MinXus Mail Bag: Blaster Al Ackerman homage from Dustin Hamby aka Dustin de Wind (Austin, Texas, USA)

Santa Claus head mummified with rubber bands by Dustin “Ray” Hamby aka Dustin De Wind (Austin, Texas, USA)

Among many individuals who chose to express their talents through mail-art as established by Ray Johnson, Blaster Al Ackerman is a major figure. His work, notably his fiction, has circulated in the Eternal Network for decades. He has gained a large audience albeit “underground.”

If it had not been for the decline of the pulps, Ackerman might have been a sci fi/mystery/thriller writer with a propensity toward the avant garde such as Jim Thompson or Philip K. Dick.  Instead, he has pioneered new forms and genres becoming a true “correspondence artist.” We can only hope that someday David Zack’s correspondence novels will be more easily available. Blaster’s work has been gathered in an omnibus edition, although it can only be, as they say, the tip of the iceberg:

http://www.normals.com/publications.html

A reliable source tells us that at his peak, Ackerman was using approximately 18 different pseudonyms in the network. Along with Zack and Istvan Kantor, Ackerman translated the tradition of author pseudonyms into quasi-postmodern theory through Neoism, which at its core questions accepted views of the self and individual.

Dustin is clearly having fun with this piece, and it took us a while to make sure this was not an authentic Blaster Al piece. He is also responding to the play and freedom of the multiple identity concept as well as Blaster Al’s numerous identities. The truth, the facts about Blaster Al are sometimes obscure due to the myths he invented and the hoaxes he perpetrated. The collective attempt to make Neoism undefinable and impossible to place in categories has only thickened the fog. This link, we are reasonably sure, leads to some accurate biographical facts:

http://www.thetruevinerecordshop.com/www/blaster%20interview%20info.htm

Blaster Al homage mail-art by Dustin Hamby (Austin, Texas, USA)

Well, we know it is Dustin but certainly appreciate his homage to one of the great masters and someone who not only believed in but lived the dream of an alternative culture outside the constraints of societies and institutions.

The MinXus-Lynxus David Zack Investigation led us to the discovery of one very sad truth: Blaster Al is currently very ill and unable to answer correspondence at this time. We hope all Tenderfoots will join us in thinking positive thoughts for the Blaster and wishing him well. Obviously, his work goes on.