An Uncommon Mirage: The Psychiatric Bedevilment of Susan Q

Sixteen months ago, I received a strange request from a Professor Hans Urfel, former head of the psychology department at the University of Uppsala in Sweden and current operating Director of an elite institution for studying the mentally ill. Due to the nature of doctor-patient confidentiality, I was unable to publish any part of my involvement in the study until just recently hearing of the untimely death of the patient. As for the patient’s name, I was never truly informed and all documents I received in regards to this matter stated the name as “Susan Q”. This is, of course, a false name given to me since my role in this endeavor was that of a technical contractor and academic consultant.

See below a copy of the original letter sent to me by Dr. Urfel.




I replied to Dr. Urfel quite promptly, because he was quite right. I was in no position to refuse work. While the retainer was adequate, I felt I would need to push for a bit more money. He had approached me with an assumption of my cooperation. And while that assumption was correct, I disliked its implication of dominance.
My reply to Hans Urfel:


Dr. Urfel ended up accepting my wage increase request and I set to work making the audio and video for the hallucination of Susan Q. The images in her vision were this: images of a strange river where boys washed clothes, wordless images of men yelling silently, threatening images of bears and flames with some reference to the “Bear” sub-culture of homosexual men. Although these references were brief and subtle, according to Susan they were represented as textual images, as if reading from a book. Other parts of the sequence include stage circus acts featuring “Victor the Bear” and his trainers in one section, and an elephant routine involving a woman held in the mouth of the great beast while it stood on a stool.

It was these two animal performances that I recognized while reading the accounts recorded by the psychiatric staff at the institution. They were from the Ed Sullivan show and were in vivid Technicolor. The Ed Sullivan Show ran from 1948 to 1965 in black and white. After making the mandatory switch to color in 1965, the show only lasted six more years and was canceled after the 70-71 season. This rapid decline had much to do with the changing times. But for me, it was a deeper shift in the way we access memory. The defined and rigid entertainment of black and white depended upon the writing talent bred from the radio age, but color needed no ally. Color TV exploded into our communal consciousness and slashed wide, permanent marks in our memory. Black and white images became synonymous with nostalgia. But I digress from the story of Susan Q.

Susan Q’s hallucination had an intricate audio soundscape consisting of some hip-hop elements most likely lifted from that night at the pub. It also features some dissonant melodies that she was able to hum under hypnosis, which I have represented with electric guitar. Several bits of poetry also infiltrate the scene. The transcriptions for these pieces can be found following the video.

Unfortunately for all involved, my contribution did little to help the severely removed Susan Q.

Dr. Urfel’s attempt at confronting her with her hallucination had a distinctly opposite effect. If she were not allowed to spend an hour a day watching the remake of her hallucination, Susan Q refused to eat and would steer herself into the corners of rooms, spending all day with her face to the wall. Her condition worsened to the point of hospitalization whereupon she withered and passed, ultimately dying from complications of pneumonia.

Since her death releases me from my restrictions in publishing anything about my involvement in this matter, I now present to you the very short film I created for Dr. Hans Urfel. Interpretations may vary.


The Voices that Susan heard:

Overheard voice: “Last night, I had the strangest dream. It wasn’t until it was over that I realized my eyes were open the whole time.”

Overheard poem:
“I wonder could I bother you for a spot of marmalade
just shove it in me brain holes
‘til me vision starts to fade”

The rhymes in the dance beat sequence:
“Brothers spit with liquid fist
Crush memories with time
Imitate the hypnotist
And rule your tiny mind

Blister quick, my wicked tick
I push my ‘barrow slow
I’ve been toiling with the wind
Now it follows me where I go

I can cut it up in pills
I can bend it to my wills
I can make it simplified
Universally bona fide
Won’t you look into the eye?
My sign is rising..."

Original musical composition and vocal samples are created by me. Audio samples freely contributed from these freesound.org musicians: Zajo, Simon_Lacelle, dobroide, LS, nicStage, FreqMan, mrbubble110, sleep, walkerbelm, fathead74, alexbird, Andrew_Duke, sagetyrtle, BristolStories, djgriffin, Jace, propthis, and Matanael.

OBAMA vs KANYE: Berlin 1989

Check it out. Audio track featuring off-the-record Obama in his assault against college dropout Kanye West. Enjoy the "video"
Feel the burn....


I made this kanye spoof image and this musical composition. But it wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for Kanye's moment of hubristic selflessness and Obama's off-the-record rebuke. The music is composed mostly of samples from freesound.org users: patchen (trickyhop beat), djgriffin (acidhouse bass), acclivity (cuckoo), sagetyrtle (bells2), and BristolStories (chimes).

Did you like my autotuning? It was fun and a pain to do for free. If you would like to know how to autotune for free, here we go. Download FL Studio 9 Demo for free. This is a good program, but won't let you export from the demo version. Even if it did, FL Studio does not come with the ability to autotune. Thats where freeware .dll plugin for audio editors GSnap comes in. Made by GVST, this plugin allows you to manipulate autotuning through the frame of a different editor. Unfortunately, it is not compatible with Audacity (claims to be) and I had trouble using it in free sound editor Wavosaur. Yet it worked like a charm on FL Studio 9.

If only I could actually export the sample I made without paying for the license. The main difficulty with trying to autotune is that most audio editors can only do part of what you want and many editors are incompatible with autotuning plugins. It ruined my evening for a couple hours, as I had all the other samples ready.

Here's the simple way. It's easy if you go back to basics. Apply the GSnap effect to the modifications given in this video by youtuber WizardRuru: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J3Hlih9dvI
Plug your computer into some decent speakers to play out your unexportable FL/Gsnap autotuning effect and set up a decent digital microphone at a small distance from the speakers. Or you could even use the headphone jack connected to an audio editor, but I used a digital mic. Ha. Record output effect in your usual program as a source audio and taa-daa. It even made the sound slightly more robotic.

kanye west, berserker hentai

I've been working on some promotional images for the blog. The idea is to scatter them around the internet looking for new readers.
Here's the first, playing into the KanyeWest/TaylorSwift meme that's run wild since the 2009 Video Music Awards controversy. Important stuff.
A lot of similarly themed image collages featuring Kanye's hubristic moment of selflessness can be seen at http://kanyegate.tumblr.com/

the apocalypse popsicle contribution


this next one is somewhat inspired by the Love Among Freaks song Berserker, a song made famous by the film Clerks. but that's only half the idea...


if you haven't heard the song Berserker, you really should
here's a link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miYMx59P_uM

Fun fact: Love Among Freaks are from New Jersey like me. Also, their drummer went on to play in the psychedelic metal band Monster Magnet. I saw Monster Magnet play at the Jersey shore and Kid Rock opened for them before he was "famous".
You will be quizzed on this material.

Invasion 1963

Did you know JFK was replaced by an alien from outerspace sometime in 1963? Part of an ill-fated exchange program with Venus, the alien-JFK impersonated our 35th President with great skill. It was this alien that suffered the murderous assassin's bullet that fateful afternoon in Dallas. With our young Catholic president seemingly deceased, the REAL John F Kennedy lives even today in exile on the sandy shores of Venus. His return to Earth would reveal the existence of extra-terrestrials. If this knowledge had been made public in '63, it would have unfortunately destroyed the Great Work that the Kennedy's and the Venutians had been building together for two decades.

Here, on this very video, you can hear the tale of the false-JFK's interstellar travel to earth and the aftermath that resulted from the assassination of the Venutian Ambassador. From the lips of alien-JFK's only living hybrid offspring, Ralph Kennedy, the tragic journey of Ralph's grandfather is told here for the first time.


I made this movie. The words and voice are mine. Any footage used here has the direct cultural purpose of subversion in that the images are meant to narrate visually an intent that is both similar yet distinct from the intent of the poem recited. That is to say, that the original intent of the footage has not been reproduced nor would the resulting montage ever have cause to replace demand for the original works that help compose my video.
Fair Use is at play.

Many thanks and credit is due to freesound.org musicians and audio adepts: james.brody for his bean belt shaker, ultratone for his circus-like mashed drum sample, suonho (thanks again) for his basscapes samples, Cyril_Laurier provided wind, jakeharries provided water sound, pryght and marvman for their bass lines, sagetyrtle and st4ngs for their laughter audio, and Andrew Duke for his roll effect.

Spoken word piece by me entitled
"In Southerly Places"

low in the tawny tendrilous grass does grow
a speckled mother of pearlescent shadow
upon the tilted dolled-up dreamcoat
on the river-worn weakened shore
where the ferrymen bedraggled and weathered
refuse to touch a clay orange hand
the shadowy man shakes a shadowy hand
if you be seeing me again
there won't be any wound to mend
and none that sparkles in the east
can lead these men across the plains
the sandy wind to catch in sails
holding mouths wide open to suck the bravado born breeze
to swiftly speed the journey dead
in southerly places,
they speak in codes


Did you know that JFK was replaced with an alien in 1963?
I did. That's why they shot him. Although the world was kept in the dark, he was an alien worth mourning. The public killing made it impossible for JFK to return to Earth, leaving him to spend the remainder of his days on the planet Venus....


A picture of Kennedy's kept woman; a Venutian/Human hybrid called "Claire"

An Introduction to Poetry

Enclosed herein: a short tutorial for aspiring poets with sample metaphors and instructional tips


I made this movie. The words and voice are mine. Any footage used here has the direct cultural purpose of subversion in that the images are meant to narrate visually an intent that is both similar yet distinct from the intent of the poem recited. That is to say, that the original intent of the footage has not been reproduced nor would the resulting montage ever have cause to replace demand for the original works that help compose my video.
Fair Use is at play.

The audio samples used were created by freesound.org users: suonho (memory moon blaster effect), sleep (weird loop), patchen (drowning 83 drum loop). Thanks for making your work available. Aspiring hip hop artists and subversion novices should check out http://www.freesound.org/ and http://creativecommons.org/

Text version of An Introduction to Poetry:

alabaster
words like alligator
connected by sound to poetic image
let's be blunt about it
it's just like mom's homemade apple pie
to an orphan, the foreign flavor it is
of never had, yet lost, pleasure
re-experienced in a deja vu first impression
long lasting taste
the most confusing memory
the longer the grasping moment of disconnect
it is just reminiscent
it is only liquid tension
held in stasis by rubber band fences
remember
remember what to forget
the remembering to forget, yes yes
how salivating, the desire to suddenly punch
i'll give you now what will be memory
hidden obscurely, traveling where i cannot see
beneath skull and between ears
that absorb and contain selectively impressed notions
push it out your mouth now
bring it back
bite it into segments with your shiny, relevant teeth
i will eat it like a baby bird
you regurgitate my intent
i consume your interpretation.

Moon Landing Party Jam

Another track from the April 17th 2003 Hooked on a Feeling show, the Moon Landing Party Jam focuses on the 1969 communication between NASA mission control center in Houston and the Apollo 11 moon landing team of Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins. The other source audio is the "phone call" that President Nixon made to the astronauts. This presidential conversation was televised to millions around the world split-screen with footage of the moonwalk. The source recordings here represent the first inter-lunar communications ever recorded and they are far from clean. Every voice is over-modulated and the dialogue is puncuated by slightly piercing beeps. These beeps are there to let the earthlings know when the moonmen's transmission has finished and that they are ready for a response from earth.

The audio for most of this track is composed by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, original acid house samplers from the UK in the 80s. The Ancients were forced to remove many of their initial records from stores as this was prior to the existence of sampling laws for musicians. Drummond and Cauty of the JAMs went on to form the KLF, a popular psychedelic dance group fairly similar to the Ancients. The more prominent song featured here was one of their hits as the JAMs, Doctorin' the Tardis, a song that fits the interstellar theme quite well. Later, the K Foundation burned a million UK pounds for very little reason.



Four funky fresh fellas



MOON LANDING PARTY JAM

Moon Landing Party Jam - HOAF Tapes by slim

In 1969, the America was in the depths of the Cold War, struggling to come to terms with the Civil Rights Movement while the war in Vietnam raged on without a foreseeable end. It was a tense time for most Americans as the vision of 1950s wholesomeness grew tarnished and tired in the face of nuclear armageddon.

For a brief moment, the moon landing lifted that communal depression in America. As the masses watched from their living rooms, two men conquered the dreams of star-gazing children forever. Now that travel to the moon was a possibility, the dream had died. No longer could young boys and girls speculate about the skin-color of moonmen and whether or not the surface was indeed composed of swiss cheese. Snatching these colorful fantasies from the minds of children forever, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong trampled on top of those youthful dreams of a craterous moonscape. Like conquistadors, they quickly defiled the soil and planted their flag.



*All music originally aired at non-profit station WCFM 91.9FM Massachusetts. As this material was originally broadcast with permission and the resulting audio is both transformative and unlikely to replace demand for the original artist's work, I am claiming the right to fair use.


EXTRA CREDIT ALERT
Little known fact: Nixon thought the astronauts had space cooties.

Here's an old song by me called "Equal Rights for Moonmen". It's an anti-war protest song I wrote back in the Bush administration.

Equal Rights for Moonmen - Slim Oliver

Eulogy for JFK in Two Movements: The HOAF Tapes

From October 2002 until June 2003, I hosted a weekly radio show called "Hooked on a Feeling" on WCFM 91.9FM, Williamstown, Masssachusetts. It is a tiny college radio station broadcasting from within a valley in the Berkshire mountains. The peak of Mt. Greylock and the rest of them intercepted the transmission before it could reach beyond the valley. At max, the broadcast reached about six local town centers. Of course, the internet stream was up and running and I'm sure maybe three people listened to that as well. My show was on Thursday nights starting between 11pm and midnight.

With two turntables, two cd players, and a mixer in the middle of them, I began to mix spoken word tracks onto music in order to create sound collages. The plan was to create new musical documents that illuminated the popular culture associated through juxtaposition and the accompanying dissonant and synchronous moments. By manipulating the four sources in front of me, I created many mash-ups whose musical and intellectual intent has evolved from the source material. While much of the resulting material has political overtones, others are attempts at transcendent children's music. Some tracks even make the hubristic boast of approaching the level of "art".

Affectionately called the HOAF (hoof, or ho-af) Tapes, these tracks have languished for the past six years confined in their plastic prisons of magnetic tape. That ends now. Some of these tracks suffer from overmodulation on the source recording-I just consider it an artifact of the old machines available for use in the radio station. While I have made noble attempts at re-mastering, some of these artifacts will still be present.


Jack on the yacht; note his posture that shows his physical deformity and the illness he hid throughout most of his short life

Eulogy for JFK in 2 Movements - HOAF tapes by slim
THE EULOGY OF JFK IN TWO MOVEMENTS
This track is a fairly simple composition featuring the words of JFK and Moms Mabley and the music of the Sandpipers and John Williams, as well as other bits and bobs of audio. This track attempts to evoke the accessibility of the charismatic Kennedy and the chaos and confusion in this nation following his assassination.

*All music originally aired at non-profit station WCFM 91.9FM Massachusetts. As this material was originally broadcast with permission and the resulting audio is both transformative and unlikely to replace demand for the original artist's work, I am claiming the right to fair use.

EXTRA CREDIT ALERT



The potently mystical Shroud of Brookline

Also, this guy:

He is the Solomon Islander that saved JFK's life in WWII.
You can read about that over here:
When Jack Fell Off the Boat