Paris Trip

8 bodies alive and well...July 23rd in Paris on a warm (maybe hot) night with a bunch of MLA people.

Ah bliss, but I still miss people (one in particular, she knows who she is, and the dog,)

Does this post to OM from a BB at 6 am local time?

Testing, testing, 1,2,3...

Quick reply from Blackberry - more later when I get to a PC...

Ancient Wisdom, Rather Cosmic

RAW On The Psychedelic Salon

The latest episode of Lorenzo Hagerty's wonderful podcast; The Psychedelic Salon, features 2 interviews w/ Robert Anton Wilson. The "Everything is Under Control" interview w/ D Scott Appel and the audio companion to RAW's book, TSOG: The Thing That Ate the Constitution.

RAW recently made a cameo on the salon via audience participation during a Timothy Leary lecture, but Podcast 147 - RAW: “Conspiracies and TSOG” is his first full appearance.

Lorenzo regularly podcasts lectures from prominent psychedelic thinkers, Terence McKenna most usually, though Timothy Leary has also begun appearing lately, the salon's archives are definately worth persual. I most highly regard the large collection of Trialogues w/ Mckenna, Sheldrake, and Abraham. Many of these talks are exclusive to the salon, donated directly from Ralph Abraham.

George Carlin - RIP it up!

He did a lot more than Seven Words... no-one in the UK seems to have heard of him - I feel lucky to have heard and seen a lot of recordings. Check out his website.

Reactions and links all over the Internet - check this blog - or Rotten with the only thing people remember: The Seven Words routine:

"There are 400,000 words in the English language," Carlin mused. "And there are seven of them that you can't say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad. You know the seven don't you? Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that will infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war. I can dig why some of those words got on the list, like cocksucker and motherfucker. Those are heavyweight words. There's a lot going on there, man. Besides the literal translation and the emotional feeling. They're just busy words. There's a lot of syllables to contend with. And those K's. Those are aggressive sounds, they jump out at you. Forget those seven, they're out. But, there are some two-way words. You can prick your finger -- but you can't finger your prick."

or fUSION Anomaly - fo a slightly wider scan of his material, than that puritanical obsession.

The solstice arrived

We have no intention of breaking the ritual - but the online magazine always had the name

Maybe Quarterly -

and for those first 14 editions we kept our quarterly ritual word (Equinoxes and Solstices, without fail).

maybe, maybe not.

The next edition will now probably appear as hard copy.

After that, we may resume producing an online version, but integrated into the Academy campus. I can't really say much more about this grand experiment, as we all have to learn new languages, new software, new ways to communicate, and so on.

As our attention has focused on the tricky project of picking highlights of the work so far (with the contributors on several different continents, islands and peninsulars) I know very little (no surprise there) about how these limited edition print treasures may get distributed just yet (if and when they manifest) but watch this space.

A hearty laugh always feels good for your health

In the UK (OK, under European Consumer Protection rules) a new law insists that psychics, clairvoyants, mediums, faith healers, etc have to add disclaimers to their advertising, 'admitting' that what they do 'is for entertainment purposes only, and has no scientific verification'.

I'll leave you to make up your own jokes, as the established churches and religions (not 'cults') seem exempt from this.

I'll simply offer one link (you can Google the subject for yerself), and recommend reading the Comments (far too weary of this stuff to actually bore you with my own routine...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7351199.stm

"Under the 1951 Fraudulent Mediums Act, prosecutors have to prove the medium or healer had intended to be fraudulent in order to secure a conviction.
But under the EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which comes into force in the UK on 26 May, it will be the medium's responsibility to prove they did not mislead or coerce vulnerable consumers. "

So the churches 'tithing' the faithful, by promising an afterlife, doesn't count?

Doh, I said I wouldn't start a rant of my own... (Bill Hicks would have love this stuff - it could have given him at least ten minutes material).

I feel amused that they repealed The Fraudulent Mediums Act, though. Did the mere existence of that law admit that you could find 'real' mediums out there?

Hoodwinked?

Curiously (just a coincidence, just a coincidence), as we start to migrate OM into the MLA integrated site, I have just heard that people seeking Dr Christopher Hyatt's material should now go to the Original Falcon website.

I will leave the old link (to New Falcon Publications) up for now, but the events surrounding the current 'ownership' of the publication company (since Dr. Hyatt's death) sound both contentious and slightly sordid 'family' business.

I leave you to judge for yourselves.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

W.B. Yeats The Second Coming