DC Madam & Her List

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, dubbed the 'DC Madam' in local media, has been arraigned in federal court on charges of operating a Washington prostitution service.

I think she's hoping some of her johns clients will step up to the media scrutiny to be a character witness for her and if that doesn't happen, someone will be forced to post the entire client list. Dream on, girlie. But stranger things have happened.

What is that old saying when you sacrifice yourself for others? You "Throw yourself on the, um, sword"?

Exclusive Report from Brian Ross @ ABC - link

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Where Have All The Hippies Gone?

Some local Atlanta folks are organizing an exhibit of Life on the Strip. They wrote they would like to hear from:

People who were hippies or are interested in hippies or this era (1967 - 1977) of great change in The South. Do you have some memories you'd like to share? Or some pictures of folks on The Strip or in The Park during those days of change for Atlanta and the world? Does your older brother or your parents? We are interested in anything. Posters, film, recording, anything you think should be shared. Let's get our story down right before "The Man's" official version is the only one available to the future. No one of us has the story. The story was all of us at once. Can you contribute your part?

Visit TheStripProject.com still under construction.

I had my picture taken all the time on the strip during this period; maybe I can find something of me and my friends. On second thought, do I want to see some of those pictures?

Related:

* Voices From The Underground (Press) - History and images, featuring East Village Other, Berkeley Barb, The Seed, etc.

* "The Summer of Love lasted three years in the South. I tried to capture some of that spirit in these photographs. They were shot over a 30 month period and many were originally published in The Great Speckled Bird, Atlanta's underground / anti-war newspaper." Photography by Carter Tomassi, Berkeley, CA, who has also worked on many major film projects. (let us not forget The Cockettes) link

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Mission Accomplished

by Mike Luckovich

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Saturday Morning Me

saturday morning me//
short gown/sweater/sox/wristbrace/
untouched hair/a total vision-- to be sure/
kava java #2/marlboro # 398524672063615/
waiting on some motivation/take a dose of inspiration/
trying to convince husband to shave ft-long beard/
forecast: looking into some communal property/
so how about you'ns?

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Cicada Festival

CICADA FESTIVAL
May 25-28, 2007
Deerfields
Asheville, NC

OUR MISSION
There exists an interconnectivity in todays world which is unprecidented. We belive that Now is the time to embrace such ideals as: Clarity, Balance, Acceptance, and unfettered interchange of thought. Come join us in celebrating life.

PERFORMERS
MOONTRIBE, Los Angeles - moontribe.org
ORACLE GATHERINGS, Seattle - oraclegatherings.com
EVOKE COMMUNITY, Asheville - evokecommunity.com
TOUCH SAMADHI, Asheville - touchsamadhi.com
DANIEL PINCHBECK, Author - breakingopenthehead.com

...and much, much more

Link

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Mia Farrow's Darfur Area Photos

Paoua, Northwest Central African Republic, bordering on Darfur (Sudan)

"As I was meeting with the people who emerged from the bush, this little girl was thrust forward by a man who held a knife at her throat. I had no translator, so I do not know what the man said, only that this girl's life was being threatened. I am doing everything in my power to locate this child and it it my most fervent hope that she is still alive."

mia | 2/15/07

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Iraq Is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac

Frank Rich, NYTimes.com article, 4/22/07

President Bush has skipped the funerals of the troops he sent to Iraq. He took his sweet time to get to Katrina-devastated New Orleans. But last week he raced to Virginia Tech with an alacrity not seen since he hustled from Crawford to Washington to sign a bill interfering in Terri Schiavo's end-of-life medical care.

Mr. Bush assumes the role of mourner in chief on a selective basis, and, as usual with the decider, the decisive factor is politics. Let Walter Reed erupt in scandal, and he'll take six weeks to show his face - and on a Friday at that, to hide the story in the Saturday papers. The heinous slaughter in Blacksburg, Va., by contrast, was a rare opportunity for him to ostentatiously feel the pain of families whose suffering cannot be blamed on the administration.

Tell it like it is, Frank.

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Anti-Oil Antics

Anti-Oil Antics

Outside of the New York International Automobile Show at New York City’s Javits Center, as the smell of burnt pretzels wafts through the air, a group of 10 people form a line. Standing shoulder to shoulder in black t-shirts that read "OEA," they put their hands over their hearts as they take an oath to reduce oil use in America.

The people in line are members of the Oil Enforcement Agency (OEA), and the oath is a skit—one of many stunts the group has pulled at auto shows and car dealerships across the country. The group is the comedic arm of the Free From Oil Campaign, which was created by the non-profit Rainforest Action Network to "end America’s oil dependence, reduce oil related conflicts, and stop global climate change by convincing the entire auto industry to dramatically improve fuel efficiency and eliminate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions," according to the OEA’s website.

Once inside the auto show, a small OEA task force huddles together as Jodie VanHorn, the team leader, gives instructions. They’re going to "impound" (which in OEA speak means put caution tape around) the Toyota Tundra, whose measly mileage (14 miles per gallon in the city and 18 on the highway), makes it one of the most polluting of vehicles on the road today. "We step up in the absence of better leadership," says VanHorn. Then she gives the order: "Agents, it’s time to impound the Tundra."

via | Watch Video | Oil Enforcement Agency

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TEST POST - Having Problems with my host.

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Down On Gaskin's Farm

Sex, Drugs, and Soybeans
In 1970, pot-smoking guru Stephen Gaskin, a former U.S. Marine, led his band of acolytes on a mystic trip out of San Francisco and into the American heartland. But a funny thing happened on the way to enlightenment: Gaskin's hippies learned the ancient virtues of hard work, good hygiene, and crop rotation. Deep in the Tennessee woods, they formed a spiritual commune called The Farm, which has morphed over its 36 years into a high-tech eco–think tank.

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The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream

The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream
One event that gets far less publicity, but that was at the heart of everything that came both before and after it also sees its 40th anniversary this year. The 14-Hour Technicolor Dream took place on April the 29th 1967 and was the UK's first mass-participational all-night psychedelic freakout!

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 14-Hour Technicolor Dream, an array of rarely seen 60s films, full-on lightshows, avant-garde theatre and bands both old and new.

link

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Cruel 2 B Kind

Cruel 2 B Kind - These people are having way too much fun.

link

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Support The Fossella Five!

SDSers note: Elaine, Tom and Ben are MDS activists from NYC...Barbara is a member of the Granny Peace Brigade and Sally is chair of Peace Action New York State.

Support The Fossella Five!
Read about the case at www.fossellafive.org

There IS resistance to the oily politicians and their endless wars, even in New York's "forgotten borough".

Elaine Brower, Tom Good, Sally Jones, Ben Maurer and Barbara Walker were arrested on March 23, 2007 in Congressman Vito Fossella's office. Their crime? Reading the names of the (US) war dead aloud and demanding a meeting with their representative so they might discuss the extreme positions he holds on the Iraq War. These 5 activists are charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. They are demanding Fossella drop all charges and agree to a meeting. Show your support - tell Fossella to drop the charges and meet with his constituents. Sign the online petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/fossfive/petition.html

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Panda Bear's Person Pitch

Panda Bear's recent record Person Pitch has earned rave reviews around the country. In an interview (which I can't find), he talked about approaching the record in the way that a DJ would approach a live set. When he moved to Lisbon he left most of his Animal Collective instruments in the states, taking only two BOSS Dr. Sample 303s, and thus all of Person Pitch is sample-based. The AC message board has been trying to determine what samples were used.

Many of the songs are based on loops from Joe Meek-produced Tornados songs. Two are listed below: "Red Roses and a Sky of Blue" contains the main riff from "Bros," and the opening of "Popeye Twist" is the basis for the second half of "Take Pills." "Red Roses and a Sky of Blue"'s opening riff was also used in the song "What I Do" from Animal Collective's 2005 BBC appearance. The loop from "Red Roses" is a personal favorite. All in all, the Tornados were a pretty average band, but Noah found these two strange transitional measures where the guitars chimed and intonated. It's a small bit of awesome in a pretty okay song. The first half of the aforementioned "Take Pills" comes from Scott Walker's "Always Coming Back to You". Elsewhere, a portion from a Cat Stevens song serves as the main driving guitar part in the second half of "Bros." There has been debate over whether the main theme of "Comfy in Nautica" was taken from the Akira soundtrack, though the choral hits used in the film don't match up entirely.

Finally, the ending of "Carrots" is taken from Kraftwerk's "Ananas Symphony" from their 1973 album Ralf und Florian, which is notable in their ouvre for being the first appearance of a vocoder. The sample begins at :29 and continues for fifteen or so seconds. Obviously, there are a number of unidentified samples.

Much props to the folks at rerz.net for their tireless research. (Where Animal Collective fans go for updates.)

from the page of howsofowls

whole lotta sleuthing goin' on

AND BrooklynVegan has much more Animal Collective news re: Avey Tare has a April 24th release date and May 14 begins the whole AC groups US tour.

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Federal Abortion Ban

Yesterday, Bush's appointees to the Supreme Court did exactly what he selected them to do...

By upholding the Federal Abortion Ban in its entirety, the Supreme Court has not only supported an abortion ban with no exception for a woman's health, it has given the green light to the anti-choice movement's plan to outlaw abortion entirely.

In her dissenting opinion, pro-choice Justice Ginsberg, who called the majority opinion "alarming", writes "...[T]he Act and the Court's defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court."

So how are we going to defeat this ban now that Bush's appointees upheld it? Simple. We're starting an all-out campaign to support the Freedom of Choice Act.

Here's how it starts: The Freedom of Choice Act is legislation that would codify Roe v. Wade into law, and guarantee the right to choose for generations to come. But this legislation is just the first step. To ensure we never face an attack like this again, we're not stopping until we've elected a pro-choice president in 2008!

Pro-Choice America


Suddenly 2008 presidential candidates are forced to declare their positions. Has anyone contacted YOU yet? Kate Michelman, who was president of NARAL Pro-Choice America for nearly 20 years, sent me an email to say the following:

This is one of the most important reasons all of us - but especially women - must be fiercely committed to electing a Democratic president in 2008 who will protect and defend our rights. And that is why I am so strongly committed to electing JOHN EDWARDS.

Read what he has to say about the Supreme Court ruling.

Senator John Edwards released the following statement about today's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling upholding the federal abortion ban.

"I could not disagree more strongly with today's Supreme Court decision. The ban upheld by the Court is an ill-considered and sweeping prohibition that does not even take account for serious threats to the health of individual women. This hard right turn is a stark reminder of why Democrats cannot afford to lose the 2008 election. Too much is at stake - starting with, as the Court made all too clear today, a woman's right to choose."

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Sly Stone’s Whole New Thing

Sly Stone’s Whole New Thing

These days Sly Stone blows people’s minds just by showing up. He stopped traffic at the Grammys last year when he materialized, like some intergalactic apparition, during a tribute performance. Last month, he defied steep odds and appeared at a gig at the Flamingo in Las Vegas.

Sadly, Sly is better known today as one of the ’60s’ more famous flameouts, recalled for his drug busts, reclusiveness, and strings of broken dates. To most, his innovations probably seem remote. But Epic/Legacy has rectified the situation with Sly & the Family Stone: The Collection, a limited-edition seven-CD box collecting the albums that permanently changed the face of music in the ’60s and ’70s. (The label will issue the individual albums, also in limited editions, on Tuesday.)

[More...]

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feel the power of the drum

feel the power of the drum
Originally uploaded by onelungbreathin.

great shot from flickr on last weekend's drum circle at Pritchard Park in Asheville, NC.
Would you say this guy is feeling it?

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Virginia Tech Vigil

Virginia Tech Vigil | link | via

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Bob Geldof's Next Venture

Geldof Unveils Earth Series Plans

Bob Geldof and the BBC have unveiled plans for a website and television series that aim to record every human society.

The Dictionary of Man website and an eight-part television series, The Human Planet, will be made with help from BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm.Crews will travel the world to try to film the 900 separate groups of people that anthropologists believe exist. The makers hope the project will produce a definitive record of mankind.

He added: "Ultimately I suppose in some ways we're also building the world's family photo album."

The website aims to use the latest social networking technologies to allow individuals around the world to trace the history of their clan, tribe or family as well as contacting living members.

Geldof said it would create the largest ever living record of DVDs, books, films, photographs, art, and documented and personal accounts from people in every group in society. link

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Ecosandals

Ecosandals

Ecosandals is a community-based dot-com story that is on its way up, not out and currently employs nearly 30 Kenyans in the designing, manufacturing, marketing and selling of really great sandals made with recycled tire treads.

Throughout Kenya, Korogocho is known as a rough place. Jobs are scarce. Violence is rampant. Quality health care is non-existent. Even shelter tends to be both poor and temporary. It is a place where most Kenyans fear to walk even during the daytime.

We are funded entirely by the work of volunteers. No one in Ecosandals earns a salary. As a non-profit company, Ecosandals exists solely to support the Korogocho, Kenya project in their efforts to improve their standard of living and the opportunities in their community.

link

This is how it's supposed to work

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WEBTRAIL

On Saturday, April 28th, tens of thousands of Americans will be making their voices heard by putting the word IMPEACH! in front of the public eye. (see www.A28.org).

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 14-hour Technicolour Dream, a marathon of 1960s films, 'full-on' lightshows, avant-garde theatre, Q&A sessions, and bands old and new. The line-up includes The Pretty Things, Circulus, Mick Farren, and The Amazing World of Arthur Brown. link

Fillmore East is now the Fillmore New York of Irving Plaza and opened last week with Lily Allen. Will that hippie feeling shine through at the new venue? It's doubtful. Livenation, monster concert conglom, has taken over the rebranding of all venues Fillmore. link

Sober Companion - Once they figure out the trigger, "It’s over." "It" is the drug craving. The businessman is a drug addict, and Mr. Kaplan is a sober companion, a combination big brother, baby sitter and spiritual guide who uses motivation, prayer and exercise to keep his clients away from alcohol and drugs. link

The Lizard Club by Steve Abbott, Released: 2007-04-16, "tells all" about the birth of San Francisco's underground club scene. But who's real and who's not? Abbott's novel suggests that in the '90s, we can no longer tell fact from fantasy. William Burroughs, Dennis Cooper, Robert Gluck, and Sarah Schulman praised the late Steve Abbott's first novel, Holy Terror. link

Germs drummer Don Bolles will be cleared of all charges after additional testing of his suspect bottle of liquid peppermint soap came up clean. link

Cheese kills. And I ain't talking grilled here. Cheese (or Cheeze) is a recreational drug that surfaced in the United States in 2005; predominantly in Texas. Cheese is formed by combining heroin and crushed tablets of certain over-the-counter common cold medication. Several young people have sadly overdosed and died in Texas from Cheese. wikipedia | link

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Joseph Arthur

Joseph Arthur

After his most critically acclaimed album to date, Nuclear Daydream, the great singer-songwriter, Joseph Arthur is putting out 2 new CD's this year. The first, Let's Just Be, will arrive on April 17th, 2007. Below, you can check out the first single, Diamond Ring, from the forthcoming album and a favorite of mine, Black Lexus, from last years Nuclear Daydream. "Diamond Ring," has already been described as the best song the Rolling Stones didn't write for Exile On Main Street.

This past weekend Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts began touring North America.

Download MP3:
Joseph Arthur: Diamond Ring (from Let's Just Be)
Joseph Arthur: Black Lexus (from Nuclear Daydream)

Pre-Order Let's Just Be.

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Still Culture Jamming

Negativland's Mark Hosler (and Asheville area resident) talks about intellectual property, creativity and multimedia art

Viewed by some as artistic outlaws, Negativland are either the merry pranksters of music, or the monkey wrench gang of popular culture.

For almost 30 years, the group has created striking political statements via media collages--initially in the realms of music and live performance, and now also in the area of visual art, video, books and radio--appropriating sounds, imagery and text from other sources. This sometimes got the group into hot water.

Mark Hosler, de facto leader and spokesman for the group, visited Tucson this weekend with his multimedia lecture about Negativland and its activities. "Adventures in Illegal Art: Creative Media Resistance and Negativland," was Friday night, April 13.

As the raw material for its singular art form, Negativland uses information and the ways of disseminating and manipulating information (media), the 45-year-old Hosler says in a telephone interview from his home outside Asheville, NC, where he had shared some of his artwork in February with the locals.

link

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PROPAGANDA III

PROPAGANDA III

We are inviting artists from around the world to create political artwork for the third (and final!) installment of our PROPAGANDA art show.

PROPAGANDA III will tour the globe through 2008, with dozens of one day art shows worldwide - the current schedule includes stops throughout north america, south america, australia, asia, europe, and the middle east.

NO art will be sold at any of the shows, although copies of the posters will be available for sale directly through the websites of participating artists. This is NOT a commercial art show, but rather a celebration of free speech + untrammeled freedom of expression.

PROPAGANDA III Online Gallery is now live - and growing! [on Flickr]

link

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Opium Magazine Launch

OPIUM MAGAZINE, now in beta, has a 4/20 launch in San Francisco with more elements to soon follow.

"We wanted Opium to be an undeniable destination spiked with whimsy and intrigue, an irresistible daily must-see that trumps life's daily sobriety. A you've-gotta-see /read /hear-this! destination for 15 minutes or less of daily peace, laughs and absurditude.

Opium Den expands beyond Opium's Magazine. We're now at the helm of a multi-media publication that adds horsepower to the written word. We'll soon roll out our virtual art gallery (Opium Studio), followed by our virtual theater (Opium Live), but today we blast off with the next generation of Opium Magazine.

Our new look comes with higher standards. Here is our guarantee: we will feature only the most mind-bending, ocean-moving work, outdoing even the masterful craftsmanship that now fills our print issues, and has long filled our website. For that, we need your help: your podcasts, your paintings, your short films, your stories. We're thrilled by the possibilities.

link

You had me at Opium

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Auguries of Innocence

Auguries of Innocence
by William Blake

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.

A dove-house fill'd with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell thro' all its regions.
A dog starv'd at his master's gate
Predicts the ruin of the state.

A horse misused upon the road
Calls to heaven for human blood.
Each outcry of the hunted hare
A fibre from the brain does tear.

A skylark wounded in the wing,
A cherubim does cease to sing.
The game-cock clipt and arm'd for fight
Does the rising sun affright.

Every wolf's and lion's howl
Raises from hell a human soul.

The wild deer, wand'ring here and there,
Keeps the human soul from care.
The lamb misus'd breeds public strife,
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.

The bat that flits at close of eve
Has left the brain that won't believe.
The owl that calls upon the night
Speaks the unbeliever's fright.

He who shall hurt the little wren
Shall never be belov'd by men.
He who the ox to wrath has mov'd
Shall never be by woman lov'd.

The wanton boy that kills the fly
Shall feel the spider's enmity.
He who torments the chafer's sprite
Weaves a bower in endless night.

The caterpillar on the leaf
Repeats to thee thy mother's grief.
Kill not the moth nor butterfly,
For the last judgement draweth nigh.

He who shall train the horse to war
Shall never pass the polar bar.
The beggar's dog and widow's cat,
Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.

The gnat that sings his summer's song
Poison gets from slander's tongue.
The poison of the snake and newt
Is the sweat of envy's foot.

The poison of the honey bee
Is the artist's jealousy.

The prince's robes and beggar's rags
Are toadstools on the miser's bags.
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.

It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

The babe is more than swaddling bands;
Every farmer understands.
Every tear from every eye
Becomes a babe in eternity;

This is caught by females bright,
And return'd to its own delight.
The bleat, the bark, bellow, and roar,
Are waves that beat on heaven's shore.

The babe that weeps the rod beneath
Writes revenge in realms of death.
The beggar's rags, fluttering in air,
Does to rags the heavens tear.

The soldier, arm'd with sword and gun,
Palsied strikes the summer's sun.
The poor man's farthing is worth more
Than all the gold on Afric's shore.

One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands
Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;
Or, if protected from on high,
Does that whole nation sell and buy.

He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mock'd in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.

He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

The questioner, who sits so sly,
Shall never know how to reply.
He who replies to words of doubt
Doth put the light of knowledge out.

The strongest poison ever known
Came from Caesar's laurel crown.
Nought can deform the human race
Like to the armour's iron brace.

When gold and gems adorn the plow,
To peaceful arts shall envy bow.
A riddle, or the cricket's cry,
Is to doubt a fit reply.

The emmet's inch and eagle's mile
Make lame philosophy to smile.
He who doubts from what he sees
Will ne'er believe, do what you please.

If the sun and moon should doubt,
They'd immediately go out.
To be in a passion you good may do,
But no good if a passion is in you.

The whore and gambler, by the state
Licensed, build that nation's fate.
The harlot's cry from street to street
Shall weave old England's winding-sheet.

The winner's shout, the loser's curse,
Dance before dead England's hearse.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie
When we see not thro' the eye,
Which was born in a night to perish in a night,
When the soul slept in beams of light.

God appears, and God is light,
To those poor souls who dwell in night;
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.

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Shine On This

I'm long overdue to bitch about a tired and overused phrase so here's the latest one to frazz my short and curlies:

These are just some of the latest overuses of the Shine On You Crazy Diamond phrase.

Shine on, You Crazy Sunshine State
Shine On You Crazy Fucktard
Shine on you crazy sun
shine on you crazy bastard
Shine on you crazy surfer
Shine on, you crazy flashlight
Shine on you crazy Triangle
Shine on you crazy craftsman
Shine On You Crazy Blowjob -- wtf?

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is a nine-part Pink Floyd composition with lyrics written by Roger Waters in tribute to former band member Syd Barrett but it's been overused so much that it's lost it's glow.

I'm hoping for a quietus on the phrase unless you can use it very cleverly or if you're referring to Pink Floyd. Got it? Good.

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R Crumb's Kafka

.

Introducing... Kafka

Go beyond the Kafkaesque cliché as Robert Crumb illustrates the true portrait of Kafka - alienated from his roots, his family, his surroundings, and primarily from his own body, Kafka created a unique literary language in which to hide away, transforming himself into a cockroach, an ape, a dog, a mole, or a circus artiste who starves himself to death in front of admiring crowds.

via: Book Slut | A re-issue by David Zane Mairowitz; Illo is all Crumb

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The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky

Welcome to the bizarre universe of Alejandro Jodorowsky, a monstrous talent whose alchemical insights and sublime freak-outs epitomize an era of rare cinematic enlightenment-- provocative and psychedelic on a grand scale.

Thanks to the end of a bitter 30-year feud, the deranged, gruesome films of Jodorowsky have finally been released. (The films we've previously seen have been poor quality bootlegs.)

Amazon has a May 1, shipping date for this DVD package with El Topo, Fando Y Lis, and The Holy Mountain. It also includes a DVD of Jodorowsky's never-before-released first film, La Cravate and the La Constellation Jodorowsky doc and more interviews, scripts and such.

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Darfur Hunger Strike

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

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Happening In Asheville Today

Happening In Asheville Today


Day In The Life Of Asheville

Flickr fanatics in Asheville, NC, will document a day in the life of our wonderful mountain town.

This event: Satuday, April 14, for DILO Ashvegas. Get out your cameras and go. Then upload your pictures to the group on Flickr. Asheville Midnight photo by Bill in Ashvegasa.

(x-posted to Around Asheville)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Saturday April 14 - Global Warming Rally

This rally is one of 1,300 rallies across the United States. With your help we can easily turn out 1,000 people for this Asheville event. We are expecting more! I am writing to ask you to share this with your friends, get the word out. This is just one hour out of your Saturday. Speakers include City of Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy, Warren Wilson College President Sandy Pfeiffer, NC Council of Churches Richard Fireman, NC State Treasurer Richard Moore, and WWC Environmental
Leadership Center John Huie.

There is a great deal of information on the following websites - speaker list, map of the rally site, etc:

For national info: http://www.stepitup2007.org
For local info: http://phillipraygibson.blogspot.com

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Saturday Morning Me

saturday morning me//
kava kind of morning/banana/ginger root/
daughter dying hair red/eating sunflower seeds/
husband saluting the sun in the back yard/
listening to panda bear's i'm not/
i have hummers at the window!/
so how about you?/

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Friday Random 10

Random 10 Songs on Shuffle


1. Arcade Fire - The Well and The Lighthouse
2. Volunteer Pioneer - Separate Planes
3. Buffalo Springfield - Bluebird
4. Patti Smith - Mother Rose
5. Buddy Miles - Them Changes
6. All India Radio - Four Three
7. Steve Earle - Long Way Down To Tannietown
8. Espers - Moon Occults The Sun
9. Rolling Stones - Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby
10. Low - Breaker

What are you listening to?

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Ethics Crusade

We're riding a big ol' bus to the Ethics Crusade. It's tried to gather steam before but eventually petered out. It later got a bump in popularity when Janet Jackson accidentally bared her breast on worldwide television and the family values people wanted everyone involved punished severely.

The Don Imus controversy has so many layers. People are talking about it everywhere you go; you can't escape it by turning off your television. You hear it at the doctor's office, at work, in the market. It's Free Speech vs racist comments on tv and radio. There appears to be an audience for his misogynistic and racist remarks, but does that mean he should keep broadcasting because of Free Speech in our country?

The squeaky wheel always gets the grease. Big business is listening and fretting over profits so they bow to the pressure. Any disgusting slip of the tongue (or breast) is cause for the moral police to protest and boycott.

Will someone be making a list of targets for them to go after next? I like that they have to power to affect change but while they police the people of this nation, couldn't they use this kind of fire and motivation towards ending the war in Iraq?

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Outrage at India menstrual form

Outrage At India Menstrual Form

Women civil servants in India have expressed shock at new appraisal rules which require them to reveal details of their menstrual cycles.

Under the new nationwide requirements, female officials also have to say when they last sought maternity leave.

Women civil servants say the questions are a gross invasion of privacy. One told the BBC she was "gobsmacked".

Annual appraisals and health checks are mandatory in India's civil service. The ministry was unavailable for comment.

WTF is going on?

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WEBTRAIL

W E B T R A I L | peppermint. wendy-o. pancakes. crabs. zappa. alt-refer. penis ice cream.

* 'Germ' Wrongly Jailed Over Soap; Absurd GHB Drug Charges for Don Bolles, Drummer of the 'The Germs,' Stem From a Bottle of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap - I've followed this story for days for authenticity and now it looks like it's not a hoax. Hearing Friday, April 13.
LATimes | Dr Bronner Release

* Cover Freak has some wild and crazy covers. They keep their links up a few weeks but just took down an mp3 of Wendy O Williams and Motorhead's Lemmy doing "Stand By Your Man" (Tammy Wynette). Also, here's Wendy in Reform School Girls on YouTube. (Wendy died April 6, 1998)

* Cooking up in your spoon - it's not just for heroin anymore. link

* What's that? "It's much more affordable just to make the crabs disappear." link

* The Frank Zappa Primers - Lots of FZ links, graphics, and mp3s.

* Citizendium looks like fun. Supposed to be the alternative version of Wikipedia. I'm all for that.

* Davezilla has a link for penis ice cream. I'm all for that, too. NSFW: see it here

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Google Earth maps out Darfur atrocities

Google Earth Maps Out Darfur Atrocities

If you Google the word Darfur, you will find about 13 million references to the atrocities in the western Darfur region of Sudan -- what the United States has said is this century's first genocide.

As of today, when the 200 million users of Google Earth log onto the site, they will be able to view the horrific details of what's happening in Darfur for themselves.

In an effort to bring more attention to the ongoing crisis in Darfur, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has teamed up with Google's mapping service literally to map out the carnage in the Darfur region.

Experts estimate that 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million more have been displaced since the conflict flared in 2003, when rebels took up arms against the central Sudanese government.

The new initiative, called "Crisis in Darfur," enables Google Earth users to visualize the details in the region, including the destruction of villages and the location of displaced persons in refugee camps.

link

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The Sopranos Last Season

BY ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: April 8, 2007

"I'm old, Carm," Tony Soprano says at the beginning of the end on Sunday. This New Jersey mob boss has recovered from last season's shooting but tells Carmela he feels changed: "My body has suffered a trauma it will probably never recover from."

Death was never the most dreaded thing in "The Sopranos" - decline was. Long before any rival mobsters were beaten, knee-capped or killed, there were wistful intimations of decay. In the opening scene of the premiere episode in 1999, Tony confided to his psychiatrist that he no longer found much satisfaction from work: "Things are trending downward."

link

Last night's Sopranos episode renewed my interest in this series. As a caregiver for my elderly mother now the forecast is for mostly staying close to the barn and watching interesting television and movies.

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Saturday Morning Me

saturday AFTERNOON me//
pink bandana holding back nappy hair/
sweatshirt/jeans/ballet flats/standard weekend wear/
diet cola/no-cal weed/pain meds, laudy me/
teeny tiny snowflakes outside i see/
listening: Seperate Planes by Volunteer Pioneer/
september 10th my 1st grandchild will be here!/
sowhatareyoudoingthisfineweekend?/

Temper the bullshit with global perspectives. Read the Middle East and European, and Australian news and everything you can find. We're used to getting one side of the news for far too long. We have other options now. Arm yourself with truth. --SJC (me)

Sit on my interface

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Nepenthe

NEPENTHE

Nepenthe is a drug of forgetfulness mentioned in Greek mythology, depicted as originating in Egypt. The word "Nepenthe" first appears in the fourth book of the Odyssey of Homer. Literally, it means "the one that chases away sorrow". In the Odyssey, "Nepenthes pharmakon" is a magical potion given to Helen by an Egyptian queen. It quells all sorrows with forgetfulness.

Many scholars think that nepenthe might have been an opium preparation, perhaps similar to laudanum. Alternatively, some believe it could have been an Egyptian wormwood elixir.

However, the descriptions in literature of the effects of nepenthe are similar to how the effects of opiates are described. The carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes is named after the drug nepenthe.

* In The Raven, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe there is a reference to "quaffing nepenthe" in order to forget a lost love: "Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!".

* H. P. Lovecraft referenced nepenthe in one of the famous final lines from his story "The Outsider": "For although nepenthe has calmed me, I know always that I am an outsider..."

* In Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, Sally Jupiter (the Silk Spectre) lives in a retirement home named Nepenthe Gardens, an allusion to the painful romantic relationships of her past.

* In Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode 901 'The Projected Man,' nepenthe is used (somewhat satirically) to describe a plea from ghosts: Observer: "I'm sensing the presence of several disembodied souls... wandering the dark halls in search of surcease, an end to their endless night... a howl of quiet desperation... towards an indifferent universe. Nepenthe! Nepenthe!"

Have I been away from my husband too long or does this plant really look all veiny and phallic? Very interesting history and it references some decent literature. And this time the drug preceeds the plant.

link

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Richards says he snorted dad's ashes

Richards says he snorted dad's ashes

In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.

"The strangest thing I've tried to snort?

My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

"He was cremated, and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.

Richards' manager has told MTV the story about the guitarist snorting his father's ashes is not true, and was said as a joke. (This is only part of that interview)

Is he joking or not? He probably did snort his dear old Pops.

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PARADISE LIFE

A Stunning Memoir about Recovery from Addiction

Author Christopher Keeley offers hope for drug addicts to get clean, to start over, and have a wonderful life

Addiction to drugs is like a lover that you crave for, the more you give in to it, the harder it is to let go. This unhealthy obsession can cause horrible consequences, not only to yourself, but also to your family and the people you care about. Author andaward winning photographer Christopher Keeley shares how he quit this nasty habit through Paradise Life, a profound collection of personal stories and photographs that inspire a spirit of recovery.

link

As a recovering addict myself I find his book very interesting. His other web presence is also entertaining-- displaying art, activism, photographs, etc. Go have a look around.

Related:
From the Book
Daily Dreamtime
Intervention Organization
Secret Surrealistic Society

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The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis

Are we supposed to believe what we see on television about the Iran/British captured soldiers situation? I don't ask that you believe as I do. I want you to get more than one view.

Most of tv, if not all, is agenda-based. Some television may have detergent or votes to hawk which is expected. It's the demagogue driven television I worry about and is why we're asked to turn off our tv sets from time to time. If US television is where you get most of your news, you're right to be asked to turn it off. If you're wise enough to go outside the US for your news, I admire you for that. It wasn't easy before the internet with all it's global perspectives. So all this blabbering preface brings me to an article I saw on Independent, a British newspaper.

The botched US raid that led to the hostage crisis

Exclusive Report: How a bid to kidnap Iranian security officials sparked a diplomatic crisis

By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 03 April 2007

A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines.

Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds.

In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective, The Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment.

Better understanding of the seriousness of the US action in Arbil - and the angry Iranian response to it - should have led Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence to realise that Iran was likely to retaliate against American or British forces such as highly vulnerable Navy search parties in the Gulf. The two senior Iranian officers the US sought to capture were Mohammed Jafari, the powerful deputy head of the Iranian National Security Council, and General Minojahar Frouzanda, the chief of intelligence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, according to Kurdish officials.

MORE...

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O'Really Cuts Another Mic Off

Bush shill and Fox News douche, Bill O'Reilly, always gives you the last word. Usually with the mic turned off or when someone is showing him for the ass that he is.

link

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