Introducing BEBOP

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

I will not be the one to mention the Talluminati. Oops, too late!

[Lüc da Schir]

How does it come? "Thread started by Iason Taiwos" but the only post I see is Cresti's one?

[Dr. Txec dal Nordselvă]

Because he deleted his post.

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

Nov 19, 2012 10:20:38 GMT -6 Dr. Txec dal Nordselvă said:

Because he deleted his post.

Yes. I forgot, its supposed to be a secret society. (Interested parties can PM me for details.)

[D. N. Vercáriâ]

You'll have to buy a fez and cheap booze by the pints... oops, I've said too much... blame it on the drinks.

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

Nov 19, 2012 15:42:46 GMT -6 D. N. Vercáriâ said:

You'll have to buy a fez and cheap booze by the pints... oops, I've said too much... blame it on the drinks.

Lucky you're an honorary member, Deet. Punishment for revealing any of the Orders secrets would normally entail being bastinadoed with a baguette, followed by a shameful fez tassle cutting ritual, wherein the member is symbolically severed from the Order. (By the way, it should be "cheap booze by the liter." ) ;D

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

Due to the overwhelming number of inquiries I've received asking for more details regarding BEBOP, it behoves me to present a brief description of the Order for the benefit of interested parties.
BEBOP: The Benitian Esoteric Brotherhood Of Peculiarists is an ancient mystical Order that traces its origins back to the Mystery Schools of Ancient Egypt.
LEGENDARY HISTORY OF THE ORDER
The Egyptian Pharoah Akhenaten, it is said, was, as a youth, exposed to the philosophies of a certain maverick priest called Ankh-af-Uliktyts. This priest espoused a particular philosophy he called "Peculiarism". While the particulars of this philosophy are not known, the radical changes the Pharoah made in Egypt during his reign are. In the spirit of "we are a nation, but a nation like no other, so therefore we don't have to act like any other nation", he decided to institute a monotheistic culture in Egypt, which went against the general polytheistic trends of the civilized nations of the time. (According to legend, Akhenaten so embraced "peculiarism", he extended its philosophies to his own gender, reportedly being the first man in history to take female hormones - hence the rather shapely and feminine appearance he takes on in the sculptures and bas-reliefs of him that have survived the centuries.)
The end of Akhenatens peculiarist experiment is well known, and Egypt returned to the same polytheism everyone else was doing at the time. But peculiarism didn't die, it went underground.
Somehow it survived, resurfacing among the Berbers of North Africa during the initial onslaught of the Islamic invaders. It remained an element of Berber culture throughout the centuries, as the Berbers struggled to maintain a distinct identity from the Arabian Muslims.

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

In the early '40s, a Berber immigrant (who had long been schooled in the peculiarist traditions of his forefathers) and sometime jazz musician, Bebo Parnassus, arrived in New York to pursue a career as a Harpo hornist for Cab Calloways Big Band. Bringing with him the secrets of Egyptian/Berber Peculiarism, Bebo made little headway in his musical career (despite having studied under Harpo Marx himself), but nonetheless managed to ingratiate himself with the hipster elite of the citys jazz community.
Bebo eventually found work with Dizzy Gillespie, who, while choosing not to utilize his musical abilities, put Bebo in charge of maintaining his musical instruments and wardrobe. Thusly, during the months he polished Dizzys brass and ran lint rollers over the trumpeters zoot suits, the two became close friends, and Bebo imparted much of his peculiarist wisdom he had learned to Dizzy.
At the time. Gillespie and a number of his cohorts were in the process of creating a new, revolutionary form of jazz, which was in part inspired by Bebos peculiarist teachings. Developed during the war years, when wax was rationed, this new style of jazz, once it made it to recordings, would seem to have sprung from nowhere. Listeners were stunned by this development in jazz, as it seemed to have simply appeared spontaneously. In truth, it developed slowly over a period of years.
Gillespie, one of the chief architects of this music, sat in his dressing room before a gig one evening, pondering what this new style of jazz might be called. As he pondered, he noticed a note had been left in the front pocket of his suit. According to tradition, it read:
"Hey boss, can you front me $10 til next week? Sincerely, Bebo P."
Thus, it is said, in tribute to his friend and employee, Dizzy decided to call his music "bebop".
Bebo eventually disappeared from the scene, resurfacing once in the early '50s when he was arrested for selling Charlie Parker heroin. It is believed he was eventually deported. Whatever happened to him, there was no doubt he was a crucial part in reviving Egyptian/Berber Peculiarism.
(Coming next: Modern history of BEBOP)

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

MODERN HISTORY OF BEBOP
Years before discovering Talossa, future citizen Iason Taiwos attended a concert by the legendary jazz musician Anthony Braxton in Pittsburgh. At the time, Taiwos had only heard of Braxton, but was unfamilar with the mans music, knowing only through his readings that Braxton was considered to be a "far out cat".
After sitting through the opening bands set, Taiwos wandered off in search of a place selling beer (the concert,an outdoor affair, was part of Pittsburghs annual "Arts Festival". A number of vendors had set up stands offering an array of fried foods and alcohol, And Taiwos had no trouble obtaining a cup of some locally brewed swill.) As he was returning to his seat, Taiwos accidentally bumped into an older, bespectacled black man who was carrying a musical instrument case and had a large number of loose papers stuffed under his arm. A few of the papers he was carrying fell to the ground, but the fellow, seemingly in a rush to get where he was going, didn't notice, and ignored Taiwos' calls to him. Taiwos gathered up the papers and returned to his seat.
As it turned out, the fellow he had bumped into was, in fact, Anthony Braxton. Taiwos sat through the concert, intending to return the papers to Braxton once the performance was over. Unfortunately, he never got the chance. Following the show, Braxton exited the stage as quickly as he had got on, and swiftly disappeared from the venue. Taiwos, by then half-drunk, decided to save the papers as a souvenir of the show, and peruse them thoroughly once he had sobered up.
The next day, somewhat hungover, Taiwos examined the documents the jazz musician had left behind. Most of it consisted of weird diagrams and musical notations. (Taiwos would later learn that the weird diagrams were, in fact, song titles, which he discovered as he learned more about Braxtons offbeat contributions to jazz.) Other documents were even stranger. There were allusions to "Berbers", "Egyptian Peculiarism", and a "secret Order". In time, Taiwos realized he had stumbled upon documents pertaining to an ancient secret society. From these documents he learned of Bebo Parnassus and the ancient mystical peculiarist connection with modern jazz.
These documents have lead to the creation of BEBOP, a modern Talossan organization devoted to preserving and perpetuating the ancient secrets of Egyptian/Berber Peculiarism. This organization has a legitimate pedigree, being authorized by a completely initiated member of the original society founded by Bebo Parnassus in 1943.
Membership in BEBOP is open to any Talossan sufficiently intelligent enough to realize that all the above is complete horseshit.

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

BEBOP - Talossas fiirst (and only) school of mystic wisdom! Join us!

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