Boston Mass Recital

Using washroom-based channelling techniques I have accessed some of the words of the song (do the) boston mass… There is a mama cass rhyme in there. And long strings of seemingly random rhymery, eg. ‘I’d light a fire if I had a match / I’d dress as a pirate if I had a patch / I’d throw a ball if I could catch / I’d lay an egg if I could hatch / I’d open a window if I had a latch / I’d build a roof if I could thatch…’; and ‘you’re gonna have to stand up when you land on your ass / you’re gonna have to ham it up when the’ve canned all the laughs / you’re gonna need a candle when they’ve turned off the gas / you’re gonna need a pratfall when they’ve banned all the gaffs…’ . Pretty inane stuff and devoid of much relevant meaning, it would seem. Perhaps I am channelling the wrong song…

In Reply

This is a lot to digest. I will take one thing at a time, if I can slow my excited mind enough to do so. First item: mass singer. I have operated on the assumption she was purely a dream guide, and was nonrationally working on the basis that she is Sadsack. However, as I have said before, who knows whether I dreamt of her then awoke to the morning light cat noises, or met her, then fell asleep and dreamt of the cat. In which case perhaps you are right, and she is a real UK operative.

The Religious Studies student theory has much going for it – the RS/Mass link in particular. I’m now working on the basis that you’re correct. I haven’t seen her again since dispite several nights frequenting the usual bars. She may resurface when I least expect it.

Second Item: Droitwich Fix. This is a central tenet of self-sufficiency. For every item its use. Throw nothing away! There is no ‘throw away’. Tin cans planted under apple trees to improve the yield. Old sewage outflow pipe rescued from the sea for a chimney. I am sure the inner handicraft core will be well aware of this from years of living on the edge; on the border. I feel the term probably refers both to this and also to the heavy duty stitch. It is a perfect name the soft core would choose for such a ‘fix stitch’.

I await diagrams, images and drawings.

Droitwich Fix

Enlightening wool knowledge there. I now wonder how wool knows which way is inside and which way is outside, and thus which way its heat transferring properties are to be implemented.One thing I forgot to mention - my initial suspicion regarding the girl you came across singing about 'Boston Mass' was that she was Costa, possibly on a recreuitment drive in the UK, or else meeting a connection there and filling in time playing solo spots as some kind of coded call to arms to any UK followers she may have.

However, in light of the BSS Ca-nad/lafon-ian tour, it seems unlikely she would be in the UK sans band, unless she was undertaking some low-key gig practice to work on her solo performance skills prior to the tour dates. It is entirely possible that she is no longer in the band, having trained them to function autonomously, though possbly still receiving her instruction from afar.

Another explanation as to the identity of the Boston Mass singer is that she is the religious studies student who had assocations with Costa in the '90s. She was known to be UK-based (at least during her studies) so would no doubt have acquaintances there- people who could provide her with shelter and find her work if needed. The fact she sings of some kind of 'mass' suggests that she is/was religiously minded, possibly abandoning Christianity or whatever her denomination was, in favour of some more fringe-based belief system. I certainly don't think she is connected to the religious right dogsquad, but I may be wrong.

Perhaps she is in the UK to locate contacts in the Droitwich reason (the theory was mentioned to this investigator that the 'Droitwich Fix' is a specialist stitching method used for heavy-duty repair work when a woven object's lifespan seems othewise at an end. A variation of this theory is that the term 'Droitwich Fix' refers to using an otherwise impaired object to serve a function different to that it was originally designed for - ie. using an old hat which no longer fits the owner's head as a tea-cosy, or fashioning a steel-bodied guitar from a broken oil drum (something this investigator has personally seen evidence of). Such things could be examples of the Droitwich Fix.

Either way, this theory, as put to this investigator, identifies the Droitwich Fix as a method of extreme object salvage when all other hope seems lost - something out on the edge of the repair/reuse/recycle culture which has been subordinated and marginalised by modern capitalism and its constant promise of shiny new goods to those who subscribe to its culture.

Timeline

Timeline has now been produced, ranging from formation of the earth through the pre-cambrian, the cambrian, the pleistocene, the age of atlantis, into the dawning of the age of aquarius, to current modern times, taking in the construction of the water-weathered sphinx and the great pyramids, calanais and stonehenge, the guidestones, and the assumed beginning of construction of soft Michigan. Also taking in Ronald Searly’s poetry competition and the often forgotten ‘bin-fire’ incident, of 1982, at which the probably teenage Searly claimed no involvement in said bin-fire. An incident in which I have great interest.

The main new lead I have from laying out known knowns upon an axis of time, is as follows:
In the mid nineties, a Canadian Religious Studies student went from North America to the UK, and there left a map of the great lakes seemingly questioning the location of ‘Keegan and Rosta’ (Regan and Costa). Previously we had surmised that this implied a disappearance of Regan and Costa at that time (in advance of the main soft core disappearance around 2005).

However, it was not until 2004 that material was released by Broken Social Scene, which we know to have been penned by Costa. Three theories could explain this. Either, Costa disappeared in the 90’s, but her material was in the hands of the Toronto music scene before then, later being released by BSS, or Costa disappeared in the 90’s but nonetheless disseminated material to BSS after her disappearance, OR Costa did not ‘disappear’ in the nineties at all. On this third theory, which I favour, the following scenario is possible:

The Canadian RS student, possibly already acquainted with Costa (and Regan) directly or indirectly, is seeking out Costa and Regan, in the UK. She travels there specifically to find them. Whether she succeeds or not is unclear. Costa, possibly with Regan, possibly also with the Canadian RS student, returns to Michigan, and is involved in ensuing road trip activity as part of the beginnings of the soft Michigan project. Costa is also involved with the Toronto music scene directly or indirectly, in years/months directly leading up to the 2004 release of her material by BSS. It is then not until 2005 that Costa becomes untraceable, either from retreating into Soft Michigan, or else from going ‘underground’ to evade various groups, eg. military Project 31 operatives.

I must however check dates suggested by recent Boston contacts including Zac Happy. Did anybody disappear in the 90’s? Melody? When did Zac say the travelling mix-tape couple stopped coming by? When did he say the road trip activity began?

From Kojak asa400

The attached image is from Harry Delacroix. The reference to Keegan and Rosta is clearly either an accidental or deliberate misnaming of Regan and Costa. Harry claims the map is from the personal belongings of a Canadian-born Religious Studies student who spent a few semesters in one of the new ‘prefab’ universities in the UK, in the late 1990s. A contact of Harry’s got the map from the R.S. undergraduate’s washbag while canvassing her halls of residence for an RPG club. He also claims to have seen an abundance of knitting paraphernalia in the room, and a Joni Mitchell album sleeve pinned to the wall, with ‘joni for ever’ written in the bottom corner in biro. Apparently, the undergrad was forced to abandon one course unit because some of her theories were too far out for the professors. She reportedly told them: ‘I can prove this’…
The ‘where have they gone?’ question on the map possibly refers to Regan and Costa rather than the larger disappearance circa 2005, if the dating to the late 90’s for this artefact is correct. Unless it refers to something else altogether.