Notes On The Scene's topics - tribe.net

Dr. Tim Leary, Elvy Musikka and Los Marijuanos take Time 4 Hemp!

2008-02-25T19:03:30Z

Three great free downloads can be found at http://www.Time4Hemp.com

Time 4 Hemp TODAY - Elvy Musikka is one of only four living Federal IND patients who is receiving medical marijuana from the United States Federal Government. She was granted access to legal marijuana because of eye problems that include glaucoma. After hearing the remarkable interview we did with Deborah Busemeyer, the Communications Director for the New Mexico Department of Health, Elvy made it a point to take some Time 4 Hemp.

Music artists featured in this segment are:
Elvy Musikka
The Individuals
Lynnette Shaw
Angeline
John Denver

Time 4 Hemp MUSIC - Los Marijuanos are the new breed of Mexican Pro-Pot-Poets with 8 years under their belt they have been half way around the world. Two time (13th and 14th Annual) High Times Cannabis Cup performers in Amsterdam, Also 2 year co-headliner for the great Seatle Hempfest performing next to Kottonmouth Kings, Sir MixALot, Daz & Kurupt and Badazz from the Dog Pound and others, 5 year leaders in the Million Marijuana March in downtown Chicago, IL plus dozens of hemp fests featured in multiple magazines which include: High Times, The Source, Murder Dog, Ill Tip to name a few. Performing always for the cause, Los Marijuanos have also been featured on the Latin Throne DVD. With their strong R&B hooks sung by PonyBoy and the stories of real life situations of the Barrio and to end the drug wars and for the legalization of Marijuana this group cannot be silenced. Lots of great music from the band is included in this segment.

Time 4 Hemp CLASSICS - Dr. Tim Leary, pop icon that taught a generation to 'Drop Out, Tune In and Turn Off' took Time 4 Hemp in 1991 for one of his very last ever interviews before his death. In this interview, Dr. Leary is in rare form and very animated.

Please pass this information on to everyone you feel would enjoy hearing any of thses interviews.

Keep Strong!
Casper Leitch
Host:/Creator: Time 4 Hemp
http://www.Time4Hemp.com

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Free MP3 with Keith Stroup - Founder of NORML

2007-10-20T18:15:39Z

Eight hundred thousand people were arrested in 2006 on marijuana related charges. Today, every 41 seconds someone in America is arrested on a marijuana related charge.

On September 15, 2007 - Keith Stroup (founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws - NORML) was one of those arrested.

This was the second time for Keith to be arrested on a marijuana charge. He recalled getting busted with joint on him while crossing into Canada during the 1970s in an exclusive interview with Casper Leitch when he sat down and took 'Time 4 Hemp'. Download it for free at http://www.Time4Hemp.com

Also - If you get time, you might want to get your fee downloads of the following 'Time 4 Hemp - TODAY PotCast' interviews:

Allen St. Pierre (Dir. of NORML)
Steve Hager (Editor of High Times Magazine)
Steve Bloom (Former Editor of High Times)
Jack Cole (Founder of LEAP)
Gatewood Galbraith (Author)

EACH SEGMENT HAS LOTS OF GREAT MUSIC INCLUDED!!

Interviews SOON to be released:
Ed Rosenthal
and Marc Emery

Don't miss the free downloads on the 'Time 4 Hemp - MUSIC PotCast':

This week, we turned over the controls to the hard working activists at MarijuanaRadio.com because we think everyone should discover their great work! (It just so happens that our host was a guest on this segment!) Tune in and tell your friends about: http://www.MarijuanaRadio.com

And, if you get time, you might want to get your free downloads of the following 'Time 4 Hemp - MUSIC PotCast' interviews:

The Individuals (7-Time winners of the Global Marijuana Music Awards)
Muck Sticky (Check out his new CD ''Bob-O-Link Cove')
Lynnette Shaw (Hemp Activists and song wirter).

Many of interviews from the television series have been released through the PotCast series, 'Time 4 Hemp - CLASSICS' and feature:

Willie Nelson (Super Star)
Dr. Tim Leary (Author)
Jack Herer (Author)
Kevin Zeese (co-founder of the Drug Policy Foundation)

I’ve worked hard to put together some great podcasts designed to feed brains the truth about Marijuana being used for paper, fiber, fuel, and medications. What’s more - the thing that makes these shows so great are the guests!

Please be kind enough to share the http://www.Time4Hemp.com URL with everyone who you know would enjoy hearing what they have to say.

Keep Strong!
Casper Leitch
Creator/Host: Time 4 Hemp
http://www.Time4Hemp.com

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NY NORML fundraiser - 13th NY Harvest Fest, Camp Minglewood, Hancock, NY - Oct 5-8, 2007 - Legalize Marijuana!

2007-08-03T02:00:26Z

Damn Sam Presents at Camp Minglewood in Hancock, NY

The 13th Annual NY Harvest Festival & Freedom Fair / Political Rally
Oct 5-8, 2007

For cabin rentals, line-up additions, a chance to win free tickets, merch and more please visit our website:
http://www.damnsam.com

Entertainment & Speakers to include:

Ed Rosenthal (Ask Ed),
Tony Vacca & World Rhythms featuring Massamba Diop,
Donna Jean & The Tricksters,
The Ryan Montbleau Band,
Murphy's Law,
Half Step,
Dr. Jah and The Love Prophets,
The Undead,
Vito Petrocitto & Friends,
DeadBeats,
DJ Mikio (Freek Factory),
DJ Haj (Freek Factory),
Herbal Nation,
Rolla,
Unexplained Bacon,
Bobby Steele,
Julie Larson,
Free Grass Union
Fuzz & Carrie,
THC,
Stony Clove Lane,
One Eyed Jack,
BuzzUniverse,
Revival (Allman Brothers Tribute),
The Matt Turk Trio (Electric & Acoustic),
The Kind Buds,
Dynamic Stew,
The Line of Control,
Ryszard Lagodka,
DJ Ritz,
Shadow,
Snuka,
Maganahans Revival,
Justin Holmes,
lespecial
JamHogs,
StoneDeaf,
SugarFist
Rob Robinson,
Dave Lawson,
Burton Aldrich,
Terry Phalen,
A Pot Song Circle,
The Bus People
The Yelo Sub / Vernville,
Visuals by Smoke & Mirrors

Plus more TBA!

Camp Minglewood is located on a private lake in the western Catskill Mountains of New York State near the Delaware River and the Pennsylvania border. The camp is just 120 miles from New York City, between Monticello and Binghamton.

Complete with theaters, pavillions, dining hall, a huge lake, lots of room for tent camping, cabins and mini bunk house rentals, RV parking, beautiful grounds, private and friendly, this venue is very special!

The location of Harvest Fest could not be more ideal! The site is used in the summer as a performing arts camp. Camp Minglewood offers accomodations usually not offered at an outdoor music festival.

The main stage will be located in a large, open-sided circus arena. Our late-night entertainment includes late-night DJs (indoors), as well as a late-night band theater. Vernville and the Yelo Sub will host the Earth Stage and show movies both evenings in the campground. This year a new campground stage will be added to the mix, as well as a "bar" stage.

This is the famous Harvest Festival which is a benefit for, and meant to raise awareness about, reforming marijuana laws. It began in the apple orchards around Lembo Lake (Murphy's Law, Disco Biscuits, Col. Bruce and more) in Modena, NY in 1995. In 1997 we moved to Earlton Hill Family Campground, in Earlton, NY (which featured Max Creek, Vassar Clements, Buddy Cage, and the Ominous Seapods among others) In 1998 the festival was held at the Logging Camp (Pine Mountain Reserve - Garth Hudson, Buddy Cage) in Johnsburg, NY and finally landed in 1999 at Echo Lake (David Nelson Band, Merl Saunders, Deep Banana Blackout). We called Echo Lake home for five years and went on the move again. 2004, our 10th annual was held at the Moose River Park, in Lyonsdale and featured Richie Havens, The Persuasions, Melvin Seals and was an amazing time! 2005 was no different in Bainbridge at Tall Pines, with the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Project Object, Tony Vacca and more. 2006 found us at an amazing site called Camp Minglewood, where Particle, Vince Herman, Jen Durkin, Mistic Bowie and all of you brought Harvest Fest to a new level! 2007 is being planned now and is sure to be one of the Fest's not to miss!

This event acts as the main fundraiser for NY NORML - Proceeds benefit pro-freedom activism in NY

http://www.damnsam.com
http://www.nynorml.org
http://www.nycompassionatecare.org

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Part 2 of Dir. of NORML Allen St. Pierre' s interview is ready 2...

2007-07-11T03:16:22Z

...freely download at http://www.Time4Hemp.com - and it's great - Allen made for a fun and interesting guest - be sure to tell your friends to check it out!

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meryl joan on the radio

2007-06-05T04:13:51Z

this Wednesday, June 6th at 7pm,

Meryl Joan Lammers appears on WVKR 91.3 Vassar INdependent Radio...Scene Unseen hosted by Sharon Panero..
live music and discussion..

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I am playing tomorrow night in Catskill

2007-05-24T20:52:30Z

I am playing at the Muddy Cup on Main Street in Catskill, ny tomorrow (Friday) night with Johnnie Wang on drums, Charlie Schikowitz on guitar, and Mark Beaumont on bass...show starts at 8pmish

www.myspace.com/meryljoanlammers

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Progressive Dennis Kucinich takes over a new House subcommittee, signaling changes in national drug policy

2007-02-04T19:19:44Z

Maybe some good news for a change:

LA City Beat
02/01/07

A Change in the Weather

Progressive Dennis Kucinich takes over a new House
subcommittee, signaling changes in national drug
policy

~ By DEAN KUIPERS ~ (he wrote Burning Rainbow farm)

~ The drug hawk’s worst nightmare: Kucinich’s hearings
will raise a ruckus ~

The Democratic sweep in the 2006 mid-term elections has
done more than finally install a woman as speaker of
the House. It has also put one of the most vocal
critics of the ill-starred “War on Drugs” in a
position to affect federal drug policy. On January 18,
Ohio Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis
Kucinich, one of the most progressive Democratic
voices in the House, was appointed as chair of the new
House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on
domestic policy, causing drug reform organizations
coast-to-coast to rejoice in hopes that a moment for
significant change may have finally come.

This subcommittee replaces the now-defunct Criminal
Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources
subcommittee, which was headed up by staunch drug
warrior, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN). Kucinich will assume
many of his oversight duties, including policy
oversight of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy and appointed Drug Czar John Walters.
One commentator on Stopthedrugwar. org crowed that “the
responsibility of overseeing the ONDCP has effectively
been transferred from Congress’s most reckless drug
warrior to its most outspoken drug policy reformer”
[his emphasis].

“He is certainly the polar opposite of his
predecessor, Mark Souder,” says Allen St. Pierre,
spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “Since the time the
[ONDCP] was created in 1988, there have always been
friendly people in that subcommittee and the ONDCP has
always been able to get what they want under the guise
of protecting children and saving America from drugs.
But Kucinich doesn’t believe any of that. Any of it!”

For instance, St. Pierre notes, Kucinich is a
supporter of industrial hemp, the non-psychoactive
product of the cannabis sativa plant. He is also a
supporter of medical marijuana and of the federal
rescheduling of marijuana, where it is currently
illegal as a Schedule I drug, classified as having “no
medical value.” This classification clashes with
states such as California, which have legalized
medical use of marijuana, and leads directly to the
current rash of raids on medical marijuana
dispensaries by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
Kucinich is expected, St. Pierre says, to be a sponsor
of a new bill to be introduced in March that would
decriminalize pot.

Washington insiders, however, are not holding their
breath for great upheaval in federal drug policy
overall. Sources close to the appointment, who asked
not to be named, say that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
other members of the Democratic leadership have
effectively embargoed major crime or drug policy
legislation for the next two years, to avoid looking
soft on crime in the 2008 election.

Kucinich, however, is promising a couple years of
entertaining and edifying hearings.

“We’re going to open up the discussion to new
hearings,” says Kucinich, interviewed Sunday in Culver City, where he presented his bill for Universal Health
Care, which is co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers
(D-MI). “We want to explore the federal government’s
policies and the Department of Justice’s policies on
medical marijuana, for example. We need to also look
at the drug laws that have brought about mandatory
minimum sentences that have put people in jail for
long periods of time. I think it’s an appropriate time
to look at the proliferation of drugs in America, and
how that fits in with our health care crisis, and how
that fits in with law enforcement.”

The ONDCP did not reply to several requests for
comment. That office, however, which is a function of
the executive branch, has been deeply involved in
pushing heavy sentences for nonviolent drug offenders
and resisting medical marijuana, buying big-money ad
campaigns attacking marijuana in states trying to
legalize at the state level. Controlling that ad money
could be a key to reform. When asked if his
subcommittee has any budget oversight or other muscle,
Kucinich shook his head and added, “No, this committee
does not have control of the budgets, but it does have
control of the policy, and it can ask questions and
get documents that others couldn’t get.”

That can make a difference, says Ethan Nadelmann,
executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of
the nation’s biggest drug policy reform organizations.
His group plans to push for incremental slices of
legislation that can move a progressive agenda while
not upsetting Democratic unity, adding that Kucinich
can “hold hearings on some of the subjects that
haven’t been addressed in, you know, decades. Like a
hearing on America having the highest incarceration
rate in the world. Or maybe a hearing on why the DEA
has jurisdiction over medical issues.

“One can obviously empathize with the democratic
leadership’s desire to be cautious when it comes to
supporting drug policy reforms and other sentencing
reforms,” he adds. “But when you have a growing number
of Republicans supporting sentencing reform, this
might be a good time for the Democrats to show a
little leadership.”

In fact, several activists point out, the new Congress
may be the most sympathetic to drug-law reform that
America has ever seen. Progressives like Senator
Richard Durbin and Reps. Pelosi, George Miller,
Conyers, Barney Frank, Henry Waxman, Kucinich, and
Bobby Scott have all turned up in leadership
positions.

“If we had to pick out our 40 best friends in
Congress, they’d be disproportionately in leadership
positions,” says Nadelmann. He includes Sen. Patrick
Leahy on that list, but cautions: “Mind you, seven
years ago, Leahy said that sentencing reform was one
of the top priorities, but now it’s not even a top-10
priority. Part of that’s because there’s so much other
stuff to deal with.”

Still, action on several fronts is expected.
Sentencing reform should get some attention, with an
aim of reducing the number of non-violent drug
offenders currently getting long prison sentences,
which has given the U.S. the highest per-capita
incarceration rate in the world. One such change would
be to make sentences involving crack cocaine equal to
those given for powdered cocaine, as community
activists have long contended these simply punish the
black and poor who are more likely to use the drug in
the form of crack. Hearings might also bring new media
scrutiny to decades-long marijuana rescheduling
motions and several Data Quality Act petitions, which
force bodies like the Food and Drug Administration to
make decisions based on science rather than ideology,
and which have been roundly ignored by the Bush
administration.

St. Pierre points out another potential point of
influence: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, or
HIDTAs. Congress funnels millions of dollars to local
law enforcement for use in these areas, and activists
have long argued they are wrongly prioritized.

“That’s a very obscure acronym, but when it comes down
to the billions of dollars that get channeled out to
local governments and their law enforcement, HIDTA is
the battleground. That’s where Dennis can come in and
say, ‘Mr. Walters, we the Congress, and, clearly, your
own constituents want methamphetamines as the number
one priority, not marijuana, and certainly not in the
states that have medical marijuana laws.’ A couple of
weeks ago, Walters was out in Fresno giving awards
away for busting buyers’ clubs. Dennis can clip those
wings. It all depends on how he’s going to want to
pull the trigger.”

*

Effecting Positive Change Through
Education, Awareness, Cannabis & Music,

Rob Robinson
Executive Director - NY NORML (NY State Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)
Senior Activist - NY State CAN (Cannabis Action Network)
Adviser - New Paltz NORML / SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)

Founder - NY Harvest Fest
Owner - Damn Sam Productions
Co-Publisher - Notes on the Scene

www.nynorml. org
www.nystatecan. org
www.newpaltz. edu/norml

www.nyharvestfest. com
www.damnsam. com
www.notesonthescene .com

(845) 943-8883

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luckyvitamin.com

2007-01-22T18:27:15Z

we found an on line source of hemp oil organic from nutiva for 9.86 per 24 oz bottle.
2 shipped came to 25.67 total. in the fwiw department y0

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New Marijuana Channel on YouTube Produced by Time 4 Hemp!

2006-10-15T01:44:51Z

There is now a Time 4 Hemp Channel on YouTube you can surf!

When you get time, please visit the site, and if you
like what you see - become a SUBSCRIBER to the
channel.

Time 4 Hemp YouTube Channel:
http://youtube.com/profile?user=Time4Hemp

Upon arrival, you'll notice a lisiting of Videos I've
posted from the Time 4 Hemp Series, along with other
contributions, sorted into playlists and located under
Favorites.

If you are not a member of the YouTube Community, it
is free, quick and easy to join.

A Time 4 Hemp YouTube group has also been established.
Please visit the site.

Time 4 Hemp YouTube Group Site:
http://youtube.com/group/Time4Hemp

I would be very greatful if you were to check out the
new sites and tell all your friends about them. With
any luck, a lot of people will benefit from the
educational value of they offer.

Keep Strong!

Casper Leitch
Host/Author: Time 4 Hemp
http://www.Time4Hemp.com

Time 4 Hemp Cell Phone Website:
http://www.Time4Hemp.com/cell/index.htm

Time 4 Hemp YouTube Video Channel:
http://youtube.com/profile?user=Time4Hemp

Great products can be located in the
Time 4 Hemp Gift Shop at:
http://www.cafepress.com/time4hemp

You can join A Time 4 Hemp Yahoo! Community Group at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atime4hemp/

You can join the Time 4 Hemp YouTube Community Group at:
http://youtube.com/group/Time4Hemp

Group sites are also found at:
My Space and listed as: Time 4 Hemp Group
TribeNet and listed as: Time_4_Hemp Group

"Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable." - John Galbraith.

"The only thing new in the world is
the history you do not know"
President Harry Truman

All information and transactions
non-negotiable and private
between the parties.
Copyright 2006

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I have lost my cane

2006-10-03T05:34:14Z

where is the most logical place it would be??

posted in Notes On The Scene - 13 replies

Freek Factory at NY Harvest Festival Oct 6-9 w Particle, Murphy's Law, Dub Is A Weapon, Jen Durkin, etc

2006-09-29T03:46:19Z

Haj & Mikio at NY Harvest Festival Oct 6-9 w Particle, Murphy's Law, Dub Is A Weapon, Jen Durkin, etc

It's time for Harvest Fest again and we're back holding down the saturday late night main stage from midnight AM till dawn. We'll also have a beautiful full gallery/dance floor space displaying the work of Ken Kesey, Alex Grey, Mob House, the Blotterati, Sequoia Emanuelle and Mikio. Beats will be dropping all the time when we're not sleeping and we will have some special Freek Factory family guests rolling through to join us.

We're always proud to reprazent here because it's New York's best and longest running hemp & medical marijuana activist festival and political rally and not just a party (but it's one HELL of a party :-))

http://www.damnsam.com/

Our stages will be solar and wind-powered this year by Ecological Systems. In the spirit of hemp for energy, we're going directly to the source and supporting solar and other natural energy.

Three days of talent on the big stage are looking dynamic, diverse and dope:

Particle http://www.particlepeople.com/

Murphy's Law http://www.murphyslawnyc.com/

Dub Is A Weapon http://www.dubisaweapon.com

Jen Durkin, Mystic Bowie & the Funky Ska All Stars
http://www.lotussoundworks.com http://www.mysticbowie.com

Vince Herman (founder/front man for Leftover Salmon) http://vinceherman.com

Tony Vacca & World Rhythms http://www.tonyvacca.com/

The Ryan Montbleau Band http://www.ryanmontbleau.com/

Haj & Mikio http://www.freekfactory.com/

and MANY others: http://www.damnsam.com/entertainment.html

The venue is beyond amazing:

Camp Minglewood is located on a private lake in the
western Catskill mountains of New York State near the
Delaware river and the Pennsylvania Border. The camp
is just 120 miles from New York City, between
Monticello and Binghamton.

Complete with theaters, pavillions, dining hall, huge
lake, car camping, cabins and mini bunk house rentals,
RV parking, beautiful grounds, private and friendly,
this venue is very special!

The location of Harvest Fest could not be more ideal! The site is used in the summer as a performing arts camp. Camp Minglewood offers accomodations usually not offered at an outdoor music festival.

The main stages will be located in a large, open-sided circus arena.
Our late-night entertainment will consist of a late-night DJ/art gallery theater, as well as a late-night band theater. Vernville and the Yelo Sub will host the Earth Stage Saturday and Sunday, and show movies both evenings in the campground. All stages are in covered structures with tiered seating and PLENTY of room to dance, so all music will take place rain or shine.

Leaf peaking season and freek peaking season coincide in the beautiful Catskills this year. :-)

Please bring canned and non-perishable food to our food drive! Everything collected will be donated to a local food pantry. Other good items to donate are diapers, baby formula, bottles etc. Together we can show the local community that we care. Strangers Helping Strangers is a repeat offender at Harvest Fest now!

Big love to activist promoters Rob Robinson & Jen Rog of Damn Sam for allowing us to be part of this amazing hempcentric throw-down once again.

Rob was a major force in helping Shady and the Pranksters put on the 40th anniversary "AT40" in Vegas last Halloween and one of our strongest partners in connecting the burner, activist and live music worlds.

FREEKS IN THE MOUNTAINS!!!! yeeeeeeeeeeee-Hahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

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Look for Issue 2 at an event near you!

2006-09-12T10:31:07Z

Issue 2 is out and on the streets - look for it an event near you.

We hit most of the North East Phil Tour as well as some great events already! Looking forward to the rest of the season and seeing many of you on the road. Always remember to say high when you see us. Get in touch with us to see Notes at your event or an event you are going to.

the new webpage is also up and looking good - check it at

www.notesonthescene.com

Issue 1 & 2 are online!

Issue 2

Art for art's sake

Letters From the Publishers

Perspectives on festivals

Why Bush may attack Iran

Interview: Tony Vacca

New Orleans & Jazz Fest

AT40: Acid Test in Las Vegas

Murder in Michigan?

Book Review: Burning Rainbow Farm

Woodstock: Who really owns the site?

Laws and our scene: Cops at Festivals

Medical Cannabis: Interview with Angel Raich

The Health Column

The Middle Age Dude

Know Your Rights

Issue 1

Art for art's sake

From the Editor

Old's Cool, New's Cool

Interview: Bassnectar

Is BIGGER better?

Goodbye to Gonzo

Tribute to Hunter by Babbs

Laws and our scene: The RAVE act

The Health Column

The Middle Age Dude

www.notesonthescene.com

posted in Notes On The Scene - 2 replies

Leary bio review

2006-07-01T16:43:51Z

I know there's a few Leary devotees here.....

NYTimes, June 25, 2006
'Timothy Leary: A Biography,' by Robert Greenfield
The Nutty Professor

Review by LUC SANTE
IT has been a mere 10 years since Timothy Leary's death, but already his career seems improbable. A onetime psychologist who advocated the use of psychedelic drugs for personal growth, Leary loomed large in the 1960's as something of a cross between a pop star and a religious leader. Both those roles involve performance, but Leary, although blessed with considerable charm, was not a terribly effective performer. He didn't sing or dance; he was a vague speaker and a hopeless writer; his personality, up close, did not inspire confidence. And although he was among the major protuberances in the cultural bouillabaisse we call The Sixties, he was not much of a 60's type himself, as Robert Greenfield demonstrates in his thorough and judicious biography. While he may have been the leading spokesmodel for LSD, Leary remained to the end an old-fashioned booze hound, as well as a snake-oil peddler of the most traditional American sort. Had he been born a decade or two earlier, he would probably have been offering to cure arthritis through the application of the electric belt.

Nearly every page is riveting in "Timothy Leary," which unfolds like the great novel Sinclair Lewis might have written had he lived to the age of 120. Greenfield is not one of those biographers who set out to besmirch their subjects and deplore their lives, and for whom every detail is an indictment. Neither, unlike many, does he seek foreshadowing in every trespass of his subject's youth. Nevertheless, he cannot exactly airbrush a life that comes so lavishly shadowed: abandonment of the family by professional-drinker father in 1933, when Tim was 13; dismissal from West Point for blatant transport of hooch; suicide of first wife as a consequence of his dogging around — under the banner of non-bourgeois unpossessiveness, of course.

Still, Leary went places. He was ambitious as well as charming and worked his way up the postgraduate ladder to Berkeley and, in 1959, to Harvard. He was initially known as an expert on personality assessment, but, while on a sojourn in Mexico the following year, he was introduced to psilocybin mushrooms, and the experience was so transformative that psychedelics promptly became the central force in his life, his research and his teaching. Along with his colleague Richard Alpert, son of the president of the New Haven Railroad (and today a guru known as Ram Dass), Leary tried to turn on all of Harvard. He was a proselytizer by nature — soon after his arrival at Harvard, his department head had warned him against "using slogans and waving banners" — and psychedelic drugs gave him a full-fledged cause.

It wasn't long before any pretense to scientific detachment fell away and controlled experiments were chucked in favor of missionary zeal and contempt for all mundane exigencies. Chaotic tripping parties ensued, involving students, under "spiritual" or "philosophical" pretexts. In 1963, Harvard — famous for protecting its own — finally choked on the negative publicity and summarily dismissed Leary and Alpert. In the meantime, Leary had set about converting the rest of the world, beginning with the literary and artistic avant-garde. Most were enthusiastic, especially Allen Ginsberg, who brought in all his friends. ("Coach Leary, walking on water wasn't built in a day" was Jack Kerouac's response to the incessant cheerleading.) Leary had also by then reached out to the intellectual pioneers of psychedelia, Aldous Huxley and the psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. Although years later Osmond would assess Leary as someone who "lives in an almost totally hypothetical future" and compare his "millennialism" to Hitler's, he and Huxley, in Greenfield's words, "handed the future of psychedelic research to the wrong man."

Around the same time, the psychedelic caravan picked up the Hitchcock siblings, Peggy, Billy and Tommy, heirs to the Mellon fortune, and through them acquired the use of a fabulous rambling house and huge estate in Millbrook, N.Y. This became the headquarters of Leary and gang for the better part of five years, a period filled with endless parties, epiphanies and breakdowns, emotional dramas of all sizes, and numerous raids and arrests, many of them on flimsy charges concocted by the local assistant district attorney, G. Gordon Liddy. It was also at Millbrook that Leary, Alpert and Ralph Metzner wrote "The Psychedelic Experience" (1964), which contained the injunction to "turn off your mind, relax, float downstream," appropriated two years later by John Lennon for "Tomorrow Never Knows," the last song on "Revolver." (Leary's epochal "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was first spoken by him at a conference in San Francisco in 1966.) And it was at Millbrook that Leary's two children, Susan and Jack, who had been dragged through so much, beginning with their mother's death, and had been neglected and passively abused for many years, began to fall apart. (In 1988 Susan shot her boyfriend, and eventually killed herself in jail; Jack managed to repair himself, but has avoided publicity ever since.)

FOR Leary, the late 1960's were a whirl of media events and arrests. Godlike to one portion of the population — even if Haight-Ashbury hippies drove him out of the Digger free store in 1967, chanting, "You don't turn us on!" — he was demonic to another, although in both cases less for who he actually was than for what he represented. He ran counter to the prevailing spirit in one sense: he had no interest in politics. He called student activists "young men with menopausal minds" and suggested that LSD could stand for "Let the State Disintegrate." But by 1968, his slogans were so poised between derangement and Madison Avenue that they could pass for visionary; "Everyone should start their own nation," he uttered, just days after Martin Luther King's assassination. It was awfully hard to tell charlatans from prophets at the time, and besides, the denatured, anti-intellectual language that dominated discourse then (and is still with us, in a New Age guise) had been rolling off Leary's tongue since before he had ingested a single microgram of lysergic acid: people engaged in emotional "games"; all the world's bad stuff was a "system"; the state of being clued-in was "consciousness," and so on.

Leary did have real enemies in the law enforcement racket, however, and by 1969 he had accumulated enough outstanding indictments, mostly on penny ante marijuana charges, that he finally went to jail, and was likely to be kept there for years before he would be considered for parole. Characteristically, he compared himself to "Christ . . . harassed by Pilate and Herod." In a twist that could have occurred only in 1970, a consortium of drug dealers paid the Weather Underground to spring Leary from the California Men's Colony at San Luis Obispo — he pulled himself along a telephone cable over the fence, then was picked up by a car — and transport him to Algeria. He duly issued a press statement written in the voice of the Weathermen, the money line of which was: "To shoot a genocidal robot policeman in the defense of life is a sacred act."

But when he and his wife, Rosemary, arrived in Algiers, they found themselves wards of the exiled Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who was probably smarter than Leary, possibly crazier, and had little use for him. As Leary acknowledged, rather shrewdly: "It was a new experience for me to be dependent on a strong, variable, sexually restless, charismatic leader who was insanely erratic. I usually played that role myself." For his part, Cleaver, having observed Leary in action, warned the hippies at home that rather than furthering the revolutionary cause, those who ingested psychedelics were "doing nothing except destroying your own brains and strengthening the hands of our enemy." The final dissolution of bonds between the politicos and the stoners can be dated from that communiqué.

In 1971 the Learys fled to Switzerland, where they were sheltered and effectively imprisoned by a large-living arms dealer, Michel Hauchard, who claimed he had an "obligation as a gentleman to protect philosophers," but mostly had a film deal in mind. In rapid succession, Leary was jailed and released, was left by Rosemary and picked up a new better half, Joanna Harcourt-Smith — whose mother told Leary that her daughter "lived in a dream world where nothing was real" — and wrote a book. He was still wanted, however, so he and Joanna soon hit the road, to Vienna, then Beirut, then Kabul. Afghanistan had no extradition treaty with the United States, but this stricture did not apply to American airliners. Before Leary could deplane, he was arrested by an agent of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

HE faced 25 years in prison (in the course of his trial he compared himself to Jesus and Socrates), and in 1973 was sent first to Folsom — where his neighbor was Charles Manson — and then Vacaville. There, realizing he would be an old man by the time he was released, he decided to turn state's evidence. Although few of his intended betrayals did real damage, it was generally agreed that his volte-face — greeted bitterly even by people who had long before lowered their expectations of Leary — conclusively marked the end of the 60's. He dribbled away his remaining 20-odd years in a showbiz half-life: the lecture circuit, talk shows, unconsummated movie deals, parties. At the end, ill with cancer, he was adopted by young people who wheeled him to nightclubs and fed him drugs. He made posthumous headlines when a portion of his ashes was blasted into space aboard a collective hearse-rocket.

The world needs scoundrels because they make good copy. Leary's life was so incident-filled that it would be difficult to make it sound dull. Still, Robert Greenfield, who has written books about the Rolling Stones and Jerry Garcia, does a particularly good job of being at once meticulous and brisk. In addition, the book provides a crash course in several aspects of 60's culture: its often gaseous rhetoric, its reliance on mahatmas and soothsayers, its endless bail-fund benefits and sometimes dubious appeals to conscience, its thriving population of informers, its contribution to the well-being of lawyers, its candyland expectations and obstinate denials of reality, its fatal avoidance of critical thinking, its squalid death by its own hand. That still leaves many meritorious elements largely outside Leary's sphere: civil rights, the antiwar movement, music and art, the impulse toward communitarianism, to name a few. In part because of Leary, however, ideals and delusions were encouraged to interbreed, their living progeny being avid consumerism and toothless dissent.

Luc Sante's books include "Low Life" and "The Factory of Facts." He teaches writing and the history of photography at Bard.

posted in Notes On The Scene - 1 reply

July 4th, 2006, Religious Freedoms Rally, Farragut Square, DC

2006-06-29T22:25:29Z

This was posted as an event by Mz Imani and i thought it was important enough for us all to repost here:

Greetings Friends!

I hope your summer is sweet and that you are growing in ways that surprise you! I was recently invited to lead/faclitate a drum jam on July 4th at Farragut Square in Washington, DC. I accepted!

Now, i invite you to join us in our nations capital to stand up for religious freedoms. I especially invite our local Soul Fire Inside family to come forward and help to hold a container of radical transformation through the drum circle that we will co-create!

We all know how important the issue of religious freedom, really is, Right?!?!?!?!

The First Amendment of The Bill of Rights, states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Please come out and show your support for tolerance, for choice and respect for religious freedom. Let your voice be heard, if you agree that EVERY Vet has a legal entitlement to be laid to rest, with the sign of his or her faith on their tombstone!

If you are willing and able, come out and show your respect for a Wiccan soldier, who served our country and lost his life. Show your support to his family, by Showing Up! and creating harmony in a diverse interfaith community. Bring your instruments, an open heart and a willingness to be all you can be!

Whether you come in person, or connect through the ethers, please gather your intentions and share your spirits energy as we intentionally open the gates that have previously blocked this expression of religious freedom.

On July 4th, 2006 @ 3pm, we will drum and dance our dreams into reality. you are most welcome to join in!

please contact me directly (301-977-4547) if you would like to help with any level of pre-event networking, pre and on-site production, or facilitation of this drum jam (aka, a circle that will help make the world a better place!).

below is a press release, please post, forward it and talk it up. Please help us get the word out!

with love and gratitude!
Mz. imani

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
***************************

Religious Rights Rally
July 4th, 2006, Noon to 4pm
Farragut Square, Washington, D.C.

Join us for a Religious Rights Rally supporting universal religious tolerance.

Speakers include:

Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, Phyllis Curott, Jared Leland, Esq., of The Becket Fund for
Religious Liberty, Rev. Selena Fox (of Circle Santuary, Wicca/Pagan),
Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart (Wiccan soldier who
died in Iraq who has been denied a VA headstone marker because of his
religious beliefs), and many others. Many members of the Lady Liberty
League team who have been involved with this will be flying in also.

Come and show your support for the approval of the Wiccan Pentacle on
the tombstones of our fallen heroes.

Mz. imani, and Circle, Skin & Bone will facilitate a drum jam begining at 3pm. Bring your instruments!

Read the full story on http://www.witchvox.com/ starting Sunday, June 25th,
or email mythkenner@aol.com for more details.

There is a request for this to be a respectful rally and to remember
we will be joined by the rainbow of religious organizations and
traditions and faiths other than our own. This quest is about the
freedom for all religions to express themselves.

Military personnel should remember to honor their integrity around
not wearing uniforms. However veterans are welcome to do so.

For more information on Sgt. Patrick Stewart's wofe Roberta's request
go to http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/veteranpentacle/

Thank you!
--
Jerrie Hildebrand
Assistant Director
Lady Liberty League

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Just Say NO to GMO Hemp

2006-06-21T19:49:20Z

Okay here's the situation as I understand it to the best of my impaired ability. In a few states farmers are finally standing up for themselves and banding together to be allowed to grow that which we have been waiting for all these long years. Good news, right? Oh how I wish! See, out of concern for the welfare of the women and children (like Waco), the Great White Fathers in WDC (and their Illuminati masters) have determined that the only hemp that civilization can tolerate are patented low to no THC varieties. So? Why not just grow the "safe, drug-free" hemp and get the ball rolling and a real hemp industry started in this country? Well for one thing, the low to no THC hemp sucks in every way. It's designed primarily to be a fiber crop but the plants are short and the fibers are real short. Most industries are wholly dissatisfied with the products and the results are disappointing at best. And because of terminator technology we can't use them for seed production. It gets worse. There is every reason to believe that they will export their multipurpose suckyness to every other cannabis variety unlucky enough to be anywhere downwind. (Remember the "Starlink" feed corn and the Canadian canola catastrophe?) THC is a UV blocker which protects developing hemp seed from damaging radiation. Low THC hemp mutates and rapidly loses its reproductive vigor. Exporting this characteristic or God forbid the Terminator trait through air borne pollen would rapidly lead to the demise of the species. Since they frankenfucked with the genetics I’m concerned about it being released into the environment at all. So please help me out here people whatta ya think we should do? I mean it's only the most important ally our species has ever had.

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

6 Nations Update

2006-06-17T03:12:12Z

I'm cross-posting this from the blog of Freek Factory's resident Monk:

originally printed in Now Magazine
nowtoronto.com

Dispatch from Caledonia

Six Nations protestors at Caledonia took down their barricades on Tuesday, June 13, following the issuing of arrest warrants by the OPP against seven native activists for three alleged incidents of violence and harassment on the weekend. It was these incidents that occasioned a threat by Premier Dalton McGuinty to stop negotiations until the roads were cleared. Talks are expected to resume today, and Six Nations activists maintain a presence at the disputed development site.

The following is excerpted from a dispatch by blockader Hazel Hill as things turned nasty on Saturday, June 10. grand river – today has been a day of unrest at the land reclamation site.

Intimidation tactics and pressure from the outside have worked, to the point that a thousand OPP officers are being dispatched to the area. The Caledonia residents are up in arms, demanding the removal of our people from the site, even going so far as to set up a barricade on the recently opened plank road leading into Caledonia.

It is important for all of you to understand that the intimidation is constant. This includes army helicopters and others flying overhead at all hours of the day and night, hovering between 2 and 4 in the morning with their lights off, and on occasion shining high-powered lights onto the people on the site.

We are faced daily with people driving by, hollering racial remarks including "Go home, you fuckin' Indians," "Get a job," "You're gonna die," etc. Garbage is thrown at us, as are firecrackers, from car windows.

Today a U.S. vehicle was retrieved [by protestors] with high-powered surveillance equipment in it. [The OPP alleges the vehicle was stolen by activists and driven toward an officer.] The OPP's first story was that the American Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms officer [who was inside] was just visiting friends in the neighbourhood and taking pictures, "kinda like a tourist."

Later, when we questioned further what the U.S. ATF was doing snooping, with the OPP, they changed the story, saying ATF had been invited in by the OPP.

[This led to an altercation] and an OPP officer was hospitalized. A CHTV newsperson, as well, had to get stitches as a result of a run-in with our people. This situation is not good. What needs to be understood is that today's incidents are a direct result of the OPP's and the military's intimidation tactics and the racial discrimination shown not by us, but by the Caledonia people.

These include the recent blocking of our children from using the arena for lacrosse games and the backtracking by the provincial government at the negotiating table, all of which lead up to the ultimate goal of justifying stopping the talks.

Canada does not want to deal with the Onkwehonweh people, because they know we are absolutely right in our position with respect to the land, our sovereignty and upholding our law. And with the help of corporate media, Canada is making sure the mental brainwashing of its citizens against the Onkwehonweh people continues.

The violence that occurred is not something we are proud of. But we completely understand it, knowing these are attempts to incite us, to justify another police attack against our people. They want to make it look like we are uncontrollable. The reality is, unless you are in the situation, dealing with the constant mental, emotional and physical intimidation and racial violence, none of you can truly say how you would have responded.

Our people need to be on alert. We are on the site unarmed. We are trying to maintain the peace. Stay strong.

THE STANDOFF--BREAKING IT DOWN...

ON THE SEVEN SIX NATIONS PROTESTORS WANTED BY THE OPP
"The Haudenosaunee [people of the Longhouse] are a people of peace and do not condone violence of any form. Our prayers and concern are with those who were injured [in last weekend's melee.] An investigation of [those alleged to have committed offences] has been launched and the Six Nations police have been asked to assist in this process. The weekend's incidents are reflective of the misjudgment and reactions of a limited few. Those individuals will be dealt with in a manner harmonious with the Great Law of Peace."
Six Nations Confederacy statement

ON WHY U.S. LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENTS WERE ALLOWED IN THE AREA
"The reason [American officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms] were in Caledonia was because we invited them to observe as a learning opportunity. Police departments throughout North America and the world always assist each other in situations where they can learn from each other. We're never worried about confrontation. Our sole goal and purpose here is to ensure public safety."
JEFF WARAVEN , OPP spokesperson

ON THE BARRICADES COMING DOWN
"It was kind of aggravating to hear [McGuinty pull out of negotiations until barricades were removed]. The province knew we were working on this. We had a plan [to take them down] in the first place. The chiefs and clan mothers of the Confederacy recognize that public safety is a significant concern. We recognized that barricades weren't helping negotiations. We hope the removal of the barricades will reduce the possibilities of future incidents. Negotiations were going well. At this point we've got parameters about how we're going to do things and what's on the table and what's not.''
ALLEN MacNAUGHTON , Six Nations Confederacy chief

ON THE PREMIER'S HANDLING OF THE SITUATION
"The government completely ignored the situation until the barricades went up. What the premier is trying to do is bring the situation to a head by exerting a semblance of leadership [in demanding the blockade come down.] You've got to hope the situation doesn't escalate. The Tories are playing a very dangerous game on this one, trying to be seen as helpful, but 'Send in the cops, send in the army' is what's underneath their message. You saw what happened at Ipperwash. For god's sake, we don't need to be taking lessons from the Tories.''
GILLES BISSON , MPP Timmins, NDP native affairs critic

WHAT THE FEDS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE NEGOTIATIONS
"This table has been active, and progress has been made.
As the federal special representative, Barbara McDougall has the mandate to look at these broader issues relating to the Six Nations.
Even prior to the barricades going up progress was being made with the government of Canada working with the community and the province of Ontario.
MARGOT GEDULD , spokesperson, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

WHAT THE PROVINCE HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE NEGOTIATIONS
"No comment.''
JINETTE ALBERT , office of the minister of Aboriginal Affairs, David Ramsey

news@nowtoronto.com

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Buffalo politician calls for drug legalization - Radio Poll needs your help!

2006-04-20T22:35:22Z

4/20/2006 - Happy 4/20

Wednesday the county executive, the chief politician
in Erie County, said that the rash of recent killings
requires a serious discussion about drug legalization.
The story is below but also, please go to the main
talk radio website and vote on their poll. I know
these are not scientific but they are reported and
they do get headlines. You can also write a letter of
support, to the editor of the Buffalo News and other
Erie county publications.

Heres the URL for the Radio station that is doing the
poll:

http://www.wben.com

Giambra advocates legalizing drugs
By ROBERT J. McCARTHY and T.J. PIGNATARO
News Staff Reporters - http://www.buffalonews.com
4/20/2006

Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra said Wednesday
that a rash of drug-related killings in Buffalo over
the past few days should prompt a serious discussion
about legalizing some narcotics.

Giambra noted that the alleged killer of Sister Karen
Klimczak confessed that he was high on crack uh uh
when he committed the murder on Friday, while drugs
are thought to be involved in other recent slayings.
Drugs also are listed as the cause of many of
Buffalo's 56 homicides last year, according to city
police.

Any course other than some type of legalization
amounts to "pretending" that current anti-drug efforts
are working, Giambra said.

"Until we get real about it, this problem is going to
continue to build on the streets of urban America," he
said. "We have to talk about legalization."

Area law enforcement and narcotics detectives battling
dr ugs day in and day out were flabbergasted on
learning of the county executive's comments.

"He ought to take a ride around the streets," said Lt.
Joseph Leo, an 11-year veteran in the Lackawanna
Police narcotics unit. Leo said drugs "alter the mind"
of the user, creating addictions that feed crime and
lead to violence. Legalized or not, that wouldn't
change.

"What's going on out there is that people can't afford
their habit, so all they're doing is stealing and
robbing from family and friends or whoever gets in
their way," he said. "People can't afford what it
costs to buy a bag of crack . . . so, for $10 the guy
goes nuts."

Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson also is
against legalizing narcotics. "Allowing for narcotic
intoxicants to get further entangled in our society is
not a positive and is not going to bode well for
anybody," Gipson said. "It just has catastrophic
potentialities."

Lt. Thomas Lyon of the Buffalo narcotics and vice unit
says his detectives see the tragedies drugs wreak on
families and neighborhoods all the time. It wouldn't
be any different if they were legal.

"We're in the trenches every day. We see the damage
the drug culture has done to neighborhoods and
people," Lyon said. "Doctors, lawyers, kids, people
from all walks of life who you'd never expect to see
huddled up in the corner of a crack house having lost
everything they ever had. Legalizing it is not the
answer."

Some national figures like conservative commentator
William F. Buckley and former Secretary of State
George Schultz have raised the issue of legalization,
while U.S. District Judge John T. Curtin of Buffalo
also has publicly discussed it. But Giambra said
Wednesday he believes he is the first local elected
official to raise the possibility.

"It's easy to sit back and pretend you can fix the
problem, but based on the number of homicides and
deaths we're seeing, the criminals are winning," he
said. "We need to look at what other countries are
doing and see what might be more effective than doing
what we're doing.

"I don't believe anyone looking at this nationally
believes that current methods to eliminate the problem
are working," Giambra added. "They have failed
miserably."

Leo attributes much of the problems to judicial
leniency at sentencing time, Gov. George E. Pataki's
recent rollback of the state's strict "Rockefeller
drug laws," and underfunding police narcotics
enforcement.

Despite those limitations, Lackawanna has realized its
share of success in the "War on Drugs," Leo said.
Parts of the city used to be "like a candy store" for
drugs, and with it came crime, he said. That's changed
dramatically in recent years with tough crackdowns on
dealers, users and houses peddling drugs.

"It's a lot better than it ever was out here," Leo
said.

The county executive offered no specifics on a plan to
legalize drugs. He also did not say what drugs should
be afforded noncriminal status, or how any new laws
should be enforced.

But he did say he will continue to discuss the
situation to stimulate some kind of new thinking. "I'm
just trying to stimulate a different kind of
discussion to get people away from pretending,"
Giambra said.

Another Voice of Reason in Erie County:

Former police captain from Erie county, NY calls for
drug legalization!

Peter Christ is a former police captain who spent
about two decades enforcing laws in direct compliance
with prohibition (aka the War On Drugs). Though a
police officer, Peter has never been shy about
speaking of the kinds of troubling situations he
witnessed firsthand while enforcing drug laws, both
against ordinary citizens as well as other officers.
Drug reform is hence a topic which is near to his
heart: he saw the ramifications of the War On Drugs
every day for many years.

For a full profile of Peter Christ visit LEAP's (Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition)website:

http://www.leap.cc/speakers/christ.htm

http://www.leap.cc

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

New Issue of Notes on the Scene in the works - Due out late May!

2006-04-02T21:49:01Z

Greetings!

The new issue of Notes on the Scene is due out in late May 2006. This issue is going to have more pages, thus more Notes. We are also shooting to print 35,000. Our first issue we printed 20,000.

All of issue one (including our advertisers) will be on our webpage very soon for those who missed it. We are very excited to bring you another issue of Notes on the Scene!

Issue Two look for:

Departments:
Festival & Event Guide - Expanded
Art for Art's Sake
Laws & Our Scene
Letters To Notes
The Pot Page
Comedy including:
The Health Column
Middle Age Dude
Cartoons

Features:
Festival Perspectives
Festival Overviews
Interview TBA
Know Your Rights
AT 40 Review
Plus much, much more!

www.notesonthescene.com

posted in Notes On The Scene - 3 replies

LIVE WebCast at high noon - once a week - Time 4 Hemp!

2006-03-08T03:06:49Z

The series, Time 4 Hemp, rolls back into production with a 1-hour weekly LIVE WebCast!

This allows for you to IM or call in and speak directly to our guest. Those who have already agreed to be a on the re-launching of the series are:

Allen F. St. Pierre, (Ex. Dir. of NORML);
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5972

Steven Hagar, (Ex. Editor of High Times Magazine);
http://www.hightimes.com

Steve Bloom, (Senior Editor at High Times Magazine);
http://www.hightimes.com/ht/home/

Eric Sterling, (founder of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation);
http://www.cjpf.org

Jack Herer, (Author of 'The Emporer Wears No Clothes');
http://www.jackherer.com/

Ed Rosenthal, (founder of Quick Trading Books);
http://quicktrading.com

Lynette Shaw, (now running for Lt. Gov. of CA. and the writer and singer of the theme song 'Time 4 Hemp');
http://www.revshawrecords.com

Steve Dillion, (Chair - Natl. NORML);
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4489

John Birrenbach, (founder of the International Institute For Hemp);
http://www.birrenbach.com/

Keith Stroup, (founder of NORML);
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4503

Gatewood Galbraith, (Reform Party Candidate for Governor of Kentucky);
http://www.gatewood.com

Steve Kubby and his wife Michele (hemp activists fighting for their lives in the US Legal System);
http://www.kubby.com/

Dale Gieringer, Ph.D (Vice Chair of NORML and EX. Dir. of CA NORML);
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4490

Rob Robinson, (Ex. Dir. of NY NORML);
http://www.nynorml.org/

Lynn Wilson, (a/k/a - The Happy Hemptress);
http://www.hemprock.com/

Jack Cole, (Founding member and Exc. Dir. of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition)
http://www.leap.cc/who/jackbio.htm

Bruce Mirken, (Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project);
http://www.mpp.org

David Borden, (founder and Ex. Dir. of StoptheDrugWar.org and the Drug Reform Coordination Network);
http://stopthedrugwar.org/aboutdrc/index.shtml

Peter Gorman, (Feature Writer for High Times Magazine);
http://www.hightimes.com/ht/home/

Many more great activists fighting for our freedoms on the front lines in the War On Drugs (as well as a few well-known public figures) have also agreed to be part of this production.

'Time 4 Hemp' is the name of the television series I created in the early 1990's. You can locate the web site at:
http://www.Time4Hemp.com

There you will find the list of guests who appeared on the series when it was first produced includes: Willie Nelson, Tim Leary, Kevin Zeese, and all the founders of the American Hemp Movement.

I am one of 17 people who, in 1991, wrote the California Hemp Initiative (CHI) allowing people who need the use of hemp (slang termed: marijuana) for medical reasons to grow 6 plants or less in their own homes with out fear of prosecution.

The 17 of us who wrote this initiative then recruited an army of volunteers to gather enough signatures to get the CHI onto the voting ballot in 1992. California voters overwhelmingly supported CHI and it became state law shortly there after. I created 'Time 4 Hemp' as a way to bring attention to the CHI.

A copy of the CHI can be reviewed on the web site as can free short video downloads from each interview. You can also freely download the complete audio of each interview should you like. You can also download 4 video clips from my involvement in the Smoked Marijuana Study at UCLA funded by the US government if you have time for a quick chuckle. I am the only person in the world ever to be filmed in a study of that nature.

The 'Time 4 Hemp' weekly WebCast will broadcast LIVE, at High Noon once a week through the internet. Each program will then be edited and archived so anyone wanting to listen to it - at anytime - can do so.

We intend to rock the world (as always) with the message of:
"Hemp for Paper, Fiber, Fuel and Medication".

With that said, I'd like to invite you to listen in and be an ACTIVE AUDIENCE. The whole idea of broadcasting live is to give people around the world the chance to ask questions of each guest. Either through telephone (we'll have an 800 number) or IM.

I'll be posting up-dates about the series through my Time_4_Hemp tribe site.

If you'd like to be notified by e-mail of the first live broadcast, let me know.

You can send me a message through my Time4Hemp.com web sit at: Casper@Time4Hemp.com with the subject line:
I Want 2 Take Time 4 Hemp - NOW!

Please tell your friends about this series. Copy and paste this message anywhere you feel someone might benefit from something one of our remarkable guests has to say.

Keep Strong!
Casper Leitch
Creator/Host: Time 4 Hemp
http://www.Time4Hemp.com

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Calling all New Yorkers! NY NORML launches new website and newsletter - check it out

2006-02-14T23:19:09Z

Greetings NY NORML members, supporters
and interested parties,

This e-mail is the start of a bi-monthly, electronic
newsletter from NY NORML. Each newsletter will contain
action alerts on important issue that face NY and our
country. We will inform you of important and timely
issues facing New Yorkers as well as event alerts,
progress and failure reports and ideas for things we
can all do to make the changes we all want!

If you are not receiving this message on our NY NORML
yahoo group, we would like you to consider joining the
list. It is a low volume discussion list on the
actions and events of NY NORML. To join goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewYorkNORML

For now we will leave this an open forum, to allow for
questions, comments and discussions. Please keep this
board for discussions that are legal and on topic
only. We are going to be expanding our membership and
do not want to swamp people with non-related e-mails.

Our homepage on the web has had a major overhaul.
Please check it out and let us know what you think.
http://www.nynorml.org

NY NORML is in the process of hosting 4 meetings this
year for members, supporters, chapters and interested
persons to attend. One will be in the NYC area, one in
Albany, one in Ithaca and one in the Buffalo,
Rochester area. It is time we all got to know each
other and how we can help each other realize our
common goals. Our short term goals are laid out below.

Over the past year NY NORML has been working hard on
the medical marijuana bills in the NY Assembly and
Senate and we are now asking for your help to make
this hard work become law.

Please take a few moments to send a message to your
representatives in the NY Assembly and Senate in
Support of Medical Marijuana.
http://capwiz.com/norml2/state/main/state=NY&view=myofficials

You can also help by writing a letter to your local
newspaper in support of the current medical marijuana
laws. For more info on writing a letter goto:
http://www.mpp.org/NY/letter/9632.mpp

Our short-term goals:

Support local NY NORML chapters through outreach,
information sharing, programs and actions etc.

Help form new local chapters of NORML in New York.

Activate the NY NORML yahoo.group and get members
connected and active on the same issues across the
state.

Support local resolutions for policies to
de-prioritize marijuana arrests for anyone 18 and up

A state law permitting the use of medical marijuana
(we support the current legislation in the NY Assembly
and Senate).

What would you like to see NY NORML doing? What can
you do to help us? These laws are not going to change
themselves. Join us. You decide your level or
participation. We need all the help we can get!

Effecting Positive Change Through
Education, Awareness, Cannabis & Music,

Rob Robinson
Executive Director - NY NORML

www.nynorml.org

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Does your Amazon wish list reflect subversive un-American tendencies?

2006-02-12T02:57:33Z

Big Brother has some questions for you:

http://www.applefritter.com/bannedbooks

posted in Notes On The Scene - 1 reply

Meryl's DEMO

2005-11-01T21:00:17Z

http://www.myspace.com/meryljoanlammers

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

23rd Annual Witches Ball in NY-Sunday, Oct. 30th

2005-10-24T22:16:00Z

From the Incus-Music for Fire Worshippers tribe: http://incus.tribe.net/

hey there,

Who's taking off for Oct. 31st, Monday and coming to play with us at the Witches Ball with us in Manhattan. We all know that the 31st should be holiday anyway, I'm sure your boss will understand. We go on at 1am and we plan to debut a new song called "Hallow's Eve".

Sun Oct 30th, New York, NY
23rd Annual Witches' Ball on Sunday, October 30, at the Delancey, 168 Delancey Street, between Clinton and Attorney ( www.thedelancey.com ).

Also on the bill will be harpist Somna M. Bulist, gothic belly dance troupe Chovexani, Jezibell, Blue Knight,
PLUS Vendors, Tarot Readings and much more!

www.charmedbystarr.com/WitchesBall.htm
$13 in advance, $15 at the door

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Meryl Performing

2005-10-19T19:46:34Z

Hey all!
I will be performing a funky folk rock set the following dates and venues:

Saturday October 22nd "60 Main" New Paltz, Main street (old artist co-op where all the transient passer bys hang out on the stoop). 10ish??

Saturday November 5th MEZZANINE COFFEE BAR
79 Broadway Kingston on the rondout 8-10ish

love light and music
Meryl

posted in Notes On The Scene - 1 reply

Van Gogh drawings at the Met

2005-10-14T14:01:23Z

From today's NYTIMES:

"Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings," now in previews for museum members, opens on Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, (212) 535-7710, and is on view through Dec. 31.

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

sat, oct 15, nyc

2005-10-11T03:28:15Z

Dear friends, acquaintances, and members of my tribes,

I’m giggin’ again with
The Highway Poets Motorcycle Club
Saturday, October 15, 2005
6 - 7:30 p.m. No cover.

Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery @ Bleeker St., across from CBGB
F train to Second Ave. | 6 train to Bleeker | Motorcycles curbside.
212-614-0505 www.bowerypoetry.com/

The Highway Poets Motorcycle Club, est. 1990, is the international association of published bikers. Among us are poets laureate of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, a Pulitzer-prize nominated-Vietnam veteran-college professor, and an award-winning moto-journalist. This reading will feature poetry and spoken word about riding and the biker life.

Please share this invitation with friends, acquaintances . . . all are welcome.

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

‘Freekin’ The Ultra’- Bazznectar CD Release partay- NYC Oct 7th

2005-09-20T09:05:18Z

Freek Factory in unholy conjunction with Disorient invites all y’all bass loving freekz to the NYC subterranean party of the season. Join us in celebrating the much anticipated release of Lorin(bazznectar)’s double dose cd Mesmerizing The Ultra on Amorphous Records.

The new music is deep; throbbing; significant:

Glitched out, smacked up bass bombs, melodic psychedelic swamp ballads for the sub-reptilian brain, phat chuggers and nasty churners, full of subversive lyrical content and calls for human dignity. Music to come go chant down Babylon with your booty wagging in syncopated assent.

If you haven’t heard any of Lorin’s new material then come down and taste the nectar. If you have already been bathing in it then you know the deal. Either way we will see you there, yes?

Don’t sleep.

From 10pm-6am on the night of October 7th we are occupying the premises at 251 W. 30th st (formerly known as Downtime), in the pulsing heart of midtown Manhattan for an unrepentant full throttled bass orgy. You feeling that? Join us as we transform the semi-raw space into a lascivious den of outerworldly delights.

Step inside: We’ve got wonder and we’ve got mayhem in equal measure; whirling things and things that slither; inflatable devices of dubious intent; pirates, dandy’s and trannies; light projecting machines; dark vixens and pimped out maidens writhing atop woofers; scantily clad tiggrrrs fearlessly scuttling about the ceiling; spirit creatures of all description wearing flesh, dense folds of undulating human mass throbbing in ecstatic unison to the fever of the music: Freekin’ The Ultra, know what I’m saying?

Now Sequoia’s going to make things beautiful like she always does. Satsi’s coming all the way east to make things shimmer and glow. Freek Factory Dancers be properly instigating delightful madness. and Disorient is going to touch everything with their glam-tech sensibility and fill the dark corners with things that go blink in the night.

Lorin promises me that he’ll put on his swamp suit and hit us with the rhythm stick. BB.

Don’t let me forget to mention that we’ve got 3 rooms of top shelf talent lined up for your buggin’ pleasure:

The All Good Funk Alliance properly handling your Nu-Funk needs. D.C. got it going on; Rhythmystic wompwompin’ on the funky raggafied tip; Sunder rippin’ things up on turntables and knocking down the one’s and two’s, tight as tight is tight; Spyro’s next level progressive Live PA; Wavewhore and Sean Infinitee reppin for the Nu-Skool hedz; The Bass and Orion bringing that deep house vibe to get things lubricated; AtoMikDog, Zapper, and the Drop In Posse with European style Techno and Breakbeats all night on Live PA in the downstairs lounge; JP001 going to start things right on the funky tip: and I am going to bring it all home with a late night journey to a deep place we’ll call tomorrow when we get there.

Are you down for the ride?

Come celebrate life, Lorin, love, whatever. Don’t matter, let’s just freek it beautiful, yes.

Yes.

Presale tix available now: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2255
first 100 tix $15. $20 Thereafter and a bit more at the door.

Oct. 7th
10pm-6am
251 W. 30th st

more info forthcoming at freekfactory.com...

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Creek and Vibes

2005-09-20T04:24:22Z

This will run in the Harley Rendezvous Express, and likely end up on their website eventually, with photos, some of which can be seen on www.campcreekonline.com.
The HRE goes to the bikers who attend the Harley Rendezvous, which is kind of like Creek and Vibes, except instead of bands and funky clothes, it's Harleys, and denim and leather. See ya there. . .

Vibes & Creek - More than ‘Vous at ILCC © Susan Buck

Indian Lookout Country Club is one of the many reasons that Harley Rendezvous is so special—open fields, spectacular tree-covered mountains; willows weeping into ponds; red clover, columbine, and dandelions decorating the grassy hills. The Potter family, righteous bikers that they are, graciously open the gates of their 200-acre yard to host our beloved hard-partying, pipe-roaring, show-us-yours, down & dirty Harley-f*&%in’-Rendezvous, every June, but there are other events at ILCC during the summer.

The Camp Creek music festival is been held at the end of July, frequently around the birthdays of staff captain Paul Lambert Sr., Susan the EMT and yours truly. If ‘Vous is all about Harleys, partying, and freedom, Camp Creek is all about music, partying, and freedom. It’s a slightly smaller crowd, but they take it no less seriously.

Max Creek, a hippie-rock’n’ roll-jam band that’s been touring for 30 years headlines the weekend. Camp Creek features about 22 other bands—not current chart-toppers—but nearly always able to keep an audience dancing on the hill. Over the years, we’ve enjoyed some brilliant sets from Motown a cappella group, the Persuasions; TomTomClub featuring former Talking Heads bassist and drummer, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz; Dark Star Orchestra and The Bomb Squad. Derek Trucks, the brilliant blues guitarist, has even been seen smiling on the stage. This year, Jiggle the Creek and Depth Quartet, bands which feature members of Creek, but a groove apart, teamed up to rock the night with funk, harmony, and masterful musicianship.

Camp Creekers hail from hippiedom, they’ve come of age anytime from 1967 to ten minutes ago. Multi-generation entourages are common amidst the campers, as well as the bands and vendors (and the ‘Vous Crew). Wormtown Trading Company, good folks who vend at ‘Vous, also run the Kids Tent, a G-rated haven of arts, crafts, games and toys free to all children accompanied by an adult. Which is not to say that weather permitting, there isn’t liberal display of skin around the festival, often colorfully painted. There’s just less hootin’ about it.

At ‘Vous, bikers decorate their campsites with American, Harley, and rebel flags. Camp Creek flags are tie-dyed rainbows and the occasional hemp leaf. Drums replace straight pipes as the omnipresent tribal sound.

The hippies traipse in early Friday morning, the music ends around 7pm Sunday and they’re gone between dusk and midnight. Well, this year it ended a little early die to the hailstorm, but no one’s immune to the whims of Mother Nature. Rain is as rare at any event as it is at Vous. This year, luckily, it just wasn’t ‘Vous’ turn. The fest could use a few more food vendors, but then again, some of us are kind of picky. It is, indeed, a very, very good time.

Gathering of the Vibes

The Vibe Tribe has gathered at Indian Lookout Country Club in the middle of summer for the last four of their ten-year history. This one’s also about the music, frequently featuring a band led by a former member of the Grateful Dead. Phil Lesh & Friends rocked the house in ‘02, Bob Weir & RatDog headlined an all-star tribute to Jerry Garcia this year. In other years, The Allman Brothers/Gov’t Mule tribe of musicians and the godfather of soul, James Brown have played to acres of fans. 1960’s icon Wavy Gravy has been honorary master of ceremonies several times.

Thirty bands played that beautiful August weekend, but two amazingly talented ladies were the Comeback Queen and the Rising Star of 2005’s festival. Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, former singer with the Grateful Dead added harmony and lilting solos to nearly every band at Vibes. In return, her fans—and she had a lot of them from age 17 to 57—were throwin’ down the love for her; loud and passionate. Julee Avallone plays flute, saxophone, keyboard, violin, percussion and sings with Depth Quartet, which also features Max Creek guitarist Scott Murawski. Like Donna, Julee managed to jam with ‘most every band, with at least one instrument, injecting funk-infused energy into some seasoned pros. Honorable mention to the Zen Tricksters, who jammed on almost as many sets as the ladies.

The grounds are set up a bit differently for GOTV than for ‘Vous. Two stages are built in the lower campgrounds, shifting sets with very little quiet time for over 9 hours on Friday and Sunday, 14 hours on Saturday. Vendors are set up along the main road through the campgrounds, RV Way on a ‘Vous map. They sell lots of tie-dye and crystal; not a lot of leather or chrome. Gabrielle, aka Mommy Worm of Wormtown, runs the Kids Tent here, too. The shady big top provides a cool haven from the rest of the grounds, yet it’s still along the path of the Vibes Parade. This colorful collection of costumes, body paint and puppets danced through the grounds in a slightly more organized way than the normal movement of the crowd, many of whom are costumed, painted, and bearing toys.

Creek and Vibes tickets are more expensive than ‘Vous, around $70 and up, depending on how far in advance you buy them. The same basic rules apply: no glass, pets, weapons or attitudes, otherwise you’re pretty much free to wear a wristband and do as you please. You’ll see familiar faces, a few dozen or a few hundred ‘Vous staffers are milling about. Our fair Lady Amazon never deprives us of her queenly presense, likewise most of our topnotch first aid and facilities crews.

Similar harmony of organized chaos prevails, brought about by this cooperating dysfunctional family. It’s a party nonstop all over the grounds, traditional hippie ground rules apply—as it is amongst bikers—we are our brother's keeper. Come back to Indian Lookout after ‘Vous, the magic is always part of the event and never to be underestimated.

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Big Brother busts rave in Utah, claims to be drug bust

2005-09-01T16:03:39Z

This was no drug bust. This is the government dispersing people assebling for a cause they dont like. If this were about drugs, then all music festivals would be broken up. When people gather, they are powerful and when they are gathering, not in the interest of the government, then the government sends in force. WHERE"s the justification for incredible force, pointing guns in faces of people dancing, sending attck dogs to do just that, and sexually harrassing women?>
WHat other civil liberties will they be attacking next?
please go to the following sites, read the experience, and pass it on. We cannot back down
send this to anyone you think would care...

here is a clip from someone who attended..
http://homepage.mac.com/apexgrin/.Public/fascism.wmv
or...
http://www.abductionproductions.com/utahrave.mov

here is the clip from the news...
http://real.ksl.com/video/slc/0/5/502.ram

my friend Nick was one of the musicians at the event, here is what he
had to say....
"Last night, I was booked to play an event about an hour outside of
Salt Lake City, Utah. The hype behind this show was huge, they presold
700 tickets and they expected up to 3,000 people total. The promoters
did an amazing job with the show.. they even made slipmats with the
flyers on them to promote in local shops.So, we got to the show around
11:15 or so and it was really cool. It was all outdoors, in a valley
surrounded by huge mountains. They had an amazing light show flashing
on to a mountain behind the site, the sound was booming, the crowd was
about 1500 people thick and everything just seemed too good to be true
really. Well...At about 11:30 or so, I was standing behind the stage
talking with someone when I noticed a helicopter pulling over one of
the mountain tops. I jokingly said "Oh look, here comes big brother" to
the person I was with. I wasn't far off.

The helicopter dipped lower and lower and started shining its lights on
the crowd. I was kind of in awe and just sat and watched this thing
circle us for a minute. As I looked back towards the crowd I saw a guy
dressed in camoflauge walking by, toting an assault rifle. At this
point, everyone was fully aware of what was going on . A few "troops"
rushed the stage and cut the sound off and started yelling that
everyone "get the fuck out of here or go to jail". This is where it got
really sticky.No one resisted. That's for sure. They had police dogs
raiding the crowd of people and I saw a dog signal out a guy who
obviously had some drugs on him. The soldiers attacked the guy (4 of
them on 1), and kicked him a few times in the ribs and had their knees
in his back and sides. As they were cuffing him, there was about 1000
kids trying to leave in the backdrop, peacefully. Next thing I know, A
can of fucking TEAR GAS is launched into the crowd. People are running
and screaming at this point. Girls are crying, guys are cussing... bad
scene.Now, this is all I saw with my own eyes, but I heard plenty of
other accounts of the night. Now this isnt gossip I heard from some
candy raver, these are instances cited straight out of the promoters
mouth..-

One of the promoters friends (a very small female) was attacked by one
of the police dogs. As she struggled to get away from it, the police
tackled her. 3 grown men proceeded to KICK HER IN THE STOMACH.- The
police confiscated 3 video tapes in total. People were trying to
document what was happening out there. The police saw one guy filming
and ran after him, tackled him and his camera fell, and luckily.. his
friend grabbed it and ran and got away. priceless footage. That's not
all though. Out of 1,500 people, there's sure to be more footage.- The
police were rounding up the staff of the party and the main promoter
went up to them with the permit for the show and said "here, I have the
permit." The police then said, "no you don't" and ripped the permit out
of his hand. Then, they put an assault rifle to his forehead and said
"get the fuck out of here right now."Now.. let's get the facts straight
here.This event was 100% legal. They had every permit the city told
them they needed. They had a 2 MILLION DOLLAR insurance policy for the
event. They had liscenced security guards at the gates confiscating any
alcohol or drugs found upon entry (yes, they searched every car on the
way in). Oh, I suppose I should mention that they arrested all the
security guards for possession.

Oh another interesting fact.. the police did not have a warrant. The
owner of the land already has a lawsuit against the city for something
similar. A few months ago, she rented her land for a party and the
police raided that as well. And catch this, the police forced her to
LEAVE HER OWN PERSONAL PROPERTY. That's right. They didnt arrest her,
but made her leave her own property!!!Don't get it twisted, this is all
going down in probably THE most conservative state in the USA. And this
is scary.. a gross violation of our civil liberties. The police wanted
this party shut down, so they made it happen. Even though everything
about this event was legal. The promoters spent over $ 20,000 on this
show and did everything they had to to make it legit, only to have it
taken away from them by a group of radical neo-con's with an
agenda.This was one of the scariest things I have ever witnessed in
person.

I can't even begin to describe how surreal it was. Helicopters, assault
rifles, tear gas, camoflauge-wearing soldiers.... why? Was that really
necessary?This needs to be big news across the USofA. At least in our
music scene (edm as a whole)... this could happen to any of us at any
time. When we're losing the right to gather peacefully, we're also
letting the police set a standard of what we can get away with. And I
think that's BULLSHIT!The system fucked up last night... They broke up
a party that was 100% legal and they physically hurt a lot of people
there at the same time. The promoters already have 6 lawsuits ready to
file with their lawyers and the ACLU is already involved.I'm sure some
pictures (and hopefully some video) will surface soon. I'll make sure
to post them up here on 404, so you can see the Police State of America
at work."

posted in Notes On The Scene - 5 replies

Notes on the Scene has hit the streets!

2005-08-26T15:09:07Z

Notes on the Scene print version is now complete! Look for a copy at your next east coast festival/event or at Bonnaroo and Wakarusa and most of Big Summer Classic tour. We printed 20,500 copies of issue 1. This magazine is FREE and the next issue comes out on August 1st.

The theme of this issue is Old School - New School.
Feature article, Old's Cool - New's Cool.
Our Laws and the Scene section features an article on The RAVE act.
A great Festival article, Is Bigger Better?
A Story by Zane Kesey (Ken's son) on Hunter S. as well as a poetry section dedicated to Hunter S. by Ken Babbs!
A great festival/events guide.
A comedy Section, quotes on Old school - new school, a know your rights page and more!

Free at a festival near you!

The website is also being updated soon, so check it for new happinings. Things like our first (but not the last) ticket giveaway contest! We are giving away a pair of tickets to The 10,000 Lakes Festival to the 1st person that can name who the person is on the 1st Notes 1st cover.
The site (and the magazine) also has a great Festival/Events/Tour Guide and much more, with even more to come!

www.notesonthescene.com

posted in Notes On The Scene - 3 replies

Vassar Clements passes on

2005-08-26T15:08:28Z

The grand old master of the bluegrass fiddle is now jamming with Jerry in heaven. We'll miss both great music and a great man.

http://www.vassarclements.com/

posted in Notes On The Scene - 1 reply

Camp Creek Pics

2005-08-23T15:32:57Z

http://campcreekonline.com/

Most, not all of them are mine.
~enjoy~

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Old School New School - What does it mean to you?

2005-08-16T18:32:33Z

The first issue of Notes on the Scene will cover Old School - New School. What does it mean to you?

Grateful Dead - Phish

Tap Water - Bottled Water

Atari - Game Boy

VW Bug - SUV

posted in Notes On The Scene - 4 replies

Charlie sez

2005-07-18T10:58:28Z

Just saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the Offspring. (mine, not the band) Now, I love Johnny Depp as much as any red-blooded american grll should, and I have loved the book since age 7, and the Gene Wilder movie since it came out. But for guddness sake, was Johnny paid so much that they could only hire one dude to play the Oompa-Loompas? Did it really cost less to clone his image and make him play all those characters than to hire more people? And why did it have to be a guy who otherwise looked like a stereotypical middle-aged terrorist/mysogynist? Not one female Oompa-Loompa!
Otherwise, the Charlie kid was very good, the grandad was sweet, but all the grandparents looked in their 80's, too old to be the parents of Charlie's parents, who looked to be in their middle-thirties.
The special effects done in around the river and waterfall of chocolate were a little cheezy, you could tell the actors had been filmed against blue screen.

OK, I'm going to rent the last version, rant off.

posted in Notes On The Scene - 1 reply

Dead Mans Party

2005-07-09T20:50:24Z

Tonight at The Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana. I am tired of cover bands, but this could be a good one. I will be working, come and say 'Hey LeDuge', thats if you happen to make it.

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

Losing Our Country -- Krugman -- Brilliant, as Usual

2005-06-29T14:43:44Z

Losing Our Country
NY Times - June 10, 2005
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Baby boomers like me grew up in a relatively equal society. In the 1960's America was a place in which very few people were extremely wealthy, many blue-collar workers earned wages that placed them comfortably in the middle class, and working families could expect steadily rising living standards and a reasonable degree of economic security.

But as The Times's series on class in America reminds us, that was another country. The middle-class society I grew up in no longer exists.

Working families have seen little if any progress over the past 30 years. Adjusted for inflation, the income of the median family doubled between 1947 and 1973. But it rose only 22 percent from 1973 to 2003, and much of that gain was the result of wives' entering the paid labor force or working longer hours, not rising wages.

Meanwhile, economic security is a thing of the past: year-to-year fluctuations in the incomes of working families are far larger than they were a generation ago. All it takes is a bit of bad luck in employment or health to plunge a family that seems solidly middle-class into poverty.

But the wealthy have done very well indeed. Since 1973 the average income of the top 1 percent of Americans has doubled, and the income of the top 0.1 percent has tripled.

Why is this happening? I'll have more to say on that another day, but for now let me just point out that middle-class America didn't emerge by accident. It was created by what has been called the Great Compression of incomes that took place during World War II, and sustained for a generation by social norms that favored equality, strong labor unions and progressive taxation. Since the 1970's, all of those sustaining forces have lost their power.

Since 1980 in particular, U.S. government policies have consistently favored the wealthy at the expense of working families - and under the current administration, that favoritism has become extreme and relentless. From tax cuts that favor the rich to bankruptcy "reform" that punishes the unlucky, almost every domestic policy seems intended to accelerate our march back to the robber baron era.

It's not a pretty picture - which is why right-wing partisans try so hard to discredit anyone who tries to explain to the public what's going on.

These partisans rely in part on obfuscation: shaping, slicing and selectively presenting data in an attempt to mislead. For example, it's a plain fact that the Bush tax cuts heavily favor the rich, especially those who derive most of their income from inherited wealth. Yet this year's Economic Report of the President, in a bravura demonstration of how to lie with statistics, claimed that the cuts "increased the overall progressivity of the federal tax system."

The partisans also rely in part on scare tactics, insisting that any attempt to limit inequality would undermine economic incentives and reduce all of us to shared misery. That claim ignores the fact of U.S. economic success after World War II. It also ignores the lesson we should have learned from recent corporate scandals: sometimes the prospect of great wealth for those who succeed provides an incentive not for high performance, but for fraud.

Above all, the partisans engage in name-calling. To suggest that sustaining programs like Social Security, which protects working Americans from economic risk, should have priority over tax cuts for the rich is to practice "class warfare." To show concern over the growing inequality is to engage in the "politics of envy."

But the real reasons to worry about the explosion of inequality since the 1970's have nothing to do with envy. The fact is that working families aren't sharing in the economy's growth, and face growing economic insecurity. And there's good reason to believe that a society in which most people can reasonably be considered middle class is a better society - and more likely to be a functioning democracy - than one in which there are great extremes of wealth and poverty.

Reversing the rise in inequality and economic insecurity won't be easy: the middle-class society we have lost emerged only after the country was shaken by depression and war. But we can make a start by calling attention to the politicians who systematically make things worse in catering to their contributors. Never mind that straw man, the politics of envy. Let's try to do something about the politics of greed.

posted in Notes On The Scene - 0 replies

How Was Memorial Day Weekend for You?

2005-06-08T20:46:23Z

Did you go to a fest, the beach, a park? What did you do?

I chilled at home most of the weekend. I will be on tour most of the summer and this is my last weekend off.

Bonnaroo next week, than Wakarusa - Than Big Summer Classic!

Gonna be a good one!

So how about you?

posted in Notes On The Scene - 5 replies