“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Today, I celebrate vision and endurance. Perseverance. The ability to suffer gracefully, all the while continuing forth with confident and measured steps towards accomplishing goals that serve as stepping stones towards a larger dream. Two years ago on this day, I made a decision that altered the course of my life. As I sipped Japanese whiskey with my family after laying the remains of one of our most beloved to rest, the final piece of necessary inspiration rose up within me. The motivation had been building, my thoughts simmering like a broth of desire to give something more of myself to the world. To tell tales to others fixed through the gaze of my own personal perspectives. Electro Scribe officially began that day and continues forth as the gift I continually give to all who appreciate lexical adroitness and verbal finesse.
For this episode, I shall whisper to you some entries from my journal. Or growl. I call it a purr, and biologists in Michigan are still having fits at the impossibilities I portray. Sorry, not sorry, I’ve been granted full permission towards being silly from a godly power. You don’t admire a man like Chris Farley without assuming some of his candor and excellence.
Anyway, I’ll be selecting from some of my adventures this year that I have not yet spoken of. Escapades during my chasing the last few moments of Tipper, all the while cherishing and praising those still with me while remembering and commemorating those gone too soon. Even sadness and sorrow harbor a kind of beauty. Darkness and light are aspects necessary to our pathways of progression and growth. I’m Bear Swiftly, the Electro Scribe, and I’m here to remind you to make the most of the time you have in this world by investing your energies towards pursuits and people that appreciate and reward your investment.
Let’s kick it off with some Tipper, because that was my main focus for 2025. The final slew of Tipper and Friends events, beginning in Suwannee. I traveled down to Live Oak, FL, with my guy, Hollywould, who officially began his venture into 3D printing by creating hat art we call hatcessories. I say we, because I kind of brainstormed that term when we were thinking what to call these unique adornments.
Instead of using traditional pinbacks to secure the item to a hat or piece of apparel, HW’s 3D Printing instead elects for magnets. Why? While doing R&D on how we could improve 3D printed wearable ornaments, we found pinbacks often broke when transferring these types of pieces between hats. It also protects the integrity of your hats and apparel. Seriously, he bought these jellyfish kind of doodads for the fam at Solshine Reverie in 2024 and mine broke within a day. Crappy plastic, weak glue, or bad design? Doesn’t matter, it became the inspiration that fueled his pursuit of a venture his soul had long been craving. Good on him. Starting is the hardest part. The rest takes care of itself as long as you focus on your goals and move forward faithfully.
For Suwannee, I’m going to share a story I penned in my journal about a group I had the delight of spending some time with. My homegirl Sammie attended with her sister, Alissa, and I got to kick it with their crew of cool guys and cute cats throughout the weekend. This one goes out to Alissa, Sammie, Bart, Savannah, Arianne, Taylor, Riley, and the rest of the group I affectionately call, the ‘Mob Action Moppers’.
“Our top story, Mob Action Mopping. Take off your top, for Tipper. Dave appreciates those babes who wobble and groove. He certainly approves. Dancing mystique, a freaky little temperament for getting down. Fellas, remember your deodorant and brush your friggin’ teeth. Harken your best, lest the rest, test… your mettle.
We’ve got a concerted effort ongoing to clean it up. Why? Because we gotta! Bass and glitch popping in my brain, it’s groovy, mane. Dame, a fleek term to describe a sleek gal. Pal, Tipper came on and people did some mobbin’. Poppin’, lockin’, moppin’ it up. Overtime? With pleasure. Imagine a whole group of Tipperites, an adorable and effervescent sight, cleaning up the whole dance floor. After dirtying it up, of course.
Let me expand on this bright, polite, and pleasant delight. A vision beyond sight. An imaginary sequence of what happened that night. In an altered headspace from out of absolutely nowhere, a slit appeared in the veil between dimensions, and everyone grabs a mop. Hey, we clocked in for this shift, didn’t we? Those wristbands have a cost, so we might as well clean it up and keep it down. The price, that is. Consequences? Depends on whether you fight yourself or not.
Back to the action, Taylor tells me to hold it down while she and the bright sprites grab their gear. Have no fear, Bear will keep watch over all that is here. They put on their metaphorical hard hats, grab their buckets, and head to the front. A thousand bucketeers strong, swabbing along, glitching and hopping to every song. Hit the gong, and maybe a bong. Swishing and swaying, sudsing and spraying, answering prayers for those who are praying. Mob Action Mopping, all day slaying.”
Let’s move along to the next Tipper and Friends event held at The Gorge in George, WA. I have mixed feelings about this event. Tipper and his friends were exceptional. Ott was spectacular, and Simon Posford presented an extraordinary extravaganza I was blessed to witness beside another lovely friend of mine, one I call Ice Queen and Minerva among other illustrious titles, Jenna. We both like socks, Datagrama clothing especially, and if you want to learn more about it, you can find our collaborative review which earned enough respect and acclaim to land on the front page of Datagrama Clothing’s website, where it still remains. Along those lines, I’m having conversations with a couple of other festy companies to do features spotlighting their businesses. I’ve got a ton of respect for Misha Pavelko and the EVOL Collective he has dutifully built over the past decade, and you can look forward to my highlighting his organization down the road.
Back to The Gorge, which currently sits as the most awe-inspiring venue I’ve ever explored. It’s a scenic vista that dwarfs whatever is happening on stage. You can’t help but let your eyes drift away to gaze upon the horizon. It’s a stunning view of the canyon beyond and the Columbia River below. Sunrises and sunsets felt unreal, and that final Tipper Sunrise set was nothing short of immaculate.
The fellas and I stopped at a beach not far from the venue to waste some time until they started admitting patrons. Here, we met Noah, Chris, and Breezy. A Triple Entente of cool dudes who got along exceptionally well with myself, Hollywould, and our resident genius, MF. Seriously, MF is the kind of Freund anyone would be happy to have in their lives. One of my oldest still living friends, I’m happy as fuck that I am blessed with his company. This newly formed contingent would combine on something we call, Bear Bits, all weekend long. Chris loved this idea and is still actively developing recipes for public, and private, consumption.
What is a Bear Bit? It’s a theoretical, and literal, victual aimed at inspiring world peace. The more you consume, the more fulfilled you become. Well, that’s what was originally envisioned when MF tricked me into becoming the source for sustenance in the aftermath of the Great American Solar Eclipse in April 2024. Think ‘Simple Rick’, and you’ll get what I mean. It’s more performance based, but I’d probably make some amazing beef jerky. Salty and sweet with zesty portions of spice and lemon. Between us all, we were hard at work satisfying the masses. Here are some examples of the Bear Bits we created during The Gorge weekend.
- Does sneezing a lot start feeling kind of close to an orgasm? We’ve got details.
- Worrisome trolls: Did I hurt your feelings, bud?
- Storybook shenanigans: Creating memories that matter.
- Festy-Girl Snot: It might get you high.
And here’s some Bear Bits that didn’t quite make the cut, but you can appreciate the efforts of my R&D department.
- Pube-Töôth Noose [Blacklisted]
- Getting aloe vera from a friend [Discontinued]
- Writing haikus with three people [A work in progress]
Now, I said I had mixed feelings about The Gorge, and it centers around Live Nation. Love them, or hate them, entering the venue felt to me like being admitted to an internment camp. Not that I have any experiene to go on, but to say the least, it wasn’t a festival friendly festival experience. Three separate points of security and searches to wade through, and they disallowed many of the items Tipper Heads love bringing to Tipper and Friends events. Camping chairs, backpacks, inflatable couches, relaxation devices, and flow instruments. They quickly reversed on flow instruments due to overwhelming outrage from Tipper fam, but you had to figure out a way to smuggle in the rest. Why? Live Nation will rent you a chair for $20. Yeah, these conditions inspired this aggravated entry from my journal.
“Live Nation kind of sucked much of the fun out of this one. Not happy with how this shit was run. You got a beautiful place like The Gorge, pristine and breathtaking to behold, and you tax the fuck out of patrons to enjoy it. Can’t bring in my loyal and trusted backpack? What…the…fuck! Is this the Lost Lands Reunion of 2021 all over again? I gotta buy your shitty, plastic bag to bring my journal and writing utensils in? Cool story, bro. One and done. I’m out. I do like the socks, though.
If I come back to The Gorge, I’ll be staying in The Grove RV and I’m bringing my Pirate Crew. We’re forming a mafia, and smuggling HELLA chairs up in dis bitch! I’ll learn your system inside and out, and me and the fellas will have our homies basking in canvas bottoms. Seriously, dude, you know what I can do with a chair? Fjord a river, alter an orbit. Relax, have fun, enjoy scintillating views. What were you charging per chair, 16-20 bucks? I’ll air drop a pallet of those bitches from Amazon for $10 apiece like I just got my first killstreak in Modern Warfare 2. JK4L, bruh. Seriously, you got my chops, chubbed, bud. Nickel and diming attendees, Live Nation? I guess that’s how you run a business in this modern landscape.
Anyway, yes, this is a Bear Bit. We’ve got awesome flavors like Xenomorph, Jalapeno and Chive, Jacked up on Mountain Dew, Festy-Girl Snot, plus Mac n’ Chz + Bacon. Makin’ bacon pancakes, bruv. Walk the plank. Pirate arc. You took Chris’s bag, and my submarine squad is kind of peeved. We’re ready to get froggy. The Chair Mafia is coming. Bear Bits.”
That’s how it’s done right there, and here’s a link to some freshly produced Bear Bits. It’s getting long, let’s move along, but not before I share some words from our blossoming savant, Kyle, who we also met at The Gorge. “You call it morning; I call it extended Lunch.” The man knows his schedule. He, along with Chris and Noah, provided the inspiration for this poem which I crafted at camp titled, ‘Ballad of the Benevolent Pirate’.
Yar, savvy my sonic garden//Pardon, argo my cesspool//Lyrics crafted specially for you//In the moment true//At any point I drop the plank//It’s kinda dank//A pirate’s arc sharing his treasures//For the booty.
This concludes my Tipper-centric theme. He’d go on to perform three days with friends at The Orion Amphitheatre in Huntsville, AL of which I wasn’t in attendance. Professional obligations, I was given a media opportunity to cover Chicago’s, North Coast Music Festival. I wrote two articles on behalf of the festival, and those will be published sometime in the near future through the Chicago based publication, POZE Magazine.
Now, I want to touch on a very cool experience that occurred at this past edition of Secret Dreams. I love words. They are fundamental to how we express ourselves. Writing is in my blood, and I often pen haiku, poetry, and prose at concerts and festivals while inspired by the music. Or perhaps it’s an ADD response. What do I do with my hands? Engage, entertain, and inspire accordingly.
Due to a scheduling conflict with the original MC, I received the opportunity to serve as host to a poetry slam upon the gorgeous Phantasmagoria stage. It happened quickly, I didn’t have a ton of time to prepare, and I put forth my best. How did I do? I evaluate my performance as terribly good. I wish I had organized my haiku and poetry better; I rambled at points scouring my journal entries, got off track a bit, but this inspired others in the audience to come on stage and perform their own presentations. And bro, the poets that followed my lead were fucking phenomenal. At least I didn’t get booed off the stage. The rain came and caused an early ending to the poetry slam. I love the rain even at festivals. It soothes my soul, and it was a fitting end to a personal highlight that resulted from a very sweet and sincere gesture. Gordie and Hannah asked for me specifically, and I answered the call. I look forward to doing more hosting and mic work like this in the future, and it’s something I’m going to bring up with my homies at Suburban Sound Syndicate.
Speaking of Suburban Sound Syndicate, I joined their ranks as a writer for the organization in October 2024 creating profiles for members and their affiliates while also generating highlights and previews for their events. It’s been about a year now since I’ve been creating written content for their website to support their brand. They’ve experienced some explosive growth which I have been thrilled to witness and be part of.
Though it sometimes feels like writing isn’t a valued and respected profession like it used to be in our current technology hungry day and age, Suburban Sound Syndicate loves what I do on and they let me know often how much they appreciate my work. They are now throwing two weekly events on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Durty Nellies in Palatine, IL while still organizing their awesome Syndicate Sound Sessions that pop off every 4-6 weeks. I’m really proud of how their organization and members have handled their own ups and downs. They’ve always been gracious and kind with how they’ve treated me, and having the support and friendship of guys and gals like Josh, Ricky, Matthew, Tony, Olivia, Andrew, Rah, Brittany, Tom, Laura, and so many others mean the world to me. I’m not going to cry, yet.
That nearly concludes this story. Before I finish, I’m going to take a few moments to celebrate a couple of souls who have crossed the great divide. My older brother, Abel, who is the central reason I returned to the pursuit of writing professionally. We don’t know when our end will come, so it is up to us to decide how we use the time we’ve been granted. I love you Abel, and I miss you daily. Firefly was one of our favorite shows (Nathan Fillion is a beast), and any tears I shed for him are out of love. Not unlike the voyages of the Firefly crew, I imagine he’s cruising the cosmos in a slick spaceship searching for the tastiest dishes on every planet while sharing his personality with others to the delight of all.
Earlier this year on April 20, our community lost Cody Puch. Cody was one of my greatest supporters, an erstwhile ally and true friend. We talked eagerly about how to make communities happier and healthier. Though our viewpoints didn’t always align, we engaged one another respectfully and listened to each other intently. I imagine he’s probably cheering me on from the great beyond as I write these words. “YEEEEAAAA BEEEEAAAARRRR, YOU’RE BURNING UP THOSE PAGES AND SIMULTANEOUSLY MAKING THEM WET!”
We all have loved ones who we’ve lost far too soon. In my mind, we carry their memories with us for the rest of our lives. As we are assaulted by heavy pains and heaving sobs, we must find ways to continue our lives and forage onward. His wife, Taylor, continues their mission to provide assets and information focused on societal harm relief. To help create a healthier community takes investment of resources, time, and energy. We all have a part to play, and Taylor has my full support and friendship, however she needs it. If her new organization needs some writing done, count me in. Cody, I love you bud, and I won’t stop writing until it’s time for me to come to an end.
I want to thank each and every one of you for being part of my journey. Not only in respect to my passionate storytelling through Electro Scribe, but also those friends and onlookers who have witnessed my ebb and flow through the rigors of life as gracefully as I can. I’m a big man, sometimes I’m a sweaty mess, but my heart is in the right place. I listen to hear and reciprocate to help. We’re all protagonists of our own stories, and we should all be mindful to do our best to keep from hindering the progression of another’s journey. Let us assemble under the banners of love and understanding so we may face those forces that seek to divide and keep us scared, together.
Some things I’m excited to announce that you can happily look forward to: I’ve officially launched a Patreon as Electro Scribe to focus my visual and performance productions and continue fostering a creative and healthy community. I’ve posted a couple of newly produced Bear Bits alongside a warm welcome video complete with the radiant candor you’ve come to appreciate from me. Also, I plan to launch a newsletter over the coming weeks that will be more compact than my blog posts. It will be focused more on upcoming events, electric topics of interest, and new music releases, complete with inspirational and motivational notes, and some surprises I know you’ll appreciate. Also, I’ve got some cool feature pieces with artists like DeemZoo and Spaceship Earth I’ll be presenting before too long.
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” ~ Helen Keller
This is Bear Swiftly, the Electro Scribe, signing off. Sayonara all you samurai.
Be well, be successful. Bear Swiftly.
–Electro Scribe–
