Joseph Matheny's Blog, page 13

A review of Xen: The Zen of the Other audio drama  at The Contributor by Joe Nolan.

An excerpt: “I enjoyed reading Xen: The Zen of the Other, but the audio radio play is even better. Its gusto voice acting, hypnotic musicscapes, and mystical plot all add up to a transporting experience that’s beyond what we normally expect from a book recording.

Read the entire review here.

 

A review of Xen: The Zen of the Other audio drama  at The Contributor by Joe Nolan.

An excerpt: “I enjoyed reading Xen: The Zen of the Other, but the audio radio play is even better. Its gusto voice acting, hypnotic musicscapes, and mystical plot all add up to a transporting experience that’s beyond what we normally expect from a book recording.

Read the entire review here.

An urban legend tells of a group of scientists who successfully escaped into another dimension.
Join me as we go back in time to a place where the internet was like nothing we see today.
Ong’s Hat is a ghost town in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens. Many Myths and Legends are said to exist within the area. Such as the Jersey Devil and a tale revolving around a military operation that came into the town and took several individuals nearby who were never heard of again.

This is the story of Ong’s Hat.

Samhain News for 2021

Hello Everyone,

It’s that time of year again when the veil is thin between this world and the other. It is the time when the conditions for connections and transmissions are at their strongest. In celebration of that time, I have some unique trinkets for you.

Xen: The Zen of the Other– The Audio Drama

As you may have gathered from the structure of Xen: The Zen of the Other, it is primarily a series of recordings and notes gathered together as a record of a time in the life of Ezra Buckley. The work was always intended as an audio drama primarily and novel secondarily. With the help of Panicmachine and P.Emerson Wiliams, we have finally finished producing that very audio work.  

Xen: The Zen of the Other,  the audio play, is now available for purchase and download at digital.panicmachine.com

It is also available at your favorite streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and many more options. Just search for Xen: The Zen of the Other on your favorite service.

The audio play is over 6 hours in total and includes a final version of the ebook in PDF, Mobi, and epub. It is priced for the season at a very affordable $6.66 USD.

PURCHASE Xen: The Zen of the Other Audio Drama  for DOWNLOAD ON BANDCAMP

Xen Audio Drama  Trailer:

https://jmatheny.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/xen-audio-trailer.mp3

Xen Video Trailer

CREDITS

Xen: The Zen of the Other
Written by Ezra Buckley. You’ll have to decide for yourself if that’s a real name or not.- https://thepsychopath.org

Background information by Cameron Whiteside, if that indeed is his real name.- https://whereiscameron.wtf

Produced by P. Emerson Williams- https://pemersonwilliams.wordpress.com

The voice of Joseph Matheny performed by himself- https://josephmatheny.com

The voice of Ezra Buckley performed by Chris Gabriel aka memeanalysis- https://memeanalysis.com

The voice of Ralph performed by P. Emerson Williams

The voice of Tiamat performed by Anna “Maiya” Young- https://www.godmonsters.com

The voice of Racoon 1 performed by Iskandar Sakut abn Mayu (aka Eian Orange of Z(enseider)Z)- https://eianorange.zenseiderz.org

The voice of Racoon 2 by performed Deb Petrochko – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(mythology)

The voice of the waitperson performed Missy G – https://afieldofred.wordpress.com

The poems of Ezra Buckley read by Joseph Matheny

Xen: The Zen of the Other © Copyright 2021 Joseph Matheny

All Rights Reserved

Legit requests for review copies may be made here. Please send your name, publication, and email address. 

Soundtrack

The music of the Xen audio drama is also available as a soundtrack.

On Utenfor, the tendrils and tentacles that usually emerge from P. Emerson Williams’ guitar remain as a subterranean presence, transmitting a meditative current through the ground and water, with the occasional flash of fire. If this collection is declaimed for human ears or the watchers, to record the tale in their eternal silence, well, that remains to be seen.

Purchase and download at: https://digital.panicmachine.com/album/utenfor

About P. Emerson Williams:

P. Emerson Williams is a multi-media artist delving in music, art, writing, and video. More people listen to the sounds of P. Emerson Williams every day than realize it, for much of it is embedded in extensive associated and pseudonymous projects past, present, and ongoing. A visionary artist and an illustrator, his work takes projects spanning physical and digital media, genres and modes of performance to strange realms.

Freebies

To celebrate the release of the Xen audioplay, I have decided to make the following ebooks downloadable free of charge for five days. 

Ong’s the Beginning (2021 authorized version)  (PDF) Liminal by Cameron  (Kindle) Xen: The Zen of the Other  (Kindle)

The Kindle books will be free to download starting Sunday, October 31, 2021, until  Thursday, November 4, 2021.

Statio Numero

The third and final piece of the Liminal Cycle is, of course, Statio Numero. I wanted to give you some updates about the progress of that work.

As some of you may know, my process uses a lot of cut-ups, trance work, and other divinatory methods that would classify my work as “received text.” Looking at how it is currently evolving, it seems like Statio Numero will be an extensive, sprawling, interdisciplinary work that will take a little more time than Xen of Liminal took. I currently estimate the completion date of Q4 2023. 

I think this will probably be my last public artwork, so I want to get it right. I think you’ll enjoy it. Watch this list or my website at https://josephmatheny.com for announcements of the release date.

Media Appearances

I will no longer be giving any more interviews to the press. There are a few interviews in the pipeline that I did earlier this year, but beyond the eventual release of those in the future, do not expect to see any new interviews with me. I have interview fatigue, and I also have begun to question a lot about the entire artist interview process, its meaning, relevance, context, and a host of other questions I have about the whole process. There’s plenty of interviews out there, most of which can be found here.
I don’t know that I have anything else to say, I am tired of talking to the media. 

I initially decided to stop interviews in late 2019 but then my inbox filled up with requests to comment on the rising phenomena known as QAnon. I felt it would be irresponsible to not signal my feelings that this movement represented a very real threat to freedom and civility n public life. I’ve been both an observer and a target of this weird tendency since the late nineties and I felt I had some unique insights that may assist newcomers to the reality of online conspirituality cult behavior. I have done what I can and I can only hope people continue to pay attention to the strange and dangerous constellation of thought and behavioral control that has evolved on the Internet over the last 20 years. 

 I submitted an introduction to the Hilaritas Press re-issue of Robert Anton Wilson’s Reality is What You Can Get Away With. 

I won’t ruin it by telling you too much, but I think you’ll enjoy the very personal connection that I have with that work and my stories about hanging out with RAW during the period of that book’s first release. 

Because that work references significant media properties, I expect it may take the folks at Hilaritas a while to secure all the necessary clearance. I have faith that they will, in the end, ensure all the rights and re-release this classic work soon. 

Things To Listen To

This piece on the wonderful podcast Hermetix really speaks to the internal dialogue I have these days concerning media, culture, and the artist’s place and responsibility therein. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Youtube Link Website I think that’s it for the 2021 news. I wish you all the best for the rest of the year and beyond. 

Awesome backstory about Galidor with a short history of the Ong’s Hat Project.

Link to podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lego-bits-n-bricks/id1542166642

How a LEGO® game console, sci-fi TV show, limb-swapping action figures, and trip to another dimension gave birth to the beloved LEGO toy flop Galidor.

00:00:00 – Prologue

00:00:39 – Bits N’ Bricks: Introduction

00:01:15 – EP37:The Surreal History of the LEGO Galidor TV Show, Game Console, and Action Figures [YouTube only]

00:02:22 – Chapter 1: Project Genesis and Action Figures

00:09:20 – Chapter 2: Kek Powerizer 00:19:17 – Chapter 3: Tom Lynch and the Galidor TV Show

00:27:14 – Chapter 4: An Interactive Website and Alternate Reality Games

00:32:49 – Chapter 5: Ong’s Hat

00:46:55 – Chapter 6: Initial Reception

00:54:24 – Chapter 7: The Video Game

01:02:25 – Chapter 8: Conclusion

01:10:08 – Chapter 9: Season Break Announcement

01:11:37 – Bits N’ Bricks: Credits A written feature and transcript of the entire episode are available at https://www.lego.com/en-us/legogames-25-transcripts

Bits N’ Bricks is a regular podcast that dives into the history of the LEGO Group’s decades-long work in digital play, unearthing wonderful stories, conversations with creators, and a wealth of valuable insight. We explore innovation at the LEGO Group through the lens of games and examine the past and the present to learn and better understand possible future scenarios for digital play. ” Welcome to the LEGO Gaming channel! That’s right, a channel dedicated to all things LEGO Games. How awesome is that?! Hold on to your controllers as we take you through a world of exclusive previews, developer walkthroughs, trailers, retro LEGO games, and exciting event coverage! Subscribe to be notified of new videos each week: https://www.youtube.com/LEGOGaming

The gang talks to Bishop Ron Feyl-Enright about what’s really happening when people experience visions of the Virgin Mary. Also, a report on a mysterious ghost town in the middle of New Jersey called Ong’s Hat. Plus, ten technical questions for Coco, finding out what’s inside America’s National Quiet Zone, Raven cooks the brain of UFO Mechanic, Al Renaldo and the free MMMX swag giveaway continues. Special Guest: Lois Lane .

Note for the impatient: The Ong’s Hat material comes in about 1 hour 30 minutes in.

https://www.podbean.com/site/EpisodeDownload/PB10F0C4DT7Y96

Mack Maloney Online:

Website – https://www.mackmaloney.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/WingmanMack/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/MilitaryXFiles
Twitter – https://twitter.com/WingmanMack
Amazon – https://amzn.to/2IlFRkq

Preview of presentation to be given by David Sweeney (@dktrdm Twitter), The Glasgow School of Art

Fri, August 6, 2021

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT

https://interactivefilm.blogspot.com/2021/07/augmented-reality-games-interactive.html

Interactive Film and Media Conference 2021 Panel 5. Players in Interactive Films and Games
About this event
This virtual edition of the Interactive Film and Media conference on ‘new narratives, racialization, global crises, and social engagement’ is dedicated to the development, analysis, and research processing of the digital experience that is transforming our contemporary world vision through the immense range of storytelling practices, including visual arts, cinema, digital/graphic/interactive narratives, virtual reality, and games. The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers and practitioners working in diverse disciplinary areas to establish an interdisciplinary framework for research on contemporary narratives, including case studies of the multimodal narratives across media and cultures. The conference will convene entirely online and will be hosted by several universities. The organizers believe that now is the right moment to evaluate the saturation and fragmentation of media during the pandemic experience of the last year, as well as to discuss new online media interactivities in a virtual environment.

FREE ZOOM PRESENTATION, REGISTER HERE

Editor’s note: The word is furor.

Hats are neat. Where would a high-class Kentucky woman be on derby day with out her hat? How many fly ball would outfielders have missed without their trusty baseball caps blocking the sun? How would we have opened a gateway to other dimensions if not for Ong’s Hat? I reiterate, hats are neat.

On this episode we’re talking about Ong’s Hat, one of the early Internet’s oddest legends. Who’d have though all you need to travel to other dimensions are a couple of Ivy League dropouts, a dash of eastern spiritualism and an egg? I’d have guessed you’d need at least an alien or two.

LINK: https://anchor.fm/the-shepard

Bibliography of papers on math & physics methods of hunting lions in the Sahara Desert.

Pétard has captured the lion. From left to right: Boas, Smithies, Weil. Grantchester, 13 May 1939.

The fascinating history of identity and document spoofing by esteemed mathematicians with a wonderful sense of humor. I cited this in the book, Ong’s Hat: The Beginning.

“The material was written up by R. P. Boas and F. Smithies [Smithies 2002, personal communication] and appeared in [Pétard 1938]. Part of JWT’s assistance was in keeping the nonexistence of the nominal author, H. Pétard and of Pondiczery quiet when the Monthly enquired about the paper’s author. The full identification of Pondiczery was Ersatz Stanislas Pondiczery at the Royal Institute of Poldavia. The hope was that someday a document could be signed ESP RIP [Aspray & Tucker 1985]).“

…Albert Tucker: Was it that group that used the pseudonym “Pondiczery”?

Tukey: Yes, but with a somewhat broader reference.

Aspray: For what purpose?

Tukey: Well, the hope was that at some point Ersatz Stanislaus Pondiczery at the Royal Institute of Poldavia was going to be able to sign something ESP RIP. Then there’s the wedding invitation done by the Bourbakis. It was for the marriage of Betty Bourbaki and Pondiczery. It was a formal wedding invitation with a long Latin sentence, most of which was mathematical jokes, three quarters of which you could probably decipher. Pondiczery even wrote a paper under a pseudonym, namely “The Mathematical Theory of Big Game Hunting” by H. Pétard, which appeared in the Monthly. There were also a few other papers by Pondiczery.

Tukey: Somebody with a high principle. Pondiczery’s official residence was in Ong’s Hat, New Jersey3⁠, which is a wide place in the road going southeast from Pemberton, but it does appear on some road maps. There is a gas station that has a sign out about Ong’s Hat.

Aspray: But no sign for Pondiczery?

Tukey: No sign for Pondiczery. Spelled c-z-e-r-y, by the way. Not like the area of India, Pondicherry, which is spelled c-h. Anyway, this was a good group, and it enjoyed its existence. I learned a lot from dinner table conversations.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.gwern.net/notes/Lions

When the QAnon movement began garnering more widespread attention a couple of years ago, a number of game designers pointed out the similarities between the ‘Q drops’ – and the associated community puzzle solving in regards to those – and the techniques used in alternate reality games (ARGs) (see here and here, for example). Not necessarily that it was an ARG, but that it (knowingly, or unknowingly) used the methods found in ARGs to hook in new players, and to blur the boundaries between reality and fiction.

So I was fascinated to listen to a recent interview with Joseph Matheny, creator of the now-legendary Ong’s Hat – described by many as the world’s first ARG – in which he discussed QAnon from his own viewpoint (see video embedded below). Matheny notes that he feels obligated to talk publicly about QAnon and Ong’s Hat, because “they’re using my methods and I don’t like that”, and also because people have been comparing the two, which upset him. “I mean…it follows the formula,” Matheny says, “but content-wise, and intention-wise, it’s definitely nothing like it.”

When the QAnon movement began garnering more widespread attention a couple of years ago, a number of game designers pointed out the similarities between the ‘Q drops’ – and the associated community puzzle solving in regards to those – and the techniques used in alternate reality games (ARGs) (see here and here, for example). Not necessarily that it was an ARG, but that it (knowingly, or unknowingly) used the methods found in ARGs to hook in new players, and to blur the boundaries between reality and fiction.

So I was fascinated to listen to a recent interview with Joseph Matheny, creator of the now-legendary Ong’s Hat – described by many as the world’s first ARG – in which he discussed QAnon from his own viewpoint (see video embedded below). Matheny notes that he feels obligated to talk publicly about QAnon and Ong’s Hat, because “they’re using my methods and I don’t like that”, and also because people have been comparing the two, which upset him. “I mean…it follows the formula,” Matheny says, “but content-wise, and intention-wise, it’s definitely nothing like it.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE