# once long ago in germany a friend of a friend one had only just met suddenly stood up and started acting oddly began to behave as though they were on some giant invisible stage performing a well rehearsed routine consisting of their best lousy standup material that gets reliable laughs out there on time and under budget friend and fellow researcher henry swanson was visiting at the time and just stared at this person utterly deadpan thinking they'd pseudo spontaneously entered some fevered talent show or strange imaginary play state in this case it was a dire psychic state of a total show off one in desperate need of a swift decisive beating with a burning kayak paddle this was not in order to repress their perfectly natural buoyant state of happy go lucky artistry but rather precisely in order that such a state be allowed to exist despite the entirely wrong headed and entirely synthetic efforts of rando duck heads forever turning otherwise public space into their own privately dominated space for lousy performances of whatever nobody cares like those rat holes who can't help but show off at public train stations that for unfathomable reasons feature a piano while busy passing strangers certainly appreciate the often pleasing sounds emerging from such pianos the ideas behind such performative expressions often feel unhealthy and systematically not meant to fall under pointed philosophical critique instead one is often forced to merely clap at the drab little spectacle like a performing seal wanting a fish in any case there's a world of perceptible difference between a genuine lover of music expressing their soul and vulgar opportunists merely out for clickbait upvotes and likes performing crass populist renditions of tiresome old classics with all the sensitivity of a drunken idiot banging on an empty paint can or that smug nerk in the pub last week who for some reason remotely imagines that this is quote their moment to shine who starts breakdancing badly when an oldskool hiphop track starts to play beaming with all the practiced idiocy of someone who thinks they've somehow won at reality it isn't quite the automatic ultimate slick pop culture flex you think it is jeremy sit back down there's a good lad this person in germany sat down after their invisible stage act with such a glow like they'd just given the debut variety performance of their live yet not one of us said shed only the friend you were visiting leaned over and whispered great aren't they great oh yeah amazing you said leaning over henry swanson whispered what was all that about some kind of awful and frightening stage sickness official republic of bob update via robert what: while actors and other quote performance artistes are perfectly welcome in the vast republic they will be kept a close eye on and cannot be automatically trusted it's one thing to have quote mad skillz and have the confidence to display said skillz in public but too often with such advanced cases the main ideological notion is to merely overtake dominate privatize colonize and monopolize public spacetime and degrade it into one's own performative stage show doing crowd work as they say in other words hey look at me aren't i unusual important and wonderful and cosmically unique don't i just glow with showy incredibleness see how the invisible state lights in my head make my hair glow an exclusive never ending one person one night only performance of virulent narcissism which in fact actively denies the public right to both genuine acts of collective artistry and quiet spaces for spiritual contemplation outside vulgar capitalistic expression one transforms into a tawdry performing circus clown automatically and aggressively expecting mass public appreciation such duck heads and shimmering synthetic peacocks often already have it all and whatever they do play trainstation piano breakdance perform some kind of bs comedy skit before invisible millions of fans in their tiny endlessly expanding skull is not a measure of their skill dedication to humble true artistic craft but merely an unceasing reaffirmation of their dominance over everyone else around them who they secretly view as inherently less talented funny and worthy of uncritical phrase later on in the day this same twaddock was rubbing their naked crotch up against a window in suburbia and being praised for their wild sensual freedom gee is there no end to their talent and the unceasing willingness and ease with which they express it henry swanson just turned to you in polite disgust and said how great it would be if such blinding stage lights were suddenly and unceremoniously switched off that is without expectation of reward or praise but simply because it helps make the universe a better more quiet and sensitive place now there's a public stage worth actively paying for rather then unfortunately being in the vicinity of the uncontrollable comic diarrhea of a sociopathic obsessive with the cheap parlor trick of their own ego total elf absorption is not a viable survival tactic karen such people are not main character merely the bland expression of anti social media based illness // [[republic of bob contents | imaginary pastime republic of bob]]