DEEP SCRATCH

Tag: paul krassner

  • 2019 YEAR IN REVIEW – BLADERUNNER FIRES

    2019 YEAR IN REVIEW – BLADERUNNER FIRES

    FIRE! FIRE!
    POUR ON WATER, POUR ON WATER

    The world is on fire! Literally and figuratively. Don’t panic. The gap between the richest and poorest is growing, and seems set to keep growing, as nations continue to repeat history and vote for the toughest big-daddy they can, to protect them from foreign influences, or rather the foreign influences not paid for. Don’t panic. Often I think to myself…I’d like to retreat to a cave and sharpen my pencils, watch TV and be blissfully unaware of all the drama out there.” No, this is the last day of 2019 and we are awake.

    2019, 365 days that changed the world? Much different from 2018? Hotter or richer or poorer? Here’s my round-up of things that impinged on my nervous system, balanced between events in my life and those on the world stage. 2019 was bittersweet. I could say, the world has gone to hell, but I’m all right Jack, but I try to avoid sounding like a self-centred idiot who only talks about himself and his interests. Truth, beauty, excellence and compassion are my weapons of choice. Lets burst the big pimples first. Let us not look away from the violence, but try to understand the root causes and organize together to prevent division and hatred.

    To scrape the surface of the year in politics speak, from the opening play on January 1st, when right-wing fucktrumpet, Jair Bolsonaro started his unholy presidency in Brazil, and sets the worrying tone of the rise of right-wing populism across the world, ending in 2019 with Boris “Hard Right Brexit” Johnson, sweeping to victory after the dirtiest and expensive smear campaign Britain has ever seen, as if organized by United Snakes. Feb 1st, Trump signs off America from the mid-range Nuclear treaty, Putin responds with the same the next day. March 15, 51 people murdered in Christchurch, New Zealand, by a racist lunatic called Brenton. The same day, Greta Thunberg returns to Sweeden as a figurehead of a worldwide climate awareness movement. April 10th, first-ever image of a Black Hole M87 Galaxy, the first glimpse of Trump UK trade-deal. April 11th, Julian Assange arrested in London. April 21st, the Sri Lanka Terror attacks result in 500 murdered by religious extremists. April 29, Isis nut, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, releases footage of Sri Lanka Terror attacks, he’s clearly mentally ill but treated by the media as some kind of criminal mastermind. May 1st, Bad Vlad Putin signs the Sovereign Internet bill into law (In which he can hack British sovereignty at the source, sucks it all up, and funnel it back over to the Kremlin for the Skeksis to lap up.) May 6th, Syrian army launches ground attack on last rebel stronghold in the country. May 24th, Maybot plans shut down of her dancing queen program. June 3-5th, Trump balloon visits the UK and the Queen, cheeses with the Maybot and Boris the lapdog. June 7th, Maybot dancing queen stops dancing for Tories, a new beast is required to be born. July 17th, Netflix star, El Chapo, is sentenced to life in prison. July 24th, Boris Johnson becomes the UK prime mongrel, voted in by less than 0.4% of the UK. His lies begin in overdrive. August 3rd, mass shooting in a U.S Wallmart store leaves 23 people dead, the racist shithead shooter targeted Mexicans. August 10th, child rapist billionaire friend of Prince Andrew, Jeffery Epstein dies in jail, reports are that he killed himself? August 21st, Amazon wildfires rage as Bolsonaro does sweet fuck all. September 10th, Boris and the Tories prorogued Parliament, shutting it down in a Trump-like manner. September 20th, International climate strikes. September 24th, a British court ruled prorogued parliament was void, Boris did indeed do a Trump move. October 17th, Trump pulls U.S troops in Syria, away from helping the Syrian army, blessing Turkey to invade, all to “protect the oil”.  October 19th, 1 million March in London for the second referendum on Brexit. October 27th, Trump announces that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, killed by American weapons. October 30th, Twitter bans all political advertising worldwide. November 21st, Ben Netanyahu is indicted on charges of fraud and bribery. Nov 26th, Chilean protests, 50 protestors require prosthetic eyes after police shoot in the face. December 12th, Tories win UK general election, with Boris leading the UK into a Brexit more than half the country does not want. “Just Get On With It,” combined with “Love Actually,” spoke in volumes to the soul of English exceptionalism. Dec 18th, the orange-to-peach balloon becomes the third U.S president in history to be impeached for meddling in the 2020 elections, the least of his long litany of crimes. Dec 20th, U.S Space force founded by the orange windmill king. Wildfires continue to burn across Australia, wiping out millions of animals and their habitats, homes, and some people, leaving Sydney in a hot fog, and new highest temperatures set every week. Ian Duncan Smith, the Godfather of Universal Credit and the war on vulnerable people in the UK, is bestowed a Knighthood by the British Crown. That about sums up the UK nicely, politically speaking.

    Phew, but we made it through didn’t we? First off, a toast to those who didn’t, those that passed over to the great trade-deal in the sky in 2019, in particular, Jake Black, who I had the pleasure of knowing a little bit, rest easy friend. The Zen Bastard Paul Krassner checked out, one of my all-time favourite American’s, who first published a piece of my writing (Magic Mushrooms: From Toad Slime To Ecstacy, 2003,) and was present at a most memorable mind-bending afternoon with Robert Anton Wilson in Palm Springs, 2000. Paul kept in touch with me via email whenever he could write, his contributions to the western countercultural tradition are incalculable. Know his name. Paul Krassner, R.I.P. The great Dr John, and Art Neville, both natives of New Orleans had their traditional Jazz Funerals, and full musical send-offs, or carry-ons. And the psychedelic twin of Timothy Leary turned yogi and dharma teacher, Baba Ram Dass, passed into the clear light of bliss. Rutger Hauer and Ginger Baker also left the world stage leaving behind them large bodies of excellent art. To all my friends who may have lost a family member or friend this year, may they’re memory live on eternally and their souls rest in peace. One statistic that you can’t argue with overtime is that the older you get the more dead people you know. Honour your ancestors with life-affirming actions and thinking, music, merrymaking and contemplation as you see fit, that’s my best advice for dealing with the grief of 2020 and beyond. Enough about the dead, let’s get onto some of the living critters who have set 2019 alight, and who will certainly be caught playing with matches in 2020.

    First, my three to watch and study in 2020. The goodies. If you take anything away from this year in review, make it these three names: Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow and Alan Moore. For me, the holy trinity of the next decade, each fully capable of turning it all around, if…IF…we could be so bold and brave as to listen, compute, understand, and share that good stuff. As Douglas Rushkoff said, program or be programmed. For me, the next decade will be dominated and in the hands of those who can program, write and juggle legal facts to the degree that Cory Doctorow is capable, present design-science innovation and tech-criticism to the calibre of Bruce Sterling, and synthesize Art and Magick in the grain of Alan Moore. And so, to the villains.

    My first three to watch are predictable, Trumpet Booris Pootin. The three claws of the new Tsarist Anglo American alliance, playing cold war games with their billionaire friends, foes, and who the fuck knows. But that’s obvs. Steve Bannon is a better villain to keep your eye on, he’s smarter than Trump. In the same fashion, I’d say, learn from Jacob Reece Mogg, a nasty but smart English motherfucker, if you want to fight. Boris is the distraction like Trump, in 2020 you might be fitter if you filter-out the dog whistle alt. right bait, and the pumped-up lies and bluster guaranteed to be splattered all over 2020 UK tabloids. Reading and sourcing some Mogg literature, and a study of law will be much more helpful in the long run. Watch Tommy Yaxley Lennon Robinson if you like, but there’s nothing new to learn here since early hominids leant how to use clubs, you’d be smarter watching a chocolate fudge sundae melt, look for a worthy intellectual opponent in 2020. And, perhaps learn some self defense? Find the smartest racist you can, and study them. If you want to fight, take the strongest opposing argument to your own, first. Racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Xenophobia are all built on a logical fallacy, and categorical untruth in the first place. A part of the problem in 2019 is that many are not doing philosophy and social psychology, and such intellectual pursuits are increasingly branded lefty cultural Marxism. In 2019 a meme goes around the world seven times before a PhD. thesiskeksis footnotes on! The domain of the thick, the stupid, and the ignorant, is the domain of categories and group-think. Overemphasis on nationality and not enough emphasis on the unique individual. The fact remains movements, based on gene-pool ignorance, are founded on lies and blind-faith based thinking, the opposite of scientific – research-based thinking. The wars of the words will continue up until the Chinese written character puts a backstop on the limping 26 letters, and English crumbles away into Finnegans Wake completely.

    Highlights for me this year, personally speaking on a creative tip are, editing and releasing my paper The Entourage Effect At Finnegans Wake, concerning Cannabis Terpenes, and the perfumed language of James Joyce. Visited the Island of Kos in Greece with sweet Janne, spending quality time with cats on the beach, shells on the bottom of the ocean and the Tree Of Hippocrates, and the Hippocratic oath. Opened a night of funk and jazz in for DJ Eddie Pillar, who chatted for a while and made my weekend. Played a DJ set for Red Light Radio, and 3 sessions at the Hill Street Booze Bar in the centre of Amsterdam. For Radio Free Amsterdam I recorded more than 40 one-hour shows this year and made lots of artwork for the station continuing into 2020 with brother John Sinclair. I tracked some turntable work for a new tune with Garaj Mahal, that should be coming out in 2020, we will be jamming.

    2019 marks the year I studied turntable beat-juggles, and in nine months, with an average of practicing around 10 hours per month, I can hold a beat, deploy a few tricks and new techniques. I will continue the practice, and craft some ready-made routines, and make some tight tracks. Maybe I’ll get out there for battle someday. Much of the driving impetus to learn to juggle and scratch better, came from working on my novel (trans-media project) called Deep Scratch. I figured that, if I’m writing about DJ’s I should learn to do what I’m writing about, with the bonus of making soundtrack material for the trans-media project. I started filming practice sessions, and uploading them to Youtube to help gauge any progress. In 2020 I may finally land on Serato software, a decade after every other DJ went over to the digital side. It’s not cheap to get up and running. Nuff’ about me? How you doing? If you got this far your probably thinking of books and albums that you like or want to make, and perhaps you have stories you want to tell? Now is the time, publish or perish. Be bold, say it loud. “Do it now!” Try not to lose your centre fighting the world. Please, check your facts in 2020, your life may depend on it. Oh, and do art.

    If you want to link with my britinternational.org ensemble join me at Patreon.com/stevefly  Make your own account and I’ll support you back. Or else, create some other such community-based network of like-minded individuals, help the vulnerable, the disabled, the homeless if you can. Visit them. I’d advise occasionally stepping away from the digital mobile-screen-world and reconnecting with community and nature in equal measure. Recharge you charity next to the stream. As cliche as that may sound. You will have to compromise at some point, you will have to let go, to be able to swing and grab something new, and let go again, things in motion and motion in things. Oh, and the post-quantum superimposition revolution, coupled with Artificial General Intelligence, Internet Of Things, 5G, and the global industrial military entertainment complex is sure to deliver some, lively, stuff. You need cognitive security! Maybe Logic and Multi-Model Agnosticism are a good place to start. Start now. Bladerunner, remember the future?

    I raise a toast to an independent hand-made, hand-printed 2020, of and for the people. The new art and literature and ecological innovations are here with us. Stay awake. Love all the people. I wish you good luck and happy trails, enjoy every success on the path ahead.

    xx

    –Steve Fly

  • For Paul Krassner Zen Bastard 1932-2019

    For Paul Krassner Zen Bastard 1932-2019

    On hearing the sad news I have rushed this post. More memories will follow. I hope this goes some way to paying my respects. Much love, and my condolences to his closest family and friends.

    Paul Krassner and Robert Anton Wilson. Palm Springs, December 2000.

    Paul Krassner (11th April 1932–July 21st, 2019) passed the final acid test yesterday. After 87 years inside of his flesh puppet, the Zen Bastard has flown free into the infinite flux of non-beingness. Paul was one of my favourite American authors, activists and human beings, partly due to him publishing my first short story in 2003. I hung out with Paul and his wife Nancy, and Robert Anton Wilson in Palm Springs in 2000, and met him in San Francisco at the launch of “Murder At The Conspiracy Convention” and caught him in NYC at the Knitting Factory. 

    Paul was a great American, to mean somebody who consistently challenged authority, and themselves in equal measure, and held a high spirited optimistic outlook on life, love, art, war, and peace. In the Realist, 1959, Paul published Robert Anton Wilson’s first piece: Joyce and Taoism. 

    In December 2000 the DJ flew to Palm Springs to attend the Prophets Conference, and act as Robert Anton Wilson’s volunteer caretaker. Paul and Nancy showed up to see old Bob, who was in a wheelchair at that time. I was invited to join them and treated to an hour or so of a fly on the wall hallucination, it was pure comedy combined with some concerns about G.W Bush and the Butterly ballot. I bought a round of drinks and Bob had a Manhatten, which later, I regret may have led to a few more “fucks” in his presentation than usual. Paul and Nancy sat right at the front for his “Universe Contain’s A Maybe” performance, and I felt that Bob was really performing for Paul, who was roaring with laughter at Bob’s chorus of “Cocksucker” and “Motherfucker,” when describing fundamentalist faith-based organizations and individuals. You can watch the whole thing here:

    An example of Paul’s kindness and attention to detail is reflected by his effort to find me the following day to give me an article he had read in the New York Times about the emergence of multi-linguistic hip hop, something I had rambled on about the previous day. Paul also handed me “The Final Issue” of the Realist“. Wow, I was cheesing hard, and full of gratitude for the guy.

    Shortly after moving to San Francisco the writer got an email from Paul saying that he was collecting stories, or tales of altered states, for his book: Magic Mushrooms And Other Highs: From Toad Slime To Ecstacy. Later that year the writer recieved the delightful news that my story “As If True” would be published in 2003! What a beautiful cat. Man. He reminds me, great movements in art and literature are often self-fueled and stem from a voluntary will to push forward, regardless, not always driven by profit. Here’s paragraph from Paul introduction to Magic Mushrooms. Bless up.

    “Meanwhile, psilocybin has made its way into mythology.  Dr. Ian Edwards, head of education at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, claims not only that the bright color of magic mushrooms may have inspired the traditional red coat worn by Santa Claus, but they may also help Santa Claus to fly.  He told the Daily Telegraph about a story originating in Lapland, where the people used to feed the hallucinogenic fungi to their herd of reindeer. They used to feed red and white fly-agaric mushrooms to their raindeer, then drink the animals¹ urine.  Drinking the urine would give them a high similar to taking LSD. One of the results was that they thought they and their reindeer were flying through space, looking down on the world. speaking of which, you might want to lick the bottom right-hand corner of page 23.  Go ahead, it¹s all right. No one will ever know. And you won¹t be indirectly providing any drug money for weapons to the terrorists, either. ” 

    When interviewing Bob at his home, I asked him about the Zen Bastard dedication to Paul at the beginning of the book: TSOG The Thing That Ate The Constitution. Bob replied.

    RAW:… Paul Krassner – he dedicated the book to me, he sent me an e-mail along with the dedication long before the book was published and asked me if I found it satisfactory and wanted to change anything to make sure I’d be pleased by it. I was so delighted I dedicated my next book to him which is due out any day now, it’s called TSOG: The thing that ate the constitution and its dedicated to Paul Krassner – Zen Bastard. I originally wrote “Paul Krassner – “Zen bastard and all-around good guy” or something like that, and sent it to Paul, and Paul said “Zen Bastard is just what I want,” so some people might think I’m insulting him but that’s what he wants that’s his sense of humour so I let it stand, the book says – “To Paul Krassner – Zen Bastard.”
     

    Audio Interpretation: https://ironmanrecords.bandcamp.com/track/zen-bastard

    Paul featured in the documentary Maybe Logic: The Lives And Ideas Of Robert Anton Wilson. With his full interview on Bob included in the DVD extras. I caught up with him in San Francisco, at the top of Haight street, at a bookshop I forget the name of, which hosted his book release performance and readings from “Murder At The Conspiracy Convention” the book dedicated to Bob. After the rather poorly attended show I stepped up for a book signing, and he signed it “To fly agaric 23, from Paul Krassner, whose body was found washed up on a beach”. Alas, I lost this book on my travels, somebody has it somewhere. I inspired a laugh from Paul with my signing request.

    The last time I saw Paul Krassner was at the Knitting Factory in New York, where he was not promoting a book but doing a straight-up, or to the left, stand-up set, once again to a rather small crowd. I caught Paul on his way to the toilet to tell him about my world piss project, he laughed again but not so hard, probably as he really needed to go and this weird Brit was in his way. I was alone at the gig, and so I was bowled over when this dude in a hat came over and asked me how I was doing, made polite conversation as he saw that I was surely from out of town. This turned out to be the late great Steve Ben Israel, of the legendary Living Theater and hundreds of other art, poetry, activism and Krassner-like, and inspired activities. I mentioned I was a DJ and Steve told me about his son, beatboxer and lyricist Baba Ben Isreal, who I crisscrossed pathways with in Amsterdam, years later. 

    I kept in touch with Paul by email on and off, and he always responded in the positive. He gave me permission to republish his interview with Terence McKenna, for example, in our Maybe Logic Quarterly Magazine. Cheers Paul.  

    I cannot comment on his health condition, but I am sure he lost the ability to type at some point which he more recently gained back. 2 years ago he sent me a very moving article, that I think reflected his own situation, or feelings. “Bringing The Invisible To Life” May 3rd, 2017.
    http://nowiknow.com/bringing-the-invisible-to-life/

    I wrote back:

    “may the ink flow plenty and pages
    scroll on… to infinity
    and the pen swerve
    as you tease it
    keep up the good work’
    love and love”


    Another recent article sent from Paul, dated March 29th, was about Sara Silverman, and her “Last Laugh” podcast interview.  And here’s one of his last published pieces, from Variety, 2018:


    “The current FBI has swung a pendulum from 50 years ago, when the FBI was an enemy of progressive activists. An agent’s poison-pen memo attempted to smear Tom Hayden with the worst possible label they could invoke with fliers: Yep, an FBI informer. Others distributed a caricature depicting Black Panther leader Huey Newton “as a homosexual,” and ran a fake “Pick the Fag” contest, referring to Dave McReynolds as “Chief White Fag of the lily-white War Resisters League” and “the usual Queer Cats — like Sweet Dave Dellinger and Fruity Rennie Davis.” I was described as “a raving, unconfined nut.” I thanked the FBI for that title of my autobiography.

    I recall Paul once landing on Facebook briefly, and leaving again pretty quick, he posted the same sentence over and over again if I remember correctly. A genius, who will be missed. Read him.

    Love, fly.

  • PALM SPRINGS INTERVIEW WITH RAW 2000 A.D

    PALM SPRINGS INTERVIEW WITH RAW 2000 A.D

    My first interview with Dr. Wilson was captured on mini-disc recorder in his small hotel room at the Prophets Conference, Palm Springs 2000 A.D. I am in the process of writing out the days I spent with RAW at the Con. and it leads right up to this transcript of Dr. Wilson, who was tired and stoned from a full days activity but still turning my grunts and garbles into wonderful threads within his NET.

    I hope to place my three interview-type interactions with RAW, along with some historic and geographical tales into a new book! At least i hope my naive tone can be attributed to smoking Amsterdam Cup winning weed that evening in Bob’s hotel room, provided by Richard Metzger of disinfo – who paid us a fleeting visit. Any ideas on how to expand this into the tribal tales? Please forgive me for not sharing this interview earlier.

    I Can’t resist setting the scene a little here: Bob, sits on a small chair next to the bed smoking cigarettes frequently, the wise old Irish giant of counter-culture, right there in front of me! I as smoking like a chminey too, I was very high after smoking weed in a pipe with disinfolk.

    Bob was wearing a cream shirt, the one with the hyperbolic pattern running down the front in large coral cream puffs and ridges, and some comfy looking brown slippers. He drank water often, and spoke very slowly to me as I bombarded the poor old man with questions about whatever subjective delusions I might have been carrying around that evening. After all, I was only 24 years young, 5000 miles from home and had approx 40 American Dollars to my name, but I was living out some kind of impossible Dream of unimaginable proportion.

    I was sat on the floor of the small room about 4 feet from Bob, the mini-disc lay on the bed, in fact laying there for the duration of Richards visit but I paid the honour of not having it set to record for that fascinating conversation. I was as high as I had ever been before, higher, at the end of a 9 year day, a day on which I lost my job at the conference as Bob’s little helper, due to not getting him to the hall on time for his presentation due to hanging out with Paul Krassner and his wife over Manhattan’s and a crafty joint. I found it difficult to interupt them to hit the road to the show. I had a few notes scrawled in my notebook, sweaty palms and screwy vision, here’s what was said, with a few minor edits and additional hyperlinks.

    -Steve Fly
    10/01/10

    Interview with Robert Anton Wilson.
    PALM SPRINGS. 17/12/00. By Steven James Pratt (Fly Agaric 23).

    RAW: So your gonna do an interview now?

    Fly: Well, a few questions…. erm, UFO’s as fairies, and the UFO as a fairy tale?

    RAW: I think Jacques Vallee was the first to suggest that in Passport to Magolia, and a lot of interesting links between UFO encounters and traditional fairy lore, there are also links with appearances of the BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) and with the delusions of Dr. WilliamMinouse: one of the major researchers upon the Oxford English dictionary and he was confined to Broadmore Asylum for the mentally insane and he believed Irishmen were sneaking into his room and carrying him by Airplane to Cairo and forcing him to do unspeakable sex acts to Arab prostitutes; thats very similar to some of the UFO contact stories. The plane is sort of like a crude UFO, I am sure to the first people who saw it, it was a UFO to them. What the hell is that thing in the sky?

    Fly: What about the pancakes? when those UFO’s flew down and left some pancakes?

    RAW: Oh, the Simonton cakes, yeah, Joseph Simonton from Wisconsin, i forget the name of the city, well S claimed that a UFO landed in his back yard and they asked him for some water which he gave them and they thanked him and gave him a plate full of pancakes, and he had the pancakes, so the only hallucinatory explanation is that he went into a trance, made the pancakes, forgot that he did it, hallucinated the UFO’s and had a explanation for the pancakes. I find that a bit strange, but i find it even more strange that people would come across God knows how many light years of space to give pancakes to a guy in Wisconsin, it doesn’t make sense no matter which way you look at it, and Allen Hynek was on the Airforce investigation team with Jacques Vallee and they both came to the conclusion that Simonton thought he was telling the truth, he had all the earmarks of sincerity, he was confused like anybody else, all you can say is thats what i think, thats what happened thats what i saw.

    Fly: Were they edible?

    Raw: Oh yeah, well, they took them back to Wright Paterson Airforce Base and analyzed them there and said they were created by somebody who was very health conscious, they contain wheat germ. (laughs)

    Fly: If there was a Mushroom contained within the Fairy Tale, like recent query into Irish Soma by Hakim Bey, how would you see that archetype in other mysteries?

    RAW: Well, the fairies are frequently seen on the mushrooms in traditional art and the mushroom they are most frequently seen under is the Psilocybin mushroom, and the word for psilocybin in Gaelic is Pookeen‘, which means little Fairy, little Elf or vegetation spirit; something like that, so there was definitely a link back in ancient times between the psilocybin mushroom and the experiences of fairy people or the gentry as the Irish call them – and of course Terence Mckenna and Gordon Wasson , John Allegro and several others have found evidence of a magic mushroom cult over most of Europe and even up into Russia and Siberia I believe, yeah, the siberians are into Amanita Muscaria.

    Fly: Yeah, I read some Puharich stuff recently.

    RAW: Yeah, he was one of the first to write about the importance of Amanita in religious history.

    Fly: It seemed like a strange filter that came through, as you said about Uri’s book earlier, it’s like a crazy fairground ride.

    RAW: Which one, the book by Puharich or the one by Uri? I read the one by Puharich and i have not got around to reading the one by Uri. Yeah, Puharich’s book is harder to believe than just about anything i have ever read on that subject, and though Puharich himself is a competent scientist and has patents on several inventions, but then again William Minor who i mentioned earlier who thought the Irish were forcing him to commit unspeakable sex acts; whatever that meant to the Victorians. He was a leading scholar of his time (RAW Laughs) I don’t know, i don’t mean to imply that Puharich is crazy, i just mean to imply that the human brain cant understand itself. The brain has so many potentials, i mean, is it genetics that gave Beethoven that magnificent musical talent or was it conditioning because his father was a music teacher? he hated his father who was a very brutal father you know, where did Orson Welles get that voice? weather you think that Orson Welles was the greatest actor of the 20th century or the greatest ham, weather you like it or don’t like his style of acting, everybody has to admit he has the most musical voice within acting and can do remarkable things with it, is that work and work and training and training or did he just genetically inherit a voice like that. I don’t know.

    Fly: Today is Beethoven’s Birthday.

    RAW: Yeah, i lost track of that on my travels. On my email i usually put down who’s birthday it is if i happen to know, but I’m not near my computer at present, thank God! (Raw Chuckles) the only thing that gets me away from the computer is hunger or the growing sense I’m about to get eye strain if i don’t quit for a while.

    Fly: Yeah, I am interested in Bates work that Aldous Huxley picked up on and wrote about in “The Art of seeing” the idea that glasses don’t really heal seeing, for your eyes to get better, you have to take off your glasses and exorcise your eyes.

    RAW: I’ve heard of Bates but i’ve never tried his system. My wife tried it and it seemed to keep her from wearing glasses for quite a long time but eventually she did need glasses, in her 50’s. But she was first told she needed glasses in her 20’s and she started doing the Bates exercises and she never bumped into anything and she drove a car well, and she read all the time, i don’t know why i haven’t gotten around to them? Oh, i know why because there’s so many fucking things I am interested in i can’t get into all of them so i have to put some on the back burner till i get the time. The trouble with been a generalist is that your always 5 to 20 years behind any subject you ever wrote a book about. Somebody asked me to write a paper on Bell’s theorem, i went searching on the WEB to make sure there was nothing new on Bell’s theorem that refuted everything i had written about it before and all i found is there’s a new group of antiBell people who are still claiming there are defects in the experiments even though the experiments have got increasingly complex and subtle and so on. I think there’s been six confirmations of Bell’s theorem but they’re still arguing, seems they just can’t believe it.

    Fly: Saul Paul talks about the ADE Graphs, the seven times seven group and the work of Eddington studied in the 1970’s, like some emerging shape, and he uses the metaphor of the Kublai Khan story about an unbuilt pyramid, recalled by Cooleridge, and, it was like a dream that only came – half – to him, he was awoke up from his dream about something being built in the desert, he parables this half remembered dream to the emerging shapes of ADE groups that are coming through. Its nice to see colors and patterns emerging from science, spirals…

    RAW: Yeah.

    Fly: I’ve experienced something i call Coltrane Coincidence Control Conspiracy. Coltrane was kinda’ opening portals to other worlds with his horn, described later tracks titles. I think he really did open channels and doors up at that time. There was a big surge from 1965 and his last 2 years on earth. Its interesting to me how you find music like this and then loose weeks and months, listening and getting mixed up in it.

    RAW: Somebody said that “when the music changes the walls of the city shake”. Every major change in music has paralleled cultural change.

    Are you sure you turned down the thermostat, you didn’t turn it up?

    Fly: I think i put it on low, i’ll check again.

    Fly: In your book Cosmic Trigger, you wrote about possible drugs that were going to emerge in the year 2000. At least half of these things have come true, like Viagra for example…?

    RAW: I don’t know how many of them have become true, but a few of them have, and others look much more plausible now than they did when i wrote that, research is moving along all those lines, there’s a lot of drugs around that supposed to increase intelligence but i haven’t seen any serious scientific tests on them, but a lot of people are interested in that, if we don’t have them already, we’ll have them soon and i forget what else i predicted but well there are two corporations that are building Hotels in space, one in Japan and one in England, and by and large i think i was off by a few years, but i did spot the on coming trends.

    Fly: Genesis P. Orridge and his works are something i have not had much contact with, but it seems to have a relation to a kind of TV consciousness, maybe one of the first folks making TV out to be a mega strong force, and should be kind of, avoided, you know, then if you find a tree then sit under that.

    RAW: I don’t avoid any new art form no matter how crude it looks originally its worth studying to find out, Im very much a TV fan, especially since the invention of the VCR, i can look at any movie i want just about, without any commercial interruptions. What a marvelous idea.

    Fly: Yeah, Graffiti art, there’s a movement in England called the Iconoclast Panzerism, started maybe around 1984, graffiti writers painting with letters and shapes and they started this movement and its now diversified into music too, like the Hip Hop label Big Dada records.

    RAW: Yeah, DADA is making a come back in all sorts of forms, there were times i thought the latest American election must have been a DADA plot.

    Fly: Have you favorite food that you enjoy? or that you like to cook.

    RAW: If i had to pick one it would be Lobster. With shrimp and Crab tied in second place, Oysters in third. I seem to have a thing about shell fish, i don’t know why.

    Fly: Yeah, Terence put forward some ideas about the Octopus, it can communicate through changing its texture and its color, which might be another kind of evolutionary move?

    RAW: Octopi are one of the many subjects i don’t know much about.

    Fly: Do you mind if i smoke a cigarette?

    RAW: No, as a matter of fact i think I’ll do the same.

    FLY: I visited San Francisco for 2 months. And i was thinking generally about how India and Asia and Africa seem to meet there through internet.

    RAW: Oh, yeah, i subscribe to a list serve called mobilize globally which keeps you informed about every-kind of protest going on allover the world. I think thats the best thing i found on internet so far. Its nice to know your not alone. (Laughs….) That why i was so happy that nobody got 52% of the vote, gee, i’m part of the majority for the first time in my life.

    FLY: Yeah imagine, i was in Palm Springs for one day, i put the Television on, and it was the night that they made the election news broadcast, i sat there, my first day in America, watching the Ivory Tower. (Raw laughs) That was one of the images that i remember.

    RAW: Yeah after the first half hour they were so confused that i got the impression that there was a possibility that they allowed the Florida supreme court to set up another count but it turns out the conditions under which they set it up, the Florida supreme court couldn’t do it. Bwoy, what a bunch of sneaky bastards. (Laughs)

    The funny thing is, there was a time when the supreme court was my favorite branch of the Government, thats when they still had Justice Black and Justice Brenan, and Justice Douglas and a few others like that.

    Fly: Yeah, i think recently, Blueprints have recently been released for building Tesla’s Earthquake machine, in paperback.

    RAW: How big an earthquake does it make?

    Fly: I dunno, i dunno if it works (RAW Laughs)

    RAW: I am wondering how big the anti Inuguration protest is going to be in Washington, and with an Earthquake machine i thought gee, if they get their hands on that! (RAW LAUGHS)

    Fly: I read “Prodigal Genius” and it interested me that the moment he first saw the machines in his Mind, he was reading Goethe, i think he was in some square?

    RAW: Yeah, an unusual brain, he could not only see a machine before it was built but he could know the exact dimensions it had to be. The only thing comparable to that is those Chess masters who play 40 games blindfolded and win 43 of them. (Laughs)

    Fly: I see a link between the 11th of the Sephiroth from the tree of life and the 11 dimensions of Super String theory, um, maybe thats a new model for vibrational information?

    RAW: But there are 10 sephiroth. Oh, your including Da’at, and that’s not a real sephiroth, that’s a false sephiroth.

    Fly: is that like the Pookah?

    Raw: Yeah, i guess so yeah, but stay away from that one. (huh em)

    Fly: My best expression for this is through playing drums and music. i recently did a recording project called “Super-string theory”, and we hope to use the strings of the violins and the other instruments with to try and teach the idea of science through music. A direct link…

    RAW: I am tired, yeah, I’m tired.

    RECORDING TERMINATED.

    –Steven James Pratt (fly agaric 23)

    Recorded on SONY mini-disc. approx 8-10.00 P.M. 17th December 2000. Palm Springs. Prophets Conference