“International food sovereignty and deep democracy activist VANDANA SHIVA [ref’d in Nance Klehm’s recent column: see here] shares her views on the current planetary situation in an event presented by the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), KPFA Radio 94.1 FM, and Navdanya International.”
Mushroom Magick: A Visionary Field Guide
by Arik Roper
Hardcover: 144 pages
Abrams
ISBN-10: 0810996316
List Price: $19.95 Amazon Price: $13.57
Here’s some promotion blurbage from the publisher:
For centuries hallucinogenic mushrooms have participated in a sublime relationship with humankind, thanks to their psychoactive chemicals that shift and modify the human mind. Arik Roper’s exquisite painted portraits of magic mushrooms illustrate more than 90 of the known hallucinogenic species from around the world. He captures their powerful auras, adding to a tradition of Mushroom art that stretches back more than 400 years.
Popular culture critics [and sometime Arthur columnists] Erik Davis and Daniel Pinchbeck provide background and testimony in elegant essays, and mushroom expert Gary Lincoff contributes notes. This beautifully designed and profusely illustrated mushroom bible will appeal to nature lovers, mushroom hunters, and enthusiasts of all things psychedelic.
“Ernest Callenbach (Ecotopia, 1975) and Harvey Wasserman (Solartopia, 2007) discuss the role of the visionary novelist in opening public discourse to ‘outside the box’ possibilities. They look at the many elements of Callenbach’s Ecotopian vision have actually come into being (and some that haven’t yet) and explore the catalytic power of realistic hope to shape the present and the future. They agree the time has come to democratically enlarge our vision of sustainable society from local, national and regional spheres to the planetary context. For more info: ErnestCallenbach.com, Solartopia.org”
On the 17th Anniversary of his passing, original collaborators and friends of Arthur Russell will be playing his songs in a tribute to his life’s work. Performances will span from dance tracks such as “Go Bang!” to more experimental and minimal compositions for cello and other instruments. Read more below.
Date & Time: Saturday, April 4th, 10:30PM (Doors at 10PM) Venue: Le Poisson Rouge Location: 158 Bleecker St. / New York, NY 10012 Price: $12 in advance / $15 at the door (This show is 21+) Buy tickets here.
Le Poisson Rouge presents a tribute to the composer Arthur Russell, who established himself in New York’s vibrant downtown music scene of the 1970s as an eccentric chameleon, creating across and playing his cello in a wide variety of experimental and popular genres. When Russell died in 1992 at age 40 due to AIDS-related illness, his most celebrated output was the collection of leftfield disco records he produced under monikers such as Dinosaur L and Loose Joints, although he left a huge body of work behind him—minimalist chamber music; country-tinged rock from his band the Flying Hearts; meditations for solo voice, cello, and electronic effects—much of which has been posthumously released on record labels such as Audika, introducing Russell’s brilliant, gentle sound to new audiences across the globe.
This concert of live music, held on the anniversary of Russell’s passing, will bridge the gaps between the extremes of his practice, and will include instrumental works, dance tracks, and songs played by an ensemble of Russell’s original collaborators in addition to a few special guests. A dance party follows with DJs and a special late-night performance. Continue reading →
MARCH 31 — JULES DASSIN
Blacklisted, exiled American film noir director.
MARCH 31 holidays and festivals:
* Ancient Babylonia: SACRED DRAMA DAY, in which the King, in the role of Marduk, re-enacts the conquest of Tiamat, the watery chaos.
* Islamic: MAWLID AN NABI, Muhammad’s birthday.
* BUNSEN BURNER DAY.
ON THIS DATE:
1492 — Ferdinand and Isabella expel all Jews from Spain.
1809 — Russian fantasist writer Nikoloi Gogol born, Sorochinetz, Ukraine.
1855 — Charlotte Bronte dies, age 38 and pregnant, Haworth, Yorkshire.
1926 — British novelist, essayist John Fowles born, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
1959 — Tibet’s Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression, seeks asylum in India.
1968 — U. S. Prez Lyndon Johnson announces that he will not seek re-election.
2008 — Blacklisted American film noir director Jules Dassin dies in Athens, aged 96
For anyone with a “thing” for old records in languages other than English, Jon Ward’s Excavated Shellac blog is the best site on the web, hands down. Every Sunday night, he posts a side of a lovely 78 rpm disc, recorded during the first half of the 20th century from various places across five continents. And it’s made available as free downloads in a spirit of open-hearted sharing. (There’s a fabulous mid-20s Syrian fiddle record featured this week.)
Recently, the dublab site has posted a great two-hour mp3 of Ward himself playing some great stuff, most of which hasn’t been included on ES before and best of all, he chats between tracks about the records and his interest in them. Just wonderful.
Four gallons of homemade, homegrown (last season) posole was never slurped so fast. Experienced growers shared their seeds and carefully picked through the collection, taking the most rare and unusual. The inexperienced came empty-handed and stuffed their pockets. As my friend Erik said: “Wait until they have 200 radishes to harvest and have to figure out what to do with them.”
Particularly exciting arrivals to the SEED ARCHIVE were blue lotus, mandrake and white alpine strawberries.
A public-access seed archive relies on its PUBLIC, which to me means a broad, diffuse network of folks growing seeds out and bringing them back. Completing this cycle is essential to not just the seed’s continued life but the vitality of the archive as a community resource.
Seeds require care and discipline. Many seeds can only be stored for a short period of time. Potatoes need to be grown out every year to remain viable. Lettuce seeds last only a year or two before they reach the end of their shelf-life. We can’t just stuff seed away and we can’t just grow things out willy-nilly.
Taking an informal poll here (in case any of you wish to respond, you are invited to): Why were people taking so much seed—far too much to grow and use?
The latter question came to mind as Vandana Shiva stepped up to a podium of a packed auditorium in Chicago a few days later. Here’s a picture…
Shiva comes from a farming, conservation and teaching family and as an environmental activist has a PhD in quantum physics. She is a GRANDMOTHER WARRIOR fighting Monsanto and the other four transnational corporations that control our global food supply—pushing GMO’s, toxic pesticides and herbicides affecting our seed and therefore farmers and their families, rural communities and ecosystems of plants and animals, soil quality and even us urban consumers. She uses an old form of resistance—inspiring a dedicated (read: strategized) and devoted (read heart-solid) group of people, mostly women to put their bodies on the line. Besides writing over 15 books, she has brought down the likes of Monsanto and Cargill on seeds and Coca-Cola on water rights. Shiva travels the globe extensively inserting toothpicks between our eyelids so we can see what the heck is going on. And like the toothpicks, it ain’t comfortable.
Four years ago I had the privilege of serving her on her week’s teaching residency in England. She was puffy, her breathing heavy, full of congestion. She was so unhealthy that it made me question the ability of a human, any human to hold such a large public identity and still remain whole and vital.
She looked better in Chicago, speaking about the Chipko movement of the early ’70s, an organized resistance to the destruction of forests in India. Village women organized the Chipko. It was thousands of women hugging trees that stopped the destruction, and popularized the action and use of ‘treehugging’ around the world. Chipko’s position was simple: forests support food, fuel and fodder, and stabilize soil and water. In other words, forests are integral to subsistence. That is: Ecology = Economy.
Press coverage of the Chipko movement:
Vandana Shiva also spoke about the great Bengal famine of the mid-1940s, when hundreds of thousands of Indians died due to the maldistribution of rice. Finally, women armed with broomsticks confronted the British East Indian Company to demand a lessened “tribute” of their rice crop so they could actually feed their families. Their message being: Let us keep more of the rice we grow or kill us now. Women and broomsticks, mind you. Witchy farmers, but not witches.
Arthur Magazine 
