Frank Arrington Then until Now

"Vocalize your thoughts Conspirasteve".. Frank Arrington circa 1993.

These words have rang eternal in my skull since the day they were uttered from Frank that August afternoon, We were sitting  at Captain Ankeny's on standby, drinking beer.( yes dear readers, we were on the clock)  discussing the difference in philosophies of Locke and Descartes. Empiricism Vs. Rationalism.. I was having trouble explaining my positions when he released those four words.Four words of devastation. Since that moment on, I have strived to achieve the dream of actually realizing that goal. It changed the way i approached music, art, and relationships in general. So simple a request, so profound the demand..

This is the way in which Frank would affect people in his life. He would  simply asking devastating questions about our own private existentialism. We would scoff, try to move on, try to forget, Yet like truth of any kind,  it   persists. Until I or you have exhausted all excuses f or not confronting the obvious truths about ourselves, our intentions, our stances on various positions and to be honest our worthiness to be his friend.
Of these challenges, to make me think about myself as it relates to the whole of the world and to others in my life, was unique to him. No other friend has challenged me as hard, while simultaneously drinking me under the table.

 Frank, I have missed you in my life since you moved away. You were a better friend than I. You would call me hopped up on "wine" sitting in your cabin in the woods, trying hard not to emulate Sam L Jackson's character from Black Snake Moan. (I'm pretty sure it was moonshine) Thank you for laughing when i let you know my racially insensitive comparison. I figured it was OK since you have been calling me a peasant since day one. I would be too busy to talk and i am so sorry. /I missed you the day you left my house last winter to get on  that airplane back to Chicago., We all did and do, now and forever.

I among many, am blessed to have known the The doctor/thespian/jazz critic/philosopher/bike messenger/punk rocker/drinking buddy and best friend known as Frank Arrington Thank you for being in my life Frank. I'm a better man because of you.

If you are where we all hope you are, please smack whitey and Mike Douglas in the face for me, BEFORE giving them a hug....

RIP buddy.

Mystery of theToilet Bowl Revealed

I would like to offer congratulations to our brilliant, yet humble and possibly drunk readership.  Because once more, left clicking onto our verbose and bravado filled blog has filled yours truly with joy and left our enemies dismayed. But enough I say. Enough! It is time to dispense with our much maligned soliloquy for the serious business of science!

While I, Conspirasteve, have been preoccupied with other endeavours, including, but not limited to: Extreme pogo sticking, heckling body surfers and yelling at concrete. A little known "clique" in the Conspirasteve Nation have been "tirelessly" investigating the above title. I have been informed that these experiments were conducted in a controlled environment, possibly a clean room, most likely a hotel room and a bathroom. Rumors of single malt scotch impeding the progress is being investigated. None the less! Our internal auditing is of no consequence to you, our patient yet highly stylistic readership. The time for truth or consequence is upon us!

While stationed in our previous headquarters in the Northern hemisphere (herein referred to as PHQ), there was some debate amongst various factions of the Conspirasteve Nation regarding which direction the toilet bowl would "swirl". Now that we are ensconced in the new and marginally improved HQ, located in the Southern hemisphere (herein known as the HQ.New Style), we are ready to put it to the test.

While the author of this esteemed blog has at times taken some extreme positions on various issues TRUTH will not be, and shall not be a position in which we shall "opine". There are some absolutes in this world, my insouciant yet heavily burdened readers! These are "body surfing bad, tacos good" type scenarios which are immutable. With these positions in mind, and without further ado, we at last present the findings of of the Conpirasteve Nation's "Mystery of the Toilet Bowl Revealed" findings:

 Yes indeed, the toilet bowl swirls in the clockwise rotation here in the HQ New Style as apposed to the PHQ's standard counterclockwise swirl!!! 

With these findings, we here at Conpirasteve Nation, deeply buried within the Bunker of Truth(tm), do heap congratulations upon EZ E's mom for correctly predicting the outcome of our months long experiment! To borrow from the local patwa: Good on ya mate.

Up next! :  In-laws and out-laws, a case study in duality.

Bunker of Truth:

"I don't feel tardy", David Lee Roth; Hot for teacher, Van Halen 1984.


Greetings and salutations dear readers. There has been some consternation among the Conspirasteve  nation's beloved yet insousant readership regarding the prolific nature, or lack there of, of  highly gregarious dispatches from abroad. Yes, indeed dear readership. it's a testament to the IQ level of such an astute readership that these charges that would be laid against the beloved, yet mildly disdained author of said blog.I, at this time would like to offer a humble 'my bad'. While i will conceed sloth is a contributing factor to the lack of postings, not all is what seems!

Of course it would come as no shock that there would be elements in  western society that would like nothing more than to quash the rebellious forces of truth, wisdom and beer!  It has been said that the rot of a nation, nay, the downfall could be directly related to the constriction of ideas,,,nay,, truth from the body politic as a whole. Who could be these villains that could so wantonly and viciously trample on the rights that should be bestowed upon us from our birth??? The insidious forces that are actively conspiring against the Conspirasteve nation are legion dear readers, While i'm not allowed to name names so to speak, these forces of generosity and evil go hand in hand,... The Conspirasteve nation has unfortunately come under attack by the forces of censorship! Indeed. from this moment on , all  dispatches will be brought to you from the newly erected Bunker of Truth T.M.

Do not fear dear readers. I will find a way in the near future to drink, hold council with said drink, and even possibly reveal once and for all the Mystery of the Toilet Bowl!

 We will not be silenced!

White Devil.

"History has shown, that the white man is the Devil"
Malcolm X

Greetings Dear -pure-as-the-driven-snow-yet-black-as-your-soul readership.
Congrats on finding your way onto my auspicious, yet humble blog once again.
I'm finding it a little difficult to sleep in my new "environs" , to use the parlance of another time. Why, you may ask, would the Conspirasteve Nation be left sleepless in the cocoon of paradise that we have found ourselves in? Alas, the culprit would not be found in an alternate climate in which we prevously  resided.

Once again, we at Conspirasteve Nation have added another enemy to the ever growing list of vile vicious villains in which to heap scorn upon...As we all know my brilliant readership. there can be no ying without the yang, Good without the evil, so on and so forth. So it should not have been a great shock to us that we would come across the White Devil of Paradise. None other than Cacatua Galarita...or most commonly known as the Cockatoo.

While these handsome birds fly effortless through the sky during the day without a voice or care in the world; apparently these White winged Devils like to congregate at the window of the Conspiriasteve bed chamber at dawn every morning screeching at each other as if they were feral house cats fighting over a carcass of mouse, whilst reaching the decibel level of a low flying Boeing 767.

Ah curse you Cacatua Galarita....... Curse you!!

Coming soon: The mystery of the toilet bowl revealed!

Conspirasteve down under

Greetings and salutaions dear reader.. After much ballyhoo and bravado being spouted from yours truly via a  rival blog. We here at Conspirasteve nation have finally got our act together to create our very own . At this time i  would like to welcome all who have found the courage, nay, the cojones to click on to this auspiciously titled yet completely prescient web-page The proverbial self pat on the back is in order at this time.................done?.... ok we'll wait.. As the title suggests, we are about to relocate our inner sanctum of round table discussion forums to newer, possibly better, but completely foreign climes, Sydney, NSW Australia.  .

This site is an attempt by the Conspirasteve nation to document our new environment as we attempt to navigate a new and potentially exciting new culture from the "Land Down Under", so aptly described by the seminal 80's band Men At Work.

Please feel free to check-in now and again  to get the full "skinny", (to use the parlance of our time ), from the "land down under".

Conspirasteve