...was just uh, kinda bothering me, I mean, this bit about membership, let's face it, we're all Provos and we're all in this together. BERGMAN: Oh yeah? CALLER: Yeah. I kind of dislike the fact that you have one person getting up and um, saying that he's a spokesman, I dislike the idea of the um, Oracle also. BERGMAN: Well you see, the reason he stands up all the time and says he's a spokesman is that he went to a Frank Zappa concert. And he hasn't been able to get over it since. And actually he's even dressing like Frank Zappa now, Mike Agnello has on a pair of flower bellbottoms... AGNELLO: (laughs) BERGMAN: ...and a Jewish Y.H.A. T-shirt on, he's got his hair in ringlets... CALLER: Yes... BERGMAN: And it's quite a change for him, I must say that I, I think it increases his sense of joy. CALLER: Mm hm. Uh Peter, by the way - weren't you in on the original forming of the original Provos in Amsterdam? BERGMAN: I cannot tell a lie. How do you know? Yes. I was. CALLER: That's what I thought. Okay, thank you very much BERGMAN: Okay, you're very welcome. Good night. (caller hangs up) This is KPFK in Los Angeles, and this is Radio Free Oz... MUSIC: The Beatles "All My Loving" (abruptly cuts off) BERGMAN: ...and this is an opportunity to get a breath in amidst of music and you can run out and chuck on the chocolate milk, it'll get you sick for sure. MUSIC: The Beatles "All My Loving" (continued) (Laughter from Agnello and Lief - finally Bergman turns their mikes off) MUSIC continues BERGMAN: Tonight is FM, FM in-night happening on Radio Free Oz, and we've got our special wandering mystery guest, at the uh phone booth just as - cross the street from the Whiskey A Go Go in the parking lot there at the gas station. And he'll be there at 12:30 sharp and if you show up and give him the secret sign, which is breathing I think tonight - gonna make it very difficult - then you can talk to Radio Free Oz over the free phone. All gather around together and nudzh each other and do the social thing and the big sexual copout, the "W - I jus' came down to talk," and look for women. Yeah? You got something on your mind? I notice you been putting all those cards together all evening. You got them typed out. A lot of girls work for Provo you know, type stuff for 'em and stuff like that, YOUNG girls, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, stay there all times of night. AGNELLO: Yeah, uh - well you know I come from a background of music and musicians are generally very sedentary people. Uh. And I had some electronic music that I thought was especially appropriate to play on KPFK and I have several selections here, and I thought maybe we could have our uh, first one. BERGMAN: Ah this is a... AGNELLO: Uh, it's called, uh, "RC". BERGMAN: "RC". AGNELLO: "RC". BERGMAN: This is "RC", a piece of electronic music by an unknown English composer. (Tape "RC" plays:) BRITISH ANNOUNCER: ...go. Thursday, yes last Thursday, there lived a man named Lowell. Lowell loved a lovely lady named Connie. Connie gave Lowell a six-pack of RC Cola with one-third more in every bottle, causing Lowell to shout, "I love you!" But, alas and woe, Connie didn't love Lowell, causing Lowell to shout, "Love me! Love me! Or I will sock you in the choppers!" Connie didn't, so Lowell did. Which proves what I have always said - Never serve RC Cola, unless you are prepared to say "I Love You." JINGLE: "RC Cola, and they think / Nothin' tastes as good as this-a / Some folks like it better than kiss-a / Every time an RC Cola gets drunk / Somebody falls in love!" AMERICAN ANNOUNCER: I'm (unintelligible). Ted Green Chevrolet's anniversary party is great - (Tape cuts off) BERGMAN: You're on the air. AGNELLO: (to himself) They goofed with it... CALLER: Uh, yes, I'd like to know uh, I think I have rather a simple question, I'm not sure, but I'd like to find out uh, exactly what the Provos are, I'm from out of town and I'm totally unfamiliar with them. AGNELLO: Uh, the Provos is a, uh, uh, group of maybe, well, we've had as many as uh, four, five hundred people assemble for Provo actions, and uh, they do a variety of events such as going, their monthly Christmas Caroling event which uh, took place, uh, started on Christmas Eve, took place last, uh, Saturday night, the Smoke-In in which, uh, we passed out a number of different kinds of tobacco and, uh presented a, uh rock-n-roll band on the street and everybody was smoking rolled cigarettes at this event, uh, the uh - can you think of some of the other events that we did Peter? LIEF: Mm-mm. CALLER: Well, yeah, now these are events that, that you have had, but - AGNELLO: Yeah, these are pieces, right. CALLER: Right. But-w-what exactly are you though? AGNELLO: Uh - we're people who do these pieces. CALLER: And, and that, and that's, that's it? LIEF: We're, we're art infiltrators. AGNELLO: Yeah, yeah. LIEF: That's what we do. Art infiltrators. CALLER: Uh... Peter, do you, i-is that a fair explanation, or... BERGMAN: Uh, I don't think it's a fair explanation, they're not known for doing anything really in a fair way, they're not a fair group of people. Uh, but I think that one of the things that's essential to Provo that I dig about them, man, is that they are, uh, not putting people down, they are not in a sense even putting people on, they're just, uh, turning their heads - it's kind of a living theatre thing. Although it makes me sound like a critic to start putting other names on tops of their heads. They're, uh - whaddya say, like they're gonna have a uh, what is it now, a parade for the death of President Johnson? AGNELLO: Yeah, yeah... BERGMAN: A funeral for President Johnson? That's a nice thought. AGNELLO: Sure. BERGMAN: Sure, that a ni - that's a nice kind of appeal... CALLER: (laughs) BERGMAN: And it's, and it's totally legal, huh? It shows how to keep your cool and your sense of humor and your citizenship all at the same time... AGNELLO: Right... BERGMAN: ...which is very nice. I think that, uh, some of the things that have been ascribed t-to, uh, Provo have a very strong karmic effect that they have to watch out for, but that is by no means the kind of things that most organizations are running as their bummers, âcause you never hear about them, that has to do with the DRAG that they have, and how they cop out all the time. Provo is not really a copout, they uh, some things that they talk about I'd say are - AGNELLO: Oh, I would say Provos... BERGMAN: - very poor pieces. AGNELLO: Provos are copouts. Sure. BERGMAN: No, Provos aren't copouts. AGNELLO: Uh, you're, you're only a Provo at the moment when you do a Provo action. Before and after you're a copout... BERGMAN: ...you're a copout.... AGNELLO: ...just like everybody else. Sure. BERGMAN: Moments of ecstasy in, when you can be a Provo AGNELLO: Uh, right. And that moment I think is actually very brief. Very brief. BERGMAN: Very brief. Yeah, they're all part of this brief moment kind of scam... AGNELLO: What a trip... BERGMAN: ...you know, they flash in and flash out, coruscating group of artists... AGNELLO: (laughs) CALLER: Ah, well, Peter - BERGMAN: They're not gonna go straight, they're gonna become bums. CALLER: Yeah well, look, I tell you what, I'm gonna get off, but uh - perhaps you could do me a favor an ex - uh, explain exactly, I mean, what is your argument against them? BERGMAN: My argument against them. CALLER: Yeah. BERGMAN: Okay. I'll be glad to give that to you. CALLER: Okay. BERGMAN: Right, fine. (caller hangs up) Provos are un-American. AGNELLO: (laughs) BERGMAN: We're living in a society where, like it or not, we've got to UNDERSTAND America before we can put ourselves in the position to put it down. And the Provos have made no attempt to do this, uh... If they were unlettered louts then perhaps that would explain itself but... they're a highly sophisticated group of boors and it's really incumbent upon them to learn the American way of life which they are so shamelessly mocking at this time. That's my major argument against the Provos. Hello, you're on the air. CALLER: Hi. BERGMAN: Hi. CALLER: Uh, I was gonna ask these people and you're, you're just now making, almost made statements that uh, answers my question, but anyway, uh - they're - AGNELLO: Which one? CALLER: - are they actually trying to change society, are they complaining about something? BERGMAN: Are you trying to change society? AGNELLO: Uh... That's - I would say indirectly we're trying to change society, uh... LIEF: I'm just trying to change myself. That's all. AGNELLO: Well, yeah, society... LIEF: It's, it's therapy, really, for me. It's therapy. CALLER: Well isn't that, you know, isn't that kinda selfish? You're upsetting a lot of people. BERGMAN: (to Agnello) Uh, you get too close to the microphone it sounds terrible. Okay, go ahead. AGNELLO: Uh - I would say, s - Provo has two ends that always are happening in our events. Uh, one ha - one, one happens more than the other sometimes. Uh, you do a piece, for instance, uh, like the Smoke-In, and it appears to be a piece which is protesting the marijuana laws. CALLER: Uh huh. AGNELLO: Uh - that achieves or attempts to achieve immediate results in a kind of different sort of protest way besides holding up a picket. Uh, it suggests the harmlessness of a thing which, uh, uh, some people find very very scary, uh, and the rest I'm sure you understand. Uh, the other thing that Provo I think suggests is a kind of Utopia, and it - this is a hard one to kind of explain I would think but, uh it has to do with the idea that - you mi - you might be living in a world, or there, there's a possibility for living in a world which ent - is entirely different from anything what you see at the moment, uh, you have a, a completely different set of, uh, laws to abide by or perhaps no laws to abide by. (More "Electronic Music" comes on underneath; voices from tape overlap with Bergman and guests) ACTOR 1: ...down... what a night to be workin' on a rough job... my hands are really chapped... they're sure not makin' things any better. AGNELLO: (laughs) ACTOR 2: Haven't you heard about Cornhuskers Lotion? You can't do much about this weather... AGNELLO: They're playing one of my electronic pieces back at me... (laughs) CALLER: Yeah, I kinda picked up on that. ACTOR 2: ...but Cornhuskers can really take care of those chapped hands. AGNELLO: Uh... CALLER: I, I was... huh? FIRST ANNOUNCER: There's a man who's discovered what so many hard-working men know: Cornhuskers Lotion... AGNELLO: We have a word for this, it's called "Provo-ized". (laughs) CALLER: Yeah, I, I picked up on what it was...you know, what it was supposed to imply. FIRST ANNOUNCER: ...working man. Cornhuskers Lotion. Nothing weak or watery about it... CALLER: Uh, I still don't - you know - like, what - I still don't know exactly what Provo is. AGNELLO: (talking over the caller) That's, that's really not a very fair way to treat your telephone callers, uh, Peter. Uh... FIRST ANNOUNCER: ...made for a man's hands. So concentrated, it soothes and smooths even the roughest hands. BERGMAN: Say goodbye to the man. SECOND ANNOUNCER: When your hands get as rough as the work you're doing,... AGNELLO: Uh... goodnight. CALLER: Okay. SECOND ANNOUNCER: ...Get Cornhuskers. BERGMAN: Goodnight baby. (line cuts off) SECOND ANNOUNCER: So concentrated, just a little dab is all you need - 'cause that little dab goes a long, long way. Tr - ("Electronic Music" cuts off) BERGMAN: (switches to on-air caller) Hello, you're on the air. CALLER (woman): Two marijuana cigarettes have just been deposited in the Washington Irvine Library... book drop. Provo is a rumor. (hangs up) BERGMAN: Goodnight. Did you hear that? AGNELLO: I, um, I wasn't quite sure, I missed the beginning. BERGMAN: She said that two marijuana cigarettes had been dropped in the book drop of the Washington Irvine public library, Provo is a rumor. LIEF: I thought she said two hundred. BERGMAN: Did she say two hundred? LIEF: She said two hundred. BERGMAN: Oh... sounded like two to me. LIEF: It was two hundred. AGNELLO: Washington Irvine library... where - where is that located? BERGMAN: Let's find out. (switches to on-air caller) Hello, you're on the air. CALLER: Oh yeah, I don - I don't wanna take too long, but I just wanna explain to the girl that answered the phone - you know, you know I was, I was saying about the Provos you know and stuff, and watchin' and stuff, and so I was wonderin', could there be surfer Provos? You know, I mean, âcause I surf, but here's my deal - BERGMAN: Surfer Provos he wants to know. AGNELLO: Surfer Provos. CALLER: Yeah... LIEF: Interesting idearrr.... CALLER: Qu - Don't get, don't, d - don't - don't, don't get mad or anything, I mean it may sound stupid but you gotta listen to it before you judge it. AGNELLO: Don't worry about it. (laughs) CALLER: Well anyway, you know, uh, the surfers gettin' kinda crowded out you know, because boat owners, you know they gotta lobby in, uh, up in Sacramento, and then, they tell the people up there to uh, give federal money where they can build a buncha harbors and stuff, you know. Well then this is fine and good but they always pick the best breaks, you know, where they're building harbors. And so right now they're building a big old hanging marina over at uh, Dana Point. LIEF: Say, look - do you know anything about dynamite? CALLER: Yeah, I - we thought about that already, man. LIEF: Well, that's, that's something. I mean, you know, the...you know, Surfer Provos and their underwater dynamite mission to uh, clear the harbors of uh, you know, the obligations of the system... BERGMAN: Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. CALLER: Listen - lis - BERGMAN: Kid's been watching Late Movies. CALLER: No we thought about gettin' an old boat and sneakin' into one of those harbors, you know... BERGMAN: ..."Frogmen"... CALLER: ...and blockin' it off. Like they were gonna do at Haiphong. AGNELLO: Gee, well as long as you talk about it it probably doesn't happen. CALLER: Yeah, well look - AGNELLO: That's one of the unfortunate things about the society we live in. CALLER: Yeah. Well look - tell me somethin', how can I join Provos? What can I, what do I have to do to get an application, or what? AGNELLO: Sounds like you got a good piece going there. (laughs) LIEF: Yeah, just do it. CALLER: Do it? BERGMAN: Yeah. CALLER: You say it, man. AGNELLO: Provo is what Provo does, you know... CALLER: Okay. AGNELLO: ...and, uh... and Provo's a rumor at all times, and you do a Provo action... BERGMAN: (granny voice) Such a sweet boy... AGNELLO: ...and you're no more a Provo. (laughs) BERGMAN: Such a very sweet boy. I wonder why he talks funny the way he does. AGNELLO: Join the copout club! (laughs) LIEF: I tell you what you can do, if you do do your piece, why don't you just, uh, phone in, you know, phone it in to the Free Press, and uh, let them know that Provo has, uh, done something. AGNELLO: Sure. CALLER: Oh, that's all I gotta do? LIEF: That's all you have to do. CALLER: Then I'm a Provo? LIEF: You're a Provo, man. CALLER: Wow. AGNELLO: Provo is an idea, you know... BERGMAN: Doesn't that put some blood in your chest? AGNELLO: Sure. CALLER: Yeah! BERGMAN: Good night, baby. CALLER: Okay. (hangs up) BERGMAN: (switches calls) Hello, you're on the air. CALLER: Yeah. Being a supporter of non-commercial radio, and in honor of your guest, we have hidden a joint in your car, and poured g - sugar in your gas tank. AGNELLO: Oohhh... BERGMAN: You have done WHAT? (Caller hangs up) LIEF: (giggles) AGNELLO: Well, that's really... Peter? BERGMAN: Well I think the only thing we can do is to soothe men's minds with a little electronic music - d'you, did you bring any other pieces with you this evening? AGNELLO: Yeah, there's another piece coming up I think - uh - BERGMAN: What's it called? AGNELLO: - called "Jungle". "Jungle". BERGMAN: "Jungle Jungle" by Richard Whiting Jones, Australia's foremost Australian electronic contemporary musician. (Tape "Jungle Jungle" plays: Mood music under) WOMAN'S VOICE: - l size hairspray that comes free with regular-size Respond. It equips you for the battle of the beauties. Survival size keeps refilling from regular-size Respond hairspray. So you'll never go unarmed. Survive in the jungle...with Respond survival-size hairspray. (-ZIP- , then silence) BERGMAN: Well done. Well done indeed - (Tape underneath) ANNOUNCER: Menthol cigarette brings you J - ! ("Electronic Music" cuts off) BERGMAN: Provo, Provo, Provo. Well one thing that's happening baby, one thing you should be aware of, is that there's got to be something that these people are getting very upset about. It surely isn't the Civil Rights bag. Is it just a return of the old Dada schtick? (Studio door opens, closes) BERGMAN: Is that really all you're really getting into is the old Dada affair? Hell, I've seen that before. Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp, there were cats at Yale in 1922 who drove down the streets in an open convertible tearing up every one of their textbooks as they went. (Studio door opens, closes) BERGMAN: There's the famous, uh - oh, the Dada, the Dada, yeah, that's 1920, that's Berlin, that's Kurt Weill, this is channel four... (switches to on-air caller) Hello, you're on the air. CALLER: Yes... Venice Provo has just informed me by word of its carrier pigeon, that at Winward and Pacific, a bag of marijuana cigarettes has been deposited. AGNELLO: Jesus... CALLER: (his own voice coming out of his radio on ten-second delay) Yes...Venice Provo has just - BERGMAN: Good night. (hangs up) AGNELLO: Peter, what are we going to do about this? BERGMAN: I don't know about these calls. I have to give them the chance to talk âcause I don't want to cut them off, that would be rude, but they're spreading dissention and joyous archetypes across the city... AGNELLO: (laughs) BERGMAN: This is not to be, this is not to be put down lightly - do you think they speak the truth? Do Provos lie? AGNELLO: Uh... I dunno... you know, I - these people who are calling, to be quite frank w - just on the record, I have nothing to do with. And uh... and I feel that it, it should stop right now, uh, because it's liable to cause, uh, a lot of undue trouble... uh... well, anyway. You got another call. BERGMAN: Those of you without, uh, without telephones who wish to speak to Radio Free Oz, if you think you can make it this evening, being a very special Thursday, you can go to the uh - phone booth opposite the Whiskey A Go Go on Sunset Strip, where at 12:30 exactly our man is going to be waiting with an open line that you might speak to us. Open line, and an open mind, and that sounds like Pacifica Radio. (switches to on-air caller) Hello you're on the air. CALLER: Uh - there's 500 flying saucers going over Los Angeles right now! Go look, quick! Yeah, there's 500 flying saucers, you really ought to take a look, and they spell out "Provo"! (he hangs up) BERGMAN: Another secret agent. I think they're everywhere. AGNELLO: Well... BERGMAN: And they've got our number. AGNELLO: You can tell that that was... BERGMAN: And I can tell you're giving the telephone numbers out because I know you got a lotta scuzzy youths in various telephone booths making these hyperbolic telephone calls, and you know, you're supposed to pay a dollar when you call Radio Free Oz - 'n, I know you people. You're not gonna pay. You're gonna say, "Sure, it's like the people who go in and steal from the supermarkets!" I bet you people do a lot of stealing from the supermarkets, too. Get the big guys, huh, get the fat cats, sure. I know your type. Yeah, sure. AGNELLO: Yeah, the supermarkets have, uh, rent-a-cops in them now, you know. They follow you up and down the aisle as you fill the carts, and uh... LIEF: And leave the carts there. AGNELLO: ...and, and as you leave the carts there. It's an old Core trick, you know, that they used to do if, if you, you get a little mad at your local supermarket you fill up a few carts and just leave them there. Uh - I, I feel that Provo, you know, represents a gesture which is very important, which is that you don't wait to become indignant, uh, you have an indignity in front of you and you react normally, naturally, and healthily and, uh, you go through moments of paranoia and a moment of ecstasy at the same time, I think they run very close, and uh, and you've comitted a Provo action. Uh, but lest anybody, I think, glorify their action as a way of life, as a way of being, uh, I think it's a little hard to do. Uh, thus, you're a copout after you stop the action. And then you have just a moment of glory... BERGMAN: Ah, yeah, I understand that... AGNELLO: Just a moment. BERGMAN: I understand you're going to do some stuff on the Whiskey A Go Go. Not some stuff - a piece. They truly are pieces. Do they get better and better, by the way? AGNELLO: The pieces, uh, are, are thought of by um, many many different people, and, uh, some of them tend to reveal I think a certain kind of stylistic similarity which might be identified with Provo, uh, the Whiskey A Go Go thing I think is, is uh, very very typical of Provo, and uh, we're planning that uh, perhaps uh, this coming weekend or the following weekend a, a band of, uh, Provos uh, dressed in, uh, sheets, uh, a la the Ku Klux Klan will go down and protest the uh, Motown music happening at the Whiskey A Go Go. Uh, that was thought of uh, by a uh, uh, one of the original Provos, actually... BERGMAN: Sounds like... AGNELLO: ...residing here in Los Angeles.... BERGMAN: Sounds like a very good idea to me... AGNELLO: ...right here in this very room. (laughs) BERGMAN: What about, uh, what about the death of President Johnson? How can people participate in that? Hm? AGNELLO: Ah, the death of President Johnson is scheduled to come off on the Saturday afternoon after this coming - BERGMAN: Just a second, we have a call coming through. (switches to on-air caller) Hello, you're on the air. CALLER (woman): Plummer Park has been seeded. BERGMAN: Plummer Park has been seeded?... (she hangs up) Good night. AGNELLO: I dunno what this kick of, uh, of, uh, marijuana... LIEF: Yeah, well... BERGMAN: That's what they all say, it seems to be on everybody's minds. AGNELLO: What's happened? BERGMAN: Well you're partially responsible for it. I've read in all the newspapers about gangs of dope fiends that have been raiding the city, causing all sorts of inconveniences - you realize of course that by causing these inconveniences, you may cause unnecessary suffering to perfectly helpless women and children, and that's totally against the American ethic. And that's why we're very sorry that we have to do what we have to do over in Southeast Asia but, as the President said, in those very memorable words, "It ain't here." AGNELLO AND LIEF: (laugh) BERGMAN: And you're planning a funeral for him. AGNELLO: Yeah, uh, it'll meet the uh, Saturday after this coming, uh, weekend, in Exposition Park at 3:30 in the afternoon, and uh, there'll be a hearse and a uh, coffin of course inside, and a procession will take place through the city of Los Angeles, uh, each car that assembles there will be given a funeral sticker and follow the uh, hearse across the city. There'll be no signs announcing that it's the - Pr - death of President Johnson, um, that'll only come about and be known through the publicity that uh, will be given at, through facilities like this. BERGMAN: Okay. (switches to on-air caller) Hello you're on the air. CALLER: Hello Peter? BERGMAN: Yes. CALLER: Yes, uh, I'm calling from a little uptight - town called Pasadena. And uh, recently there's been quite a lot of uh, uh, so-called narcotics raids, and uh, I had the misfortune to be involved in one of these. And um, my particular concern, I was wondering if any of your listeners might be able to uh, give me some information, I've, I was kind of busted in on without a warrant, and the, was told that uh, uh, that a felony was being comitted, but they, the police had come quite a bit out of their ways to come to my house and knock on my door, and then say "Bang," uh, "we can come in and bust you." And I, I just have wondered, uh, supposedly if I - why if, that I was, they're going to come after me in this kind of a manner, why don't they have a warrant, or what the situation is on this. Do you have any ideas? BERGMAN: Yeah there's one thing you should do, which is immediately make contact with the American Civil Liberties Union. So that's what you must do and they'll fill you in right from there because then you can tell them your story and they can tell you precisely what the legality was behind your arrest and you can work with them, and they can offer you legal service. AGNELLO: And Provo lawyers.... CALLER: All right, and also - uh I was interested, when uh, supposedly - two other questions - when is this uh, Easter Sunday? Is there anything more on this Easter Sunday deal? And also, on this one, when Lieutenant Peron is supposedly going to be on the show. BERGMAN: Uhmm... let's see, first of all as far as the Love-In on Easter, I understand that the permit has been granted, and it's going to be I think for Elysian Park on Easter Day from six in the morning until ten at night. That's the latest I heard, and I also heard, though this could just be a rumor, I have to check all of this out, that the Turtles, the Daily Flash, Harper's Bizarre, The Poor, and other groups will be appearing and that the amplifiers have already been donated. And that there's gonna be at least 40 spots on other radio stations, uh, giving the news on it. CALLER: All right. And then uh, how about this show on - with uh, Peron? BERGMAN: That will be coming up at the proper time, all the, the right information has to be brought together, I can't give you a date on that right now. CALLER: All right. Thank you very much BERGMAN: Okay. Bye bye. (he hangs up; switches to another line) Hello, you're on the air. CALLER: Good evening Peter, this is General Semantics of the Mexican Free Air Force. BERGMAN: How do you do, General? CALLER: Uh, I have a problem. Uh, I used to be very nervous, and I used to have hobbies to uh, divert myself from uh, these nervous habits, like uh, collecting navel lint, I have a beautiful serape that my girlfriend Chiquita knitted into a, a serape out of ten quart jars of, uh, navel lint. And, uh, I used to pick my toes and things like that. And then I got my Oz Love-In Kit, which I uh, obtained by sending one dollar to KPFK, Los Angeles, 38, and I uh... sit around and stare at my Oz Love-In Kit all day, I've already memorized part of it, would you like to hear part of it? BERGMAN: I don't think I have much choice do I? CALLER: Well, uh - BERGMAN: Ge - General, you outrank me! CALLER: True. BERGMAN: I'm only a Specific. CALLER: Well I'll just rememorize it or re - recite a small part of it to you, uh: "Four score and seven jackals to go, a lame soothsayer brough forth from his short-order soul a new navel lint conceived in the womb of Hazel Cesspools, and dedicated to the velvet truss of, uh - well I've forgotten the rest of it I think. BERGMAN: Well I think you oughta go back and stare at it. CALLER: Right. BERGMAN: Thank you very much for calling. CALLER: Okay. Thank you Peter. BERGMAN: Do it again maybe. CALLER: Right. BERGMAN: Bye. CALLER: Goodnight. BERGMAN: Hello. (hangs up) BERGMAN: There you are. You're off the air and we're on the air, and it's Radio Free Oz, it's KPFK in Los Angeles, and I'm speaking with three pseudo-representatives of the Provos, actual members of the Provos never appear because they detest publicity but they have one paid representative, a guy who actually makes his pie card off of going around and talking Provo. He's just returned from a very, very successful speaking tour of the junior colleges, and he's with us here tonight, Mike, Mike Agnello. AGNELLO: Uh, last week, uh, as a matter of fact, uh, I was invited to, uh, speak about Provo at uh, uh, Kurt Von Meyer's, uh, art history class. And, uh, and we talked, you know, from 9:30 til, uh, in the morning til, uh, twelve o'clock in the afternoon pr - or thereabouts. And, uh, as is Provo custom, uh, generally words really don't make too much of a difference, you know, Provo kind of acts - BERGMAN: I think you've put it out this evening. AGNELLO: - uh, uh, you know, and uh, we're, we're, we are about as a matter of fact to take action upon you Peter. You know that don't you? BERGMAN: I don't have the slightest idea. AGNELLO: And uh, anyway, at, at Kurt Von Meyer's class, uh, a little-known Provo activity took place while I talked. Uh, I described a piece by New York happening artist Alison Knowles which, uh, describes, uh, "tie up the audience". And, uh, so, three Provos burst into the room while I'm talking and I explain the piece to them and I ask for their cooperation and the entire class and the instructor were tied up and fastened to their chairs, and uh, as we left we gagged them. And, uh...it proved to be rather successful, uh, I think, Provo action, it, uh, didn't seem to, you know, re - result in any bad repercussions, the class didn't seem to really mind too much, uh - LIEF: Bursting in was fun. AGNELLO: - it felt like it was an artistic gesture and therefore worth, uh, participating in. And I think that's, that's the right attitude for the public, you know when they, when they encounter a Provo action, should be that kind of, uh, give and take, and - especially maybe take. Uh...they take an awful lot of other things, you know. BERGMAN: You went up to the Be-In in San Francisco and there were posters that said, what? "Presented by" - "The Be-In, Presented By Provo"? AGNELLO: Uh, yeah, this was in, uh, in Los Angeles as well as San Francisco. (laughs) BERGMAN: Yeah? AGNELLO: The, uh...the thing there of course, uh, was very very sad because an awful lot of friends, uh, turned on me particularly because, uh, for some strange reason I'd been, uh, associated with Be-In spokesmen for Provo, uh - SOUND OF A PHONE RINGING AGNELLO: Perhaps I am hired. BERGMAN: And, uh, what did the sign say? AGNELLO: Oh! The signs simply said "Provo Presents the Human Be-In". Uh...thing of course that people may not - don't know about yet is that, uh, Provo is, is the uh, mid-twentieth century Everyman, and uh, Provo is not me, and it's - (clears throat) - certainly not Peter - BERGMAN: And they - and they - AGNELLO: (laughs) BERGMAN: And they got uptight and they ran to the microphone and said "No, no, it's not a Provo affair"? AGNELLO: Yeah. They said "No, it's, uh, it's uh, mine. It's mine." BERGMAN: "It's mine, it's mine, it's mine." One of the things that Provos do is ride herd on the hippies. No doubt about it. (switches to on-air caller) Hello, you're on the air. CALLER: Hello...like to say that I was, I'm a student in Von Meyer's class, and - that - Mike Agnello never did any such thing. BERGMAN: It's all a tissue of lies. CALLER: It is. It's a... BERGMAN: In other words he can come on the radio - CALLER: ...a pack of lies. BERGMAN: He can - AGNELLO: He's a liar, he's a liar. He's a, he's a... CALLER: He just stood there and talked, he was very boring... AGNELLO: Boy, he's a bald liar. CALLER: ...and I really wish that you'd - you'd - LIEF: I was, I was at that class! CALLER: - scoff at such obvious untruths. LIEF: I don't know, I didn't - who could this be? AGNELLO: I don't know. BERGMAN: You know, I sympathize - LEIF: Hey I came in and I tied, I tied about twelve people up. BERGMAN: Ah no, I believe the caller, I'm quite sure that these guys are just sitting - CALLER: I, it is, it's a PACK OF LIES - ! BERGMAN: Yeah. I've heard âem before, too, and I give them the microphone only because I think youth should be heard. You know? AGNELLO: It's all a pack of lies. BERGMAN: That's - youth should be heard. Thank you very much for calling, youth. CALLER: Well one second. What about that Human Be-In, too? That was really unkind. I mean it was a loving thing, and they jumped in there and appropriated it. BERGMAN: Who did? They j - CALLER: Provo! BERGMAN: They jumped in and appropriated it? LIEF: Do you realize we appropriated it? CALLER: That's right! LIEF: We appropriated it! AGNELLO: We appropriated it. LIEF: That's true, we appropriated it. Yeah. AGNELLO: Well, yeah, we're gonna put on the second Human Be-In in Los Angeles. BERGMAN: And that's probably the, the unkindest blow of all, when you can take someone's property away from them, particularly when they've claimed all the way down the line that it's not their property at all. CALLER: That's quite true. BERGMAN: That is really a bummer. CALLER: It really is. BERGMAN: Thank you for calling. CALLER: Certainly. BERGMAN: Good night. (switches to another on-air caller) Hello, you're on the air. CALLER: Peter. BERGMAN: Yes. CALLER: Uh...say, uh...who are you...who do you have over there with you? BERGMAN: Just a second. Wait a - Mike? AGNELLO: Yeah? BERGMAN: Who are these guys that are in the studio? You know, like, we can't do that. We gotta like, just we can't have more than three people in the studio because of the microphones. AGNELLO: Oh, uh - I think they're, uh, some people from Hollywood Provo. BERGMAN: Yeah, well, uh, you'll have to, heh, you'll have to come back a little later - thing is, look, I'll put you over to Dona and she'll take care of you and you can get on the other side of the glass, because we got, uh - FOOTSTEPS, MICROPHONE STANDS MOVING AGNELLO: Hey... BERGMAN: Hey... AGNELLO: What are you... BERGMAN: Hey - uh - I got - AGNELLO: What is it? Wait a second - hold on - BERGMAN: Listen, I got - I got a guy on the telephone. All right? Would you mind, like, uh - LIEF: Hey, you wanna keep it down - BERGMAN: Just uh - MICROPHONE STAND IS BUMPED BERGMAN: Maybe I could talk to the, uh - hey! FOOTSTEPS, STUDIO DOOR OPENS AND SHUTS LIEF: Good evening Michael. AGNELLO: Good evening Peter. LIEF: Ah, and good evening KPFK audience. At this time, Hollywood Provo presents two hours of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. CALLER: (still on) Is this thing - MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo presents one hour fifty-seven minutes of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER SOUND, FAINT UNDERNEATH: A PHONE RINGING ENDLESSLY LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo presents one hour fifty-four minutes of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. DURING LAST TWO BARS LIEF CUTS IN: LIEF: At this time, Hollywood - MUSIC: ENDS. SOUND, FAINT UNDERNEATH: A PHONE RINGING ENDLESSLY (CONTINUES) LIEF: - Provo continues its continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmit from - Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER SOUND, FAINT UNDERNEATH: A PHONE RINGING ENDLESSLY (CONTINUES) LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo continues its continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effected...radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo continues its two hours of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. SOUND, FAINT UNDERNEATH: A PHONE RINGING ENDLESSLY (CONTINUES) LIEF: Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. PHONE VOICE: (very faint) (unintelligible) LIEF: KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. SOUND, VERY FAINT: ROTARY PHONE DIALING LIEF: Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER SOUND, FAINT UNDERNEATH: A PHONE RINGING ENDLESSLY (CONTINUES) LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo continues its two hours of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. INTERMITTENTLY THE SOUND OF UNINTELLIGIBLE PHONE CHATTER CAN BE HEARD SOUND, FAINT UNDERNEATH: A PHONE RINGING ENDLESSLY (CONTINUES) LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo continues its two hours of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. HALFWAY THROUGH THE VOLUME DROPS BY HALF SOUND, FAINT UNDERNEATH: A PHONE RINGING ENDLESSLY (CONTINUES) LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo continues its two hours of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK,... PHONE VOICE: (faint) Hello? LIEF: ...listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California,... DIAL TONE, WHICH CUTS OFF LIEF: ...transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. SOUND, FAINT UNDERNEATH: A PHONE RINGING ENDLESSLY (CONTINUES) LIEF: Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff... PHONE VOICE: Hello? LIEF: ...of radio station KPFK. KPFK... PHONE VOICE: Hel-lo! LIEF: ...with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. VOLUME REMAINS REDUCED FOR FIRST HALF OF SONG, THEN SUDDENLY SNAPS BACK TO NORMAL VOLUME LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo continues its two hours of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. AFTER ONE SECOND THE TAPE STOPS SUDDENLY. THEN IT RESUMES. LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo continues its two hours of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER LIEF: At this time Hollywood Provo continues its two hours of continuous sign-offs. Station KPFK, listener-supported Pacifica radio for southern California, transmits from Mount Wilson with an effective radiated power of 110 thousand watts on an assigned frequency of 90.7 megacycles. Provo regrets any temporary discomfort it may have caused Peter Bergman and the night staff of radio station KPFK. KPFK with offices and studios at 3729 Cahuenga in North Hollywood now unfortunately concludes this day of broadcasting. Good night and continued good wishes from Provo. MUSIC: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. ON THE VERY LAST NOTE, THE SPEED BEGINS TO WAVER, AND THE TAPE SUDDENLY CUTS OFF
SILENCE
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