Shamanism Aliens & Ayahuasca : Graham Hancock Pt.1

..the rest

Transit of Venus, 2012

Transit of Venus

"Millenials"

Navy Calls MySpace Kids "Alien Life Force" (And They Hate the War, Too)

Nature

Rushkoff and Pinchbeck Dialogue Part 1 of 4

..the rest

Daniel Pinchbeck Pt.1

here's the rest...

They Live..We Die

They Live is a 1988 film directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym “Frank Armitage”. The movie is based on the short story Eight O’Clock in the Morning by Ray Nelson. Part science fiction and part black comedy, the plot deals satirically with the perceived notion of a declining economy, within a culture of greed and conspicuous consumption commonly associated with the 1980s. It posits a world in which some of the monied elite (i.e., the "yuppies") are actually aliens oppressing the poverty-stricken lower classes through subliminal media advertising.

As I was watching the film I kept returning to the idea of evil hiding in plain sight. Aside from the obvious procession of sci-fi and horror films of the late 20th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne, among others has dealt with this theme notably, and I think as well of Fransisco Goya's final paintings of witches covens and dark cabalistic rituals. Alas,if only it were so simple...if only one could plumb the depths of another's moral fiber with such precision and unwavering clarity. On one side...soulless yuppie zombies-the corporate elite...and on the other....all the rest of us poor humans left holding the paper bag full of dog shit. The reductive nature of this plot device is of course the satirical engine that drives this absurdist plot forward. The scary thing is how much it makes sense, how deadly serious this idea is taken by many-and now more than ever. I think the world is of course more subtle and complex than John Carpenter's vision of Multi-National Corporate Evil...but in this joke of a movie there is a half-truth.

No man is by nature evil or good. But at a certain point, in a defining moment, or within a consistently applied ideology, we chose to act in ways that articulate our moral selves. Although it often seems to be the case (and prolly 95% of the arty bohemian milieu would protest)-I don't truly believe that all Republicans are evil, and all Democrats are good, but it seems to me more and more that the planet...nay the whole of this human experiment, is at a moment of truth. It sounds cliched, but we are truly standing at a crossroads-two paths diverge before us in this snowy woods, and one of these paths leads to some deep dark demonic shit. It seems to me that very soon a threshold may be crossed from which there will be no real coming back ...our species will have made this choice collectively..and we will live and die by this decision.

The problem is that we are all both evil and good. Everyone of us..despite our pleas to the contrary. And we rationalize our way into the white with a glib nonchalance that would make a con-man blush. What's needed is some honesty...this is a time to put our careers and ego-driven narcissistic projects aside and start thinking in terms of survival. If we don't get our shit together..there is no future. Many of you may not care..you won't be around for it...you may not have kids...but it's about goddamn time that someone starts giving a shit again. If not, I'm afraid this truly is the END.

"They Live" Film Stills

...I thought you boys understood..it's business, that's all it is....you still don't get it, do you boys? There ain't no countries anymore, no more good guys, they're running the whole show, they own everything, the whole goddamn planet, they can do whatever they wan't. What's wrong with having it good for a change? And they're gonna let us have it good if we just help them...

They Live (1988)

very prescient..currently watching said movie

Masala - Od Tarnobrzegu po Bangladesz

Polish Rappers singin' about Bangladesh.....pretty rad.

Skillz/No Skillz

skillz
no skillz

Sarangi student of Ustad Sabri Khan

Sree Raama Paadama - Mandolin Srinivas

.....and check out a great blog from Syam Prasad:
Satyam Sivam Sundaram

Familjen - Det snurrar i min skalle

The New Creatures

I'm too tired to sleep....
Why are we so obsessed with our differences? Maybe because we are aware that the proscenium of life is a Theatre of Cruelty. So we gear up for battle. But damnit, I'm sick of fighting. Why can't we all just get along man? Why can't we all just...get...along ?

Gnostic Device

Emil Amos has a blog:
things you do while waiting for the apocalypse
here's a snippet:

I have now seen the Zapruder film over 10,000 times.
these are my conclusions.

A) there is an easily ascertainable duplicity in the eyes of Allen Dulles.

B) listening to LBJ's tapes of him trying to piece together who would be on the warren commission leads you right back into the warm arms of Hoover and his plan.

C) J Edgar Hoover is a perennial symbol for how spinelessness leads to ultimate success.

D) JFK is perennial symbol for how having a spine leads to total destruction.

E) Richard Helm's attitude while testifying about the work of the CIA's international assassins perfectly displays the CIA's basic belief that it is above all law.

F) Richard Helm's is an asshole.

G) The key to the entire case is in Mexico city.

Emil Amos

Things You Do While Waiting for the Apocalypse

Amen to the search for the knowledge of this world
Wishing that it sprang from every soul like a pearl
Did you do your own research?
Did you build from the ground your own church?
Down with the written histories (for those burned up books that we cannot read)
Celebrate the graves that you stand upon
This is love to the deaths that I'm standing on
A claustrophobic magic spirals, sickens and swirls
Can you feel the failure that I've felt with the girls?
Liberation's out, bring the mind-prisons back in
Get'em safe, Keep'em safe
Forget the past, Through eras their sickness lasts
Obsolescence, Pre-designed
Been picking fights with that lobotomized mind
Lock-down commencing soon
Too many graveyards on the moon
I can't forget until my mind dies
Just tell the future eras we tried
We're sending up flares, breed in good pairs
Fight with bare hands to occupy their chairs
I can't forget until my mind dies

Holy Sons

The Greatest Poet of This Century

Kalki, Vishnu, and Kali

Kali
Vishnu

Kalki, the rider, and the tenth incarnation of Vishnu is yet to appear on earth. It is believed that Kalki will ride a white horse and wield a flaming sword with which he will destroy all evil. The coming of this fierce horseman will mark the end of this present age of evil, the Kali Yuga, after which purity will reign once again in another Treta Yuga.

In Hindu traditions, Kalki (Sanskrit: कल्कि; also rendered by some as Kalkin and Kalaki) is the tenth and final Maha Avatara (great incarnation) of Vishnu the Preserver, who will come to end the Kali Yuga, (The Age of Darkness and Destruction). The name Kalki is often a metaphor for "Eternity" or "Time". The origins of the name probably lie in the word Kalka which refers to "dirt", "filth" or "foulness" and hence denotes the "Destroyer of Foulness", "Destroyer of Confusion", "Destroyer of Darkness", or "The Annihilator of Ignorance". Other similar and divergent interpretations based on varying etymological derivations from the ancient Sanskrit language, including one simply meaning "White Horse", have been made

Kalki is also a novel by Gore Vidal.

Patience

...has rewards. But you must be able to master your desire-which is a healthy exercise and a way to stay grounded. Originally I expected to finish this piece in 9-10 months but it looks like it'll be stretching into a year or more before it's finished. I got sidetracked with all my 2007b renovations. I suppose one has to be happy with where everything is at in life and not always rabidly thrashing hands into empty space. The future is now...be cool with it. I figure that in the span of life it's better to make 1 amazing painting than 1,000 pretty good one's. There's plenty of pretty good out there already. Why add to the clutter ?

Speaking of patience, looks like NO GALLERY is a NO GO. Whatevs'...would've been killer tho'...

At least I have a cool but pointless website now.

I wonder if anyone saw the post I replaced with this image... Sometimes we need to step back and look at things from a new perspective..it's hard to see the BIG picture when you're right up close against something.

Michael Q Schmidt

I've had the pleasure of working with Michael in my Life Painting class all week. He's a real pro...hilarious, positive, a hard worker, and also does alot of acting gigs...was just in a Liars video and on the Jimmy Kimmel show.

There's plenty of M Q Scmidt online..check out:
his youtube channel
his official website look under the Michael as artmodel section for some great stuff..

Le Chat

Le Chat
Viens, mon beau chat, sur mon coeur amoureux;
Retiens les griffes de ta patte,
Et laisse-moi plonger dans tes beaux yeux,
Mêlés de métal et d'agate.
Lorsque mes doigts caressent à loisir
Ta tête et ton dos élastique,
Et que ma main s'enivre du plaisir
De palper ton corps électrique,
Je vois ma femme en esprit. Son regard,
Comme le tien, aimable bête
Profond et froid, coupe et fend comme un dard,
Et, des pieds jusques à la tête,
Un air subtil, un dangereux parfum
Nagent autour de son corps brun.
— Charles Baudelaire

The Cat
Come, superb cat, to my amorous heart;
Hold back the talons of your paws,
Let me gaze into your beautiful eyes
Of metal and agate.
When my fingers leisurely caress you,
Your head and your elastic back,
And when my hand tingles with the pleasure
Of feeling your electric body,
In spirit I see my woman. Her gaze
Like your own, amiable beast,
Profound and cold, cuts and cleaves like a dart,
And, from her head down to her feet,
A subtle air, a dangerous perfume
Floats about her dusky body.
— translation William Aggeler

I pledge allegience to the flag....

......dude! (reposted from BoingBoing.net)

(Polar bear photo ganked from ucumari's incredible set on Flickr. Found mah bukkit.)

Here are some fairly terrifying news articles out in the past few days on the subject of global warming:

"Ice-free Arctic could be here in 23 years," Sep 5, in The Guardian. Snip:

The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at a record low, scientists said last night. Experts said they were "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as Britain disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the north-west passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the north-east passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month. If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by
2030.

"Warming Is Seen as Wiping Out Most Polar Bears," Sep 7, New York Times:

Two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will disappear by 2050, even under moderate projections for shrinking summer sea ice caused by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, government scientists reported on Friday.

"Arctic ice cap to melt faster than feared, scientists say," Sep. 7, Seattle Times. snip:

About 40 percent of the floating ice that normally blankets the top of the world during the summer will be gone by 2050, says James Overland, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Earlier studies had predicted it would be nearly a century before that much ice vanished. "This is a major change," Overland said. "This is actually moving the threshold up."

See also this Google News comment by Kassie Siegel from the Center for Biological Diversity:

All of this is indeed horrifying, but it is not cause for despair, but rather a call to action. The good news is that there is still time to save the Arctic, though the window is closing. Our hope lies in a rapid response including both deep and immediate carbon dioxide reductions, as well as a full-court press on other greenhouse pollutants such as methane. While
carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere for about a century, and therefore commit us to long term warming, methane is more powerful but remains for only about a decade. Opportunities to reduce methane from sources like landfills, mining, and agriculture abound, and such reductions would also directly benefit air quality and human health. With such reductions we can still buy ourselves some time.

But we cannot "stay the course" of our current energy consumption, land use, and transportation patterns, without losing the Arctic sea ice, polar bears, and the quality of life we have enjoyed.

More background: here's the National Snow and Ice Data Center -- Link.

Friday Night Coast to Coast Am

Been chillin' out listening to 3 hours of call-ins with George Noory. Everyone is freakin' out hardcore and talkin' Nuclear Terrorist Armageddon and Alien Overlords, Paranormal Celestial Activities. The country is tense right now..very very tense. We're headed into a trough. Nothing Endures But Change.
Coast to Coast Am

The New World Order

I love these conspiracy guys. Remember..just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that people aren't out to get you.

Chill Out Vol 3

Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil

The Flowers of Evil evokes a world of paradox already implicit in the contrast of the title. The word "evil" (the French word is "mal," meaning both evil and sickness) comes to signify the pain and misery inflicted on the speaker, which he responds to with melancholy, anxiety, and a fear of death. But for Baudelaire, there is also something seductive about evil. Thus, while writing The Flowers of Evil, Baudelaire often said that his intent was to extract beauty from evil. Unlike traditional poets who had only focused on the simplistically pretty, Baudelaire chose to fuel his language with horror, sin, and the macabre. The speaker describes this duality in the introductory poem, in which he explains that he and the reader form two sides of the same coin. Together, they play out what Baudelaire called the tragedy of man's "twoness." He saw existence itself as paradoxical, each man feeling two simultaneous inclinations: one toward the grace and elevation of God, the other an animalistic descent toward Satan. Just like the physical beauty of flowers intertwined with the abstract threat of evil, Baudelaire felt that one extreme could not exist without the other.

Les Fleurs du Mal
FleursDuMal.org


Rene Magritte, Flowers of Evil, 1946

Le Poison
Le vin sait revêtir le plus sordide bouge
D'un luxe miraculeux,
Et fait surgir plus d'un portique fabuleux
Dans l'or de sa vapeur rouge,
Comme un soleil couchant dans un ciel nébuleux.
L'opium agrandit ce qui n'a pas de bornes,
Allonge l'illimité,
Approfondit le temps, creuse la volupté,
Et de plaisirs noirs et mornes
Remplit l'âme au delà de sa capacité.
Tout cela ne vaut pas le poison qui découle
De tes yeux, de tes yeux verts,
Lacs où mon âme tremble et se voit à l'envers...
Mes songes viennent en foule
Pour se désaltérer à ces gouffres amers.
Tout cela ne vaut pas le terrible prodige
De ta salive qui mord,
Qui plonge dans l'oubli mon âme sans remords,
Et charriant le vertige,
La roule défaillante aux rives de la mort!
— Charles Baudelaire

Poison
Wine knows how to adorn the most sordid hovel
With marvelous luxury
And make more than one fabulous portal appear
In the gold of its red mist
Like a sun setting in a cloudy sky.
Opium magnifies that which is limitless,
Lengthens the unlimited,
Makes time deeper, hollows out voluptuousness,
And with dark, gloomy pleasures
Fills the soul beyond its capacity.
All that is not equal to the poison which flows
From your eyes, from your green eyes,
Lakes where my soul trembles and sees its evil side...
My dreams come in multitude
To slake their thirst in those bitter gulfs.
All that is not equal to the awful wonder
Of your biting saliva,
Charged with madness, that plunges my remorseless soul
Into oblivion
And rolls it in a swoon to the shores of death.
— translation by William Aggeler

Candaulism

Candaulism

Belief