Hamster Control

I think these hamsters may have been from Thailand in a past life...

Watch and listen to hamsters make music.

via Reality Carnival

Tsunami-surviving hippo

Odd couple make friends in Kenya



A baby hippo rescued after floods in Kenya last week has befriended a 100-year-old tortoise in Kenya.

The one-year-old hippo calf christened Owen was found alone and dehydrated by wildlife rangers near the Indian Ocean.

He was placed in an enclosure at a wildlife sanctuary in the coastal city of Mombasa and befriended a male tortoise of a similar colour.

According to a park official, they sleep together, eat together and "have become inseparable".

"Since Owen arrived on the 27 December, the tortoise behaves like a mother to it," Haller Park tourism manager Pauline Kimoti told the BBC News website.

"The hippo follows the tortoise around and licks his face," she said.

The tortoise is named Mzee, which is Swahili for old man.

Ms Kimoti said that if the 300kg hippo continued to thrive then in the next few weeks they would allow the public to see the unlikely pair together before they are separated.

The sanctuary, which is on the site of a former cement factory, plans eventually to get the help of the Kenya Wildlife Service to place Owen with Cleo, a lonely female hippo in a separate enclosure.

This is the latest in a series of unusual bondings in the wild that have surprised and delighted zoologists in Kenya.

In 2002, a lioness at Samburu National Park adopted a succession of baby oryx.

Thanks to the Apothekerri-faerie for sending this heartwarming link...

Positive Psychedelic ART

This gallery has some rough but really fun, trippy little flash movies with soundtracks.

The incredibly-talented Mr. Marchand

His paintings are leaving me breathless...

Best tv commercial EVER

Watch this award-winning European tv commercial .mov or .mpg

thanks to monsieur uB for the pointer!

Examples of photo/video evidence (ufos)

These were just sent in by my friend Jon-B (thank you, these are RAD!)

MEXICAN AIR FORCE UFO PHOTOGRAPHS
Photographs from the infra-red video captured by Mexican Air Force pilots in March, 2004

CHILEAN TV STATION AIRS SATELLITE'S 400 KM UFO VIDEO
On Tuesday, January 26, 1999, TV viewers in Chile were astonished when a Santiago station broadcasted satellite video images of disc-shaped UFOs measuring hundreds of miles in diameter.

The video clip on this page is EXCELLENT.

JAPAN 1970

Do it in outer space, baby, yeah!

Rob (who's got some interesting stuff posted at his new blog Peyoetry) stopped by and left a comment earlier about the Lunar Republic post I did and mentioned a link to the Association of Autonomous Astronauts which I definitely agree is a lot more interesting than the Lunar Republic idea:

The days of this society are numbered. Its reasons and its merits have been weighed in the balance and found wanting; its inhabitants are divided into two parties, one of which wants to build its own spaceships and leave this world behind.

The Association of Autonomous Astronauts (AAA) was launched on April 23rd 1995 as the world's first independent and community-based space exploration programme. A Five Year Plan was also established for creating, by the year 2000, a worldwide network of community-based AAA groups dedicated to building their own spaceships.

Go check it out and enjoy the reading material, it's top-notch. I'm just getting warmed up with this one: Sex in Space (haven't you ever wondered what that would be like?? I know I have!)

And one more thing that's fabulous about the AAA is the links all throughout-- like the one that lead me to a "space artist" named Frank Pietronigro who you'll just have to SEE to believe it. So rad. If I didn't think I'd be puking my guts out the entire time, I'd totally do something like paint in space, hell-yeah!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Piss Off

A Belgian novelty shows what the good people of Brussels really think about George W. Bush.

by Paul Belien

The newest Belgian fad--a Bush urinal sticker.

Brussels
WHEN JOHAN VANDE LANOTTE, Belgium's Vice Prime Minister, goes to the toilets today, he finds the urinals in the offices of his ministry decorated with stickers. They show an American flag and the head of George W. Bush. "Go ahead. Piss on me," the caption says. Vande Lanotte is one of Bush's hosts in Brussels. Is peeing on your guest's head appropriate? In Belgium it is. After all, Brussels' best known statue is that of "Manneken Pis," a peeing boy.

The piss stickers, specially made to be used in urinals, can be seen these days in the public toilets of Belgian schools, youth clubs, and pubs. They were designed by Laurent Winnock, president of the Young Socialists, the youth branch of Vande Lanotte's Socialist party. Winnock did his creative work during his office hours, which would not be worth mentioning if Winnock did not work in the offices of Vice Prime Minister Vande Lanotte, as one of his press spokesmen.

via American Samisdat

Peter Jennings on UFOs TONIGHT

The UFO Phenomenon -- Seeing Is Believing

Two-Hour Primtime Special Airs Thursday, Feb. 24 at 8-10pm

This two-hour primetime special reports on the entire scope of the UFO experience — from the first famous sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 to the present day. The program draws on interviews with police officers, pilots, military personnel, scientists and ordinary citizens who give extraordinary accounts of encounters with the unexplained. Also included are the voices of professional skeptics about UFOs, including scientists who are leading the search for life forms beyond Earth elsewhere in the universe.

The program explores the facts behind the enduring mystery of the incident at Roswell, N.M., and looks into the strange stories of alien abductions. Among the UFO cases presented:

Minot Air Force Base, N.D., October 1968 — Sixteen airmen on the ground and the crew of an airborne B-52 witness a massive unidentified object hovering near the base.

Phoenix, March 1997 — Hundreds witness a huge triangular craft moving slowly over the city.

St. Clair County, Ill., January 2000 — Police officers in five adjoining towns all independently report witnessing a giant craft with multiple bright lights moving silently across the sky at a very low altitude.

Today if you report a UFO to the U.S. government you will be informed that the Air Force conducted a 22-year investigation that ended in 1969 and concluded that UFOs are not a threat to national security and are of no scientific interest. But as one of the world's leading theoretical physicists says in the program, "You simply cannot dismiss the possibility that some of these UFO sightings are actually sightings from some object created by … a civilization perhaps millions of years ahead of us in technology."

Stomp a piss ant for Jesus

Televangelist Supreme

I just had to Google 'piss ant for Jesus' when I heard that Dr. Gene Scott had died because I will always remember this one particular airing when he went into this weird rant about "You're all piss-ants for Jesus!" and lo and behold, someone else seems to have been watching this exact same episode-- check out what they had to say:

One night (early 90's I think) we saw Dr. Scott! He had a satellite uplink. He had changed.

Long hair, band around his head, beard, smoking a fat cigar. He'd bought a rundown old hotel and had plans to turn it onto a 'cathedral.'

He just sat there demanding money. No pretence of a sermon. Nothing about redemption, doing good works. Just give Gene Scott money. Reminded me of the urban legend about the classified that said only "Send $5.00."

But he'd made several quantum leaps since the early days. Mostly he smoked his cigar, made odd remarks and told people they'd better call in their pledge now. Kind of like a PBS pledge break run by a psychotic. When he got tired of talking he'd play his saxophone. Or show movies of his racehorses in Tennessee.

But the peak was when he sang Stomp a Piss ant for Jesus.

That was all the mention Jesus got. I decided he had to be an atheist who was playing the biggest practical joke on the gullible imaginable. I see he has a web site now. Looks like he may have cut his hair and taken to wearing a tux. I learned that he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford.

Since he mentions his transponder he's still being seen via satellite somewhere. Hope you get to see his powerful witness to gullibility. Few moments of television can be as cheering. Sort of the Chuck Barris of televangelism.

Lots more info on Dr. Gene Scott can be found over at The Blind Spot

Lunar Republic

Official Website of the Moon

A resource for all things MOON, including information about the lunar phases and links to the Full Moon Atlas and even how to buy property on the moon!

There is quite an assortment of material here to fill you in on things about the moon you probably never knew before (and maybe a few others you might want to skip).

How about applying for Lunar Citizenship?

You can also sign up to receive the Lunar Republic Society newsletter, featuring updates on a program for privatized exploration, settlement and development of the Moon.

MORE...

Big City Orchestre: Kismet (brand new release!)

BCO's latest release in mp3 format is now available for download from our new friends Ctephin who have created the Umbrella Noize Collective (lots of yummy sounds from a wide array of artists).

I'll be blogging a bit more about Ctephin here shortly to promote one of their latest releases and also spotlight one of the three members (Aedria) who has submitted a gorgeous track for the Women Take Back the Noise compilation.

Stay tuned for more on all that as soon as I come back up for air...

Metaversal Full Moon in Virgo Report

Johannes Ayres has graced us with another one of his glorious whirlwinds of astro-mystical-metaversal infos for the Full Moon... enjoy!

(painting by Richard Stodart)

Virgo Full Moon – February 23, 2005

I say unto you: it would be easier for a western screech owl to throw a javelin through the hole of a rolling doughnut at a distance equivalent to the length of three soccer fields than it is to get a virgo to not focus on the details. Virgo figures things out; Pisces just knows. That knowing - often discounted in our linear, logically oriented culture - comes in most clearly when we are in a receptive state. During todays Full Moon, Mercury is 7 degrees away from Uranus, turning the volume up on imagination and intuition. Uranus, the higher octave of Mercury, brings gestalts, downloads, flashes of insight that often revolutionize our way of thinking. Huge breakthroughs in consciousness can occur around this Full Moon, if we ask for them and make time for them to come through. Full Moons illuminate what was initiated at the last New Moon.

With Uranus, the ruling planet of Aquarius, closely conjunct the Sun in Pisces, we continue to feel the pressure to break free from stale, static thinking and programming. Changes happen very rapidly, and only then will the provisional gods youve held behind plexiglas step forth with new recipes for meringue soufflé, and heaven knows what other wonders. Psychic empathy promotes emotional literacy this Full Moon. But what does that mean? On one level, it's beyond words (Mercury is in Pisces, home of my natal hermetic virtuosity, also known as extreme, awakened savoring.) Uranus is the wild card, the God of Chaos, the energy of the electrick boogaloo and lightning sprites. Things may appear suddenly with Uranus around, but when we take a closer look, we see that the storm clouds have been gathering for a while.

Ouranos was the Hellenic god of Heaven itself, of infinite potentials. Traveling through Pisces, Uranus cleaves through old concepts like an arctic icebreaker on amphetamines, transporting us into a more fluid awareness and experience of life. For all intents and purposes, we could be put in the shark tank diving-bell – but we'll get a hell of a lot more out of this experience, I guarantee you. Uranus orbits far beyond Saturn, past the bounds of physical reality, showing us what is beneath and beyond the reach of our ordinary senses. Uranus in Pisces opens our third eye, increasing our ability to perceive energy and other dimensions of consciousness. As Uranus makes his passage through Pisces (from March 2003 to March 2011), the lines between the realms of Lightcraft and Metaverse are blurred. We will hear the foghorns of ghostships. We can see through crystal windows, gigantic manta rays surging through primordial waves in a sea blasted by silent lightning, as the unseen becomes visible, as strange new technologies and virulent new pathways of perception become available. The ultimate spectacle of sheer menacing horror and pranksterish delirium.

With Uranus opposite the Moon in Virgo, we're more keenly aware of the real nature of spirit and matter - that they are one and the same. Just as we are aware of being a constituent of our family, tribe, country, solar system, and metaverse so our cells, tissues, and organs are conscious participants in the various systems of our body. The high voltage of this Full Moon requires us to pay special attention to our diet and find ways to ground the rarefied signals that Uranus is transmitting this week. Our Lightcrafts are being rewired so they can hold higher vibrations and access larger dimensions of reality.

During periods of accelerated growth, extra nutrients are necessary for building new structures. This makes eating whole foods rather than processed products more important than ever. Upload everything you think you are onto the great web in thye sky and let this Full Moon suck away the dross and clutter of this virulent cultural undermind rampant with dubious sampled notions of War-Pigs and faux-calicos and half-digested leftover memetic visions. Only then will the dragonflies venture to mate on your scalp. Tear down the pyramids and let whales dine on the mummies of kings! Everything must go. The monkeys saw this coming and stayed in the trees, but now they descend to raze our mini-golf shrines and cut loose our pets from their leashes. Leave a note for them: There is porn in the fridge, pixies beneath the pillows, and twenty-four hours of hardcore oven-ready love on forever and ever, while supplies last.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 6 degrees Pisces suggests that this will be a time for demonstrating our convictions and our power: "A parade of army officers in full dress; the dedication of human beings to the service of their community..." The image for the Moon at 6 degrees Virgo reminds us to stay centered with whatever is happening and enjoy the ride: "A merry-go-round... the awareness of the cyclicity and the ups and downs of the emotional life."

All in all, this Full Moon illuminates the importance of integrating the various levels of our Metaverse - Listen to the wisdom around and within you, and remember: "Your body is jammin, your face is hecka slammin, and they are yours, come feast or famine.

Dead ringers

Making a Connection With the Dead

Many in the grips of grief will find it hard to face a visit to the grave of a loved one, while some may be unable to make the journey. Now, help is at hand thanks to the slightly macabre "Phone Angel."

A German inventor has come up with a novel way for relatives coping with the grief of losing a loved one to convey their feelings to the departed. The "Phone Angel," a long-life battery powered cell phone device, allows those in mourning to have contact with the deceased when personal pain, distance or disability prevents them from attending the final resting place.

But this is my favorite part of all:

Using an application that most modern mobile phones have, automatic call response, Bröther's invention allows every caller to get through. The Phone Angel clicks on and allows communication as if someone on the other end had picked up the receiver. Unlike the recipient of the call, the line is very rarely dead.

via bTang reBlog

Earthquake in Tehran

Over 500 killed in Iran earthquake

[World News]: Tehran, Feb.22: Over 500 people have reportedly died after an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter Scale hit several villages in south-eastern Iran.

News reports said that the epicentre of the quake was near Zarand in Iran's Kerman Province, which is about 740 km from Tehran. Iranian authorities claimed that up to 70 percent of the buildings in six villages around Zarand have been damaged or destroyed, and added that they expected the casualties to rise as inclement weather was preventing rescue operations.

So far, 196 bodies have been recovered from the quake-hit sites, reported the BBC and other international news agencies. About 5000 people have been admitted to hospitals for treatment.

About 30 villages in the province have also been affected by the earthquake. (ANI)

(link via American Samisdat)

Scroogle

no cookies, no search-term records, access log deleted after 7 days...

A public service of Google Watch

Scraping and ad-stripping Google's results

If done in the public interest and not for profit, it's legal.

What's more, Google can't block you if they can't find you.

Public Information Research, Inc., the nonprofit public charity behind www.google-watch.org and www.scroogle.org, has been running a Google proxy for more than two years. On January 3, 2005 we released the source code for our proxy. Our review of the legal situation has convinced us that we are covered by "fair use" under the Copyright Act.

This step that we have taken has implications for all search engines. These engines crawl the public web without asking permission, and cache and reproduce the content without asking permission, and then use this information as a carrier for ads that generate private profit. We are convinced that if citizens scrape Google and strip the ads, and make the scraped results available as a nonprofit public service, that this is legal. This is especially the case if there are public policy concerns behind the scraping.

Google Watch has been the most prominent critic of Google's outrageous privacy policies for more than two years. This is why we started the proxy, and it's why we continue the proxy. We invite Google to serve us with a cease and desist letter as a first step toward resolving this issue. So far, we have yet to hear from Google's lawyers. By releasing the source code for our proxy, we're trying to escalate the issue.

Fake Nuke Plant Photos from CNN

via SF Indymedia:

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty used Photo of same Nuke Plant
(presumably from Iran -- in a N. Korea Story in Early 2004)



Yesterday we reported that CNN's website was using photos of the same alleged nuclear facility in two different stories about two different nuclear programs in two different countries.

One CNN story, from last Wednesday, was on Iran's purported nuclear program; the other, from last Saturday, was on North Korea's purported nuclear program.

The satellite photos accompanying each respective story turned out to be the same facility despite captions below each photo claiming each represented an alleged facility in the respective countries discussed in each article.

Later in the day, after our report swept the net (topping out mid-afternoon at #6 on Technorati) CNN changed the photo in the North Korea article to a different satellite image of, apparently, a different facility purported -- as was the first one -- to be near Pyongyang, North Korea.

No explanation was given for the error beyond a statement by CNN, in a correction box, that "an image that was incorrectly identified..."

And now...thanks to some crack sleuthing by "EarlG", an administrator over at Democratic Underground, we've discovered yet another "news" outlet who used another photograph of that same facility -- which is apparently in Iran -- in yet another story on North Korean nukes!

The newly discovered story is from March of 2004 and found on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website!

RFE/RL is a U.S. government funded "news" organization broadcasting over Europe!

And to make matters even more troubling and/or confusing, the filename of the photo used in the RFE/RL story is "Iraq-nuclear.jpg"!

www.bradblog.com/archives/00001189.htm

Japanese Comickers

I cannot remember how I ended up borrowing it, but I recently browsed through somebody's copy of this amazing collection of contemporary Japanese comic illustrators' works called Japanese Comickers and made a list of a couple of the artists in it that really wowed me:

KAGE-YU



IPPEI GYOUBU

A Scanner Darkly (new trailer out)

Some time ago, last summer, I was chattin' with M.Ace of Irregular Orbit about the upcoming film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's book A Scanner Darkly and that it looked somewhat promising despite some of its cast members.

Seems the trailer for the film is just out now and having just watched it I can say it indeed looks appealing. Hope so anyway cuz the original story knocked my socks off back when I first read it. (Thanks for the link, M.Ace!)

View trailer (.mov)

WTBTN stirs up the noise pot...

I recently posted about the WTBTN project with a call for submissions over at the IHeartNoise forum via a suggestion by a woman noise artist I've been in touch with regarding the comp. The thread is fairly amusing.

Figures this sort of topic at a noise forum would indeed "ruffle a few feathers" and can't say I'm not pleased about that... Have a look.

Leggo the ego

Ego death is a change in one's sense of self-control.

The sense in which the ego 'exists'

How can that which has no true existence die? It is crude to say that "ego has no true existence". The definition or meaning of the term 'ego' is highly problematic. Whether ego "truly exists" or not totally depends on the assumed meaning of 'exist' and 'ego'.

Ego is some ways exists. Ego is some sense can die.

You've got to learn to think in terms of words as signifiers that can take on multiple meanings, referents, or sets of associations.

There is 'ego'(1) and 'ego'(2).

'Ego' in the term "ego death" means, say, 'ego'(1) but not 'ego'(2).

The senses or usages must be differentiated, and only then can the discussion make any progress.

What is it that ego-bashers bash? If there is no ego, as they claim, then why do they get so upset about ego? Ego is not simply nothing at all. The typical newage mode of discussing ego is extremely naive and clumsy and will never get anywhere.

The problem is not to promote ego, as in Ayn Rand's objectivism, or to condemn ego as evil, as in New Age, nor to deny the existence of ego, also as in New Age. The problem is to explain all the meanings, concepts, experiences, and usages of those things or patterns that can well be labelled 'ego'.

To declare ego flat-out nonexistent is to fail to explain anything. 'Ego death' refers to a specific, standard human experiential phenomenon.

link via Brain Orgasm

Weeee, this is a fun read...

Bush Strategy On Secret Tapes

February 20, 2005 (CBS/AP) Private conversations with George Bush secretly taped by an old friend before he was elected president foreshadow some of his political strategies and appear to reveal that he acknowledged using marijuana, The New York Times reports.

The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to George W. Bush's father, beginning in 1998, when Mr. Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000, the Times said in a story posted on its Web site.

The tapes show Mr. Bush crafting a strategy for navigating the tricky political waters between Christian conservative and secular voters, repeatedly worrying that evangelicals would be angered by a refusal to bash gays and that secular Americans would be turned off by meetings with evangelical leaders.

On one tape, Mr. Bush explains that he told one prominent evangelical that he would not "kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?" At another point, Wead says a conservative supporter told him Mr. Bush had pledged not to hire homosexuals. "No, what I said was, I wouldn't fire gays," Mr. Bush shot back.

Mr. Bush has some tough words for his Democratic rivals, calling Al Gore "pathologically a liar" and saying President Clinton had "disgraced the nation."

In early tapes, Mr. Bush dismisses the strength of John McCain for the nomination and expresses concern about rival Steve Forbes. He also praises John Ashcroft as a promising candidate for Supreme Court justice, attorney general or vice president.

Mr. Bush also criticizes then-Vice President Gore for admitting marijuana use and explains why he would not do the same.

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions," he said, according to the Times. "You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

At another point, Wead says that Mr. Bush had publicly denied using cocaine. "I haven't denied anything," Mr. Bush replied.

According to the article, Wead played 12 of the tapes to a Times reporter. He said he recorded them because he viewed Mr. Bush as a historic figure. He is the author of a new book on presidential childhoods.

The White House did not deny the authenticity of the tapes.

"The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, referring to Mr. Bush.

Photo of the day

via Silent Lucidity

Quote of the day (Alan Watts)

"A community of people which is always watching itself through its agents, so that... you know in a Nazi state, there are not only the normal policemen on the beat, but there’s a block captain for every area, and there’s some kind of a sneak or a traitor who is going to inform the authorities everywhere you see, hidden. So this community is watching itself all the time, because it is a community that doesn’t trust itself."

"If I say now my right hand is my main active hand, and... But I don’t know whether I can trust it; I don’t know what it’s going to do. So I’ve got to keep control on it with my left hand… [See?] So always the left hand is controlling the right hand. [Whatever...] If I want to pick something up, the left hand would have to push the right hand down, and squeeze the fingers together, and then lift it up so it will come up. See, I’ve lost a hand by doing that. So in the same way, when any community of people is founded on mutual mistrust, it sort of loses half of itself. It becomes clutched up. It becomes paralyzed and becomes unable to move."

Also: Alan Watts audio clips (realaudio) and transcriptions available at Deoxy.org

Fearing, Loathing and Dying...

I dunno, this is very sad to me.

DENVER - Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home, his son said. He was 67.

Got the news just now via Chapel Perilous.

I do realize that Thompson was pretty unhappy overall, but I didn't ever think he'd be the type to actually pull the trigger on himself.

McSlap!

Hot off the McSpotlight presses:

Victory for McLibel 2 against UK Government

Verdict of the European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg

Campaigners celebrate 20 years of growing protests against McWorld

This morning (15th February) the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg declared that the notorious and long running McLibel case was in breach of the right to a fair trial and right to freedom of expression. The McLibel 2 (Helen Steel, 39 & Dave Morris, 50) had launched legal proceedings against the UK government arguing that the marathon 'McLibel trial' which lasted 313 days - the longest trial of any kind in English legal history - and UK libel laws, breached the European Convention on Human Rights Article 6 (right to a fair trial) and Article 10 (right to freedom of expression).

The European Court ruled that UK laws had failed to protect the public’s right to criticise massive corporations whose business practices can affect people’s lives, health and the environment. MORE...

Tonite: KPFA 'No Other Radio' ::: LIVE at Midnite :::

Tune in at 11:59pm (PST) ::: RADIO: 94.1 FM / Berkeley CA
Tune in and listen kpfa.org (live internet stream)

:::: NO OTHER RADIO NETWORK ::::

MP3 Archives NOW AVAILABLE (in case you can't listen live)

Special Guests Tonite!

Eddie The Rat and Otis Fodder will perform a short live set over the airwaves, followed by selections from some of their latest releases and of course, the usual chit-chat will almost inevitably ensue...

dAS will be your host, and I will be there blowing pixiedust into all of the microphones in an effort to end all war on Earth.

Station call line: (510) 848-4425

Since 1981, No Other Radio Network has pioneered and provided a forum for underground, noise, electronic, industrial, psycho acoustic and many other genres of music, in addition to featuring live interviews and performance over the airwaves.

We welcome artists to send us their works.

Archived playlists from all ubuibi-hosted N.O.R. shows are available at ubuibi

Cheryl E. Leonard upcoming show 2/18

Friday February 18th, 8:00pm

ziran by Cheryl E. Leonard

Water, rocks, feathers, bones, pinecones, flowers, moss, roots and ice are cultivated as instruments in a collection of compositions inspired by Chinese wilderness poetry from the Tang Dynasty.

music performed by:

A.L. Dentel

Cheryl E. Leonard

& Patty Liu

with poetry read by Chun Yu

Albert Ortega will also be performing.

$6 - 10 sliding scale, no one turned away

Field Effects 22: Quiet Things
964 Natoma Street
South of Market between Mission & Harrison,10th & 11th Streets
near Civic Center BART
San Francisco, CA

bzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Can you hear the hummmm...?

LS Bumble Bee (mp3)

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore - from Not Only... But Also 1966 Christmas special.

Special thanks to my good pal Otis Fodder for turning me onto this little ditty which was obviously written about a certain "psychedelic" substance...

BCO to perform at GI Rights Benefit 2/27

GI Rights Hotline/CCCO Fundraiser
Big City Orchestra performance

Sunday February 27, 2005
Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street & 411 28th Street, Oakland, CA

On February 27th, The Oakland GI Rights Hotline/CCCO will be holding a benefit at Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, Oakland, from 3 to 6:30 p.m.

The program will present three decades of anti-war activism, from Vietnam to Iraq. A panel of Conscientious Objectors including David Harris, Vietnam era CO, Jeff Patterson, Gulf War I CO, and others to be announced will discuss war and their experiences as Conscientious Objectors. The panel will be moderated by Steven Morse, CO, Veteran, Coordinator, GI Rights Hotline. Well known Independent Journalist Dahr Jamail, filmmaker Mark Manning, Nadia McCaffery, military mom, and others will report on their recent trip to Iraq.

GI Rights counselors will be available to answer questions on the draft and military service. Highlights include live music with Annie and the Vets, performance artist Aryeh Shell, Big City Orchestra and an Auction for Peace of Anti-War memorabilia.

Light refreshments will be served.
Donations are requested, on a sliding scale beginning with $5.00.

WTBTN artist profile: Wisteriax

Here's another woman whose work will be on my Women Take Back the Noise CD compilation. Her website includes some lovely photos (such as the one above) and a link to some of her mp3's, however all of the tracks on the compilation will be previously unreleased ones, so you'll just have to wait to hear what she sent me ;)

Wisteriax

BIOGRAPHY

I've played the cello since I was a little girl, though any of my former teachers will attest that I never studied very seriously.

At some point in my college career, I wanted to join a rock band. But the only instrument I really knew how to play was cello.

I soon joined forces with my first band, a dark synthpop group who did minor key versions of early 80's tunes. I learned about how to amplify the cello to make it audible above the other instruments. But I wasn't satisfied with that after awhile.

I started borrowing guitar effects pedals to see how they would change the cello's sound. Some worked very well, and others didn't. I found that the more I could mutate the sound, the happier I was. When I wasn't in the studio with my other bands, I soon began to record myself playing noise patterns on cello using outlandish sounds.

Now that there's so much music editing software available, I've decided to take those recordings and make cohesive songs out of them. I also enjoy contributing sounds to other artists for their recording and performance projects.

Digging the alien...

The Laughing Gnostic: David Bowie and the Occult

via The Blind Spot

Mask-on (or mask-off, you decide...)

Let's dip our toes into the slippery realms of the weirdness of the whirrled for a moment, shall we?

Here we have an interesting place to begin. I warned you of the prevailing 'mask' theme, did I not?

In we go...

The fine "art" of crossdressing with a focus on latex masks.

A "Way Station" on the outer limits of the World Wide Web for travelers with a fascination for Female Rubber Masks.

"Behind my mask I am not me but a new personality... much more exciting... Latex smoothes your face... you are drawn inwards..."

But wait-wait! There's more.

Yes folks, your visit would not be complete without the experience of Kerry's Kostume Komic!

Mexican masks

Clown Mask, Veracruz

This payaso from Naolinco is of a 19th century European "auguste" style, but jesters and clowns have existed in the pre-Hispanic Americas and most parts of the world since ancient times. With enhanced freedoms of expression and relative immunity from reprisals, the clown can be a de facto spokesperson for the collective conscience, using parody and acerbic humor to ridicule authority or even shame the benefactors they serve. Their function is thus more profound than merely causing us to laugh...

My daddy-o found this nice little collection of Mexican masks to explore. Something about the eyes on some of these, though, makes my hair stand a bit on end, but they're really very cool. Check out more of 'em here.

Hey, I think I sense another theme coming on...

Woof-woof... (mrreow?)

Found this via a rumour that Bill Gates (seen in the pics above) had posed for Tiger Beat magazine (as if!). However, this updated info from Gizmodo sez not-so:

[Those] are not from Tiger Beat. According to snopes.com, these images are actually publicity photos taken of the then 30-year-old Bill Gates coincident with the initial release of Microsoft Windows in 1985. The Corbis photo archive identifies their depiction thusly: "Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, reclines on his desk in his office soon after the release of Windows 1.0. 1985 Bellevue, Washington, USA."...

Oh sigh of relief. Not from Tiger Beat-- well, jeeebus I sure feel better now, don't you? Make it go away please... please.

Women Take Back the Noise

Over the next few weeks I will be posting material and other infos about women from all around the whirrled, whose musics are featured in my soon-to-be-released cd compilation,

Women Take Back the Noise

In brief, the project began a little over a year ago and it's becoming quite an amusing little collection/obsession. Quite the vivid array of creativity and soundscapes represented here-- I speak of the sound that emanates specifically from womenkind, and to me, even though "we are all one" there is something uniquely different between women and men and how they create 'noise', how they listen to sound, record it, create with it, etc, and I felt the need to showcase this side of it somehow.

The show is about to begin, enjoy the ride...


FACTOID: The weight of a woman's heart is 10-15% less than that of man of the same bodyweight and height. The smaller size of the woman's heart stands for the smaller number of heartbeats. That is why the larger minute capacity is achieved through the higher frequency of contractions.

Nevertheless, studies have shown that the female blood-minute capacity is lower than that of men. There is an essential difference between the functional indices of the cardiovascular systems of men and women at a rest.

Research results show that these differences are most obviously manifested in the speed and weight loads when the woman's body reaction is expressed mainly through the pulse frequency, while men's contractions are slower but more powerful.

Similar differences are noticed in the recuperation period, especially if the loading implies higher strain for a longer time...

Gydja: Liber Babalon

Gydja's music is divinely-inspired, ambient and mysterious. I discovered a link to her website a couple of years ago while searching for themes based on "dark" goddess imagery/ideas and musics and was immediately entranced by both her choice of subject matter and uniquely creative sound-weavings.

About Gydja:

Gydja, an Old Norse word for "priestess", was adopted as a musical name by Abby Helasdottir in 1995, with the aim of creating music that could be used for magickal and shamanic purposes. Some of the earliest ideas involved using field recordings, and basing whole pieces on these sounds in a largely unprocessed way. This is still a concern of Gydja, but with more emphasis now being placed on abstracting these sounds so that, whilst they retain a sense of their original source, they become something else entirely. MORE...

Liber Babalon is a double-CD release of ritual dark ambient by Gydja, pressed on black cdrs and limited to 156 copies. While most works by Gydja are conceived well in advance of their execution, this was not the case with Liber Babalon. The seed for this release came whilst working on the Clothed in Shadow series: a collection of eight songs, with eight accompanying films, considering eight different dark goddesses. The Clothed in Shadow track for Babalon incorporated a reading of the Gnostic text, Thunder, Perfect Mind, and during the processing of this reading, a second Babalon track emerged, based solely on the sound of the manipulated vocals. This track became alphaOmega: A Drone for the Throne of Babalon, the conclusion to Liber Babalon.

The process was repeated with several other tracks, basing entire pieces on sounds sourced from readings of the Birth of Babalon poem by Jack Parsons, Waratah Blossoms from Aleister Crowley's Book of Lies, and several other Babalon-related texts. MORE...

Kubrick 2001: a space odyssey explained

"...Humans are just maintenance men at the end of their evolution."

Comments switch-a-roonie

Hey, whattaya know. I'm actually posting something here. Well, it's not really that much of a 'something', but it's at least an excuse to post if nothing else (hehe). I promise I will be posting more here soon as I have a little more time, but for now, here's a little bit 'o news:

So, you know those lovely comments that Olivia from Yummy Wakame made for me? Well, they involve PHP and every time someone comments they end up in individual text files on my server, which is both sorta messy and takes up room. Livvy just wrote me that Blogger now has upgraded their comments feature, so now you can now post as a Blogger, or Anonymous, or specify name + webpage. This means my current comments feature is going to go away and I'll be a-switchin' it soon (or actually, Livvy will be switchin' it for me).

The changes will prolly happen next week sometime and unfortunately, as with before when we changed the comment thingie, all of the recent comments will go *poof* bye-bye, but then again, nothing lasts forever...

Pinching from the penny pot (again)

J-Walk Blog grabbed a byte from Bush's Social Security issue speech (as captured word-for-word by Slate) and I just had to re-blog it here just for the sheer novelty of hearing how Chimpy-nese sounds in my head:

"Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those-changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."

Filthy Little Beast

New art is up on the front entrance to the BCO webhole.

This one features an original illustration of Mnsr. Burroughs by our good friend and world-famous illustrator and comic book artist Mike Dringenberg, along with some breathtakingly beautiful backgrounds by UB. There are a few amusing hotspots to toy with as well. Make sure sound is on. Have fun.

Apothekerri

Bath & body magics for your "temple"

I'd like to just take a minute or two here at Olla to plug my good friend Kerri's brand-new line of handmade organic bath and bodycare products. Drop by and visit the brand-new website (designed by moi) and check out the goods. I've been completely addicted to all of the yummy things she makes for years and years and am so happy she is now offering them for sale.

If you enjoy pampering yourself by taking nice long, luxurious baths and using all-natural, wonderful smelling products that make your skin glow and your bod smell divine you're going to love these products. I am only pushing them out of my love for my friend and her beautiful talents in creating these lovelies-- I do not get a percentage, commission or any payment whatsoever for this little commercial spot.

Even if you don't have a bathtub, she's created a special salt-scrub blended with essential oils and herbs that you can use in the shower (they're called Water Dragons and are among my favorite of her line). Go check out Apothekerri Products. Tell her the pixie sent ya.

The Abolition of Work (by Bob Black)

No one should ever work.

Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost all the evil you'd care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working.

Some of you are probably familiar with this one but to me it was worth reading again.

Thank you Livvy, for posting this. It's been so very long since I read my first copy of this back in the days when my ex and I ran our own bookshop back in the '80s and had copies of these for sale along with various other odd zines of that era (remember Reality Hackers?)

via Yummy Wakame

Clean enough for ya?

Lick-lick-lick...

Oh, and for added amusement, make sure your sound is on.

via Yummy Wakame

The Icelandic Phallological Museum

A museum for petrified whale, bear and seal penises (among others). Whacky.

The Icelandic Phallological Museum is probably the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country.

Phallology is an ancient science which, until recent years, has received very little attention in Iceland, except as a borderline field of study in other academic disciplines such as history, art, psychology, literature and other artistic fields like music and ballet. MORE...

Thanks to Daddy-o for digging this one up-- what a trip...

Little mermaid

Peru's Rare 'Mermaid' Baby to Have Risky Surgery

A Peruvian baby dubbed the "Little Mermaid" because she was born with a rare condition in which her legs are fused, will have surgery this month to try to separate them, doctors said.

Nine-month-old Milagros Cerron -- her name means miracles in Spanish -- is one of only a handful of the estimated 1-in-60,000 to 100,000 people born with sirenomelia, or mermaid syndrome, to have lived more than a few hours, experts say.

For Luis Rubio, the doctor leading the Peruvian team that will cut her legs apart in Lima on Feb. 24, the past year has been a crash course in tackling a condition he had read about in textbooks but never expected to have to treat.

Doctors believe there may only be one other surviving "mermaid" -- 16-year-old American Tiffany Yorks, whose legs were separated when she was a few months old.

Experts say sirenomelia is about as rare as conjoined twins but is nearly always fatal because most sufferers lack kidneys or have other complications. MORE...

photo and link via bTang reBlog

wheee big add-ons to bco's webhole

news from the land of UB...

hiho all

more updating of the bigg city orchestraa site

including:

a whole year of streaming radio shows
http://ubuibi.org/radio_archives.html

an awfull lot of photo holes broken into themes like cassette art, and flyers
http://ubuibi.org/archives.html


and smirky is gone (we wish!), except for 3 tracks
http://ubuibi.org/evil.html

soooooooooooooooo
enjoy

Work schmirk...

Hello, Boss?

Yeah, it's me.

Listen, I can't come into work today.

What's that? No, I'm not sick. I've been abducted by aliens.

No, I'm not joking.

I haven't actually gone off with them yet, that's why I'm calling.

See, I actually contacted them a few days ago to tell them I was ready to get out of here for a while, and now they've arrived and want to take me with them for a joyride around Earth's orbit and then maybe for a quick lightspeed jump to have some espresso and cake on their planet. I've really wanted to meet them for a long time-- what's that?

Vacation time? Are you serious?

You guys would actually pay me while I'm hanging out with aliens having cake and espresso and flying around the galaxy?

I knew there was a reason I liked working here...

Book of Bunny Suicides

Harry sent this one via some comments the other day and I've just had a peek at it, oh my...

See for yourself (bunny-lovers, don't cry now!)

Keep sending in linkees if you guys can. I'm still too swamped at the dayjob to even think about surfing and definitely way to burnt in the evenings to attempt staring at a screen after doing so for 8 solid hours.

However, on a more 'up' note, I was just approved for a three month leave of absence from work, so hopefully I'll be back in my groove very soon, plus will have time to focus my attention on finishing up production on my cd compilation project (details coming soon!).

Olla Fo' Sho' Podrida

Ha! This is really fun, try Gizoogle and see what comes up.

This is what came up for me when I searched 'ollapodrida':

Olla Fo' Sho' Podrida
this is tha olla podrida atrium there is only one pizzy available at this time now pass the glock Anotha dogg house production.: olla podrida (blog) (in tha near future, this atrium wizzill expand...).

hehehe... "only one pizzy available" ! I'm gonna have to use that one sometime when I'm talking on the phone at work. "I'm sorry sir, there's only one pizzy available at this time..."

Thanks go to Jon B for making my morning with this one!