Flipside ticket for sale
Current mood: bummed
Category: Travel and Places

Everything has conspired to prevent me from going or even wanting to this year. I'm arguably the most capable DJ in N. Texas for this year's theme, Dr. Tiki's Combustible Medicine Show, but don't know anyone actually playing with the theme.

So buy my ticket if you want to attend.

Also, if anyone is interested in conspiring on a theme camp for next year, please let me know. I helped to found the Shrine of the Peacock Angel two years ago, thinking it could be a Flipside tradition since it was received so warmly, but it has changed its name twice since then and no longer bears any resemblance to what we started.

9:00 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Trinity River Audubon Center
Current mood: handsome
Category: Travel and Places

Yesterday I was given a personal tour of the construction where the new Trinity River Audubon Center will be. It's about 8 miles from where I live in East Dallas, on Loop 12, a few blocks from where it hits Jim Miller Road.

First of all, the area is gorgeous. Anyone who thinks that Dallas has no natural beauty needs to go there when it opens in August. There will be an abundance of hiking trails, rentable canoes, educational programs and even event rooms. It's designed to look like a bird from the air, in case any ancient astronauts cruise by, and it's made out of recycled plastic, green concrete and wood. There will be a rain-capture system to water the grounds and the facility is designed for low environmental impact. The plastic has been used for trail bridges that cross the wetlands to a place where you can hike without getting muddy. You will also be able to rent canoes there to paddle up and down the river. Over 100 kinds of birds have been spotted there, in addition to area widlife, including bobcats and even signs of deer in the Great Trinity Forest (Dallas has the largest ubran hardwood forest in the nation).

Best of all, this was a toxic clean-up site that, a few decades ago, hosted an 18 month tire-fire!

The facility is said to be unique in Texas. Another cool feature will be a diorama that floods with real water in order to show how historical floods impacted the area. Look forward to seeing this amazing place in a few months!

8:52 AM - 6 Comments - 9 Kudos - Add Comment

Ethics
Current mood: cantankerous
Category: Friends

Periodically, I like to touch on the subject of ethics here. Most people that I know do not necessarily subscribe to traditional ethics generated by various monotheistic traditions, although many do embrace a modified form of the "golden rule" which predates Christianity and, summed up simply, is to treat others as you would desire to be treated. Needless to say, this requires a certain amount of empathy toward one's friends and associates, since treating others as they would like to be treated is even better and acknowledges diversity of ethical systems and personalities.

I present this because occasionally I run across people who seem ethically solipsistic or even sociopathic, something that can become problematic in friendships and group endeavors. Some, who either lack ethics or make them up as they go along, don't consider what consequences their actions have on their friends, family or associates.

But there are even ethical systems created or embraced by outlaws, such as the legendary Robin Hood's redistribution of wealth and defense of the commons. Another follows.

There is a wonderful ethical system popularized by William S. Burroughs and advocated specifically toward outsiders, honorable outlaws and such. It is the Johnson Family code. In the interest of time, I'm reprinting another's excellent summary of this code of hobos, gypsies, tramps and thieves. It's perhaps a bit too hyperlinked but it hits the mark. Are you a Johnson?

Consider:

http://www.everything2.net/e2node/The%2520Johnson%2520Family

A term that appears regularly in the later works of William S. Burroughs. The Johnson Family is a late 19th century expression referring to 'honourable' members of the American underclass - typically hobos and small-time criminals such as petty thieves. Johnsons may defy the laws and conventions of society, but adhere to an implicit code of conduct that is essentially laissez faire. To quote Burroughs:

In this world of shabby rooming houses, furtive gray figures in dark suits, hop joints and chili parlors the Johnson Family took shape as a code of conduct. To say someone is a Johnson means he keeps his word and honours his obligations. He's a good man to have on your team. He is not a malicious, snooping, interfering self-righteous trouble making person. - The Place of Dead Roads (1983)

The Place of Dead Roads, Burroughs 'frontier' novel (the second in his Western Lands trilogy), was originally titled The Johnson Family, and explores the notion and nature of the Johnson (waggish critics might suggest at this point that the whole body of Burroughs' work is somewhat Johnson-obsessed). He aligns the Johnson Family against the authoritarian and dishonest, their natural enemies - in their ultimate form, the rulers of the planet.

How to be a Johnson

To paraphrase a good envelope of mine, you may already be a Johnson! The situation is: via the doctrine of live and let live, Johnsons cooperate, and their hidden, intangible - and so unbreakable - society is founded on that cooperation. It is not necessary for the Johnson Family to meet once a month at Holiday Inn to discuss their agenda and schedule. Johnsons know what needs to be done and they will do it when the time comes. An unjust law will not deter a Johnson. The Nova Police will not deter a Johnson. The correct path of action is clear; even those who block the path know it is correct. Think: What Would Johnsons Do? Asks Burroughs, "Which side are you on?"

I remember a friend of mine asked someone to send him a cake of hash from France. Well the asshole put it into a cheap envelope with no wrapping and it cut through the envelope. But some Johnson had put it back in and sealed the envelope with tape. - The Johnson Family (1980)

Their House is a Museum

In the short essay The Johnson Family, collected in The Adding Machine, Burroughs recalls that he first encountered the term as a boy in 1924, in the pages of You Can't Win by Jack Black. You Can't Win is the picaresque autobiography of a small-time thief and opium addict who encounters the spirit of Our Favourite Family while riding the rails. Of matters etymological, Black offers the following suggestion: "The bums called themselves 'Johnsons' probably because they're so numerous". This explanation, I fear, will have to suffice until a more informed scholar steps forth.

Agents Johnson

So please, consider a career as a Johnson. You don't have to tell anyone, there's no uniform (and certainly no logo), and the hours are great. We can't afford to pay you much anything in cash, but all the karma you generate is yours to keep and enjoy.

Synchronicity strikes, strikes: during the noding of this node, the backgrounded TV news suddenly been discussing a literal Johnson family involved in the politics of Liberia.

Contact our representatives:

• Burroughs, William S. The Place of Dead Roads. London: John Calder, 1984.
• Burroughs, William S. The Adding Machine: Collected Essays. London: John Calder, 1985
• Burroughs, William S. From Beginning to End With William Burroughs http://edition.cnn.com/books/beginnings/9812/word.virus/index.html. Accessed 7/8/03.
• Black, Jack. You Can't Win. Nabat/AK Press, 2000.
• "El Hombre". Books We've Read. http://www.lowcrats.com/Reviews/Books/youcantwin/cantwin.htm. Accessed 7/8/03

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Fists of Fun!
Current mood: understimulated
Category: Music

The Hieronymous Superfly Muxtape can be heard here:

http://hieronymoussuperfly.muxtape.com/

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Life
Current mood: artistic
Category: Life

I have been busier than usual lately. Weekend before last, Luz and I enjoyed spinning 15 minute sets at Trainwreck and plugging said event the night before on the Cyberina Flux show, where we were quite hospitably received and allowed to do mini-sets. So at 2:30 a.m. I was able to send "Ramses II is Dead My Love" out into the Dallas aether along with the Dutch Treats' cover of the BeeGees "I Started a Joke" and the Squirrels' cover of Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage." Not that anyone cares, but DJs are always posting set lists.

The garden is exploding with color (mostly the color green) along with my sinuses. Allergies are killing me. Nevertheless, I planted a hazelnut tree and two hemlock trees in the garden. I have wanted a hazelnut for many years, ever since reading the Grimm telling of Cinderella, in which the magical virtues of the hazel tree are reviewed. It's also the wood of choice for dowsing rods. I rescued a couple of yuccas from the field behind my Mom's house. They were about to be washed into the creek by erosion.

Luz has been in Italy and is just a bit more than halfway through her tour of Venice, Rome and Florence.

Last Saturday night, I had a few folks over for a movie festival, the highlight of which was a midnight showing of the "peyote western" Renegade, based on a comic book by french artist Moebius, in the far back yard. It was an incredibly beautiful night with a gentle breeze and scalloped clouds passing through moonlight. Jason brought the projector. There was a nice fire. Christy made a late-night run so that we could all make S'mores. Even the next-door neighbor, Mike, came over to watch the movie. My friend James had come up from Houston for the weekend and we finished our visit by seeing Negativland, as previously mentioned.

I am getting ready for the May 10 Moroccan Mad Hatter Feast and Party at Cafe Marrakesh. Details are in the Reality Abatement Bureau blog. This is for friends only, so please show up and support our weird endeavor!

6:50 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Negativland’s "It’s All in Your Head" Tour reviewed
Current mood: disappointed
Category: Religion and Philosophy

...at my primary blog:

http://carnivalobscura.blogspot.com/

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Just Too Much Hieronymous Superfly
Current mood: tested
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

Tomorrow night on KNON, sometime after midnight, Luz (DJ Sopapilla) and I will be on the radio with Sean Sparks and a couple of other Trainwreck DJs, making merry and spinning the wyrd. If any night-owl can tape this, I will offer some tempting media trade  for a copy.

If this isn’t enough, come out to The Green Elephant on Saturday night to hear our 15 minutes of Trainwreckery. I hope to have a super-intelligent monkey who has been taught to "scratch" with me.

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Harry Smith: American Magus
Current mood: bummed
Category: Writing and Poetry

This is a last ditch effort. Over the last couple of years, I loaned out my copy of the above-named book. I no longer remember to whom.

I am writing a serial essay on the roots of punk rock in my non-Myspace blog and would like to do an installment on Harry Smith. If I loaned this book to you, could you please return it. It’s irreplaceable.

Thanks!

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The Esoteric Rocketman
Current mood: crazy
Category: Writing and Poetry

Now up on my blog at:

http://carnivalobscura.blogspot.com/

8:48 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Goodbye, Dallas!
Current mood: adventurous
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

It is with more than a little excitement that I have accepted a new position on the other side of the world. Thanks to my writings and research on Bougainville, one of the North Solomon Islands where my father fought in WWII, I was asked to submit my resume to the Tourism Commission there about six months ago. I did this on an impulse and forgot all about it until yesterday when I received a very handsome offer over the phone which will include the use of a house very close to the beach for a year, until I can get settled. 

I won’t be leaving for several months and there is so much to do. I must either put my house on the market or lease it as a rental property, which would require outlays for management and maintenance If anyone is interested in it, please let me know. . I will be visiting my new home for a week in July and settling there in the Fall. Luz and I are putting out feelers to see if we can find a job for her there.

I will miss all of you and hope you will wish me the best of luck!  

Currently listening : Ritual of the Savage/The Passions (With Bas Sheva) By Les Baxter Release date: 03 July, 2006

6:48 AM - 8 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

Trainwreck!
Current mood: aroused
Category: Music

I’m delighted to have made the line-up of Trainwreck. Mark your calendar for April 12, 2008 at The Green Elephant. Each participant gets 15 minutes to make their mark on your ears & brain. I promise 15 minutes of utter musical/ sonic mayhem. DJ Sopapilla (aka Luz) will also be taking a slot among the journeymen, cutting her chops (chopping her cuts?) and bringing some juicy selections.

All told:

Sarah "Stylez"
Hieronymous Superfly
Dazee-Cutter
Transplant
DJ "You know that problem you had? I fixed it."

"
DJ COWBELL
DJ Sopapilla
Monarch
Henrij vs Nekstone
Jello Acidtone
Mist
Mike Roos
Martin Esco
Xian
The Nudist Buddhist

Currently reading : Pranks 2 By V. Vale Release date: 25 October, 2006

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Save Sloppyworld!
Current mood: busy
Category: Parties and Nightlife

Over the years, John Freeman, gentleman genius, has done a lot to keep things interesting wherever he may be. Since the opening of Sloppyworld, for example, Freeman has saved certain Dallasites a lot of gas and hassle by booking bands that would otherwise have played in Denton or skipped our area entirely. Think about this. How much would you have paid to fuel up for however many Denton-trips you would have made if Sloppyworld had never existed.

Got a figure in your mind?

Okay, PLEASE go now to http://www.sloppyworld.com/ (or the Sloppyworld profile here) and give that money- via Paypal- to John to help him (and Sloppyworld) survive the bureaucratic gauntlet he’s had to run. Don’t be the smug asshole who second-guesses the cause of the problems. Be the person who makes a difference.

Why bother? Because Sloppyworld, with its Spartan warehouse party aesthetic and shrewd bookings, may be the greatest DIY venue to hit Dallas since the Slipped Disc. It’s a noble experiment and one that deserves to succeed despite the egregious obstacle course John has had to run. It’s fate is now in your hands.

Even if you are strapped for cash, copy this and repost it as a bulletin or blog (or write your own damn appeal). The point is, do something.

Stop reading. Go now. You’ll feel better about yourself once you have made this investment in the future.

http://www.sloppyworld.com/

Currently reading : Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons By John Carter Release date: 10 March, 2005

6:49 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Dallas is finally, officially cool
Current mood: irritated
Category: Music

There are at least a couple of schools of thought about publicity. One goes like this: there is no such thing as bad publicity. I think that's from Barnum. On the other hand, we have Napoleon's idea that "the truth isn't half so important as what people believe to be true."

http://music.dallasobserver.com/2008-02-28/music/melodica-festival-self-indulgent-but-still-positive-for-dallas/

I read a bulletin this morning asking everyone to write a letter to the Dallas Observer responding to the above article by Pete Freedman. And yes, it's a lopsided slam piece. It sucks. Much of what was said just shouldn't have been. But as I read it, I began to understand what brought out the worst in this writer since it was the very thing that brought out the worst in me not so long ago.

Reading this review, you will find an important lesson in how to squander good will. I went out my way to say kind things about Mwanza blog-before-last, despite the fact that the last time I shared a gig with the guy, his greeting was,"What are you doing here?" Charming.

And now, sadly, what should have been about the MUSIC is once again about smug personalities. Mwanza and Pete Freedman have squared off in the Dallas egoic equivalent of  the War of the Gargantuas.

As a sometimes-hated master of the inflammatory letter, I had my response to this article half-written in my head because, as I stated a few days ago, I had an incredible time at Melodica. Then I got to this:

"I did the impossible," he [Mwanza] says. "I made Dallas cool."

Ugh.

And so these two bring out the worst in each other and the people who lose are music-lovers. Freedman writes with a condescending smugness that seems to match the tone set by Mwanza, calling the event, which was attended by "nose-in-the-air hipsters," "inaccessible, self-indulgent and pretty boring." And ultimately this cacaphony of ax-grinding eclipses the music. Big egos are in play.

Ugh.

 Mwanza seems to vociferously detest Dallas, has been threatening to leave for years, and as the article relates, this is his ""goodbye gift to Dallas." Since he has been leaving Dallas for several years, it's hard to know what to make of this or, if he ever does depart, why it can't be a legacy to be handed over to an abundance of able hands. On this topic, I find myself in reluctant agreement with the Observer.

I have, on more than a few occasions, heard Mwanza talking about the importance of "supporting the scene," by which he seems to mean his scene. There are dozens of interesting groups and subcultures here who have, let's be honest, already made Dallas "cool" to the discerning.

It's hard to have much sympathy for the guy who taunts the gorilla at the zoo and then gets mauled. Mwanza, for all his admitted talents and organizational abilities, just doesn't seem to know when to shut up. And so hack-writers, who probably would have patted him on the back otherwise, go into attack mode. It's just too hard for him to resist the grand gesture or the implicit fuck you. And it's hard for me to feel much sympathy.

So sure, here's my angry letter. My heroes are those who are quietly, humbly making interesting things happen in Dallas for their own sake. I admire Mwanza for the accomplishment and hard work that went into Melodica, but am mystified by how he seems to consistently sabotage his own endeavors. And I've got no use for Pete Freedman, who used his position to vent his own pomposity and undermine an event at which everyone but the fucking critic had a magical time.

Who wins when the gargantuas of Big Ego battle?

Dallas doesn't, for sure.

Currently listening : Get Over Yourself By Popstars Release date: 13 March, 2001

6:19 AM - 0 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Family
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Life

Next week the impossible may occur. All of the members of my family will be getting together for the first time in several years.

Like any other family, mine has its share of melodrama and personality conflicts. My siblings (two older sisters) and I are a weird, mixed brood. We each march to the beat of our respective different drummer and we don't always understand each other fully. Largely, very different things make each of us happy. It can be fun and exciting or awful and exasperating, but that's family, right? When I reached my teenage years, I found myself the brunt of a lot of bizarre sibling rivalry as my sisters tag-teamed to try to convince our mother that I was a Satanist, a victim of some psychobabble shit called "the Peter Pan Syndrome," someone that "no woman in her right mind would marry" (rather prophetic, I must admit) and in possession of a library filled with dangerous ideas (which was and is true, though it failed to address my critical thinking skills in assessing such ideas). Thankfully, Mom was always even-handed in listening to my rebuttals. In retrospect, these rites of familial passage that so infuriated me at the time now seem pretty funny to me. I love both of my sisters, though we have all been at each other's throats, so to speak.

My family, both paternal and maternal, is largely comprised of eccentrics, some who were aware of the fact and some who weren't. The tendency to alchemy must be in my genes. My great grandfathers included a blacksmith/ 32nd degree Mason on Mom's side and a vinter/ brewer plus a silversmith on Dad's side.  One of the patriarchs on Mom's side is noted, in the archives, as "not being Christian." As I have related before, I am related to Mayor Underwood of ye old Rockwall, Texas, and his brother, "Goose," who was afflicted with head trauma and adopted by the good people of that town as the village idiot. I could go on with a familial rogue's gallery of brawlers, drinkers, raconteurs, sex-machines and so on, but I suspect every family has its share.

The occasion for our reunion is Mom's 82nd birthday, which she seems to believe will be her last. She has been preparing for this event for over a month with a periodic vitality that belies her claims to imminent mortality. She has, to her credit, seemingly made her peace with the world and its inhabitants. This hardly surprises me since she long ago instilled in me a sense of the spirituality of gardening and the green world along with the courage and rewards of individuality, among many other lessons. From listening to my late father's stories of the South Pacific in WWII, I inherited a lasting fascination with that area that the French once thought of as "the earthly paradise" and a goofy sense of humor. He was later a traveling salesman who filled our house (and my room) with strange wonders from the road: a player piano with 240 piano rolls, an antique wooden chicken coop, a stuffed baby alligator, the odd periodic puppy, a brass cash register, a dinner triangle from a working ranch and so on.

Honestly, I am happy to be a part of an interesting though periodically volatile family. It makes life interesting. While I hope that this will not be my Mom's last stand, it may very well be the last time that our entire family gathers simultaneously. When my Mom passes, I doubt that the center will hold without the matriarch. 

As I grow older, I understand that times like this escape us before we realize that things have changed forever. Because of this, I am intending to make the most of this unique event. I feel bittersweet and have even succumbed to nostalgia. Whatever next week brings, the gathering will be very special to me, something I can hold in my heart for years to come. As the river flows on and time passes, I know that soon things will never be this way again.

Every moment, every situation is unique in our lifetimes, arriving with mad clatter but departing silently, inevitably until even the traces of memory are consigned to dust.    

Currently listening : We Are Family By Sister Sledge Release date: 20 June, 1995

6:53 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment