The Diggers Papers No. 34: "DIGGERS WELCOME"

DiggersPapers34a

DiggersPapers34b

Click on each image to enlarge.

About these documents:
Pretty self-explanatory.

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

The Diggers Papers No. 33: "WHAT IS THE DIGGERS?"

DiggersPapers33

Click on image to enlarge.

About this document:
Pretty self-explanatory: “We come to Haight-Ashbury, where many of us gather together, to start a flow of love.”

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

HYPER-ADAPTED

from : http://spectregroup.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/hyper-adapted/

Synanthropes
http://beefheart.com/walker/lyrics/crow/icecreamforcrow.htm
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10007459o-2000331777b,00.htm
“My new favourite word is synanthropy – the study and practice of creating symbiotic relationships between people and animals. Metafilter pointed me at A Vending Machine For Crows, a project by polymath techie Joshua Klein that aims to put some of the hundreds of millions of dropped coins back in circulation. It does this by training crows to realise that if they find coins and take them to the machine, they’ll get food. The benefits of this idea are manifold. Klein posits that if you can get a few crows trained, then the idea will spread naturally throughout the population – and that means that mostly, human intervention can be restricted to seeding the idea and then leaving enough machines around. That makes it very economical – especially if the crows remain unaware of the true market value of the coinage they find. Although I’m sure that economics will take over if the idea catches on; if it’s profitable for the machine operators, then rival devices will appear offering better deals and a wider range of treats – and I do hope crows really are partial to ice cream. Is it perhaps entirely smart to introduce intelligent non-humans into our economy? If this catches on,avian mugging will spread from the seagulls in no time flat.”

Coconuts As Portable Shelter
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/15/2771822.htm
“Scientists at the Melbourne Museum have recorded the first case of tool use in an invertebrate animal. The veined octopus selects, stacks, transports and assembles coconut shells as portable armour. “It comes at a cost, carrying these shells in this awkward way and it’s a fantastic example of complex behaviours in what we consider the lower life forms,” he said. They watched the octopuses dig out coconut shells from the ocean floor and empty the shells of mud using jets of water. Dr Finn says it is not unusual for octopuses to live inside coconuts but how it uses the shells is unique. “It gathers them together, it stacks them like bowls, covers its whole body over bowls, lifts them up and then trundles along on its arm tips until a predator comes or there’s a threat,” he said. “Then it closes them over like a ball and hides inside.””

Continue reading

TONIGHT @ The Arm in Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY – Screening of Two Films by John Cohen – 8pm

Hermitage Film Program No. 8
Featuring Two Films by John Cohen – Filmmaker in Person
Friday December 18th, 8pm at The Arm

The High Lonesome Sound -1963 30 min B&W

Songs of church-goers, miners, and farmers of eastern Kentucky express the joys and sorrows of life among the rural poor. This classic film evocatively illustrates how music and religion help Appalachians maintain their dignity and traditions in the face of change and hardship.

The End of an Old Song -1970 27 min B&W

Filmed in the mountains of North Carolina, this documentary revisits the region where English folklorist Cecil Sharp collected British ballads in the early 1900s. It contrasts the nature of the ballad singers with the presence of the juke box: although the lyrical tradition has changed, the singing style continues. Features Dillard Chandler, who sings with rare intensity and style.

Please join us Friday December 18th at The Arm, located at 281 N7th St. Between Havemeyer and Brooklyn. (www.thearmnyc.com)
$7 admission. John’s book “There is No Eye” will be available for sale, along with a select group of books from the shelves of hermitage.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5qGwhQl_B8
Continue reading

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – OSSIE DAVIS


DECEMBER 18 — OSSIE DAVIS
American actor, civil rights activist, political radical.

Broadway production of Davis’ 1961 play, Purlie Victorious.

DECEMBER 18, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
HIJRA, Islamic New Year. Oaxaca, Mexico: FIESTA OF THE VIRGIN OF THE LONELY. Apache dancers, amusement park rides, gambling, plenty of fireworks.

ALSO ON DECEMBER 18 IN HISTORY…
1830 — Trial of Swing Rioters, peasants & workers who fought for minimum wage.
1865 — Chattel slavery abolished in U.S. (Wage slavery continues to thrive.)
1879 — Artist Paul Klee born, Bern, Switzerland.
1917 — Black American actor, civil rights activist Ossie Davis born, Cogdell, Georgia.
1946 — South African black-rights activist Steve Biko born, King Williamstown.
1969 — Great Britain abolishes capital punishment.

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.

Joann Sfar's SERGE GAINSBOURG biopic: trailer and excerpt

Featuring Éris Elmosnino (Serge Gainsbourg), Lucy Gordon (Jane Birkin), Laetitia Casta (Brigitte Bardot), Anna Mouglalis (Juliette Gréco), Sara Forestier (France Gall), Mylène Jampanoï (Bambou), Orphée Silard (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Lucile Vezier (Kate Barry), Claude Chabrol (as L’Editeur de Gainsbourg) and Kacey Mottet Klein as young Serge.

Joann Sfar is a pretty great French cartoonist/author. Some of his work has been translated into English. More info: http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/sfar.html