You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"

From: Artemia Salina <y2k@sheayright.com>

Date: Sat, Aug 16, 2003 6:15 PM

NOW PLAYING ON ALT.BINARIES.SLACK

SEE! The Future in all of it's glorious holographic detail!

HEAR! The testimonials of happy Future inhabitants,
nurturingly guided by their Bozo Overlords!

SEE! Reverend Ivan Stang wielding a knife, dressed
as a clown!

WHAT HORRORS DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?!

YOU'LL BE SHOCKED! AMAZED! MORTIFIED!

The incredible amount of work that went into this
production is evident and makes every minute worth
watching. The low budget might fool some people into
thinking that not much effort was put into it, but
consider how difficult it is to work with real film
rather than today's digital media. The animation
sequences alone would've worn me out (I did some
primative "claymation" stuff on Super 8 film as
an early teen, so I know just how tough and
unforgiving the process can be). I don't even know
how the insets were done (some standard technique,
no doubt, but I'll be damned if I know).

I've just started learning my way around in digital
video editing myself, and this film simultaniously
makes me want to delete my DV software and give up
AND inspires me to continue on so that one day I might
produce something as entertaining as this. Perhaps I'll
do both.

My favorite scene has to be the Bozo Mating Season. VERY
Fellini-esque. In fact, if it had been done in Italian with
english subtitles, I would've sworn Fellini had a hand in this
film.

All around good shit.

P.S. See if you can spot the proto-NheeGhee!

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

Thank you ever so much for saying such nice things about my old film!

No shit!

I REALLY appreciate it.

It was generally disliked by the hipster audiences of 1974 because it
was so mean, hopeless, dark, and uncolorful. I didn't even bother to
enter it in film festivals. But I did mail the print to Mark
Mothersbaugh, and he and Jerry Casale hired me to do Barbie Vs. G.I.
Joe stop-motion for a DEVO video. I also mailed the print to David
Ossman of The Firesign Theater, and he had me show it at the Papoon for
President convention in ... 74? 78? But he left during the Bozo Mating
Season scene. He said he absolutely could not take that scene. I guess
he didn't like to think about the fact that Wimpo not only existed, but
had made the film.

I especially appreciate the comments re: Fellini because "8 1/2" is
just about my favorite movie EVER.

The insets are just plain double-exposures, and obviously not done with
any precision.

There is no way in hell that a person like me would be able to survive
in Hollywood. The brilliant film maker Mike Jittlov ("The Wizard of
Speed and Time") is like me, but GREW UP IN HOLLYWOOD -- and it managed
to crush him anyway. Actually he's probably not crushed, but I suspect
that, like me, he had to move on to some other mode of expression
besides movie film.

My son is in Hollywood and works for a slick commercial production
house. He is not tall but at least he's handsome, so he MIGHT have half
a chance. He is not like either Jocko OR Wimpo. So he might be able to
make the ultimate anti-Conspiracy Conspiracy movie where I failed.

Ironically, my maternal grandfather, Donald McNutt Douglass, was a
writer, and his ambition was to write the ultimate anti-religion
religious book! All he managed to do were some award-winning mysteries.
His anti-religion manuscript, which I have, is too preachy. It's a damn
shame he didn't live to see "The Book of the SubGenius," which may have
been roughly what he was shooting for. He just didn't know about J.R.
"Bob" Dobbs and Slack.

I do know that the moral of the story is, FINISH THE FUCKING PROJECT,
don't just talk about finishing it. Even if it sucks, FINISH IT. It
might not suck so badly, 25 or 30 years later. Ya never know till you
try.

I find it hard to critique movies in a negative way, because I know how
difficult it is to finish even a BAD movie. But then... when they give
some guy 150 MILLION, and for that he turns out "The Hulk," well, THAT
sort of thing I guess I can criticize fairly easily.

Anyway, thank you very very much for the kind words. I DID bust my ass
on that thing. My liver didn't come through it all that well either.

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: "Ellis Dee" <fxtrt22@yahoo.com>

"Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com> wrote in message

> Ironically, my maternal grandfather, Donald McNutt Douglass, was a
> writer, and his ambition was to write the ultimate anti-religion
> religious book! All he managed to do were some award-winning mysteries.
> His anti-religion manuscript, which I have, is too preachy.

I would be interested in viewing a excerpt, if possible.

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: "Rev. Jihad Frenzy" <cht@gis.net>

In article <160820031943089341%stang@subgenius.com>,
"Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com> wrote:
>
> I find it hard to critique movies in a negative way, because I know how
> difficult it is to finish even a BAD movie. But then... when they give
> some guy 150 MILLION, and for that he turns out "The Hulk," well, THAT
> sort of thing I guess I can criticize fairly easily.

Pastor Stang, you speak the truth.

While I think MANOS: The Hands Of Fate, is a craptacular movie, it's
full of Slackful exuberance. Which of course means it beats the HELL out
of such tripe as The Deep.

The guys who made it wanted to make a movie, all they had was a wind up
16mm camera that, for some reason was only good for takes of maybe 30
seconds or so. They had no budget to speak of and one of the stars was
seriously mentally fucked up (The guy that played Torgo) but he built a
lot of sets and made the hairy legs/hooves appliances he wore.

They had a premier in some Texas town, complete with searchlights and
all sorts of "hollywood" premier antics.

The movie bombed, of course, and there was a raft of suicides
afterwards, but By Dobbs! these guys made a frigging movie that people
are still talking about into the next millennium!

--
Rev. Jihad Frenzy

"I've got monkeys in my pants!"
Robert John Cusack

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: Artemia Salina <y2k@sheayright.com>

> I especially appreciate the comments re: Fellini because "8 1/2" is
> just about my favorite movie EVER.

8 1/2 was my first exposure to Fellini. It was the film that convinced
me that he was a genius at story telling through film. I saw it maybe 25
years ago, ONCE, and although I've forgotten most of it, the scene where
the main character is having a conversation with his dead father is still
clear in my memory.

Many times I've had dreams where I was AWARE of the presence of someone
familiar, but for one reason or another never actually SAW them. I've
even had conversations with them in the dreams and STILL never really
saw them.

All through the conversation between the main character and his father
you would only see the father's feet as he scampered back and forth
behind various objects. What a brilliant and simple way to convey that
type of dream situation! How else could it have been done?!

I literally sat with my jaw dropped as I watched that scene.

I wonder how many kids were like me and daydreamed about inventing
a machine that could record people's dreams on film or video tape?
I guess it stands to reason that I was impressed with 8 1/2.

> There is no way in hell that a person like me would be able to survive
> in Hollywood. The brilliant film maker Mike Jittlov ("The Wizard of
> Speed and Time") is like me, but GREW UP IN HOLLYWOOD -- and it managed
> to crush him anyway. Actually he's probably not crushed, but I suspect
> that, like me, he had to move on to some other mode of expression
> besides movie film.

(Pardon my rattling on in the following paragraph but I was struck by
a pontificatory mood)

There's never a need to explain where one is in life and why they aren't
somewhere else; odds are that that is exactly where they want to be, in
one way or another (excepting when they're stuck in an unairconditioned
car with grease paint on their face), and that's all that really matters,
because WE *SUCK* when we're not where we want to be.

> I do know that the moral of the story is, FINISH THE FUCKING PROJECT,
> don't just talk about finishing it. Even if it sucks, FINISH IT. It
> might not suck so badly, 25 or 30 years later. Ya never know till you
> try.

Ok, so I WON'T delete my DV software.

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
Newsgroups: alt.slack
Date: Sat, Aug 16, 2003 8:00 PM
Message-ID: <160820032000342110%stang@subgenius.com>

>
> SEE! Reverend Ivan Stang wielding a knife, dressed
> as a clown!
>

I forgot to mention. There is a hideous irony involved here. About 6 or
7 years after I made this film, I was at the lowest point of my career.
I had gotten married and fathered a couple of kids, but I COULD NOT get
work. I tried every single TV station, film production house, ad agency
and fucking CAMERA STORE in Dallas-Ft.Worth, and NOBODY would put me on
staff. I was too white, and my resume' made me look like an artist
instead of a craftsman. And I had no college degree. I had bills to pay
and mouths to feed, and out of sheer desperation I answered an ad in
the paper... and for about a month I WAS A MIME DELIVERING BALLOONS TO
SICK PEOPLE, IN WHITEFACE. Driving my own fucked up car with no air
conditioning, in white greasepaint, in the summer, in Texas. For $5 a
delivery. And the boss was a total bitch. I WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO SPEAK,
*OR TO WEAR MY GLASSES* while making the deliveries.

The ONE TINY SMIDGEON OF HOPE that I had going for me was that the
little pamphlet that Philo and I had assembled for "Bob" was getting
some positive attention from my heroes in the underground comics world,
and Philo and I had begun trading talk-tapes with far-away pals like
Puzzling Evidence and G. Gordon Gordon.

I would drive around in that sweltering car, with the standard
transmission, with greasepaint sealing in the sweat, THE LOWLIEST BOZO
IN THE UNIVERSE -- and I would RANT LIKE 19 MOTHERFUCKERS into that
shitty little tape deck. Truly HEART-FELT ranting.

And I am still making my living mainly off those very words I ranted
then, to this day. Such as it is. Those were the words that went into
"The Book of the SubGenius" and the early devivals and shows. Some
passions you just can't fake, and when the real thing comes bursting
out, some people can tell when it's the real thing and not just some
art hippie trying to be clever.

I hope I never have to feel that much passion and irony again. It takes
a lot out of a feller. Maybe it "builds character" or something, but it
SUCKS to be poor and miserable when you have a family to support.

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: El Queso <""the_cheese_23\"@(nospam)yahoo.com>

Rev. Ivan Stang wrote:

> and mouths to feed, and out of sheer desperation I answered an ad in
> the paper... and for about a month I WAS A MIME DELIVERING BALLOONS TO
> SICK PEOPLE, IN WHITEFACE. Driving my own fucked up car with no air
> conditioning, in white greasepaint, in the summer, in Texas. For $5 a
> delivery. And the boss was a total bitch. I WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO SPEAK,
> *OR TO WEAR MY GLASSES* while making the deliveries.

Gawd dayum - that trumps every "shitty job" story I've ever heard.
Seriously - I'm amazed you didn't wind up killing people.
Queso

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: "nikolai kingsley" <nikolai@broadway.net.au>

maybe there's a chemical in greasepaint that makes clowns, mimes and some
goths go a little, well, peculiar.

nikolai
---
okay, i'm gonna go buy me some white greasepaint now.
hey, aren't you glad i didn't bitch about my 33.6K dialup
and not being able to access alt.binaries.slack?

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
>
> Gawd dayum - that trumps every "shitty job" story I've ever heard.
> Seriously - I'm amazed you didn't wind up killing people.
> Queso
>

Let me put it this way. The North Dallas Sledgehammer Slayer has not
been active for quite some time.

One day on that balloon job, my car broke down in downtown Dallas --
RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE SALVATION ARMY. I had to enter the place in a tux
and whiteface to call for a tow. All these bums crowded around me --
WANTING BALLOONS! But I had to deliver the fucking balloons to a
nearby office. So I told the bums I was sorry and headed up the street
with the dozen balloons. In the whiteface. In this generally Black
area. As I passed in front of a vacant lot, a hostile man emerged from
a cardboard-box HUT and started HOLLERING at me angrily. I couldn't
understand a word he said. I had had ENOUGH that day and instead of
ignoring him, I hollered back -- SILENTLY! Remember, I was in mime
make-up. I just shook my fist and mouthed weirdly, making no sound.
That spooked him and he went hack into his box.

Once I got into an elevator in a hospital after giving the flowers to a
terminally ill person... VERY awkward for a mime... and there was a
little kid and his mom already in the elevator. The kid was TERRIFIED
by my horrible WHITE WHITE face and started screaming. I mean, he was
in total panic. The mother got real MAD at me as if I was deliberately
getting into elevators to scare little kids.

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Subject: Re: You MUST Download "Let's Visit the World of the Future"
From: hellpopehuey@subgenius.com (HellPopeHuey)

So THAT'S how you became a cult leader. I knew there had to have been
a pivotal moment.

HellPope Huey, hellpopehuey@subgenius.com
Zap my P-RAM & Rebuild me or I'm gonna SPLORP

"Some tie lover's knots...we tie hater's knots."
- "Mr. Corbett's Ghost"

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in the ANGRY DOME!"
- "Futurama"

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Original file name: You MUST Download "Let's#1AD939 - converted on Saturday, 25 September 2004, 02:05