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July 31, 2005
Abducted by the King of Pop?
The abuse claims of Michael Jackson's latest accuser, Thomas Bartucci Jr, bear striking resemblance to those maid by alleged victims of alien abduction, government mind control and Satanic Ritual Abuse. Familair tropes include the loss of volition, the immplant, the mysterious black limo and the Warning.
..........from The Independent on Sunday................
Sex, drugs and abduction by limo - the claims against Jacko that even his enemies won't buy
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 31 July 2005
When Karl Marx wrote that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce, he wasn't, of course, thinking of Michael Jackson. But he might as well have been.
Six weeks after the end of the child molestation trial in which the erstwhile King of Pop went through a public wringer before being acquitted on all counts, he is back in the legal crosshairs all over again for his behaviour around tender-aged boys. This time, however, not even his worst enemy is likely to believe the allegations against him.
A Louisiana man called Joseph Thomas Bartucci Jr claims that, in 1984, he was lured into a limousine at the World's Fair in New Orleans and taken on a nine-day ride to California in which the world's most famous pop star supposedly performed oral sex against his will, tried unsuccessfully to get him to return the favour, forced him to consume mood-altering drugs, threatened him, cut him with a razor blade and plunged a steel wire into his chest.
Read the rest over at The Independnet
Posted by Mark at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2005
Raagnagrok on air!
Monday 1 August, 8.30-10pm
Let the living spirit of Raagnagrok re-fragrance your soul as they play a live session on Jim Backhaus and Magz Hall's You are Hear, on Resonance Radio.
Tune in on 104.4fm or via aetherstream. Also that night, Rat Scabies talks about his quest for The Holy Grail.
And the following Monday, August 8th: The Man From Uranus live in session.
Posted by Mark at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
Malawi Flying Saucer Crash!
Of nude wizards and flying saucers...
From National Malawi
Police rescue man after `plane' crash
by Joseph-Claude Simwaka, 29 July 2005 - 06:19:03
A Machinga man should count himself lucky to survive what should have been a fatal `air crash' in Kachere township after his flying saucer developed what he called a technical fault on his debut test flight from neighbouring Mozambique to his home early Thursday morning.
The man, who identified himself as Justin Mussa, from Mbere Village, TA Kawinga in Machinga, owes his life to police officers from Limbe Police Station, who rushed to the `accident scene' after local community police reported the bizarre accident, which attracted hordes of people who turned violent when they discovered that the man was, in fact, a wizard.
Police had to shoot in the air to scare away the angry mob who started pelting the self-acclaimed pilot of the magic plane — a woven flat winnowing basket (lichero) — which crash-landed on the roof-top
of Grace Imani's house in the populous township, about two-and-a-half kilometres from Limbe on the Zomba road.
Imani said she suspected the man was a wizard because of late she had been experiencing a lot of trying times.
Her husband is critically ill at Thondwe in Zomba and she said Allah had answered her prayers by showing her "the people behind her husband's illness". She denied assertions that her house was
protected by juju.
Mussa was quickly evacuated and driven away to safety at the police station, where he later confessed he crash-landed at Kachere because his "computers went dead" as he was over-flying a house which
was "magically protected".
Mussa, who was dressed only in his underwear when the accident happened, said he had gone to Chamba Village in neighbouring Mozambique to collect his `aircraft' which he had purchased at K450
from a longtime friend of his, whose name he gave as Umali. The friend once lived in Machinga as refugee during the Mozambican civil war which spanned 15 years from 1975.
Mussa, who was later given a pair of trousers by police to hide his nakedness, looked calm and composed as he narrated his ordeal. He said he decided to try juju to gain wealth after trying in vain for years to make ends meet through vegetable growing.
Married with four children, all girls, the `novice pilot' said he cycled to Mozambique where Umali invited him to go and collect his `plane' and test fly it home and back.
"I left my bicycle and clothes at Umali's house and hope to go back to collect them if given a chance," he said.
Asked if he intended to fly back to Mozambique, Mussa said that would be a nonstarter since the `aeroplane' was now rendered useless since "the computers (zithumwa or small pillows) that propel it were snatched away from him by an unknown man" as police whisked him away from the crash site.
Limbe Police spokesperson Chifundo Kansunje said Mussa has no case to answer unless the owner of the house he landed on launched an official complaint.
"If the house owner complains, maybe we can press a charge of criminal trespass on him, otherwise witchcraft is not recognised as an offence in our statutes," Kansunje said.
Mussa said he felt remorseful that he had been involved in voodoo and vowed never to practise witchcraft any more.
"I am ashamed of myself and I know I have brought shame to my family,but I can assure you I will never ever do it again," he said.
Posted by Mark at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
The mysterious end of Yuri Gagarin
How did Yuri die? The mysterious death of a space-age hero
The first man in space gave his name to countless Russian streets and schools. But his death in 1968 fuelled just as many conspiracy theories - and now a new petition demands that the case be reopened.
Good conspiracy-laden history over at The Independent.
Posted by Mark at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
Microsoft at Area 51?
According to the The Register, Microsoft's online mapping site Virtual Earth blanks out the not-so-secret airbase Area 51. An attempt to view it with Google Maps, however, produces this crystal clear image.
Does Microsoft know something that we shouldn't? I always wondered who built those flying saucer flight simulators they're supposed to have there.
Tellingly, MS also blanks out arch-rivals Apple's HQ from their map of Cupertino, CA.
Posted by Mark at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2005
Counter Productions on SAJ2
A great write up of SAJ2 in the August 2005 Counter Productions catalogue:
"The essential publication of the year. A very substantial second issue of this superior, intelligent and effortlessly cool serial. It includes articles by Mike Jay (psychedelic temples in Peru), Jason Louv (shamanism in Nepal), John Rowe (Temple Mount), Tim Chapman (The Halifax Slasher), Gary Lachman (The Golem) plus Doug Skinner on Boris Vian, Steve Moore on the I Ching and more than a dozen others. Abounds with esoteric learning, buzzes with enthused writing, and gives off the whiff of lived experience, aspiration rooted in deep curiosity, revealed in off-the-wall research, and informed by a profound sense of wonder.
Expertly edited, it is popularist in a broad sense, but pretty much avoids the well-worn, cliched, straining after mere effect, SA also eschews the prevalent kneejerk resort to clapped-out conspiracy theory as well as late po-mo brutalism. In short a welcome breath of fresh air, independent, timeless and altogether splendid. With Artwork by Doug Harvey and Alison Gill, this volume is, like the first, very beautifully designed and meticulously produced."
Get your catalogue from Counter Productions, PO BOX 556, London SE5 ORL or cproductions@britishlibrary.net
Posted by Mark at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
Behold: Raagnagrok!
[click for larger image]
Raagnagrok is Otto Amon and Solomon Kirchner.
Raagnagrok is MicroKorg synth vs electric sitar.
Raagnagok is the sound of the Kali Yuga.
An exotic soundtrack to your own personal apocalypse.
Download our new 22 minute EP, a live jam recorded 7 July 2005.
Posted by Mark at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2005
PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED
Strange Attractor Journal's Alison Hutchinson and Mark Pilkington will have a stall at:
PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED: ONE-DAY SELF-PUBLISHING FAIR
SUNDAY 31 JULY 2005, 2-7pm
The Crypt, St James Church Clerkenwell, Clerkenwell Close, London EC1R 0EA
The second Publish and be Damned one-day self-publishing fair will take place on Sunday 31 July 2005 at The Crypt, St James Church Clerkenwell, from 2-7pm.
Publish and Be Damned profiles individual and experimental approaches to making and distributing the work of artists, writers and musicians outside of the commercial mainstream, encompassing DIY fanzines, magazines, critical journals, glossy periodicals, video compendiums and independent record labels. The fair offers the opportunity to discover a wide variety of publications and to meet their editors.
PARTICIPANTS
åbäke (London), Arty (London), Audio Theory (London), Bourbonesa (Brighton), Centrefold (London), Pablo Bronstein (London), BUTT (Amsterdam), Butter (Vienna), Context (Norwich), Control (London), Dark Star (London), DOT DOT DOT (Amsterdam), Fantastic Male (Amsterdam), Fucking Good Art (Rotterdam), Babak Ghazi (London), The Gun (Edinburgh), Guest Room (London), Hardcore is More Than Music (London), Hard Mag (Plymouth), Hate Magazine (London), Emma Hedditch (London), IDEA (London), Inventory (London), Junior Aspirin (London), Leisure Centre (Winchester), The Masterpiece (London), Not Yet (London), Pablo Internacional Magazine (London/Mexico City), Pacemaker (Paris), Mark Pawson (London), The Pen (Manchester), Pin Up (London), Harry Pye (London), Re Magazine (Amsterdam), Paula Rousch (MSDM, London), Radical Vans and Carriages (Glasgow), The Scorpion (Edinburgh), Sexy Machinary (London), Shit TV (London), Sick Happy Idle (London), Slim Volume (London), Josh Smith (New York), Snazz (London), Starship (Berlin), Stellar (Manchester), Strange Attractor (London), Sundries (London), Tangent (London), Taytopographies (Edinburgh), Tollcross (Edinburgh), Typocat Press (London), The Vacuum (Belfast), unsolicited (Manchester), Donald Urquhart (London), Vargas Organisation (London), Vomit in the Mainstream (London), WeAreTheArtists (Zurich), White Collar (London)
Entrance to the fair is free. For further information please see www.publishandbedamned.org, or contact Emily Pethick (emily@epethick.com/07779 016 459), Kit Hammonds (kit.hammonds@virgin.net), or Sarah McCrory (sarahcmccrory@yahoo.co.uk/07930 399 203).
The Publish and be Damned self-publishing archive is continuing to tour to LOT, Bristol, August 2005, and Display, Prague, September 2005.
The Publish and be Damned Self-Publishing Fair is supported by Arts Council England, The Elephant Trust, The Mondriaan Foundation, Pro Helvetia and the Institute Français.
Posted by Mark at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2005
Monday: End of an era
Via Transform Drug Policy Foundation
Drug Charity condemns law change giving fresh magic mushrooms the same legal status as heroin and cocaine.
On July 18th fresh magic mushrooms will move from being completely legal to possess, sell and consume, to being a Class A drug with in the same legal classification as heroin and cocaine. This means that possessing magic mushrooms will be punishable with up to 7 years in prison, and supplying them punishable with an unlimited fine and up to life in prison. The change follows the rushed enactment of the Drugs Bill in the ‘wash up’ week before the General Election. The Mushroom Clause in the Bill, Clause 21, comes into force at 00.00 AM on the morning of Monday 18th.
Transform spokesperson Steve Rolles said:
“This is an ill thought out piece of drug war legislation tacked onto the end of the Drugs Bill at the last minute. It seems to be the result of Government embarrassment at the emergence of mushroom shops, particularly in areas such as Camden. There has been no meaningful consultation on this move which is not supported by any of the leading drug organisations. It is clearly an attempt to appear ‘tough on drugs’ rather than being the result of rational evidence based thinking.
“The outcomes of this change will be all bad. A criminal market will be created where none currently exists. Profits will move from legitimate traders and the inland revenue to illegal dealers and organised crime networks. Thousands of otherwise law abiding citizens, mostly young people, will now face imprisonment for their choice of recreation.
“Many young people who used mushrooms as an alternative to more toxic, risky and illegal recreational drugs such as ecstasy, will now face increased harm. The use of more dangerous - but still legal - drugs such as fly-agaric mushrooms, peyote cactus and salvia divinorum is also likely to increase. The Government has not even tried to argue that fresh magic mushrooms are particularly dangerous. The Government’s own ‘Talk to Frank’ website says they are ‘not addictive in any way’ and that the biggest danger is accidentally picking the wrong mushrooms, which might be poisonous . It seems particularly bizarre in this context that they are being made a class A drug, putting them on a par with the conspicuously more dangerous heroin and crack.
“The Government has only said that mushrooms present a risk to people with heart disease or mental health problems, something that is evidently true for any active drug, and surely not a reason for blanket criminalisation of the vast majority of users who don’t come within these categories.
“the Government were legitimately concerned about unlicensed mushroom vendors but should have set up a simple licensing system to regulate the market, putting in place appropriate controls on vendors, age of purchase, advertising, information on packaging, and so on. Instead they have gone for the default position of harsh prohibition, effectively handing control to criminals.
“The recently leaked drug report by Tony Blair’s own Strategy Unit has shown very clearly how prohibition cannot prevent the supply of drugs into the UK, and only succeeds in creating crime. Yet the Government apparently remains addicted to drug war rhetoric, the mushroom legislation being just the most recent example of the harm this addiction can cause.
Posted by Mark at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2005
Destiny Manifest
A new exhibition by Catharyne Ward and Eric Wright
Destiny Manifest is a body of work inspired by a 7500 mile journey that traced the wagon roads of pioneer America. This journey was precipitated by a long-standing interest in the tragic Donner Party story. With over 3000 photos and 6 hours of film, we traced the trail from North Platte, Nebraska across Wyoming, Utah, The Great Salt Desert, then over Nevada, finally exploring the California and Oregon destinations of the hopeful emigrants.
Along the way we visited the landmarks that guided the 19th century travellers such as: The Platte River, Chimney Rock, Independence Rock, Signature Cliff, Pilots Peak, Skull Valley and Donner Lake. We stood in wagon ruts carved through the rock of the trail as we tried to imagine the unimaginable journey into an unknown vastness. What we discovered was a historical parable of the legacy of American expansionist ideals expressed as the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. This parable being that of the unfortunate Donner Party and how they faced the ultimate consequences of their drive westward to claim the riches of the new world. The words of John O’Sullivan, who coined the phrase Manifest Destiny in 1839 show their truth daily on the pages of any current newspaper.
".... and that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative development of self government entrusted to us. It is a right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth."
The first phase of Destiny Manifest is a pair of films featuring hundreds of photos taken on the journey by Cathy Ward, recitation of historical text and text written by Ward. This phase premiered at P.S.1/MoMA, New York in October 2004 and is currently touring the UK. Phase Two is a full-scale solo exhibition opening 10 July 2005 at Cafe Gallery Projects, Southwark Park, London and is currently in production. For directions, opening times and information on events surrounding this exhibition please contact Gallery by the Lake, Cafe Gallery Projects.
Mark Pilkington has written a piece of ext for the exhibition here
More info here
Posted by Mark at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)
Trinity
‘TRINITY’
"la Jornada del Muerto"
An exhibition by Walter Cotten and Michael Sanders.
At The Horse Hospital : Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1HX
The Atomic Age dawned at 5:29:45am on July 16, 1945, at Trinity Site in New Mexico, U.S.A. The first atomic explosion came less than 50 years after the discovery of radioactivity in 1896 and brought many threads of physics, technology and politics to a dramatic culmination. This exhibition, 'Trinity: la Jornada del Muerto', by nuclear experimental artists Michael Sanders and Walter Cotten, marks the 60th anniversary of the world’s first nuclear test and explores the legacy of the atomic age.
Exhibition runs: 14th – 30th July, Mon-Sat, 12 – 6pm
Private view: Wednesday 13th July, 7.30pm onwards
Special film screenings the weekend of the Trinity anniversary, beginning the 16th July
Posted by Mark at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2005
Greenpeace: Mr & Mrs Smith
Via Dave Walsh
Nice viral ad from Greenpeace. Requires Quicktime.
Posted by Mark at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2005
Android Dick
An android-portrait of Philip K Dick
In an unparalleled technical collaboration, a team of artists, writers, engineers, literary scholars, and freethinkers are creating a lifelike, android portrait of one of America's well-known science-fiction writers Philip K Dick. The robot will be featured at WIRED magazine's NextFest, June 25-27, 2005.
The late Philip K. Dick created the fiction behind Blade Runner, Minority Report and Total Recall. In addition, Dick wrote A Scanner Darkly, which will come out as a major feature film this fall. Hanson Robotics Inc (HRI), the FedEx Institute of Technology's Institute for Intelligent Systems (IIS) and the Automation and Robotics Research Institute (ARRI) at UTA are working with Paul Williams, a close friend and former literary executor of Dick, to create a robotic portrait that will be a powerful memorial to the author.
Full report at Hanson Robotics
Posted by Mark at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)