The Last Days of the Hoosier: Issue 49.3 Action Shots

We are thrilled to present the following action shots of Issue 49.3, brought to us, words and all, by Operative Tyler Gobble:

“My Time With A Little Piece of Rad Tadd on My Back”

This rad Tadd poem stuck to me during my last weekend in Indiana. Tadd lived in Indiana when he was a younger Tadd. Did you know that? Me, I just moved to Austin, Texas, after almost 25 years of Hoosier fun. My galpal Layne starts grad school at UT next week or something. I’m in the library right now, pretending to be a freshman. Cal McGraw, aquatic equestrianism major, in case anyone asks. Anyhow, I wore this as I bustled about central Indiana that final weekend, saying buh-byes and getting amped up for the move. Here’s the story of that. I call it “My Time With A Little Piece of Rad Tadd on my Back”:

(No Pants)

First step of being a good operative is always finding some pants to wear. Here I am finding some pants to wear.

(Beer for Last Cornhole Playin’ Night With My Dad)

Next step is buying some beer. That’s probably not true, but what do I know? I’m only a freshman!

My dad prefers Bud Light. I bought him a bunch of Bud Light, though not all those cases you see in the picture. That’d be crazy! It was for my going-away party. My parents are really nice people (hi mom! hi dad!) and grilled up a bunch of burgers and unthawed a bunch of pre-baked cookies and let people who like me hang out all night and play cornhole and drink beer. My mom even gave two sacks of leftovers to my friend Turner! Wow, mom!

My mom kept asking me to explain Safety Pin Review and let her friends read the poem. Then, they’d say, “I don’t get it. Who’s bones are they?” And my mom would say, “Only Tyler, am I right?!” (She wasn’t right. There are many cool operatives!)

(Huggin’ Pals)

I’ve never been the one to leave. It’s weird being the one to leave. A necessary step is hugging people goodbye. In the hat, that’s my friend, Davis. Davis didn’t know I had the patch on so he just thought Layne was taking pictures of me hugging dudes, which she’d totally do. Stop being a weirdo, Layne!

I hugged Davis goodbye at the beginning of the summer because he moved to Chicago, but he didn’t like it much so he came back. And then, I left. What a butthead!

(Shoppin’ for Tanks)

I had to buy some new clothes because my medium tanks are getting too small on me and my shorts (I realized during the taking of this picture, I haven’t bought new shorts since freshman year of high school!) are starting to fall apart. I needed to make a good impression as a (fake) incoming UT freshman. I bought two pairs of Tony Hawk cargo skate shorts and two tanks (one has a giant shark on it and the other is bright orange and says BEEF CAKE), in case you wanted to know.

(Strip Club)

This dark box is a strip club. I needed to break in my BEEF CAKE tank (after a careful transfer of the patch), so we went to Muncie’s strip club, Joker’s Wild.

It wasn’t weird at all! The bouncer has been in two UFC pay-per-view fights and has been hit in the head with a 2×4 (though that was in the parking lot of Joker’s, not a ring). He read the poem at least twice. He called me “an intelligent motherfucker.” Thank you, bouncer badass guy, but Tadd is the intelligent motherfucker!

One of the strippers asked me what a BEEF CAKE was. I said, I guess we’ll find out. That was the weirdest part. Who doesn’t know what a BEEF CAKE is?

(Shoppin’ for Motorcycle)

This is how I say goodbye to my friend Alina, by picking out a motorcycle for me. I chose this one because of the way the green lights accentuate the flame paint job. I rode it down to Texas. I was wearing my shark tank top with the poem pinned on. People got into wrecks reading the poem off my hog-hustling back. That seems like a great way to end this story, am I right Tadd?

(Buh-Bye)

Here’s a little bonus: I call it “Thumbs Up Goodbye.”

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We love you. See you all soon.

Issue Forty-Nine!! (PART THREE)

We are beyond thrilled to present the last part of Issue 49, the third poem in the “Scientific Method” series brought to us by James Tadd Adcox, here worn by longtime SPR supporter/contributor Tyler Gobble, during his last week in Indiana before shipping all the way to Austin, TX – where, by coincidence or design, the first poem in the series was worn. These, these are the last of the glory days:

ISSUE FORTY-NINE POINT THREE (8/19/13):

featuring

“Scientific Method”

by James Tadd Adcox

Operative: Tyler Gobble (Central IN)

About the author: James Tadd Adcox is the author of The Map of the System of Human Knowledge, available here. He lives in Chicago.

About the operative: Tyler Gobble is lead editor of Stoked, associate editor of Magic Helicopter Press, and a contributor with Vouched Books. He’s the author of four chapbooks, most recently 48 Pornos (Safety Third Enterprises), and his first full length collection of poems, More Wreck More Wreck, will be out from Coconut Books in the fall of 2014. More at www.tylergobble.com.

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This weekend, the best damn Indiana you’ve ever seen.

BONNAROO: Issue 49.2 Action Shots!

We are delighted to present the following photo-set of our latest issue, brought to us filtered through beauty both natural and teeming by Operative Dillon J. Welch, straight out of Manchester, TN and the set of Bonnaroo, where people wear birds like clothes (commentary by none other than the operative himself):

THE KIDS ARE JUST FINE

Got the tent popped, the carpet spread, the canopy hoisted, and the generator up and running in record time. This one’s for sitting back and admiring your own work. This one’s for beer. This one’s for the kids.

WHAT MOST FAIL TO UNDERSTAND UPON INITIAL INSPECTION, ALL AT ONCE BECOMES CLEAR

On the hottest day of the week, it’s okay to drink a glass of lemonade. Here you can see me standing in an actual stance of “being okay with drinking a glass of lemonade.” A curious festival-goer behind me in line said “What does his shirt say?” And then she said “I don’t get it.” And then she said “Oh—I get it now.” She gets it now.

ALWAYS AIM FOR THE OIL DRUMS

The Bonnaroo arch. A symbol of freedom. A symbol of not really knowing where your wallet is, even though you could’ve sworn you left it in the center console in your car, but it wasn’t there the last time you looked. Important to note the exhausted looking horde moving slowly through the serpentine railing formation. Note the grass, trampled and greying. Note the sky, the trees, the oil drum trash can (deftly labeled “Trash!”).

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD

Crossing the Threshold, 2013, Silver gelatin print, 14 x 10 inches

THEODORE

Standing in front of Bonnaroo’s famous “Silent Disco” tent. It is in this tent where a man named Ted wears headphones and dances with an air of sudden and stifling uncertainty. It is there where Ted sways slightly to the left, and then slightly to the right. Ted knows a crowd stands just beyond the railing, silently judging his every quiet, unfortunate movement. It is in this tent where Ted will shed a layer of his skin. He will violently cocoon himself to the tune of some in-house DJ’s twee interpretation of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” He will break free and moth into the wild and untethered night.

Or maybe he’ll get drunk and sing along to “Free Falling” with Tom Petty’s reanimated corpse.

TRADITIONAL CEREMONIAL DRESS

On my way to see Björk wear some kind of endangered bird around her neck like a marvelous heirloom. Bro in the jersey told me Daniel Tosh insulted his forlorn mother. In this picture, Bro is on his way to the craft beer tent to dunk his head in a vat of the heartiest local pilsner.

SOME FLAGS, NO MATTER HOW HIGH YOU HOIST THEM, ARE DESTINED TO BE TORN DOWN

My friend Colton knows all of the words to Jack Johnson’s “Bubble Toes.”

Camera guy (Corey) got annoyed with my constant photo demands. Here you can see me pretending to enjoy the music, while standing still enough to avoid blurry pictures. [Note: I tried to get The Tallest Man on Earth to give a shout out to Safety Pin, but he wasn’t having it. Whatever. The man’s a liar. He’s not even tall. He’s not even short enough for his name to be ironic.]

LIKEWISE, SOME NATURAL STRUCTURES ARE MEANT TO BE TORN DOWN

After a long week of poor decisions and finding oneself perfectly lost in the dark of a field full of drugged-out twenty-somethings, it’s important to reflect on what makes you a person, what makes you tangible. This is a waterfall. It is large and made of water. Beneath it are rocks. Beneath all of us are rocks. Miley Cyrus once swung on a rope swing above this very waterfall. Miley Cyrus knows about the rocks beneath us all.

BLOCKAGE

I ate a cheeseburger from Wendy’s just before this picture. It was beautiful. It made me feel like a wind-torn statue. I think that’s all I want in life: to feel like something solid, immovable. And cheeseburgers from Wendy’s.

*

See you soon.

 

Issue Forty-Nine!! (PART TWO)

We are pleased to present the second gesture of our 49th issue, this time worn by Operative Dillon, who took the piece to Bonnaroo, in Manchester, TN. Later, we will see exactly what he brought back. We submit:

ISSUE FORTY-NINE POINT TWO (7/15/13):

featuring

“Scientific Method”

by James Tadd Adcox

Operative: Dillon J. Welch (Manchester, TN)

About the author: James Tadd Adcox is the author of The Map of the System of Human Knowledge, available here. He lives in Chicago.

About the operative: Dillon J. Welch lives in a hole in New Hampshire. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Fiddleback, Gargoyle, PANK, Hobart & others. He is Poetry Co-Editor for the online quarterly, Swarm. Find him at: ratrapss.tumblr.com.

Empirical Data #1: Issue 49 (Part One) Action Photos!!

We’re just thrilled to present the first grouping of Action Shots from Issue 49, a three-poem series brought to us by James Tadd Adcox. The first piece is worn here by Operative Afra al-Mussawir in Austin, TX (with commentary by the operative!):

The Vehicle AKA the Wheelchair

If you stare at a wheelchair long enough, will it become a small bird?

*

If you stare at a woman in a wheelchair long enough, will she become nameless and comforting?

Ready to Work Out

and

At the Wheelchair Fitness Center

…where the poem sparked an unexpected and bewildering debate as to whether it was really possible for a bird to remain nameless for long. I got a few “Oh, I like that” and “Yeah, I saw that–what’s that all about?” responses.

BBQ #1

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BBQ #2

*

BBQ #5

Group lunch at the BBQ place after working out. The guy behind the register didn’t see the poem until I turned around to model it for him. His response was: “Yeah, I like that.” The people on line behind me didn’t comment; I think they were too hungry to appreciate The Scientific Method.

Outside Quack’s

I played chess with my friend Victor in this coffee shop, and after he finished squashing me like a bug, I waited outside for my ride home. A café employee bussing tables outside asked me, “So, who won?” I distracted him by pointing out the poem. “I like that,” he said. “About the bird. I like that.” Then he agreed to take a pic featuring the poem and the coffee shop storefront.

Keep Austin Weird

I think sometimes Austinites try too hard.

When I asked the cashier at a department store if he wanted to see the poem on my back, the lady behind me on line piped up. “I read it!” she said. “It’s good,” she assured the cashier.

Outside the Old Toy Joy

It turns out Toy Joy is moving to a downtown location – NOOOOOO!!! I caught them just as they were moving some last items, the hand chairs being the last to get loaded onto to the truck. Total transformation I can handle – even turning into a bird – but moving downtown? I’m gonna miss those chairs. Oh, and the plastic Godzillas in the window display.

Alborz

At the Persian restaurant. I think probably the belly dancer was twirling too fast to catch the poem, but my friend’s cousin took a pic of it for herself. See, I was right: no one can appreciate poetry until after they’ve eaten.

TFB

Breakfast at the Texas French Bread down the block from the old Toy Joy. No one commented on the poem. Adults are not supposed to stare at people in wheelchairs. I wished they would so that I could fly off in a flurry of feathers.*

*No birds were harmed in the making of this photoessay, but brisket was consumed with gusto.

Issue Forty-Nine!! (PART ONE)

It brings us no end of joy to begin here our 49th issue, which will arrive over the next month in three distinct parts. That’s right – our 49th issue is composed of three pieces, a series, each part worn in a different week by a different operative in a different part of the country.

And yet, an element of family.

Tonight, we are proud to present the first part, the first of three methods, three gestures. This time, we have Operative Afra to thank for wearing the story around Austin, Texas. Without further ado:

ISSUE FORTY-NINE POINT ONE (6/24/13);

featuring

“Scientific Method”

by James Tadd Adcox

Operative: Afra al-Mussawir (Austin, TX)

About the author: James Tadd Adcox is the author of The Map of the System of Human Knowledge, available here. He lives in Chicago.

About the operative: Afra Al-Mussawir is a teacher, writer, nonprofit administrator, organizer, and favorite aunt. She is also currently under-employed, so if you would like to offer her a job, she will be your best friend for life (or at least until the next solstice).