Chernobyl cracking up...

"The concrete sarcaphogus which is supposed to stop the guts of Chernobyl from forming a giant column of radioactive garbage seems likely to collapse. Built to last fifty years, it will have to be rebuilt next year anyway. Observers have seen the "luminescence" inside the core, visible at night when rain drips through the cracks."

Read the entire article

via Barista

The Modern Word

Apologies for the couple days of silence here at Olla. I've been caught up in a bit of a reading marathon lately (offline, that is). At the moment am very much enjoying this book about the Cockettes called Midnight at the Palace by Pam (Sweet Pam) Tent, who I met last year at one of the local Cockettes' homes for their reunion soirée. This book is infiltrating my dreams so much that I found myself involved in a very complex dance routine with some of them the other night and woke up extremely giddy. I'm quite sure that if I were around back in that era I would have found myself involved with the Cockettes in some way but I am very glad that I have been able to meet at least a few of them in my own time, and even better that Pam wrote this book documenting the whole enchilada, which is quite tasty and decadent to indulge in-- I highly recommend it.

It's been lovely-quiet around here since the TV's been off and I'm enjoying it and taking time off from blogging as well. I'll be back with more stuff here soon, but in the meantime, I hope you all have a very excellent May Day and are enjoying the beauty around you.

Here's a little something to dive into that may be of interest to some of you, speaking of books:

The heart of The Modern Word is the Omphalos, the center of the web where all umbilical chords resolve. Keystone of the Delphic Oracle, this page is the middle sea of the keyboard, where all the shifts and bouts of your naval farce can return and find safe re-harbor...

The Bluggcaster

So, you want to listen to podcasts on the web? Now? OK!



These folks are obviously having way too much fun with technology, but what the heck, everyone can be on the radio these days with podcasts. Check out their latest Bluggcast (mp3) and while you're at it, check out the podbat
for podcasters and podcatchers anywhere... and the podbat blog.

As seen on the Flashforward blog

Toss a pit, get a tree

Earlier this year, we discovered a tree had taken root in our backyard in the same spot where we have tossed our fruit and veggie matter to compost in the soil year after year. After several months we noticed little fuzzy fruits on it and couldn't quite figure out if it was avocado or something else until just recently after the massive rainy season ended and one day, boom! There were about 30 or more little fuzzy peaches growing.

Here's a shot of a few of them last week.



There are even more now. I've never done a thing to this tree except water it and stare in amazement at how Nature took its course. Yesterday I felt a bit motherly toward it and took off a bit of the lower branches which were drying out and pulling the tree down. I could almost hear a faint "ahhhh, thanks that feels better..." just after I finished and gave it a good watering.

Trees are some of my favorite beings on this planet.

Prowlies at the River

A short tale about a kurmudgeonly forest creature named Bitey, who goes for a little stroll to the river for some adventure with a few of the nearby occupants (called Prowlies) and gets a little more than he bargains for...

VIEW SHORT (Flash and HTML versions)

Winner of the SF 2005 Flashforward Festival (Cartoon category)

More about Adam Phillips the artist:

Adam Phillips has been working in traditional 2D animation for Disney since early 1993, with eight of those years spent in special effects. With all his free time, he writes and animates short stories for his personal website and online gallery, www.biteycastle.com.

Most recently, Adam convinced US band, Ween, to let him animate the video for their single "Transdermal Celebration" (watch video here).

What me, worry?

The Web Fire Escape is a simple device which has been designed to allow readers of weblogs to instantly replace a Web Fire Escape equipped blog with an alternate work-safe site or a fake word processor or spreadsheet application.

Ummmmmm....

Here's my little snit about ideas like the one above, indulge me for a moment. While I do get the reasoning behind designing something like this to help the average worker (who just so happens to be addicted to blogging) get through their day, it really doesn't get to the heart of the actual "problem", now does it?

Get a grip, people.

All work and no play makes you hate your job.

People gotta feel good while they're at work, too. If your job environment looks like the photo above, with people looking over your shoulder with threatening, smirky, tattle-tale expressions on their faces, maybe you should think about some alternatives:

a) Find a new job, one that allows for periodic creativity breaks so you can actually act more human than robot and in the long run be a more productive (and happy!) employee. These jobs exist, really they do, and I'm not talking about working at Starbucks, although I did see through the window of the one down the street from my house that they've now got a couple of computers for using the internet-- hey, anything's possible, it's all I'm sayin' here.

OR

b) Control your blogging habits and get yourself into a routine where you establish breaks throughout the day (I call them "creativity breaks") for a few minutes at a time (15 minutes at intervals throughout an 8-hour day works pretty well). If you have a very strict supervisor to deal with, establish the breaks with them out in the open so they know what you are doing -- after all, cigarette smokers take periodic breaks throughout the day and that is an addiction/compulsion (like blogging!)-- so once again, just get a grip. You seriously don't need to use something silly like this fire-escape MISH-e-goss.

And all you cranky bosses out there who spend most of your day snooping around looking for employees who are surfing the 'net for half the day. Get a life, will ya? You aren't really going to make things better by firing people just because they choose to inject their everyday work routines with some fun every once and a while. You let the cigarette smokers out for breaks don't ya? How do you think they can get through the day without it? Live in the modern world already. Those of us who blog, it's becoming a part of us like the oxygen we breathe (sad but true). The internet is pretty much here to stay until, by some act of Zod or Hera or Eris Herself, the plug gets pulled (if we're lucky!)

Florida Police Handcuff 5-Year-Old

Fucking unbelievable. My throat is raw from the gutwrenching scream that just ripped through after watching this video. Humanity truly is going down the flusher and this is a prime example of why...

Video Shows Police Handcuffing 5-Year-Old

A family is threatening a lawsuit after a videotape showed police handcuffing a 5-year-old girl in Florida.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A 5-year-old girl was handcuffed by police after she tore papers off a bulletin board and punched an assistant principal in kindergarten class, according to a video released by a lawyer for the child's mother.

The 30-minute tape shows the child appearing to calm down before three officers pinned her arms behind her back and put on handcuffs as she screamed, "No!" After being placed in the back of a police cruiser, the girl was released to her mother.

The camera was rolling March 14 as part of a classroom self-improvement exercise at Fairmount Park Elementary, attorney John Trevena said.

Trevena, who provided the tape to the media this week, said he got it from police.

"The image itself will be seared into people's minds when you have three police officers bending a child over a table and forcibly handcuffing her," said Trevena, who represents the girl's mother, Inga Akins.

Police spokesman Bill Proffitt said an investigation into the matter would be complete in about two weeks and the findings would be made public.

info culled from I Blame The Patriarchy (an excellent blog that I've been enjoying recently...)

Vodafone

Part of me sort of wants this kind of future tech and the other half of me can't run away fast enough. Sort of like how I feel about things like moblogging and cell-phones, which IMHO only seem to make humans act more idiotic and less-appealing overall, culturally speaking (please don't hate me for having an opinion!) However, I can't quite avoid becoming mystified by these concepts and the promise of shiny new gadgets-to-come...

FUTURE VISION



The future is unfolding around us. Over the next decade we will be able to see all sorts of differences that we can barely imagine today.

In the Vodafone Future Vision Website you can explore what we think that future might look like, experience some of the changes we believe will happen, and tell us what you think of them.

Vodafone is working hard to mobilize tomorrow's world, but we need your input. You are our partners in innovation, helping to shape a future that offers the mobile services we want, and brings us closer to the people we care about, wherever they are in the world.

Together we can build a future that turns this vision into reality.

EXPLORE THE FUTURE

Also of interest:

Vodafone's receiver magazine
a neutral space where pioneer thinkers challenge you to discuss exciting and future-oriented aspects of communications technologies.

VIEW GALLERY

Tuvan music meets Western rock

YAT-KHA is from TUVA, South Siberia, Russian Federation, and they have just released a brand-new album called "Re-Covers" with some tracks (mp3s) available at their website.



Here are the track titles:

When The Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin)
Man Machine (Kraftwerk)
Ramblin Man (Hank Williams)
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly)
Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division)
Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles (Captain Beefheart)
A Song About A Giraffe (Vladimir Vysotskiy)
Orgasmatron (Motorhead)
Will You Go, Lassie, Go? ( Mc Peake Family )
Toccata (Paul Mauriat)
Black Magic Woman (Carlos Santana version)
Exodus (Bob Marley)
PlayWith Fire (Rolling Stones)
The Song of Mergen (Alexei Tchyrgal-ool)

Listen to Love Will Tear Us Apart

I think this might very well be my favorite version of this song yet.

More mp3's and video can be found over here.

More background info on Yat-Kha

Yat-Kha are without doubt one of the more remarkable musical groups to emerge, not just from Asia but from the whole world. Their ability to merge and develop their traditions within modernity in a way that never finds itself swamped by western clichés is a marvel to behold. Add to that a wicked sense of humor, stunning musicianship and a quiet passion for life and you have a world music group in the most true sense. (Concerted Efforts, 2002)

Big City Orchestre LIVE on KFJC 4/23

Every conscientous objector fights for freedom! Tune in as Big City Orchestra plays George M. Cohan. Hosted by Nozmo King.

SATURDAY, APRIL 23 4:00-6:00PM (PST)

Tune in via the KFJC netcast or if you're able, on the radio dial at 89.7FM

How'd They Do That?

Transparent laptop screens! (WATCH VIDEO)

Is this for real?

via Blog Television

The Chameleon

This uniquely-talented artist has created a remarkable range of characters using his body as his palette. Be sure to read the commentaries along the way, which are equally as wonderful, enjoy!



Chameleon's Cabinet contains a series of self-portraits, companion images, and word-reflections generated by its creator. This repository of pixillated personages represents the multiple selves dwelling within one individual. It is presented with the conviction that contacting and manifesting our beings-within can be a source of power and insight.

ENTER GALLERY

Cosey Fanni Tutti upcoming Holland exhibit

A new exhibition by Cosey Fanni Tutti will be at the VAN ABBE MUSEUM library, Eindhoven, Holland from 7th May to 21st August.

More details are available at: www.vanabbemuseum.nl

Cosey Fanni Tutti
8 May - 21 August
VAN ABBE MUSEUM LIBRARY

Cosey Fanni Tutti (Hull, 1951) became known for her participation in performances by COUM Transmissions and the British electronic avant garde band Throbbing Gristle. Since 1973 she has also carried out her own individual activities, like exploring female nudity within the context of pornographic magazines and films, the model world and striptease. ‘In the Vitrines’ shows her involvement with Fluxus and Mail Art projects. Since the nineteen seventies she also produced publications and collected brochures of herself in which she appears as cover girl. Various viewpoints on the female image – porn queen or Madonna, model or artist, self-portrait or artificially staged – come to the fore here. At the same time she challenges the shaky balance between puritanical morality and artistic freedom. Important to her line of reasoning are the diverse contexts in which her work functions which create shifts in its meaning. Her works are deliberate actions that rest on the fact that women and women artists are in charge of visualising their own image, or as Carolee Schneemann wrote: "I was permitted to be an image/but not an image maker creating her own self image".

Spoilt Victorian Child (mp3 blog)

Some great choices here if you're looking for more cool stuff to listen to online. These folks write some nice little reviews of the stuff they post along with linkees and other such fun. Grab'em quickly because they take all mp3s down after a few days.

... and I just love the name of the blog!

This week's assortment includes some very tasty tracks from Joy Division and several bands doing tributes to Joy Division (including Xiu Xiu, Galaxie 500 and Psychic TV)

Check out this cover version of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Squarepusher

No Other Radio audio archives (4/19)

*UPDATED TO ADD PHOTOS*



NOR host dAS + special guest Dark Muse (live 45-minute studio performance)

Check out the archived audio from the show (4/19/05)

http://157.22.130.4/data/20050420-Wed0000.mp3

Playlist is available at the No Other Radio blog

I'll post a few photos that I took of her performance shortly...

Peter Murphy Unshattered US Tour begins

AND BAUHAUS REUNION TOUR!

SF Folks! Peter will be playing the Fillmore on May 24th
Tickets go on sale Sun 4/24/05 10:00AM!

UNSHATTERED TOUR DATES FOR U.S.A.
=================================

MAY

12 Lake Buena Vista FL - House of Blues
13 Atlanta GA - The Masquerade
15 Washington DC - 9.30 Club
16 New York NY - B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill
17 Cleveland OH - Odeon Concert Club
18 Chicago IL - Metro
20 Denver CO - Ogden Theatre
22 Portland OR - Roseland Theatre
23 Seattle WA - The Showbox
24 San Francisco CA - The Fillmore
26 San Diego CA - House of Blues
27 Los Angeles CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
28 Anaheim CA - House of Blues

==================================

Bauhaus Official website (news about 2005 reunion tour)

All we have now is the essence of Stars,
The Dust has been dispensed
and the Desert nights will tell you their secret only if they want to.

Coachella - April 30th, 2005

Pollstar: Voice of Bauhaus (Apr 18 2005)

Peter interviewed in Rolling Stone (Apr 13, 2005)

Official Peter Murphy website

Metaversal Forecast 4/18-4/24

Apologies for just getting to this post, but here is the latest report from Johannes Ayres...

THE METAVERSAL LIGHTCRAFT
HYPER-ABYSSIC ASTROLOGY FORECAST
AND LIGHT SPECIFIC YOGA PLATFORM

THIS WEEK IN THE METAVERSE:

MONDAY APRIL 18
The Moon is in energetic, confident Leo but it is the Wounded Healer Chiron, freshly into Aquarius, that is the focus today. Early this morning, Venus in Taurus squares it to set up a power struggle between the old and the new. The light-specific flightdeck is stacked in favor of Chiron's push to disrupt the status quo with erochaos brand spin donuts. (Make art from the heart that can blow closed minds apart) Fixed squares show a push for creative change, along with great resistance to change. Consequently, it seems, the degree of inventiveness to which we're forced to ascend may be match only by the level of underworld old growth to which we've manage to slide into. Or (k)not.

TUESDAY, APRIL 19
The seasonal move of Sun into Taurus (until May 20) marks the
phase of the year when we begin to see accelerated growth, hopefully with more pasture, less bullshit. The waxing Moon moves into Virgo early this morning transmitting the ever efficient detail oriented efferviesance we have come to count on, and our sacred relationship to Gaia is high-luxed. Taurus explores beauty, intimacy and pleasure, savoring and enjoying each peach within it's reach. Virgo Moon (speech, speech!) and Taurus Sun (don't run) encourages us to honor our sacred relationship with dirt. Stand and salute any copulating cattle you see this day.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20
The Moon continues its journey through Virgo today further energizing the sacred patterning of life on the level of underworld old growth to which we've manage to slide into. The Earth Hare, Uri, is like a unique rabbit in our solar system, having just one Moon and one golden Sun, and a smile means friendship to everyone, with each seasonal cycle, ruled by Gabe, Ralph and Michael and the Solstices and Equinoxes. The Metaverse has its own unique rabbit rhythm as it moves through our headspace, and let me tell ya, they is us. The more we connect with this pattern the more connected we are to our small world after all. Dig?

THURSDAY, APRIL 21
The waxing Moon enters Libra this afternoon at the ol' Fulcrum. Justice raptured by Truth synergizing the harliquinesque relationship thang. Relationships are us. More about ourselves through the the level of interaction and reflection of others relationship to the level which we manage to value today. This includes our relationship to the collective level to which we've manage to slide into, that underlie this worldly experience. Gaining greater relationship helps liberate from limit-binding no serve. We are revolving relationcraft paradigms based on the whole other. As we approach tomorrow, contemplate equal partnership with other.

FRIDAY APRIL 22, Earth Day
The Moon occults Jupiter (11 Libra) at 10:06 am The Moon carries all that is known of these harliquinesque relationship thangs today. Relationships are still us. More about ourselves through Jupiter expanding this knowing, it's a power time where you will be finding genuine Metaversal H.E.R. (Hedonistic Engineering Research) helpful. A more evolved Metaversal expression of waves, the tides, and gravity, we will finally harness the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, humanity discovers a fine garden and lets it unfold into its new season, to copulate delicately amongst a squadron of tiny black badgers down at the grain elevators.

This is a good metaphor for wolf-children adopted by the mayor who have the key to the city but we've already picked the lock so we sell it to a posse of renegade urban planners experimenting with the geomantic cultivation of organic concrete. Ultimately you could get two staircases coming through the pipe, like eggs tumbling from chicken chutes into the pond below. Its helpful to recognize the difference.

SATURNSDAY, APRIL 23
Venus (10 Taurus) sextiles Uranus (10 Pisces) today and then Venus will move on to square Neptune (17 Aquarius) on Apr 29. The ever-changing love goddess is encountering the ever-changing revolutionary innovative, freedom loving Uranian expression of divine love. Are we in a break down to break through mode and if so how can we fully love ourselves while still embracing the tiny black badgers down at the grain elevator?

SUNDAY, APRIL 24
Now it's the Moon's turn to be eclipsed. As the Moon moves through the shadow of the Earth, we experience the Queen of the Night, sans her reflection of the Sun's light, experimenting with the geomantic cultivation of what we call moonlight, (actually it travels 93 million miles from the Sun and is then transmogrifed another 250,000 miles from the Moon to the Earth). During a lunar eclipse, we experience the yin, receptive energy of the Moon most directly, our yang left clanging in the diminishing din. The less attentive feelings and needs appear to be mirrors that our emotional truths reflect. Lunar tides commune with us, and what has been allocated to the shadows comes to light. With the Sun in Taurus, the spotlight is on our rapport with our body, our possessions, our requirements for security, and our need for pleasure.

Taurus, as the first earth sign, draws our attention to the privilege and pleasure of being in a body. The Moon in Scorpio reminds us that everything changes, everything passes, everything evolves. Like its ruling planet, Pluto, Scorpio takes us sliding into the Underworld, and into the hidden sides of human nature. As the Moon illuminates the darker corners of our psyche, it's harder to hide what we feel from others and, more importantly, from ourselves. This eclipse highlights our deepest desires and our deepest fears. Where the Sun at 4° Taurus falls in your natal chart is the area of your life most ripe for greater love and beauty; the Moon at 4° Scorpio reveals the area where you are culling and creating space for something new. If Uri, the Earth Hare, could grant you one wish, what would it be? Sometimes we have to dive in, to see the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

The Sabian symbols for the Sun at 5° Taurus:
"A widow at an open grave; the impermanence of all material and social bonds." And for the Moon at 5° Scorpio: "A massive rocky shore resists the pounding of the sea; the inertia of all institutionalized procedures."

Tonite: KPFA 'No Other Radio'

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 Guest:

Bay-area experimental vocalist and ambient sound alchemiste Dark Muse will be joining us to perform a live set in the KPFA studios along with interview and spotlight on her releases and other works.

Dark Muse, a solo project by Phyll Smith, has subtle and macabre vocals. The synth work is lovely. Long, drawn out, progressive dark ambient, utilizing panning and echo effects that blend wonderfully with her soft cries. The haunting ambience is gradual and minimalistic, but extremely creative. Smith uses a guitar, a line 6-modeler, a Russian string piano, bells, nails, coils, screws, water and bowed cymbals, among other things to produce her sound. (Comatose Magazine, 2002)

dAS will be your host, and I will be there riding shotgun in my usual spot.

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

Terry Gilliam: Two New Films for 2005

The Brothers Grimm
(expected release, July 2005 - no trailer out yet)

A dark fantasy about the two "Brothers Grimm" (Ledger and Damon) who travel around the Napoleonic countryside vanquishing fake monsters and demons in exchange for cash.

When the French government figures out what they're up to, they force the brothers to deal with the real thing -- a number of murders being committed under mysterious circumstances in the northern woods between Germany and France. It is there that they have to try and discover what's really happening and deal with it before more people are killed or their lack of success leads to the guillotine.

Starring:
Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Jonathan Pryce, Monica Bellucci, Lena Headey, Peter Stormare, Mackenzie Cook, Richard Ridings

More Brothers Grimm photos from the set

Tideland
(expected release, sometime in 2005 - no trailer out yet)

In the great tradition of child fantasy stories such as The Wizard of Oz and Alice and Wonderland, Terry Gilliam takes us on a wild adventure with his adaptation of Mitch Cullin's cult classic novel.

After her mother dies from a heroin overdose, Jeliza-Rose is taken from the big city to a rural farmhouse by her father. As she tries to settle into a new life in her mother's childhood home, Jeliza-Rose's attempts to deal with what's happened result in increasingly odd behavior, as she begins to communicate mainly with her bodiless Barbie doll heads and Dell, a neighborhood woman who always wears a beekeeper's veil.

Starring:
Jodelle Ferland, Aldon Adair, Wendy Anderson, Jeff Bridges, Sally Crooks, Brendan Fletcher, Janet McTeer, Dylan Taylor, Jennifer Tilly

Jeff Bridges' Tideland photos

via Dreams: The Terry Gilliam Fanzine

Essays by A.S. Byatt

A.S. Byatt speaks on myths, legends and fairytales and how it has affected and influenced her own stories...

Fairy Stories: The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye

Making up worlds is as natural and as necessary to human beings as breathing and sleeping...

My own fairy stories are written primarily for the pleasure of entering that other world, a world of imaginary apples and forest paths, greener and darker than any encountered in everyday life, a world of powerful beasts and satisfactory endings. But they are modern literary stories and they do play quite consciously with a postmodern creation and recreation of old forms.

More essays by A.S. Byatt

"Hi, I'm ah...hello?"

"They call me One-Take Georgie..."



dNeXT is a next generation public affairs news & opinion web site - democracy in 60 seconds or less. At a time of ever-expanding, text-driven political sites, dNeXT.com was launched in 2005, as the world's first portal to short, intriguing and entertaining "viditorials" (video editorials). The primary content on dNeXT.com consists of issue-focused, opinion & parody content created by both staff and outside contributors.

via enschede a/zee (found at Yummy Wakame)

Smackin' Annie around

While several of us still ponder whether Ann Coulter's adam's apple proves that she is really a man or not, we have no doubts over whether she is a moronic idiot:

Watch the 3-minute clip from CBS's program The Fifth Estate

Sunday in the park (with BCO)

Very exhausted from our little performance in Union Square Park this afternoon, but it went very well. I had to just jot out a few kudos here while I am still lucid enough to do so:

Jesse, you sang the Leonard Cohen piece like a dream. Melissa, we missed you there but looking forward to your presence at the upcoming KFJC show this Saturday (hope you're having a great time in Maui, by the way!) Rob, we'll see you at the radio show, thanks for being there today, too. Peter, thanks for showing up with your camera and taking lots of interesting photos and video (can't wait to see those, especially the ones that you shot while blindfolded spinning around on the stage!)

dAS, Otis, wonderful job with supplying all of the beats, sounds and cues, not an easy task with this set, yeeeeep. Next time I promise I'll be a good little BCO player and bring a music stand so my sheet music doesn't go flying around in the wind *blush*. What was I thinking trying to weight it down with clothespins! Aye, I tell ya, you can't take me anywhere.

I'm still hearing the chorus to "Fixing A Hole" as I type this and "Theme to A Summer's Place" will probably haunt me in my sleep, but all-in-all, what a memorable experience today was. Maybe dAS might even let me rip an mp3 of one of the pieces to put up here for folks to listen to, wouldn't that be sweet! As soon as I get pics I'll post'em here.

If anyone's able to tune in this-coming Saturday, April 23rd, we'll be doing an extended version of this same set on the air at KFJC, simulcast via the 'net at kfjc.org from 3:00-6:00pm (PST)

Current TV, Big Brother and YOU

I'm sure many of you know already about Al Gore's up-and-coming "indy" media network (formerly INdTV) Current TV. If you don't now, you will soon. It'll be lurching onto your cable channels and seeping its way around the 'net in a matter of months (it's actually already begun).

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

Couldn't help it, we had to look.

For starters:

Mr. Gore's Neighborhood

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE ONCE CLAIMED
absurdly, that he invented the Internet.

On April 4 the defeated 2000 Democratic presidential candidate announced that he is re-inventing television with "Current TV," a new youth-oriented satellite channel scheduled to commence full operation on August 1st.

"We have no intention of being a Democratic channel, a liberal channel, or a TV version of Air America [Radio]," said Gore, 57, last Monday, referring to the pseudo-liberal Democratic Party propaganda network. "It is not in any way an ideological, much less partisan point of view in any respect. It will have the point of view of the young generation."

But when we look behind the screen at Mr. Gore’s partners and moneymen in this video venture, it’s easy to see why skeptics have already labeled the emerging channel "DNC TV."

Ok, keep reading this until you get to this part about Richard Blum:

INdTV Holding has taken major funding from two equity investment firms. One is venture capital company Blum Capital Partners in San Francisco chaired by Richard Blum, husband of California Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Now, go look up Richard Blum.

Now look up URS.

We ain't fallin' for this fake revolution shit.

Pickover's ESP experiment

This is a lot of fun to do if you haven't ever seen it before. Or, even if you have -- I've tried it many times and it's always RIGHT. Blows my mind...

Couch Abduction

snagged from Bifurcated Rivets

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

File under Bizarro-Czech Surrealism Cinema...

Directed by Jires Jaromil

Perhaps the last film directed by Jires that can be considered indicative of the Czech New Wave was Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1969), a surreal tale about a 13-year-old girl who loses her innocence in a world of vampires and wicked grandmothers. Strange imagery that can only be interpreted as allegorical dominates the film's visual style, aligning it with New Wave aesthetics.

The story draws on the traditions of children's fairy tales, making it appear apolitical on the surface, which may account for why it was overlooked by the authorities. Jires has claimed that the film explores "the connections between reality and dream, horror and humor." Yet, when considered against a historical backdrop in which Czechoslovakia was the victim of a foreign aggressor, a political interpretation can be drawn from the film's repeated images of corrupted innocence, rape, and the betrayal of youth by its protectors. ( via Facets)

Volcanos erupt in Indonesia, 25,000 evacuated

1:11 p.m. April 14, 2005

MOUNT TALANG, Indonesia – Scientists on Thursday were closely monitoring three volcanoes that have rumbled into life – activity they link to December's massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra Island and the powerful temblors that followed.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from the slopes of Mount Talang in west Sumatra, which erupted Tuesday, showering dust over nearby villages and spreading panic among villagers.

On Thursday, many of the villagers returned home to tend their crops and animals but were planning to return to makeshift camps and public buildings like schools and mosques for the night.

Authorities have declared the other two – Anak Krakatoa off Sumatra's southern tip and Tangkuban Perahu in west Java province – off-limits to hikers, citing a buildup of gas inside the peaks and an increase in volcanic eruptions.

Scientists have been dispatched to all three mountains, but there were no signs of imminent eruption, said Syamsul Rizal, a government volcanologist.

Rizal, who was speaking from a monitoring station on Tangkuban Perahu, said he suspected that "the activities at these volcanoes were triggered by the Dec. 26 tremor under the Indian Ocean seabed of Sumatra."

The 9.1 magnitude earthquake in December triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami. Three months later, an 8.7 magnitude quake erupted from the same fault line, killing more than 600 people on islands off Sumatra's west coast.

Adding to the jitters, a magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck the area Thursday, causing people to flee their homes but resulting in no damage, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

The mountains are among at least 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation. The country is especially prone to seismological activity because it is part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" – a series of volcanoes and fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

Anak Krakatoa is a small volcanic island that appeared in the 1930s on the site of the former volcano of Krakatoa, which produced the world's most powerful explosion when it erupted in 1883 and killed an estimated 36,000 people.

In southern Japan, Mount Aso erupted Thursday, spewing a plume of white smoke 660 feet into the sky and sprinkling ash around the edge of its crater. Kyodo News reported five tourists were evacuated by bus, but there were no reports of injuries.

The 5,223-foot mountain, on Japan's southern main island of Kyushu, is one of Japan's five most active volcanoes. (Source)

Finslippy

I love the name of this blog. Finslippy.

It belongs to someone named Alice who has a little boy named Henry, who I believe is the little guy wearing the bee suit in the photo to the left (adorable, no?). Maybe Alice named her blog 'Finslippy' because it sounds like something you'd come up with while giving your three-year old a bath with lots of bubbles, or maybe Henry came up with it. I don't know, maybe I'll find the answer to this if I dig deeper into the archives.

I love reading blogs by people who share their real-life stories in amusing ways and are good with words. Alice writes really well and tells an excellent tale. I think I like this place...

Oh, almost forgot, this is a dual-purpose post:

I found out about Finslippy in a pretty cool way, by using this new Google tool called the TouchGraph GoogleBrowser V1.01 that was posted over at Dr. Hyatt's blog.

When I first started up the tool, I punched in ollapodrida.net/blog and the applet loaded, but then my entire machine froze up and I had to reboot. On second try, everything worked like a dream. If you're a blogger and have been at it a while, you won't believe how many links show up with this thing.

Try it so you know how it works, I'm not going to go into explaining it here, but that's how I found Finslippy.

Five Days

An experimental online diary

Five days, 20 students...
Tampere - Karlskrona

Nice concept, design and excellent use of Flash. If it didn't take so long to do this stuff it would be a great design concept for a blog.

via Netdiver (a nice tidbit found at Bifurcated Rivets)

The Kafir, Faeries of Kalash

In all the languages spoken in Pakistan, Kafir means "Infidel" and Kafiristan means "Land of the Infi-dels." (Kafir also means "infidel" in Arabic.) Yet, ironically Kafiristan in Pakistan is believed to be a paradise located in the northwest part of the country: lakes, waterfalls, green forests teeming with wildlife, snow and a mellow sun.

But it is not just the place itself that fascinates; it is the women of Kafiristan, part-fairy and part-human whose beauty, as the story goes, can make a man lose his religion. "When a Kafir woman drinks water, you can see it streaming down her throat. One can count the veins on her body," is the standard text regarding the Kafir woman's delicateness. They are believed to be whiter than white.

But who are these Kafirs?

For the most part, the history of the Kalash people remains obscure and controversial. According to some scholars, the Kalash people are direct descendants of Alexander the Great’s soldiers. This view however is unsubstantiated and most scholars trace the history of the Kalash back to the Indo-Aryan migration/invasion in 1500 B.C. No matter where they came from and when they settled in the mountain villages of the Hindu-Kush, the light skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes of many Kalash people provide an interesting evidence to their Caucasian origins.  MORE >>>

Also of interest:

The Kalash, the last descendants of Alexander the Great

Kalash Valley: Where fairies dance and sing

Hurra Torpedo

What do rusty stovetops, exposed male butt-cracks, Norway and a cheesey 80's rock ballad all have in common?

DOWNLOAD/WATCH VIDEO:

Quicktime (24.7mb video/quicktime Object)

WinMedia Format (7.8mb Video/Windows Media)

DIVX Format (24.7mb video/x-msvideo Object)

from the mmeiser blog:

"Two of my most favorite things in the world are covers of terrible 80's pop songs and abused kitchenware. As you can imagine, it's a bit difficult for things like this to come together in a coherent or successful fashion... Enter Hurra Torpedo."

originally spotted via magdalensez

Esther sez: "Drink Kabbalah, MuthaF*ckahz"

Kabbalah Centre energy drink banking more on buzz from celebrities than caffeine

In its apparent never-ending thirst for increased cash flow the so-called "Kabbalah Centre," run by the Philip Berg family of California and favored by Madonna, has launched a new energy drink.

The "Kabbalah Energy Drink" is sold in a red; white and blue can and produced through the same company that puts out 7 Up.

It will be sold for an "average price of $1.99 per can," whatever that means.

According to a press release at eMediaWire posted today "Madonna, Guy Ritchie, Ashton Kutcher, and Demi Moore... are drinking" this concoction.

A Kabbalah spokesperson says, "It’s infused with Kabbalah water, which is holy water" reported MSNBC.

"We’re going after the Red Bull market," he also said.

But the bottom line with energy drinks isn't "holy water" it’s caffeine content. And according to the product Web site this new drink doesn’t pack the punch of its most well known competitor Red Bull.

The Kabbalah Energy Drink ingredients list claims that the formula includes 100mg of caffeine per sixteen ounces, as compared to the 80mg contained within an eight ounce can of Red Bull.

Yes, yes, but what I wanna know is, will the commercials look something like this?



Mmmmm, Kabbalah... Here's to the (latest) revival of one of the oldest oral traditions!

via Digital Falcon

Aha... so, that's what Jaron Lanier's been up to...

Just was over visiting the brand-spanking-new Gpod blog ( G[reyLodge] PODcasting ) so very excellent--- however, I am already having an ADD episode just trying to focus on one thing at a time. Senses on overload at the moment-- too much to read (ok, not really, one can never have enough to read, but waaaaaaa, just trying to keep up sometimes makes me a leetle crrrrazy!)

For starters, got sucked right into watching some of these lectures from the Waag Society's 2003 archives (lots of streaming video available). I've definitely added the Waag as a must-see for next time I'm over in Amsterdam. If you get the chance, peruse through those archives for more tasty morsels. Looks like a pretty swell place, eh?

Check this out:

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2003:
SENTIENT CREATURES LECTURES

Each Wednesday from 1 October until 26 November 2003, the Sentient Creatures Lectures were held in the Theatrum Anatomicum of Waag Society. In this lecture series, Waag Society presented speakers with an international reputation in the field of robotics, conciousness and communication. The complete programme as it was published can be found here.

Here's the first one I dove right into:

Jaron Lanier lecture of 5 November (371MB, .mov)

Mr. Lanier talks about his new project called Phenotropic Computing, in which pattern recognition is used as a way of connecting components of software systems.

"The black points between the stars are actually the Universe's baby pictures..."

Beautiful. I've always liked Jaron Lanier. Ever since I first found out about him from within the pages of Mondo2000...

I haven't really heard much about what he's been doing for the past several years and found this lecture quite intriguing.

Moving onto that Graham Smith one next, well, probably should wait 'til later (jeeeebus, it's almost 2am!)

Goodnight...

New Moon and Mercury Direct

We made it through another moon cycle and Mercury will go direct tomorrow morning (finally!), woo-hoo, everyone take a bow, take a breath, wheeeew...



I dunno about you, but feels like I am always freaking out about stuff during Mercury Retrograde times, and this latest one had all sorts of things out of whack (or so it seemed) as far as technology weirdness and all kinds of miscommunications and such. I've always been surrounded by folks who know a lot more about astrological matters than I do, so I tend to listen to their advice when it comes to things like this, and over time I have really started to see certain patterns that do make sense (in as much as anything really "makes sense", of course!)

Here's a handy little chart I found to keep around for future 2005 Mercury Retrogrades:

2005 Planet and Mercury Retrogrades

ASTRO TIP:

When Mercury is Direct
Communicate: A good time to write important letters, sign contracts, express yourself, buy a car, get your car serviced, publish, advertise, make important phone calls, plan or take a trip.

When Mercury is Retrograde
Use an extra dose of clarity, caution and care pertaining to travel, especially by car, communications of any kind, contracts, sending letters and publishing.
If you can avoid the above until the retrograde period ends that's even better.

(Calculated for time zone 5 hours)

Feb 1, 2005 9:26 PM Jupiter Rx
Mar 19, 2005 7:14 PM Merury Rx
Mar 21, 2005 9:54 PM Saturn Direct
Apr 12, 2005 2:46 AM Mercury Direct
May 19, 2005 6:36 PM Neptune Rx
June 5, 2005 2:20 AM Jupiter Direct
June 14, 2005 5:38 PM Uranus Rx
July 22, 2005 10:00 PM Mercury Rx
Aug 15, 2005 10:51 PM Mercury Direct
Sep 2, 2005 5:51 AM Pluto Direct
Oct 1, 2005 5:03 PM Mars Rx
Oct 26, 2005 6:24 PM Neptune Direct
Nov 14, 2005 12:43 AM Mercury Rx
Nov 15, 2005 7:08 PM Uranus Direct
Nov 22, 2005 4:01 AM Saturn Rx
Dec 9, 2005 11:03 PM Mars Direct
Dec 24, 2005 4:37 AM Venus Rx

The Second-hand Book-stall

The latest incarnation has arrived...



Antiquities of the Illuminati

The Second-hand Book-stall
Presents
Some views on change and the future
from the Twentieth Century.
[Together with some comments by the compiler.]
11 APRIL 2005 c.e.

C O N T E N T S

Before we proceed...

Futurist Manifestos
The Joy of Mechanical Force by F. T. Marinetti (”The Foundation of Futurism” [”Manifesto of Futurism,” 1909], translated from the French by Eugen Weber, from Paths to the Present by Eugen Weber. Copyright 1960 by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc.)

Aleister Crowley
Magick in Theory and Practice. 1929-30, Dover Reprint. Introduction, pp. xii-xiii.

Aldous Huxley
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, from “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and other essays,” abridged edition, 1972. Originally published in 1956.

SPK
The Post-Industrial Strategy: EXPOSING THE CATHEDRAL OF DEATH

William S. Burroughs
The Invisible Generation and Postscript to the Invisible Generation.

Cabaret Voltaire
From The Art of the Sixth Sense, by M. Fish and D. Hallbery, 1985 edition.
A CONTEMPLATION OF DANGEROUS GAMES
SLUGGIN’ FER JESUS

Jacques Ellul
The Technological Society, pp. 412; 428-436.

William Irwin Thompson
At The Edge of History (Speculations on the Transformation of Culture) Preface (ix-xi); pp. 229-30.

James Burke
Connections, by James Burke. Introduction to the paperback edition (1995).
The Day the Universe Changed, by James Burke. Introduction to the paperback edition, 1995, pp. 7-9.

Charles Musès
Consciousness and Reality, Epilogue: Man at the Evolutionary Crossroads, p. 471-2.

Don Webb
Historical and Cultural Opportunities for the Left Hand Path.

The Secret Teachings

are available online:

THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES
by Manly P. Hall

However, if you've not yet experienced the original larger-than-life format, held it in your hands to feel its sheer girth weighing down on your lap as you're paging through it, you really ought to do that at least once in your lifetime. Oh, and the online text is also missing copies of the color plates that are in the original, but otherwise, it's really excellent to see this available online.

Thanks for the pointer, Jon!

Warping ambience in Orlando

One of the women from Red Shift Mantra just contacted me about submitting a piece for WTBTN.

Since I had not heard of Red Shift Mantra before, I looked them up and found a very compact but informative little website, complete with some nice mp3s to listen to. Very beautiful stuff, I was quite nicely surprised. Dreamy female vocals accompanied by drones on organic and electronic instruments. Hard to describe, but very trancey. Like it a lot. I am eager to listen to the solo works she is sending me.

Oh I am having so much fun with this project... Ain't the Universe grand? Everyone is a STAR.

LISTEN TO: In Our Hands more mp3s available from their website...

Here is another mp3, archived from local Orlando-based radio programme ECHOES that did a radio spotlight on Red Shift Mantra. Excellent interview with members and spotlights some lovely pieces of music in the background (approx. 9min.)

Odman's eye

PHOTOGRAPHY of FREDRIK ÖDMAN



This photographer is really out of this world...

Unbelievably stunning works and array of genres. Go through the galleries at the website and take them in slowly. I hope to see some of his work someday so I can see some of them up close and larger than on a computer screen, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Thanks go to the the Cartoonist for leaving the trail of breadcrumbs to this wondrous artist.

Group Mind Basics

A series of well-written essays on Group Mind and Collective Consciousness from the library of the World Mind Society

Sent in by Jon B. via email (thanks, these are great!)

Monde's latest...

CHORONZON is a node and outlet for protracted rituals of dark technomancy which paradoxically have the potential to preserve light. Not merely a noise music project, it goes beyond being art and only that.

mp3 offerings from CHORONZON:

As is the nature of Chaos to be unbound, these are
CHORONZON's PRELIMINARY "ESCAPES"
(Before Official Releasing of New World Chaos:)

Amitoria (6.3MB)
Eidolon (4.3MB)

Both the above tracks are by Demitria Monde Thraam working alone
(actually, not quite alone: always with the presence and help of the namesake entity, Choronzon.)
Future versions will include P. Emerson Williams as well.

Demitria Monde Thraam's personal cosmography (excellent "screed"!)

Metaversal Forecast 4/8-4/14

... the latest from Johannes Ayres

THE METAVERSAL LIGHTCRAFT
HYPER-ABYSSIC ASTROLOGY FORECAST
AND LIGHT SPECIFIC YOGA PLATFORM

LUNAR CYCLE #1 - SUN IN ARIES

FRIDAY APRIL 8th
Greetings Fellow Immortals and Happy New Year!
Metaversal New Year begins on the first New Moon after the Spring Equinox, and it is of course, always in the first sign, Aries. This is a special New Moon in that it is also a Solar Eclipse (at 20 Aries , 1:37 p.m. PDT). It is also a tesseract entry/exit point, with another entry/exit point on the Scorpio Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, due in two weeks. Tesseract Moons catalyze the temporal areas of the Metaverse that they contact, in this case, the Aries domain of "all about me" or ahem... self-determination. I have learned through H.E.R. (Hedonistic Engineering Research) that the effects last a very long time. Very often particular signal events occur within a few weeks of the actual eclipse, either before or after, like backwards echos in space/time, and sometimes focused just on the day of the eclipse.

Often situations or people are literally eclipsed. As an homage to the Pope John Paul 2, lift your skirt or drop your pants in front of a Catholic priest today and ask, "What do you think of that?" (The era of legitimacy for such acts being over, apologize profusely "I'm horribly sorry, I don't know what got into me, I hope you're not insulted", etc. If arrest and/or torture looks likely, start speaking in tongues and thrash about on the floor: it may not get you off the hook, but if you're going down you might as well do it in style.

Solar eclipses signal the end of a karmic chapter; we have completed a major lesson and are graduating to the next. In Aries, we are doubly challenged to let go and venture into the unknown. Where this eclipse falls in your natal chart is where you are approaching a new frontier. This is a major planetary gathering, with the Sun, Moon, Venus, and North Node closely clustered in Aries, forming squares to Saturn and oppositions to Jupiter. Venus square Saturn is a Mr./Mrs. Poopy type of deal: this "nobody loves me" pair likes to rain on parades. So while the wild boys, Mars and Jupiter, are partying and getting down with a trine, the Venus-Saturn square (20° 40' Aries-Cancer) is telling us that we shouldn't be having this much fun. A more evolved Metaversal expression of this hedonist-puritanical hoedown would be a real appreciation of costs and consequences and a re-examination (Mercury is retrograde) of long-range plans and goals. We'll go much farther if we combine our efforts and refuse to settle for anything less than a win-win for all concerned.

This Aries Tesseract eclipse works in tandem with the Libra eclipse of last October. Many partnerships (Libra) began to wobble then, and now the individualistic end (Aries) of that polarity comes to dominate. People are all full of piss and vinegar, more fired up, more independent. One obvious example is the great downward shift in popularity of W since his second stolen election last fall. Another similar public example is the growing unpopularity of Gov. Schwarzenfucker here in California. He took office with great promises of getting "special interests" out of Sacramento. Since then he has made it clear that for him, special interests are groups such as nurses, teachers, and firemen. What an asshole. Many voters are now becoming disillusioned. Sun and Moon are now supported by Venus, which is self-appreciation, a retrograde Mercury who is rethinking the Libra-Aries balance of self-other, and North Node, which shows new pathways into the future.

The ruling planet of Aries, Mars, is traveling through Aquarius, turning our heads toward alternative (or even radical) directions. The Warrior asks us to be courageous and not blindly defer to convention and conformity. Mars is just a few days away from conjuncting Neptune at 17° Aquarius (exact on April 13). Neptune, the God of the Sea, steers us in the direction of compassion, collaboration, and community. Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we will finally harness the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire. This is an active new moon day, with stimulation all over the world.. Stand and salute the defecating dogs you see this day.

The Sabian Symbol for 20 Aries is:
"A YOUNG GIRL FEEDING BIRDS IN WINTER. Overcoming crises through compassion. THE TRANSMUTATION OF LIFE INTO LOVE."

SATURDAY APRIL 9th
At 8:50 a.m. PDT, Moon enters Taurus, and we can assimilate yesterday's intense eclipse energy. With Taurus, it's more pasture, less bullshit so this is a fine weekend to plant your garden and let it unfold into its new season, to copulate delicately amongst the Mesozoic ferns at the Sovereign Botanical Gardens, or to ride a squadron of tiny black horses through the shopping mall, or to get into a series of nipping duels with some badgers down at the grain elevators This is a good metaphor for then we giving a crash course in ESL to some local wolf-children adopted by the mayor and receive the key to the city but we've already picked the lock so we sell it to a posse of renegade urban planners experimenting with the geomantic cultivation of organic concrete. Ahhhhhh fresh beginnings. See if you can see the brand new delicate crescent moon low in the west tonight.

SUNDAY APRIL 10th
Moon is in productive Taurus. Sun forms an exact square with Saturn, adding a tone of seriousness to the day. The key with hard aspects involving Saturn is whether we allow obstacles (psychological or physical) to stop us - or commit ourselves to making the extra effort required to overcome them. The very new moon should be apparent tonight. Look for it as a bright arc, with the dark part filled with blue-gray earthshine.

MONDAY APRIL 11th
Moon travels VOC in Taurus until 3:54 p.m. PDT, when it enters sparkly Gemini. Nevertheless, there is an aspect of strong love and creativity which prevails all day thanks to the healing energy of a Venus-Pluto trine (24° 27' Aries-Sagittarius). The creative alignment of the planets of love and death helps us to let go of values that have served their purpose and to recover those worth restoring. Lost relationships and forgotten talents can reappear to be experienced in new forms now. Heaviness is lifted when the Moon enters Gemini at 3:54 p.m. This placement correlates with emotional inconsistency, but it does provide flexibility for rapid adjustment to changing circumstances. You could charm a snake from a cat's vagina just by snoring or you could steer a tank with your diction even if you numbed your tongue with a lethartonic unguent. And yet even the slightest breeze seems to send you into a blazing legislative fury.

Call everything names, and when you run out of names you can call them numbers, and when you run out of numbers you can call the police. They'll give you a series of classified numbers in exchange for a suitable amount of disinformation, and off you go again, railing spools of numerals at countless items. Certainly you will want, at the least, to stimulate your minds. Mercury turns direct early tomorrow morning, and we may be wakeful. Moon tonight is near the Pleiades-should be a beautiful sight.

TUESDAY APRIL 12th
Mercury makes its direct station at 1° Aries on, feeding the flow of new ideas and fresh perspectives, although its semi-square to Mars can lead to impatience and perhaps language that crosses the line between humor and aggression. However a tantrum in a tantric tremendum could breathe new life into a squalid marriage consecrated by the usual mundanities. The usual tendency is to take a cylindrical organic object - say, a weasel or a zucchini - and plunge it into the soft yielding folds. To be doing so is not unlike the doing of anything else entirely distinct from everything on earth.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 13th
The Mars-Neptune conjunction at 17° Aquarius today is a tricky aspect because it combines the most focused planet and the most diffuse planet. Anger and actions can go off track, wasting energy with bad aim and poor planning. Yet, there's a magical side to this pair that can infuse activity with imagination, initiate spiritual practices, or serve other's with compassion. In streams like these, motions turn up that cannot be replaced. Generate terrific monuments made of coloured steam. Two solar aspects tonight bring the other two outer planets into play. First, the Sun semi-squares Uranus (24° 18' Aries - 9° 18' Pisces), perfect for pushing against authority. With maturity, the need to assert one's independence can be expressed in inventive ways, but it is destructively rebellious when handled with childish insecurity. In hail we could storm the edifices of a dream more incredible than the bursting of a thousand hearts amplified through vacufazers at full speed.Then, a Sun-Pluto trine provides the glue to reconnect the broken pieces of identity and purpose. Resources are discovered by weeding out bad ideas and concentrating on what is most worthy of expression now.

THURSDAY APRIL 14th
At 2:03 a.m., when the Moon enters Cancer, there is a more intimate mood and an emphasis on security and safety. The Moon is at home in Cancer, symbolizing the ability to connect with core needs and take steps toward fulfilling them. Yet, strong emotions can stir strong reactions out of proportion to current events. The ripples of uncertainty can easily spread out on waves of worry and doubt. Ultimately you could get two staircases out of it, but initially there's just the fog... And you will be the one who has been pumped full of ghosts, every hour coming through the pipe, like a suntarnished egg tumbling from its chute into the ignorant and diffidently gluttonous pond below. The city, on the other hand, grows soft and porous within the storm. I cry before your dumptrucks and sausages and skyscrapers. It's helpful to recognize the difference between external reality and one's reactions, especially when fears keep growing.

Watch it shred

A movie gallery of actual shredding; from the ordinary but tough, to the surprising.

My two favorites are the refrigerator and the boat.

The Leaves of the Shepherdess

A healing salvia experience amongst the Mazatecs. by Kathleen Harrison

(first published in Sisters of the Extreme, edited by Cynthia Palmer and Michael Horowitz, 2000)

Kathleen Harrison is an ethnobotanist who studies the relationships between plants and humans, particularly as expressed in ritual and story.



Salvia divinorum FAQ

via The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center

Alex Gray's Art & Spirit Forum on the effects of taking salvia divinorum

More about salvia from Tripzine:

One of the most striking features of a breakthrough Salvia experience is the distortion of linear time. Sometimes, it seems as if one simply escapes linear time altogether and finds that all temporal coordinates are randomly accessible instantaneously...

Everytime I say "Salvia divinorum" out loud it reminds me of that scene in the first Harry Potter film where they are all practising with their wands. Actually, I've been eager to try this one sometime but somehow haven't run across it yet.

BCO - UBcoming Shows

The "oerckhestreah" continues to bleed for you...

This month:
we have a live outdoor concert -- for tourists and BCO fans alike
in lovely downtown SF's Union Square Park

and then a nice long 3-hour radio show
(simultaneously broadcast via internet)

http://ubuibi.org/uB-main.html

Sunday, April 17th - UNION SQUARE (SF) 2:00-3:00PM
Saturday, April 23rd - KFJC
(Live Radio/Internet Radio Performance) 3:00-6:00PM
www.kfjc.org

Super Madrigal Brothers

Danse Macabre (mp3)

Saint Saens fans out there? This will blow your gourd.

Momus

Jesse turned me onto Momus' website and Livejournal page earlier. Turns out there are mp3s all over this page and they're all excellent.

I like this one quite a lot:

The Lady Of Shalott (3.6 MB, stereo, 44khz)

I like Momus quite a lot.

Here's a little blurb from the page where I found the song:

These are the demos for the Kahimi Karie mini-album 'Journey To The Centre Of Me', which appeared on Polydor KK (Japan) in April 2000.

The theme for this record is 'Kahimi goes Prog'. I have attempted to make a medieval-flavoured Prog Pop sound. My models are songs like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen and 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush.

The recordings were made in October 1999 with the assistance of the Dufay Collective, a medieval group who perform at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London and play old instruments like crumhorns and sackbutts.

There's much more to Momus than I can sum up on one little page. Go have a look-see...

Type and Image

Diploma thesis by Björn Karnebogen

Type and Image were once united and are now two seperate media.
The following works range between these two poles.

via imomus (thanks, Jesse!)

Degenerate Art Ensemble

Experimental music and performance art in Seattle.

Looks like a great place to check out if we ever get out there (someday!)

Check out the music section for mp3s.

Found this while reading thru the Faun Fables website for updates-- they're gonna be touring back home in the USA and will be playing several shows here in the bay area. Check the appearances section for tour schedule.

Erwin Olaf

Photographer and Filmmaker



"Sissi" (from the series entitled "Royal Blood")

Theraminvox

Theremin MP3 files

A public library of Theremin (or Theremin related) audio files (MP3, Wav, Midi etc.).

My two cents about ARGs...

UPDATE: I would just like to add two pertinent tidbits to add a little perspective to what I wrote-- my friend John Harrigan just left this in the comments:

hi weirdpixie, foolishpeople did exactly what your looking for re arg's on Ruined Steel. we had a companion arg to the interactive theatre event where players could interact with characters and explore the rs world online before seeing the live event.

I knew also about a friend's recent ARG that I should have mentioned, El Centro. But I guess I'm just hoping that more folks put that sort of creative juice into this new frontier and keep it from becoming just another tool for media propaganda and capitalism/consumerism. Keep creating new realities while still "keepin' it real, yo".

>> original post <<

Just got back from Digital Falcon where I was reading another article on Alternate Reality Gaming which got my gears turning and now I feel the need to ramble on a bit and share my thoughts....

Let me just say ahead of time here (before I start my rant) that I'm really not trying to quash anyone's excitement regarding ARGs and the continuing upswing in popularity with online gamers. I actually find the whole idea of immersive gaming pretty phenomenal and interesting, but I just have a few thoughts I'd like to jot down while I've got the time to do so. So, here is my two cents, bearing in mind that I am NOT a gamer or in fact very much into gaming much at all.

First of all, will there ever be such a thing as a non-profit ARG? Ha! ok, I won't hold my breath, but it would indeed be a nice thing to see one of these attached to something that's not related to selling some product or end up just being an advertising gimmick overall. I know, the medium is still on the rise and has yet to evolve, but I have yet to see signs of true culture-jamming elements arise from one of these things thus far other than the usual teamworking or teambuilding aspects that go hand-in-hand with any form of group gameplay in general. But wouldn't it be a neat thing when designing the storyline for one of these ARG's if you build in certain real-world projects that could actually give the player something thrilling to do that might add a little spark to the world around them? Like they have to plant a tree in the middle of a sidewalk or something.

I don't know, I'm just thinking a bit here. I think I'm feeling the same way about ARGs as I ended up feeling about the whole 'smart mob' frenzy. Fun concept but no one really seemed to take it further. I'm hoping ARGs actually do end up "taking it further".

The thing that sorta bugs me about the current ARG "modus operandi" is that even though the ideas and gameplay seem pretty cool and immersive when you're reading about it, the end result seems to basically be the profit margins after the game ends. When the "truth" that it wasn't "real" comes out, all the players really get is the experience itself, and from what I've read in some cases, it's not much more than after spending months on your Xbox at home with a few friends every Friday night-- the only difference being that with ARG's sometimes the players get a bit more exercise (and probably spend a little more cash in doing so). I would just hope for a bit MORE on the immersive end of things, that's all.

Please, prove me wrong you people out there designing the next ARGs!

I guess it's "vive le experience" for all that's worth, but me personally, I'd rather see true cultural change and a valuable creative spark come from working with those farce elements that ARG's and any other storytelling hoaxes over time have used as their vehicle. Give the people a little more at the end is all I'm saying here-- something longer lasting and more impactive than to just create huge bankrolls for the media fatcats (who, IMHO are already fat enough!)

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens, of course. I'm sure there are better storylines that will arise from ARG's as they continue to appear on the horizon, and I look forward to watching it all unfold.

Aye-yayee-yayeeee, I'm probably going to get it from some folks for even opening up my trap about this stuff but I can't help it sometimes...

Seeing the Future

The article below mentions the Global Consciousness Project group (at Princeton) which I ran across a couple of years ago at the former sTaRe blog and thought it was quite remarkable stuff at the time.

I'm pretty sure my mind just expanded a few more notches after reading through this even though I'm still scratching my head about how it all "works". Fascinating stuff, really...

A "black box" random number generator apparently has properties of prediction...

At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators.

But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future and predicting major world events.

The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked back by sceptics. But last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the Asian tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the epic tragedy.

Now, even the doubters are acknowledging that here is a small box with apparently inexplicable powers.
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Bloggy

"The first completely automated artificial-intelligence blog on the internet."

This goes (rather frighteningly well) with my earlier post about Clocky. Maybe we can get the two together and they can have little bloggy-clockies (Blockies?).

found surreptitiously via pthbbbt

7191.org

Well blow-me-down, I had no idea John Harrigan of Foolishpeople had started his own little side-blog.

Go check it out, it's called sevenonenineone and seems he's been at it since January '05.
(Guess I must have missed the announcement at FP!)

Belly a-Go-Go!

Oh Mama! Can this woman move! Fabulous belly control, my, my my...



Rachel Brice and the Indigo
a san francisco belly dance company

Watch videos here

Bedazzled

Nope, not the famous Peter Cook and Dudley Moore movie, the blog by the same name.

Bedazzled
Some wonderful little movie clips from teevee, movies and other fun-filled momentos from vintage eras past. You'll love it.

found whilst stumbling through growabrain during the last few minutes before the Daylight Savings kicked in!

Frellin' 3am now, jeeeeeeeaaaaaggggg.... I'm outta here...

Magical threads and Ollapodrida

The web weaves an interesting tail sometimes...

Came across a new search engine while clicking through some of the referrer URLS in my webstats -- something called Exalead. Sorta gives you text and image search results all-in-one from what I can see at first stab.

Did a search for Ollapodrida (always my first choice when using a new searchie tool). Scrolled down the right where they give you a neat little visual image search next to the text infos and my eye went down the page to an interesting thumbnail, which resulted in a link to an article from Magic Magazine about a stage magician by the name of Alton Sharpe who apparently had a magazine back in the 80's called Ollapodrida:

Magic Magazine WEB EXTRA: Alton Sharpe 1921-2004

In May of 1983, the Number One issue of Ollapodrida made its appearance on the magic collectors' scene. The masthead of the 12-page bi-monthly carried the subheads of "Each Issue a Collector's Delight" and "A Journal of Magical Melange." The Spanish slang word ollapodrida roughly translates to "stew pot of rotten goodies." And Al's homemade magazine is just that — cut-and-pasted tidbits of magic history, vintage photos from Al's collection, or reviews of shows seen or magicians known mixed in with never before published tricks from the greats, or a montage of snapshots from a Magic Collectors' Weekend. The last page of Ollapodrida is usually reserved for the "Back Chat from Kellar's Den," a place for Al to editorialize on the state of the art as he sees it.

I sort of like the subhead "A Journal of Magical Melange"-- has a nice ring to it, although I tend to think of the word 'ollapodrida' more like a crazy mixed-up stew vs. a "rotten" pot (I'll keep my pot nice-n-fresh thank you!)

Clocky

www.clocky.net

Clocky is a clock for people who have trouble getting out of bed. When the snooze bar is pressed, Clocky rolls off the table and finds a hiding spot, a new one every day.

Materials: carpet, velcro, foam

Boring Boring

Huh. I had no idea about this.

via Waxy.org

Chewy-crunchy-techy goodness

Tech Evangelists is a collective of early adopters and enthusiasts exploring the terrain that interests us the most and attempting to take the low-tech along. Our hope is that our energy is contagious and our adventures intriguing for all audiences, but especially those just venturing out into the World Wide Web. We aren't here to sell, or buy, or bully. We're here because we love technology. And we hope you'll love it too. As Tech Evangelists, we believe that we must educate others. We must eliminate fear through exposure and options.
We must evangelize. Because the souls that aren't saved will be left behind.

via Weapons of Mass Distraction (her blog rules. plus she is uber-creative.)

Magma

MAGMA is one of the most influential European bands since the early 70's and has recorded not a good record but several FANTASTIC albums. They are a concept band whose albums explain the origins and development of the new civilization on Kobaia, and their interactions with the people of EARTH and other planets.

Listen to free mp3s from Prog Archives:

Kobaia (1970)
Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (1973)
La Dawotsin (1981)

Also check out Magma's official website which includes many photos and a link to a radio jukebox featuring full tracks and interviews.

April foolery

The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time

This one's a classic-- wish I woulda thought of it:

#10: Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity
In 1976 the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.

Wow, I sure missed going to the annual St. Stupid's Day parade today. Last year was a hoot, but next year my dad and I have plans to go again-- definitely not-to-be-missed if you're planning to be in SF on April 1st.