STARWOOD 25

My 2nd year at the Association for Consciousness Exploration's main
festival, now in it's 26th year, was another topsy-turvy spectacle full
of lust, nudity, stupidity, as well as moments of sheer and ennobling
beauty.

As usual, I spent the week wandering around Brushwood, stopping in to
meet with friends, attend workshops, drink beer and smoke frop. Unlike
most SubGenii, Starwood folks - the "pagans", so-called - seem to me to
be rather naive and immature. It's a strange thing about these people.
Oh, certainly, there are some good ones among them. But many will
simply believe anything. "Do What Thou Wilt," I suppose, although all
week I couldn't help but wonder what Aleister Crowley and Israel
Regardie would have thought about this crowd.

But I digress. This year was evidently more mellow than in years past.
Highlights included the wonderful performances of didgeridoo impresario
Stephen Kent and Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, for whom the opening
act was folk act Revelry, which includes our own lovely Princess Wei.
They were phenomenal! Princess Wei is THE Starwood Goddess.

Workshops I attended included Christopher Penczak's "Instant Magic" in
which I learned the best way to magickally find a parking spot, Buddy
Kilpatrick's entheogenic plants show-and-tell ("...I couldn't get those
to grow, either...") and Phil Farber's extremely informative and
well-done Salvia divinorum lecture.

Stephen Gaskin of The Farm commune delivered a fine lecture that really
encapsulated most of the frustrations and hopes this "community" is all
about. Did he smoke dope with Al Gore? Who knows...

Stang did a wonderful job delivering his sermon, as he usually does. He
really had them rolling in the aisles, so to speak. One memory
permanently burned in my memory is that of the girl, probably 12 or 13
years old, who broke into fits of guffawing at nearly everything Stang
said. Afterwards, she bought a copy of "Book of the SubGenius" and I
nearly shed a tear thinking of when I bought that book and how I was
just about her age. Truly a sight to behold.

Throughout the week, I relied upon the kindnesses of many people.
Sincerest Thanks to everybody, especially: the Cult of the Practical
Rabbit clench, the Lost Boyz, Rev. Ivan Stang and Princess Wei "R" Doe,
Mrs. Doe, Rev. Ed Strange and Stephanie (the coffee was delish), Rev.
Steve Scynic, Rev. Andy Christ, Dennis Murphy, Assco, Ivan and the
AcceleratorDome Clench, Jeff Rosenbaum (of course), Jane, Edunna,
Phloighd (I truly hope I wasn't too much of a bother), Cliff and
Cynthia, Prof. Chas Smith, Andrew Burns, Paul Z., and the Phabulous
Phill of Phill's Grill, who makes the best gyros I've ever had. And, of
course, special thanks to Kris Davies and Rev. Leeburls.

I also owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to James "Bobo" Knight, God
the Father-in-Law, whose family stories, life lessons and generosity
with the frappy were among the best moments of Starwood. You're a true
mensch, Bobo, and the best crab in the bucket.

Finally, a pitch to Prof. Alley Valkyrie's Practical Rabbit Shoppe and
Cult. This gorgeous, incredibly talented SubGenius goddess makes the
most amazing shirts and gimcracks with designs that are simply lovely.
Buy as much of her stuff as you can!

> simply believe anything. "Do What Thou Wilt," I suppose, although all
> week I couldn't help but wonder what Aleister Crowley and Israel
> Regardie would have thought about this crowd.

Whenever Hercules Gryptpipe-Thynne and Count "Jim" Moriarty saw Neddy
Seagoon approaching, they'd rub their hands and say "Here comes a
'Charlie'", followed by the sound-effect of a cash-register drawer closing.

>
> But I digress. This year was evidently more mellow than in years past.
> Highlights included the wonderful performances of didgeridoo impresario
> Stephen Kent and Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, for whom the opening
> act was folk act Revelry, which includes our own lovely Princess Wei.
> They were phenomenal! Princess Wei is THE Starwood Goddess.

Behind the scenes, Princess Wei was in fact the literal Starwood
Goddess. She took upon herself the entire registration-overseeing
(because the previous person who did that awful chore moved away),
revised it into a whole new thing whereby all of the eggs of ACE and
Brushwood both stayed in one basket, and, to make a long story short,
insured that Starwood will continue to happen at Brushwood. She lost
her voice early in the fest, teaching the registration volunteers the
new system, and got it back at the exact moment that she had to start
singing.

That was one of the best Victoria Ganger and Revelry performances EVER,
and they SOLD OUT of their CDs immediately after it!

>
> Stephen Gaskin of The Farm commune delivered a fine lecture that really
> encapsulated most of the frustrations and hopes this "community" is all
> about. Did he smoke dope with Al Gore? Who knows...

I'm sorry I missed him this time. That guy (and Mrs. Gaskin) managed to
succeed where almost every other hippie commune leader failed. Luckily
I will probably end up editing the CD of his talk later.

We/I did get to see the Gong Bath, ArcheDream's blacklight theater,
BurningStar's Time Machine, Raquy and the Cavemen, and Stephen Kent &
Trance Mission, all of which are PRETTY UNUSUAL. I'm seriously thinking
of booking the Time Machine for X-Day-X.

One afternoon I woke up from a
nap in the trailer with a very strange feeling in my head, like I was
coming on to some kind of psychedelic. As I was leaving I finally
caught on that Stephen Kent's didge band was practicing quietly in one
of the other rooms of the trailer. The low noise of didge practice was
what was making me feel weird.

>
> Throughout the week, I relied upon the kindnesses of many people.
> Sincerest Thanks to everybody, especially: the Cult of the Practical
> Rabbit clench, the Lost Boyz, Rev. Ivan Stang and Princess Wei "R" Doe,
> Mrs. Doe, Rev. Ed Strange and Stephanie (the coffee was delish), Rev.
> Steve Scynic, Rev. Andy Christ, Dennis Murphy, Assco, Ivan and the
> AcceleratorDome Clench, Jeff Rosenbaum (of course), Jane, Edunna,
> Phloighd (I truly hope I wasn't too much of a bother), Cliff and
> Cynthia, Prof. Chas Smith, Andrew Burns, Paul Z., and the Phabulous
> Phill of Phill's Grill, who makes the best gyros I've ever had. And, of
> course, special thanks to Kris Davies and Rev. Leeburls.

You have inadvertently left out Joe Rothenberg, who along with Jeff R.
founded ACE/Starwood and does much of the actual work.

Princess Wei and her mom spent about $200 there! I bought a couple of
the cool fake snakes. My plan was to appear at the dying bonfire at
dawn in my "Bob" mask and a suit, with the snakes clenched between my
teeth, for a quick dance around the fire. But the boots I had to switch
to when my sneakers got wet hurt my feet so badly that by 3 am Sunday I
had to crash. I even had some SubGenius Anguish Juice prepared, to go
with Dennis Murphy's Discordian Joy Juice. I regret missing Sunday
dawn, which is the WEIRDEST regular part of Starwood.

Wei and I continued to deal with the registration, money and
account-settling aspects all the way through Monday. I witnessed a
BEAUTIFUL MIRACLE -- because of Wei's new system, settling between ACE
and Brushwood took about 15 minutes, everybody agreed on the clear
computerized numbers, and there was no argument. If you knew what built
up to that moment, and how much hinged on it going well, you might have
wept, as I almost did.

This was a "healing Starwood" -- several behind-the-scenes rifts and
feuds that I know of were closed up and put to rest.

Wei and I didn't get home until late Monday, and spent all day Tuesday
recuperating and finishing off the SubGenius Anguish Juice. We have
zillions of Starwood and 9X-Day pictures, sound and video to deal
with... once I catch up to the backed-up swag orders.

JESUS TITTY-FUCKING CHRIST! We hauled two Santa-sacks-worth of outgoing
swag to the Sacred P.O. Box, and I still have 6 BoSGs going overseas
that I have to stand in line with today. The P.O. wants to snap your
picture, see, if you're mailing anything larger than a pound outside of
the Homeland. Bastards. I suppose that if it's over 5 pounds they also
run a ThoughtCrime scanner over you. Over 10 pounds, who knows what the
rules say they can do. Darn that O'George Bush-Ladin guy!

If it's over 100 pounds, you'll find it's simpler to retrieve a fat white
guy's corpse from the local morgue, strap to it a tape player playing a loop
of you saying "Wow, that was a lot of beer!," and buy it a plane ticket,
checking your package in as the guy's luggage.

> You have inadvertently left out Joe Rothenberg, who along with Jeff R.
> founded ACE/Starwood and does much of the actual work.

Yes! Joe is an excellent co-organizer and a fascinating guy. He leads
workshops on biofeedback and mind machines that are always amusing.

That ACE...someday, someone will write an encyclopedia of
counterculture organizations that will finally give that group the
recognition it deserves.

Paul Krassner has been bragging up ACE and Starwood in The Nation and
High Times magazines lately... not exactly an encyclopedia, but all
Krassner's collected essays and articles would be one.

I have this dream of assembling the ultimate Starwood documentary,
since I have access to everything shot there by me, Rev. Steve Chekey,
Pater Nostril, the pro video crew that shoots all the main stage acts,
and I guess damn near anyone else who was authorized to use a camera
there during the last 26 years... and it would be FUN, too, because of
the music, skin, goof-faces and pretty colors.

But I haven't edited the Ultimate SubGenius & X-Day Doc yet! And that
one would have much goofier goof-faces.

But before I do that, I have to pay this STACK OF FUCKING BILLS, using
up my STARWOOD RANT-PAY! Oh well, it beats working. Beats working for
MYSELF in fact. I didn't get paid ANYTHING by myself for ranting at
9X-Day.

My next paying job is, I have to "teach" an "online course" with
MaybeLogic University. That might end up being an encyclopedia of all
the countercultural organizations that deserve to be mentioned on
account of having had beneficial dealings with The SubGenius
Foundation, Inc. (if only just a couple of 'Frop lunches at Starwood).

>
> My next paying job is, I have to "teach" an "online course" with
> MaybeLogic University. That might end up being an encyclopedia of all
> the countercultural organizations that deserve to be mentioned on
> account of having had beneficial dealings with The SubGenius
> Foundation, Inc. (if only just a couple of 'Frop lunches at Starwood).
>
> http://www.maybelogic.org/

I guess that we'll be seeing you around the faculty lounge in the near
future. Just remember that the dress code mandates tweeds and a pipe at
least twice a week.

On 27 Jul 2006 09:43:52 -0700, "RevAlex" <stufpoto@hotmail.com> wrote:
>That ACE...someday, someone will write an encyclopedia of
>counterculture organizations that will finally give that group the
>recognition it deserves.

I will try to get St. Stymie deBergerac to do that. He's one of our
spies inside ACE.

PRINTABLE STARWOOD 26 POSTER by STANG

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