We are sad to hear of the death of Terry Van Vliet, he was 89 and had been suffering with dementia. Terry was an older cousin of Don’s, and also born in Glendale. His parents were Harold and Winifred Vliet. Like Don, Terry reclaimed the ‘Van’ for the family name. He went to Lancaster Valley High, the same school as Don. It was here that Terry developed  a passion for poetry and literature. When he moved to Las Vegas for a while he joined a small theatre group and found another passion, acting. He returned to Los Angeles and tried to pursue an acting career.Read More →

All photographs on this page are Copyright © 2011 Michael Kirschner. Used with permission. Gary Lucas makes the introductions before showing a selection of videos: Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads and producer of Gary’s new “Gods & Monsters” CD was the first special guest. He read two poems “Her Little Face” and “Sun Dawn Dance”: Terry Vliet, Don’s cousin, followed Jerry. He looked like he was going to break down when he began speaking about the talk he had with Jan the day Don died. In five minutes he gives us an amazing picture of Don, then read a very moving and beautiful poem heRead More →

I went to the symposium last night Jan 13 2011 with my neighbor Bret. It’s good we had the address because it was in a pretty much unmarked dark or black colored building. The address was covered with the same dark paint. The entrance was down an alley by a parking lot. Above the door was a big red sign that said absolutely nothing. The only thing that tipped us off was the line of people waiting outside. It was a pretty nice crowd. The event started about 8:30pm with Gary Lucas talking a little about Don and about how he first heard of Captain BeefheartRead More →