mercury cafe om 4

For a highly indifferent unaudience, I did play mine songies last wed.

.. I am systms
.. levl 1
.. this ladybug
.. cal it Home
.. e blu apratus

Some dice-derived haikus

:01:

You raise your arms! For
Thou art. Rorschach didn't th'old
pond foundation; th.

:02:

Age spat upon shall
be more of, Pouf. Rise, O my
snake, into police.

:03:

And copious file
of th greyhaired Sheriff's. But
th first kiss of brought.

:04:

Who shall determine
th remained on multitudes
learned your wine yardstick?

:05:

Hark down, dipping my
wings, I office of th Rich.
I don't like are like.

:06:

You'll! I was alone
in not have not even art
Thou ever. Th Church.

:07:

Double, Sherwood said
silent vamp Alla. There shall
be no gloss finish.

:08:

There. Th entrance hall
is for gas. Yet I worshipped
her tin discovered.

:09:

Prospero burned his
of death and th central roof
where Mandetta bought.

:10:

Where shall be of three
thousand two at th. They fled
away at. A no.

:11:

At last after art.
A Wonder Bread core of th
mind time, by wood its.

:12:

Of Plutonium
by th rejected this as
th Diamond th up.

wee ghouls

I dreamed that a bunch of nasty wee ghouls appeared every time I snapped a photograph. To th naked eye, they appeared not, but photgraphic film brought them quite to our attention. They looked not at all friendly or decent.

I look forward to meeting them again.

days of holi

Hello, lovlies,

Hey, th date registers as April 23rd (in slave time), so that must mean some sort of holiday comes about, what say? Happy some-sort-of-holiday!

(& to me personally, Happy VI of Swords / Knight of Swords Day. What windy fun!)

Yesterday, Earth Day came about, & I hope th weather wondered you as much as it wondered us Chicagoans in 80-degree wondermagickal danceabouts. On behalf of Mars, Saturn, & Mercury (th celestial bodies, not th Olympiads & Titans), I register offense at th undersight that all th other Solar planets don't get their own holidays! Earth Schmurth!

I should mention, though, that th holiest of planets, th sextantric dwarf planet of Eris, of course, gets a quite joyunctious day of holi:

September 13 (37 Bureaucracy): Mass of Planet Eris

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

~a

Gallery Cabaret OM 4 / X of Swords

Last night, George & I made th trek to Gallery Cabaret & I deposited a fourth performance of vast Nodally Nim tunery. 'Twas a nice time - every time I go to this place I enjoy it just a wee bit more than th last.

.. vejtbls u'v nevr herd of
.. ant lizard dragon man [lyricist: SMarshall] > wil we go out togethr?
.. Non-Violent Tae Kwon Do Troopers [lyricist: Caglar Juan Singletary; composer: David Fox; debut!]

I also played a frustratingly fruitless set on Milwaukee Ave in earlier day, but I don't have th set list to show you. I made exactly one quarter dollar, not counting th pity dollar George gave me.

FNORD

I've been continuing to study th Tarot; Tiffany gave me for our two-year anniversary a splendid little deck, & I've been systematically going through each card trying to apply th theme of two cards per day. 'Tis an experiment in th power of belief to change th world (my world, my perception of things, etc.). It's a lot like looking for synchronicities & omens & whatnot.

So it's interesting to note th way things correspond. I've noticed lots of relationships between my "fortune" & my actual day. For example, last night, some time after midnight, riding my bike home from Gallery Cabaret, I had a small but painful & embarassing accident with a couple of parked cars. (My groin will probably hurt for days!) I later checked to see what Tarot card I had assigned myself for that day (today), & indeed, it was th X of Swords often called Ruin. According to learntarot.com, th X of Swords represents:

BOTTOMING OUT
VICTIM MENTALITY
MARTYRDOM

This seems like an apt description of th feeling you get when smashing your genitals by absent-mindedly biking into parked cars, eh?

But th good news is that tonight I will experience th IV of Wands, characterized by:

CELEBRATION
FREEDOM
EXCITEMENT

{{{{{In my own defense, I must say that I have no intention of allowing myself to become "superstitious" in any way. I'm interested in studying belief & how it affects my perceived universe. These represent genuine experiments in meta-belief, & I'm willing to take them as far as they will go [hopefully] before I attain clinical madness.}}}}}

Nim at clarkbarryhalsted

I did a wee bit of busking at a new intersection yesterday. I played:

.. sience
.. lov song 6
.. wil we go out together? > ant lizard dragon man
.. prickle-prickle
.. slip on broken violence now [co-writer: NBorden]
.. th posm [lyricist: JCoolidge]
.. how to ferment th colon
.. e blu apratus
.. Maroon Dots
.. hail Discordia > vejtbls u'v nevr herd of

I stopped playing & started to pack up when two people (Stephanie & Carlos, I later found out) came by & said, "Hey, can you play another song? We left to get you a tip & now you've packed up!" They made my day! I gladly played 'how to ferment th colon,' when they decided they'd like a "nonsense song".

Carlos: Do you have any songs about chemistry?
Nim: No, but I have some songs about astronomy. I had th idea to write a song for each chemical element, but they I realized that would be something like 114 songs.
Stephanie: That's true. But if you stuck to organic chemistry, it wouldn't be quite so many. . . .

Etc.

What a delight!

Until then, though, I had found it dismal, & my total take added up to a mere (but typical) $3.50. Busking for money proves difficult.

FNORD

Jordan: [just a minute ago, while creating "butt-cards" as a parody of "Yu-gi-oh" cards] I know! The Three Buttkateers! . . . How do you spell "kateers"?
Nim: K-A-T-double-E-R-S.

mercury cafe om 3

Hello, friendlies. I hope you exist in chambers of numerous discordant delights on this day & others. Hi to you.

I played at Mercury Cafe on th eve of this day ('twas Discord 28, y'know). I had conversation & pleasantries whilst also drinking caucasian tea & reading about Egyption God(esse)s. Enjoyment ensued.

.. drone
.. Philosophy of the World [a cover of a song by th Shaggs - solo debut]
.. slip on broken violence now [co-written with N. Borden - solo debut]
.. glamorous & glassy-eyed
.. Deenmark

Grind OM 41

[[I think my numbering of Daily Grind shows has become effed up. Alright - I'll call this one number 41. I like th number 41.]]

FNORD

In my Troy-town spring-breaking I did attend th open mic of Daily Grindation at this prior hour to now of 8. Playings did I play: 3 daybyous. Th Good Mr Nick Borden joined in writing & performing th third 'un.

solo song daybyous
1 .. Rudolphus
2 .. glamorous & glassy-eyed

song with Nick Borden daybyou
3 .. slip on broken violence now [words&music by Nick & Nim]

I wrote (1) three days ago & (2) two days ago. Nick & I wrote (3) today (counting Thursday as today - technically yesterday). We assembled lyrics from poetic fragmentations (wee bits of iambic pentameter & th like) & created computertastic backing magicks in day. For performance, he played acoustic guitar & commanded th computing machine. I played mandolin & did singings.

'Twas nice to collaborate in quickness time. I enjoy th feeling of playing new things. I seek rebirthing from Chaotic Wombery.

~a

th Book of Bolton Reed

B: whats up?
N: Nothing. Drinking day-old coffee, listening to Lou Reed.
B: awesome
N: That sounds way cooler than it is. Or maybe it doesn't sound cool at all.
B: haha it sounds cooler than what i'm doing
N: Drinking Kool-Aid & listening to Michael Bolton?
B: haha I wish

Summa Discordia / Apocrypha Discordia

For my own satisfaction, I wish to review two marvelous post-Principia Discordian holybooks!

Principia Discordia

But to start with, I should mention Principia Discordia, or How I Found Goddess And What I Did To Her When I Found Her, th Magnum Opiate of Malacylpse th Younger - th first written utterances in modern times sent up to honor Goddess Eris, composed in th late 1950s & largely ignored in its time. This book contains th only canonical (if you can call it that) info about Discordianism. It introduces Eris worship through th authors' own psychedelic revelation at a bowling alley, pokes lots of fun at organized religion, provides suggestions for chaotic & ludicrous Discord, & even throws in some inspired philosophical bits. & all this appears amongs dozens of silly pictures, jokes & puns & Erisian Nonsense. It advocates Nonsense as Salvation, th Adoption of Holy Names, th use of a Discordian Calendar, th use of th Sacred Chao as a religious icon. It introduces some wacky fictional apostles, th Curse of Greyface, th Turkey Curse, tips for member initiation & th forming of independent cabals, & of course th Law of Fives (All things happen in Fives, or are divisible by or are multiples of Five, or are somehow directly or indirectly appropriate to 5). & all along it raises th paradoxical questions, "Is this Serious or just a Joke?"

Of course, th only appropriate answer to questions like that is Mu.

(After all, All affirmations are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false and in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense.)

Th Principia changed my life & lots of others as well.

Lately, Discordianism has found a new life on th internet, where scores of strange folk have developed th basic ideas in th Principia through email lists & websites & found it quite applicable to th 90s & th new millenium. In addition to dozens of websites, a number of "holy books" have cropped up, all "kopylefted" - published with permission granted for anybody to do with it whatever th heck ey wants - "all rights reversed".

So I bought a few newer holybooks online & have been gradually reading them. Some I found too serious (th Books of Eris), too boring (A Pocket Full of Chaos), or too pointless (Apotheosis Psycherotica). I enjoyed these all somewhat, but I didn't find them exceptional.

Summa Discordia

However, just yesterday, I found myself totally enthralled by th Summa Discordia by th Beatus Ffungo. It really feels like it picks up where th Principia leaves off, but of course, forty years later. Th Beatus writes in a very smart, readable & humorous style, walking th same line th Principia walks between seriousness & comedy. I laughed out loud several times & found myself quite inspired by th book's empowering message of nonconformity. Where th Principia talks about Nonsense as Salvation, th Summa talks about th Functionality of th Strange. Ffungo derides THEM & th System & reveals to us that th Defamation League is trying to pass cabbages off as humans. "Why they are doing this is uncertain, but keep in mind these are some of the same people who said you'd go to hell for spanking the monkey."

Try going to a mall, for instance. Sit in the Food Court and just watch people. You'll start seeing the difference [between humans & cabbages] pretty quickly, and, if you're in a typical mall, about 85% of the ambulatory things you see will secretly be cabbages. If you can, sneak a quick third-eye glance just to confirm it, but don't let them catch you.

Th Summa is a great short read, but, like all other post-Principia holybooks I've encountered, its layout isn't as fun as th Principia's. Don't let that get you down. I think you'll enjoy it.

Some other highlights: Discordian Haiku, an interview with a Famous Guy (Jesus), th Mentos Conspiracy, a thoughtful discussion of Discordian Holy Names, & a very brief introduction to Operation Mindfuck.

Apocrypha Discordia

This 100-page compilation of Discordian writings provides a great variety of new ideas. I don't find it as consistently brilliant as th Principia & th Summa, but I uncovered some real gold in there. It features some ideas for Discordian ceremonies & rituals (A Mouse Banishing Ritual, an Invocation of Eris, a ritual for invoking th five Discordian Elements - sweet, boom, pungent, prickle & orange, etc.). Some of that seems to take itself too seriously, but that's a risk you take with things like that.

I particularly enjoyed th elaboration on Operation Minkfuck, which they also call Guerrilla Surrealism. Th Apocrypha describes several "Jakes," which are something like Discordian magic(k) spells intended to randomly baffle innocent bystanders (& minions of Greyface/cabbages) & create ultimately positive Eristic Vibrations. An example: mailing someone hundreds of identical sheep-shaped erasers anonymously, one at a time, with a written number on each mailing counting down from 203. (Oddly, this section claims to originate in th Summa Discordia, but I don't have it in my copy. I think th editor of my version of th Summa may have missed some things in tranferring th book from th internet to print.)

Th Apocrypha contains lots of unrelated ideas, like rules for Discordian card games, short silly parables, a luck spell, an intro to Discordian Magick, some alchemy, some interviews with fictional characters, & a description of a Discordian Tarot deck (no pics). A low point, in my opinion: some uninspired rants that don't necessarily reflect th positive spirit of Discordianism.

There's so much stuff in th Apocrypha that anyone interested in things Discordia will surely find something pleasant & amusing.

FNORD

FYI: All of these books can be found at Oh My Eris Dot Com, plus several other holybooks that I haven't gotten yet. In fact, there are at least a half dozen more listed there now than th last time I peeked. I imagine there are a few more gems & a few more bores. I'll let you know when & if I come across another of th former.

tiffoon day & morrow fly

Tiffany played her hour-long graduate bassoon recital this day (technically yesterday), April 1, which thus rocked this year for three good reasons. I proclaim myself thirsty for a glass of water.

Tiffany played good excellent.
I enjoyed it way lots.
Bassoons exude ultimo sexiness.

I fly on th aeroplane in th morrow (technically th today) & will dance about in Troy-town for a few days. I look forward to a silly spring breakus with localities & whatnots. Let's have magical tumblings & togethertastic atrocious monsters of id.