It's the Anniversary of New York's Center of Folk Music
Mike Porco's Folk Cabaret opened under the name Folk City in 1960
Hey everybody, Bob Porco here and I’ve released (UNLEASHED)
THE GERDES FOLK CITY DOC on the 64th anniversary of FOLK CITY’s official opening in 1960.
Substack makes it possible to subscribe to video content and I’ve posted the full film there.
It’s been exactly 14 years since I “burst onto the scene” and hosted the Gerdes Folk City’s 50th anniversary party on W.3rd St.
If you don’t know me at all, imagine how ALL of Mike Porco‘s friends felt in 2010 when I corralled them to perform one more time in Mike Porco’s name.
🎙That was exactly 14 years ago on June 7, 2010. Over FORTY musicians showed up and played at the old Folk City!
CHECK OUT these photos from 6.7.10!
https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/search/2/image?editorialproduct=entertainment&events=100493097&phrase=
I was a hero. As I said to David Massengill that night, in baseball terms, I hit a clean base hit up the middle. Not a flashy triple. Not a 5-run homer. Just a solid SINGLE to keep the game flowing.
✨Then I went away.
I was happy to know my grandfather’s famous friends and now had a reason to greet them at their own gigs.
In 2011, I moved to NYC.
By 2012, I was given an opportunity to host a monthly concert on MacDougal St right in the old Gaslight space. I only booked Folk City alumni. A ‘sold out’ show was only 40 tickets. The room was full beyond that.
🏆I was a temporary hero YET AGAIN.
Then the club closed.🚧
✨I went away again.
My original reason to get into the SCENE was to ‘write a book’ about Mike Porco and his WORLD FAMOUS CLUB, Gerde’s Folk City. I had to admit to myself and others: Writing a book is HARD as shit.
🎥So I switched to filming a documentary on Mike and Folk City because, heck, that’s SO MUCH easier!!!
EVERYTHING BACKWARDS
I had RED CARPET premieres and theatrical releases in mind BEFORE personnel decisions, a budget or editing plan.
I had a lot of energy back then! I flew Izzy Young to NYC. I flew out to LA, CA to interview Bruce Langhorne and George Gerdes. And I flew to FLA to interview my dad and Uncle Angelo.
🔗I learned about recording and storing the material on the fly.
🎬All I knew was that I was gonna show Mike’s friends and music fans world wide THE ONE AND ONLY DOCUMENTARY on FOLK CITY.
For years I kept telling people this film is coming, “It’s coming, you’ll thank me, you’ll thank me” and “it’s coming, I’m working on it” and A DECADE WENT BY.
I wasn’t idle all those years. I had collected 23 interviews in 2013 and 2014 and worked endlessly on transcribing everything word for word, scouring the footage for bits and pieces of the STORY and learned how to make video SHORTS. They were DEMOs for the film with the working title POSITIVELY PORCO.
I had one ROUGH CUT completed that acted as a base canvass to work on.
Then another and another, each with new additions and segments. Then another. Then a computer crash and a Reassembly of all the material from scratch. Then another long form demo of the MOVIE was created. There were EIGHT ROUGH CUTS.
By the time of the shutdown, ROUGH CUT 8 was cut into episodes. IT WAS SOOOOOO LOOONG and I bided my time messing with it.
Pull up to 2024. It’s the year that I said to myself: RELEASE THE BEAST. All 4 hours plus of all the clips and let THE PEOPLE decide what is good and what is shit.
I’m partial but I don’t think there’s too much shit in the Gerde’s Folk City doc. It’s good enough to listen to and learn the entire history of Mike Porco and Gerde’s. Much of it is fun to watch. Some scuffs and scratches are still there to be seen but IT IS BETTER THAN BEING STORED IN A HARD DRIVE SOMEWHERE COLLECTING MORE DIGITAL DUST.
🍿🍿🍿Come and get it!
🎬SOUP’S ON!
✅The film, known as Positively Porco, is on Substack as GerdesFolkCityDoc.
It’s worth it for ME to be on SUBSTACK so that I can easily connect you to with nothing more than your email. So choose which email you use wisely!
With the trade off of nothing more than your email, Substack will send you all the information you need to pay and PLAY THE GERDESFOLKCITYDOC. (Also find the link below)
🖥Substack is like a modern blog. It has a social media feel to it because you can follow people’s free content for FREE and there’s a string of recent posts on there from other writers and creators.
There are SUBSCRIBE and SHARE buttons all over the app/site making it easy for you to become a subscriber for content.
🚨The GerdesFolkCityDoc is a SUBSCRIPTION ONLY VIDEO.🚨
Subscribe for free to get free content. Pay for a subscription to get access to the Folk City documentary.
Help me gain 600 new subscribers so the unbelievable tale of Mike Porco can be told🎥🏆🍿🎼🍿🏆🌎🤌🏼
This link will take you directly to the post with the GerdesFolkCityDoc🎼🎼🎼🎼🎼👇🏽
🙏 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/documentary-on-mike-porcos-folk-music
👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽
Cheers,
Bob
PS-
✅Make a Substack account
✅Subscribe to Bob Porco’s Substack
✅Subscribe for paid to watch the GerdesFolkCityDoc!!!
https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/documentary-on-mike-porcos-folk-music
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