Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love

An OC Weekly writer reveals the dark side of the 1960s drug culture by tracking down members and associates of the Orange County counterculture group, who spoke of it for the first time in decades.

Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and its Quest to Spread Peace, Love and Acid to the World, by OC Weekly's Nick Schou, is the true story of the best-kept secret of the 1960s: the Brotherhood of Eternal Love.

Dubbed the "Hippie Mafia," the Brotherhood began in the mid-1960s as a small band of peace-loving, adventure-seeking surfers in Southern California. After discovering LSD, they took to Timothy Leary's mantra of "Turn on, tune in, and drop out" and resolved to make that vision a reality by becoming the biggest group of acid dealers and hashish smugglers in the nation, and literally providing the fuel for the psychedelic revolution in the process. Journalist Schou takes us deep inside the Brotherhood, combining exclusive interviews with both the group's surviving members as well as the cops who chased them.

A wide-sweeping narrative of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll (and more drugs) that runs from Laguna Beach to Maui to Afghanistan, Orange Sunshine explores how America moved from the era of peace and free love into a darker time of hard drugs and paranoia. Kirkus Review hails the book as "a fascinating read for any audience and essential reading for anyone interested in the roots of psychedelia."

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Rainbow Serpent Festival

Over The Rainbow by Rak Razam

"I'm here with my friends Matty from Byron and Kaptain Khaos from Paris and a slew of aging dancers that have come out of retirement to celebrate the 10th anniversary Rainbow Serpent Festival, a four day celebration of "soul and technology", according to the organizers. Here in Australia the outdoor party scene has been flourishing for over a decade at bush 'doofs' (named after the bass beat of the electronic music), where 'doofers' revel in Trance music, community and enhanced states of mind. "Since the first gathering in 1998, Rainbow has become a popular annual get-together for thousands of like minded people," says Frank Venuto, one of the festival's founders. Rainbow Serpent is a landmark of the Global Trance music calendar, where semi-retired doofers like myself mix it up with the young turks of the dancefloor and the old hippies that can still shake it."

Nice piece features the 4 day account in Australia with photos.

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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.

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Ultraculture

ULTRACULTURE - JOURNAL ONE
Era Vulgaris 2007
Editor: Jason Louv

The issue includes: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on the holographic Garden of Eden, Brion Gysin's travelogue of his journey to Alamut, the citadel of the Assassins, The psychedelic rantings of Ganesh Baba, the world’s most tripped-out guru, and much more.

So many good articles to read I don't know where to begin. It's in beta now but you can buy it for a small price.

[via: dreamflesh]

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Two Films About The 60s

2 Upcoming Films With Links To The 60s

Neal Cassady - From the bars of Denver to the Steel Mills of Utah to the avant-garde parties of Manhattan, across a nation whose heart is calling for a role-model, a leader, a hero... Neal Cassady's on the road again, and all his old pals are there with him--Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, The Merry Pranksters. They're searching for Neal's long-lost father, who holds the key to the great unwritten American novel. But in the end it's Neal alone, and in the rear-view fast-approaching are cops, groupies and the dark chimera of his own vanity.

Release Date: To Be Announced
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Across The Universe - A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" (Bono) and "Mr. Kite" (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other.

I don't know if I would like this one or not. I've read that it's more like a series of punctuated scenes and characters each represented by a Beatles song - 32 in all. Too much of a musical for me...maybe it has more of a story.

Now the Neal Cassady film sounds promising because the people are interesting. Cassady, Kesey, Kerouac, the the Pranksters, of whom I thought were the end-all and be-all of the universe when I was growing up.

Release Date: September 28, 2007.
View trailer
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Zeek: Contemporary Psychedelia: From Transcendence to Immanence by Peter Bebergal - Really good article on Psychedelia that explores the mystical, medicinal and musical aspects -- then and now.

Zeek link via AlternativeApproaches, another nice collaborative effort where I found this quote.

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
-- Salvador Dali

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WEBTRAIL - Top 100, PETA, Ivins, Boomer, Mancuso, Garden of Delights, James Frey

Garden Of Delights is a good vintage vinyl site. One of 7 or 8 good ones I've found lately. Freaky Lady posts mostly rare 60s music. Not as rare in the weird sense as Cake & Polka Parade, which has it's own fun, but informative niche.

‘Love Saves The Day’, an essential new book, which charts the development of New York (and subsequently worldwide) club culture, takes it’s name from a party held on Valentines Day 1970 at the home of David Mancuso, a loft space at 647 Broadway & Bleeker, in NoHo, NYC. (via Autopoiesis & Cognition Conversations)

Please Sign This Petition if you agree that James Frey, Author of "A Million Little Pieces", Random House & Nan Telese,the Publisher of these lies should offer a refund of his book considering the controversy surrounding it.

Were you born between 1946 and 1964? Boomer Baby is asking you to send in your childhood toy memories. I enjoyed the "Easy Bake Oven" because YUM!, those little cakes that you baked by a lightbulb were seriously good eating. I also liked paper dolls. Betsy McCall came in a magazine each month with different outfits to cut out and put on. Try getting a small child today to get interested in paper dolls. Not going to happen. (via mousemusings)

Molly Ivins, 61, is again battling breast cancer. [More »] (via labkat)

China's Shocking Cat and Dog Fur Trade - Trent Reznor slams killing of cats and dogs for fur in shocking new PETA video.

2006 Q Magazine Readers' 100 Greatest Albums Ever. These lists are always subjective but always interesting.

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Invitation to a Night of Nakedness

"Compadres," the e-mail states, "join us in refusing to comply with a culture that tells us to hide our body, to be ashamed of its scents, secretions, curves, and hair, to conceal those parts that have been dealt sexual connotations. We're gonna f-- this bondage we call clothing and party like the savages we really are."

Following in the footsteps of their exhibitionist peers at Brown and Yale, Columbia undergraduates are staging parties with one basic ground rule - all guests must part with their clothes upon arrival. The invitation circulating around Morningside Heights bans three additional items: cameras, masks, and "spikey things."

"Join us for a night of champagne, martinis, witchcraft, psychedelia, syncopated rhythms, thin bass lines, and body paint," reads the invitation, which was obtained by The New York Sun.

Like naked smart mobs. I love it!

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Web Trails

Aleister Crowley, British occultist born on October 12, 1875. He was an occultist, mystic, sexual revolutionary, and drug addict (especially heroin).

Other interests and accomplishments were wide-ranging (he was a chess master, mountain climber, poet, writer, painter, astrologer and social critic).

We place no reliance
On virgin or pigeon;
Our Method is Science,
Our Aim is Religion.
~Aleister Crowley

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
~Aleister Crowley

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Psychedelic Sunday - Berbati’s Church of Psychedelia is a free event organized by Point Line Plane’s Josh Blanchard. It has been going strong every last Sunday of the month since its inception last January.
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Exciting material relating to rock greats Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones to lead Christie's annual sale of Pop and Rock Memorabilia at Christie's Rockefeller Center, 21 November 2005.
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Psychedelic Books for Independent Minds
Leary Library, Lilly Library, Fringe Series, Entheo-Spirituality, Psychedelic Library and more. Part of The Psychedelic Ring which has 29 sites, which may or not be surf-worthy.
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Faster Firefox - Speed up your Firefox browser by tweaking settings. Installs into Firefox Options if you can’t find it. Anybody tried this yet? Mitch? It's different from the tweaking we did last year on Firefox; it's a download. Thanks, Devon.

Is anyone watching Lost? I'm trying to watch it, especially after I heard someone talking backwards, reminiscent of Twin Peaks, which brilliantly stands alone in tv series innovation. 4 8 15 16 23 42 is keeping the secret.

British Library Online Gallery - Turning The Pages.
Leaf through 14 great books and magnify the details. Very nice. Thanks, Carol.
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I noticed Salon has a new design and read this piece: Thousands of men are shelling out $6,500 for hyper-realistic dolls that answer all their needs -- and don't talk back. Ask Davecat about Sidore. How fucked up ARE these guys anyway? Let me count the ways.
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Go get 'em, BDM. Big Daddy Malcontent takes the banks and christians to task.
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