A quick trip down memories lane...

Pardon the pun...

On April 19, 1943 (celebrated as bicycle day by some), Albert Hoffman ingested LSD and after feeling strange and dizzy he decided to have his friend take him home.  They left via bicycle. 

Albert Hoffman writes about this experience in his book “MyProblem Child: Reflections on sacred drugs, mysticism and science.” 

A few other books on LSD: 

“Storming Heaven” by Jay Stevens is one of the better histories of LSD in the United States. 

 

For a History of LSD use and research across the pond, check out “Albion Dreaming” by Andy Roberts.  (For the record, I just got this book and am only several chapters deep, but it is pretty well written and researched.)

 

Also currently reading “Acid dreams; the complete social history of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties and Beyond.”  by Martin A Lee and Bruce Shlain, which covers the interesting history of that the CIA had with LSD (codenamed: MKULTRA). 

 

From Time magazine: 

“…the MK-ULTRA program, which ran from 1953 to 1964, SF Weekly fully exposes the bizarre world of the CIA’s unethical drug tests.  The utterly-unbelievable-but-true story involved using hookers to lure in unwitting johns for undisclosed testing, narcotics agents who slipped drugs into drinks, and a U.S. marshal who held up a San Francisco bar not knowing he was high on acid.”

Read more: "The Legacy of the CIA's Secret LSD Experiments on Americans" by Maia Szalavitz 

On This Date

1936 - lysergic acid diethylamide 25 was synthesized by chemist Albert Hoffman at the Sandoz laboratories in Switzerland.  This is just a SMALL sample of what life after acid looks and sounds like...

 

Superman (1941)

A quick cartoon break from archive.org. 

Recently Inspired pt. 2

Some of the videos found on the Focus Forward Film Competition are pretty amazing.  I am amazed that some of these ideas have to beg for funding.  I'm a bit skeptical that the competition is run by GE.  Pretty awesome stuff though.  Here are a few of my favorites (have not watched them all yet): 



Build yourself. | Tristan Copley Smith from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.



Black Girls Code | Shanice Johnson from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.



"Energy Waste" Recycling | Eugene Dyachkov & Ilya Belov from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.



A Glacier in the Desert | Marco Della Coletta & Zoe D'Amaro from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Recently inspired?

The Rolling Jubilee. 

"Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits."

At this point they have raised about 300,000 dollars, which they can use to buy about 6 million dollars worth of debt, which they are going to just forgive.  

 

Huffington Post Article

What is a jubilee?

Jubilee comes from many faith traditions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A jubilee is an event in which all debts are cancelled and all those in bondage are set free. It worked in Biblical times and it can still work today. For example, a kind of jubilee happened in Iceland after the 2008 economic crisis: instead of bailing out their banks, Iceland canceled a percentage of mortgage debt. What these examples show is that debts are just a promise which can - and should - be renegotiated or cancelled when the circumstances warrant. Strike Debt believes that now is the time for a jubilee for the 99%.

Free Online Comics

Afrodisiac....

free read at adhouse books.

Freak-Angels. post-apocalyptic free weekly...

http://www.freakangels.com/


Enjoy.

Died on This Date (Cont.)

Memorial Murals and Street Art Dedicated to Ol' Dirty Bastard.

http://www.egotripland.com/odb-memorial-murals/

Plus 27 more found on egotripland.com

Died on This Date

Party people all around the TOWN!

an old school comercial break

And now a brief message from our sponsers. A collection of old toy commercials.

Movie Topic: "My Favorite...I Don't Know What"

It's not a guilty pleasure because I genuinely think it's good. It's not underrated because, my opinion not withstanding, I recognize it's not the greatest movie ever. But Volunteers (1985) somehow holds an undefined place in my heart.

It was a sit down and watch with the family movie when I was younger and I just watched it last week with my wife for the first time in years and still enjoy it. It stars a pre-"Big"/post-"Splash" Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, John Candy and Gedde Watanabe (aka the Donger) who are all being closely watched by the Commies, the Black Marketeer and the CIA as they attempt to build a bridge in southeast asia... hilariousness ensues.

Tom Hanks recently did an interview on the Nerdist podcast that clocked in at over an hour where he talked about damn near every movie he ever made except for this one. Why is this so?

I release this movie unto you fine gentlemen. Is it a well kept secret or appropriately lost in the annals of movie history?

I offer you up this brief clip to either differ you away or get you to watch.

Died On This Date

John Milton - 

 


“So shall the world go on,
To good malignant, to bad men benign,
Under her own weight groaning.”  Paradise Lost


Norman Rockwell - 

During World War I, he tried to enlist into the U.S. Navy but was refused entry because, at 6 feet (1.83 m) tall and 140 pounds (64 kg), he was eight pounds underweight. To compensate, he spent one night gorging himself on bananas, liquids and doughnuts, and weighed enough to enlist the next day. However, he was given the role of a military artist and did not see any action during his tour of duty.







James Booker -

Booker was the son and grandson of Baptist ministers, both of whom played the piano. He spent most of his childhood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where his father pastored a church. Booker received a saxophone as a gift from his mother, but he demonstrated a stronger interest in the keyboard. He first played organ in his father's churches.
After returning to New Orleans in his early adolescence, Booker attended the Xavier Academy Preparatory School. He learned some elements of his keyboard style from Tuts Washington and Edward Frank.^[1] Booker was highly skilled in classical music and played Bach and Chopin, among other composers. He also mastered and memorized solos by Erroll Garner, and Liberace. His thorough background in piano literature may have enabled his original and virtuosic interpretations of jazz and other popular music. These performances combined elements of stride, blues, gospel and Latin piano styles...he enrolled as an undergraduate in Southern University's music department. In 1960, Booker's "Gonzo" reached number 43 on the U.S. Billboard chart, and number 3 on the R&B chart. This was followed by some moderately successful singles. In the 1960s, he turned to drugs, and in 1970 served a brief sentence in Angola Prison for possession.

On This Date

1519 - Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes entered the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan.

1923 - 600 SA surrounded the beer hall and a machine gun was set up in the auditorium. Hitler and his associates walked through a beer hall in Munich. He fired a shot into the ceiling and shouted,"The national revolution has broken out! The hall is filled with six hundred men. Nobody is allowed to leave." He then said the Bavarian government was deposed and declared the formation of a new government
 
1936 - Now, instead of conquering foreign indigenous peoples, the Spanish were fighting among themselves.  20,000 Francoist soldiers attempted to take Madrid, but were rebuffed.  Although not able to get into the city itself, they were able to lay siege on Madrid for three years, beginning on November 8th.

  

1971 - Led Zeppelin releases "Led Zeppelin IV"

Are You a Part of the Bewildered Heard?

Documentary on our Ethos

"Our Ethos is all that we currently hold to be true. It is what we act upon. It governs our manners, our business and our politics."

Howard Zinn

Died On This Date

I Feel Like Steve McQueen, The Former Movie Star...

 

In 1947, McQueen joined the United States Marine Corps and was quickly promoted to Private First Class and assigned to an armored unit.^[6] Initially, he reverted to his prior rebelliousness, and as a result was demoted to private seven times. He went AWOL (absent without leave) by failing to return after a weekend pass had expired. He instead stayed away with a girlfriend for two weeks, until the shore patrol caught him. He resisted arrest and as a result spent 41 days in the brig.^[6] After this, McQueen resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines' discipline. He saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea.^[6] He was also assigned to an honor guard responsible for guarding then-U.S. President Harry Truman's yacht.^[6] McQueen served until 1950 when he was honorably discharged.

 

Here in "The Great Escape" as "The Cooler King"

 

Here in Bullit as Lieutenant Frank Bullit                

And a play off of 'a different kind of miles'

Strange that Peter Weller was brought up in that article (http://somnambulistsalarm.blogspot.com/2012/11/oh-miles.html).  I watched this interview with him yesterday on www.boingboing.net: