"I initiated a few projects of investigation which I more or less traced from others. Received some replies and soon realized that the only persons interested were as apathetic about the entire idea as I was. But it still survives in some forms and ideas.There was very little money at that time, and basically what we had to do is steal food in order to eat. We would put on heavy winter coats. We were looking like street people, except that we ironed our clothing which all came from the Salvation Army. We would go to grocery stores and buy a loaf of bread and hide various flat cans of food in our pockets. Or we would boil huge amounts of rice and chicken liver.
One of the interesting concepts to come out of this - and 'concept' is a word I only use because I spent all the others - was that of severity, austerity and particularly instantaneous severe reflexion syndrome in which people are subjected to incredible horrific flashes of consciousness.
An anecdote to illustrate a typical day at Peking Poolroom would be one of the last days after the fire which I started in the kitchen and that almost killed several people sleeping in the apartment. And the great debate of course was whether we would put it out ourselves or call the firemen. I am very surprised that we got away with that. Zbigniew Brotgehirn and I got up at one o'clock in the afternoon. We were invited to participate in a performance Monty was giving this evening. And we simply didn't think that we were ready to make any sort of public display of any particular idea. So we did what we usually did, purchase a bottle of Tequila and drink it on the back terrace. We consumed the bottle very quickly and proceeded then to buy and steal some bottles of wine and one bottle of Chartreux. Later in the afternoon, the welfare officer came. We had asked to receive welfare recently, and when this middle aged man walked into this kitchen covered with clothes which just had been the scene of a fire, with green garbage bags all over the place since we didn't know on which day to put them out, it became very apparent to him that he was in the most miserable part of the most miserable part of the city.
After he left, we purchased some broken irons at the Salvation Army and took Mein Kampf along with us and stole a motorcycle. We were not in a condition to drive that motorcycle, but I was driving it. I would come down on the street at ten or fifteen miles an hour and Zbigniew would attempt to jump on the back of the seat as I passed by. After twelve or more unsuccessful attempts, we finally proceeded to go downtown. He left, and we finally met just as the performance was going to begin.
I have gone through half of the Chartreux bottle at that time and had a simple desire to continue the violence of the day. We were allowed to buy beer at special discount, and Monty gave me ten dollars to buy twenty of them. Before I could finish a beer, the performance began. And what happened from then on is more myth than fact, so I don't think I bring up the facts."