R.I.P. Peter Doty 1963 -2023

 

Peter Doty was one of my roommates from 1991 - 1993. I had met his other roommate, Sarah Rosenbaum previously at one of Ronn Rosen's parties (a Cacophony Society member) and met Peter shortly thereafter; they were planning an event, The BART Lounge and I spent an afternoon with them in Golden Gate Park when they were rehearsing songs.

We hit it off, apparently - months later, they were looking for a new roommate and I was looking to move from my previous place; things lined up for me to move in, and I spent 2 of the best years of my life there.

Both Peter & Sarah were artists and it was wonderful to finally be in the company of people who had similar sensibilities. They had known each other since the late 80s and found out much, much later that they were distant cousins - I don't think they were aware of that at the time we all roomed together, but I could be wrong on that.

Peter was smart, funny and had the ability to turn what seemed to be an absurd idea into reality... he and Sarah came up with the BART Lounge; the Fantasia Protests came out of going to a screening of FANTASIA and heading back to the bus stop, joking about how the movie would offend so many groups of people at the time - this was when 'political correctness' started becoming a thing. Out of that, came the creation of a bogus organization with subsidiary groups and a bogus newsletter; bogus press releases and Peter convincing people to act as spokespeople for these groups and leading protests. The joke got even funnier when tv and print media came out to cover the protests, taking it all at face value, leading to news coverage in Time Magazine, local news then national news when it was revealed to be bullshit - er, a hoax. Entertainment Tonight sent a small crew out to interview Peter on a piece they were doing on media pranksters (and I wish I was able to find a copy of that segment). 

Peter was able to conceptualize things that were fun & frivolous - like the Penny Parade, where people paraded along the Haight giving spare change out instead of asking for it, singing money-themed songs such as "Pennies From Heaven" -- and events that were fun, but actually had a serious statement at the heart of it, like "Let Them Eat Cake", where he and others, in conjunction with Food Not Bombs dressed as 17th Century aristocrats and gave out cake and other foodstuffs to the homeless.

It's also well documented that Peter was mainly responsible for starting off the concept of Burning Man theme camps; a lot of the 'fun' side of Cacophony were things that Peter brought to it. And yes, there were times when he could be a diva, but he had the ability to mobilize people to actualize the concept, no matter how absurd it seemed - and that is a rare talent that one wouldn't guess he possessed, at first casual glance.

Christmas Card photo shoot. Peter couldn't make it so photos were taken, Xeroxed and hand colored, then pasted. Old school artistry, kids!

 

There's a FB 'Peter Doty Memorial Group' where people are sharing stories & photos; for those who may not be on FB, there's also a Memorial Blog which shares some of that same info - including a lengthy interview with Peter from ReSearch Publications' PRANKS 2 book about some of those Cacophony events, as well as some selections from the TALES OF THE SAN FRANCISCO CACOPHONY SOCIETY book; both of those give a pretty good overview of his projects at the time.

 

His obituary, which also has information about Celebration of Life events - one in Albuquerque, NM on 4/23 (also a belated memorial for his mother); one in San Francisco, CA on 5/21 at Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park from 12pm-4pm; and the last in Orono, ME 6/4, Buchanan Alumni House at University of Maine.