NewMusicBox Special Edition: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela

We want to thank all of the many friends who are calling and emailing to find out if we are okay in the wake of the horrifically diabolical attack on the world as we knew it. As many of you who have visited the Dream House know, MELA Foundation at 275 Church Street is only 12 blocks north of the World Trade Center at Church and Vesey Streets. Thanks to God’s grace, we are fine and despite the destruction so nearby, this tiny haven of harmonic vibrations had all necessities—water, gas, electricity, cable TV, telephone, email, fax etc.—and no need to be evacuated. It does get progressively worse each block south of us. We know of friends being evacuated from Duane Street only four blocks below us, so we feel even more blessed that we are so unscathed.
We had been out at 6:00 am Tuesday, September 11 to vote in the mayoral primary, wandered through Chinatown, came home, trimmed back our bonsai tree, then began to prepare some food. We were in the back of the loft when Marian heard a strange loud boom and may have seen a flash but could see nothing out the back window. When we turned around it was already on CNN and then the tragedy unfolded. La Monte actually saw the second tower burst into flames from the front window. We saw the buildings collapse and the streets below were suddenly filled with people running up Church Street from downtown.
Very little has changed right here at Church and White Streets except that it is now a staging area for national guardsmen, rescue and construction workers, authorized vehicles, supplies, and as an alternate traffic artery from the disaster site. They are working night and day to get power and phone service to the Wall Street area, which they hope to open on Monday, so now there are bright lights at night out in front of our building, the sound of portable generators humming, and the street being dug up a few blocks below to run the new lines.

This is also for now a so-called “frozen area” of lower Manhattan and it is necessary to show a picture ID and have a reason of work or residency to be permitted to cross the police barrier at Canal Street. The line of demarcation runs west from Broadway, so Church Street is not open to normal pedestrian activity. Hopefully, this will change in a few days, but it is causing us to consider the possibility that we may have to delay the reopening of the Dream House, originally scheduled for next Saturday, September 22nd from 2:00 pm to Midnight.

We hope to reopen the Dream House as soon as possible so that there will be a small place in the midst of this devastation where people can come and find an environment of peace and harmony. Please keep in touch with MELA’s website to find out when the Dream House will reopen for the 2001-2002 season.

We offer our prayers for all who have suffered through this event and pray that the world will eventually find love and understanding as a better way to resolve our differences.