Found old copy of "The Book of the SubGenius". Am twenty again.

[Sugar Smack]

I joined my family for breakfast at Dad's house today, & in my old room there was a copy of this book. It was published in '83 or '87, but it's pure nineties material. Good thing I saved some of this stuff. I've been told I'm overly fond of those times; I'm a pack-rat but only with very, very important material.



I found a total of about 40 pounds of Zines from those years as well. Repetitive clipart and subversive poetry and coffee rings and local show flyers. I became hypnotized by those things, esp. the cut-and-paste lettering on these publications, as though it's a ransom note holding my 20 year-old self hostage. Someone had come up to me excitedly in college when I was suffering from a minute of boredom and showed me this Bob Dobbs book. I was out-of-my-mind impressed. There isn't even a LITTLE condecension in my attitude when I look through this again.



Anyway, these things inspired me then, so I painted a wooden box with Bob Dobbs's picture on it & gave it to my brother for Xmas 1990.
I'm looking at the back cover right now. R. Crumb said, "Finally, a religion even I can believe in". Jay Kinney of Coevolution Quartely said, "A rare knack for masking genuine wisdom in the guise of other bullshit".

[Richardo]

1. Band name: 'Machine Gun Jesus and the Stark Fist of Removal'

I could look at that top piece for hours trying to decipher it and never come close ('Reagan or any President'???) but it sure would be a hoot.

What a find, Sugie - time capsules are fun, no?

[Sugar Smack]

3. Decipher it??

*lol* Richardo, how'd I know you would like this? The closest I ever came to deciphering any of that sensory-overload dada was to allow myself to be sucked into the drawings. I loved the details especially. And you're so right about the time capsule aspect of it. Did you ever write fanzines?

Did you ever pick them up? I did once in a while at Schoolkids Records in CH.

[Redstone]

2. Want my collection of National Lampoons from about 1973 to about 1986?

Bet you'd LOVE those.

The only catch: You have to come here to pick them up.

Redstone

[Sugar Smack]

5. Want my collection of MAD Magazine from '75 to '85? The only catch:

The back page of every one is torn off.

Okay, I have to check out even one National Lampoon. I have never opened one in my life for some reason. Will roadtrip for magazines & leftover glazed Easter ham. You & I'll be in touch sometime soon, yes? This next weekend, if you can.

[Redstone]

13. Big fan of "fold-ins," are you?

This coming weekend would work. I pulled off the miracle with the three week's worth of projects that I got done in one week, so according to that particular customer I can not only walk on water, but can do interesting things with loaves & fishes as well. They say there will be a LOT more work coming my way because I yanked their yockers out of the fire on this project, and I have no reason to doubt them.

Decompressing tonight, before I make the folks at my customer company wet themselves when they see the animation I'm doing for their new website. But it will ALL be done by the coming weekend, and I'll be only too ready to collapse & yack on the phone. Especially with you.

Redstone

[Sugar Smack]

16. Heh, YES. If I'd had my way, I'd have ripped them out from the start

of publication. Those were great.

I'm glad things are going so well for you, m'dear. I would love to yak on the phone with you, too.

[Redstone]

19. Then you can come up to visit, and we'll smoke in the screen porch while

making Big Plans. Some, at least, of which we'll be able to make happen.

Redstone

[CrownPrinceBandar]

4. Our Slack has be stolen by the Pinks!.........

JHVH-1 is watching you.

[Sugar Smack]

6. Memorize the diagrams, drawings and flowcharts

and you should be safe.

[RadiationTherapy]

7. Church of the Sub-G changed my life!

I found so much wisdom in there.

My brother and I had a copy with us when we were tripping in the woods. We started reading it and before we knew it the sun went down. We had no flashlights, just enormous pupils.

[Sugar Smack]

9. "when we were tripping in the woods"

You're a true scholar. I'm hoping you transposed your wisdom to paper and took your brother to Kinko's afterward. I just had a flashback to a day when my friends & I spent hours around a copier. You could look around and see other like-minded people doing the same. Some of us snuck coffee in. Some of us rooted around in the Kinko's wastebaskets for discarded things that'd make a fabulous collage.

[ghostsofgiants]

8. Oh man, jealous.

My religion on Facebook is listed as SubGenius, haha.

[Sugar Smack]

12. Heh, heh-

Something about you resonated with this, I guessed . You're the one I should make this confession to, then. I also have "Revelation X" and "Three-Fisted Tales of Bob".

[asthmaticeog]

10. YEAH!!!

I'm on my 4th copy. Previous copies have either fallen apart or were lent and unreturned.

[Sugar Smack]

14. OK, this was my second copy, and I know exactly

what you mean. And it happens with my favorite things I loan to people. And it doesn't help that the message is like Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, either. You remind me of that time when you asked me if I was a fan of the Found website, which I love dearly.

Oh, the guy I loaned the book to was this Wall-Street type, still in school at UNC. I lost the book to him, HIM! He got really wound up in it and he was as dumb as a bag of hammers, so he tried to incorporate it into this Amway-type philosophy he had about personally using it to his benefit on Wall Street. Then he dumped me, the stupid jackass. He thought poverty rubbed off.

[asthmaticeog]

18. Fuck 'im. He may have the book, but he's still pink to "Bob."

[Sugar Smack]

20. And I'm not bitter or anything, but I hope the Divine Folly chews him up &

spits him out. I'd much rather have lost my book to anyone else.

[asthmaticeog]

21. He'll be no match for the Stark Fist of Removal.

Let's have some 'frop, relax, and forget all about it.

(Actually, due to an always-high concentration of SubGenius activity here, Stang moved to my hometown some years ago, and I'm saddened to report that the church has turned into somewhat dreary hippie shit, not that much like the brilliant, spiky, wiseass sci-fi mythology parody it once was. I still respect the shit out of Stang, but I nonetheless lament the loss.)

[Sugar Smack]

23. Thank you for the info, because I occasionally wonder what

became of people like him and what they're doing now.



Damn. Somewhat dreary hippie shit is what happens when disciples take it too far. Let's have some frop, relax, and bask in the dark side.

[asthmaticeog]

24. He still does devivals.

It's just that they're often at festivals like Starwood, too mellow a vibe for the anarchic goings-on of old. Hippies and head-launchings apparently don't mix. But fuck it, that's what he wants to do, bless him, he created a wonderful thing. (As much as I hate hippie culture, I still can't disrespect the man!)

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

11. My husband is a big Bob fan.

Of course, being a Bob himself, he's somewhat inclined. I came across a copy of this myself today in our office, while I was packing. Gotta love it!

[Sugar Smack]

15. Does he have an image of Bob hanging anywhere

in the house? That's really funny that you found a copy of the book today, too. Did you look at it? I made the mistake of opening mine & got sucked into the nineties nostalgia for quite some time.

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

25. Bob is his avatar on a few forums...

And was once his desktop wallpaper. He did used to have his likeness hanging above his desk, years ago. I couldn't help but take a look inside the book again...it was a riot!

[Elidor]

17. A friend of mine is ordained by the Church

He declared me a Slackmaster for a one-time donation of 2 joints. Good work if you can get it.

[Sugar Smack]

22. A golden deal.

I have a tidy set of SubGenius literature. *But it's just so hard not to gush, Slackmaster*!