Shooting Stars, Part Five
“The comic and the tragic lie inseparably close, like light and shadow.” Socrates
Scn is designed to seduce Us to relentlessly seek something that never was and never will be; “The State of……..”. Scn was also designed to instill the fear in Us that if we didn’t do it right we would never get “IT”. Scn is a Spiritual Pyramid Scheme—the “Ship” is gonna come in some day and the more you put in, between now and then, the sweeter and bigger your piece of the pie will be; if you get out now, or are thrown out, you’re gonna miss "The Boat". Scn is a Spiritual Ponzi Scheme—the big “Payoff” is always just around the corner—the bigger your “Stake”, the bigger your “Payoff”.
Ultimately, none of Us did anything wrong; that’s why we are here…Now…with our Hearts and Voices.
Part Five
LRC’s POS Legacy, The Begat’s
“And Thus, POS Begat The Photo Shoot Org”
After the Atlantic Crossing El Ron continued Hisself’s “PR Area Control” program of using the Stars to “Wowie Zowie” the local rubes. Problem was, the Apollo was now in the Caribbean and, not only was the local music scene not interested in Hisself’s “New Sound” while watching white people dance, the locals were better musicians than all but a handful of the Stars. When the Apollo established a quasi Homeport in Willemstad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, the Stars pretty well just faded away.
But, in the Stars, LRC had seen “The Light” and Hisself’s future; El Ron The Producer, El Ron The Director was going to make Millions! The Stars had given Hisself the formula; put something together—no matter how trashy, flashy and glossy—and “Market” “It” to Scns and they’ll by it, whether they need it or want it, as it’s “New” and comes from El Ron. The profit margin was obscenely large as El Ron had access to virtually slave labor and the authority to dictate Hisself’s desired Royalty Percentage to PUBS Orgs.
For the next Opus Nauseous Cashflowess, LRC returned to Hisself’s tried and true old reliable…new books…new books that Hisself wouldn’t even have to take the time to write. LRC’s slaves could compile the books from already extant writings and enclose the extant writings in a wrapper of new verbiage written by slaves and copyrighted by LRC under Hisself’s name. Slaves would do all of the work, from the Compiling/Writing to Design/Layout to Sales/Distribution. And, in the end, LRC would collect a usury royalty as PUBS Orgs would have to buy as many of the books as they were told to and LRC had no personal exposure to one penny of the Hard and Soft Costs. The “Volunteer Minister’s Handbook” and “What is Scientology” were to be the first in a stream of “New” books.
These new “LRH” books would feature a never before seen personal touch from LRC—the books would be full of “Beautiful” photographs taken by El Ron Hisself. LRC ordered thousands of dollars of new Photography equipment, selected a handful of Commodores Messengers as “Photo Shoot Messengers” and commandeered the RPF as Hisself’s set, make-up and production crew. The act of sectioning off a number of the CMO for the photo shoots created the impetus to expand the authority and increase the ranks of the CMO.
“And Thusly, The Photo Shoot Org Begat The Flag Land Base”
The Photo Shoot Org (PSO) was vintage LRC. The PSO crew was primarily made up of rag tag, filthy, haggard, groveling, shell shocked RPFers that worked nearly around the clock building “sets” and making “costumes” with inferior tools and supplies; an arduous task made tortuous by the year round heat, humidity and seasonal rains of the Southern Caribbean.
Flag crew were commandeered to be the “models” in the various scenes and, regardless of their post or work load, would have to go—sometimes for 3 or 4 days in a row—and spend hours in the heat and humidity while greasy, silly makeup was applied and hot, scratchy costumes were “fitted” on site. The "models" were then ushered to their set and instructed, drilled and billed as to the “pose” and then wait (sweat), wait (more sweat) and wait (still more sweat) for LRC, The Photographer, Director, Producer, Author to arrive to their particular “set”. Naturally, in true SO fashion, being on a “Shoot” was no excuse for downstats.
At a time of Hisself’s choosing, LRC—resplendent in hand tailored, white tropical fatigues—would arrive, nubile Messengers dressed in fitted white hot pants and halter tops in tow. Aluminum cases of cameras and photography gadgets were unloaded, freezer chests of film cartridges along with other photography accoutrements; LRC’s, Director’s chair, appropriately with “Director” printed on the back; LRC’s special folding table, and the coolers of beverages and snacks that were served to Hisself, on it; LRC’s umbrellas and portable, battery-driven fans that were held over Hisself by an apprentice Messenger wherever Hisself went; etc, etc, etc.
Suddenly, adolescent Messengers were alight flitting, fluttering everywhere throughout the “sets”; this costume wasn’t good enough; that makeup needed to be redone; the set wasn’t correct and you must fix it now, Now, NOW before the Commodore sees it!! Meanwhile, other Messengers unpacked the equipment cases as beleaguered, exhausted and frightened RPFers scurried frantically about to “fix” the “outpoints” And then, the real “fun” would begin.
LRC would then move around from set to set to take the “Shot”. Sounds simple to you, doesn’t it? If so, then you have never experienced the “Joy of Creating” with LRC.
Being the “OT” that Hisself was, for the next several hours, LRC would run the gamut of the Tone Scale. When Hisself and CMO entourage would arrive at one set, LRC would be jocular, jaunty and witty; at another set whining, carping, belittling; at another sullen, stern, demanding. At each set, while messengers set up the various cameras to be used for the “Shot”, LRC would sit in the Director’s Chair, issue orders and sip chilled tropical fruit drinks, nibble gourmet snacks and smoke a Kool—flicking the ashes into a Silver ashtray held by an apprentice Messenger that had been “hatted’ on the correct way to hold the tray and when and how to flip open and shut the lid…engrave in script, “LRH”. All the while the thirsty, hungry, suffering models waited, wilting in the Equatorial Sun for Hisself’s final posing instructions and the even thirstier, hungrier, more suffering RPFers continued to scurry about, finding anything they could do to stay in motion and look like they were doing something “productive”.
LRC sometimes spent an hour at one set in order to ensure Hisself got the “Shot”. Two, three and sometimes four cameras were used, each with a series of different lenses and different filters for each lens. Specially trained messengers would hold the light meter, change lenses and filters and position reflectors, multiplying the blast of the Sun’s radiant energy on the “models”. Sometimes a “costume” or “makeup” or even the “set” wasn’t “right” and had to be fixed before Hisself would continue. Some days the set work was so “poorly” done that LRC couldn’t get all the “sets” shot and the same “models” had to come back the next day and go through it all again.
To anyone that had ever done the simplest amateur photography it was obvious that the sets were “cheesy”, the makeup “cheesier” and the models “cheesiest”. There was no photographer in the World that could shoot this mess in a studio—let alone in the midday Sun—and have it look like anything other than what it was; an amateur wannabe pretending to know what they are doing. But, alas, near the end of the Photo Shoots, LRC announced that Hisself had yet again been doing “Research” into "how to rapidly and effectively train inexperienced amateurs" to do "professional" sets, costumes, makeup and to be a "professional" production crew…the shoots had all along been intended to take photos for El Ron’s teenaged Son, Arthur, to use to make illustrations that would be the “Pictures” in the "New" books.
Even with all this, the Apollo Crew loved the photo shoots. LRC was so consumed with the preparation, execution, follow up "analysis" and viewing of Hisself's literally thousands upon thousands of shots that the "Lines" were somewhat quieter, more tenable and comparatively "saner".
Unfortunately, this epoch of El Ron, The Photographer, The Director, The Producer came to an abrupt end when El Ron, the “OT de OT’s”, had a heart attack. Within a few months Hisself would be Stateside and the Apollo on its final cruise, headed for mothballs
Next up, within a week—hopefully,
Part Six
LRC’s POS Legacy, The Begat’s (cont.)
Peace.
Face
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