AtDTDA (7) 188/195 777 A few obs

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

The way and the where we landed in our journey so far in 
Against the Day---just outside of Deadwood, I'd say---after 
our baroque intro to "T.W.I.T"., is a variety of  segue that 
I've heard many, many times before, as if wafting in from 
some other dimension of time and space. The artistic 
collective responsible for this is yet another source of pointed 
political satire and dope humor/humoures, paranoid plot 
contraptions and often successful evocations of voices from 
"the other side" .:.

http://www.firesigntheatre.com/

This record---their first. . . .

http://www.firesigntheatre.com/albums/album.php?album=wfte

features a routine entitled "W.C. Fields Forever". It incorporates 
Cowboy themes [as does the mp3 sampled "Temporary Humbolt 
County"] mashed up with Hippie themes, producing these absurd 
juxtapositions and in the process making an historical illumination
out of the whole absurd excersise. Come to think of it, the metaphor 
of "Illumination", in all of its potentially traverse paths, is yet another 
shared trait of these two artistic entities. In:

http://www.firesigntheatre.com/albums/album.php?album=hcyb

we have two themes central to Against the Day. "How Can You 
Be In Two Places At once When You're Not Anywhere At All" 
(1969)---right there, right in the title, we've got one of the big 
themes of AtD: bilocation. And the specifics of bilocation that 
are being referenced here---the electromagnetic spectrum,
Shamanism, Time Travel---are all used in the same contexts
in AtD.

Continue to scroll down to:

                     In the obscure reference department, the damsel 
                     in distress in this episode is either Melanie Haber, 
                     Audrey Farber or Betty Joe Bialowski but everyone 
                     knows her as Nancy. She is in league with arch 
                     villain Rocky Rococo. This is a tip o’ the hat to the 
                     Beatles Ballad Of Rocky Racoon. The Rocky part 
                     is obvious and Nancy is derived from the lines 
                     “Her name was MacGill/And she called herself Lil/But 
                     everyone knew her as Nancy”. Once again, if you 
                     are not a Beatles fan and the reference goes by 
                     unnoticed, it does not detract from the bit at all. If you 
                     are a Beatles fan you may recognize the reference 
                     subconsciously, and it just makes the sketch that 
                     much more surreal. If you want to really stretch 
                     your Liberal Arts education, look for the dialog 
                     lifted straight out of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Like 
                     many of us on Epinions, these guys had way too 
                     much time on their hands. Or maybe it was way 
                     too much dope.

                    The self-referential dialog adds greatly to the Twilight 
                    Zone mood. The characters alternately acknowledge 
                    that they are in a play or are confused by it. “It had 
                    been snowing in Santa Barbara since the top of the 
                    page…” Or “Come in out of the cornstarch and dry 
                    your mukluks by the fire.” (Cornstarch is commonly 
                    used by Foley artists to simulate the sound of walking 
                    through snow.) The device of a voice box is used to                     
                    distinguish Nick’s voice as a narrator from his dialog                     
                    with the other characters. At one point in the narration 
                    he asks “That reminded me – how had she gotten                     
                    herself involved with that slimy weasel Rococo and…
                    how do I make my voice do this?”

There is much more in this quite useful essay as regards Nick Danger.
While Lew Baslight is by no means an identical charecter, he is obviously
a close relation, much as Dick Private and Hemlock Stones, all living
under the Firesign.

Not to say that P=FST, but only to note how clear, how specific the relation.
The notion of a "Psychical Detective"---Nicholas Nookshaft's notion, as I 
recall---is a next door neighbor to Nick Danger [665; Neighbor of the Beast!],
Hemlock Stones and Dick [667] Private/Primate. Both cyclical and psychic and 
promising eternal return and renewal even if only as re-runs on "other 
channels". . . .


"Everything You Know is Wrong!"

            "That was about land," said Kit

            " I suggest it was about the fear of medicine men and 
            strange practices, dancing and drug-taking, that allow 
            humans to be in touch with the powerful gods hiding 
            in the landscape, with no need of any official church to 
            mediate it for them. The only drug you've ever been 
            comfortable with is alcohol, so you went in and poisoned 
            the tribes with that. Your whole history in America has 
            been one long religious war, secret crusades, disguised 
            under false names. You tried to exterminate African 
            shamanism by kidnaping half the continent into slavery, 
            giving them Christian names, and shoving your peculiar 
            versions of the Bible down their throats, and look what 
            happened."

            "The Civil War? That was economics. Politics."

            "That was the gods you tried to destroy, waiting their hour, 
            taking their revenge. You people really just believe 
            everything you're taught, don't you?"

            AtD, 777

As a little kid---11. 12---I'd tune in regularly to "Radio Free Oz" on
KRLA in "Los Angeles" (say it like this):

http://www.firesigntheatre.com/albums/hcyb2.mp3

. . . .and one night, they had an Elder of The Hopi People explain
how the Hopi never sold their land to white men, that the U.S.A. 
never had legal jurisdiction over their lands. This show ran till God
knows when, it started at 8 pm, I went to bed at 11pm (had to go to 
school the next day, wouldn't you know?), they handed the mike to 
this Elder for the whole show. Those thoughts expressed on page 
777 of Against the Day are expressed by the Firesign Theater as 
well. they have said pretty much the same notions over and over , 
in play after play.

Two days ago, my siblings---all Firesign fluent, one and all, heard
me read the infamous scene in GR that starts: 

          Ketchup's a code word, okay---

. . . .in as much of a Firesign Patois as I can muster, which is 
considerable, and which produced the desired hysterical effect.
Those sorts of voicings brought the passage screamng to life.
If nothing else, these two entities might very well be reflected or
perhaps they are bilocated. But something's up.