A bi-weekly eclectic list of links to integrative articles and websites relating to alternative lifestyles, culture, shamanism, spirituality, politics and environmental issues.
Greetings this time from New Zealand. It would be nice to find roots in a "homeland" without the visa needs, but till then we are enjoying the nomadic opportunity. Lots of snow fell in the nearby hills leaving a winter wonderland canopy in the panorama. We are still looking for land/community in either country and hope to sell our share in the Bali property so as to finance another move. Let us know of anyone that might be inclined to purchase the Bali land. There are nice land bases in both Australia and New Zealand that we saw, but way out of our price range. Collective purchase could be a possible option. Need for social cooperation and tribe are getting more and more important in the wake of growing turbulence with growing crisis oil,financial, food, environmental,ecological and climate. In the environmental news I have added a couple of links to a growing health hazard here in New Zealand with the spread of 1080 spraying throughout the country. Still I believe with positive focus from the heart as well as mind, solutions can still be found. A wonderful week to you Below are a few new photos added on of our June winter in NZ. George
'Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime": Ernest Hemingway === "How many does it take to metamorphose wickedness into righteousness? One man must not kill. If he does, it is murder..................... But a state or nation may kill as many as they please, and it is not murder. It is just, necessary, commendable, and right. Only get people enough to agree to it, and the butchery of myriads of human beings is perfectly innocent. But how many does it take?": Adin Ballou, The Non-Resistant, 5 February 1845 === "There have been periods of history in which episodes of terrible violence occurred but for which the word violence was never used.... Violence is shrouded in justifying myths that lend it moral legitimacy, and these myths for the most part kept people from recognizing the violence for what it was. The people who burned witches at the stake never for one moment thought of their act as violence; rather they thought of it as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The same can be said of most of the violence we humans have ever committed': ~Gil Bailie === "Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace": Charles Sumner "So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men" : Voltaire. = "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.": Albert Einstein = The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men: Plato = In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king: Erasmus c.1469 - 1536 = The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth: Henry Louis Mencken: American humorous journalist, 1880-1956 = A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity: Baltasar Gracian: Spanish philosopher and writer, 1601-1658 "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." : Jean-Jacques Rousseau - (1712-1778) Political philosopher, educationist and essayist -Source: The Social Contract = "No man survives when freedom fails, The best men rot in filthy jails, And those who cry 'appease, appease' Are hanged by those they tried to please.": Hiram Mann = "Scientific societies are as yet in their infancy. . . . It is to be expected that advances in physiology and psychology will give governments much more control over individual mentality than they now have even in totalitarian countries. Fitche laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished. . . ": Bertrand Russell, "The Impact of Science on Society", 1953, pg 49-50 = "A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.": Aldous Huxley, Brave New World "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." : Albert Einstein - (1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921 = "Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about his religion. Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and of service to your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place. Show respect to all people, but grovel to none. When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." by: Tecumseh -(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." Albert Einstein - (1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921 Who we are individually.... is an illusion within the mystery.. Who we are collectively.. is the truth of our eternity.. (thank you Rabbi Nathan and Joseph for the quote and reminder) "We never see the smoke and the fire, we never smell the blood, we never see the terror in the eyes of the children, whose nightmares will now feature screaming missiles from unseen terrorists, will be known only as Americans." : Martin Kelly = "A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force": Unknown = "Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back in the 1890s. 'We have a single system,' he wrote, and 'in that system the only question is the price at which the proletariat is to be bought and sold, the bread and circuses.'" : Gore Vidal - The Decline and Fall of the American Empire = "If a baseball player slides into home plate and, right before the umpire rules if he is safe or out, the player says to the umpire - 'Here is $1,000.' What would we call that? We would call that a bribe. If a lawyer was arguing a case before a judge and said, 'Your honor before you decide on the guilt or innocence of my client, here is $1,000.' What would we call that? We would call that a bribe. "But if an industry lobbyist walks into the office of a key legislator and hands her or him a check for $1,000, we call that a campaign contribution. We should call it a bribe." : Janice Fine - Dollars and Sense magazine "And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing … a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods." Aldous Huxley, 1959 "Through clever and constant application of propaganda people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise." Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1923 "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16, 1953 "If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy" James Madison Ringo Starr has "peace and love" birthday
By Michael Conlon
Ringo Starr held a "peace and love" fest on a rainy Chicago sidewalk to mark his 68th birthday on Monday. "What could be wrong? Peace and Love. What a great birthday gift," the former Beatle said. "It's a happening."
The event, which had sparse advance publicity, drew about 200 people on both sides of a street outside the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago.
Some got close enough to catch a glimpse of Starr, clad in black and wearing purple glasses, with his wife Barbara nearby. Some even snagged one or more of the frosted birthday cupcakes the hotel handed out after he went inside.
"I saw it in the paper, left my sister's house and came down here," said Joyce McDaniels, who was visiting from Winton, California. She emerged from the crowd holding a slightly mauled chocolate cupcake, but it was a secondary prize.
"I saw a Beatle. That's all I needed!" she said.
Starr, in the midst of a U.S. concert tour, had announced the event on his Web site, saying he had been asked in a recent interview what he wanted for his birthday and replied "just more peace and love."
He also said he hoped anyone who wanted to join him anywhere in the world would mark the day with a two-fingered peace sign at noon local time.
Starr missed the noon deadline himself by a couple of minutes but was greeted by cheers from the onlookers who then sang "Happy Birthday..........."
Bob Dylan put a dampener on proceedings when he refused to allow TV cameras or photographers into an open-air concert he gave recently at the Expo 2008 world fair in Zaragoza, northern Spain.
But it appears nobody had told the fair's organizers that Dylan rarely allowed cameras into his concerts, and they issued a press statement to show how miffed they were.
The June 14-Sept 14 Expo 2008 is based on the theme Water and Sustainable Development. Some months ago, Dylan gave permission for his "A Hard Rain's 'A Gonna Fall" to be the official song of the 105-nation fair, which is expected to attract 6 million visitors. Dylan even recorded a TV ad in English backing the fair and its water theme, which was shown daily on Spanish TV for a month last winter.
Shortly before this week's concert was scheduled to begin, Expo 2008 released an international press statement to say "Expo Zaragoza regrets this situation [which is] beyond the control of the Fair, and at this moment of the night it is negotiating with Bob Dylan's representatives so that at least the official Channel Expo TV and the organizing committee's official photographer can have access to the concert area and offer images to those that need them."
The statement added, "If the singer accedes, we shall communicate [the fact] with sufficient time in advance." The singer did not accede.
The Expo note explained that organizers had been trying "for the past few days" to get the artist to authorize cameras into the concert for the first song, "as is habitual in the majority of concerts celebrated in our country. However, at this moment of the night, the attempts have not been fruitful."
The 5,000-strong audience did not seem to mind, with many cheering when Dylan sang "A Hard Rain..." at the end of the concert. Zaragoza was the first of an 11-date Spanish run for Dylan, which concludes July 10. Tonight's concert is in Pamplona, the city Ernest Hemingway made famous nearly 80 years ago with his accounts of the annual bull-running festival in early July.
Quebec will receive a visit from Sir Paul McCartney in July to mark the Canadian cities 400th birthday.
McCartney will perform a free concert on the Plains of Abraham.
In a videotaped message to the city, he said, "I am doing a gig, a big gig, in Quebec City on July 20 to help Quebec celebrate their 400th anniversary. That is a long time".
Just a few weeks back, McCartney played a free show in Kiev, Ukraine.
The University of Surrey has awarded Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page an honorary doctorate for his services to the music industry.
Dr. Page accepted the degree last Friday (June 20) dressed in full academicals and donated a signed guitar that will be given away in a competition at GuilFest later this year.
It's not Page's first time on the University's grounds. Led Zeppelin played their first gig on the grounds on October 25, 1968.
In other Zeppelin news (or lack thereof), the band still hasn't announced any further shows, but we can wait with our fingers desperately crossed.
The Rolling Stones guitarist put a painting of his former band The Faces on the internet auction website with a reserve price of £1,300 but had to withdraw the offer after it failed to even fetch half the asking price.
Ronnie, who trained at London's Ealing Art College before his music career took off, had placed the limited edition portrait of himself alongside former band member Rod Stewart on the site for a second time.
A post on his MySpace page read: 'We had such a great reaction from the last listing but it ended too quickly! So here it is again - your chance to snap up a real Ronnie print framed and ready to be hung, featuring your favourite rocker and his pal Rod.'
The painting only attracted five bids, with the highest at £511, before the auction was withdrawn as well as the message on Ronnie's page.
Phish fans got their wish, or at least a portion of it, yesterday (July 6) at the Rothbury Festival in Michigan, as three members of the band performed live together in two separate incarnations.
First, bassist Mike Gordon joined guitarist Trey Anastasio during the latter's solo acoustic set, which had already enthralled a substantial crowded gathered in front of the festival's main stage, the Odeum.
Noting that "Mike and I being two people who don't shy away from trying new things, Anastasio introduced a pair of fresh tunes -- "Backwards Down the Number Line" and "Alaska" -- and further teased prospects of a reunion by saying, "If we could just find a drummer and a keyboard player somewhere..." But, he added, "you gotta start with the songs, and you guys can be our test audience."
The new material went down a storm, but the biggest ovation came when Anastasio and Gordon finished the set with Phish's "Chalkdust Torture."
Anastasio, who plays on Gordon's upcoming album, "The Green Arrow," (due Aug. 5), then returned the favor during the bassist's set with his own band on the neighboring Sherwood Court stage. Though his guest appearance was delayed a bit when all concerned realized there wasn't an extra guitar for him to use, Anastasio eventually made it back for a rendition of "Cruel World," written and sung by Gordon's guitarist Scott Murawski, followed by the Phish favorite "Meat."
The real treat closed Gordon's set, however, when Phish drummer Jon Fishman joined the ensemble for the Beatles' "She Said, She Said," sending the field into a state of dancing delirium.
All four Phish members, including keyboardist Page McConnell, have hinted at the possibility of a reunion in recent comments, but no firm details have been revealed. The Phish follies were the unquestioned highlight on Rothbury's closing day, as the inaugural festival came to a satisfying close at the Double JJ Ranch.
Singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson strolled onto the stage for the day's first set while asking her band members where she was, but quickly developed a warm rapport with the audience, saying that "I feel like this is sort of a magical little place I'm at, right?" and making inquiries about whether everyone was wearing sunscreen. She also caught an orange balloon that was tossed on stage and demonstrated her "seventh grade volleyball serve." She played music, too -- mostly songs from her latest album, "Boys and Girls," including "Die Alone," "Breakable," "The Way I Am" and "Masochist."
Steel Pulse's strong, highly conscious reggae pulsed through the crowd in front of the Odeum stage, while Taj Mahal blasted the blues and a personality as big as the brim on his straw hat to a surprisingly youthful group of fans gathered at Sherwood Court. Mahal was also one of the few performers to embrace Rothbury's focus on environmental issues from the stage, declaring that "The world is green, right?" and telling fans that "if you want good tomatoes, plant 'em in your own backyard..........." Back at the Odeum, meanwhile, Rodrigo y Gabriela engaged the big stage crowd with their dual acoustic guitar attack, accenting their Latin-flavored originals with snippets of Jimi Hendrix, White Stripes and Metallica licks.
John Mayer -- yes, with girlfriend Jennifer Aniston watching from side stage -- gave Rothbury a bit more of a pop fix Sunday afternoon at the Ranch Arena. He and his seven-piece band turned in an 85-minute set featuring hits such as "Bigger Than My Body," "Waiting for the World to Change," "Gravity" and "No Such Thing," as well as covers of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads."
The job of closing Rothbury was left to Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh and his Friends ensemble, which on Sunday featured guitarist Warren Haynes -- who had performed the prior concert on the Odeum stage with his band Gov't Mule -- for the first four songs. Lesh and company's two-set show was heavy on Dead material, including "Althea," "China Cat Sunflower," "Dire Wolf," "Sugaree" and "Uncle John's Band," while fireworks set off in the field by attendees gave the performance a festival if slightly dangerous flavor.
Rothbury organizers plan to release final attendance figures later this week, but Michigan State Police listed the crowd, mostly comprised of campers, at about 35,000, with 18 reported arrests as of Sunday evening. Festival producer Jeremy Stein told Billboard.com that while Rothbury allowed open taping, all of the performances were officially recorded and will "definitely come out, in what product remains to be seen."
"MY DAY WILL NOT BE COMPLETE UNTIL I SEE THIS FILM"
David...
Thanks very much for your interest in our movie about Harry Nilsson. Alas, the film is not yet available in any format. That's the bad news. The good news is that we are in discussions with possible distributors and are hopeful the film will be out later this year and people everywhere will finally be able to see it! Please check back with our My Space page (http://www.myspace.com/whoisharrynilsson) for distribution/release news.
All the best, John Scheinfeld Director, WHO IS HARRY NILSSON... RIP 13th Floor Elevator Benny Thurman
PHOTO EXHIBIT PAYS TRIBUTE TO 30TH STREET STUDIO In 1949, an abandoned Armenian Greek Orthodox church in New York City was converted into one of the world’s greatest recording studios, where the likes of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Tony Bennett all created some iconic albums. It was called the 30th Street Studio and while it is long gone, a new photography exhibit in the city’s Soho section is paying homage to the venue. The show is called In Session at the Columbia Records 30th Street Studio and it features candid shots of some legendary performers. Many of the prints have never before been seen, and they feature Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Muhammad Ali and Charles Mingus, among many others. The exhibition opens at the Morrison Hotel Gallery on July 18th.
COULD THE BEE GEES BE COMING BACK? Since Maurice Gibb died back in 2003, The Bee Gees have been on a hiatus. The remaining members, Maurice’s brothers, Robin and Barry Gibb, vowed never to perform again under the band’s name. However, the BBC News reports the group might be coming back with The Bee Gees moniker. Robin told the outlet that he is open to a comeback so long as Barry agrees, noting, “When or where is to be decided at a time when he says yes.” Robin also explained that the brothers were going through a tough time when they decided not to use The Bee Gees’ name anymore. He revealed, “We decided that on an emotional level at that point. Whether or not that will change, we don’t know. It’s a personal thing and we’ll do it when the time is right.” Barry and Robin last played a gig together in 2006. "The Lost Tapes" - Out on June 24th! - Big Brother & The Holding Company http://blog..........myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=73679290&blogID=404818197
THE LOST TAPES OF BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY FEATURING JANIS JOPLIN UNEARTHED BY AIRLINE RECORDS–INCLUDES 12 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACKS!
Revered worldwide for their groundbreaking role as 1960s San Francisco-based psychedelic rock pioneers channeling everyone from John Coltrane to Bessie Smith into their own hard-driving sound, Big Brother and the Holding Company introduced the one and only Janis Joplin to the world. Live tapes of Big Brother in its prime with Joplin fronting the band are an extremely rare commodity, rendering The Lost Tapes a truly historic discovery. This two-CD set from Airline Records contains no less than 12 stunning tracks–the entire first disc--that have never been released before in any form, along with a second disc of equally thrilling live material that sees its first legitimate release on this package.
Consisting of guitarists Sam Andrew and James Gurley, bassist Peter Albin, drummer David Getz, and the mighty Janis as their mind-blowing lead singer, Big Brother's sets were liable to proceed in any number of contrasting directions. Over the course of the concert that comprises the first disc, Janis belts her own blues-soaked "Women Is Losers" as well as the subtly dynamic "Bye Bye Baby," songs soon to be eminently familiar via the band's studio versions. There was also room on their set list that evening to investigate Tommy Tucker's tough shuffle "Hi-Heel Sneakers," the riveting "Oh My Soul," and an amazing 11-minute rendition of the timeless spiritual "Amazing Grace."
Even diehard Big Brother fans well acquainted with the material on the second disc have never encountered it in such pristine condition, both discs benefitting from 24-bit mastering. Highlights on the second CD include rousing treatments of "Let The Good Times Roll," "I Know You Rider," "Moanin' At Midnight," "Hey Baby," and the Albin-penned "Coo Coo." Also aboard are the Port Arthur, Texas-born Joplin's pulverizing renderings of two songs forever associated with her brief but indelible musical legacy, "Down On Me" and Big Mama Thornton's "Ball And Chain."
This deluxe collection features liner notes by Big Brother members Sam Andrew and David Getz; their warm, vivid reminiscences adding to the immense appeal of the most extensive authorized domestic release currently available by the band. Big Brother was already a powerhouse despite being together as a unit a relatively short time, and this is where it all began for Janis. With The Lost Tapes, you're sitting front row as they prepare to meet stardom head on. Thanks to Rip & Annie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmR0V6s3NKk
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace.. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message. Bob Dylan : Return To Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2psuq9Zong
A good one ! A Dean Martin classic written by Danny DiMinno and Carmen Lombardo. Performed by Bob Dylan Mose Allison - Your Mind Is On Vacation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCpekvOkwNM
Mose Allison Trio live on Soundstage
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Thanks to Rip
country joe vs. dickhead spielberg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5NhrCNhErU
Frank Zappa - The Illinois Enema Bandit - 1988 Bar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOeOlcR_CgE
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Thanks to EP
a surreal moment with Ringo Starr and his Mexican half-brother "Gringo" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqkXRMg9IMg
JOHN LENNON SINGS THE RUTLES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6HWOSyaTJI
I Can't Get it Out of My Head http://youtube.com/watch?v=FncoQasxowA
