by Travis Mateer

I have another fascinating book pairing (like this one) that came as a result of two books (pictured above) arriving on the same day at my studio, and it got me to thinking about the subject of “controlled opposition”. I’ll try and explain.

The little book with famous names on the cover, including Elvis, is bolstering the name of Cyril Wecht, a guy I talked to on the phone last month. I kept that conversation very short because…who am I? To a man who has assessed the corpse of Elvis, I am a buzzing little voice without a face on the other end of a phone talking about chokeholds and all the bruising a chokehold CANNOT PRODUCE on parts of the body that aren’t the fucking neck, or throat, or whatever technical term a famous pathologist would use.

How famous is Cyril Wecht anyway? Well, in the same spirit of having to GO TO the places in person to truly assess what’s happening, I think it’s important to PHYSICALLY HOLD the books telling the stories of famous people like Cyril Wecht, and the famous corpses he provides professional opinions on. Why? Because then you can see what OTHER famous people are saying, which starts creating a network of influence for a better feel of the type of influence we are talking about.

Now, you might be thinking I’m writing about this famous guy to somehow piggy-back on his fame to higher places. While I am using Wecht’s name to emphasize the cultural reach of the Stevenson family’s heritage in Pittsburgh, it’s the lower placement of another name that caught my attention.

No, not Sherlock Holmes–a FICTIONAL character I might add–but Mr. Dershowitz, who clearly has a high opinion of Mr. Wecht. Well, Mr. Mateer does NOT have a very high opinion of Mr. Dershowitz, and that’s because of two books by Ms. Webb.

These two volumes of ick are must-haves for any library dealing with corruption at the level I know I am dealing with, and because these books are so well-sourced, it didn’t take me long to find this little tidbit of context for our Mr. Dershy Pants:

The flashy powers of being a SHERLOCK character doesn’t impress me, it’s WHO this Sherlock uses his powers for, and who he does NOT, that I find more relevant to MY work, which includes obtaining an old Allegheny County demographic book from April, 1983, so I can juxtapose it with a photo from old “One Shot” Charles “Teenie” Harris.

Cyril Wecht called bullshit on the magic bullet theory that America was told took out the president pictured above, and I’m calling bullshit on ANYONE who is allowed the fame of mainstream platforms to play a part in fueling a speculative industry that idiots like me spend stupid money on studying and archiving.

Occult rituals involving a dead president and endless speculation can be a real downer, so that’s why I’m going to turn downer shit into a comedy skit masked as a walking tour and dress it up in a Mad Max aesthetic for a weaving of the personal with the historic, transforming mundane places like this into scenes of hilarity.

This is my grassy knoll where I came to the rescue of a drunk Indian woman with the same name as my now ex-wife by the building where United Way was housed and employing, at the time, a different woman who truly and impressively inspired my recent travels. Fucking hilarious.

If you would like to be a part of my test audience for the hybrid comedy-act/walking-tour I’m concocting, I have brochures being EXPRESS shipped to Zoom Town as I write these words, and will soon be placing them at some of my favorite places around the valley.

If you appreciate my tenacity for sniffing out whiffs of narrative control, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way support my shenanigans, or you can make a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!