by Bruce Bauman
That’s it. What I’ve told you, every damn word is the truth as I seen and lived it. In the end, all I can say is the Savants, they was one magnificently biddy-bip-bip clan. I loved them, and damn, I miss them, even crazy Salome, and Alchemy most of all.
99
THE SONGS OF SALOME
Almost No Memory
Babydeath. Bodydeath.
Breaking apart.
Into the dark matter.
Goodbye, my sons,
goodbye.
I sing my songs no more.
100
THE MOSES CHRONICLES
Infinite Rest
The future that died that night is reborn each day in Alchemy’s eternal music—the man becoming the myth and the myth becoming the vision, singing through time.
Moses will travel to Orient Point. Alone.
He will pass the house where he was born but will not enter. He will walk along the shore where he was conceived. By the grave site of his brother and what was once his, and one day will be again.
He will fall.
His lips will close in a wry smile that turns suddenly sublime.
Above him are no stars. The moon not yet down. The sun not yet risen. The pink-blue-black dust swirls and becomes his sky. No ascent to heaven. No descent to hell. No more questions without answers. No more howls for meaning.
At last, and forever, peace.
APPENDICES
ALL THE CHARACTERS FIT TO PRINT
PRIMARY CHARACTERS in order of appearance
SALOME SAVANT (b. 1943) Artist.
MOSES TEUMER (b. 1958) History professor.
ALCHEMY SAVANT (b. 1971) Rock star.
AMBITIOUS MINDSWALLOW (b. Ricky McFinn, 1974) Founding member of the Insatiables.
LALUNA (MARIA APPELIAN) (b. 1990) Musician, muse, and mother.
PERSEPHONE SAVANT (b. 2013) Child of the Moon.
SECONDARY CHARACTERS alphabetically by first name
A (b. 1960) Czech exile living in Berlin. Friend of Salome.
ABSURDA NIGHTINGALE (b. Amanda Akin, 1968) Founding member of the Insatiables.
AKINS FAMILY Absurda’s family in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Sister: Heather, mother: Ginny, father: Jimmy, Sr.
ALEXANDER HOLENCRAFT (b. 1952) Founder of I, Me, Mine magazine. Coolhunter. Paramour of Salome’s.
AMY LOO (b. 1990) Cofounder of riteplay.com, which was funded by Alchemy.
ANDREW PULLHAM-LARGE (b. 1964) Oxford-educated Englishman. Cofounder of Surface-to-Air group that manages the Insatiables.
ART LEMCZEK (b. 1925) Alcoholic friend of Salome’s from Orient Point.
BEN BUTTERWORTH (b. 1935) Originator of RANT therapy. Moses and Alchemy’s therapist.
BERNARD RUGGLES (b. 1938) Salome’s doctor for more than thirty years at Collier Layne.
BLIND LEMON SOCRATES (b. 1914) Novelist, avant-garde filmmaker, friend of Nathaniel.
BOHEMIAN SCOFFLAW (b. circa 1964) Fictional 1960s radical.
BRYN SMITHSON (b. 1989) Pharmaceuticals saleswoman. Girlfriend of Mindswallow.
CAMILLE JAVAL (b. 1980) Actress in Paris by Night. Girlfriend of Mindswallow.
CARLOTTA SOLANO (b. 1985) Party planner. Wife of Mindswallow.
DEWEY WINSLOW (b. 1973) Partner with Elizabeth Borden in political management firm.
ELIZABETH BORDEN (b. 1980) Partner with Dewey Winslow in political management firm.
EVIE-ANNE BAXTER (b. 1982) Student at SCCAM. Musician.
FALSTAFFA (b. 1963) Bodyguard and roadie for the Insatiables.
FRANK PETERS (b. 1950) Art critic. Catalyst in securing Salome’s Hammer Museum exhibition.
FRANKY NOVALINO (b. 1974) Childhood friend of Mindswallow’s from Flushing.
GODFREY BARKER (b. 1979) High priest of the Church of Cosmological Kinetics.
GRETA GARBO (b. 1905) Actress.
GUS SAVANT (b. 1915) Farmer on Orient Point, Long Island. Salome’s father.
HANK FIELDING (b. 1938) Moses’s oncologist. BA in eighteenth-century English literature from Johns Hopkins.
HANNAH TEUMER (b. 1937) Lawyer with Bickley & Schuster. Mother of Moses. Wife of Malcolm.
HEINRICHA VON PRIEST (b. 1966) Lead singer of the Wannaseeyas in Berlin. Friend of Salome.
HILDA SAVANT (b. 1920) Salome’s mother.
HUGO BOLLATANSKI (b. 1965) Lawyer and boyfriend of Absurda.
JACK CROUSE (b. Date uncertain) Movie actor. Friend of Laluna. Member of the Church of Cosmological Kinetics.
JAY BERNES (b. 1967) Art consultant. Moses’s wife. Gifter of the Book of J.
KIM DOOLEY (b. 1973) Paralegal. Law school education was funded by the Insatiables. Later their legal council.
KYLE (b. 1941) Childhood friend of Salome’s who died in a car accident.
LABAN LIVELY (b. 1920) Friend of Malcolm Teumer and William Bickley, Sr. Worked for OSS and CIA.
LESLIE TALLENT (b. 1940) Art critic and Salome’s first champion.
LEVI FURSTENBLUM (b. 1917) Author of Chambers of Commerce and Mystical Mistakes. Holocaust survivor.
LILY FAIRMONT (b. 1928) Salome’s Los Angeles gallerist.
LOUISE URBAN VULTER (b. 1968) Radio talk-show host. Senator from Arizona.
LUX DELUXE (b. Lionel Bradshaw, 1969) Founding member of the Insatiables.
MALCOLM TEUMER (b. 1921) Father of Moses. Husband of Hannah.
MARCEL DUCHAMP (b. 1887) Artist and chess player.
MARLENE PASSANT (b. 1956) French writer, gallerist, and supporter of Salome.
MARTY (b. 1970) Bodyguard and roadie for the Insatiables.
McFINN FAMILY from Flushing, Queens. Sister: Bonnie, brother: Lenny.
MURRAY GIBBON (b. 1935) Gallerist. Salome’s longtime art dealer.
MYRON HORRWICH (b. 1932) Conceptual artist and early lover of Salome’s.
NATHANIEL BROCKTON (b. 1937) Political activist. Salome’s longtime companion.
PARNELL PALMER (b. 1980) Government investigator with the Committee on Anti-American Activities.
PHILIP BENT (b. 1947) Lead singer of British band The Baddists. Alchemy’s father.
RAPHAEL URSO (b. 1930) Poet and friend of Nathaniel and Salome.
ROBERT SLOCUM (b. 1960) Dean of Moses’s department at SCCAM.
SHEIK FAMILY (b. Sheikstein) Founders of Kasbah Records, the Insatiables’ first record company. Buddy (b. 1945), Randy (b. 1948), and Walter (b. 1953)
SIDONNA CHERRY (b. Date unknown—and likes it that way) L.A.-based detective.
SILKY TRESPASS (b. 1976) Member of Come Queens. Lead guitarist of the Insatiables 2004–08. Played with Absurda in the Mendietas.
SOMERSBY (b. 1953) Friend of Salome’s when she lived in Virginia.
SPENCER FRIEBERG (b. 1988) Cofounder of riteplay.com, which was funded by Alchemy.
STEPHAN SONTAG (aka Shockula, b. 1921) Salome’s first therapist at Collier Layne.
SUE WARFIELD (b. 1960) Beverly Hills native. Cofounder of Surface-to-Air group that managed the Insatiables.
TRUDY CHAMOUN (b. 1963) Former photographer. Yoga instructor who lives in Jerome, Arizona.
TRYX (b. 1960) Dutch curator and late-life lover of Salome.
WILLIAM (BICKS) BICKELY, SR. (b. 1893) Founding partner of Bickley & Schuster. Conservator of Salome’s estate.
WILLIAM (BILLY) BICKELY, JR. (b. 1926) Partner in Bickley & Schuster. Second conservator of Salome’s estate.
WILLIAM BICKLEY III (b. 1956) Partner in Bickley & Schuster.
XTINE BLACK (b. 1940) Photographer. Lover/friend of Salome. Lives in Chelsea Hotel.
Z (b. 1959) Czech exile living in Berlin. Friend of Salome.
ZOOEY BELLOWS (b. 1982) Salome’s last doctor at Collier Layne.
THE INSATIABLES DISCOGRAPHY
RELEASE DATES
1993–1994 (single in ’93; CD in ’94)
More (Is Never Enough) (CD and song)
• “Chicks and Money” (’93)
• “Face Time Is the Right Time”
• “Licentio
us to Kill”
• “I Wanna Be Seen (at the Scene)”
• “Futurific”
1996
The Insatiables Get Large (CD)
• “Get Large”
• “Papa’s Gun”
• “Eight Is Just Enuf” (sung by Absurda Nightingale & Alchemy)
• “Saturnalia on My Lap”
• “Black Holes and Bum Fucks”
• “Loverrs”
1998
Blues for the Common Man (CD and song)
• “No Destiny”
• “Invisible Party”
• “The Ruling Class”
• “E Pluribus Unum Wampum/(Money, That’s What I Want)”
• “The Sleep of Faith”
2000
Multiple Coming (CD and song)
• “Six Times Tonight”
• “No Master, No Messiah”
• “Adam and Lilith”
• “Zim Zum Blues”
• “Eve of Deconstruction”
Recorded in 2000, 2001; released in 2003
The Noncommittal Nihilists for Nuthin’ (CD)
• “La Pantera Rosa (Falstaffa Nights/Martian Days)”
• “Friendsy for You”
• “Fuck Like a Woman” (sung by Absurda Nightingale)
• “You Coulda Been but You Ain’t”
• “The Nihilist’s Prayer”
• “Outrage … Big Deal”
• “Mystic Fool” (added after Absurda’s death)
U.S. Tour 2003–2004
Euro Tour 2005–2006
2006
Dieseasee (Alchemy, Silky, and Lux; Mindswallow on about half the tracks)
• “Dieseasee”
• “Knot My Neck”
• “The Meth House Around the Corner”
• “Viagral Newmoanya”
• “Mysteries and Enemies”
2008
The Great Awakening (their last studio record)
• “Saturnalia Gone Down”
• “Exile’s Revenge”
• “Shake, Shimmy, and Shibboleth”
• “Hungrier, Harder, Sadder”
• “Too Free to Be Free”
• “A Theist Falls”
2012, recorded in 2010
More or Less, Alive (Mindswallow rejoins; Laluna joins)
• “Live at the Grand Canyon”
• “Beat Attitudines”
2016
Oeuvre and Out (boxed set)
Two new songs:
• “The Harmony of Doing Nothing”
• “Savant Sensation Bluz”
OTHER PROJECTS
1970
Fast Enough (the Baddists)
1975
Chain Saw Disco Massacre (the Baddists)
1989
The Slo Learners (Absurda and Alchemy’s first band)
1991
I’m Your Black Doorman (cowritten by Alchemy; recorded by the Hip Replacements)
1997
Puttin’ the PFunk in FPunk (Lux Deluxe solo album)
Down on Me (the Come Queens, guerrilla-girl band with Absurda, Silky Trespass, Dress Shields)
1999
Mah Dude Was a Slut from Tulsa (and He Made a Slut Outta Me) (recorded by Tammy “No Win” Flynn aka Absurda, and Jimmy “Bad Breath” Davis aka Alchemy; written by Alchemy)
2007
Songs for Pedestrian Tastes (CD of cover songs done by Mindswallow)
Alchemy, American Style (Alchemy solo; ltd. edition vinyl EP)
“Goin’ Down with George” (single released in ’04; backed with “Between Iraq” and “My Heart Place”)
“Dyin’ to Be Your Hero”
“Zombie” (cover of Fela)
“I Ain’t a Marchin’ Anymore” (cover of Phil Ochs)
“Fixin’ to Die Blues” (cover/mashup of Bukka White and Country Joe tunes)
“Whitey on the Moon” (cover of Gil Scott-Heron)
“Once I Was a Soldier” (cover of Tim Buckley)
“American Ruse” (cover of MC5)
2009, 2013–2015
Ferricide (Mindswallow’s heavy metal band)
Smeltdown (2009, CD)
Pedd-o-file (Performance-Enhanced Death Drugs) (2013, CD)
Ferricoshus (2015, CD) (with Alchemy uncredited on “Irony’s Maiden”)
2015–2016
Chansons (Alchemy and Laluna) (only as download; no vinyl or CD)
• “Liquid Love”
• “Mirror Me”
• “Dreaming Double/Nightmaring Alone”
• “The Harmony of Being One as Two”
2009–2018
33 Visitations (recorded but never released by Alchemy)
SALOME SAVANT CV
REBIRTHDAY
September 21, 1966
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Mystagogy
Advanced degrees in Sanity—Collier Layne Institute of Mental Depravation, various dates
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1965 ARTillery. Street Side Gallery, New York
1966 Art Is Dead. Central Park/Murray Gibbon Gallery, New York
1969 Do Not Disturb. Murray Gibbon Gallery, New York
1971 This Is Not a Pipedream. Dream and Listen. Video; Gibbon/Documenta
1976 Flowers, Feminism, and Fornication. Murray Gibbon Gallery, New York
1982 Women of the Scourge (and One Day Myth of Fine Arts). Murray Gibbon Gallery, New York
1985 The Berlin Wall Burning. Performance/sculpture; West Berlin
1995 My Head IS Different. Lily Fairmont, Los Angeles
1998 The Beauty of My Weapons. Gibbon-Passant, New York; Lily Fairmont, Los Angeles
2008 Pillzapoppin’ and Electroshock Ladyland installations Baddist Boy collages. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
2011 Electronic Fire. Special installation; Art Basel Miami
2013 Remembrance of Things Past and Future. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
2020 Myths and Mystagogues. Whitney Museum, New York (she does not attend)
CREDITS
1: that week I was dying too.
Grace Paley, “Living” (1974)
2: a man got to have a code.
Omar Little, The Wire (2006)
3: The sleeper is the proprietor of an unknown land.
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (1937)
4: foul dust
“Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it was what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
5: a new screaming comes across the sky.
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), first sentence
6: the little pleasures of life
Wassily Kandinsky (1913)
7: Don’t mess with the Wongs
Richard Price, The Wanderers (1974)
8: have mercy on the man who doubts what he’s sure of
Bruce Springsteen, “Brilliant Disguise,” Tunnel of Love (1987)
9: his bloodless aged lips
He suddenly approached the old man in silence and softly kissed him on his bloodless aged lips. That was all his answer.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
10: Someday you will ache like I ache
Courtney Love, “Doll Parts,” Live Through This (1994)
11: the ceremony of innocence is drowned
William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming” (1919)
12: You don’t own me
John Madara and David White, “You Don’t Own Me,” recorded by Lesley Gore (1963)
13: to the time with you to keep me awake and alive
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive
Peter Gabriel, “In Your Eyes,” So (1986)
14: The impossib
le is the least that one can demand.
But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least one can demand—and one is, after all, emboldened by the spectacle of human history in general and American Negro history in particular, for it testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible.
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963)
15: imminent peril threatening you and all the faithful
It is the imminent peril threatening you and all the faithful which has brought us hither. From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth.
Pope Urban II, speech at Council of Clermont on the capture of the Holy Lands by the Seljuk Turks (1095)
16: One can look back a thousand years easier than forward fifty.
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (1888)
17: And don’t be late. Don’t be late.
If I don’t meet you no more in this world then
I’ll meet you in the next one
And don’t be late
Don’t be late
Jimi Hendrix, “Voodoo Child,” Electric Ladyland (1968)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Over the many years that this book came to life, I depended upon the critical insight and support of so many friends. I am grateful to them all. There are many more—and they know who they are—who have my unending gratitude.
