Thursday, December 02, 2010

Not for Pinks or the Unsaved: SUBGENIUS MEMBERS-ONLY FORUM: SCRUBGENIUS

There is now a Members-only Internet forum for True SubGenii on Google Groups, called ScrubGenius.

For decades -- since 1986 in fact -- alt.slack on Usenet was the main SubGenius forum. Unfortunately, because it was unmoderated, it acted also as a kind of "kook flypaper," and in recent years it began to draw so many -- er, how to put this? Our formerly great newsgroup is now about 90% what we might call unbelievers, Pink Boys, the Differently Saned, unfunny but overactive Bobbies, obsessive spurned fanboys, occultist ninnies who claim they're Dobbs or God, racist psychos and other "Bob"less paranoid PinKooks. Most of the "Rev. Ivan Stangs" that post there are not the real one, for instance, and (sorry to disappoint you) none of the so-called "Bobs" there are the One True J. R. "Bob" Dobbs.

Thousands of SubGenii are now using Facebook, initially meeting via the two official pages, CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS and SUBGENIUS FOUNDATION.

ALT.SLACK REPLACEMENT:

Our friend Rev. Tater Gumfries started SCRUBGENIUS, a new Members Only forum on Google Groups. Any DUES-PAYING $30 SubGenius minister can join, but anybody can be thrown out too. So, for the finest in kookery and kook-bashing, by all means see good old alt.slack. But for the unsullied SubGenius news, gossip and interaction, try:

http://groups.google.com/group/scrubgenius

You will have to join Google Groups -- most people probably already have -- which costs nothing, and you will then apply to join ScrubGenius. You must give your "human name" -- the one you first ordered your Membership under -- or otherwise give us something to look up in our records, like a physical or email address that we would have from your order.

ScrubGenius is where you'll find chatty posts, caustic humor, inner-church secrets and old-school rants by such long-time SubGenii as Rev. Stang, Rev. Susie the Floozie, Dr. Legume etc.

Monday, November 01, 2010

An Urgent Suggestion - VOTE (and some news)

On behalf of myself and no one else, I urge my fellow U.S.A. citizens to heed the message of last night's Hour of Slack show, and get out and vote on Tuesday. Sure, the System's broken, blah blah woof woof, but just listen to the careful reasoning (and readings from the SubGenius-Only forum, ScrubGenius) and give it some thought. But do it before Tuesday night.

Hour of Slack #1281 -- Live: Halloween Monster / November Election Special

"After some choice clips from past shows and collages concerning the world of monsters and politics, we continue to explore that theme, live in the studio, with Lonesome Cowboy Dave, Princess Wei 'R.' Doe, and Rev. Ivan Stang on blabberlips. We try not to get too clearly or overtly political on Hour of Slack, but in this particular episode, Rev. Stang lets out some steam that he has evidently been holding in for some time. Learn why The Monsters Are Coming to Maple Street and how to stop them."

On SubSITE: 2010 NYC Devival Reports, Photos, Audio of the Whole Show

"X-DAY IN WONDERLAND"

That's what Princess Wei called this devival, because it really was like a good chunk of X-Day Drill at its best, only indoors. From my point of view it was one of the best devivals ever, on all counts. Turnout was great, venue was great, performances were great, sales were great, and best of all, unlike X-Day, I wasn't in charge. All I HAD to do was rant and perform a wedding!

You can hear/download the whole thing from the above-linked page. If you want you can also read an unreasonably detailed photo report by Princess Wei and myself about the quaintliness and quaintitudes we encountered on our road trip across Pennsylvania to and from the devival.

CULT CREATION & MANAGEMENT

And

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS

(scroll down to the SubGenius course by Stang)

The online class is in its fourth year at Maybe Logic Academy. We started on Oct. 25, but it lasts 6 weeks and all of the materials -- 3 data-DVDs worth of video, audio and documents (like all the STARK FISTS) from the early days of the Church until now -- are available the whole time. We're really just starting, and if you join now you won't have missed anything. Even the daily live chats are archived.

Nov. 13 -- Detroit Devival

With THE AMINO ACIDS, Rev. Ivan Stang, much more.

9 pm at Old Miami, 3930 Cass Ave., Detroit, MI

Facebook Page

Thursday, September 16, 2010

TWO MAJOR SUBGENIUS EVENTS IN OCTOBER: NYC DEVIVAL Oct. 9 and MAYBE LOGIC ACADEMY'S 6-WEEK ONLINE SUBGENIUS CLASS - OCT. 25 - DEC.12

One requires you to go to New York City; the other lets you download hundreds of hours of audio, video and graphics while ensconced at home.


You are more likely to pick up an attractive stranger at the NYC event. Therefore, we urge you to do BOTH.


The powerful Go F--- Yourself Clench of NYC is bringing top SubGenius preachers and bands, and Dobbs only knows what else, to the fabulous Wonderland in Astoria, to entertain you to within an inch of your life. Preachers include Rev. Ivan Stang, Rev. Susie the Floozie, Rev. Bleepo Abernathy, Priestess Pisces, Pope David Black, and Sinphaltimus Exmortis. Music will be by Rev. Phat Man Dee, The Duke of Uke, Fat Free, DJ2B, and Lon DuQuette. It's like an X-Day Drill -- only indoors! "HARD CORE SLACK IN THE GREATEST METROPOLITAN HELLHOLE KNOWN TO MAN! SEE IT before it gets BLOWN OFF THE MAP!" -- Rev. Back It On Up, Hostess


This blasphemous, alcohol-soaked SubGenius event is practically within spitting distance of the sacred "Ground Zero"!


Directions and many more details are on the subgenius.com Events Page:

http://www.subgenius.com/newdevivals.html


(There you can also learn about the Nov. 13 Devival in Detroit and an event in Little Rock, Nov. 20… also, links to photo and video reports on the recent DEVOtional and other Cleveland events, 13X-Day Drill and Starwood 30.)


Updates to everything can always be found at the relatively new OFFICIAL SUBGENIUS FACEBOOK PAGE

***********

New Improved SubGenius Online Course at Maybe Logic Academy - starts Oct. 25, Bigger Than Ever


http://www.maybelogic.org/courses.htm

(scroll down)


To ENROLL:

http://www.maybelogic.org/enroll.htm


This online course offers two very different and distinct parts, running simultaneously for 6 weeks.

CULT CREATION AND MANAGEMENT is the interactive, participatory part, with several live chatrooms sessions each week. Students who want to create their own cults --- either funny or serious, or both -- work with Rev. Stang and each other to develop their ideas and bring them to life in the form of websites, publications, etc., just as The Church of the SubGenius did in its early days. By the end of the 6 weeks, industrious students will have developed their own proto-cult, ready for the market.


THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS is a truly huge stash of downloadable multimedia, including practically everything created by The SubGenius Foundation and friends besides the three main SubGenius books that are still in print.


It includes a book's worth of brand new text, a DVD's worth of MP3 audio, another DVD's worth of AVI videos, and yet a third DVD's worth of graphics -- most of it available ONLY through this course.

This course has been running annually since 2006, and in that time Rev. Stang has scanned practically every page of every important Church publication (for instance, all of the STARK FIST OF REMOVAL zines), the most revealing letters from Church artists, writers and even celebrity weirdos, color versions of art pieces and comics previously seen only in B&W if at all, every newspaper or magazine article about the Church, every interview, all the way down to the yellow pads on which the Church doctrine was first outlined in 1977.


The audio on the MP3 files includes all of the SubGenius Media Barrage tapes, all of the BobSong music albums, all of the edited SubG convention, devival and X-Day Drill reports, early phone conversations between Stang and Drummond and other very early collaborators on the project, actual documentary recordings of the various insane people and kooks who have attempted to hijack the Church, dozens of the best Hour of Slack radio shows (and other SubG shows, like Puzzling Evidence and Susie the Floozie's) from each year, going back to 1985, and many sermons from live Church stage shows. It totals literally hundreds of hours of sound, representing 30 years of SubGenius media editing.


The videos, in DivX avi and/or mpeg1 format, comprise another 20 or more hours of multimedia: TV news show segments about the Church, animated and live SubGenius shorts, documentaries about the various X-Day Drills and devivals going back to 1980, music videos, interviews with SubGeniuses, even "anti-SubGenius" shows.


Each year, Stang has added more and more detail to the text history, so that it is now the equivalent of an entire new nonfiction book. As you might imagine, the real-life events that occur with a global group of weirdos and freaks like The Church of the SubGenius involve many stories that seem almost too bizarre to be real, as do many of the real characters that have become involved with the Church in one way or another during the last 3 decades. You'll get Stang's autobiographical accounts of everything from the very first beginnings of the SubGenius concept to the worst and most insane crackpots that it has attracted.

The multimedia stashes will be available throughout the 6 week duration of the course, as it would probably take almost that long just to download it all. For the price of the course, each student has access to materials that would otherwise cost hundreds of dollars to procure one at a time, as well as priceless materials that are available no other way.


The strange, inspiring and sometimes frightening anecdotes that Stang presents will prompt all manner of questions and observations about the nature of religion and philosophy, and these will be addressed in the frequent live chat discussions.


At the end of the course, the student will not only have a diploma, but his or her own brand-new self-invented cult and a complete multimedia library of practically everything worthwhile created in the name of "Bob" -- thousands of pages of text and graphics, and thousands of hours of audio and video.


******************

TOP SECRET

SUBGENIUS MINISTER'S EYES ONLY

NOT FOR PINKS


There is a secret Internet forum for True SubGenii on Google Groups, called ScrubGenius.

For decades -- since 1986 in fact -- alt.slack on Usenet was the main SubGenius forum. Unfortunately, because it was unmoderated, it acted also as a kind of "kook flypaper," and in recent years it gradually began to draw so many -- er, how to put this? Our formerly great newsgroup is now is about 75% what we might call unbelievers, Pink Boys, the Differently Saned, unfunny but overactive Bobbies, obsessive spurned fanboys, occultist ninnies who claim they're Dobbs or God, racist psychos and other "Bob"less paranoid PinKooks.


Our friend Rev. Tater Gumfries started a new Members Only forum on Google Groups. Any SubGenius can join, but anybody can be thrown out too. So, for the finest in kookery and kook-bashing, by all means see good old alt.slack. But for the unsullied SubGenius news, gossip and interaction, try:

http://groups.google.com/group/scrubgenius


You will have to join Google Groups -- most people probably already have -- which costs nothing, and you will then apply to join ScrubGenius. Give your "human name" -- the one you first ordered your Membership under -- and the latest Church Name and/or Internet Handle you are known by. One of the moderators (I, Stang am one) will get back to you and grant you access.


If you give this secret out to the UnSaved, you will be struck down by the REAL Stark Fist of Removal. That will happen anyway sooner or later, but don't risk making it happen sooner. "Bob's" Wrath -- you don't even want to know. He doesn't get a wrath-on very often, but it's awful to behold.


*************


THE HOUR OF SLACK on Several New Stations


The show has been picked up by new stations in North Carolina, Connecticut, Texas, and several Internet stations. The complete list is here:

http://subgenius.com/ts/hos.html


Almost all of the 1,280 episodes of the show are available for free download! The rich can subscribe and have CDs mailed to them biweekly:

http://www.subgenius.com/scatalog/audio-hos.htm


********************

YouTube Slack


There's some new SubGenius & DEVO related video at my YouTube channel, which leads to many other, more active SubGenius channels:

http://www.youtube.com/user/revstang

Another huge collection of SubGenius videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mcgrewrich

******************


FILTH!


SLAKCHAN -- New Sick Art and Photo Forum:

http://www.slackchan.org/bob/imgboard.php

NOT FOR KIDS


***************

YOUR CHANCE TO VOTE FOR THE MIRACLE "BOB" TOAST MAKER!


http://jesustoasters.com/

This fellow's toasters will miraculously burn an image of Jesus (or a hemp leaf, or peace sign) on bread… help make the next one a Dobbshead-burner! Scroll down to the survey. "Bob" is already ahead of Moses and Our Lady of Guadalupe, and swiftly gaining on Sarah Palin and Jerry Garcia! (Muhammad remains in the lead.)


Let There Be Slack.


See you sinners on the Saucers,

Rev. Ivan Stang

Sacred Scribe #273

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

13X-Day Drill, Starwood 30 Survived; Backed-Up Orders Filled

We are back in the SubGenius Foundation offices at the Slackermansion in Cleveland Heights, after two weeklong outdoor festivals in a row, plus days of packing and unpacking. Full reports on X-Day 13 and Starwood 30 will follow, but we want our beloved customers to know that all of the orders for books, ordainments, etc. that came in since June 29 have now been filled and the products are in the mail.

13X-Day is being called "the best X-Day Drill yet" by most of the attendees. Obviously, had the Xist saucers come and the Rupture happened, it would have been much better, but we're beginning to suspect that "Bob's" point may be that X-Day could happen AT ANY TIME - so you had better get Slack now. I know that I am happy with the hours of recordings I brought home, thanks to the great bands and ranters, and to Pater Nostril, who recorded it all. I will probably be combing through all that audio for the next ten Hours of Slack.

We are still editing our own photos, because we are very picky, but many other X-Day attendees have already posted theirs. You can find links to all of these various photo collections at Modemac's 13X-Day Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sherman-NY/X-Day-XIII-June-30-July-5-2010/10150127390070697

Many SubGenii have also posted their text reports on 13X-Day at the Members-only ScrubGenius group. Some are also posted on alt.slack, our older, unmoderated and kook-riddled forum. I will attempt to copy those reports and gather them in a 13X-Day section on subgenius.com soon. Anybody is welcome to email me their pictures, writings etc. if they want to be sure and see them archived for eternity at subgenius.com.

The Starwood Festival's 30th anniversary event was held at a new site, Wisteria, that is even prettier than Brushwood, and while attendance was down (as expected, considering the blow Starwood was dealt by its new competition), the event went beautifully. People are describing it as the most fun Starwood in several years. The devival, along with some great music by Rev. Phat Man Dee and others, will be heard on Hour of Slack in due time and possibly in multiple installments. We won't be posting quite as many photos from Starwood as from X-Day, because there was a lot more nudity (and more strangers and innocent bystanders).

We'll announce the links as soon as our big reports and photo galleries are done. Meanwhile, those who ordered SubGenius goods between June 29 and July 14 should be seeing the swag in their mailboxes by July 17 (or maybe a few days later for the overseas customers).

Praise "Bob," and praise all the SubGenii and other weirdos who made both the main SubGenius event and the USA's foremost neopagan festival such successes.

P.S. There is now an official SubGenius Foundation Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cleveland-Heights-OH/SubGenius-Foundation/124410604252009

Sunday, June 20, 2010

NEW! - 13 X-Day Souvenir Propaganda Garments and Other Products


http://www.cafepress.com/subgen/188969

Better late than never. Wonderful souvenirs to cherish! -- Touching reminders of the last days of your life on planet Earth and your liberation by Dobbs. Shirts, hoodies, kids' clothes, mugs, steins, Liquid Frop Bottles, all emblazoned with the famous 13 X-Day posters by Rev. Pan Demonium and/or this year's antique bug porn "squirrel shot."


See our 13X-Day page for complete information on how to not die very soon.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

STARK FIST Newsletter May 18 2010

This is your radio host and prayer partner Rev. Ivan Stang, posting here for the first time since last November. I have been Slacking off in the form of work, and have, with help, written a SubGenius movie. It might take a while to turn the script into a Hollywood-style movie, but in the meantime it should make for a damn good puppet show. We managed to get a few other projects done, though, like an official Church Facebook page and another Art Mine, with plenty more coming up, such as X-Day.

X-DAY THE 13th

The world ends July 5 at 7 a.m. That's why as many SubGeniuses as possible will gather at Brushwood Folklore Center in New York starting June 30, to party appropriately. There have been 14 X-Day Drills before this ultimate event, so we've had lots of practice. Our new X-Day page has all the details, as well as a new, improved way to surf through the nudity-packed photo essays on previous X-Day Drills, going back to 1996.

http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/fun/devivals/13XDay/13X-Day.html


1st SUBGENIUS DEVIVAL IN CHINA - May 22

Rev. Shining Path of Least Resistance, our man in Shanghai, is sponsoring a righteous SubGenius event behind the Iron Curtain. Dobbs only knows what will result. A billion new SubGeniuses, or a hundred years in the reeducation camps for Rev. Shining Path? You can fly to Shanghai today, or follow the results on our Events page.

http://www.subgenius.com/newdevivals.html


NEW TUNNEL EXCAVATED IN THE ART MINES

Braving the danger of cave-in and deadly gasses, we carved out another gallery of graphics deep under subgenius.com. ART MINES TUNNEL #25 now displays almost two years' worth of accumulated graphics, from the fine art of IMBJR and LeMur, and many others, to Proof of "Bob" unearthed from ancient magazine ads and startling artifacts from real SubGenius life. Caution: once you enter these galleries, days or even weeks may pass before you emerge.

http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/Art_Mines_25/index.html

THE ALT.SLACK PROBLEM FORCES THE CHURCH ONTO FACEBOOK

Many SubGenii love to interact at arm's length over the Internet. They josh, share, and fight in several different forums. The oldest, alt.slack on Usenet and Google Groups, is a complete free-for-all. It cannot be moderated, and therefore undergoes periods when it fills up with kooks, trolls and the mentally ill, resembling a kind of perpetual flame war. Some SubGenii enjoy that sort of thing. I love it, but then I am a professional kookbasher. Others simply cannot tolerate the high levels of rancor, sarcasm, and personal insults.

I want to keep steering new SubGenii to alt.slack. For the newcomer alt.slack is a gauntlet, an ordeal, a trial by fire. It's not for sissies! On the other hand, we also need a forum that is kook-proofed, where the fighting and flooding doesn't interfere with Slackful communication. That forum was started up by our beloved friend Rev. Tater Gumfries (of Kern's Holler fame), and it is:

SCRUBGENIUS!

http://groups.google.com/group/scrubgenius

You'll notice that to access the ScrubGenius forum, one must sign in to Google Groups AND apply for membership by emailing Tater. Just about anybody will be let in, but if a person proves to be a bad apple they can be cast out of the garden -- unlike alt.slack. ScrubGenius can be a much more Slackful read than alt.slack because Pinks are culled from it. Anyone can sign up, and anyone can be banned. Some of the best SubGenius writers such as Rev. Susie the Floozy ONLY post to ScrubGenius.

Then there is Facebook. After my experience with MySpace -- being bombarded by requests from too many total strangers -- I tried to avoid "social media." Meanwhile, literally dozens of people, many not even SubGeniuses, started up "Church of the SubGenius" pages on Facebook. It finally sunk in that since ours is a face-based religion, Facebook is inevitable, so with the help of co-administrator and longtime SubGenius Foundation officer Rev. Nickie Deathchick, and with the guidance of "Bob" and Dr. Philo Drummond, we have started an "official, authorized" SubGenius Foundation Facebook page:

FACEBOOK SUBGENIUS

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cleveland-Heights-OH/SubGenius-Foundation/124410604252009

or

http://tinyurl.com/subfacebook

This page has a discussion forum where Facebooking Subs can vent, a photos section where new artwork or Proof of "Bob" graphics can be posted, and a video section that can also take contributions. Crap posted by saboteurs can be removed. We will surely also add an area where MP3 audio can be posted. For folks who want to contribute to Hour of Slack or SubSITE, but who don't do the old Usenet approach, or email me directly, this is a good central gathering place to submit your works. Hopefully, this official Church Facebook page will become a whole "show" unto itself.

There is yet another SubGenius forum up and running at our IRC-chat host, TAPHOUSE. This is another potential True SubGenius forum from which false prophets can be cast, to make way for the true unburnished Word. It is not currently being used much, but ambitious schisms could make it their main hang-out.

http://taphouse.org/forum/

YOUTUBE SUBGENIUS

One can find hours of great and awful video by SubGenii by typing "subgenius" into the YouTube search window. But we suggest here some special channels by SubGenius old-timers. You can find plenty of links to new-timers in the old-timers' subscription and favorites lists.

Rev. McGrewich has gathered together a good cross-section of the best SubVids. He has also reposted many of the longer videos that I had originally put on Google Video.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mcgrewrich

ZONTAR RULES! This SubGenius picked up the CGI-Dobbs ball and ran with it. Surrealism at its most SubGenoid.

http://www.youtube.com/user/zontarnet

Puzzling Evidence, besides hosting the longest-running SubG radio show, has been documenting weirdness of every kind in the San Francisco area for 20 years. That documentation is now being heaved up onto the Internet, at long last.

http://www.youtube.com/user/PuzzlingEvidenceTV

Rev. Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller rants like 17 motherfuckers.

http://www.youtube.com/user/pennsays

You may be surprised by the subject matter of my own latest videos. I got a new hobby: wildlife photography. But not the kind you're thinking of.

http://www.youtube.com/user/revstang

Dr. Philo Drummond, co-subfounder of the Church, has been presenting SubGenius Film Festivals in the San Francisco area for some time. Here he offers some of his choice bulldada source material.

http://www.youtube.com/user/philodrummond

IMBJR SubG T-shirts

The great, if terribly perverted, SubGenius artist IMBJR has created some nifty new T-shirts carrying classic SubSlogans. Links to these (and several jillion other SubShirt sources) are on our main catalog T-shirt page.

http://www.subgenius.com/scatalog/tshirts.htm

INWO game almost gone

In 1997, Steve Jackson Games and the Church released a game called Illuminati New World Order - SubGenius. The game set includes 100 art cards by SubGenius arteests. However, it is officially out of print, and we possess the last 30 copies of this rarity. The price will go way up when we're down to the last 20 copies.

http://www.subgenius.com/scatalog/inwo.htm

BOOKS

Our three main books are our best product and the most crucial to SubGenius comprehension. Besides "Bob" himself, they are the main reason the Church exists. And yet, any of them could go permanently out of print at any time. Get 'em while they're extant. When you buy them from us, I, Stang, sign and date them.

http://www.subgenius.com/scatalog/books.htm

SUBRADIO: Hour of Slack, Susie archive, Philo archive, Puzzling Evidence

Thanks to advances in Internet cheapness, it is now possible to download SubGenius radio show episodes on MP3, going back to the 1980s. Almost all of the 1,200 past Hours of Slack are now available, as are Puzzling Evidence shows, Swinging Love Corpses concerts, and Rev. Susie the Floozy's "Bob's" Slacktime Fun House classics along with Lymph Node Institute ones. Also, there are constant streams of these shows that never ever stop. A person could drive itself completely insane. You can find links to all of it if you scroll down the Hour of Slack main page:

http://www.subgenius.com/ts/hos.html

ORDAINMENT

What keeps the Church financially afloat is Membership Ordainments. Ordainment is also the only thing that erases your Pinkness in the eyes of "Bob." The ordainment package is like a book that you can wear. Don't live your life as a Gimme-Bob. Be a REAL SubGenius Minister, a Reverend or Pope, registered in the Book of Life. Until you do that, you are still utterly Pink in the eyes of "Bob" and all true SubGenii. Pinks like to joke that you are MORE "SubGenius" if you don't contribute. That's fine, for Pinks.

ORDAINMENT: http://www.subgenius.com/scatalog/membership.htm

The best mere $30 you will ever spend.

PRAISE THAT MAN "BOB" AND THE PIPE HE CLENCHES BETWIXT HIS SHINING HOLY TEETH.