Burn a Bowl for Guy Debord...

On the Passage of a Single Person Through a Brief Unity of Time:

It's the birthday of the founding father of the Situationist Internationale, champion of dérive and détournement, staunch and unapologetic enemy of the Spectacle, director of the provocative Hurlements en Faveur de Sade, impetus behind the Paris Revolt of May, '68, accidental progenitor of punk rock, and lover of all things alcoholic.

Guy Ernest Debord would have turned 76 on this day, had he not removed himself from an increasingly artificial and artless world some 13 years ago with a single squeeze of the trigger, simultaneously perfecting and concluding his lifelong efforts to disappear.

Guy Debord, whose early work Mémoires had sandpaper covers, so that its removal and replacement on the bookshelf would gradually erase the titles of other works surrounding it.

"The economic system founded on isolation is a circular production of isolation. The technology is based on isolation, and the technical process isolates in turn. From the automobile to television, all the goods selected by the spectacular system are also its weapons for a constant reinforcement of the conditions of isolation of "lonely crowds." The spectacle constantly rediscovers its own assumptions more concretely."
—The Society of the Spectacle, 1967

An obituary for Debord can be found here.

Brew, Bike, Imbibe...

"The church has already burnt the so-called witches to repress the primitive ludic tendencies conserved in popular festivities. Under the existing dominant society, which produces the miserable pseudo-games of non-participation, a true artistic activity is necessarily classed as criminality. It is semi-clandestine. It appears in the form of scandal."
—Situationist Manifesto, 17 May 1960

The Bliss as ludic tendency.

The Bliss as authentic game of total participation.

The Bliss as true artistic activity.

The Bliss as necessary criminality; semi-clandestine and scandalous.

Okay, as mentioned in the last post, the event you didn't know you couldn't live without (and thus were staggering zombie-like through life until now, mind abuzz with between-stations cacophonies) has been scheduled for Satyrday, November 3rd. The venue has been chosen. Registration is now open; more about which below. But first, a little background information, a maniblissto as it were, for you cave-dwellers out there, some of it new, some of it lifted from the past 'cause it was just so damn well-put then:

The history of all hitherto existing cycling events is the history of competitive struggles.¹ Not so with the Bliss.

The Bootlegger's Bliss is a social event, designed to bring together people who share (or are simply curious about) two seemingly disparate passions: homebrewing and mountain biking.

The Bliss is not a race. It does not suffer elitist competition. There are no medals, no podiums, no bragging rights, no prizes. No one's "in it to win it," as the dreadful cliché goes. No one trains for the Bliss. There are no "winners." Or—more precisely—everyone is a winner.

The Bliss is not a drinking contest. It does not suffer wanton drunkenness. It is a tasting, and if you don't know the difference between a tasting and a drinking contest, the Bliss is not for you.

The Bliss is all about fun for fun's sake. It is the arrowhead forged in the smithy of the soul², honed in secret, dipped in curare, then trained on the heart of the ogre Boordumb. The lifeblood of the Bliss is participation. There are no spectators; everyone is equally a "criminal" and delites in it. Everyone rides, everyone tastes. Participants are encouraged to front their very best brew, in keeping with the concept of the potlatch³, whereby prestige is gained not by amassing coveted property like some plutocratic pig, but by giving it away.

Leave your money at home. The Bliss is not about commerce—quite the opposite, actually. Aside from the homebrew and food you're asked to bring and share, the Bliss is a free event, generously and officially sponsored by Absolutely No One^®. That's the point. From a philosophical perspective, the Bliss was conceived as a small step outside of commerce⁴—a tick in the matted hide of mass-production—and as an appreciation of highly personal craftwork against the backdrop of some sweet singletrack. It's a celebration of use value, that immeasurable quality that fills the soul with a sort of natural, ineffable satisfaction too seldom felt in the cold void, the funereal absence, the blanched banality that clings to exchange value like stench to carrion.

As Raoul Vaneigem put it, "We have a world of pleasures to win, and nothing to lose but boredom." May the ax and the keg never again meet in anger.

Okay, end of propaganda. Now, on to registration. If you'd like to participate (now pay close attention; here's where it gets tricky), send an email to BBpotlatch@gmail.com. I will reply shortly thereafter with specific details regarding the event. Please keep in mind that:

• this event is for homebrewing mountain bikers (or mountain biking homebrewers), and not the general public;
  
• the "price of admission" is one six-pack or equivalent of homebrew that you brewed, either at home or at a brewing facility.
  
• while the event is limited to homebrewers, each brewer may bring one guest who does not brew, provided the brewer brings two six-packs or equivalent of homebrew. Guests are encouraged to at least witness the brewing process before attending. Please note in your email whether you plan to bring a guest.
  
• everyone participating in the beer tasting—including guests—must bring and ride a bike suitable for off-road use. This is a mountain biking event.
  
• non-participating family members are always welcome.

"Under a bad cloak there is often a good drinker."
— Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605-15

“Boredom is always counter-revolutionary. Always.”
— Guy Debord
Again, without being a total shill, if you are in the area and have developed a nasty little habit of snorting Prozac because you can't seem to find homebrew supplies anywhere, I suggest heading over to myLHBS and chatting with Derek. Derek knows about the Bliss and will set you up quite nicely.

¹ With apologies to Mssrs. Marx and Engels.

² "...smithy of the soul..." is a phrase shamelessly purloined from Joyce. See A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

³ The idea for the Bliss is loosely based on Marcel Mauss' research into the potlatch and the importance of gift exchange in various societies, as expressed in his book The Gift.

⁴ "... step outside of commerce..." is a phrase proudly pinched from the faux live album Destination: Love — Live! At Cold Rice by The Make-Up.

Reading Raoul...

Hey you, the guy (or girl) languidly dreaming about changing the world simply by riding his bicycle every now and then, how about putting down the remote, getting off your fat, lazy, winter-swollen ass and using your finger (any one, your choice) to turn off the glass teat*, and (understanding that it's asking way too fucking much to suggest that you actually BUY THE BOOK) heading over to nothingness.org (brilliant name, that) to read (that's right, expose your mind to something alien: theta brain waves) Raoul Vaneigem's excellent take on creating a meaningful existence that recognizes the imperative gravity of space-time lived experience, The Revolution of Everday Life".

What the fuck does that mean?...click on the link, FFS!

Oh, got there, did you? And now your back, in a proverbial and utterly urbane flash. What's that? Topic too profound? Decided it wasn't for you? You want—no, need—to just turn off your mind and relax after a tough day at work designing rockets, to not think (oh, the agony!)? To simply be "entertained" by watching some bullshit Tarantino flick—where "creative" acts of violence substitute for plot and represent high art, the target of innumerable theses in an ever increasingly absurd world where the quantifiable reigns supreme over the qualitative—that came to your door in a little red envelope—bingo!—like magic (but not the magic, the one that was all but eradicated by the Age of Enlightenment, with its monomaniacal pursuit of rationalism and objectivity and its intransigent persecution of all things mysterious—in effect, its efforts to nail to the floor once and for all the very feet of God)? Or maybe a tribute to cop culture that makes you feel tough and proud and devoid of the need to do violence yourself, like the popular, pustular television drama "24"?

Fine. Help yourself (feel the irony?). All the world's a stage: take your seat. As the French say, "retour à la normale." Back to the herd.

End of alcohol-induced rant.

"Psychophysiologist Thomas Mulholland found that after just 30 seconds of watching television the brain begins to produce alpha waves, which indicates torpid (almost comatose) [slow] rates of activity. Alpha brain waves are associated with unfocused, overly receptive states of consciousness. A high frequency alpha waves [sic] does not occur normally when the eyes are open. In fact, Mulholland’s research implies that watching television is neurologically analogous to staring at a blank wall."
Wes Moore, Television: Opiate of the Masses

"To be rich nowadays merely means to possess a large number of poor objects."
—Raoul Vaneigem

"Who wants a world in which the guarantee that we shall not die of starvation entails the risk of dying of boredom? "
—Raoul Vaneigem

"Television knows no night. It is perpetual day. TV embodies our fear of the dark, of night, of the other side of things."
—Jean Baudrillard

*Harlan Ellison's term, respectfully pinched for this post.