« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »
July 11, 2006
Synchronous plant medicine
After seeing Pendell, woke up to find the following link to an article on a scientific study of psilocybin, both from a friend and through a listserv.
"A universal mystical experience with life-changing effects can be produced by the hallucinogen contained in magic mushrooms, scientists claim today."
You think? Well, this is one of the functions of the scientific method, right? "Proving" what we already know.
Friend also included a link to a second article, which is sufficiently different to be worth reading as well.
Also found more Pendell info on Erowid.
Posted by Josh A. at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)
Plant medicine
So Barry and I saw Dale Pendell, the author of a trilogy called Pharmako, speak at Moe's Books in Berkeley tonight. He read from the third book, Pharmako/Gnosis, and answered a couple questions.
I had never heard of him before seeing info about one of his events on squidlist... I wasn't able to make it, or any of the others that were listed on the publisher's site at the time... so when this one came up and I could make it, I was determined to just out of sheer stubbornness.
So I bought the book. Pendell is a poet and writer, and the books came out of an idea he had in the 70s (while tripping) to write a book that was to be entitled something like "A Guide to Drugs for Poets". This isn't quite that... the subtitle is Plant Teachers and the Poison Path. It covers a lot of interesting plants, and he's tried to let the essence of each type of experience come through. In addition to being a poet, he's part botanist, anthropologist, and historian.
My first favorite quote from the book: "Hey, you! I've got the [talking] stick. Shut up."
Anyway, he did a good job, told funny and interesting stories, read his own work well, and didn't plummet to his death off the pedestal the guy who intro'd him put him on, comparing him to Paraclesus and Lao Tazu.
Most interesting question and answer: "I've heard Aldous Huxley was on acid as he died. Would you want to be under the influence at the time of your death, and if so, which substance?" to which Pendell responded, "No... I think there will be enough to deal with."
Posted by Josh A. at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2006
Peaches / Bauhaus / Nine Inch Nails
Roommate & his boyfriend and I just got back from seeing Peaches, Bauhaus, and Nine Inch Nails in concert at Shoreline.
I had a good time, even though the show was kind of a let down.
While I enjoy my copy of a Peaches album that Ari sent me, for its sexiness, its attitude, and its edge, I found none of those things in Peaches' live performance. She came off as a ridiculous, drunk anachronism (think 80s rocker). Steve suggested that had she been in a small, intimate venue filled with people who came specifically to see her, it might have worked.
And she didn't even show us her crotch. Ari promised me crotch. Perhaps the Manhattan shows were much better...
Also, the sound was dulled, not at all like the album. While I appreciate shows that give me something more than I can hear on my iPod, whatever was lost in this case would seem to be crucial. The album has a kind of grating, grabbing quality to it. I think this was Shoreline's fault, though, not hers... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
So Bauhaus was next... this was what Steve came to see. He didn't say anything negative about it, and I don't really know enough to say for sure, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed them at the Warfield.
Redeeming coolness: Peaches came on stage and sang with Bauhaus, and it was great... highly entertaining.
Then for Nine Inch Nails... Trent Reznor's looking a little buff lately. And much better, with short hair. I hated his long hair "Interview With the Artiste" phase.
Now normally NIN puts on a great show... and this had all the makings. Cool metal gratings that lowered from above, between us and the band, covered in LEDs... allowing for animations layed over the background behind them, provided by large screens and lights.
The only problem? Once again, the sound. It was completely disappointing... while Trent was clearly putting tons of energy into what he was doing, the music reached our ears lacking it. Where was the urgency, the drive? Not coming out of the speakers, in any case.
When I would rather hear Closer in my living room than in an amphitheater, you know you're doing it wrong.
Two of the first three songs were Terrible Lie and March of the Pigs... at first I thought he was getting all of the stuff we came to listen to out of the way so that he could force the new stuff on us the rest of the time. Then I thought maybe he was doing a chronological lead up to the new stuff. But that wasn't it either. I could figure no rhyme nor reason to the song order, not that there needs to be.
He didn't do Hand that Feeds until second to last. I thought that was the end, because that seemed appropriate... but then he ended with Head Like a Hole. Because, according to Steve, if he hadn't done Head Like a Hole, he would have been crucified by the masses. Just like, also according to Steve, Bauhaus can't do a concert without playing Bella Lugosi's Dead, or else the audience would rip all the musician's arms out of their sockets. His words, not mine.
There was one song I thought he did better live, and that was Hurt. What a "four" song (the 4 is enneagram's Tragic Artist). Experiencing the concert through the filter of what I've been learning about the enneagram was insightful... Reznor's oeuvre is filled with type 4 lyrics like, "I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real."
The interesting thing for me was hearing my favorite NIN song, Down In It, and realizing that I had obsessed over the song describing the key struggle of my type, type 7.
Anyway, more coolness: Peter Murphy (that's the lead singer of Bauhaus, for any of you who turned 18 sometime after the 80s and don't live with a weirdo like Steve) came on stage and sang Dead Souls while Trent played guitar, then the two of them sang something that I asked Steve about, after which I immediately forgot his answer. Some song that Peter Murphy covered on his solo project or something.
Despite the coolness of it, Murphy's no Trent in the voice department. Singing Bauhaus he's ok... but singing NIN, he should have at least tried to sound more like Trent.
Final coolness: no encore stupidity. The set had its own rhthym, that would slow down to something like Hurt or A Warm Place, and then kick back up again... when Murphy came on that felt like it could be the end too... and then it wasn't, and there was more... when the end finally came, we weren't surprised, but we didn't need them to leave the stage and come back either. Best ending of a concert I've ever seen.
Oh, one more thing... Shoreline's drink prices weren't outrageous, they were downright amazing to me. Maybe I'm out of the loop, but $8.25 for a beer, $7.75 for a shot of Cuervo, and $8 for a glass of cheap Napa wine blew me. Out of the water that is. I went with a mocha freeze... I'm used to paying $6 for some coffee and milk.
So that was that. Despite my extended critique, I'm thrilled and pleased to have gone. I certainly didn't think of a better way to spend my Saturday night. Thank you, Steve, for the ticket! :-)
Posted by Josh A. at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)
July 07, 2006
What's relationship about then?
"It's about giving and receiving love, celebrating life together, and serving the earth with your feet on the ground."
Found the quote at http://www.innerwings.net/Relationshipinfo.html
They're speaking in the context of romantic relationships, but the story is bigger than that. This is what all relationship can be about.
Unless we want to get really metaphysical and talk about what relationship is "really" for: creating existence (relativity) as we know it. But that's not so useful for loving each other and saving the world now is it :-)
What if what you were up to, just a little bit more today than yesterday, with your friends, store clerks, co-workers, bitchy landlord, panhandlers, neighbors... was "giving and receiving love, celebrating life together, and serving the earth with your feet on the ground"?
Posted by Josh A. at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)