found via Stephen O’Malley

upland breakdown

Sat. 25, Beartree Tavern, Centennial, Wyoming
Souled American, Michael Hurley, Stop & Listen Boys, Ralph White, Birgit Burke

Sun. 26, Swing Station, LaPorte, Colorado
Souled American, Michael Hurley, Stop & Listen Boys, Spot, The Places

curated by Joe Carducci and David Lightbourne

from the Rocky Mountain News:

“I formed my first band in the mid- to late-seventies, ’78 for the sake of argument,” [David Lightbourne] says. “And in 1978, the only venues available to you were NHL arenas. There were no bands that didn’t have a stack of 27 Marshalls on top of each other for every instrument.

“They were putting drummers in cages. And I said, ‘No. Give me an acoustic guitar, one microphone, a washboard and a mandolin, and I’ll show you what rock ’n’ roll is supposed to sound like.’ And it’s just my reaction against the arena-rock era. I tried to take it all the way down to Elvis and Sun Records in ’53 with just a Martin acoustic bluegrass guitar. He didn’t have a synthesizer. They couldn’t punch in and punch out bad notes. That’s rock ’n’ roll. Not Sting saving the hummingbirds.”

The New York Times

August 23, 2007

Scientists Induce Out-of-Body Sensation

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

Using virtual reality goggles, a camera and a stick, scientists have induced out-of-body experiences — the sensation of drifting outside of one’s own body — in healthy people, according to experiments being published in the journal Science.

When people gaze at an illusory image of themselves through the goggles and are prodded in just the right way with the stick, they feel as if they have left their bodies.

The research reveals that “the sense of having a body, of being in a bodily self,” is actually constructed from multiple sensory streams, said Matthew Botvinick, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Princeton University, an expert on body and mind who was not involved in the experiments.

Usually these sensory streams, which include including vision, touch, balance and the sense of where one’s body is positioned in space, work together seamlessly, Prof. Botvinick said. But when the information coming from the sensory sources does not match up, when they are thrown out of synchrony, the sense of being embodied as a whole comes apart.

The brain, which abhors ambiguity, then forces a decision that can, as the new experiments show, involve the sense of being in a different body.

The research provides a physical explanation for phenomena usually ascribed to other-worldly influences, said Peter Brugger, a neurologist at University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. After severe and sudden injuries, people often report the sensation of floating over their body, looking down, hearing what is said, and then, just as suddenly, find themselves back inside their body.

The new research is a first step in figuring out exactly how the brain creates this sensation, he said.

The out-of-body experiments were conducted by two research groups using slightly different methods intended to expand the so-called rubber hand illusion.
Continue reading →

From Steve Aylett:

Here’s an animation based on my story “The Man Whose Head Expanded”
(which was in the story anthology ‘Perverted By Language’)

http://www.playstationseason.com/PBL_kondo.html

Aggrolites on Nickelodeon…

The jury is still way out about Todd Haynes new faux Dylan bio-pic “I’m Not There”. Admittedly, on a torn piece of paper from a Moleskine, it’s an amazing concept. However, can Haynes make a musical bio-pic that wins over the hearts of Dylan fans worldwide?

Hmm, a lot yet to be revealed. I went to see Velvet Goldmine in an empty movie theatre at the Como Park mall outside of Buffalo, NY when it came out and I think I was the only person that attended any of the showings.

“I’m Not There” is an amalgamation of the mythology of Dylan’s life and career played out by many different actors through many years. Cate Balnchett pulls a David Duchovny playing Bob in his prime. Look out for David Cross, former Arthur mag cover boy, playing the role of a lifetime: Allen Ginsberg.

David Cross:

Trailer:

Coming to the Film Forum in NYC Wednesday, November 21 – Tuesday, December 4.

Good time to rent Masked and Anonymous again.