TO THE UBU COMUNITY:

I remember when we first got a computer — rather late in the game (It’s still in the basement and still works — it’s still provides the crucial stage of UBUART even though it can only communicate with other computers through floppy discs — which is good probably as the internet just seems to rile up most systems) — and fell in love with the way it made it so easy to manipulate and juxtapose images, which in many ways to me is the essence of modern art — then it crashed, I lost everything and I learned the dark side of things — one of them being the way your slaved over creations can just disappear — poof — with no trace! In the old days at least you had drafts of a few tangible sheets of paper that were SOMEWHERE if they hadn’t been burned — but now — where do all those keystrokes go? Irretrievable I guess.

And then there’s fixing the damn things — half the time not even the greatest expert can tell you why the computer chose to screw up in the first place, why it couldn’t just do what it’s supposed to do or at least identify the part that wasn’t working — so you laboriously re-load just to have it crash again. Even if it does work out there’s so much guesswork and time wasted. But it’s taken UBUTHOUGHT from my basement to the WORLD and when old HAL is down I really miss him — even though his singing DAISY, DAISY… drives my crazy — not to mention the airlock thing.

Anyway my work computer is down — for the first time in my experience it’s (I think) hardware rather than software, but we’ll see. Since most creative goofing off should occur at work the pace and quality of our fine UBUPRODUCT may be compromised. Please be patient and bear with us during this difficult time.

Thanks for your special specialness,

UBU

Chairman of the Central Committee for Public Safety