Monthly Archives for December 2009

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – TOOTIE MONTANA

DECEMBER 16 — “TOOTIE” MONTANA

New Orleans carnival chief, political activist.

DECEMBER 16, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Mexico: First of eight nights of POSADAS,the children’s Christmas
festival. Processions, singing, breaking piñatas.

ALSO ON DECEMBER 16 IN HISTORY…
1770 — Composer Ludwig von Beethoven born, Bonn, Germany
1773 — Boston Tea Party celebration, Boston, Massachusetts.
1775 — Romantic novelist Jane Austen born, Steventon, Hampshire, England.
1863 —Philosopher George Santayana born, Madrid, Spain.
1901 — Anthropologist Margaret Mead born, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1922 — Yellow Pocahontas Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana born, New Orleans.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective. The 2010 Autonomedia Calender is now available on the Autonomedia site.

Arthur items now available from the Arthur Store

Click on the covers to go to the Arthur Store to order…

THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN
The acclaimed 2004 CD collection of current underground folk music, as selected by Devendra Banhart. This is more than a compilation—it’s expertly sequenced and paced, like one long, slow flow of a particularly rich vibe. Liner notes are by the artists themselves, paying tribute to each other, all handlettered by Devendra, who also provides artwork on cover, back cover, sleeve, tray and the disk itself.
“Essential.” —Mojo
“Sparkling.” —The Wire
“8.6 (out of 10): [Its] sprawling landscape presents a persuasive case for the depth of a scene that seemingly sprung up (like mushrooms) overnight.” —Pitchfork

PARADISE NOW: The Living Theatre in Amerika
Specially priced DVD with extra-sized booklet and posters featuring rare, never-before-distributed films and a bacchanal of revolutionary multimedia documents from The Living Theatre’s historic and influential ‘68-’69 American tour.

TRANSMISSIONS FROM SINAI
Fresh 2009 multi-artist CD curated and sequenced by Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep, Shrinebuilder), with cover artwork by Arik Roper.

Anais Nin on LSD's value

[Huxley] reminded me that drugs are beneficial if they provide the only access to our nightlife. I realized that the expression “blow my mind” was born of the fact that America had cemented access to imagination and fantasy and that it would take dynamite to remove this block! I believed Leary’s emphasis on the fact we use only one percent of our mind or potential, that everything in our education conspires to restrict and constrict us. I only wished people had had time to study drugs as they studied religion or philosophy and to adapt to this chemical alteration of our bodies.

[LSD’s] value is in being a shortcut to the unconscious, so that one enters the realm of intuition unhampered, pure as it is in children, of direct emotional reaction to nature, to other human beings. In a sense it is the return to the spontaneity and freshness of childhood vision which makes every child able to paint or sing.

—Anais Nin, as quoted by Dale Pendell in Pharmako Gnosis: Plan Teachers and the Poison Path

The Diggers Papers No. 32: "To the Free World"

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Click on each image to enlarge.

About these documents:
By late March 1967 the Diggers and their allies in the Haight were being overwhelmed by the influx of newcomers to their neighborhood, many of them runaway youths attracted to the district by mainstream news accounts that had exaggerated the availability of Free: free food, free housing, free music, etc. When they spoke about it, the more authoritarian part of San Francisco’s Establishment—the police and the mayor’s office, the mainstream press—reacted with horror, fear and threats regarding the incoming hippie invasion, rather than dealing with the logistics of the impending housing crisis. “Trip Without a Ticket” was the name of the Diggers’ free store. “To the Free World,” summing up the fears and suspicions of the Diggers and associates, is a prime bit of Diggers analysis; it was probably written by com/co’s Chester Anderson.

Previously posted Diggers Papers:
http://www.arthurmag.com/contributors/diggers

About this series:
Arthur Magazine is proud to present scans of essential documents produced by and about the San Francisco Diggers, who were in many ways the epicentral actors in the Haight-Ashbury during the epic, wildly imaginative period from late ’66 through ’67. The Diggers’ ideas and activities are essential counter-cultural history, sure, but they are also especially relevant to the current era, for reasons that should be obvious to the gentle Arthur reader.

Most of the documents that we are presenting are broadsides originally published on a Gestetner machine owned and operated in the Haight by the novelist/poet Chester Anderson and his protege/sidekick Claude Hayward, who used the name “Communication Company,” or more commonly, “Com/Co.” According to Claude, these broadsides were then “handed out on the street, page by page, super hot media, because the reader trusted the source, which was another freaky looking hippie who had handed it to him/her.”

Donate
You can be a patron of this series by making a tax-deductible donation to Arthur Magazine via our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas: info here

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Chico Mendes

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DECEMBER 15 — CHICO MENDES
Martyred defender of the Amazon rain forest, native peoples.

DECEMBER 15 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
U.S.: BILL OF RIGHTS DAY. First ten constitutional amendments became effective December 15, 1791.

14th-century London: MEN’S SOCIETY OF PIU held annual feast and song
festival to promote mirth, peace, honesty, joyousness and love.

ALSO ON DECEMBER 15 IN HISTORY…
1796 —American revolutionist “Mad Anthony” Wayne dies.
1890 — Sioux chief Sitting Bull killed by soldiers, South Dakota.
1944 — Environmentalist martyr Chico Mendes born, Pote Seco, Brazil.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective. The 2010 Autonomedia Calender is now available on the Autonomedia site.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Ellen Willis

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DECEMBER 14 — ELLEN WILLIS
Redstockings feminist activist, music and cultural critic.

DECEMBER 14 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
HALCYON DAYS begin, a two-week-long celebration when the fabled
bird calms the wind and waves. A time of calm and tranquility.
ALSO ON DECEMBER 14 IN HISTORY…
1503 — Crackpot prognosticator Nostradamus born.
1837 — British forces crush rebellion in Canada.
1852 — Marxist political theorist Daniel DeLeon born, Curaçao, West Indies.
1853 — Anarchist theorist Errico Malatesta born, Caserta, Italy.
1895 — French writer Paul Eluard born, Saint Denis, France.
1911 — Musical dadaist Spike Jones born, Long Beach, California.
1941 — Rock critic, Redstockings feminist Ellen Willis born, New York City1865 — British imperialist apologist writer Rudyard Kipling born.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective. The 2010 Autonomedia Calender is now available on the Autonomedia site