September 21, 2007 - PARK(ing) Day

Conceived by REBAR, a San Francisco-based art collective, PARK(ing) Day is a one-day, global event centered in San Francisco where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.

The Mission:

To rethink the way streets are used, call attention to the need for urban parks, and improve the quality of urban human habitat....at least until the meter runs out!

link | link

a nod to foontz on 60s beyond

The White Rose Society
By Dorothy Snodgrass

Am I foolish to dream of a White Rose Society in this country to restore our honor and atone for the needless loss of American military and innocent Iraq’s?

Were it not for that distinctive T-shirt, it’s doubtful I would ever have known about the White Rose Society. But meeting a friend recently, I was attracted by his T-shirt. At the top there was a line of Arabic script, beneath that the phrase, “We Will Not Remain Silent.” I was informed that this motto dated back to 1943, when a small group of students at the University of Munich, sickened by the atrocities of the Nazi’s, especially the persecution of the Jews, formed a resistance movement, which they named “The White Rose Society.”

Spending almost an entire day at the Berkeley Public Library, and assisted by a reference librarian who was equally intrigued by this Society, I unearthed a wealth of materials, the most valuable being the book, “A Noble Treason: The Revolt of Munich Students Against Hitler.” Thanks to the librarian’s computer skills, I was provided with a print-out of all four leaflets written by these students—leaflets calling for German youth to overthrow the regime.

"The name of Germany will be dishonored forever lest German youth finally rise to smash [Hitler’s] tormentors and invoke a new, intellectual and spiritual Europe.” These leaflets were not the rabid ravings of wild-eyed radicals, but rather were beautifully-written, scholarly documents with quotations from Aristotle, Friedrich Schiller, Goethe and Lao Tzu. I was especially taken by the opening sentence in the First Leaflet:

“Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be ‘governed’ without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that every honest German is ashamed of his government.”

Given today’s shameful Iraq war debacle, might we not substitute “honest American” for “honest German"?

[Read More »]

The parallels to the Iraq slaughter are obvious and the writer asks: "Why are today’s university students not rebelling at the Iraq war and other injustices?" Go. Read the rest of this piece to find out what happens to these 4 students. Thank you, Dorothy Snodgrass. Outstanding piece of work on an exceptional group of students.

Related:
Read the leaflets
White Rose Society Martyrs
Protest of the Youth

Sicko Premieres At Cannes

This time, the U.S. government apparently has Michael Moore in its sights. To make "Sicko," he traveled to Cuba with some rescue workers who became ill after cleaning up debris from the terror attacks in New York. In the film, he shows them getting health care in Cuba that he says was unavailable to them in the United States.

The film got a warm welcome at Cannes on Saturday where it played to a packed house. It's main message is that the U.S. health care system is driven by private industry greed. The film asks why 50 million Americans have no health care coverage, and why many who have health insurance still have trouble getting treatment.

"I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me -- I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help..."
-- Michael Moore

"Sicko" presents an emotional portrait of an array of people, including volunteer rescue heroes of the September 11 attack, who are denied needed care -- despite the fact that most are insured. And it points a finger at the source of the crisis, a profit-driven insurance industry whose "biggest accomplishment is buying our U.S. Congress" to prevent real reform.

It also focuses on the suffering caused to the nine million children living in the United States whom Moore says are left without any health cover because of the country's reliance on private insurance. 'We are the last country in the industrialized world to have this system,' the film-maker said after the screening. 'The poorest child in Britain has a longer life expectancy than the average American child.'

link

I don't know what drives this lovely man to want to fix our unconscionable health care system, but I'm grateful for all the passion and love that he displays.

A Hunger For Justice
Darfur Becomes One Man's Cause for Deprivation

By Delphine Schrank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2007

Forty-four days without food and counting, and he thinks his mind is starting to slow. There are days he is so nauseated, he can barely move. His legs, he says, have swelled up from a problem with his kidneys. His body doesn't give off heat anymore. But his resolve -- his heart, he would say -- hasn't faltered. If need be, he says, he'll take this to the end.

A few hundred yards away from a statue of Mahatma Gandhi on Massachusetts Avenue, 55-year-old Start Loving, a former business executive known to his friends and family as Jay McGinley, lives on the sidewalk in front of the Sudanese Embassy, a month into surviving on nothing but water and the will to stir the world into stopping genocide. Bearded, sunburned and dirty from weeks on the street, he could be another homeless wretch -- except that hanging like wings off his shoulders are two giant laminated orange placards that read "Darfur Hunger Strike March 1."

"Yes, we knew it was 4 years. Yes we knew 450,000 exterminated. Yes we knew 2.5 million in concentration camps of forced starvation, rape, mutilation, murder and disease. We in the US agonized for you our Darfur brothers and sisters. We had meetings, and more meetings. We fasted from luxuries for one whole day per year. ONE ENTIRE DAY - WE ABSTAINED FROM ONE OF OUR LUXURIES! On another day we formed a human chain. On another day we sent postcards. POSTCARDS! In all there were one million! We divested our Colleges and States. Sure the real money came from China but it helped a little and it gave us great connections and enhanced our resumes too! Two different sunny afternoons we went to parks for demonstrations, and we even listened to some of the speakers! Wow, we really pulled out all the stops! link

link | via | blog

WORLD CAN'T WAIT

That Which You Will Not Resist And Mobilize To Stop, You Will Learn Or Be Forced To Accept.

Now is the time.

2008 is too late.

To allow this carnage to continue is unconscionable.


March 17: March on the Pentagon
March 20: Student Walk-Outs

The Inconvenient Death of Brad Will: Mexican police gun down a counterculture hero

Sarah Ferguson, Village Voice

The last time I saw independent journalist and activist Brad Will was in September in an East Village yoga studio. I turned my head and found him lying on the mat next to me in the darkened room, his pale, flat stomach rising and falling serenely with the rhythm of his breathing. So on October 27, when I saw the photos posted on the Internet showing the 36-year-old Will's mortally wounded body laid out on a street in Oaxaca, Mexico, I cringed. There was that same pale, flat stomach now punctured by a bullet.

Over the course of his restless 36 years, he seemed to hit every activist node: squatting in the East Village, staging tree-sits in the Northwest with Earth First, and hopping freight trains to anarchist gatherings. He braved tear gas and rubber bullets during the anti-globalization battles in Seattle, Quebec, Prague, and Genoa (where a demonstrator was shot dead in the street by police).

When the heady Seattle-style direct-action movement in the U.S. toned down following 9-11, Will took his video camera south, following the wave of popular uprisings in Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, and finally Mexico. Friends say he was consumed with overlooked social struggles around the world. "He was one of the most dedicated activists I ever worked with," says Brooke Lehman, one of the owners of the radical Bluestockings bookstore on the Lower East Side, who met Will in 1998. "You could pretty much guarantee if there was a cause or an action, Will would be there. He felt a tremendous responsibility to do media where other media outlets wouldn't go, or were afraid to go."

There's much more to read about the life of Brad Will.

Asheville-based non-profit, Kleiwerks International, is hosting an exciting one-night fundraiser with Starhawk, author, activist, and one of the most respected voices in modern earth-based spirituality. At this critical juncture in Asheville 's growth, our community is fortunate to have this rare opportunity for hundreds of us to gather, envisioning and activating our city's future.

Visioning Asheville’s Future with Starhawk & Janell Kapoor of Kleiwerks International. Join 200-300 local visionaries/actionaries for a slideshow presentation, guided visioning, interactive discussion, raffle/auction, and catered snacks.

Date: Monday September 25th, 2006--TONIGHT!
Time: 6pm-10pm
Location: Jubilee! 46 Wall Street - Downtown Asheville
Information: Call Janell at 828.279.1955 or email janell@kleiwerks.org

Affiliated with Asheville's Earthaven Ecovillage and others.

Ten Reasons We Already Miss Ann Richards

Ann Richards, the famously silver-tongued and silver-haired former governor of Texas, died Wednesday from complications of esophageal cancer. She was 73. Here's just some of what we'll remember and miss about her:

1. Richards used her wit not only to disarm her political opponents but to encourage other women to get into politics: "Let me tell you, sisters, seeing dried egg on a plate in the morning is a lot dirtier than anything I've had to deal with in politics," she said.

2. As a homemaker raising four kids, Richards became politically involved by volunteering on campaigns, including helping elect Sarah Weddington, the 25-year-old lawyer who had successfully argued Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court, to the Texas House. Richards called Weddington the first "out-and-out feminist activist" she'd ever met, according to the Washington Post.

3. Two years after undergoing rehab for alcoholism in 1982, Richards was elected state treasurer, making her the first woman elected to a statewide post in Texas in 50 years. Of her return from addiction, she said: "I believe in recovery, and I believe that as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that you can make a mistake and come back from it."

4. When Richards gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1988 -- where she zinged the elder George Bush -- "Poor George. He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth" -- she also reminded the audience that she was only the second woman to give the keynote address at the convention in 160 years. The first was Barbara Jordan.

Continued in the Comments.

FROM GAZA WITH LOVE

As a mother, I fear for our children. I can see the effects of the continuous sonic booming and artillery shelling on my daughter. She is 13 years old and she is restless, panicked. She is afraid to go out, yet frustrated because she can't see her friends. When the Israeli planes break the sound barrier, which they do at all times of the day and night, the sound is terrifying. My bed shakes tremendously. My daughter usually jumps into bed with me, shivering with fear. Then both of us end up crouching on the floor. My heart races, yet I need to pacify my daughter, to make her feel safe. Now she knows that we need to pacify each other. She feels my fear. When the bombs sound, I flinch and scream. I can't help myself. I am a doctor, a mature, middle-aged woman. But with the sonic booming, I become hysterical. I am only human after all, and we all have our threshold for fear and pain."

Dr. Mona El-Farra is a physician by training, a human rights and women's rights activist by practice, in the Occupied Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territory. See the Gaza Strip through her eyes.

link [via]

I'm certainly not taking sides in any Middle East conflict nor am I skilled enough to debate it. I just find it more interesting to hear a Mother's viewpoint than a newscaster's.

Web Trail - Tom Robbins, Social Suicide, Acid Reduxe, Sedaris, Unhoused, Black Panthers, Juneteenth

* Not Just Another Roadside Attraction - Tom Robbins reflects on his 44-year romance with the Blue Moon bar in Seattle. link

* Social Suicide - Tailored in Savile Row and styled for a civil row, this isn't your average shit. link

* ACID REDUX - The life and high times of Timothy Leary link

* WHAT I LEARNED - And what I said at Princeton by DAVID SEDARIS (his recent commencement speech) link

* Street blogging - Filmmaker Daniel Cross goes online to tell the stories of Canada’s street populace with Homelessnation.org. Here the "unhoused" maintain their blogs and podcasts and more. link

* Newsreel Film DVD on Black Panthers being compiled with appeal for donations. link

* At the annual Juneteenth festival comedian/activist Dick Gregory blasted the major television networks for hiding the truth in reporting a bloody and ugly war in Iraq. link

Carpe Scrotum - Grab life by the balls

Want some ice cream with your anarchy? The Tactical Ice Cream Unit (TICU) has sweets for the streets and continues its SoCal hijinx with stops at UCLA, Otis College of Art & Design, and other random places of mystery and mayhem.

Aaron Gach, a San Francisco Bay Area “artist” and anarchist activist has this sweet vision.

SDS
Regional SDS Conference
Providence, April 23, 2006

Bethany, Ct. April 13, 2006 - Long time anti-war activist Thomas Good, 47 year old member of the Industrial Workers of the World and the War Resistors League living in New York City announced today that on April 23rd, the first regional conference will be held by the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Good, who is helping organize the conference, explained that the new SDS is significantly different from the old SDS.

Good reported that in only a few months of activity, the re-born SDS has established seventy-seven chapters nationwide.

Paul Buhle, a historian at Brown University and SDS activist in the 1960s is enthusiastically at work planning the conference. Buhle said, "The voice of the young and the most democratic social movement of the 1960s, is back again...with a new generation." [MORE...]

HAPPY FRIDAY!
Bring 'Em Home
Devendra Banhart, REM frontman Michael Stipe, Bright Eyes, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D and Rufus Wainwright will perform in the Bring 'Em Home concert in New York's Hammerstein Ballroom on March 20th, the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, to plead against the war in Iraq.

The singers will join activist Cindy Sheehan in her effort to bring the American soldiers home from Iraq and to stop the war.

Among the celebrities expected to attend the event are Jane Fonda, Alec Baldwin, Margaret Cho and Janeane Garofalo, while Steve Earle, Fischerspooner, and Peaches will be among the other performers. [MORE...]

I applaud these people who lend their time and expertise to the cause of bringing 'em home, but I can't help but feel there are many people too apprehensive to speak out against the war. Their silence is deafening.

~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~

Wolfgang's Vault is the online site of the vault contents of rock promoter Bill Graham's estate. Fortunately, Graham was a pack rat and kept everything from the Fillmore East and West. Vintage tickets, posters, and reels of performances. The recent buyer of his extensive estate has catalogued and priced most of the items for sale. Link

~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~ ~:|:~

Friday Random Ten - Why? Because I feel like it.

1) In The Sun - Michael Stipe w/Joseph Arthur
2) Blackout - Lovedrug
3) Dancing With Mr D - Rolling Stones
4) All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople
5) Bull In The Heather - Sonic Youth
6) Presence Of The Lord - Blind Faith
7) Cracking Up - The Jesus And Mary Chain
8) The Bottle - Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jacks
9) Book of Saturday - King Crimson
10)The Antler of the Midnight Sun - Comets on Fire

Stew Albert 1939 - 2006

Berkley 1968 - Portland 2002
Stew Albert a prominent anti-Vietnam war activist, an early supporter of the Black Panthers and a founder of the Yippie radical protest group, died Monday at age 66 in Portland, Oregon.

Initially diagnosed with Hepatitis C, he spent a whole year enduring grueling chemotherapy. He spoke openly about it on his website, documenting each day and each weekly shot. He was finally declared free of the disease only to be diagnosed with liver cancer this past December. The ultimate Fuck You. (My sister passed away this past Thanksgiving also from liver cancer from Hep C.) We spoke thru email about Hep C, how it sucked and how the treatment felt worse than the disease. I was always inspired by his spirit. From 1968 in Chicago throughout his life. People with true 60s ideals are a rare breed. Tom Robbins said, Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business. Stew certainly believed in magic.

On his website...from Judy
"Stew will be buried tomorrow (Wednesday) in Jones Pioneer Cemetery in Portland. He will be wrapped in a tallis (Jewish prayer shaw), holding a stuffed flower from the Haight and wearing his kick-ass Frye boots and our wedding ring."

There are beautiful sentiments expressed on his website, Bay Area Indymedia, Infoshop News, SFGate, and on Counterpunch.


More On Hepatitis C
Allen Ginsberg died from complications of it. Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, and David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, & Nash, both had liver transplants and still suffer from it. Ken Kesey, author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, suffered from it and died of liver cancer in 2001. Penny Arcade, the 55-year-old performance artist for the East Village avant-garde art scene since Andy Warhol roamed the city, also suffers from it.

Miles Keaton Andrew, a 52-year-old author who contracted it when he experimented with intravenous drugs as a teenager, has kept a blog, www.mkandrew.com, since 2001 about his experiences battling H.C.V. His blog has received a million hits in the past year. “I understand the whole stigma thing,” he told The Villager. "There are a lot of people like me who might have experimented with drugs. Some of us got sick from it and it isn’t anything to be ashamed about."

Hep C Life After Interferon is another blogger who documents his experience with it.

Mark Fiore takes a humorous look at the serious problem of the Mountaintop Removal going on in West Virginia. Link

Larry Gibson has lived on 50 acres of land in southern WV that has been in his family for over 200 years. Since the 80s, he has refused to sell this land, a mountain top that has been coveted by coal barrons for the sole purpose of stripping to top off and mine the coal. What had been one of the lowest points in this mountain range is now the tallest because the rest has been 'removed' by MTR, mountain top removal.Because Larry has worked for years as a social activist to try and stop this rape of his WV mountains, he has been the target of vandals and their violence. He is a leader of the Mountain Justice Summer movement that has had, this summer, some major successes in fighting Massey Coal Company, preventing them from building a processing unit within 50 yards from a school.

In the last few weeks he has lost his only power generator, a solar unit, security cameras, outdoor security lights, and gunshots have been fired into his cabin. One dog was shot and another hanged, motion dectors have been destroyed, all in an effort to scare him off his land.

This is the despicable work of the coal robber barrons who want his land and want him to shut up, all for the little bit of coal that sits under his land.

If any of you would like to help Larry, here is the information:

Larry Gibson, P.O. Box 86, Naoma, WV 25140
Keeper of the Mountains Foundation
(The above text is a copy of an email I recently received.)

Tomorrow, on June 19th 2005, Burma's democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will be 60 years old. On that day she will have spent a total of 9 years and 238 days in detention.

Armed soldiers behind a barricade of barbed wire turn away any visitors. The regime has also cut her phone line, so no-one can call to wish her happy birthday. The brutal generals who rule Burma have already made one attempt on her life, attacking a convoy she was travelling in on May 30th 2003. Up to 100 of her supporters were beaten to death in the attack. Aung San Suu Kyi's car managed to speed away, but she was later arrested.

REM are planning an onstage protest against Burma. They will broadcast a song dedicated to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, currently under house arrest in Burma. The band will play the unspecified song during a concert in Dublin, but it will be broadcast into the military-ruled Burma via an Oslo-based satellite TV station.

REM are performing the song to raise awareness of Suu Kyi's 2,523rd day in detention on the Nobel Peace Prize winner's 60th birthday. The band will also speak about the activist while onstage in Dublin. It is part of a series of worldwide events against Burma.

She stands alone after all these years fighting for the freedom of her country and I pray she sees her country free some day soon. Why the story of Aung San Suu Kyi should haunt the conscience of the world.

What You Can Do
Arrest Yourself
Send Birthday Cards
Global Protest At Embassies

The last time I had a big ol' reach around, hair pulling, ass slapping, belly laugh? While watching Bill Maher read his New Rules segment this weekend.

Ready. New Rule: If you need to shave and you still collect baseball cards, you're gay. If you're a kid, the cards are keepsakes of your idols. If you're a grown man, they're pictures of men.

New Rule: If you have to tell me what fraction of you is Native American, you're not really an Indian. There's a word for people who claim to be one-quarter Indian: Puerto Rican.

New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.

New Rule: I don't need an annoying little sticker on each individual piece of fruit. Let me get this straight: our borders aren't secure, but we're still going through the plums by hand? You know, those stickers are the opposite of appetizing, especially the one on kiwis that says, "Don't these kind of look like your balls?"

And finally, New Rule: Pharmacists have to fill prescriptions. As our audience seems to already know, more and more American pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control because of their personal moral objections. Hey, you know what would really teach us a lesson? If you took off your pretend doctor jacket and got another job.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe cutting off the pill doesn't even go far enough. Yeah, it's high time activist drugstores stopped coddling sluts on every aisle. Let's not sell any more makeup either. A good woman doesn't paint herself. And no more deodorant. You should smell bad. Keep the boys from getting ideas. And no suntan lotion. I've seen what happens at the MTV Beach House, you whore. You want to avoid melanoma, buy a veil.

Why is this country becoming Utah?! You know, I know the conservatives are always saying that the coastal elites don't really get it about them because we just fly over. Okay, maybe. But, you know what? You guys don't get us either. We need to fuck. Refusal to provide birth control threatens our economy and our very way of life here in Southern California. There's a lot of hot chicks out here, man. We need birth control! I mean, seriously, how do you think movies get made?

Now, of course, I know the other side is saying, yes, but this is a moral issue. Yeah, but the problem is, not everyone gets their morals from the same book. You go by the book that says slavery is okay but sex is wrong until after marriage, at which point it becomes a blessed sacrament between a husband and the wife who is withholding it.

In conclusion, let me say to all the activist pharmacists out there, the ones who think sex is bad probably because sex with them always is. Fellas, a pharmacist is not a law-giver, not even a doctor. In the medical pecking order, you rank somewhere in between a chiropractor and a tree surgeon.

You don't answer to a law above the laws of men. You work for Save-On. The doctors are the ones who make medical decisions because they went to medical school, whereas you were transferred from the counter where people drop off film.

Between a chiropractor and a tree surgeon. Get over your righteous self.

Guided by inspiration from his journey to Iraq, Palestine and Israel this past summer, musician/poet/activist Michael Franti heads to Kingston, Jamaica to team up with legendary godfathers of riddim Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and long-time Beastie Boys collaborator, Jack Johnson producer, Mario Caldato, Jr.

BJORK is ready to speak out on behalf of down-trodden women because she is sick of men leading less complicated lives. She always avoided conversations about gender issues in the past because she didn't want to be labelled a feminist - but now she is prepared to speak her mind.

Outside the "Black Tie and Boots Ball" activists will have their own "Black Gold and Boots Ball" featuring Hallibacon, the Halliburton mascot, and other war profiteers that expect to make a killing during the second term of the Bush admin. Co-sponsors of the protest include some of the most creative activist groups in the country: CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Billionaires for Bush, and the Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane.

Sometimes when we want something to happen, we can visualize it. If you're a Kerry supporter, Paul Levy, spiritually informed political activist, suggests that we visualize John Kerry winning the Presidential election.


Michael Moore: "In your heart of hearts you know Bush is a miserable failure..." more »

Soldiers reveal the truth about the war @ Operation Truth.

Ten Thousand Monkeys Election Issue is out.

Ani DiFranco: "...all of the rights and freedoms that we brag about around the world, were fought for by activists." more »

John Edwards: "Tomorrow, hope will arrive".

If he were my Bush, I'd shave him off.

I'm shuttling folks to the polls tomorrow from 6:30a - 10:00a. (Must have gotten the short straw) Will return tomorrow for mutual commiseration and hand-wringing until the results roll in.

I've been quite passionate about and used to write quite often about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (8 posts in 2003) and the atrocities in Burma (Myanmar). The way I understand it, Burma was able to have an actual democratic election for the first time in their history and she was elected president. Her father had previously been a leader there. Soon, the military junta that rule Burma, assaulted her caravan and she's been kept for years in seclusion under "house arrest". I read a Suu Kyi email list and have seen how the people just adore her. Now Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Sting and U2 are joining forces on a benefit album for the Burmese democracy activist and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi.

If the US wants to help some country with freedom and democracy, why haven't they been more diligent about Burma's situation? [more ]

*Mouse-over the picture for full effect. Learn how it's done at Mandarin Design.

Quote For Today
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
~Kahlil Gibran

You HAVE been to visit What She Said, haven't you? No? Well get your ass in gear. Now.

I embarass my offspring.

Some of you may be familiar with anti-shopping activist, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. He is back, after saving your soul from Disneyfication, downtown high-rises, the corporatization of the mind, shopping-mall culture and the Antichrist. With a background in Theater, it's a big production wherever he goes, so I'm not surprised he's booked up solid the next few weeks with the RNC coming to town. To me, he serves the axiom of one person can make a difference and no matter your opinion of the righteous Rev, you must admit that he's the proud owner of one humongous pair. (journal)

{Magickal Mystery Tours}
Vincent Bridges is an historian, author, independent researcher and a self-proclaimed “anthropologist of the weird.” He is also a pioneer researcher in the field of psycho-acoustic therapy, a trauma abreaction technique using light and sound entrainment of brain frequencies, a pagan political activist and a world traveler, having organized and led tour groups to southern France, Egypt and India.

Formed out of a need for real Adventures in Sacred Travel, and founded in 1995 as an outgrowth of the Fifth Way Mystery School (be sure and look thru this site well) experience and as a way for our intrepid researchers and explorers to share their insights, Magickal Mystery Tours provides up-close and personal contact with the sacred traditions of pilgrimage.

There's the tour, In The Footprints Of Fulcanelli which traveled in June from Paris to Hendaye. And Nostradamus' Provence are but a few. His many books will take you on beautiful spiritual journeys as well.

My husband has always had Bridges books around and I finally picked up the Holy Grail one and became quite interested. Start at any of these web sites if this interests you, and you'll spend hours pouring over his many spirutual and literary adventures.

Bjork's extraordinary new album, Medulla, is her seventh solo studio work, and first since 2001's "Vespertine." Produced and arranged by Bjork (with co-production on four tracks by her frequent associate, Mark Bell), "Medulla" represents another landmark recording for one of modern music's most ingenious and inventive artists. August 30, 2004 is the release date. {via: slatch}

The Yes Men follows a couple of anti-corporate activist-pranksters as they impersonate World Trade Organization spokesmen on TV and at business conferences around the world. See The Yes Men Trailer. Disinfo will release The Yes Men book September 8. And United Artists will release The Yes Men movie September 24. {via: Movie City News}

{Protesting the RNC & DNC Conventions}

Black Tea Society - How do you protest the political maneuverings inside the FleetCenter that are meant to put your preferred candidate into office?

High Times Blog - magazine's Activist Guide to the RNC.

Missile Dick Chicks - Getting Their War Kix

Vomitorium 2004 - is a theatrical performance, modeled after the opulent parties of the Roman Empire. No, thanks.

Tompkins Sq. Park Campout - Organized by John Penley & Aron Kay ( aka the Pie Man)

Times UP! - The TIME'S UP! environmental group, (mostly cyclists) has a long history of promoting a positive message about our environment and non-polluting transportation.

*New Posts in my Side Bar
Testicle Theater via Asheville blogger, Jay
Magic Cow - 1000's flock to get licked by Magic Cow
Courtney Deserves Better - Margaret Cho Courtney Love post
Those of you reading in a newsfeed won't see new additions, so I'll start posting them, too.

April 12, 1989 -- Abbie Hoffman, Yippie peace activist of the 60's, dead at 52. Fifteen years ago. Murder or suicide? Read about Abbie on Stew Albert's website as he describes Abbiestock, the day Abbie took over the NYSE. Stew and Abbie had many adventures together.

His Steal This Book was a must have. Another ode to Abbie at the Pax Acidus site. (also a great read)

{Abbie Hoffman Quote}
"Avoid all needle drugs, the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon."

::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: ::: :::

:: New York Dolls, (most of them) reunite at Morrissey's request - [link]

:: David Bowie has teamed up with carmaker Audi for a "mash-up" contest for a chance to win a 2004 Audi TT coupe. Enter the contest here. Who is NOT doing a car ad?

Moshes to Yanni.

Re-Defeat Bush is an activist group's weblog. They also have condoms that say "Re-defeat Bush - Don't Get Screwed Again". What if more businesses had their own condoms? McCondoms - You deserve a d*ck today!

Nice vintage posters [via: growabrain]

Artist did a portrait using only candy hearts. Pretty impressive.

Edited @ 2:30 pm - **Click Here to listen to Air America LIVE online. Al Franken's O'Franken Factor premiere show was great. Al Gore called in to wish him well. Michael Moore was a guest and the running gag was that Ann Coulter's screaming from the back room where they'd locked her in and just generally raising all sorts of hell. Hillary Clinton will be on tomorrow and Richard Clarke on Friday. Randi Rhodes show's up after Al's; and she's explaining Bush as the Fredo of the family. And Janeane Garofalo is up from 8:00pm - 11:00pm est.

{local} Local clothing designer is well on her way. Brooke Priddy, 26, has been making her own clothes since the age of 10. She once twisted a Twister mat into a skirt, exhibiting a creativity that in her teens morphed into a "Mad Max" look - leathers and boots, ripped and frayed. "Amazon goddess" is her self-described current phase - "super-empowered, sexual, flowing, beautiful, straight out of the sky like an angel." After getting her Fine Arts degree, she settled in Asheville. I wish her much success. [link]

I still miss my ex-husband. Will my aim ever improve?