The Mauve Zone #012 - The Great Media Brain Drain, Insight Roles, and Canadian Conspiracies
Some conversations, archive materials, movies to watch ,etc.
I’m back at the Mauve Zone yammering
***Begin transmission
Joseph Matheny, David Metcalfe, Willow Truman and Ken Eakins send you transmissions from the Mauve Zone.
How idiots became 'intellectuals', The Queen of Canada's Conspiracy scene, how to 'prove' UAPs, and ploughing them fields baby.
Music by Simon Smerdon
Transmission ends***
Audio-only links
Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/mcaediia
Apple Podcast:
Xen and History
The pre-Arthurian myths about Merlin or Myrddin, the mad man in the woods, inspired my audio drama/book, Xen: The Zen of the Other. It makes sense now if you’ve read or listened to that piece. I’m happy to see origin stories finally being unearthed and acknowledged. Ezra was a man driven mad by the horror of human civilization, and he retreated to the woods to gain insight. Depending on your perspective, he found it or lost it entirely. Watch this video for an introduction to this proto-legend.
From the Archives
4P2
My initial experiment in the True Crime genre followed a simple formula: create a single, eerie web page that appeared to recruit for an organization whose existence was, at best, unsubstantiated—and at worst, pure fiction masquerading as fact, or the kind of paranoid myth-making often used to sell books. Predictably, the reactions were all over the map. The theories referenced on the site read more like imaginative crime fiction than plausible reality, and that was precisely the conceptual territory I wanted to explore. It worked. What surprised me, though, was the volume of responses, split almost evenly between people earnestly applying to join (seriously, who wants to sign up with a supposed underground cabal of serial killers?). Those sending death threats are convinced that such groups are real. As someone noted in a piece from The Fenris Wolf, the project certainly struck a nerve.
the-fenriswolf-iss-no-4-pp-87-116
Movie Recommendation
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006)
Perhaps America’s most important artist from the last fifty years, Jack Smith is simultaneously hailed as the godfather of performance art, a groundbreaking photographer and the ‘William Blake of film’. His utopian ideals, artistic processes and bejeweled artworks left no generation untouched since, and became essential influences to contemporary art superstars like Andy Warhol, Federico Fellini and Matthew Barney. In her feature-length film debut, director Mary Jordan combines Smith’s rare and unseen films and photographs with rare audio recordings, acting appearances, and other relics squeezed from Smith’s vaulted archives. Commentaries from art luminaries, critics and Smith’s friends and enemies (such as screenwriter/playwright Ronald Tavel, New York Observer critic Andrew Sarris, transvestite extraordinaire Mario Montez, and filmmaker Ken Jacobs) intercut Smith himself proffering condemnations of capitalism, critics and institutional-art “gatekeepers.” Jordan also delves into Smith’s tenuous relationship with Andy Warhol—who adopted Smith’s ideas and actors in his own work (including Smith’s “Superstars” concept), his vilification of New American cinema pioneer Jonas Mekas, and other previously undocumented biographical topics. From the Whitney to the Louvre, Smith is acknowledged as one of America’s most influential artists, yet his legacy remains at the edges of obscurity. Pure in his artistic pursuits, Smith smashed head-on into the politics intersecting creativity, capitalism and meaning in contemporary art. Since his 1989 death, Smith’s work has been rarely publicly displayed. Still his influence pervades contemporary art and pop-culture today. This documentary portrait pays homage to New York’s ultimate anti-hero and the original King of the Underground.
This movie occasionally appears on streaming services or torrent sites, but it’s also relatively cheap on DVD. Jack didn’t simply make movies but instead made motion paintings. I consider Jack a personal artistic hero. -JM
The new Mycelium Parish News
The new Mycelium Parish News 2024 has landed in my mailbox. I see I got a few shout-outs, which is appreciated. It’s a great zine, with its own unique flavor, with hints of Factsheet Five reminiscence. Check it out!
In memoriam
Pere Ubu has always been a heavyweight in my musical rotation. It is one of the few bands I have never gotten tired of.
David Thomas, Pere Ubu's defiantly original leader, dies at 71
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/24/g-s1-62547/david-thomas-pere-ubu-obituary
LINKS
A town that once existed, now nothing but an empty void. What horrors took place in Ong’s Hat?
Ong’s Hat: The Internet’s First Conspiracy – Or a Hidden Truth?
Taxonomizing Conspiratorial Information Practices: Examining the Ong’s Hat Legend
The City That Disappeared Overnight — What Really Happened to Ong’s Hat?
Love the open illuminated idea 💡
I am seeking mail art and memes of that ilk, if anyone has some please do send a communique- especially if you have the ten thousand burial coordinates formula for the joining of the original Bayern/ Bavarian chapter- one un-named guest has a copy I suspect.
Kindly send the secret communique via Frater Æ m ÅI Ľ if possible- I’d be very grateful, as would be my order of the holy ink…
it’s for a sub culture spot, that is hearing the rumours & stories that completely echo this Mauve commentary on the resurgence trends of detractors from Zone guests and a little game we should like to play. 😉