Sisters of the Extreme

Women Writing on the Drug Experience:
Charlotte Brontë, Louisa May Alcott, Anaïs Nin, Maya Angelou, Billie Holiday, Nina Hagen, Diane di Prima, Carrie Fisher, and Many Others

An anthology of writings by some of the most influential women in history on the often misunderstood and misrepresented female drug experience.

This is the first collection of women's writings on their experiences with psychoactive drugs. The original of this anthology was published under the title Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady in 1982. The title of this new edition comes from a remark in a letter Grace Slick wrote us upon seeing the book in its original form: "I didn't know I had so many sisters of the extreme."

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The Billboard Liberation Front is back in action again. In collaboration with Ron of the East, Monday afternoon they modified a billboard across from Golden Gate Park at the Cala Foods on Stanyon Street near Haight Street in San Francisco. Now that puts a smile on my face.

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Gregory Jacobsen's been a super talented, if a bit twisted, online fixture for sometime now. And I may be a dumbass since I didn't know the corelation, but as near as I can follow his not too obvious trail of breadcrumbs, it leads me back to one of my favorite audio/music websites, Cake and Polka, which is also his.

Anyway, besides his artwork, he fucking writes and sings and everything else well. Good stuff, Mr Jacobsen.

Per website: This website exists today only because courageous, intelligent and daring women back in the 1970's decided to break the rules of society. They rallied together under the banner of the punk movement. Many of them are no longer with us. Alice Bag takes a fun look at the female punk movement in LA in the 1970s.

Bob Geldof and Midge Ure are expected to confirm details Tuesday (May 31) of a major summer charity concert. The media will gather in London, England to haer details of the Live 8 concert, which will raise funds for African relief efforts. The concert is expected to dovetail with the G8 summit, which is scheduled to take place in the United Kingdom from July 6 to 8. Link

Letter to pResident Bush Concerning "Downing Street Memo" - The letter's ready for you to add your name, address, & email. Go Sign It

saturday morning me//
hazelnut coffee/biscuit & gravy/major fatty/
the breakfast of champions/
braids pulled to the side/
desk fan blowing, me hoing/
long gypsy skirt/'born to disco' tee/
bare feet/no fancy weekend plans/
a little singing & a little grilling/
staying close to the farm/
Listening: Souveniers by Architecture In Helsinki/
fleet's in/better run/
so how about you?/

Have a great weekend!

Film News
Johnny Depp will exec produce as well as star in another Hunter S. Thompson work -- "The Rum Diary", Hunter S Thompson's novel about boozing and carousing in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. Bruce Robinson, of "Withnail & I," will direct. Also stars Benicio del Toro, Josh Hartnett, Nick Nolte. Can not wait to see this one. imdb

Hunter S Thompson's ashes to launch, courtesy of Johnny Depp. Friends and acquaintances gathered Thursday to discuss the Aug. 20 invitation-only service. The tower will be 12 feet wide at the base and 8 feet wide at the top, where the cannon will be placed to launch HST's ashes. Link

"Me And You And Everyone We Know" is the latest critics' darling. In theaters June 17. Winner of Sundance Jury Prize 2005, Cannes Camera d'Or and more. "Delicate, tender, and yet so daring...the film is going to be the Sideways of this year!" --Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun Times Link

A first look at Guy Ritchie's "Revolver".

More on Richard Linklater's "Fast Food Nation".

The Village Voice has a big Cannes section — J Hoberman thinks Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" should have won.

Tarrantinto, Rodrigeuz, set to "Grind" together.

(all film news not noted, via)

In recent months Planned Parenthood surveyed the top 50 national pharmacy chains to determine their policy regarding pharmacists’ right to refuse to fill valid, legal prescriptions for birth control, including emergency contraception and categorized their responses based on our current pharmacy refusal policy.

See how your preferred pharmacy scored. Send emails to those whose policies are unclear. And thank those who fill all prescriptions the way they should.

Link

Redneck Roulette
Well, that's just great. A dangerous game has left one man dead, and police fear it's a game that could be gaining popularity.

William Owenby is charged with voluntary manslaughter after Buncombe County (here in Asheville, NC) Sheriff's investigators say he shot 30-year-old Jonathan Burrell in the head during a game of redneck roulette. Capt. Pat Hefner says, "one individual spun the cylinder, shut it, put the gun to his head .. it did not fire when he pressed the trigger so he put the gun to his buddies head ... pressed the trigger and the gun fired."

Police say more than 90% of roulette deaths involve alcohol or drugs. Russian roulette cases are usually labeled as a suicide. But in redneck roulette, the charge can be voluntary manslaughter or murder.

I later heard a deputy say on local news that this is the 6th incident of redneck roulette they've seen this past year. Is that the theme to Deliverance I hear?

Link

Tokezone

Travel, computer, security, music, drugs.

Take a look at his trip to India, and cruise around the many good links you'll find here.



{Today's Quote}
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. ~ William Shakespeare

Meet me in Cognito, baby.

Producer Phil Spector
Prosecutors will face the difficult task of convincing twelve jurors that Phil Spector did something crazy. Power and crazy usually buy you a get out of jail free card. Unless you do something really stupid like murder someone in your own home and call the cops before you hide your guns and dope. All bets are off now. My god, man, do something with that nappy head if you wanna have any hope of appearing rational. Fucker is really out there.

Spector is charged with murdering Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion in early 2003. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on $1 million bail.

Link

Asheville Osho Celebration

First Annual Mountain Osho Celebration - July 16-23. Meditations, discourses, excursions, parties, camping, intimacy, white water rafting, mountain alone retreat time, tantra event...and more!

Sannyasins from all over the world. Premsager Osho Meditation Center, Asheville, NC, and Osho Dharmadip in nearby Lake Lure.

For more info:
Contact: Ma Amina
Email: aminadevi@yahoo.com
Phone: 828-296-7379

Link

I saw photographer Gregory Colbert on tv this morning, but somehow photographer just doesn't do him justice. After the New York opening of his Ashes and Snow exhibit in March, the exhibition will soon begin it's migration around the world in the first ever Nomadic Museum. The show contains 130 large images and a one hour film.

Link

saturday morning me//
cold pizza/hot coffee/weed mcdoob/
grey pj pants/navy duke tee/mocassins/
listening: Dylan - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue/
gloomy-ass day/making veg soup & bread/
viewing later: The Dolphin Defender/
so how about you?/

Chew On This
"In war you kill the people who are the victims of the tyrant you claim to be fighting against." -- Howard Zinn

Leave My Child Alone
DID YOU KNOW…that the Leave No Child Behind Act has a sneaky Pete section requiring high schools to turn over student information to military recruiters?

Sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of US Representative Mike Honda's Student Privacy Protection Act and OPT OUT your own child, or learn how the process works so you can tell your friends.

Link

Wanna play the Friday Random 10? Load up your media player, set to random/shuffle, and list the first ten songs that come up. Either here, at Feministe, or on your site. Gets your typing fingers limbered up, and while stalling, you can find something profound to bitch about. (Idea from Feministe)

MAY 20 - Friday Random 10
1. Eric Burdon - San Francisco Nights
2. Love - Forever Changes
3. Blind Faith - In The Presence Of The Lord
4. Bob Dylan - Under the Red Sky
5. Autechre - Uviol
6. Tangerine Dream - Beach theme (Live)
7. The Kinks - Lola
8. The Books - Lemon Of Pink
9. Animal Collective - Mouth Wooed Her
10. Daughter Darling - Broken Bridge

Sez Molly: On Jan. 9, 2005, Andrew Sullivan, writing in The Sunday Times of London, said: “We now know a great deal about what has gone on in U.S. detention facilities under the Bush administration. Several government and Red Cross reports detail the way many detainees have been treated. We know for certain that the United States has tortured five inmates to death. We know that 23 others have died in U.S. custody under suspicious circumstances. We know that torture has been practiced by almost every branch of the U.S. military in sites all over the world — from Abu Ghraib to Tikrit, Mosul, Basra, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

“Some Muslims had pork or alcohol forced down their throats; they had tape placed over their mouths for reciting the Quran; many Muslims were forced to be naked in front of each other, members of the opposite sex and sometimes their own families. It was routine for the abuses to be photographed in order to threaten the showing of the humiliating footage to family members.”

So where does all this leave us? With a story that is not only true, but previously reported numerous times. So let’s drop the “Lynch Newsweek” bull. Seventeen people have died in these riots. They didn’t die because of anything Newsweek did — the riots were caused by what our government has done. via

The Newsweek report is nothing new. Sadly, Quran abuse didn't seem to matter to anybody until rioting and killing led to public scorn. And it's obscene the way the administration is feigning shock about one Quran incident as if this is the first abusive act they're aware of.

Quote of The Week
“I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and American governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas.” --George Galloway

21-year-old Isioma Daniel was enjoying her first job as a journalist when a single sentence spun her life and country into chaos.

It was around the time that Amina Lawal had been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Nigeria was hosting the Miss World pageant and Daniel was assigned to cover it. But a few words of one article - considered heresy by Nigeria's mullahs - sparked riots that turned Muslims against Christians in bloody rampages that killed hundreds of people and destroyed dozens of villages.

Before the dust settled, the pageant had been cancelled, the beauty queens had fled, and Daniel had escaped into exile with a "fatwa" issued against her life. She remains one of the most sought-after people in the world. Dead.

What did she write in the newspaper about the beauty pageant that lead to the riots and hundreds dead?

"What would Mohammed think? He would probably have chosen a wife from one of them." Link

Mainstream Press Eats It's Own on cue from the White House. I hate that more people have died as an obvious direct result of the Newsweek article, but can we find out if religious materials are/were being trashed or flushed? Does it seem like we're trying to break every Geneva Convention rule?

'Mission Accomplished'. Remember that bullshit call and how far off it was? It's not even 'Newsweek Lied; People Died', because we don't know the truth yet. It's just one thing after the other. Isn't it time to get the fuck outta there? Link

Today's Quote
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. --George Orwell

Photo Gallery - Link

Who had to chew their arm off to get loose from that one night stand? Who's waking up to me in their boxers? latex? Time for the home version of Saturday Morning Me.

saturday morning me//
espresso black/fattie attack/
whiskey back/hold the crack/
almonds & gianormous strawberries/
black gauze skirt/black ballet flats/
cbgb tee/'something about mary" hair/
the style, damnit, not the substance/
listening to: Venetian Snares - Hungarian Suicide Song
so how about you?/

Does this crassly opportunistic piece of pseudo-trendy journalism make me look fat?

Happy Friday the 13th!

Wanna play? Fire up your media player, set to random/shuffle, and list the first ten songs that come up. (Idea from Feministe)

1. Gary Wilson - Chromium Bitch
2. Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Lovin' You
3. Fripp/Eno - The Heavenly Music Corporation
4. Melvins & Jello Biafra - The Lighter Side of Global Terror
5. Alice In Chains - I Stay Away
6. Big Eyed Beans From Venus - Captain Beefheart
7. Animal Collective - Leaf House
8. Robert Johnson - (I Believe I'll) Dust My Broom
9. Alvin Lee - I'm Going Home
10. Patti Smith = Because The Night


If you're into this sort of thing, the Acid Archives of Underground Sounds 1965-1982 are ready for cruising, if somewhat clumsily through the dinosaur navigation setup.
Link

Filibustering Live - Now in Washington!!!

* Georgetown University
* Howard University
* Trinity University
* George Washington University
* American University
* University of Virginia
* Princeton University

* Berkeley and others live on campus today and tomorrow. It does my heart good to see people speaking out on college campuses, where my seeds of democracy were sewn.

The Rolling Stones are to embark on a mammoth world tour, kicking off with 35 dates in the US and Canada in August. [more »]

"If the draft is re-instated we may be subject to induction. We pledge that we will not serve in the U.S. armed forces as long as U.S. troops are occupying or waging war in Iraq." If you're at risk of being drafted, feel free to Take The Pledge.

There's an underground movement to make smoking sexy again... Coherent Light is an adult site that caters to fans of dominant babes who light up and don't give a flying fuck. In fact, they wanna blow smoke in your face and maybe snuff a Kool 100 out on your ass. Well, I'm all for smoker's rights. (via: wfmu blog - NSFW [more»])

Anti-war hoopster, Steve Nash, from Canada, wins NBA's MVP.

Robert Plant making late night rounds on tv this week. Listen to 3 of his new songs from the Mighty Rearranger cd.

Send a message to key Senators urging them to "Vote No" on the nuclear option. Write your own letter or use the letter online and just add your name and hit "send". Quick & easy to do.

Project Save CBGB. The New York club currently faces a rent dispute and lease expiration on August 31, 2005.

Today's Quote
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.
-- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

**Update--May 11, 2005
WAYNESVILLE - Pastor Chan Chandler submitted his resignation to the members of East Waynesville Baptist Church on Tuesday, a move some said was the only way to resolve current tensions at the church. link
There were taped recordings of his sermons telling parishoners that voted for Kerry that they could either repent at the altar and ask for forgiveness, or leave the church. His decision to leave the church may just be the beginning of his problems after the IRS steps in.

'Mr Floatie' - a man dressed up as a giant turd - crashed a Victoria all-candidates meeting to draw attention to the city's practice of dumping raw sewage in the ocean. James Skwarok arrived dressed up as "Mr. Floatie," a two-metre tall turd representing POOP, People Opposed to Outfall Pollution.

(From Canada via Fortean Times)

This stunt would sure fire up the 24 hour newsbox for a good ol' ass-slapping 'round the clock turd admonishment.

From singer of The 13th Floor Elevators, to solo career, a mental hospital and back, Roky Erickson has lived in poverty as a virtual recluse, shying away from the music world as he battled schizophrenia for the past 20 years or so. Now Roky is on the road to recovery and rediscovery and working in the studio while under care and rehab of his brother, Sumner. I've gotta root for any 'phoenix rising out of the ashes' story, and hope to see him do well.

(via Tom Hallett @ [The Pulse »]

The Late Edition
saturday morning me//
cranberry juice/vitamins/
nibbling a black & white cookie/
jean jacket/jeans/birks/
perfect spring day/
early morning run &
did the flea market stroll/
bought more flowers
for my flower/rock garden/
so how about you?/

Useless Fact Of The Day
A flea's penis is roughly 2/3rds the length of its body. So if someone tells you, "You're hung like a flea", it's not an insult. Show them the respect they're due next time.

Thought For Today
When women go through menopause, they sometimes take testosterone. Wouldn't I immediately lose all verbal skills, begin a love affair with the remote control and start pissing on the toilet seat for no good reason?

Quote For Today
Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business. --Tom Robbins

**Update--May 11, 2005
WAYNESVILLE - Pastor Chan Chandler submitted his resignation to the members of East Waynesville Baptist Church on Tuesday, a move some said was the only way to resolve current tensions at the church. link

Members Say Church Ousts Kerry Supporters
A Baptist pastor in North Carolina has touched off an exodus in his church by declaring Democrats are not welcome as members.

The Rev. Chan Chandler of East Waynesville Baptist Church in Waynesville ex-communicated nine members who refuse to support President Bush, according to WLOS-TV in Asheville, N.C.

Another 40 have left in protest in a controversy that began before the election last November and came to a head Sunday.

"He preached a sermon on abortion and homosexuality, then said if anyone there was planning on voting for John Kerry, they should leave," said Selma Morris, a 30-year member of the church. "That’s the first time I’ve ever heard something like that. Ministers are supposed to bring people in." "[Chandler] told us that if we didn't support George Bush we needed to resign our position and get out, or go to the altar and repent, and support George Bush."

Chandler, who could not be reached for comment, has insisted his actions are not politically motivated.

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek sharply criticized the pastor Friday, saying Chandler jeopardized his church's tax-free status by openly supporting a candidate for president.

A contributor to the leading liberal weblog Daily Kos wrote: "For those that thought that there has not been a full scale war lanched against liberals; for those who didn't take the radical right's promise to "eradicate liberals" seriously, I present to you, Exhibit A: East Waynesville Baptist Church has just kicked out all its Democratic members."

This sad spectacle is the predictable consequence of the radical religious right's insistence on measuring a person’s religion by social-political litmus tests. How soon will others follow suit? [more »]

Four Dead In Ohio
Thirty five years ago today, on May 4, 1970, an anti-war student demonstration at Kent State University, Ohio, left four students dead. I was a senior in high school and the news slapped me across the face. I watched the guardsmen shoot down these college kids for peacefully protesting against the war. Can you imagine how that would play out today with our 24 hour news saturation? It was easy to be pissed off and angry at police and lawmakers when they were sending me and my friends off to war and killing those left behind. If you weren't already radically involved with change, Kent State would change you.

Kent State: May 1-4,1970 Why the Protest began
Nixon announced a troop offensive into Cambodia on April 30, and said going into Cambodia was necessary to "win the peace". But it was really an escalation of war into another country we had no business being in. When the the fires from the artillery began to burn in Cambodia, a raging fire of protest spread across the US, especially on college campuses. There wasn't much protesting in the streets until the students got fired up. Students were the nucleus of protest back then as many demonstrations and marches were born there.

This day is as important to me as any other day in history. There would be no turning back now in our rage against war. Remember Kent State.

Death of the King of the Rainbow Warriors
Perhaps more than anyone else, Bob Hunter invented Greenpeace. His death on March 2nd 2005, of cancer, marks the passing of a true original, one of the heroes of the environmental movement.

In 1971, the word "Greenpeace" hadn't yet been coined. Bob was a hippy journalist in Vancouver, a town which he described as having "the biggest concentration of tree-huggers, radicalized students, garbage-dump stoppers, shit-disturbing unionists, freeway fighters, pot smokers and growers, aging Trotskyites, condo killers, farmland savers, fish preservationists, animal rights activists, back-to-the-landers, vegetarians, nudists, Buddhists, and anti-spraying, anti-pollution marchers and picketers in the country, per capita, in the world."

Among Hunter's stock stories was the tale of how he'd stumbled on to the Cree Indian myth of the "Warriors of the Rainbow" -- a legendary tribe of spirits who would rescue nature when the Earth became sick. The story involved a gypsy dulcimer maker, an old set of fenceposts, and the gift of a book which Hunter claimed leapt into his hands -- quite literally -- when The Greenpeace dropped down a steep swell on its way to Amchitka. The story itself was magical and mythological, and over the years Hunter would embellish and polish it into a hilarious and inspirational piece of campfire folklore.
Memorials & Photo Tribute

Michael Hussar is a fun and twisted artist I don't get to see enough of. Another image you may recognize here.

Just who landed the dream job that determines that Julian Casablancas' DNA isn't worth as much as Michael Stipe's? Lunch, anyone?

Artist Natalie Dee's review of those ribbons you see displayed on cars.

More Firefox Fun - How about Pimpzilla theme for your Firefox? Subtle, thy name is NOT Pimpzilla.

Know Your Burns
#1 - Burning Man
NC - Transformus
DE - Playa del Fuego
TX - Flipside
AZ - Toast-Town
GA - RipeAtlanta
Canada - Burning Mooseman

If evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve.