ZBS – Jack Flanders

 

The Fourth Tower of Inverness

A+   (1972, 7.5 Hrs)
The story that opened the door to the world of Inverness. Jack Flanders’ uncle, Lord Henry Jowls has disappeared, and his Aunt has invited Jack to Inverness “because so many unfortunate things have happened that might not have happened had he been there at Inverness, where he belongs.”

When the music from a jukebox (“Angel Baby” by Rosie and the Originals) is heard sweeping through the grounds, it signifies that an accident is about to happen. (This is a tip-of-the-hat to the Old Time Radio show I Love a Mystery.) Jack easily locates The Wurlitzer of Wisdom (two snippets of life advice for a dime), but that’s not the one playing the 50s tunes. That jukebox is in the fourth of the mansion’s three towers.

There is no fourth tower at Inverness!

A dragon has been menacing the grounds, and a doppelganger of one of the guests attacks Jack with a meat cleaver! It appears that someone has learned the secret of transmogrification…

One night a past-life regression led by Lady Jowls reveals that the tenants of Inverness have known each other before, (like Collinwood in Dark Shadows,) in many different lifetimes. But while everyone else has been evolving, Jack’s been off having a good time hitchhiking, so he needs a few pointers.

Jack finally reaches the elusive Fourth Tower and discovers that it has 12 levels, each a world in itself. He uses the tricks he has learned from his friends at Inverness to traverse the tower, from Lady Jowls lessons on the Tibetan Wheel of Life to his being the victim of a prank that induces alpha waves during a trip through the psycho-dissociative shrubbery maze.

A lot of ad-libbing and crack-ups make the story enjoyable and recognizable as a labor of love.

Jack only explores the first three levels of the tower in this serial in his attempt to both find Lord Jowls and the Lotus Jukebox. In the first level, Jack faces a swarm of green-eyed gooseberry demented demon dwarves in the dreaded Temple of Kubla Kubla. Luckily, their evil cannot leave the tower, as if on a holo-deck.

In the second level, Jack manages to thoroughly piss off the king of the rakshasas while following a beautiful woman whom he saw sailing on a vessel that carried a jade jukebox. At this level, Jack first encounters the gorgeous but deadly Layla Ulupí, and only escapes her insidious clutches (almost drowning in a lake of her tears,) because of his prior experience with the manipulative Madonna Vampyra. This chapter was based on a Hindu myth, “The Descent of the Sun” (F.W. Bain). Jack eventually reaches a gleaming but empty Lotus City where he finds the Madonna Vampyra… dead. Atop a pure jade base, Jack finds a jukebox that leads him to see, but not quite reach, Lord Jowls.

In the third level, Jack finds Lord Henry Jowls at last. With Henry’s map of realms in hand, they launch his flying mandala boat in search of the jukebox that plays before accidents happen. They traverse the Land of the Stone Faced Gods, The Desert of Burning Desires, and on to the Valley of Ten Thousand Aums Unfolded. (How do you fold an Om? Along the dotted line, of course.)

“Your lack of discipline is surprising. Amazing you haven’t been snuffed out by now.”

“I like to present a moving target.”

 

 

Cast of Characters:

Jack Flanders – Our main protagonist, an intelligent, open-minded everyman who sees a fourth tower looming over the mansion at Inverness. (Robert Lorick)

Chief Wampum Stompum – Though he may strike a racist chord at first, this character is from India, where he had grown so sick of Americans’ adoption of Hindu names (this is back in the early ‘70s) that he took a Native American name when he came to the US. It’s designed to encourage awareness of cultural appropriation; you can decide whether to be offended or not. (Played by Meatball Fulton)

Little Frieda – A cigar-smoking Venusian in the body of a little girl who has no pupils in her eyes, allowing her to see the vibrations of objects. She’s wise beyond her “about a million” years of age. Her pigtails rise straight up in the air when she senses danger. (Played by P.J. Orte. Frieda has a spin-off series of her own.)

The Madonna Vampyra – An energy vampire who likes young men like Jack. She is constantly trying to get him to trust and accept her. Lady Jowls allows her to live within the walls and secret passages of Inverness because she enjoys the company and conversation of another strong, intelligent woman. (Laura Esterman, who also plays Ruby.)

Dr. Mazoola – A mad-scientist type who has invented dragon flypaper. (Dave Herman)

Old Far-Seeing Art – The mansion’s caretaker. (Played by Meatball Fulton)

Lord Henry Jowls – Jacks uncle, a colonial pith helmet-wearing adventurer who has disappeared! (Played by Murray Head from “One Night in Bangkok”) Henry is the eighth adventurer to enter the fourth tower never to return.

Lady Sarah Jowls – Jack’s Auntie, now the wealthy owner of the mansion at Inverness. (Valerie Mamches)

Meanie Eenie – Lady Jowls’ half-sister. Her 5-speed Italian Pedal-Master bicycle takes her everywhere a green chair can take Jack. (Valerie Mamches)

Jives the Butler – The butler and a quick-change artist, who sounds like a servant from one of those racist 1930s comedies. (Mr. Mamches)

Wham-Bam Shazam – A rebellious teen rockabilly greaser with a d.a. haircut and a sweet hot-rod. Chief Wampum is teaching him to fly.

 

 

Wurlitzer of Wisdom – Located in the East tower, it offers short audio clips of wisdom and philosophy (two plays for a dime) delivered by Ram Dass.

Jade Jukebox – Located inside the Fourth Tower. The songs must be played in order to have their intended effect. First seen by Jack in the front of a gondola, emitting rainbows.

Bodhisattva Jukebox – Located inside the Fourth Tower, made of crystal clear jade, it features the song “Kirtan” by Bhagavan Das. You’ll want to look this one up on Spotify, believe me.

Lotus Jukebox – The source of the music coming from the Invisible Realms… (One of its physical manifestations is in the Lost City of Ah-Hah.)

 

 

The Ah-Ha! Phenomena

B   (1977, 1 Hr)
Jack is hired by a secret research facility run by the brother of Lord Henry Jowls, Professor Seymour Jowls who claims that the coincidence factor in human scientific discovery is the result of Ah-Ha moments being released from a higher level of existence. He wants Jack to go there to retrieve the one great Ah-Ha for the benefit of mankind: the grand unified field theory (GUT). Jack is given a white dervish’s robe that is also a map of the astral plane that will help him locate the archives in the Lost City of Ah-Ha.

Chief Wampum spins Eagle’s Rock, bringing Jack to a land populated by many types of trolls… and the outlandish Wizard’s Cave. One of the patches off the dervish robe buys him directions to the Misty Isles, but it is said that anyone caught pilfering from the archives will have his gizzard devoured by a guardian griffin!

“Nothing’s sadder than a wet troll.”

The Lost City’s moving street carries Jack past booby-trapped side streets glittering with diamonds and gold to the pyramidal central archive. After stealing the GUT, a heavy theory, Jack is delayed from leaving the city when he finally discovers the long sought-after Lotus Jukebox made of pure prismatic glass. When the Griffin strikes, jack summons his patronus unicorn! Remember Prometheus: if you steal the secrets of The Gods before people are ready to deal with them… Well, you can always just throw away the particles that don’t fit the theory.

 

Travels With Jack

 

Dreams of the Amazon

B   (1992, 2 Hrs)

Jack has a vision of a woman who begs him to bring her home. She begins to pull off her skin… her face… revealing a pure crystal skull. He calls his contacts down in Rio and discovers the crystal skull (from Dreams of Rio has been stolen from display of Amazonian artifacts at the museum! Professor Terri Newman invites Jack down to Rio for the Feast of Yemanja on New Year’s Eve, interested in hearing about how Jack found the Lost City. Another vision makes Jack’s apartment into a jungle, snakes and all. The woman reappears and makes him remove her face. “Kiss me!” she demands. “Take me home.” He books a flight to Rio that night.

At the New Year celebration in Brazil, Terri Introduces Jack to Claudia Gages while people dressed in white leave gifts for and write wishes on paper for the Macumba Goddess Yemayá, Mother of Waters, who washes her gifts up into the sea. Jack admits he’s not completely sure he didn’t hallucinate the whole visit to the Lost City, but he agrees to take an expedition back into the jungle to try and find it again. They bad-mouth “sticky fingers” Evans Vance, another Professor. At the festival, Jack also runs into Paulo Pompodoro, his favorite crook. (What a coincidence!) Paolo introduces him to the beautiful Teresa Cavalcante. That night Jack has another vision, wakes up on the beach, and on returning to his hotel, receives a package. It’s the crystal skull!

Jack, Terri, and Claudia boat up the Rio Negro with the skull, five years after Jack’s original trip to the valley. An airplane overhead reveals they’ve been followed! Behind a waterfall and through a cave, the valley opens and in it, the ruins of a palace with a city painted on the ceiling. At night Jack sees a similar city floating in the mist overhead. The valley is filled with the scent of rare night-blooming orchids that are intoxicating, almost hypnotizing, and the songs of frogs.

Pompodoro and Teresa soon appear, accompanied by none other than Professor Evans Vance! Guns come out. Jack leads the way. Did Pompodoro steal the skull just so he could tail Jack to the Lost City, with his female friend Teresa, revealed as a Macumba priestess, masquerading as the skull, sending him visions in order to lure jack in? They are convinced there is treasure in the valley, and Pompodoro is prepared to destroy the jungle, ruins and all, in order to find the treasure, as are Vance and his backers.

Jack is drawn up into the transparent city of mist in the sky. He discovers Teresa is already there, and he follows her as she reveals the location of the treasure at the bottom of a pool of water. When she tries to remove an emerald from the cave of treasures, it shifts the reality; removing the horde will destroy the city, which is in perfect harmonic balance with the ruined city below. Jack discovers that Paulo has already drained the parallel pool in the valley, and is preparing to start dynamite blasting. Teresa regrets her decision. They either give Pompodoro the jewels and destroy the magic city, or he continues destroying the real archaeological sacred site. How can they get out of this one?

The hypnotic music at the end of act three is amazing. It put me to sleep every time.

 

Dreams of India

B   (1992, 2 Hrs)

Eating at an Indian restaurant in New York, a woman (Lalita chatturgi) approaches Jack presenting him with his own business card… that he’s never seen before. “That which appears to be coming at you is really coming from you.” She convinces him to go to India to meet her mother, who says she knows him. On the way, Jack is none too subtle in his passes at Lalita, but she rebuffs him.

Kamla Shukla, her mother, is angered when Jack turns out to be much younger than the white-haired man that gave her his business card forty years ago, calling Jack an impostor! But the stranger never claimed he was Jack, just that Kamla would need his card… and it did match Jack’s current address.

Jack checks out a mysterious abandoned mansion on the hillside above Kla’s house, a palace built for the Maharaja of Mysore’s son years ago, now empty, that Lalita has been forbidden to visit. Lalita confides in Jack that long ago, her aunt made a pact with a magical entity to escape from the mansion, and now it seems something has come to collect!

Filled with quotes from Indian philosopher Tigor:”I have lost my dew drop!” cries the flower to the morning sky that has lost all its stars.

 

Dreams of Bali

B   (1992, 2 Hrs)

Jack has just spent 26 hours on a plane. He crossed the international date line and just got in tomorrow. Staying at the Puri Indah, he meets up with his friend Tiffany, who takes him around and helps him tie his sarong before she brings him into a temple filled with gamelan music. She tells him about her boyfriend Madey, and explains to Jack how in Bali they follow a version of Hinduism focused on ancestral cults that is much more animistic than what is practiced in India. In the temple, Jack has a vision of an old man initiating him and introducing him to the music and many colors of the elemental spirits. Then the holy man opens a gate and invites Jack inside where he becomes one with an ancient ruined stone temple.

Jack samples the Bintang Indonesian beer and feels relaxed in the warm paradise. But Tiffany is having visions of her own: A witch tells her “They have marked you. You will need me when they come.”

Hypnotic music makes it hard to stay awake for the story. The Balinese language is melodic, and ZBS lets it flow without translation, but you can still follow what’s going on.

“They are real! They are moving into me!” Tiffany cries! It becomes clear through mysterious night-time phone calls from a strange alter-ego that Tiffany has been possessed by a family of elemental spirits feeding off her jealousy for a woman named Nani’s close relationship with her boyfriend Madey. She has opened herself to negativity, thus inviting them in.

Jack meets with Nani, Madey’s friend (and just a childhood friend,) at a cafe and she introduces him to the cultural heritage of the Legong and Barong dances. Barong is a kind of short Chinese dragon symbolizing good, while Rangda, queen of the witches, appears as an ugly old woman representing evil.

Jack’s visions of the old man continue. He keeps opening windows for Jack to pass through and to learn. What Jack doesn’t know is that Tiffany is secretly seeing a medicine woman of her own. Tiffany seems to be changing, being consumed with madness. She accompanies Jack to a cremation festival. The sounds captured for the ambience are pretty stunning as the ritual is described in detail.

If you are open to it, there is magic in everything”

Tiffany is told by the medicine woman (the witch who said she would need her when the spirits came,) to meet her at the cemetery near the Monkey Forest. Turns out the medicine woman is a black magic woman out for revenge, using Tiffany for her own ends (Nani’s great grandmother did something to her grandma long ago.) The Calonarang purification ritual will be performed– an exorcism to appease the darkness. It should defeat the evil woman, but the witch used herbs on Tiffany, so she’s done for… unless Jack takes on the mantle of Rangda and opens a portal like his holy man mentor.

 

Dreams of Sumatra

B   (1993, 2 Hrs)

It starts in a cafe.

“You may think it unusual for a strange woman to sit down at your table…”
“It happens to me all the time.”

Louise Nettles approaches Jack with a request to help locate her missing daughter, Jesse, who is, like Jack, a “seeker.” She is an Anthropologist from Berkeley studying the magical beliefs of different cultures. (Don’t try to do this for a living in real life, kids— it won’t pay the bills, I can tell you from experience.) But Jesse disappeared from a city called Bukittinggi just a few months ago. Jack is impressed with real mocha java, fresh roasted Sumatran coffee. Louise gives Jack her daughter’s notebook of Sufi teachings in the form of poems and proverbs.

Indrani DaSilva, an anthropologist originally from Sri Lanka, recommended Jack. She was Jesse’s academic mentor, and joins Jack in Bukittinggi. Indrani introduces Jack to the contradictions of a matrilineal Islamic culture where they believe in magic, and takes him to dinner at a Chinese restaurant called The Mona Lisa.

Jesse got involved with a secret society of women called the Kibut (also the name of a local carrion flower,) who, it is said, have the ability to open a door to another dimension which can affect our everyday reality. Turns out Jesse was actually initiated into the “cult.”

Wu Li, the owner of the restaurant where Jesse often used to come to eat, tells Jack when Jesse’s Sumatran friend Adi comes in. Adi denies knowing where Jesse might have gone, so Jack follows her… encountering a vortex that seems to swallow her up!

When Jesse appears to be trying to contact Jack from where she is trapped inside the vortex, Indrani calls in some help: a man with a crackpot theory about the Bukittinggi Vortex being created from combined mental power. His name… is Mojo.

Wu-Li explains the Kibut recently lost its leader and is now split into two branches; one that wants Jack and his masculine energy to leave, one that wants to help free Jesse. Adi finally opens up to Jack, admitting that he must enter the vortex to retrieve Jesse. But while she and the right arm of the Kibut will help, the left faction has already begun using energy to remove Jack and Mojo!

What is inside the vortex? An endless series of veils. Behind each is a layer of truth, each veil created by ourselves, by our own pre-existing beliefs.

What we believe to be true is what keeps us from the truth.

One night, Jack is sucked into the vortex. Turns out Jesse has created her own cognitive version of reality inside the vortex, including her own perfect version of Jack! Will the real Jack be able to convince her to return? The vortex begins to collapse!

There is very little wrap-up at the end which I felt was noticeably absent. But, no problem. This episode has some of the most beautiful background music yet. I love the Indonesian music playing in The Mona Lisa.

 

 

The Mystery of Jaguar Reef

C   (1996, 2.5 Hrs)

Carmen (from Rio) phones Jack from Ambergris Caye in Belize. Her friends Paolina and and her brother Antonio are worried about their mother Cassie… she left her body, unhappy with the world, and it has been filled by a walk-in; a more spiritually advanced entity that is dedicated to helping human kind… but they want their mother back.

When Jack arrives, he meets the captain of a local charter boat who promises to take him diving at a secret place below Jaguar Reef to see the wreck of a sunken pirate ship, the Jolly Jaguar. But as Captain Coco takes each of them diving individually, Antonio then Paolina seem to change, replaced by walk ins one by one.

Jack and Captain Coco find a hogshead of Viper Rum in the hold, (there are snakes in the barrel, just like the work in tequila.) After Jack tastes the smooth rum, he watches the Jolly Jaguar rise into the sky …and of course he jumps on board! The ship is crewed by Galactic Masters, entities who design the universe with thought forms, and all appear as Popeyes. This is where the narrative gets a little too surreal for me. They call Jack the Captain of the vessel. Interestingly, Captain Coco has also taken to calling our hero “Captain Jack”.

Jack realizes that while he’s off on a trip, his body is being used! He returns and demands his body back, but when the walk-in walks out… Jack finds himself under fire!

What nefarious plan are the aliens plotting to unleash onto an unsuspecting and unprepared human kind? The alien plot is being interfered with by Wolfgang, a sleazy millionaire who fashions himself a pirate nicknamed Peg-Leg Pete. Having has kidnapped one of the walk-ins, he is determined to capture their secrets for his own manufacture. Jack and the bodies of his friends are caught in the crossfire!

 

 

Midnight at the Casa Luna

C   (1998, 2 Hrs)

One night, on a street that was never there before, Jack finds The Casa Luna, a cafe he once visited in Bali. The waitress Nani’s friend Nina gives Jack an amulet bearing the face of Shiva, and lets him ride a motorcycle with a side-car that continues as his transport through the invisible realms. The Casa Luna, he suddenly notices, is now in the tropics (I assume Bali, though it’s not really stated). Jack again meets up with Lord Henry Jowls, last seen within the Fourth Tower of Inverness. Sir Jowls convinces Jack of the necessity to defeat the mysterious “Madame Z”, the Dragon Lady, who has seized control of the region. He must steal the source of her power: a magical green bowling ball. On the way, Jack meets an infrit named Leela (reminiscent of his old friend, Layla Ulupe, from Moon Over Morocco). She helps Jack to steal the source of Madame Z’s power. When Jack later puts his head to the green stone, he hears Sir Jowls having tea with Madame Z and discussing how they had made it “too easy” for Jack to complete this part of his mission.

In part II, Jack finally finds The Casa Luna again (or rather, The Casa Luna finds him, and Lord Jowls explains that the green stone must be returned to the city of Merkahbah (which Jack has been having visions of,) its place of origin… but the way there is through the land of the Hungry Ghosts! The only way through that is with a guide. An infrit would be ideal! The rag-tag crew traverse the Land of Hungry Ghosts like they were on a tour of Hell by Dante, each hunger a result of an earthly sin, one of which is beer.

SPOILER: Once they make it through, Jack tries to leave the green stone, but Leela yells “No! It is an illusion!” hefts it into the air with her demon wings, and drops it on the large domed building at the center of Merkahbah, shattering the entire city!

Casa Luna was originally released in parts I and II, two years apart, and both Sir Henry Jowls and Leela had casting changes that were explained away as being “different versions” of the characters, perhaps from different worlds. Though I found this to be a captivating story, with interesting and likeable characters and a plot that drew me into the thick of the action amidst convincing music and sound effects, I found the storyline confusing, and few of the plot points introduced were resolved.

What’s the deal with the Amulet of Shiva? Is it a symbol of destruction and rebirth that reflects the city of Merkabah? What did the accordion men represent? Why did Leela drop the green sphere and destroy a random building, and how did that bring about an alignment? Or did Jack fail? And an alignment of what? What really was the point of Jack’s mission, and why did they set him up?

The Merkabah is a Jewish mystical idea representing a vehicle that will help a person traverse other dimensions. Is this story a parable for destroying the Throne of God as an illusion? If so, it is WAY too thickly veiled for interpretation. I am entirely lost here.

The story ends with a teaser for the next story in Jack’s saga, Return to Inverness. Upon returning home, Jack receives a call from his Aunt Jowls’ estate lawyer, who informs him that he has inherited the three-towered mansion at Inverness!

 

 

Return to Inverness

A   (2000, 6 Hrs)

Jack has inherited the mansion at Inverness, though reluctantly- if he accepts, it comes with a cadre of weirdos who must be allowed to continue to live there. A chef calling himself Wham-Bam who changes accents, Old Far-Seeing Art is still the caretaker, along with a woman named Madame Trunknose who can talk to crows; there is Lady Pompon who just wants discipline(!) and her daughter Poodles (she prefers Evie,) who is exploring for secret passages in Jack’s closet… a closet that keeps trading Jack’s clothes for the safari gear of Lord Jowls. Later Jack meets a “mask man” who carves living masks back in the woods.

In fact, objects are being swapped out of Inverness every day. One thing will vanish, and another will appear in its place. Luckily for all the inhabitants of the mansion, an espresso machine appears! Once Jack almost catches a mysterious figure he sees swapping a carved mask on the wall… he gives chase… but loses them because he or she knows their way around the maze!

Another problem comes to Jack’s attention: there are vibrations in the earth at night below the mansion. He comes to learn that it may be the result of an energy known as the Ginath, an ancient pagan god that Lady Jowls and Professor Mazoola bottled up like a jinn back in 1965. As the moon gets fuller, it gets stronger. Inverness may just shake apart to its foundations!

Jack calls in Mojo Sam for a second opinion. He swings Lady Pompon to his side when he starts giving African yoga lessons. Soon another visitor arrives, a conceited diva who gets lost in the walls and keeps the entire mansion awake with her singing!

As things progress, nights find Evie dancing at the seven pillared temple, levitating in the air above, a gigantic mushroom that grows to the size of a house… and the dragon returns! What is it protecting?

Jack has a dream that Little Frieda needs his help. She disappeared into the Fourth Tower just after Jack left about thirty years ago. So the next time he hears that fateful 50s tune… He catches up with Little Frieda who is looking for a relic: the bone of Saint Seymour (Who can “see more”, and once lived at Inverness). For the last three decades Frieda has been helping to gather her bones to bring back to Inverness.

Guess who has the last bone? The King of the Rákshasas, who Jack forced to bite off his own tongue on his original trip into the Fourth Tower, has St. Sey’s hip bone on his scepter and they must steal it back! The king’s daughter, Bimboshatha, tries to eat Jack’s head after posing as Frieda, but the real Little Frieda saves the day before she levitates to escape a horde of angry rakshasas and is blown away. The root-eating wairágí swears he shall ever be Jack’s nemesis for all his incarnations.

Back at Inverness, and running at top speed, Jack (“Feet don’t fail me now!”) discovers that dragons like thigh bones better than dragon kibble! The grounds are shaking more and more, and now things are levitating away. Everyone puts their heads together and decide they have one chance to soothe the earth energy before Inverness is destroyed!

 

Traveling Jack

 

Dreams of the Blue Morpho

B   (2002, 2 Hrs)

Mojo has a new gig tickling the ivories at Señor Frog’s Lilypad Lounge in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. His friend, Amy Nelson, has been afflicted with the ghostly presence of a mysterious glowing light that chases away her male interests and has been getting stronger as of late. Mojo calls in Jack for an assist.

Amy has a twin sister who died at birth, but she doesn’t believe the light is related to her. Jack thinks he and Amy should pretend to “be involved”… just to learn more about the light, of course. They meet up with a friend of Amy, Nina Gonzales, a Venezuelan surfer, and explore the locale visiting Flamingo Beach and discussing the leatherback sea turtles that lay eggs nearby. (There is a bit of a history lesson, too, as well as the origin of the term Banana Republic.) “Tico Jack” and Mojo really bust on each other all through this adventure, and even rib Amy about the local sabaneros.

Since Jack seems to be getting nowhere, they go to visit a curandera who practices >Santería down in Puerto Limón. (Mojo, Nina and Jack have a nostalgic discussion about the Orishas, Brazilian Candomblé, and Babalú Ayé.) The curandera tells Amy never to see Jack again and gives her a smelly, headache-inducing herbal amulet that starts to kill the light! But Amy feels it’s wrong. Next, the gang explore the plantation where Amy grew up and track down a childhood friend who casts light on the mystery of Amy’s mother, who was a healer… and a witch!

But the unanswered question lingers: why did Dona Fernandez mislead Amy, trying to cut Jack out of her life and almost killing the light fandango?

 

Somewhere Next Door to Reality

A   (2002, 2 Hrs)

Jack and Mojo are on the case again! Playing piano at Lucky Pierre’s in Old Montreal, Mojo learns that people are fading away! Dominique is Mojo’s new friend and her roommate Renée has disappeared, so Jack drives up from where he lives in New York (I’m guessing it’s near Saratoga Springs,) because paranormal investigation is what he does.

There’s nothing “normal” about Reality.

Mojo himself sees a twin city sharing the same space-time as Montreal, where buildings look the same, but people wear clothes that look like a futuristic renaissance fair. Amid discussions about dark roast coffee, Jack meets a mysterious woman who fades and seems to know more about the parallel city, but he fails in an attempt to follow her. Jack calls her “Madam Ciaio” until he learns her real name is Claudine. So she calls him “Cul-de-Sac Jack.”

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” ~Philip K. Dick

Jack wears his trademark white suit with a panama hat and is described as looking like the famous french lyricist Jacques Prévert more than once. The thinning of the veil between the parallel worlds seems to coincide with the haunting accordion music of a blind street musician, and Claudine keeps evading Jack’s questions, insisting that “Patience is the key to paradise.” But the mystery turns serious when 12 year-old Isabel, a friend from Dominique’s bookstore, is lured into the next-door.

Although the story wraps up too quickly after the mystery’s detailed world-building, (and things just started brewing between Dominique and Jack!) this story is a well-delivered, poetic slice-of-life revealing a world where a mysterious couple walk between two worlds within the narrow streets of Old Montreal. They attract people of vision or psychic insight to an artistic realm where they are happier than ever before. Though we discover Renée is safe and happy, and Claudine brings Isabel back to her grief-stricken father, the mystery remains.

“By refusing to accept things because they do not please us, we spend most of our lives making meaningless gestures somewhere next door to Reality.” -Nan Shin

 

Do That in Real Life?

A+   (2003, 2 Hrs)

This time when Jack receives a phone call from Mojo Sam, his friend is playing at Frenchie’s in New Orleans beneath the shadow of voodoo. This is a creepy episode of Jack’s adventures, with Voodoo, zombies, ghost pirates, and Infrits! Just as an introduction, a charismatic new houngan called Blue Jesus had cursed Elsie the waitress, but Mojo confronted him and countered his threats with warnings about the “boomerang effect” (that he and Jack learned back in Sumatra).

Jack meets a voodoo princess named Sophia who first masquerades as Claudine, but she claims her name is Ashe. Could an Orisha be riding Sophia? Jack begins having recurring nightmares about zombies, and Ashe appears in them. She claims she and Jack were once lovers back in Morocco, insinuating that she is none other than Layla Ulupí (from Moon Over Morocco). Dominique is there, too, visiting from Montreal, (but she’s for real,) and Jack is ordering cafe au leits hand over fist!

Dominique relates a side-story about Little Louis Lafitte, a descendant of the notorious pirate brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte, who travels the night roads of New Orleans in the rusted out hulk of an abandoned streetcar filled with the skeletal specters of a pirate crew!!

Mojo explains some of the basics about Voodoo and Ngangas. On a recommendation from Mojo, Jack visits a priestess called Madame Ebbo and learns that Ashe, the entity inhabiting Sophie, is in fact not Layla, but a competitive rival infrit who wants to make Jack her conquest!

“Advertising is the real black magic, sucking away your soul.”

Mojo sees a zombie following jack with a face that appears pale, almost translucent, when hit by headlights. It is the same zombie from Jack’s nightmares, but the zombie is only there to ask for help. (Jack has experience with gateways to other realms.) The dead man explains most poignantly, that “Your fear made me into a monster, made your dream into a nightmare.”

Madame Ebbo suddenly and unexpectedly wraps up the conflict, Ashe dropping Sophie like a bad habit. The Infrit has found someone else to serve. Sophie, still beautiful, believes she has been left without powers, though she is still reading fortunes. On a visit from Jack to say thank you for getting him out of his predicament, Madame Ebbo points him to The Crossroads to find a solution for his undead friend.

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. -Langston Hughes

 

The Eye of Van Gogh

B   (2003, 2 Hrs)

Mojo is back in Canada when Jack receives a phone call asking him to come to Quebec City because people there are falling victim to “hallucination bubbles,” including Mojo himself. Dominique, being so close by in Montreal, drives out to visit her friends. Jack also receives a visit from Claudine… but don’t hang up the phone just yet!

Claudine says she’s just met a little girl with pigtails that smokes cigars, who warned her not to break Jack’s heart. Little Freda knows there’s something going on with the bubbles but she doesn’t want to meet with Jack quite yet. Luckily, she doesn’t experience the pockets of madness the same as most other people do.

They are concerned that during the Saint Jean Baptiste Day celebrations people who are enveloped by the bubbles of madness will end up in the psychiatric ward by the hundreds.

The Eyes of van Gogh, as the bubbles are called, (because stepping into one feels like walking into a painting by van Gogh,) have been floating up from a cavern; a result of drilling into the mountains to shore up a building’s foundation. Can the team (including Little Frieda, Jack, Claudine, Mojo and Dominique) locate the lost mine before the sealant corrodes the steel into crumbling rust and insanity sweeps the city?

 

 

Do Angels Really Have Wings?

C   (2012, 1 Hr)

After a dream where Lord Jowls directs Jack towards a book in the Inverness library, Jack discovers a message that reads “The Ninth Door” hidden inside that very book in waking life. A thunderstorm rolls in and the old familiar song lures Jack to the fourth tower of Inverness, where he reaches for the brass knob of the ninth doorway… and is struck by lightning! Jack is dead.

He finds his friends — (who sounds just like Mojo Sam) and Klaus (from Dreams of Rio,) waiting to greet him. Turns out they are all members of the same monad or soul-group for reincarnation. We are introduced to “Big Freida”, then the gang runs into Lindsay from Belize, who is making flowers bloom with her friend, a talking dog she calls Grin.

Jack and Lindsay summon up bicycles, Jack receiving a Schwinn Cruiser just like he had when he was a kid.

“There’s no place like Hell…”

On Jack’s biking tour of the lower levels of the Astral Planes, he is confronted by a demon with a long list of Jack’s sins that he has to pay for. (We learn from the demon that Jack’s full real name is Johnathan Leopold Flanders!) When Jack denies the demon any power over him, the group moves toward the brighter upper levels where Jack encounters twelve foot tall beings of light who “compost” sins, turning darkness into light.

Jack comes to a few realizations after his Dante-like adventure: It’s alright to let go of beliefs. Let it all go, because the concept of “evil” is only in one’s mind. In the end, at the very end, God doesn’t punish people– people punish themselves. They get stuck and can’t let go. So, ultimately, we should all just work on ourselves, learn, and help those who ask for help without judgement.

Soon, Jack hears his name being called in the distance. Its the voice of Little Frieda! (But it’s not the voice of P.J. Orte. This is explained away because, like Doctor Who, Frieda has regenerated!) Frieda welcomes Jack back to Inverness. Was he really dead or was it just an illusion?

 

 

Dreams of Tiffany Blue

C   (2013, 2 Hrs)

Mojo calls Jack on the phone, and with the sound of the surf, lures him down to visit for a vacation in Belize. Mojo’s piano music at his friend Friedrich’s bar, Fat Freddie’s, adds a nice flair to the soundtrack of this adventure. (Yes, Friedrich is… grandiose, dangerously shaking the treehouse coffee shop where they all hang out, Above Grounds, where you can hear the howler monkeys call.)

Friedrich is the brother of Klaus (from Dreams of Rio,) and he has received a package from his brother containing a blue crystal and the cryptic message, translated from German: “hear this for me”, sent just a week before Klaus died. We learn Friedrich’s history and how he and Klaus once fell in love with the same woman, Brunhilde, who had gotten caught up in the imagery of the valkyries because of her name. Friedrich left heartbroken when he discovered his brother’s feelings for her, and never saw Brunhilde again.

The waitress at Friedreich’s bar, Lindsay (or Lindz,) happens to have dabbled in the magic of crystal radio when she was younger, so she offers to fabricate a deck so they can listen, using the tiffany blue crystal to pick up the radio waves at night. But only Jack hears a message, and it’s not welcoming. The radio picks up a voice accusing him: “You!” This is followed up, of course, with a dream: a voice calling “You…” much more invitingly, and a shadowy figure atop a pyramid… a great black stone jaguar!

We meet a guy named Jake who owns a charter boat and he finally talks Jack into exploring the jungle because he thinks he knows where that black jaguar pyramid might be! But before they all leave on another jungle adventure, Jack begins to see a woman who can change into a tree… or a giant bat. He’s not dreaming, is she a hallucination? a vision? A real shapeshifter? (The off-key singing in this episode is really grating, but I think it was supposed to be…)

SPOILER: The ending of the adventure leaves a lot unanswered. Why did Brunhilde only appear to Jack, despite her connection to Friederich? Why did she not choose to appear to Friedrich two years ago? Will she now? What drew her all the way to Mayan ruins in Belize to do soul-searching in the first place? The gang guesses that Brunhilde, with her strong will to better herself came to Belize to study with a shaman and learn to shapeshift, explaining how she could appear to Jack in the Dreaming at the Mayan pyramid when it was first built, but it is implied that ALL Mayans were shapeshifters. I’m hoping this is the groundwork for future Belize episodes, because I really enjoy the setting.

 

The Secret of the Crystal Maidens

B   (2014, 2 Hrs)

“Last night I had another dream, Mojo.”

In this sales pitch for cappuccino and Belikin beer, Jack is having, not a recurring dream, but more of a… serialized dream, about exploring a cave while visiting with Mojo down near Placencia in Belize. He’s been hanging out at Fat Freddy’s (originally named after Fat Freddy’s Cat in the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers of Underground Comix) and throwing back some lattes at Above Ground, a tree-house coffee shop on stilts.

In his dream, Jack is neck deep in water, wading into a cave studded with gleaming diamond like crystals to encounter a dream woman covered in crystals, (that kind of resembles Claudine,) who has no feet because she is growing up from the floor of the cave.

Their friend Lindz is a waitress at Fat Freddy’s, and the owner Friedrich (who sounds like Freud with his German accent and psychological insight,) joins the gang for their adventure, along with Jake who we recognize from Jack’s last visit to Belize… and of course Claudine flies in from Montreal, though she seems a superfluous supporting character in this story.

Their deep discussions revolve around kharma and what it is (It ain’t what you got, it’s what you IS,) and the K’iche’ Mayan creation myths written in the Popol Vuh about sacred twins playing on the Mayan ball court in hell.

“Who will you sacrifice?”

The gang decides to go tubing down a river named after the popol vuh, and end up tying their tubes together to float through a cave that they all really want to get out and explore. When Claudine and Lindz get sidetracked and don’t come out the other end, Jack follows… and finds himself walking on piles of human bones! (I shudder to think of the destruction he caused to what should be a World Heritage site!) On his personal cave journey, Jack discovers two crystal encrusted female skulls (according to the Travel Channel’s Expedition Unknown, you can tell from the shape of the eye sockets) who give Jack a lesson in love.

“Dreams are about what you give up not what you receive.”

 

The Green Velvet Chair

 

The Green Velvet Chair

B   (2015, 2 Hrs)

Trapped in a rainstorm, Jack buys a German green, overstuffed chair from Ralph Rolfe (the voice of Friedrich/Fat Freddie) made by a man named Baumgardener who once wrote creepy children’s fairy tales. Though the chair came to the antiques dealer from the estate of the maker’s wife, it was the first owner who returned the chair after his daughter went into a coma after sitting in it one night.

Jack tries out his new chair (he has some experience with chairs like this,) just at the strike of midnight… and the chair grows wings! It flies him to a dream world called Zonkeytown resembling something out of one of Baumgardner’s stories, a land of eternal night. There, he is confronted by twin dwarfs who take him to see the Big Boss who resides in the Hippodrome of Hell! The Boss is Ralph Rolfe’s doppelganger!

Jack is asked what team he is with, and responds, The League of the Green Velvet Chairs, of course. The Boss’ black overstuffed leather chair sprouts dragon-bat wings, and jousts with Jack in a duel! The only way Jack escapes death is a girl’s voice telling him to “knock on the sky and listen to the sound,” a Zen koan. He wakes back in Inverness.

Jack does some research on the chair discovering more about the girl who fell into a coma, whose mother lives in Burlington, Vermont, relatively close to the Inverness mansion in upstate New York. Her name is Morgan McGinnis, and hearing her voice on a recording of zen koans read aloud, Jack recognizes her voice.

Mojo Sam is next to fly the chair for a midnight astral journey, falling asleep while reading Don Quixote. The same goons take him to the amphitheater, and though he can fly the chair a bit better than Jack, it’s wings get pinned and he pole vaults out of the arena! The thugs give chase, and a girl who sees him out her window helps him hide down in a sewer. The girl is indeed the same Morgan, and she explains that the darkness came to Zonkeystadt (a “zonkey” is a cross between a zebra and a donkey,) along with the shadowy Boss, who set fire to her astral green chair, stranding her! The thugs park their Packard on top of the manhole, trapping Mojo! Back in Inverness, his body is found in a coma.

Jack dreams his way back and takes on the boss once again, and he seems to win the fight… but loses his chair in the end! If everyone is comatose, who is left to come save them?

 

League of the Green Velvet Chairs

B   (2016, 2 Hrs)

Years after Jack has disappeared forever into the fourth tower, strangers begin to show up at Inverness with a desire to see Lord Flanders’ overstuffed green goose-down chair… bringing their own green chairs in tow! They all share a common experience: dreams of a moonlit city overshadowed by a large citadel. The newcomers are Cairo, Homer, Zula, and Zoey.

DeeJay has inherited the mansion from her Uncle Jack, (as Jack inherited his title from Lord Jowls,) and she calls upon Mojo for advice. He helps to explain about the overstuffed chair’s special properties and the coma it induces.

Zoey, who can talk to owls, sits in Jack’s chair at midnight and is actually taken to the place she dreamt of. She doesn’t return to her body. Mojo goes after her, with Ralph Ruff in the wings in case he also gets lost, but Ralph refuses to go (fearing the return of his alter ego from The Green Chair,) so Homer goes in to retrieve both other dreamers as, lost in the city, they are each besieged by shadows.

Ralph explains how the chair was once owned by a writer of fairy tales who invoked his stories while sitting in it. the Citadel that all the guests have dreamed about came from one of Baumgardener‘s horror stories!

Mojo’s gris gris helps to defend himself and Homer against the shadows, but when Zoey finds her chair again and knocks on the sky to listen to the sound, the shadows hitch a ride!

Mojo and Homer finally discover where the shadows have hidden one of the chairs, realizing that the people of the city must have discovered a way to separate themselves from their own shadows when the dark silhouettes somehow became sentient. But shadows, while they are the part of each of us that we must deal with in order to be healthy and not be dragged down, are also the light within us! When the two return, Inverness is oppressed with heavy clouds… and Ralph Ruff has become The Boss again!

 

Madonna in a Green Velvet Chair

C   (2018, 1 Hr)

Following the events of The Green Velvet Chair and The League of Velvet Chairs, the Madonna Vampyra returns to the walls of Inverness and in the library, sits in Jack’s green overstuffed chair. She is whisked away to a City of Facades, where she meets a new character named Homer. Back at Inverness, Chloe comes searching for what’s behind her sister Zoe’s fascination (addiction?) for her own green chair. Mojo and D.J. watch as Homer goes into a tower and plays the Wurlitzer of Bewitchments, almost falling into the power of the infrit, Lilah Ulupi (from Moon Over Morocco, now to be found at selection B7). This story is short and feels like a setup for some new characters while still giving us a taste of the old Inverness magic.

 

Mojo Sam

 

Vest Pocket Voodoo Adventures

A+   (2009, 1 Hr)

Mojo Sam is surprised when a stranger named Mama LaRoux gifts him a “timeless” railway stopwatch… with no face! But in a certain light, you can see a supernatural winking eye! When a mobster hires Mojo to find his missing twin sister (mistaking him for an investigator named Rufus,) Mojo finds himself taking a locomotive ride on The Voodoo Express. Mojo ends up with a possible nemesis that he never even lays eyes on: a Voodoo houngan named Baron La Croix. Filled with allegories and symbolism, raven spies, voodoo, and the tracks between the worlds, this adventure is short but riveting (once you get past the wooden acting of the sales lady at the hobby shop). A lot that is conveyed is unspoken… and what about that model train?

 

The Land of Enchantment

A   (1997, 2.5 Hrs)

Mojo meets Samantha James when he takes a piano gig at her Armadillo Bistro and Cabaret in Coyote, New Mexico. There he befriends a local woman that often gets pulled into the spirit world. Minnie Two Worlds, who is half Apache and half Chinese, has a spirit guide named Scout (who’s more of a wise-guy than a trickster). There is a lot of discussion of race that might not entirely be considered kosher by today’s standards, but does take a poke at stereotypes while teaching a little history. Dona Mateo, 102, is a local medicine woman, (or curandera) who spins a hula hoop as if it was a bullroarer. What other culture is known for using bullroarers? Next we are introduced to Alice Nam-en-Warri, an Australian Aboriginal grandmother who comes out of a rock, (she’s on walkabout). Crow Mother, the Kachina, appears to Mojo, inviting him to explore the Land of Enchantment, which he does when Minnie goes into a rock after visiting a pow-wow. She is lost, and Scout says its Mojo’s job to get her back… but he can’t find her! With Alice’s help, Mojo learns to track energy and finds Minnie (as well as an old prospector who has banished time,) but how will he find his way back? This is an informative representation of of native spirituality. John York (Bassist for the Byrds back in ‘69) sings a song at the bistro. Samantha is played by co-author Jamie Sams.

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Dave Adams, who plays Mojo Sam, back in ’72.

 

Little Frieda

The Case of The Disappearing Witch

C   (2005, 1 Hr)

When actresses playing the third witch in “The Scottish Play” start disappearing, the director hires Mojo Sam to investigate. He calls in Little Frieda… who’s portrayal of the witch is slightly challenged. She is whisked off to The Realm of The Muse! The “fictional” witch from Macbeth is -not- amused by poor stage portrayals that weaken her. When the other fictional characters take a cue from her, chaos breaks loose! Only the unnamed Muse herself can put it all straight again!

 

The Wee Weaver

B   (2004, 1 Hr)

Mojo and Frieda tag-team a case of a haunted mansion . The McElroy’s newly built castle has a room filled with heirlooms brought to the U.S. from the ancient family estate in Scotland. Frieda talks to the family near Inverness to get the history of the imp that is harassing the family while Mojo sets up a sting operation in the haunted room… a stakeout that repeatedly fails when he falls asleep on his feet! Which object is the source? The Scottish “imp” turns out to be a vengeful spirit that has developed a friendship with the McElroy’s 12 year-old daughter, Elise. When Elise collapses, her spirit held hostage, it’s up to Mojo to cut a deal! The ending comes a little too suddenly, but this is a fun ghost-busting story!

 

Little Frieda’s Life Lessons

B   (2001, 1 Hr)

You know those things you realize as you begin to gestalt reality while in an altered state of mind? Little Frieda helps to enumerate them, and she’s good at this because, as an alien, she can see thought forms. (Her Uncle Larry could see thoughts before they even entered a person’s mind!) She describes snippets of wisdom, but realizing that everyone really has to figure things out for themselves rather than just be told, she runs with the assumption that since your karma has brought you to this place, to listen to this recording, you must be ready to receive it.

Little Freida explores the nature of thought, knowledge, and belief. She explains that change happens with every breath, and that what we believe is what we see, not necessarily the objective state of reality, (because there is no such thing).

Frieda tells us a story about her hearing colorful songs that turned out to be the dreams of snoring bears asleep in a cave. She takes a nap with them and wakes to find Jambavan The Powerful fighting with Vishnu. They stop and ask: “Who are you?” On exploring the answer, going deep inside the concept of “I”, Frieda’s life lesson is: The truth conceals itself by being nameless… and you do too.

The great   Dalai   Dolly Parton once said, “Find out who you are then do it on purpose.”

If you go the the edge of the known and find you’ve lost your self, “Don’t panic.” Just relax and listen to the rhythm of the universe and it will lead you back. The final track is titled “The Secret of Life”. I won’t post spoilers.

So. The dance of destiny got you here. The next step is up to you.

*Little Frieda also appears in the Rocket Pierre chapters of Stars ‘n Stuff.

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P.J. Orte, who played Little Frieda.

 

 

Little Louis Lafitte

A Streetcar Named Le Petit Lafitte

B   (2004, 1 Hr)

Suitable for young audiences, Dominique narrates a stand-alone adventure containing short stories based on the character Little Louis Lafitte, who was first introduced in the Traveling Jack Adventure: Do That in Real Life?

The descendant of the notorious pirate brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte, the boy Louis Lafitte, stumbles upon an abandoned streetcar in an old New Orleans cemetery. When the clouds begin to pour, he hops inside for shelter… to find its seats filled with pirate skeletons! The voice of his ancestors tells him he is their captain, if he can only name each one! Now, his ship, the railway car named Le Petit Lafitte rides the streets of New Orleans whenever the mist rolls in, pinching tourists and hijacking them for a ride… “to the end of the line!” The chief of the Gendarmes becomes their nemesis. What magic can the streetcar’s crew use to escape his grasp? Harrr!