DKult advises: 'it's better to hop'

First of all, I am sorry not to be able to scan each item individually, as I usually do.  My hard drive is kaput but if I avoid certain things, like scanning and posting lots of photos … (my last major crash was preceded by doing that) I am hoping I can make it until I go to Maine where I can replace it. So on top of the usual stream of excuses for being a poor correspondent, I have a REALLY really good one.  It took me three days to get up and running again this time. It must be Toxis.

I have had this MA from Diane for a while.  It's made me consider planting a maze, teaching Patrick hopscotch,  and how annoying and how much fun typewriters used to be. It also makes me consider what collage is, whether words can be visual poetry when they are simply xeroxed together. My thinking is yes. 

I have some DKult doodle therapy booklets to mail out and then I'll be hiding in a cove somewhere near Acadia. Thank you DK.  I think I am almost back.

Cardboard Club - DKult trashmindfulness - Robert Ridley shackleton

For an exhibition I've been involved with that looked at the role visual art can play in wellbeing, I read up on mindfulness. I see picking up trash as the activity part of a mindful walk,  and I think RRS assembles his trash and then annotates it a way that I find mindful.  IMHO this piece is an exquisite example of trashmindfulness.  I would hazard that trashmindfulness is an aesthetic that is shared, but interpreted differently by other trashpoets we know and adore: Diane Keys, Jim Leftwich, Eduardo Cardoso and others. RRS, many thanks for indoctrinating me into the club! 

DKult research Issue - Borderline Grafix

Whoopee, I got my own copy of the latest DKult zine: the DKult Research Issue (Scientific Inquiry), from Borderline Grafix!  This haptic issue contains examples of had carved artiststamps, stickers, ironic photos, scientific symbols arranged asemicly, propoganda, DKult lexicon, pop culture, handwritten additions and images and language to make one feel inferior, in the know and part of the club simultaneously.  It's brilliant! I can't wait to see the Dkult Poetry Pamphlet that I'm sure must be the best edition to follow! Huge thanks Borderline.

Dkult doodles and mail art for ideas

OOh la la, I have lots to chomp my way through here! I got sidetracked scanning and doodled away.  Now it's bedtime in England I trust I will wake up and get sidetracked by the contents of this full envelope when I should be doing !!??**%

Read the book pages, that are little poems. look closely at DK's trashpo collages. I will dream of… I spy an Eduardo add and pass, tiger lily's drawings and lots of counter culture badges.

DKULT Fan Club fanzine, Borderline Grafix

So much to consider here about life, lifestyle, scientific breakthroughs, cautionary tales and instruction for success as a DKULTer. I am encouraged that so many wonderful happenings are taking place in the promise(dkult) land. 

I am concerned that one of the genetically modified mammals has escaped, though (were they relocated to local Cambridge laboratories?) Just yesterday I was disturbed by our dog, LYRA, who was barking obstreperously at the horizon.  On careful inspection I realised there was a stationary rat on the grass. I got very close, while trying to ascertain why the rat was not running away.  It looked remarkably like the specimen in my DKULT fanzine, although it may have been a bit rounder, heavier, can you call a rat fat without causing insult? 

Luckily the rat eventually moved, I missed its escape...Lyra stopped barking and I was able to return to my work. But if this is 'said' rat perhaps the engineering is not quite right?

Many thanks for BG. My copy is already quite well thumbed!

Raw Trash and an Extravaganze from our leader

I am a sucker for a music score.  This envelope makes me want to dust the cobwebs from my acoustic guitar, 40 year old cobwebs! Did you FIND that or was this a cast off of a DKULT kid? 

I have a few Add and pass pieces that are languishing in my ,'to do box'.  Sorry Dan Moeur, soon… but I will deal with this EXTRAVAGANZA ASAP. Have you sent out various pages so they can be reassembled with local DKULT news, are you interested in a trash count, the chickens, mad cow disease?

 I am pleased that you have issued me with my own custom and immigration pass into the heart of DKULT policy.  Unfortunately I can't get an appointment with the DKULT DYE person to transform me into this personage.  I have an appointment with the eye surgeon tomorrow though.  Will I need to continue to wear glasses?

On the back of Diane's note (above) is a hundred dollar scan (not man, sadly). I belive this is the yearbook page of one of our DKult members? Don't we have Leon Olinger on the roll?

Many thanks Diane. Some stuff on its way to you.

Just when you thought Christmas was over….

 It's the report on the Barfa Spewart tacky Christmas gift swap!

Apparently it is a tradition for DK (spiritual and actual leader of DKULT and our own Trashpo queen) to organise an annual Barfa Spewart tacky Christmas gift swap.  I guess it's fair to say that DK has lapsed a bit, but this year it was on.  I'm not sure how I managed it, but somehow I was one of eight, I think, who sent gifts to fellow mail artists, to a vague yet specific tacky brief. I was paired with KDJ. 

Orlando is a long way from Ringshall, so I was fairly careful when choosing gifts.  KDJ took a more reckless approach.  Throwing caution to the wind, she settled on transforming a nutcracker by putting her crafty and (to some) tacky skills to the test. The package was large and expensive and KDJ was a bit worried that the sequins and gems might not make it in transport. KDJ needn't have worried, her glue-gunning held fast, the package wasn't dropped and all arrived safely!  What a wonder to behold!  I named him uncle santa.

 In England we pull those Christmas cracker things to get our jokes.  KDJ made sure I had some to keep me going until then...

And as if that weren't enough, she sent me some very on-trend and highly sought after washi tape for my birthday!  more, weight, more expense but so appreciated!

Another perk of being part of this amazing swap was getting a personalised, albeit gross, card from our leader, DK.

My take on the brief may have been a disappointment to KDJ… she got some dog biscuits with 'ho, ho, ho' on them, a hideous glittery tree ornament, some second hand knitted baubles that I couldn't resist from our local charity shop along with a hand-crafted fused plastic shower cap, that I ironed with KDJ in mind. The photo is KDJ's, unfortunately I deleted all that I took by accident, including a really fetching one of Lyra, my dog, wearing it, unwillingly!

Rousing mail art from DK counteracts jet lag lethargy

In no particular order, I give you what may be the perfect DK, DKULT campaign to combat travel lethargy.  I have been enveloped and am innoculated against humour failure, excess nostalgia, lack of confidence, divine intervention and of course, hoarding.

Aside: is this a piece of devotional NBS 3-scrapper work? 

 Does Diane really look like this and if so where is her nearest thrift store? 

 Back says: Dkulters unloading rations.  But I think this may be a typo, I think the contents may be medicinal (DKult trashpo travel innoculations.)

My quandry is whether I will be able to bring myself to D KLassify and D-ploy the DKULT Kontents into alternative forms.  Not only do I believe that other DKULTERS should be antidote recipients, I want to get inside DK's wacky brain and see where it takes me!