Floating in Sausalito

The grandfather of them all

His record collection needs to be seen. He will tell you a lot of it is country and western, but it looks like an anthill or a brittle art institute installation not to be tampered with. It’s impossible to tell one album cover from the others. They have all fallen into one another, becoming one single colorless body. It is more of an image than a collection of sounds. It is a reminder of how we once used to distribute music. It’s like an inverted chrysalis, butterfly songs returning to their anonymous past.

Larry Moyer’s friend and brother in arms Shel Silverstein dabbled in country music territory, writing the tongue-in-cheek macho song ”A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash. The Evil Eye, home to Moyer and his wife Diane, was once bought by Silverstein and is still, after the death of the free-spirited author, illustrator, songwriter and playwright in 1999, owned by the Silverstein estate. It is a World War II balloon barge that was converted into a home in the early 1960s.

Moyer acts as the eternal caretaker, a torch carrier with the same kind of playful humor as his former colleague, his philosophy being that boundaries are for the fenced in.

The Evil Eye is covered in a layer of historical dust. It is ingrained in the books and plants and film cassettes and figurines. There are old clothes on hangers and an opening between the two floors, surrounded by what feels like an indoor desert garden.

And the resident himself seems to remember most of the characters who have migrated through the community. Here they all came together, the boatbuilders and the dreamers and the castaways.

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