Wayne Lanter

Psyaint David Wayne Lanter

PSYAINT DAVID During the spring/summer of 1977 (January 31 - August 10) New York City, The Big Apple, The City of the Gods of high finance and entertainment, is near bankruptcy. Thousands of city workers, including police, firemen, garbage collectors, and teachers are dismissed. The budgets for The City's clinics and hospitals are savaged and mental health institutions reduced to mere shadows of their former selves. As a result, thousands of the mentally disabled or incompetent (deemed of no harm to themselves or others) are furloughed to the streets to live "through one winter but not another." Additionally, the tenements are awash with a syndemic of tuberculosis and HIV. Throughout The City (305 sq mi) crime is endemic. Burglary, petty theft, and robbery become a way of life for many of the 7,318,606 residents. In 365 days The City records 1,557 homicides, or 4.26575 for each day of the year. To add to the attractions of the Summer, Son of Sam is loose in the precincts, insinuating his name of fame on to the marque. As usual, the Mob operates as usual. A long standing urban (NYC) belief intimates that if enough evil surfaces in any one locale, it may coalesce in a personification of malevolence, possibly Satan, Abaddon, Beelzebub, Lucifer, etc. The myth alleges that when an abundance of evil is present Al-Shayton (the Devil) will actually materialize to walk the streets, ride the buses and elevators, to hawk his wares of pleasure and pain. The narrative of Psyaint David is a small but salient part of the story of The City of the Gods during the summer of 1977, when Satan (Sam) shows up to direct the forces of mayhem, cast Son of Sam in the Kojak show, and bring the Mob and the NYPD together under a single mandate. Psyaint David is a saga of greed, sex and violence, as American as apple pie, a selective, but reliable, narrative of six months of fun and mayhem in The City of the Gods.