Helena Silence, Professional Psychic

Helena Silence is a professional psychic and best friend of Cosmo Grove, the tabloid reporter from my murder mystery project. Beautiful and kind, Helena uses her gifts to help others, and has on occasion lent Cosmo a hand in his investigations, though the extra set of arms and legs and corporeal eyes are generally more useful than her third eye ...

Aaron Tupelo - The Donut King

Meet Aaron Tupelo, 'the Donut King,' a character from my latest fiction project--a murder mystery! Aaron Tupelo is the owner and operator of the Donut King, and may or may not, be Elvis Presley, alive and well and serving fresh doughnuts and coffee 24 hours a day/6 days a week.

The Questing, Pilgrim Way

Inspired by Bill Griffin's "Sojourner," John Masefield's "Sea-Fever" and Sam Seaborne's "What's Next" speech.

The Questing, Pilgrim Way

We must out to the black again, to the roads beyond the sky,
And all I ask are soaring ships and stars at which to aim
the rockets whose cheering roars, emboldened flame,
Launch us to the sea of silver stars whose beauty makes us sigh.

We must out to the black again, for aeons now have shone
the beacons' summon to beyond the sea, the sky, the stars.
And all I ask is a solar wind to the legacy that's ours:
To explore is human destiny, to pursue the great unknown.

We must out to the black again, to the questing, pilgrim way,
To find new holy lands, new stars, new worlds, and realms
For countless souls on gleaming ships, brave pilots at the helms--
All for sunrises of stars unknown, new worlds' glorious day.

Discordian Society

Band "Biography" written for Asheville/Roanoke-based band The Discordian Society.

• ReverbNation | Myspace | YouTube

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This and none of the following are a lie.

I.

The Discordian Society has no definition.
--Principia Discordia, 00032

There are conflicting accounts of the birth of the Discordian Society:

ONE PUNGENDAY, the 23rd in the season of Confusion, Davz "not here' Annarelli consulted his pineal gland:
a vision of musical notes randomly played upon the ebon æther--out of this chaos of sound, patterns emerged, Mandelbrotian fractals of notes and chords, scale-regressions and apophthegms--a golden apple falls: to the pretty one--players and singers. Out of discord came harmony; then harmony merged into discord. Revealed was a cabal of musicians in anarchy anointed by Eris. From harmony there is DISCORD, from anarchy there is SOCIETY. Dave awoke, took a leak, smoked, went back to sleep.
The Second Account

IN THE PROPHECIES of Saint Gulik, it is revealed that in this Age of Bureaucracy--when we are ruled by a piece of office furniture--Eris shall call for the sound of a new prophetic nonsense, hidden in the patterns of form and harmony. Step back, and it is cacophony; step in, and it is discord that encodes the music of the sphere-incters. It will be music for the end of the world or the beginning of a new one. In this time, the mad piping of the Crawling Chaos plays on, even through the Balanced-Balance which is Stagnation. The vessel of sound which is the band will shape the notes, give rhythm to the piping with chthonic tones that shift and pause and stop the endless drone of static noise, unbalancing the balance, and thus usher in the Age of Disorder: a Discordian Society.

Meditating on these prophesies, Dave said "Screw that, I want to form a band."

II.

The Classical Greeks were not influenced by the Classical Greeks.
-Principia Discordia

A) Some Episkoposes have a one-man kabal. Some work together. Dave never explains.

B) The Discordian Society can be described by the quantum thought experiment known as Schrödinger's Symphony--the orchestra exists within the pineal gland of the Cosmic Embryo. If you crack open its skull, a symphoton fires; it will either strike and shatter the pineal gland, and the orchestra will play, or it will miss the pineal gland and the orchestra breathes fitfully in silence. Until the skull is opened, the orchestra exists in a state simultaneously playing and silent.

C) Frank Zappa was a prophet of Eris; Mr. Bungle sups from the Primordial Soup; Les Claypool subverts the Technocracy; John Zorn is a fantastic name; Jaco Pastorius was not influenced by Jaco Pastorius.

D) [This space intentionally left blank to conserve paper and electrons]

E) You've only one life, you might as well do everything that you want to do; if you're going to reincarnate, and if that's your state of belief, you might as well do everything that you want to do and try to do it while being a good person at the same time, so you don't come back as a fly or something crappy--no pun intended. Go live. Every person should have to sleep under a bridge on a cold night, once.

III.

I am chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build rhythms.
I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy anarchy.
I am chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are free.
--Principia Discordia, 0009

The music breaks forth from the Region of Thud and draws a path out of pattern leading back to Oblivion. No two elements of the music are interlocked, but all five elements--destruction, creation, change, square, circle--interlock.

The music is a constant ritual of Baptism into Discord. The audience::the neophyte, stands at the centre surrounded by the five: guitar, keys, rhythm, horns, chaos. The music is naked to demonstrate that it is human and not a cabbage, expanding and contracting; swells and breathes in, exhales notes and chords in a Brownian Motion of music; reveals itself as an organism in symbiosis with the audience. The sound is a mirror that reflects and distorts the apostles who listen but do not sing out; who do not move, but dance.

It says little,
does less,
means
nothing.

Listening to it would probably make you Philosophically Illuminized if that weren't so funny.

IV.

It is my firm belief that it is a mistake to hold firm beliefs.
-- PD, 00013

Confirmation Bias is the tendency to focus on data which confirms or supports our existing beliefs & discount data which doesn’t fit. In your brain, the thinker thinks, the prover proves. Random neurons fire & the Thinker comes to the conclusion that the sound of the Discordian Society is jam-band, jazz, prog-rock, or R&B; you are right-for the Prover develops patterns from the chaos that prove you are right. Converted to your own bias, you write theses & theological tracts proving the jazz label is wrong & the jam-band label, correct. The music is the original Rorschach Test of sound. You are also very, very wrong--you premises are false & random, created to confirm your presupposed conclusion, for actually the sound is [redacted - FNORD].

V.

Is this the beginning of another cardboard day
Or is it the first day of the rest of the universe?
Will nothing happen or will everything happen?
--WEREWOLF BRIDGE, Robert Anton Wilson

Heard at the verge of a lucent dream: "Today the world, tomorrow the solar system."

helping a fellow ink-slinger & ashevillain

Asheville author/illustrator Steven Coyle German has started a Kickstarter Project to fund his first book, Annika Ash and the Lost Robot, an ambitious children's story.

 

Coyle shares

I’d ask anyone to support this book for several reasons. 

First, because it’s a beautifully illustrated, richly written, unique book that takes full advantage of a picture book’s inherent power to stimulate the mind.  

Second, supporting this book creates a strong message that perhaps it’s time to remove some of the existing boundaries in current children’s picture books.  

And Third, donating through Kickstarter specifically sends an unmistakable message that people are hungry for more unfiltered, pure voices than they’ve had access to previously.

I'm particularly impressed with his vision of creating children's books that are complex, subtle and full of depth:

The growing addictive need to oversimplify is alarming. I know it’s tempting these days to make information easier to digest by making broad, combative declarations but it’s getting out of hand.  Let’s start getting kids ready to face complexity at an early age [while] taking the utmost care to make sure nothing gets in the way of what all children’s picture books should be- heartfelt, warm, friendly and with a generous helping of silliness.

All I’m doing is adding insightful opportunities for anyone willing to probe deeper into the characters motivations and encourage the sensation that it’s ok to feel that you might not immediately have all the answers you’re looking for.

 A worthy goal indeed. For those who ask, "but what's in it for me?" the pledge rewards are pretty awesome, most of them featuring Annika Ash artwork by Coyle, ranging from computer desktop art and post-cards to a unique Annika Ash illustrated story!

So if you're in the habit of looking to support more local artists/authors and creators, help Annika find the Lost Robot!

The Lady Annemarie

Artist's Bio/Statement for
Annemarie McAllister at TigerLily Studios.

[contains strong language - because Annemarie contains strong language.]

Imagine slicing open your brain with an obsidian knife, pulled from the tomb of an ancient warrior-shamaness, and peering inside your expanding mind; you find yourself in the Hall of Dead Gods discussing the radical need to fuck over the dominant paradigms with Jorge Luis Borges and Hildegard von Bingen while sipping on espresso laced with soma.

Now you have a pale notion of what it's like experiencing the art of The Lady Annemarie.

Traversing and transcending particular media, the Lady blows open the doors of perception and happily steps through, inviting us along for the ride. Since picking up her first crayola, the Lady realized her blood flowed with india ink, oil paint and modge podge. Fishes need water; trees need sunlight; Annemarie McAllister needs art. The studio is her temple, and the canvas is her altar where she sacrifices self for the sake of Light and Form, Color and Shape, Aesthetics and Substance.

Hailing from the North East of The United States of Discordia, the Lady attended The University of Arts, Philadelphia where she took every art class they would let her--and then some. However, the edges of the map and the horizons labeled "here be dragons" called her to travel and expand her consciousness. Those experiences led her to realize the Technocracy is expanding and artists are the hidden warriors fighting the battles in our minds, freeing us from the chains of slavery forged by crass commercialism, bubblegum pop culture, and authoritarian control.

She has found herself somewhat settled in that major crossroads of faerie trods and telluric currents, Asheville, NC, working as an artistic glazier, performing live-paintings at concerts, forming artists' collectives, holding art shows, and doing her part to inject chaos into the system. Painting is her passion, sculpture feeds the dæmon and Something Out There keeps feeding her brain images that must be shaped and formed and given birth. Let's pray that It's friendly because to see the art of the Lady Annemarie is to let it pierce the skin, inject the flow, and alter your mind.

Welcome to TigerLily Studios--step away from your comfort zone.