putting the j in jjosh » Blog Archive » the speed of speed

putting the j in jjosh

putting the j in jjosh

the speed of speed

May 29th, 2008

I always wanted to get Carla Speed McNeil together with Timothy Speed Levitch and have them hang out and talk about what it’s like to be called Speed. Speed Levitch was a metaphysical tour guide of NYC, and subject of the fantastic documentary The Cruise.

I first met Speed out at Burning Man (my sister pointed him out to me — thanks, Katie!), then ran into him a bunch of times soon after (he gave a tour for Silver Spring, MD’s Silverdocs!), got handed his book, and was finally able to go on a tour with him in December 2003 (the day after Santarchy!). It was a walking tour of the West Village in NYC, and was such a blast…Mike H, Alan M, his wife and I walked the chilly streets, listened while Speed did his thing, and ended up for beers at Chumley’s (now closed!).

He also gave me one of the best pieces of advice for The Advice Project: "run wild with your healing." Nice.

I’ve tried to keep track of Speed since then, but his phone numbers get disconnected, his websites go down, he vanishes. I recently heard that he was out in San Fransisco doing tours, but couldn’t find any info about it. Then this morning I found this, which is great:

I love the bit about Macy’s. Of course, the website listed at the end is defunct, and the phone number goes to the voicemail of someone named Keith, but Maxine and I will be out in SF late in July, so I’m gonna try and track him down for a tour. He does have a blog, such as it is, and there’s an e-mail on there, so maybe that’ll work. We’ll see.

UPDATE – I just tried searching for Speed’s Richard Linklater-directed short film "Live From Shiva’s Dance Floor" (about SL’s idea for a 9/11 memorial involving grazing bison on the World trade Center site) but couldn’t find it anywhere, not youtube, rapidshare or even a torrent! When that happens these days it actually makes me mad. It should be online somewhere! Somebody DO SOMETHING!

One Response to “the speed of speed”

  1. comment number 1 by: jjosh

    now it’s 2016 and easy enough to find. it’s great too: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL89E0356B49AD3FCF

Leave a Reply

Name

Mail (never published)

Website