Dystopian Shifting

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.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia

Calling Down The UFOverdriver

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.

Four Sound Collages – One Story

Part 1 – December 6th

Rule Number Two Is The New Rule Number One

UFOverdriver - Rule Number Two Is The New Rule Number One - The Wikileaks Big Cable Dump Mix

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…

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Track Listing

Track 1 (0:31) War is Peace – Freedom is Slavery – Ignorance is Strength

Track 2 (4:12) Rule Number Two Will Be Told To You In Reverse

Track 3 (2:06) One Step Closer To InfoWar

Track 4 (2:19) If You’re Going To Be Human

Track 5 (3:27) Life During InfoWar Time

Track 6 (1:45) The Infrastructure Will Collapse

Part 2 – December 11th

This Is The Voice Of Your Conscience

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.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Track Listing

Track 1 (03:30) Fortress America Is Waiting For A Message Of Some Sort Or Another

Track 2 (09:24) Mr. Sanders Goes To Washington – Part 1

Track 3 (03:21) I Am Equality 7-2521

Track 4 (10:30) Mr. Sanders Goes To Washington – Part 2

Track 5 (02:42) After 8 And A Half Hours, Truth Yields The Floor

Part 3 – December 16th

They Call Me The Breeze – Run Baby Run On Mix – The Wikileaks Version

In this episode: People are out to kill Wikileaks spokesman, Julian Assange, and some have made threats against him on FOX News, while the freshly-elected Representative Allen West (R-Fla.) suggested that we abandon the fundamental American principle of Freedom of the Press in his own statements about Wikileaks.

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…

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Track Listing

Track 1 (1:19) They Call Me The Breeze

Track 2 (4:11) You Too May Come To Love Big Brother

Track 3 (3:47) Run Baby Run On

Track 4 (3:43) And Then The Senator Stood Up

Part 4 – December 18th

Dystopia (Is The New Utopian Dream)

Music to help you party like it’s 1984 – or use it as your getaway soundtrack when you’re on the run from the Suede Denim Secret Police.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Track Information

Track 1 (1:22) You Know What To Do

Track 2 (4:20) I Never Lost Control

Track 3 (3:54) We Will Go

Download Album

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…

Download Here: UFOverdriver – Dystopian Shifting
18 Tracks – 1 hour 6 minutes

Listen, Enjoy and Share!

“Can I get an Amen?” – Tom Waits


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Some Thoughts About Decisions, Dreams, Words and Big Sur

jon99bw1Decisions, Decisions…

Time is a map and we build upon it with our dreams and decisions. Every thing we do, and every action we engage in has an effect upon ourselves and on the world around us.

The abstract expressionist painter Robert Motherwell wrote that a painting is the result of thousands of decisions. If you have ever been involved with the creative process (and who hasn’t) you’ll understand what he meant.

We each do the same thing with our lives, make decision after decision, choice after choice… you can not avoid that responsibility. Even if we delude ourselves into thinking someone else has control over my life, I still have the responsibility for how I react and the decisions I make based on other peoples choices that affect me.

In hockey it works like this; the referee might let a little infraction slide, but if a player takes matters into his own hands and retaliates, most likely he’ll end up in the penalty box. I think most parents will understand the social management wisdom on the part of the referees.

In this world people will offend you, will cut you off on the road, will cut in line, smile to your face and then stab you in the back, cheat on you, lie to you, steal from you and worse… why, because we’re all becoming human beings, and in this world you will have suffering. That’s not my original thought – every great religion will point that out and you don’t have to live long to experience the truth of the matter…

But that is not the end of it – you have choices, and you have dreams.

Continue reading


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Thought to Ponder | Living 1000 Years…

I’ve pondered this thought often over the last few months…

“How would you live if you knew your lifespan would be a thousand years?”

Would you live your life the way you do today? Would you treat the planet differently? Would you pursue wisdom or greed? Would you want to control others or find a new common way? What changes would you start making now to insure a prosperous and sustainable life style for yourself and others… or would you want to horde resources and create your own empire?

Another thought…

“If the future evolution of humanity was neural-humanity – humanity as a single mind of billions of neural-humans – would you participate, or fight it?”

I’m starting to think that some form of neural-humanity is ahead, but that’s just a theory I’ve been pondering since last November…

Until later, best of health…
Jon, onehumanbeing


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The Bankers and the Homeowners – A Story

It’s Friday, and I thought it would be a nice day for a little story…

The Bankers and The Homeowners

A new administration and a new Congress had come to Washington DC, along with a massive financial disaster brought about by a number of things, but one major factor was the greedy and shortsighted bankers collapsed plan built on inflated home values and reckless loans. And because of their bad decisions, economies around the world were devastated.

But the new administration came in and started to clean house, and they called these bankers before them to explain themselves. Even though they were guilty of massive frauds and mismanagement, the new administration and Congress forgave them, and in order to keep what was left of the economy afloat, they loaned them more money and told them to get their houses in order.

Very quickly the bankers had money flowing back to their banks, and their jobs were saved and bonuses were awarded… and then a letter came from a homeowner who was three months behind on his house payment, and was not asking for money, but just a little more time so he could save his families home.

The bankers were outraged. “You should be more responsible… no more time – foreclose on that house today…”

Well, word got around the Internet pretty quickly, and soon the outcry was so great that the new administration and Congress heard about it and called the bankers back in to question them about this situation.

“We forgave you and helped you to keep going, but your fellow citizen just asked for a crumb by comparison and you’re ready to throw him out on the street with his wife and children… Now, not only are we going to take your companies, but also your homes, cars, airplanes and bonuses, and you are all going to be put into prison for a very long time…”

Credit Where Credits Due

This would have worked just as well as The Bankers And The Credit Card Holders, but I went with the homeowners…

I hope you enjoyed my story, but I must admit that I borrowed heavily from the greatest story-teller of all time, Jesus of Nazareth.

Lots of people do comeback tours, I’d sure like to see Jesus do a return engagement. He’d be great on Letterman or with Jon Stewart, Live with Larry King…

The original version of my story can be found in any Bible – Matthew 18:21-35 (that’s the first book in the New Testament) – and really, Jesus tells it better… and the question he’s answering is about forgiveness, and how often should we forgive someone… a good thing to think about in the days ahead.

Have a great Friday and a blessed weekend,
Jon, onehumanbeing


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Breathing As The World Turns…

Wow! What is that in the air?

It reminds me of a couple of years ago when The Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup…

The only sport I watch is hockey, which is strange for a Southern California native. People usually ask me if I’m from Canada when I start talking hockey – and I can talk hockey!

But what it means being a hockey fan in California is the reality that your team will never, I repeat, NEVER, win the big prize. NEVER…

Oh the seasons I endured as a young Kings fans. I listened to every game on the radio during the gold and purple days of the 70′s.

I had a poster on my wall of Rogie Vachon, the starting goaltender for the Kings back then, who I would sketch over and over again (that’s how young artists work out their angst)… later when I got a parakeet I named him Marcel, bad parakeet name, but the scoring wonder of that moment, Marcel Doinne.

Well, The Kings and hockey lost me during the 80′s and it wasn’t until The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim started in the early 90′s expansion that I came back. And what a grueling journey it was…

I was a fan of the team owned by Disney – a strange marriage at the least.

A team is the roughest sport, with fights, injuries, real blood and everything nasty married to Cinderella, American Family Style. Not to mention being named after a movie franchise… we live in a strange world.

And then one day it changed…

A great couple who really like hockey and wanted to do what’s right by the team bought them, changed the name to the Anaheim Ducks, hired real talent for the front office that brought great talent to the ice, changed the image of the team, and within a couple of years I was breathing air that feels a lot like today… almost.

When the Ducks won the Stanley Cup it was like I was in a nitrous oxide bubble of happy gas for a week. I had never been on the winning side before, cheering for the winning team!

Asking me to do anything was out of the question… I just lingered and breathed in and out… mmmmm….

Not so with the air today… it tastes as sweet, but I’ve got some empty beer bottles on the table, dishes left in the sink, a carpet to vacuum and many other household chores to do… and breathing this air just makes me feel like getting to the work at hand.

I’ll write more later, dish out some more STEW, but first there is work to do…


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