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I first heard of Anthony Parrino when I was just a wee freshman at SUNY Purchase. George Parrino would tell us stories of how his cool son would carry around a copy of the Diamond Sutra in complete awe of its teachings. There was very little scarier than George on a bad day or in a bad mood, so these tales of his son would be a ray of light among harsh critiques and obsessive yelling about poor manners. “No tapping, No drumming, No whining,” “The teacher is always right,” “Beware of the one-liner,” “If you see the buddha, hit him with a stick,” were just a few of Parrino’s motto’s. I will never forget the time he leaned over in the middle of me critiquing someone’s work and whispered “Shut your fucking mouth.” If none of you have ever had a professor be honest, critical and hard assed then I believe you haven’t recieved a decent education. It is because of people like George that I am getting my MFA at Pratt.

I then met Anthony in Burgos on the craziest summer of my undergrad life. We partied hard, studied little Spanish and spent a huge amount of time in the dustiest garage/studio creating assemblages in the mirror of Spain.

Anthony goes by the musical name Elite, and has been involved in some pretty impressive musical accomplishments. None of the music is really my thing, but I must admire a ‘westchester-white-boy’ entering into this world and being successful. Here is his blog that I was just linked to by George
(and inspired this posting).