Climbing Ong’s Hat

https://www.patreon.com/posts/climbing-ongs-66053708

https://toowiarts.com/episodes/dragonsbread/information-golem

From the editor at ToowiArts

Ok, so I’m the person who looks at Mt. Everest and says, sure I can do that. I underestimate pretty much everything and take on too much. Then add a backpack. And at this point I’m aware of the pattern so it’s perhaps now what I’d call a terminal choice. I prefer to live in hopefulness, I guess. In the case of the upcoming episode about Ong’s Hat creator Joseph Matheny this means you’ll have to wait a bit longer. I’m about waist deep and nearing completion on the first of what looks to be a two or three chapter episode. I’m combing through 20 hours of interviews and hoping I can do this story justice – and to be frank I don’t think I can. Ong’s Hat, what is it?… Imagine building a Frankenstein but by mostly by accident. Then in your confusion speaking to that creature in hopes of making sense of it how it came to be. Ask the monster you get a monster story. Ask the creator and you get a creator story. This is that kind of story. Ong’s Hat will be a monster AND creator story. The trick will be giving you a good sense of how it came to be. In Joseph’s case it crawled out of the muck of his imagination hot and smelling of his personal evolution. So much of Joseph is written into Ong’s Hat, it’s color, hope, character, and deceptions. His drugs, music, hopes, and heros. So I’ll be infusing more origin story than usual- which says something because origin story is what I do! The hope is to offer a look at the confluence of real and imagined events and accidents that birthed Ong’s Hat – i.e. give you a square look at the monster that climbed out of its slimy goop. There’s a great slice of history that plays background to this story, a counterculture radically shifting maintstream culture to make way for the computer’s first needy baby “The Web.” Joseph rubbed up against a slew of counterculture heros in its making, so it’s a wild ride.

So ok. Now all that’s left is for me to continue climbing this Mt Everest without careening off a cliffface onto a pile of jagged, cold rocks. The weather’s pretty nice up here, a high noon-day sun, and I have quality snacks so the outlook looks pretty good.

For your enjoyment, or perhaps appeasement, here’s some links to a few things Joseph referenced in his story that will likely show up in some form or another in the final product. And no I will not ruin it by telling you why right now….

Del Close –The Second City

THE FILTH AND THE FURY PART 1 GREAT QUALITY – YouTube

1981 Lester Bangs on Beatles Nostalgia

“THIS IS HAM RADIO ” 1970 AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE PROMOTIONAL FILM AMATEUR RADIO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-ydrdTPhM

The Second City

Naked Lunch (1991) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD] – YouTube

Vintage Wrigley: Opening Days – YouTube

David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust (From The Motion Picture) – YouTube

Chicago’s Wax Trax Records

Mondo 2000

Frankie Knuckles

Arise – Chapter 05 The Life of Bob (Church of the Subgenius)