The Magic Number

It's rather meta, posting a screenshot of the stats of a previous post, but for all you Associationalists out there, you'll see why it's here pretty quickly....

New Mexico Associationalist (Accidental ) R.G., N° 27

A.A.R.G.-27, Albuquerque/Jemez Springs
from the Depths of the Tub

Better Call Sol

Florida Bar photo

Augustus Sol Invictus (born Austin Mitchell Gillespie, 1983), is a Florida lawyer and political candidate who drew attention some years ago when he ran for the U.S. Senate to represent Florida on the Libertarian ticket.  When word got out that he'd once gone to the Mojave Desert and ritually sacrificed a goat, then drank it's blood, he didn't deny it.  No indeed.  He'd been a Thelemite, a loud and proud pagan, and made no bones (nor gristle) about it..

 

But the O.T.O. gave him the (jack?) boot.

Maybe it was the goat.  Maybe it was his hard-right politics.  As a lawyer, he's represented white supremacists, terrorists, and other hard-to-like defendants.  He also was a speaker at the infamous Unite the Right rally, had previously praised eugenics, and promoted white supremacy.  Not to mention he wants to see the world set on fire.  Going through online references to Invictus, he doesn't seem to last very long in any group with which he affiliates.  I don't think a guy like him takes orders very well.  When you read the letter transcribed below, you'll see what I mean.

If it was a clean kill, I have no quarrel with a goat sacrifice; ridiculing it, well, is simply hypocritical.  Muslims and Orthodox Christians do it, Jews did it; heck, some passages in the Talmud depict priests at Solomon's Temple wading up to their knees in blood, and others describe 1.2 million animals being slaughtered on one day.  Certainly hyperbole, but I've read enough to know the courtyard of the Temple was a scene of constant smoke, fire, sizzling fat, and puddles of blood. 

In recent news, Invictus was acquitted in a domestic abuse case (apparently the accuser didn't show).  Charges of stalking, harassment, and domestic violence have been reported to police against him about 10 times.  But in April this year, all charges against him in his latest trial ended up with a "not guilty" verdict.  Read about his legal issues here.

There are already some good articles about Invictus online; this one is especially good at situating Invictus within the current fascist spectrum and is much defter than my attempts in recent posts.  It focuses on the idea of "Imperium" articulated by Francis Yockey.  I was really struck by this passage:

Fascism’s key....is syncretic, mixing in aspects of the left to create a shifting, yet totalizing, political system. Libertarianism....has the unique ability to mainstream far-right positions, and really to be the only crossover point that organizations with hard-right politics would normally have. Invictus himself seems to maintain very common talking points from the Libertarian Party, but mixes them with a sort of social commentary about the need for dominant leaders, a “cult of violence,” and the need to return to the idea of Imperium....he seems to portray a frenetic and confused political menu that focuses on strength and power and keeps a great deal of open fascist ideals just under the surface.

A second article by the same author is also instructive.  The writer, Shane Burley, is clearly not sympathetic to Invictus' views, but he manages to keep it fair; in fact, this second article is a response to a letter Invictus wrote to Burley, thanking him for the first article, which focuses on his ideas, rather than the sensational "Goat-blood drinking Florida Man" angle of most other articles about him.

From that second article, I'd also like to quote a paragraph that goes into something my previous posts have addressed:  the meeting of left and right:

One thing that did stick from Yockey, and we are seeing today in many sides of the New Right, is a call for unity between the Right and Left. Yockey called for a "red-brown alliance," which would be the association between fascists and anti-Zionist communists (since he saw the Jews as essentially the primary problem), and this has been much of the discussion of a Third Positionism that sees both capitalism and communism as problematic. Today, we see this incredibly present in National Anarchism, National Revolution, and National Bolshevism, as well as various strains of racialist Asatru/Odinism and parts of the Alt Right. It should be noted that they do not borrow from the Left in terms of underlining ideas, but just in tactical notions like opposition to capitalism and support of deep environmentalism.

National Bolshevism.  Asatru/Odinism.  Deep environmentalism.  Left/right unity.  Almost like a list of keywords for my recent posts....I've addressed each and every one of these topics in the last 12 months.  

 

The letter I reproduce below has been widely discussed online. I only post it now because I got a call last week from a friend I hadn't seen in 30 years.  "I'm in Marseilles!"  Next day we're in Toulouse eating Camembert and I tell her about my recent forays into occultism and fascism.  And she asks, "Have you ever heard of Augustus Sol Invictus?  Cuz I went to school with him."  

 

Coincidence much?  I'm writing posts about the occult and avant-garde roots of fascism, and a woman I haven't seen in 30 years pops in from across the Atlantic to tell me she went to grad school with the contemporary personification of the occultist/artist/fascist idea I've been recently manhandling.  Oh yeah, Invictus writes poetry with titles like All is burning: it is the end and Set the World on Fire.

From the time of his religious renunciation and departure to the wilderness to the time of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and its aftermath, Invictus discusses his first-hand experience of the brutal world of radical politics, including the public betrayals and catastrophes and the private heartbreaks and changes in course.

 

This friend of mine was in a class with Invictus as a grad student and describes him as a friend (at the time, anyway) and a decent guy.  But he hadn't yet revealed his fascist beliefs, and domestic violence wasn't probably something they yukked about over sandwiches.  My friend is quite a feminist, she wouldn't truck with no violent misogynists.  

She describes him as seeming "lost" and "in search of an identity."  She emphasizes that Gillespie made sure to legally change his name before getting his diplomas, so that they carried his new name. Becoming Invictus was becoming a new person.  She feels that the person before and after were truly like different people.

Some time later, in 2013, my friend received Invictus' famous "renunciation" letter, which I present here.  It was originally sent to his colleagues at DePaul University College of Law  (a Catholic school, BTW) and he sent to my friend as well.

(Update 13/07: Hey.  I just re-read the article about Augustus.  The letter that I shared with you was originally sent to our cohort & the professors at Rollins College Crummer School of Business....He sent a different letter to DePaul....When my Rollins cohort received our letter, the other people on our team dug around and found that letter that he wrote to DePaul on a DePaul message board.)

 

When that email arrived 2 days before finals, the school was so fearful of a mass shooting episode that students were allowed to do their finals from home.  The grad program was effectively shut down for three days.  Young Invictus even received a visit from the FBI.

 

The first page of the scan is blurry but you can read the transcript below.  I don't feel this is a violation of Invictus' privacy.  He sent it to his entire cohort and every professor in the program; and it's reproduced online already.  He clearly meant it to be a public declaration.  And the guy may run for office again one day.  Domestic violence?  Shit.  The GOP will excuse sex offenders.  Sacrificed goats?  No worries.   

 

Remember a few years back, "I am not a witch...."  

 

As NPR said of Christine O'Donnell's ad in 2010:  "It should go without saying that if in your first TV ad as a candidate for the U.S. Senate you feel compelled to announce: "I am not a witch," you're in deep trouble."

Whoooo-ooo-ooo!  (That's a ghost noise BTW).  Cue rattling chains!

 

According to a recent video (2022) Invictus posted on YouTube, he's once again Catholic. Tridentine (Pre-Vatican II), naturally.

So, here's that letter.  It must be intended to be ironic to a certain degree, no?  A "winning handshake"?  What?  No discussion of the paper stock of his business cards?  Is this Sol Invictus, or Patrick Bateman?  (Bateman: "This Confession Has Meant Nothing.")

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

Sent: Sat, Apr 20, 2013 1:01 pm

Subject: FW: On My Renunciation & Departure from Civilization

To the Grey World of Man:

 

They say that only failures become revolutionaries; that those who perpetrate violence in the name of a great cause only do so because they have failed at everything else in life. In other words, they only become revolutionaries because they have achieved nothing of value in the “real” world.

Witness ye the glory of my life at 29 years of age: I have four children, each of whom should be the envy of every parent in the world; I have attained a Baccalaureate Degree in Philosophy with honors; I have attained a Doctorate in Law, cum laude; I have acquired licenses in the profession of law in the States of New York, Illinois, and Florida; I am scheduled to acquire two more such licenses in North Carolina & Massachusetts; I am Editor-in-Chief of a poetry journal; I run an independent publishing company; I have opened my own law office in downtown Orlando; I am an MBA candidate; and I have accomplished a few other things that will remain off the record for now.

 

I am of genius intellect & cultured, well-educated & creative, well-mannered & refined. I am God’s gift to humankind where the English language is concerned, and I also happen to have a basic knowledge of Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian. I am musical & artistic; I am athletic & possessed of militant self-discipline; and I am many other things. I have a Cadillac & a poodle, multiple computers & a personal library; I live in an apartment downtown, right across the street from the courthouse; I have been to Paris & Vancouver, to Cairo & Dubrovnik, to Mexico City & Siracusa. I dress better than all of you, pronounce my words perfectly, and have a winning, professional handshake. I am everything you ever wanted to be.

 

I challenge any of you, then, to accuse me of being a failure in this artificial civilization of yours. For it is beyond dispute that I have played your petty game, and I have won.

 

But your game no longer holds any interest for me. Your architecture is vapid & worthless, as is your decadent culture, the mindless drivel you call music, the filth you call democracy. You waste your lives watching pure excrement on television, shopping at the strip malls, planning your vacations to resorts & theme parks. The Internet, with its infinitude of information, is used for reading celebrity gossip & watching sitcoms. You have begun to reduce argument to memes & human communication to trite sound bites. Life has become trivial – and if you cannot feel the human spirit decaying, you are already dead.

 

As for those in the profession of law: The vast majority of you are nothing more than parasites. The only reason you eat, the only reason you can afford to have roofs over your heads, is that the lives of others have been ruined by the very laws & social order you claim to be legitimate. You feed off others like worms, and were this world & their lives just & in order, you would be out of work. Look upon your lives, and repent.

 

This modern civilization of which you are all so fond deserves naught from me but the violence of my contempt; and if you were strong enough, you would hold the same contempt & turn your torches upon the world as I shall.

 

WITNESS YE MY RENUNCIATION:

 

I hereby renounce my licenses to practice law, my diplomas, my affiliation with Rollins, DePaul, and the University of South Florida, my United States citizenship, my membership in the Roman Catholic Church, my law firm, my publishing company & poetry journal, and all of my material possessions.

 

To those who believe that this great renunciation is evidence of mental illness rather than the initiation of a spiritual journey: If my example stirs nothing in you, if you can see no further than the confines of what your secular humanism & its hallowed psychiatry allow, then there is nothing I can say to you that would wake you from your slumber. You are less than the beast in man. You are fungi. Would to God that you pass quickly from this Earth.

 

HEAR YE MY FINAL WORDS IN PEACETIME:

 

I have prophesied for years that I was born for a Great War; that if I did not witness the coming of the Second American Civil War I would begin it myself. Mark well: That day is fast coming upon you. On the New Moon of May, I shall disappear into the Wilderness. I will return bearing Revolution, or I will not return at all.

 

War Be unto the Ends of the Earth.

Augustus Sol Invictus

Orlando, Florida, USA

XX Aprilis MMXIII Satvrnvs

 

 

 

Fnord.  Hail Eris.

Collaboration With A Dead Man

This is an excerpt from Collaboration With A Dead Man by LoS pal Tim Wilson.  Unfortunately, the process of squeezing the file into the you tube led to a one-second de-synchronization of the sound and image.  I hope to get Tim to describe the transfiguration of the file (Done, see below).  I know it was shot on 16mm, then videotaped from the screen of a flatbed editor, probably a Steenbeck, in the editing suite of the now-defunct USF film program.  Where it went before finally becoming a YouTube flash dealy would be an interesting insight into the digital fate of older analog media....

addeed 12/17

Daurade:  Can you describe the various transfer processes and the various formats this went through before you uploaded it to YouTube? I think that would be an interesting detail to add to the post. As I recall, some other video you've done went through almost 10 formats....16, VHS and then....?

Wilson:  Oh yeah, that was kind of a crucial element; I think now it was intended anyway to be something like the spate of "found footage" horror films, the story extracted, assembled from a cache of media, etc. 

But lessee, reality went into the camera holes, exposing Super-8 Ektachrome, Super-8 TRI-X and 16mm B/W Reversal Film. The color Family Vacation shots are true found footage, color 16mm. The whole of it was developed and rephotographed thru an Optical Printer onto 16mm Reversal, the results of which were in turn developed and run again thru the Optical Printer, etc. Some shots have been treated this way up to four times. At the time, this process of reshooting footage was almost the content of the film in many ways; the structure resulting from zooming into shots, reframing scenes, stop-motion frame by frame control of speed, exposure, pans to following hairs and spots on the film rather than the focused action, etc. So each round of Optical Printing had the strange effect of both making the original more broad, stark -- more diffused perhaps? -- but also it revealed hidden figures, complex motions, emergent scenes composed of increasingly globular film grain. This cinema/motion film material was bolstered by material culled from the paper ephemera of Jorge Suarez's life. Squares were cut from magazines, letters, etc, and packed into slides. Photographed through the OP as a kind of hurdy-gurdy animation, the printed matter illuminated such that it featured the front facing elements juxtaposed with the material on the backward, flip-side. The footage arising from this process was then developed and cut into the earlier material on a flatbed film-editor. I also spent considerable time at this stage cutting raw audio mag-tape, which comprises the entirety of the soundtrack. This length of hot-glue edited film, along with the diagonal tape edits of audiotape, was transferred to 3/4 inch Video for final editing. Later, this video was transferred to standard VHS, which was in turn digitized as a compressed DVD mpeg which spit out and split it all into disconnected chapters for some reason. These DVD chapters were strung together in AfterEffects and rendered as a lossless avi. Lastly, this avi was crunched down by Adobe Media Encoder into several web-friendly formats, one of which was stuffed thru a tiny, rough-hewn hole for YouTube display.

added 12/18

These are some of the slided from the Jorge Suarez material mentioned by Tim:

Photographed through the OP [optical printer] as a kind of hurdy-gurdy animation, the printed matter illuminated such that it featured the front facing elements juxtaposed with the material on the backward, flip-side.

Obviously, now one would just scan a magazine and pop the resultant .jpeg into After Effects, but back in the day, one had to physically photograph the image, the length of time on screen determined by how many times you shot it.  Remember at 24 fps, if you wanted say, a four-second appearance, you'd have to re-shoot the image 96 times!  The OP was tedious work and Tim was making the most extensive use of it in the film program, as far as I know.

Digital film-making can produce marvellous results....Inland Empire was filmed on a camera one can buy used for somewhere around 1000 euros.  Digital is faster and cheaper, allowing for many more experiments and takes; it makes film-making more accessible to the general public.  Most film stalwarts (as Tim was) have embraced it.  But most of them will probably tell you that they're glad to have worked with film.  The physicality of it, the mechanical and chemical processes involved, the strange contraptions and devices one had to avail oneself of....there's something undeniably rewarding working with tangible objects.  Although film-makers and artists have embraced digital formats, I think there will remain a tiny niche for working with actual film....as long as someone keeps making the stuff.

The second photo in the Wikipedia article on the optical printer shows a JK 16mm OP setup with a Bolex H16, which is very much if not exactly the same setup we had at USF.

For more about Jorge Suarez (b.1922, Santiago, Chile-d.1992, NYC), the "dead man" of the film's title, see the Plastic Tub.

A collector of all manner of porn, from cheesecake to hardcore, he only left his appartment to buy cheap gin and visit sex shops to add to his ever-growing collection.  
....
He had cut himself off from the world, and everyone respected that, still pained, however, by Suarez' obstinate pursuit of decadent solitude.  

The Ostrich

Since my old website was taken down I've been trying to move everything it once housed onto this here blog.  I thus present The Ostrich.

I neglected to mention when I originally posted this on YouTube that the last "fun fact" in the video was lifted (plagiarized, or as we say in the game, appropriated) directly from the 16th (eye > love capacity) of Christopher Painter's Eighteen Half Truths, appearing in Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency.

I looked up the other facts, though.  Which makes me something of an ostrich expert.  A giant among gnomes, as it were.

This video was inspired by Vogeler and Wilson's Fun Facts: Pigs.