In case you have forgotten or didn’t know, today is an international Post Dogmatist holiday commemorating the birthday of Cecil Touchon, one of the cofounders of the International Post Dogmatist Group established in 1987. We are currently in PDE 36 of the Post Dogmatist Era. The new year starts on the 3rd Thursday of March at 3:00pm which will be March 20, 2024. So you will want to get ready for that.
So be sure to take the day off and celebrate and insist on a paid holiday if you are stuck working somewhere and if you are working today insist on ‘quadruple time’ holiday pay for the day.
Above is a photo that sits on my nightstand. I decided to take it out of the old frame and scan it. This is probably the first time it has ever been out of the frame over the last 68 years. I discovered the photographer’s stamp on the back. I guess my parents paid for a professional photographer to commemorate my birth.
I was born in Austin, Texas at about 7:16pm. I know this because when I was a kid my dad would say ‘We are not celebrating your birthday until after 7:15 in the evening - that is when your birthday starts.’
A special shout out to my mom Carol Dacy Touchon Heck. Love you mom! Mom will be turning 90 this December 4th. I’ll remind everyone ahead of time in case you want to send her a birthday card.
To celebrate my having come into the world the first exhibition of concrete poetry was inaugurated later in the year at the: 1956 National Exhibition of Concrete Art at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, Brazil in December of 1956. How word spread of my birth all the way to Brazil I will never know. I have not come across any documents in which my name is specifically mentioned but I am pretty sure that exhibit was to celebrate my having come into the world.
Besides me here are some other amazing things from 1956.
So happy Post Dogmatist holiday!
Happy, happy Birthday, Cecil. May the food be great, the company warm and welcome, and the sky composition so gorgeous it inspires your new collage series!
Happiest of birthdays to you Cecil!