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.