The Toasty-Fried Co-Op
One Man's view of a unique phenomenon
The Toasty-Fried Co-Op, simply put, is a disorganization. There is no specific criteria for membership, no leaders, and no "rules" per se. (Officially, Toasties has one rule, and that rule states that there are no assigned seats... a rule that I feel extends far into all aspects of life)... my own personal addendum is that there should be coffee, but that's just me.
At it's heart, Toasties is a way for the artists, the angelic, the marginalized, the demonic, the dreamers, and the mad scientists to all be able to come together and share a communal mind. One who is able to blend their psyche in this way without discomfort is said to be "Toasty". This is a very rare quality. One common aspect of all of this is intelligence. Another is wit. To be Toasty requires a sense of humor, an open mind, and a certain joyous cynicism. -- I find that few people can easily do this, and I really value those who can.
The first incarnation of this group evolved from a small group of friends attending University of Florida in the early 80's, and was installed as an "official" entity sometime around 1983. The phrase "Welcome to the Toasty-Fried Co-op" was first uttered by Nick (The Evil One), about this same time.
The second incarnation of Toasties erupted upon the scene in 1984. The group met weekly at Dino's Pizza at Southpointe Plaza in Fort Myers, Florida for a couple of years before drifting apart. The membership was a melange of original Toasties plus members of the Neo-Bohemian Society of ECC. My first exposure to the Toasty group occurred during this time, but I was not an attendee at the meetings then. A few of the members liked to hang out at the comic store I managed at the time.
In 1987, a friend of mine named John Duckworth approached some of the members of the original group about reviving Toasties, and this was when I became actively involved in Toasty-dom. The group met at a variety of Fort Myers restaurants, mainly on Thursday evenings, and this third incarnation still continues in altered form today. There is also a splinter group, and even an internet mailing list.
I often say that I owe everything to the Toasty-Fried Co-Op, and this is somewhat true. The group was invaluable to my development as an artist and an intellectual, exposed me to whole worlds that I would never have explored living in that backward cow-town in SW Florida.
When I moved back to Cleveland in 1992, I attempted to start the Toasty tradition there, but wasn't able to muster sufficient interest. It was then that I realized just how unique the Toasty tradition is. I would even venture to say "locale-specific" -- As basically a backwater, Lee County Florida is a prime area. This is not an open-minded area, neither is it particularly friendly to minorities of any type. A tourist area, it's culture-starved and the small artistic community that does exist is quite incestuous. This type of environment creates a hunger among artists and intellectuals for the company of like-minded people.
I believe that the reason the Toasty tradition is not better suited to an urban area is that 1) It's more difficult for like-minded people to find each other and 2) There are many other venues for intellectual exploration, rendering a Toasty-Fry type group less neccessary.
There are not many venues where you could have a talk about phenomenalogical hermaneutics or physics crossing against a discussion of Saturday Morning cartoons or unclassifiable metaphors, and somehow manage to fit each subject into the others. This to me is the undistilled essence of what "Toasty" is. A combination of the profound, the silly, the weird, and the arcane.
Thus concludes my attempt to explain the Toasty-Fried Co-Op. For more information (and even a picture or two), you can follow the Toasty-Fried Co-Op links from my links page)
Fuck that! Return Me to the Main Page!