Kickstarter Pre Launch
Hey everyone,
I am launching a Kickstarter campaign for the Audiobook version of Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson. Presently, the campaign is in the“pre-launch” phase, as I seek to get the word out about the project. So, if you’d be so kind as to spread the proverbial word and we can help save the world because if there is a time for more “Maybe Logic” it is now.
2025 ended on a high for me when Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson won the S.I. Hayakawa Book Prize from the Institute of General Semantics. Thee Semiotic Alchemyst and I were flown out to New York City where I accepted the Prize in front of a full audience at NYC’s Players Club while also listening to a number of very smart presenters. Hanging out at the Players Club, surrounded by portraits of American actors, writers, and directors was an experience in itself. And kudos to the IGS because they did not crimp on the food and drink! What I thought was going to be an academic conference was more like a very intelligent party in a fancy ass place! It’d been sometime since being in NYC, and even longer since walking the streets of Manhattan, but it felt great to touch base with some of my favorite spots while there. I felt like a returning champion for those three days, which everyone should feel every once in a while.
Alas such a high was short lived as upon returning to Los Angeles, my car and computer died in quick succession hitting me with a double whammy that immediately altered my visions of the future. Suddenly the existential realities of life called for my attention in the form of finding as many jobs, hustles, and gigs that I could to make the scratch to keep my landlord and bill collectors off my back.
Before heading out to NYC, I was in full creative swing, producing the audiobook version of Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson. From April to August of 2025, I built a professional grade sound booth in my very noisy studio apartment with the goal of recording Chapel Perilous.
Over the course of those four months, I slowly built the recording booth. Starting with the flooring, framing, then adding insulation, after that drywall, spackling, and painting the booth. Finally, I added the foam eggshells to the interior and set up the lights, microphone, and computer recording set up. It all turned out pretty nice. Here’s some photos of the Build.
After the studio was built I went right into the booth and began recording. One thing I did not build in the recording booth was a fan vent though. So, with the door closed, that box got hot! The perspiration leapt from my pores as the recording booth turned into a sweat lodge. Every time I opened the door to get some air a cloud of steam exited the booth with me. All worth it though, because after two months of nonstop recording sessions, I now had the book recorded!
From there, I began editing the audio, which is it’s own meticulous and maddening procedure. I spent hours upon hours conducting small yet extremely important minute edits, then listening to the multitude of takes to find the best one. As I said it will leave you feeling as crazy as Renfield as my only mission in life became serving this edit. Hours turned into days, days into weeks as all I could focus on was editing one more section of the book. Even eating becomes less of a priority as the rhythm of clicking and deleting become the soundtrack to your waking life! But as Hunter T. once said, “Buy the ticket. Take the ride.” This is that, and I’d much rather this type of labor than doing moving jobs.
When the computer crashed, I thought I’d lost all the recording session files. I tried not to dwell on such a dismal prospect, but I was frustrated and flummoxed by the whole situation. This computer that crashed was less than two years old and I’m still paying the thing off. I knew I couldn’t afford another new computer, so I got my geek on and upgraded a very inexpensive laptop. After that I was also able to recover the files from the dead computer and was back in business!!!
Since then, I’ve begun work again on the audiobook and completed the edit on the chapter I was working on when the computer died. Ironically enough, I was editing the “Journey Through the Chaosmos” chapter, the one where RAW moves to Ireland, the land of the mythic Pookah who likes kidnapping people and sending them through vortexes where time speeds and slows down at their mercy. If that wasn’t enough, the last interview I conducted for my Prop Anon Podcast before the computer hit the fritz was with Darragh Mason who wrote a whole book on the Pookah titled Song of the Darkman. The lesson here is this, you may think you are done with the Pookah, but the Pookah is not done with you!
All that said, I’ve set up a Kickstarter campaign to help raise funds and spread the word! I will send out another email when the campaign properly drops. You can also keep touching base with the Kickstarter page for updates!
In other fun news. I was recently featured alongside comics creator Bobby Campbell on the Wetwired podcast where we spoke about all things Discordia. Bobby was also promoting his most recent Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for his comic adaptation of RAW and Robert Shea’s Illuminatus! Trilogy. Campbell’s rendition is not a straight re-telling of Illuminatus! and its real kool to see the choices he’s made in his adaptation. His insights into Wilson’s work are on full display within Tales of Illuminatus!
FREE PALESTINE!!!
GPK