W E B T R A I L | Flurb, Anarchy, UFOs, Junky's, Orwellian

Have you FLURBed lately? Rudy Rucker's The Third Bomb is a good article on the latest Flurb and don't miss Cul-de-Sac by John Shirley. Actually, they are ALL good articles on the Flurb.

At Anarchist U, it's all about structure. (wtf?) The four-year-old free school has survived partly because it's, um, well organized. The mere fact that it's entering its fourth year without an address or a registrar, and with total operating expenses of about $50 a year (most of which is the fee for hosting its website, http://www.anarchistu.org), is something of a milestone. [via]
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"If it wasn't for my girlfriend sighting the objects first, I would concede the possibility that it was a hallucination. She knew nothing of my silent request to show me something, and pointed out the objects before I saw them." Professor Pan expounds on the attempted manipulation of UFO manifestations, the concept of UFOs as egregores, and the probability that UFOs are a multidimensional phenomena with a nod to Jacques Vallee, Brother Blue, RAW, Crowley and with more great links to explore. link

:: I missed The Junky's Christmas again this year, (and for the past 15 years) Originally produced in 1993 and presented by Francis Ford Coppola, the film has just been released on DVD. [via]

CHILDREN OF MEN - Fans of progressive rock know Battersea from the cover of Pink Floyd?s 1977 concept album "Animals," the one with the floating pink pig and a playlist that includes songs like "Pigs" and "Sheep." The album seems to have been inspired by George Orwell?s 1945 allegorical novel, "Animal Farm" (the book?s money quote: "But some animals are more equal than others"). [via]
link

Whether there's an Orwellian spin or an artistic approach, the reviews for Children Of Men are kind. On NYTimes.com below the article there is a list of similar movies that lists Brave New World, The Stand, THX 1138, Gattaca, and In the Country of the Last Things. Now THAT should be included on the banner.

George Bush Quote
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

Time For A Big Ol' Cup Of 'Shut The F*** Up'

Now that the Democrats have taken back the Congress and 51+ percent of America finally has a voice in government again, I think it's time to seriously let fly. So at the risk of sounding contentious in this all-too-genuine era (several days) of bipartisanship, here now is a roll call of people who must officially shut the f*** up.

1) Republican trolls who wrap up their anonymous and incomprehensible criticisms of progressives with the phrase, "and that's why your party never wins," need to shut the f*** up.

2) The cowards who so easily disregard our liberties by shrugging off the president's illegal wiretapping; the cowards who shrug off the Military Commissions Act and the death of habeas corpus; and the cowards who shrug off torture with the phrases, "I'm not doing anything wrong, so I have nothing to worry about," or, "You can't [blank] if you're dead," ought to shut the f*** up.

3) Anyone who still believes that global warming is a myth? Shut the f*** up.

4) Rush Limbaugh must shut the f*** up. On second thought, strike that. The more we see Violet Beauregard flapping his arms and mocking Parkinson's patients, the better off the rest of the nation will be.

5) In Ann Coulter's latest column, he wondered when the Democrats would be fitting Senator-Elect Jon Tester with a "leotard." Speaking of tards, Mr. Coulter needs to shut the f*** up. And this order stands for anyone who claims Senator-Elect Tester is a "conservative Democrat." He could very well be the face of the New Progressive Democrat and one of the most genuine lawmakers elected Tuesday. Prediction: if he isn't already, Tester will quickly become a rock star in this party.

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THE UNDERGROUND PRESS

Did you ever read/see any of the great underground newspapers of the late 1960's - mid 1970's in the US? There was The East Village Other (NY), The Great Speckled Bird (ATL), Black Panther, Berkeley Barb (Berkeley, CA), LA Free Press, The Paper, of East Lansing, Michigan, and many more?

I was a faithful Speckled Bird reader. We bought these most of the time from people on street corners in Atlanta; on the corner of 14th St, where all the other freaks hung out. As surely as you'd see a Bird vendor around there, you'd also see someone selling flowers for a small fee to wear in your hair or wherever. And you knew who was selling "what" "where". And someone was in a doorway playing guitar; a few bumming spare change passing by. All waiting for the next musical, sexual, or pharmaceutical experience.

Receiving The Last Whole Earth Catalog was a spiritual experience. Sort of a hippie Sears catalog and was one of the very few books we had at Peace Tree (a lakeside commune in Tennessee) when we first began. It was all about survival, metaphysics, learning to grow organic, live natural, how to build a shelter-- how to build or make just about anything. Stewart Brand (Burning Man) was the founder. We've still got one around the house someplace.

Many college libraries have some of these newspapers on Microfilm. Some are for sale on Ebay. Why are there no equivalent newspapers/websites? "Where is that one great progressive balls to the wall website that has it all?" Music, protest and boycott info, in-depth interviews, sex (& relationships), drugs, literature? more»

from the archives

The FBI is keeping tabs on SOA Watch, the human rights group that monitors the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

On April 24 and 25, torture survivors, students, nuns, veterans and other SOA Watch activists flooded the halls of Congress in Washington, DC to knock on doors for hundreds of meetings with staffers, Representatives and Senators.

On May 4, the FBI elevated its concern of SOA Watch to "priority" level, claiming that the group is subject to "counterterrorism" monitoring, according to documents by the ACLU and its Georgia chapter.

For almost 60 years, the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in tactics that are used to wage war against their own people. Courses taught at the school include counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Among those targeted by SOA/ WHINSEC graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders and others who work for human rights.

What it boils down to is the FBI is concerned about a peaceful human rights group of mostly nuns that monitors a camp that trains asassins at the School Of The Americas. Don't you love that the more sanguid the name, the more nefarious the group? In a perfect world, the FBI wouldn't even allow the killing camp to operate, let alone fund them.

link

CROTAN

Dr. Dennis McKenna is the world's leading researcher into Ayahuasca, a trans-formative chemical compound that was developed by the Shamans of the Amazon. Just wanted to touch base with everyone and let you know about Croatan. Thank you for helping us to make this happen. Croatan is a unique event and the first of it's kind to be hosted in the heart of Appalachia. Dennis will be making a brief appearance at Malaprops (Asheville, NC) on Saturday around noon and then back to the Croatan site by the river that evening. The main lecture will be at 5:30 on Saturday, 4-22. [MORE]

Directions - You'll find more liberal, progressive, and underground events like this on my Asheville website.

WEBTRAIL|Music

Somewhere along the way, the drum solo became a rock-and-roll punch line of the "More cowbell!" variety. - Link

Stewart Copeland @ Sundance. Speaking of drummers, Everyone Stares is a documentary by the ex-Police drummer debuting at Sundance this week.

GEMM - Welcome to the World's largest music marketplace! Looking for that out of print album? Want to unload some of your old vinyl?

The complete track listing for David Gilmour's forthcoming solo album, On an Island, has been revealed. Crosy & Nash also add vocals to one cut.

connexion: the selector is another good mp3 collab site with a nice mix of progressive music. Where else you going to find "Mr Eden's Lysergic Africa" online?

33 1/3 - News, reviews, ideas, thoughts, announcements and more - all connected to the 33 1/3 series of books published by Continuum. I received the Led Zep one for Christmas which is written by Erik Davis. And now the next in the series is announced. 33 1/3 Next and authors below:

"If You're Feeling Sinister" by Scott Plagenhoef
"Aja" by Don Breithaupt
"Shoot Out the Lights" by Hayden Childs
"Pretty Hate Machine" by Daphne Carr
"Use Your Illusion" by Eric Weisbard
"Horses" by Phil Shaw
"Double Nickels on the Dime" by Mike Fournier
"Pink Moon" by Amanda Petrusich
"People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm" by Shawn Taylor
"Achtung Baby" by Stephen Catanzarite
"20 Jazz Funk Greats" by Drew Daniel
"The Dreaming" by Ann Powers
"Rid of Me" by Kate Schatz
"Another Green World" by Geeta Dayal
"Songs in the Key of Life" by Zeth Lundy
"Trout Mask Replica" by Kevin Courrier
"Let's Talk About Love" by Carl Wilson
"Lucinda Williams" by Anders Smith Lindall
"69 Love Songs" by LD Beghtol
“Marquee Moon” by Peter Blauner
“Swordfishtrombones” by David Smay

Canadian Chandrasutra to my progressive brothers and sisters to the south:

"It's clear from reading your blogs you have learned a lot of very valuable things from the experience (and hangover) of your last presidential election. I'm hoping some of you might be able to share some of those insights with your friends up here in the north."

Treat it like I do sex. Grit your teeth and pray that it's over soon. But seriously, my advice would be not to underplay the impact this news may have on you. When Bush won the last election it was more than just bad news. It was almost 'bed-ridden in a fetal position' bad news.

To a lesser degree it emulated the Five Stages Of Grief.

1. Denial and isolation: "This is not happening to me."
2. Anger: "How dare God do this to me."
3. Bargaining: "Just let me live to see my son graduate."
4. Depression: "I can't bear to face going through this, putting my family through this."
5. Acceptance: "I'm ready, I don't want to struggle anymore."

Five Stages Of Election Rip-Off

1. Denial: "Wake me when it's over for it's gotta be a freaking nightmare."
2. Anger: "How dare Diebold do this to me. Again."
3. Bargaining: "How far is it to Canada?"
4. Despression: "What wine goes well with Prozac?"
5. Acceptance: Will let you know if/when it happens.

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
--"When The Levee Breaks", Led Zeppelin

I can't get that song off my mind, and I'm probably not the only one. Jimmy Page's sinister slide combined with the thrashing thud of Bonham's drums in tangent as Robert Plant begins to howl, well, it takes on an eerie edge after Hurricane Katrina.

:: skippy is challenging everyone to pledge to the Red Cross by matching his donation of 100.01, blog about it and pass on the message. We had already pledged 100.00, so I'm off by .01...not sure what that penny is about, although it's true to form for wild and wacky blogfriend skippy. [via]

:: Our daughter just left for the annual Ozzfest in Charlotte on Friday night. She told her teachers she'd be out for two days and they were accommodating. Then again, she's now going to the very progressive Balfour School. No homework. Zero. Zilch. Nada. If a fight breaks out, they let them get it out of their system right on the spot. Swearing is permitted as long as it's not personally directed at anyone. In some ways, it's similar to the Montesorri school she attended as a much younger student. Later she wanted to try the public school system, and now she's back to a more alternative way of teaching and learning and we all couldn't be more pleased.

Say "NO" to drugs. That will bring the prices down.

The First One's Free
Or, Newbie's First Trip @ Recent MindStates

Immediately following Mike Crowley's presentation, "The Secret Drugs of Buddhism," I begin a shopping spree that I will call "Operation: Tripping Balls."

My first buy of the weekend is from a knowledgeable man in a khaki ball cap; he resembles your typical organic pumpkin-patch attendant, and he delivers a $25 vial of Salvia divinorum extract.

"Can this shit get me high?" I ask him. [more »]


Recently, a Clear Channel radio station masqueraded as a pirate station called Radio Free Ohio, which feigned taking over the airwaves of other Clear Channel frequencies with rants about the bland effects of corporate-controlled radio. This was all merely a publicity stunt to promote a new Clear Channel "progressive" station--you can read more by clicking here. Clear Channel. Do they have any idea how sad they really are?

Chatterbox - New York Dolls
Thanks, Free Radio Asheville!

If all goes according to plan, a select group of cocaine addicts could be lining up in Miami this April for a chance to get quickly and painlessly clean. Thanks to an anonymous donor, neurologist Deborah Mash can resume clinical studies of ibogaine--the drug that could be the best anti-drug the CIA never told you about. Ibogaine's history began in the 60's in New York, where college student and self-described recreational heroin user Howard Lotsof gets freebie capsules of ibogaine from a chemist friend cleaning out his freezer. Lotsof takes one for the hell of it. To his amazement, when he comes down his brain is washed clean of desire for any drug whatsoever. He hands out capsules to friends and soon realizes he is sitting on a gold mine.

Buy Blue's current campaign is about Progressive car insurance. I checked their rates online about 3 years ago and they were they same as my State Farm insurance, but I'm going to check it again. And see who Buy Blue says State Farm supports while I'm at it.

Pimpzilla, Mozilla Firefox Theme. See Screenshot

Pharmacotherapy or Neurocops? Internal Policing and the Future of the Drug War. Would you vaccinate your child against drugs? more...

Today is the last day of some of your life.

News|Music

The more I hear from this cd, the more I like it. As in really like it. Local progressive radio station, WPVM, plays songs by Animal Collective quite often, specifically, the Sung Tongs cd with "Mouth Wooed Her" my favorite cut from it. After reading some reviews, they seem to be an either 'love them or hate them' sort of group and some say they're often trippy and psychedelic sounding. But very experimental with their sounds and instruments, almost child-like in their un-pretentiousness (is that a word?). Originality certainly goes a long damn way in the music biz in my opinion.

Band Aid 20. BBC News Online is blogging the recording from outside Air Studios. more »

For 16 years, Warren Haynes has coordinated the Warren Haynes Annual Christmas Jam. Like a family reunion, the annual, one-of-a-kind, semi-structured marathon of music brings together surprise guests and old friends on stage and in the audience at the Civic Center Arena in Asheville, N.C.

This year the event will be held again at the Asheville Civic Center Arena, Saturday, December 18 at 7:00PM. WNCW's Pre-Jam Jam Broadcast Live from the Orange Peel is on Friday, December, 17.
more »

Daughter dear is on her way back from Atlanta where she saw Cradle Of Filth and others last night at the Masquerade.

Wednesday Link Patrol
Scenes from Berlin's Love Parade. You know they're having a blast. San Francisco has been working to have their own Love Parade for 3 years now and on Oct 2 will finally have one.

"Teresa Heinz Kerry is a breath of fresh air, so why are the media choking on it? According to the chattering class, Heinz Kerry is - and I quote - "too outspoken," "too opinionated..." "In other words, she's an unconventional straight shooter. The horror!" Could you imagine Laura Bush disagreeing with her husband? Arianna also tells it like it is. Link

Burning Man and the Republican convention coincide. Where's a good progressive to go? John Perry Barlow has a good idea. Link

Speaking of vulvas, I found The Velvet Vulva while visiting Kelly @ Spell Bound. Vulva. Certainly not one of my favorite words, but appears to be my synchronicity of the week.

Establishing a Center to Remember Woodstock - For years there has only been a small marker where the stage stood. There will be an amphitheater and museum opening in two years. Link

Oh, no. It's officially Spring Break!
It's scary because I remember what I was up to when I was 16 with too much time on my hands and this morning I've got a basement floor full of sleeping 16 year olds.

:: Condi Cartoon - Safe for work. [link]

:: Pundits to Kerry: Move Right
Every four years, loud voices in the media advise the Democratic presidential candidate to abandon progressive stances and occupy the political center. With Sen. John Kerry having emerged as the presumable nominee, the pundits are once again issuing the same prescription. [link]

Some mornings it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.

{Recycled Link}
Need a spiky bra to lift up your spirits? Trying to figure out just how you'd wear that black bra. As a swim suit top? Over something else? Or just flat out by itself?

Speaking of clothes, I saw where some high school in Canada is telling the girls to stop wearing pajama pants to school. My daughter and her friends have been wearing them here to school for a few years now. Like plaid flannel or with ducks or cartoon characters on them. They're comfortable and baggy, so what's the bfd?

If I drink one of my favorite Herbal Dr Enuf's (cherry flavored with ginseng) and my ass is still dragging, I'm in trouble. Normally, one of these drinks and a cup of espresso will start my day off fine. There's also the Original Dr Enuf (lemon-lime soda). It's always been considered a hangover remedy with many B vitamins, minerals and potassium as many area people will attest to, and is bottled in Tennessee. Try one if you get the chance. [Review]

{Local Links}
Asheville to Play San Francisco in Film which will tell the story of the guitarist for the group Moby Grape, which had a brief moment of fame.

WPVM, Progressive Voice of the Mountains, 103.5, is a brand new radio station here in Asheville, NC. There're currently a 100-watt station with endless possibilities and have been extremely supportive of area musicians, and also feature the Democracy Now! program, and all the good indie stuff. Wish they included a playlist on their site. This morning I heard a nice celtic tune, followed by a sitar-based melody, and then a alt-rock compilation. Sure wish I knew who I was listening to; I'm sure they announced later after a 5-song or so block. I long for someone to announce before AND after a song what it is.

{Quote Today}
Love the earth and sun and animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others...
And your very flesh shall be a great poem.
~Walt Whitman


One nation under surveillance.

THE UNDERGROUND PRESS

Did you ever read/see any of the great underground newspapers of the late 1960's - mid 1970's in the US? There was The East Village Other (NY), The Great Speckled Bird (ATL), Black Panther, Berkeley Barb (Berkeley, CA), LA Free Press, The Paper, of East Lansing, Michigan, and many more?

I was a faithful Speckled Bird reader. We bought these most of the time from people on street corners in Atlanta; on the corner of 14th St, where all the other freaks hung out. As surely as you'd see a Bird vendor around there, you'd also see someone selling flowers for a small fee to wear in your hair or wherever. And you knew who was selling "what" "where". And someone was in a doorway playing guitar; a few bumming spare change passing by. All waiting for the next musical, sexual, or pharmaceutical experience.

Receiving The Last Whole Earth Catalog was a spiritual experience. Sort of a hippie Sears catalog and was one of the very few books we had at Peace Tree (a lakeside commune in Tennessee) when we first began. It was all about survival, metaphysics, learning to grow organic, live natural, how to build a shelter-- how to build or make just about anything. Stewart Brand (Burning Man) was the founder. We've still got one around the house someplace.

Many college libraries have some of these newspapers on Microfilm. Some are for sale on Ebay. Why are there no equivalent newspapers/websites? "Where is that one great progressive balls to the wall website that has it all?" Music, protest and boycott info, in-depth interviews, sex (& relationships), drugs, literature? more»

from the archives