please welcome...

our first column by one of The Compound's favorite writers, one of our outriders in the cruel and bitter Western lands, a Minister for "the Church of the Black Pearl" and an all around good guy, j.b (also, here).

each week we here at The Compound will publish a few new columnists including -H. and luis, and for the first time ever for public consumption, photoblogging from The Girl herself, Cynthia Etheridge.

I hope these voices will encourage the growth of a strange community of like minded misfits, outlaws, miscreants and good old fashioned regular folk who care about life and want to know that there are others out there who are working to infuse each new moment with meaning, each dull alarm clock morning with art, each hopeless midnight with possibility, fighting the quiet revolution.

I also encourage everyone to comment on the posts, to speak their mind, to participate (any lurkers? speak up freely) in the discussion. to support themselves by making one small corner of the world burn with firefly sparks of meaning.

enjoy.

(postscript: I of course will continue to drop reality bombs into the middle of my own 'hippie love fest' of hopes and dreams, saving the world from slipping down the Memory Hole one miserable shred at a time...)

(oh, and there will be poetry too...)