OVO

Mossarium. Portland, Oregon USA. 31 January 2010.

“I couldn’t find a folding bicycle I liked. So I made one myself.”

Student Invents Bicycle Which Folds Into 26-Inch Wheel Circumference For James Dyson Prize | UK News | Sky News

May 1991. 12 pages, 8.5 inches by 5.5 inches. Black and white photocopy.

Pagan Kennedy, Men in Black, Dreamachines, fascist/anti-fascist art.

[01] Cover.
[02] Introduction. OVO acquired a masthead in this issue.  Announcement of OVO 10 MAYHEM (1991).
[03][04][05] Received. Technology Works by Paul Moore, Kooks by Donna Kossy, Your Sins Killed Him by the Church of New Faith, Dharma Combat by Jim Keith, Blue Larry by Elvis & Marilyn, Pagan’s Head by Pagan Kennedy, Perennial Books by John Petrovato, Obscure Publications and Video by Jim Romenesko, Ben is Dead by Darby, Factsheet Five by Mike Gunderloy, Anarchy by Columbia Anarchist League.  The story of Pagan and Virginia’s trip to Knoxville mentioned here was published in her book Zine (St. Martin’s Press).  Reference to OVO 7 INFORMATION (1989).  The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[06] Tendency.  The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[07] Review of Keith Wade’s book Anarchist’s Guide to the BBS. I was shocked that a publisher would send me books to review, but took it as a sign that as I took myself more seriously that others would as well.
[08] Anonymous art.
[09] Advertisements for OVO and Dharma Combat. This ‘man in black’ appeared six years before the movie Men in Black. Men in Black was written by my friend Lowell Cunningham. One day he bought some comic books from a store I worked at. After he read them, he said to himself ‘I can do better than that.’ He wrote his first comic book script and mailed it to his favorite company; they bought it. It ran as a three-issue series and was successful enough to be reprinted. I offered to show Lowell some of my books and magazines that included claims about the men in black but he declined – he said that by avoiding other people’s ideas of the men in black, he could insure he was the owner of the ideas and stories he wrote. The reprint was successful enough to justify a second three-issue series, and then all six issues were collected into a book. At about this time Lowell was contacted by Hollywood. His story was purchased and made into two successful films, an animated series and any number of promotional products. Because he’d avoided my helpful offer of reading about the men in black he owned all the stories and characters, and because he said ‘I can do better than that’ he, in fact, did. A lesson to be learned. Lowell scanned some pictures for use in later issues of OVO.  The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[10][11] Catalogue.  Includes OVO DISC ONE, a 5.25 inch floppy disc for Commodore 64 of geoWrite 2.1 text files.  The Abolition of Work by Bob Black, Art Poetique by Andre Breton and Jean Schuster, Operation Negation by Karen Elliot, Intellectual S&M is the Fascism of the Eighties by Hakim Bey, Lights = Camera = Action by Walter Alter, Lunalogue by Cunnichant Night Owl, The Gentrification of Pain by A. Z. Dippe and Revolutionary Self-Theory by anonymous.
[12] Back Cover. The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[Dreamachine] Photographs. In the center on the top shelf is my Dreamachine, as described in OVO 7 INFORMATION (1989).
[ndf1990dec] Collage, 5.5 by 8.5 inches. The National Democratic Front was a white power group in Knoxville. I think they were tied to White Aryan Resistance. This poster is made up only of elements found in a poster from the National Socialist Liberation Front (see page 192 of Apocalypse Culture by Adam Parfrey). The idea was to use the language of one Nazi group against another; an idea that the wording of poster itself suggested. My anarchist friends thought it was a bad idea. In the end, it is doubtful it had much of an effect on anyone.

OVO is a collection of new works in the public domain edited and published by Trevor Blake. New issues are in progress. Past issues include…

OVO 18 Money (April 2008)
OVO 17 The Dreadlock Recollections (January 2007)
OVO 16 AntiChrist (January 2006)
OVO 15 Sperm (February 2005)
OVO 14 Suffering (March 1992)
OVO 13 Travel (January 1992)
OVO 12 Science (November 1991)
OVO 11 Control (September 1991)
OVO 10 Mayhem (July 1991)
OVO 9 (July 1991)
OVO 8 (May 1991)
OVO 7 Information (October 1989)
OVO 6 (Infinite)
OVO 5 (November 1988)
OVO 4 (May 1988)
OVO 3 (November 1987)
OVO 2 (July 1987)
OVO 1 (1987)

… and may be downloaded here.

October 1989. Approximately 300 numbered copies. 84 pages. 11 inches by 8.5 inches. Black and white photocopy.

Dreamachines, copyrights, Mike Gunderloy, Kerry Wendell Thornley, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, Walter Alter, Hakim Bey, Liberating Wednesday by PM.  First publication of Ringing Denunciation of Surrealism by Hakim Bey, later published in T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone.

[01] Cover. Human cells infected with HIV.  The following year, Ronald Regan would apologize for neglecting AIDS during his term as President. See also People with AIDS: The Government is Not Your Friend from OVO 5 1988 and Lunalogue from OVO 3 1987.  Text was written on a typewriter then enlarged on a photocopy machine.
[02] Table of Contents.  The addresses and telephone numbers shown here are no longer valid.  Text produced on a Commodore 64 using the GEOS operating system and a dot matrix printer.
[03] Muzak. Collage elements include the liner notes from Muzak LPs and a non-English language newspaper clipping I picked up at an assembly-line job.
[04] Ad for Dendrite Tapes.  The ‘I Am Deaf’ card in the upper left was given to me by a peddler. Sixteen years later I became a sign language interpreter. Ectoplasm photograph in the upper right (and all other ghostly imagery) from a friend, who gave me his occult book collection when he got married. Text in lower right is from a book on prisons, but I don’t remember the title or author.  The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[05] Copyrights. The most clear use of the OVOglyph as a symbol meaning ‘the opposite of the copyright.’ See also the Ovoglyph from OVO 5 1988.  Center image possibly from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE.  The paper candy-stripe used here is the kind used to indicate classified documents.  See also Stencil from OVO 5 1988.
[06] Ads for AMOK, Factsheet Five, Autonomedia.  The image in the lower right is a woman’s foot after a lifetime of binding. The text above that is from an unknown source.  The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[07] Collage by Tom Chan.
[08] A Gun is Pointed at His Head. This collage was inspired by the experience of a high school friend. My friend made a collage that included an image of a gun pointed at the first President Bush’s head. A friend of his reported him to the Secret Service, who interviewed my friend and instructed him to destroy all copies of the collage. Every copy of my friend’s collage was destroyed. I made this collage because I thought it was foolish to confuse an image with reality. No one has asked me to destroy this collage.
[09][10][11][12] Who Am I? by Jim Scianna. Background image is a poster seen here in OVO 1 1987.
[13] Dreamachine. Dreamachines produce visual hallucinations and altered states of consciousness without drugs. The experience lasts as long as the Dreamachine is used, and ends immediately when the Dreamachine is turned off or the user opens their eyes. There are no aftereffects or addictive qualities. A Dreamachine is the only visual art form that one enjoys with ones eyes closed. More photographs of my Dreamachine here.  Dreamachines are easy to make, and instructions are easy to find.
[14][15][16] The Meta-Network by Mike Gunderloy. The “international computerized telecommunications network” mentioned is a reference to the pre-Internet BBS network. His deliberate overuse of footnotes reads like a hyper linked document of today. Mike was entirely correct in listing his magazine Factsheet Five as the nexus for the meta-networks of the underground information economy. The questions asked in this essay are relevant still.
[17] Don’t Talk to Cops by Robert Zeuner. This may or may not be sound legal advice; consult a professional before following any of the suggestions made here.
[18][19] Ringing Denunciation of Surrealism by Hakim Bey. This article was produced with an electric typewriter. Essays on surrealism were hard to come by in 1989 (at least for me) and I was glad to have the chance to print one, even an argument against surrealism. This is the first publication of this essay, later published in T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone.
[20] Drawing. Ink on paper. Typical of my drawing style, then and now.
[21][22][23][24][26][27][28][30][31][33][34][35][36] Try to Remember Something About a Cat by Kerry Wendell Thornley. Ink on paper. Produced with an electric typewriter. Kerry sold book-length hand-written manuscripts for less than two dollars each. I bought several, and this is one of them. Kerry was a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald while the two were in the Marines. After Oswald defected to the Soviet Union, Kerry wrote a book about him. Kerry was later investigated as to why he wrote a book about Oswald before Oswald was accused of assassinating President Kennedy. Through this investigation and his own research, Kerry came to believe he was the next ‘patsy’ in line if the conspiracy behind JFK’s death couldn’t make it stick on Oswald. Kerry went on to co-found Discordianism with Greg Hill, which was in turn popularized by Robert Anton Wilson. I met Kerry through the Church of the SubGenius, at a time when Kerry was living under a bridge in Atlanta, Georgia. See also OVO 17 The Dreadlock Recollections (January 2007).
[25] Ad for Reality Now.  Reality Now was the main sponsor of the anarchist gathering described in OVO 5 1988. Television in jail probably comes from the same police training manual I used in OVO 5 1988 (not shown due to copyright restrictions).
[29] Ad for bolo’bolo from semiotext(e).  List of slang in the upper left is from a pulp crime magazine of the 1940s. ‘Foodtown’ advertisement is from an anonymous piece of mail art. Artist and author unknown for the ‘Bell’ text. Identification of mail bombs from the police training manual. Advertisement for bolo’bolo was my own. I met bolo’bolo author PM. He happened to be there to meet with his publishers of semiotext(e), whom I was also visiting. We shared a meal, then spent some time assembling the inserts for semiotext(e) USA. I asked him to sign my copy of bolo’bolo; he said ‘you know, in my country this book is illegal and none of my friends know that I have written it. This may be the first copy I have ever signed. Here, wait, let me find a good quote for you from the book. And I will sign it with my real name so that it will be more personal.”  I’ve never found the quote.
[32] Ads for Out-Of-Control Data Institute, Sound Choice magazine, Custom Screenprinting, Mutilation Graphics.  Am I Insane advertisement by Donna Kossy. Image below that from the Cottingly fairy photographs. OVO advertisement by me using a typewriter and correction strips. Sound Choice printed an essay from OVO 1 1987. Custom Screenprinting and Mutilation Graphics both sent me free t-shirts, and these ads were my thanks.
[37] Apple/Pineapple by Chris Cilla.  See also OVO 15 SPERM (February 2005).
[38] Ads for Grey Area, Zontar.  Grey Area reprinted OVO 5 1988 in its entirety. Zontar was one of the best zines I read.
[39] Letter. Although Whittle did not hire me, they did contribute to the production and printing of OVO more than they ever knew. The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[40][41] Untitled by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE.
[42][43] The Gentrification of Pain by A. Z. Dippe. Collage, pen, paper and glue. Whatever the source of this text was, I received it from the Temple of Psychic Youth. I retyped it on an electric typewriter to make it more visually interesting.
[44][45] Liberating Wednesday by PM. This is the first and so far only time this essay by the author of bolo’bolo has been published. In a letter dated 16 June 1989, PM wrote “On the ‘reformist’ side one of my newer ideas was to push for a non-economic Wednesday [...] Feel free to use the idea and/or the text. It would be much better to write a text that fits in your specific situation, of course. I’m trying to spread the idea worldwide (together with bolo’bolo, it’s all linked) [...] I hope your ovo-bolo will transform into a big bird, like an ostrich or so.” The idea of an annual ‘buy nothing day’ became popular years later, but liberating Wednesday is an idea fifty-two times as challenging.
[46] Alternative Abortions. Background image from 1940s true-crime magazine. This may or may not be sound medical advice; consult a professional before following any of the suggestions made here. In the late 1980s in Knoxville (and elsewhere) Christians were blockading women’s clinics and threatening laws granting access to abortion. This essay was written with the sense that access to abortion was ending, and that alternatives needed to be available.
[47] Ads for The SubGenius Foundation and OVO.  ‘Loose talk’ image likely from The Grey Wolves. SubGenius advertisement from the SubGenius Foundation. OVO advertisement by me using a typewriter and correction strips.   Kidnap Call Report and office security checklist from sourced unknown.  The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[48][49] Interview with Truth. Background image the same HIV infected cells as ovo0701. ‘Truth is unique’ and ‘Truth speaks out’ clips from The Pain Truth, a free magazine published by the World Wide Church of God. Smiling woman graphic from semiotext(e) USA. Radiation exposure graphic from sources unknown.
[50] Sound Cannon. Typed on an electric typewriter. As described in the essay, superior firepower wins the day when using sound as a weapon. The sound cannon was a complete success.
[51] We All Love Cop Cars. Images are from European sources.  See also here from OVO 5 1988.
[52][53][54][55] Secret Theater. There was no circulation of air in Vatican Pizza, so the giant pizza ovens made the room exceptionally warm. The heat combined with alcohol and grinding industrial music at high volume created a fight one night; fists and broken bottles flew. Most of the tapes I showed have never been shown on television, even now, and some are no longer available in any form.
[56] First Letter. The first response I received from some of my earliest posters were threats from a Christian. It made me feel like buying my post office box was a good idea and that I was off to a good start by making the right people upset.
[57] Magazine Bibliography.  The first fifty or so zines I had work in, including my own.
[58][59] Miserablism and Anti-Miserablism in 1986 by Penelope Rosemont and Joseph Jablonski. Reprinted from the original handbill by Black Swan Press. I don’t know that this essay by first-generation surrealists has been collected elsewhere.
[60] Advertisement for Re/Search.  Digital Programmable Voice Scrambler from unknown source. Advertisement for Re/Search used a photocopied rubber skeleton as I did in OVO 4 1987, but (unknown to me at the time) many years earlier.
[61] Collage by Ryan Gray.
[62] Collage by Mike Sonnie.
[63] Censorship. Typed on an electric typewriter. I don’t remember where the text comes from. Did I write it? Did Karen Elliot? Is it a quote from a more famous source? I don’t remember.
[64][65][66] TDC Correspondence Rules by the Texas Department of Corrections. This contribution was sent to me to explain why OVO was not allowed into a Texas prison.
[67] Advice by Jeff Holland.
[68] Catalogue. There would indeed be OVO tattoos later on.
[69] OVO Gunstar Stencil. Text written on an electric typewriter. Graphic modeled after the logo for the Red Army Fraction. At least one t-shirt was made with this graphic on it.
[70] Ad for the Industrial Workers of the World.  “Hello” text from same unknown source as the kidnap phone call check list. Security Regulations from a prison. “No Laundry” from source unknown. “Delinquent” graph from source unknown.  The address shown here is no longer valid.
[71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79] Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps. I thought their graphic style was interesting.   I predicted the ACMTC was about to commit a public act of self-destruct, but I was entirely incorrect.  The address shown here is no longer valid.
[80][81] Lights = Camera = Action and Densest? by Walter Alter. Background is television listing from local newspaper. This text was on the first I ever received on computer disk (a 5.25 inch floppy for PC, which I couldn’t use for years). Walter also hosted one of the first BBS I ever called.
[82] Announcement. OVO 12 SCIENCE (November 1991) is the ‘experiments and evidence’ issue announced here.  Top right graphic shows Lee Harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby. Caption from sources unknown. “I Love You” graphic is found art, with another caption from sources unknown.  The address and telephone number shown here are no longer valid.
[83] Index. Small graphics surrounding text generally the same as those found in OVO 4 (May 1988).  The addresses shown here are no longer valid.
[84] Back Cover.

OVO is a collection of new works in the public domain edited and published by Trevor Blake. New issues are in progress. Past issues include…

OVO 18 Money (April 2008)
OVO 17 The Dreadlock Recollections (January 2007)
OVO 16 AntiChrist (January 2006)
OVO 15 Sperm (February 2005)
OVO 14 Suffering (March 1992)
OVO 13 Travel (January 1992)
OVO 12 Science (November 1991)
OVO 11 Control (September 1991)
OVO 10 Mayhem (July 1991)
OVO 9 (July 1991)
OVO 8 (May 1991)
OVO 7 Information (October 1989)
OVO 6 (Infinite)
OVO 5 (November 1988)
OVO 4 (May 1988)
OVO 3 (November 1987)
OVO 2 (July 1987)
OVO 1 (1987)

… and may be downloaded here.

Swamp Cooler / Homemade Air Conditioner. Fan blowing over ice in plastic cups. Plastic cups in bowls which collect condensation. Scientifically demonstrated to be better than nothing. Trevor Blake, July 2009.

numerous plans for rocket kits that are no longer being manufactured as well as other non-kit plans and out-of-print rocketry publications.

Ye Olde Rocket Plans

“A delicious source of fiber! My family have them almost every morning. Great healthy muffins! You may substitute dates for the raisins if you wish.”

Classic Bran Muffins – All Recipes

How to make a solar iPod/iPhone charger -aka MightyMintyBoost

I’ve put together a set of markers for the deluxe edition of Steve Jackson’s famously awesome future war-game, OGRE. You can download a .PDF of my OGRE marker designs

Make: Online : MAKE: Projects – Shrinky-dink gaming minis

Could humans at any point in history, given the right information, construct an electronic communication network? An attempt to build a functional electric battery and telegraph switch from materials found in the wilderness, using no modern tools except information

http://immaculatetelegraphy.tumblr.com/

The combination of this panel and battery can produce enough energy to easily charge a laptop / cell phone / ipod, inflate an air mattress, power a boom box, recharge AA batteries, run lights and charge power tools.

Voltaic DIY Solar | Charge Car Batteries with a Voltaic 15 Watt panel

Regular maintenance will cut down on the “ugh” factor. After all, one-hour cleaning increments are much easier to deal with than five-hour cleaning marathons.

Apartment Therapy Re-Nest | Spring Cleaning Tip #10: Make A Cleaning Schedule

An insight into the hardware from the first manned mission to land on the moon

Product: NASA Apollo 11 Manual

Build a DIY non destructive book scanner for under $300. An open source OCR package. A gratis ebook creation tool. An open source ebook library management tool and reader. An open-source Linux distribution for eink-based devices. And many, many ebook readers.

Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, big business and their own content. | MetaFilter

Universal Solar Charger

My Rules for the year: • Make something new everyday. • Don’t buy anything you can make yourself, especially clothes.

p r i m e – n u m b e r . c o m — everything is temporary

Planting dates and guidelines (Oregon State University Extension Service)

Growing Your Own Vegetables

This page shows you how to create a book from Wikipedia articles in three steps. Books can be created in PDF form or ordered for printing on the PediaPress website.

Help:Books – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Awsome video from China, a small airplane (Shanzhai Glider) made by a farmer in China

How many times have you driven by an electronic road sign

I-Hacked.com Taking Advantage Of Technology – Inside Programmable Road Signs