THE GOLD THAT MAKES THE BROKEN WHOLE

BIZARRO AND THE BEAUTIFUL WEIRD-ASS ART OF HEALING IN THIS WORLD

Photo by Motoki Tonn on Unsplash

In the opening ceremonies of this year’s BizarroCon – an (up until recently) annual assemblage of beautiful weird-ass writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians, and other creative enthusiasts – about forty-five or fifty of us were gathered in the living room of the Ad House, a deliciously cozy hundred-year-old three-story Victorian once occupied by the owners of a work farm during the Great Depression.

This property is what eventually evolved into the McMenamin’s Edgefield in Troutdale, Oregon, where BizarroCon is almost religiously held. It’s a sprawling estate whose painful hardscrabble past has been transmogrified – through stunning floor-to-ceiling psychedelic art, visionary benevolence, and a shitload of incredibly well-spent money – into my absolute favorite place on this Earth. 

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: I apologize for the immense digression. The Edgefield has such power over me that I could easily write a whole goddam book about it. And probably will. As it stands, I spent practically half of BizarroCon giving art tours to my Bizarro friends, regaling them with stories of the colorful characters who lived, worked, and died there, now immortalized in the glorious paintings and quaint, comfy hotel rooms that lovingly bear their names.)

But back to our opening ceremonies. 

Rose O’Keefe is the CEO and editor-in-chief of Eraserhead Press, the flagship press of the Bizarro literary movement. She’s also been, since its inception, the driving force behind BizarroCon. And nobody’s worked harder to grow this field, or been more personally affected by the last several years of Covid and other misfortunes that wreaked havoc upon our community’s ranks. (This was our first full convention since 2019, at roughly half its former size.)

So it was a serious homecoming, in more ways than one. And as Rose gathered us together – laying down the scrupulous rules of engagement, and walking us through the mindblowingly funtastic schedule of creative shenanigans ahead – she took a moment to compare what we were doing to the Japanese art of kintsugi.

In kintsugi, a broken object – let’s say a ceramic bowl – is repaired with a mixture of lacquer and gold that brings the shattered pieces back together, and binds them with a golden seam that glowingly interweaves, leaving the bowl even stronger and more gorgeous than before.

This seemed particularly poignant when I looked at the sheer number of first-timers who had gathered with us on this fully-enchanted evening. They didn’t know what they were in for – how could they? – but their beaming smiles and glowing eyes made it clear they were eager for the magick to come.

And magick it was. WE HAD THE BEST FUCKING TIME! It was a nonstop whirlwind of creative engagement, with readings and workshops and music and laughter, stupefying performance and scintillating conversation, all graced and laced with immense intelligence, kindness, playfulness, respect, unbridled imagination and generosity of spirit.

Not to mention weird. LOTS AND LOTS OF WEIRD.

Which, to me, is the essence of Bizarro. In that sense, it was like we had never left.

And so I asked myself: are the new ones the glue that brings our scene back together, and we of the old guard are the broken shards? Or are we all broken shards – by which I mean all of humanity – and is it the pure unmitigated soul and heart and love and creativity that is the gold, bonding us, like God’s most hilarious grace, every time we get together?

Whatever the case, I felt like one of Bizarro founding father Carlton Mellick III’s great stacking dolls (from his book of the same name!), where the genre that transcends all genres came back to life inside a dead work farm that arose to rival Heaven in its loveliness on this earth. 

And I felt as if this might be the model for our broken world at large. Where we come together to seal the cracks with our fullest good faith and most boundless inspiration. 

To which I say: hallelujah and amen.

Cuz, baby? BIZARRO IS BACK!!!

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And speaking of boundless creative healing, THE GREAT DIVIDE is now up to 22% funded in less than a week (that’s $5,385 out of $25k, as of this writing). If you wanna help make this beautiful, hilarious thing happen, please feel free to chip in at the link below! It’s tax-deductible, AND cooler than fuck!

https://thegreatdividemovie.wedid.it/campaigns/12069-the-great-divide

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And finally, I just have to say goodbye to the very fine writer and my very good friend Weston Ochse, who passed away suddenly on Saturday. The news took us all entirely by surprise, and punched a big weeping hole right through me that I was in no way prepared for.

You always think you’ll have time for all the things that were left unsaid. I guess that’s what all those next lives are for.

In the meantime, please send all your love to our very good friend, the very fine writer and most excellent human Yvonne Navarro, who heartbrokenly survives him.

I love you, Yvonne. I am so, so sorry.

And I’m yelling this really loud, just to be sure he can hear me.

I FUCKING LOVE YOU, WES!!!