Video: Bob Dylan riffs on a sign

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Cary Grant on taking LSD

I was watching a Cary Grant movie today (Hitchcock's North by Northwest) and remembered the story about him trying LSD. Well, of course, the story's on the interwebs.

From Cary Grant's autobiography, Chapter 14:

I underwent a series of controlled experiments with Lysergic Acid, a hallucinogenic chemical or drug known as LSD 25. Experiment is perhaps a misleading word; to most people it signifies patronization and objectivity. For my part I anxiously awaited their personal benefits that could be derived from the experiences, and was quite willing to be less than objective. Any man who experiments with something that cannot benefit himself, or add to his happiness, and that of his fellow man in turn, is a fool and a menace to society. I’ve heard that a man here and there died during LSD25 sessions; but then I’ve heard that men died during poker games and while watching horse racing; but that didn’t seem to stop such occupations. Those men might have died anywhere while doing anything. Men have also died testing airplanes and parachutes, vaccines and common cold cures. In attempting to traverse the next step into progress and knowledge, men have always died. But there is a difference between the man who knows what he’s about with a high-powered airplane, and an idiot who puts wings on a bicycle and takes off from the edge of Niagra Falls.

LSD 25 is a psychic energizer and the exact opposite in reaction to the addictive drugs and opiates. Indeed, Seconal, or similar sedative, is usually given as an antidote, to quell and offset the effects of LSD 25, if necessary. The action of the chemical releases the subconscious so that it becomes apparent to yourself. So that you can see what transpires in the depth of you mind — and what goes on there you wouldn’t believe, ladies and gentlemen — and learn which misconceptions, guilts and fears, with their resultant repressions, inhibitions and insecurities, have formed the pattern for your past behavior. A successively recurring pattern since childhood.

The feeling is that of an unmarshaling of the thoughts as you’ve customarily associated them. The lessening of conscious control, similar to the mental process which takes place when we dream. For example, when you’re asleep and your mind no longer concerned with matters and activities of the day, your subconscious often brings itself to your attention by dreaming. With conscious controls relaxed, those thoughts buried deep inside begin to come to the surface in the form of dreams. These dreams, since they appear to us in symbolic guise, are fantasies and, if you will accept the reasoning, could be classified as hallucinations. Such fantasies, or hallucinations, are inside every one of us, waiting to be released, aired and understood. Dreams are really the emotions that we find ourselves reluctant to examine, think about, or meditate upon, while conscious.
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Video of Elvis Costello's great tune "New Amsterdam"

Video of Dylan's My Back Pages - The classic performance at BobFest by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, George Harrison,Neil Young,Tom Petty,and Roger McGuinn

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Our thoughts on bi-partisanship after reading Krugman's editorial in yesterday morning's New York Times

By Pablo Fanque,
National Affairs Editor

I had planned to write a long, learned, disquisition on Krugman's Op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times. This is one of the most depressing essays I've ever read. . .mainly because it was all true. And these are the people with whom we are supposed to forge a bond of cooperation? I don't think so. The G.O.P. should be happy with the fact we aren't about to embark on a massive Necktie Party, or pogrom, or a nation-wide Party Cleansing; God knows, they've earned it. As far as cooperating, I think we should "just say no," unless it is most specifically in our best interest. This collage by fellow editor Jack Brummet captures my feelings, exactly, on how to proceed with bipartisanship in today's climate:


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Painting: downstream

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It's a mystery to me: dog locks

Last night, at the Ballard Market, I saw (and not only saw, but thought about) a locking dog-leash for the first time. I know people like their pooches, but I was a little baffled. Someone is going to snatch this St. Bernard? Will people actually steal something as troublesome as a dog?

For me, at least, the very dog-ness of a dog functions as a virtual lock. But I guess people really do steal dogs? And even if they don't, their owners love them enough that they want to make sure.
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Photo: Althea and Otis in a milk crate

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Painting: Double portrait of Dr. Che Guevara/Happy 50th Birthday to the Cuban Revolution

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Since it was 50 years ago today that the Cuban Revolution succeeded in replacing one dictator with another, here is a painting of one of Fidel's right hand men, the Argentine Marxist Dr. Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The Cuban Revolution led to the overthrow of the dictatorial government of Cuban President General Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. The Cuban Revolution also refers to the ongoing implementation of Marxist social and economic programs by the new government since the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship. Some of it worked and some of it didn't. Dr. Guevara was assassinated in Bolivia in the 60's when he was captured with the help of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
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Best of 2008 -- Jamey Johnson: Somewhere between Jennings and Jones, song and interview

click to enlarge - This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

One of my favorite albums this year is Jamey Johnson's That Lonesome Song. Below is an interview he did about the album and a YouTube slideshow version of the song Somewhere Between Jennings and Jones. He is definitely somewhere between Waylon and George Jones, although to my ears he leans toward Waylon, with a similar "outlaw" sound, with the pedal steel and fiddle. "Somewhere Between" also refers to the fact that Jamey Johnson music will always be shelved between Jennings and Jones in the record stores (hey, remember them?). It's always great to hear new country music that isn't Country Lite. I love this guy!

Somewhere Between Jennings and Jones



An interview on his album That Lonesome Song


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The Beehivetheory.com - Kees Vander Putten's dedicated site

I wrote about Kees Vander Putten's incredible video here yesterday. Kees now has the video up on his own site, that also includes biographical information and some explication of the symbols in the piece.


http://thebeehivetheory.com/
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All the benefits of red wine, but none of the fun (bonus: is Barbara Walters 120 years old?)

I'm surprised Barbara hasn't sued over this unintentional juxtaposition!
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