DIDACTIC COLLECTION OF ADJACENT MYTHOLOGIES

A Supplement to the Museum of Psychphonics We live in a world where all things not-strange are propped up as a fiction of normalcy. We aim to corrupt this cha- rade with a new normal — a psychphonic disruption, a shared consciousness built upon outlawed narratives and tal- ismans. It is a temple, a secret mechanical garden, an ex- traterrestrial portal, a museum for the post-internet age.

Within this transdimensional sanctuary you will discover cu- riosities documenting the great counter-conspiracy that is continually waging battle against the threat of big Silence.

Experience these strange wonders from both the far and near corners of the world. And remember, All the World is Watching. Let’s give them a show.

Welcome to The Museum of Psychphonics and Collection of Adjacent Mythologies.

Editors: Benjamin and Janneane Blevins Creative Direction: PRINTtEXT Art Direction: Kipp Normand Publisher: This is Meru

Contributors: Mitchell Douglas “Once Upon a Time Called Now: Parliament’s Mothership” Dr. Rhonda Baughman “Elvis, 2001, A Space Odyssey, Market Square Arena: Synchronistic Link” Maurice Broaddus “The Mis-Education of Kurt Vonnegut” Elle Roberts “Dead Black Men Don’t Lie: The Ferguson Brothers” Taylor Peters “A Future Finely Zipped: Immigrant Memory and Music” Susannah Koerber “Music for Tomorrow: Sun Ra Plays for the Space Age” Dr. Fiona McDonald & Dr. Larry Zimmerman “A Dent in Your Worldview: The Psychphonics of Knowing Earthworks” Kyle Long “Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell” Richard McCoy “Acton: James Turrell’s Tule Fog” Enrique Ramirez “The Astral Lightning Rod” Thomas Kennedy “Pythagoras and the Music of the Spheres” Ben Winters “Robert Fludd and the Celestial Monochord”

Co-conspirators: Stuart Hyatt, Michael Runge, Michael Taft, Scott Stulen, Alyssa DeHayes Sedcairn Archives, blottboy, Shame Thugs down, Clinton rose from a hidden ONCE UPON A TIME CALLED NOW elevator beneath the stage while Staging the Religion of Parliament/Funkadelic’s CO2 tanks were triggered to emit smoke, emulating the appearance Mothership of the band’s own lunar land- ing. Through the clouds, Clinton Mitchell Douglas emerged in a white, full-length “Once upon a time called now...” ermine coat and matching hat, the is not a call to arms, but a call In this moment of unequivocal- planet-hopping threads of his fa- to funk: the galaxy-searching, ly groundbreaking rock and roll mous alter ego, Dr. Funkenstein. Big Bang Theory of otherworld- staging, there are truths about On the live album, the crowd at ly jam birthed by an earthbound the Mothership that can’t be ig- the Oakland Coliseum showed brother from another plan- nored. Skeptics can laugh and their love with thunderous ap- et named George Clinton… say that ship ain’t really go no- plause. Certainly, the production where, but as a symbol for all planned by Clinton and Fisher was or Star Child… things P-Funk, it most certainly a feat to be witnessed and praised. or Dr. Funkenstein… did. That symbol was more for or Lollipop Man aka the Long the traveling of the spirit than the So where does that leave you, Head Sucker… body, and the Mothership moved visitor to this museum of log- plenty of spirits. The music is ic and reality-defying oddi- …depending if the mood, the what moved our bodies. Then ties? Hopefully, nodding your groove, and everything―includ- and now, each part integral to the head on the one in agreement ing his funky emotion―is on the mythos of this funky black future. that you are in a very lucky, one. and surely funky, space. Enjoy. Back to that consider- Can y’all get to that? ation of a time called now. catching on earth and imagining cast of funkateers proved it could When Clinton, an enterprising Consider yourself privileged to ourselves in a new and real free do just that on a grand scale. The New Jersey-based doo-wop sing- be in the presence of what own- world. Perhaps the planet still had band’s incomparable performanc- er of the ’50s and ’60s, stepped er Tom Battista, an Indianapolis the echo of 1969 and “one small es were captured that year on into the ’70s with a new vision native and music industry legend step for mankind” ringing in its what is arguably one of the finest for The Parliaments, the world in his own right, refers to as the ears after Apollo 11 gave Ameri- live albums in existence: Parlia- was better for it. Drop an article “Baby Mothership.” Construct- ca the bragging rights to claim the ment Live: P. Funk Earth Tour. and a letter, turn the “backing ed of an aluminum frame and first moon landing by the living band” recording alias that was body like the parent craft, this and breathing (David Bowie was In a seamless mix of funk factions, Funkadelic into a full-fledged, mini version of the Parliament famously pleased as well). After Funkadelic’s ’75 title track to body-rocking thang of its own, totem is a testament to Clinton’s Sun Ra declared “Space is the Let’s Take It To the Stage and “Get and it was clear that Clinton’s dedication to first-class staging. place” in ’72, Parliament/Funk- Off Your Ass & Jam” from the evolution was much more than adelic cosigned. Long before we same album and “Undisco Kidd” semantic. With Parliament shak- Before the funk hit the road, Clin- were defining any art genre as and “Take Your Dead Ass Home” ing rumps in an R&B vein and ton sought the help of lighting de- Afrofuturism, Sun Ra was liv- from its ’76 release Tales of Kidd Funkadelic rocking out, there signer Jules Fisher, a Broadway ing it. Clinton soon followed, Funkadelic became key crowd was nothing Clinton couldn’t do. veteran who, before working with using his family of musicians bonding moments on Parliament’s Clinton, helped stage tours by to provide a funky soundtrack P. Funk Earth Tour album. It was Boasting a revolving cast of Bowie and The Rolling Stones. to exploring the galaxy. getting harder to tell one band players that included horn mae- The original Mothership, an in- from the other (and maybe, just stro Maceo Parker, guitar gods flatable stretch limo, and other If the title track of Funkadelic’s maybe, that was the point). Forget Eddie Hazel and Garry Shider, iconic stage props were construct- ’73 release Cosmic Slop was the about who did what, just dance. keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell, ed at a Broadway production simultaneously interstellar and and electric bass pioneer Boot- house in Newburgh, New York, inner city distress signal audible But Parliament/Funkadelic is sy Collins (to name a few), the Battista explains. Head carpenter from light years away (“I can hear more than music—it is a religion, juggernaut that was Parliament/ with Parliament’s road crew from my mother call…”), Parliament’s complete with its own language, Funkadelic explored, stretched, 1975-1981, Battista was respon- “I Just Got Back” on the ’74 al- traditions, and rituals, the landing and broke boundaries in the sible for the flight and landing bum Up For the Downstroke (“I of the Mothership, perhaps most most beautiful ways: Parliament of the Baby and the Mother. In just got back from another world important of all. It should be un- as the swinging, horn-backed that time period, the Baby Moth- / It was way, way past another derstood that there was church on funk band James Brown could ership, Battista estimates, was side”) was an answer and a sign of the stage when the Mothership be proud of (sure, Maceo had a used in at least 400 performances. things to come. Parliament took landed, that audiences absolutely hand in that), and Funkadelic as up the mantle of space travelers lost their minds when the gone- the Hendrix-on-10 rock outfit that On gigs where the size of the like Kirk and Spock with much too-soon Glenn Goins laid down a didn’t care how unconvention- venue allowed for the use of both better outfits and cooler tales to silky incantation declaring “I can al it was. Eventually, one funky vessels, Battista notes, the band spill. The evidence was unearthed feel the presence of the Mother- hand forced the other, and Parlia- gave its fans a feast in perspec- in Parliament’s ’75 release Moth- ship.” If you’ve heard the P. Funk ment set its sights on the cosmos. tive. With a little Broadway mag- ership Connection and its ’76 suc- Earth Tour album, you’re al- ic via a deep sea fishing motor cessor The Brides of Dr. Funken- ready familiar with the audience’s But why were musicians fascinat- (appropriate with Parliament’s stein. “P-Funk, uncut funk—the screams of approval. Backing ed with the concept of space, and, “Aquaboogie” destiny waiting bomb” was transmitted live from Goins, a magical P-Funk Greek in the case of African American in 1978), the Baby Mothership “the chocolate Milkyway” by the chorus sing/chants “Swing down artists, why did this reimagining came into the earth’s atmosphere mythical radio station WEFUNK. sweet chariot, stop and let me of blackness take such an honored gliding over concert goers on its But it’s one thing to display fly- ride,” and, seemingly through the place in our American psyche way to the stage, a shower of py- ing saucers and outfits that would persistent urging of Pastor Clin- and cultural advancement? You rotechnics in its wake. Battista’s make KISS jealous on your album ton, Deacon Goins, and the devot- could blame it on the age, say we attention then shifted to “landing” covers, quite another to take it to ed flock, the Mothership lands on were hungry to be treated right, the full-scale spacecraft on the the stage. In ’77, Clinton and his stage and the “service” gets hot. get away from the hell we were stage. As the Mothership touched ELVIS, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, AND MARKET SQUARE ARENA: Synchronistic Link Dr. Rhonda Baughman

This author always likes to inter- believes he is deceased, but should view experts when researching someone believe otherwise, this synchronistic connections. Of author would not attempt to re- course, the definition of expert move any meaningful connec- varies wildly among journal- tions between the viewer, seeker, ists, academics, and writers. For and artist himself. It can also be those about to enter the Museum noted that as long as we discuss of Psychphonics, you are about something, it is never, truly dead. to become one of those experts. However, it is important to leave Elvis was 42 years old when he pre-conceived ideas behind and passed―42, it can be noted, is the suspend disbelief of multiple (yet answer to the universe in Douglas occasionally appearing as cliched) ly plane, and all have altered the according to an updated version Adams’ book The Hitchhiker’s conspiracy theories. This author definition and use of the word and of Elvis performances, titled ‘The Guide to the Galaxy. Aren’t we is not the first to explore synchro- concept of synchronicity as need- Elvis Concert’ (begun in 1997), all, in fact, galaxy hitchhikers? nistic connections between the ed. Any practitioner of the sync this song is still used to open Finally, the word ‘explosion’ can ron Presley film, the singer, and the venue. It arts can do this. Elvis Presley and his shows―after his death, via be used for all three items ex- 965 7951357 is important to note―the singer is Stanley Kubrick are prime exam- computer technology. Kubrick’s plored: the demolition of Market deceased, director Kubrick is de- ples, witting or unwitting, of sync film vision of infinity alongside Square Arena, the exploding of ceased, and the venue is deceased, artists. Furthermore, the Market the human race’s obsession with Elvis on the rock-n-roll scene/ +9+6+5)+(7+9+5+1+3+5+7)= 80 (now the site of forthcoming lux- Square Arena housed many sync conquering all, including land, the explosive news of his death, ury apartments). Yet all remain artists and creators, even attend- air, sea, space, technology, (to and the explosion of the uni- ees during its heyday―and al- name a few) as well as the con- alive in the minds of those who verse―at beginning and end, as 8+0=8= had knowledge of them and con- though the arena has since been cept of ‘death as art in life’, is well as the groundbreaking film leveled, a memorial stood there. noted and has been realized with tinue to take an interest in them. itself―in 2001: A Space Odyssey. ∞ A memorial to Elvis Aaron Pres- these posthumous Elvis perfor- ley designed by Alan Clough. mances, giving even more sup- References August 16, 1977 port for his infinite composition. I. On a personal sync note: this Introduction http://www.elvispres- 8 + 16 + 1977 = 2 0 0 1 author’s first boyfriend, a high And considering performances, leymusic.com.au/pic- school sweetheart of ten years, the King’s last concert was in In- Author: “Elvis, 2001: A Space Od- tures/1977-june-26.html was born on the date of Elvis’ dianapolis, IN at Market Square yssey, and Market Square. What do 53491 1965 7951357 death: August 16, 1977. One of Arena, demolished in 2001, coin- https://www.quora.com/Why- those things make you think of?” (Synchronistic Link) 17 the first two pop-up books this cidentally. In at least three cases, did-Elvis-open-his-shows- Expert: “A great night out in 1969.” with-the-theme-from-2001-A- (2001: A Space Odyssey) 17 essay’s author received as a child, 17,000 people were reported as Space-Odyssey (5+3+4+9+1)+(1+9+6+5)+(7+9+5+1+3+5+7)=80 was an Elvis pop-up book, from having attended Elvis’ final live (Market Square Arena) 17 This pithy answer was received her father’s record store, Kos- concert, although the number http://www.inquisitr. online in January 2016, from an _____ mic Blues. Kosmic can be de- changes with the reporter. Some com/2246532/an-elvis-pres- Emperor of Synchronicity, An- fined as containing space dust, bloggers are fond of pointing out ley-hologram-will-perform- 8+0=8= dras Jones. Jones is currently in 15-shows-next-year-in-las- as Elvis and the original Market Elvis’ specific death date: August 1+7=8= charge of the IndieGoGo for the vegas/ ∞ Square Arena now do, as does 16, 1977―(8+16+1977 = 2001), 2016 Sync Summit in Olym- ∞ Kubrick and Kosmic Blues, and but there are other numbered **http://numerology-thenum- pia and Boise ( https://www. the theme of space dust, which synchronicities. For these three bersandtheirmeanings.blog- Elvis death: August 16, 1977 indiegogo.com/projects/ is certainly explored in 2001. musical containers, there are, in spot.com/2011/05/number-17. the-2016-sync-summit-proj- html 8 + 16+ 1977=2001 ect-boise-olympia) and au- fact, 17 numbers/letters in each thor of Accidental Initiations: In of the following: Synchronistic http://indyhub.org/sorry-i- the Kabbalistic Tree of Olympia. II. Link, 2001: A Space Odyssey, missed-it-on-presley-the- # of characters Exploration Market Square Arena, and Elvis circle-city-and-immortali- (Synchronistic Link) 17 ty/ Andras Jones has taught and led Aaron Presley. The number 17** (2001: A Space Odyssey) 17 this author toward many trajecto- A second expert, Run author is a spiritual number. Adding the http://www.indystar.com/ ries of synchronicity, and provid- Douglas Winter, pointed out Elvis numbers 1 and 7, you reach 8 ― story/money/2015/12/04/360- (Market Square Arena) 17 ed powerful insight and direction often opened his shows with the the number of infinity. A biblical market-square-contrac- ____ along the way (as Jones’ dream ‘Sunrise’ flourish of Also sprach interpretation for the number 8 in- tor-seeks-26m-unpaid- work/76793954 psychologist father, Dr. Richard Zarathustra―aka the theme used dicates a new beginning or resur- 1+7=8= M. Jones did for him, and as the in Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A rection. The new apartments be- http://www.liveleak.com/ twin fathers of modern psycholo- Space Odyssey. As an artist, it’s ing built on the site of the former view?i=796_1191843629&com- ∞ gy Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung a clever, inspiring, and magnani- arena has been called 360 Market ments=1 (Birth # = 9)+(Name # = 8) = 17 did for Dr. Jones). I can go on, but mous way to open a show. Elvis Square―or the number of degrees in a circle―which is a continuous http://lostindiana. ____ for the sake of brevity, this is as far performances, onstage and on net/2001/07/08/mar- as the lineage trace will go: Jung/ film, are timeless, infinite. 2001 loop, where the end meets the be- ket-square-arena-indianap- Freud, Jones, the father, Jones, the film, along with its music ginning, which meets the end... olis/ 1+7=8= the son, to Baughman. The defini- and original composer Richard ∞ tion and concept of synchronicity Strauss, explore and offer, at min- Notes Interview: Andras Jones, 01 Jan- is, for our purposes, meaningful imum, a definition of infinity. The uary 2016 coincidence. Over the course of performer, himself, is an infinite *If he has, in fact, departed. To this Interview: Douglas Winter, 02 all careers (Baughman, Jones, se- entertainer. His contributions to day, eager Elvis fans point out his January 2016 nior Jones, and Jung/Freud) two the world live on long after his numerous sightings even after this of the five are still on this earth- earthly departure.* Additionally, death pronouncement. This author THE MIS-EDUCATION OF KURT VONNEGUT

Maurice Broaddus

The most spiritually splendid Much has been written about Kurt of Magical Negroes that would vindictive chapter of the Free- American phenomenon of my Vonnegut, Jr.’s struggle with al- make Stephen King proud: Ly- masons who were attempting to lifetime is how African Amer- cohol. Osbun tied his addiction man Enders Knowles (the crazy suppress all roads to truth. It was ican citizens have maintained to Vonnegut’s attempts to reach elevator operator from Cat’s Cra- this family legacy that drove Kurt their dignity and self-respect, higher planes of thought in order dle), Wayne Hoobler (illiterate Vonnegut, Jr. to heavily code and despite their having been treat- to decode the African American convict from Breakfast of Cham- disguise messages in his work. ed by white Americans, both in and out of government, and experience. Belief was the only pions), or Elgin Washington (the simply because of their skin magic he knew and the ability maimed pimp from Breakfast of Eventually, he finished his codex color, as though they were con- to consciously choose his beliefs Champions). So he sought help though its exact nature remained, temptible and loathsome, and was at the heart of the power of from a higher plane of existence. a mystery. An insatiable collector, even diseased. ― Kurt Vonne- his work. What he chose to be- he accumulated one of the largest gut, Armageddon in Retrospect lieve in was music. In his final Vonnegut made a habit of walking 33, 45, and 78 LP assemblages collection, A Man Without a aimlessly for hours around Indi- of rare jazz records. They were With the recent passing of local Country, he wrote, “If I should ana Avenue, the epicenter of Afri- packed away in a storage locker literary historian, E.S. Osbun, a ever die, God forbid, let this be can American culture in Indianap- under a pseudonym. To this day, cache of research and half-fin- my epitaph: ‘The only proof he olis. He traced ley lines, currents no one can find the paperwork to ished articles have been discov- needed for the existence of God of magical energy, which he be- reveal where this trove is. Rumors ered, shedding light on the life, was music.’” Vonnegut’s initial lieved divided up the city. Soon he conflict as to whether he record- work, and method of noted author, forays into his magical way of found messages in the marquees ed his own spoken word album Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Osbun posits thinking began with him creat- for upcoming stage acts, passing or if he merely recorded an un- that Vonnegut’s stories exist as ing, what Osbun called, his shield license plates, sigils in graffiti, published short story into local- examples of poststructuralism, of will, wherein he visualized and even communiqués via the ly produced classic jazz tracks. with him inscribing himself into himself constantly surrounded patterns in the flight of birds. In Some say the backward masked his own mythos in order to make and protected by a jazz quartet. explaining its disappearance, recordings were decoded via his inner Self magical. This al- Vonnegut became convinced that the numerological system of the lowed him to become a character The best outline I ever made, or the once-renowned Two Johns Five Percent Nation and went on and to experience his story as one anyway the prettiest one, was Theater now resided on a sentient to influence local hip hop artists might experience a dream. This on the back of a roll of wallpa- street which only appeared a few such as the 42nd St Cru, Singu- dovetails with Osbun’s other the- per. I used my daughter’s cray- nights a month in Indianapolis as it lar, and the hip-hop super-group, ons, a different color for each ory about Vonnegut, which stated now traveled throughout the Mid- the Murder Queen Posse. main character. ― Kurt Von- that the author had become ob- west. This conviction sent him on negut, Slaughterhouse Five sessed with the idea that to unlock a tour of the Midwest chitlin cir- The last of Vonnegut’s lost man- the African American experience cuit and led to one of his most fa- uscripts was a work in progress. Osbun became increasingly con- was to unlock the secrets of life. mous lost essays, “Following the The essay would be the first pub- vinced that Kurt Vonnegut en- River South: The Birth of Jazz.” lic acknowledgment of his magi- gaged in a kind of magical con- Hints of this obsession reared it- cal system as it meditated on cor- sciousness as a way of interacting self on occasion throughout his And I like Strauss and Mozart porate logos as capitalist sigils. with the real world. He created a interviews. For example, Vonne- and all that, but the priceless The thesis focused on the ram- universe with himself at the cen- gut credited his family’s African gift that African Americans gave pant spread of capitalism through ter. This was the safest way for American cook and housekeeper, the world when they were still the ethos of society, with the idea him to understand the African in slavery was a gift so great Ida Young, claiming that she not that corporate branding spread American experience. For ex- that it is now almost the only only raised him but also taught throughout space unoccupied ample, this method allowed him reason many foreigners still him values for the first ten years by the imagination of folks. The to write the first of what Osbun like us, at least, a little bit. That of his life. “Ida gave me decent culture’s collective unconscious called Vonnegut’s lost essays, “Of specific remedy for the world- moral instruction and was exceed- was usually powerful enough to Plantation Life and Space Travel.” wide epidemic of depression is ingly nice to me. So she was as a gift called the blues. All pop fend off the viral invasion of cor- great an influence on me as any- music today - jazz, swing, be- porate brands. However, it had Vonnegut’s inner journey began body,” he said. Having described bop, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, been under surreptitious attack with the creation of what Osbun Young as “humane and wise,” and the Stones, rock and roll, hip ever since the MTV astronaut described as his secret studio. He that “the compassionate, forgiv- hop and on and on - is derived planted its eponymous flag on the surrounded himself with memora- ing aspects of my beliefs” came from the blues. ― Kurt Vonne- moon and launched an offensive bilia, objets d’art, and an assort- gut, A Man Without a Country from her, Osbun began to specu- on our collective attention spans. ment of kitsch, and spent an hour late about the actual existence of of meditative thought each day The Vonnegut family name has Ida Young or if she was simply It should be noted that in the cor- examining them for the important long been associated with archi- a figment of his imagination, a oner’s report, the cause of E.S. truths they wanted to convey to tecture. Kurt Vonnegut’s grand- muse by way of Magical Negro. Osbun’s death was listed as com- him. The world transformed into father, Bernard Vonnegut, Sr., plications due to syphilitic de- a luminous place, infused with co-founded the architectural firm, Or what music is, I don’t know. mentia along with the presence meaning, and ripe to be ridiculed. Vonnegut & Bohn. His father, But it helps me so. During the of large amounts of psychotro- Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., merged the Great Depression in Indianapo- pic mushrooms in his system. lis, when I was in high school, His stories often found their roots firm to form Vonnegut, Wright, I would go to jazz joints and in the African American expe- & Yeager. The firm was respon- listen to black guys playing, rience, though he had no way sible for many public, institu- and, man, they could really of accessing that cultural heri- tional, and commercial buildings do it. And I was really teared tage outside of his dream studio. throughout Indianapolis. Osbun up. Still the case now. ― Kurt Any attempt to incorporate Afri- claimed to have evidence that the Vonnegut, an NPR interview can Americans consciously into family dealings caused them to his work ended up with a series cross swords with a powerful and DEAD BLACK MEN DON’T LIE The Forgotten Story of the Ferguson Brothers and the Incredible Legacy of Indiana Avenue Elle Roberts

Let the average Indiana resident trumped-up causes. Not long af- tell it, Jim Crow was a distant cous- ter, Denver’s lottery business in with a successful enterprise, folded under the pressure of in- hands clean, in the Deep South. creased police presence on the Revisionist and romanticized his- Avenue. In direct response to the tory allows for the motherland of city’s literal blacklist, the broth- the Ku Klux Klan to become the ers created a booking agency to cradle of Hoosier Hospitality in bring major black entertainers less than a century. One hundred to Indianapolis, and financially years births generations and then back tours of the Chitlin’ Circuit, some, but in retrospect isn’t very contributing to the monumen- long at all. Time tells the tallest tal careers of B.B. King, James of tales, stories masquerading as Brown, Little Richard, and more. folklore so deliciously grandiose and outlandish, the truth contained By the late 1940s, both transi- within is incredible. Thankfully, tioned their businesses to legal dead men don’t lie. In Crown Hill entities. Denver found himself Cemetery is a grave carved out membership. Historians esti- brokerage in a suite on the first tangled in a transnational mar- in early spring of 1974, beneath mate a quarter of all white, male floor and converted the remainder riage and ugly divorce with a Ger- the etched tombstone and fertile Hoosiers joined ranks between of the first floor and the second man-born woman whose photo ground is a casket, and inside the 1910 and 1920. Racial tension into the Cotton Club. The third appeared in Jet magazine. Com- box is a man adorned in a tailored, between blacks and whites boiled floor transformed into Denver’s plications from several strokes bright red zoot suit. But stories over in the streets and bled into Trianon Ballroom. Both black caused his death in May of 1957. like his rarely end six feet under. the highest levels of municipal nightlife attractions served as Sea prevailed against pesky tax office, severely depressing lo- popular destinations for traveling evasion charges and lived as a Picture Indianapolis right now, cal opportunity and upward mo- big bands and musical acts, from celebrated and successful busi- five years shy of celebrating bility for Black families. The Walter Barnes to Duke Ellington. nessman and active member of its Bicentennial, affectionately Ferguson Brothers, rock ‘n’ roll The connection to Barnes earned the NAACP in the city until he known as a big city with a com- pioneers, and a touch of extra- Denver access to Chicago’s passed away of natural causes in forting, familiar feel. Or a frus- judicial ingenuity changed the Bronzeville rock ‘n’ roll beat (ex- March of 1974. He’s the brother tratingly small town desperate to musical, political, and economic panding to Detroit, Milwaukee, buried, suited and booted to the be metropolitan ― depends on landscape of the city and beyond. and Indianapolis) a primer for heavens in Crown Hill, along- who is inquiring. It’s not diffi- the Chitlin’ Circuit with anchor side his parents and older brother. cult to imagine an eerily similar Denver dug his heels into build- venues for touring black musi- Indianapolis in 1920, a deeply ing an empire, designing a lot- cians and performers through- segregated, steadily developing tery ticket disguised as a base- out the rural and urban South city, an urban core bursting at ball scorecard. Folks bought as ― Jackson, Houston, New Orle- the seams as the Great Migra- many tickets as they had money ans, Memphis, and Jacksonville. tion attracted nearly 13,000 Ne- to stretch and scribbled their runs, gros from southern states, many hits, and errors in three columns, On a tipped hunch, Denver built settling along Indiana Avenue placed their bets with runners hid- and debuted Sunset Terrace in or on cross streets a skip away. ing in plain sight, and awaited the 1938 on the far end of Indiana weekly bank reports to declare a Avenue across the street from Enter Denver and Sea Fergu- winner, or usually, lack thereof. and just ahead of the city erect- son, brothers born and raised in Two types convened at the back ing Lockefield Gardens, a gov- Brownsville, a tiny, rural, white door of the print shop, runners ernment housing project. The town in Kentucky, 200 miles south and winners for payouts and cops Sunset became a renowned black of Indianapolis. Throughout their and politicians for payoffs. The dance hall, arguably one of the childhood, father Sam, a son of gambling business amassed 200 best in the country during its slaves, and mother Mattie, quietly employees and return on invest- heyday. The Fergusons devel- Whether Denver and Sea should bought small parcels of the town ment so high, Denver summoned oped their joint business venture be denounced menaces or hailed until they held the majority of the his brother to Indianapolis to help into an unorthodox community heroes isn’t the question. Despite land. They taught their boys the him keep supply and demand in foundation, incubating budding authority figures relentlessly ques- power of owning property through check. The Fergusons conduct- businesses, providing credit for tioning their ethics, the Ferguson practice, sent Denver to the front ed business as a team and sepa- struggling families, and donat- brothers redefined urban develop- lines of World War I and Sea to rately, operating as complements ing resources to youth groups. ment, creating a self-sustaining, earn a degree at Lincoln Uni- amid fierce competition to turn a bustling district for thousands of versity. A newly minted veteran, quick and constant profit. Den- The aftermath of a grisly murder marginalized black people in a Denver followed the Black mass- ver, quiet and unassuming, and linked to the Fergusons’ white ri- way that still can’t be replicated es to the Circle City, purchased younger Sea, personable and vals on the Avenue proved egre- to date. The city designated Indi- a home, and invested in his own visible, the brothers equally for- gious for black businessmen ana Avenue as a cultural district in printing press company within midable, especially together. in the area. In 1940, a political 2004, christening the area a prime walking distance of the Avenue. crackdown from the mayor’s of- tourist destination, without ac- They acquired Odd Fellows Hall, fice rippled through the police knowledging the contributions of The influx of Black Americans a three-story, white social club department and municipal agen- people like the Ferguson brothers relocating to Indiana, living in on the corner of Vermont and cies. Denver, Sea, and fellow and so many others towards estab- downtown Indianapolis sparked Senate, an offshoot of Indiana black business owner Goosie lishing a once vibrant epicenter an exponential growth of KKK Avenue. Sea opened a real estate Lee lost their liquor licenses to for black culture in the Midwest. registries eek out a confused fact groove, making rumble strips A FUTURE FINELY ZIPPED about the way things used to be, in history, but I truthfully don’t Immigrant Memory and Music how things ought still to be, and know what that means about how psych : from Latin a clipped shiver of what’s nearly I live in time. I enter a building, Ancient Greek up ahead. And on and on and on. I sing a song, I wonder where that sound is coming from, I say Taylor Peters “soul, breath And then someone starts an or- “Hi,” to someone I love, and He’s just around the corner, out in vigil, quietly repeating to my- There are other instruments um. Formerly―I just learned― chestra or plays bagpipe in a I’m surely doing so at the end of view from the second-floor self, “This will be the moment,” that grab at more than just a we called it The German House, phonic: from Greek hallway or finds an old accor- of a long stretch of exhales. And landing of Indianapolis’ Scottish then some contractual obligation huff. Pump organs. Accordions. right up until “anti-German sen- alternate form dion in a storage shed. And I’m surely as well kickstarting, Rite Cathedral. There’s a Go- would kick the can down the The breath that powers them timent” in World War I sent that from Ancient then the second-grader gets breathing again, keeping it on, Latin psychē, from re-Tex skin bag at his waist and road. I’d have trouble sleeping, is pulled from the thick air. In title underground, switching it (phōnḗ, “sound nervous again when he can’t so that maybe next time someone he’s blowing it full of carbon di- listening closely and trying to fo- a crowded room, who knows for the Greek goddess of jus- Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, find his family where he thinks wants to enter a building, sing a oxide. The busy bustle of winter cus on the mantra. Any sourceless what mix of yours and mine tice and war strategy. I go there breath”) they were standing on the sec- song, wonder after a sound, lift a breakers is everywhere. Some sound could’ve been Gabriel so- goes through those chambers. for the YMCA, the basement psychphonic = ψυχήφωνή ond-floor landing and then fig- weight, or say, “Hi,” to someone event has people streaming in loing, announcing that I’d missed weight room, and I’ve usual- phon- the sound of breath ures quickly that this sonic moan they love, I might get my own in- Greek must mean he got left behind. scription. Should I sing louder to from the suburbs. The reservoir an interstitial second trying to It’s unsurprising that some- ly got headphones in when I do. phono- at his waist is plump enough to catch my breath between repeats. thing like the accordion is cen- te form of , deepen the groove? Should I do it squeeze and resuscitate the lit- tral to the polka, a style that’s In 1907, the east wing of The cient Greek φωνή Certain emotional patterns and out of narcissism or self-release? tle reed. A dark-headed second So that unseen bagpipe was cos- equal parts of the Americas and German House was home to the “sound, voice”) pathologies are said to operate on Should all of this be terrifying be- grader―this was me―is gawp- mic. I couldn’t explain any of it of Europe. It’s a goofy little Normal College of the Ameri- a continuum, e.g., narcissism on cause I’m doing it alone, or com- ing at designs on the floor and to myself on the landing at the thing that we pump so that it can can Gymnastic Union. In 1941, one end, selflessness on the other. forting because I can’t be unique? is about to be scared for his life. Scottish Rite, but the extinction sing (of) itself by way of every- Indiana University incorporated ψυχήφωνή Thinking about carrying names, of humanity felt bigger, realer, one else, like musical first-aid. it, and now it’s the oldest school of breath asking for my name to be carried, May everything I ever say be just May every orchestra have its fill more frightening than individu- for physical education teachers worrying about there not being me. Just me dangling facts by fishing wire while the CPR-cer- of breath-powered instruments. al death and dismemberment. At May my limbs be ever ready in the United States. I have seen I can outline my own memory week? Maybe self-obsession. anyone left to remember me be- Trumpets. Trombones. May the and collected, prepared to of “orchestra,” all the classes, And what should I call the act cause we’re all dead or raptured, tified air compressor conscious- least, after my limbs were collect- pictures and monuments to this ness in my skull is crushing and air exit these players’ lungs, hold, to squeeze life into lungs and trips, and every time I was of carrying someone else’s name and how that self-interest trans- ed, there’d be someone around to history as I practice pull-ups, but releasing, cinching and then enter their instruments riding a say my name a few more times. or reservoirs. May my under- I have hardly once thought of shushed with my friends as we without realizing it, even and es- lates into an empathy for every throughline, agitate the metal watched a violinist etch out con- loosening, winding up objects, standing of just what I extend the historical throughline. Me, pecially when what I’m really human soul that I can’t fence, it thing until it sounds, and be done. remain perfectly shimmering. certos. But “orchestra” comes filling them with energy that isn’t And one day, may I remem- trying to do is find someone to has me looking for some ground May the instruments split the a German, whose family jetti- from the Latin via Greek and used mine and atoms of air that lungs ber without the internet who where self-love and self-hate ar- voice but may they still accept soned the ugly extra syllables to mean “to dance.” A dance is carry for me before I start pull- couldn’t respirate until they are it was that said that we all die My city is full of buildings whose the same old breath we use when in our surname at Ellis Island. historically inscribed in that ex- ing a pension? Because certain en’t on opposite ends, but fully so wound that they sing of them- twice: (1) when our breath names and historical subterranea I we shower sing (to) ourselves. pensive ticket to sit and to watch things get built by certain people simultaneous. Where the con- selves in a lonely society of hol- stops, and (2) when no one never consider. That Scottish Rite In the 1800s, German immigrants others sit. The Möbius strip of walking in buildings named for tinuum wraps around a modulo. low songs that echo off basement else is around to puff our name and its foggy (ma)sonics I hard- in Indianapolis―several of whom history flips us around like we’re certain other people they nev- Somewhere in the outside, where walls until shortly after my time That Gore-Tex skin bag, that res- with a generation hop of CPR. ly even visit now, but three days here zips up not in a tandem glis- probably populate my backsto- half-cooked schnitzel. May I stay er knew and whose names don’t another formula would find left ervoir, that bagpipe, found only in a week I’m in another building tening instant with every other ― limpid for many of these flips. even register as names for years meeting right, east meeting west. a rare orchestra, it’s collecting a ry wanted to preserve their her- living soul, but hopefully, totally, not too different. The Athenae- and years, and then all those peo- This is the plot of land I’m try- stretch of exhales to deploy, dis- itage, if not their full last names, blisteringly solo. Just me sing- ing to locate and speak from. connecting them from the singular and so they started singing togeth- Words bury in time as much as ple, they eventually die, and with ing songs of other people. Just so they can slip and ricochet off er, backed by accordions. A Feb- they uncover. Like the soft-shoe their first and especially their me breathing breath that’s my the reflective walls of the stairwell ruary 2015 headline to an article of “anti-German sentiment” and second dying breaths, the Möbi- Right here, I’d like to say that own. Just me listening. Amen. as they wake up a dark-headed on local singing societies in the what that must have actually us of their linguistic historical every action is inscribed in a second grader―me―to a wash of Indianapolis Star proclaims that meant to rename whole buildings. dread. That second grader’s brain, German culture still thrives on the Of course, it means so little now, my brain, cannot, could not, com- city’s east side, so the preserva- with partial German names and pute the suddenly everywhere tion worked. Many thanks to the German culture so embedded that sound of the bagpiper’s recitation 1872 accordion-pump founding amber-trapped versions put forth as it lunges out of the background of Indianapolis’ Liederkranz, a by smaller and smaller groups on the landing. The second grad- singing society which is still alive warrant only puffy, intermittent er is bowled/blown over by that today. They boast an outdated headlines in the local paper. Same sound. I was always jumpy. website and a flat-fronted build- with the Scottish, where I imag- ing over on Washington Street. ine middle-aged guys who love I was afraid of inevitability, of Together, they sing of their se- to go for tapas will pop on that universal annihilation, and the lected identities in weekly meet- kilt they got online only maybe bagpiping tapped that. At 7-years- ups and annual performances. once a month to do their due dili- old, I’d stay up late watching gence. Even so, carrying on these movies I shouldn’t have been Many thanks, too, to the Musikv- names and these practices must watching. I remember one about erein at The German House, an put fresh breath into ailing lungs. a man who had been poisoned, orchestra and choir dating back who had only 24 hours to live. to 1897, stocked initially with May naming prop a cosmic CPR against second death. Name a It might have even been a com- local musicians who spoke only German. It was disbanded in son, a daughter, or a building and edy in retrospect, but the inexo- ward off disappearance. Unless, 1918 due, again, to “anti-German rability felt serious. That sense somehow, the name, in wartime, of being closed in on still pow- sentiment,” but kept its through- is associated with an out-group, ers my dreams once in awhile. line, now going by The Athenae- in which case, may it be easy to um Pops orchestra. Named the alter the historical places reg- I found a reservoir for some of “oldest orchestra in the city of istry, to enlarge the basement, this fear in the Bible. The book Indianapolis” (how many others and to add a new set of squat of Revelation says the Archangel can I even list?) on their web- racks. And may even then, the Gabriel will blow his trumpet on site, they purport to “play the background be clear and still. Judgement Day. Jesus tells his fol- music everybody loves” while lowers that no one can know the an image shows them perform- What should I call the act of day or the hour that he will return. ing for a half empty set of chairs. self-consciously activating only I took that to mean that if I sat heritage memories week by MUSIC FOR TOMORROW: Sun Ra Plays for the Space Age

Susannah Koerber “Everything you desire for this tumes and special effects, com- planet and never have received bining art, dance, and theater with will be yours in outer space.” This music to create a total experience. was the promise at Sun Ra’s Out- er Space Employment Agency, The Arkestra’s name shifted addressing a blighted Oakland, in to fit the purpose of the mu- the 1974 film Space is the Place. sic it played: Myth-Science, Space was Ra’s place, mythic Intergalactic, Solar, Cosmo Love and physical, where the impossi- Adventure... Whatever the name, ble is realized and creativity ex- its members were not just mu- Syllabus for Sun Ra’s 1971 course, The Black Man in the Universe tends without barriers. There, he sicians but tone scientists. Ra’s University of California, Berkeley, 1971 would bring humanity through conception of science includ- music, saving it from its own de- ed mystical things hidden from The Egyptian Book of the Dead structive impulses. For Sun Ra, those not prepared to see them. Radix pianist, composer, arranger, and In an interview for Musica Jazz, bandleader from the planet Saturn quoted in John Szwed’s superb Alexander Hislop: Two Babylons via Birmingham, Alabama, mu- biography Space is the Place, he sic was both the harmonious or- explained that this was “... not The Theosophical works of Madame Blavatsky der of the cosmos and the means science as we know it, but an- The Book of Oahspe to reach it, by opening the mind. other kind. I’ve been looking for a solution which goes back to Henry Dumas: Ark of Bones Sun Ra was not the only one who Egypt, and to the whole universe. saw space as a way beyond earth- I think musicians are on a supe- Henry Dumas: Poetry for My People eds. Hale Charfield & Eugene Redmond,Carbondale: ly limits. His vision developed rior level, but unlike scientists, Southern Illinois University Press 1971 during his years in Chicago (1946- they haven’t been accepted for Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, eds. Leroi Jones & Larry Neal, 1960), corresponding with the their abilities.” He privileged the New York: William Morrow 1968 space age itself, from the earliest role of music in efforts to expand rockets through Sputnik’s launch the human reach and move into David Livingston: Missionary Travels to Kennedy’s promise of a man on the future—music as a universal Theodore P. Ford: God Wills the Negro the moon. Ra was also a central language that pre-dated and ex- figure in jazz’s creative explo- tended beyond humans, allowing Rutledge: God’s Children sion, expanding past conventions access to the structures of nature. into explorations of other cultures nies in Asia and Africa moved master the chaos of the world. Stylus, vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1971), Temple University and other tones. Ra took flight as This faith in music was not toward independence. The new John S. Wilson: Jazz. Where It Came From, Where It’s At, United States Information one of the spacemen and scien- alignment of power came with Through the five decades of his unique to Sun Ra. Indianapolis Agency tists of a new music. But it was technologies—atomic weapon- career, he would mix historic ac- native James Spaulding, a vir- built on years of musical study ry and energy, rockets and sat- complishments with the future. tuoso alto saxophone and flute Yosef A. A. Ben-Jochannan: Black Man of the Nile and His Family, Alkibu Ian Books and research into history, science, ellites—that could reshape the Musically, he combined the fa- player who was with the Arkestra 1972 science fiction, and the esoteric. from 1957-59, shared this view entire planet, either bringing on ther of swing, Fletcher Hender- Constantin Francois de Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney: The Ruins, or, Meditation on an apocalypse or stretching the son, who he played with when of music’s role. Discussing his the Revolutions of Empires, and the Law of Nature, London: Pioneer Press 1921 Sun Ra arrived on Earth as Her- potential of humankind to the he first arrived in Chicago, and wide experiences in experimental man Blount in 1914. Raised in furthest reaches of the universe. Duke Ellington with rhythm and jazz for a 2015 NUVO interview The Source Book of Man’s Life and Death (Ra’s description; = The King James Bible) the Afro-Baptist tradition, named blues, bop, avant-garde classical with Kyle Long, he said: “It felt after the famous magician Black like we were all traveling on this Pjotr Demianovitch Ouspensky: A New Model of the Universe. Principles of the Psy- Responding to this mix of promise music, and the latest experimen- chological Method in Its Application to Problems of Science, Religion and Art, New Herman, a child when Tut- and threat, frustrated by the limits tations in jazz. He relentlessly re- journey together. . . We were ob- York: Knopf 1956 ankhamen’s tomb was opened, he saw on human potential, Ra hearsed his musicians, recording sessed with trying to make things and an insatiable reader, his early would act through music. His re- almost everything and eventually better for ourselves and on this Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language. An Approach to the musical brilliance was matched search came together in a philoso- producing more than 180 albums, planet. Having dreams beyond Mastery of Many Languages, ed. Lancelot Hogben, New York: Norton & Co. 1944 by his curiosity. But there was phy that rejected history for myth, 120 on his own El Saturn records, this physical existence, reach- the humiliation and danger of combining ancient Egyptian and one of the first artist-run labels. ing for the stars and the planets.” Blackie’s Etymology the Jim Crow South, where he African elements with the knowl- was constantly made aware of edge powering the space race. He Creating and playing the music The Arkestra would move to New the limits imposed on him. In saw among African Americans that could connect humanity with York in 1961 and ultimately set- the late ‘40s or early ‘50s, he re- remnants of the true Egyptians, the cosmos was serious busi- tle in the Germantown section of ceived his call, later recounting proof of greatness. In jazz, he ness—he warned his musicians of Philadelphia, continuing to play a vision of aliens on Saturn who saw how African Americans cre- the perils of even one wrong note. past Sun Ra’s death in 1993. They returned him to Earth, showing ated music of tremendous power He changed his name in 1952 to developed an international fol- him the mass of people desper- and innovation. In the big bands, Le Sony’r Ra, later incorporat- lowing while remaining true to ate for knowledge and direction. he saw an ideal community: their ing himself (corporations being the philosophy that was clear by collective improvisation and fu- eternal) stating: “my business is the time they left Chicago. As re- The world was being refashioned sion into a community demon- saving the planet.” In 1954, he ported by Szwed, shortly before in the post-war period. Civil strating a discipline and precision formed what he intended as a pure his death Sun Ra charged them rights activity heated up as vet- that promised true potential could rehearsal band, devoted to its craft with continuing his mission: “You erans returned home unwilling to be met. These were the traits regardless of commercial success. project your spirit outward and accept the denial of freedoms they needed to create music that could This would become the Arkestra, become everyone else—you un- had defended with their lives. The communicate on an intergalactic the group that would last the rest derstand them and their needs... superpower U.S. competed with scale, to develop the science that of his life and beyond. By the late I’ve given you all the informa- the Soviet Union. Former colo- would take us to outer space, to 1950s, he had added space cos- tion I can; now it’s up to you.”

soundwaves of time, we try to A DENT IN YOUR WORLDVIEW step into the story to catch the vi- The Psychphonics of Knowing Earthworks bration as we excavate and under- stand the palimpsest of truths in the objects, the land, and oral his- Dr. Fiona McDonald and Dr. Larry Zimmerman tories that live around us, before us, and very likely will remain The Scene under our feet contains the ele- were motivated to spend genera- the 1880s, the myth so consumed after us. With that, we seem to ments from which we are made tions building these mounds, we the populace that Congress paid have left the detritus of the jour- Over cups of coffee, pages of and which nurtures us. Though only have hints of their beliefs for an investigation of the ques- ney in the dirt, the artifacts a sort notes, journal articles amassed, we may shape the dirt to suit our from decorative motifs on pottery, tion. Scholars used the relatively of archaeological curiosity cabi- webpages reviewed, and the si- needs for survival—and, too of- small figurines, etched shells, and new sciences of archaeology and net. We can never, and will never, lencing of theory books muffled ten, abuse it—at some profound a few other artifacts, but there ethnography to excavate mounds speak for the cultures that are not in a cloth bag, an eminent archae- level, we understand, even honor are other clues from the oral tra- and to study the remaining Native our own. We let the sounds of ob- ologist and an emerging visual dirt’s sacredness to survival. How ditions of their descendants. The American tribes before they ‘dis- jects, the echoes of places, and the anthropologist play off the page and why do the stories differ? myth comes when people try to appeared’ in order to investigate muffled moments in time present of the idea of how sensory experi- tell the why part of the story, a their oral traditions—even though opportunities to understand where ences underwrite adjacent mythol- All too often, museums and heri- mechanism for rationalizing the there was still disbelief that Na- the truth dwells—where the al- ogies to meta-narratives of place tage sites act as forces of authority unknown. It is not unknown. It tive Americans constructed the ter-narratives can and do liberate in the pursuit of new knowledge that craft and reinforce meta-nar- is only unknown to those whose mounds. The evidence was so us from the fictions of normal- through psychphonic encounters. ratives as they consciously filter story it is not their right to tell. overwhelming that the investiga- cy (created by the master-nar- out the stories that don’t fit their tors had no doubt that the ances- ratives of the history of time) The Framing norm. They silence the stories that By the time European settlers tors of the living Native Ameri- to put a dent in our worldview. cannot be rationalized through took notice of the mounds, many cans had built the mounds, and as Meta-narratives, adjacent my- the lens of Western science. As of the Indigenous nations whose such the myth was debunked. But thologies, and alter-narratives all anthropologists and archaeolo- ancestors built them had perished by then the damage was done. The emerge from somebody’s truth, gists, we try to understand what from the horrific pandemics that myth was so entrenched as a truth or their need for a truth to hold was somebody’s truth of a place, accompanied non-Indigenous set- that at least one religion includ- on to. Myths are cumulative and of a time. To accept the cacopho- tlement. The tribal peoples and ed it (The Church of Jesus Christ amass potency over time in the ny of facts that become mediated their cultures were nearly ghosts, of Latter-Day Saints—the Mor- same way that artificial forma- through our own bodies—our own but not completely, as we know mons), taking it as a core belief. tions on the land are built up with archive of experiences, biases, from the rich, thriving, and vi- Others willingly accepted that Na- a vision for resilience and perma- and alter-narratives—in order to brant Indigenous communities we tive Americans built the mounds, nence. As anthropologists and ar- question the fictions of normalcy. have the privilege to live with on but that to build earthworks so chaeologists, we seek validity for their land today. Nevertheless, at complicated, they must have had the facts we excavate or witness. Here in the heartland of what that time, the European settlers outside help. For them, the myth For archaeologists, it takes ex- we now call North America, the flooding the area puzzled over the has now morphed into pseudoar- traordinary empirical evidence to first inhabitants of the land- cer mounds they saw, figuring that chaeology, claiming construction prove and disprove ones’ story or tainly thought so. They built the Native Americans had neither advice was received from extra- theory of mounds. For anthropol- effigy mounds in the shape of the knowledge nor numbers to terrestrial visitors or linked with ogists, it requires in-depth qual- birds, bears, and panthers along build them. We know this was not New Age beliefs. This meant itative knowledge of the mean- high ridges that were not leveled so, and their assumption was fu- seeing the mounds as ancient ex- ing of the earthworks today, and by the last glaciers; a bit further eled by a misinformed belief that pressions of a psychic unity of how oral traditions open up lived west, along the high ridges over- Indigenous people were inferior humanity rather than Indigenous knowledge from the past. But as looking the Plains, they aligned given the problems with early-an- ingenuity. For some, cacophonies humans, we must find a way to small boulders to make effigies thropology and ideas of those such of fact apparently can become be present in a place to let the of turtles, snakes, buffalo, spoked as Lewis Henry Morgan. For want a prolonged, unpleasant din. sensory experience we have help ‘medicine wheels,’ and even peo- of better terms, European settlers us to question the fictions of nor- ple; south of the Great Lakes in invented a story of the mysteri- Some 20,000 earthworks had malcy or the accuracy of myths. what is now Indiana (such as at ous—probably white—“Mound been surveyed east of the Rocky Mound State Park near Ander- Builders” who must have been Mountains by the mid-1800s, but The Discussion son), as well as Ohio and West here before the Native Americans, have now been reduced by agri- Virginia, they piled millions of thus negating Indigenous rights to culture and development, num- baskets of dirt into fantastic and land. Indeed the stuff of myths bering under 2,000 with many We dig. We listen. We observe. We vast geometric figures and often that have accrued over time, Eu- of them threatened daily. Still, witness. We interpret. We sense. buried their dead in both large and ropeans argued that just about dozens have been archaeologi- And we can only infer. Instead of small linear and conical earthen anyone but the Native Americans cally investigated, strengthening accepting a meta-narrative as the mounds. About 500 years before had built the earthworks. They the truth that Native Americans normative truth, we as researchers European settlers arrived, some went so far as to think it was the did build the mounds. But while believe it is imperative to appre- Native Americans lived in cit- work of the survivors of sunken researchers can rarely attempt ciate that the stories that become ies of as many as 30,000 people, Atlantis—itself a myth—or the to answer through inference the the meta-narratives often tell larger than any city in Europe at Vikings, or the Welsh, to name a questions of who, what, when, more about those who wrote them the same time. There they built few, but the leading candidates where, and how, it is the ques- than about the myth they recount. the largest prehistoric earthen for building the mounds in this tion of why that remains elusive, But as we know, each person who structure on the continent, its myth were the descendants of the leaving answers open to specu- visits a site, holds an object, or base covering 5.3 hectares and Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, named lation and the ground fertile for witnesses an event writes their 28 meters in height containing once in the Old Testament, then the making of myths comprised own story that may or may not be more than 61,000 cubic meters of never again. As Robert Silverberg from the cabinet of curiosity, connected to the scientific reali- earth. Smaller cities from this pe- suggests in his book The Mound of objects placed in the earth- ty of the ground under them, the riod, such as Angel Mounds out- Builders: The Archaeology of works to activate or protect them. material against their skin, or the side Evansville, dot the landscape Myth (1968), the settlers were a moment within which they exist. across most of the lower Missis- people mostly severed from Eu- The Conclusion sippi River drainage. Although an- rope with desperate longings for a Take, for example, myth and sci- thropologists and archaeologists deep European history, so they in- ence. Both tell us that the dirt As we move through the layers know many of the reasons people vented one in North America. By of history, reverberating with the bluesman whose killer was never sic led folklorists like Art Rosen- LEROY CARR & SCRAPPER found. According to this legend, baum to track down legendary BLACKWELL you can hear the ghost of the old musicians like Blackwell. It was bluesman howling mournfully during this period that Blackwell Kyle Long late at night in the Indianapo- made his return to recording, cul- lis neighborhood where he was minating with the release of the I was told it might be necessary that trouble don’t worry me. They gunned down. I never took the album Mr. Scrapper’s Blues, re- to expose dangerous government got me accused of robbery, but I tale too seriously until I heard corded by Art Rosenbaum in 1961. conspiracies in the process of ain’t done nothing wrong. I can’t the story of Scrapper Blackwell. telling this story. As we examine make no money and a job is hard In the late 1920s, Scrapper Black- The LP finds Blackwell in ex- the work of the Black Hoosier to find. I’ve been out of work so well teamed up with singer and cellent form, from the rolling blues duo, Leroy Carr (March 27, long that I ain’t got a lousy dime.” pianist Leroy Carr. Their de- and tumbling “Little Boy Blue,” 1905 – April 29, 1935) and gui- but recording “How Long, How to the soft piano-led­ “Little Girl tarist Francis Hillman “Scrapper” Complications from alcohol Long Blues,” hit the market with Blues.” Or instrumental tracks Blackwell (February 21, 1903 – abuse would end Carr’s life ear- a bang in 1928. Leroy Carr’s like “A Blues” and “E Blues,” October 7, 1962), I’d like you to ly at the age 30 as he succumbed smooth, laidback­ croon was a where Blackwell proves his gui- keep that consideration and the to nephritis on April 29, 1935. million miles removed from the tar picking chops are still intact. following information in mind. During the final days of his life, raw throat hollering of his rural his lyrics turned even darker as southern counterparts. Black- But for me, the highlight of the Carr and Blackwell released he confronted his own mortality well’s jazzy, single string solos album is Blackwell’s worldweary­ their debut recording in 1928, in song. In December 1934, just a broke the mold for blues guitar, version of the Prohibition Era a time when the state of Indiana few months before his death, Carr anticipating the work of future standard “Nobody Knows You was literally being clandestinely recorded perhaps his bleakest cre- performers like Charlie Christian. When You’re Down and Out.” run by the Ku Klux Klan. In the ation, “Suicide Blues.” “If some- Blackwell’s reading sounds deep- mid-­1920s, more than 40 per- body finds me when I’m dead and They recorded over 100 more ly personal, the lyrics closely cent of American-born­ White gone, say I did self-murder and sides through the next few years; mirroring the sharp rise and fall males in Indianapolis claimed I died with my boots on,” Carr their popularity with the public of his own career and his unique KKK membership. During this sings in a noticeably weak voice. was matched only by the influ- guitar arrangement of this stan- period, both the Mayor of Indi- “I took me a Smith and Wesson ence they exerted on their musi- dard would later be imitated by anapolis, John Duvall, and the sound imbued with urban cool. ing that I just keep on drinking, and blew out my brains. I didn’t cal peers. It’s been said that the Eric Clapton almost note-for-­ ­note Governor of Indiana, Edward Carr and Blackwell are the key trying to drink my blues away,” take no poison, I couldn’t stand vocals of Leroy Carr were a key on Clapton’s 1992 Unplugged LP. Jackson, were operating under the links between rural Southern Del- Carr sings. “My house fell down the strain. I ain’t no coward and influence on the early work of direct influence of KKK control. ta blues and the subsequently elec- and I ain’t got no place to stay. I’ll tell you why. I was just tired Ray Charles and Nat King Cole. Once I lived the life of a mil- trified incarnation of the genre that I just keep on drinking trying to of living but wasn’t afraid to die... Blackwell’s groundbreaking gui- lionaire, Spending my mon- Black Hoosiers were forced to would develop in Chicago. Before drive my blues away... my mind In my farewell letter, someone’s tar work was a significant fac- ey, I didn’t care... But then endure horrifying acts of racial Muddy Waters left the Missis- keeps rolling. I got 3,000 things sure to find ‘goodbye old cruel tor in the duo’s appeal. But Carr I got busted and fell so low , I didn’t have no mon- terrorism with little hope for gov- sippi plantations for Chicago, he on my mind. But I just keep on world, I’m glad I left you behind.” dominated the spotlight, and ey or nowhere to go ernment protection. The notorious honed his craft playing along to drinking to pass away the time.” the guitarist’s name was sim- 1930 double lynching of teenagers the records of Carr and Blackwell. Carr’s final recording session ply left off the label on many of Mr. Scrapper’s Blues was well­ Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith The A-­side of Vocalion Records’ on February 25, 1935, yielded a the Carr and Blackwell releases. in Marion, Indiana provides a Beyond the duo’s musical inno- 1930 release of “Hard Times chilling premonition of his im- received at the time of its release, and it looked like Blackwell was particularly gruesome example. vations, one thing that keeps me Done Drove Me To Drink” is minent death titled “Six Cold It’s been suggested that this lack No charges were ever brought coming back to their recordings “Sloppy Drunk Blues,” a tune Feet in the Ground.” Recorded on the fast track to restoring his ca- of recognition was a source of reer. But his story would not have against the lynch mob that bru- are the poetic and often fatalistic that finds Carr contemplating alone at the piano without the consternation for Blackwell, caus- tally murdered Shipp and Smith. lyrics of Leroy Carr. In the 130- the havoc hard ­drinking caused standard accompaniment from a happy end. Within a year of the ing the guitarist to seek out solo LP’s release on October 7, 1962, plus songs Carr recorded during in his life. “I’d rather be sloppy his longtime partner Scrapper, recording opportunities. Some It’s important to understand that his career, his lyrics document- drunk doing time in the can than Carr delivered an austere and Blackwell was shot and killed out- have speculated that it eventually side of his downtown Indianapo- Carr and Blackwell existed in a ed the darker side of human ex- be out in the streets running from understated goodbye. “Just re- contributed to the duo’s break- Hoosier environment that was istence. Carr consistently wrote the man. Bring me another two­ member me baby when I’m in lis home. Police arrested Black- up in 1935, shortly before Le- well’s neighbor at the time of the openly hostile to the nourishment and sang about subjects like bit pint, because I got my habit on six feet of cold, cold ground. Al- roy Carr’s death that same year. of Black life and culture. The fact guns, prison, murder, depression, and I’m going to wreck this joint. ways remember me baby and say murder, but no charges were filed and the case remains unsolved. that Carr and Blackwell were able poverty, loss, suicide, hustling, My gal is trying to quit me for a good man’s gone down... Don’t Blackwell cut a dozen or so solo to flourish artistically under such gambling, addiction and even somebody else and now I’m slop- cry after I’m gone. Just lay my records in the ‘20s and ‘30s. His Legend has it that on cold au- dark and hopeless conditions is during the height of the prohibi- py drunk sleeping all by myself.” body in six cold feet of ground.” best ­known composition from a great testament to their brave tion, his favorite theme: booze. tumn nights you can hear Black- this period, “Kokomo Blues” well’s mournful howl buried and unrelenting creative spirit. In Carr’s drinking habits brought While music fans around the (ostensibly written about the In- many ways, the blues songs re- Carr’s lyrics were often confes- the singer into conflict with the world continue to celebrate the within the refrain of a gusty fall diana city), would later be modi- wind, crying out for the recogni- corded by Carr and Blackwell can sional and mirrored the trou- law. It’s known that he served remarkable artistic legacy of Le- fied by Robert Johnson as “Sweet be viewed as the painful lamenta- bling conditions of his life. His time as a young man for his in- roy Carr, his last recorded wish tion his rich legacy has never re- Home Chicago,” a standard of ceived in the city he called home. tions of a terrorized population. words captured the devastat- volvement with an Indianapolis remains largely unfulfilled in his the blues repertoire. But Black- ing psychological trauma of bootleg liquor operation. Carr hometown. “Just remember me...” well’s solo career would not last The Dark Poetry of Leroy being both a Black man un- would draw on his time in jail as long. The guitarist dropped out Carr der Jim Crow and the general a theme throughout his artistic The Ghost of Scrapper of the music business following struggle for survival in Ameri- career. One of the most poignant Blackwell the death of Carr, returning to A strong case could be made that ca during the Great Depression. examples being his 1928 record- the studio one last time in 1935 the catalog of recordings created ing “Prison Bound Blues”. Carr’s Growing up in Central Indiana I to record the touching tribute by Carr and Blackwell represent Alcoholism was a defining factor words depict a world where crime heard a lot of ghost stories. You “My Old Pal Blues (Dedicated the most influential and import- in Carr’s life. As I noted above is sometimes the only option for might know them too: ­tales about To The Memory Of Leroy Carr).” ant artistic legacy in the history of Carr sang of alcohol frequently, survival, and where the battle Hannah House on Madison Ave- Indianapolis music. The duo was even during Prohibition. In his against poverty numbs you to the nue, the Haunted Bridge in Avon At this point Blackwell simply a musical powerhouse. The com- reflective 1930 recording “Hard threat of death. “I’m on my way and Gravity Hill in Mooresville. disappeared, retreating into a life bination of Blackwell’s string- Times Done Drove Me To Drink” to the big house and I don’t even of anonymity in Indianapolis. ing single string­ guitar leads and Carr suggests he turned to alcohol care. I might get a lifetime, or I But there’s a lesser-known tale Scrapper would not be heard from Carr’s laidback­ vocalizations cre- as a way of coping with depres- might get the electric chair,” Carr that’s always stuck with me. A again until the late ‘50s when a ated an unprecedented new blues sion. “Sometimes I get to think- sings. “I’ve had trouble so long, story about the murder of an old resurgence of interest in folk mu- ACTON James Turrell’s Tule Fog

Richard McCoy

I’m pretty sure it was a Friday af- the city’s electric grid. Deep in- ternoon when I called James Tur- side the wiring of the museum rell’s studio to find out why his art- there is a set of light switches that work at the Indianapolis Museum are programmed to come on at of Art was named Acton. I didn’t specific times. I probably don’t expect him to answer the phone have to tell you this, but the fog that day; but there I was talking is a kind of magic show, a perfor- to one of the most important art- mance of space. A work of art. ists in the U.S. He was interested in telling me about his artwork, a There are records in folders and piece he’d made in the late 1970s. on computers in the museum that determine the precise facts used “When I was working as a pilot for to construct and care for Acton. the U.S. Postal Service in Califor- The artwork is insured for a value nia,” Turrell told me, “I would en- of approximately $400,000 in the counter a fog that made flying very event it is damaged or destroyed. difficult. This fog, called tule fog, is so dense that when I was in it I I left the museum in the summer couldn’t tell which way the plane of 2013. I packed up all of my and I were going. So I named the things from my desk: books, files, piece for a city I stopped in during pictures of my kids and wife, little this time: Acton, California.” Because this cleaning need- on the fog, if not themselves. things I had collected over a 10- ed to be done so frequent- year stint working for the place. Having an artist talk about an ly, I later assigned this work I think Turrell proved that fog is But I left the mayonnaise jar filled artwork is often better than hav- to others in the department. transportable and in some ways with items from the fog behind. ing them write about it. Hearing mentally transferable. We all car- My friend, Laura, still worked their words and inflections builds I never really understood why ry a kind of fog around with us there and she wanted to continue a psychic connection between visitors were compelled to throw wherever we go. It is that inde- putting things in the jar. But when minds. His artwork is a room items into this artwork. And, yes, scribably beautiful thing that ex- she left the museum a year later, I on the third floor of the museum, I know they didn’t just accidental- ists between you and me during asked a friend to retrieve the jar which is part of his “Space Divi- ly “drop them” in there, because a conversation, and that space for me. I wanted it back. This sion Construction” series. It is a many items were very far in the between us when we walk on the jar is a kind of secondary portal to viewing space, with a 6 ft by 12 ft back of the space and many of the street, with our feet in step and our the fog, a portal back to the mu- opening cut into a wall with lights things did not appear to be things shoes clicking on the sidewalk. seum. A collection of nothings. on each side that cause the open- that one would normally have in ing to appear as a misty gray rect- hand. Also, some people would Fog is also empty. It can In this collection, in this jar, I can angle on the wall. There is truth in lean into the opening and spit onto hold nothing. It moves see the actions of cleaning the fog, the precision that was used to con- the floor. Finally, and I don’t want around things. Passive. the people that helped me care for struct the entire installation, and to get into it, but there is a story and about that artwork. Those there is truth in the dimensional told by the senior staff about a cou- We started collecting the things dedicated to making the fog vis- relationship of the rectangle on ple caught having sex in Acton... that were thrown into Acton, ible in its clearest form. In the the wall; it is a shape designed for and soon we needed a vessel to jar, I can see more clearly what you to look into. And it is a shape The first time I brought the col- store them. I’m not sure where cannot be seen between all of us. that wants to contain something. lected things from Acton down I got the mayonnaise jar, but at to my basement museum stu- some point we started stuffing As for Acton, like all artworks, it It is a re-creation of tule fog, a dio, I found that I didn’t want to the things in there. The jar be- has no voice or capacity to speak, portal to another place, and an throw them away. These things came full, so we smashed things but it is charged with a soul; per- effort by Turrell to bring a car- had become charged somehow. further down. Like the fog, it haps it is my own psychphonic ton of air from that small town They had passed through the fog seemed like it was never full and relationship with it that carries in California to Indianapolis. and were now something differ- that it could always accept more the charge. Or maybe it’s shared Back then I thought of the art- ent. Perhaps “passed through” things. It was a vessel to contain between you and me. If you’re work like an environmental snow is the wrong term. Maybe what could not fit into the fog, and curious and want to test the rela- globe, one that was always just they dropped through the fog. would not remain. But it was also tionship, I recommend that you shook up. In it, you can actually a vessel filled with what remains stand in front of the fog. Who peer back in time, to what Turrell Throwing something into Acton from those that visited the fog. knows, maybe you’ll throw some- had seen in Acton in the 1970s. can be seen as an attempt to dis- thing into it, maybe you won’t. rupt the fog, or to test its pres- Not everyone throws things into During my ten years working ence or validity. It’s more than the fog. Some let it be. Some for the museum in the conser- just a punk move to mess with stand and stare into the fog. vation-restoration department, I the museum (or to get back at They realize the duality of the spent hours looking at Acton. I whoever made you come see this fog, that it is there and it is noth- also did something that few others thing in the first place). I don’t ing. You are there looking at the have done: I climbed through the want to pretend to be able to psy- fog, but the fog, also, cannot be. rectangle (after taking my shoes choanalyze the motivations of off) and collected all of the little those that threw things into Ac- The fog was built from simple things that visitors threw into it. ton. And I don’t think they are materials. Wood studs, drywall, bad people. But they were run- plaster, paint, and 4 bulbs in light Part of my job was to clean the fog. ning some kind of mental test fixtures which are connected to THE ASTRAL LIGHTNING ROD

Enrique Ramirez

A speculative genealogy of the professional spirit medium from the rights to Marconi, who prof- al types come to mind. There Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument London, run out of the Art Insti- ited from the decision immense- are those, of course, that show in downtown Indianapolis will tute of Chicago one spring day ly. And it was not until the 1940s a man seated in Tesla’s Colora- conjure a host of other, similar in March 1920? The facts may, that this decision was reversed do Springs laboratory, watching towers, long lost to cordite blasts as is often said, be lost to histo- and Tesla’s name rightly estab- as brilliant tentacles of electrical or wrecking balls. Some died ry. There were no eyewitnesses lished as the inventor of the radio. arcs emanate from a magnifying as they were born, as drawings, there, but thanks to the Chicago transmitter in the middle of the paintings, or engravings, testa- Tribune, we have a glimpse of the We are getting ahead of ourselves, room, illuminating the space, so ments to a long-lost architectural story. It goes something like this. and as for the answer to why much so that one can see all of imagination. There is, for exam- Gault convened this meeting, it its details, from the balloon fram- ple, Albrecht Dürer’s engraving Mrs. Fairclough-Smith was is quite possible that he was hell- ing to the slatted parquet floor- of a “Monument to Commem- scheduled to give a lecture on bent on debunking Lodge’s ideas ing. Then there are images of orate a Victory over the Rebel- “The Higher Mysticism” at the about spiritualism and astral pro- the towers themselves, the only lious Peasant” (1525), where a museum that day. As she was pre- jection. Many of Lodge’s peers in architectural objects associated seated, hunched figure, dressed paring for her lecture, she sensed Europe were interested in finding with Tesla. The unfinished War- in rags and stabbed in the back something, perhaps emanating some kind of scientific justifica- denclyffe Tower in Shoreham, with a broadsword, sits atop a col- from the hall of mummies in the tion for supernatural phenomena. New York, is perhaps the most umn made of larders, milk jugs, Institute, an occult presence in the Theories of electromagnetism and famous. The tower consisted of grain bushels, pikes and scythes. air, an “evil aurora” manifested light propagation were conve- a half-dome with radiating trans- Moving forward several centu- and rarefied as a series of “brown nient, as they dealt with the trans- mitters atop an upwardly tapering ries, Ernest Hèbrard and Henrik rays” coursing throughout the mission and reception of ineffa- wooden scaffold, mounted on a Christian Andersen’s “Tower of museum. This was no place for ble, elusive messages through the brick Beaux-Arts laboratory de- Progress” (1913-14) appeared a lecture, much less for a séance, atmosphere. Lodge was also an signed by Stanford White. Yet the as a monument to scientific ad- so in searching for a more prop- outspoken advocate for advanced magnifying transmitter tower in vancement and the centerpiece er venue for “The Higher Mys- research in the paranormal, and Colorado Springs is more famil- of their ill-conceived “World ticism,” Mrs. Fairclough-Smith it was under the auspices of the iar, if not architecturally signifi- City of Communications.” The settled on the Congress Hotel, a Society for Psychical Research cant. It was the inspiration behind Tower itself was an architectural building she found pleasurable that he met Frederic W.H. Myers. the RKO Radio Pictures Logo, an fantasy in the truest sense: mas- for the “intellectual blue” spir- Myers was an important presence overscaled, animated radio anten- sive, overscaled, more wedding it rays propagating throughout. in Lodge’s life. Lodge contrib- na (perhaps more evocative of the cake than monument. These all uted to Myers’ key texts about Eiffel Tower than Tesla’s mag- conjure Bruno Schmitz’s now That same day, a little over a mile paranormal phenomena, includ- nifying transmitter) rising from familiar obelisk, planted in the away, north on Michigan Avenue, ing the massive Phantasms of the the North Pole, emitting concen- middle of Monument Circle at at the Northwestern Universi- Living (1886), which catalogued tric radio signals from its peak. the intersection of Market and ty School of Law, the renowned hundreds of instances of tele- North Meridian Streets, if not criminologist Robert H. Gault pathic communication between This imaginary tower, in many for their similar forms and ar- convened in front of university of- the dead and the living. The text ways, is the spiritual distant rangements, then for something ficials. Like the details surround- was also controversial in that it cousin to the Soldiers’ and Sail- altogether more mysterious. ing Mrs. Fairclough-Smith’s visit, claimed that paranormal activity ors’ Monument. Why is this? In this séance is also shrouded in a was a projection of the collective 1888, shortly after Bruno Schmitz There is, after all, something veil of mystery. At that meet- unconscious, linked to a vast re- was chosen as the supervising downright spooky about the Sol- ing, Gault spent the balance of pository of extra-physical images architect of the Monument, the diers’ and Sailors’ Monument. the time denouncing the work of and sensations that Myers called German-born Chicago-based ar- Fermi Paradox Perhaps it is the way the lime- the English physicist Sir Oliver the “metetherial world.” An im- chitect and structural engineer stone sculptures of soldiers from Lodge, FRS. Along with Heinrich portant comparison is in order. Frederick Baumann was appoint- the Mexican, Civil, and Span- Hertz, Max Planck, James Clerk As electromagnetic waves flowed ed as “deputy architect.” Bau- Silentium universi ish-American Wars gaze at the Maxwell, and Edouard Bran- through the ether, psychical ac- mann was a known figure, hav- world beyond the monument ly, Lodge figured prominently tivity transversed the metether. ing translated works by Gottfried with hollowed eyes. Subjected among a group of scientists in- It was through this metether that Semper into English for Inland “Silence of the Universe” to more than a century of rain, vested in probing the effects of Lodge was able to “talk” to My- Architect magazine. He was also snow, sunlight, and a host of the ether on the propagation of ers shortly after he died in 1901— an expert at fireproofing, and as other environmental conditions, wireless signals through the air. this was the very conversation deputy architect, one of his main The Great Silence these soldiers appear more like The economic potential of such that Gault wanted to discredit. tasks was to plan and design the giant bleached wraiths, mouths work was well known as the time. network of copper shielding in- and faces captured in a mute ric- Shortly before the turn of the Some spirit voices could “hop” side the obelisk and throughout tus by dint of the sculpted stone. century, Lodge assigned his pat- from the metetherial world to the the Monument Circle site—in Or maybe it is George Brewster’s ents for radio wave transmitters ethereal. Scientific luminaries like essence turning the Soldiers’ and “Victory”, the robed female fig- to the Italian engineer and ex- Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla Sailors’ Monument into a giant ure standing on a sphere, bear- perimenter Guglielmo Marconi, claimed to hear such distant, oth- lightning rod. We can only guess ing a torch and sword, perched who was living in England at the erworldly voices—known later as as to the kind of signals that the atop the Monument as Nike on time. Nikola Tesla, who gained Electronic Voice Phenomena, or Monument conducted—for if the outstretched hand of Athena. international recognition for his EVP—through electrical equip- anything, it was a conduit, a me- It all conjures a sense of mys- work on electromagnetism, sued ment and radios. In his laborato- dium channeling the invisible, tery, perhaps even of foreboding. Marconi for patent rights to the ry in Colorado Springs in 1900, electrical fluttering of dead souls world’s first commercial radio Tesla even claimed to hear voic- from the air, creating a livewire And it all begins with a seem- transmitter and won. With mys- es from outer space. Of all the of bygone voices running along ingly strange question: Why did terious financial backing, the US images associated with this kind the parallels and meridians that Mrs. Sophia Fairclough-Smith, a Patent Office eventually assigned of communication, two gener- make up the Indianapolis grid. MUSICA UNIVERSALIS A Comic... Finished content soon...

Thomas Kennedy ROBERT FLUDD AND THE CELESTIAL MONOCHORD

Ben H. Winters I. And lo: Robert Fludd! Imagine a line, one long line, thin and black and stretched out over Brilliant and idiosyncratic En- the centuries like a tightrope drawn glishman from Kent, born in 1574 across a chasm’s mouth. and dead in 1637, a good long life (in those days), a Renaissance One end of this line ends in antiq- man (literally!): anatomist and he- uity, pegged down somewhere in matologist and alchemist and her- the fourth century BC, in Greece’s meticist and astrologer, defender first flowering, where we find Py- of the Rosicrucians, member of thagoras, geometry’s early god. the Royal College of Physicians, trumpeter of the Christian faith, Today, with a claque of admirers musician and magician and math- around him, this white-bearded ematician. Fludd was the kind eminence has set up a demonstra- of polymath’s polymath that our tion. He has taken a hollow metal hyperspecialized world no lon- box and strung across it a single ger recognizes or respects, a life- length of thin metal, and now, long learner, an expert on religion bidding the crowd to hush, he and botany and the relationships plucks it—just once—just there. of the heavenly bodies. Fludd wrote monographs and dissected One single musical note, nothing bodies and feuded with Johannes more (and nothing less!) than a Kepler and Andreas Libavius. vibration of the air, a wave wish- ing itself through the surrounding But he is remembered most (is molecules, communicating a pitch he remembered at all?) for the from Pythagoras’s magic box Celestial Monochord. There was along the ear canals and against harmony everywhere, Fludd in- the eardrums of his admirers. sisted. Perfect, God-made har- mony, relationships that could But wait!, says Pythagoras. II. and should be discovered among Imagine again the line, our tight- bear an ever-changing relation- There’s more! A bridge in the the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, rope, stretched out taut over the ship, an ever-changing ratio. middle, a block of wood or stone, centuries. She plays with her Diddley Bo and planets), among the elements which he places precisely halfway on the floor, making up songs, (darkness, light, and water), along the length of the wire, mak- We find the other end of it in the making music, making math. among the systems of the body. ing his long string into two equal American Deep South; in the de- parts. Now the sound he draws cades after the Civil War, before It’s a simple and beautiful indig- These relationships were ex- out of the box is an octave up the Great Migration. Sharecropper enous American invention, a one- pressed most clearly, most plain- from the original. The same note, years, cotton years. Let’s say it’s string hand-built zither, with its ly, in the mathematical relation- but higher, more strained—the Mississippi, and let’s say it’s 1894. origins reaching back (perhaps) ships between musical notes. same call but more urgent, more A landscape passing Pythagoras’s to the instruments of West Africa, When Fludd strung his own line engaged. He moves the bridge up imagination: an African Ameri- and its future reaching forward over his own hollow box it was and down the string, adjusting the can family, subsistence farmers, to blues and country blues and not just a monochord—not just relative lengths of the two parts. proud people in a small wooden rhythm and blues and rock and a one-stringed instrument— Now one section of string is twice home in a cotton county. A little roll—a length of wire threaded but a Celestial Monochord, a as long as the other, now the first girl, the youngest in the family, through the history of the country. one-stringed instrument that is a mere third of the second, and playing happily on a Diddley Bo. (he was sure) could shed light so on. The bridge slides, creat- on God’s plan for the world. ing new ratios, new fractions, III. This is a simple instrument, built It’s called a monochord, a one new sounds. He plucks one side for her by her father, or maybe and the other side, showing the stringed instrument, just as our time- IV. built for him by his and hand- So imagine again a line, a long tense relationships between sounds, line, stretched across the centuries, ed down. (Or maybe for him by is a one-stringed instrument. That wire across the centuries: making music, making math. his and handed down and down simplest of shapes, math’s most again). Just a piece of wood and basic expression, the straight line. Pythagoras’s musical box is at one What Pythagoras hears in these a piece of baling wire, that’s all, end, there’s a Diddley Bo at the notes is the full mechanical map the wire pegged on either end, And so at one end of our celes- other, and somewhere in the mid- of the world. Proper equations to and made tense by an empty bot- tial timeline we have Pythagoras dle—expressing by its placement express the relationship of sound tle that also serves as a bridge. (white beard and thoughtful ex- in the early Renaissance some to sound; the relationship of the pression and crowd-pleasing met- precise mathematical ratio—is sides of a triangle; the relation- The girl plucks a note. Slides the al box) and at the other end we Fludd’s Celestial Monochord. ship of a man’s arms to his tor- bottle, plucks another. One note have an African American girl in so; the relationship of a temple’s at a time, the value of the note the Deep South (plucking delight And there’s Fludd, plucking at it, columns to the tilt of its roof. higher or lower depending on from the strung wire of her Did- trying to hear what it says, know- Everything was math, and so the position of the bottle. At any dley Bo) which leaves us to find ing for certain only what every- everything was music. Pythago- given time, two notes are possi- our bridge, our bottle, the middle body knows, which is that music is ras smiles and strokes his beard. ble, one north and one south of position from which we can derive nothing more (and nothing less!) the bottle, and those two notes the relationship between the two. than a map of the universe itself.

THIS PROJECT WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY

EFROYMSON FAMILY FUND

THE INDIANAPOLIS FOUNDATION

WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM THE HARRISON CENTER FOR THE ARTS

AND A SPECIAL THANKS TO TOM BATTISTA JOYFUL NOISE RECORDINGS