We wake up, move through the day and different ideas come at us from different directions. Sometimes they seem to form a meaningful pattern – sometimes it’s just an abstract tapestry.
Here’s a few threads I’d like to remember from Wednesday, December 28, 2011.
When I worked at The Gazette Newspapers my friend Amy Bentley-Smith gave me a Flaming Lips EP for Christmas one year (somewhere around 2003 or ’04) and introduced me to an incredible band lead by an artist named Wayne Coyne, who is now on my list of favorite artists.
I don’t know how I had missed them up until Amy gave me the Fight Test EP, but these things happen. In the grand scheme of things I am forever indebted for to Amy for this introduction…
Any way, today I read the following little article in the Huffington Post, which included this video of the Flaming Lips’ wonderful and strange version of I Am The Walrus:
The Flaming Lips take one of The Beatles’ strangest songs to an even stranger place in a cover video for “I Am the Walrus,” recorded at the Pink Floor Studio in Oklahoma City. This is actually one of the band’s more normal efforts in a year that saw them constantly outdoing themselves in weirdness — the list includes: three new songs housed in gummy fetuses, a six-hour-long song followed by a 24-hour-long song encased in skulls, not to mention the never-ending bizarro Christmas station, Atlas Eets Christmas, we can’t stop listening to — maybe they’re going for mind control here?
Until then, watch Wayne Coyne sing into a pink plastic circle and make you wonder whether this song was written with the express purpose of having The Flaming Lips cover it 44 years later.
Tonight I find myself wanting to watch this video over and over again…
They Kill Their Own
Meanwhile, over on my Facebook page for onehumanbeing, where I’ve been posting a “Today’s Image” every day since September 19th, I choose this image to post for today:
Today’s Image – “They Kill Their Own” – 35″ x 25″ – acrylic latex, plastic flag, collage on silkscreen – 1991 [ In the collection of Denis LaRoche ]
This is a painting I did in 1991, around the time of the first Gulf War. I do not like war, neither have I ever participated in war, but this painting was about more than just war itself.
In the news everyday was stories of drive-bys, high school shootings, postal workers on a rampage, road rages and freeway shootings, police shootings and cop killers, capital punishment and the drug war, the war industry and the war machines – missiles, bombs, knives, guns, dynamite – death, death and more death.
It seemed to me that we Americans just like killing each other (and anyone else).
I wish it wasn’t so, but it sure seems that way. It was that way in 1991 when I painted this and it’s still true today.
So, after posting this painting as “Today’s Image” I read the following articles, which put into words what I wanted to say with this painting:
If the Tea Party actually gave a damn about what the Founding Fathers said, they’d be screaming at the top of their lungs about getting rid of the most pernicious threat to our liberty and solvency that ever existed: our military. Forget about the two to six trillion dollar cost of the Iraq war (upwards of $100K per household — how many solar panels could you buy with that?). Read the words of James Madison:
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few…No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
Debt, taxes… sounds like it’s from a Tea Party manifesto, right?
And again from Madison:
“The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.”
It is this tyranny that we now face. Consider this piece from this week’s Businessweek that Gingrich and many of the other Republican candidates have no interest in upholding Supreme Court rulings that they disagree with.
What is going on here? How are Tea Partiers and other “conservatives” able to defend rampant military spending but still decry taxes and debt — when feckless military spending ($700 Billion annually and growing) is what brought us to this overtaxed and indebted state. Why would they rather spend money on the apparatus of killing than on health care for the uninsured or food for the hungry? How are they able to ignore the teachings of their own heroes?
I was recently illuminated in this department by reading an amazing book by Bob Altemeyer titled The Authoritarians. He explains how there is a segment of the population that is willing to believe, and more importantly act, on whatever information their authorities tell them. These proto-fascists operate in a toxic mix of fear and self-righteousness, and have highly compartmentalized brains, so they are able to spurn science (like the belief in evolution or global climate disruption) and cherry pick their beliefs based on the half-baked nonsense their leaders tell them. Circumspection is for ninnies. They are right, and they are afraid, and the solution to everything is more violence and suppression, whether it be prisons, anti-immigrant legislation, more guns, more wars, or curtailing our rights to speech, privacy, or assembly.
What might a rational response be to the horrors of the Iraq war, a war that probably gave me (and everyone else in the world) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder even though I was always at least four thousand miles away? I would like to suggest it might be the draft — no exceptions. No standing armies — they are the seeds of tyranny, just like our Founding Fathers said they were. And no more wars fought by the poor and the dispossessed. Every healthy adult man and woman should be required to fight in any future conflict that some megalomaniac president wants to start… and we’ll see how far she (or he) gets. Unless there’s a better reason than the lies behind the Iraq war (falsified WMDs and al Qaida connections), I won’t be going. But I won’t be quiet about it, either.
By Frank Schaeffer – New York Times best-selling author
Every single one of the sops Newt Gingrich is throwing the far right has been scripted for him by generations of far right so-called Reconstructionist “thinkers” and far right Roman Catholic ideologues that have been pushing the religious community — and America — steadily in the direction of overthrowing democracy and replacing it with some version of an Americanized theocracy.
Newt Gingrich has been making a series of outrageous statements in ascending rhetorical volume as a means to throw the religious right scraps of validation that he is “one of us.” What Gingrich has done is to sign on to the extremist Dominionist/Roman Catholic agenda. Since I used to be a leader and the son of a leader on the Religious Right (in the 1970s and 80s) what Gingrich is saying invokes a bad case of déjà vu for me
What he’s really doing is sending signals to 3 overlapping constituencies that now control the Republican Party: The “Pro-Israel” Lobby; The Reconstructionist/Dominionist Lobby and The Conservative Roman Catholic Lobby. We’ll look at these groups and their influence one at a time.
The Gingrich Context
Wanting to outdo the rest of the Republican field on support for the hardliners in the State of Israel Gingrich told America that the Palestinian people are really a fiction an “invented people,” illegitimate and don’t actually exist.
Not wanting to let the far right down on his purity when it comes to abortion politics, Gingrich corrected himself on when “life begins” and got his “position” in line with the American Roman Catholic bishops and declared that when he said it “begins” with the implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterine wall, what he really meant was that it begins with fertilization, thus putting himself squarely in the corner with the extremist bishops who would like to lump the pill in with abortion as a means that “destroys a life.”
So much for the separation of powers let alone the separation of church and state. And now Gingrich wants to further expand protection for religion and its meddling in politics saying that as president he’d roll back, examine and generally bulk up the rights of believers — rather, the rights of far right believers — to flout the law when it comes to gay rights, abortion, stem cell research and so on.
I know it’s so much better of a story when things have a point, but sometimes that’s the way it is – loose threads of thoughts and a human being looking to find some meaning in them.
Interpretation (of I Am The Walrus from Wikipedia)
Although it has been reported that Lennon wrote “I am the Walrus” to confuse those who tried to interpret his songs, there have been many attempts to analyse the meaning of the lyrics.[16][17]
Seen in the Magical Mystery Tour film singing the song, Lennon, apparently, is the walrus; on the track-list of the accompanying soundtrack EP/LP however, underneath “I Am the Walrus” are printed the words ‘ “No you’re not!” said Little Nicola’ (in the film, Nicola is a little girl who keeps contradicting everything the other characters say). Lennon returned to the subject in the lyrics of three of his subsequent songs: in the 1968 Beatles song “Glass Onion” he sings “now here’s another clue for you all — the walrus was Paul”, [18]; in the third verse of “Come Together” he sings the line “he bag production, he got walrus gumboot”, and in his 1970 solo song “God“, admits “I was the walrus, but now I’m John.”
Eric Burdon, lead singer of The Animals, claims to be the ‘Eggman’ mentioned in the song’s lyric. Burdon was known as ‘Eggs’ to his friends, the nickname originating from his fondness for breaking eggs over naked women’s bodies. Burdon’s biography mentions such an affair taking place in the presence of John Lennon, who shouted “Go on, go get it, Eggman…”[19]
P.P.S. Paul McCartney and I have the same birthday – June 18th – so maybe I am the walrus – I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together…
Have you ever had a moment when you connected with a song in a way you can’t really explain to anyone else, like a transcendent music moment?
I had one yesterday during an even larger transcendental moment, which happened like many deeply spiritual moments, while I was washing the dishes…
To put it briefly, and mostly to mark this moment in time for myself – I had a time of prayer that dealt with a lifetime of issues – in short, powerful bursts of forgiveness, enlightenment and restoration… like 10 years of therapy in 30 minutes. It was quite amazing and I’m still happily discovering all kinds of surprising benefits from this sudden shift in thinking and being.
The song which was part of this moment was Every Grain of Sand – written by Bob Dylan, and sung by Emmylou Harris on her Wrecking Ball album. This song is track 7, and I had been listening to the whole album straight through when it came on…
The moment felt like the solutions to the questions I had just prayed minutes before came rushing back towards me like a tsunami, in waves that crashed on my shores, eliminating a lifetime of burdens and carrying them away.
It was such a powerful moment, one that’s really too large for words, but I just wanted to make a witness of it and remember it with this song…
In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There’s a dyin’ voice within me reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair
Don’t have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand
Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay
I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand
Note from Jon, onehumanbeing: I address this to you on the eve of a total lunar eclipse over North America, and just a few days before the Winter Solstice. We are on the cusp of a 30-year cycle of change as well as larger, era-changing moment in human history… these are significant times we are living in.
“People, I got to speak about something” – Tom Waits
I’m not really happy with the direction our country is heading.
Over the last month, the Obama administration has grappled (badly) with how to deal with the Wikileaks situation while trying to find it’s footing after the brutal November elections.
President Obama (or you can call him “Suzy Creamcheese”) is not doing well, and is looking for answers in all the wrong places.
Nope is the new Hope, Secrecy is the new Transparency, Censorship is the new Freedom of the Press, Propaganda is today’s FauxNews.
What Wikileaks has done over this last month has laid bare the wounded, fearful animal the Obama administration has become – and that’s a very dangerous thing.
Definition:Dystopia
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek: bad-, ill- and place, landscape) (alternatively, cacotopia, or anti-utopia) is, in literature, an often futuristic society that has degraded into a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian.
Dystopian literature has underlying cautionary tones, warning society that if we continue to live how we do, this will be the consequence.
A dystopia, thus, is regarded as a sort of negative utopia and is often characterized by an authoritarian or totalitarian form of government.
Dystopias usually feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, a lack or total absence of individual freedoms and expressions and constant states of warfare or violence. Dystopias often explore the concept of technology going “too far” and how humans individually and en masse use technology.
A dystopian society is also often characterized by mass poverty for most of its inhabitants and a large military-like police force.
Due to a number of circumstances (a different story entirely) I recently started working again on my UFOverdriver sound collage project.
Since late November I’ve created a number of pieces following the latest political shift in our country, one that I’m now calling a “dystopian shift.”
Poetics, music, art, and the great, universal subconsciousness are all deeply connected. This is one reason poets, artists, musicians, dreamers and deep thinkers often tap into emerging events (regardless of how they interpret them) before they crash upon the awareness of the general population.
Those of us who spend our lives completely involved in the poetic arts tend to see new human events before they appear on the horizon. Many times we sadly watch our worse fears unfold before our eyes, but fortunately, sometimes, something else completely surprising happens.
Needless to say, I hope I get it wrong as I feel a dystopian tsunami coming at us from beyond the horizon. I pray people make different choices and change the direction of the future. It only takes one human being to change things – the right one at the right moment.
But at this moment, since the November elections, the Obama administration and our country has shifted hard towards a dystopian future, and that is the story presented here.
UFOverdriver has been busy this last week (written December 6, 2010) working on this densely layered sound collage of mixed-media from the first week of the Wikileaks Cable Dump – a week that will be remembered as a historical battle in the history of the InfoWars…
This new remix includes music from U2, Talking Heads and Radiohead, lectures from Alan Watts and sound clips from an audiobook version of 1984, as well as numerous other clips, cuts, samples and various bits of audio debris from this first week of skirmishes in the new InfoWars…
After being deeply inspired by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ filibuster/long speech on Friday (December 10, 2010), UFOverdriver worked quickly to make use of it in a sound collage. The goal was to capture the moment and preserve it in a form that would highlight long, uninterrupted stretches of his speech.
Sen. Bernie Sander began his speech at 10:25 AM and ended it over 8 1/2 hours later at 6:59 PM. Many of us who watched it as it happened felt we were watching a historic moment.
This sound collage is composed of 5 parts/tracks; with a short introduction, the beginning of the filibuster, a short interlude, another uninterrupted segment of the speech, and then the conclusion.
Thank goodness that Senator Bernie Sanders stood up on Friday and spoke with wisdom, compassion and truth for over 8 1/2 hours – it was brilliant and an outstanding moment that offered a piece of sanity in an otherwise insane time…
4 sound collages – 18 tracks in all – one album: Dystopian Shifting
In the UFOverdriver tradition of D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) and G. I. A. (Give It Away), you can download a zip file of all the tracks in one long-playing album. An exclusive for UFOverdriver and onehumanbeing.com fans…
UFOverdriver has been busy this last week working on this densely layered sound collage of mixed-media from the first week of the Wikileaks Cable Dump – a week that will be remembered as a historical battle in the history of the InfoWars… Click here for more information on this sound collage.
Related News Notes
Julian Assange had not been arrested yet when this re-mix was finished last night. This morning he surrendered to Scotland Yard – here’s the story from AP.
LONDON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested and jailed without bail Tuesday in a sex-crimes investigation, but his organization scarcely missed a beat, releasing a new batch of the secret cables that U.S. officials say are damaging America’s security and relations worldwide.
A month after dropping out of public view, the 39-year-old Australian surrendered to Scotland Yard to answer a warrant issued for his arrest by Sweden. He is wanted for questioning after two women accused him of having sex with them without a condom and without their consent.
Assange said he would fight extradition to Sweden, setting the stage for what could be a pitched legal battle. And as if to prove that it can’t be intimidated, WikiLeaks promptly released a dozen new cables, including details of a NATO defense plan for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that made Russia bristle.
The Pentagon welcomed Assange’s arrest.
“That sounds like good news to me,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on a visit to Afghanistan.
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson insisted Assange’s arrest and the decision Tuesday by both Visa and MasterCard to stop processing donations to the group “will not change our operation.” Hrafnsson said the organization has no plans yet to make good on its threat to release en masse some of its most sensitive U.S. documents if it comes under attack.
At a court hearing in London, Assange showed no reaction as Judge Howard Riddle denied him bail while he awaits an extradition hearing Dec. 14. The judge said Assange might flee if released. When the judge asked him whether he would agree to be extradited, Assange said: “I do not consent.”
Daddy, what did you do during the First World Infowar? As the question of whether WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange is a hero or villain moves from front page headlines to talk shows and the blogosphere, another big story is emerging.
Unlike the quickly suppressed Twitter linked student revolt in Iran in 2009 following the disputed presidential election, the move by supporters to avenge attacks on Assange has gone viral. The rapid duplication of WikiLeaks content over the past weekend from one to more than 208 mirror websites represents a global counter-force that is now worldwide. Around the globe, it has become a call to arms for a far flung team of anonymous hackers.
Taking place in cyberspace, it exposes a whole new battlefield for the US government. A “clean-tech” war, it is taking place far beyond the sand and dust of Iraq and Afghanistan which already has immobilized billions of dollars worth of the military’s engines, and electronics.
Yet this emerging Infowar is more than a multiplication of mirror websites. Operation Avenge Assange marks a power shift, an abrupt shift of power from those who hold power through secrecy, closed door diplomacy, or fear, toward those who favor transparency.
This shift to openness and transparency, declares Jeff Jarvis, author of Public Parts, and What Would Google Do?, is actually a shift from those who hold secrets to those who create openness. That is our emerging reality.
Even more real is the fact that what may be termed the world’s first Infowar has now entered the realm of online gamers. With the line between government secrecy and public transparency beginning to blur, those whose lives are plugged into the Internet are starting to feel a surge of power.
This shift of power to openness and transparency is occurring right under their fingertips, on the keyboard, and on the screen. To them, power is clarity.
“The first serious Infowar is now engaged,” warns cyberlibertarian John Perry Barlow, a founding member of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead. To the anonymous hackers and others who follow him on Twitter and in blogs, he reminds: “The field of Battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops.”
