EdgyMama writes in BlogAsheville today that some NC cites are completely out of gas... [via]

I'm not in panic mode yet, although I recall very well the gas rationing in 1974, buying gas on odd and even days, acccording to your license tag number. I paid 2.95 a gallon for Regular this morning in Hendersonville, NC, and didn't see any gaslines. By this afternoon, gas stations on Asheville Hwy 25, all had long lines waiting to pump gas. My daughter has a date to go to the movies tonight--on a motorcycle. Our local news report at 11pm last night sparked a fear in everyone here when they said the area gas stations may not be able to get any more gas this week. Is everyone else experiencing the same problem?

*UPDATE--Oh, shit. Gas can't be distributed for at least another week. The NC gas pipeline has no electricity due to the problems caused by Katrina, and many gas stations here are already out of gas. Well, it suppose it could be much worse.

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What a heavy heart I have watching this hurricane devastation unfold.

Even in western NC this morning, we've had rain the past 7 hours and schools are closing because of the rain and wind. And we just have a tiny portion of the storm blowing past us, over 1500 miles away and 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina's landfall. I can't even imagine how my neighbors to the south are coping.

I found the graphic below as I followed the links on Nola.com, for those of you who've not yet seen the flooding and destruction.

http://forms.belointeractive.com/sharedcontent/datafiles/
1125380695760_ORIGINAL_100_0861.jpg

Eye Of The Storm has a personal account of the hurricane aftermath.

If I hear just one slack-jawed zealot preachazoid blame the hurricane's devastation on the sins of the people...

Prayers ascending for a swift, safe ending to your tragedy.

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saturday morning me//
still sniffling/snorting/sneezing/geez/
enjoying a cooler morning breeze/
long gauzy gown/hempwrap holding up braids/
cuppa matè/daughter watching pink flamingos/
husband asleep/chow guarding the front porch/
all's peaceful in my little country hamlet/
so how about you?/

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Life Among the Neo-Pagans
--Paul Krassner's article on the Starwood Festival

The first event was on a weekend, attended by 185 people, with twenty presentations and a bonfire built from an old split-rail fence. This July marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Starwood; the weeklong event drew 1,600, with 150 presentations and twenty musical and theatrical performances. I attended several workshops, including "Shamans and Drugs" by Stanley Krippner, a psychology professor at Saybrook Institute, psychic researcher and co-author of Dream Telepathy. A member of the Rainforest Action Network, he mentioned a Brazilian tribe, the Guarani, whose members have hanged themselves from endangered trees. I related my participation at an ayahuasca ceremony in Ecuador where the shaman's shrine included a sealed-beam headlight from an old Buick and a gray clamshell-like item that opens up, revealing a head of the Virgin Mary that can be used as a Jell-o mold.

[More »»] - Via [Wildhunt Weblog]

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Imagine for a moment that you could take all the spin off the Iraq conflict from the main stream media, the administration, the pundits, etc. And think about the money spent on the current military, the loss of lives from the war, the weapons of mass destruction that never were...Colin Powell is extremely embarassed about that now.

Just consider the undisputable facts. Have you noticed the intensity at which the American public is speaking out against the war? It's not the radical militants demonstrating and raising hell like we did in the sixties, where we all knew each other or had similar lifestyles and beliefs. Now, it's a mixed bag. It's your neighbors, your grandmother, and your priest peacefully demonstrating and they're mad as hell.

As long as I've spoken out against war and marched and been cuffed and maced in the name of peace, I can tell you that this is an unprecedented and different vibe against the war. It's already more unpopular than Vietnam ever was. If the Iraq war continues much longer, I fully expect to see everybody in the street.

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Following the widespread acclaim of last year’s ‘Sung Tongs’ album, and this May’s ‘Prospect Hummer’ EP, Animal Collective return to the fray with a brand new three-track single, ‘Grass’, released on September 26th. The single will be available on both 7” and CD single formats, and precedes a new album, ‘Feels’, which will arrive three weeks later (17th October), and a full European tour. Lifted from that album, the title track of the single is a brilliant three-minute slice of feral, infectious pop, driven by pounding drums and yelping and hollering vocals.

Two further tracks – ‘Must Be Treeman’ and ‘Fickle Cycle’ are exclusive to this single. The former is a derailed slice of acid ambience – all mushroomed, munchkin vocals and collapsing veils of treated electronics, whilst ‘Fickle Cycle’ - a live favourite – is another stunning rhythmic piece that perfectly complements ‘Grass’, making this an incredibly strong single.

Acid ambience - the best kind.

Link

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My Son Died for Nothing
--by Mike Whitney

Come out, come out, George Bush.

Come out from behind the concertina wire and your phalanx of security thugs.

You ran away from the Texas National Guard and now you're running away from a wretched 48-year-old woman.

Come out of your bubble world and see the misery you've caused, you chicken-hearted phony.

Sheehan has tapped into the bottomless ocean of rage that seethes just below the surface of American life. That rage is appearing everywhere and cracking the citadels of power.

Good post by Mike Whitney from Dissident Voice

Link

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Synthesiser pioneer Dr Robert Moog has died at his North Carolina home aged 71, four months after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

MEMORIAL CELEBRATION: August 24, 12 NOON
The Orange Peel, Social Aid & Pleasure Club
101Biltmore Ave
Asheville, NC
828 225-5851
www.theorangepeel.net

Link
Memorial
Aug 18 post

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saturday morning me//
sniffle, hack, snort, cough, bitch, blow/gotta cold?/
still in my boxers and tee and sox/
sipping some hot tea/avoiding all smoke/no joke/
slept-in ponytail/sneaking up on the mirror/
headed for the shower and back to bed/please,
Sister Morphine, turn my nightmare into a dream/
...so how about you?/

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The late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's ashes will be blown out of a canon on Saturday 20th August in Woody Creek, Colorado - and DiS has world exclusive pictures.

The journalist and author will be blasted from the gonzo shaped device, Thompson's signature fist and dagger symbol, by his friend Johnny Depp.

Other guests expected include Sean Penn, Bill Murray and Jack Nicholson.

A security guard at the site said: "Saturday's going to be crazy, the sheriffs are going to be looking after a lot of A-listers coming up to Woody Creek."

Link

Quote For The Day
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. ~George Bernard Shaw

Kicking ass and leaking gas...

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Reading the world through Asheville's digital diaries - They're a new breed of citizen-reporters, net-savvy activists and digital diarists, and through their Web logs, or blogs, they keep journals of their passions, posting them online for all to read. In recent years, they've also made blogs a new media force to be reckoned with.

And now cyberspace is rife with blogs from and about Asheville – a widely varying set of sites that are tough to classify, except to say that each one of them is driven by someone's passion for getting their message out. Log on for an inside look at Asheville's blog scene.

Easy Bake Coven - easybakecoven.net
According to the description by creator Susan Cook, EBC's content "May include art, literature, music, film, recovery, counterculture, political climate from a guitar-picking earth mother who practices sarcasm as a form of tantric sex."

Very nice write-up on great group of Asheville bloggers in Asheville's alternative weekly, the Mountain Xpress, with a quick note about my site, too. It mainly features the good folks at Blog Asheville. I thought it would be rather gauche of me to participate in the meeting for this article when local paper, Citizen-Times, already did a blogging spread on me and some others in May 2003. They also chose some folks off of my blogroll to feature. Remember that, Anne and Theo?

Link

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"The audience is our gas tank," Mick says. "You can feel lousy, it can be 102 degrees, but get on that stage and you're cured. It's adrenaline, endorphins and pheromones. It's one of the biggest lifts in life." More...

Want to hear a few bars of the Rolling Stones' controversial My Sweet Neocon? It's not the best quality and a bit too quick, but you get the idea in this 1.30 clip.

You call yourself a christian
I think you are a hypocrite
You say you are a pa-tri-ot
I think that you're a crock of shit

Click to Listen

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Musician Robert Moog diagnosed with brain tumor

Robert Moog, whose Moog synthesizers charted a new course for music in the late 1960s, has a brain tumor that may be inoperable, according to a Web site that keeps friends and fans abreast of his treatment.

Moog, 71, felt the first symptoms in his arm in late March, his wife, Ileana Grams, professor of philosophy emeritus at UNC Asheville, wrote on CaringBridge.com.

Moog has settled on a course of conventional and nutritional therapy, according to the family messages on the Web site. The Citizen-Times was unable to contact the family Wednesday. Moog, makes his home in Asheville, NC.

Link

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Jodorowsky : “Peace Is Yours.”

"You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold", Alejandro Jodorowsky explains in his film The Holy Mountain. Because Jodorowsky the alchemist uses his work as an athanor. The initiation is made up of films (Fando & Lys, El Topo, Santa Sangre...), of strip cartoons (L’Incal, created with Moebius, La Caste des Métabarrons, created with Giménez...), of books and of the Tarot.

”...Peace can be true, we have evidence of it... The evidence - here it is - you see here we have a miracle. Look at the pleasure that this cat has in communicating with a human being. I’m not his master, I’m only a human being. It could take exactly the same pleasure with you. Do you want to see? Take the cat...You see... Stroke it... Here it is, it’s yours. Peace is yours.”

Alexandro Jodorowsky indeed dispenses the philosophy of the Tarot each Wednesday in a Parisian cafe, just to help those who suffer. The poet sows the seeds of consciousness. This interview took place a few minutes before one of these readings.

I like that he's seen petting a cat, writing poetry, and giving tarot readings. Sure helps to put a more normal face on this amazing director of very bizarre films.

More... - Via

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Tilda Swinton To Play Nico

"Asylum" and "Young Adam" director David Mackenzie has selected Tilda Swinton to play Nico in his upcoming biopic of the same name, from a script by David and Janet Peoples (Blade Runner) according to Suicide Girls.


Nico (born Christa Paffgen) was a fashion model, actress, and composer. She is best known as the female lead vocalist (along with male lead Lou Reed) on the 1967 debut album by the American rock and roll band, The Velvet Underground.

The date and location of Nico's birth are disputed. Most sources state October 16, 1938, Cologne, Germany. However, at least two other sources have put her birth date at March 15, 1943, in Budapest, Hungary. She died in 1988.

Link

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Vigil for Cindy - Hosted by Susan Oehler, Wednesday, August 17, at 7:30pm. This will be a candlelight vigil done to honor what Cindy Sheehan is doing in Texas.

Cindy Sheehan spoke at our Peace Rally in March, 2005. We will have candle luminaries around the fountain in Pack Square. I will bring the supplies and anyone who believes in nonviolent resolution to conflicts is welcome.

Link; Cross-posted to Blog Asheville.

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INK, NOT MINK
"Be comfortable in your own skin and let animals keep theirs," says Lee in a new PETA ad, which features him wearing nothing but his trademark tattoos alongside the slogan, “Ink, Not Mink.”

The ad—shot by Mary McCartney Donald, daughter of Sir Paul McCartney and longtime PETA supporter—will be unveiled at New York’s new nightclub Home, which will mark the occasion by announcing a door policy banning fur coats.

I can't look at him without thinking of ..... anything but PETA, but still applaud anyone for taking a stand.

Link

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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.)

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"Drugs open peoples minds. That is why they are illegal. It is nothing to do with our mental or physical well-being. If the government gave a rats ass about our health, tobacco and alcohol would be banned outright. It is as simple as that." Testify, brother Dee. Good post. [More...]

saturday morning me//
woke up--it was a laurel park morning/
and the 1st thing that i knew/
there was toast and eggs and oj/
a bowl of strawberries, too/
i was sitting in a long, soft celedon gown/
stacking the deck/up to my neck/
pass me the pipe, captain/
i may be heading for a fall/
now playing-Nina Hagen - Wir Leben Immer Noch/
so how about you?/

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ASHEVILLE - The scent of flowers and fruit floats in the air along Coxe Avenue. Where is this wave of blended aromas coming from?

Not from the dancing drummers at Pritchard Park or the patchouli-laden hippies padding the street. It is coming from around the corner at
Hookah Joe's, a downtown nightspot at the corner of Coxe and Commerce streets, the first Asheville club devoted to the hookah.

A hookah is a water pipe that originated in Turkey hundreds of years ago. It is not for traditional tobacco; instead, customers smoke a mixture of tobacco and molasses called misha, that is available in various flavors.

[More--]

So THAT'S what you're supposed to put in it. These venues have been around in larger cities for some time now. I know Vegas has a nice one in one of their hotels that's plush as hell. It is nice to finally get one in Asheville. And there is wifi and a live cam onsite, too. Happy Friday, everyone and Happy Birthday wishes to the lovely weirdpixie today. 29, I believe she is.

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Stones Make Surprise Visit
As it's customary a few weeks before a new Rolling Stones tour, they announced yesterday that they'll be playing at a small club in Toronto tonight, Wednesday night, where they've been the past month. It's a preview of what's to come when the tour officially begins August 21 and is pretty much a live dress rehearsal, going thru set lists, trying out the new stage, etc.

There's a lot of buzz about their new album, A Big Bang -- the first new one in several years, and may possibly be their last one. Seeing them twice in concert is some of the best memories of my life; once when Stevie Wonder opened for them, and again when The Meters opened for them, but seeing them one more time would be a real treat. (Photo is of Mick Jagger entering the Phoenix in Toronto tonight.)

News
Pics by Barkman.

"Once upon a time I was one of your little roosters, now I'm just one of your cocks..It's Rough Justice for ya...."

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Uncello, Circular Harp, Guitorgan, Violimba. These instruments and many others can be found at the Musical Instruments Gallery, which is a website of unique and experimental music and odd instruments.

Not only do they list the instrument, but they list a short mp3 file to hear what each instrument sounds like. Kinda cool listening to the Stones' Love In Vain on a cigarbox guitar. Pictured is a Bonang and you can click the picture to hear what it sounds like.

Link

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Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your gasoline at Citgo stations.

And tell your friends.

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."

Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money you pay to Citgo goes to Venezuela -- not Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic government is using to provide health care, literacy and education, and subsidized food for the majority of Venezuelans.

Instead of using government to help the rich and the corporate, as Bush does, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue of his government to help the poor in Venezuela. A country with so much oil wealth shouldn't have 60 percent of its people living in poverty, earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That's why large majorities have consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush administration supported an attempted military coup in 2002 that sought to overthrow Chavez.

So this is the opposite of a boycott. Call it a BUYcott. Spread the word.

Of course, if you can take mass transit or bike or walk to your job, you should do so. And we should all work for political changes that move our country toward a cleaner environment based on renewable energy. The BUYcott is for those of us who don't have a practical alternative to filling up our cars. StoreLocator

So get your gas at Citgo. And help fuel a democratic revolution in Venezuela. Link

(Related: Chavez maintains that the DEA has been using the fight against drugs as a pretext to gather intelligence on Venezuela. [more »])

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He's suspended indefinitely or they've asked him to take some time off. Which is it? I bet CNN would dump him if contractually able to do so. Has he begun negotiations with Rupert Murdoch's people? Is he in an alcoholic stupor doing the pubcrawl shuffle? Or will he continue his meltdown and just fade away? Hmmm

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BUST BOB

Two years ago, we launched BustBob.com to find out who in the White House revealed the name of a CIA operative in the name of political hardball. And today, despite the Administration's best attempts to protect its henchmen, we finally have some answers. Pressure has been put on Matt Cooper from Time Magazine and Judith Miller of the New York Times sits in jail over this whole mess.

Meanwhile, Bob's been sitting pretty at the Chicago Sun-Times. We want the whole truth. Bob's actions raise the question again - what aren't you telling us Bob? What are you hiding?

Take a moment to tell the Chicago Sun-Times to give Bob the boot:
www.BustBob.com

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The theremin is the oldest electronic instrument, invented in 1919 by a young Russian scientist named Leon Theremin; today, Moog Music of Asheville is the largest manufacturer. The Orange Peel offers two public theremin concerts this weekend.


Asheville is the most logical place for such a convention because the theremin is manufactured here, says Lesley Groetsch, spokeswoman for
The Orange Peel.

The Orange Peel and Moog Music welcomes thereminists from around the world to join us for interactive workshops, stellar performances and thoughtful presentations from respected speakers. This should be a fun show. Didn't you get a theremin, weirdpixie?

Link

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Tar Heel Tavern XXIII is up now and is hosted this week by Snork The Sproket, aka Scott, who did a great job. Such a good way to meet my NC neighbors and read their interesting stories. Some of the other NC bloggers may want to look into signing up for the Tar Heel Tavern, this weekly installment of Carnival of North Carolina bloggers.

Current TV is now on. If you get it, (366 on DirecTV) tune in and check it out. It's not every day a new cable TV network lights up for the first time. They're rotating several shows over and over so far. With all this forewarning and pre-planning, you'd think they've have some better shows lined up by air time. Not blowing my skirt up. [more »]

Now Playing - Rough Justice (new) by Rolling Stones

Forget the Joneses. I keep up with the Simpsons.

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