Memeworks

The Final Jeapordy Question

2006-04-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Too delicious not to post.

Michael Franti preps new Spearhead CD, a film and a book

2006-02-20T02:29:00.000-08:00

No life is worth more than any other, no sister worth less than any brother...Michael Franti

What Happened To My Country?

2006-02-20T02:03:00.000-08:00

Camano Islander asks the big question:

What happened to that Constitution that so wisely divided the government into three separate units, to provide a system of checks and balances against any one branch usurping power? How did we wind up with a President that refers to the Constitution that he swore to protect and defend as “just a goddamned piece of paper,” and a Congress that seems willing to rubber stamp any giveaway the President demands? How did we find ourselves with a Supreme Court that will set aside the Constitution in favor of unlimited presidential power for the duration?

Zero consciousness

2006-02-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

Nothing last forever

The best things in life are not things

Forever is nowhere...and not very wide

Zero was one the greatest live music experiences I ever had. Zero was one of the most talented groups of musicians who could intuitively play together I ever saw. A Zero show literally changed the course and direction of our life.

A wise man once said to me that Grateful Dead music was for the head, Zero music was for the crotch and the head. Something about sex with Grateful Dead music not working, but with Zero it was tantric bliss. There is something to be said for that.

While I will be there in spirit and it's nice that Zero consciousness will again flower like a many petaled Lotus blossum, my heart is heavy with the abscence of Bobby Vega from these shows. The man, while being the funkiest, had a heart and soul about his playing that's a perfect foil for Steve Kimock's flights of interstellar guitar.

It should be noted that Will Bernard turned in a fine performance with something like Zero not to long ago.

Still to be there to hear the first Kimock/Fierro led Coles Law -> Tangled Hangers in six years would be a thrill.

A nice review of recent Phil and Friends New York shows

2006-02-18T06:25:00.000-08:00

by Dan Alford

Let's give credit where credit is due. Phil Lesh sold out half of his thirteen date New York tour (regional residency?) well before the first date without announcing a single member of his band; admittedly there were hints about Jeff Sipe on the kit, but no guitar players and no lead singer, and he's selling out 3000 seat theaters? The man has clout- not just for well timed, utterly calm comments on the LMA debacle, which had him looking like a wizened old mystic, or for his eternally generous approach to own music, turning out free soundboard after free soundboard as he does, but because the man know how to pick a band and cultivate a vibe.

The Enemy

2006-02-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

We hear a great deal about enemies these days, and many of them are quite real and quite perilous. It is difficult to imagine a more perilous enemy, however, than the one operating out of Washington today. This enemy would set itself on high, beyond control or censure, and create of itself that permanent faction James Madison so earnestly warned us of. This enemy deletes or hides evidence of its calumny, or simply alters existing laws that would otherwise derail its plans. This enemy destroys lives out of hand, lives by the tens of thousands, and reaps a pretty profit in the process.

More on the tollbooths soon coming on the internet

2006-02-07T16:32:00.000-08:00

Big telecom providers such as AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. want Internet companies such as Google, eBay and Yahoo to pay additional money to guarantee fast transmission of big data files over their broadband networks.

Internet companies, the carriers say, are getting a free ride on their networks even as new services such as video downloads eat up more and more bandwidth. So the telecoms are in quiet talks with some of the Net's biggest content providers to set up just such deals.

But consumer groups and some Internet companies aren't happy about the prospect of tollbooths going up on the networks.

Facism appears in Toledo, OH and Haliburton building new domestic prisons for the Dept. of Homeland Security

2006-02-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

Two great stories from one great site for one low price - free!

Warrantless searches, harrasment and snowboarders

2006-02-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

Every year the local ski resort, Mt. Baker Ski Area, holds an annual snowboarding competition called the Banked Slalom. It's one of the biggest weekends of the year for local businesses and brings our very small community national and international attention.

It's also a nightmare for local residents for a myriad of reasons. Our narrow two lane highway which is the lifeblood of the community get's taken over by an endless parade of cars, (mostly SUV's) driving way too fast past our homes. Passing on blind corners is just another thrill to add to the mix for those addicted to adrenaline, sometimes with tragic results. Every winter we loose a few people and pets to this highway.

But worst of all is the overwhelming presence of law enforcement. Literally we can wait up to three hours here for a sheriff's deputy to respond to a call at any other time of the year. Not Banked Slalmom weekend. Border Patrol, Forest Service Law Enforcement division, Washington State Patrol and Whatcom County Sheriff's deputies all converge on us, literally placing our normally quiet mountain towns in a state of seige. It's overwhelming and overbearing. At night they sit outside of restaurants waiting for drunks (good) and scaring off potential customers who may have just wanted dinner (bad.)

By day they sit high up in the ski lodge with high powered binoculars looking for people smoking cannabis, or under age drinking, make a radio report to the undercover cops amongst the crowds and swoop in and make arrests.

Again let me repeat, we can wait hours for a policeman if our homes are broken into (something I have experience with, multiple times) but heaven forbid, there's a snowboarder smoking a spliff in the trees.

Furthermore they create a guantlet that you have to drive through to get anywhere. Speedtraps are good and needed up here at times, but what were talking about is different. Every few miles or so a police car or two. The first year after we arrived up here my wife was over two hours late getting home from work on the Saturday night of Banked Slalom Weekend. She was pulled over three times in less than seven miles, once by a cop who had just bought a cup of coffee from her before she closed the store. Still he proceeded to grill her as if she had been drinking or worse. Another mile or two down the road and it happened again and one more time at the major crossroads a mile from our home.

However this year they seemed to have taken it all a step further. The talk up here is about the staggered placement of cops from Deming to Glacier, and pulling you over with no apparent cause and say it's about your registration, even when it's obvious your tabs are current. Once pulled over, passengers are subjected to a search of them and the car.

When presented with the argument that without cause they cannot search persons or vehicles, police have repsonded that under the Patriot Act they do indeed have the power to conduct warrentless searches of vehicles. The people in question who've had this experience were not drinking, smoking or otherwise engaged in any illegal activity, not speeding or driving on the wrong side of the road or swearving, they just happened to be on the road during this weekend.

I personally don't go out on this weekend except when necessary. I know there are different rules and procedures in place for this weekend. I also know there are drunks and assholes who just can't slow down and put other lives at risk...

What pisses me off is that the vast majority of us (those that live here and those that visit) present no problem, yet on this weekend we are all presumed guilty till proven innocent.

What also pisses me off is that we are starting to expect this kind of behavior from the police and even shrug it off as normal. That's when the forces of facism have won and our rights are no longer ours.

I'm glad our yearly reminder of the power of the police state to create fear and step all over our enshrined constitutional rights is come and gone.

And none of this will make the press of course. We are too small and largely too poor for anyone to really care what happens out here. It only is real when it happens in Bellingham.

PS: We have no streetlights up here except those that private citizens pay for. Think that's true in the rest of Whatcom County???

Time to renew that ACLU membership.

The End of the Internet

2006-02-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

The beauty of the internet has always been it's chaotic nature. No one idea or group of ideas held any more sway on the net than any other.

The antithisis of what corporate America wants. Futurists and smart people who think about the future of this glorious communication device have repeated the oft told lie that because of it's chaos the internet could never be controlled.

To an extent I think that's true. But Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and all the other players in this great human experiement see big payoffs due to them for building the infastructure. Sending email is free now, so is Googling.

The Bush Administration and corporate America want to change all of that.

Folks if we don't fight this tooth and nail we will loose the last place we really are free to think for ourselves. Ignore the dire warnings at your peril.

The Good Life of Stew Albert

2006-02-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

One of the original yippies and a resident of one of the more beautiful and friendly NW cities, Portland, OR.

SFGate obit here.

Like a steam locomotive, rolling down the tracks...

Washington State OKs Gay Civil Rights Law

2006-01-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

I'm proud to live in WA, and here is another reason.

Big Oil doing very well in Bush economy

2006-01-30T06:59:00.000-08:00

Bush my boy your doing a splendid job, just splendid. Why at this rate we will have fleeced America in record time and that new source of black gold will be flowing into our tankers in the middle east soon.

Just as soon as Iraq is stabalized.

Well, at least profits are good George my boy, keep up the good work. Well we gotta go, it's time for policy discussions with our man Dicky C.

The scientific inquisition continues

2006-01-30T06:53:00.000-08:00

Global warming - still not sure?

The adminstration continues on it's mad quest to dim the scientific lightbulb of anything they conclude that runs counter to what any good, campaign contributing corporation desires. It's good for business and America!

I'm pretty sure the Bushies don't want you to think about global warming. Back to your TV and shopping.

Department of Homeland Security Employees Addicted to Porn

2006-01-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

Tragicomedy of the highest order.

Why Google rules

2006-01-22T06:11:00.000-08:00

First they are not afraid to stand up to the facist police state. Secondly they are a progressive company.

FYI MSN, Yahoo and AOL all caved and gave the Justice Department what they wanted. Shameful.

Support google, and if you still have AOL, cmon' over to the dark side of unrestricted interenet surfing. MSN I expect to cave, yahoo is the one that surprises me.

Go google!

Alioto and Brokeback Mountain

2006-01-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

Interesting little tale of the push pull war of culture taking place right now.

Washington House Passes Gay Civil Rights Bill

2006-01-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

A step in the right direction.

The state House on Friday passed a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, sending the measure to the Senate, where it failed last year by a single vote.

The measure would add sexual orientation to a state law that bans discrimination in housing, employment and insurance. Businesses with fewer than eight employees would be exempt.

Lawmakers voted 60-37 to approve the bill.

Musings

2006-01-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

As posted in my last group email, this and the website for Radio Memeworks are the last things, (unfortunately) that I get to in my week. Often they get left behind. It's not for lack of interest it's that for the first time in my life I've had to ask the question of myself: what can I get done. Previously the question had been framed in terms of what did I want to do. Being basically a go with the flow guy, this of course is creating moments of indecision, something else I am not familiar with.

Maybe starting two new projects in the midst of a business expansion and increased commitments to clients that pay, as well as moving you Mother in Law in with you, and all at the same time wasn't one of my smater moves.

Getting the itch to spend more time in the blogsphere, html land and some new music listening, till then...

Your humble and faithful servert

Richard Pryor - r.i.p.

2005-12-11T02:54:00.000-08:00

Blazing Saddles and Silver Streak had a huge impact upon me. They were among the first adult comedies I was allowed to watch growing up.

As an adult I found the humor of Richard Pryor to be a bit spicy, but what I always liked about Richard is in his heart he was like a Black Panther, very proud of his heritage and completely unambiguous about what it was really like to be a outspoken African American actor in Hollywood in the 70's and 80's. Pryor pulled no punches.

Goodbye New Orleans

2005-12-11T02:50:00.000-08:00

In the weeks after Katrina, the American media somehow portrayed the catastrophe as a matter of failed levees and flawed evacuation plans. The "What went wrong?" coverage involved autopsies of every breached dike and a witch hunt for those responsible for the Superdome and Convention Center fiascos. But these were just horrifying symptoms of a much larger disease.

Katrina destroyed the Big Easy—and future Katrinas will do the same—not because of engineering failures but because one million acres of coastal islands and marshland have vanished in Louisiana in the last century due to human interference. These land forms served as natural "speed bumps," reducing the lethal surge tide of past hurricanes and making New Orleans habitable in the first place.

But while encouraging city residents to return home and declaring for the media audience that "we will do whatever it takes" to save the city, the President earlier this month formally refused the one thing New Orleans simply cannot live without: A restored network of barrier islands and coastal wetlands.

Downloading the Grateful Dead

2005-12-01T03:29:00.000-08:00

If your a Dead Head, it's been a bit of a crazy week. Last Wednesday, right before the Thanksgiving holiday, the Grateful Dead pulled all of it's recordings down off of the Internet Archive. The Move was largely expected, as the business of selling the Grateful Dead turns to it's archives of recorded live shows. This year the band began offering remastered shows for download at their website.

Expected or not, an uproar opened up in the various online forums for jambands all over the net. The Dead, in rock-n-roll were the pioneers in allowing audience taping and trading of their live shows. The New York Times, Forbes online and Rolling Stone weighed in on the subject, several statements were made by various members of the Grateful Dead and Family, including John Perry Barlowe, Phil Lesh and several statements by Dennis McNally, the official spokesperson for the band.

Included in the uproar were several online petitions, one calling for a boycott, the other thanking the Dead for sharing all the music they have over the years. Eventually the whole uproar and media attention, brought a compromise for now. Audience recordings will be back on the archive.org website sometime today. Read this post from archive.org for what the rules are now.

My own personal take on this as a Dead Head since 1982 is a jumble of mixed feelings. I'm extremely grateful to the band for sharing all these years and look forward to more top shelf remastering, as with the newly released Fillmore West 1969 recordings. This music moves me like no other and still after all these years, I generally can't get enough.

On the other hand, there have been some major missteps in dealing with their fanbase and communicating properly. It's also clear from all of this, that there are major divisions within the Dead family, all the way up to the four surviving members. Of this I care little, other than I would love a harmonious family, but reality is, it is what it is.

However the questions of the recordings in their vault, how they will be distributed and in what form linger. My hope is that above all, they settle their differences on this and find a format that pleases whatever business goals they have, and our desire to hear, and posess what is for alot of us the soundtrack of our lives.

"When you get confused, just listen to the music play."

POSTSCRIPT: The Grateful Dead website upgrade was finally launched and one can see for themselves perhaps a glimpse of what Terrapin Station might have been like. From my spenidng 10 minutes surfing around, I was deeply impressed with the depth of it, the cross refrences, and the history they are sharing. This is a move in the right direction.

About Spam comments on this blog

2005-11-21T05:45:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

It has come to my attention that spammers are using the comments section of this blog as a place to hawk their crap.

I allow Google to put ads here as way to generate revenue for myself and because of their progressive nature and the good they have done to move further along, this great true, free bastion of expression, the global internet.

Spammers are like pond scum, not very attractive, smell bad and are in need of removal.

As such I have changed the rules on the comments section so that you have to be a member to leave a comment. Weather this remain temporary or not remains to be seen. If you need to write to me go to the Radio Memeworks website and submit from the secure forms there and I'll get back to you. If it's worthy I'll post it here.

But no more spam...

How the Bush administration got spooked

2005-11-21T05:10:00.000-08:00

"It's finally Wizard of Oz time in America. You know - that moment when the curtains are pulled back, the fearsome-looking wizard wreathed in all that billowing smoke turns out to be some pitiful little guy, and everybody looks around sheepishly, wondering why they acted as they did for so long."

"How stunningly in recent weeks the landscape has altered - almost like your basic hurricane sweeping through some unprotected and unprepared city. Now, to their amazement, Bush administration officials find themselves thrust through the equivalent of a Star-Trekkian wormhole into an anti-universe where everything that once worked for them seems to work against them."

The events of recent weeks have given me much hope and comfort that indeed we will survive the right wing/corporate takeover of the government. In private coversations with others that are thoughful followers of politics, all are agreed that by totally serendipitous means the debate has finally shifted away from the adminsitration's chosen framework. No longer are their talking points swallowed as whole truth by the corporate controlled lapdogs of the mainstream media. Even Bob Woodward, the guy who with Carl Berstein launched thousands of careers in journalism, came out smelling like the insider loving rat that he really has become.

Even more important is that the language of the American conversation has changed overnight. The fact that the media is no longer acting like the propoganda arm of the US Governement is taking the lid of the brewing teapot of anti-war sentiment and fueling the fires of those who see the very wealthiest do better while the rest of us worry about bills and the three jobs we hold to get by. The reality of the situation of the average American ran smack dab into the illusion of security and economic stability this administration has so carefully created. Even the local old timers, the loggers, most of them vets, understand things like China owns enough Treasury securities to seriously affect our economy at any time, that this is how this dirty little war was paid for. The one thing they all give credit to Bill Clinton for is a balanced budget. The true facts, not the Rovian myth of the last five years have finally trickled into mass consciousness. We now have the upper hand and the momentum in the meme wars to come.

The linked piece above is an awesome article about this language change and the lanscape change that has sprung up, allmost overnight across America. After five very dark and stormy years the sun is beginning to break through the clouds.

Time to breath in some fresh air, take a break, and get down to the business at hand of dismantling the Bush presidency and the reversal of his more disasterous policies.

the straight poop

2005-11-15T18:23:00.000-08:00

I always wanted to write that. There, I feel better.

Been working hard lately, immersing myself in various realities that are a bit outside of my norm. Change is good they say, whatever, I say. I very much look forward to more of a return to routine at this cycle of he wheel: lots of reading, writing, mandolin playing, several significant indoor house projects...etc.

Of course, also spending more time on the Radio Memeworks website, and here.

As for politics, I am taking another brief breather from a subject that simultaneously thrills me and pisses me off. The administration must now deal with a renagade congress (both side of the aile) hostility in just about every foreign land he visits and some very uncomfortable press and criticism here at home. While they reap the ill wind they created I breathe out and in and avoid the political debate for a bit.

If something truely is worthy of posting I will. I can't stop checking into truthout.org, cursor.org and buzzflash.com daily, though I am reading far far less these days, mostly scanning...

Be well.

Late Winter 1969 Grateful Dead run of shows at Fillmore West to be released as 10 CD limited edition box set next week.

2005-11-08T15:26:00.000-08:00

Grateful Dead Productions and Rhino Records are releasing a 10 CD boxed set which consists of every note of music played live by the Grateful Dead 2/27, 2/28, 3/1 & 3/2 1969 at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, CA.

Long considered by scholars and afficiandos of the bands music as one of the best if not the best multiple night run's of shows the band did in their 30 years performing live together. Sort of the holy grail in the coin of the realm. The Dark Star> St. Stephen off of the Grateful Dead's first all live album, Live Dead, was recorded on 2/27/69 and the Death Don't Have No Mercy> Feedback> And We Be You Goodnight was from 3/2/69. These are very special shows indeed.

In fact the demand caught GDP by complete surprise. All 10,000 of the one time limited edition set sold out within weeks, about three months ahead of their 7500 sold by the holidays prediction. That's it, they are gone forever. Those lucky enough to get in on the offer will be holding one of the true collectors items of the Grateful Dead world. This is a new development in the altered universe of the Grateful Dead. Since the late 60's the Dead have officially and unofficially allowed trading of their live shows amongst fans. In more recent times anyone with a better than dialup connection to the internet could download or listen to almost any show in the band's career, thanks to sites like www.archive.org or www.gdlive.com. However when a show is offically released by GDP it is removed from all download servers and the officially released version trumps all others. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing.

Rhino and GDP did release a three CD best of compilation that includes most of the features of the box set.

For now though only the lucky 10,000 have the new remastered complete note for note run, though I suspect that the compromise for those not satisfied with the three disc compilation is that these will eventually be available via download from the Grateful Dead Store. After the dust settles and sales flag on their three disc compilation I'm sure we will see a download option.

Not at all to gloat, but I am eternally grateful to my deadhead wife Marni for making me purchase it back then, when I was wanting to wait for various reasons. She knew what even GDP didn't.

Who knew.

I Can't Wait by David Swanson

2005-11-03T04:26:00.000-08:00

From remarks made for World Can't Wait Rally at White House, Wednesday, November 2, 2005.

"I don't know about the world, but certainly I can't wait any longer to end this war or to impeach this president. One more death, American or Iraqi, is too many."

Confessions of a Marine

2005-11-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

[...] Captain Schmitt came towards me and asked me, very calmly: "Are you OK, Chief-Sergeant? [...]" "- No, Captain. I'm not OK." "- Why not?" I answered without hesitation: "It's a bad day. We killed a lot of innocent civilians." "- No. It's a good day," he retorted in an authoritarian tone. Before I had time to answer, he had already moved away from me with a confident tread."

Sony Music is installing software on your computer when you put one of their artists CD's in your PC CD drive.

2005-11-02T12:26:00.000-08:00

"Mark Russinovich couldn't understand how the rootkit had sneaked onto his system. An expert on the internals of the Windows operating system, he was careful when it came to computer security and generally had a pretty good idea of what was running on his PC at any given time. And yet the security tool he was using to check his PC was pretty clear: It had found the rootkit cloaking software typically used by virus and spyware writers.

After a bit of detective work, Russinovich eventually tracked down the source: a Sony BMG Music Entertainment CD titled Get Right with the Man, performed by country music duo Donnie and Johnny Van Zant."

Apparently this doesn't affect Mac users for whatever reason. These media companies and their obsession with anti piracy in the US takes another bizarre twist.

Sony controls a huge catalog of major artist material. Everyone from Louis Armstrong to the Allman Brothers and on to Bessie Smith and Peter Tosh, etc. Considering all the music that goes up on this station goes through one of three CD drives it's fair to say it probably exists on our computers.

Read the story. Corporations regularly cross the line with impunity into private spaces. I'll be looking for a way to remove it. Hackers regularly figure stuff like that out. When and if I find something that works, I'll gladly post it here.

We are what we consume

2005-11-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

...we have entered a new stage in the consumption society. Objects no longer simply answer needs: we generally don't need a new car or dishwasher. A new motor has been added to the logics of price arbitrage and social symbolism, one of a psychological order. More and more we choose products or brands for the psychic benefit they bring us. And that benefit is often unconscious. How can we make a rational choice when there are 22,000 products to choose from in one hypermarket?

Despite all of our supposed choices, everything everywhere is beginning to look the same. Shopping, once a desired activity is now a chore, among the most hated. We battle it by shopping at smaller, locally owned, independents wherever and whenever possible. Less confusing, better quality and friendlier people that actually know what the hell they are talking about are just some of the benefits of this choice.

Quite frankly I can't wait for the end of consumption.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Real George W. Bush

2005-10-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

Bush is finished as a force in American politics. How he ever got to become president in the first place -- not once, but twice -- will remain a subject social scientists will study and debate for decades to come. Because there was plenty of evidence that George W. Bush was a made man. He had accomplished nothing in his adult life on his own -- not one thing.

It was the thing they had always feared most: the real George W. Bush went public. There it was, for the whole world to see: a chuckling, twitching dope of man standing in front of the American people, unleashed and unscripted. Worse yet, he was making his own decisions. He chose his friend and admirer, Harriet Miers, for the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

Indictments for the White House and resignations

2005-10-28T11:09:00.000-07:00

W is off to Camp David of course, lay low, say little.

This administration finally ran smack into the rule of law.

Break out the champagne!

Record Oil Profits for Exxon - the CEO's happy and it shows

2005-10-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

Despite Hurricane damage, despite everything, Big Oil is looking good!

The old GOP vents it's venom on W

2005-10-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

Lots of articles in the MSM right now about what a tough week it's been for poor George W Bush. Wah wah wah.

This is one of the best, Shipwrecked, also, of notable interest as well, is a speech made by FMR Bush Sr crony, John Danforth .

Indictments are expected today, I'll blog a bit more then.

Interview with Dennis McNally - the history of "American Bohemianism" Kerouac and the Grateful Dead

2005-10-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

I suddenly had this Eureka moment. I said I want to write a two-volume history of—at the time we called it the counter-culture—I would say now, American Bohemianism. Since the period after World War II, through biography and volume 1 would be Kerouac and would cover the 40s and 50s, Volume 2 would be the Grateful Dead and would cover the 60s and 70s. Because I took so very long, I had the 80s and 90s thrown in for free. That, to make a long story short, is what I did. I wrote the Kerouac book in ’79. Sent a copy to Jerry and he, eventually, invited me to write a book about the Dead, to which I said, “great idea.”

While it's over simplistic to leave out Ginsberg, Ferlingehetti and a host of others, McNally is onto to something here, in that I believe there was an American artist renaissance that started somehwere in the 20's, fully flowered in the Jazz age and continued through the early, more psychedlic 70's, and eventually was supplanted by the rave/designer drugs/virtual reality pardigm shift in the 90's.

Another Military blogger shut down and his internet access restricted

2005-10-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

A very interesting tale.

Hidden Bonus Tracks/ Bonus CD's

2005-10-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

In the analog age of LP's and cassettes, bonus material came in the form of promo LP's, 45's and the occasional career retrospective double or triple LP set.

In the digital age, career retrospective box set's spanning as many as four or more discs are now common. Were talking about big business here. In the case of Miles Davis or the Grateful Dead we can be talking about as many as 40+ discs. Hours and hours of previously unreleased material are available to the serious listener.

In the digital age, however the playing field is far more level and any artist can slip an extra track on the end. Anything from some studio hijinx to a full fledged song.

Sometime over the summer my wife asked me what I thought about doing hidden or "ghost" tracks over the Halloween holiday period. Sure, I said, sounds interesting enough, a fun project.

We began keeping lists of ones we came across. Then I started checking out any CD that I inserted into my CD-ROM drive to convert files to MP3 for use on the radio station. Then the task began of separating them from the final song on the album. For example on more than a few Acoustic Disc CD's (David Grisman's critically acclaimed boutique label) the last track is followed by a period of silence and then a hidden track.

In software I stripped the last song off and saved them as new files. I also saved the first songs sans the silence and the bonus track. Convert them into MP3's, and hand write in all the ID Tag information properly, so that the artists CD will still come up if you click on the track.

Well after two months of off and on cataloging and ID'ing these songs, we discovered we had over eight hours of hidden and bonus tracks. So over the weekend I will upload them to the station, so that by Monday 10/24, an entirely brand new, 18 hour, play list will be up and running. 1/2 will be hidden bonus tracks, and an even split of Halloween/Samhain themed music and the regular milieu we offer on the station will fill it out.

A partial list of artists included: The Grateful Dead, Korby Lenker, Barbed Wire Cutters, Havilah, Bruce Harvie, David Grisman, Dana Lyons, Free Peoples, Snake Oil Medicine Show, Jefferson Airplane, Mickey Hart, Phish...etc.

Puget Sound Region Feeling Climate Change

2005-10-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

My favorite picture of Former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay

2005-10-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

Ummm, that would be his mug shot.

Can't wait to see him in his fetching new orange jump suit.

Shameless bastard, I hope he rots for 10 years and learns to not grab the soap on the shower floor the hard way.

(sigh)

I feel much better now.

White House prepares for possible indictments

2005-10-17T03:03:00.000-07:00

I smell blood in the water and the effective end of the Bush Presidency. His ability to govern is severely hampered now that the poodle's in the mainstream press no longer sit and listen with rapt attention as he spews the same old, same old. Fangs are growing, scapel's are being sharpened, indictments have started coming in on the GOP machine of DeLay, First, Bush and Cheney.

Those pesky, still not found, WMD are going to be the albatross around their necks. Poetic justice.

Cue Bob Dylan's Masters of War...

FMR Seattle Police Chief says, legalize drugs

2005-10-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

Norm Stamper, the former Police Chief of Seattle has written a book called, "Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing" (Nation Books, 2005).

In a commentary in the LA Times he comes right out and says,

"I don't favor decriminalization. I favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, meth, psychotropics, mushrooms and LSD."

Surely having worked a few Seattle Hempfest's, the nations largest annual pro-canabis rally, and a few Ivars Fourth of July extravanganza's, he knows that there are less arrests and little to no violence at the Hempfest.

Hurricane Katrina surely brought more than destruction to the Mississippi delta region it also seems to have brought us some real novelty, in itself a real novelty in the Bush/Cheney years.

Careful, non fear-based, rational discourse might break out all over!

New Cannabis research shows that herb can increase your brain size!

2005-10-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

The alarmist Partnership For A Drug Free America won't like this.

Pass the duche on the left hand side please.

The Minutemen come to Whatcom County

2005-10-05T04:41:00.000-07:00

Yup, gun toting, flag waving private citizens are patroling our northern border now as well. The Minuteman are in Whatcom County for one month and the Whatcom County Sherrif's office has laid out the welcome mat with very few caveats.

As I live 20 minutes from the border this is of obvious concern to me. There has been quite a bit of local hand wringing about this, here's what an actual Border Patrol Agent wrote in to the Bellingham Herald (our local, Gannett owned daily)after it became clear that the citizens of Whatcom County do not appreciate these folks being here, nor are we impressed with out local leaders who essentially welcomed them with open arms:

As deputy chief patrol agent of the CBP Border Patrol-Blaine Sector, I'd like people to know that the Border Patrol has not endorsed the Minutemen nor any other initiative at law enforcement other than by trained, qualified professionals.
That, however, does not absolve us from acknowledging that they will indeed be here and that a meaningful dialogue will be necessary to avoid compromises to our mission or to anyone's safety. That much has been done - whether or not it qualifies as unprecedented cooperation is a subjective determination.
So, inasmuch as the Border Patrol does not endorse this agenda, neither is it our place to abridge the Minutemen's right to lawfully promote it.
The Border Patrol will regard the Minutemen as we would anyone else reporting illicit activity.
And - we will also insist on the same standard of lawful conduct that we would expect of anyone else.
Joseph W. Giuliano
Blaine

Personally I hope the rain and the cold which have moved back in with a vengence inconviences these guys and they leave mumbling to themselves about warm, dry climates and a politically more sympathetic area, like Texas, and Arizona and So. Cal. May slugs crawl all over their shoes and mold grow on their gas guzzling SUV's.

Paul Pena 1950-2005

2005-10-05T04:33:00.000-07:00

Paul Pena wrote Jet Airliner (Steve Miller hit) and was featured in the ripping good movie about Tuvan throat singing, Ghengis Blues.

I added a few tracks of Paul Pena recorded live with the String Cheese Incident from spring 2001 to the radio station.

Here's what Jambase.com had to say.

Happy 80th Gore Vidal

2005-10-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

Having only recently discovered the writings of Gore Vidal, I'm not very qualified to comment on his place in the American arts and letters. However I have learned more about American empire building and the secret history of the United States from Vidal than any other writer.

Happy birthday Gore Vidal.

Reclaiming your soul

2005-10-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you but this time of year I feel more witchy, more connected. I wrote to tell a friend this and she responded back that she experienced this time of year the same way, a time to reclaim the soul.

Were just past the Equinox in a new moon phase and I'm just giddy with positive energy.

The Japanese Maples in the yard are in full on psychedelic leaf changing mode, the ground is wet and it is getting colder. Apples and squash in abundance at the farmers markets.

The Evening Grossbeaks and the Black Headed Grossbeaks have moved on south for the year and the Band Tailed Pigeon's, Flickers and Woodpeckers have moved down to the edge of the forest.

Snow on the peaks surrounding Glacier, moving in and out view through wisps of thick gray cloud banks moving through.

Tourists have thankfully taken their SUV's, rude behavoir, screaming brats and Wal Mart and Mickey D's garbage and returned to their antiseptic burbs, where they belong.

Time for some quiet time with old friends, Alan Watts, Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Cloud hidden whereabouts unknown.

Between the opposites lies the path. Another perfect allegory for Fall and Spring.

...now where is my broom;-)

Smoking Gun???

2005-10-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Me thinks this could be either the nail in the coffin or a nice diversion from the real issue of lies about WMD. Either way it's not good for the Repug's.

Implications of New Orleans

2005-09-09T04:56:00.000-07:00

My heart is very heavy with what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. An entire large American city is being systimatically emptied by gun-toting soldiers. The Red Cross has not been allowed into New Orleans. Pets are not being rescued. Offers of support from around the world are pouring in but because the US is not used to getting aid but giving it and as a result of the lack of good will among other nations and our own due to the Iraq war, it's largely still not coming into the diaster area. W and Rove and the rest of the kool aid drinkers in the White House are busy putting on the spin on this atrocity. Money folks in Huston and the rest of the region are salivating at the prospect of all the business opportunities that will arise from this. In fact oil futures traders in Chicago and other locations drove the price of oil up to it's highest level ever. Up 26% in my neck of the woods in one week. Profiteering off of disaster, that's the American way. Blood money if you ask me.

Meanwhile, the birthplace of Jazz, the great American art form, is a military controlled zone and the entire population of a large US city is now scattered to the four corners of the country, some volunterily, others by force.

The implications of this stagger my imagination and weigh heavily on me.

If this neo-facist artistocracy that currently is in control goes down in flames, my hope is that this is the albtross that hangs around their necks. The needless death and destruction, the complete lack of care for citizens.

The implication is very clear to me, except for the super wealthy, no one is safe, no one really owns anything.

If a major natural disaster hits your area do you want your President to show concern by staying on vacation and then, days later he fly's over. When he finally arrives on the ground it's all photo op's, no real survey of the situation, or meet and greet.

Let them eat cake indeed.

I'm back

2005-08-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well....

Shame on me for taking so long to reutn to this space. Dear reader I have not forgotten you, mearly have been busy creating Radio Memeworks. Now that it's up and running and things are much easier to navigate for me I will be returning to these pages now and again.

R.I.P. Vassar Clements - I met Vassar in 1999 at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle, WA. I asked him to sign his then new CD, Back Porch Swing. I asked him to sign it "Clamp" his nickname from the Old and in the Way days. He told me I was the first to ever request that. Very sweet and gentle man, what an awesome fiddler, the whole audience was transfixed by his fluidity and style.

What's Up?

2005-03-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

Nothing and everything!

I've launched Radio Memeworks on live365.com. Still sorting out some details and readying the big marketing campaign so as details become available I will pass along more information.

For now if you stumbled in here from my Radio Memeworks page at live365.com, welcome!
We are still working out a few details and should be a fully funtioning unit again (blog and radio station) any day now.

The journey is the prize!

R. Meme & M. Meme

Happy Birthday to the other Zappa -

2005-03-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Marc Zappa Daniel!

If you have lived in the northern part of Washington state, or have attended a few Zero or Dead related concerts from San Francisco north, you have probably met him. He looks so much like the dear departed Frank Zappa, that most people refer to him as simply Zappa.

Hi lives in a pink and purple house in Mt. Vernon, WA that is festooned with assorted anti Bush signs, stickers, etc. He grows a gorgeous flower garden every year and has the coolest mini collection of Bamboo in an urban setting that I have seen.

To have shared in his hospitality (usually the ever present coffee) is to have stepped into a nearly forgotten hippie era. Time moves slower at Marc's even though Marc is usually moving at 100 miles an hour on at least 10 things at once. At least for me when I step into Marc's house I feel I have stepped back into being a Deadhead. That feeling that it IS all good, life is certainly more than work and routine, everyone you meet is interesting and there is a happy sense of anticipation and choas that are hallmarks of the Dead experience.

In other words, Marc and his realm are a fun place to be.

In his own idiosyncratic way Marc has given much to the community. He ran the Rexville Grange in La Connor for years, bringing Zero and many other bands their first north state exposure.

Oh yea and the man has a collection of live and rare recordings that simply stagger even my musicologist imaginings. I have 1/100th of what he has and I consider my collection vast and well respresented.

And in the spirit of the community he shares it. It used to be cassettes and videotapes, now it's Cd's and DVD's.

In fact he's so famous at it, no less than the New York Times has written an article about him.

In honor of my friends birthday and the man who married me (something I was sure would never happen) I excerpt from it here:

PS: you have to buy the article online, so no direct linking and no full post. (Search for Marc Daniel+Grateful Dead+bootleg recordings at the New York Times website and it'll come up first)

THE ARTS/CULTURAL DESK

They Buy All the Albums, but Trade Concert Bootlegs
By MATTHEW MIRAPAUL (NYT)
Published: January 6, 2003

Marc Daniel added 1,400 albums to his compact disc collection last year. But he is not waging a campaign to reverse the music industry's declining sales. Almost all the titles he acquired, by groups like the Grateful Dead and U2, were live concert recordings that were never officially released. Nor did he buy them in record shops. Instead, he used the Internet to trade for them, swapping copies of his discs for recordings he desired. He said his CD trading with its questionable legality and exhilarating musical payoff was like ''a coke run without any drugs.''
Mr. Daniel, 51, a property manager in Mount Vernon, Wash., is addicted to music trading, and he is hardly alone. With a minimum of online searching, fans of virtually any band from arena-filling superstars to cult-worshiped club acts, can find a Web site or electronic mailing list to feed a habit for live CD's. Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen? No problem. Illicit recordings, or bootlegs, of their concerts circulate soon after the last car leaves the parking lot. But a show by the singer-songwriter Dirk Hamilton or the electronica musician Luke Vibert? Also no sweat. In the music world, you're nobody until somebody loves you enough to want your bootlegs.

While the Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam and other bands allow their shows to be recorded and freely exchanged, many do not. Trafficking in unauthorized sound recordings is a violation of federal copyright law as well as a felony in more than 30 states. Yet online traders don't seem troubled. Mr. Daniel said he copies about 90 discs a day to fulfill trades he has arranged. It's all about bliss. ''I don't feel like a criminal,'' he said. ''What I'm doing is bringing joy to people and bringing joy to me.''

Bootlegs are unauthorized recordings, mostly of live performances, that were never meant to be released by musicians and their labels. Bootleg CD's are different from counterfeit CD's, which are illegitimate copies of official releases. There are markets for both.

The Internet has quickened the trading process. In the days before e-mail, traders would respond by mail to classified ads in music magazines. A trader outside Philadelphia who founded an electronic mailing list for Pearl Jam shows said, ''Before, it took weeks if not months,'' but now it's so fast that recordings of four December shows by Pearl Jam have already been distributed to hundreds of collectors.

Mr. Daniel admits that he has yet to listen to every minute of every CD in his collection. But he continues to trade at a feverish rate. Last week, he gained a new rationale for his obsession. A musician told him he had stopped drinking on stage when he realized that all his performances were being circulated. Mr. Daniel said, ''It causes them to play better knowing that every note is going to be heard by somebody in Australia.''

Happy Birthday Marc!

Of Korby, Whatcom bluegrass bands and Snow, R.Meme's dream # 111 and parties (in other words a overly long, rambling post about many different things)

2005-03-14T03:15:00.000-08:00

Boy this slowing down my life is sure keeping me busy!

Been a little under the weather lately. Kept me from going out to see Korby Lenker as David and Goliath open for Korby Lenker in the Barbed Wire Cutters this past Friday night. Kept me pretty close to home and the cabana most of the weekend. On the mend, just wish the stomach cramps would completely go away. Bit of food poisoning I suspect, but I'm not a medical man.

Well I guess winter is over. The ski area is closed, Banked Slalom is cancelled, I only have one more gig on my music calendar. Artistically we did Ok, in all other realms this season, it was a mixed bag again, more to the positive this season than last.

I'm still waiting for an artist to call me and tell me they need an audio archivist, who also has experience preparing healthy vegetarian, and Asian cuisine and can navigate in any town or city. And then I wake up from my dream and get back to entering useless bits of data into my computer for consumerist purposes all because I need a new condenser microphone, oh yea and some more organic greens and artichokes. Beer money doesn't hurt either...

Planning a big party to celebrate my fourth wedding anniversary, the purchase of our home last year and a few other milestones in the road. Since the word from on high is no more booking bluegrass because the discriminating folks in Glacier are sick of it, we are doing a triple band, all bluegrass evening at my house for the party. Since I have invited most of my favorite musicians from Bellingham and they all said yes, I am hoping a few of them are bringing their instruments (the ones not playing with their bands) and we get a jam session or two, some cross pollination of ideas.

By and large there are some interesting contrasts that will take place. The youthful swagger, fiery speed and abandon of Feed and Seed, the always adventurous, rarely boring, songwriters and pickers that make up the house band at Graham's, Bent Grass, as well as the beauty in old time simplicity with hot shit picking that is Quickdraw M'Graw. Musically the nights a guaranteed success.

The wife and particularly myself have lived hermit like existences for the better part of the last 13 years, so giving any kind of social event and having it in our sacred space is a bit of a daunting task. We gave a Christmas party this past year that was by any point of view a fine, fun affair, but for us it was strange having all those people in our house at once. The furniture rearranged, decorations, being the focal point all night long...very stange indeed.

But this is another animal. 25-40 people in my home, lots of beer, barbecuing and music.

This is why we chose April 20th as our wedding date. We knew it would always be a festive day. Also in the normal cycles of the Gregorian calendar Earth Day shares that date every so often.

Nine years of living together, four years of marriage, four four legged kids, two of whom are recently departed, seems like a reason to have a party with friends and interesting acquaintances. There will be people at this party that represent every stage of our relationship and life together from Seattle to Glacier and all points in between.

Prayers for Vassar

2005-03-12T08:57:00.000-08:00

from Vassar Clements homepage:

Dearest Friends,

It is with great sadness that we must type the news of Vassar's recent diagnosis(March 11th) of small cell lung cancer. He is in good hands of confident doctors, and the hearts and prayers of family, friends, and fans. His faith in God, his always upbeat spirit, and the happiness he has brought through his music will all play a role in the hopeful miracle we pray for. And something not to be forgotten, he is in the great care of his daughter Midge and son-in-law George. Vassar is also blessed with a wonderful and supportive extended family.

In light of these health developments, Vassar will be unable to make scheduled performances for the month of March. Please stay tuned to the website for any further cancellations. He is receiving immediate treatment for this form of aggressive cancer.

The beauty of Vassar's music matches the kindness of Vassar's soul. We ask all who have ever been touched by him to please pray for a speedy recovery. God performs miracles everyday, and noone deserves it more then this true gentleman.

For those who recently placed orders, please allow some added time for delivery. We do apologize and hope for your understanding.

Please sign the guestbook to give Vassar something to read as he starts this journey. Cards are welcome and can be sent to the PO BOX listed on the contact page. No phones calls please.

Please visit Vassar's website at http://www.vassarclements.com

The Bush Economic Record in graphs and charts!

2005-03-04T04:38:00.000-08:00

Impress your friends and neighbors or better yet flood the inboxes of red state friends who still think this guy is right for America.

The truth in pictures seems to resonate in this day and age better than mere words.

U.S. outlaws execution of children

2005-03-04T04:32:00.000-08:00

The Supreme's in a 5-4 decision took America one step closer to civilization the other day by outlawing execution of children under the age of 18.

From Marjorie Cohn's article:
Until March 1, 2005, the United States was the only nation in the world that permitted the execution of children under age 18. Only seven countries besides the U.S. have executed juvenile offenders since 1990: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and China. Since then, each of these countries has either abolished capital punishment for juveniles or made public disavowal of the practice. With the Supreme Court's monumental ruling in Roper v. Simmons, the United States has finally joined the community of nations that says the state-sanctioned execution of children is wrong.

Gannon/Guckertgate - deliciously weirder

2005-03-02T06:08:00.000-08:00

Counterfeit news from paid reporters, administration propaganda mills,friendly reporters embedded in the White House who toss up a softie if the shit really starts to fly. Can this story get any more delicious, more salacious, stranger?

Oh yea!

It's making scary right wingnut, Ann Coulter have problems as well. Consider her the first indirect causality of Gannon/Guckertgate. You see Coulter, a wicked, loud mouthed, mean spirited right wing columnist decided to defend the White House giving a press pass to Gannon/Guckert by stating the following: Press passes cant be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.

Umm Ann, wipe the froth off of your mouth.

Crooks and Liars has a video clip of Ann going rabid and calling Alan Colmes a liar over the Gannon/Guckertgate story.

If you still need more satisfaction, go here to the CBC website.

But wait it gets even stranger...Americablog has the following: FOX News covers Gannon, and actually obliterates him. Hell freezes over. Chickens grow lips.

Pentagon using soldiers paychecks to increase it's expenditures

2005-03-02T05:59:00.000-08:00

A neat trick of accounting by the Pentagon has allowed them to dip into funds set aside for soldiers pay and then when the bill comes due they ask Congress for more money to cover the loss. Basically it's a back door way of increasing their budget off the backs off soldiers. What's Congress going to do, say no.

DefenseTech.org reports:

Since the fall, Rumsfeld & Co. have been dipping into the Army's day-to-day funds -- like money for soldiers' paychecks -- and then daring Congress not to make up the difference with a second, "supplemental" pile of cash.

The tab comes due this Spring, Defense Daily reports. The Army needs $41 billion of that supplemental kitty by then, or else it is going to go broke, without cash left to pay G.I.s.

Inside the American Bubble

2005-02-28T04:46:00.000-08:00

Having noted before about the Presidents insistence on not seeing reality outside of carefully chosen and screened groups and audiences in regards to his 2004 re-election campaign, Tom's Dispatch recently had an excellent post about this as well as in regards to Bush's recent European visit.

Entitled Potemkin World or the President in the Zone it lays out the story of the "bubble" the President travels in. Read or skip all through this article and at the end are two excellent letters, one from Germany where the writer describes exactly what went on in the town of Mainz during the Presidents visit. It's a town devoid of activity by road, train and river, where you couldn't go to your windows and you were forbidden to be on your balcony. Factories shut down and the workers had to make up the lost production time on two Saturdays. All commerce was shut down. In other words their lives were turned upside down and then security forces basically forbade them from doing anything but staying shut in their homes.

"Ordinary German Citizens" were allowed a Q&A with Bush,

20 so-called young leaders were chosen by the [conservative] Aspen Institute and the German Marshall Fund, and so a few hand-picked Germans were talking with the President instead of upset citizens.

All tightly scripted, completely devoid of any reality and for sure no negatives, no protestors, no tough questions. No real people.

In general I have to wonder, why go to Europe at all? Certainly the administration knows that any reception beyond an official one will be icy at best in Europe, and as soon as they are gone, European leaders are going to get right back to remaking the new world that Bush gave to them. One that makes Europe stronger not weaker after the Iraq war.

They are not fooled by a paper tiger, nor, last week,

could Europe's leaders have missed the way, as a New York Times editorial put it, "a seemingly innocuous remark from the central bank of South Korea" about "diversifying" the dollar into other currencies, made "the dollar tank" and markets briefly plummet. Call it a little taste of another kind of "shock and awe." The greatest superpower with the greatest military and the greatest muscle and the greatest threat potential and the greatest power-projection ability and the greatest . (well you get the idea) turns out to have economic feet of clay.

Europe while being outwardly conciliatory knows that America is now only a military superpower, largely because we posses the largest stockpile of WMD, on the ground a rag tag army of local isurgents daily controls most of Iraq. Economically, diplomatically and just about any way you can imagine America no longer stands as leader of anything really except raw military power.

The ultimate irony of course took place in Bush's visit to Russia. Bush lectured Vladimir Putin about democracy. An unsmiling, visibly irritated Mr. Putin squirmed as he listened to Mr. Bush tell a press conference he had been told that Washington had "concerns about Russia's commitment in fulfilling" the "universal principles" of democracy. "Democracies always reflect a country's customs and culture, and I know that," Mr. Bush said. "Yet democracies have certain things in common; they have a rule of law, and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition."

About as subtle as a jackhammer, and Putin is considered a friend, an ally in the fight on terror. Another scrapbook moment for American democracy.

Cue Michael Franti's Bomb the World

What's going on...

2005-02-27T13:40:00.000-08:00

Been really working hard lately and we are finally going to slow down a bit, plant a garden and smell the roses as it were.

Several things are on the pot, currently stewing. Coming up the quickest is the last band of the winter season at the venue I work for, Graham's. Stella Bruce takes the stage next Saturday night to perform a Dead influenced night of dancing music. Stella Bruce is the hippie alter ego to Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Whatcom County's finest country swing band. They say they have been playing Dark Star lately in practice. This could be interesting...

Prepping up the yard for expected Spring planting. Though the way the weathers been you could technically call this Spring like.

Going to the dentist this week. Yeahhhhh!...Last time I took 12/7/71 Grateful Dead, might take something from the 60's this time.

Been looking into various forms of internet broadcasting lately and am close to settling on a plan to begin regular broadcasting via the internet. All part of the master plan.

Not too much more to report, perhaps after some much needed rest I'll get back to regular original posting. News stories will continue to be added as needed.

Mercy Now - The Cosmic Game

2005-02-26T05:35:00.000-08:00

Two new Cd's made their way into my possession this week. One is Mary Gauthier's (pronounced Go-Shay), Mercy Now, the other is Thievery Corporations, The Cosmic Game.

Mary Gauthier made her way into my consciousness via KPFA.org's streaming content. My own radio show is on Saturday nights and I generally clean the house on Sunday's with KPFA's streaming webcast as my musical background. From 11am PST to 4pm the best roots oriented, Americana music programs anywhere air, Across the Great Divide with Robbie Osman till Noon, America's Back 40 with Mary Tilson till 2pm and depending on the week Pig In A Pen with Ray Edlund or Panhandle Country with Tom Diamant till 4pm.

It was during Panhandle Country that I first heard Mary Gauthier. The song was Sugar Cane from her 2002 CD, Filth and Fire. She snarls and spews anger about the economic and environmental injustices of sugar cane plantations. There is a wailing, mournful harmonica playing melody, the whole song sounds menacing, like thick smoke from burning sugar cane. I was floored. I called long distance to the KPFA studio to find out what it was. Mary GoShay he says.

Great, I plugged in every permutation of Goshay into google and nothing came up. Eventually I searched for Sugar Cane on I-Tunes and hit Mary Gauthier. That was about nine months ago. I've since searched out all of her music. To be honest the titles intrigued me the most: I Drink, Drag Queens and Limousines, Goddamn HIV...this woman writes about a world I inhabit.

I was intrigued and the more I listened the deeper the waters became. Nothing about the music of Mary Gauthier is simple save maybe the arrangements. This is music and words that inhabit a grittier, more real America than what you get from the latest blow dried superstar on CMT.

So...I was doing some postering for an upcoming show at the venue I work at, was at a used record store in Bellingham and found this while doing a quick browse through the new and used CD's, there it was, Mercy Now. Came out this week, the man said.

...I hate this part, where I come up with new and interesting superlatives for another great CD from a serious artist. Make sense of it for you, oh dear reader, ... not likely. The stories told here are too involved for firing off another off the cuff review.

What I can tell you is this: the music of Mary Gauthier has worked itself into my DNA, she's an artist not afraid to tackle difficult subject matter, and when she does more often than not she nails it (search out the song Goddamn HIV, if your not moved, you have no blood in your veins.) Falling Out Of Love, the first song on Mercy Now, takes you right there, to the angst one feels when it's over, without sounding sappy, cloying or cute. It's ironic, laced with straight faced sarcasm, sounds mature and nods lightly towards Dylanesque lyrical style in that it's in your face, yet it's clever enough and sounds intersting enough, that it goes down like homemade raspberry/honey butter.

If the world ran on a five star rating system I would give it a 4.95. Very little in my world is perfect, meriting a 5.0.

Sometimes you just want awesome, irie vibed, groove oriented, slightly trippy background music. If you do, Thievery Corporation is for you. On headphones, under the influence, their music is much more than background music, on a big stereo it sounds rather good but a bit thin for serious sit down listening.

However, Thievery Corporation is all about chilling out, wine and hash bar style, and having a groovy, psychedelic, music bed to heighten your experience.

On this, their 5th release, there is no new ground broken, but of their last three discs, The Cosmic Game offers their strongest complete package of work since 2000's The Mirror Conspiracy.

Some heavy hitters help the Washington D.C. based duo out on this one including Perry Farrell from Janes Addiction and Lallapolooza fame, the Flaming Lips and David Byrne.

Grab some friends, throw this CD in, add a decent bottle of Pinot Noir, roll a fatty and guaranteed everyone will have an excellent time. If you desire to hear something profound go see the 25th Anniversary relase of Curtis Mayfield's, Superfly.

Bush press conference with Vladamir

2005-02-26T04:11:00.000-08:00

no question, whether it be in America or anywhere else, the sign of a healthy and vibrant society is one in where there’s an active press corps. Obviously, there has got to be constraints. There’s got to be truth. People have got to tell the truth, and if somebody violates the truth, then those who own a particular newspaper or those who are in charge of particular electronic station need to hold people to account.

This Just In: CEOs Are Rich

2005-02-26T04:08:00.000-08:00

Excellent Bill Moyers interview: About the rapture and the propogandists at Fox and Sinclair

2005-02-26T03:57:00.000-08:00

Bill Moyers is the elder statesman of the real American Journalism.

Nick Welsh writing in the Santa Barbara Independent recently interviewed Bill and I thought I'd share it with you. It's called, MEDIA MONSTER KILLER Corporate Media, Coming of the Rapture, and the Culture of Fear: Coffee Talk with Bill Moyers
Some great stuff in here like this gem:

You’re a Texan. LBJ was a Texan. Bush is a Texan. There’s all this myth about Texas. Does that give any edge in understanding this guy? Or is Bush really a Texan or just an East Coast Brahmin masquerading as a Texan?
He’s Texanized American politics. I was never fooled by it, but if you go home to Texas today, it’s a Christian empire. The state of Texas is a Christian nation. Conservative Christians dominate everything there. I don’t know Bush. I’ve never met him. I don’t know if he’s a likable man or not. But I know if I met him I would ask him, “How can you grow up well-churched and well-loved and well-taught and be so utterly insensitive to other people’s reality? How can you be so indifferent to people?” He’s a privileged man who is the ally of people who are trying to undo the social contract in this country and to take us back to the pre-1932 period, when it was every man for himself and American economic strategy was to let the animal spirits of capitalism run and everyone take the consequences. I do not understand that. Except to say that if a son of privilege cannot see beyond his own prerogatives and is therefore unable to feel and see how life is for others, then that’s a tragedy and a political travesty.

Canada wants no part of Missle Defense,

2005-02-26T03:31:00.000-08:00

Canada announced late this week that it will not take part in the U.S. missle defense system. Immediate reaction from the Bush administation was swift and to the point:

Although Prime Minister Paul Martin said Canada would “insist” on maintaining control of its airspace, U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci warned that Washington would not be constrained.

“We will deploy. We will defend North America,” he said.

“We simply cannot understand why Canada would in effect give up its sovereignty – its seat at the table – to decide what to do about a missile that might be coming towards Canada.”

How could those damn, almost French (they speak French don't they) pansey assed Canadians not see the threat from WMD?

What chills my blood is this implied loss of sovereignty. More, "Your with us or against us," cowboy mentality from the sensitive folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Despite a 50/50 track record of sucess and soaring budget deficits, the Bush Administration is going forth on this boondoggle that wasfirst purposed under President Reagan.

Ways the Music Industry Is Changing in Seattle (and Everywhere Else)

2005-02-23T06:09:00.000-08:00

An excellent article on ways the music industry is changing.

FDA shows itself to be the industry lapdog it is

2005-02-22T07:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry to be so cheerful with the news today, but this is another subject I have been keeping track of. The FDA has rubber stamped Vioxx and Celebrex and other COX-2 drugs as ok and can remain in use.

I can smell the money. Folks if your taking these drugs, find something else to help with your pain. The FDA says their safe, here's what Europe is saying. This from Medicine.net. Finally what Health Canada has to say.

Another bottom line based decision, screw the public safety. Nothing must hinder corporate profits.

Executive Clemency for Executive Killers

2005-02-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

What little protection we as a people had against the abuses of corporate America, just got flushed down the toilet. Greg Palast tells us what we lost.

More activity on the climate change front

2005-02-22T05:44:00.000-08:00

Der Spiegel has an interview with Dr. Hermann Ott, the director of the Berlin office of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, one of Europe's leading climate policy research organizations. In the interview, he says that global warming is inevitable and mankind must take steps for the softest landing possible. It will also mean fundamental changes in the way we live.

Steve Connor writing in The Independent U.K. offers up - The Final Proof: Global Warming Is a Man-Made Disaster.

Ok there is no crisis, go back to watching FOX News, there's nothing to see here...move along...

WTO activist goes from the From the Streets to the Inner Sanctum

2005-02-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

it's the greatest story ever told
David and Goliath, how you be so bold
standin' up to the giant when the goin' gets hot
and all you got is a slingshot
well they tell me that the world's turned upside down
you gotta pick it up and shake it, gotta turn it around
you gotta take it apart to rearrange it
I don't want to save the world I want to change it
don't let 'em tell you that it can't be done
'cause they're gonna be the first ones to run
just take a little lesson from Seattle town
WTO and how we shut it down

yeah, didn't we
shut it down
didn't we

From Didn't We by Jim Page

Mike Waghorne, an activist on the streets of Seattle in 1999 was allowed to be part of a process recently to find the new WTO director general. We've come a long way.

This is a great story and one that offers up a little hope in dark times.

Hunter S Thompson - R.I.P -- When the going get's weird, the weird turn pro.

2005-02-22T04:05:00.000-08:00

When I was maybe 15 or 16 my older brother gave me his copies of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, and Hell's Angels. Already my family was aware of my interest in politics. The book ended up being a bit of a guide to my future. My time in college was spent studying journalism largely because of HST and Woodward and Bernstein. In language fine and fowl, laced with psychedlic imagery, fueled by speed and booze, Hunter laid open the dirty soul of America in it's final death throes. Hunter knew that America democracy was largely dead, the American dream a myth created by advertising to perpetually dull us into beleiving it was still the 50's. I knew it too at the end of the 70's, beginning of the 80's when I became accutely concious of a world outside of my parents carefull scripted suburban reality. This is when his writing came into my possesion and gave voice to things I barely understood, but had grasped as simple truth.

Also like HST I was obsessed with Nixon. Watergate to be more exact. Not exactly normal stuff for young adults I'm aware, but my tastes have always run to the slightly strange.

It's been a long time since I've read any of HST work. Maybe the occasional Rolling Stone article he wrote, if I happened to be somewhere where Rolling Stone was. I read a few of his later books, like Generation of Swine, and while I loved them on their merits, their tone was a bit off to me, too angry, too fear and loathing and I never understood the guns and violence thing, I fucking hate guns.

As I woke up yesterday, the first thing I read was the Rude Pundits "Hunter S. Thompson Is Dead and We're Not Feeling So Good Ourselves." I was stunned. Another one of my formative influences gone, this one taking his own life. He joins Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna, Jerry Garcia, Allen Ginsburg, William S. Burroughs and others in whatever is next. These folks are some of the voices in my head that make up my own voice. All of them deeply flawed individuals who somehow managed to grasp greater truths about art, culture, politics, religion, sexuality and brain change.

Hunter really took the cake in the iconoclast department. Leary had his god complex, and Burroughs had his heroin, Hunter had one thing none of these guys had, an outraged sense of righteousness coupled with a healthy dose of absurdity and the ability to express it in a manner so eloquent you almost couldn't help but appreciate it. In taking the were all doomed, but at least we can have fun along the way approach, Hunter interjected much needed depraved humor into topics that normally churn my stomach.

The news of his death gave me over 24 hrs of angst. He put a bullet in his brain, immediately one has questions about why. Was he sick, doesn't appear so, he hadn't run afoul of the law recently...questions, questions... Why is it we must know why? Death is such a personal thing. Because he's a writer, someone who gets into the wiring in your head, we feel we must know everything in order to understand. I've gone back and forth on whether this is important or not, to no conclusion.

The only thing that made any sense to me was this; perhaps like a shaman he had glimpsed the end game of our present madness of war, ecological destruction, and probably most importantly the near complete loss of Fourth Amendment rights enshrined in the USA Patriot Act.

Ruminating on all of this I googled HST. I never got further than this fairly recent interview in Salon:

So what took place during this past election?

I believe the Republicans have seen what they've believed all along, which is that this democracy stuff is bull, and that people don't want to be burdened by political affairs. That people would rather just be taken care of. The oligarchy doesn't need an educated public. And maybe the nation does prefer tyranny. I think that's what worries me. It goes back to Fourth Amendment issues. How much do you value your freedom? Would you trade your freedom for some illusion of security? Freedom is something that dies unless it's used.

Strong stuff, but what thinking person here in America hasn't thought this lately.

This quote from the Salon article, as well, sent me off in a bunch of different directions:

"I do not advocate the use of dangerous drugs, wild amounts of alcohol and violence and weirdness -- but they've always worked for me." I think I said that at a speech at Stanford. I've always been a little worried about advocating my way of life, or gauging my success by having other people take up my way of life, like Tim Leary did. I always quarreled with Leary about that. I could have started a religion a long time ago. It would not have a majority of people in it, but there would be a lot of them. But I don't know how wise I am. I don't know what kind of a role model I am. And not everybody is made for this life.

Maybe Hunter, being the freedom loving patriotic individual he was, and being tired enough at his age, decided not see the results of the humungous stinking pile of shit the Bush oilgarchy (yes oilgarchy) is dumping on all of us.

If it were true. Of course we don't know really, and this is just my speculation. Perhaps it's the twisted romantic in me.

For another great piece on Hunter, William Rivers Pitt gives us, The Proverbial 'Live Boy.'

In any case I'm sure he's looking for a bottle of Wild Turkey and a few hits of Owsley acid, ranting "where's Nixon, that son of a bitch, I've got some things to discuss with him..."

I raise my glass to a uniquely American character and ranconteur...

Canadian Prime Minister says - legalize gay marriage.

2005-02-19T03:25:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhhh, Canada. I live so close to the border I can literally be there in minutes. From experience I can tell you it looks similar to America, but the vibe is much different. Here in Jesusland (aka USA) in the last election gay marriage was probably the wedge issue that drove nitwit fundamentalists to the polls in crucial states (we won't go into fraudulent elections here.) In an earlier post entitled Exporting right wing values north to Canada, I dealt with the push by American fundamentalists to begin pursuing their agenda there as well.

Yesterday, Paul Martin, the Prime Minister of Canada, in language I dream will some day come out of the mouth of an American politician, came out in favor of bill C-38 to legalize same gender marriage.

An excerpt of his speech before Canadian Parliament: "Today, we rightly see discrimination based on sexual orientation as arbitrary, inappropriate and unfair. Looking back, we can hardly believe that such rights were ever a matter for debate. It is my hope that we will ultimately see the current debate in a similar light; realizing that nothing has been lost or sacrificed by the majority in extending full rights to the minority.

"Four years ago, I stood in this House and voted to support the traditional definition of marriage. Many of us did. My misgivings about extending the right of civil marriage to same-sex couples were a function of my faith, my perspective on the world around us.

"But much has changed since that day.

"If we do not step forward, then we step back. If we do not protect a right, then we deny it. Mr. Speaker, together as a nation, together as Canadians: Let us step forward."

Can you imagine a U.S. Senator, or even better a President saying this. Forget the monkey's ass currently occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, sometime in the future, when the Boxer/Obama administration takes office in 2009 perhaps. It's hard, I know, but try with me.

I am brushing up on Canadian politics as I find it fascinating and it never escapes the back of my mind that I have friends in BC, work in our industries is plentiful there, the best Chinese Food this side of San Francisco on the west coast...

Canada just shines like a beacon of common sense solutions to vexing social problems. Gay rights, oh yea, top of the agenda, cannabis legalization, they are working on it, universal health care, but of course. They are not perfect in any way, but they make more sense on social issues, and religion and government do not mix there for the most part.

These stories fly completely under the radar here. In fact the coverage of yesterdays speech by the Canadian PM went virtually unnoticed here in Jesusland. Left I on the News noticed it as well. Wouldn't the opening of a debate in a Canadian Parliament on the subject (Gay Marriage) be newsworthy? Well, you'd think. The New York Times today carries only a story from Reuters, not even their own story, but that's better than the Washington Post or my local Knight-Ridder paper The San Jose Mercury News, neither of which carries a word on the subject.

Screw the Children! - Why I love Molly Ivins

2005-02-19T03:15:00.000-08:00

In another fit of insomnia, (gee isn't quitting smoking fun!?) while surfing the blogshpere for news and inspiration I came across Molly Ivins newest column. Entitled Screw the Children, it's a delicious bit of scorn heaped upon the shameless Bush administration budget boondoggle that they just presented to the Congress.

Molly wins the award for best column titles hands down.

White House publicly wants little to nothing to do with gays, behind closed doors and as long as you follow the party line, that's another matter.

2005-02-19T02:27:00.000-08:00

The bizarre case of Jeff Gannon won't go away. Guess whose beating the drumbeat for pushing this story out into the limelight? Blogs!!!

Let's take a tour through the latest tasty bits of info. The mainstream press has picked up on this story, Editor and Publisher surveys big media's coverage, Rude Pundit has been fanning the flames of Gannon/Guckert and he weighs in on why Gannon/Guckert matters, most interesting of all is that he asks, Who Do You Have To Blow To Get A White House Press Pass?

See I like this story. The hypocrisy inherent in Bush's publicly stated views on homosexuality, when viewed through the lens of the Gannon/Guckert story comes completely into focus. Forget Cheney's daughter, boring forgotten campaign fodder that is, this so deliciously down and dirty, I'm giddy with glee.

The White House didn't just let some right wing fanatic into the White House Press Room, complete with a real press pass, not just the daily pass given to most reporters, to serve as PR hack for the administrations agenda. No. they let a flaming homosexual, one who was involved with the creation of gay websites into the heart of government and policy decisions, a guy who also had no previous experience as a reporter. Is it smelling bad in here, time for some incense? Maureen Dowd of the New York Times couldn't even get a press pass at the start of the Bush administration and this guy was Scott McClellan's go to guy for softball setup questions on adminstration talking points.

As Rude Pundit points out: The latter is especially interesting since Dowd reveals that she couldn't originally get a press pass from the Bush White House, despite her previous access: "I was rejected for a White House press pass at the start of the Bush administration, but someone with an alias, a tax evasion problem and Internet pictures where he posed like the 'Barberini Faun' is credentialed to cover a White House that won a second term by mining homophobia and preaching family values?" And now we also know that Gannyguck had his press pass and was called on to ask questions of Ari Fleischer a full month before Talon "News" ever existed.

For more saucy details, AmericaBlog has offered up a fine visual portrait of Gannon/Guckert at work and play. He also put together a nice list of softball questions from him.

Been here so long I've got to calling it home

2005-02-19T02:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry, dear readers, work for clients has really been sucking up my time this week, and I left you no knew posts since Sunday. I am ashamed of myself and will re-double my efforts to be here now!

Seriously in a republican controlled economy one must do many things to make ends meet. Expect a flood of posts.

Gus and Kati and the Mighty Ghosts of Heaven

2005-02-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

Once in awhile you come across something fresh, different, it moves you to pay closer attention and eventually enraptures you. Such was the case with my first listening of Gus and Kati and The Mighty Ghosts of Heaven's 2004 release, Werewolf.

As a booking agent and a DJ, I hear plenty of good new music, and still spend 1/2 of my time going through my collection, listening to archival material. Werewolf stood out for several reasons, one is the radical take on traditional old time string band songs. Turned on their heads is an apt description. Using various ukulele's, a mountain dulcimer and upright bass, it's the interesting musical bed upon which vocalists Gus Smith and Kati Claborn weave their tales of death, bloody battles, love lost and a few other cheerful topics.

Ahhhhh, and what voices they have. Kati's voice is crystal clear, strong and sounds straight out of Appalachia, Gus's voice is lower, a bit weathered and belongs to an era of hobos hopping trains, pre-automobile. When the two of them sing together it can literally send shivers up your spine. On the all vocal title track from Werewolf, you can hear the fog creeping through the tree's, feel the full Moon overhead and sense danger of an unknown variety around the corner. It's almost occult the effect.

The second thing about the Werewolf CD that blew me away was the overall sonic quality of it. It sounds of another era, yet succeeds in coming off as a modern album. No small feat.

Last night Gus and Kati and the Mighty Ghosts of Heaven came and played live on my weekly radio show. I left feeling that it was one of the best shows I have ever been a part of and playback this am confirms it. Considering I'm still weak at the mic, it's safe to say they more than carried the day. In fact they brought me brand new material, several interesting obscure Dylan covers and a spirit of fun and mirth that is pervasive throughout the show. At the end I let them take over the console and spin some of their favorite music, some interesting stuff, none of which I had ever heard before. (Rotten bastards, I loved it all, and am compulsive about music research, so, in effect they gave me homework.)

They told me last night they are in the process of putting up a website, I'll pass it along here, when I get it.

Lemon Patrol

2005-02-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

In the mid 80's audio engineer and member of the Audio Hall of Fame, Henry Kloss had a vision. A small company that produced high quality speakers at a fraction of box store retail, by marketing direct to the public via mail. Cambridge Soundworks was the name of the company and Ensemble was the radical design in speakers that launched them.

I bought an Ensemble speaker system and loved it. I had it for almost a decade till it was stolen. Sharp musical detail in all frequencies, awesome presence in the room and with the two separate subwoofers offered up real bass, not boom like from a traditional 10-15" speaker.

So when I upgraded my PC music system to include a mixing board, making it my living room stereo, I naturally went to the company I knew and trusted. I had bought one of their low cost off the shelf PC speaker systems years ago and it is still being used on my wife's computer. I went for a bigger, more powerful system this time, the Microworks 210D. As for sound I am completely satisfied. Very accurate and warm sounding.

My complaint is the customer service. Since Creative Labs, the people who make audio cards for PC's bought the company, the service sucks.

When I bought my Microworks I gave them my PO BOX, as I don't like stuff shipped to my house, there is a bit of crime here and it rains a lot. When two weeks went by and I still did not have my speakers, I called the handy 1-800 number to see what was up. They couldn't ship to a PO BOX. Well, I said, why did no one bother to contact me to tell me this. No one had a good answer. I finally spoke to a supervisor who apologized (always welcome when you have hundreds of my dollars and I have no product) and put my speakers on the fast track in the warehouse and paid for express UPS shipping. Nice.

Well they up and died on me the other day. The only sound they make now is a low cycle hum. So I call tech support, fine they say, ship it back to us and we'll fix it or replace it. Lovely I say, oh and how long is the turnaround time? Four or more weeks.

It's not the product itself that's a lemon, it's the service. Let the buyer beware. As music editing is part of what I do to make a living, it's headphones for an indefinite period of time. Not really ideal, not to mention no music in the office or the house.

I'm asked often for advice on buying a PC, as my wife and I are advanced users and make our living largely off of them. I always tell people who ask to go to the local guy, because if something goes wrong, your dealing with a neighbor rather than faceless cubicle dwellers making near minimum wage in some call center in Houston TX, or someother place far away.

Guess I finally learned my lesson as well.

The bizarre case of Jeff Gannon

2005-02-11T07:06:00.000-08:00

Who's Jeff Gannon? He was a reporter for Talon News Services and had White House Press credentials. It was his first job as a reporter. Intrepid bloggers discovered the tangled web of this guys real life and clearly this time truth is stranger than fiction. He ran several gay porn sites. The funding for Talon comes from a rich Texan, and GOP supporter. It just gets weirder and weirder, read more from the rude pundit here, Americablog asks; a question for those reporters who are suggesting that this is simply a liberal vendetta against a poor embattled conservative: If there's nothing really wrong here, then why are the conservative Web sites sending all his articles down the memory hole? , Timothy Karr over at Media Citizen, offers an in depth chronology and is kept updated as this bizarre tale unfolds

Community Alternatives to Corporate Radio broadcasting - Aye Matey...

2005-02-09T07:06:00.000-08:00

Since the deregulation of the broadcasting industry during the Clinton Administration, free-form radio as we knew and loved it during the 60's, 70's and 80's largely ceased to exist. Individual, locally owned stations, were replaced by broadcasting networks, the biggest and most harmful of which is Clear Channel. It's very easy to tell a Clear Channel station, if it's rock oriented, expect plenty of Beatles, Creedence, Stones, Who, Zepplin, ZZ Top, Pink Floyd, the Doors, etc, etc, and a smattering of newer, radio friendly artists, most of whom are too boring for me to relate here, Dave Matthews Band comes immediately to mind. If it's country oriented you won't hear the Dixie Chicks (they spoke ill of our President, something Clear Channel's top brass, staunch conservative Republicans to the last of them, deemed subversive and promptly banned the Dixie Chicks) what you will hear is plenty of pro war Toby Keith, or Brooks and Dunn. The country stations sound more like country pop, heavy on the love songs, cute drinking ditties, and pure shameless pop drivel. There is little to no newer to rising alt country/bluegrass stars like Jim Lauderdale, Chris Stuart and Backcountry, Korby Lenker or Mary Gauthier.

In other words, like fast or processed food, it's nutrient light, pretty bland and inoffensive and is not likely to challenge you in any way, much less shift your paradigm. It's all designed, yes designed, graphed, pie charted, bottom lined and checked against demographics and advertisers, by men is suits. Music reduced to it's lowest common denominator. Getting sleepy yet?

Average artists get played over and over ad nauseum, while awesome long suffering artists like Donna the Buffalo, to name one of many, play to full houses all along their established tour routes, sell a decent amount of CD's, yet beyond college and underground radio, flies completely under the radar of popular culture.

Fortunately, local college stations, NPR affiliates and particularly Pacifica network stations, offer up, free form, commercial free zones of pure radio listening bliss. For news and information there is Amy Goodman, a shining beacon of hope in the Corporate dominated daily news game, and Democracy Now!

Beyond that, there is Pirate Radio. Pirate radio was at the peak of it's popularity and social impact, in the 60's, and was led by a woman in Great Britian! Off the coast of Great Britain, ships loaded with broadcast equipment would slowly make their way around the British coast, hence the Pirate term. From Pirates Cove: Caroline North, the original MV Caroline, started its' radio life off Frinton where it was soon to be joined by Radio Atlanta from the Mi-Amigo.... The two joined forces and the Caroline sailed around the South of England and up the West coast to the Isle of Man, broadcasting as she went.

Since the 60's it has spread onto land and around the globe. Here in America, it's very underground, small wattage and community oriented. Sometimes it's just an earnest music lover, with a techno-geek bent, a small budget and a desire to subvert the corporate broadcast stanglehold, the reasons are as complex as the people who are deciding to openly break the law. An awful lot of pirate stations are owned and run by dissafected or retired people who worked in or around the broadcasting industry.

The example I am most familiar with, is run by a nice gentleman who used to be a broadcaster in the 70's, near San Francisco. (FYI - the story is not quite right and the details are obviosuly broad for protection.) He moved to a place later in life where he was surrounded by mountains and found there was no radio signals reaching there of any worth. So armed with what he had learned in the industry, custom built a 20 watt station from the ground up. It even runs on solar power! Over the years the station has physically moved, gone through many changes but it's dedication to quality has never diminished. Today the station has 10 different and distinctive shows, plays an amazing variety of music, new and old, across all genres and regularly hosts live bands and artists in the studio.

Last year I joined the staff of this station. The name of my show is Conscious Evolution (more Memeworking...) and I explore mostly American music from the 20's to last night. It has been a tremendous treasure for my soul. It being pirate I have the freedom to play stuff that regular broadcast stations cannot due to FCC regulations. Songs like Steve Earle's F*** the CC can be played, so can the material of one of America's greatest modern composers, Frank Zappa, and most importantly in pirate radio your generally not constricted by time. Playing a cut off of Miles Davis In A Silent Way, or a 20 minute Eye's of The World, by the Grateful Dead, is not unknown or undoable. Anything goes in Pirate radio and that's what makes it a true treasure.

Here's a recent playlist from my show as an example:
1. "Black Satin" - Miles Davis - On The Corner
2. "Mystic Man" - Peter Tosh - The Toughest
3. "Voodoo" - The Neville Brothers - Yellow Moon
4. ------voice
5. "Hazy Shade of Winter" - The Bangles - Greatest Hits
6. "International Flight" - David Snell - Thievery Corporation- Outernational Sound
7. "Little Wing" - Jimi Hendrix - The Jimi Hendrix Experience Box
8. "We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue" - Curtis Mayfield - Curtis
9. ------station ID
10. "Funkier Than A Mosquito's Tweeter" - Nina Simone - Anthology
11. "Whatever Happened To Gus (Feat. Guru)" - Medeski, Martin and Wood Combustication
12. "Peaches En Regalia" - Frank Zappa - Strictly Commericial
13. "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" - Frank Zappa - "
14. "Shake Your Rump To The Funk" - Bar-Kays - Love Da Funk Compilation

or this from an April 2004 show:
12. Walk Right In - Janis Joplin 1965 w/Dick Oxtrot Jazz Band - Bootleg compilation
13. Ain't Got That Swing - Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong Together At Last
14. Heres Love in Your Eye - Snake Oil Medicine Show: 4/06/02 Red Light Cafe, Atlanta, GA
15. Almost Cut My Hair - Leftover Salmon: 12/04/02 Higher Ground, Winooski, VT
16. Outta Control - Joules Graves - Plunge

A thin slice and not very representative, but I bet it's different than anything you've heard on the radio lately. Whether or not it's good is relative, the fact that's it out there for you to choose from in a marektplace devoid of choice is what counts.

Art and music in particular is too important as an oasis in the storms of modern life, as an agent of consciousness change, as a familiar, to be left to bottom line oriented boobs whose idea of what's good is, is what's good for his/her bottom line. Thus we live in the world of Brittany Spears, Kenny G, Beyonce and the don't rock the boat music industry.

During the 60's music was life, it reflected the culture of change blossoming across the country. In the 70's music began to be strictly commercialized and compartmentalized, though FM largely remained an oasis of choices, and reflected the angst and disillusionment of a generation, into this Punk and Disco were born as new forms. Disco led to the taming of the alternativeness of the music industry, so great was it's overall impact. Soon MTV came along and that was the real death of it. It got tied to advertising. There is nothing worse than being sold something to the tune of the Allman Brothers Midnight Rider, or even Bob Segar's Like A Rock or pick your own song/ad campaign outrage. The lowlight for me was while working at a Home Depot, counting inventory. In a one hour period I heard Bob Marley's Three Little Birds and the Grateful Dead's Touch of Grey, mixed in with the usual pablum you hear in stores. Bob Marley and the Grateful Dead, safe for the shrine of consumption that is a Home Depot, I wanted to puke.

This is not my first experience being a DJ, when I was 18 I had a short lived gig at the Concord, CA, KEGR, till I got busted by the station owner playing a 45 minute tape side of live Grateful Dead, after midnight, when I should've been sticking to the rigid playlist style of the owner. An odd combination of colored stickers on records, that ensured fusion jazz would follow classical would follow two pop songs would follow folk. It didn't make sense to me either.

I'm quite proud to be a part of an underground radio station, keeping the airwaves alive for challenging programming. Would I love a paying job in broadcasting? Sure, as long as I didn't have to sell my soul to the corporations doing the adverstising or more potentially scary, the corporations that now control the vast majority of the public's airwaves.

Support Pacifica, Democracy Now, your local college radio station and if your lucky enough to live where Pirates take over the airwaves for a time every day, check it out, or soon we will all be doomed to listening to the same stuff. Stay abreast of what the FCC is trying to do, basically allowing media company's to get bigger and bigger and control more of the airwaves than presently allowed in geographical areas.

I purposefully left out internet and satellite broadcasting, two vast and interesting subjects for later writing projects.

Stories From Fallujah

2005-02-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

Dahr Jamail gives us some insight into what really happened in Fallujah. Michel Bôle-Richard writes in La Monde, Falluja Residents Testify to the Destruction of Their City plus, yesterday was not a good day in Iraq, 30 dead in the single most bloody day since the election.

Cue Edwin Starr's, War

Inside the American Gulag

2005-02-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

Detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp contend they were wrongly imprisoned after repeated abuse by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including beatings with chains, electric shock and sodomy, their lawyer said Monday.

Of course a talking head from the Pentagon replied: Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said all "credible" abuse allegations are investigated, but he suggested the Kuwaitis' claims were consistent with al-Qaida tactics to falsely allege abuse or mistreatment.

"That these detainees are now making allegations of abuse seems to fit the standard operating procedure in al-Qaida training manuals," Shavers said in response to questions from The Associated Press about the Kuwaitis' accusations.

You can read all about it here....Plus Al Jazeera reports on questions of abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan...The Capitol Times in Madison, WI editorializes on the trial and conviction of U.S. Army specialist Charles Graner in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal: These offenses were inarguably violent, sadistic and pornographic -- and the public better brace itself for more of these disclosures, as pages from a former U.S. soldier's unpublished book about even-more grotesque practices at a detainee prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have fallen into the hands of news services. Jeremy Iggers writes in the The Minneapolis Star Tribune about The ethics of war.

Big Government is Back!

2005-02-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Yup folks, that most conservative of conservative Presidents has just submitted his 2006 budget and boy is he serious about trimming the deficit!

Even as President Bush proposes significant cuts in healthcare, farm subsidies and other domestic programs, his new budget makes one thing clear about the legacy of his first term in the White House: The era of big government is back.

Bush's $2.57-trillion budget for 2006, if approved by Congress, would be more than a third bigger than the 2001 budget he inherited four years ago. It is a monument to how much Republicans' guiding fiscal philosophy has changed over the 10 years since the GOP's Contract With America called for a balanced budget and abolition of entire Cabinet agencies.

Of course it does not include the spending on the war in Iraq, nor his pipe dream of turning Social Security over to the folks on Wall Street who brought you Enron and WorldComm.

What it does include is cutbacks for public health and check out this juicy tidbit from the Washington Post, even amid the cutbacks, some presidential priorities would remain flush. Youth programs advocating sexual abstinence would increase by $39 million, to $206 million, while $161 million would be set aside for grants to faith-based organizations to "mentor children of prisoners and provide a safe place for young pregnant and parenting mothers." In another sign of the times, financing for the apprehension of Army deserters would double.

Exporting right wing values north to Canada

2005-02-08T13:02:00.000-08:00

Not surprising really that the fundamentalist right wingnuts bent on a homophobic definition of marriage are not satisfied with their victory in each state that had a ballot initative on allowing homosexual marriage, now their after Canadians.

You see Canada, in it's brilliantly laid back way, is ready to legalize gay marriage. This of course threatens every God fearing American's marriage.

Fortunately Canadians love their precious freedoms and find most American culture, particularly anything from our neo-fascist right wing, repulsive. Like a virus that must immediately be treated.

Voice in the Wilderness weighs in here, No More Shall I Roam offers these thoughts, and True North had this to say.

David Gans's 20th Anniversary broadcasting the Grateful Dead Hour

2005-02-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

In the winter of '85 I was all of 17 years of age. Already, I was a veteran of west coast touring to see, hear and be part of the experiment that was a Grateful Dead concert. Coming from a highly dysfunctional family, my touring friends became my real family. At home I just crashed, ate and refueled on the money my father handed out, even though I worked full time, to assuage his guilt about a lot of things. The Grateful Dead and all that means, was my world in Febuary 1985. It should be noted that at the time I was seriously in love for the 2nd time, she had just renamed herself Cassidy, and sure enough, synchronistically, they played it at that run. Into this cauldron, on Febuary 19th, 1985 David Gans stepped into my world.

My previous experience with David was no more than I bought and read his first book on the Grateful Dead, Playing in the Band. Just an author credit on a book, whose subject I couldn't get enough of. Hearing the Grateful Dead on the radio regularly, and the power to share high quality live Grateful Dead recordings with so many people at once was very new. Every cassette tape I had at that time was pure gold. Random luck often played a part in what shows you had. This is way before etree.org, shn's, point and click downloading and the awesome human reasource that is archive.org. Cassettes were passed around, traded and shared like fine wine. Savored, every effort was made not to dilute the flavor and it was a bit clubbish. Who you knew determined the quality and freshness of the live tapes you got. David to his everloving credit, largely democratized the process and certainly in the pre- Touch of Grey, MTV days, spread the good musical vibes. All of sudden high quality tapes were broadcast over strong FM stations (if you lived in the Bay Area in 85, elsewhere after that) and high quality tapes of the broadcasts were made. I still have my original tape recording of Grateful Dead Hour #33 on a Maxell IIS and occasionally pop it in my still working and much loved Nakamichi tape deck, though now it connects to my computer rather than a traditional stereo. It was the real beginning of the vaults opening up, for mine and all subsequent generations of Deadheads. When you consider that the Grateful Dead is the most recorded musical act ever, that's no small feat.

I started going to Dead shows in late 1983. By the end of 1985, things had begun to change. The size of the venue for News Year Eve for one, the holy grail for Deadheads on the calendar, went from the small San Francisco Civic Auditorium, to the mega everything Oakland Coliseum. At this time there was also an explosion of information and press about the Grateful Dead. Mikel, a hand made zine was the defacto fastest way to learn and read about all that went on outside of the shows you saw, that and telephone message boards. For self addressed stamped envelopes and spare change donations, Mikel would mail them out like clockwork, sometimes with a bonus sticker. That was state of the art Deadhead networking in those days. All of a sudden there was the Grateful Dead Hour and a new fanzine that was very professionally done with love by Blair Jackson, The Golden Road. In the summer of 1985, as the band was celebrating their 20th anniversary, the mainstream media all of sudden re-found the counter-culture and the band that they had often ingnored. It was fractal in it's exponential growth after that, so that by 1988, the smaller more intimate venues were largely replaced with big sheds, coupled with the beginning of darker days in the lot. After the winter/News Years run of 1988 I quit seeing them regularly and after Brent's last show at the Shoreline in 1990 I only saw one more show in Seattle in 1995. However I never stopped collecting and looking for high quality recordings of of the music. My passion for the music this band of misfits and outlaws created has now lasted over half of my life.

Living, working and commuting in the Bay Area in the early to mid 80's KFOG 104.5 FM was a staple at work, in the car, at home, etc. On the 19th of Febuary, a night that I was at the Henry J. Kaiser in Oakland for the Chinese New Years run, David joined M. Dung, a DJ at KFOG for their then new show focusing on the Grateful Dead. Mr. Dung was not a Deadhead. M. never did another Grateful Dead hour. David took over and since then, his has been the voice to broadcast choice moments of live Grateful Dead lore. Since 1985 the show has gone nationwide and now globally over the internet. Over the years the station carrying the Grateful Dead Hour wherever I was living at the time may have changed, but the show pretty much stayed the same.

This past year I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time and working with David after 20 years of off and on listening to the Grateful Dead Hour. As well as bringing what I and friends referred to as "church time" into my home all those years, I was delighted to discover recently that David had a career as a unique kind of hippy honk tonk singer/songwriter. Even better he jam's and jam's well with his creative use of loops of guitar parts, creating an interesting multi layered sound. Not a bad songwriter either, he has penned many quality tunes of his own as well as a few with Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. In early 2004 I interviewed him for an article that appeared on jambase.com.

The Grateful Dead Hour radio program will celebrate its twentieth anniversary of weekly, nationwide broadcasting on Saturday, February 19, 2005 with a radio marathon from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. PST consisting of sixteen hours of Grateful Dead and Dead-related music.

Hosted by David Gans, the show will be broadcast live on KPFA 94.1 FM in the Bay Area and KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno, CA. Additionally the broadcast may be heard around the world via a web cast to any internet connection with an audio streaming program via http://www.nugs.net, http://www.kpfa.org and http://www.kfcf.org.

For being a super nice guy, an agent provocateur for change, the guy who helped re-start my career in the music and broadcasting business, an inspiring one of a kind musician, and sharing all these many years, what for me is precious, the music of the Grateful Dead in all it's lovely glory, I raise my glass and offer a toast to the next 20 years of the creative experiment that is David Gans.

The Coming of American fascism

2005-02-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

Let's face it, US history is replete with examples of non-democratic behavior; The slaughter of Native peoples and subsequent stealing of Native lands, the internment of Americans of Japanese decent in WWII, McCarthyism, the COINTELPRO program of the late 60's, early 70's and more recently with the extreme restrictions and loss of liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights, put upon us by the USA Patriot Act, are all examples.

Post 9-11, and in particular more recently with the clampdown on dissent at the 2004 conventions, the inauguration, and the corporate owned media literally echoing whatever the administration says on the war and not reporting nearly anything that may constitute bad news for the current government, many, are starting to think we may have gone beyond the point of no return. That democracy as an experiment indeed might be dead, to be replaced with the new American fascism.

When the same started to be spoken by members of the libertarian leaning right, it's time to take notice. Scott McConnell's article entitled Hunger for Dictatorship in the American Conservative, states: there are foreshadowings well worth noting. The last weeks of 2004 saw several explicit warnings from the antiwar Right about the coming of an American fascism. Paul Craig Roberts in these pages wrote of the brownshirting of American conservatisma word that might not have surprised had it come from Michael Moore or Michael Lerner. But from a Hoover Institution senior fellow, former assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, and one-time Wall Street Journal editor, it was striking.

Bill Moyers, writes in a Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune article entitled There is No Tomorrow that, one of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.

America, once a great global superpower of military and economic means, with a real desire to be a good citizen in the world, albeit not perfect, is no longer any of these. Oh sure we can out bomb anyone, no doubt about it. But when Wall Street and the UN is nervous that Asian investors may begin to pull away from the dollar, compounding our enourmous debt problems, you know we are no longer anywhere near an economic leader. In fact our status now in the global marketplace is that of a Third World debtor nation. Our workforce is now the ever shrinking joke of the world, not the goods creating engine we were in the last century. We have an increasingly large poor to lower middle class that make up the vast majority of Americans. Shitty low paying, no benefit, service jobs that are in daily danger of outsourcing or downsizing are now the norm.

Our economic downturn has been coupled with a renewed fervancy in fundamentalist christian rhetoric and big business oriented policy decisions. Instead of science in the face of AIDS we offer up abstinence programs. We collectively freak out over a nipple on the TV during the Stupor Bore. Every one of the Presidents 2004 re-election campaign events was a carefully staged, tightly controlled event. No one with conflicting viewpoints was even allowed in, if you managed to make it in and were discovered you were removed and probably arrested.

The saving grace of any democratic governement is a free press. Since the corporate takeover of all facets of news delivery, except the internet, opposing points of view are vanishing at an alarming rate. Shrill, fear based, talking heads have replaced investigative reporting, tough questioning and any kind of objective analysis. If you only read American print dailys and the main national weekies, or only watch a steady diet of the top 6 or 7 American TV outlets for news, your not getting anything close to the real story of what is being done to you, for you and against you. If Fox News is your source for information you very likely think Saddam did have WOMD and close ties to Bin Laden, such is the quality of their reporting.

Ignore this trend at your peril. This is no longer the realm of street corner crackpots or religious fanatics.

Global Warming, what Global Warming?

2005-02-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

I live in the mountains, within 10 miles of the Canadian border in Cascadia. I have had mosquito's, frogs and budding plants at my house since the great melt that took place in mid January. Back then within 36 hours, we went from 20 degree temperatures, about a foot of compact snow on the ground, to an ice storm, to all the snow gone and 50+ degree temperatures. It was a radical change to say the least.

Everybody's talking about it, but no one want's to discuss what it means in terms of Global warming.

What are we doing about it here in America? Nothing, the Bush administration is so in bed with oil and energy concerns that to admit there actually is a disaster looming would be to chop off the legs of his most important constituency, I call it Big Energy. It's much bigger than Big Oil or Cheney writing energy policy in secret with industry guiding his every move. For Big Energy, the only thing that matters is that oil and gas must flow. Exxon just reported record breaking corporate profits, enough that it is actually humbling Wall Street.

Over in the UK, Blair's government is taking a more serious approach:

Future historians, looking back from a much hotter and less hospitable world, are likely to play special attention to the first few weeks of 2005. As they puzzle over how a whole generation could have sleepwalked into disaster - destroying the climate that has allowed human civilisation to flourish over the past 11,000 years - they may well identify the past weeks as the time when the last alarms sounded.

Last week, 200 of the world's leading climate scientists - meeting at Tony Blair's request at the Met Office's new headquarters at Exeter - issued the most urgent warning to date that dangerous climate change is taking place, and that time is running out.

For more on what the British are doing and the rest of the above article go here, or for a more in depth history and survey or recent events Tom's Dispatch has kindly provided the follwing, go here.

Free Peoples

2005-02-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

As a lifetime music lover, devout music collector and sometimes booking agent and promotions manager for Graham's and others at various times in my life, I have often heard, "dude, you've got to hear this amazing band!"

If I had a dollar bill for every time I heard that, I wouldn't be trying to revive my writing career for the third time. Rarely do the expectations and exaltations match up with what's on the CD and even more rarely do they meet it live.

Last summer when David Gans was here for a show he played a CD for me at my house by Free Peoples. It instantly sounded fresh and different, not bluegrass, not a jamband, not jazz, not folk but a new and interesting take on all of the above. Most importantly they had great songs. So I contacted them and said if ever near Bellingham, WA, we'd love to have you.

Finally in November they came with David Gans and proceeded to blow everyone away. When they left they said they wanted to come back in Febuary, great I said. In the proceeding time I have heard their music wafting out of speakers in the store, the local microbrewery/pub, the ski shop, cars, several restaurants. They obviously were very successful in planting their meme's.

So this past Saturday night they came back with no supporting act and for nearly 3 1/2 hours mezmerized and forced normally stiff collar types to dance, smile and be friendly. I saw a community that night, forged in the raging psychedelic brew that Free Peoples served up. Young and old, redneck and hippie, snowboarders and skier all blissfully having peak experiences (sans the chemicals), it was a very high time.

For me it was the music. Every member of this band has serious professional level chops. Mike D and James Foster hold down a funky, driving rhythm section perfectly suited to dancing and interstellar jamming. Tim Sawyer plays a mean rhythm guitar that reminds me very much of Bob Weir in that it doesn't sound like anyone else, including Bob Weir. His voice is at once wearisome and knowing, at turns joyful and very playful with the color of language, almost another instrument. Mike D and Johnny also both have very good voices, sing songs of their own and the blend of the three is divinely sweet. For me the highlight is Johnny Downer's brilliant lead guitar playing. Fluid and mindful of time like Jerry Garcia, but so much more jazz based, as in the psychedelic jazz variety that would include, Will Bernard, Steve Kimock and Trey Anastasio. His singing is deep and soulful and he plays a mean kazoo too. I could never predict where he would go next and at some point I stopped thinking about it and didn't care, I was having way too much fun dancing, out of realm of time and space. What old school deadheads call the X-Factor. One of my favorite places to be, the right time.

Free Peoples has X-Factor and should only being going up and out and beyond.

With Dean in charge of the Dems - will they begin to actually fight back?

2005-02-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Some interesting analysis of Howard Dean's potential impact on the Democratic Party.

By turning to Dean now the Democrats are showing that they are determined to answer the Republicans back in kind:

Instead of waffling on Iraq, they are turning to the former Vermont governor who made his name in the spring of 2003 by being the first prominent Democrat to roll up his sleeves and blast the decision to go to war.

Instead of politely ignoring ferocious attacks framed in the politics of personal destruction, they will try to do the same thing to the president and other prominent Republicans.

Having given up on the democrats back in the Dukakis days, I still would love to see a revived party that is not afraid of this very weak and vulnerable President.

Most importantly Dean is not afraid to say that the Iraq war was a mistake. Remember Kerry's highly nuanced tap dancing on Iraq? As the war gets worse, this becomes central, and Dean has credibility on that issue.

Also the dead weight that is the DLC, they lost, good riddance. It's time for the Democrats to grow up and face the fact that being Republican light is not the way to electoral victory.

Quitting smoking

2005-02-05T01:56:00.000-08:00

It's the most damdable thing. Over the years I have walked away from several addictions to legal and illegal substances. Nicotine however is the toughest. In previous attempts I have used anti-depressants and on doctors advice am doing so again. In the past they have kept me even keeled, not an easy thing to be when your mind pulls a jones randomly on you. I've weened myself down to about 1/2 of what I used to normally smoke and will probably further cut that number this week. I also am going to take my doctor up on the offer of the patch. I'll do anything, I am so ready to quit.

What's really getting me this time, along with all the regular concerns about health, money wasted, is that I am paying big tobacco, the lowest of the corporate greed masters, for a product that will eventually kill me faster. I am loath to give any large corporation one thin dime of my money, believing that the only way corporate America is going to mend their planet destroying ways is by affecting their bottom line. Buy local and fresh wherever possible is my motto. Out here on the dead end highway we have a new local grocery store that is carrying fresh local organic produce and eggs. Yea it's more expensive, but the amount of money saved not traveling 22 miles each direction, to get it cheaper at a box store, not to mention cities drain me, I figure on balance I am coming out ahead. Also the dollars I spend there are getting re-spent here locally, not out in Bentonville AK, or some other place far away.

This has been my way for over a decade, and yet I still smoke (I do enjoy it sometimes, I'd being lying to say otherwise) and as a result huge sums of my money go to support the most draconian kind of corporate malfeasence. No longer!

So armed with desire I go forth, bent on loosening my ties to the death industry.

Wish me luck.

The Bush foreign credibility factor

2005-02-05T01:50:00.000-08:00

Only one day after the President delivered his most un-American State of the Union address, where he said we would be "working with European allies" to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program, Secretary of State Condi Rice "said the United States would continue to rebuff European requests to participate directly in offering incentives for Iran to drop what is suspected of being a nuclear arms program." Read more here.

Weird Weather, Free Peoples and Rain

2005-02-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

Tonight was supposed to feature a show at the music venue I contract with, Graham's Restaurant featuring a local Reggae DJ, named Yogoman, known to me as Jordon, a very kind soul. But because of the weather, or lack thereof depending, there is no ski area in operation, ergo no tourists out here on the dead end highway. Not having as many tourists around is generally something I cherish, not today.

Luckily Free Peoples will be performing tomorrow night. Free Peoples play high energy semi acoustic folk-jazz-world-grass, and write very smart songs. They completely exceeded my and everyone elses expectations when they were here in November last year. Looking forward to listening, dancing, singing along and seeing friends.

It's raining, it's been raining since last night and the forcast calls for more rain. YIPPIE!!! I am one of those weird subspecies of humans that likes grey skies, a constant drizzle and cooler tempratures. Ergo I live in the land of Tom Robbins, of moss and mold, on the edge of a mountain that serves it's main function as a sophisticated rainwater collection system. Green as a color in nature can only be appreciated when it's wet, and the sunlight is muted, the backdrop is grey and misty dark clouds, then and only then can you truely see that green is the perfect color.

Nice joke...

2005-02-04T14:35:00.000-08:00

Excuse me if you have read this before.

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

5 Democrats who support torture

2005-02-04T14:13:00.000-08:00

Positively shameful what these so called Democrats just signed on for.

First Post - Welcome to Memeworks

2005-02-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to my entry into the blogsphere. I am not really sure yet what it's all about, but I will faithfully attempt to inform, entertain and hopefully plant a few useful meme's in your consciousness. Also Memeworks was always a collabrative thing, I hope you share whatever moves you with me.

What is Memeworks: Memeworks was born of a desire to radically alter the consciousness of the three of us who created it and by extension the people we engaged to take part of it with us. We were all on the pagan, entheogen, cyber, art trip and we were all interested in similar things: the thinking of Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, Timothy Leary before his god trip and Robert Anton Wilson. An appreciation of group magick and the dynamics of language and how to fuse them with art, music and ritual to create new forms where the Merry Pranksters, the Diggers and the Grateful Dead left off. Mickey Hart once said that the Dead were not in the music business but the transportation business, we agreed with that and took it a little further.

One early Spring afternoon the three of us, myself, Kira Meme and Chris Meme, took a heroic dose of what we all agreed was the purest LSD that had ever come across our paths. With the Orb and Future Sounds of London playing over Chris's new sound system we talked and laughed and tripped, eventually moving outside once darkness fell. Out of this life changing evening for all three of us, Memeworks was born. Within three days I was off to Seattle as an intern at a new age expo taking place that was going to feature Terence McKenna, my first experience listening to him live and talking with him. Previously I had only read his most excellent "Food of the Gods," and whatever was available on the internet up until that time.

So with a head full of new ideas and directions, Chris and Kira had their own avenues of homework to deal with, we decided to host our first conscious party. Good trips inspire lots of homework, and we had studiously done ours, so we held our first semi public event on Beltaine 96. After that weekend I had a deeper take on the elysian Mysteries, The Great Human Be In, an actual Acid Test, the ecstasy of grasping a few moments of precious nothingness and oneness at the same time, for we as a group and as individuals had been through our own version of it. It was intense in a way I can't quite put on paper (not for lack of effort on my part though, however Douglas Rushkoff came the closest with his novel about a rave club, whose name escapes me right now.) The three of us, drunk with the power of knowing your on to the pure source of it, moved forward with a Summer solstice celebration, that someday I'll have to put down on paper, but it's too weird and long for this, my intro.

Kira and Chris ended up hooking up and having a brief weird fling, that and the arrest and subsequent conviction of Chris kind of split us apart. Kira and I kept up contact for a bit when she worked at Borders downtown. But we all moved onto other things. Chris and I resumed our friendship and working together after he got out, but we drifted apart over silly money and friendship issues. Still for those who attended one or more of those three magick weekends we shared together, life has never been the same. For all my forays into ritual/religion nothing was as deep or profound or moved me like Memeworks.

I've never been able to let go of the Memeworks concept. That through the use of brand spanking new Meme's we could radically alter the mental and emotional world. The world works through words and if you know the words the world is made of... Of course when we were younger that meant inviting all your closest friends and all the most interesting people we knew, artists, web designers, video and audio production people, writers, wiccan/pagan groups, then gorging on acid, cannabis and e, bringing in the best bands and the trippiest, hypnotic DJ's, creating various autonomous zones, a Buddhist shrine, a pagan shrine, a day glo room straight out of Kubricks Clockwork Orange only filled with acid laced bits of poetic profundity in various day glo colors on black walls, and off in the woods a safe space for anyone whose trip got out of hand (never happened once - whew! as they had always gravitated towards me at Dead shows, kharmic payback I'm sure for a time me and the spirit of the cubensis were going in opposite directions one night at the Berkeley Community Theater on the first night of a multi night run, the kind angels of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic brought me back, and since then it definitely was a thing with me, I only tripped at two more Dead shows ever.)

Enough digression -

So that is my goal and my purpose, to share new meme's while we surf the day to day reality spoon fed to us by a culture that is literally destroying the planet at an exponential rate. As such politics, art, music, spirituality, food and cooking, sexuality and altered states of consciousness are all fair game here.

The journey is the prize!

Namaste'
R. Meme