Cataclysmic Changes (Part 2 of 3)

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 10 April 2014.

Carlton Farthington, as we've been developing him lately, has no content of his own.

He is an emblem of the reposting/retweeting/embedding phenomenon.  Interested fans of the project will go digging for that kernel of actual content but will come up empty handed.  The joke with him is that he is a guru who has absolutely no message!  So siphoning the message off Arthur White would make total sense.

As for the "cataclysmic changes," I'm beginning to like the option that they may have been about to happen, but that the volcano settled down and nothing happened.

That is, if you eliminate the possibility of a "many-worlds interpretation" from the Schrödinger's cat paradox (which I personally do not).  Here's the March 24 email:

So, for example, Farthington's emergence on the campus of Cape Fear Community College could have taken place in 1984 or 2014 or both or neither.  He may or may not be the person in the mascot suit or with the Google account.  The catastrophe in Iceland could have happened in 1976, never happened, or is about to happen now.  Strict timelines can be introduced, but they become less trustworthy as other alternate realities are considered.  Essentially, this opens the door to our competing narratives and creates a frame in which we never have to get it right, never have to put all our eggs in one basket, never have to sell ourselves out to a single storyline.

Why is this happening?

Two possible reasons that I can give:

1. It's the fulfillment of Farthington's prophesy about the "turbulent reversals" 
2. It's all happening in Arthur's mind, which is now "unstuck"

Again, what happens is either nothing, something, or the "turbulent reversals."  You made a convincing claim about what the turbulent reversals might look like when you wrote,

The Principles of Theory is nothing until the technology exists to suck it out of his followers...Essentially, Farthington's power rises as digital culture rises, and the more the culture moves from the pagan, analog, portable village model of rock stardom that the sixties gave us and that faded in the seventies and toward the more sophisticated obliteration of time and space (since digital culture puts us in all times and all places at once and becomes an age of recycling and mosaic instead of innovation)...

What I like about that is that Carlton actually is creating a counterfeit Christianity, a "He must increase, I must decrease" dialectic.

Interestingly, this is the very idea Nietzsche warred against in his master/slave morality diatribe: that the Judeo-Christian worldview was/ is just a gambit to wrest control of this world from the Übermensch (cf. my email on Ibsen's "O for a Viking Spirit").

Without going into that at all, Carlton's counterfeit is actually the type that leads one directly to the nothingness of Hell, not toward the humility that is a precondition for Heaven. I've really been starting to parse out this very fine line between the humility described in the Gospel and the nothingness we approach as we near Hell.

And as for Arthur's mental state, I don't think he needs to be a vegetable.  We can nuance that.  My main idea is that his powers were paradoxically released by this sort of outsider meddling.

Cataclysmic Changes (Part 1 of 3)

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 10 April 2014.

I was thinking about the idea of cataclysmic changes and the Concert for Iceland while watching a documentary about backup singers that had some reflections on the Concert for Bangladesh.

I started thinking about Farthington, and it dawned on me that maybe he isn't just using Arthur for his talent, but for his spiritual gifts...that maybe the number one thing he wants is to somehow siphon Arthur's power from him.  Whether that can actually be done is unclear to me and I don't want to put anything rooted in magic rather than Catholicism out there, but I wonder about a few possibilities:

1. Is it not just the electroshock, but some sort of power-siphoning that damages Arthur?
2. Do the cataclysmic changes happen on some level?  Does Farthington somehow use Arthur's power to bring about some horrible power that shapes the 80's?  Some sort of void?  Maybe something electronic?
3. If so, does Arthur know?  Does he feel guilt?

I worry about Arthur coming off as too much of a vegetable.  He may appear to be one at times, but his interior life should nearly always be far more dramatic than any other character's.

His natural state should be life in the Sweet World--joy in God's garden with Mary--but being torn from that Garden, seduced away from it, weaving in and out of it, being convinced that it isn't the highest reality of his experiences, all of these things and more should be sources of inexplicable drama.

Arthur should be inexplicable because he is tied into the inexplicable.  The appeal of both Will and Farthington--the American dream and cultish psychospiritual babble--is that both offer some order to the inexplicable.

Will reduces reality to a very simple code, and Farthington offers answers, even if they are grounded in nothing.  The appeal of both Joe Lazaruses is their ability to catch glimpses of the Sweet World that Arthur lives in, to share in that beauty on even a small level with Arthur as friends, and to help communicate what Arthur sees to the rest of the world.

A Jawless Ghost

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 26 March 2014.

Alex encounters Yoko's jawless ghost in the movie, The Grudge

Regarding the symbolism of Dr. Farthington's post-"accident" state:

I have been playing around with the idea of his wound, that it is a literal version of what is happening to us figuratively. Our mouths are opened wider than ever before (think the reverse bear trap situation in Saw or the jawless ghost in The Grudge), but we have nothing to say and/or are unable to say anything.

The image has a clear kinship with other motifs in the story: empty frames, Farthington's "tunnels within tunnels," the irradiation of proscenium arches creating a progressively diminished stage/actors, the re-posting/ re-tweeting/ embedding phenomenon, etc.

Regarding Farthington = reflection of us:

He would be a reflection of us, to the extent that we are the content he is currently cannibalizing/ regurgitating/ echoing/ resounding. So in the same way that we are all made "in the image and likeness of God," someone who has made something else the ground of his being will take on its characteristics.

Will = The Beast?

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 26 March 2014.

A manticore

That's a great idea.

What I originally imagined was an actual beast/sphinx-like animal as in Yeats' "Second Coming." A portentous sign of the Apocalypse that these kinds of things are traipsing around the steam tunnels!

I like all historical/geological/mythical/religious understandings of the underworld blending together. The underworld is where epic heroes go to "harrow hell"; the underworld is the symbolic location of the Christian Hell, pagan Hades and Tartarus, Jewish Sheol, etc.; the underworld is the location of Earth's hot magma core; the underworld is where we, in a sense, travel through time, back through accumulated layers of fossils and sediment; etc., etc.

But I like the idea that we have a perfectly rational explanation for what happened to Farthington:

Will, having been prevented by Farthington from fulfilling his promise to his mom (totally sufficient motive, by the way), goes down into the tunnels and shoots Farthington in the face. Farthington doesn't die but lives on. Perhaps he sourced the story about the beast.

I do, however, want to always maintain the possibility that Farthington is operating on a level where he could very well encounter an actual demonic beast. He's pushing that envelope.

The Program is Adequate to the Technology of the Apparatus

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 26 March 2014.

I get what you're saying about hardware vs. software. I was thinking specifically about this interview with Kraftwerk from 1976. In it, they say this:

Florian Schneider:

The hardware in America is very advanced but the software is very often antique.

Ralph Hutter:

You have modern TV systems and then you put on a cowboy show. It should be that the program is adequate to the technology of the apparatus.

I can't exactly remember what I wrote, but it had something to do with their vision.

Farthington may recognize better than most people the godlike powers computers give us while we are still using them to run the programs of older technologies: sending mail (email), checking in with the neighbors (Facebook), printing and distributing pamphlets (blogs), etc. Farthington is a program adequate to the hardware as he just sets right out to become a god (or sea-devil, as it were).

Here's a quote from McLuhan that's more relevant to what you were arguing:

The suddenness of the leap from hardware to software cannot but produce a period of anarchy and collapse, especially in the developed countries. 

The Medium is the Message, Marshall McLuhan

We Float Like Disembodied Wraiths Through Cyberspace

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 25 March 2014.

I like the "minor heroes from a fallen age" idea.

An analogous text might be Beowulf, in the sense that it's a two-part story, with the latter part happening in his old age. The 2007 film version (which I actually love) imagines that the second part happens in a post-pagan era, after the age of heroes is replaced by the Christian age. They think they no longer have need for the old kind of hero now that Christianity has turned that hierarchy of values on its head.

(By the way, I don't think this is what Christianity has done to us, but I think a counterfeit version--the kind practiced by the unctuous minor characters in this movie and, unfortunately, by the vast majority of us--can totally do this. True Christianity builds on, purifies, and ennobles pagan heroism. This is why I, as a Christian, can in my own way echo sentiments like Ibsen's cry "O for a Viking spirit!"  Our Christianity needs to be at least as bad-ass as what has come before.)

Digital culture has similarly emasculated us. A comedian once made an amazing point about this. What is the ascendent company of our era?

That's right, Microsoft.

Okay, Bill Gates, I know you have a problem with people reproducing too much, but did you have to choose a name so emblematic of this emasculated age?! And I would disagree that "hardware" is the standard bearer. Quite the contrary: In the old days, we hefted swords, axes, shields, crosses, etc.; in our day, we float like disembodied wraiths through cyberspace, we live out our days out on "the cloud," the result being that our thoughts and ideas are progressively less wholesome, less grounded, less substantive.

Will, it reminds me of your song "We Used to Be People."

A Walking Meme or Emoticon

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 25 March 2014.

Dr. Farthington as "Ray"

The phrase "turbulent reversals" has many meanings to me:

1. Peripeteia: As Will and Arthur are in some senses tragic heroes, we can use reversal in Aristotle's sense.
2. Arthur's destiny: I think Arthur's calling was to be the turbulent reversal to our culture...the saint of rock 'n' roll...rock 'n' roll's great baptizer.  In this scenario, Dr. Farthington reverses Arthur White.  He becomes the turbulent reversal.
3. The rise of the digital age and the fall of analog: It gives Dr. Farthington his power, but, ironically, it will also be a medium that gives Arthur his place back in rock history. Along similar lines, I was struck by the description of the monster as having "human eyes." It struck me that the monster they encountered was Will, who conveniently does have human eyes. The story doesn't have to go this way, or this could be one of the ways it goes, but it makes sense to me that Will would go into the tunnels to seek revenge against Dr. Farthington and possibly shoot him in the face. It makes sense to me that Farthington's followers would believe that Will is a monster.

I also like the sea devil costume idea for Dr. Farthington. We really don't know if he's alive or not. We don't know if the whole mutilated jaw thing is real. Anyone could be Farthington: Will can't know if he killed him or not.

And Farthington in taking the guise of a mascot is now a walking meme or emoticon. Dr. Farthington also becomes a reflection of us. We're writing the story the same way The Principles of Theory was written. We're manipulating the Internet to foster a turbulent reversal of Internet culture to Catholic art.

The virtual nature of Dr. Farthington also keeps suspicion open about Arthur. It's possible that he is a tortured mystic moving toward sainthood.

Or--if he's the one who imagined Farthington into being--he's insane.

A Primordial Sea Devil Turned Postmodern

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 25 March 2014.

Okay, so I am astir with ideas.
The first thing that started frustrating me is the problem that Principles of Theory is born out of email, but Arthur White refers to it in the 70's.

A voice told me to loosen up and go with it, but the other voice attempted to solve it and came up with something good. The Internet as a character in our story helps to make Arthur White a more concrete person, but it helps to make Dr. Carlton Farthington more abstract...some sort of disturbing force...a primordial sea devil turned postmodern.

It makes total sense to me that, in the days when Dr. Farthington met with his followers face to face, that he talked about his book, but that it didn't really exist until one of his followers did half the work for him via email in the early 90's during email's infancy.

Dr. Farthington is a vampire (metaphorically) who maintains his own power by siphoning it off of others. It would make sense that The Principles of Theory is nothing until the technology exists to suck it out of his followers. In this regard, Farthington begins to make sense to me somewhat allegorically as the dark side of the Internet.

This vision of Dr. Farthington also helps me make sense of the time vortex.

Essentially, Farthington's power rises as digital culture rises, and the more the culture moves from the pagan, analog, portable village model of rock stardom that the sixties gave us and that faded in the seventies and toward the more sophisticated obliteration of time and space (since digital culture puts us in all times and all places at once and becomes an age of recycling and mosaic as opposed to innovation ((the "hardware" of technology advances while the "software" of human ideas dwindles)) the more abstract time becomes for Arthur and Will.

They are displaced minor heroes from a fallen age.

What Happens After Iceland?

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 24 March 2014.

"...they began to catch glimpses of a strange beast during their excursions"

We already know a lot about Will and Arthur. Actually, the scene at the end of "An Evening with Arthur White" shows their basic situation. Both of them are washed up, burned out, with little hope of redemption.

Iceland's eruption may have turned out to be a false alarm, not the cataclysmic event Farthington expected it would be.

The university pulled the plug on Farthington's "pilot program." Farthington was able keep his cult/program going by getting a job at a university library and meeting with his followers/students during off hours. After the Iceland fiasco, he continued looking for his subterranean entrance to the underworld in the steam tunnels beneath the school. As you can read in the Forward [sic] to The Principles, they began to catch glimpses a strange beast during their excursions into the earth. Although the university tried to cover it up, this was probably the thing that mauled all of them.

But, as I've mentioned, Farthington reemerges, mostly in an electronic capacity.

He was pretty messed up. I'm starting to imagine that he lost enough of his face/jaw to make talking impossible. He ends up on Topsail Island, North Carolina, and begins making tentative forays back toward his original mission, again using his credentials to secure a short-lived "speaking" (text-to-voice) engagement at the nearby community college.  I like to imagine that he is able to arrange doing this dressed as the school mascot in an exaggerated form of the avatar phenomenon or a modern-day Picture of Dorian Gray.

I would like the aforementioned cataclysmic moment to open the door to a new period that feels timeless in that Wes Anderson kind of way.  In some ways, I like the idea of Will working out his exacting timetable for the time period between 1968 and 1976, but after that, an asynchronistic paradigm takes over in which events can be rehearsed, revisited, revised, reversed, relived, and/or retracted.

So, for example, Farthington's emergence on the campus of Cape Fear Community College could have taken place in 1984 or 2014 or both or neither. He may or may not be the person in the suit or with the Google account. The catastrophe in Iceland could have happened in 1976, never happened, or is about to happen now. Strict timelines can be introduced, but they become less trustworthy as other alternate realities are considered.  Essentially, this opens the door to our competing narratives and creates a frame in which we never have to get it right, never have to put all our eggs in one basket, never have to sell ourselves out to a single storyline.

Why is this happening?

Two possible reasons that I can give:

1. It's all happening in Arthur's mind, which is now "unstuck"
2. It's the fulfillment of Farthington's prophesy about the "turbulent reversals"

P.S. Carlton wants you to leave messages on his machine ("About anything!" he says).  Call him at (910) 541-3466!

Iceland (song fragment)

The following is one of a series of song fragments Arthur seemed to be working on in the days and weeks leading up to the Concert for Iceland.  Recorded in a variety of formats and locations, these tracks will be released as they become available.

"While they witness / This apocalyptic panorama"

Still hammering out stuff for the Concert for Iceland.  Sarah almost getting ready to give birth, but I thought I'd send you along a rough copy.  My goal is to get these several songs mocked up pretty well and have the entire concert recorded by myself (possibly with help from local musicians).  Most of it, like this one, is extremely rough, but the songs are gelling around some definite themes and motifs, both musically and lyrically. 

This one will have lyrics, lamenting the current tragedy and calling for compassion (à la "Concert for Bangladesh") but then starting to betray the main interest in Iceland, namely, the volcanic portal to the underworld.

Another Arch in the Proscenium

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 20 March 2014.

In some ways, one of the dichotomies emerging at this point is not beauty vs. ugliness, but rather beauty vs. nothingness. This nothingness has no life or existence of its own, but is able to act in "viral" ways, a phenomenon we see all too often on the web. I suppose this is somewhat pathetic for actors who get coaxed into becoming another rib in the proscenium, but it is also tragic for the remaining protagonists, who are progressively trivialized, humiliated, diminished, etc. as their utterances are in inundated by frames.

I guess that may be a good definition of tragedy in general.

And that's a totally different way of looking at it. Is this just a modern version of just the old dialogue between the protagonist and chorus? We know from history that the chorus is the more primordial reality. So, these frames, these arches, these ribs in the the proscenium, these viral elements that have no content of their own are, in a sense, the more constitutive reality (in a way, that makes sense: we were created ex nihilo).  It's again reminiscent of Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music in that the protagonist sinks back into the pre-Thespian chorus, the dithyrambic frenzy.  That is the moment at which the actor becomes just another arch in the proscenium (modern theater having largely done away with the chorus).

I think one of the redemptive questions posed by the project is whether we can in some way win some kind of freedom from these viral frames-within-frames, maybe to avoid being turned into just another echo radiating out from an increasingly depopulated stage, just another member of the chorus, just another arch in the proscenium. But that's what the protagonist tries and fails to do--we already know that. And probably rightly so. But there's seems to be choice at that moment of his downfall, one that leads to salvation, the other to damnation:

1. "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20)
2. C.S. Lewis's idea of Hell being "nearly nothing"

So, if we all become these wraith-like viruses drifting through cyberspace, having no lives of our own, echoing the often trivial utterances of the remaining "heroes" on stage, then yes, we have descended into a kind of hell. But if that stage is vacated of everything such that our lives serve as a stage for the one true God, such that our lives echo and amplify his life-giving Word, then we have actually snatched an unlikely victory from the jaws of ignominious defeat.

So, yeah, the soundtrack with clips of animals doing cute things sounds good.

A Frame Without Content

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 19 March 2014.

One other thought about Farthington: he corresponds to Augustine's definition of evil not being anything. Rather, evil is lack, is absence, is privation (even my use of the word "is" loses the sense of evil's non-existence).

Evil is real, but it doesn't exist, because God never created it, and this universe is only made up of good things created by God.  The only reason we can fall at all is because we were, unlike God, created ex nihilo.  Evil, then, is a turning away from the Source of Being and back toward our origin (although I wish I could omit the word "origin" because, again, we didn't exist; our origin is God).

So Farthington is just a frame without content.

He borrows content.  He borrows existence.  He lives parasitically or not at all.  C.S. Lewis describes Hell as the state of being "next to nothing."  Once the thing he feasts on is gone, he seizes on something else.  How many people get coaxed into this sort of borderline non-existence in our day and age?

McLuhan says that the proscenium arch makes us want to be an actor.

I wonder, though, if it ends up turning us into just another arch radiating out from the proscenium, just another iteration leading our eyes back to the few remaining actors on stage who themselves appear progressively more distant and diminished in stature.

Sitting on Several of the Best Albums of the Seventies

Marshall McLuhan

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 19 March 2014.

McLuhan: "Do you know what the satellite does to you? As an environment, when it goes around the planet? Its a proscenium arch. It turns the planet into a stage, makes you want to be an actor."

I feel like the architecture (if we can call something so destabilized architecture!) to make the project authentically postmodern is all in place...thanks for all the hard work!

Now we just need to give it to God.

I've been thinking about maybe writing a few, for lack of a better term, gags.

One is a Tiger Beat magazine profile of the young Arthur. I think the idea of Arthur saying anything that, say, Chachi or David Cassidy might say is absolutely hilarious.  So is the idea that Will or a Tiger Beat writer would have just ended up making everything up.  I'm also curious to see if my sister might be able to take a picture of you from high school and turn it into a Tiger Beat profile.

I'm also thinking about revisiting The Sweet World children's show and maybe making Arthur's children's book.  It's probably a decent time for me to work on artifacts.  I feel like the basic frame of the story is solid enough for now.  The blog demands some looseness to it, we've got a solid enough big picture to guide us, and we don't have any pressing need to put out the big picture epic in any form.

Your recent blog entries discussing songs reinforces this itch I have to devote time to our music.

I'd like to shoot for an album...any era, but in the mean time, if you want to play with some more Garage Band stuff, that would be awesome.  I really do feel that the most accessible key for the audience to unlock the world of Arthur White is the music.  I think you underplay how good it is...I've said it before, but I think you are sitting on several of the best albums of the seventies.

We're living in the age of the un-/underdiscovered icon and we've got not just an epic to unleash but an entire culture...we've got our message, our cultural relevance, a lifetime's worth of artistic work lying in wait if we can ever get the enthusiasm and support for the project underway, and I think we've done the right thing in making the project enormous and unmanageable rather than containable and shallow.

But the music is always going to be the best part and the way in.

The three of us will always go into these eccentric intellectual and theoretical places, but the music hits people of any sort of bent. It's what breathes life into the characters, too, and the story, for that matter.

In the music is God working through Arthur and Arthur's struggle to respond to his calling, Will's struggle to serve his family and channel Arthur's art into the fulfillment of the American dream--it's the candle that attracts the moth of Joe Lazarus, Sr. and the key that helps Joe, Jr. atone with his father's legacy, the prize that attracts Dr. Carlton Farthington, and the gift that God gave the world.

In some ways, every character is defined by that fact--how do we deal with this gift?

And that question may be the key for my figuring out how to take something so postmodern and keep it in the spirit of a morality play...no matter how outlandish we get or where other authors take the story, there will always be a set of foils dealing with the question of how we handle a blessing, not to mention the three of us.

And there will always be the problem that postmodern people in general don't recognize blessings anymore.

We might be able to help sharpen a dying instinct.

Framers

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 19 March 2014.

I like the Joe Lazarus Jr. campaign almost being echoed/ paralleled/ shadowed by the blog.

Like the two emerge simultaneously or the one shortly after the other, but the blog--the more nefarious entity--controls the outer frame while providing no content of its own.  Even when Joe is able to achieve some kind of victory with regard to Arthur or the project, the blog posts it and thereby claims a kind of ownership over it.

This to me seems a very insidious aspect of the whole embedding, linking, posting/ reposting, tweeting/ retweeting phenomenon: the author/ artist no longer has control of the final way their works will be framed (maybe never did).  And later "framers" can, in a sense, usurp authorship by re-presenting someone else's work in their own context.

History will not be kind to this generation: usurpers with a penchant for thinking they are all famous, all standing on their own proscenium stage before a captive audience of their own adoring followers/ fans/ friends (our project obviously takes that same penchant to a ridiculous extreme).

Maybe the actual creators, those whose art is at bottom of the frames-within-frames will get some kind of credit when these accretions are finally removed. Or maybe modern artists are actually making art with this sort of framing in mind, such that the art requires that kind of gratuitous framing to have its effect.

Maybe it's all smoke, no fire.  All buzz, no substance.  Okay, I'm digressing...

The Concert for Iceland

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will and Joe on 12 March 2014.

Catastrophic eruptions in Iceland

I want to see if I can help hammer out the Iceland story a bit.  Remember that in our "more commodious" frame, this may just be one story among many, not the least of which being our own story: three guys trying to make rock music past our prime (well, not you Joe).

My hope is that this doesn't sound absolutely, utterly insane.

Here goes:

1. Sometime during his Asian odyssey, Arthur falls in with Carlton Farthington
2. Will, seeing his brother sinking deeper into a dangerous cult, manages to get Arthur home again: disaster averted (for the time being)
3. From America, Arthur begins campaigning to have Farthington brought to the states
4. Farthington, who had never considered the idea, becomes personally interested
5. With his Oxford doctorate, Farthington actually receives permission to run a summer pilot program at a Midwestern university on the topic of "multidimensional learning"
6. Long story short, the program devolves into spending a lot of time down in the university's steam tunnels trying to find an entrance to the underworld
7. Arthur is ecstatic about this development; for the sake of the story, however, he needs to be occupied such that he is unable to be with Farthington that summer
8. Meanwhile, catastrophic eruptions occur in Iceland; Farthington begins talking to his students/followers and Arthur about mounting a humanitarian campaign
9. Plans are made for "The Concert for Iceland"; Rustyy Kryystyylz, famed guitarist of the band Beefoven, is contacted and promptly becomes a cult member (he's a little ditzy)
10. Will, in a last ditch effort to save everything that he has worked for, is able to have Arthur committed to a sanitarium and zapped
11. Around the same time, Farthington's pilot program goes horribly wrong with university officials pulling the plug; Farthington and his handful of students/followers get mangled and/or killed by some unknown beast in the steam tunnels beneath the school
12. Arthur is catatonic; Farthington may or may not be dead (spoiler alert: not)
13. Some years after the fact (circa 2014?) buzz originating from an online source begins circling: the Concert for Iceland will finally happen!
14. But the status of just about every participant in the project is in doubt: Isn't Arthur still catatonic? Wasn't Farthington was among the mangled dead found in the steam tunnels? Isn't Rustyy Kryystyylz just a washed-up has-been? And where is Will Witkowski? (Not like he would have been in the benefit band)
15. As time goes on, clues emerge that the online source is none other than Carlton Farthington; after all, his cult involved a "novitiate" whereby novices would forfeit all identifying information and artifacts about themselves--the online source (a blog) indeed seems to be a "clearinghouse" for this kind of material
16. The blog builds to the point that actualization seems imminent.  Posts reveal increasing focus, productivity, and purpose...

What happens?

• The Concert for Iceland: The "original" imagined concert (leave it to the audience to decide whether it actually did happen or this is a figment of someone's imagination) OR
• A "Second-Chance" Concert for Iceland: The original never happened; this occurs long after the fact with a bunch of washed-up has-beens seeking redemption OR
• Karaoke Tour of Arthur White and Rustyy Kryystyylz: This may lead to the "Second-Chance" Concert once people realize who these two losers are OR
• Joe Lazarus Jr.'s Crusade: Joe finds Arthur and leads a campaign to win back the rights to Arthur's material à la The Artist Formerly Known As Prince re-recording and re-releasing all the old material (although it wouldn't need to take that exact form)

Other fun facts:

• Carlton Farthington, if he is still alive, is now ensconced in an entirely electronic identity.  He lives through the blog, websites, online voicemail, text-to-speech software, and speech-to-text transcription.  One of the more disturbing developments is Carlton's "spoken" synthetic messages that begin surfacing around this time, leading to two interpretations: (1) Carlton is dead and someone else is creating these transmissions or (2) he was severely mangled, likely losing the parts of his face and mouth used for speaking and now pulling the strings using these electronic tools.  In some ways, it's the old Star Wars theme of how evil makes one less human ("He's more machine now than man"). And, yes, this wholly electronic existence is meant to be a reflection of the plight of modern man in general.
• Carlton Farthington's real reason for wanting to go to Iceland had to do with an arcane theory that melting ice from the volcanic eruptions will cool the lava, opening up caverns that go down to the center of the earth, safe haven from all the "turbulent reversals" he thought imminent. Complicating matters, he believed that live dinosaurs--both frozen in the ice and living in the warm subterranean caves--would be released at precisely this moment (he considered this one of the less dramatic aspects of the "turbulent reversals," which he theorized would ultimately result in a "new physics").  The humanitarian concert was a front for this agenda.

Loopy Longhand

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will and Joe on 12 March 2014.

I have also been thinking about the original reasons for this blog and whether those provide enough rationale to continue. I can always get the remaining few elements in and then "kill off" the blog, like they do characters in television series.

A few last "panicked" posts and then silence.

Here are some of the reasons for continuing:

1. To capitalize on this "goldmine" of discourse and artifacts that have been compiled over the last 24 months by repackaging it for the blog
2. To provide a clearinghouse of materials to facilitate the next performance (cf. the Dropbox folder and Bandcamp page for the May 30th show)
3. To allow fans to follow as we work our way toward one or more "finished" products

I have to say that doing this has given me a strange burst of creativity generally, not just with regard to the blog.  I am feeling a little better about continuing on for a while longer, but I want to focus a little more on items numbers 2 and 3.

I don't want to spell out everything at this point, but buried within this Dionysian swamp will be some very practical tools to use once the time comes to gather ourselves and move forward.  Using the "labels" feature, I want provide the following: (1) finished mock-ups of the songs and (2) videos demonstrating how to play the songs (cf. "Learn Guitar with David Brent").

The fact that this material will be buried but accessible seems better for a number of reasons.  One, I think it impresses on collaborators that we're not your "ordinary band" (for lack of a cooler sounding way of saying that).

Two, I do like an odd mix of obscurity and notoriety with this project in general; in some ways, the dissembling interface of the blog provides me with that comfort zone.  That said, I want certain chosen ones to be able to access the more pragmatic tools within the site.

As far as helping me, I would appreciate any "artifacts" you can provide.

Joe, it sounds like you are still caught up in the blessed busyness of your life!  I don't expect you will be able to provide much.  If you are able to send or upload anything--raw video, stills, photographs, etc.--it would help.  Will, same thing...a rough draft of the May 30th script with your scribbled notes comes to mind.

I may have shared with you that this project reminds me of how much I enjoyed those box sets that were coming out in droves in the 90s.

It really was an art form of its own packaging those things.  And I would go through them for hours.  I'm not sure what I liked better: listening to "Stone Free" on CD or seeing the lyrics of that song scribbled out in Jimi's loopy longhand on hotel stationary!  I agree that no one will want to necessarily see that stuff without at least one awesome finished product.

But I'm hoping we will have an awesome finished product.

As we get closer, the blog may be more a matter of recording practices, posting live versions of songs...heck, maybe someone could do an audio diary or something.  Certainly an upcoming Google hangouts meeting would be fair game.

Oh well, time to go to sleep.  But I'm having a brief uptick in my commitment.  I hope I've conveyed my reasons for feeling that the blog is still relevant at least somewhat clearly.

Farthington's Voicemail: those remaining people who are Still

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



5/7/14 11:17 PM 7 days ago

Hey, I. I think pretty much more or less the same thing can be said about an artist. Or and Paulette. Is that they are not the source and that they recognize the need for inspiration and they know that you know. I think a lot and all that. And And you know that the whole bit so up as the source You know so I. I mean, this is very clear to me at this point I don't know if it's clear to you I. I pretty much figured out exactly what what I'm talking about here. Where on the one hand. There is a very real kind of nothingness that we have fallen into You know where you have people that are not anywhere close to being called leaders You know they r Really, if anything. You know what they're doing anything but approach is Bolton as their appropriate in the polls or some other people. You know of these. These often times So. Pretty. Pretty U B S profits in harder. And so on and and just kind of like appropriate in beating through Associates through Acklin these people's thoughts another incident. You know that on the other hand, the person is Stephens belt up on that states you know that you have any more and more empty. Of, actors, and I'm I'm kind of stopping to think of those remaining actors those remaining people who are Still. You Know willing to get their up on stage and certainly You know called members come to my but many artists You know, especially, recording artist come to mind to put himself up on that stage. And that Not very good either. You know half the stuff and and kind of their their conception their idea himself, is very much. You know much more exaggerated, version of this comes from me, you know and I was. I. I think you know, 1. One example is coming and what s and some of the puts themselves up on that stage and you know just begin to draw some. Pretty ridiculous conclusions about there important, in the world. So there's something in between those the realities. I don't think it's kind of a middle path I think it's really something that entirely mess. 5. Both of those alternatives and like everything. It's fine. Com Nations. Christ.

Farthington's Voicemail: I'll run covered

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



5/7/14 11:13 PM 6 days ago

So I'm gonna just a couple of things before I go to bed here I think the main thing is. Is that We're seeing this issue. Oh, called leaders. And it's all issue. Really wishing there were someone who could provide some actual content. You know, so the two streams it. On the one side someone. Really grandstanding pontificating. Speaking, truth which is in Really grounded in reality. You know, certainly not in the reality of their own lives, because their own lives up in time. Sorry. An absolute train wreck. You know so that That's side of the spectrum of looking for example of the people who actually do plate Apple uphold or artist or profit and I think. Some of that at least from the standpoint of the profit maybe a bit of in this definition, mistaken definition You know, because I think about it. When you think of a profit. You know they're not speaking on their own authority there never is. Authority. They are always You can on, got this or is there. Speaking You know these words that come from God and that they haven't come from guys and I come to nothing. Pretty much You know that they're not basic it on their own authority, and and there seems to be some freedom of expression comes from that Now, you do have situations where You know, Moses takes credit for or I mean. It just seems like such a spelt thing he does, but it seems like maybe taking credit 4 getting water bring the water. The Brock is in Really that point at which He stands up, and he pushed himself out there, at his source. You Know. And, and so office only these people to 1st of themselves. Ad. Exactly that were I'll run covered Werner Earhart refers it to themselves. As source. And you know so that is. That is another extreme to avoid that we really are. You know the very real. Since Nothing, we were created from nothing. If we go away from the source of our being. And we are gonna go back to being nothing, or at least next. There's nothing. And so. What is it means that the a profit. Now I think another kind of topic is, whether.

Farthington's Voicemail: I spoke with all the songs

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



5/7/14 11:01 PM 5 days ago

Hey, so I don't know if you'll be able to hear. And you just left. I did just walk around get all of the work done here, but I think that's kind of what I mean coming to this conclusion about. I mean as usual. You know it's kind of the person of Jesus Christ, where all these things you come. Clear to me But got you know Obviously, what we're doing with with You know the current situation. The current situation is one. That is, far removed. From that reality. And yet, and in almost photo negative distortion of I I I just started reflection of what it should, B. And so, in some sense. I think that's fair post modern approaches. We are not necessarily going to directly be saying, hey thing doctor at home, but You know, I think that's bringing up some of these distortion. As for the lack of a better word. How you know in a roundabout way point. The ideal and anyway. That's That's. That's one of the main thing that I'm thinking about the position, point, continuing to blog continuing to get these things down. I think that I have a couple more days. It's to make it through and I was you know. Maybe it's just kind of an endless things. Maybe it just goes on and on and It was no ended shy kind of like climbing a mountain view, always think that you're getting there, and just take a look over this next Ridge and then you're gonna see the summer. With insight. And then you get to next Ridge. And you don't see the summer. And so you know, maybe having that. But how you feel, most are coming around the corner. That I mean. I have an opportunity soonest on the cell. I spoke with all the songs. The Noss backed up making notes available to people who can Do something with them copyrighting getting already and, I just having that. And if you know. Maybe it's. Maybe it's shortsighted. Maybe it's. If it's not a good day.

Farthington's Voicemail: people who are compelled to buy his beer

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



5/7/14 10:39 PM 4 days ago

So I'm getting down to. I think one of the war features of this You know this, but I don't know. I'll probably be there. Is. You know that with that need You know what. First of all for really have a lot this day. You know and I think we we have some something quite different. In the person of Christ, that he doesn't have. You don't have any has allowed to say yes but he also has a suspect. Where You know, It's just is presence that barks questions in other people you know that there is just something about on that. That Has P P 4. You know it's not provocative words necessarily all the time. Actually on some of the more. Some of our point poignant compelling episodes in the gospel. It's people who are compelled to buy his beer, presents to ask very deep questions. And you know we sometimes gives them very satisfied, or, you know very direct answers to those questions and sometimes not. You know, but I think one of the interesting things with him. That sets him. Apart from these other leaders who really do try to take. I've net messy innate mantle Is that he does not micro manage the context. So many. So I'll run however puts out the Apollo stars alb of in 1973 or 1974. And it and he writes stole, weinher know. I mean, it's obvious that it somehow. It's either him or someone you know, pretty close to his writing the liner notes and and pretty much setting up the entire context for everything that's been set. You know and I think even to this day you some of these people are constantly and actively involved in lawsuits, getting the curing offline, which is is like impossible to deal. You know just writing letters cease and desist from you know putting this information out there and just really try and trying to get a strangle hold on anything that would cast a somewhat negative flight out anything that's been said by this individual or by the organization or anything that they've been involved in You know that. That is not something that Christ is overly concerned with us. When we knew when you see him that he is.

Farthington's Voicemail: About calls and calls called involvement

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



5/7/14 10:18 PM 3 days ago

And I guess one of the things that I've been kind of interested in, lately has been. It's the reading up on some of these actual stories. You Know About calls and calls called involvement and call like organization I think one that I've been particularly interested in this is L. Ron Hubbard is full story in Werner Earhart and some of that whole cast of characters, from back in the seventies and eighties Obviously you know. Kind of a different character. To those different, inclination this Of of that phenomenon. I'll run harbored is is just I. I mean just in saying he put put Carlton Farthington to you soon, okay cool. So You know, I mean just really really disturbing stuff. But I'm really in. Juline being able to have it. And then maybe a little bit scary, but enjoying being able to have that mind of a call. Leader in the freedom to be able to say whatever comes to mind and have it be true. It is that wrong is that disturbing kind of fun. Just just how free wheeling. I mean when you watch video footage, just tell free wheeling and confident. These people were no, Second, casting themselves. Just, always ready With a very detailed and confident reply really be able to pontificating. At 18, and, and I think that that's a pretty amazing. Pretty amazing opportunity. Actually what it comes to You know, maybe a Dramatic monologues being able to have it, that voice before artistic group or what. It purposes. I'm kind of. Please, scraping the surface of it so far, but I'm kinda interested in getting into a little bit more deeply. What does Carlton Farthington have to say. What is his talk to you soon. What are his. Very. D's and I think one of the things.

Farthington's Voicemail: sheet music with Ericsson courts

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



5/7/14 10:12 PM 2 days ago

Take the current iteration, or the current idea on moving forward at least for me right now. You know I have been gone through my number of different phases, as to what I'd like to accomplish first or It would be. The only thing that I accomplished. Ever is just getting the concert, price for and ready to go You know I want to add a little drama to it. I guess in my own mind. Hi thinking That. I want to get the concert for ice land, ready to go such that were right to die or become incapable of performing any of these songs of this concert, that other people would be able to. And you know that. There is probably quite a bit of arrogance in that. But going along with I think some of the drama of the story. I know the otherwise story about someone who has basically been rendered more or less incapable of performing his own music I. I think that the that dramas, appropriate, and and I'd like to start living in that direction. And just have that the my focus so that would be in recordings, scratch recordings but I want to do a little bit better, Job, but the recordings. Actually, probably primarily just. You know, synthesizer directly in 2 I directly into the computer into just get those. Kinda hammered out such that you get a basic understanding of the flow sheet music with Ericsson courts, I. I don't think that I'm going to end up doing like actual. She because they just just kind of. Court, chart, that go along with the lyrics. And to be able to finish that. And then it You know present that make that available. And then you know, kind of sit back and see if anything happens for the most part. If you are the people do it but. Maybe attend to some other things. But I don't know if that's That seems like a very satisfying and the point and I don't, often a very good idea about. And point. As you know So I think I'm going to explore the idea.

Farthington's Voicemail: Humboldt state One

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 10:36 PM 12 days ago

So I I, you know We don't know what that is. I think there are some people who at that stage try 2 import something from the outside. But You know I mean. We are in this. We are in this Humboldt state One, Where, decisive action seems almost impossible that there's no basis for such actions. You know, certainly go with some some sensible you know. Common Sense things coming, so send steps. But none of them really scenes, a sure bet. And in fact a lot of times they might seem totally counter productive. As mentioned before, so. But it I would say, Justin that state do you do Whatever it is You're given to do you do whatever whatever comes to mind. You. You live whatever it is you've been given to live, you live within the limits. That You Find yourself And And you do whatever is available to you within those limits think at that point, that's, that's a very. That's a very bleak black back round that you are operating against because there's not much, in it, that offers much. Saul S OR much direction OR much clarity. Yeah. But that's Dad, ultimately I think just provides relief. 4. What we are when they're win some of the guide posts are more obvious. Then I think you kind of on those off coupon. Some of those decisions in those choices on The evidence the obviousness, of You know the the the best choices available. I think in some ways that the track some attention from. The agent who is making those choices. And so. I think it's someways what ultimately kids expressed when you're talking about. Our or prayer, or music is cool. We are at. What is that.

Farthington's Voicemail: spiritually substantial Rome

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 10:32 PM 10 days ago

So I mean. Ultimately, I think we come to this question of a You know, with as well. So many things. In this Jen role spiritually substantial Rome, that were talking about. A lot of people of the the laughs, bastion of criticism for this sort of thing. Is that it leads. Quite system, that it leads to the thing that it produces. Nothing minute, is on engaged. And I don't know. I mean. I may be costing on the fumes of something else I may not have the You know the full confirm for the for a Full exit stencil. Vision here. But nonetheless I. I do think that it's pretty interesting. We're pretty important, too. Good to the bottom of What kind of sir Remedy or, equally, M. A. D or or acceptance of the Presence, in bracing of the present. In bracing of one's existence of bracing ones, identity, and acceptance of the limits one science. What When does that. Blossom, into something. Because I, I think, and I don't think that this is something from within the system, but I think it is. One of these things where you have like For example be university You know I just is. But then we find out that it's being. It's getting a constant in fluent. I was energy because it You know it's not only expanding. It's, expanding at that and accelerating rates and I guess the inference. If you can make from that is is that it's receiving an influence of of energy. That's a lot to do that then So I think we have a similar thing where You know we're just talking. It is the just is. But at the same time. We maintain, that through some mysterious. I wouldn't even say process, but through some mysterious presence. Something in that. But there's a flourishing doesn't happen. Even when we have, impatiens, at a very high pitch.

Farthington's Voicemail: panda roads

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 10:28 PM 10 days ago

So I don't know. I've been talking about the same thing for a long time but bottom line is. I feel like when you stop thinking about that transcend incision, and maybe someone does need to think about that in and maybe for those people. That's not a chance and incision, that's very much. A vision that can exist in the present without the pride in the presence. The present up its power and of its value. Hey love. It's, Rich nest, For some people. But for me. I don't think that is the case. That. The present needs to have a phone values that it doesn't it. It can't have, that value that meeting got rich nest siphoned away, by some kind of future dream. So. That being the case. You know, I think there's more modest options that are available, or approximate options, that are available. And And maybe close at hand. There maybe a panda roads. At the church, for example. I heard this You know, that's the kind of things that I had. Not her up to this point. When I was going in transit and dreams. Now, it may or may not be there. If it's not there then. It's not there but. Father is interested in playing inches jamming out, and I'm sure something's come up that news. I've got a number people, poor kind of course, and 2 You know if the spirit moves me for move, so at some point, getting together and. Sam ring things out could happen now. How is that different from Having gone, hopefully you've What is it 14 years without doing anything You know, just kind of sitting on the song switch to me is. It's a little suggest of of maybe something problematic. In my this position and bye. My attitude toward this sort of thing You know, I think there is there's gotta be in open masters in in communication, continually. Speaking, continually listening, continually studying in relationships, If you're not being those things that I that another kind of 8.

Farthington's Voicemail: Maybe prosthetic

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 10:24 PM 9 days ago

And I guess, just calling to this What are we doing now. I mean. I did consider the karaoke thing as you know to do that for or consider that up for a long time But you know. And, that I'm just thinking about the whole thing with dad that this is. It's not just to karaoke. It's the creating of songs on that and choosing. I'm pretty much starting from square one. And then also the custom name aspect. And so there's a lot of aspects. Their that. I just don't have the 4 there, too to go through at this point. I'm not willing to I'm not willing to take away from all the other things that I have, responsibilities who You know, and then and then there is like Some, collaborate there's people a bit interested in the project that certain points to you You can email them, and they don't email you back. Now i mean, you can try to force that issue Whatever. But there's things. I mean limits can take that form as well. Where, kind of becomes obvious that That's probably no longer in opened or you can maybe it's good. Hope it at some later date. Certainly you know you don't wanna shut the door, in your own mind, necessarily, but See, you definitely move on in another direction. When that happens. So You know, now I just feel Like. Some of this idea that We're doing a reunion tour that we're You know, come back tour. Maybe prosthetic, we may not need casting once this thing is all Over. And if that's the case studies. You know, I guess I don't know. I get up. 30 to 40 songs now would be great to have 50 to 60 songs. By that time, which is about the I'm on a time to take speech writer Sciences 20 years to write 20 sons. I can, or the faster than that. But and You know if that is actually perfect, because that's something that I said way back when you now self fulfilling promises possibly but, but that'd be nice to have more songs by then. Just, bail out on that, which is really, the the prime ask for the whole thing, scenes.

Farthington's Voicemail: I live in the south

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 10:20 PM 7 days ago

Not like haven't talked about this before, but. I think the bottom line, with everything. That has been mentioned in recent days, is that now. We just got do what we can do seems like the rather simple, statement, but we gonna do it what's in the realm of our power and You know, maybe, straining against. Pops to close as part of that power. But anyways. It'll be. It'll be interesting, and I hope that this give some freedom. I think you know the main thing for me. Of course, and I think for other people to is is just. I need to stay in that sweet spot. I do stay in at realm. Where are you have inspirational he have, the ability to create and ultimately that's that dictates the whole. Thanks, that You know, if you begin trying to do something in blocks status short circuits that let me know. It's. It's immediate up in the immediately obvious that you need to stop or that you need to find some other combination of activities. That are going to give you the a little break that you need to make it forward. Because, That's really the only break that I'm interested in ultimately I don't think that any other break is really guaranteed. As it is. But the break. As you breakthrough just kind of a constant I'm going writers block that you deal with to be able to break through that. I mean. And that's just an ongoing thing, and it's like. Prayer. It's not like you had Yeah, finish a. If you read the prayer some sort of Prayer. And then you. Your SAT. And you've not stuff to some level. It's like I like the failed X trader, I. D. F. Just, You're pretty much always a failed X writer and you have to. I live in the south, perpetual state of listening. For what the next light, is going to be. And that is really what is ultimately.

Farthington's Voicemail: Hola tree

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 6:57 PM 5 days ago

Where did I leave off. I I was just talking about. The discovery of limits is is not a discouraging or disheartening realization. I think. What I'm saying is, is that this is. My approached the project You know, appreciating the contribution of other people, hoping that they're not engaging in some of these things that I am, talking about where You know, people are aiming at something that is not. That has no Hey sis. In reality, You know, Because, you know belt on, nothing and So You know I set it up about that. I don't, need to say anything else about that. I just. I'm kind of relaxing the end of this and I feel like I'm having a surge of inspiration. As to you know, not only creative flair musically or, politically, but also just inspiration about living this own living this life HI living this life that I currently have and which is loving Mercy itself. It's That is, I think if we wanna Christian Reiser baptized. The. Mostly existence of concepts. It's to say that Well, what I'm discovering. In these limits is You know, On the one hand the cross, but also on the other hand. God's will. And there is they'd kind of joy and I kind of 4 minutes. I'll kind of film and and well, You know. The be constrained in, in touch in the area. The ways. It is good thing, and many things discovered that in You know I'm kind of getting just. I need flavor of that. But You know it's it's just kind of like with Hola tree. I think one of the things that will treat each issue is you can never pull the trigger. I mean, you just so often you would just like to 2 6. Explain what you mean or just You know figure it out. And just put it down on paper.

Farthington's Voicemail: City of one situation

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 6:53 PM 5 days ago

The soul of the subject of limit and A very popular one. But ones freedom. You Know operate to whatever extent take Canon the discovers women and I don't know. I don't know what the experiences or how to describe the experiences becoming acquainted with ones limits is. But. It's not an entirely on pleasant experience discover limits. It's not an entirely SAT experiences. To discover that one has limits. I was just the fact is, City of one situation, dictates. A certain range of action. For the constraints you And for ride your place in the mix, only a very narrow range of choices available, I. I don't find that to be. 8 disheartening, discovery. In some ways it's pretty empower thing to not have to imagine, and tragic, concoctions, hey, it's a til late stage in life. You know I'm really kind of the second half of life to try taken cock some reality that to bring some sort of reality into existence at this late. State. It would be frustrating. And And unsuccessful it and. Would it drain and the president of It's very real meeting. And it's It's phoneless and would leave everything that real. It Would, impoverished that reality, and putting one side, or putting 11 hopes and some sort of transcend in reality. The has no existence. So. I think that's part of what I'm trying to get out. Right now, both in the song that I, just, Roads and, and generally I think in my approach the project is, that one thing isn't You know, It's just kind of a writer, and then I'd spend a bad that's been a bad thing in certain ways. I have absolutely no ability to market myself, or if you can. Thanks, in those terms.

Farthington's Voicemail: Dr. Yeah

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 6:49 PM 5 days ago

So lemme My point is, is, that any any attempt to fabricate that is is actually gonna be counter productive, anyway. And just to relax and do the situation. In relaxing in the situation. The doesn't necessarily mean the Thursday tension other than any desire her passion or You know question or straining. I know that qualitatively at field much different, with your straining in a direction that is it And I don't even want to see the right direction existing your straining in a direction that is not I don't know, just part of your existence and You constrain as much as you want and in fact they think that is struggle. And And And suffering and joy and triumph and Gloria, all that it's wrapped up You Know. And. And whatever your individual circumstances are at any given time But that's sad. There's another kind of striping, which. I think taking from Como somewhat is the form of committing suicide. So whatever the The fact to city. Your life is for them to get the point. I'd Welling entrance and then dreams. And I just don't think that there's any real reason to do that. Dr. Yeah, drive and and and struggle, and suffer. And push again. Those, things does it stand. Anyway, those obstacle, all that you know that's it's gonna be, it's gonna look very vigorous It's not going to look like quite as by any stretch of the imagination. But I do think that this is part of what it's. It's an aspect of maturity, is too be able to tell the difference between what that struggle looks like. When it's an authentic struggled one of the struggle that happens, within the limits. You Know. And. And that's not something we like to say.

Farthington's Voicemail: Being, content, and serene

A treasure trove of Carlton Farthington's voicemails has recently been made available to the blog.  At the request of researchers, enthusiasts, law enforcement agencies, and other followers of the project, voice-to-text transcriptions have been published as-is rather than edited for sense.  We hope that this will better capture the texture of the spoken word, rendering it more accessible and/or flexible for the diverse purposes of our audience.



4/26/14 6:45 PM 5 days ago

So. I mean anything. Remember that. But I do think that this is getting down the start of something that's actually I'll be on choice of actually maybe something up the reality of the situation. The underlying reality, which is that You know, there is No way to necessarily. Great out of out of anything ultimately It seems like some of these people. After, fumbling around with sketching out from the basics come to the conclusion that ultimately One, Two things, 1. Cell and That's about the best you can do. You know now, getting down the bottom of what exactly that is is another matter. But you know, I've. It's driven. Many, many times. It'd be an accomplished something that is way outside, the realm of my identity and That is Ben on Successful. And you know that kind of ambition is, getting tired of that kind of thing that I, I have lots of laughs energy for that. I've left a possibility. The forced myself to do that. And And that's probably a good thing You know, It's just to bring forth that which you've been given. This is what What. What part of the message. Do you have in and being able to articulate that and just keep keep trying to articulate that the best you can. You know, and then one that goes away then 7. It's You know, there's no real reason to try to fabricate anything. I think in the process of just listening in, trying to see where the openings for action. Our and then just. Being, content, and serene. When there are no openings for action. That kind of seems. I need to be the way that you would find out a little bit about yourself. If you would find out some aspects of of who you truly are. You know when you get active and and forcing the issue and You know, trying to create something or fabricate something that's not there. I think you kick up a lot of dust and it's gonna take. Bye.