EMILE DE ANTONIO
Radical American Filmmaker
De Antonio
and John Cage Cage on Mushrooms
(Out-take from the film "Poetry in Motion" by Ron Mann
(c) 1981 Sphinx Productions
John Cage: One of the things I am kind
of sad about living in the city is that I don’t get to
hunt mushrooms the way I did out in Rockwood county.
Emile de Antonio: And that was a dangerous sport, wasn’t it?
John Cage: Yes, but delightful.
Emile de Antonio: I remember taking you to the hospital.
John Cage: But that wasn’t a mushroom. It was…
Emile de Antonio: Oh no, that’s right.
John Cage: It was the hellibore.
Emile de Antonio: But you went also for the mushrooms?
John Cage: To the hospital?
Emile de Antonio: Yeah. Didn’t you?
John Cage: No.
Emile de Antonio: You never made a mistake?
John Cage: I made a mistake once but I didn’t go to a hospital. (laughter) Once I ate a mushroom that I’d eaten cooked. And I ate it in the morning up in Vermont. I ate it raw and I was sick. I had diarrhea and vomited for 12 hours. I was with Richard and Louise Lippold and they had , they’d closed up, boarded up the house and we were supposed to leave in the morning but I was untransportable. And so they had to change they’re plans. (laughter) Until I was well enough to move.
Emile de Antonio: What was the mushroom?
John Cage: It was boletus piperatus. A red tubed boletus. Little, it’s a little mushroom. The only reason I ate it was because I got up earlier than they did that morning. Went out mushroom hunting, and I didn’t have any breakfast so when I saw this mushroom I ate it.
Emile de Antonio: What did you think it was?
John Cage: Well, I knew that I’d eaten it before you see without any bad effect but it had been cooked. There are a number of poisons apparently, that, that, ah, disappear with cooking. With heat.
Emile de Antonio: Yeah, I noticed that in CIA literature when they were making those toxins to kill other, to kill heads of state. They were making them out of shellfish. Make sure that this isn’t cooked. Serve raw. (laughter)
(Out-take from the film "Poetry in Motion" by Ron Mann
(c) 1981 Sphinx Productions
Emile de Antonio: And that was a dangerous sport, wasn’t it?
John Cage: Yes, but delightful.
Emile de Antonio: I remember taking you to the hospital.
John Cage: But that wasn’t a mushroom. It was…
Emile de Antonio: Oh no, that’s right.
John Cage: It was the hellibore.
Emile de Antonio: But you went also for the mushrooms?
John Cage: To the hospital?
Emile de Antonio: Yeah. Didn’t you?
John Cage: No.
Emile de Antonio: You never made a mistake?
John Cage: I made a mistake once but I didn’t go to a hospital. (laughter) Once I ate a mushroom that I’d eaten cooked. And I ate it in the morning up in Vermont. I ate it raw and I was sick. I had diarrhea and vomited for 12 hours. I was with Richard and Louise Lippold and they had , they’d closed up, boarded up the house and we were supposed to leave in the morning but I was untransportable. And so they had to change they’re plans. (laughter) Until I was well enough to move.
Emile de Antonio: What was the mushroom?
John Cage: It was boletus piperatus. A red tubed boletus. Little, it’s a little mushroom. The only reason I ate it was because I got up earlier than they did that morning. Went out mushroom hunting, and I didn’t have any breakfast so when I saw this mushroom I ate it.
Emile de Antonio: What did you think it was?
John Cage: Well, I knew that I’d eaten it before you see without any bad effect but it had been cooked. There are a number of poisons apparently, that, that, ah, disappear with cooking. With heat.
Emile de Antonio: Yeah, I noticed that in CIA literature when they were making those toxins to kill other, to kill heads of state. They were making them out of shellfish. Make sure that this isn’t cooked. Serve raw. (laughter)