Perfume, Donuts, and Dream Machines: Honoring Tom Robbins and the Art of Wild Imagination

Erin Brindley, Tom Robbins, Terry Podgorski and Stephen Robinson (Playwright) at Nordo’s 2019 production of “Jitterbug Perfume”

Nears and Dears of Nordo, and Newest Dreamers of Nebula, 

Our story continues its twists and turns. Our fingers are still warming up from our time in the Georgetown Steam Plant and our nights are still visited by future visions of hidden passages, beakers bubbling away, and, strangely, the cawing, gnawing sounds of Himalayan blackberries rooting their Teflon tentacles underneath our homes.

Another hero muse of ours left this tilted planet.

Tom Robbins, who granted us permission to adapt Jitterbug Perfume into a fever dream of a show in 2018, (and blessed our whole lives by attending and even enjoying it,) finished his 92-year run of technicolor incarnation.

We are so grateful for everything he left us with. He launched himself airborne with every story he began, never knowing how far the wind would take him in one direction or another. We hope to catch his breezes, vivid, naughty, and laced with crackers imagination.

Forever, for Tom, we are always in search of the perfect Taco.

If you’d like to hear how our Artistic Directors convinced Tom Robbins to grant his permission for them adapt Jitterbug Perfume, Erin is writing all about it in a post to her Substack later this week. It’s a love story, the very personal, very behind the scenes story starring a literary hero, a birthday cupcake, New Orleans, and New Years Eve, like a proper Tom Robbins novel.

We wish he was the only light that went out this year. Locally, we lost Misha Berson who championed Nordo in our infancy, and Carlo Scandiuzzi, a legend in the Seattle art scene.

And, of course, David Lynch.

“Keep your eye on the donut. Not the hole.”

His words have kept us going as we persist in our long search for our Black Lodge - the place where dreams and reality intersect, perhaps in downtown Seattle? Belltown? Sodo? 

We are, meanwhile, well fed in Potato Donuts, IYKYK, and if you don’t, try making them yourself at home and dipping them in a damn fine cup of gravy. Yes, David Lynch is the whisperer behind the most perfect dish Erin has ever created. Can you hear that? This is the gentle reminder you need to read the recipe and subscribe to her Substack.

Here’s to honoring our muses, past and present, in 2025.

Thank you for your ongoing support, and a particular thank you to those who contributed to our end-of-year fundraising campaign to fuel our future.

Sincerely,

Erin, Terry and Opal.