Wednesday, February 22, 2006
DISCORDIANS AND STARWOOD
The Starwood Festival has its own radio station broadcasting news, music, and information to Festival goers during the show. One segment, called the "Discordian Radio Hour" is described this way:
The Discordian Radio Hour (From 1-3pm. That's still only an hour in Discordian time...) Join Gryphon and Krissy every day from one to three for an eclectic mix of music along with live perfomances and interviews with guest musicians and presenters. Look for treasured gems of classic rock amidst our usual musings on offbeat pagan philosophy, a running commentary about things we're not supposed to notice at a festival, overwhelming bad taste, and awkward periods of stunned silence. Don't miss our Erisian Spongebath Ritual translated for the first time from the ancient Greek into pantomime! Bring your kids by the station to meet the Stranger they should never talk to... because it still doesn't GET stranger than this!
The "Erisian Spongebath Ritual" is a reference to the Greek goddess Eris--goddess of the Discordians.
Founded in 1958 in San Francisco by Malacalypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (Greg Hill and Kery Thornley), Discordians or Erisians essentially believe that there is nothing worth believing in and poke fun at everything. The Religious Movements Homepage Project at the University of Virginia gives a detailed description of the movement, calling them an "audience cult." According to the website:
Discordians presuppose that the world is actually chaos, confusion and disorder that we veil with a thin sheet of order and stability. Problems in the world come from those who impose order on others when it really isn't needed. Discordians worship Eris, the Greek Goddess of confusion. Eris began the Trojan War when she threw a golden apple into the crowd at a party she wasn't invited to. On it was inscribed the word "Kallisti." In Greek, it means "to the fairest." The other Goddesses fought over it and the ensuing chaos gave Eris a name. Discordians state that they have been talking about Chaos theory long before it became popular among scientists. The Discordians also revere the Sacred Chao, a yin-yang symbol that replaces the dots with a pentagon and the golden apple of Eris. They call this symbol the hodge podge and it represents the endless cycle of order and disorder that constantly redistribute power between themselves.
On Amazon's list of "Links to Discordian Web Sites" is the Church of the Subgenius, which has been represented at many ACE events by Rev. Ivan Stang whose tapes and CD's are available through the ACE website.
Amazon offers a Discordian reading primer which includes books by, among others, Malaclypse; Aleister Crowley; Robert Shea; Robert Anton Wilson; Timothy Leary; Peter J. Carroll; William Burroughs; Aldous Huxley; Michael Baigent; Robert Thurman; and of course J. R. Dobbs, the "Bob" of the Church of the SubGenius, whose emblem is a picture of a male human head smoking a pipe.
Starwood tops the list in the SubGenius events website. A particularly offensive redrawing of the "Bob" symbol can be seen at this webpage, but don't complain to me if you look at it and regret it. There are also links to "Bob's" sound clips in there.
Rev. Stang and Pope Bob (Robert Anton Wilson) were the headliners at the Dallas MegaFisTemple Lodges Austin Devival.
Another irreverent Discordian website--Discordian Research Technology, a weblog--offers "Angels & Demons" for discussion.
One of my most interesting ambigram projects began when novelist Dan Brown expressed an interest in having ambigrams play an integral part in the plot of a novel he was beginning to write. It was to be named "Angels and Demons", but at first, Dan would not tell me any more about it. So I designed the Angels & Demons title, one of the most challenging ambigrams I've done.
The Barry Bittwister Cabal appears to hold the copyright. I assume that is not a real world name.
Here is Dan Brown's Ambigram website.
Novus Ordo Discordia, supposedly the work of "Father Whiskey" (Father Jung Willie Liquor) former Roman Catholic Priest and Dealer in Chemical Amusement", provides a sample of the "relgion" of the Discordians.
You can see a picture of the Discordian apple at Robert Anton Wilson's website.
