Friday, October 20, 2006

New SubGenius Book is Available; Multimedia Online Course in SubGenius runs November - January

Two big hearty chunks of news: the new SubGenius book is in stores and our catalog, and Maybe Logic University is offering a media-soaked online course in SubGenius History and How to Run Your Own Cult. Also, our book Revelation X is being reprinted, and yours truly has a MySpace page now.

ONLINE LESSONS IN SUBGENIUSDOM via Maybe Logic Academy

In some ways this course is yet another book, but not with just new text and photos. It also features hours of downloadable audio and video, exclusive to this course. And it has YOUR PARTICIPATION -- if you so choose -- since it also involves chat-room sessions, online forums, etc. By the end of the course, not only will you possess an exclusive stash of inside-SubGenius goodies, but you'll have developed YOUR OWN ORIGINAL CULT RELIGION.

We had already been planning a big "History of the SubGenius" book/DVD project, when Maybe Logic University approached us about doing this class online. This is the same group behind the excellent RAW film, Maybe Logic. They have already run successful courses under instructors like Robert Anton Wilson, Douglas Rushkoff, Antero Alli, R.U. Sirius, Erik Davis, David Jay Brown, Luke Rhinehart, Starhawk and others.

The inexpensive course will run 8 weeks, from November 20 to January 21 (with a holiday break). There is a good chance that this is a one-time opportunity that won't be repeated. There will be massive amounts of rare SubGenius text, comics, devival audio, radio clips, backstage historical material, photos and graphics that WON'T be on SubSITE or our binaries newsgroups.

This is a one-of-a-kind, hands-on, participatory MUST for the hard-core SubGenius, or the investigator who has always wondered just what's REALLY been going on in this Church.

The detailed course overview can be seen here:
http://www.maybelogic.org/stangcrs.htm

To enroll (or buy the Maybe Logic DVD): http://www.maybelogic.org/enroll.htm



THE SUBGENIUS PSYCHLOPAEDIA OF SLACK -- THE BOBLIOGRAPHON


NYES! It's now available! A THIRD SUBGENIUS TESTAMENT! The NEW encyclopedia of abnormality -- 240 pages of cornea-melting illustrations and newly-released SubGenius writings that will SHOCK those who thought that surely all of everything must be contained within the previous books. This book goes where THE BOOK OF THE SUBGENIUS and REVELATION X could not. Contains all-new revelations re: the Mystery of X-Day; Secrets of Connie Dobbs; Avoiding Subicide; Slack Magic; SubGenius Kooks; "Bob's" Dark Secrets; a Tour of Dobbstown; The Yacatizma vs. Yacatisma; The Earth-Mars Switch and infinitely more!

THE BOBLIOGRAPHON has a much different look from the first two holy Bobles, and an even broader range of contributors, because it's our first book since "Bob" took over the Internet in 1995. Hence the illustrations tend to be richly detailed 3D computer graphics by the likes of LeMur, IMBJR and Heart Ignition. Writers include Rev. Ivan Stang, Dr. Philo Drummond, Nenslo, Rev. Dr. Onan Canobite, Dr. G.G. Gordon, Dr. Hal, Rev. Susie the Floozy, and 45 other Doktors and NunSnakes. From mighty Thunder’s Mouth Press/Avalon. Size: 7" x 9" Weight: 13 oz.

You can buy it in most bookstores, online via Amazon.com, Powells (http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-1560259396-0) and others, or you can buy it AUTOGRAPHED directly from Bulldada Time Control Labs and yours truly:
http://www.subgenius.com/scatalog/books.htm



REVELATION X reprint out in January

Thunder's Mouth Press has enjoyed such robust pre-sales for THE BOBLIOGRAPHON that they are reprinting our Second Testament, REVELATION X, and are rushing to have it out before the end of this year. (I have already finished revising the address and catalog info, which was a HEROIC CHORE, let me tell you!) Many SubGenii, myself included, consider this the best of our first four books, and that may explain why it was taken out of print after truncated Conspiracy distribution in 1994. The book was 2 years in the making, and it shows. Interestingly, the revised new edition is ALREADY for sale, from that unique avant-garde vendor of only the most bizarre and rare items -- Wal-Mart!
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5167991



WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?

Because it was the only way to communicate with my nieces and nephews, I took the MySpace plunge. YIKES! It's insidious! I had to rant about it -- but on alt.slack, not on MySpace: http://tinyurl.com/y53aev

I have to admit I have enjoyed the Helle out of many of my fellow SubGeniuses' pimp-jobs on their own MySpace pages, which you can access via mine. Other strange bands of weirdoes such as Negativland, The Amino Acids, Little Fyodor, DEVO etc. also bleed over into it.
Rev. Ivan Stang MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ivanstang

Note: there is also a non-official "Church of the SubGenius" MySpace site, evidently set up by someone who doesn't know how to spell "SubGenius"… or even "Bob"!



HALLOWEEN
… the one holiday during which the SubGeniuses DON'T wear their disguises! We have some pages of graphics and photos showing the alt.binaries.slack and SubGenius Foundation HQ Halloweens of the past. Make sure you check out ALL the links. SubG MaskMaster St. Joe Riley's costume shop is one of them.

http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/pics11/HALLOWEEN/index.html



NEWS OF REV. MAGDALEN AND HER CHILD

We don't have any good news yet. The new judge is supposed to hand down a decision any week now. Meanwhile the child is still kept from his mom.

NEWS OF POPE ROBERT ANTON WILSON

He got lots of donations, and the financial crisis is postponed for a couple of months. His health unfortunately is not especially improved.

REMEMBER - NO "BOB," NO SLACK. KNOW "BOB," KNOW SLACK.
Let There Then Be Slack

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Time to Repay RAWilson for All the Slack

Pope Bob (Robert Anton Wilson) loaned us SubGeniuses a LOT!

Most of what he loaned us were ideas. We took those ideas and ran with them. We did all KINDS of things using his ideas. We started every manner of experiment, inspired by his experiments. Many of those experiments PAID OFF.

I have said many times to interviewers that were it not for Robert Anton Wilson (and the late great Robert Shea, who co-wrote Illuminatus), there would be no Church of the SubGenius.

Although Pope Bob was tough enough to beat childhood polio in his youth, now that he is old, it has returned to harass him. He busted his ass his whole life, writing, lecturing, and selling books -- and if you think those jobs are EASY, try it yourself. He shared part of his mighty brain with the world, supported his family, and even survived the loss of a child and his wife without GIVING UP. But nothing lasts forever, and now it's down to the wire.

Princess Wei, Pater Nostril and I got to hang out with Pope Bob a couple of times in recent years, at Winterstar. The polio had already put him in a wheelchair, and it must have been hurting all the time, but Bob was as cheerful and snappy as I'd seen him in the '80s and the '90s, and he delivered one of the most brilliant talks I've ever seen at an A.C.E. event. He was still writing books (and plugging SubGenius!) and doing everything he could physically and financially to pull his own weight.

I "saw" him more recently in the excellent film, Maybe Logic. It was agonizing to watch Pope Bob demonstrating that he can still walk, with effort, because the polio had obviously gotten much worse. But he was STILL TRYING TO WALK and STILL WORKING!

Do you imagine that writers like Wilson make a lot of money? Well, if he was the kind of writer whose books are in airports with embossed covers showing blurbs like "ANOTHER BEST SELLING CORPORATE THRILLER," then you might be right.

However, Robert Anton Wilson didn't write the kind of books that Hollywood likes to make movies of. He wrote the kinds of books that weird individuals make their very LIVES from.

Earlier this year -- when finally he could no longer sit at a machine and type all day -- rather than asking for charity, he started SELLING OFF HIS OLD STUFF. Autographing and selling all the spares of his books. Now even those are gone, and there's not much he can do but hope that people remember what they owe him.

I REMEMBER!

Any donations can be made to Bob directly to the Paypal account olgaceline@gmail.com.
You can also send a check payable to Robert Anton Wilson to
Dennis Berry c/o Futique Trust
P.O. Box 3561
Santa Cruz, CA 95063.

I am emptying the SubGenius paypal account into his paypal account, and we are mailing monthly $50 checks as suggested.

Here is another testimonial and some more info, from Douglas Rushkoff:

http://tinyurl.com/lb3mm

Here's a good wiki team write-up on RAW:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson

RAW's main website:
http://www.rawilson.com/main.shtml

Other top RAW info site: http://www.maybelogic.com/

SubGeniuses, you helped out Rev. Magdalen when the Conspiracy took her child away. (Incidentally, the child is still away (!) and she still has huge legal bills.) You helped her out even though many of you never met her or her child. You took our word for it that the situation was dire and that the call for help was justified. Well, you may not have ever met Robert Anton Wilson… you MIGHT not even have read any of his books… but if you're a SubGenius, he has sure as hell helped you out. He has given you Slack, BIG TIME.

Now, you can give him Slack at a time when he REALLY NEEDS IT. He will almost certainly never need your help this way again. The kind of Slack he most immediately needs is the peace of mind of knowing he can fucking DIE IN PEACE, at home, in bed, and not in the middle of a HOUSEHOLD MOVE watching the loss of his home and last possessions.

If you love "Bob," then you will send money to Bob. For without Bob, we would never even have heard of "Bob."

PRAISE BOB!