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.