Author Archives: bc

Life in the Underground Press

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Our intrepid group of plucky young punk rock artists arrived at the 2005 Philly Zine Fest with a wide assortment of indie comix & art, ready to introduce ourselves to a wider world, that we optimistically assumed would welcome us with open arms and wallets. I mean, why wouldn’t they?

We’d worked so hard, published so many comix, and were so gd excited, that the idea of failure had never really crossed our minds. I mean, why would it?

But after about 2 hours of complete invisibility to the passing crowd of festival attendees a desperate idea occurred to me. Give the comix out for free. It was clear we weren’t going to make any money from this event, and as poverty stricken as I was at the time, the point of the comix weren’t to make money anyway, it was to communicate. So I called out the audible, maybe much to the chagrin of some of my more business savvy collaborators, all of the comix on the table were now free.

And the momentum of the day swung rapidly in our favor! Our once desolate corner was now mobbed with people, we were in the mix! We were meeting the world and the world was meeting us and it was joyous and awesome.

At the end of the day we had put several hundred comix into circulation. It felt great. It felt like we’d taken a loss and turned it into a win. It felt like this was the thing that was going to lead to the next thing, and we’d look back on this day as a pivotal turning point.

As we left the venue, feeling entirely elated, I beheld a wild spectacle! The courtyard of the venue, in lovely West Philadelphia, covered in our discarded comix, blowing in the wind. Overflowing trashcans stuffed with our comix, spilling out into an indifferent universe. Our comix were literal garbage. In light of such dramatic evidence it would have been tough to deny that I’d made a tactical blunder, but I did it anyway, and with a tightly balled fist raised to sky, defiantly declared, “THEN WE’LL CHOKE THEIR RIVERS WITH OUR DEAD!”

THE “MIND” INDESTRUCTIBLE

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bc comic made for Robert Anton Wilson’s Tale of the Tribe MLA course (2005)

The funny chap with the stash is supposed to be Ezra Pound,
a problematic fav who wrote:

“4 times was the city rebuilded, Hooo Fasa
Gassir, Hooo Fasa dell’ Italia tradita
now in the mind indestructible, Gassir, Hooo Fasa
with four giants at the four corners
and four gates mid-wall Hooo Fasa
and a terrace the colour of stars”
– Canto 74

RAW explains:

“Hooo means somthing like hooray or hallelujah
Fasa = the tribe or the king

From an African “tale of the tribe”
collected by Frobenius

Wagadu = a divine, or magick, city
which existed four times
and each time got lost again
first thru vanity
second thru lying
third thru greed
fourth thru feuding

Wagadu still exists in some sense
“in the mind indestructible”
and will appear again
when all people transcend
vanity, lies, greed and vendettta

Hooo Fasa

Hooo Fasa

gets repeated 10 times at the end of the song

Hooo Fasa “

and a George Kearns quote by way of Eric Wagner:

“…the unnamed African seekers of a city of the mind, Wagadu (both divinity and city), whom we come to recognize by their cry, “Hooo Fasa.” They can metamorphose into each other, as they do in Frazer, to become Isis-Kuanon, Isis-Luna, Circe-Titania, or Adonis-Tamuz.”

I take the “mind” Indestructible as the non-local class of all minds, which after all is No Mind!

RAW comments:

“You captured the essence of Pound’s use of the Sudanese legend —
even though rain and industrial waste are hardly equal conditions
in the death camp where a rapist and murderer was hanged every day.

Hooo Fasa”

Fair Enough!

QUARTERS EXERCISE

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Robert Anton Wilson’s famous “Quarters Exercise” from Prometheus Rising:

To explore the Thinker and the Prover, try the following:

1. Visualize a quarter vividly, and imagine vividly that you are going to find the quarter on the street. Then, look for the quarter every time you take a walk, meanwhile continuing to visualize it. See how long it takes you to find the quarter.

2. Explain the above experiment by the hypothesis of “selective attention” —that is, believe there are lots of lost quarters everywhere and you were bound to find one by continually looking. Go looking for a second quarter.

3. Explain the experiment by the alternative “mystical” hypothesis that “mind controls everything.” Believe that you made the quarter manifest in this universe. Go looking for a second quarter.

If the reader is a scientist, be not alarmed. This refers not to you but only to those benighted fools in the opposite camp who refuse to recognize that your theory is the only reasonable one. Of course.

4. Compare the time it takes to find the second quarter using the first hypothesis (attention) with the time it takes using the second hypothesis (mind-over-matter).

5. With your own ingenuity, invent similar experiments and each time compare the two theories—”selective attention” (coincidence) vs. “mind controls everything” (psychokinesis).

6. Avoid coming to any strong conclusions prematurely. At the end of a month, re-read this chapter, think it over again, and still postpone coming to any dogmatic conclusion. Believe it possible that you do not know everything yet, and that you might have something still to learn.

Here’s my results from 2004, with a response from RAW:

A) Experience:
I never found the quarter in my vividly premeditated scenario, heads up on asphalt, though after eight days of sensitizing I did eventually find a tails up quarter in a patch of grass at a local playground. (Gut instinct leans towards selective attention on that 1st’n.) Using the “selective attention” filter thereafter I only found quarters within their normal parameters, in between seats of cars, in my wallet, pants pockets, within my art supplies, etc. I consistently deemed each and every of these quarter finds as non-applicable as they were too far removed from my premeditated scenario. Though perhaps implicit within the “selective-attention / just-a-coincidence” mindset is the “that doesn’t count!” philosophy.

Two days after adapting the idealistic mind over matter quarter hunter attitude an odd thing started happening. Quarters started appearing on my computer terminal at work. Initially filed under “that doesn’t count.” So as my addiction demands of me, I done spent them quarters on Mountain Dew Soda Pop. Next day: more quarters! (still not counting) and as a true caffeine addict my mind is always on where my next 4 bits are coming from and so of course I spend the quarters again. This goes on for days! Eventually I figured out my friends were gifting me quarters as per my well known usage of Mountain Dew Soda Pop to push through the fatigue of working all day after doing art stuff all night. So eventually I started paying back into the quarter pile and now, even a month later, everyday about two dollars worth of quarters flow mysteriously through my local spacetime. The consistency of the phenomena eventually pushed passed my strict quarter finding rules and I decided that this process was a very legitimate fulfillment of the exercise. And interestingly enough it occurred to me that this was quarter finding that was much more telekinesis than selective attention. The quarters are made manifest by a non-verbal communication between me and my friends. Well initially non-verbal that is, the “quarter pile” now exists as an acknowledged function of our environment.

B) Tentative Conclusion:
Apparent telekinesis produced quarters much faster and in greater quantities than supposed selective attention. In fact: hypothetically all quarters found may have originated telekinetically, whereas not all quarters found could have been attentively selected.

C) Initial Aphorism:
One may rule out selective attention to a greater degree than one may disregard Telekinesis

CHAPTER ONE {EX: 5-6} Misc Parts Commune

A) Experience:
I devised my own Selective Attention vs. Mind-Controls-Everything experiments revolving around my job in the Parts Department of a Jeep Garage. My job consists essentially of finding part numbers in our computer mainframe of whatever particular doohickey has been requested. “I need a Neutral Safety Switch for a 99 TJ,” and so I navigate the catalog as such until I find the corresponding code that I then plug into our database which gives me the space-time location of that particular whatcha-ma-call-it. The hook being: I don’t know a goddamn thing about cars! (why someone who doesn’t know about cars works at a garage is a tale for another day!) So when people call, or come in, or when the techs come to the counter; 8 times out of 10 I’m encountering a completely alien language.

Thus my experiment:
I know the parts exist within the catalog; I just have to find them.
Which orientation finds parts quicker?
Selective-Attention:
The parts exist within the System. I just have to find them.
Mind-Controls-Everything:
The system exists within me; I can make the parts come to me.

The Selective-Attention Filter works well within a non-pressure situation. If I’m not busy and actually have the time to leisurely peruse the parameters of the sub-divisions, I generally find what I’m looking for with reasonable swiftness. In fact, the parts are there, I just have to find them. Though in a situation where the heat is on, phones ringing, three techs ragging at the counter, two customers up front: The accuracy and promptness of my work suffers greatly within the attentively selected environment. (I suppose because an element of “inadequacy” enters my situation. The parts are there I just can’t find them: at which point I might suppose myself “stupid” which only further inhibits my situation.)

The Mind-Controls-Everything Filter works just as well as Selective-Attention within non pressure situations. Clear my Mind and yes indeed I just seem to “know” (guess!) where to look. And actually in high pressure situations, I find myself not giving a fuck about whatever I should suppose as urgent circumstances. And yes indeed the Parts seem to just “appear luckily,” of course not always, but even in those situations, the whole episode feels novel and entertaining, allowing me to keep my cool and handle my Biz.

B) Tentative Conclusion:
When using only the Selective Attention filter I cut myself off from a well spring of calming and assuring themes of mind; giving me less stability within turbulent circumstances.

When using the Mind-Controls-Everything filter I find I still use the Selective Attention filter as well, its automatic, and its pragmatic value suggests no need to exert effort to disable it, and additionally reconnecting with the well spring of creative-playful-tranquility yields experiential positivity: Win, Lose, or Draw.
“Joe Cool knows where that clockspring is, give em a sec, dude!”

C) Initial Aphorism:
Selective Attention operates exclusively; Playful Telekinesis operates inclusively

RAW RESPONDS:

Bobby —

Congratulations on yr work in general
and especially on the quarters!
As E J Gold of the Fake Sufi School said
“The quarter exercize alone paid
for the book!”

& now you know where all them thar 23s
come from……

REINCARCERATED PARTS BOYZ

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Once upon a whatchamacallit, MC BEN and I were posted up at the parts counter at Baker Jeep Eagle, whiling the day away on the early internet, probably blasting The Pretty Tony Album, when JEFF HARRIS burst into the scene bragging about his amazing mystical powers!

In this case, he was claiming to have mastered the art of reincarnation, such that he could come back in whatever form he wished.

He’d been clinically dead once before, IIRC, though the story shifted back and forth between him being shot in the head and a car accident that sent his head crashing into the dashboard radio. In either case, he was left with an indent in the center of his forehead that gave the impression of an anti third eye, and a predisposition towards seizures. An early archetype of Blvd mythology.

He once gave me puppy dog eyes while trying to convince me to come smoke crack with him and a sex worker in the side bathroom. When I very politely declined his generous offer he pouted for the rest of the day. Then the next day he pulled a knife on me, threatening to cut me up if I ever engaged in that very same activity that the day before he begged me to indulge in. This isn’t inconsistent behavior, of course, just multidimensional characterization :)))

So when a twice born dark prophet claims to have mastered the endless cycle of death & rebirth, you might as well hear him out!

I figured I’d put him to the task of solving the central mystery of Indian Religion & Philosophy:
“What if you don’t want to come back at all?”

Without hesitation, he exclaimed: “Follow me!”
We walked out into the back lot, and he pointed down at the asphalt:
“See that right there?”
The only thing I could see was a small, insignificant pebble.
“This?” I said, holding up the little rock.

He smiled, nodded, and walked away.

I’m 99% sure he was just doing a bit, but on the other hand, I kinda maybe got his point…

BEHOLD THE SOPHIC HYDROLITH!

“You hear what you want to hear, but you believe what you know!”
– JEFF HARRIS


[WILL INSERT AUDIO OF JH’S STORY ABOUT THE FOGHAT CONCERT ONCE I FIND IT]

“REJECTED” PROLOGUE & MIXTAPE

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Why REJECTED is a bad comic that nobody needs to read, but I love it anyways!

REJECTED is comprised of fragments from 4 different rejected comic book proposals circa 2003-04. In hindsight, they were all pretty crummy comics and deserved to be rejected. I had also made the mistake of basing characters on myself and my girlfriend at the time, so when I got dumped shortly thereafter the premise of the comix quickly became null and void.

So I’m 23 years old, moving into my brother’s basement, with a box full of reject comix pages, and no prospects of any kind. What do I do? I didn’t want all that work to go completely to waste, so I cut up all my rejected comic proposals into a single absurd story, and slapped on an embarrassingly ridiculous ending.

I then submitted my meta-reject comic to the Delaware Division of the Arts for some residency grant program they have, knowing I’d never get it, but just wanting to keep it pushing. The response I got back was amazing! Not only did I not get the award, but the rejection letter contained a lengthy, almost angry, denouncement of my work. Most rejection letters are very brief, “we regret to inform you… thanks and best wishes,” but this was something else entirely! The person who was tasked with judging my work didn’t just want to reject it, they wanted to destroy it. My favorite line, amidst all the name calling, and one that I enjoyed so much that I included it in future editions of the book, complained that it “never approaches the qualities of fiction found in even its most experimental forms.”  Admittedly this is certainly how delusions function, but I began to think maybe I was actually on to something after all…

So yes, against the better judgement of experts and professionals all over the country, this comic exists. It’s not particularly great, though perhaps worth a gander, in a rubber necking type of way, and however awkward it is in parts, I’m very proud there’s something instead of nothing.

(Also, following the lead of my fav early 2000’s comic writers, Chynna Clugston, Jim Mahfood, and Dan Robinson, the comic features soundtrack queues.)

So here’s the REJECTED MIXTAPE

P.S. The original edition of this comic, the one that was ripped to shreds by the Delaware Division of the Arts, was assembled at 1 AM in the Kinkos that used to be on 202 in Wilmington, DE, with the help of a nice lady called Samantha. She wandered into the store wearing a hospital gown and bracelet, presumably having had a rough evening. She asked what I was doing and if I needed any help. Samantha was under the impression that maybe she was helping a famous artist with what would be a hit book. I would have dissuaded her of this notion, but I suspected, in that moment, she needed to be a part of something much bigger and better than I could actually offer, so I let her think what she thought. She collated the pages as they were coming off the printer, it really was quite helpful! She asked for a signed copy of the comic as a parting gift, as if this exchange was in any way worth her while, but I hope the misunderstanding brought her some comfort and/or joy :)))