Last month, our show went wild in San Francisco and collided with several Puzzling Evidence and Ask Dr. Hal radio shows, as well as making emergency phone-ins to Radio Synaesthesia in Cleveland. We have attempted to categorize the endless clips from these 10 hours of SubGenius all-star radio, and one result is this peculiar episode. Listeners will notice that, maddeningly, Dr. Philo Drummond, Master Manipulator, keeps steering the various conversations back to two subjects. Stang is heard going berserk in reaction, on two different shows. Guests and hosts include Lonesome Cowboy Dave, Puzzling Evidence, Dr. Philo Drummond, Dr. Hal, Dr. Sinister, Princess Wei 'R.' Doe, Dr. Gary G'broagfran, Rev. Ivan Stang, Phineas Narco and many mysterious callers. Future episodes will include some devastating reports from yet other callers, as well as location recordings of this year's ankle-breaking and truncated SubGenius Foundation Family Road Trip Adventure.

While in San Francisco for three weeks recently, Hour of Slack became intertwined with three of The Puzzling Evidence Shows from KPFA Berkeley, two Ask Dr. Hal Show podcasts on Radio Valencia, and a Radio Synaesthesia from WCSB Cleveland. This particular episode had to be assembled quickly, so it is comprised of the best/longest clips from several of those shows, the ones that needed the least editing. Spouters include Lonesome Cowboy Dave, Puzzling Evidence, Dr. Philo Drummond, Dr. Hal, Dr. Sinister, Princess Wei 'R.' Doe, Dr. Gary G'broagfran, Rev. Ivan Stang, Phineas Narco and many mysterious callers. When we have time to sit down and do some serious editing, future shows will include appropriate clips from the aforementioned, mixed with location recordings made by StangDoe, including reviews of many national monument, state park and rest stop restrooms.

Here we offer highlights from one of the best devivals ever, the one sponsored in Indianapolis in 2002 by the Quijibo Cartel. Pope Phred's M.C.-ing glues together performances by StAllio, Saint N and Hellena Handbasket, Stang with a variation on SubGenius 101, and the classic Papa Joe Mama rant called "Reparations." Clips from live ESO and Puzzling Evidence radio shows spice it all up, along with some LeMur and other collagery.

This is a GREAT rerun. Hearing it again shocked even me, and I, Stang, assembled it myself back in 2001. "The Suicide Song" at the beginning, alone, justifies the whole show. There are also two classic Captain Beefheart songs as well as music by some all-time greats of the novelty/bulldada/doktor genres, especially The Swinging Love Corpses. Many excellent clips from olden ESO radio shows (WCSB) feature Rev. Televangela calling in to be abused by Stang, Dave and Chas, and the excerpts from Media Barrage 11 are all good ones, as holy now as they were then -- that is, not very holy, but pretty funny. Rev. Alex Thompson's best X-Day rant -- the one he did at age 14 -- is included, as is an adjusted song by Little Fyodor, recorded live at the same 4X-Day Drill of yore. Puzzling Evidence/Dr. Hal/Glassmadness of 1983 vintage tops it off.

We have had no time to edit the hours of location recordings from our SubGenius Road Trip, much less the Puzzling Evidence shows from its midpoint, so we're again presenting an especially good rerun -- at least, the label on the master had a scrawl on it in Stangwriting saying "Good one!" (I, Stang, have not actually heard it since 2002!) We know from the log however (seen at subgenius.com) that it has a fine Pater Nostril collage from devivals and other things, music by Saint N and Hellena Handbasket, lots of clips from good old Media Barrage Tape #5 (1982), LeMur, Nu-Monet, and Artemia Salina collages, much best live ESO Swamp Radio with Dave, Chas, StangDoe and callers, Puzzling Evidence, a Glassmadness classic "Bob" hymn, and even RastaBillyBob and "Zeeza." MANY of these contributors are now dead or vanished! So it MUST be good!

The Church Audio Monks in Dobbstown unearthed this excellent fossil episode at a dig in Vault Canyon -- this was found at the Cassette Tape Masters layer, dating it to around 1995 or 1996. These were the "Golden Shower Years" of the SubGenius/ESO Swamp Radio shows (WCSB, Cleveland), when Prof. Chas Smith led Lonesome Cowboy Dave and Rev. Stang through maze-like live shows -- with live musical accompaniment by Chas and other ESO musicians). Pieces of those were then scavenged for Hours of Slack, interspersed with songs, collages, and weird radio history clips, in this case including Rev. Mojo Nixon, a memorable Papa Joe Mama Sermon from a Pittsburg devival, Rev. Bill T. Miller's Out of Band Experience (OBE), a reading by Stang from his BIG BOOK OF CONSPIRACIESintro, the one and only Joe Auffrict, Cleveland Satanist, in clips from an interview before his comedy career, Philo's little brother Sphinx on Puzzling Evidence, Stang reading the greatest Nenslo SubGenius Conspiracy rant. Begins with clips from Rev. Bleepo Abernathy and Rev. Nick Nolin. Doesn't end.

Rev. Penn Jillette -- yes, a real SubGenius Minister -- wrote a book (partly about atheism) called "God, No!" and in this episode we excerpt the first chapter of his audiobook. It simply kicks ass. Some discussion about the late Christopher Hitchins from a recent Radio Synaesthesia ties into it, as does Part 2 of Rev. Xister's "Ship of State" media barrage. Bits of Puzzling Evidence, The Large, and a sermon by Rev."Suds" Pshaw work themselves in, and the show climaxes with a touching Xmas "Bob" hymn by Popess Pantiara Evokavitch. This episode was produced somewhat "on the fly" at Stang Ranch, Stangsville, Texas just before Xistlessnessmess 2011, so some subject matter (such as Kim Jong Il's death) may seem unseemly and untimely. Well, that's Time Control for you.

This episode is all one fantastic old-school media barrage by the hard-working and very talented Rev. Xister, normally heard weekly on our fellow SubGenius show, The Ministry of Slack. It’s a collage about The Conspiracy, using what would be to him older movies and music, and harkens back the carefully-arranged media barrages that we used to splice up on reel-to-reel tape back in the 1980s before Hour of Slack was born. I don’t think “Bob” or SubGenius are mentioned at all, but it is PURE SubGenius. It’s 90 minutes long too, so this is only Part One of SHIP OF STATE by Rev. Xister.