||  Bluffcosm Homepage  ||  OsoaWeek Issues 1 thru 270  ||  OsoaWeek Issues 271 thru 338  ||

353

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 353, 5/3/01
(Book 28, No. 2 / Tarb 14821 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sat 5/5/01 * 9:16 AM

Well, what is happening in the world of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement? First of all, as has been the case for the past 353 weeks, Obliviana still has no audience and I haven't been able to quit my day job yet.

My recent focus on the boardgame Fonjo is now in a lull. I have not yet started on my new work on Severe Repair... but I plan on starting soon. OsoaWeek has been going very well... this one I'm writing now is just a few days late. Superior is going fine as well. I just wrote the Superior for this issue a little while ago.

And, of course, Bluffcosm remains my central project right now. I am "between Waves" right now... but I plan on starting work on the May Wave today.

There's a Fuzzy Daupner show tonight, at the Acme Underground in Manhattan. It should be pretty cool.

And I have an announcement... I have tentatively decided what "Thinkfang" should be. Thinkfang will now be the term for Dashic / Stromjaunting / 209.

Now, I know I already registed the domain name "Dashic.com", and Dashic was going to be the term for the 209 stuff. But I think that Thinkfang is a much more powerful and appropriate / descriptive / evocative term.

And I do feel that it is important to introduce people to the ideas of 209. At the start of 2001, it was not my intention to work on 209 in this year. But I now feel that it is something I should work on.

In terms of the overall picutre of Obliviana, I am now very committed to making Bluffcosm the center of it all. Audio! Computerized audio shall be the medium of Obliviana!

Obliviana has many aspects that cannot be contained in audio-only, but audio is the medium I want to use to bring everything together. And indeed, this idea of "bringing together" has always been at the heart of my quest for the "Keystone Idea" of Obliviana.

And this brings me to an issue I am facing in Bluffcosm right now. See, I've been spending most of my time in Bluffcosm producing Blufftoons, and doing work on the website, and doing mailing and stuff. But what I really need to focus on is the structural issues.

Right now, people going to Bluffcosm.com face a difficult task in trying to get into the material. What I would very much like would be to have a studio, and to be streaming live 24-hours a day... sequencing audio, and coming on live... that would be awesome.

And, in fact, if I had money, I could do that. But I don't have money, so I can't do that right now. But I can make the user experience more understandable and enjoyable.

Right now I got audio on MP3.com, Live365.com, and in Laser Hinterland on my website. I think that perhaps, for the moment, I could implement the Listening Guide to make things better for listeners...

Right now, the Listening Guide just goes to a list of Bluffcosm streams on Live365.com. So yes... the Listening Guide...

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

*****

BLUFFCOSM AND SUCCESS
4/29/01
by Frank Edward Nora

In order for Bluffcosm to be successful, it has to become an innovator. There is a huge void right now in entertainment. Audio programming, which migrated from radio to TV in the 1950s, and somehow never came back... why?... because of the nature of radio... because it's so expensive to have a radio station...

Now with the Internet, and digital sound, there is no reason that audio programming should still be in the slump that it is in. And this is the void.

There are people out there who are doing Computerized Audio Entertainment (CAE) on the Internet, but they are not innovating in content or structure. Content is tied to the past... slickly produced... in most cases dull and lifeless...

Structure... right now it's miserable... streaming audio and downloadable audio that are riddled with annoyances and problems... misuse of interactivity... no sense of innovation...

There is a void. And the void will be filled with content and with ideas. The infrastructure sucks now but it is getting better all the time. I don't think that the infrastructure is the problem. Content is the main issue here, from the specific recorded works to the concept of the "station" itself.

There will not be any standard technical formats here. There's recorded sound that'll get to people in a variety of ways. But the "station" of Bluffcosm will need an overall identity in order to work.

First of all, Bluffcosm is not music-oriented. Music may be a part of Bluffcosm at some point, but it won't be a major part. I have established the "attitude" of Bluffcosm with the almost 25 hours of stuff that is currently online. What I am striving to create now is a model for what Bluffcosm can eventually be... a cool, compelling entertainment "network".

The idea of a Bluffcosm trivia game show... which is all about the Blufftoons... knowing trivia about the contents of the Blufftoons... this is one way to make the whole thing compelling...

Bluffcosm has to get to a point where it is worthy of "media buzz". It needs an angle so that magazines, websites, etc. will want to do stories about it.

5/1/01

Computerized audio entertainment... there is no standard. In terms of radio, there is a very simple standard: broadcast an audio signal at a certain frequency... any receiver the signal reaches will be able to hear the sound. Recorded sound, also, very simple: put sound in a medium, of a certain length.

This all seems pretty basic, and indeed it is. With these formats, it is the content that distinguishes.

But with computerized audio entertainment, there is no standard format. Yes, there is MP3, which is quite universal, but the ways in which people listen to MP3 are varied and complex. And of course MP3 is but one standard.

On computer, there are 2 main methods of delivering sound: via download, and streaming. These two methods are similar to the "old" ways of radio and recorded media.

But there is another form of CAE that has not been explored too much yet: interactive. I have talked about my idea for an audio-only game, with just a few input buttons, or a voice-activated interface. I think that voice-activated has problems... I have experienced discomfort interacting with TellMe (a telephone-based computer system with a pure audio interface). It's uncomfortable to "talk" to a computer, espacially of there are other people nearby.

So one big issue that I face is that in Bluffcosm I need to address format as well as content. This is something that everyone in CAE has to deal with. I think that... as I mentioned earlier... that formats will continue to change... but that... um...

Okay, let me put it this way. Beyond that speific technologies and formats, there will be a user experience. We are dealing with sound here, so the basic experience is hearing sound. And it seems to me that technology is moving forward toward being able to hear anything you want anywhere you are.

For example, I foresee people driving, and saying out loud "Let me hear Bluffcosm", and instantly Bluffcosm would start playing.

Now, this brings up an interesting question. When Bluffcosm starts playing, what exactly will be playing?

If there is to be a single Bluffcosm stream, then clearly, that one stream will start playing. But with multiple streams... would an audio menu come up? Like, "if you want to hear the Train Crap & Blood channel, say ONE".

I did mention a problem I had with a pure-audio interface, but this is more in a game context that I have a problem with this. In fact, the discomfort I spoke of I think comes from, in the specific case of TellMe, that the system doesn't work very well, and you have to say things over and over again.

So, I think I'll take back my objection to a pure-audio interface. In fact, such an interface could use clicking sounds, whistles, grunts, etc., which could be cool and good in terms of usability.

I think that given the ways things are going, pure-audio computing is going to become a reality in the near future. I mean, it's already here, with telephone-based services like TellMe.

In fact, I have for a long time thought about pure-audio computing. I can imagine a computer in the form of an earpiece with a microphone and speaker, on a wireless network. Or at least a Walkman-like device on a wireless network, with sound as its only input and output. Or, in your car, there is microphone and speaker, and it's on the network, and all you have to do is talk out loud to interface with the computer.

Wow. I'm all over the place in this essay. Jumbled and disjointed... but I'm making progress with these ideas...

So, looking forward to the widespread use of pure-audio computing (PAC?), there will be a demand for content. Aha! So here is a place to aim! Content for such a system! Radio on demand! Totally interactive!

And yes, I am WELL aware of the pitfalls of interactivity. Just look at the videophone... a technology that nobody wanted, so it never went anywhere. Yet I'm sure that many people foresaw a huge demand for it.

So here is a design challenge... design an audio content "system" for this new pure-audio computing platform that "works".

Cool! Some direction!

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 353
Seeking, misty afternoon, yellow happy office air conditioner. The Britain was yestersay. Good good. No I know: Make names for different types of dream. A shop if you run a shop. This is part of Superior. This is the wonderful 1995.

(((From OsoaWeek063--10/6/95)))

*****

The first sentence here is awesome, especially "yellow happy office air conditioner". The rest of this Superior is kind of so-so. The last sentence is kind of funny... from here in 2001... in fact, on the most recent episode of "The Sopranos" they have flashbacks back to 1995, with OJ trial stuff and everything... and 1995 really does seem like a long time ago now... 1995 was the year when I started the Obliviana website...

Hmm... "yestersay"... I have a character in Severe Repair named "Yestersay Polay". I'm not sure if I intended to write "yesterday" here... but I think that "yestersay" is interesting, whether I intended it or not.

Well, overall, I guess this Superior is decent, but not above average, in the realm of Superior. Except, of course, for the first sentence.

(Reviewed 5/5/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 154 * 5/5/01 * 1004
Just the like groove, the essence, get in touch with it, hear some cars going by it.

-------------------
END
-----------

352

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 352, 4/26/01
(Book 28, No. 1 / Tarb 14779 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sat 4/28/01 * 4:15 PM

Here we are, Book 28! 2+8=1, man! I'm into numerology, man!

Anyway, indeed, Obliviana is moving right along. I'm putting the finishing touches on the April 2001 Wave of Blufftoons, and it'll all be done in a little while.

So what's up for the next 13 weeks in Obliviana? Well, I plan on continuing to work hard on Bluffcosm... with some new productions, and of course more delving into my audio archives!

I'll also be working on making Bluffcosm more interesting for people to get into. The way it is now, "go and listen to some great stuff" just isn't gonna get people into it.

So I'm gonna keep on making it better! Yo!

Get all Obliviana!

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

*****

BLUFFCOSM PRODUCTION NOTES
April 2001 Wave of Blufftoons
by Frank Edward Nora
4/28/01

Here it is, the first Blufftoon Wave of Bluffcosm Year Two! This was a bit of a difficult Wave... I wound up spending all day last Saturday (4/21/01) to get it done.

There's no "Vacation from Sanity" this month, because I just didn't have time to do it. Hopefully there'll be one next month!

Overall, I'm very happy with this Wave, which adds a 53 minutes and 7 seconds to the world of Bluffcosm audio content!

--------
Blufftoon 108: Hello Ginger -- (2:26) Summer 1985... VHS overdubbing on an ancient VCR... JIM! JIM!
--------

While we were making our Dr. Who movie back in the Summer of 1985, it was my first time of playing around with a video camera, and there's a lot of cool stuff on the tapes besides the filming of the movie.

You can hear more stuff from these tapes in Blufftoon 41: "Making Polarized Worlds: Part 1", and also in Blufftoon 81: "The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #1". And I plan on releasing a lot more stuff from these tapes!

In this Blufftoon, we were playing around with the audio overdubbing features of the ancient top-loading VHS VCR that I had. My friend Chris Fedoruk was overdubbing video of me playing with my cat Ginger, of himself, and finally, of one of the Police Academy movies, I think.

--------
Blufftoon 109: Beublin 19: Horrible Waters -- (10:02) A psychedelic saunter through a world of outtakes from the early '90s Beublin A. Richardson universe. Yes, you can tap into creativity, if you just let yourself "go".
--------

This Blufftoons contains a wide variety of outtakes from the video footage of the original "Beublin A. Richardson" series from 1990 and 1991.

A few months ago, I recorded all the outtakes from the footage, and then editing them into usable pieces. The overall effect is indeed "psychedelic" and meandering, but I like it. It's an interesting addition to the world of Beublin, and it contain many classic bits of sound.

--------
Blufftoon 110: Beublin 20: Horace Doom -- (6:25) Controverial poet Horace Doom, a Beublin character you've heard about... and now you can hear him in this "deleted scene" from the original series!
--------

The original "Beublin A. Richardson" project was done in two phases: one in 1990 and one in 1991. The first phase is about the making of the "Weird Highway" video, with Beublin being obsessed with Orangina. The second phase concerned his egg friend, Mr. Gregg, and the big Halloween party.

In the first phase, I created the character Horace Doom for myself. This Blufftoon contains all the material we recorded of Horace Doom. In the original work, Horace Doom was talked about, but never seen.

There were two reasons I cut Horace Doom out originally: the footage was a bit weak, and also I created a new character for myself in phase 2, Lonnie (his last name, Summer, I added last year).

The poem Doom reads here is from my work "Abaxial Usufruct" It's #12, "Two Pink Chalky Pellets in my Mouth". You can check it out in Aerie Obliviana.

I debated whether or not to leave the poem in, but I decided to go ahead and keep it.

--------
Blufftoon 111: A Lovely Day in New York -- (6:22) The first nice day of Spring 2001 in NYC... and it bicyclist vs. cab driver in this amazing street conflict, caught on tape!
--------

I've been carrying a tape recorder around with me at all times, since January. I recorded this piece walking around on my lunch break from work.

I edited the piece to make it flow better, and I cut off several minutes of audio after the police came, because it just wasn't very interesting.

With this Blufftoon, I've decided to let it stand "as is"... I did record some explanation afterward, but I think it's cool as it is, without too much explanation.

--------
Blufftoon 112: A Hairy One -- (9:21) It's nighttime at college... and John is drunk! Hear his friends torment him in this mid-1980s classic!
--------

This one was recorded at Drew University in dorm room Brown 209, Fall 1985, or possibly Spring 1986, but I think 1985 is more likely.

John was my roommate, and his friends took my "boom box" and one of my tapes and started recording, without my knowledge or permission. I don't know what they erased, but hell, I don't mind! I'm freaking thrilled they did it, cuz it's awesome!

There is more stuff from this on the tape, and I'm gonna be reviewing it to see if there could be a sequel.

--------
Blufftoon 113: Birthday 1988 -- (4:14) October 3, 1988... the offices of Anything But Monday Magazine in Caldwell, NJ... Mike wishes Frank a happy birthday by hurling batteries at him...
--------

This one was recorded a few months before Mike and I released the first "nationwide" issue of Anything But Monday.

It still irks me to think that we abandoned audio for print... but hey, I was just a kid back then.

After this recording, there's a lot more... me and Mike talking to ourselves one year in the future, with our predictions about how things would go... and it'll probably be a Blufftoon in the near future.

--------
Blufftoon 114: Shopping With Franco -- (8:41) Join Franco Wolfini and the mysterious cameraman "Willie" on a very wacky trip to the supermarket! Another audio masterpiece from "Weird University"... including an appearance by Iggy Szalzo!
--------

"Shopping With Franco" was a feature in the video "Weird University" #2, which Mike and I showed in the student center before a decent-sized audience.

With this piece, I went back to the raw footage, and I found a LOT of stuff that never made it into the original edit.

This one was quite a lengthy and involved edit... and I had a scare last Sunday morning when I thought I accidentally erased all my work! Luckily, I was able to recover it.

Franco Wolfini was the character Mike Massotto created for himself after I created Iggy Szalzo for myself.

--------
Blufftoon 115: Weird Vice -- (5:36) The exciting adventures of Detective Goldberg on the campus of Weird University! Traffic violations, wild parties, drug deals... it's crazy crime action-adventure!
--------

This is another piece from "Weird University" #2. In this one, pretty much all the stuff you hear was also in the original edit. In the original, we used music from the pinball machine "Hollywood Heat" as a soundtrack.

"Officer Goldberg" was a real Drew University security officer, and he was really a good sport about acting in the video.

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 352
Thor, I had thought of you. So identified, the hammer, such a pure symbol, of work, of power, of the focus of human force. Freya confuse me. Norseness aside, well, you puzzle you. Oh, an American landmark. How thorough.

(((From OsoaWeek062--9/29/95)))

*****

Um... this one is not very good. The sentence "Norseness aside, well, you puzzle you." is actually quite good, but the next 2 sentences really blow. I really don't know what I was driving at with the "American landmark"... and the last sentence is really pretty awful... THORough? Man...

Yet still, this one may be cool as the first Superior reviewed in Book 28 of OsoaWeek... the whole hammer thing is pretty cool, thematically.

(Reviewed 4/28/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 153 * 4/28/01 * 1003
The rantings of a cyber culture pundit in the glimmering dawn of the mid-1990s. Time marches on and ideas need to the thoughtabout in every moment into the battle of future. Here is our Earth, we are crazy critters, our culture in 2001 is looking backwards. Want to build something lasting that has followers. The mistake of the cyber futurists, their future got blown away. In my future is the richly wonderful spring of computerized audio entertainment. It will not so easily be blown away because it is entertaining.

-------------------
END
-----------

351

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 351, 4/19/01
(Book 27, No. 13 / Tarb 14737 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Tue 4/17/01 * 8:11 PM

Ah, here we are at last, the final issue of OsoaWeek Book 27! Next week, a new beginning... Book 28... 2+8=10, 1+0=1... 1... the number of new beginnings...

So here's what's happening in Obliviana. First of all, I'm working on the April 2001 Wave of Blufftoons, the first Wave of Bluffcosm Year Two. I really want to start getting these Waves out earlier in the month... buit this one will likely be in the mid-20s like most of the others...

Next, the boardgame Fonjo has burst forth, even though at the start of the year I tried to suppress it in my thoughts. In the space of a few weeks, I have a new prototype gameboard and a whole new set of rules. It was on 4/3/01 that this new inspiration struck me... and I playtested the game this past Sunday... and it went very well.

At the start of the year, I DID grudgingly accept that I might work on Fonjo, along with Bluffcosm, Severe Repair, OsoaWeek, Superior, and Fuzzy Daupner. Well, Fonjo is now an active project... though I don't know where exactly I can take it from here... I don't want it to take too much time away from Bluffcosm...

On the Severe Repair front, I am still preparing myself to get back into it. I think I will probably start in the next few months... maybe even next week, with the dawn of Book 28!

Fuzzy Daupner is doing very well... our second album, "Naked Exit Friend", was released last month... and we've been playing a lot of show and we have a lot in the coming months.

And there is another aspect of Obliviana that is rumbling... Thinkfang.com. Right now, it is just a cool name (and domain name) and logo... but I have begun working on what it should be. I should mention that Bluffcosm was also just a name and logo for 101 days before it became what it now is.

As far as what it might be... right now I am looking at Vending Yamp... and wondering if it might not be an excellent idea to make Thinkfang be a revised version of Vending Yamp... but I am not sure... if so, it will be more... it will tackle the promotion issue, which was one of its original purposes in its previous form...

As far as everything else that is in the universe of Obliviana, all of it is in a "suspended" state. I have thought of doing one more issue of ZopeTV to explain the suspension... and maybe I will... but I do not want to stray too far from my central project, Bluffcosm.

Another aspect of Obliviana that is rumbling a little is the whole 209 / Stormjaunting / Dashic thing. But I think I should leave it in suspension for the time being... and if I do return to it this year, it will be as a part of Bluffcosm, in audio form.

Indeed, my intention is for Bluffcosm to be the core of Obliviana from now on... an audio network... a cool, cool thing... in my thoughts, I am inspired by the energy of MTV when it first began... computerized audio... its potential is MASSIVE!!!!!

I guess that an audio version of Zope is something that is apparent as a possibility. And indeed I have been thinking about it a little. And it is possible.

Tue 4/24/01 * 10:13 PM

We got kittens, my wife and I, on Sunday! Two awesome kittens, 6-weeks-old, Jesse and Sasha. Very cool.

Anyway, the April 2001 Wave of Blufftoons is pretty much done. I still have to make the Wave "icon" and write the description for each new Blufftoon... but they are on the on the Live365.com Streams and submitted to MP3.com...

I'm quite happy with this Wave. It's a good assortment of awesome stuff. 8 Blufftoons, a little over 53 minutes. So the Bluffcosm total is not just shy of 25 hours. I just read that Audible.com, an audio content website, has like 24,000 hours available, from a variety of sources... but Boluffcosm is a very different kind of thing...

Um... anyway, I've been working on ways to make Bluffcosm better. Like, to make Bluffcosm COMPELLING. It's definitely not easy.

See, I realized that with Bluffcosm, I am at the verge of something new. There has never been an audio medium like the Internet. Everyone is still thinking in terms of the older technologies of radio broadcasting and recording on disk or tape. Computerized audio entertainment on the Internet does not have to be the same.

Yet I have seen that many attempt to create content with the Internet in mind have failed. For example, there is the temptation to add interactivity to things... and in many cases this has been done badly... and in many cases it is interactivity that does nothing but detract.

But I do believe that there IS a way to create a new kind of audio medium. I am lucky that I have gotten past the idea that just because something is different and new doesn't mean it is good... I am aware of the danger of missteps in trying to forge a new thing like this. But I really do believe that I can do it.

Um... I'm very tired... I'm starting to ramble...

Let's go! People are gonna be excited about Bluffcosm!

Get all Obliviana.



-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

*****

THE POTENTIAL OF COMPUTERIZED AUDIO ENTERTAINMENT
by Frank Edward Nora
April 21, 2001

Recorded audio is a fairly recent thing... it's only been around for about 100 years. Before that, there were music boxes and other mechanical devices that could play music... but the ability to capture actual sound and play it back started with the Edison cylinder recorder... about 100 years ago.

Recorded sound was popular, I surmise, from as soon as it was available. Starting with cylinders and then moving to the flat disk system, people were able to buy prerecorded content to be played on-demand at home. The "groove" system of a stylus moving down a groove was the technique from the earliest cylinders to the modern LP. All these formats were fairly limited in the amount of time available... with modern LPs being able to hold something like 22 or 23 minutes per side.

A few years after the phonograph was introduced, radio broadcasting began. Well... I think it was actually a few decades. I'm writing this off the top of my head... I don't feel like doing research... I have a lot of Bluffcosm editing to do today...

So okay... radio... like the 1920's or so it started... and people were able to receive continuous broadcasts of sound at home... but they did not have control over what the radio stations were playing... they simply had the choice of switching between stations.

Now, let's jump ahead to the like the early 1990s, before the Internet took off. A person's daily experience with recorded sound came from pretty much the same two methods: recorded material, and broadcast material. In terms of recorded material, cassettes and CD's are the big media. Cassettes can store a maximum of 2 hours, with 90 minutes being the more common upper limit. CD's can store a max of 80 minutes of music. So the storage capacity per piece of media is not all that much more than in the early days.

In terms of broadcasting, radio has continued to be very popular. But in any given area, there is a limit to the number of stations that can coexist in the FM and AM bands, and these are the two bands that, in general, consumer radios can get. I guess there may be something like between 40 and 80 radio stations available here in Northern New Jersey. So again, in radio, like in recorded media, there has not been any "quantum leap" since the early days of radio. Yes, the broadcasts are better-quality and stereo (on FM), but it's not all that drastically different from how it was 60 or 70 years ago.

Now, TV does broadcast sound as well as image... but I am concerned with the unique characteristic of audio-only content, so I won't discuss TV here... except maybe to mention that some cable TV systems offer radio-like music broadcasting services...

Now, let me talk about the content of audio recordings and broadcasts. First of all, music now dominates recordings and broadcasts, and it has always been a major aspect of content for all recorded and broadcast sound. In terms of recording, "spoken word" has always existed as a niche, with poetry, audiobooks, comedy, documentaries, etc. In terms of broadcast non-music content, there is a whole range of news and talk and comedy... and of course, the huge variety of programming that is now known as Old Time Radio.

Old Time Radio, which was approximately during the 30s and 40s, was the time of the most varied and rich audio-only non-music content. There was a wide variety of shows... from comedies to mysteries, thrillers to variety shows, westerns to sci-fi. This type of broadcast programming migrated from radio to TV in the late 1940s and early 1950s... I think a lot of people are still puzzled by the death of Old-Time Radio.

Audio-only content is intrinsically different from audi-visual content. First of all, audio content engages the "mind's eye", where the listener imagines the visuals for the sound content. This is a process which at times is extremely subtle, but it is always there. In terms of processing the information, with sound only, it is a different mental process than with sound and vision.

Another big aspect of sound-only content is that one can perform a variety of tasks while listening to sound... most tasks in fact. Driving, working, walking, etc. Watching TV or a movie freezes you and prevents you from doing much else.

Now, let's move ahead to the world of today, and the dramatic "quantum leaps" in sound recording and broadcasting. Basically, home computers have gotten to be massively powerful, and the Internet has gotten much more advanced, and audio compression technology has made huge leaps... and we're just in the early stages of this technological advance in terms of digital audio.

Here's an example of the some of this new technology: using 24kbps "lo-fi" MP3's, you can store 60 hours of stereo sound on a single 74-minute CD-R. At this level, my current 24 hours and 5 minutes of material in Bluffcosm takes up about 260 MB as "lo-fi" MP3's.

With 60 hours and random access and programming and sequencing, I can imagine a month-long audio environment, complete with music channels, programming, audiobooks, etc.

Let me get more specific... right now on the market there are portable MP3-CD-R players. Now, if they added the ability to run audio from a program, I think that the possibilities would be extremely exciting. The 60 hours of sound could be utilized in a variet of ways. For example, there could be a music "channel" which could sequence a few hours of music in a variety of ways, playing some songs more frequently and some less.

In such a system, using sequencing, it would be feasible to program weeks, months, or even years worth of programming, using the base "stock" of 60 hours of audio. Let's look at a month's worth...744 hours for 31 days. In this case, on average, each piece of audio would be repeated 12.4 times on average, during the month. With creative sequencing, this could make for a very rich and interesting production.

Now, such a system could use one of three major ideas. It could have a rock-solid sequence, that would run in real time. For example, the moment you hit PLAY, the 744-hour sequence would begin, so that stopping or pausing the system would not pause the "playback". When you turned it back on, you would be listening to the "broadcast" in progress. The second idea would simply pause the broadcast when you were not listening... but I like the first idea better, because it incorporates the massively important aspect of serendipity into the system. Serendipity is the finding of something valuable by accident. And it's a major part of our experience in broadcast entertainment. Channel surfing... flipping throught he radio stations... and finding something interesting. Even hearing only a part of something is valuable... because it increases our interest in hearing the part of it we have not heard.

The third system would be a random or "shuffle" playback system. This idea does have value... but random sequencing lacks the artistic control of conscious, deliberate, creative sequencing.

At the heart of this "audio month" idea is the idea of one-button operation... start and stop. And to reiterate, this system would use a portable device which could play MP3-CD's (as already exist), but also has a programmable sequencing system. The idea is that one CD would provide a month of continuous "virtual" broadcasting.

Another idea is that, through a combination of deliberate sequencing and randomness, such a CD could provide a neverending, never-repeating sequence.

Well, this is certainly an interesting idea. The only problem is, I don't know if such a system already exists or if one is planned... oh well... this was just a thought-experiment to show one angle of the potential of computerized audio entertainment.

Okay... so this essay has veered and ambled... so where am I now?

Yeah... I want to talk about the big pitcure of Computerized Audio Entertainment ("CAE", I guess). CAE specifically encompasses all kinds of audio entertainment... just like Old-Time Radio did. I can easily imagine people getting into audio series, be they comedic or dramatic or sci-fi or documentary or whatever. I mean, I don't know exactly why such production are not on radio anymore (besides NPR which does, I think, have some stuff like this, albeit artsy and liberal, I surmise). But on the radio today, we got music, news, and talk. Talk ranges from call-in political and topical shows to Howard Stern type shows... but this is very limited when compared to the variety of programming on Old-Time Radio.

CAE has the advantage of a vastly cheaper delivery infrastructure. The main delivery system of CAE is the Internet, with CD's and CD-R's also being a possible delivery system... though the Internet is optimal, since it is a system which people already have, and more and more people are getting every day.

The very cheap and somewhat easy Internet CAE infrastructure (which is getting cheaper and easier all the time) has some disadvantages, though. Chief among these problems is the marketing and promotional aspect. Things that have expensive infratructures for the producers do several things: they elicit more respect from people, since people are aware that big money is involved... they limit the amount of content available... and they act as a quality filter, since their goal is to make money, they want to present content that they feel people will like.

All this is in the background that exists... many people produce content... and far more content is produced than any single person can hope to personally experience. For example, I think it is a fair assumption to say that the total amount of recorded music that currently exists, played in sequence, would greatly exceed a single human lifespan.

I am working on my ideal Bluffcosm infrastructure. One idea I am thinking about is a "two-button" system. One button is to ON/OFF, and the other switches between a limited number of channels, say from 4 to 20, in general, with 13 maybe being optimal.

And now, I come to a VERY big issue is CAE: interactivity. The two-button system I have just describes is about as interative as broadcast VHS TV... you can turn the TV on and off, and choose from 12 channels. This system was for many years the TV experience, and it did not suffer for lack of interactivity.

But, CAE, being computerized, has the capacity for huge amounts of interactivity. And for years, people in all areas of entertainment have been promoting the idea of more interactivity as a good thing. In fact, I just read about one of the TV networks doing an "interactive" show eherre viewers vote for one of two branching decisions for the second half of the show. And I recall similar systems tested for movies, where audiences "vote" for different branchings of the storyline.

This specific kind of interactivity, I think, is not good. And in general, I am very wary about interactivity.

Let's look at recorded audio media and its level of interactivity. These days, such material is primarily music in the form of CD's. A person has a CD collection, and they choose which CD they want to hear. Since CD's are random-access, they can also choose which track they want to hear. But in general, I would say that when people put a CD on, they listen to the whole thing more often than selecting tracks... though skipping undesired tracks is fairly common. "Pause" is also big.

On the other hand, people listen to FM music stations with no interactivity, other than being able to switch stations, and this is also a very satisfying user experience.

Though music is certainly a part of CAE, in Blufcosm I am focusing on non-music content, though I am considering some music content in the future. One idea I have had for a long time is one interpretation of the word "Obliviana", which would be to present material that was previously lost or forgotten. For example, there is a huge amount of music out there by bands that never "made it", and I believe that there is a treasure of good music in this form out there.

In fact, I am puzzled by the lack of song "revivals" in popular music. Though it does happen occasionally, songs from the past that were not "hits" are rarely "revived". For example, in rock music, artists produce catalogs of material, only a fraction of which became "singles" or "hits". But it seems that big media is more interested in pushing new material than "mining" their existing catalogs for songs which could become new "hits".

The more someone is exposed to a song, the more chance there is that they will "get into it". Big media decides which songs to push and get people into.

Um... so my "Obliviana" idea would be to find music that no one ever heard of and focus on it and get people into it.

I see right now in the USA (and in many other countries) a severe lack of varied audio programming. For example, why aren't there game shows on the radio? This really puzzles me. I would imagine that game shows would be very popular on radio today, just as they were in the days of Old-Time Radio. And what about "reality shows"? This is a TV trend of the past few years... and I would think that such shows would be very popular on radio.

But, for whatever reason, radio programming today is severely limited. And this, I think, presents a great opportunity for CAE to fill the gap.

Right now, today, CAE is in its infancy. The experience of CAE today is riddled with annoyances and stutters. One big means of delivering CAE is via a real-time "stream". Data is sent continuously to a listener's computer, the data is turned into sound, and then discarded. This is similar to radio broadcasting, with several very big exceptions: [1] You need a computer and an Internet connection. And while it is possible to receive audio streams with wireless devices, that technology is still in its infancy. Wireless radio is not a problem. [2] For broadcasters, each person listening taxes the system and costs money. The more people listening, the more the broadcast costs, in terms of server usage and bandwidth. Traditional radio does not have this restriction; it broadcasts through the air, and more listeners cost nothing in terms of the infrastructure. [3] The vastly increased choice of "stations" in CAE makes it harder for a single CAE broadcaster to stand out from the crowd. In radio, there is naturally a very limited choice of stations. [4] In CAE, various technological deficiencies can mar the listening experience. Network congestion, computer freeze-ups, server overloads, etc. can make listening to a CAE broadcast very trying. By contrast, radio these days is rarely beset by technical difficulties.

But, there are solutions to these problems. In terms of each user costing money, there might be some way to use "peer-to-peer" networking (as in Napster) to reduce server strain. The technology of CAE is advancing every day, to the point that a small, cheap Walkman-like device could receive digital CAE broadcasts with a high degree of reliability. The issues of "too much choice" and "standing out from the crowd" are not as easy to deal with... but I believe that CAE broadcasters can rise from the crowd through a combination of quality programming and promotion.

Right now, I am not aware of any big CAE broadcaster that does not focus on music. One big CAE broadcaster that I listen to regularly is Spinner.com, which has a large number of music channels. It is on a PC at work with a broadband connection which is not used very often for other tasks... and the Spinner broadcast is constant and reliable, and the music content is enjoyable.

Spinner is an example of a CAE broadcaster that is succeeding in terms of its product... but I don't know if they are making any money.

Now, let me discuss another idea... this idea of a purely audio-based game system. Just imagine a Walkman-like device with a few buttons on it. It is a computer game which plays sound as the output and the buttons are the input (no voice recognition or anything). I cam imagine a rich variety of games using such a system. Example games: trivia (of course), branching stories (of course), but also others: free exploration of a world, game shows, strategy games, mysteries, etc.

Well, that about wraps it up for this essay. Oh, I found out that CAE also stands for "Computer Aided Engineering"... oh well...

In conclusion, CAE rocks!

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 351
So, look at the commute. So close to so many women, yet the illusion that there's an infinity of space between us. Breasts, asses, pussies, legs, necks, bellybuttons, hair, faces. All so close. And we're talking at least a few 8's and 9's every day. So much sex so much love. And the rhythm beat of the trains.

(((From OsoaWeek062--9/29/95)))

*****

I think this one is actually pretty good. Another in a series of sex-crazed "pussy" Superiors... I guess sex was on my mind a lot back then. Well, it's always on my mind... but it was something I was inspired to write about at the time.

Anyway... this Superior does touch on a 209 / Stormjaunting / Dashic concept... that situational distance is a very real thing. In this case, so very close, physically, to so many women, and their sexiness. And yet, the space between... a situational space... so maybe it is not an "illusion" of space at all... but real situational space.

The first and last sentences frame the whole deal nicely. So all in all, pretty good. Not among the best Superiors, by any means, but definitely respectable.

(Reviewed 4/17/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 152 * 4/24/01 * 1002
Do we want to think about misty revolution. I touch notes of music, striking nature. Week after week, and no answer to the secret of everything. But a delicious interplay of deep and robust playful distractions. But hot and depressed in the mall, yet there are moments of real joy.

-------------------
END
-----------

350

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 350, 4/12/01
(Book 27, No. 12 / Tarb 14695 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Thu 4/12/01 * 10:22 PM

I just wrote Superior Review, below, and I talked about all the stuff I was gonna write about here.

Anyway, in this issue I present Superior 1001 (Duskaway 151)... this one was written on January 1, 2001... and it is the last Superior that I have "in reserve". So starting next issue, I'll start writing new ones!

Also, next issue will be the last issue of OsoaWeek Book 27. Two weeks from today, OsoaWeek Book 28 will begin. Numerologically, 27=9 and 28=1. So I am hoping that Book 28 will bring brighter times with it, because things have been a bit dark of late.

So where does Obliviana stand? About three-and-a-half months ago I decided to abandon KIVO... to let go of my quest for a game/occult design that would bring all the disparate elements of Obliviana together into a massively successful enterprise.

And I have been focusing on Bluffcosm, and I have been very, very happy with the results.

And I am planning on getting back into Severe Repair soon.

And I have unexpectedly begun a new round of work on my boardgame Fonjo.

And the band Fuzzy Daupner is going very well also... the new album "Naked Exit Friend" came out a few weeks ago.

I had a weird dream last night... some kids blew up my Jeep. It was like I was involved in the filming of an epsiode of The Sopranos... and they were gonna use my Jeep in it... but at some point I noticed my Jeep far parked further from the curb than I remembered... so I dragged it back to the curb... but then I noticed that it leaning down in the front... and there were clothes hung in the Jeep... And I saw that the front tired were turned 90 degrees, the outside circle of them facing forward. And then I realized that these kids had blown up the Jeep, and I looked at the engine, and it was bulged and destroyed. It was a street at night, and I ripped the kids' wide diving board off its mount and threw it in the river that was where the road had been. And I cursed up a storm, bursing at the bad kids, and their parents heard me cursing too, and I was glad.

Later, I was with my father, and telling him about it, and he said he saw it in the episode, and I remember thinking like "wow, it was really something that other people saw, not like a dream or something". And he said the insurance would probably cover it, and my brother said that insurance always covers it if your vehicle gets blown up.

Plus there was some sex stuff earlier in the dream... but for me at least sex stuff in dreams is always very weird and not at all like a sex "fantasy". Oh well...

Okay... so here I am... the 350th week of OsoaWeek... still going... still hoping... still... well, read Superior Review for a whole lot of stuff on this subject... the subject of the state of Obliviana.

But, ah, through all the confusion and darkness, one thing is clear... BLUFFCOSM RULES!!!!!

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

*****

BLUFFCOSM YEAR ONE
CONCISE LIST OF BLUFFTOONS
by Frank Edward Nora
4/17/01

Bluffcosm.com was established on November 19, 1999. At that time, I defined it in a very vague way, as some kind of online game world or something. Then, 101 days later, on February 28, 2000, I defined Bluffcosm.com as the computerized audio content thing that it now is. 25 days after that, on March 24, 2000, Bluffcosm.com began broadcasting.

So, I mark the true date of the start of Bluffcosm.com as March 24, 2000.

Below is a list of all the Blufftoons released in Bluffcosm's first year. The last set of Blufftoons here is from the March 2001 Wave. On the Bluffcosm News Page, this Wave is listed as being released on March 25, 2001... but this Wave was completed and partially released before March 24... so there should be no confusion over these Bluftoons being included in Year One!

This list is concise -- it contains only the Blufftoon number, name, and running time. I maintain a database with much more detailed information than this... but this list is meant as a convenient reference. I will release the full data at some point.

Bluffcosm Year One contains 24 hours, 5 minutes, and 56 seconds of audio. It's a wild, untamed forest of fantasy and adventure, weirdness and stupidity, depth and... um... stupidity. Lotta stupidity in there.

Anyway, here it is... the list!

***

[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro [3:02]
[2] Train Crap & Blood #1 [Pennsylvania] [47:27]
[3] Train Crap & Blood #2 [Birth Control] [47:28]
[4] Train Crap & Blood #3 [Waves] [47:31]
[5] Train Crap & Blood #4 [Communism] [47:29]
[6] Train Crap & Blood #5 [Education] [48:3]
[7] Train Crap & Blood #6 [The Proverbs] [48:02]
[8] Train Crap & Blood #7 [Crime] [47:24]
[9] Train Crap & Blood #8 [Cartoons] [47:30]
[10] Beublin 8: Bonnie's Tarantula Farm [7:40]
[11] Bluffcosm ID #1 [0:08]
[12] Intro - Train Crap & Blood #9 [75432] [1:33]
[13] Train Crap & Blood #9 [75432] [47:29]
[14] Montana 1980 [Part One] [6:16]
[15] Intro - Beublin 9: The Flint Orwell Program [1:50]
[16] Beublin 9: The Flint Orwell Program [7:16]
[17] The Mini Car Show [12:30]
[18] Throat Ripper Scene [18:25]
[19] The Hot Kestrel [8:12]
[20] Cooper [17:36]
[21] For Joey [6:08]
[22] Existence [0:33]
[23] Ping Pong [18:52]
[24] Beublin 1: Thinking Foods [9:36]
[25] Beublin 2: The Forbidden Triangle [9:55]
[26] Beublin 3: Mr. Gregg [10:14]
[27] Beublin 4: A Perfect Arrangement [11:19]
[28] Beublin 5: Papier-Mache [11:9]
[29] Beublin 6: Olga Masters [10:05]
[30] Beublin 7: The Halloween Party [7:26]
[31] For Joey [Full Version] [11:17]
[32] The Flint Orwell Program [Radio Only] [7:25]
[33] Beublin 10: Good Morning [1:57]
[34] Beublin 11: Buck Lanters [10:36]
[35] Beublin 12: Balconies [7:13]
[36] Beublin 13: The Royal Mall [13:53]
[37] Arcade Phantom [16:20]
[38] Tailor's Proverbs [3:08]
[39] Birthday 1977 [4:01]
[40] It's a Tuck-In [2:55]
[41] Making Polarized Worlds: Part 1 [7:42]
[42] Pebbles [1:50]
[43] Birthday 1977 [Full Version] [8:29]
[44] Pen Buying [1:34]
[45] Bluffcosm Banter #1 [5:28]
[46] Bluffcosm Banter #2 [0:34]
[47] All About Zope [3:59]
[48] Train Crap & Blood #9.5 [Cotton Candy] [16:53]
[49] Road to Truro [1:52]
[50] Beublin 14: Final Test Cream [11:19]
[51] Beublin 15: Snowy Summersquash [6:51]
[52] Beublin 16: Eisenhowagy [3:32]
[53] Beublin 17: Dimmer Switch [6:52]
[54] Bluffcosm Banter #3 [1:48]
[55] Bluffcosm Promo Insane [0:30]
[56] The Evil Farm [Episode 1: "Bus"] [10:20]
[57] The Evil Farm [Episode 2: "Cop"] [9:04]
[58] The Evil Farm [Episode 3: "Rag"] [8:11]
[59] The Evil Farm [Episode 4: "Fry"] [9:29]
[60] The Evil Farm [Episode 5: "Cut"] [9:20]
[61] The Evil Farm [Episode 6: "Buy"] [8:53]
[62] The Evil Farm [Episode 7: "Can"] [8:32]
[63] The Evil Farm [Episode 8: "Dog"] [8:01]
[64] The Evil Farm [Episode 9: "Sky"] [8:11]
[65] The Evil Farm [Episode 10: "End"] [5:54]
[66] The Evil Farm [Distilled Highlights] [10:01]
[67] Dear Courtney [Part 1] [7:07]
[68] Dear Courtney [Part 2] [8:27]
[69] Dear Courtney [Part 3] [5:12]
[70] Kathy Jones [0:33]
[71] Bill Jorgensen [3:58]
[72] Montana 1980 [Prelude] [1:51]
[73] News From Civilization [2:03]
[74] T5 [5:18]
[75] Peggy's Playroom [4:16]
[76] Salt and Light [4:14]
[77] It's a Tuck-In [Collector's Edition] [6:18]
[78] Phase Cop [Episode 1: "Mr. Donleder"] [4:52]
[79] Please Shift the Goddamn Car [11:14]
[80] Bad Hole [1:47]
[81] The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #1 [5:00]
[82] Cut and Shoot [8:08]
[83] Tornado Warning [7:06]
[84] Sights of the Uncommons [13:39]
[85] Woodstock 89 - Dirty Trip [4:08]
[86] Woodstock 89 - Dan Quayle [3:59]
[87] Woodstock 89 - Army Tent [4:46]
[88] Woodstock 89 - Eighth Grade [3:40]
[89] Woodstock 89 - Hell No [4:04]
[90] Beublin 18: Pro-Establishment Drake [6:28]
[91] Go Away [3:04]
[92] Sounds of the Commons [9:26]
[93] The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #2 [5:00]
[94] I Want Something Funny [0:53]
[95] The Killer Bag [6:10]
[96] The Motor Excursion Ruffians #1 [3:06:45]
[97] Classictronica #1 [2:19:44]
[98] Classictronica #1 Intro [0:45]
[99] Video Devil Jr. Station ID #1 [0:14]
[100] Montana 1980 [Part Two] [15:46]
[101] Iggy and the Stud [3:17]
[102] Iggy and the Smart Guys [7:58]
[103] Iggy and the Condemned Man [7:18]
[104] Umbrella [1:19]
[105] The Royal Mall [Radio Edit] [4:44]
[106] The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation From Sanity #3 [5:00]
[107] Train Crap & Blood #10 [Seriousness] [57:53]

Total [24:05:56]

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 350
Dawn--awaken the world--this day might seem like a shadow of so many others--but there's no guarantee on that. Corny mugs and posters say "Carpe Diem--Seize the Day!"--and most of us would like to--at least we can envision seizing the day. But it's not so easy. Yes--every new day is a new world. But so many of the happenings in our lives span broad expanses of time--like working on a project--where each day brings you a little closer. But every day we are pioneers in the realm of time. Seizing the day is not easy--maybe we need a whole new practical system just to manage seizing the day. By writing, I seize the day every day. But I want to start a company--I think that's what seizing the day is really about--starting and running companies.

(((From OsoaWeek062--9/29/95)))

*****

Wow... gotta say wow again... because this Superior really came as a surprise... because it deals with issues that I am dealing with right now.

I was gonna write this in Lord of Obliviana, but I'll talk about it here instead. Basically, I was thinking about saying something... saying that I am just about ready to apply a word to Obliviana... a hated word... a word that is very painful to me. The word is "hobby".

And it puts me in a dark mood even to write that word in conjunction with Obliviana. And it angers me. And it shows that I have lost faith in Obliviana, to call it a hobby... though that is exactly what it has been... what it has ever been since I began it.

But I never thought of it as a hobby... I thought of it as a business... as a company... as a company that would be able to start making money soon. Always soon. And now it's April 12, 2001.

Lately I've really been at a loss to come up with ANY kind of scenario where I could make money with Obliviana, and specificially, Bluffcosm. Hobby... no... I cannot accept that. I cannot give up. I have not lost all faith in my work... I know my work is good... it's just that I can't seem to get an audience for my work, let alone make any money with it.

"Carpe Diem"... maybe I should seize the day. But the thing is, you can seize a day... a few days... but it's seizing the day EVERY day that's such a bitch.

Like I said, I'm in a dark mood right now. And it does obscure all the wonderful, awesome things in my life. So I don't know... maybe I should accept that Obliviana is just a hobby...

Well, like I've written about before, I've been depending a lot on luck... on things happening to help me make Obliviana successful. Well, I have to say that I HAVE been lucky in many, many ways in recent years. So I cannot lament a lack of luck. It's just... the financial squeeze... the "day job"... and the lack of a "light at the end of the tunnel" vis-a-vis Obliviana.

And I have this whole supernatural thing... I deal with it all the time... and I do not know how much of it is valid and how much is delusion. But I have to assume that it's 100% delusion in terms of living my life.

So, I am a deluded failure who creates cools works of entertainment that no one is interested in. There you go.

Um... I don't know what else to write, after that. I guess I should review this Superior.

Well, this is an "essay" Superior... it is like a mini-essay. And I think that it works pretty well in that capacity, and the conclusion is very interesting, about how seizing the day is all about running companies.

But in the overall context of Superior, these "essay" Superiors really aren't very high up... this one would certainly fall in the lower half of all Superiors, quality-wise...

So, here I am, Frank Edward Nora, deluded loser, signing off, till next week, where I'll be reviewing yet another Superior!

(Reviewed 4/12/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 151 * 1/1/01 * 1001
Wonder, we're here.

-------------------
END
-----------

349

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 349, 4/5/01
(Book 27, No. 11 / Tarb 14653 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Thu 4/5/01 * 11:28 PM

Well, I gotta tellya about my Internet woes. One week ago, my DSL went dark. It was the whole Northpoint bankrupcy. My ISP, Telocity, says on their website and on their phone recordings that they are working to restore service to former Northpoint-based customers, but there is no ETA for the return of service. I read in an online article that it could take from a few days to like 6 weeks.

So I tried to just hook up my Mac's internal 56K modem and use AOL to get online for the time being... but I couldn't fet the darn thing to work at all. So I went to storage and got my old 14.4K modem. The ridiculous thing works like a charm... so now I'm been knocked back 4 or 5 years technologically, and I'm surfing the web at 14.4...

The same day I went to storage (Sunday) I went to my grandmother's house, and I found a bunch of old 78 records from the 1940's that were home recordings... they had devices where you could record on disk. So I'm trying to get my hands on a 78 turntable with a 78 needle to hear them.

Also, I found a very old tape recorder that has to from the 1950's. It's huge... and it works... and I found a recording on it that I made with my cousin Paul and my gradmother back in the 1980's sometime. Cool, eh?

And here's some more Obliviana news. The other day, I was on the bus home, and I started getting a lot of ideas about my boardgame Fonjo. Now I pretty much abandoned Fonjo around the beginning of this year, and I'm not too thrilled at the idea of getting back into developing games... but I got a lot of good ideas, and I'm working on them now.

Well, that's about it. Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

Thu 4/5/01 * 11:26 PM

BLUFFCOSM EMAILINGS

I recently started a mailing list for Obliviana. Here are the first 3 mailings. The first one was just to announce Classictronica #1 to the NAVA mailing list (people who go to the NAVA video game collector meetings). The third mailing here I sent 2 copies of by mistake because of that damn AOL.

(The comments in the triple parentheses I added just now, because I don't want to include all the email addresses.)

*****

Subj: Classictronica is online! Internet radio show recorded at NAVA meeting!
Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 10:31:46 PM
From: Obliviana@aol.com
To: nava@listbot.com

NAVA - http://videogameconnections.com

--------------------------- ListBot Sponsor --------------------------
Build a marketing database and send targeted HTML and text e-mail
newsletters
to your customers with List Builder.
http://www.listbuilder.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey,

Classictronica, the Internet radio show that I recorded at the last NAVA
meeting (3/3/01) is now broadcasting on Bluffcosm.com! Go to the link below
to hear the show and also see the great photo gallery!

http://bluffcosm.com/bluffcosm/ct/ct1_pix.htm

--Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana, Lord of Bluffcosm


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to NAVA-unsubscribe@listbot.com

*****

Subj: Bluffcosm.com News from Frank Edward Nora
Date: Saturday, March 24, 2001 11:09:01 AM
From: Obliviana
To: (((29 recipients)))

Bluffcosm.com ... It's Internet Comedy Radio, All New Wild and NOW!!!!!

Hey folks, just wanted to let you know that Bluffcosm.com has a lot of great new stuff for you to check out!

http://www.bluffcosm.com

There's a new homepage, 6 streaming channels, tons of cool new Blufftoons, and a whole lot more! CHECK IT OUT!

Love,

Frank Edward Nora
Lord of Obliviana

*****

Subj: Bluffcosm.com News from Frank Edward Nora (4/4/01)
Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2001 10:58:27 PM
From: Obliviana
To: Thinkfang
BCC: (((126 recipients)))

Bluffcosm.com... Computerized Audio Entertainment, Refreshingly Friggin' Strange! Made in New Jersey.

www.bluffcosm.com

Hey Friends,

My name is Frank Edward Nora. You might know me from my various insane Obliviana projects... or because I'm part of the great rock band Fuzzy Daupner (www.fuzzydaupner.com). Or you might not know me at all... but I gotta tellya about Bluffcosm.com, my "Internet comedy radio station" with a major collection of wild and wacky audio pieces (called "Blufftoons") for you to listen to and be entertained/perturbed by!

The March 2001 Wave of Blufftoons has just been released! Here's the lowdown...

*****

Blufftoon 97: Classictronica #1 -- (2:19:44) A computerized radio show all about video games! Recorded at the March 2001 NAVA video game collector's meeting. Chock full of weirdness, sick topics, "adult material"... and also some stuff about video games.

Blufftoon 98: Classictronica #1 Intro -- (0:45) Video Devil Jr., the great fictional video game character, introduces Classictronica #1.

Blufftoon 99: Video Devil Jr. Station ID #1 -- (0:14) Video Devil Jr. tells you that you're listening to Bluffcosm.com!

Blufftoon 100: Montana 1980 (Part Two) -- (15:46) More zany fake broadcasting from TV station "WWW". Featuring The Frank Nora Show, The Superdisgusting Movie, and a whole heck of a lot more!

Blufftoon 101: Iggy and the Stud -- (3:17) Iggy Szalzo interviews Bart Phillips, the biggest stud on the Weird University campus.

Blufftoon 102: Iggy and the Smart Guys -- (7:58) Iggy Szalzo interviews the smartest guys on the Weird University campus, Shannon O'Shannahan and Gil Mannings.

Blufftoon 103: Iggy and the Condemned Man -- (7:18) Iggy Szalzo interviews Branson Stringfellow, a Weird University student who is scheduled to be executed for making obscene phone calls.

Blufftoon 104: Umbrella -- (1:19) Dare we call this a sublime audio masterpiece? I k we may so dare.

Blufftoon 105: The Royal Mall (Radio Edit) -- (4:44) A streamlined version of Beublin 13. Beublin and Buck search for Jocasta in this classic Blufftoon.

Blufftoon 106: The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation From Sanity #3 -- (5:00) Don't shoot the food! Get out of my sight! They tried to drive me crazy! George F. Will!

Blufftoon 107: Train Crap & Blood #10 (Seriousness) -- (57:53) The final episode! Anger and frustration... Christianity and confrontation... amelioration and highway gunk...

*****

Now I'm gonna be like Tyler Durden in Fight Club and give you an assignment... listen to one of these great Blufftoons... or any Blufftoon for that matter... and email me with a quick critique. Or email me with a question or comment! All emails will be included on the new Bluffcosm Email Page!!!

I'm telling ya, Bluffcosm is really quite good, and indeed worthy or your attention. Yes!


Your audio pal,

Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana


P.S. If you're someone I know, and I haven't heard from you in awhile, please email me and let me know that you got this email and also let me know how you're doing!

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 349
Rolooda--jingle sensory--forlorn cat--half-awake in an airport chocolate store--morphing--down a two-liter maple water--Scrauss--the dude in the goofy banana suit--he was a big shot in high school--look at him now--cubed--miniature--winter and summer experience--like a splash of cold and hot water--I lantern.

(((From OsoaWeek062--9/29/95)))

*****

Wow. This is one fantastic Superior. And look below! In this issue of OsoaWeek, Superior 1000! Man... that's weird to think about... a thousand Superiors...

Anyway, let's take a look at Superior 349 here. First off, "Rolooda" and "Scrauss" are totally made-up names. There is some parallel here with... okay... I was thinking it was a Superior, but it is actually from "Abaxial Usufruct", the set of 209 poems I put together in early 1990, which was the precursor to Superior. So here's the one I was thinking of:

*****

Au103
MOTE GLANCE

Whaller
being at the subway
exitting into the
lit pressure of midday
Cazatre
in an office
way up there
very nice
but the headache
and the family trouble
Ambleman
trying to start the car
suburbs cannot
yells disturbs the neighbors
the plans just aren't working
Bieski
never admitting
it's over
lounging watching TV
smoking
reading the newspaper
gonna make some calls
one of these days
Heastead
flying over the river
in someone else's helicopter
life is pretty good
the new girlfriend
may be just
what he needs

*****

The similarity is in saying a name and then telling a little about the character. Um...

Okay, so here's another connection. In Severe Repair, In the Cupline "Carne's Moisture Detection Friend", Cup 6 is called "Airport Chocolate Store". And a line in it says:

*****

CARNE: Yeah, hello. I am talking to you from an airport chocolate store in Iowa or something. Can you hear me? My Moisture Detection Friend would love this place! He would totally suspect that time travellers from the 1970s were all around here.

*****

But that's not all!

Cup 5 of the same Cupline is called "Seaport Cinnamon Shop"... a clear variation on "Airport Chocolate Store". This Severe Repair stuff came after Superior 349, and was definitely inspired by it.

The whole "Airport Chocolate Store" thing was just pure inspiration; it wasn't based on anything, besides my own cool feelings about airports and the stores in them.

Now, about maple water. I was Working in Manhattan in 1995 when I wrote this Superior, and for a brief time there was a bottled beverage available called "Maple Water". I kept the label... I probably still have it in one of my myriad boxes of stuff...

As far as the rest of the Superior goes, it's all good. Wow... this has gotta be one of the best Superiors ever. A quite pleasant surprise for the occasion of the publication of Superior 1000!

(Reviewed 4/5/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 150 * 1/1/01 * 1000
Cloo.

-------------------
END
-----------

348

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 348, 3/29/01
(Book 27, No. 10 / Tarb 14611 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sun 4/6/01 * 9:28 PM

Hey I forgot to do this Lord of Obliviana! I'm adding issues 342 thru 349 to the OsoaWeek page, and I realized that I forgot! So I'm writing it now!

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

*****

BLUFFCOSM PRODUCTION NOTES
March 2001 Wave of Blufftoons
by Frank Edward Nora
4/1/01

--------
Blufftoon 97: Classictronica #1 -- (2:19:44) A computerized radio show all about video games! Recorded at the March 2001 NAVA video game collector's meeting. Chock full of weirdness, sick topics, "adult material"... and also some stuff about video games.
--------

This is my second "longform" Blufftoon. Unlike the first one, Blufftoon 96: "The Motor Excursion Ruffians #1", I did edit this one -- especially toward the end, where it was really dragging.

I divided the show up into 4 segments, just as in "Ruffians", and I added a Video Devil Jr. bit to the start of each segment.

Video Devil Jr. is a fictional video game character that was the mascot of the original Classictronica, which was a little video game "fanzine" type of publication, which I did 3 issues of with Mike Etler, the owner of Video Game Connections.

I created the audio version of Video Devil Jr. on my way home from the meeting, in the dead of night on the roads of New Jersey. Basically, Video Devil Jr. is me talking in an Australian accent, with the pitch of my voice being "phase vocoded" up a perfect fifth. With this method, my voice gets higher, but stays at the same speed.

I did a photo gallery for this one, just like in "Ruffians", thanks to Jay Forman, who was also my unofficial cohost on the show.

--------
Blufftoon 98: Classictronica #1 Intro -- (0:45) Video Devil Jr., the great fictional video game character, introduces Classictronica #1.
--------

This piece is excerpted from the very beginning of Classictronica #1.

The idea here is that on Live365.com, the audio is continually playing and repeating, so that when someone tunes in, they'll hear the show "in progress". So, the folks at Live365 added the nifty feature of being able to add an intro that will play every time someone tunes in. (They also have a "station ID" that plays intermittently.)

Well, this piece is the intro for the Classictronica #1 stream. The only problem is that, thus far, it hasn't been working at all.

Oh well.

--------
Blufftoon 99: Video Devil Jr. Station ID #1 -- (0:14) Video Devil Jr. tells you that you're listening to Bluffcosm.com!
--------

In addition to recording Video Devil Jr. for Classictronica, I did some Bluffcosm station ID type things. This one includes background music that I made myself in a computer music program called Reason.

--------
Blufftoon 100: Montana 1980 (Part Two) -- (15:46) More zany fake broadcasting from TV station "WWW". Featuring The Frank Nora Show, The Superdisgusting Movie, and a whole heck of a lot more!
--------

Ah, Montana 1980. For a long time, I remembered the tapes I made in Montana in 1980... but it took me a long time to locate all the recordings.

This piece clearly comes chronologically right after Blufftoon 14: "Montana 1980 (Part One)". But I think that another part that I have digitized, but I have not yet released, may indeed come BEFORE Part One.

As well, there is a good deal of stuff that comes after Part Two. Part Three will be from the same side of the same tape as Part Two, and predominantly surround a spoof of the TV show "Little House on the Prairie" called "Little House in the Ocean" (this is referred to at the end of Part Two).

And there is yet more... perhaps Part Four... and a little bit of it is heard in Blufftoon 93: "The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #2", right after the first "station ID", the part that starts with "...to make a shadow box!"

I do intend to release all of Montana 1980... even if the other parts are more "difficult" (ie, more bizarre to listen to)...

--------
Blufftoon 101: Iggy and the Stud -- (3:17) Iggy Szalzo interviews Bart Phillips, the biggest stud on the Weird University campus.
--------

1986 was a big year for me at Drew University. Early in the year, I started the Anything But Monday radio show with Mike Massotto. We got kicked off the air and started ABM Magazine. That Summer I started Halfevil Graphics, publishing minicomics.

In the Fall, we got our radio show back, and we continued the magazine, and I continued with the minicomics, AND we did a series of comedy videos called "Weird University". (Drew backwards is Werd -- add an "i" in the middle and it's "Weird". I even had a "Weird University" sticker in the back window of my car, created from the Drew University sticker.)

So, on the show, I played a reporter named Iggy Szalzo. "Szalzo" was the name of a character in the Dr. Who movie I made with my friends in the Summer of 1985. The character was played by Jim Middlebrook, who can be heard on Blufftoon 41: "Making Polarized Worlds: Part 1", which was recorded during the filming of the movie.

In this piece (from Weird University #1), Bart Philips is played by "Physics Phil" (Phil Smith). His full name is "Philip Barton Smith", so that's where we got the name from. Physics Phil appears in a number of other Blufftoons, including Blufftoon 23: "Ping Pong", Blufftoon 37: "Arcade Phantom", Blufftoon 40: "It's a Tuck-In", Blufftoon 77: "It's a Tuck-In (Collector's Edition)", Blufftoon 91: "Go Away", Blufftoon 81: The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #1", Blufftoon 93: "The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #2", and Blufftoon 106: "The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation From Sanity #3".

--------
Blufftoon 102: Iggy and the Smart Guys -- (7:58) Iggy Szalzo interviews the smartest guys on the Weird University campus, Shannon O'Shannahan and Gil Mannings.
--------

Another piece from Weird University #1. Shannon O'Shannahan is played by Shannon Ritchie, who doesn't appear anywhere else in Bluffcosm, and I don't think I have any more tapes of him. Gil Mannings is played by Severin Olsen, who also appears in Blufftoon 91: "Go Away" (he was Physic Phil's roommate). He was also mentioned in Blufftoon 23: "Ping Pong".

Severin's full name, if I remember is correctly, was "Mancur Severin Gilbert Olsen", and that's where we got "Gil Mannings" from. I wish I had more recording of Severin... he's awesome...

These two guys were Born-Again Christians. In fact, in the Zope comic "Haha Kill the Bornies", the character with the briefcase was based on Shannon (see ZopeTV #3).

--------
Blufftoon 103: Iggy and the Condemned Man -- (7:18) Iggy Szalzo interviews Branson Stringfellow, a Weird University student who is scheduled to be executed for making obscene phone calls.
--------

And yet another piece from Weird University #1, the character "Branson Stringfellow" is played by a guy whose name was, I think, Bruce Stringfellow Branson. But he was better known on campus by his nickname, "Caveman".

This piece is interesting for several reasons. First of all, when I made my Weird University compilation video, I cut this part out. Also, a lot of what you hear here was also cut out of the original edit.

This is the only recording I have of this guy, which is a shame, because he's also quite awesome.

--------
Blufftoon 104: Umbrella -- (1:19) Dare we call this a sublime audio masterpiece? I think we may so dare.
--------

This was recorded in late February or early March 1986, after me and Mike's first Anything But Monday broadcast.

At the very beginning, my roommate John Rosta is heard saying "when you guys are drunk, you're assholes!". The guy who says "Not me!" is, I believe, Tom Hadley. Both these guys also appear in Blufftoon 73: "News From Civilization". I have a long recording on John Rosta drunk with people tormenting him... I think Tom was one of them... it'll be a Blufftoon sometime...

As far as the other folks, John Fritz and Maureen, I don't remember knowing them very well.

This piece was recorded with my old "boom box", which had stereo microphones separated by a good distance, producing a good stereo feel.

--------
Blufftoon 105: The Royal Mall (Radio Edit) -- (4:44) A streamlined version of Beublin 13. Beublin and Buck search for Jocasta in this classic Blufftoon.
--------

Blufftoon 36: "Beublin 13: The Royal Mall", contains a lot of classic material, but I felt that it was a bit long and drawn-out. So this piece cuts 9:09 from the original 13:53, and still retains all the awesome parts.

I don't see this as replacing the original, but it is much more streamlined and easy to listen to.

--------
Blufftoon 106: The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation From Sanity #3 -- (5:00) Don't shoot the food! Get out of my sight! They tried to drive me crazy! George F. Will!
--------

This one continues with weird recordings and outtakes of other Blufftoons. I've thought about writing detailed comments about each of these pieces, describing each segment... and I still might someday... but doing so might take away from the utterly insane experience of listening to all this weird, unknown stuff...

--------
Blufftoon 107: Train Crap & Blood #10 (Seriousness) -- (57:53) The final episode! Anger and frustration... Christianity and confrontation... amelioration and highway gunk...
--------

Blufftoon 76: "Salt and Light" is an excerpt from this piece, which was recorded on 9/24/00, but which I waited till now to release. In fact, I had digitized the whole thing, but I lost the file in a "saving accident".

While recording, the tape went to the other side without me knowing, so it's a lot longer than other epsiodes of Train Crap & Blood. It's also the last episode of Train Crap & Blood, because Pete has a problem with the word "crap".

The show idea mentioned at the end of this piece became "The Motor Excursion Ruffians", the first episode of which can be heard as Blufftoon 96: "The Motor Excursion Ruffians #1"

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 348
Luck. Is it true? America is far superior to Europe. Stuff. Sound of an arrow? Thunk. Surf rock. Amino acid. Dune style.

(((From OsoaWeek061--9/22/95)))

*****

Okay, this one is okay.

(Reviewed 4/1/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 149 * 1/1/01 * 999
Bye KIVO.

-------------------
END
-----------

347

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 347, 3/22/01
(Book 27, No. 9 / Tarb 14569 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sun 4/1/01 * 1:35 AM

I'm thinking, I really should make one huge text file with every issue of OsoaWeek in it. I do have one, but it's just the first few years' worth.

Um... OsoaWeek really is pretty cool. It's a creative project that has endured for a long time. I am very happy that OsoaWeek is continuing on.

Superior, also, is a long-running project. This issue, I present Superior 998. So we're just 2 issues away from Superior 1000! Cool man.

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

Sun 4/1/01 * 1:32 AM

I recently started an email list for Bluffcosm, and in searching my hard drive for email addresses, I came across this mailing. It's pretty embarrassing to look back on this one, since the thing it is referring to turned out to be a flop... and it refers to previous flops, saying that now this one is gonna work. This was less than 3 years ago... man, it's been a long and weird road...

*****

Date: Sat, Jul 18, 1998 1:13 PM EST
From: Obliviana
Subj: Obliviana Revival!--from Frank Edward Nora
To: Obliviana
cc: afhpublish@exit109.com, ALiberty97, asmithee@sprynet.com, cathycon@onyx.interactive.net, deepnotice@webtv.net, DMcDoniel, Fayd2blak, FearAClown, frankpee@compuserve.com, JJE96001@uconnvm.unconn.edu, JTATOR, Kevin_Maher@blau.com, KNOBBM@lcvax.lehman.cuny.edu, LilFyreFem, Matt J. Butcher, meglo@ibm.net, messick@bitstream.net, Mike Etler, MO1918, mobay@thegrid.net, mpmason@mediaone.net, mysterymind@worldnet.att.net, nick@gamma.cc.bellcore.com, papeshow@rocketmail.com, pcjohn@monmouth.com, Sam she is, SETI@concentric.net, Venuzia, Vyolet6, wombat@jagat.com

[[[Obliviana has been established in an imaginary place called Little World of Racetracks.]]]

Obliviana is at: http://www.obliviana.com

Dear Friend,

Hi, this is Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. I'm writing to let you know that after many years of obscurity and confusion, Obliviana is finally ready for prime time!

As some of you may know, I've been working hard on Obliviana ever since late 1989, when a magazine I was publishing, "Anything But Monday", went out of business. In July, 1994, after publishing many interesting print "zines", I began the ezine "OsoaWeek"--and that was the first time I tried to get the game of Obliviana going. A year later, in 1995, I started the Obliviana website, and over a year later, I made my second attempt to start the game of Obliviana. Neither of these attempts went very far, because my game designs were not yet "there".

Now, however, my Obliviana game design is fully matured, and it's ready to go! Obliviana is an online game, set in an imaginary place called Little World of Racetracks. Starting this Tuesday--July 21, 1998--you can be one of the first to establish your Fonosta! It's unlike anything you've ever experience before, and it's absolutely free! Just go to www.obliviana.com and follow the link called "Establish Your Fonosta".

Some of you have already established a Fonosta, but since I'm starting the game new, from scratch, you'll have to establish a new Fonosta. This is due to the new structure of Fonosta, which is very different. But if you sign up on Tuesday, or soon thereafter, you'll be sure to get a cool, low Fonosta number!

Beyond the game aspect of Obliviana, there's a whole lot of cool stuff in Obliviana, like the Hypercup sci-fi novel "Severe Repair", the insane antics of "Zope", and the strangely valid supernaturalness of "Forge of Wander"!

So check out Obliviana--the cumulation of nearly of decade of constant work! You won't be disappointed!

11010001ly,

Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana

P.S. If you know anyone else who might be interested in Obliviana, it'd be great if you could forward this letter to them, or tell them about Obliviana in person!

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 347
Nipple nipple nipple nipple. A little trip I took to She-Tantalus. Silly silly computer pussy.

(((From OsoaWeek061--9/22/95)))

*****

Hmm... this one is really rather good!

(Reviewed 4/1/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 148 * 1/1/01 * 998
One more storage, stash away the wonderful things. Things that sit unseen for years anyway. A really fresh start, we dream of such as this. But a gentle upheaval, and I'm blessed to have it. But I need confidence, I need to stop being afraid of success. I know, success would break the spell, that was why I feared it. Now the spell has met its natural end, and this event has opened up many vistas for me. And my head is swimming now, but I have to find the confidence.

-------------------
END
-----------

346

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 346, 3/15/01
(Book 27, No. 8 / Tarb 14527 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sun 4/1/01 * 1:19 AM

Well, my DSL is still dead. I really don't know how much longer this is gonna go on. This sucks. No Internet.

But, of course, I am getting caught up on OsoaWeek, which is a very good thing. So this is issue 346, eh? Cool.

Earlier today I went out and I tape recorded a lot of ideas for Bluffcosm. I really want to focus on doing some promotion.

Another thing I came up with was a new kind of definition for Bluffcosm -- "Computerized Audio Entertainment", as opposed to "Internet Comedy Radio". I think it's more accurate... and "Internet Comedy Radio" makes it sound like a stand-up comedy channel or something. And of course, the word "computerized" is awesome!

I've been listening to a lot of Blufftoons lately... and I gotta say, Bluffcosm is really, really good. Now I just gotta get other people to realize it.

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

Sun 4/1/01 * 1:18 AM

Here's a document that was last modified on April 15, 2000. It is a listing of the contents of the first few weeks of the Live365.com Bluffcosm stream.

*****

BLUFFCOSM PROGRAMMING JOURNAL

-------------------------------

[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro (3/24/00)
[2] TCaB 1 Pennsylvania (4/20/91)
[3] TCaB 2 Birth Control (4/24/91)
[4] TCaB 3 Waves (5/6/91)
[5] TCaB 4 Communism (5/25/91)
[6] TCaB 5 Education (6/29/91)
[7] TCaB 6 The Proverbs (7/20/91)
[8] TCaB 7 Crime (8/24/91)
[9] TCaB 8 Cartoons (Old Cartoons 9/1/91)
[10] Beublin BTF (1/12/97)
[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
[12] TCaB 9 Intro (4/2/00)
[13] TCaB 9 75432 (4/2/00)
[14] Montana1980_Pt1 (Summer 1980)
[15] Beub-Flint-Intro
[16] Beub-Flint
[17] The Mini Car Show

-------------------------------

Friday, March 24, 2000

Live365 Listing:
Bluffcosm Alpha -- Featuring "Train Crap & Blood" -- talk and weird fun
("silly talk and weird fun" was, I think, on the higher-res version...
I first uploaded 56K bitrate files, and then I converted them all to 32K...)

01--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
02--[2] TCaB 1 Pennsylvania
03--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
04--[3] TCaB 2 Birth Control
05--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
06--[4] TCaB 3 Waves
07--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
08--[5] TCaB 4 Communism
09--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
10--[6] TCaB 5 Education
11--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
12--[7] TCaB 6 The Proverbs
13--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
14--[8] TCaB 7 Crime
15--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
16--[9] TCaB 8 Cartoons

Sunday, March 26, 2000

Live365 Listing:
Bluffcosm.com -- featuring Train Crap & Blood

01--[10] Beublin BTF
02--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
03--[2] TCaB 1 Pennsylvania
04--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
05--[3] TCaB 2 Birth Control
06--[10] Beublin BTF
07--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
08--[4] TCaB 3 Waves
09--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
10--[5] TCaB 4 Communism
11--[10] Beublin BTF
12--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
13--[6] TCaB 5 Education
14--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
15--[7] TCaB 6 The Proverbs
16--[10] Beublin BTF
17--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
18--[8] TCaB 7 Crime
19--[1] Bluffcosm Alpha Intro
20--[9] TCaB 8 Cartoons

Thursday, April 6, 2000

Live365 Listing:
Bluffcosm.com--featuring Train Crap & Blood--BRAND NEW EPISODE!

01--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
02--[12] TCaB 9 Intro (4/2/00)
03--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
04--[13] TCaB 9 75432 (4/2/00)
05--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
06--[10] Beublin BTF

Friday, April 7, 2000

Live365 Listing:
Bluffcosm.com--brand new Train Crap & Blood episode--AND MORE!

01--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
02--[14] Montana1980_Pt1 (Summer 1980)
03--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
04--[12] TCaB 9 Intro (4/2/00)
05--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
06--[13] TCaB 9 75432 (4/2/00)
07--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
08--[10] Beublin BTF


Wednesday, April 12, 2000

Live365 Listing:
Bluffcosm.com - Train Crap & Blood, Beublin A. Richardson, AND MORE!

01--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
02--[14] Montana1980_Pt1 (Summer 1980)
03--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
04--[12] TCaB 9 Intro (4/2/00)
05--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
06--[13] TCaB 9 75432 (4/2/00)
07--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
08--[10] Beublin BTF
09--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
10--[15] Beub-Flint-Intro
11--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
12--[16] Beub-Flint
13--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
14--[17] The Mini Car Show
15--[11] Bluffcosm ID 1 (4/6/00)
16--[6] TCaB 5 Education (6/29/91)

Wolf, Shyboy, Lee, Mink and Frank

Need MP3.com journal

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 346
I'm creating something special. Look at this--a whole new kind of literature. But I'm sitting here, during a commercial on "Murder One". 10/19/95. It's back on.

(((From OsoaWeek061--9/22/95)))

*****

Self-reference, great. This one is kind of a "novelty Superior". But in the overall scheme of Superior, it's not really very good.

Well... maybe I'm being too harsh. I don't know.

(Reviewed 4/1/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 147 * 1/1/01 * 997
Today is the first day of the new Millennium. I have no job, no health insurance. And I have broken the spell of the childhood dream.

-------------------
END
-----------

345

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 345, 3/8/01
(Book 27, No. 7 / Tarb 14485 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sun 4/1/01 * 12:52 AM

Hey, the new Fuzzy Daupner album is out! It's called "Naked Exit Friend", and it's available now at mp3.com/fuzzydaupner. It's really an amazing album... I get blown away every time I hear it.

Fuzzy Daupner: audio. Bluffcosm: audio. But very different kinds of audio. Still, it's cool how the major projects I'm involved with now are sound-based.

Sound... cool... sound...

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

*****

BLUFFCOSM PRODUCTION NOTES
February 2001 Wave of Blufftoons
by Frank Edward Nora
3/31/01

--------
Blufftoon 90: Beublin 18: Pro-Establishment Drake -- (6:28) Finally restored... a deleted scene! Beublin berates Minion Van Hall about the bad reviews the band has been getting. Check out Beublin 3 to hear where this part originally fit in!
--------

I went through all the raw Beublin VHS tapes and recorded all the outtakes that were of interest. This Blufftoon is the first of the outtake material to see the light of day.

This piece fits into the conversation between Beublin and Minion in Blufftoon 26: "Beublin 3: Mr. Gregg". I decided to cut it out in original video edit back in 1991. And there is an awkward space in the original where it seems that something else should have been.

I think that I may eventually put this piece back where it belong. I could do it if I made an "audio movie" version of Beublin.

--------
Blufftoon 91: Go Away -- (3:04) Mike and Frank try to interview Physics Phil for their radio show, Anything But Monday. Phil is not cooperative. Check out the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster news report in the background, dating this piece to shortly after January 28, 1986.
--------

This was a piece of audio that I had been trying to find for awhile. The sample of Phil saying "Go Away" was used in a song we made for our Anything But Monday radio show. A version of that song, sans the musical background, and tightened up, can be heard in Blufftoon 93: "The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #2".

The original version of the song uses a musical background from, I believe, the soundtrack to "The Breakfast Club", a song called "The Jazz", maybe.

I plan of computerizing all of the Anything But Monday recordings this year, and that song in its original form will then be available, in the context of a radio broadcast.

Another comment... hearing myself being involved in travelling around a college campus and producing cool audio material... it just makes me mad that I abandoned it... I was on the right track back then, and then I veered off course. But this is in the context of my new focus on Bluffcosm. Back then, audio was just one of many media that I was interested in. And, of course, without computers and the Internet, it was a lot harder to produce and distribute...

--------
Blufftoon 92: Sounds of the Commons -- (9:26) Mike and Frank's cool trip to the college food center, recorded for their radio show, Anything But Monday. "Sights of the Uncommons" is the sequel to this Blufftoon.
--------

In Blufftoon 84: "Sights of the Uncommons", I went back to the original video footage and used the entirety of the raw footage in the Blufftoon, since the original edit was full of copyrighted music clips and other junk.

With this Blufftoon, I was faced with a similar challenge. I had the edited form, which was absolutely mangled with its editing. It was split into 3 parts, with really ponderous intros, outros, and music inbetween.

The problem here is that I was unable to locate the original raw tape. So I had to take the edited version and just edit out all the junk. The result is pretty good... but I'd still like to find the raw tape someday...

What makes it more maddening is that there is a piece of the raw tape recorded after the edited version... I must have dubbed it at one point and then erased it with the edited stuff... but I think the original may still exist... in my huge collection of tapes.

A part of the "raw tape" that I mentioned can be heard at the end of Blufftoon 106: "The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation From Sanity #3".

--------
Blufftoon 93: The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #2 -- (5:00) We had a party in Kerhonkson once, it was called Mountain Madness, and they always thought it was gonna be like this. GET DOWN IMMEDIATELY!
--------

The first "Vacation from Sanity" had outtakes of existing Blufftoons, but this one has hardly any. I started to throw audio clips into the "Vacation from Sanity" folder, while editing Blufftoons.

I really like the way that "Vacation from Sanity" has been going (as of the time I am writing this, I have also completed #3).

--------
Blufftoon 94: I Want Something Funny -- (0:53) That's dumb.. that's stupid! Yes, huh, what, I'm not sure about that one!
--------

This one is the result of an experiment... to cut up an audio piece into individual samples. More samples from this can be heard in Blufftoon 106: "The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation From Sanity #3"

It took a long time to cut the piece up. The piece in question is called "Card Store", and it was recorded right after "The Royal Mall". The piece itself is unremarkable, but the cut-up parts are very cool indeed.

--------
Blufftoon 95: The Killer Bag -- (6:10) An excerpt from "The Motor Excursion Ruffians #1", a brand new 3-hour show on Bluffcosm.com! Frank, Pete, and Nick play with CD-ROMs and bags in a field of snow. Recorded 2/11/01.
--------

I like the idea of taking excerpts from the longer pieces and making them Blufftoons in their own right. This piece is very awesome, and it would be ashame for people to have to only hear it by chance as part of the 3+ hour Blufftoon that it is a part of.

--------
Blufftoon 96: The Motor Excursion Ruffians #1 -- (3:06:45) A Computerized Radio Show on the Road! Join Frank, Pete, and Nick on their zany journey. Features include "Fun with Walky-Talkies", "Foods from The East", "The Killer Bag", interviews, wacky conversions, and more!
--------

This is the longest Blufftoon so far, and it's a new format for Bluffcosm.

With stuff that's this long, I've decided to "master" it as a 44Khz/128kbps MP3, as opposed to retaining the AIFF masters, as in other Blufftoons.

What you hear is what is on the tapes... nothing has been edited!

A Blufftoon like this can only be presented (for now, at least) as streaming, lo-fi audio (11Khz/24kbps). But it's cool how relatively easy it is to record 3 hours of audio and have it available on the Internet a short time later.

I also made an online photo gallery for this piece.

--------
SUMMARY
--------

Overall, a very impressive and varied set of Blufftoons!

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 345
Luck? That's a good one. Wanna try me... I am lime? Fine. So many types of juice at the supermarket. Can I do it? We need a "vent". Simple--was it simple? Do we have what we have? Talk about it. Try it. There are so many places to go. Fear of being recorded.

(((From OsoaWeek061--9/22/95)))

*****

Well, this is an interesting one, I'll say that much at least. It doesn't really "flow". but I like "Luck? That's a good one." Overall, I'd say this one is just about average, or maybe alittle below average.

(Reviewed 3/31/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 146 * 1/1/01 * 996
Today, right now, we're out of soap. Is this not a reference to Zope? His name came from a lack of soap, a little less than 15 years ago. And ZopeTV is in suspension, and do I have time to work on Zope in 2001? 15 years ago... and Anything But Monday also.

-------------------
END
-----------

344

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 344, 3/1/01
(Book 27, No. 6 / Tarb 14443 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sat 3/31/01 * 3:54 PM

Reading stuff I wrote in the past, it brings me back to weird places of my past. I'm trying to get past all the convoluted thinking that didn't get me anywhere. Gotta make thing a little more simple.

Even now, I am working on a "structure" for Bluffcosm. I gotta balance such nebulous, potentially neverending quests with common sense!

Yes! So I need to make this my rule of thumb... balance equally common-sense, real world stuff with my lofty structural thinking. Examples of common sense stuff: Get Bluffcosm on Yahoo and other search engines and link pages. Getting Bluffcosm reviewed. Etc.

Because this other stuff, thinking about overall structures and stuff, may just be my way of stalling.

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

Sat 3/31/01 * 3:38 PM

Two issues ago I talked about my dot-coms from 2000. One of them was Thinkfang.com, and it got "nipped in the bud" before it got too far because I changed my perspective on its core philosophy. Well, presented here is a piece of writing that almost made it to the site, but never did because I shut down the Thinkfang project (ie, I stopped working on it).

*****

What is Thinkfang?
by Frank Edward Nora
11/27/00

Some people have a creative gift which they use to create works of art and entertainment. There are three major rewards that these individuals can get for their efforts: the satisfaction of their achievements, an audience to appreciate their works, and earning money. To be happy, respected, famous, rich... this is the dream. But how are these rewards attained?

We live in a world of over six billion people. In the Unites States alone, there are over a quarter-of-a-billion people. So for any artist, there is a huge potential audience out there. But how do you get to that audience?

There is a mass media establishment, dominated by increasingly fewer enormous corporations, which has had domination over the distribution of entertainment to a mass audience. In the past, if an artist was to have any chance of reaching a large number of people, they would have to deal with these corporations. And we've all heard the horror stories of how artists can be exploited and cheated in these dealings -- and these are the "lucky" few who get deals in the first place.

But then, a few years ago, the Internet exploded onto the scene -- and artists saw a new way to reach a mass audience. Indeed, the Internet of today allows for the speedy transfer of files to virtually anywhere in the world -- and most forms of entertainment can be computerized and made into files. In fact, any artists with access to a computer can, for little or no money, make their work available to the everyone on the Internet. This is both the good news AND the bad news.

With so many creators making their work available, there is a tidal wave of oversaturation. There is a quality issue, as well -- most of the stuff out there is just plain awful. So, by being part of this new breed of artists, your image is diminished through association with the sheer numbers and the poor overall quality of the available work.

And here we see two advantages of the mass media establishment: it presents less choices, and those choices are of a higher overall quality.

So what does this mean? Is the dream of Internet self-publishing doomed to failure? I don't think so... in fact, I've created Thinkfang as a means to succeed in this endeavor!

In order to succeed, we in Thinkfang must distinguish ourselves from the sea of crap out there. Everything we can do to make ourselves stand out is a step in the right direction.

We should not try to emulate the mass media establishment, because we cannot compete with them directly. This establishment continually seeks to put shackles on the distribution of computerized entertainment, so they can continue to force people to pay to get the entertainment they want.

There are many arguments for and against this complex issue of copyright and sharing, of artists rights and company profits. But we in Thinkfang hold this as one of our core ideals: that our computerized entertainment content be shackle-free.

"Shackle-Free"... what does this mean, specifically? It means that if you're a musician, and you release an album, that every single song on that album be available for free download. If you're an author and you write a novel, the text of that novel will likewise be available for free download. If you're a moviemaker, that your movie be available for free download... you get the idea.

Now I know that a lot of artists out there will balk at this idea. A lot of musicians will want to release just a few songs, so that people will buy their album. A lot of authors will want to release only a sample chapter or two, in hopes of people buying their book. And many artists have content online primarily as a means to the end of making a deal with the mass media establishment.

So a lot of artists will reject the "Shackle-Free" ideal. Those of us who embrace this ideal will therefore be fewer. And in this case, fewer is without a doubt much, much better.

We must learn that lesson from the mass media establishment... fewer choices and higher quality. By embracing the "Shackle-Free" idea, we are fewer... but what about the ever-so-important quality issue?

The quality issue is one reason why Thinkfang is more than just the "Shackle-Free" ideal. Another reason is something I haven't touched on yet: promotion.

Promotion. Letting people know about what you have to offer, and getting them excited about it. Effective promotion is extremely difficult for an individual artist. That is why in Thinkfang, we seek to promote Thinkfang itself... more on this in a minute!

Thinkfang exists to promote quality shackle-free computerized entertainment.

So how does it work? Well, the basic idea is that artists that satisfy Thinkfang criteria are candidates to be featured on Thinkfang.com. Here's the Thinkfang criteria: Original computerized entertainment that is artist-owned, shackle-free, and of a high quality.

In the world of Thinkfang, there are three basic roles: artist, journalist, and promoter. Artists create entertainment. Journalists write news, interviews, previews, reviews,

Well, first of all, there is no official "membership" in Thinkfang. Rather,

But how is Thinkfang itself promoted? It's promoted by

*****

Sat 3/31/01 * 3:43 PM

COMMENTARY

First of all, I left the document as it was, so it just kinds of trails off at the end. Notice that the final question of how to promote Thinkfang is left hanging.

Now I have to say that in reading this piece, I was moved to some extent by my ideas. But I think that the "giving everything away for free" thing has the nasty side-effect of making people less interested in the work, and also less likely to respect the artist.

The idea of artists banding together is kind of a good idea... I don't know. But Thinkfang is set aside. I will bring it back sometime, in a new form...

And I just want to clarify an idea here. When you see a rock music CD, for example, in a record store, you know that the artist got a record deal, that a big company liked them enough to incvest a lot of money in them, that the record store has enough respect for the artist that they think they can sell copies of the CD, etc.

All this information is perceived and interpreted and inferred in a split second. The "story behind the product".

So with Thinkfang... giving stuff away for free... no repsect. But if Thinkfang itself became famous, maybe then being associated with Thinkfang would confer respect...?

Well, I need to face the promotion issue in Bluffcosm... and I'll be dealing with all these issues....

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 344
Sexxuality and meetings. Un controal in jisisis. Not and way of gont, willifint comstrink 223. Suoling ijnoy. Lack control gnowing the yi the mess ah and I am makings. Much way to kno. I am sitting here, time apparent, I am sitting herre in Plainsboro, NJ. Deer Creek. I'm undressed and tired and not eriting too well. Now more! Likyt sjsusu and was funkih warny. I knewnhsu iiisjnf uajsnnueitr, amjds kifhjducm (a lot of deleted garbage).

(((From OsoaWeek060--9/15/95)))

*****

Um... not very good. It was nice of me back then to delete a lot of the garbage. Yeah, this is not very good at all. Self-indulgent and for the most part, stupid.

(Reviewed 3/31/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 145 * 1/1/01 * 995
Childhood dreams, the enchantment of them, an unbroken phase, and now I'm 33. Hanging on, and the long time has brought me here, to a good situation. Yet the enchantment must be broken, the magic has to be harvested. In calling something "over" I am not at an end. All the wonderful delusion and dreams, visions and plans, are here, outside the slumber.

-------------------
END
-----------

343

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 343, 2/22/01
(Book 27, No. 5 / Tarb 14401 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sat 3/31/01 * 2:54 PM

A day with no Internet... how long will this go on? Well as I mentioned last issue, I'm using this time away from the Internet to catch up on OsoaWeek. And I do need to catch up... and if I can get 5 more issues done today, I'll be all caught up!

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

Sat 3/31/01 * 2:49 PM

Today in The Bluffcosm Report I present an excerpt from OsoaWeek143 (4/19/97) in which I discuss ideas that are clearly leading in the direction of Bluffcosm. I'll be back at the end with a little commentary.

*****
From OsoaWeek143 (4/19/97)
*****

3/4/97 * 11:24 PM

Here are some notes from the past:

ABM IDEAS?
10/25/96

Mike wants me to figure out a new plan for ABM Radio.

Criteria:

* Weekly recording.
* Some kind of audience.
* Retain rights to performances.
* Eventual Internet-based show.

Idea--recording "Packets"--say 5-minutes each (or 10, 15, 30, 45, 60. etc)--perhaps contact CD-ROM magazines like Launch or popular Websites to include audio files of the ABM Packets, where we retain the rights.

idea: nerdwalking through scenes hurriedly carrying things, over and over again, different thing each time

Sound bite idea.

Howard Stern sounds--their addictive quality--create set of ABM soundbites--host a show featuring them.

10/27/96

"Murms"

* The idea involves using various sound bites, repeating them so that they become familiar and addictive, like Howard Stern sounds, for example.

* Anything But Monday is about, I've determined, the two "Nomads" characters. Once they opened the store "Things You Need". NowŠ maybe they start a company called Nomadi Entertainment!!!

* Internet-based audio entertainment.

* Different roles for Massotto and myself? As in, Masssotto as the main guy, and me as something else? Maybe not.

* HERE--short, maybe 1 minute, audio clips, which can stand on their own, as an innovative form of entertainment, being used in a variety of settings, like college radio, real radio, TV, WWW, etc.

* Structure of show--some level of clear orientation, as in talk radio. Some level of sound bites of the addictive quality, "Murms"Š

* Idea: Structure the thing like a parody of a radio show--example "Hey folks, this is Mike Massotto hereŠ coming up we have "It's a tuck-in Phil" by yours truly, "Are you dumb?" by the great Peter Litkey, and of course, the classic "Not In My House!" by none other than Frank's mom! But first, here's a (name of sound bite) by requestŠ "Bumpy Personality"Š"

* "Anbumo" as name for sound bites? ANything BUt MOnday? No.

* Minks?

* Value of sound bite idea in the shorter attention span of today's computer people, etc. and the advantage of delivering great entertainment in a vary short amount of time.

* Using the one-minute segments to introduce ABM audio entertainment to the world, then parlay it into a real radio showŠ

* How does this fit into my plans for Obliviana? Does ABM have to be an aspect of Obliviana?

* Sound bites followed immediately by some sort of quick "fanfare" sound effect.

Outline so far:

Production of a series of 1-minute audio segments, with the intention of pursuading various media outlets to air these segments--for example, college radio shows, commercial radio, Internet "magazines", CD-ROM magazines, and others.

The content of these one-minute segments must revolve around catchy sound bites, and these segments must be immediately compelling.

Okay.

Start each one-minute "show" with a different person saying "Aynthing But Monday". Then play a series of sound bites, maybe punctuated by sound effects. After this, me and Mike, giving number and date maybe of the show, and talking. Idea would be to record an hour or so of conversation between Mike and myself and edit it down to the best few sound bites. After our talking, then one more sound bite, and the show is over. If produced once per week, over the course of several hours, let's say that we could make 7 one-minute segments, one for each day of that week.

appearsin

-----------

Back in the present, 3/5/97 * 12:17 AM

The ABM ideas are quite good. I did record an hour with Mike a few weeks ago. I also did a new Beublin with Peter Litkey. I definitely want to pursue the Obliviana Radio idea.

Oh, here's some more stuff, from the bottom of this file:

-------------------

ANYTHING BUT MONDAY
24-hour Internet radio

Based on library of sound samples.

Guitar chords as audio "punctuation".

Massotto and Nora as central feature.

"Barnes, Pingitore, and Allawalla"
(and Powell, Gravell, and Espinoza)
as ficticious show?

Part of the "Obliviana Campus" worldŠ

Or "Obliviana College", or "Nomadi University"Š

Create the proper environment for OblivianaŠ an online collegeŠ enroll in classesŠ about interdimensional travel and other stuff (Introduction to Zope?)Š

Obliviana College is the newest idea. How does is relate to Obliviana Primal? Simple--Obliviana Primal is the interface for Obliviana College.

11/14/96 * 1:12 AM

Talked to Massotto today--he really liked what I wrote. He's enthusiastic about the idea of a new ABM focused on audio, bringing ABM back to where it belongs.

The same old problem still exists, though--how can Obliviana (or Nomadi, or Halfevil Graphics) and ABM live together?

Obliviana is now quite specific, as a game/occult system. The ATTITUDE of Obliviana is extremely important, and ABM may be the key to that.

3/23/97 * 12:06 PM

So here is an interesting issue. I have, for a while now, believed that digital radio would be the next big thing. And I want to make digital radio a central part of Obliviana. But I just realized that I haven't really thought about the content of Obliviana radio very much. I think that this could be a keystone issue, and could help me in crafting a bulletproof vision of Obliviana.

Idea: Call digital radio "Yamp"? (Referring to nonsense word used in my publication Fovy: "Foolish Oblviana Vending Yamp").

SoŠ what do I see as the content? Well, I suppose that at its core, there would be the idea of the little audio clips, maybe I'll call THOSE Yamps, as opposed to Murms or Minks or Anbumos or whatever else I thought of calling them in the past.

So I'll call them that for now. Yamps.

The idea of a Yamp is that it is a sound bite, from a split second to an average of one to ten seconds, probably more in the one to five second range, with longer times possible.

So there are Yamps. This is one founding idea, but it is a FORM thing, not a CONTENT thing.

Now, about contentŠ well, I have to talk about form again. Digital radio

DIGITAL RADIO anagrammed as IODAIRGALTID (notice reference to "Atlas Shrugged": Galt)

Digital radio is defined as audio in the form of digital files that is delivered to an end-user to listen to. The idea is that a digital transmission will send the files to a digital device in the possession of the end-user, which can with play the audio immediately, or store it for later use, or both. Currently, there are several technologies for digital radio. In one technique, audio files in one of several formats (.iff, .wav, .au, etc.) are stored on a server on the Internet, and they can be downloaded by a user and then listened to and stored after they are downloaded. The problems associtated with this method are that the user has to manage the downloading, storing, and playing of the file, and as well, currently, it takes a lot longer to download one of these files that the actual playing time of the files, for average modem speeds.

Another method is real-time digital audio, such as RealAudio, which aloows audio to be heard as it is being downloaded. Quality is low for a 14.4 connection, better for a 28.8 connection. I am unsure whether these files may be retained after full download in RealAudio, but it would seem to be eminently feasbale, if expensive in terms of storage space.

Yet another method of audio storage is embodied in a new product called Audio Highway, which is a device much like a Walkman, but instead of using a tape to store audio, it uses RAM. My assumption is that the player can be hooked up to a computer that is hooked up to the Internet, and several hours worth of audio can be downloaded into the player overnight, so that every morning, there is enough new audio for the morning and evening commute. These files should be able to be stored on the computer for future use, and again, I am surmising.

The question of storage is an important one. Right now, audio takes up a lot of room, maybe 500K per minute (a rough estimate) for AM-radio quality mono audio. That's 30 MB per hour. In terms of Zip disks, that's about $6 per hour. 2 hours a day, and you have a monthly storage bill of $360 a month if you want to store all the audio you hear every day.

Of course, that amount of money will continue shrinking as the years go on. And, as anyone who tapes a lot of stuff off TV and keeps it knows, you'll never get to drink in all the stuff you've taped, cuz there's always new stuff every day.

This is part of the idea of YampŠ to define and format the stuff that IS worth hearing over and over againŠ

But I'm still in the realm of format hereŠ

But I want to stay here for a little while longerŠ I want to forecast the ways in which Obliviana Radio will be delivered to peopleŠ so that I may use this information, because form DOES affect contentŠ

Obliviana will produce new audio on a daily basis. Therefore, an easy means of a user getting this material is of prime importance.

As well, I have found that serendipity, as in "channel surfing", either on TV or radio, is more enjoyable in some ways than choosing from a set of choices. Of course, in terms of music, the randomness of radio has its value, as does having your own collection of CDs, from which you can hear for favorite stuff anytime you wish.

In terms of audio content, this question of stored vs. broadcast becomes very important, because it is no longer a matter of necessity. The very limited range of broadcast radio stations have been the only way you can get non-interactive audio content. Now, there will be an effectively unlimited amount of such channels, in digital.

So one aspect of Obliviana Radio will be that it is in competition with numerous similar digital radio content producers. So I have to come up with a way of keeping people "tuned" to Obliviana for as much of their day as possible.

This touches on the Obliviana demographic, which will be very wide in terms of the boardgame, but more limited in terms of Obliviana Primal. The question is, should I try to appeal to that larger demographic in digital radio, or should I instead focus on the more limited demographic of Obliviana Primal?

Let's take a look at the sorts of audio content that are out there. First, there's music, which is today the predominant type of recorded and broadcast audio. Then there's talk, from news to politics to Howard Stern, which is also very popular, but is more the domain of the instant, nonrecorded world of broadcasting. Then there's drama, which is stories and stuff, including comedy, and all that. This sort of content is quite scarce these days, but I think there will an increased demand for it in the future. Another type of content I can think of is background sounds, such as sold in recorded forms as thunderstorms, forest sounds, surf, etc.

Okay. We all live in a world of sound (except the deaf), and unlike our eyes, we cannot close our ears (except with devices such as earplugs or sound-cancelling electronics). And our lives are enriched by audio recordings and broadcasts.

Now. Obliviana Radio will be an ever-growing collection of recorded audio, with daily additions. I would like to hold as an ideal the idea that all the audio will be Obliviana-produced.

It's difficult to define Obliviana Radio without defining all of Obliviana. This is part of my problem--I have to define the parts to define the whole, but I have to define the whole to define the parts.

Here:

I: Fonosta/209
II: Primitive/Little World of Racetracks
III: Severe Repair/Zope
IV: Obliviana Radio/OsoaWeek

This is the definition for Obliviana that I have been using for some time now. Aspect I could be considered by far the most vital aspect of Obliviana, especially since it now contains the boardgame.

One thing I want to make clear is that Obliviana is a producer of entertainment by a few for the many. This bucks the Internet trend of entertainment by the many for the many, a trend which ignores the fact that only a few people have the talent to produce work which is compelling to the many. That is, yes, today's media may be a little restrictive in terms of trying to appeal to too large a demographic, ignoring smaller demographics, the pendulum can easily swing too far the other way, paying too much attention to those who have little of interest to say. In fact, in terms of content, it seems that the MANY content producers are merely aping the FEW. For example, fiction-writer on the Internet predominantly, it seems, base their work on existing Revolvers (X-Files, Star Trek, Anne Rice novels, etc.) rather than coming up with original material which is not derivitive. And here is an important distinction--good work can (and perhaps must) be INSPIRED by existing work, but cannot be too good by being derivitive.

My challenge with the list I have of these aspects is that I must weave them all together so that the whole thing makes sense. 209 is an idea which I believe is a long-forgotten way for people to enhance their lives. Can it be considered entertainment? HmmŠ

Here's the premise I want to explore. Obliviana Super Occult AMUSEMENT as an endeavor whose main goal is to AMUSE people. Let me go so far as to look up the definiition of AMUSE is my favorite dictionary, The American Heritage Third EditionŠ

AMUSE--1. to occupy in an agreeable, pleasing, or entertaining fashion

I think that I can say that the goal of Obliviana is to amuse people.

In terms of 209, people are exploring their world in new and different ways. Doing 209 is amusing. And Fonosta, as a new way of recording accomplishments, makes otherwise mundane activities amusing and enjoyable.

-------------------

Halfevil Document #401
HG Report 5/22/92

Beublin A. Richardson
This video series is composed of 5-minute episodes, and is at the moment my main video project. I hope to produce more episodes soon, and continue to develop the show.

Train Crap & Blood
With 6 hours recorded in 1991, TC&B has a lot of undiscovered potential. I envision release of all 4 tapes at least once, with a best-of also available. I want to continue with TC&B, but with a lot more planning, and prerecorded bits, probably presented within a live-to-tape format.

-----

Beublin (audio) or Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall (audio)

*****

Sat 3/31/01 * 2:51 PM

COMMENTARY

Well, this is very interesting, to see my thoughts from about 4 years ago on the subject of doing an audio thing. You can see that I was still trying to fit the whole audio thing into my game/occult thing. Well, a few months ago I pretty mcuh gave up on the game/occult thing to focus on the audio thing.

Overall, very interesting!

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 343
Only meature that has stood like standing stones the klost. I point it only under the hotel called Tara in Parsippany or somewhere I am schooling ij ij ij. Whoah, like a punch in the stomach little, took a little wind out of me but this is territory.

(((From OsoaWeek060--9/15/95)))

*****

I like this one!

Reading it, I had very little memory of writing it.

Nonsense words: meature, klost, ij ij ij.

The hotel mentioned is real, but I think it's not called Tara anymore.

(Reviewed 3/31/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 144 * 1/1/01 * 994
I got my storage in 1994. I got another unit last week. My life has been on hold, but at some point enough is enough, and that time has been here for a number of days so far. Bitterness is cool, but ultimately it's another distraction. How I fall into the same trap again and again. But progress is possible, and true insight is hard to distinguish from psychobabble. Sitting in my apartment, on a mattress, on Thompson Street, near Washington Square Park. And making the divisions of Nomadi Entertainment. And that was 1987.

-------------------
END
-----------

342

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 342, 2/15/01
(Book 27, No. 4 / Tarb 14359 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Sat 3/31/01 * 2:24 PM

I do not have Internet. My DSL is way dead, and I have no idea when it's coming back on! See, I got DSL back around the end of 1999, I think. My ISP was Flashcom, and the infrastructure company was Northpoint. Well, a few months ago, like in December, Flashcom went out of business, and I switched to Telocity. Since then, at least once a week there's been a DSL outage of varying length. Then just the other day, Thursday, I read online that Northpoint was going bankrupt. And indeed, that night, my DSL went dead.

I tried calling Telocity's special "Northpoint Customer" line, but I didn't even get near to getting through. Their website says that the service will be restored... sometime.

Also within the past week or so I read that several of the top executives at Telocity quit... so I don't think Telocity is gonna be here for the long haul.

I called Verizon, hoping to quickly switch to Verizon DSL. They said, "it will take 15 days to see if DSL is available for you". I told them I already had DSL... but they said it didn't matter... 15 days...

And I called my cable company about a cable modem. My in-laws live less than a mile away, but in a different town with a different cable company, and they've had a cable modem for awhile now, and it's a lot faster and more reliable than DSL from what I've seen.

But the cable company rep said that I might be able to get it in April, May, or June. Okay...

So I figured I may as well wait and see if Telocity can bring the service back... but I figured since I still have AOL, maybe I'd try and hook up the old modem and at least be able to get email and do a little web! Well, this morning I tried, and after a few frustrating hours I gave up. I guess my internal modem is dead, or some system file isn't there, or whatever, but I didn't even get anywhere near getting it to work.

So I figured, HEY! Perfect time to catch up on OsoaWeek! And here we are! Yo!

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

*****
THE DOT-COMS OF OBLIVIANA
by Frank Edward Nora
3/10/01
*****

Last year, 2000, was the beginning of the end for the whole "dot-com" craze. But strangely enough, I went dot-com crazy, registering a bunch of domain names in my wild attempts to manifest my Vision of Obliviana. Well, I gave up on my Vision of Obliviana, and most of my domain name are now cast aside and dormant.

A year ago, the Internet and the dot-coms were still really hot. To me it was a given that websites were to be at the core of my whole Obliviana endeavor. And considering the multifarious nature of Obliviana, it only made sense that there would be A LOT of websites.

Well, I've since realized that I'm only one person and that trying to manage 10 or 15 different "aspects" of Obliviana at once while working a "day job" is pretty much impossible. So, right about at the end of 2000, I seriously restructured Obliviana.

For the time being, my Obliviana plan is to focus on Bluffcosm, OsoaWeek, Superior, Severe Repair, and Fuzzy Daupner. Fuzzy Daupner is the band that I am a part of but not a performer in, and it is not technically a part of Obliviana. Superior is something that I work on as a part of OsoaWeek, though it is a "Revolver" unto itself (to use some old Obliviana terminology). OsoaWeek has been around for a long time... it is the "glue" that holds Obliviana together, and though it has languished much at times, it is now back and better than ever! Severe Repair... I plan on starting the new Severe Work very soon... and I am considering the "audio book" idea to bring it directly into my new focus on audio. And of course Bluffcosm... my number one project right now!

OBLIVIANA.COM
July 1995

I had been doing OsoaWeek for a year already when I started the website. As you can see, I stayed with just this one domain name for over 4 years.

Status: In recent weeks, I have de-emphasized the Obliviana part of the website, to focus on Bluffcosm. But remember, Bluffcosm.com is "a production of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement". "www.obliviana.com" takes you to the Bluffcosm homepage.

BLUFFCOSM.COM
November 1999

I registered this name without knowing exactly what Bluffcosm was going to be. At the time, it was describes as some kind of vague online world. But a few months later I decided that it would be my audio thing, the thing that had till then been called "Welcome to the Weasel Village Mall".

Status: My main project, going strong!

FUZZYDAUPNER.COM
April 2000

Not an offical part of Obliviana, but something I am very deeply involved with.

Status: The band is making amazing progress and the site keeps getting better and better.

DASHIC.COM
June 2000

"Dashic" is a word that I have wrestled with for a long time. This supernatural idea of mine that I started working on in 1986 was originally called "Reality Zoning", then shortened to "Zoning", then it became "Stormjaunting", but I think it might have been "Dashic" for a little while before it became "Stormjaunting". The word "Dashic" has always given me a really strong, weird feeling.

Back in June 2000, I thought that it was time to bring this idea to a lot of people, and I decided to use this powerful word, "Dashic", as its official name.

Status: The homepage that I made at its inception is still there. It has "The New Octagon", which is a very interesting pattern I made. "www.dashic.com" takes you to the Bluffcosm homepage. Right now, you can click on the Obliviana link, and then the Dashic link to get to the page. Dashic is dormant right now, and though I do want to work more on this project in the future, now is not the time.

Note: The new Bluffcosm program, "The Motor Excursion Ruffians", touches on some of the same themes as Dashic, ie, taking advantage of the vast freedom we have but largely ignore. I think that further work on "Dashic" may very well be in audio form...

ZOPETV.COM
July 2000

I created the Zope comic strip in February 1986. I've worked a whole lot on Zope over the years, but there were very long spans of time where I neglected Zope. Then, in July 2000, I began an ambitious project to present a Zope comic every day. Well, that lasted for 49 days, from July 27 to September 13.

I feel terrible about abandoning Zope again, but unfortunately I just don't have time right now to work on the project. But I love the format I developed, and I will return to the project at some point in the future.

Status: Going to "www.zopetv.com" will take you to epsiode 38, there it has been frozen all this time. Clicking from the link from the Obliviana page will take you to episode 1, which makes more sense at this point. I though of changing the homepage to also take you to 1, but I figure that there is very little likelyhood that anyone will be going there via that way, so I'll just leave it for now.

(3/31/01 for the rest of the writing in this feature...)

INTERNETROCKBANDS.COM
August 2000

The idea here was that an "Internet Rock Band" was a band that made ALL their music available online, for free and without any restrictions at all. This was meant as a reaction to the whole record industry anti-Napster thing. The idea was that if the record companies made fans into criminals for downloading music, those fans could turn to Internet Rock Bands to download from. And also, all the intrusive forms of copy protection... fans need not worry about such as this from Internet Rock Bands!

I dubbed Fuzzy Daupner "The First Internet Rock Band", and I got so into this whole idea, that I developed Thinkfang.com, which expanded this idea into all forms of computerized entertainment, not just rock music.

But around the end of December 2000, I had a major change in my thinking about this issue...

Status: There was a single homepage for internetrockbands.com. It is no longer up... the URL goes to Thinkfang.com. I think that I might use this domain name for a future project.

VENDINGYAMP.COM
November 2000

A Vending Yamp is a little piece of paper with stuff printed on it, kind of like a cross between a "certificate of authenticity", trading cards, and paper money. It was a major part of the whole Thinkfang idea, in that it provided people with a physical item to buy in relation to free computerized content.

To clarify, in the Thinkfang ideal (see below), all computerized content is to be free and freely available. So how does anyone make any money off of it? Vending Yamp was the answer. And I actually did produce one piece of Vending Yamp, for Fuzzy Daupner. It was pretty cool.

Status: There was never a real homepage for vendingyamp.com, just a little message that it was "coming soon". I still think that there is some value to the Vending Yamp idea, and it's possible that I'll do something with it someday, perhaps especially in conjunction with Bluffcosm.

THINKFANG.COM
November 2000

As I mention above in InternetRockBands.com, Thinkfang was a big idea... the idea that artists should make their works freely available online in computerized form, because the alternative was just too terrible (suing your fans, encrypting your data, etc.)

Well, a little over a month after I started Thinkfang, I had a major change of heart on the whole idea. And I actually made a decent start to the site, developing an original color scheme and layout system. But... I nipped it in the bud...

Status: The site is still up, and I don't even have a message there about it being abandoned or anything. But it's not like too many people are gonna go there! But I tellya, I love the name, "Thinkfang", and I love the logo I made for it. And I love the way I made the site, and the digital photos I used. I love it all except for its core philosophy. So I am definitely planning on revamping Thinkfang at some point with a whole new idea!

CONCLUSION

What will become of all these domains? I may let some lapse, or I could keep them going for another year, when their renewals come up. I do not regret anything about 2000. I think that I learned a lot of valuable lessons in 2000. But now, onward, with Bluffcosm.com!!!!!

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 342
Yummy, I am kissing your pubic hair and your mound of flesh above your pussy. But soon I will be eating your pussy.

(((From OsoaWeek060--9/15/95)))

*****

This one is quite cringe-inducing. Certainly one of the worst Superiors of all time.

(Reviewed 3/10/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 143 * 1/1/01 * 993
KIVO -- The Keystone Idea of the Vision of Obliviana. My Holy Grail, but I've let go of my Indiana Jones.

-------------------
END
-----------

341

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 341, 2/8/01
(Book 27, No. 3 / Tarb 14317 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Mon 3/5/01 * 2:42 PM

Well, I'm writing this on the same day as the last issue. According the weather.com, there should be "heavy snow" right about now (in the "hour-by-hour" forecast). But guess what? There is NO PRECIPITATION as far as I can see, even though another page on that website says that there is currently "light snow". Ah, get outta here!

But, of course, by not going to work today, I am able to work on OsoaWeek, and that is rather awesome, I'd say.

Once I'm back on schedule, I'm thinking of adding a "Fuzzy Daupner Report" to OsoaWeek... we shall see...

The Bluffcosm Report in this issue is pretty cool... stuff from 1995...

Next issue, I think I'm gonna have an overview of all my domain names... and what happened to the ideas behind them...

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

Mon 3/5/01 * 2:04 PM

As you may know, Superior Review is an ongoing feature here in OsoaWeek, where I review the Superior with the same number as the current issue. (I started this feature back in OsoaWeek289.)

Anyway, this issue's Superior that is reviewed is 341 -- and it is from OsoaWeek060, from September 15, 1995. I got to reading some other stuff in the issue, and I found some writing that is very interesting.

Back then, I was very concerned with how to make money online, and I set forth a few observations and ideas. This was well over five years ago, but many of these ideas came back just a few months ago in the form of Thinkfang.com.

Thinkfang was something I was really hot on in November 2000, but which I have now completely abandoned. I will, in the upcoming issues of OsoaWeek, present some features relating to Thinkfang, and other "failed" ideas in Obliviana from 2000.

All of this relates to Bluffcosm, because the central issue is: How do you get an audience, let alone make money, on the Internet?

So here's the stuff from 1995...

*****

[[02060LA]] Lord of Obliviana

Monday, October 9, 1995, 9:01:59 PM

Rolling right along. Getting issue after issue done.

This issue should have been completed three-and-a-half weeks ago. So I am still catching up, see. I was supposed to catch up in a matter of a week or two in the early part of September, but I didn't see. And now I'm getting tired. But maybe just one more.

Monday, October 16, 1995, 11:08:45 PM

Guess I was gonna end it there, but it never got done.

Huh. Look at that date. Four days till Book Six is scheduled to begin. Huh.

I have failed to do the things I set out to do in the time period of Book Five. I have, essentially, lost it. OsoaWeek is in real trouble. I am in real trouble. I don't know what the future holds.

My girlfriend Kerri went to stay with her parents "for a few days" because she felt we weren't getting along. A sign that my life is falling apart? Or a sign that the winds of change are upon me strong?

I think the latter. My plan is to finish up Book Five in whatever way I can. Then, Book Six will emerge on time.

Book Six will focus on Severe Repair. My goal is to write a chapter of Severe Repair in each issue, and also build the Severe Repair Almanac each week. The only other features I plan to have in each issue are Lord of Obliviana and Superior. Superior, which is, I believe, the ONLY feature to have appeared in EVERY issue of OsoaWeek so far.

It has been 50 days since I finished up Obliviana Year One. Huh. Seems like a lot more than that. So yeah--50 days of rest for 395 days of true effort. Not too bad, eh?

But I have lost my pace. Right now, I don't really know where Obliviana is going.

A few weeks ago, I was sure I'd be renaming Obliviana Super Occult Amusement to "Obliviana Cup--Super Occult Frontier Amusement". But now, I have decided to stay with OSOA.

But this potential name change highlights two important new concepts in Obliviana--Cup and Frontier. Cup is a structure for the management and distribution of digital infostimulation, and Frontier defines the Super Occult Frontier--the place you get to when you get into Obliviana.

My life is indeed something of a mess right now. As is Obliviana. But being here is not necessarily a bad place to be. I have disconnected myself from a whole bundle of preconceptions and paradigms. I am, hence, free from the bonds of the milieu I had established by OsoaWeek052.

And I have made use of this new position. For example, I've totally reassessed the role of the World Wide Web in Obliviana. I now pretty much hate the World Wide Web. And I think there are sound reasons for this, not just a knee-jerk reaction, or a response to information-overload.

The World Wide Web is a place where all page owners are on equal footing, both the talented and the untalented. Both people with something going on and people with nothing going on. Both people with something to say, and people with absolutely NOTHING to say. This creates, as one of its many drawbacks, an image problem.

Another big problems with the World Wide Web is that as yet, it is no place to conduct commerce. There is an assumption that everything is free. And that's fine if you use it as an adjunct to your main business, but if selling digital infostimulation IS your business, it is a place where not only is commerce nearly impossible--but is viewed with great hostility.

So--if not the World Wide Web--what then?

My core business idea is that digital infostimulation must be sold in a different way than physical containers of infostimulation are sold. Because, no matter what you might want to do in terms of copy protection, hardware specific encoding, etc., infostimulation will always have to wind up being output to an analog output device, and this will always facilitate digital reproduction.

Let me be more specific. Say there's a "set-top-box" which has a hardware decoding chip with a unique see code in it. Then, suppliers of DIS (digital infostimulation, here being coined as an acronym for the first time) could create an encoded file of the "double keycode" variety--nearly impossible to crack without the hardware chip--and transmit the file--with no fear of copying, because it can only be played by the unit with that specific crypto-chip. Well, let's say it's a movie. Eventually, it has to hit analog in a monitor and speakers. This analog signal could be intercepted, digitized, and distributed by pirates with some loss in quality, perhaps, but maybe not enough to warrant the cost of obtaining a legitimate viewing.

The point is that there's really no way to control digital piracy. And now that a 1GB hard drive costs less than a 20MB hard drive did 5 or 6 years ago, imagine the hard drive you'll be able to get in 2000 for under $500. So, I say, forget about controlling copies of DIS that you release. You must develop another means of deriving income.

One strategy is to provide DIS in a way that's cheaper and easier than piracy. But if folks have a $20 piece of media, say, that can hold ten Hollywood movies, how many people out of a circle of friends are gonna shell out even 25 cents for a single movie?

So this strategy, "cheaper and easier", is also pretty much doomed.

What can be done then? I'll tell you. First, allow unrestricted free copying of you DIS, so long as the files remain verbatim and they are not sold. Next, create a "game environment" in which DIS is a major element. Establish "official" standards for drinking DIS. That is, drink a pirate copy, okay--but it doesn't count. And official drinkings cost money, but they also advance your position in the game.

But the game is not totally arbitrary. The individual creators of the DIS are some of the stars of the game. The money you spend is going in large part to these individuals, who you hopefully like.

My manifestation of this game is Obliviana. It is a commercial venture. It is designed to make money for me and my company. And in making money for me, it will provide an excellent DIS product to people for a reasonable fee. As well, because of those playing the game and paying, a huge outflow of DIS will be available to those unable to pay.

But it is not charity that will drive the players of Obliviana--it is the thrill of playing--and winning--the game.

I believe that this is a sound business model, and one that will work in the coming turmoil of the emerging DIS market. And as well as my own DIS in Obliviana, I believe it will be an effective way for owners of DIS libraries to peddle their wares.

Well people, there's my plan in a nutshell. Maybe I'm not so lost after all!

*****

Commentary (back in 2001 again):

First of all, I did succeed in writing a new chapter of Severe Repair in each issue of Book Six.

Regarding the reference to my girlfriend at the time, we broke up officially shortly after I wrote that, and we never got back together. It was the winds of change blowing, for the better, because about eight months later I met Denice, who I've now been married to for over three years.

The reference to "Obliviana Cup--Super Occult Frontier Amusement" is quite amusing to me. I barely even remembered it when I read it. It's a great example of my delighfully convoluted way of thinking.

The "image problem" involved with being on the Web is still a VERY thorny issue. And the "hostility to commerce" is also still a big problem!

"Unrestricted free copying" was a core concept in Thinkfang. In this 1995 idea, it is coupled with a complex online game environment. Thinkfang did not have this game aspect. But it DID have the idea that the artists behind the content would be "stars" in the system.

Of course, a complex game has always been at the heart of my Vision of Obliviana... right up to the point when I gave up on that vision, a little over two months ago.

And by the way, the acronym "DIS" never went anywhere.

Right now, even though I have given up on the whole game/cult aspect of Obliviana, I am still faced with the challenge of how to get an audience and how to make money.

Oh, I just want to clarify the use of the term "cult" when I refer to the "game/cult" idea. The idea here is that the game would be an interactive thing that would be a big part of a player's life. It would be cultlike in the same way that there are "cult fans" of Star Wars. At least that was my plan. I have written extensively in OsoaWeek about how such a "cult fan" kind of game thing could veer off, in some way, toward being like a "real" cult.

Well, I find all of these idea very fascinating, but I am trying very hard to keep myself away from a resurgence of the game/cult thing. At this point, I'd be REALLY REALLY happy to have a few hundred fans of Bluffcosm. Of course, that level is still light years away from something that could make any money. But at this moment, I feel like I'm light years away from having a few hundred fans.

*****

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 341
Yah-Yah--I em enthusiastic about this shooping flea market... I am pretending to stay calm BUT I CAN'T!!! Just like all those bad ly writted sitcoms on TV is how I feel. Cant not get thru. Help me yes do it help.

(((From OsoaWeek060--9/15/95)))

*****

Well... overall, not good. The first sentence (up to the ellipses) would be very good if not for the misspelling of "am", which I find rather lame.

Overall, not one of the brighter stars in the Superior universe.

(Reviewed 3/5/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 142 * 1/1/01 * 992
Tivian Towhead Belomancer, character of forlorn transit and manic bemusement. There are files seen in dream states.

-------------------
END
-----------

340

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 340, 2/1/01
(Book 27, No. 2 / Tarb 14275 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Mon 3/5/01 * 12:34 PM

I writing in the midst of "The Biggest Snowstorm in Many Years". The only problem is, it's not snowing, and there's maybe an inch of snow on the ground. All this past weekend, there was amazing hype about this storm, so that many people, including myself, stayed home from work.

Right now, we are experiencing "light freezing drizzle". And it is LIGHT. This stuff couldn't pull down power lines on an N-scale model train set.

Now the reason I stayed home is the threat of "blizzard-like conditions" later in the day. Well, at this point, I don't see this pipsqueak storm doing much today. I HOPE there's a blizzard, so I don't seem like a lazy jerk for staying home from work.

Light freezing drizzle... JEEZ!

Mon 3/5/01 * 12:52 PM

I'm very happy to have revived OsoaWeek. I do wonder if it'll cause confusion, the whole Bluffcosm/Obliviana thing, since I am trying to focus everything onto Bluffcosm.

But, of course, in order for someone to be confused, there has to BE someone. And it has been a bitter self-depricating joke with me for along time that I have no fans, no audience, though I feel the work is really cool and deserves notice. So what gives?

Well, the answer is easy. I have presented the material in a kind of "user-unfriendly" way. And I do not "schmooze" really at all. I should be contacting every pissant website out there to get reviewed and linked to!

Well... I shall... I shall... I shall promote Bluffcosm.

And I also gotta catch up on OsoaWeek! I'm about a month behind now... but I'll catch up...

So that's pretty much what's going on. I gotta start digitizing and editing the show "Classictronica", which I recorded the other night.

Okay, that's it.

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

Mon 3/5/01 * 12:51 PM

This time around I have something that is directly Bluffcosm-related! Check it out...

-----

BLUFFCOSM PRODUCTION NOTES
January 2001 Wave of Blufftoons
by Frank Edward Nora
1/26/01

This month marks a new beginning for Bluffcosm. Whereas last year Bluffcosm was but one of many projects I was striving to work on, this year it is my central project. And I got things off to a great start with the ten Blufftoons I produced this month.

Let me give you a little background on everything. I've been working on something I call "Obliviana" for a long time. To make a long story short, I conceived of Obliviana as an entertainment company encompassing pretty much all forms of media: videos, music, radio, games, comics, magazines, interactive, weird objects, the supernatural, and more. The idea really started to take shape in the Fall of 1987.

And... in the last weeks of 2000, I decided to finally call it quits. Well... I didn't exactly quit... See, Obliviana never really worked... it never "took off". I was seeking after what I called the "Keystone Idea" that would bring all the various layers and levels together into some kind of game/cult.

Well, I realized a bunch of things about a month ago. I realized that this "Keystone Idea" that always seemed just out of reach is bullshit. And I realized that I do not want to administer or preside over some kind of game cult thing.

So I decided to give of on the quest for the Vision of Obliviana... but I have very much NOT given up on all of the work I have produced over the past 15 or so years. I decided that in 2001 I would focus on Severe Repair (my sci-fi novel), Fuzzy Daupner (the band I am producer/lyricist/whatever) for, and Bluffcosm.com.

And indeed, this month I have begun to focus on the potential of Bluffcosm. It's a tricky time for something like Bluffcosm, because the very new field of digital online audio is, right now, in the middle of a semi-collapse, along with most other forms of online entertainment. Just over the past week, several major online broadcasters showed up on fuckedcompany.com (eYada.com and ComedyWorld.com).

See, "Internet radio" has held a very potent promise... basically that anyone can have their own radio station. This is absolutely wonderful for something like Bluffcosm. And, in fact, there is a Bluffcosm Internet radio station, on Live365.com. It broadcasts the same 14 or 15 hours over and over again, 24 hours a day, and anyone, anywhere in the world could listen to it. But, of course, hardly anyone listens... because no one knows it's there...

Now, let me start talking about the January 2001 Wave of Blufftoons with "Sights of the Uncommons" and the "Woodstock 89" series. Let me see... where do I begin...?

Okay. Back in February 1986, I started a radio show at Drew University with my friend Mike Massoto. The show was called "Anything But Monday". It was a cool comedy show, and we got kicked off the air for being too crazy or whatever. So, maybe around May of 1986, we released a crude, 4-page magazine version of the Anything But Monday radio show. Well, again to make a long story short, we did get back on the radio in the Fall, but over the next few years, we focused more and more on the magzine, and less and less on radio.

Also in the Fall of 1986, we produced several half-hour videos called "Weird University", which we presented in the University Center.

Now... the magazine... we released 4 issues nationlly to comic book stores, but it failed miserably by the end of 1989. In 1997, I wrote a document called "Nomadio", wherein I observed that much of the value of our comedy was lost when translated from sound to print.

And now, with my new focus on audio, it seems very unfortunate that we abandoned the radio side.

But it was a different time back then. There was no Internet. But we could have become DJs... that would have been possible...

But my focus was not only diluted by the magazine, but by the arcane web of idea in Obliviana (then called Nomadi).

Well, it took a long time for me to realize that trying to do a million things at once has some major drawbacks.

Anyway, there are still many audio recordings from the Anything But Monday days, including the video footage that we shot for the "Weird University" videos and for other things.

"Sights of the Uncommons" (Fall 1986) was a video sequel to the audio "Sounds of the Commons", which we had recorded in the Spring of 1986 for our radio show. ("Sounds of the Commons" will hopefully become a Blufftoons soon.)

The idea of "Weird University" was that it was about sort of an alternate-reality version of Drew University. WEIRD is DREW backwards with an I in the middle.

The college food center at Drew was called The Commons, so we called the Weird University Counterpart The Uncommons.

We shot over 13 minutes of footage, but it was heavily edited, with music and horrible "fast motion" effects added, in the "Weird University" video. For the Blufftoon, I decided to keep the raw footage 100% intact, and I really like the result.

I have a lot more video stuff from that time period that I will be reviewing for Blufftoonable stuff...

Now... Woodstock 89...

August 16, 1989. In less than 3 months, Anything But Monday would be no more. But we didn't know that then! Mike and I heard about this Woodstock reunion going on, and we decided to go up there and interview people for the magazine.

Well, we went, and we did a bunch of interviews, and the feature, "Among the Masses", was included in the last issue of Anything But Monday.

It is interesting to note that on our way back, my car broke down not far from the reunion, and we watched the lunar eclipse from some remote parking lot, as our business partner, Jim Lord, had to come and rescue us. Everyone was quite pissed-off.

Now, having spent a considerable amount of time editing the 90-minute Woodstock 89 tape, I find it ironic that at the time I didn't really consider the audio value of the tape. That is, we just used a tape recorder to get the interviews so we could transcibe them later for the magazine. At that point our focus was entirely on print. It really is unfortunate, because I think the Woodstock 89 stuff is some fantastic audio.

But hey, I've done a lot of growing up over the years, and it's taken me a long time to realize that audio should be my central focus.

It was a real challenge to edit the tape. On the tape, there is a series of 13 interviews, as well as stuff inbeteen. At first, I set out to edit it down to the best material... but as I got into it, I realized that some interviews were great on their own. So, I dedided to feature several full interviews... "Army Tent", "Eighth Grade", and "Hell No". And I intend to feature more the full interviews in upcoming Blufftoon Waves.

One question that we asked to most people was "What do you think of Dan Quayle?", so I put together a Blufftoons of all the Dan Quayle stuff, called "Dan Quayle"

And I took my original edit and distilled it down to just the cool in-between stuff, and some stuff from the interviews as well, and that one in "Dirty Trip".

So... let me move on to the 3 Blufftoons that came from the tape I call "OLD". This tape is the oldest tape I have of myself, the earliest parts of it recording in September 1969, before I was 2 years old!

"Cut and Shoot" is a piece of audio that I have listened to innumerable times... it is burned into my brain... it is classic, it is bizarre, it rules!

"Tornado Warning" is another absolute treasure.

"Bad Hole" was recorded later the same day of "Tornado Warning". It is an absolutely insane piece of audio.

There's a lot more stuff from this tape that I'm working on... so look for more of it in future Blufftoon Waves!

And finally... "The Bluffcosm 5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #1". (Note: I had to shorten the name for MP3.com, because they have a 40-character limit. I tried "TheBluffcosm5-Min.VacationFromSanity #1", but it looked horrible, so I made it "5-Minute Vacation from Sanity #1" on there.)

This Blufftoon came about because I've been saving little clips of audio, and I had the inspiration to put them together into an insane little symphony of insanity.

In the Blufftoon, there are clips from existing Blufftoons, but also clips that haven't been released in any form yet. I really like the way it came out... so check it out!

Well, that's about it for now. Now I gotta get to work on the February 2001 Wave! Oh yes!!!

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 340
When you're dealing with hundreds, the slightest majesty... Some thing specific, a first lady and Texas Wiener. Can we go, Rt. 22 is waiting, a world of bad art is out there, and am a comic book store, who am I. Thinking and the past. Monday, October 9, 1995, 8:36:12 PM. Dee... release me...

(((From OsoaWeek059--9/8/95)))

*****

Wow. Wow. This Superior is chock full of premonitions. Note that the date listed is the date and time I wrote the Superior. Now...

Well, "a first Lady and Texas Weiner" could describe Laura and George W. Bush.

But the really cool part... last year I worked at this lame dot-com-type ad agency, with "bad art", as in bad graphic design. I was working freelance, and they kept saying they were gonna hire me. But I had a disagreement with a person named Dee, and that led (in an unfair way, in my opinion) to me not being hired. But I went on from there to get the much better job that I have now, and that I'm staying home from because of this damn non-existent blizzard. Anyway, see, Dee did in a way release me!

But... this Superior has got to be judged on its literary merits as well as its prophecies. So... well, not really very good. The first sentence is okay, and the last also. But overall, this one is a bit too close to "bad art" itself...

(Reviewed 3/5/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 141 * 1/1/01 * 991
Fancing Hawthorne, kilometers yet to come. The Sorry Latino, where am I? Weird Luck Charms, paraphernalia in the key of neat. Seeing potential friends that we'll never meet, in the key of relief.

-------------------
END
-----------

339

-------------------
OSOAWEEK
Ezine of Obliviana
Issue 339, 1/25/01
(Book 27, No. 1 / Tarb 14233 / Year 7)
by Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana
-----------

-------------------
LORD OF OBLIVIANA
-----------

Mon 2/5/01 * 11:00 PM

Obliviana is still here! OsoaWeek continues!

I skipped Book 26 to get back on schedule. Now, here in Book 27, I'll be talking about the new Obliviana.

And make no mistake... this is a new beginning. In OsoaWeek 001 (July 28, 1994) I set forth a complex and nebulous blueprint for the game-cult of Obliviana. But in order for it to work, I needed KIVO... the Keystone Idea of the Vision of Obliviana.

Well, not too long ago (on December 21, 2000), I decided to give up on my quest for KIVO. I detailed this decision in OsoaWeek 325 (the last issue before the skipped 13 issues of Book 26). So, this issue, 339, is the first issue that's post-KIVO.

Let me make a couple of things clear. First of all, KIVO and Obliviana are not the same thing. KIVO was a very big part of Obliviana for a long time, but Obliviana has always been much more than KIVO. And second, I do not think that KIVO is a bad thing... it was an awesome thing for me to work on... an amazing security blanket... a catalyst for creativity and complex thought. But its time is over.

When I was younger, I would say that perserverence was the key to success. When I was somewhat older, I said that when I was younger, that if I knew the real meaning, the years and years of frustration, of real perserverence, I wouldn't have been so keen on the idea. And I did perservere in my quest for KIVO.

But now I have stopped perservering on that quest. And no, I do not know that it was a futile quest. Maybe I would have discovered KIVO eventually. But KIVO is definitely a cult-like thing... and I really don't want that.

Sat 2/10/01 * 6:40 PM

Well, I've decided to indeed produce Book 26 of OsoaWeek, but each issue will only contain Superior Review. I figured I didn't want to screw up Superior Review, you know. So I'm gonna work on some of it now.

Sun 3/4/01 *6:53 PM

Okay! I'm getting OsoaWeek back on track! I have a brand new place for OsoaWeek on the website, starting with this issue. The website is now focused on Bluffcosm.com, with everything else secondary.

So right now in Obliviana I am focusing on two things: Bluffcosm.com and OsoaWeek. Well, maybe three things, since I am continuing with Superior in OsoaWeek. Everything else is "on hold" for the present.

There are a few projects that are "waiting in the wings" to be worked on:

SEVERE REPAIR -- I definitely plan on getting back into SR this year. I have been thinking of the idea of incorporating it into Bluffcosm as an audio book type thing.

AERIE OBLIVIANA -- I do intend to update Aerie, but I cannot say that I will do it this year -- it's not a priority.

FONJO -- This was the latest permutation of my game-cult system. As you've read, I have decided to end this game-cult project. I'll probably continue work on Fonjo in the future, as a game without the "cult" aspect. But it probably won't be this year.

ZOPETV -- I feel really terrible about this, but I think that I'm gonna hold off on getting back into ZopeTV this year. ZopeTV was a very promising project to bring Zope back, but the comics medium is very far away from my current audio focus. I am considering doing an audio version of Zope, though.

And, of course, there are many, many other projects in Obliviana, but all of them are similarly on hold.

So... Bluffcosm.com... OsoaWeek... Superior... that's it.

As well, I am devoted a lot of creative resources toward my band, "Fuzzy Daupner", in which I am a non-performing member. It's a weird limbo state to be in... not really "in" the band, but definitely in it to some extent. I write lyrics, do the graphics, and I oversee the creative direction of the band.

That's four projects I am currently involved with. And that's PLENTY.

Now... as you might expect, there will be a lot of Bluffcosm-related content in OsoaWeek from now on. But this is the same old OsoaWeek... constantly changing, but still continuing on...

Get all Obliviana.

-------------------
THE BLUFFCOSM REPORT
-----------

Sat 2/10/01 * 7:12 PM

Welcome to The Bluffcosm Report. This issue, I'm presenting a document from 1997, "Nomadio", that describes a project that never left the ground, but which would have been similar to Bluffcosm. Check it out!

-----

NOMADIO
Midnight, August 14, 1997
by Frank Edward Nora

-----
INTRODUCTION
-----

"Anything But Monday" (ABM) is the creative collaboration between Mike Massotto and Frank Edward Nora, which started as a college radio show and grew into a magazine and a host of other things. It started in early 1986 and was in a total shambles by late 1989. It has refused to die, however, and now, Mike and Frank are considering resurrecting their creation.

This essay will detail and examine a possible direction for the rebirth of Anything But Monday, called "Nomadio".

"Nomadi" stands for "Nora-Massotto Diversions", and was first used in the name of Massotto and Nora's entertainment "company", Nomadi Entertainment.

One of the ideas that will be discussed in this essay is that of "digital radio", which refers to the use of delivering digital sound files to people in a variety of ways. Right now, digital radio is pretty much confined to audio received over the Internet, requiring an expensive computer, a fast modem, an Internet connection, and special software. In the near future, however, digital radio could be distributed in a variety of ways, many of which could be fairly cheap and easy for a person to get into. This would open up a whole new realm of audio content delivery, and Anything But Monday is very well suited to provide content in such a medium.

Therefore, the term "Nomadio" refers to "Nomadi digital radio", which would be a way of formatting and sequencing audio content that is unique to Anything But Monday.

-----
A NEW FOCUS
-----

Although Anything But Monday has existed in a variety of media, it was most successful in an audio format. Moving ABM to other media caused it to be "watered down", because it is the verbal chemistry between Mike and Frank, as well as their delivery of material, that was at the core of ABM when it was a radio show.

Being that digital radio is such a promising medium, it makes sense for ABM to again focus on audio. The Nomadio idea involves ABM as being fully focused on audio.

Looking at digital content overall, there is text, graphics, sound, video, and interactive. Text and graphics, which was the nature of ABM Magazine, is not a good format for ABM.

Video, as in the "Weird University" shows Massotto and Nora produced, may seem to be a logical extension of the audio side of ABM, but this can be also be shown to be the wrong format for ABM.

First of all, digital radio is much closer to being technologically feasable as a "mass" medium than digital television. Eventually, digital television will come, but digital radio has many advantages over digital television. Just look at conventional radio and TV right now. The main difference is that you can do OTHER THINGS while listening to radio, while TV generally requires you to sit still and do nothing else.

Another factor here is that audio production is much easier and cheaper than video production. This is a very important aspect.

So, there is a very strong case that ABM should be completely focused on an audio format.

-----
THE NATURE OF NOMADIO
-----

Nomadio is an audio entertainment format which will be focused on digital radio, but which will be adaptable to other audio mediums, such as broadcast radio and the recorded mediums of CDs and cassettes.

Nomadio will have as its foundation an ever-growing set of short audio clips called "Mads". Mads would range from a few seconds to a few minutes in length.

"Nomadio Shows" are sequences of Mads, with a "live track" introducing and talking about the mads. This "live track" would consist of Mike and Frank not only referring to Mads, but also talking about just about anything.

There is, right now, a bit of a gray area as to where the "live track" should end and a Mad begin. For example, if there's a feature where Mike and Frank talk about current events, should that be a Mad unto itself, or should it be part of the "live track"?

The "live track" is really made up of Mads itself, since the "live track" is composed of audio segments divided by other Mads. That is, even if the Show is being broadcast live, over digital or conventional audio, the resulting recording will be made up of a set of Mads.

The Nomadio format is suited to a digital format because of SEQUENCING. That is, Mads can be sequenced digitally with very little effort, whereas in an analog format, such a system would involve extensive tape editing.

-----
THE NOMADIO STYLE
-----

Central to the Nomadio format is its STYLE. That is, the WAY that audio segments are sequenced and presented.

Ultimately, ABM in the Nomadio format will be heard by listeners. And while some interaction is possible, it makes sense to conceive of Nomadi as a span of audio which is played without the listener having to make any decisions or press any buttons or whatever.

One idea for Nomadio is to have audio "punctuation", which would be shourt sounds which would mark the beginning of Mads. These could potentially all be done on electric guitar, with different chords and licks.

The sequence and time spans of the Mads in a Show will not be restrictive. That is, a Show will be defined as a set span of time, like 5 minutes, 15 mintues, 1 hour, etc. But within the time span of the show, there will be no rigid time structure. That is, a 15 minute show would not have to be broken up into three 5 minute segments. This is to allow for spontaneity, creative directing, and ease of editing.

Some Mads will be used over and over again. An audio clip with an "edge" can become quite compelling when played repeatedly. This is a fundamental priciple of Nomadio.

Another potential stylistic element is the use of background environments to play under the "live track". These "atmospheric" sound will be recorded in a variety of locations, such as in a mall, beside a highway, in a bar, etc. This element will add a distinctive atmosphere to the "live tracks" and also help distinguish ABM and Nomadi from other audio content.

These background sounds can fit into the idea of a "semi-fictional" presentation. Mike and Frank were characters in the comic strip "Nomads", published in ABM Magazine. These characters were based on Mike and Frank, but were certainly fictional and fanstastic. Therefore, the ABM Nomadio Show could be hosted by Mike and Frank in their "Nomads" personae. And they could "be" in the locations defined by the background sounds while recording the "live track".

This "semi-fictional" aspect could be very subtle, with reality and fantasy mixing in wild, unpredictable ways.

Another aspect of ABM in both radio and print was "comic strips", such as "Israel Kat and Matzoh Mouse", "The English Guys at Home", "Corporate Cocks", and "Reindeer Games". This sort of feature would be a good stylistic element in Nomadio. And of course, scripted "Nomads" adventures would certainly be called for.

It's also important to note that the ABM Nomadio Show will be a single thing. That is, no matter what the length, all ABM Nomadio Shows will be of the same type. Each Show will feature material from the same overall pool of material.

-----
IMPLEMENTATION
-----

To implement Nomadio, a basic library of Mads is needed. Work on this can begin right now, since there's no much existing material that's rife with Maddable audio material.

In addition, work on new Mads can also begin right now, be they scripted features, interviews, sound effects, or whatever.

If Mike and Frank can get some sort of broadcast radio show, they can begin to develop the Nomadio format by playing Mads, and having their live broadcast be the "live track". And some material from this "live track" can be added to the Mad Library.

In the near future, short ABM Nomadio Shows can be uploaded to Frank's Obliviana website, perhaps one 5-minute show per week.

Also, ABM Nomadio Shows of varying lengths can be promoted to various college and commercial radio stations to be played on the air as a regular feature.

In no case should Mike and Frank sell any rights to ABM, since ABM could become such a valuable property in the medium of digital radio, WITHOUT massive amounts of money to get the thing going.

-----
CONCLUSION
-----

This essay has presented Nomadio as a possible way for Anything But Monday to rise from the dead. It is a focused, specific system, which can be implemented in the short run very cheaply (in terms of money, not time).

With the dawning age of digital radio upon us, the time is right for ABM to come back into reality.

-------------------
SUPERIOR REVIEW
-----------

SUPERIOR 339
Was you bathing naked in a fountain while guests arrived at the theme park hotel. It was you. My and Molly run out of energy. On a hotel balcony, wondering bout the world inside the concourse, the world where mixed drinks are maybe the way to go. Being tired. There is no more power to the world. I hope it's we who are befuddled, Tonya.

(((From OsoaWeek059--9/8/95)))

*****

There's a lot going on here. I think I definitely had the Contemporary Resort Hotel in mind when I wrote this. I think the like "There is no more power to the world." is very cool. Running out of energy... Molly and Tonya... maybe Tonya is "My"? As in "my wife" or "my girlfriend"? Like I said, a lot going on. Overall, very decent, very decent indeed.

(Reviewed 3/4/01)

-------------------
SUPERIOR 3: DUSKAWAY
-----------

DUSKAWAY 140 * 1/1/01 * 990
Loner of the barren west, the sweet vagueness of miniature golf, Penny and Timber.

-------------------
END
-----------

All contents copyright 2001 Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana. E-mail: obliviana@aol.com