Romancing the Kidney Stone

Romancing the Kidney Stone:

A Display of Evidence in the Curious Case of

"Blaster" Al Ackerman

The great writer, cartoonist, Mail Artist, trickster, philosopher & all-round unique human being known as "Blaster" Al Ackerman (November 27, 1939 - March 17, 2013) occupied a position of some considerable importance in my life. When I 1st started engaging in Mail Art in the fall of 1978 I'd been given a list of names & addressses of Mail Artists by my friend Cathy Gayhardt. It wasn't until a few years later that I realized that part of that list was in Blaster's handwriting. Even in that early stage of my engagement, Blaster's magnificent networking magik made its presence felt.

After Blaster's untimely death (why he was barely out of diapers!) I scanned every bit of correspondence & other relevant things from him that I'd managed to preserve in my often tumultuous life. The idea was to create a compilation of this called "Romancing the Kidney Stone". Alas, the government came along & stole almost every 'spare' penny I have under the guise of 'Affordable [NOT!!] Health Care' making it highly unlikely that I'll ever produce the book.

I did, however, make a feature-length movie using one of Blaster's favorite correspondence phrases, "This Will Explain", as its title (on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/QJYHcjYc8Yk; on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/thiswillexplain ). This incorporated all of the scans & gives a pretty good idea of the perverse overflowing cornucopia of Blaster-world as experienced by just one friend of his. It's certainly a laughing matter. I've only managed to screen this messterpiece ONCE, so far, at the memorial Blasterthon in BalTimOre. I gave a reading of a Blaster text as part of this memorial & made a short movie from the reading that incorporates footage from the feature. It's entitled "letter to Kem" & can be witnessed here: http://youtu.be/HhaKB8ZUOg4 .

This website, like most of mine, will be perpetually under construction. Blaster was mind-bogglingly prolific & produced work for hundreds, if not thousands, of people that was tailored especially for them. The personal touch was central to his MO. Compiling all these widespread artifacts is a job for a team of historians w/ a budget the size of the US military. In fact, using the US military's budget instead of for its current purposes would be fitting. If the shoe fits, bang it on a UN table to get attention.

The attempt here will be to try to present it all in chronological order. For scientists, this will provide useful, if befuddling, proof that continual drinking of cheap beer not only doesn't impair the brain's functioning (in some rare instances) but may even turn it into a veritable lighthouse that illuminates dangerous black holes for people half-heartedly trying to walk a straight line on a perfectly paved sidewalk.

The labeling system will be self-evident to people who see themselves not-reversed when they look in the mirror. The 1st 3 numbers represent the order in which I probably received the wholy object. If there's then a "0" or a "5" or a "7" after the period & followed by another period it means that I found something else to squeeze in the chronology between one integer & another. EG (that's "for example" (in English) for those of you who don't know your Latin abbreviations): between "001" & "002" I decided that the calendar should be placed. Rather than make the calendar "002" & have to renumber everything after it (making the original "002" into "003" etc) I made the original "001" into "001.0" & made the calendar "001.5" - thusly leaving room for "001.1"-"001.4" & "001.6"-"001.9" in case I discover anything else that I think fits into the chronology that way.

Following the 1st set of numbers is the date of the missive - usually based on the date of the letter, if there is one, or the post-mark, wherever possible. Following that is a brief description of the contents of the mailing. As the non-blind observer of this material will no doubt notice, much of the mailings are covered in smoke damage &/or ripped &/or faded, etc. The smoke damage is a sortof 'carbon-dating system' aid to show that the material was received before my apartment was set fire to by an arsonist in early 1985. Additionally, in September of 1983, I'd displayed much of Blaster's work at Jules's Loft as part of the Church & Foundation of the SubGenius's Convention in BalTimOre that I coorganized. Much of it was 'lost' (or stolen or trashed) at that time. Some of the material is left out of the chronology & added at the end b/c the date for it is too uncertain.

In general, my Blaster archive is not very well-preserved but, nonetheless, it's preserved anyway. After all, my life has had its, uh, 'ups & downs'. If you're a blatantly perverted visionary in a society of robopaths & megalomaniacal untertan you might as well expect to meet some friction more often than not.

Since Blaster & I had a correspondence going, much of what's presented here is only half of the story (or less) because my own contribution to the exchange is missing. I don't have copies of my letters but I do have copies of many of the things that I would've sent to Blaster & I have records listing them. Someday, I might add those but not anytime soon. For the moment, I'll be content to just show what I have left of Blaster's part of our correspondence. I might then start to upload all of the other Blaster materials I have which are even more voluminous.

If anyone copies & redistributes or repurposes any of these materials I would very much appreciate it if you would give the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE aRCHIVE" credit & if you would notify me of whatever you've done with the materials at the email address given below. It's my hope that my very substantial archive will be preserved after my death.