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Diane di Prima, Recollections of My Life As a Woman: The New York Years
Loba
Stockhausen's "Helikopter String Quartet"
Von Dutch
The poem/play "Poetry Killer" by Edgar Gibson Oliver is published in the Huncke-Times.
more on Herbert from the american museum of beat art.
Open air pontoon (or party) boats have been a recurrent theme for me. I have early recollections of homemade welded steel/painted silver jobs with oil barrel pontoons docked in grapevine lake and lake dallas. A while back (pre-net)the Popular Mechanics Magazine reasearch department rewarded me with (for a small fee) a xerox of a set of plans published in a 1950's issue. I'll post them asap. This project followed on the heals of my trampoline piece.
The Tom Thumb
Easy to assemble
-in progress-
The Grimoire
of exalted deeds (pronounced grim-war).
"A Death Metal magazine for assholes... written by assholes"
Latest Marianne Nowottny Sighting :
"Congratulations to Marianne and Donna (is God) as "Shell is Swell" charts on the Village Voice 2000 Pazz & Jop poll! They tie at No.780 (that's one vote from one judge) ....with Santana and a gazillion other bands!!?"
A message from Courtney........
Dear Fellow Recording Artists,
I'm writing to ask you to join the chorus of recording artists who want us
all to get a fair deal from the record companies. R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks,
U2, Alanis Morrissette, Bush, Prince and Q-Tip have called me with their
support and we need your participation as well.
There are 3 basic facts to all recording artists should know:
1. No one has ever represented the rights and interests of recording artists
AS A GROUP in negotiations with record companies
2. Recording artists don't have access to quality health care and pension
plans like the ones made available to actors and athletes through their
unions.
3. Recording artists are paid royalties that represent a tiny fraction of the
money their work earns.
As I was working with my manager and my new attorneys on my lawsuit with the
Universal Music Group, we realized that the most unfair clauses in my
contract applied to ALL recording artists. Most importantly, no one was
representing artists in an attempt to change the system.
Recording artists need to form a new organization that will represent their
interests in Washington and negotiate fair contract terms with record
companies.
Here's what you should know:
THERE IS NO ONE WHO REPRESENTS RECORDING ARTISTS
Recording artists don't have a single union that looks out for their
interests.
AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) has a contract
with major labels for vocalists and the AFM (American Federation of
Musicians) has a contract for non-singing musicians and session players.
If you're in a band, your singer is represented by a different union (AFTRA)
than the rest of your group (who are represented by the AFM).
AFTRA negotiates contracts for TV and Radio performers. They don't pay very
much attention to the recording business; it's not their priority.
The AFM acts like band members are sidemen and session players because that's
mostly who the union represents.
Record companies like this system because neither union represents all art
ists. AFTRA and AFM only negotiate session fees and other minor issues for
the singers or the "sidemen."
Who looks after our interests in Washington? Until very recently, Congress
believed that the RIAA spoke for recording artists.
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is a trade group that is
paid for by record companies to represent their interests. The Napster
hearings last summer and a few other issues have let Washington know that NO
ONE speaks for recording artists right now. We have their attention and must
act quickly to make sure artists have a voice.
RECORDING ARTISTS DON'T HAVE A SAFTEY NET
Compare yourself to actors and baseball players. Like the music business, the
film and the sports industries generate billions of dollars in income each
year, but those industries offer far better benefits to the men and women who
create their wealth.
The Screen Actors Guild offers a fantastic health care plan to its members.
That health plan is paid for by the contracts that SAG has negotiated with
film studios.
The baseball player's union has negotiated a pension plan that ensures that
NO major league player ever finds himself without an income.
Why shouldn't recording artists get the same benefits?
RECORDING ARTISTS DON'T GET PAID
Record companies have a 5% success rate. That means that 5% of all records
released by major labels go gold or platinum. How do record companies get
away with a 95% failure rate that would be totally unacceptable in any other
business?
Record companies keep almost all the profits.
Recording artists get paid a tiny fraction of the money earned by their
music. That allows record executives to be incredibly sloppy in running their
companies and still create enormous amounts for cash for the corporations
that own them.
The royalty rates granted in every recording contract are very low to start
with and then companies charge back every conceivable cost to an artist's
royalty account. Artists pay for recording costs, video production costs,
tour support, radio promotion, sales and marketing costs, packaging costs and
any other cost the record company can subtract from their royalties.
Record companies also reduce royalties by "forgetting" to report sales
figure, miscalculating royalties and by preventing artists from auditing
record company books.
Recording contracts are unfair and a single artist negotiating an individual
deal doesn't have the leverage to change the system. Artists will finally get
paid what they deserve when they band together and force the recording
industry to negotiate with them AS A GROUP.
Thousands of successful artists who sold hundreds of millions of records and
generated billions of dollars in profits for record companies find themselves
broke and forgotten by the industry they made wealthy.
Here a just a few examples of what we're talking about:
Multiplatinum artists like TLC ("Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg," "Waterfalls" and "No
Scrubs") and Toni Braxton ("Unbreak My Heart" and "Breathe Again") have been
forced to declare bankruptcy because their recording contracts didn't pay
them enough to survive.
Corrupt recording agreements forced the heirs of Jimi Hendrix ("Purple Haze,"
"All Along the Watchtower" and "Stone Free") to work menial jobs while his
catalogue generated millions of dollars each year for Universal Music.
Florence Ballard from the Supremes ("Where Did Our Love Go," "Stop in the
Name of Love" and "You Keep Me Hangin' On" are just 3 of the 10 #1 hits she
sang on) was on welfare when she died.
Collective Soul earned almost no money from "Shine," one of the biggest
alternative rock hits of the 90s when Atlantic paid almost all of their
royalties to an outside production company.
Merle Haggard ("I Threw Away the Rose," "Sing Me Back Home" and "Today I
Started Loving You Again") enjoyed a string of 37 top-ten country singles
(including 23 #1 hits) in the 60s and 70s. Yet he never received a record
royalty check until last year when he released an album on the indie
punk-rock label Epitaph.
Think of it this way: recording artists are often the writers, directors and
producers of their own records. They write the songs, choose the producers
and engineers who record their music, hire and oversee the photographers and
designers who create their CD artwork and oversee all parts of video
production, from concept to director to final edit.
Record companies advance money for recording costs and provide limited
marketing services for the music that artists conceive and create. In
exchange, they keep almost all of the money and 100% of the copyrights.
Even the most successful recording artists in history (The Beatles, The
Eagles, Nirvana, Eminem) have been paid a fraction of the money they deserved
from sales of their records.
This is a very big and very important project and we're in the early days.
Here's what we're looking for:
1. Artists who are willing to speak to the media to publicly lend their
support to the idea that recording artists need an organization that
represents our interests in Washington and with the record companies. We also
would like you tell your managers and attorneys that you support this cause
and that you expect them, as your representatives and employees to do the
same.
2. Anyone who can tell us specific stories about how artists have been ripped
off by record companies like the ones I told above. We're going to have to
educate the public and the media and Congress and the only way we'll do that
is by giving them examples they can relate to.
NOW is the time for action.
Artists like Garbage and N*SYNC have joined me in questioning bad contracts
and have also gone to court to change the system.
Record companies have merged and re-merged to the point where they can no
longer relate to their artists.
Digital distribution will change the music industry forever; artists must
make sure they finally get their fair share of the money their music earns.
We need to come together quickly and present a united front to the industry.
Your managers and attorneys will probably tell you not to rock the boat and
not to risk your "relationship" with your record company by taking a stand.
Most attorneys and managers are conflicted. Almost all entertainment law
firms represent both artists and record companies. Lawyers can't take a stand
against record companies because that's where they get most of their
business.
Even the best managers often have business relationships with labels and
depend on record companies to refer new clients.
Think about Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam's stand against TicketMaster.
Everyone knew he was right and yet no other artist took a public stand
against a company that we all knew was hurting our business because our
managers and attorneys told us it would be a bad idea.
Attorneys and managers are your employees. Make sure they know how you feel
and that you want them to publicly support the idea that the terms of
recording contracts are unfair and cover too long a time period. You also
want them to support an organization that will negotiate health and pension
benefits for all recording artists.
Artists have all the power. They create the music that makes the money that
funds the business. No one has ever harnessed that power for artists'
collective good.
And remember something equally important: Actors had to fight to end the
studio system that forced actors to work for one employer and baseball
players had to strike to end the reserve clause that tied a player to one
team for his entire career.
Even though "experts" predicted economic disaster once actors and athletes
gained their freedom, both the film business and baseball have enjoyed their
greatest financial success once their talent was given its freedom.
Join us now in taking a public stand. Your name will help get the attention
that artist's rights deserve. If you're willing to speak to the media or
testify before Congress, you can help make our goals a reality.
Do it for yourself, for your children and do it for the artists who inspired
you to make music in the first place.
Email us : HERE
Give us your stories and your support. Tell us we can add your name to the
list of artists who support this organization. And let us know how to contact
you directly as we move forward on this project.
If you're interested in learning more about my case with Universal, visit my
manager's website: HERE
You can download a copy of our cross-complaint and press releases that
describe the issues we're taking to court.
Transparency Made Concrete - An Instant Guide to Transperency and the Avante-garde / Concrete Made Transparent - The Use of Concrete in Modern Times
X-ray architecture - An idea hatched in the research department of OMA promises to transform the nature of buildings. Inventor Bill Price conjures up the ultimate material: translucent concrete.
...both from this April's Metropolis.
Raging Slab has a new double album out called "The Dealer". They played SXSW last week and will be in NYC April 1 @ The Continental
Ok so now we know, don't steal other kids skateboards; or else. Up agianst the wall Shaggy mother fucker.Support student boycot : Music Banned in School ! (follow the rad threads......)
"Arquitectonica's design for Rockrose Development Corporation, developers of the 74-acre
site in Queens where Pepsi-Cola was bottled and canned until two years ago, is still in
development. But it's not too soon to comment on the promise of this project and the
obstacles faced by the architects in fulfilling it. The project, expected to cost $1 billion, will
occupy almost 22 acres in the northern area of Queens West. It will include seven apartment
towers, for a total of 3,000 new units. There will be 13.5 acres of parks, streets and other
public spaces.
Arquitectonica is sui generis. Bernardo Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Spear, the firm's
principles, were the first American architects of the baby-boom generation to start building on
a large scale.
The Spear House in Coral Gables, Fla., designed by them in collaboration with Rem
Koolhaas, was among the most photographed residential designs of the 1970's. Later,
Arquitectonica imprinted itself on the public imagination with the high-rises the firm designed
for Brickel Avenue in Miami.
As featured backdrops in the 1980's television series "Miami Vice," these towers helped
establish the new image of that city as an economic and cultural crossroads between Latin
America and the United States. And they defined the specialty for which Arquitectonica has
become known: a highly inventive, often colorful manipulation of the tall building type.
Arquitectonica is the Ricky Martin of contemporary architecture. While retaining Latin roots,
the firm has built widely around the world. Its cosmopolitan outlook suits Queens West.
There is nothing profound about this firm's work. On the other hand, there is none of the
spurious historical depth asserted by the retro buildings at Battery Park City and Riverside
South. This brings us to the obstacle Arquitectonica must reckon with in attempting
something fresh. Queens West, sponsored by a division of the Empire State Development
Corporation, is stuck with a Battery Park City-clone master plan and design guidelines.
For a site where views are paramount, the guidelines restrict the use of glass in favor of
masonry walls. Instead of encouraging new approaches to planning, the master plan
mandates neo-traditional towers on bases with uniform street lines. Can the bishop's-crook
lampposts, world's-fair benches, hexagonal pavers and other theme-park accessories be far
behind? Will we have Gene Kelly look-alike doormen dancing to "Singing in the Rain"?
Arquitectonica should be given the widest latitude in responding to the conditions of the site.
After all, the context here extends far beyond the neighboring low-rise brick buildings of
Long Island City. It also includes the midtown skyline, the river and its bridges, the airports
in Queens and, not least, the United Nations headquarters and all it symbolizes for the city
and the world beyond."
- Muschamp for NYT
I got the lot of 7 mixed race moonshiner photos for $63.00 bucks (less than $10.00 each). One guy ran it up to that from $19.99, but thats ok.
Latest Nowottny sighting :
Marianne Nowottny and State of the Union release
Marianne has contributed a selection to the Elliot Sharp project "State of
The Union 2.001." This 3CD set is finally out, released by the Electronic
Music Foundation, with a beautiful package designed by
Janene Higgins.
There will be a launch event on Monday, Mar. 5, from 7-10PM at Tonic, 107
Norfolk St, NYC with brief performances by
Eszter Balint , Jack Womack, and others, plus a live mix of the SOTU set
by DJ Nico Mazet.
State of the Union 2.001
This amazing 3-CD set of contemporary sound and text-based electric and
electronic music may be just what you need to live a full life. Composer /
performer Elliott Sharp has set aside his saxophone and put his guitar on
the shelf for just long enough to collect one-minute music and sound works
by 171 leading lights of the international avant-garde, both famous and
unknown, that represent a vast array of approaches, attitudes, aesthetics,
ethnicities, musical styles, and social persuasions. He describes the
collection as "concrete, abstract, enraged, objective, caustic, soulful,
sardonic, provocative -- all unfiltered, all clear." It's more than that.
It's totally enjoyable. Unmissable. A bandwagon you should get on without
missing a beat.
CD 1 includes:
Adriana Sa's 'About Sensorship', Alfred Harth's 'Yogurt Karaoque Park-1',
Alan Licht's 'Goon', Allen Kaatz's 'Dub Mix #2', Alma Carey-Zúñiga's 'With
Respect to Areo Pagitica', Alvin Curran's 'ERAT VERBUM John', Angela Babin
and Lori Bingel's 'Naked Dancing Everywhere', Annie Gosfield's 'Manual
Labour Pains', Atau Tanaka's 'mosurge', Becca Schack's 'The Spell', Ben
Boone and James Miley's 'Drunken Bastards #2', Benjamin Chadabe's
'Minutes...', Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen's 'Yahoo / Bounce', Black
Sifichi's 'State of Things' / 'Barbie and her Perilous Anatomy', Blaise
Siwula's 'One Message', Blake Hargreaves and Liam Thurston's 'Check the
checky-specs, rock the telebocket', Bob Holman's 'Shredded Peace', Bruce
Bennett's 'Speaking in Tongues', Carl Stone's 'V2', C.D.'s 'Adelante de su
Presencia', Charles K. Noyes' 'A Minute in the Life', Chop Shop's 'No
Title', Chris Haskett's 'ESL for Machines', Christian Marclay's 'Free Jazz
Shrunk', Chris Mann's 'Double Standard', Chris Rael's 'Shake off that
Coma', Chris Vine's 'State of the A-Bloc', Cook & Swenson's 'America
Inc.', Dael Orlandersmith's 'My Riff', D'Divaz's 'crne oci' ('dark eyes',
excerpt), Dafna Naphtali's '1 min Bounce', Daniel Matej's 'SHARP (on
B-A-C-H)', Dave Soldier and Richard Lair's 'Swing, Swing, Swing', David
First's 'Jingle', David Fulton's 'SOTU 2000', David Gans' 'Pat Bucancer',
David Greenberger's 'The Apes Lecture', David Taylor's 'Ode to Danny
Kaye', Deaf Mute's 'Lathe', Debra DeSalvo's 'Tompkins Square Park', Doug
Henderson's 'Zippo', Donald Knaack's 'Abracadabra', Don Ritter's 'Get',
Dorgon's '4MS', Duck Baker's 'Rag Me Don't Gag Me', Elio Martusciello's
'Zanara Tigre', Emily XYZ and Virgil Moorefield's 'Separation of Church
and State', Eric Mingus' 'Hold On', Eric Rosenzveig's 'A Cop For Every 183
Citizens (Year 2000 / New York City / Millenium Capitol Of The World)',
Eric Shanfield's 'Indivisible Cities', Eszter Balint's 'she's drowning',
Eyeball 9000's 'Song3.mp3', FemNoir's 'PhoneNoir', Figure's 'Americal',
and Foetus' 'Quality Control'.
CD 2 includes:
Frank Rothkamm's 'Sine 0 to 12', Fred Frith's 'Sunshine State', Freight
Elevator Quartet's 'Mediate', GenKen Montgomery's 'Lamination As A Virtual
Metaphor', Gert Jan Prins' 'ja', Hans Tammen's 'Three Channel Guitar',
Harriet Tubman's 'Blossoming', Harry Smith's 'State', Henry Kaiser's 'See
No Evil', i.d.'s '_?*+'{'L=', Ikue Mori's 'If...', Jack Womack's 'Nixon in
New Orleans', Jacob Burckhardt's 'Tomorrow', Jad Fair's 'Paper and Pen',
Jean Marc Montera's 'Ouverte au vent', Jeffrey Ford's 'The Invisible Man's
Time Machine', Jenn Reeves' 'The Money', Joel Chadabe's 'Minutes...', Joey
Baron's 'Holy Crow', John Duncan's 'Open...' and 'Open -- a gesture of
gratitude to the makers of censored sounds you haven't heard, images you
haven't seen, ideas you haven't heard or read... yet', John Hudak's
'Fireworks', Johnny Reinhard's 'On Ogur' (from 'Urartu'), Jonathan
Bepler's 'Small Harness', Jon Rose's 'USTrash2000', Jorge Mancini and
Andrea Fasani's 'Sample - SOTU 2000 / Come To The Origin II', Judy Nylon
and Brian Foster's 'L-I-A-R', Kasper Toeplitz's 'No Scale', Katie
O'Looney's 'Exploitration', Kato Hideki's 'No Tongue Blues', Kazuhisa
Uchihashi's 'Music For States of Union', Keisuke Oki's 'Tokyo Propaganda',
Koji Asano's 'A Cold Summer', Lauren Weinger's 'Place Study #9: Marquette
Grain Elevator', Leon Gruenbaum's 'Desperate Hearts: State of the Romantic
Union', Ligeti / Ritchford's 'Parker's Box', Lloop's 'Tenac', Lo
Galluccio's 'All the Pretty Horses / Let em think my wings iz broke',
Loren Mazzacane Connors' 'Annabel Lee', Love Todd's 'Dangerous', Lost
Satellites' 'Electric Effervescence', Luca Formentini's Vuoto', Luciano
Margorani's 'Vendetta!', Manu Sauvage's 'Speach to the Muted', Marc
Behrens' 'Real Player fucked my Netscape Settings', Marc C.'s 'The Orbit
Room', Marc Ribot's 'Space Walk', Marek Piacek's 'Rainy', Marianne
Nowottny's 'Corridors', Marie Goyette's 'Short-Cut: Borodin', Mark
Dagley's 'Chinch Bug Blues #2', Mark Howell and Tom Hamilton's 'Smudge on
the Radar Screen', Mark Trayle's 'goldT°.2°3', Martha Mooke's 'State of
the Underground', Matt Rogalsky's 'Koll Kash', Matthew Shipp's 'Notes Cry
Out', Merry Fortune w / FAT's 'Who is it that calls subtley perverse?',
Merzbow's 'Cannon Balls', Michael J. Schumacher's 'Sounds End', and Mike
Cooper and Max Nagl's 'The Singing Bridge in Rabat'.
CD 3 includes:
Misha Feigin and Steve Good's 'A Chinese Clicking Duck Music in 5 Parts',
Murat Nehmet-Nejat's 'A Screw into the Universe', Ned Rothenberg's 'High
Jump', Nicolas Collins' 'Puck', Nicolas Dias' 'e-soltitude', Nicolas
Mazet's 'Turbulence', Norman Yamada's 'Coin Toss', blaat's '22', Oblique's
'Double Tongued', Doug Theriault and David Chandler's 'y', Ori Kaplan and
Geoff Mann's 'Is Jerusalame?', PAK's 'One Minute Political Song', Particle
Data Group's 'Interdependence', Pete Missing's 'Digital Out', Phill
Niblock's 'Aomori Water', Phillip Johnston's Transparent Quartet's
'Ta-da', Piero Chianura's 'KHISS', Public Works' 'Hoping it's a dream',
QPE's 'in signed out', Queen Esther's 'Got To Get Back', Raging Peasants'
'Harry+Albert', ReproRappers' '199.9 Mhz' (G. Peccary version), Roberto
Zorzi's 'Stai Zitto!', Roger Kleier's 'Soft Money, Hard Time', Satoko
Fuji's 'Sigh', Saturnalia's 'Fre Actions', D.J. Spazecrafte One's '34th
Ave...' (Edit), Stefan Poetzsch's '4 Channels Viola', Stefano Bassanese's
'Il Flo Interdentale (The Dental Floss)', Stephen Pope's 'Four Magic
Sentences', Stephen Vitiello's 'Caught in the headlights of the Beverly
Hillbillies photo cell recording off of a flickering TV screen', Steve
Dalachinsky's 'Empire' and 'The Wind', Steve Goldberger's 'Le temps
ensuite', Steve Piccolo's 'The Expedition', Tape Beatles' 'Broken
Broadcast', Ted Reichman's 'Gaida Dilemma', Telectu's (Jorge Lima Barreto
and Vitor Rua) 'Duplicator', The Fitzbergs' 'Fishy Go Swim Swim', Thomas
Dimuzio's 'Turnkey', Tom Devaney's 'This Guy Walking In My Head', Tony
Daniel's 'Epitaph', Toni Dove's (with Paul Geluso) 'Attention', Tracie
Morris' 'Djele', Ut Gret's 'Crease the Sky', Viv Corringham and Gareth
Williams' 'Safety or Happiness', Vivian Sisters' 'Freckle People', Voice
Crack's 'shock_hack', Wanda Phipps' 'Desire', We's 'Gerbil Wheel', Wendy
Atlas Oxenhor's 'Loverman', White Out's 'buzz saw trapped in a perfumery
of shrugs', Zammuto's 'Circle of Fits', Zeena Parkins' 'J Cushions E',
Z'ev's 'You Never Know', Zbigniew Karkowski's 'amazonas', and Zoot Horn
Rollo's 'Solo Below'.
Play State of the Union 2.001 on Random Shuffle!
ARCHIGRAM Links from looksmart
"The movement came into being in late 1960, in the
Hampstead area of London as a self-generated forum for several young and recently graduated architects, the major
participants being Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, David Greene, Dennis Crompton and Mike (Spider) Webb.
The uniting theme of the group was their impatience and dissatisfaction with the limited horizons and stultifying practices
of contemporary modern architecture. Following the tradition of radical modernism enunciated by Nietzsche ("Whoever
wants to be creative . . . . must first . . . . annihilat[e] and destroy values"); and Henrik Ibsen ("The great task of our time
is to blow up all existing institutions - to destroy"), this formative group of young architects set out to dismantle the
apparatus of modern architecture through a series of consciousness-raising and confrontational manifestos."
DOCOMOMO
The term DOCOMOMO stands for Documentation and
Conservation of the Modern Movement.
Raze paradise put up a golf course ?
Fans of Modernism Criticize Cigna's Plan to Raze Offices
To the people with an eye on the bottom line, they are expensive
dinosaurs that should be bulldozed for a golf course. But to the
architects who gathered at a symposium in New Haven two weekends ago to
discuss corporate Modernism, two buildings on the Bloomfield, Conn.,
campus of Cigna Corporation are icons of the International style that
merit praise and preservation.
E-SKEPTIC MAGAZINE FOR FEBRUARY 14, 2001
Copyright 2001 Skeptic magazine, Skeptics Society, Michael Shermer
Permission to print or distribute without permission.
---------------------------------
In this issue of e-Skeptic:
PSYCHIC PARROT
RANDI IN NEW YORK TIMES
PRIORITIES FOR HEALTH
THE HEART AS A BRAIN
---------------------------------
PSYCHIC PARROT
I just filmed a short interview for Wednesday morning (February 15) on ABC's
Good Morning America on N'Kisi, the psychic parrot, a Congo African gray
parrot who Cambridge University biologist Rupert Sheldrake says is additional
evidence for his theory of morphic resonance, a sort of "force" that pervades
the cosmos and allows everything to "remember." N'Kisi's owner, Aimee Morgana
of Manhattan, read Sheldrake's latest book, "Dogs That Know When Their Owners
Are Coming Home and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals," and sent him videos
of her amazing Parrot. N'Kisi, she claims, has a vocabulary of 560 words,
which the parrot repeats with such frequency that occasionally the very
thoughts that Morgana has, by chance match the words being parroted by the
parrot. Of course, that's not how Morgana or Sheldrake see it, so they ran an
experiment in which N'Kisi got 32 correct hits out of 123 trials, which,
Sheldrake says, is a one in a billion probability of happening by chance;
ergo, the parrot is psychic.
I pointed out that N'Kisi missed 91 times, which doesn't sound all that
impressive to me, not to mention the protocol for determining what
constitutes a hit was rather fuzzy. For example, Morgana was looking at a
photograph of a couple embracing, and N'Kisi allegedly says "Can I give you a
hug?" THAT was counted as a hit. Of course, we are not told how often N'Kisi
blurts out that particular phrase, or other phrases for that matter, nor how
many different photos were used by which Sheldrake arrived at his billion to
one odds calculation. One reporter who visited N'Kisi had recently lost her
cat. When she met the parrot, it apparently blurted out "Remember the cat?"
Of course, we are not told what else the parrot said, or what else the
reporter was thinking that day.
In other words, the sum of the coincidences equals certainty. Plus, this all
sounds like a case of "remember the hits, forget the misses." In science we
have to consider the misses as well as the hits. As Frank Sulloways likes to
say, "anecdotes to not make a science."
Check it out Wednesday morning, February 15, on ABC's Good Morning America,
possibly the first hour they said.
--------------------------------------
RANDI IN NEW YORK TIMES ON SATURDAY
I gave a short interview today to the New York Times for a piece they are
doing on James Randi and the power of belief. I was unable to glean if it was
to be a light and positive piece, or whether they are going to be critical,
so check it out. The reporter said it would probably run on Saturday.
--------------------------------------
PRIORITIES FOR HEALTH
The theme of the current issue of Priorities for Health
http://acsh.org/publications/priorities/current.html is pseudoscience.
This double issue includes articles on hair analysis, "junk nursing
science," so-called repressed memory therapy, and "voodoo science"
treatments for autism. Lessons from this issue include: (a) junk science:
not necessarily junk nor science, (b) facilitated communication: doesn't
reliably facilitate communication, and (c) alleged repressed memories:
can become irrepressible. Discuss amongst yourselves at
http://acsh.org/forum/altmed/altmed.html
----------------------------------------
BRAIN IN HEART
Speaking of Rupert Sheldrake and weird biology, this from our friends at the
Front Range Skeptics, Linda and Emily Rosa and Larry Sarner:
I couldn't believe it! On the ABC Evening News tonight, Deborah Amos had a
feature story endorsing "Heart Math" -- one of the kookiest movements of all
time! It's also
referred to as "energy cardiology."
Heart Math folk believe the heart is another brain, capable of independent
thought -- a powerful, supernatural organ responsible for telekenesis, etc.
Amos showed the lighter side of Heart Math, but promoted research that
claims to show Heart Math's therapeutic value in controlling stress, heart
disease and diabetes. School children were shown doing Heart Math
meditation exercises. A doctor specializing in Heart Math is now available
at abc.com for consultation.
http://www.heartmath.org/
http://www.creativespirit.net/henryreed/study_intuition/library/Article34a.htm
http://www.usneighbor.org/business/article-stress.htm
http://www.drlark.com/pages/heart_anger.php
http://www.creativespirit.net/henryreed/bookreviews/4book9808.htm
Discover Your Heart's Awareness
Experiments at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory
reveal human-machine interactions suggestive of a mind-over-matter, or
psychokinetic (PK), influence. Subjects people who attempt to mentally
control the machinery have less success, however, than those who make a
heartfelt connection with the machinery as if it were a living being, and
dialogue with it, asking it for the favor of its compliance. This finding
is one of the ways that Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., in his book, The Heart's
Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of our Heart Energy (Broadway Books)
shares an important new perspective on the intelligent awareness of the
heart.
We are familiar with the imaginative powers of the "right brain" versus the
pedestrian thought patterns of the "left brain." Pearsall introduces us to
the even more revolutionary contrast between the lonely, separatist
consciousness of the brain versus the spiritual, humanitarian oneness
awareness of the heart. He likens the heart to the sun and the brain to the
earth. We once thought that the sun revolved around the earth, but the
Copernican revolution reversed that view. A similar revolution is taking
place concerning the relative importance of brain and heart.
It was Arizona University's Gary E. Schwartz, M.D. who pioneered the field
of "energy cardiology." He found that while brain waves (EEG) are weak and
localized around the head, heart waves (EKG) are the body's strongest
electromagnetic signal. Whereas it has been previously thought that the
brain controlled the heart, through the autonomic nervous system,
Schwartz's work led to the discovery that through the circulatory system,
which is more pervasive than the nervous system, the heart has even greater
control over the brain than vice-versa. Researchers at the Heart-Math
Institute like to point out, for
example, that it is difficult to quiet the mind when the brain seems to
keep pumping out thoughts. However, if you focus an attitude of gratitude
through the heart, the brain quiets down. Try it and you'll see. The heart
can control the brain when the brain can't control itself.
A finding of energy cardiology is that cells store info-energy as cellular
memory. The heart regulates the use of the energy in these memories. Heart
transplant recipients, for example, often have memories and personality
tendencies belonging to their heart donors.
Pearsall suggests that energy cardiology provides a new basis for the
mind-body connection. The heart may provide the link between subtle energy
and physical effects. For example, as already mentioned, PK effects are
greater when there is a heart connection. Similarly, when spiritual healing
is approached as a mechanical exercise, the effect is not as strong as when
there is a heart connection between healer and patient. Research at the
Heart-Math Institute shows that the EKGs of the two parties involved become
in synchrony, and the patient begins to resonate with the healer's
info-energy. A similar effect had been shown in the past with brain waves,
but now it appears that the underlying cause of the brain wave
synchronization is the resonance of the heart connection.
Another tenet of energy cardiology is the spiritual dimension. The heart is
associated with love and our connections with others. While the brain is
satisfied being a hermit, the heart is a herd animal and profits from being
able to resonate with other hearts. Pearsall makes a case that for a
healthy heart it is more important who you eat with than what you eat. He
even suggests that the heart may be the seat of telepathy, because heart
waves have a non-local (aka "psychic") omnipresent existence perceptible by
hearts everywhere, making "heart connections" a psychic reality.
My own research combining spiritual development work with psychic training
has born out this conjecture. In our "Intuitive Heart" training, we find
that when people make heart connections with one another, there is an
intuitive, empathic understanding between the two. This intuitive empathy
can be easily demonstrated via a simple form of giving a "psychic reading."
One form of psychic reading involves heartfelt cellular memories described
by Pearsall. Cayce suggested that the best advice we can give another is to
speak from our own experience. In an Intuitive Heart reading, one person
holds a question or concern secretly in the heart. The other person, acting
as the helper, makes a heart connection with the seeker, and prays that a
personal memory will come forward into the helper's mind that will prove
helpful to the seeker. The helper then tells this memory, and explores the
lesson suggested by this experience. People usually find that the memory
and its lesson prove to be very relevant for the seeker. Pearsall would say
that the seeker's question created info-energy that stimulated a
counter-balancing memory dormant within the cells of the helper.
"When Morty Met John : John Cage, Morton Feldman and New York in the 1950's." Including Margaret Leng Tan performance of Cage's "Suite for Toy Piano" (1948) @ Carnagie Hall, reviewed by Tommasini for NYT
"I made this jar...."
-Dave
"Along the banks of the Savannah River, Native Americans some 4500 years ago discovered that fire could harden clay to a stone-like consistency. These unknown people mixed Spanish moss or palmetto fibers with the clay to make the earliest known pottery vessels in North America.
The Edgefield area is endowed with rich clay resources including massive deposits of kaolin, sands, feldspars, and pine trees, all necessary for making pottery.
The Old Edgefield District birthed a stoneware tradition based on Chinese technology using English traditional methods making vessels
with African slave labor. This area has been dubbed the crossroads of clay because of this international mix.
Beginning shortly after 1800, the Landrum family started true pottery manufactories to supply the S.C. backcountry with necessary
everyday utensils. Basically, kitchen and smokehouse utensils were made, but rarely were items made for the table.
This tradition grew to a height circa 1850 when, according to the U.S. census, five potteries employing 35 people produced over 100,000
gallons of pottery. Three out of the five factories were related to the Landrum family. Numerous factories operating over a period of time
at a dozen sites produced a variety of wares, including molding wares.
The heart of the Edgefield stoneware tradition involved manufacture of ware using what is termed today "alkaline" glaze, believed to have
been derived from information passed to the west by French Jesuit priests living in the orient in the early 18th century describing. Chinese
methods for making porcelain. Edgefield potters took similar materials, basically feldspar, wood ashes, lime, and sand-grinding and
blending it to make a crude celadon glaze. Most typically formed were storage jars from one-half to 30 gallons commonly used for
pickling, sating meat, storing lard, etc. Also, jugs for holding vinegars, wines, and spirituous liquors, pitchers, pans, and bowls for the
kitchen; plus pipes and marbles for the simple pleasure of life.
As competition increased, potters, around the early 1840's-began to slip decorate their wares using iron slips and kaolin-based white slips
resulting in objects that are today avidly sought and esteemed by scholars and collectors as some of the best folk art in the south. The
Edgefield tradition produced many jars and vessels in the swag and tassel design neoclassical inspired and adapted from moldings in Charleston town houses. More rarely, they depicted men on horseback, southern belles in hoop skirts, African-Americans toasting each other, chickens, snakes, crows, and pigs-everyday life around them. Beautifully illustrated in slip are the Rhodes Factory pieces with thistles and tulip designs.
Some of the most interesting and sought-after vessels are those by Dave Pottery-a literate slave trained to set type for Dr. Abner Landrum's Pottersville newspaper. Dave commonly signed and dated his ware, and less often wrote simple verseson his sometimes massive 20 and 30 gallon jars and jugs. Some speak of food, religion, shoes, lions, volcanoes, and money.
Also of African origin are pots termed "face vessels"--usually jugs, but sometimes cups, crocks, or pitchers with a face modeled into the object using white kaolin clay for eyes and teeth. These small objects are powerful expressions reminiscent of African sculpture.
The tradition declined about the time of the Civil War, but still continued to produced similar wares for the agrarian economy, with the tradition finally winding down in the 1930's with the production of flower pots. Edgefield proved a training ground for potters who moved with the westward expansion of America to Georgia, western North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. Potters that had actually worked in Edgefield wound up in Texas using traditional Edgefield technologies and making similar objects.
Time brought many changes. The death knell of many potters across the country came with the invention of the Mason screwtop jar in 1858. Combined with the move from the farm to the city, the breakup of the plantations, and the slave economy after the Civil War the tradition died in South Carolina."
Composer Xenakis dead @ 78
"Like other of his works, "Metastasis" and "Pithoprakta" were regulated by Poisson's Law of
Large Numbers, which implies that the more numerous the phenomena, the more they tend toward a determinate end — as in flipping a coin. "I have tried to inject determinism into what we call chance," said Mr. Xenakis, who used the scientific word "stochastic" to give a name to this idea of probability in music."
......and he lived to tell the story.
I guess this is net kitch, hunh ?