My old friend Bathtub Jenn sent me an email thanking me for Unconscious TapeLoop Blues #1, a poetic mashup I made many moons ago. She told me when she feeling down and out she plays that song. I told her its because some of those lines are from when I was living on the streets. The Unconsciousness TapeLoop is a poem I wrote then I was 23. It was probably the first time I realized what art/poetry meant to me and how I should use it. It’s been a real struggle since that moment.
She then that night sent me another email:
Can you send me a written copy of UTLB#1? I want to record a performance of it with my illustrator and best friend, roldo… would that be okay? You’ve done so much… and meg… omg
I was shocked and deeply grateful that anyone really is still engaging with anything of my art, much less wanting to record a performance of it. Jesus I am a lil embarrass or some kind of shame, I don’t know maybe because I know I am just a pen…
I wrote up the lyrics for her and I felt like I had to give some context to the process and even the lines of the poem. It’s a cut-up poem. But also stream of consciousness lines…
Anyways let’s get into shall we?
This is one of the best attempts at Brion Gysin’s and William S Burroughs’ Cut-Up Method. This is when I really begin to experiment with Remix Culture, Sampling, which is all now essential to my digital brew.
Language is a virus from outer space (Burroughs Quote)
If you Cut-up the present, the future leaks out (Remix of Burroughs)
A steady beat of civilization passes by my window screen, music pulsating through my headphones, visuals loop on my computer screen. My mind wouldn’t rest, my mind can’t rest. (Stream of Consciousness of when I was thinking of making this)
The mystery of consciousness, this is the unconscious tapeloop blues.
The poverty, the ones that are tatter, shattered, beaten with hollow eyes staying up smoking dope in the supernatural darkness of the library after-hours low dim lights, contemplating Hip-Hop, the perverted mind of Boo-Boo and Spunge Wars! (A poetic stream of consciousness a nod to Ginsberg seeing reflection of when I was living on the streets)
Illuminating all the motionless world of time between
Who thought they were only mad when county jail gleamed In supernatural ecstasy.
(Remix of A Ginsberg line)
The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer(Burroughs)
The liberation of the mind from the symbols is exactly the same process of
breaking up the links between the succession of emotions
and the illusions of the continued self that travels from moment to moment
The central idea of the ecology of the mind is that we create the world that we perceive, not because there is no reality outside our heads, but because we select and edit the reality we see to conform to our beliefs about what sort of world we live in. (Steps to an ecology of mind Quote)
Language is a virus from outer space
If you Cut into the present, the future leak outs
The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer
The liberation of the mind from the symbols is exactly the same process of
breaking up the links between the succession of emotions
and the illusions of the continued self that travels from moment to moment
The central idea of the ecology of the mind is that we create the world that we perceive, not because there is no reality outside our heads, but because we select and edit the reality we see to conform to our beliefs about what sort of world we live in.
When you Cut into the present, the future leak outs
When you Cut into the present, the future leak outs
When you Cut into the present, the future leak outs…