SATURDAY, AUGUST 25:

As the show took so long to get going, I cracked open a book called Warring Souls to pass the time, and just as I read this line, “Reality is not what exists, but what has the possibility to exist,” a man sat down next to me. By his aggressive nature, I could tell it was more than friendly curiosity—and I never like to be bulldozed— so I jumped and, instead, asked about him. He started stuttering and mentioned he was visiting town and, back home, he takes care of his schizophrenic brother. And I wondered, what does that mean? We have these clinical terms for things and people get categorized, but how did their brains get re-wired or whatever? Like, take Roky Erickson, the father of psychedelic music. At one time, he was so far out that he sat in a darkened bedroom, watching TV and convincing himself he was an alien visited by demons. Can we convince ourselves of anything? Especially when hypnotized by the TV? “PTV3,” or Psychic TV 3, wants us to think about all of this. Backed by film footage that includes pre-during-and-post surgery clips from when gender-bender, Genesis P-Orridge, had an operation to look like ze’s (a gender-neutral pronoun) lover, Genesis pranced in front of the screen and exclaimed, “Most of you look confused! Good!” Which one is ze’s lover? There’s two that take the moniker: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge thrashing on bass and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge on keyboards; both are in another band called Thee Majesty. Including a wicked violin, PTV3 rampaged through sparkly industrial operas that brought a sigh to my bosom and sort of reminded me of Hedwig & the Angry Inch. Pandrogyny, oh my! I giggled as Genesis sang sweet gospel, “Have Mercy On Me”, then pranced around with black panties on head. (SS)