THE PREPOSTEROUS BOLLOX OF THE SITUATION

(We’re posting this episode a week early, because next week we’ll be off-line, riding the preaching circuit.) In Ask Dr. Hal radio show excerpts, Dr. Philo Drummond, Rev. Stang and St. Palmer Vreedeez (LIES) compose all-new variations on “Bob’s” most beloved aphorisms. Of course, the conversation veers off into many unexpected corners too. It’s all interspersed with an avalanche of collages by LeMur, The Large and Rev. Royal DeCapitater. We get music from Fishbone, The Great Groovy Neptune, and the movie TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEAD. The show ends with a bold proposal from Rev. Just John.

This episode is designed not only to make you feel as if you’ve lost your mind, but to actively rot that selfsame mind, for reals. Though recorded live on WCSB, 2013-5-19, half of it is music, collage and extremely (coincidentally?) SubGeniusful movie dialog clips. John Dies at the End (2012) and an episode of Tales of Tomorrow (1951) both contain uncannily SubGenius-centric stretches, which flabbergasted us when we saw them at an iDRMRSR/Dr. Dark movie night. Dr. Dark also provided us with a “scientific” monograph which describes alien cultures as researched via remote viewing — a classic of its kind, read in UFO Channeling Voice by Stang. Mind-wrecking music is by Fishbone, ESO, The Rudy Schwartz Project, and The Amino Acids with a new song (!); collages are from Rev. Royal deCapitator and The Large. We also hear preaching by Brother Freddy of the rogue SubGenius hate group, The Westeros Bobtist Church. Special guest stars: Jack Chick and Lonesome Cowboy Dave (whose buzz this time proved to indeed emanate from the station, not Dave).

With our new ElectroHypnoMentalephone, we can’t go wrong in ANY KIND of Show production! Music by Fishbone, The Sultans of Ping, and The Rudy Schwartz Project; AMAZING new collage bits from The Large. All the rest is from the Ask Dr. Hal Show from Radio Valencia in San Francisco, a Feb. 22 episode with Rev. Ivan Stang as guest. Philo, Puz, and Vreedeez were also in the studio, but distracted by their drone-stalking of bystanders on the streets outside the studio. Their contributions came later in Hal’s show, which will be heard on future Hours of Slack. In the meantime, unfortunately: THIS.

This episode isn’t ONLY about the SubGenius Video Game, but that project is discussed in detail on a recent Puzzling Evidence show. We play more new songs by The Rudy Schwartz Project and an El Queso oldie, some new/old collages, and much live chatter by StangDoe in the studio and Lonesome Cowboy Dave phoning it in, as it were. (His BUZZ is GONE!) We had no idea what we were going to talk about going in, and we ended up disecting the movie Upstream Color, the new “Bob” Hates Pinks movement, sex trends at X-Day Drills, rival cults, and scaly-legged hippie lizards. Stang reads a bit from THE PSYCHLOPAEDIA OF SLACK.

 The Rudy Schwatrtz Project has a new album in distribution, Full Frontal Klugman, and we premiere here three golden tracks (including a cover of SLC’s “Pick A Booger”) plus a SubGeniusly special promo. Much of the rest of the show, interspersed with LeMur barrage and other chunks, is from the February 22 Puzzling Evidence Show recorded at KPFA, Berkeley, when Wei and I, Stang were visiting. (Dr. Drummond was engaged in an important medical experiment that night/morning.) Subject matters include the “Bob” department store chain, the SubGenius video game and abusement park, and speculation about who would win — Hitler or Jesus? A Psycho Skeletons cover of a Nirvana song closes the show.

It’s a good thing that our contributors spend so much time crafting their segments. We at Tarzan’s Radio Studio in Cleveland Heights, where Hour of Slack is assembled, must perforce swing hurriedly from show production to show production; for instance, the credits for this were recorded “on the run” in the Slackermansion bathroom.

For those who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, the late Jonathan Winters was THE sick weirdo comedian. (We were too young for Lenny Bruce, and The Goon Show was only in England.) For many of us in the USA, Winters was our first exposure to true improvisation and stream-of-consciousness surrealism. So, Winters’ recent death was my excuse to a) file an extension on my taxes and b) cram all of my Rare Winters collection into one show. Except for short calls from TWO Daves (!), the whole show is Winters performing, not on stage or TV, but for his friends. Much of it is out-takes from recording sessions for commercials, some of it is phone messages left by Winters to his agent Jim Smith. We know that younger folks think of Jonathan Winters as that fat guy who played grandpas in sitcoms, but long before that he was planting seeds of Slack through Insanity into the brains of young mutants. Incidentally, we could make another whole Hour of Slack out of JUST Winters talking about UFOs, one of his favorite subjects. But we won’t.

The Internet-only version of this show has an extra 6 minutes at the end — Winters doing some racially based humor that we suspect wouldn’t be properly understood in context by some radio listeners.

Upon our return to the Cleveland Heights Slackermansion after a four month road trip, we did an old-fashioned live show at WCSB with collages, music, Puzzling Evidence clips and the buzz that sometimes comes when Lonesome Cowboy Dave calls in. We plan to buy Dave a cell phone. Collages this time are mostly by Rev. Baby Bear. Songs by The Rudy Schwartz Project and Jonathan Coulton. Background music by Cult of Zir and The Psycho Skeletons. Subjects covered include: Desert Hiking Hints. We Need a New iEverything. Things that Novelty Dinosaurs are Made Of. Pest Western and the Roach Motels of America. Forbidden Geology and the New Names for Crazy Rock Formations. Rain in Death Valley and tortoises who pee themselves to death.

Herein we present the last hour of the Ask Dr. Hal Show of 2-15-2013. It opens with an exceedingly, perhaps even painfully in-depth disection of the movie SON OF KONG, the actual fate of Skull Island, and very large butts (hence the JoCo cover of “Baby Got Back”). Other topics covered: eating frogs; Bobbies and X-Day; Zappa sucks; Hose vs. Hos and HoS; Winterstar and Prof. Chas Smith; giant pills; drugs and listeners; Radio Carpal Tunnel; Manopause; Jack Kirby comic book monsters and their underpants; kindergarten meth heads; Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle; demigods of X-Day; hiding from reality.

Dr. Hal, Rev. Ivan Stang, Dr. Philo Drummond, Puzzling Evidence, “Spy,” and Rev. Michael Peppe were in top form on Dr. Hal’s Radio Valencia show of 2-15-2013. Dr. Hal’s shows have a markedly different sound from the Puzzling Evidence ones; there are fewer mics and mouths on at once. Despite a discussion of Morpheus’s slumbermilk, this is not a sleepy show. Now winding down our long road trip, we managed to do a little editing on this one; five on-topic Jonathan Coulton songs about monsters are interspersed with the talk. Compiling elaborate shows with 30 to 50 tracks (like “normal” Hours of Slack) will have to wait until we’re back in the Cleveland office — soon. Nonetheless, I, Stang, would actually recommend this show for beginning listeners.

Second hour of a lively Puzzling Evidence show with host Puzzling Evidence, Dr. Philo Drummond, Dr. Hal, Rev. Ivan Stang and Popess Lilith in the KPFA studios, plus esteemed callers Dr. Gary G’broagfran, Rev. Baby Bear, Michael Peppe and others. Music at the open and close is by The Psycho Skeletons and Half Man Half Biscuit; collages by LeMur.

You might call this the Hour of Slack / Puzzling Evidence Mash-Up of 2013-02-15, Part One. It’s a little easier to hear than the last two solid-PuzEv shows. Collages by LeMur and music by The Psycho Skeletons, Mythical Burrowing Animals, Multi-Fisted Tails of Connie, and even Macklemore are inserted as brief respites from a Puzzling Evidence barrage of voice, involving Puzzling “himself,” Philo, Hal, Stang, and Popess Lilith (on vacation, like Stang) in the KPFA studios, plus callers such as Rev. Baby Bear and God.

Second half of the 2-hour Puzzling Evidence show of Feb. 8, 2013 with Dr. Hal, Dr. Philo Drummond, Rev. Stang, Princess Wei ‘R.’ Doe, K-Rob, Michael Peppe and numerous callers, including Rev. Baby Bear. Topics heatedly discussed include the then-upcoming asteroid-Earth collision, red dwarf stars breeding superior beings, the Princess Wei Fan Club, Hal’s 12 step success and real estate plan, The Party of Giant Sharks who can’t sleep, New Advanced Amoebas, the Steeple People, Richard the Third’s skeleton, more Church, less air, the cerebral “taint” and more. “This show is The Brain’s Bumper Sticker.” The last 8 minutes are actually the first 8 minutes of a very early show, #287.

Philo’s Description: “The Show regulars are joined by KROB, Michael Peppe and the STANGS (not a new bandname) in whirlwind food service performance that goes beyond the pail or bucket, as it were. In this Show, Church Secrets, Inside-Jokes, Overly Extended Concepts, Preposterously Loveable Conspiracy Theories, are killed while the callers fight desperately for a word. The Puzzling Evidence Radio Show on KPFA. Like an fine old chum bucket filled with half-baked concepts and sweet pickles in an arresting array of florid putrefication.”

End of the reruns! We’re leaving the San Francisco Bay area after sitting in on a total of 12 hours of live radio on the Puzzling Evidence show (3 2-hour episodes) and The Ask Dr. Hal Show (2 3-hour episodes). Philo’s description of Part 1 of the first of the Puzzling Evidence ones: ”The Show regulars are joined by KROB and the STANGS (not a new bandname) in whirlwind food service performance that goes beyond the pail or bucket, as it were. In this Show, Church Secrets, Inside-Jokes, Overly Extended Concepts, Preposterously Loveable Conspiracy Theories, are killed while the callers fight desperately for a word. The Puzzling Evidence Radio Show on KPFA. Like an fine old chum bucket filled with half-baked concepts and sweet pickles in an arresting array of florid putrefication.”

A favorite episode from the old days. Full of the best oldies from the revised Media Barrage #5 classic tape, mixed with startlements and wonderments from many far-flung contributors and “sister” shows — all new, in 2002, anyway.