Monthly Archives for August 2009

Chambo's Top Five Friday Internet Activities

• MORE AWESOME TAPES (AND 7-INCHES) FROM AFRICA: Frank lived in West Africa from 2005 to 2008, and he tells us all about it at Voodoo Funk, a collection of stories, MP3s and awesome record store art. He’s also DJing a “Lagos Disco Inferno” party this weekend in Brooklyn, and you can get a preview of the heavy grooves from his crates with this kinda sloppy and totally delightful downloadable mix. [Voodoo Funk]

• MEXICAN JOURNALISM 101: Tucson-based writer Charles Bowden is by far the best guy when it comes to reading about drugs and Mexico, partly because in Mexico you are not allowed to write about drugs and Mexico. In last month’s Mother Jones he wrote this terrifying story of a reporter who wasn’t even trying to do that, but Mexican Army psychopaths decided to try and kill him anyway. He fled to the United States looking for asylum so we put him in jail and took his kid away. [Mother Jones]

• CHILEAN ELECTRONICS: Arthur pal Raspberry Jones is adding a bunch of tunes to Newly Lost Edge, including some interesting electronic music from South America. Jones is a regular go-to guy when it comes to this stuff, helpfully directing our attention to mixes such as this one from Matias Aguayo, a Chilean dude “putting on his various friends from around the world – artists from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Cape Verde, etc. – who aren’t just doing the local thing, so much as mixing that local thing with a (for lack of a better term) minimal techno vibe.” [Newly Lost Edge]

• ENDGAME TIME AGAIN: The Guardian UK joins the Financial Times in shoring up the British mainstream press’ reputation as a hub for radical anarcho-primitivist thought, following the Jared Diamond interview we wrote about last week with this pleasantly archaic exchange of letters between two dudes, one of whom is like “The writing is on the wall for industrial society, and no amount of ethical shopping or determined protesting is going to change that now” and another guy who’s like, “you’re just horny for the apocalypse.” [The Guardian]

• NEW ANIMALS: Did you see the new animals yet? World Wide Fund for Nature has all kinds of information about the 350 different species of plants, amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, mammals and invertebrates that humans have recently discovered hiding out in the Eastern Himalayas (so not exactly “new,” so much as “new to us”). Including this flying frog that glides around from tree-to-tree with its webbed feet. That guy is most likely on the anti-industrial society side of the debate. [WWF via Science Daily]

P.S. Happy Birthday Joe Strummer! You can read Kristine McKenna’s beautifully sprawling Q&A with the dearly departed Clash frontman and all around inspirational hero from Arthur 3 (March 2003) by clicking here. We’ve also got plenty of hard copies left in the Arthur Store. Click here to go see about that.

Great Grandma’s Macaroni — a recipe and a story from The Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright (Arthur, 2004)

Come On In My Kitchen
by Greg Cartwright of the Reigning Sound

originally published in Arthur No. 11 (July 2004)

Greg Cartwright is one of American rock ‘n’ roll’s great undersung heroes, a veteran of legendary Memphis grease-rock outfits the Oblivians and the Compulsive Gamblers. Too Much Guitar!, the career-highlight new album by his latest band, The Reigning Sound, is reviewed by C & D in this issue; the band will be touring with the Hives across North America later this summer.

About nine years ago, while I was touring in Spain, I met an American girl who happened to be there on vacation. Conversation led to the fact that we were both looking for The Revlons’ “The Way You Touch My Hand” single. The stars were lining up but the van was leaving. Almost a year later I met her again in New York and I wound up staying at her apartment for three days. On the third day we decided to stay in because we knew it was our last night together. I said, “Let’s cook something.” She said, “I only know how to cook one thing.” She called it “Great Grandma’s Macaroni.” Was it good? I married her, didn’t I? Here goes:

1. Boil 1 package of macaroni noodles.
2. Put them in a casserole dish and mix in one small can of tomato sauce.
3. Chop up half a sweet vidalia (yellow) onion and mix it in too.
4. Add a pinch of thyme, a little oregano and salt & pepper to your taste.
5. Mix it all up good and spread a nice thick layer of shredded cheddar across the top.
6. Bake at 375 degrees about 20 minutes, or until the cheese starts to turn golden brown.

My only addition to this recipe over the last seven years has been to add a pound of seasoned ground beef in place of step 4. Thanks to Esther’s great grandma for the recipe!

Excellent article on AYAHUASCA in National Geographic

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Click here: “Peru: Hell and Back”
Deep in the Amazon jungle, writer Kira Salak tests ayahuasca, a shamanistic medicinal ritual, and finds a terrifying—but enlightening—world within.

Major praise to National Geographic for putting together the best single article on ayahuasca-as-medicine that I’ve ever seen, anywhere. Lengthy article features a first-person account of two ayahuasca treatments by courageous reporter Kira Salak, as well as commentary/information/insights from leading, sensible Western ayahuasca researchers (Charles Grob at UCLA; Benny Shanon at Hebrew University, Jerusalem; and psychologist/author Ralph Metzner) and footage of the beginning of an ayahuasca session.

Excerpt:

At the vanguard of this research is Charles Grob, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCLA’s School of Medicine. In 1993 Dr. Grob launched the Hoasca Project, the first in-depth study of the physical and psychological effects of ayahuasca on humans. His team went to Brazil, where the plant mixture can be taken legally, to study members of a native church, the União do Vegetal (UDV), who use ayahuasca as a sacrament, and compared them to a control group that had never ingested the substance. The studies found that all the ayahuasca-using UDV members had experienced remission without recurrence of their addictions, depression, or anxiety disorders. In addition, blood samples revealed a startling discovery: Ayahuasca seems to give users a greater sensitivity to serotonin—one of the mood-regulating chemicals produced by the body—by increasing the number of serotonin receptors on nerve cells.

Unlike most common antidepressants, which Grob says can create such high levels of serotonin that cells may actually compensate by losing many of their serotonin receptors, the Hoasca Project showed that ayahuasca strongly enhances the body’s ability to absorb the serotonin that’s naturally there.

“Ayahuasca is perhaps a far more sophisticated and effective way to treat depression than SSRIs [antidepressant drugs],” Grob concludes, adding that the use of SSRIs is “a rather crude way” of doing it. And ayahuasca, he insists, has great potential as a long-term solution.

According to Grob, ayahuasca provokes a profound state of altered consciousness that can lead to temporary “ego disintegration,” as he calls it, allowing people to move beyond their defense mechanisms into the depths of their unconscious minds—a unique opportunity, he says, that cannot be duplicated by any nondrug therapy methods.

“Ayahuasca is not for everyone,” Grob warns. “It’s probably not for most people in our world today. You have to be willing to have a very powerful, long, internal experience, which can get very scary. You have to be willing to withstand that.”

Read the whole article here…

'44 PRESIDENTS' by MZA & Maria Sputnik

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Forty Four Presidents by MZA & Maria Sputnik.  Available in hardcover from Garrett County Press.

A brief illustrated history of the U.S. presidency told by the presidents themselves in the style favored by modern social networking web sites, Forty Four Presidents imagines 220 years of presidential succession pancaked into a single moment — documented simultaneously by each commander-in-chief in status updates designed for easy consumption by their Facebook friends. Each status update is accompanied by a jaunty, high-contrast profile picture intended to reflect something of the essential personality (and hotness) of the president.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint: Wesley Willis

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AUGUST 21 — WESLEY WILLIS
“Warhellrider,” Joy-rider.” Rock musician and outsider artist.
willisart_skyline20
Wesley Willis, Skyline.

August 21, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Ath, Belgium: FESTIVAL OF GOLIATH. Parade of giants.

ALSO ON AUGUST 17 IN HISTORY…
1831 — Nat Turner leads slave rebellion, Virginia.
1872 — Decadent British illustrator Aubrey Beardsley born.
1888 — William S. Burroughs awarded patent for adding machine.
1904 — William “Count” Basie born, Red Bank, New Jersey.
1971 — Black Panther George Jackson assassinated, San Quentin prison, California.
2003 — Outsider artist, schizophrenic musician Wesley Willis dies, Chicago, Illinois.

'PINK TOMBS' limited edition print run available now!

Get your very own physical copy of Pete Toms’ Pink Tombs by clicking on this link here.  Some sweet FAQ from Pete’s livejounal:

FAQ:

– What the fuck are you talking about?
Pink Tombs was a comic I did a few months ago for the Arthur Blog. If you want to read a 20 page preview of the 20 page comic you can there:
part 1 part 2 part 3

– I read it online, why would I want to buy a print version?
While I agree that print is a dying industry, I’ve tried to include some incentives that weren’t possible in the internet version: 1) There are a random number of variant covers. While some companies try to entice you with foil or hologram wrap around covers, my comic is the first to feature the ‘Thumbprint Variant’. Every few covers will probably have my soapy thumb print somewhere on it as I obsessively wash my hands 10 times an hour. I am always worried they’re sticky and/or covered in germs. I have yet to figure out if this stickiness is physical or mental, but I hear germs are real.

2) Besides the variant, there are actual covers on the print copy. There were no covers online.

3) If you have never bought a comic before, or haven’t bought one recently you are missing out on belonging to an exclusive club called ‘comic fandom’ Have you ever wanted to tell people your opinions on things even if they didn’t ask you or aren’t even talking about the same topic? Have you ever wanted to laugh at someone’s lack of knowledge about Gambit? Have you ever wanted to accuse a guy that just like, draws fucking Spider-Man, of metaphorical rape? Have you ever wanted to complain about how things were better when you were younger, and kids today don’t know what they’re doing, like you’re a 60 year old man, even though you’re in your 20s or 30s? Comic fandom is for you. But you can’t just read webcomics. Try mentioning that in a comic book store. You will be laughed away. Unless you’re a woman, then there might be leering and confused mumbling. Unless it’s one of those cool, indie stores, then they’ll be like ‘yes webcomics’, stroke their beards and make sweet love to you (man or woman) and then write nice things about you on their blog.

Aug 23, Philly: ENTER BOG MAN

dapperwhimsy

From the pictured-above Lord Whimsy:

Just a quick announcement: I’ll be doing a bog garden workshop this Sunday, August 23rd at 2PM in historic Whitesbog Village. We’ll go over the needs of popular bog plants like Venus Flytraps, Pitcher Plants and Sundews (care sheets will be available), and I’ll do a rudimentary demonstration on how to build a small container garden for these plants.

I’ve also heard rumors that friend and bog man extraordinaire Bill Smith (of JAWS Ltd. and Rarefind fame) may be attending! The man has the largest and most diverse bog garden I’ve ever seen, so with luck we can look forward to Bill lending his own invaluable advice on how to care for these plants.

If you have a spare couple hours on Sunday, come on out. Hope to see you there!

A $5 donation is requested. Reserve by phone: 609.893.4646 or email: programmanagerwpt@comcast.net

More info/links at Whimsy’s site here

'DEATH BY CHOCOLATE' by Leon Sadler

Leon shares a hilarious new comic, Death By Chocolate, and also fills us in on what’s new with Famicon and other stuff:

“Leon Sadler is part of the UK artist group Famicon, working mostly in comics and drawing.

I run Famicon Express with Bonehouse Books, which publishes comics and artist books, the most recent of those is Jonathan Chandler’s 2by2 (Jon’s first solo show just opened in sukiwa gallery in tokyo, information here:  http://mr-boobytrap.livejournal.com/  IT CLOSES THIS WEDNESDAY)

I just finished a little zine for Nieves, and drawings for the next Nazi Knife, and I’m currently working on a MEGA MACERATOR comic book with Massimiliano Bomba, about eating lumps and stomping on shit, I’m working on some stupid computer game for Boys Empire, and maybe another Bart the General…

For enquiries visit famicon.net, lmsn.eu, famiconexpress.co.uk”

death_by_chocolate