A Brief History Concerning Chairman Love
Jamie Love was born to the promise of Toronto on June 26th 1978. Until the age of eighteen he claims to have lived a “routine” life in the rural outlands of Ontario. But in 1997 he felt the urge to return to the city. He attended several of Toronto’s universities simultaneously;
I wasn’t actually enrolled anywhere specific. But you can live really well on most of the campus’, and take full use of the facilities. The idea is that they teach you how to teach yourself. So I did that. And it was a survival game at first. But there’s plenty of food, and the science labs have showers. I read quite a few books and met some great people. If I did all of that in a pub, it’s just that much better right?
Despite academic achievements, Jamie suddenly vanished in the spring of 2001. Neither his friends or family seem to have any idea what happened to him. But in the fall of that same year they began receiving random letters from Akihabara, Japan. Jamie had been travelling through Asia and found employment in the production studio of the Nanaki Television Network. He worked on several successful shows and eventually earned an opportunity to develop his own ideas. Aiming to become a triple threat, he wrote, produced and hosted three pilots. All three were concepts for game shows that he felt would succeed in the Asian market.
Is it Edible?(2002),
Super-Happy-Flower-Zombie-Challenge(2002),
Punch A Post-Modernist In The Face(2003).
Unfortunately none of these shows were picked for further development. It seemed that his career in the media had reached an abrupt end;
That was a really hard rejection to swallow. But I think the problem was more political than cultural. Network executives are always hesitant about new ideas, and they refused from the start to see the conceptual point I was aiming for. I mean most people are just awful by nature, right? I still believe that the audience would enjoy watching them suffer. Take my last show for instance. We get this grad student out on stage, and I ask him about his thesis. So he starts going on about art history, and all the while we see how long the contestants can stand it before hitting the buzzer. And when they finally break, then the thugs come out and beat the student with brass knuckles and bats. You tell me that doesn’t work for an audience.
Forced to leave Japan in disgrace, Jamie next wandered through the middle east. Although he remains vague on the details, it is known that he inadvertently arrived in Iraq during the 2003 American invasion;
I had no idea there was a war on! I mean that’s not what I was looking for. I guess it should have seemed odd that the city was on fire, but I had no idea what the custom was. In hindsight I should have known something was wrong. Anyway I spent a few weeks watching Baghdad burn, but it was getting old fast. So one morning I packed all the copper wire and bronze statues I could into the back of this hummer and just started driving.
Jamie claims to have kept driving, uncertain as to what point he crossed into the small country of Libyca;
I don’t think it’s possible to know you’ve entered Libyca. There aren’t any guards or checkpoints or signs. You just snap awake in a place like that. It really wasn’t looking good for me at first either. But that first night I got a meeting with President Bouma. I was nervous as hell, but he was actually really interested in my stories. He’s a game freak by the way, so he wanted to know about all the import titles coming out of Akihabara. Long story short he agreed to let me stay. He even offered up some land for me to build a new studio. The next day I wrote back home to anyone who wanted to come and join me. The rest is history. There really is no better place to be writing and living right now.
Forming The Sibylla Group in 2004 with several other expatriates, Jamie also assumed the title of Chairman. They currently work from an undisclosed location within Libyca. There they lead what they describe as a Neo-Modern war effort against the industrialized world through new media projects and traditional forms of expression.
