The Second Advance
From Plastic Tub
Most scholars debate as to whether or not this was an advance; most agree the word "second" has no logical application. The rebirth, if you will, of the AA after a dormant period. The meta-effect, looking back on history, simultaneously researching and creating anew. The "A2" and various laugh-in-sleeve guffaws point to Tim Wilson and Steven Adkins as fortunately stumbling upon the necessary material--rent faces aside. Early A2 collaborators include David Payne, who disappeared after a stairwell sojourn, not reappearing until Plastic Tub was formed a decade later; he seemed to materialize out of thin air and revitalize the advance, which had become somewhat stifled. Back in 1993, when A2 first belched, we saw Marcus Kempton, Kevin Statham, Douglas Coyle an the now Dr. Kristen Jensen participating in early soirées, as bewildered (as Jenkins put it), "amigos".
Time progressed, a second Reticent 27 series was produced to showcase both research and original works by A2 operatives. It was during this "unauthorized" period that the first contact was made with Adid, William Flintrock and Addisson, who, at first skeptical, ultimately agreed and sanctioned A2 activity. Things became authorized, collaborative, but, things fall apart. The center couldn't hold. The latter-day AA'ers were dispersed.
Although the second series Reticent 27 was short-lived, sewn seeds bloomed into ye Plastick Tubbe, lovely, presented here with spines, to be modified mercilessly, as a kind of history in need of repair. The internet, specious and annoying, yet full of opportunity, brought things back into the realm of collaboration, despite the fact that the major contributors of the A2.5 live in Texas; Minneapolis; and Toulouse, France.
