Category: John sinclair

  • DETROIT LIFE: JOHN SINCLAIR AND HIS BLUES SCHOLARS

    “When I think of Detroit Life, these are the people I think of, these musicians and the people like them who make their art and their lives in the wilds of the former Motor City and live to tell the story — these people and the ones who used to be here with us, and the ones who showed us the way, and the young ones who are coming up now with the bohemian tradition, and all the people who have survived and sustained themselves as the city collapsed and rotted all around them.” —John Sinclair. Detroit Life

    .

    DETROIT LIFE: JOHN SINCLAIR AND HIS MOTOR CITY BLUES SCHOLARS.

    Produced by John Sinclair. Recorded and Mastered by Mike Boulan at the Jazz Loft, Detroit and Sraight Ahead Studio. 2009 NO COVER PRODUCTIONS. www.nocover.net

    Featuring:

    Johnny Evans Tenor Saxophone

    James O’Donnell Trumpet

    Phil Hale Keyboards

    Chris Rumel Bass

    Martin “Tino” Gross Drums

    Johnnie Bassett Guitar

    Jeff “Baby” Grand Guitar

    Lyman Woodard Hammond B-3 Organ

    Duncan McMillan Hammond B-3 Organ

    Ibrahim Jones Bass

    RJ Spangler Drums

    Milton Hale Drums

    John “T-Bone” Paxton, Trombone

    Rick Steiger Baritone Saxophone

    Thornetta Davis, Backing Vocal and

    The Lyman Woodard Organization With Special Guest Marcus Belgrave.


    A brand new album from poet John Sinclair signals a time to kick back, listen up and pay attention to the music and the words. Detroit Life: John Sinclair and his motor City Scholars – released on NO COVER records 2009 – serves up 15 hot slices of Detroit life as perceived through the lense of John Sinclair and his roaming band of legendary Detroiters’.

    I’ve been paying attention to the words of John over the last three years – a meer drop in the ocean of vast timescape that his works traverse – yet in this relatively short time i have seen a phenomenal artistic output form him – musical and literary – shedding live and studio recordings books and articles wherever he travels; ping! Truly the hardest working poet in show-business, with a gritty street level reality expressed through his language; American life, love’s and sorrow translated with a great compassion; unifying humanity and culture, music and poetry, head and heart.

    TRACK 1: “The Screamers”. James O’ Donnell and Jeff “Baby” Grand come firing out the gate. Overgrown sidewalks of Detroit memory music, Martin “Tino” Gross serving up the sweet shuffle groove and beautifully defined snare work on this classic Detroit Blues tour de force. The poem invoking a band of screaming artists that reclaim the overgrown streets of Detriot – historical gangsters of love, a loud and chattering ensemble of sincere rebels in the street. Arranged by Charles Moore – the Screamers – begins the swirling history of Detroit, retold through poetry, framed and bound by the beat bounced into yr/ heed by the poet.

    “Life in the ruins of modern-day Detroit is not for the weak – minded nor the faint of heart” reminds me that Detroit Life has many challenges, many Blues, and to emerge from the last 50 years of life in America without a terminal case of angry man’s disease, and continue spreading an equal amount optimism and a message of freedom to choose, love and tolerance – seems to me – to be a great accomplishment for any American who lived through the 1960’s and the evidence is captured here on this recording, a diary of Detroit Life – Love’s, losses, riots – mixed into a musical medicine that helps to heal the deep wounds and fissures cut into Detroit by the greedy corporate vampires, spearheaded by BUSH 2.0 and the 8 year long hijacking of America.

    TRACK 3: “april in paris” Arranged by Johnny Evans, another reworked Monk Tune. John launches into tales of bird with strings., bud powell and the Be Bop masters turning corny broadway music inside out and broadway itself – upside down”. “standards. STANDARDS. “Hammered in to the public body. Turning the western world on it’s ear.” John says; ” blam’ blam’ blam’ blam’ blam’ blam’ “They set a STANDARD so HIGH that we’re still trying to reach it.” Snappy drums, snare flares and buzz in the air. The longing for geographical teleportation, a travel blues, longing for April in Paris, but the body stuck in Detroit, or somewhere else. Once more the music brings the listener home, having been on a journey to somewhere, or several places, seemingly at once.

    Each of the 15 tracks stirs up the sweet and sour equation that defines – Detroit Life – music and words cooked to just precisely the critical temperature so as to sizzle into the heart and mind like Thunder and Lightning, and help melt away, or dry up the mild depression that seems compulsory to modern city life in 2009, like a fluffy cloud dissolving through the ear – clear skies open up with the music – and help propel the thinking individual into a new historical place, guided by the groove and getting THE NEWS from John’s timeless languaging engines of creation, in the music.

    TRACK 5. “Monk’s Dream”, realized and pulled back through the Vortex by the poet and presented here in full glory with Johnny Evans on sax and Martin Gross swinging the dream out of it’s mind, in the middle of the night Monk’s Dream came through, Monk’s Dream realized through Street Art, Street Sculpture and poetry, the self-reference of Monk’s Dream – the spellbinding tune – playing on the radio on the outside porch’ while all around the soundwaves are reflected off of earth works and inside out objects of ART arranged in a special way, on Heidleburg Street. “like tyree say – there are so many openings in life, you only have to choose the right one.”

    John provides another blueprint for such a universal artists workshop, and maybe what the curriculum might touch upon. Thinking, acting and speaking – Glocally – John Sinclair binds the environment and language into hip messages. Tales including friends, story condensed into track title, and including favourite song lyric and with the music glued all over the language place – the shrine of truth a beauty or the poem, a pulsating historical tapestry of the Detroit Rainbow coloured variety. The Motor City tales that head through the Odyssey of Detroit Life, Love, Loss, Laughter, Sorrow, Uprising; and anchors the smells tastes and lingo’ from that particular, specific intersection point, each word wrapped up in the sound of the music – a pivot – the foundation and the structure of poetry, observation and FEEDBACK spread out in all directions – omnidirectionally – throughout Detroit and the engines of John Sinclair and his Blues Scholars.

    TRACK 8: “all alone”. Introduced by Famous coachman’ speaking by way of a pre-recorded sample, setting the scene for the Cadillac bluesman – Johnnie Bassett – to launch into sensual jazz-inspired blues licks – ice-coffee and cherries swirl in an upward fountain – a jazz-blues equation exploring a world where slowness is beauty and radiance of the soul. A Guitar duet with the Hammond B3 of Phil Hale – keys on your knees if you please; serving a sermon of energy. Whirling the heart around like a fan belt on a summers day, then softly as a evening sunset – burning honey under the heat –“baby i do” – The poet’s love for blues and humanity, the healing of separation fielded by the band and arranged to push the light’s to the ON position!

    The music on Detroit Life comfortably covers all the bases, to borrow a phrase from a friend, and takes one on a historical journey of Detroit in a similar fashion to the John Sinclair guided tour of American Blues “Fattening Frogs For Snakes”, rumoured to soon be available as a complete box set, text and music together. The hidden wisdom and timeless genius of legendary street artists of Detroit; who came up from hardships and poor ruined areas to somehow produce innovative and beautiful art is rendered and annotated by John in a way that reminds the reader/listener of the rebellious spirit implicit in any art by definition.

    TRACK 10: “Street Beat”. Martin Gross whisking up a second line beat to a Raspy vamp accenting on the first two syllables of the words – “Street Beat” – the rhythm the rhythm and the street word of legendary drummer “papa J.C heard” recontextualized by the poet, spewing out from a new historical setting: (The Jazz Loft, Detroit, April 21, 2008). A poem and roll-call of drums, another biographical verse – the fact’s and figures, the dates, quotes and details, from Dizzy and other great authorities: “J.C heard brought us the word, and the beat of the street…He made it swing” and the music swings around again, rolling again, another heroic tale of an extra-ordinary individual, from Detroit, placed in a musical setting, placed in a musical setting, with poetry, with poetry, with music.

    Five of the fifteen tracks are re-worked Theolonious Monk compositions and feature new musical interpretations by the scholars and translations into words by John. Monk is reflected throughout every poem on the album, explicitly on “April In Paris” and “Monk’s Dream”. Monk’s music and Monk’s philosophy interweave with John’s, the word sound pulse dancing through text into the air and mixed with drum, bass, guitar and sax languages, criss-crossing a new definition of Detroit Life.

    TRACK 12: “Bags Groove” The timeless standard pulled through groove space by Milton Hale on drums, Ibraheem Jones on bass – James O’ Donnell and Johnny Evans – peppering the mind’s screen with melody. The poet presents a celebration of art, music and word from the Detroit renaissance – a massive role call to the greats – named and reclaimed, given extra hand, clear tone and dashings of volume. The breath of life re-circulated into the names, propelled out and reconfigured through the a trumpet horn, a guitar, a drum, to riff’ to the ends of the earth, and swing till time stands still, the drums like a rhythmic motor car chases holding the song-vehicle in position – the lush mix of word sound and power bounded by historical details, precise fact if circumstance, truth and beauty, and a Detroit Jazz and blues roll call to the gods, invoking the legends of Motor City Culture, the music itself and characters that “Made the Motor City Great”.

    John Sinclair and his Blues scholars, combined with all the characters scaffolding through into the music by way of poetry form an Historical University sized resource, in that they branch out into the historical events and legendary characters of Detroit, and beyond, but thankfully in an underground street level tradition, beatnik and polarising the mainstream corporate controlled and mega-media manipulated – history – of music and culture into a new musical language and ‘tale of the motor city tribe’ one man’s tale of the tribe – Blues, Jazz, and life in verse.

    (Cover photo by Leni Sinclair 1965 of John passing – what seems to me to be – a joint to horn player and philosopher Charles Moore).

    http://www.myspace.com/johnsinclairradio

    http://www.myspace.com/pinkeyewow

    http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/emsjo (Ed Moss)

    http://www.myspace.com/johnniebassett

    http://www.somethingelsereviews.com/2009/06/johnnie-bassett-gentleman-is-back-2009.html

    http://www.myspace.com/rjspangler

    http://www.myspace.com/philhalemusic

    http://www.myspace.com/marcusbelgrave

    http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/john-sinclair-radio-show-203/10360193

    http://www.myspace.com/planetdnonet

    “Thus, all three extensive epics make extensive use of direct quotations from the actual records left by the past. As was noted earlier, this practice helps to establish the poet’s authority as a trustworthy historian, and serves to deflect our tendency to treat his discourse as a purely subjective creation. But Walter Benjamin saw another and more subtle purpose in this technique, one I think Ezra Pound, Williams Carlos Williams, Charles Olson and [John Sinclair] also instinctively utilized. In Benjamin’s eye’s, the judicious use of quotations offers one of the most effective means of overcoming the historiography of pure power and political dominance. As Irving Wohlfart notes, for Benjamin, “the function of quotation is to break up the unified, totalitarian blocks that comformist historiography passes out as history,” it “isolated the elective affinities between the present and specific moments of the past. To grasp such correspondences is to seize the chance of the moment” (on Benjamin’s last reflections, “Glyph 3, 1978. P. 181). – Micheal Bernstein, Conclusion, The Tale of the Tribe, p. 274.

  • THE PIG WILL HAVE THE LAST GRUNT. BY ACRILLIC FIGA 2007.

    THE PIG MAY HAVE THE LAST GRUNT. By ACRILLIC FIGA (steve ‘fly agaric 23’ Pratt) 2007.
    Pigasus for Prez’ of Swineland 68-69 & 2012
    pigs in space, pigs in time;
    in the Chinese year of the pig: 2007
    i put my pen to the Tusk

    In soilydarity with lush Miss Piggy,
    Hogzilla, Napoleon, old Major and Pigsey,
    Wilbur, Professor Strangepork, Picasso, Pigasus
    and Porky pig

    The four legged hog that the label
    refers to is innocent of man’s crime.
    treated as Swine, in many lands pig denotes
    bad Authority, uncleanliness,
    consumerism, greed,
    and a BLT
    What intricate conspiracy afoot
    set against the animal kingdom
    against the plant kingdom
    the human barn-yard mind,
    orchestrated by Farmageddon
    what vgetable vendetta?

    Rolling in mud, eating shit
    and their own litter, once in a while,
    parallels modern arms factory
    economic practice.

    If you can stomach a capitalist pig
    don’t snap your wig over cannibalism
    pigs act pretty peaceful
    they don’t make Nukes, deploy troops
    most roll with styl, most roast.

    Pig as profanity! pig police authority,
    pig brother, animal in salts.
     
    The pigs may have the last grunt
    as the year of the pig makes its course.


    —Steve fly agaric. 2007. Edited January 29th, 2012.

    I Talk to the dead pig in the sandwhich: Pigasus for Prez of Swineland 68-69 & 08-09? Pigs in Space, pigs in time; in the Chinese year of the pig in 2007′ i’ll put my pen to the Tusk of taking all pigs to heaven. Napoleon & Old major pigs, Ministry of Pig: 1984! Porky Pigs limbs litter the swine factory floor, Pig as profanity! Pigs as the Police authority, Pig Brother. Animals used as insulting metaphors for humans but Machines, Poisons and sleeping robots rule us? Ass drunk and/or stubborn as a mule like Pigasus parroting the whole dirty Bay of Swine thing, War pigs crawling Begging mercy for their sins – sang Sabbath, But the four legged HOG that the word PIG refers to is INNOCENT of all crimes leagilly piggily crimes! Just a bristly pink critter! There seems an intricate Telepathic Conspiracy afoot against the animal kingdom. And against the Plant Kingdom and supernature, from a human-plants point of view. Orchestrated by humans or machine/Robot/poisoned humans. V’ for Vegetable Vendetta. Other than rolling in mud, eating shit and sometimes their own litter (Which makes an illuminating metaphor for modern Arms factory economic practice, invented by Humans), Pigs seem peaceful and intelligent to me, they don’t make Nukes, deploy troops or go to Church. The Hippopota-muses lament for their HOG kind Treated like Swine, the pig has become the Animal word used in Western Civilization that reflects the characteristics Of Authority, Uncleanliness, consumerism and greed. Greedy PIG! A poet in solidarity with the lush Miss Piggy, Hogzilla Napoleon, Old Major and pigsy, Wilbur, Professor Strangepork, Picasso, Pigasus and Porky – i hereby swear to clear these Swine of their stereotypical image quickly and their Stereotypical place in human history and knotted Language as Stupid dumb and dirty cheap fodder; useful at Christmas time with a little gravy tea to dip my TOE into. Dirty grunting Ugly pigs until Served up With a little Sauce. The pigs will have the last grunt as the year of the pig makes its course. —fly acrillic/fly agaric 23. 2007. taken from world piss: the spore of the words.

  • SR is for SUN RA:The Myth, Art and Music of Sun Ra v1.0

    The Myth, Art and Music of Sun Ra.

    By Steve Fly Agaric 23.

    23rd’ March 2009.

    “The myth is neither bad nor good, its potentials are unlimited.” – SUN RA.

    Sounds Fly: Music Writing

    by Steven James Pratt et al.

    Link: http://a.co/9OHmjhJ

    (more…)

  • JOHN SINCLAIR: The Hardest Working Poet in Show Business.

    John Sinclair, the – John Sinclair, invited me to join in his gathering of mental patients at the 420′ cafe during the first new light of the winter solstice. As ever we had a funky-good time – i had a problem speaking at first due to a joint lodged in my mouth that wouldn’t budge. Try saying “New York Skunk” with a Joint in your gob. Also i sparked up the reefer before the official opening toke moment! agh, that broke my rhythm a little. John’s tireless output of work grows on a monthly basis like a counter to the U.S debt of imagination, a stream of new blogs, fresh radio shows, book launches, poetry readings, book and poetry writings, edits, and meetings with his publishers and friends, not to mention his family, daughters and grand daughters, all equally illuminated in his daily thoughts. The following is lifted directly from his website-webblog. PLEASE visit it and pay attension to his writings, He writes from his rich, encyclopedic experiences in easy to comprehend sentences. Read him.

    I have started a few different articles inspired, influenced and directly reflecting my interpretations of John’s poetry, prose’, music and cultural impact. Some of these are posted here at this ACRILLIC blog. I’ll be adding more as i edit the material and get around to posting it. Also, expect some new DJ FLY, DJ mixe’s and radio shows in the near future, John has been encouraging us to make show’s….

    http://johnsinclair.us/10for2/

    “The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
    John Sinclair Radio Show 241
    420 Café, Amsterdam
    Monday, December 22, 2008 @ 11:00-12:00 pm [20-0861]

    Larry Hayden and Steve Fly and I gathered at the 420 Café this fine Monday evening before Christmas to celebrate our existence, enjoy some Opening Tokes of New York Skunk, shoot the shit and play some music by Radio I Ching, the Howlin’ Diablos, Harmonica Shah, Little Junior Cannady, the Butler Twins, Detroit featuring Mitch Ryder, the Up, Uprising, and the great James Semark with John Dana & Ronnie Johnson from the Detroit Artists Workshop around this time of year in 1964. Merry Christmas, everybody!

    Playlist 241

    [01] Opening Music: Radio I Ching: Radio Groove
    [02] John Sinclair Intro & Opening Tokes with Steve Fly
    [03] Howlin’ Diablos: Back Door Santa
    [04] Harmonica Shah: The Life of Every Party
    [05] Little Junior Cannady: Everybody Likes What I Got
    [06] Butler Twins: Might As Well
    [07] John Sinclair Conversation with Steve Fly
    [08] Detroit featuring Mitch Ryder: Rock & Roll
    [09] Up: Come On
    [10] Uprising: Long Hard Road
    [11] John Sinclair Conversation with Steve Fly
    [12] James Semark: John Coltrane Rhythm Ballad for All
    [13] John Sinclair Closing Comments & Outro
    [14] Closing Music: Howlin’ Diablos: X-Mas in Jail
    [15] Baba Israel Outro > RFA Tag

    Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
    Produced, edited & assembled by John Sinclair
    Recorded & posted by Larry Hayden
    Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
    Special thanks to Steve Fly at the 420 Café

    Looking at my logs for 2008 at the end of the year I was gassed to think back on all the places I’d made episodes of the show during the year, starting and ending at the 420 Café and hitting other Amsterdam spots like the Rock-It Coffeeshop on the Nieuwmarkt, The Dolphins by the Leidseplein, Coffeeshop Basjoe, Eat at Jo’s in the Melkweg, Hempshopper on the Singel canal, Overtoom 301, OCCII, and the Cannabis College.

    On my travels I made programs at WWOZ Radio, Piety Street Recording, Handa Wanda’s, and in the streets of New Orleans on Mardi Gras; at the Butchers inn, No Cover Studio, the Holice P. Woods Studio, the Jazz Loft and the Bohemian National Home in Detroit; SkyDog Tower in Paris; Tokyo Hipsters Club and the Ooze Charm Coffeeshop in Tokyo; the ZXZW Festival in Tillburg and Megaplaten in Utrecht, NL; Pheasant Hollow Winery in Wittenburg IL; Common Ground on the Hill and the Roots Music & Arts Festival in Westminster MD; Piazza del Erbe and Cafe Mentelocale at the International Poetry Festival in Genoa; Lee Harris’ Croft in East Anglia UK and a ton of shows in London including the HeadPress Bunker, Royal Festival Hall, City Inn Art Cafe, CafÈ Oto, World’s End Tavern, Raindance Film Festival HQs, Biddle Bros. Bar, Second Layer Records, Rough Trade Records, Bamalama Poster Shop, Big Green Books, Waterstones Books and Resonance Radio at The Foundry.

    Man! No wonder they call me the Hardest Working Poet in Show Business. That’s covering a lot of ground for a man who made 67 years old last October 2nd, if I do say so myself.

    I was enjoying a very relaxing holiday season at my new residence in Amsterdam near the Oosterpark where Steve Fly & Sweet Jane have made a room for me when all of a sudden both of my hosts were gone to visit their families in England and Norway, respectively, and I was all alone on Christmas Eve. To keep from getting lonely I thought I should begin a major year-end-type project and, after bringing all my files as up-to-date as I could manage, I took on the exhilarating task of assembling a new book from my 44-year treasure trove of writings.

    For some years now I’ve wanted to make a book of my writings from and about New Orleans called Mardi Gras to the World, and once I put my nose to the grindstone I had a ball digging out everything I could find in my files, knocking the dust off, up-dating and beating up the writing a little bit and stitching the pieces together to make up a fairly coherent compendium of stories from 1976-2008, as follows:

    MARDI GRAS TO THE WORLD
    By John Sinclair
    A HeadPress Book

    [01] Mardi Gras to the World: Running the Streets of the Crescent City
    [02] Make A Joyful Noise: New Orleans Calling
    [03] Keeping Jazz Funerals Alive: Brass Bands & Backstreet Culture
    [04] Big Chief Got A Golden Crown: The Wild Indians of New Orleans
    [05] The Bach of Rock: Professor Longhair
    [06] Stone Originators: Dave Bartholomew & Earl Palmer
    [07] How Long Must I Wait? Tommy Ridgley
    [08] Soul Queen of New Orleans: Irma Thomas
    [09] Give Me My Flowers Now: Johnny Adams
    [10] Unsung Heroes: Chuck Carbo, Eddie Bo, Deacon John, Snooks Eaglin
    [11] Ain’t Gonna Be No Stopping: Ernie K-Doe
    [12] The Wolfman Is at Your Door: Walter “Wolfman” Washington
    [13] Fiyo on the Bayou: The Meters
    [14] Yellow Moon Rising: The Neville Brothers
    [15] Prophets with Honor: Harold Battiste & Wardell Quezergue
    [16] Turn On Your Volume Baby: New Orleans on the Radio
    [17] Record Men of the ’90s: Carlo Ditta, Gary Edwards, Harris Rea
    [18] Remember Me? Roland Stone
    [19] Louisiana Medicine Man: Coco Robicheaux
    [20] Invitation to a Ghost Dance: White Buffalo Prayer
    [21] Carrying It On: Updating the Traditions
    [22] A Very Joyful Kind of Thing: The New Orleans Nightcrawlers
    [23] Born with the Funk: Davell Crawford
    [24] Jazz Funk from the Future: Michael Ray & the Cosmic Krewe
    [25] 21st Century Blues: Chris Thomas King
    [26] Wade in the Water: Notes from New Orleans After the Flood
    [27] Go Get Your Big Chief: Mardi Gras in New Orleans 2008
    [28] Provenance & Publishing Credits

    © 2009 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved. – http://johnsinclair.us/10for2/

  • John Sinclair, Elliott Levin, Jair-Rohm Welles, Carole Denis, DJ Fly. Cafe OTO.

    John Sinclair kindly invited me to join him in London at cafe Oto for two dates… http://johnsinclair.us/10for2/

    Mon, Jan 19th
    London: Cafe OTO-Martin Luther King Day with John Sinclair, Elliott Levin, Jair-Rohm Wells, Carole Denis, DJ Fly.

    Tue, Jan 20th
    London: Cafe OTO—Obama Inaugural Party with John Sinclair, Elliott Levin, Jair-Rohm Wells, Carole Denis, DJ Fly.

    Cafe OTO
    18 – 22 Ashwin street
    Dalston
    London
    E8 3DL.”
    info@cafeoto.co.uk “

    See you there

    -Fly

  • THE SUN RA ARKESTRA & Timesplace.

    “People have two harps in their head, their ears, just like a harp. They hear by the strings in their ears. If I play something very strange, then some strings that never vibrated before will vibrate. The whole nervous system will become alive — SUN RA. (Sale 1987: 55, also Corbett 1989: 24).

    Brought to congress by Sonny Bount (SUN RA),
    A cast of vibrational scientists combine their instruments in new ways
    Exploring inner and outer spaces.

    “.”The Others in Their World”, “From Out Where Others Dwell”,
    “Moon People”, “They Dwell on Other Planes”.

    Like the old hermetical saying, “As above, so below”,
    You may operate spacetime & skyrockets that lie
    Barely inches behind the eye-socket.
    Marshall Allen like an optical scientist,
    A Dr. of Saxophany. Probing the frequency spectrums.

    The 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s were the space-race years
    SUN RA and his Arkestra were in the race,
    Playing the musical Nemesis of the arms-race.
    Life music in good time.
    John Gilmore breaking sound & light boundaries
    Thought previously to be, boundaries.
    Iron birds fly from the horn.
    Babbling brook and chattering river voices.
    From the 65′ Coltrane explosion, fragments linger
    Like soft spoken Billie’s echoplextasy.

    July 28th 1969: John Sinclair’s bogus trial had been postponed,
    Temporarily for the spectacle of the moon landing.
    After the landing the judges sentenced John to 10 years in jail
    For being – set up – with two joints by an undercover police
    Robot officer.

    “The Satellites are Spinning”, “The Cosmo-Fire”,
    “Lights on a Satellite”, “Cosmo-Energy”, “Friendly Galaxy”,
    “Irregular Galaxy”, “Space is the Place.”

     

    Sounds Fly: Music Writing

    by Steven James Pratt et al.

    Link: http://a.co/9OHmjhJ

    (more…)

  • John Sinclair, to be fair. V 0.5

    “You don’t just go out one day and pick a style off a tree” –Dexter Gordon

    Memoirs of rock mentor John Sinclair
    Poet, activist, entrepreneur, critic, journalist, manager of MC5 and kingpin of US punk scene still performing and writing


    http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5980783.ece

  • Fattening Frogs For Snakes. By John Sinclair v. 1.0

    By Steven James Pratt.

    (The Poet – John Sinclair.)

    “he tells us about Johnson’s apprenticeship and that original meeting of musician and devil at those famous crossroads, or when he introduces the story of Slim by connecting the gospel of “This Train” with Little Walter’s “My Babe” and winds his way back to Slim’s namesake, the Sunnyland Train, concluding, “He traveled fast and could be dangerous.” Sinclair even has a charming, scholarly way of crediting his sources, name-checking writers like Robert Palmer and Pete Welding as he goes. — Jon Garelick. http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/music/otr/documents/02458016.htm


    Fleastyle feedback:

    Here are tales of heroic men
    Fighting with music, with a GUITAR
    With a harmonica, a tin-can, a bottle
    A coke bottle top. Life and Death. Story.
    Fighting the snake charm of materialism
    The greed machines and pure’
    Satanical shitstem.
    Industrial-Agricultural-media monster. Ugh.

    Here are tales, localized and time-binded in story.
    By our beat poet, guest, scholar in residence, in Europe.
    Hear to speak right knowledge, and bard on.
    Plucking head and heart strings, PING. Another book saved!
    Tales for humans to resonate with
    Time-space binded Poems, for the general heart mind.
    Including history. And all humanity under its light.
    A history of history within history
    In some sense , retold tales of legend upon legend.
    The tale of Fattening Frogs for Snakes;
    Singing matter, fucking matter, shouting matter
    Dancing matter. Smoking Matter.
    Fly feedback….on Poetic historicism,
    Music criticism and the post modern
    condition of Dr. John Sinclair.



    “Fattening Frogs for Snakes,” yeh, that’s what Americans do, except the ones that really is snakes. That is the United SNAKES ain’t it? So from jump, John know, what the definition of hope to die (say when) American is. And he rejects it like the music do. The music reject it because American is a definition of what ain’t got no use for the blues or for those who make the blues.–Amiri Baraka, Foreword to Fattening Frogs for Snakes by John Sinclair.

  • JS is for JOHN SINCLAIR

    Test v 0.5

    Charles Olson/ Theolonious Monk!
    Sonny Boy Williamson/Alan Ginsberg
    Marshal Mcluhan/Sun Ra
    W.C Williams/Dizzy Gillespie
    Sun Ra – Lenny Bruce/Charlie Parker

    Dr. Timothy Leary/Coltrane

    Ornette Coleman/William S. Burroughs.
    Charles Mingus/Ezra Pound

    Robert Anton Wilson/Milt Jackson

    “this is what they mean
    when they talk about he blues,
    this is what the blues is all about:
    “fattening frogs for snakes”
    & watching the mother fucking snakes
    slither off with the very thing you have made” –John Sinclair.

    http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fflyagaric23%2Ffriday-the-13th-john-sinclair-and-his-amsterdam-blues-scholars& FRIDAY THE 13TH – John Sinclair and his Amsterdam Blues Scholars by flyagaric23

    John tells tales of heroic men of big heart and soul and full of music, tales in the folk idiom of legend. Magic languages made from wire on a stick or harmonica, a tin-can, a glass bottle and cap. Here are tales, localized and time-binded together by our giant beat poet scholar. Tales to resonate with Times

    Yeah yer right John! Fattening Frogs for snakes. So that the motherfucking snakes can slither off with what you have made. Yourself, Timothy Leary, William S. Burroughs and Robert Anton Wilson for example have been cultural pioneers with a huge and a mostly unacknowledged contribution to our culture (Any Counterculture left) not gobbled up by an institution and/or private corporation.

    The line “fattening frogs for snakes” – struck into my neurons, as it gets to the heart of the matter of music, business and culture since 1928 until 2009. If your starting out in the music business you better check out the snake scene in your town or village and prepare for a banquet of snakes and ladders when mixing with music industry goons. One difference i perceve today, to my 32 year old mind, is that the snakes have copulated since the 1920’s and now have a 3rd’ generation offspring–Unrestricted Global Finance Kapitalism (UGFK)–and the process of “fattening frogs for snakes” continues in every area of our lives. Not just confined to the Ghetto as the planet seems like a ghetto to me sometimes. Greed and glutony for the interests of a few nuts bent on religion and/or political power that i guess they don’t see the problem of issue, who issues it and how? It’ signifying media in all its forms: Paper Money, Water, Television, Gold, Internet, Newspapers, Music.

    “Olson also shares Pound’s thesis that economic and verbal corruption are
    linked. Throughout the Maximus Poems he is at pains to demonstrate that the
    decline of Glouster is a function of its finacial dependence upon outsiders,
    upon men whose sole concern is private gain rather than the harbor’s general
    welfare. “in the present shame of the wondership stolen by ownership. —Charles Olsen, Letter 3″:9. Michael Bernstein. The Tale of the Tribe: Ezra Pound and The Modern Verse Epic.

    Fattening Frogs for Snakes” as interpreted by the Amsdetroit’ bard seems to have the qualities of “The Tale of the Tribe”. Or an Epic Poem. Singing matter, dancing matter, shouting matter. The poet weaves and sews together biographical seeds into condensed verse that come up like Pea Vines, strong and healthy tales, stories of the Blues and Jazz legends within their elements, not isolated into a 21st century New York. FFFS, with the aditional audio components becomes a sound & picture poem – including history that you can listen to and read in synchrony. The word “Tribe” resonates with John’s continued addiction, infatuation and love affair with Black Music, from the musical Eden: New Orleans, to Chicago, New York and spreading throughout the globe, John has indeed gathered the tale’s of the African American Tribes. And is after all himself Big Chief. John’s Poetry and prose seem refreshing in their time-space binding – hunkered down and rooted within the subject matter – informing the reader when and where the poem’s gaze is cast.

    “AIR, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence for the fattening of the poor.” –Ambrose Bierce

    With the webnet in 2009, and with resources and tools spilling out of the blue’s-sphere (the blue-tooth) zones, togther as a team we can contribute creatively without a particular bias or bank roller boss-hog. With an honest will to help build up the tribal knowledge base for everyone, enrich the free and revolutionary mediasphere with gifts of radiance and beauty. The spirit of the internet and its sharing and user driven content reflects the spirit of cultural revolution and the race towards a new – language – crafted for the most part by North American’s in the 60’s and 70’s.

    The poet has a very rich and nutritional array of multi-media communication devices, Biographical DVD “20 to life”, books such as “Guitar Army”, “Fattening Frogs for snakes”, “It’s All Good” hundreds of linear notes and published articles about Blues, Jazz and Revolutionary culture, plus many freely accesible edutainment-spaces such as John Sinclair Television, Radiofreeamsterdam and his own diary-website johnsinclair.us.

    “Fattening Frogs for Snakes,” yeh, that’s what Americans do, except the ones that really is snakes. That is the United SNAKES ain’t it? So from jump, John know, what the definition of hope to die (say when) American is. And he rejects it like the music do. The music reject it because American is a definition of what ain’t got no use for the blues or for those who make the blues.–Amiri Baraka, Frome the introduction of “Fattening Frogs for Snakes.”

    Poetic historicism, music criticism and the post modern condition of Dr. John Sinclair.

    “But the basic problem was semiotic. Debate collapsed into emotional babble because there was no language or conceptual model of what happened when you got “high”, “stoned”, “fucked up”, “loaded”, “wasted”, “blessed”, “spaced out”, “illuminated”, “satirized,” “god-intoxicated”, etc. — Dr. Timothy Leary. Cyberpunks Cyberfreedom. Page 97.”

    As exile, criminal gang member and poetic terrorist, John Sinclair seems to me about as close to a no bullshit human being can find in 2009. Writing, living and being a poet, full time. No Television. No motor vehicle. Just a laptop and many manuscripts. John Sinclair lives on the road busy with a blazing output of words and music and speech that equals that of any small publishing house in the Netherlands.

    John brings the optimism and improvisational skills of the 60’s into the 2010’s – dragging the whole gunny sack of alternative, countercultural history behind him, beard pointing forwards into the unknown, that Bird solo or that Monk song, that infinite recursive mysterioso, that new world and de-patterning of the regular program.

    The smashing and trampling upon the normal with scholarly alternative models, like Punk Rock, The Black Panther Party, The Weather Underground, The league for Spiritual Discovery, the Discordian Society, Trans-Love energies and others. Yes, John Sinclair built alternatives to the American Killingry machine way back when, way back in 1964, before the Chicago Storm Trooper went wild in 68′, before Kennedy was assassinated by insider traders. Way back when, John Sinclair was building more cultural relations and artistic communities that the entire U.S Government combined, who were, as we now know were busy fucking up relationships in the rest of the world, and expanding the slave-hive of unrestricted Global finance capitalism.

    Along with Dr. Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman, Robert Anton Wilson, Alan Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs. Having something in common with all of these, combined with his own detroit Jazz glossings and more musical organizing and focus. The Music, the beat, the exploration of new sounds, were all coming together and being represented by John at that time, and still now, 50 years later, he continues to radiate the spirit of rebellion, alternativity and contempt and criticism of authority, while empowering each and every individual to realization, often via their ears. Nothing is not new. And only the authentic experiences and time tried and tested methods of judgement are used to forward the communications, snowballing into the 21st century, John carries the reefer torch of the 60’s counterculture, in some sense. Burning bright and blinding, like fire crystal or an atomic reactor, John radiates the spirit of protest, and the maxim “Think for yourself, question everything, especially authority”, at every chance he finds within his tight schedule of Zen-mind encounters with rookie stoners and pot groupies, whom he loves equally and fully, as many survivor’s of the 60’s have learn’t, except maybe George Herbert Walker Bush and long list of CIA rats and robbers that fucked up the cultural landscape at every opportunity in the name of national security and a few paranoid religiously blinded individuals delusions.

    “melopoeia, Òwherein the words are charged, over and above their plain meaning, with some musical property, which directs the bearing or trend of that meaning,Ó phanopoeia, the Òcasting of images upon the visual imagination,Ó and logopoeia, Òthe dance of the intellect among words.Ó This tripartite schemeÑthe musical, the visual, the conceptualÑreappears in the ABC of Reading (1934) which contains such famous aphorisms as ÒLiterature is news that STAYS news,Ó ÒGreat literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree,Ó and ÒPoetry is the most concentrated form of verbal expression.Ó http://www.bostonreview.net/BR29.2/perloff.html”

    Beyond what John Sinclair writes he has had a life experience that equals that of any 20th century POP icon, except for the fact that Sinclair has often been smashing that POP ideology with a diamond headed hammer since first encountering the heavy handed, lawyer run capitalism and music industry at an early age. Not to mention the storm troopers attacking young American’s, their language, art, music and Kulture, at every possible place. Stooping so low as to continue their false flag operations, or violent terrorism against their own citizens, or their targets, as they were to seen by the perpetrators and agents of death plots, assassinations and bombings, and drug set-up’s, and Gurilla warfare raged on some drugs. And the list of terrible things the U.S Government has done around the world goes on, and meets the British, German, French and Italian and Dutch Governments along the way, snowballing into a New World Order around the mid 1970’s, when i was born (15th April 1976).

    Anybody who has read a little alternative American History of the calibre of Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, John Zerzan, Robert Anton Wilson, Howard Zinn, Kurt Vonnegut and Micheal Parenti will find the crooked government meddling and interference with cultural developement in “It’s all Good: a John Sinclair reader” familiar.

    Feedback from an Individual American standing up to the Tsarist Occupation Government throughout, what are, lets hope, the worst 40 years of American imperialism, greed and crazed rogue CIA terrorism the planet has had to endure. Now something else, please.

    John himself was indicted by the U.S Government on charges lodged by the CIA, trying to associate him with a plot to Blow up a CIA recruiting office! And the case soon fell apart when it was soon discovered that evidence had been gathered by using illegal wire taps, a popular way that the Government kept an all seeing EYE on the potential terrorists, to them, who were breeding in the seedy underworld of beatniks, communists, jazz junkies and drug deranged hippies.

    “Then, as the poem continues, Sinclair rails that the music of these poor descendants of slaves would be exploited and sold without any of them receiving proper credit or compensation for their contributions http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2002-12-10/ae_feat.html

    And so the forces that have shaped the life experiences of John Sinclair are themselves exorcised by his continued writing, performance poetry and good cheer and stand as a testament to resistance, protest and the perpetual scholars gaze into the deep questions: what culture, what good music, what revolution? The Godfather of Punk has turned American culture into his theme park, inhabited by Bird, Diz, Monk, Ruby, Sonny Boy, Kerouac, Sun Ra and His Arkestra’s, the entire Beat ouvre’, Olson, Burroughs, Coltrane, The beatles’, John Lennon, Fela Kuti, james Brown, The Mardi Grais Indian’s of New Orleans, Bar room boogie woogie, Trip Jazz, Mingus, Kenny Clark, Miles Davis, Alan Ginsberg, Archie Shepp, Stevie Wonder, the MC5, Hendrix, Elvis. Sinclair’s theme world contains almost everything i like about America, and this model seems to hold out the idea of America itself, otherwise it’s Coca-Cola, Ronald McDonald and the CIA all the way. Sinclair, in my humble opinion synthesises the best of American Kulture, distills the crap from the treasures, and even today, lives his word and deed in resonance with his tribes and teachers, a man of peace, peace to mean opposite of war, but not necessarily without trouble.

    “You don’t just go out one day and pick a style off a tree” –Dexter Gordon

    And so we sit here, smoking trees for Saturnalia. Writing for the hell of it. I am here at the table writing about Sinclair who sits’ opposite me, smiling, tapping his foot, minding his own business, but sharing everything he has to share, and caring with an equal intensity for all things he can cram into his gaze. The humble giant has a work rate double that of my own, sitting at the keyboard hammering away as monk spin’s off the spindle on the phonograph. Yes, he’s here and writing a small book a day, combined email, radio show details, and other writing merge together into a master class in language and post apocalyptic communications from a master of the filed. John Sinclair. Yeah, yer right.

    “In especial one notes the “extraordinary” length of the rhythm pattern units [in Oriental Music], comparable to the mediaeval rhyme scheme of Provencal canzos, where, for example, one finds a rhyme pattern which begins its six-ply repeat after the seventeenth different terminal sound. In this Arabic music, as in the Provencal metrical scheme, the effect of the subtler repetitions only become apparent in the third or fourth strophe, and then culminates in the fifth or sixth, as a sort of horizontal instead of perpendicular chord. One might call it a “sort of counterpoint: if one can conceive a counterpoint which plays not against a sound newly struck, but against the residuum and residua of sounds which hangs in the auditory memory.
    In the two cases, Arabic music and Provecal verse , where there was no musical “harmony” and no counterpoint in Bach’s sense of the word, this elaboration on echo has attained great complexity , and can give great delight to the ears which are either “trained” to it, or which have a natural aptitude for perceiving it. In Europe this aptitude or perceptivity lasted at least until Dante’s time, and prompted in him several opinions on the relative merit of provencal artists, which have puzzled thich eared “modern” philologists. –Ezra Pound, The New Age, April 15th, 1920.

    Its all Good: A John Sinclair Reader.
    22 poems and 22 prose pieces.

    I’m tellin’ all my friends, I’m no longer fattening frogs for snakes’ –Sonny Boy Williamson.

    “he has taken, laudably, the speech of the men he treats of and, by clipping to essentials, revealed its closest nature–its pace, its “meaning.” And this is his poetry.” Williams Carlos Williams on Ezra Pound.

    “Williams Carlos Williams personally mentored Charles Olson, (to Creely at Black Mountain) Williams was friends with Kenneth Rexroth, the founder of the San Francisco Renaissance.” –Wiki

    John Sinclair lives and walks in Amsterdam. Europe. He seems to be producing artistic output that deserves closer investigation, i suspect that he reads at least on average 5 books a week, and is recording several radio-shows each week; some of the richest cultural music i have ever heard. The pen, the microphone the improvisational skills. The life experience to make reality drip from his words like hash Honey from 1968. A man of his sweet word. Enough nouns, to the gumbo and dancefloor.

    As John Sinclair lives and breathes, and as he is my friend, and my favorite DJ in 2008, i’ll transplant what i have learned from Robert Anton Wilson, and put John Sinclair through the interactive vortex, “The tale of the tribe.” as i see it interpreted by RAW.

    John splices historical, biographical and critical strains of tribal text together in a novel way to produce high grade wisdom language. Plus a counterpoint within the music itself, encouraging no-place places of poetry.

    Economics, social science, psychology, jazz & blues ontology, poetry– the dance of the intellect among words. Hermaneutical gumbo, at least on the surface, JS’ in his new book demonstrates the art of capturing the experience, first hand, to mouth to heart to head and around again.

    Whatever I choose to call John Sinclair, or label him as, be it beat poet, revolutionary scholar, essayist, historian, professor of Jazz and Blues; I get the feeling that these labels often detract from him being, very generally Ð a force for good. And so what is good you may ask, what makes somebody a force for good, well in my opinion and very generally speaking a force for good radiates compassion, knowledge, experience and good-judgement, to mean right judgement.

    “In the poem “Fattening Frogs for Snakes,” Sinclair explains how blues music came to be and the different strands of people and geography that intertwined to make it.”

    What does Good mean to you in 2009?

    Good, like the word right can be used will-nilly and haphazardly these days, but again we must ask what are the attributes and affinities of good, and how does a human being become a force for good? I guess that we must construct some kind of hierrarchy of values, a spectrum of probabilities and something as close to science or to correct knowledge, right-knowledge; as we can get. This might be described as a kind of social cybernetics, where human beings are compared and validated based upon their actions, shared experience and artefacts, or based loosely upon their information output patterns, on their observations and perceptions studied at various moments throughout their life. A hierrachy of values then, would be a smart tool that enables a more meaningful, in full technicolor, term, like good being used properly to describe a human being. Or as I prefer a Ð force Ð for good as like R. Buckminster Fuller says ÒI see no nouns I only see verbsÓ, and ÒI am a verbÓ. Goodness lasts longer than good and when yu loose an ÒOÓ my goodness becomes godness, its all god from then on, which is a great way to remember the Good God, Devil Evil, trick of English. Only one letter gets change but this produces and whole world of difference.

    Like musical Ballads and Road balards. Such is the delicate and easily bastardized and burgularized state of our language, but here with ÒItÕs all good: a John Sinclair readerÓ we have an opportunity to exhibit the questions about goodness, weigh up the evidence and examine the artefacts, make a new analysis based upon all the new historical data, (such as the first president of African-American geneology), evaluations modified and the turbulant forces at play during many key historical moments of American and world history can be distilled, with this line of study based on a hierrachy of values, to produce fully sourced and well documented re-analysis of the forces of good and evil and the sly zones in between the two. Where dry becomes damp, which then gets soggy before becoming wet.

    “Iyan mu ire yo; iyan ro ire ru. “When there is famine the cricket is fat” (that is, is considered good enough to eat); “when the famine is over the cricket is lean” (i.e., is rejected).” from the African YARUBA folk-lore/language.

    My aim is to present the book ÒItÕs All Good: a John Sinclair ReaderÓ as a hierrachy of values, a distilled look at what makes it good, and a look at the forces for good playing out in the content.
    As with any hip culture and every positive cultural force, the language and the language makers turn on themselves in a dialectic of opposites, where ÒBadÓ for example, becomes a word used to denote a good force, in some sense, as James BrownÕs album “Superbad” pays testament, or the immortalized words of Run DMC ÒNot black meaning bad but black meaning goodÓ.
    Growing up in England during the late 90’s a badboy or badbwoy was in fact used to denote a positive cultural force within the context that we used it in. There are many other examples, so many that it appears to me that within the music and DJ culture of 2008 the English language has lost much of itÕs use as a force for good, since so much nonsense has been written about music, art and culture lately, propelled by the unrestricted global corporate capitalist pop culture corpse-press, that words, by themselves are no longer worth the kind of value that they were a few years ago, or 30 years ago, or hundreds, or maybe just 2 months (consider the term Bail Out and World Financial Crisis before september 2008).

    “JS has been a WHITE PANTHER (NOSHIT) doing time for the crime of thought. And resistance to the continuing slavery of US imperialism and its prophylactic, racism. J has always been on the firing line, on the front line of saying and doing. He is a brother, in the real sense, of the flash and spirit, and his words, his stance, his loves, his perception and rationalization of the world, will bring him close to anyone not in the straighjacket of random imbecility and opportunism (the “most finished form” of which, said Lenin, is National Chauvanism). –Amiri Baraka,

    Long gone, in the west at least, are the times and cultures where language was held to be a treasure and sacred artform, to be used in harmony with the environment and the Cosmos, and other human beings in the community to help transfer information, good information, to mean information packed messages with a surprise, the opposite of messages with a foregone conclusion, predictable, stale, corporate, in some sense. The predictability of authority and the general forces of control, constriction and the police state put them in an affinity group with entropy, monotheism, dominator culture, fascism, tabloid News Press and static, patriotic, imperialist impotence. Notice the undersexed and overstressed faces of presidents, prime ministers, ministers of defence critters and intelligence officers, and, religious fanatics worldwide, lets not overlook sex, or the prohibition of sex and the malfunction of the universal human orgasm being used, by bad forces, to indoctrinate the young, the dumb and those full of come.
    Why were the books of Wilhelm Reich burnt and his laboratory destroyed on order of an American court? Tim Leary, Lenny Bruce, Orson Welles, James Joyce, John Lennon, Ezra Pound and John Sinclair are United by the fact that they have received a harsh judgement and received inhumane punishment by the United Snakes Government as a result of their non-violent expressions of genius, prophecy and revolutionary thinking. They differ widely in their personal opinions and in their likes and dislikes much the same as anyone else, but because of their gift and genius they pose somekind of a threat to the power structure, the Government sanctioned artists, the ones that fit neatly into the stale categories and pigeon houses you see everywhere these days in the fake plastic world of the served up consumer. The major music, literature, and Art publishing corporations. The corpse culture of modern life.

    Rock & Roll, smoking dope and fucking in the streets, these are meanÕt to be forces for good, and they have been incalculable forces for good throughout history, especially when broken down into the language of everyman, simply, described with a high information content and presented justly as Rock & Roll, Smoking Dope and Fucking in the Streets.

    What we have here is a species of wisdom language, IAG provides the reader with a carefully calculated set of equations. It is my contenton that the mixture of prose essay and verse, balanced by the annotated lyrics of the entities under observation, provides for a damn good reading exorcise, thatÕs even before we get into the content of the structure. The structure of the book itself, like a good fugue, or a Theolonious Monk, or a Sun Ra composition seems to be already communicating patterns, beats, oscillations within its working structure, with itÕs own self contained system, intelligent, communicating, pulling in the consciousness field of the reader, listener, experiencer.

    “Alex (or “Aleck”) Miller called “Rice” as a boy “Sonny Boy Williamson” “He had established himself in Chicago & was soon to gain national fameas the king of the Blues Harmonica “His recordings remain today as if carved from stone, immutable, irrefutable, masterpieces of American music that will live long beyondthese last days of the 20th century:” –John Sinclair. FFFS.

    And that’s where my review of IAG comes to a brief hault in some sense, youÕll read about Robert Johnson, Sun Ra, Iggy Pop, John Lennon, Dr. John, and a huge cast of countercultural Illuminati amidst the 300 pages of bound wisdom language, and you already have, I am sure a good idea about who these people are, after all, you have heard theyÕre records and seen emÕ on the TV and in bookshops, if youÕre a reader that is, you probably know all about these people, but, itÕs the force for good, the author John Sinclair that provides the eyes, ears, heart and mind that guides the reader through the labrynths of American culture.

    John and the other revolutionary tribes of artists, poets, writers and magicians emerging together throughout the 1960Õs in Northern America were for the most part, generally, forces for good, they fought against one of the most powerful and crooked monsters of American government Ð the Noxin administration Ð and won. Hands down. Using a relatively non-violent and community based uprising of like minded individuals, a few key players, or composers, helped shape modern and post modern culture in ways we are still trying to untangle from the other forces for evil, and corruption, for Usury and bedevilment. We, the children of the 70Õs, who have just seen the same Noxtious Nixon like gang, this time incarnated as the evil George W. Bush and Dick Chaney, Rumsvelt and co. are now taking the batton, carrying the flame, lifting the great ball of crystal that the likeÕs of Theolonious Monk, Tim Leary, John Coltrane, Robert Anton Wilson, Sun Ra, William S. Burroughs, Ornette Coleman, and Alan Ginsberg have left for us, putting the world back together again, with the artists and writers and intellectuals in their places, (libraries, information centers, art and creativity centers, freely available internet resources) at the disposal of world around humanity to access, process and communicate. And with an added emphasis on nation states, countries and locations desperately lacking such well prepared wisdom language for operating happily on planet earth and becoming a force for good.

    If the characters from IAG were transposed to the Star Wars mythology then Sinclair would be Obe 1, Richard Nixon Lord Vader and the 1968 Democratic convension in Chicago would be the death star, where the brutality of American Government evil against itÕs own citizens came out, overflowed and changed the mindset of untold millions of artists, musicians, writers and magicians, little did Nixon and his evil CIA friends know that now, 40 years later they would stand out as such evil and crooked bastards, in comparison with the counter-cultural revolutionaries and their new models and metaphors and languages for all around the world humanity, to Ð come together Ð dance, communicate and love oneanother. And the countercultural entities from the 60Õs were all in resonance with the principles of humanitas, of liberty, expression, and of just being themselves, growing and developing their reality engineering tools, they just wanted to be left alone and allowed to compete in the new emerging global telecommunications and entertainments world-around infrastructure.

    To simply do their own fair and honest trade in their own communities with their own cultural flavors and tastes in music, drugs, sexual preference and personal effects. ÒIf we ainÕt harming anybody else then whatÕs the problem?Ó seemed to be the echo of voices from the consciousness and creativity explosion of the 60Õs, in Jazz music, poetry, drugs and dancing and fucking we kept seeing the same things, or a similar pattern: Authority figures and conservatives tend to squash and hinder youth culture movements that pose any threat to the current status quo, such as advanced Black African Jazz music, advanced Swiss longevity drugs and refined Magickal writing.

    IAG, for me in 2008 acts as a wake up reminder of how infinitly creative and resourceful human beings can be when they put theyÕre minds and hearts to something, and when they are left alone, unhindered, and are more likely to emit a stronger force for good. The ripple effect of a good deed and a gesture of good will, and the twists and turns of an evil lie, a fake government sanctioned fabrication. It seems to me that only a fascist bullyboy or some cop or fink could mistake the tell tale signs of a US operation to break up, disscredit and dissband any new youth and/or Black youth culture movements. The list of New Culture Martyrs and rebel heroÕs from the United States are, perhaps, my own most respected and honorable quality critters, to mean, I rate almost everything they have produced and side with them in their arguments, and expressions of criticism and desent at their evil secret Governments meddling in both the culture and drug wars at home, and increasingly internationally too, hell, they even reached the moon in 1969 and started meddling in space outside of the planetary atmosphere. In comparison with the free food programs, and free music parties, the free information hand bills and hugs, smiles, and daily acts of encouragement, made free to others because of oneÕs own investment of time and energy; what does a 20 Trillion dollar war machine and Banking Casino look like. ÒThe American dream, to vulgarise and falsify until the bare lies shine throughÓ said Burroughs. Are you awake yet.

    Planet earth just witnessed an attack of unprecedented scale and proportion, an attack upon every human being, every animal, fish and living thing, speaeheaded by the United States of America and Great Britain. I am of the opinion, based on the data available in 2008, that the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan following the events of september the 11th were precisely an illegal invasion. An attack. On us, the citizens of the countries waging war, as well as those having war waged upon them. (but with a violent flesh ripping effect, opposed to a more psychological tearing effect) We, the people have been terrorized by repeated false flag attacks and staged battles between good Christian British/American crusaders and bad evil Iraqi/Afghani Islamic infidels, or so thatÕs what the Tennis tournament organizers would like you to think.

    It seems an insult to an entire nations intelligence, both of the human mental variety and the secretive spy variety, when lies and deceit perpertrated by the people employed to at least relay good information and represent the general public forces for good. In my opinion that does not mean continuing the military industrial banking cabals evil agenda, their business plans for opening up new businesses overseas, now that the Cold Wars over and Bosnia, and the IRA have packed in the offensive. I give much thought and consideration to the possibility that some Evil American Buzzards had a hidden had in the events that led up to the multi trillion, and incalculable set back, and/or slowing for the world-around-humanity aboard spaceship earth.

    Here is an example of using blues imagery. This haiku is a direct variation on the blues line “fattening frogs for snakes.” I personify the night, the quality of hurt, and then use a simile to make complete the reference to the blues line. It is also a blues in the classic a/a’/b structure, which is say a line, repeat the line with a variation, and then respond to or comment on the line with a third line. Here I completely rephrase the second (or a’) line but I keep the same basic image (“night moans” = “arms of hurt” and “grip my waist” = “snake round me”).

    haiku 48
    night moans grip my waist
    the arms of hurt snake round me,
    i feel like a frog
    http://www.nathanielturner.com/onwritinghaiku.htm”

    The tales and epic poems and slices of reality served up in IAG remind the reader of their own humanity, in the face of such adversity as John and his contemporary tribes have been and still find themselves today, confronted with. John has gone back, and forwards, with a dance of language, in print and spoken words together – which can be listened to and read simultaneously for an added sense of enjoyment, i find. John has gone back to the origins and legends deeply rooted in the music he has always processed and shared with a passion amongst his friends and worked to propel into the greater human info sphere of worldwide revolutionary culture in the minds of the people.

    McLuhan
    Sonny Boy Williamson
    Keroac
    SUN RA
    RAW

    As an Englishmen, from a middle-class backgrouund, compared with the rest of the planet earth, and of average intelligence. I was born and bred in the Blackcountry, West Midlands, who travelled and lived for more than 12 months at a time in San Francisco, New Orleans and Brooklyn New York between the years of 2000-2005; I feel I have a somewhat different experience of America from others due to my extended stay and total immersion within the new world and its culture. By total immersion I mean playing music with some of the best, studying quantum psychology and ideogramic method with the best, by the best I mean innovators and originators, in my humble opinion Gurrilla ontology and world wisdom music were the means to amplify the new world internetworked culture, to make communications between tribes, and then maybe come home and unload my new found wisdom music and humanitarian cacheÕ of cutting edge research activities.

    “Cybernetics is preeminent when the system under scrutiny is involved in a closed signal loop, where action by the system in an environment causes some change in the environment and that change is manifest to the system via information/feedback that causes changes in the way the system then behaves, and all this in service of a goal or goals. This “circular causal” relationship is necessary and sufficient for a cybernetic perspective.[citation needed]

    “Example of cybernetic thinking. On the one hand a company is approached as a system in an environment. On the other hand cybernetic factory can be modeled as a control system. Contemporary cybernetics began as an interdisciplinary study connecting the fields of control systems, electrical network theory, mechanical engineering, logic modeling, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, anthropology, and psychology in the 1940s, often attributed to the Macy Conferences. Other fields of study which have influenced or been influenced by cybernetics include game theory, system theory (a mathematical counterpart to cybernetics), psychology (especially neuropsychology, behavioral psychology, cognitive psychology), philosophy, and architecture.” wiki/cyber.

    —-

    “When Johnson was offered an open bottle of whiskey, his friend and fellow blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson knocked the bottle out of his hand, informing him that he should never drink from an offered bottle that has already been opened. Johnson allegedly said, “don’t ever knock a bottle out of my hand”. Soon after, he was offered another open bottle of whiskey and accepted it, and it was that bottle that was laced with strychnine. –wiki

    “The fatted frog was eaten by the snake-like new wave of British musicians Ð people such as Eric Clapton, John Mayall, The Animals and The Rolling Stones. ThereÕs no doubt that these guys are true fans of the blues, but they did make it big by ripping off the blues stylings of pioneers like Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and HowlinÕ Wolf. Lots of these guys died in misery and poverty (although there are plenty more like BB King who got plenty of recognition).
    http://frogsforsnakes.blogspot.com/2006/06/fattening-frogs-what.html

    “Then, as the poem continues, Sinclair rails that the music of these poor descendants of slaves would be exploited and sold without any of them receiving proper credit or compensation for their contributions
    http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2002-12-10/ae_feat.html

    “Robert Johnson – Considered by some to be the “Grandfather of Rock-and-Roll”, his vocal phrasing, original songs, and guitar style have influenced a broad range of musicians, including John Fogerty, Bob Dylan, Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix, The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers Band, The Rolling Stones, Paul Butterfield, The Black Keys, The Band, Neil Young, Warren Zevon, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton

    http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2002-12-10/ae_feat.html
    the lives, joys and suffering of the United States’ most marginalized citizens.

    “Confluence of research and art that Sinclair has been performing for more than three decades. There is a mythology that surrounds many of these greats, such as Muddy Waters or Charlie Patton.

    “It took me a long time, to find out my mistakes
    Took me a long time, to find out my mistakes
    (it sho’ did man)
    But I bet you my bottom dollar, I’m not fattenin’ no more frogs for snakes

    I found out my downfall, back in nineteen and thirty
    (I started checkin’)
    I found out my downfall, from nineteen and thirty
    I’m tellin’ all of my friends, I’m not fattenin’ no more frogs for snakes

    All right now… (solo)

    Yeh it is nineteen and fifty-seven, I’ve got to correct all of my mistakes
    Whoa man, nineteen and fifty-seven, I’ve got to correct all of my mistakes
    I’m tellin’ my friends includin’ my wife and everybody else,
    not fattenin’ no more frogs for snakes
    soony boy williamson./
    “

    Rice Miller
    Rice bowl women
    African diasporia & the Oriental hidden variables.
    Fattening Wogs for Chinks.
    http://www.ninebelowzero.com/index2.htm

    sweat of night blues moist upon them. Feefee! phopho!!
    foorchtha !!! aggala !!!! jeeshee !!!!! paloola !!!!!! ooridiminy !!!!!!!
    Afeared themselves were to wonder at the class of a crossroads
    puzzler he would likely be, – –http://mv.lycaeum.org/Finnegan/viewpage.cgi?page=475&like=crossroads

    I heard my
    libertilands making free through their curraghcoombs, my trueblues
    hurusalaming before Wailingtone’s Wall: I richmounded the
    rainelag in my bathtub of roundwood and conveyed it with
    cheers and cables, roaring mighty shouts –http://mv.lycaeum.org/Finnegan/viewpage.cgi?page=542&like=blues

    Amanita ceciliae is reported primarily from areas east of the Mississippi River but similar mushrooms also occur in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and Texas. Amanita experts David Jenkins (1986) and Rodham Tulloss (2004) suggest that North American amanitas matching the general description of Amanita ceciliae (a European species) may be undescribed, separate species.
    http://www.clusterbusters.com/ident.html

    http://pluto.njcc.com/~ret/amanita/species/muscpers.html (amanita Mississippi)

    ÒAIR, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence for the fattening of the poor.Ó –Ambrose Bierce

    ÒBetter is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it (Proverbs 15:17).

    ÒShow the fatted calf but not the thing that fattened him.Ó
    Irish Proverb quotes

    “The travelogue of names Tunica, Tutwiler, Clarksdale being the life stories of blues ancestors like Howlin Wolf, Tommy Johnson, Sunnyland Slim, and Sonny Boy Williamson. His stories lose some of their bite when he dilutes them with didactic generality about slavery and the land where the blues was born, and he has a tendency to use the word “peoples,” but he makes up for these lapses when he tells us about Johnson’s apprenticeship and that original meeting of musician and devil at those famous crossroads, or when he introduces the story of Slim by connecting the gospel of “This Train” with Little Walter’s “My Babe” and winds his way back to Slim’s namesake, the Sunnyland Train, concluding, “He traveled fast and could be dangerous.” Sinclair even has a charming, scholarly way of crediting his sources, name-checking writers like Robert Palmer and Pete Welding as he goes. Guitarists Bill Lynn, Everette Eglin, and Jeff Baby Grand twine smoky, chugging rhythms and train-whistle slide, the grooves are propulsive, and there are even female back-up singers to give support on a few tracks. All of which probably owes a lot to the expert production of R&B legend Andre Williams.

    http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fflyagaric23%2Fpannonica-john-sinclair-and-his-amsterdam-blues-scholars& PANNONICA – John Sinclair and his Amsterdam Blues Scholars by flyagaric23

    Fattening fly’s for frogs for snakes for bulls.

    John Sinclair, kindly gave me the most recent recordings of his poetry and i have been reading from his book while listening–simultaneously–to his blooming voice in audio, accompanied by his band the great “Blues scholars.”

    The book “fattening frogs for snakes” contains many tales roughly cast from the constellation of origins of the Blues. (The music, rhythm and Blues). Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williams, Muddy Waters and many other geniuses of the Blues are woven by way of nutritious quotes, condensed, orchestrated and exhibited by John Sinclair.

    I found an instant parallel with other poets who “let history speak for itself” serving up a more meaty and substantial meal. Time-space-binded and information rich details of the when, where, and the who’s; all illuminated by choice words, cutting and slicing words that reflect the most general heart, the marrow.

    For example: “three kinds of poetry: melopoeia, Òwherein the words are charged, over and above their plain meaning, with some musical property, which directs the bearing or trend of that meaning,Ó phanopoeia, the Òcasting of images upon the visual imagination,Ó and logopoeia, Òthe dance of the intellect among words.Ó

    A tripartite scheme, plan, method, developed by John Sinclair combines the musical, the visual, The conceptual and reappears in Fattening frogs for Snakes.

    http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fflyagaric23%2Fhumph-john-sinclair-and-his-amsterdam-blues-scholars& HUMPHF – JOHN SINCLAIR AND THE AMSTERDAM BLUES SCHOLARS by flyagaric23