From "Orien McNeill, Artist Who Made Mischief on the Water, Dies at 45/He was the pied piper of a loose community of DIY artists homesteading on New York City’s waterways, which he used as his canvas and stage" (NYT)(free-access link, so you can see the photos).
June 7, 2025
"Hundreds of intrepid people would organize themselves into themed gangs and set out in homemade crafts of dubious seaworthiness..."
"... through Jamaica Bay to compete, 'American Gladiators'-style, with various props and pseudo-weapons. The 'boats' disintegrated once the shenanigans were over.... Mr. McNeill’s most ambitious project was... a 500-mile trip along the Ganges River... called... 'The Swimming Cities of the Ocean of Blood.' Mr. McNeill and a group of collaborators built five metal pontoon boats in Brooklyn — three of them powered by motorcycles, one by sail and oars, and another by paddle wheel — which he would captain. The boats were designed to lock together for camping on the water.... It was an arduous monthslong trip. Marauding monkeys attacked their camp..... Mr. McNeill’s godfather was the author William S. Burroughs, with whom the elder Mr. McNeill had collaborated on a graphic novel. Mr. Burroughs baptized Orien with a dab of vodka from his afternoon drink...."
From "Orien McNeill, Artist Who Made Mischief on the Water, Dies at 45/He was the pied piper of a loose community of DIY artists homesteading on New York City’s waterways, which he used as his canvas and stage" (NYT)(free-access link, so you can see the photos).
McNeill died on May 15 on his 52-foot-long ferryboat, and we are not told the cause of death.
From "Orien McNeill, Artist Who Made Mischief on the Water, Dies at 45/He was the pied piper of a loose community of DIY artists homesteading on New York City’s waterways, which he used as his canvas and stage" (NYT)(free-access link, so you can see the photos).
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18 comments:
Very great temporary boyfriend material.
"Homesteading" or "squatting"? (Have not read the article yet but the first word seems without any meaning inside the law).
He seems to have been a fictional character, maybe from like a Tom Robbins extravaganza, come to life. (All I've done so far is to look at the pictures and skim some captions.)
He had a life. At least some kind of life.
People always ignore the Maurauding monkees factor. Be forewarned.
From the obit:
For his 10th birthday, Orien had asked his parents to get him business cards. His father still has a few.
“Orien McNeill,” they read. “All your dreams made real.”
I’m assuming he committed suicide. So sad either way.
Jamaica bay is neither a bay nor in Jamacia.
Discuss.
Suicide? Drugs? I wonder what killed him.
Drugs, no doubt. The NYT celebrates drug use. Keeping people doped up is essential to the Dems control of the plebians, serfs and kulaks.
"At one point they encountered a quarter-mile-wide concrete dam — a terrifying “Class 5 rapid,” said Porter Fox, a participant who knew his waterfalls (he had been a white-water guide).
Mr. McNeill tackled it first. Mr. Fox went next, his boat flipping end over end as it plummeted over the torrent. Clearly, it was not going to be possible for the rest of the boats, or their crews, to survive the dam."
Couldn't be any worse than Nebraska's Norden Chute.
I am missing the "artist" part of McNeill. Organizer, yes. Promoter, yes. What is the art?
"Orien McNeill, Artist Who Made Mischief…”
Making mischief is pretty much all that’s left of what used to be called art.
"we are not told the cause of death."
Docs had to choose from among all the parasites he probably picked up from falling into the Ganges, East River, etc....
JSM
Prof: I just put two and two together - the departed lived on the Gowanus. You hung out around the Gowanus when you did your temp at NYLS. Did you ever see his and his friends' boats? Photograph them?
JSM
Many, many years ago, I heard a relative mention that "Jamaica Bay" was a bad area and they never wanted to change trains (Long Island RR) there.
Collector of detritus.
I love artists and art.
God bless you, brother. RIP
A small boat on the water in a New York winter might not be as pleasant as a small house on wheels in someone's back yard. Here's for zoning that allows electrical and water and sewer connections to small (say, 600sqft and less) mobile dwellings in residential and suburban back yards. Here in Austin the suburban elite could have their help living within a few steps of work, allowing them to work after making and serving dinner, and perhaps getting breakfast done for the kids before school. Here's to zoning that allows longer work hours for nearly-indentured servants!
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