Day: September 10, 2021

by Travis Mateer

Wow.

What I’m about to describe just happened.

Around 11pm I was walking to a food truck in downtown Missoula when a young woman started yelling at a police car as it sped by. She was yelling because the back door on the driver’s side was cracked open as it sped south toward the Rhino.

I thought I was joking when I told the young woman to stop yelling because we might be witnessing a new police tactic.

Well…

I decided to follow the cop car and sure enough there were officers in the back of the cruiser cracking the door in anticipation of dismounting their steel steed.

The cruiser stopped at the entryway to Caras Park. Two other cruisers were parked further west, on Fronts street, near an empty car. One of the cruisers sped off, wheels screeching.

With the action seemingly moved elsewhere, I approached the crowd and spoke with an eye witness, who made a point to tell me he wasn’t drunk, since he just got off work. Apparently, according to this bearded man, some guy was belligerent and the cops were called to deal with him. In fact, the offending dude demanded that people call the cops on him.

That’s it.

I know it’s the eve of the greatest terrorist attack ever pulled off with boxcutters, but c’mon, boys in blue, that’s fucking ridiculous.

Also, I’m emailing the PIO to get a comment on whether or not what I witnessed tonight is an approved police tactic.

by Travis Mateer

While I work on a more formal essay about Synchro-Mysticism and non-traditional spiritual awakening, I wanted to share some insights today about how I approach the use of synchronicities.

An easy way for anyone to begin this kind of inquiry is to see the personal resonance of a seeming coincidence as a curiosity primer for further inquiry. Let me explain with an example.

A few months ago I drove to Spokane and on that drive I listened to every Aesop Rock album I own. One of those albums is from the Hail Mary Mallon collaborative.

The more I listened to that album the more I started wondering WHO IS THIS MARY MALLON? Then, while trying to locate an antique store, I turned onto MALLON street. Ok, I thought, time to use the search engine.

And that’s when I discovered Mary Mallon is the full name of the historical figure known as Typhoid Mary.

I won’t get into the insights this synchronicity produced because I want to shift to a recent focus of my local research: the chapel of the dove at the Wilma.

While I wait for a book I found online to arrive about the eccentric chapel in the bowels of the Wilma, I want to share a few tidbits from a conversation I had earlier today with a guy I ran into who ACTUALLY WORKED as the elevator operator.

I’m hoping to interview this guy because the history he has in his head isn’t documented anywhere yet. He recalls the eccentric Edward Sharp and the flow of the Clark Fork in such proximity to the Wilma that empty champagne bottles could be chucked from higher floors into the river.

I’ll leave it there for now. Have a great weekend!

by Travis Mateer

Uh oh, you might be thinking, this blogger is so excited to signal the NEVER FORGET two decade long commemoration moment that marked the global roll-out of the war on terrorism that he jumped the gun a day early.

Nope.

Today’s post is a reminder that 20 years ago today the poetically evasive shit-heel (who helped get Monsanto’s acquired poison eventually known as Aspartame to market) announced to the world that he his war machine couldn’t account for a few TRILLION dollars.

On September 10, 2001, then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disclosed that his department was unable to account for roughly $2.3 trillion worth of transactions. The next day, the U.S. sustained the terrorist attacks that changed the world, and this startling revelation was forgotten.

The following day this existential poet of the English language had a NEW NORMAL to preside over, one that didn’t have time for a measly 2.3 TRILLION dollars unaccounted for.

If you’re confused about why I keep referring to Donald Rumsfeld as a poet, that’s probably because you don’t own a copy of his existential verses (compiled by Hart Seely) like I do.

So here’s a poem from Donald Rumsfeld, and not one of the more quoted ones, like the one about KNOWN KNOWNS.

BAD NEWS DAY

I'm not into the news business.
I'm into informing,
And developing,
Understanding,
Backgrounding,
And all of that.
I'm not into hard news.