Voluntary Peasants

Voluntary Peasants is a fun, hip, magical, mystical adventure, a Zen romp, full of humor, warmth and spiritual survival wisdom.

--published by Hot Button Press is scheduled for release this summer.


High Times calls Stephen Gaskin "the Gandhi of the American counterculture."

Stephen said:

This country needs in great numbers to become voluntary peasants. Being enlightened is a lot like being a grownup and taking responsibility.

Telepathy is evidence that we are all connected. We can get telepathic with each other, and we can get telepathic with God, with birds, trees, grass.

We can send energy to people who need energy by thinking loving thoughts about them.

By now, everyone knows how to get high, but if you want to stay high, you need moral structure.

Government does not have the right to dictate levels of consciousness.

The Farm began in 1971 as more than a commune, but as a dream-come-true adventure and all-out, put-your-butt-on-the-line, social experiment, political statement and attempt to create a gracious lifestyle the whole world can afford. Everyone worked to manifest a way of living that feels right, in touch with the earth, healthy, productive, fun and good for children. We built our own village, complete with school, clinic, doctors, midwives, lab, soy dairy, bakery, radio station, houses, roads, green, cutting edge, alternative energy, cottage industries, motor pool, laundry, canning and freezing operation, rock, boogey and reggae bands. We used horses, tractors and computers.

For thirteen years, I lived and worked at The Farm as a carpenter, farmer, chef, baker, gateman, news editor and mechanic. Like the rest of The Farm adult community, I considered Stephen Gaskin my spiritual teacher, my guru. We were all Stephen's students.

Stephen told us, “I’m trying to teach you to not need me.” It took me awhile. --Melvyn Stiriss

Read More »

www.thefarmcommunity.com
www.TheFarm.org

Read more...

H Plus Magazine

The Fall 2009 Issue of h+ Magazine features Erik Davis on Dollhouse, Tweaking Your Neurons, The Psychedelic Transhumanists, Sex and the Singularity, Jonathan Coulton’s Inner Squid, and more.

Read it online in the current H+ Magazine.

Read more...

Lords Of The Revolution

This is a 4 part series on VH1.

* Mohammad Ali
* Cheech & Chong
* The Black Panthers
* Timothy Leary

THE BLACK PANTHERS

Their in-your-face form of protest against the establishment had never been seen before. Carrying weapons, marching in formation, and... helping the poor. Helping the disenfranchised.

I was in high school at the time and I was loving it. I was an anti-authority junior rebel and was pretty stoked when someone else bucked the system on such a grand scale in the fight for equality.

After Huey Newton and Bobby Seale went to jail, Eldridge Cleaver moved to the forefront of the Black Panthers. His wife, Kathleen Cleaver was also a force. They all became heroes to hippies. (I've always hated that word.) Anyway, you may enjoy these programs.

link | website

Read more...

Lauren Dukoff's 'Family' of Free Spirits

Devendra Banhart and Lauren Dukoff walk around the Space 15 Twenty gallery in Hollywood, giggling. Friends since they met at Malibu High School 10 years ago, the pair, who call each other Obi (Banhart's middle name) and Lo, are also artistic collaborators: Dukoff has been photographing the indie folkie-turned-major-label-star since Banhart was spending his afternoons practicing piano in the high school music room.

The photos collected in her new book, "Family," offer an intimate glimpse into the lives of Banhart and an ever-widening creative tribe that has formed here in L.A.



Spanning the period from May 2006 until late last year, "Family" follows Banhart from stages around the world -- including a headlining gig at Carnegie Hall -- to private moments writing at his desk and playing guitar on the deck of his Topanga Canyon home, where sketches, lyrics and found art decorate every wall, and the crimson velvet couch was said to have belonged to Jim Morrison.

Wearing sandals, bell-bottom jeans and a vest in one shot, and suspenders and sunny yellow jazz oxfords in another, Banhart also reveals the original fashion sensibility that has inspired international designers such as Roberto Cavalli and Karl Lagerfeld and local names like Trasteverine and South Paradiso.

Read More | Buy @ Amazon

Read more...

R. Crumb's Underground

part of his seldom seen Spool collection

July 11-August 16, 2009

On July 11, 2009, Grand Central Art Center becomes the only Southern California venue to exhibit the Yerba Buena's Center for the Arts traveling exhibition, R.Crumb's Underground. This exhibition salutes local San Francisco treasure Robert Crumb with an eclectic exhibit of early work, collaborations old and new, and the world premiere of his "spool" drawings.

link

Read more...

Dylan Records Surprise 'Modern Times' Follow-up

Dark new disc with a bluesy border-town feel arrives in April

"I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver/And I'm reading James Joyce/Some people tell me I got the blood of the land in my voice,"

Bob Dylan sings in a leathery growl, capturing the essence of his forthcoming studio album — raw-country love songs, sly wordplay and the wounded state of the nation — in "I Feel a Change Coming On," one of the record's 10 new originals.

Set for late April, the as-yet-untitled album arrives a few months after Dylan's outtakes collection Tell Tale Signs, and it "came as a surprise," says a source close to Dylan's camp.

More »

Read more...

Living Things Habeas Corpus

Living Things Habeas Corpus

On February 17, St. Louis, MO, garage rock quartet Living Things released their much-anticipated third album, Habeas Corpus, and it's solid as a motherfucker. No fancy riffs or vocal gymnastics, just a solid rock and roll sound.

The album was recorded in Berlin by the band -- St Louis, MO, brothers Lillian, Eve and Bosh Berlin, and guitarist Cory Becker. Lead singer Lillian (still looking like Jagger via Altamont) and band stay true to their lo-fi rock sound with only a modicum of compromise that may come with a new label. Or maturity.

The back story can be more interesting than the party line. Several years ago Lillian battled down a heroin addiction and went to jail several times. The Berlin brothers' Mom, mom, an activist from Chicago was raised Catholic and once tried to join the Black Panthers before moving to the conservative St. Louis suburb where her boys -- two of whom she named after their grandmothers -- were born.

While shooting a video in Prague, Lillian met the outstanding director, Italian filmmaker Floria Sigismondi. They married in 2004 and had a daughter that same year.
YouTube | Website

Read more...

Building The Timothy Leary Archive
Supporters of the work of Timothy Leary attended a reception February 8, 2009, in San Francisco. The goal was (and still is as far as I know) to find patrons and a place to build a Timothy Leary museum to house about 400 boxes of archives and to digitize the material. John Perry Barlow, Joi Ito, and others attended.

link

Read more...

Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl (by HUNTER S. THOMPSON, 1974)

". . .and whosoever was not found written into the book of life was cast into the lake of fire..."

— Revelations 20:15

This was the theme of the sermon I delivered off the 20th-floor balcony of the Hyatt Regency in Houston on the morning of Super Bowl VIII. It was just before dawn, as I recall, when the urge to speak came on me. Earlier that day I had found — on the tile floor of the Men's Room on the hotel mezzanine — a religious comic book titled "A Demon's Nightmare," and it was from the text of this sleazy tract that I chose the words of my sermon.

The Houston Hyatt Regency — like others designed by architect John Portman in Atlanta and San Francisco — is a stack of 1000 rooms, built around a vast lobby at least 30 stories high, with a revolving "spindletop" bar on the roof. The whole center of the building is a tower of acoustical space. You can walk out of any room and look over the indoor balcony (20 floors down, in my case) at the palm-shrouded, wood and naugahyde maze of the bar/lounge on the lobby floor.

Closing time in Houston is 2:00 AM. There are after-hours bars, but the Hyatt Regency is not one of them. So — when I was seized by the urge to deliver my sermon at dawn — there were only about 20 ant-sized people moving around in the lobby far below.

Earlier, before the bar closed, the whole ground floor had been jammed with drunken sportswriters, hard-eyed hookers, wandering geeks and hustlers (of almost every persuasion), and a legion of big and small gamblers from all over the country who roamed through the drunken, randy crowd — as casually as possible — with an eye to picking up a last-minute sucker bet from some poor bastard half-mad on booze and willing to put some money, preferably four or five big ones, on "his boys." Go Read More »

This is the real Hunter S Thompson's 1974 Rolling Stone piece. I was living in Virginia Beach, VA, when this article came out. Gas was being rationed; I was 6 months pregnant. The Exorcist had just come out at the movies. Hunter framed this period of my life. If you got Hunter you got me. Besides Dylan, he was my Guru and every time he would hold forth I'd devour every single morsel. You've got to remember that this kind of writing (gonzo journalism) was rare in the 70s.

Read more...

Warhol: Sticky Fingers

Warhol: Sticky Fingers
Auction for one of Andy Warhol Sticky Fingers: The Rolling Stones. It's signed and is expected to fetch $2,500 - $3,500. That's not an outrageous price and I'd really like, uh, to have it. Anybody?

Seller's Description:
Most outrageous of all the Rolling Stones albums, signed by Warhol with his infamous photograph of a crotch shot and a real metal zipper. IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. At first, several department store chains refused to display the album because of the model's rather snug jeans. "If you stand back from that cover," says album designer Craig Braun, "you can actually see the guy's dick. I used to kid Andy: 'I know you had that guy playing with his dick before you shot the picture!'"

link

Damn, I have this someplace at my family's home. Currently the only Stones album I can locate there is High Tide and Green Grass (with Brian Jones standing in front of the line of the guys).

Read more...

By BILL AYERS

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin got hold of it, the attack went viral. At a now-famous Oct. 4 rally, she said Obama was "pallin’ around with terrorists." (I pictured us sharing a milkshake with two straws.)

The crowd began chanting, "Kill him!" "Kill him!" It was downhill from there.

What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Looking back on a surreal campaign season

By BILL AYERS

Whew! What was all that mess? I’m still in a daze, sorting it all out, decompressing.

Pass the Vitamin C.

For the past few years, I have gone about my business, hanging out with my kids and, now, my grandchildren, taking care of our elders (they moved in as the kids moved out), going to work, teaching and writing. And every day, I participate in the never-ending effort to build a powerful and irresistible movement for peace and social justice.

[Read More »] | {via}

Read more...

What Does Dylan Say?

Bob Dylan: "Things are going to change now"

"I was born in 1941," he said, a wavering sentimentality in his scratchy voice. "That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I've been living in darkness ever since. It looks like things are going to change now."

link

Read more...

Zappa Video

STINKFOOT: FRANK ZAPPA
link

Read more...

DYLAN: October 1 Soundtrack

DYLAN: October 1 Soundtrack

Exclusive Preview: Bob Dylan's 'Tell Tale Signs' covers Dylan's past 20 years, a period that produced the albums Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, Modern Times and Oh Mercy. Tell Tale Signs offers a rare glimpse into Dylan's creative process, with alternate takes that show the evolution of his work, as his songs take shape lyrically and musically.

Here, NPR Music offers a sneak preview of the entire two-disc set as a free stream. The album will be officially released in stores and online on Oct. 7.

Great few hours of Dylan. The soundtrack to my October 1st.

link

Read more...

The 50 greatest Arts videos on YouTube

Jimi, Beatles, Basquiat, Burroughs, Baez and More

The 50 greatest Arts videos on YouTube

YouTube is best known for its offbeat videos that become viral sensations. But among its millions of clips is a treasure trove of rare and fascinating arts footage, lovingly posted by fans.

link

Read more...

Howl Festival

Howl Festival

is five days of dance, music, performance, poetry & writing @ Tompkins Square Park, Sept 5 - 11.

I was happy to see that the Cockettes are performing there Sept 6th. An outrageous gender bending legendary hippie performance troupe from San Francisco around 1969-1972. A recent Cockettes DVD has introduced them to a new generation. link


link

Read more...

Artist's Prank Punks Re-create 68

Artist's Prank Punks Re-create 68

They're referring, of course, to the Chicago Democratic National Convention of 1968 with Jerry and Abbie and Stew and the gang. So who's gonna kick whose ass? I got a headache trying to keep score of who's who but I DO know it's not cool to joke about that event with so many people poised to pick a side and go off just for drill.

link | (via)

Read more...

History of the Psychedelic Movement

History of the Psychedelic Moment

Cartoon And Coloring Book

The History of the Psychedelic Movement: Cartoon and Coloring Book. Published by the Neo-American Church, which was one of the three LSD groups within the Millbrook Estate. Art Kleps was the Chief Boo Hoo who subscribed to the following principles

Very few copies of this book are in existance. Art Kleps himself didn't have a clean copy. I will also include and email of a correspondence between the cop and Art Kleps in 1996. Kleps also stated that the remainder of the inventory was lost in Vermont.

EXTREMELY RARE BOOK. US $750.00

link | also see the Boo Hoo Bible. (via)

Read more...

R. Crumb Update

R. Crumb Update

Robert is planning on coming to America this summer to attend a family reunion in the Midwest. While in the Midwest, he'll sign a couple of new editions we're now printing. He's been working diligently on the Genesis project and is now on page 167—rounding the bend and coming down the final stretch.

In September 2004, I posted about this same Genesis project and here we are 4 years later, Bob. Obvs you're not doing it for the jack but we're kinda getting anxious to see this new work.

Rumor is he's getting even better at his illustrations.

The Genesis project is nonfiction in a graphic novel format. It's based on a 'literal' interpretation of Genesis, the first book of the Bible or, in sound byte form, "The Passion of the Christ for the NPR Crowd."

Read more...

Gonzo

GONZO - 7/4/08

From Oscar-wining director Alex Gibney and producer Graydon Carter comes a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. A fast moving, wildly entertaining documentary with an iconic soundtrack, the film addresses the major touchstones in Thompson’s life-his intense and ill fated relationship with the Hell’s Angels, his near-successful bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen in 1970, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his deep involvement in Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, and much more. Narrated by Johnny Depp.

see trailer | imdb

Read more...