Author Archives for Jay Babcock

The soul of Rick Veitch

From the blog of genius Vermont cartoonist/dreamworker Rick Veitch…

“Over the last couple weeks I’ve found myself in a number on conversations with different people about the nature of the soul. The soul is one of those subjects that everyone has an opinion of but nobody really knows what the darn thing is or even if it really exists. Interestingly, I had a dream the other night in which I saw my soul! It was basically a globe with lots of geometric shapes attached that was constantly changing at a rapid rate. I’ve made a quick little black and white animation that kind of gets it across. In the dream there was an ever-changing riot of pattern and color on each of the geometric shapes. Maybe at some point I’ll do a color version of this to make it complete….”

veitchsoul

More Veitch on Arthur:

A conversation with dreamworker/cartoonist RICK VEITCH, with an introduction by Alan Moore

Arthur Radio Voyage #3: Live set by The Holy Experiment

This past weekend Newtown Radio shut down in order to prepare for its big move into a more spacious studio (with improved recording facilities) within the same warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Since we weren’t able to broadcast live, Hairy Painter and I decided to set up a makeshift recording studio in my living room. We invited musician Brooke Gillespie of The Holy Experiment (who also happens to be my neighbor) to join us there as our very first guest to do a live session. We are now happy to share this performance with you, in all its warmth and beauty…

Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/THE-HOLY-EXPERIMENT-LIVE-ON-ARTHUR-RADIO-1-31-20101.mp3%5D

Download: The Holy Experiment live on Arthur Radio 1-31-2010

"Digital Nation": RUSHKOFF on Frontline (PBS) tonight 9pm/online

From PBS:

Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? And is our 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we’ve gained?

In Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, FRONTLINE presents an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st-century digital world. Continuing a line of investigation she began with the 2008 FRONTLINE report Growing Up Online, award-winning producer Rachel Dretzin embarks on a journey to understand the implications of living in a world consumed by technology and the impact that this constant connectivity may have on future generations. “I’m amazed at the things my kids are able to do online, but I’m also a little bit panicked when I realize that no one seems to know where all this technology is taking us, or its long-term effects,” says Dretzin.

Joining Dretzin on this journey is commentator Douglas Rushkoff, a leading thinker and writer on the digital revolution — and one-time evangelist for technology’s positive impact. “In the early days of the Internet, it was easy for me to reassure people about what it would mean to bring digital technology into their lives,” says Rushkoff, who has authored 10 books on media, technology and culture. “Now I want to know whether or not we are tinkering with something more essential than we realize.”

Read more at PBS site

This Sat, Feb 6, L.A.: "DAISIES" screening at Cinefamily

daisies_arthur

Poster by Alia Penner

From Cinefamily:

“Daisies is a bubbling and buoyant spring of irrepressible female creativity; it is an overflowing audio-visual bouquet of color, music, and texture; it is a freewheeling and effervescent farce, a formal free-for-all, a paradoxical mixture of bourgeois indulgence and cultural critique, and it’s your next favorite movie.

“Two young Czech girls (both named Marie) decide that the world is so corrupt that they might as well join in, and they do so with wild abandon — prancing, food-fighting, pranking old men, carousing in nightclubs, and creating anarchy everywhere they go.

“Director Vera Chytilova’s love of cinema’s potential is both playful and palpable, as exuberant as the spirit of the two ‘daisies’ whose misadventures have surprising weight and meaning. Banned upon its release by the Czech government, Daisies has become a major cult favorite thanks to its dazzling setpieces, the charismatic and fashionable art-girl heroines, and an infectious sense of fun that’s as potent today as it was when it first premiered behind the Iron Curtain.

Dir. Věra Chytilová, 1966, 35mm, 74 min.”

Extract:

"MONEY IS AN UNNECESSARY EVIL" (SF Diggers, 1966)

MoneyIsAnUnnecessaryEvil

Click on image to enlarge.

About this document:
Pretty self-explanatory. Published sometime in the second half of 1966.

Text
Money Is An Unnecessary Evil

It is addicting.

It is a temptation to the weak (most of the violent crimes of our city in some way involve money).

It can be hoarded, blocking the free flow of energy and the giant energy-hoards of Montgomery Street will soon give rise to a sudden and thus explosive release of this trapped energy, causing much pain and chaos.

As part of the city’s campaign to stem the causes of violence the San Francisco Diggers announce a 30 day period beginning now during which all responsible citizens are asked to turn in their money. No questions will be asked.

Bring money to your local Digger for free distribution to all. The Diggers will then liberate its energy according to the style of whoever receives it.

[fingerprint]

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.

These broadsides were handed out on the street; some ended up being posted in windows.

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