This show is a personal valentine to a true colossus of Slack who strode among us, the most sterling of SubGenius silverbacks, the ur-Ghod of the Yetinsyny...FORREST J ACKERMAN!
Forry was the most incredible OverMan I've ever known, a nurturing presence who well understood the PAIN of being one of the DIFFERENT ones. As high as he rose in fame, he never lost sight of how frightening and uncertain it is to be a lone weirdo misfit adrift in the stormy seas of Normalcy. As editor of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, Forry seeded the fertile, developing brains of some of the most revered masters still among us. And the lowliest geek clad in homemade cardboard robot armor not only received this Great Man's approval, that kid was imbued with the Truth that HE WAS ON THE RIGHT TRACK, even as those around him sought to derail his dreams. Forry did more than simply FEED those dreams, he made them GLORIOUS!
I knew this wonderful being so well that it tormented me to hear that he was on a deathwatch in November of 2008--thinking how empty life would be without Forry was more than my bursting heart could bear. So I tried to paint my listeners a righteous portrait of this man so that the SubGenius world would know exactly what a precious being we were losing. Forry's caregiver, the dedicated and loyal Joe Moe, wrote to say that he had played the show for Forry, who got a special sparkle from the part where I took advantage of my bully pulpit to bully a bully who had grievously bullied this great man throughout the twilight years of his life. I said the things that Forry would never bring himself to express--but it was a score that needed to be settled. All of the good wishes that poured in from every corner of the world were like a shot of adrenaline for this wonderful old man--our Forry rallied and held on to life for a few more sweet weeks, finally succumbing to the embrace of Prince Sirki the first week in December 2008.
It was time to replay it, and as I spent hours grooming the pops out of THE TIN AGE, hearing that voice once more made the computer screen blur through fresh floods of tears. But it brought home the point that the Creature Forry shall always walk among us, for he left so much of his remarkable soul behind him. "Forry, Hallelujah!" is a mix of robots and monsters, because Forry was all about BOTH. But more than that--Forry was all about US. And we shall not meet his like again.
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