Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Arcana, Past & Present




I'm not lying about Half Deer Highway. Harry Fassl (just above this) and I passed a half of a deer standing upright at the edge of the interstate. I am adding photos of other friends & writers & artists that discovered Arcana long before I did ( the circumstances, I believe, involved a dwarf clown telling me the answers were at The Axeman's Carnival). Artist Rodger Gerberding and writer and editor of THIN ICE, Kathleen Jurgens, of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Now married, Kathleen toils at raising kids and playing archaeologist in the sandbars of western Nebraska during the summer, with Rodger doing theater, I believe taking up the role Bob Crane of HOGAN 'S HEROES fame performed before being bludgeoned to death. Seriously, though, he will be in Kansas, I think taking up where the BTK Strangler left off. Then...there's Sean Doolittle. He seemed to think Harry & I were famous when he met us in 1992. The guy who now has three novels in print, DIRT, BURN, and RAIN DOGS. Left us in the dust, I'll tell you. But this post is still about John Brower's passing. Several people have posted comments about my last two entries, and I think that we should all get together, if only as a gesture to John's spirit in the halls, along with the GoHs that have gone before...Karl Edward Wagner, Robert Bloch, Fritz Lieber. From his obituary in the 14 Jan 07 Minneapolis Star-Tribune : John lived in Shoreview, MN , and once worked at KFAI Fresh Air Radio in Minneapolis, where he produced and hosted "Poeme Electronique," and was co-founder of IPAAM (Indonesian Performing Arts Association of Minnesota). He built a strong and loyal group of friends, many of whom enjoyed his company over the years. That last line about sums it up (me talking here). In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Feline Rescue, 593 Fairview Avenue No., St. Paul, Minnesota 55104-1708. Mike Fountain is in Kalamazoo. Stewart Sternberg is the Michigan Man of Mystery so he might be traversing limbo or Dimension Eighteen even as I type this. Larry Santoro would love to show up at this thing, as he'd be passing right through Bluffton. I think its time for a short weekend in early autumn with about the coolest group of people one could expect to meet. Arcana is like a secret to most, but John's passing has pushed many memories to my thalamus (or is that Thalmas, the town where the Axeman's Carnival exists?). Let's make a pact, fellow bloggers. Like the Fantastic Four did. I call, I'm the Thing. Wayne