As the kids say, WTF?
via Alex G., gracias hermano !

Via Coilhouse:

An excellent question and perhaps an unexpected one; but only to those that didn’t know Steve Peterson. The science teacher at Oblong High School and head of the A/V club, Peterson was a regionally-known expert on the subject of ancient cultures — specifically fish people from Sirius. Long after the school day would end, Peterson could be found, alone, recording an extraordinary body of work that cast a critical eye on the accepted theory of the origin of life on this planet. What arose from these tapes was a revelation, a vast series of clues including ancient Egyptian art and mythology, fish hats, the Pope, and Taco Bell. Also, breasts and penises.

Those who would dismiss Peterson as insane or a mulleted quaalude user are misinformed. In the days leading up to his mysterious disappearance, Peterson mentioned to many that he was being followed; his house staked out by individuals in a windowless white van. Peterson was last seen on March 5th, 1987. A student, James Whitlock, passed him on the street and grew concerned, describing Peterson as appearing “spaced out, more than usual I mean.” Whitlock approached him and asked if everything was ok, to which Peterson responded that indeed it was and that he “just needed a burrito.”

It should be obvious, then, that Steve Peterson was no madman. No dear reader, that is merely what they want you to think. The reality is that he was simply too close to the truth and the powers that be had him removed. This is all that remains of his life’s work; his revelation. All we can do know is carry on his memory and continue to ask: Who are these fish people?

Oh, my dears, if only you knew…. (TEKELI! TEKELI! IÄ DAGON!)

(The Sirius Mystery: New Scientific Evidence of Alien Contact 5,000 Years Ago)

Artist John Coulthart reveals that you can get the whole back catalog of Jugend, a fin-de-siècle German art nouveau magazine, online. In PDFs, no less. Local-goth-bands-looking-for-show-flier-art-go!

It was just over a year ago that I was wishing there was some way to see whole issues of Jugend magazine, the German periodical launched in 1896 whose Art Nouveau style gave its name to the movement in Germany, Jugendstil. Yesterday’s search for Heinrich Vogeler artwork turned up that very thing, scanned editions of Jugend at the University of Heidelberg’s digital archive. Whole numbers from 1896 to 1925! I am aghast. As well as the scanned pages being very high quality you can download the bound collections as PDFs, each one totalling over 400 pages. Leafing through pages of old magazines in a foreign language doesn’t sound very stimulating if you can’t read German but Jugend was a very visual publication. Each issue is crammed with a variety of drawings in styles which range from black-and-white Art Nouveau motifs and quasi-Symbolist illustration to humorous drawings and cartoons. Each issue also featured a large drawing or painting on a fold-out spread.

(John Coulthart: Jugend)

(The Haunter of the Dark: And Other Grotesque Visions)

 

 
In 1970 the odd and ill-fitting duo of UK blues sludge merchants Spooky Tooth (featuring Gary “Dreamweaver” Wright) and the Godfather of musique concrète Pierre Henry released the Christian themed Ceremony LP. To this day this has to be one of the most confounding, “what were they thinking?” type of records I’ve ever heard. It’s fantastic the way Henry’s elements are mixed far, far above the band and with surprisingly little (or perhaps very abstract) regard for what the band is playing. A bloody-minded masterpiece !
 

Dr. James Hansen, the nation’s leading scientist on climate issues speaks out with the full truth about global warming. His new book is titled Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. One day there will be statues in honor of James Hansen. Let’s just hope they don’t end up like the Statue of Liberty did in Planet of the Apes. Dr. Hansen is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
 

 
Dangerous Minds pal Joseph Matheny of Alterati fame, has produced a trio of new Robert Anton Wilson related releases on audio CDs and DVD and you can get a discount by ordering all three at publisher Original Falcon and get The Insiders Guide to Robert Anton Wilson thrown into the mix for free. The DVD lecture, titled The “I” in the Triangle discusses the Western Hermetic tradition, Aleister Crowley, Jean Cocteau, extraterrestrials from Sirius and various conspiracy theories, And then there are the audio CDs, one a document of T.A.Z. A Night of Ontological Anarchy and Poetic Terrorism that took place on February 6th, 1993, the 2-disc set also features Rob “Real Astrology” Brezsny, Hakin Bey (his speech is great), physicist Nick Herbert, Joseph Matheny and Bob Wilson, who is in fine form here. The other disc is The Lost Studio Session that features a long intimate conversation with Bob.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The Infinity Factory: Robert Anton Wilson, Genesis P-Orridge and me

This pretty much sums up ChatRoulette.

 
I recently acquired *cough, from Demonoid, cough* a quadraphonic version (i.e. 4-channel) of The Worst of Jefferson AIrplane and their Volunteers set in 4-channel audio as well. Originally released during the heyday of Quad (which was approximately 1974 to 1976) on 8-track and reel to reel tapes (for the more discerning audiophile) these rarely heard versions of some of the Airplane’s best-loved songs are phenomenal. As a very hardcore fan of the band since I was a kid, I really got off on hearing something new in the music I was already so very, very familiar with. On Volunteers, three—count ‘em—three songs are totally different from the album versions. Not different mixes, but substantially different versions which would have been lost to history due to the outdated format. (Although they were included on the excellent Jefferson Airplane Loves You box set, these tracks sound way better in their original quadraphonic glory, not bounced down to stereo. Hey Fredrick has a completely different lead vocal, Volunteers is totally different, I think it was even recorded on a different day from the original, and The Farm is also a lot different).

But the best song of all to hear in Quad was Lather. It sounds fantastic and there is an incredibly cool Philip Glass-style ostinato that Grace Slick is doing on the piano that has never been clear and audible in any version of this song I’ve ever heard before (and lord knows the JA catalog has been released in as many crappy permutations as their RCA label mate, Elvis’s catalog, has). It’s always been there, you just couldn’t hear it like this.

It’s fascinating for me to see the (rapid) flowering of an audiophile underground in Bit Torrent land. Anonymous professional and amateur audio engineers are buying up the original Quad tapes from the 70s on Ebay, restoring and refurbishing their old quadraphonic gear and then transferring these old tapes to Pro Tools, and then into DVD ISO files that you can burn with Toast. The ones made from the reel to reel tapes are by far the best, but even the ones made from 8-tracks are still pretty cool to hear, even in a lower fidelity.

Why doesn’t the music industry (specifically a label like Shout Factory, who would do the best job) look into what people are obviously quite interested in on the torrent trackers—especially the Russian ones— and get some ideas of what they still might actually purchase on disc (i.e. multi-channel versions of classic rock albums). A few of the original Quad mixes have actually been put out on DVD-A or SACD, such as Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (amazing) as well as Black Sabbath’s Paranoid (also amazing). For the most part, however, they only see the light of day on torrent trackers via these inspired hobbyists.

But back to the Jefferson Airplane. Below is an odd lip-sync’d performance of Lather from the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Who else would on television then would have let Grace Slick get away with this?!?!
 

 
I’ve (finally) been devouring On Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno and working my way through the lesser known nooks and crannies of the man’s mid 70’s output. One of the most pleasing discoveries so far has been Lady June’s Linguistic Leprosy. Recorded in ‘74, released in ‘75, it’s a very psychedelic spoken word-driven LP recorded in Kevin Ayers’ living room with a heavy assist from Eno in all his suitcase synth tweaking /tape manipulating glory. Lady June (1931-1999) was a much beloved UK prog scene fixture (it was her apartment’s 4th story window that Robert Wyatt fell from, rendering him paraplegic in 1973) and her work here is wonderful. She, Ayers and Eno make a great, unlikely team. She’s even graceful enough, in consideration of her company, to go non-verbal for many long spacy stretches. That’s my kind of spoken word LP.
 

Thanks to Top Shelf for sending me this veritable holy grail of comics: Eddie Campbell’s “Alec” omnibus, which collects the lifetime autobiographical output of the Australia-based comic artist.

Eddie Campbell is known elsewhere as the artist on Alan Moore’s “From Hell,” as well as his own “Bacchus” series among other works. His sketchbook-y style is instantly recognizable to anybody who has encountered him. But for my money, his autobiographical comics—collected here—are his best work. I’ve been a massive fan since I discovered his comics as a teenager.

The work collected here covers much of Campbell’s life, centering on his tender, often hilarious looks at life, art, fatherhood, Australia and everything else that crosses his path. This is a life well-documented and examined in comics form, a great contribution to not only the field of comics, but also of the art of the memoir itself.

At 638 pages, this is a massively substantial work—in all senses. The book collects nine previously published “Alec” graphic novels, and adds a tenth, unique work, also titled “The Years Have Pants,” to the end. This is great stuff—“The Dance of Lifey Death” is a particular favorite, and has been since I bought it from Mr. Campbell himself at his booth at the San Diego Comic Con about ten years ago or so. That’s an incredibly touching vignette on life, time and sex that you won’t find paralleled anywhere else in the comics medium.

Campbell’s work has a certain “life directly documented on the page, through a wise and funny filter” quality to it that is absent from a lot of autobiographical comics work. This is the work of a mature, fully realized artist, the work of a grown man who has raised a family and been through the trials and tribulations of life and documented them with a sly grin and twinkle in the eye. That’s a quality that’s rare in autobiographical comics (or comics at all)—a lot of artists working in the field seem to filter their experiences through aloof irony or a kind of pretended, forced perspective. Consequently, they often feel alienated from their work—and alienate the reader. Not so with Eddie Campbell. Reading “Alec” is like spending a day drinking with a cool uncle and getting some much-needed insight on life.

Can’t recommend this one enough. A major achievement in many fields.

(ALEC: The Years Have Pants (A Life-Size Omnibus))

(Also check out this interview with Mr. Campbell by Brian Heater at the excellent Daily Cross Hatch comic blog.)