James Lipton Shares His Beard
James Lipton says, “Before you text, give it a ponder.”
Give it a Ponder: Things to Ponder Before a Text Message
(via HYST)
James Lipton says, “Before you text, give it a ponder.”
Give it a Ponder: Things to Ponder Before a Text Message
(via HYST)
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Thee Psychick Bible, the complete magickal writings of Genesis P-Orridge and Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, is now shipping. (I edited it.)
Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, or TOPY for short, was the group responsible for popularizing body piercing and tattooing, acid house music, and magick, all aimed at personal liberation and the construction of a model of life outside of, and very opposed to, the status quo of the 1980s and beyond. They did a tremendous amount of work at shifting our culture in new and creative directions, and I am proud to be able to help showcase their work in this new, expanded edition of the book.
The group was, of course, conceived and headed by Genesis P-Orridge, the lead singer of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV; the endeavor played a crucial role in the survival and modernization of magick.
The book is hardcover, 544 pages, limited to 999 copies, and comes with a DVD of Psychic TV performances and Derek Jarman videos. (There’s also an introduction written by me.)
Thee infamous PSYCHIC BIBLE from Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth receives an updated, expanded, corrected edition,complete with dozens of new visuals and essays. The Feral House edition is handsomely presented in smyth-sewn hardcover with a red ribbon. Thee 544 pages within are printed in two colors on high-quality 60-pound stock on acid-free 100% recycled paper stock.
This signed, numbered limited edition (999 copies only) is also presented with a remarkable DVD of impossible-to-find videos from P-Orridge archives of early Psychic TV and TOPY creations which includes the work of Peter ?
Another vintage Infinity Factory show for you fine people. This late ‘90s episode features an in-depth interview with my good friend and lifelong hero, Genesis P-Orridge on the topic of the then new book, Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of Coum Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle.
THEE PSYCHICK BIBLE: A New Testameant is Gen’s latest work, published by Feral House (and edited by Dangerous Minds own Jason Louv). It’s been produced in a high-quality, strictly limited edition of 999, signed copies, each with a 2-hour DVD of GP-O related video rarities, some directed by Derek Jarman and Peter Christopherson. Order yours here.
They certainly know A-list writing talent when they see it at True/Slant. First they sign up the likes of Matt Taibbi, Miles O’Brien, David Rees and Michael Shermer, now Fishbowl LA editor Tina Dupuy will be posting at the site, presumably about subject matter that doesn’t fit neatly into her day job blogging about media types in Los Angeles. Tina posted a great essay over the holiday weekend that I’d like to share with you here, about a topic that I’ve wanted to write about myself (but now don’t have to!) regarding…well, how the Canadians have it much better than we do:
Imagine a handsome young family complete with kids living in a stylish two-story home in a quiet neighborhood. The parents work normal middle-class jobs. The dad is a city bus driver, mom is a secretary. Their house is brimming with consumer goods: a couple of mammoth-sized televisions, a drum set for the kids and high-end furniture. The mother?
Since April, a persistent Internet meme (reported on today’s Huffington Post, in fact) has to do with ecstasy tabs pressed in the shape of President Obama’s head. Sounds plausible, there are even photographs of the items in question, but were they really ecstasy?
Probably not, according to a “pill reviewer” going under the pseudonym “dezmon” on a website called Pill Reports. Dezmon seems to think the Obama pills are nothing more than caffeine:
“went to a rave ... last saturday and took a red and yellow one of these. took three hours and never kicked in at all. i think they were straight caffeine or something cause i was dancing a lot but no high. after these failed i turned to a quad stack yellow lacoste with mescaline and molly.”
Another report on a website called Ecstasy Data seems to confirm dezmond’s “findings”:
“The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Western Regional Laboratory (Asheville, North Carolina) received five tablets shaped like the heads of Ninja Turtles, Snoopy, and Barack Obama, suspected Ecstasy (see Photo 1). Analysis of the tablets by GC/MS revealed that the tablets contained BZP, TFMPP, and caffeine (the predominant compound). Clandestine tablet preparations containing BZP are common submissions; however, these were the first tablets of their kind to be submitted to the laboratory. Most tablets submitted are round and vary in imprint/stamps. These tablets were quite detailed.”
Just a head’s up, kids. And stay away from drugs!
Cross posting this from Brand X
Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry absolutely scathingly slammed the sins of the Church at the Intelligence?Ǭ? talks. See resources below.
Here’s a good discussion thread about the talk.
And here’s the whole conference, via Richard Dawkins.
(Previously on Dangerous Minds: Canonizing Sinead O’Connor, Catholic Church Covered up Child Sexual Abuse for 30 Years.)
Anuradha Mittal at The Nation covers the legacy of the Battle of Seattle ten years on. As Obama readies to country to return to war in Afghanistan for completely inscrutable reasons of empire, it’s a good time to remember the other side?
As we prepare to go back to war in Afghanistan, voices of dissent are ringing loud across the country and the Internet. Michael Moore:
Following President Obama’s announcement on Tuesday of a short-term troop surge in Afghanistan, an emotional Michael Moore told CNN’s Larry King, “I feel very bad for him.”
“I feel even worse for our troops,” Moore went on, blinking back tears. “And I feel a real sadness for the parents of those soldiers.of ours over the next eighteen months who will not come back home.”
“Our own CIA says there’s less than a hundred al Qaeda in Afghanistan,” Moore explained. “What are we doing in Afghanistan? This is absolutely insane. ... We have been in this war for twice as long now as the US was in World War II. ... We’re going to have 100,000 troops there to find these killers—who aren’t even there!”
And, even more to the point, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY):
The Bush administration permitted the world’s most notorious terrorist mastermind to escape because it needed additional justification to invade Iraq, according to a Democratic lawmaker from New York.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) leveled the allegation during an interview with MSNBC host David Shuster on Monday afternoon.
“Look what happened with regard to our invasion into Afghanistan, how we apparently intentionally let bin Laden get away,” he said. “How we intentionally did not follow the Taliban and al-Qaeda as they were escaping. That was done by the previous administration because they knew very well that if they would capture al-Qaeda, there would be no justification for an invasion in Iraq.”
“They deliberately let Osama bin Laden get away?” asked an incredulous Shuster. “They deliberately let the head of al-Qaeda get away right after he, right after the 9/11 attacks? You really believe that?”
“Yes, I do,” Hinchey replied. “There’s no question about that. The leader of the military operation in the United States called back our military, called them back from going after the head of al-Qaeda because there was a sense that they didn’t want to capture him.”
Time will tell how much longer America can keep this up. Hard to play World Police when you can’t pay your cops. Bad, bad times indeed.
From the band’s website:
A feature length documentary film telling the story of blur is due for cinema release on January 19th. “No Distance Left to Run” is directed by 32 (Dylan Southern & Will Lovelace) and is a Pulse Films Production.
Filmed throughout the band’s 2009 rehearsals and acclaimed summer tour, No Distance Left To Run finds all four members of blur together for the first time in nine years. With previously unseen archive material alongside new interviews and reportage, the film recounts the highs and lows of a very British band from the late 80’s return to their headline at Glastonbury and Hyde Park, The result is a musing on Englishness and identity and a portrait of friendship and resolution.
(via Nerdcore )
Here’s a trippy music video “Keep it Going Louder” performed by Major Lazer and directed by Eric Wareheim.
Shown below, a live cover of Aleister Crowley’s “The Tango Song” by Marc Almond, one of Crowley’s better poems, apparently. Marc Almond was the legendary singer of 80s synth-sleaze duo Soft Cell. Aleister Crowley was George W. Bush’s grandfather. The evil team-up would seem a fitting challenge for any Marvel superhero. Via The 93 Current:
I just felt like sharing this small video I recorded at yesterdays Marc Almond show at the Roundhouse in Camden, London. “The Tango Song” was written by Aleister Crowley with music by Bernard Page; based on the sketch called “The Tango” published in Equinox Vol I, No 9 in March 1913.
Author Charles Hugh Smith discusses his latest book Survival+, an indispensable guide to understanding global turmoil and transformation, weaving a full spectrum of intellectual disciplines—history, political economy, ecology, energy demands, marketing, investing, health and the psychology of happiness—into a uniquely comprehensive book that offers practical principles, not just for surviving, but prospering in the difficult decades ahead.
As someone who has spent many years acquiring rare Joni Mitchell bootlegs, I can tell you, there’s not a lot out there. I’m sure that many live recordings exist of Mitchell from all eras of her career, but not a lot of them have slipped out to traders (in comparison to Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd or the Grateful Dead where there are hundreds and hundreds of live concerts floating around the Internet). When music business blogger Bob Lefsetz sent out a missive the other day about Entertainment Weekly having an exclusive on a 1970 Joni Mitchell duet with James Taylor streaming from their website, well, “click” I was there. The duet begins with Mitchell solo, performing Carey then segueing into Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man. She playfully forgets the lyrics before calling on Sweet Baby James to help her out. It’s sheer delight.
This sublime moment—one of many—is taken from a new 2 CD set (with book) called Amchitka: the 1970 concert that launched Greenpeace and you can buy it directly from Greenpeace here (I don’t think it’s in stores or Amazon). The show took place on October 16, 1970 in Vancouver, British Columbia and was organized by lawyer/activist Irving Stowe, a man often called the father of Greenpeace. The goal of the evening was to raise enough money to buy a boat to transport activists to Amchitka, Alaska to protest the nuclear testing the US government was doing there at the time. It was to be the very first Greenpeace action
Intense folk singer Phil Ochs starts the set, after some passionate introductory words from Irving Stowe. He is followed by Taylor, who was just hitting the big time and is announced as a special surprise guest. Mitchell, then coming off her million selling third album, Ladies of the Canyon, but still nine months before her masterpiece Blue, was the bill’s topper. In 1970, Joni Mitchell was probably the biggest selling female artist in the world—surely she was the most important—and it has been said of her that she was the midwife to the birth of Greenpeace. 39 years later, both she and James Taylor (and the estate of Phil Ochs) are donating their royalties from sales of the CD directly to Greenpeace.
If you want to sample it first, the entire set is streaming from the Amchitka website—click on Music, then click on the link that says “Play List and Streaming”—but don’t be cheap, the 2 CD set, with 48 page booklet is only $21 from Greenpeace and you’ll be supporting a worthy cause. Makes a great Christmas gift because it gives twice!
Footage from the Greenpeace’s maiden voyage:
SMI²LE! We’re apparently right at the threshold of near-immortal life extension… well, assuming we can survive the next 20 years, that is. Kurzweil and other mandroids reported thus:
Researchers at the Maximum Life Foundation met recently to discuss their latest anti-aging findings. Their goal is to extend the human lifespan indefinitely by 2029… though it’s not yet clear how that’ll actually work.
The Huntington Beach-based Foundation held a Longevity Summit earlier this month, where biologists and geneticists shared their research into how humans might live longer ?
Before
After
According to artist Erial Ali’s website: “I am proud to offer the unique *magical* service of Erial Ali creating a Celestial Soul Portrait of YOU!”
Erial also creates “magical” versions of family portraits from photographs. His prices range any where from $150 to $250.
Visit Erial’s website to view more Celestial Soul Portraits.
(via J-Walk Blog)