#William Winwood Reade

[myemuisemo]

Part 10 of "Letters from Watson" of The Sign of the Four starts with Sherlock Holmes enthusiastically infodumping.

He appeared to be in a state of nervous exaltation. I have never known him so brilliant. He spoke on a quick succession of subjects,—on miracle-plays, on medieval pottery, on Stradivarius violins, on the Buddhism of Ceylon, and on the war-ships of the future,—handling each as though he had made a special study of it. His bright humor marked the reaction from his black depression of the preceding days.

I wondered "why these topics in particular?"

Miracle plays were, in 1890, the subject of a new book by Alfred W. Pollard of the British Museum. It received a positive review in The Spectator.

The Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society had its first exhibition in London in 1888. While handicrafting, the William Morris aesthetic, and such, had been around for a while by then, this was the big organized push for public attention. Not only did the Arts & Crafts movement draw on medieval influences, but many a UK pottery maker was on the site of a medieval kiln and interested in medieval techniques.

Stradivarius violins are, of course, the sought-after antique violin. There were at least two donated to the Musée de la Musique in Paris shortly before the time of this story, as well as a number getting heard by important violinists in important orchestras. Even more interestingly from Holmes' point of view, a factory in Germany had just started making Stradivarius copies.

Buddhism in Sri Lanka had lapsed into torpor in the early 19th century but was, by 1890, well into a resurgence. The kick-off, back in 1866, had been Buddhist monk Mohottivatte Gunananda challenging Christian missionaries to a debate. In 1890, he had just died; but he had founded a political movement.

As for war-ships, in 1889, the Naval Defense Act had passed. It called for the UK Navy to be maintained at least twice as large as the combined navies of the next two largest powers (then France and Russia). War ships -- both quantity and design -- had doubtless been in the news for a while.

These aren't obscure hyperfixations (though I'm all for obscure hyperfixations!). These are conversational topics appropriate for a well-read gentleman of the era: the sort who gets three or four newspapers, reads the book reviews, and then reads the books reviewed. This explains how Dr. Watson and Athelney Jones set him off, or even participated in the conversation.

We also, while on a boat, get the return of Winwood Reade's Martyrdom of Man (making it Chekhov's book reference?). Says Holmes of Reade:

“He remarks that, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician."

Statistics was not new -- scholarly sorts had become engaged with statistics during the Enlightenment -- but it was in the early stages of being systematized into the mathematical field we know today. Holmes sounds like he would have been a fan of Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's Metre-like: Or the Method of Measuring Probability and Utility, published in 1887, since it attempted to use probability as the basis of inductive reasoning.

Then we have a boat chase.

I love the boat chase. I feel like the boat chase might have contributed to inspiration for the train chase in Nicholas Meyers' The Seven Percent Solution, though I also feel that a train chase needs no justification other than "we have two trains and a problem."

Our heroes leave from Westminster Wharf, which I'm assuming is roughly today's Westminster Pier, which had not yet received its statue of Boudica. (Westminster is conveniently southeast of Marylebone, where Baker Street is located.) So that long gentle curve is the river past St. Paul's and the Tower of London and under multiple bridges. They pick up the Aurora about where the river heads into that first shallow down-curve and chase it up and down, around the Isle of Dogs, up past Greenwich, and around the down curve at Blackwall. So they must catch it as the river starts to straighten and widen.

A pleasure tour from Westminster Pier to Greenwich today takes about an hour, but those are the boats their launch was passing like they were standing still. The Eva, a Thames Steam Launch of the appropriate era, was one of the speediest of the time and could achieve 16.5 miles/hour.

Then... I really would have preferred an actual monkey. We've now had in this chapter so many reminders of the achievements of European, particularly English, civilization that the avalanche of adjectives framing the Andaman Islander as primitive stands out as a deliberate counterpoint, despite the inclusion of Ceylon and Winwood Reade. Will we ever know what the Andaman Islander Accomplice's motivations were? (If yes, will I wish even more fervently that we'd just stuck with a monkey?)

I love the boat chase, though.

[productsreviewings]

The coronation of King Charles III will probably be attended by roughly 2,000 individuals and price someplace within the area of £1.57 million—that is almost $2 million US. And on prime of the hour-long lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London, the ascent of Charles and Camilla to the throne will probably be marked by a coronation live performance.The occasion will probably be headlined by pop stars (and American Idol judges) Katy Perry and Lionel Richie. The road-up for the live performance will even embody the British band Take That, singer-songwriter Freya Ridings, opera singers Andrea Bocelli and Sir Bryn Terfel, composer and pianist Alexis Ffrench, and pop acts Nicole Sherzinger, Olly Murs, Steve Winwood, Paloma Religion, and well-known DJ Pete Tong.Nonetheless, it does appear as if many legends of the British music scene have been requested to seem on the coronation live performance, and declined to carry out—together with the primary, second and third decisions of headliner. This is who turned down their invitation to the coronation of King Charles III.AdeleRegardless of being beforehand included within the Queen's Birthday Honors Listing and named a member of the Order of the British Empire, Adele—recognized for hits like 'Hey,' 'Rolling within the Deep' and 'Straightforward on Me'—is not going to be performing on the coronation live performance.Gareth Cattermole//Getty PhotographsSir Elton JohnRolling Stone studies that Sir Elton John was requested to seem on-stage on the live performance, however was unable to oblige on account of scheduling conflicts.John has lengthy held an affiliation with the Royal Household; a private good friend of Princess Diana, he re-released his track 'Candle within the Wind' in her reminiscence after her loss of life in 1997, and attended the weddings of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. King Charles and Queen Camilla have been even company at his personal wedding ceremony to David Furnish in 2005.Chris Jackson//Getty PhotographsHarry KindsAlong with turning down the invitation to carry out on the coronation live performance, Harry Kinds additionally reportedly mentioned no to being a musical visitor at Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2023.Handout//Getty PhotographsRobbie WilliamsWhereas his former Take That bandmates will probably be performing on the coronation, Robbie Williams is as soon as once more going solo. Williams has beforehand said his help of the royals, saying in September 2023 that Queen Elizabeth "represented Britain around the globe with poise and energy," so it's attainable that scheduling conflicts are the rationale for his absence.Marco Prosch//Getty PhotographsThe Spice LadiesChild, Ginger, Scary, Sporty and Posh are famously already fairly conversant in the King, with Mel B and Geri giving then-Prince Charles a kiss on the cheek at a Prince's Belief occasion in 1997. Nonetheless, regardless of a handful of reunions through the years, together with a bunch efficiency on the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the Spice Ladies have as soon as once more disbanded, and won't be current on the coronation live performance.Pool/Tim Graham Image Library//Getty PhotographsPhilip Ellis is a contract author and journalist from the UK masking popular culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ points. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV. #Movie star #Turned #Invite #King #Charles #Coronation The coronation of King Charles III will value round £1.57 million (almost $2 million US) and be attended by 2,000 individuals. The ceremony will probably be adopted by a live performance that includes performers akin to Katy Perry and Lionel Richie. Nonetheless, many British music legends have been reportedly requested to carry out on the live performance however declined, together with Adele, Sir Elton John, Harry Kinds, Robbie Williams, and the Spice Ladies. 1. Who're the headlining performers for the coronation live performance of King Charles III?

- Katy Perry and Lionel Richie are the headlining performers for the coronation live performance of King Charles III. 2. Who have been a number of the legendary British musicians who declined to carry out on the coronation live performance? - Adele, Sir Elton John, Harry Kinds, Robbie Williams, and the Spice Ladies have been among the many legendary British musicians who declined to carry out on the coronation live performance. 3. What's the estimated value of King Charles III's coronation? - The coronation of King Charles III is estimated to value round £1.57 million, which is almost $2 million US.

[gregor-samsung]

“ [G]li antichi Romani [...] distinguevano accuratamente l’uso erotico delle labbra da altri tipi di contatto labiale. Affettuoso, doveroso, rispettoso, fraterno, paterno, materno, amicale, conviviale, coniugale. E laddove noi abbiamo una sola parola per qualunque forma di bacio, loro ne avevano ben tre. Il basium, il savium e l’osculum. Il primo, sentenzia Isidoro di Siviglia, «lo darai alla moglie o al marito, il secondo alle donne di piacere, il terzo ai figli» (Perotti 2018, p. 83). Come ogni regola anche il teorema di Isidoro ha le sue eccezioni. La prima è il poeta Catullo, che manifesta il desiderio, torbido e torrido, che prova per Lesbia, la sua calda e infedele amante, chiedendole mille basia e poi altri mille, in un’escalation sempre piú hard. Ma c’era anche l’osculum sanctum, che si scambiavano i cristiani in segno di pace. E lo stesso gesto poteva degenerare nel cosiddetto osculum infame. Ovvero lo sbaciucchiamento che le streghe riservavano a Satana nel corso del Sabba. Insomma, baciare è un gesto che può assumere i significati piú diversi. Dalla tenerezza alla reverenza, dalla venerazione religiosa alla passione amorosa, dalla galanteria del baciamano al bacio socialista di Brežnev e Honecker. O a quello risorgimentale raffigurato nel celebre dipinto di Hayez, dove la coppietta allacciata sta per Cavour e Napoleone III. O ancora, all’omokissing tra Madonna e Britney Spears oppure tra Maradona e Caniggia. Fino alle manifestazioni piú estreme dell’appetito carnale. Dove il confine con il morso si fa labilissimo e un’espressione di uso comune come «ti mangerei di baci» diventa letterale, ritrovando tutta la sua oralità primaria, la voglia matta di divorare il partner. Deve averlo temuto la principessa africana corteggiata a lungo dal filosofo ed esploratore inglese William Winwood Reade, che un giorno tenta di baciarla, ma la ragazza scappa via piangendo. Perché interpreta l’approccio come un gesto da Hannibal Lecter. Del resto, basta aggiungere una c per trasformare Annibale in cannibale. Ma l’esempio piú estremo è quello raccontato dall’antropologo Bronisław Malinowski circa le effusioni erotiche tra gli abitanti delle isole Trobriand. In quell’arcipelago che si trova al largo dell’Australia, le coppie in amore si mordono fino a ferirsi le labbra, la lingua e le ciglia e arrivano, nell’estasi dei sensi, a strapparsi ciocche di capelli. Come dire, straziami ma di baci saziami. Proprio come in certi amplessi cinematografici recenti al cui confronto il bacio di Via col vento e perfino quelli di Casablanca e Notorius sembrano effusioni da educande. “

Elisabetta Moro, Marino Niola, Baciarsi, Giulio Einaudi editore (collana Vele), 2021 [Libro elettronico]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Warren Zevon who Died: September 7, 2003, Los Angeles, California

Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician. Zevon's most famous compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money", and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner", all of which are featured on his third album, Excitable Boy (1978), whose title track is also well-known. He also wrote major hits that were recorded by other artists, including "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", "Accidentally Like a Martyr", "Mohammed's Radio", "Carmelita", and "Hasten Down the Wind". Along with his own work, he recorded or performed occasional covers, including Allen Toussaint's "A Certain Girl", Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan", Steve Winwood's "Back in the High Life Again", and Prince's "Raspberry Beret".

Zevon's early music industry successes were found as a session musician, jingle composer, songwriter, touring musician, musical coordinator & bandleader. Despite all this, Zevon struggled to break through in his solo career, until his music was performed by Linda Ronstadt, beginning in 1976 with her album Hasten Down the Wind. This launched a cult following that lasted for 25 years, with Zevon making occasional returns to album and single charts until his death from cancer in 2003. He briefly found a new audience in the 1980s by teaming up with members of R.E.M. in the blues rock outfit Hindu Love Gods.

Known for his dry wit and acerbic lyrics, he was a guest numerous times on Late Night with David Letterman and the Late Show with David Letterman.

In 1978, Zevon released Excitable Boy (produced by Jackson Browne and guitarist Waddy Wachtel) to critical acclaim and popular success. The title tune is about a juvenile sociopath's murderous prom night and referred to "Little Susie", the heroine of the song "Wake Up Little Susie" made famous by his former employers the Everly Brothers. Other songs such as "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money" used deadpan humor to wed geopolitical subtexts to hard-boiled narratives. Tracks from this album received heavy FM airplay, and the single release "Werewolves of London", which featured Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, was a relatively lighthearted work featuring Zevon's signature macabre outlook that reached No. 21 on the charts.

Critic Dave Marsh, in The Rolling Stone Record Guide (1979), called Zevon "one of the toughest rockers ever to come out of Southern California". Rolling Stone record reviews editor Paul Nelson called the album "one of the most significant releases of the 1970s" and placed Zevon alongside Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and Bruce Springsteen as the four most important new artists to emerge in the decade. On May 11, 1980, Zevon and Willie Nile appeared on the King Biscuit Flower Hour.

In 1983, the recently divorced Zevon became engaged to Philadelphia disc jockey Anita Gevinson and moved to the East Coast. After The Envoy was poorly received by critics, Asylum Records ended their business relationship with Zevon, which Zevon discovered only when he read about it in the "Random Notes" column of Rolling Stone. Following these career setbacks, he relapsed into drug and alcohol abuse. In 1984, he voluntarily checked himself into a rehab clinic in Minnesota. His relationship with Gevinson ended shortly thereafter. Zevon retreated from the music business for several years, except for playing live solo shows; during this time he finally overcame severe alcohol and drug addictions.

During this period, Zevon collaborated with Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills (of R.E.M.), along with backup vocalist Bryan Cook to form a minor project called Hindu Love Gods. The group released the non-charting single "Narrator" for IRS Records in 1984, then went into abeyance for several years.

Berry, Buck and Mills served as the core of Zevon's next studio band when he re-emerged in 1987 by signing with Virgin Records and recording the album Sentimental Hygiene. The release, hailed as his best since Excitable Boy, featured a thicker rock sound and taut, often humorous songs like "Detox Mansion", "Bad Karma" (which featured R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe on backup vocals), and "Reconsider Me". Included were contributions from Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Flea, Brian Setzer, and George Clinton, as well as Berry, Buck, and Mills. Also on hand were Zevon's longtime collaborators Jorge Calderón and Waddy Wachtel.

In interviews, Zevon described a lifelong phobia of doctors and said he seldom consulted one. He had started working out, and he looked physically fit. Shortly before playing at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival in 2002, he started feeling dizzy and developed a chronic cough. After a period of suffering with pain and shortness of breath, Zevon was encouraged by his dentist to see a physician; he was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a cancer (usually caused by exposure to asbestos) that affects the pleura, a thin membrane around the lungs and chest lining. Zevon was deeply shaken by the news and began drinking again after 17 years of sobriety.

Although Zevon never revealed where he may have been exposed to asbestos, his son, Jordan, suggests that it came from Zevon's childhood, playing in the attic of his father's carpet store in Arizona. Refusing treatments he believed might incapacitate him, Zevon instead began recording his final album, The Wind, which includes performances by close friends including Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh, David Lindley, Billy Bob Thornton, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty, and Dwight Yoakam. At the request of the music television channel VH1, documentarian Nick Read was given access to the sessions and made the television film Inside Out: Warren Zevon.

Friend Jackson Browne reunited with Zevon for his final album On October 30, 2002, Zevon was featured on the Late Show with David Letterman as the only guest for the entire hour. The band played "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" as his introduction. Zevon performed several songs and spoke at length about his illness. Zevon had been a frequent guest and occasional substitute bandleader on Letterman's television shows since Late Night was first broadcast in 1982. He noted, "I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." It was during this broadcast that, when asked by Letterman if he knew something more about life and death now, he first offered his oft-quoted insight on dying: "Enjoy every sandwich." He also thanked Letterman for his years of support, calling him "the best friend my music's ever had". For his final song of the evening, and his final public performance, Zevon performed "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" at Letterman's request. In the green room after the show, Zevon presented Letterman with the guitar that he always used on the show, with a single request: "Here, I want you to have this, take good care of it." The day after Zevon's death, Letterman paid tribute to him by replaying his performance of "Mutineer" from his last appearance. The Late Show band played Zevon's songs throughout the night.

Zevon stated previously that his illness was expected to be terminal within months after diagnosis in late 2002. However, he lived to see the birth of twin grandsons in June 2003 and the release of The Wind on August 26, 2003. Owing in part to the first VH1 broadcasts of Nick Read's documentary Warren Zevon: Keep Me in Your Heart, the album reached number 12 on the U.S. charts, Zevon's highest placement since Excitable Boy. When his diagnosis became public, Zevon wryly told the media that he just hoped to live long enough to see the next James Bond movie (Die Another Day), a goal he accomplished.

Zevon died of mesothelioma on September 7, 2003, aged 56, at his home in Los Angeles. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles.

[micro-cibermitanios]

Los hombres prefieren pensar que son ángeles degenerados, en vez de simios elevados.

William Winwood Reade

[profetizamos]

Selago

(Image: “Gathering the Selago” by Louis Absolon)

Selago, today often thought to have referred to the fir club-moss, is a plant described by Pliny the Elder as being used by the druids for magical and medicinal purposes:

“Similar to savin is the herb known as “selago.” Care is taken to gather it without the use of iron, the right hand being passed for the purpose through the left sleeve of the tunic, as though the gatherer were in the act of committing a theft. The clothing too must be white, the feet bare and washed clean, and a sacrifice of bread and wine must be made before gathering it: it is carried also in a new napkin. The Druids of Gaul have pretended that this plant should be carried about the person as a preservative against accidents of all kinds, and that the smoke of it is extremely good for all maladies of the eyes.”

During the romantic period of British history when works of dubious academic merit on the druids proliferated, some authors such as William Winwood Reade provided alternative accounts for the use of selago, although the origins of the details he provides remains unclear: 

“She who pressed it with her foot slept, and heard the language of animals. If she touched it with iron, the sky grew dark and a misfortune fell upon a world. When [the druids] had found it, the virgin traced a circle round it, and covering her hand in a white linen cloth which had never been before used, rooted it out with a point of her little finger–a symbol of the crescent moon. Then they washed it in a running spring …”

Fir clubmoss is found around the world in boreo-arctic regions including Canada, the British Isles, and Northern Europe.

Sources: 

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History. Ed. John Bostock. London: Taylor and Francis, 1855.

W. Winwood Read, The Veil of Isis, or Mysteries of the Druids. London: Charles J. Skeet, 1861. 

[sortingoutayoungcontrarian]

“As they preached against gods that were made of stone, so we preach against gods that are made of ideas.”

“... The belief in a personal God, which endangers a slavish and oriental condition of the mind; and the belief in a posthumous reward which endangers a selfish and solitary condition of the heart. These beliefs are , therefore, injurious to human nature. They lower its dignity; they arrests development; they isolate its affections... In each generation the human race has been tortured that their children might profit by their woes. Our own prosperity is founded on the agonies of the past.”

A theist's quasi absolute morality constantly is in a state of flux do to their agenda. Think of the malleable "absolute morality" in the bible such as incest, women's rights, slavery, dispossession of land, circumcision (child genitalia mutilation), need I go on? It is constantly being more enlightened! For example: Galileo and the arrangement of the planets. God said his creation was good and yet arminianiestic christians pray for a suspension of natural laws to compliment their whimsical desires... an omnipotent god had to sacrificially send his son to earth to save us from his fathers eternal punishment for a finite life?! How does that add up? This is merely a puzzle piece to fit into the context of an ignorantly evil tradition born of an ancient Syrian child sacrificing religion for rain on their crops. 

When you conscientiously look throughout history, especially the history of religions, the big picture shows that their religion conveniently fits perfectly with their selfish desire at that time and say the good god in heaven is using them as his (notice the gender pronoun) vessel. Wake up and realize that the delusional battle semantics to distract from empirical truth. Religion is a way to marginalize in order to categorize in order to gain power and then digress by denying the facts that present themselves in history as well as their own text. Why are there are so many denominations? Or how about the fact that it is a primal instinct to latch onto a group identity. One has to ask: why not latch onto the one with an endless nontaxable budget? Pascals Wager comes to mind... Its nonsensical selfish rubbish. A bunch of sociopaths that suffer from folie a duex (madness of many) along with the barnum effect. 

-me

[mapsontheweb]

William Winwood Reade's Map of African Literature, depicting Africa via the travel writings of European explorers, 1873.

whitesock:

The map appeared in Reade's "African Sketchbook" in 1873, before Stanley's famous attempt to "find" Livingstone, so his name does not appear on the map.

[spokenrealms]

The Martyrdom of Man

The Martyrdom of Man

Explorer, journalist, and novelist, William Winwood Reade was born at Murrayfield, near Crieff in 1838, and died at Wimbledon in 1875. A nephew of Charles Reade, he explored a wide range of literary genres, including history, travelogues, and fiction.      First published in 1872, The Martyrdom of Man has been described as the first synoptic history of mankind.  It was one of the first surveys…

[blprompt]

British Library digitised image from page 344 of "See-Saw; a novel ... Edited [or rather, written] by W. W. Reade"

Image taken from: Title: "See-Saw; a novel ... Edited [or rather, written] by W. W. Reade" Author(s): Abati, Francesco [person] ; Reade, William Winwood [person] British Library shelfmark: "Digital Store 12623.bbb.12" Page: 344 (scanned page number - not necessarily the actual page number in the publication) Place of publication: London (England) Date of publication: 1865 Publisher: E. Moxon Type of resource: Monograph Physical description: 2 volumes (8°) Explore this item in the British Library’s catalogue: 000002854 (physical copy) and 014824986 (digitised copy) (numbers are British Library identifiers) Other links related to this image: - View this image as a scanned publication on the British Library’s online viewer (you can download the image, selected pages or the whole book) - Order a higher quality scanned version of this image from the British Library Other links related to this publication: - View all the illustrations found in this publication - View all the illustrations in publications from the same year (1865) - Download the Optical Character Recognised (OCR) derived text for this publication as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) - Explore and experiment with the British Library’s digital collections The British Library community is able to flourish online thanks to freely available resources such as this. You can help support our mission to continue making our collection accessible to everyone, for research, inspiration and enjoyment, by donating on the British Library supporter webpage here. Thank you for supporting the British Library. from BLPromptBot https://ift.tt/3c0o2FK

[whodonthear]

fyeahblackhistory:

100 things that you did not know about Africa - Nos.51- 75

51. The mediaeval Nigerian city of Benin was built to “a scale comparable with the Great Wall of China”. There was a vast system of defensive walling totalling 10,000 miles in all. Even before the full extent of the city walling had become apparent the Guinness Book of Records carried an entry in the 1974 edition that described the city as: “The largest earthworks in the world carried out prior to the mechanical era.” 52. Benin art of the Middle Ages was of the highest quality. An official of the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde once stated that: “These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique. Benvenuto Cellini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him … Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.” 53. Winwood Reade described his visit to the Ashanti Royal Palace of Kumasi in 1874: “We went to the king’s palace, which consists of many courtyards, each surrounded with alcoves and verandahs, and having two gates or doors, so that each yard was a thoroughfare … But the part of the palace fronting the street was a stone house, Moorish in its style … with a flat roof and a parapet, and suites of apartments on the first floor. It was built by Fanti masons many years ago. The rooms upstairs remind me of Wardour Street. Each was a perfect Old Curiosity Shop. Books in many languages, Bohemian glass, clocks, silver plate, old furniture, Persian rugs, Kidderminster carpets, pictures and engravings, numberless chests and coffers. A sword bearing the inscription From Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee. A copy of the Times, 17 October 1843. With these were many specimens of Moorish and Ashanti handicraft.” 54. In the mid-nineteenth century, William Clarke, an English visitor to Nigeria, remarked that: “As good an article of cloth can be woven by the Yoruba weavers as by any people … in durability, their cloths far excel the prints and home-spuns of Manchester.” 55. The recently discovered 9th century Nigerian city of Eredo was found to be surrounded by a wall that was 100 miles long and seventy feet high in places. The internal area was a staggering 400 square miles. 56. On the subject of cloth, Kongolese textiles were also distinguished. Various European writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries wrote of the delicate crafts of the peoples living in eastern Kongo and adjacent regions who manufactured damasks, sarcenets, satins, taffeta, cloth of tissue and velvet. Professor DeGraft-Johnson made the curious observation that: “Their brocades, both high and low, were far more valuable than the Italian.” 57. On Kongolese metallurgy of the Middle Ages, one modern scholar wrote that: “There is no doubting … the existence of an expert metallurgical art in the ancient Kongo … The Bakongo were aware of the toxicity of lead vapours. They devised preventative and curative methods, both pharmacological (massive doses of pawpaw and palm oil) and mechanical (exerting of pressure to free the digestive tract), for combating lead poisoning.” 58. In Nigeria, the royal palace in the city of Kano dates back to the fifteenth century. Begun by Muhammad Rumfa (ruled 1463-99) it has gradually evolved over generations into a very imposing complex. A colonial report of the city from 1902, described it as “a network of buildings covering an area of 33 acres and surrounded by a wall 20 to 30 feet high outside and 15 feet inside … in itself no mean citadel”. 59. A sixteenth century traveller visited the central African civilisation of Kanem-Borno and commented that the emperor’s cavalry had golden “stirrups, spurs, bits and buckles.” Even the ruler’s dogs had “chains of the finest gold”. 60. One of the government positions in mediaeval Kanem-Borno was Astronomer Royal. 61. Ngazargamu, the capital city of Kanem-Borno, became one of the largest cities in the seventeenth century world. By 1658 AD, the metropolis, according to an architectural scholar housed “about quarter of a million people”. It had 660 streets. Many were wide and unbending, reflective of town planning. 62. The Nigerian city of Surame flourished in the sixteenth century. Even in ruin it was an impressive sight, built on a horizontal vertical grid. A modern scholar describes it thus: “The walls of Surame are about 10 miles in circumference and include many large bastions or walled suburbs running out at right angles to the main wall. The large compound at Kanta is still visible in the centre, with ruins of many buildings, one of which is said to have been two-storied. The striking feature of the walls and whole ruins is the extensive use of stone and tsokuwa (laterite gravel) or very hard red building mud, evidently brought from a distance. There is a big mound of this near the north gate about 8 feet in height. The walls show regular courses of masonry to a height of 20 feet and more in several places. The best preserved portion is that known as sirati (the bridge) a little north of the eastern gate … The main city walls here appear to have provided a very strongly guarded entrance about 30 feet wide.” 63. The Nigerian city of Kano in 1851 produced an estimated 10 million pairs of sandals and 5 million hides each year for export. 64. In 1246 AD Dunama II of Kanem-Borno exchanged embassies with Al-Mustansir, the king of Tunis. He sent the North African court a costly present, which apparently included a giraffe. An old chronicle noted that the rare animal “created a sensation in Tunis”. 65. By the third century BC the city of Carthage on the coast of Tunisia was opulent and impressive. It had a population of 700,000 and may even have approached a million. Lining both sides of three streets were rows of tall houses six storeys high. 66. The Ethiopian city of Axum has a series of 7 giant obelisks that date from perhaps 300 BC to 300 AD. They have details carved into them that represent windows and doorways of several storeys. The largest obelisk, now fallen, is in fact “the largest monolith ever made anywhere in the world”. It is 108 feet long, weighs a staggering 500 tons, and represents a thirteen-storey building. 67. Ethiopia minted its own coins over 1,500 years ago. One scholar wrote that: “Almost no other contemporary state anywhere in the world could issue in gold, a statement of sovereignty achieved only by Rome, Persia, and the Kushan kingdom in northern India at the time.” 68. The Ethiopian script of the 4th century AD influenced the writing script of Armenia. A Russian historian noted that: “Soon after its creation, the Ethiopic vocalised script began to influence the scripts of Armenia and Georgia. D. A. Olderogge suggested that Mesrop Mashtotz used the vocalised Ethiopic script when he invented the Armenian alphabet.” 69. “In the first half of the first millennium CE,” says a modern scholar, Ethiopia “was ranked as one of the world’s greatest empires”. A Persian cleric of the third century AD identified it as the third most important state in the world after Persia and Rome. 70. Ethiopia has 11 underground mediaeval churches built by being carved out of the ground. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD, Roha became the new capital of the Ethiopians. Conceived as a New Jerusalem by its founder, Emperor Lalibela (c.1150-1230), it contains 11 churches, all carved out of the rock of the mountains by hammer and chisel. All of the temples were carved to a depth of 11 metres or so below ground level. The largest is the House of the Redeemer, a staggering 33.7 metres long, 23.7 metres wide and 11.5 metres deep. 71. Lalibela is not the only place in Ethiopia to have such wonders. A cotemporary archaeologist reports research that was conducted in the region in the early 1970’s when: “startling numbers of churches built in caves or partially or completely cut from the living rock were revealed not only in Tigre and Lalibela but as far south as Addis Ababa. Soon at least 1,500 were known. At least as many more probably await revelation.” 72. In 1209 AD Emperor Lalibela of Ethiopia sent an embassy to Cairo bringing the sultan unusual gifts including an elephant, a hyena, a zebra, and a giraffe. 73. In Southern Africa, there are at least 600 stone built ruins in the regions of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. These ruins are called Mazimbabwe in Shona, the Bantu language of the builders, and means great revered house and “signifies court”. 74. The Great Zimbabwe was the largest of these ruins. It consists of 12 clusters of buildings, spread over 3 square miles. Its outer walls were made from 100,000 tons of granite bricks. In the fourteenth century, the city housed 18,000 people, comparable in size to that of London of the same period. 75. Bling culture existed in this region. At the time of our last visit, the Horniman Museum in London had exhibits of headrests with the caption: “Headrests have been used in Africa since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs. Remains of some headrests, once covered in gold foil, have been found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe and burial sites like Mapungubwe dating to the twelfth century after Christ.”

Part 1. 1-25

Part 2. 26-50

By Robin Walker 

For more click here

[musicheritageuk]

BBC Music day rock plaques!

To celebrate this year’s BBC Music Day, more than 45 blue plaques were unveiled celebrating iconic the venues, studios, rehearsal rooms and the music from across the country. Among the artists recognised are David Bowie (with not one but two new plaques!), broadcaster John Peel, and Delia Derbyshire who composed the Doctor Who theme tune.

All of the plaques were voted for by listeners to BBC’s local radio stations and were erected by the British Plaque Trust. Trust Chairman is former BBC Radio One DJ - and writer of a pro-UKIP pop-song - Mike Read.

Please see below for a list of relevant classic rock plaques unveiled! We've omitted the plaques erected to celebrate Asian music, classical, folk and pre-1950s popular music to keep it relevant to our interests, but you can see the complete list over at the BBC which also includes some small video snippets around some of the new plaques.

BBC North East & Cumbria:

Where Led Zeppelin made their debut. The Mayfair Ballroom, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

Where ‘Summer Holiday’ was written for Cliff Richard. The Globe, Stockton-Upon-Tees.

BBC Yorkshire:

Iconic (and tiny!) venue The Shed. Bawbury Village Hall, York.

BBC East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire:

Where the Spiders from Mars departed for adventures with David Bowie. Paragon Station, Hull.

Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and T. Rex have all performed here. The Gilderdrome, Boston Lincolnshire.

BBC North West:

Where Factory Records was founded. Alan Erasmus's flat, West Didsbury.

Deaf School, Talking Heads, The Clash, The Police, Ramones, Echo and the Bunnymen, Wah and Heat all played here. Erics, Liverpool.

BBC West Midlands:

Home of Delia Derbyshire, the Radiophonic Workshop pioneer who realised the Doctor Who theme (and influenced the course of electronic music), 104, Cedars Avenue, Coventry.

Birthplace of John Bonham, Led Zeppelin drummer. 84 Birchfield Road, Headless Cross.

Jeremiah Patrick ‘Jerry’ Lordan, songwriter of hits for The Shadows and Cliff Richard. Three Tuns, Bishop’s Castle.

A plaque for Ian Fraser ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister, the Motörhead founder and singer, whose song 'Ace of Spades' has been adopted by Port Vale FC. Port Vale FC.

Birthplace and childhood home of Nick Drake. Far Leys.

BBC East:

Art school of Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University.

Home of Steve Marriott of The Small Faces and Humble Pie. Beehive Cottage, Moreton.

The last gig of Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention. Byfield Village Hall.

NME’s best small venue. Norwich Arts Centre which opened in 1977.

The village where John Peel grew up. The Village Hall in Great Finborough.

Concert venue which has welcomed The Who, Robbie Williams and Oasis. Watford Colosseum, Watford.

BBC London:

David Bowie’s recording studio. Trident Studios, Soho, London.

The first British black male artist to sell 1 million records and get a number one, Emile Ford.  The Buttery, North Kensington, London.

BBC South East:

The Manish Boys featuring a young David Bowie often played here. Royal Star Arcade, Maidstone.

Celebrating Rick Parfitt of Status Quo. The Square, Woking.

Where ABBA won the Eurovision song contest. The Dome, Brighton.

BBC South:

John Lennon and Paul McCartney played their only gig as The Nerk Twins here. Fox and Hounds Pub, Caversham.

Status Quo, XTC, Gerry Rafferty, Duran Duran, Steve Winwood, Beverley Craven and Radiohead all recorded here when it was known as Chipping Norton Recording Studios. Blue Horizon Studio, Oxford.

BBC West:

The home of ska, reggae and blue beat in Bristol, Bamboo Club which hosted gigs by Bob Marley, Ben E King, Desmond Dekker, Percy Sledge and Jimmy Cliff. Bamboo Club, Bristol.

Home of The Who founder and bassist, John Entwistle. Royal British Legion, Gloucester.

Where Buddy Holly played. The Gaumont, Salisbury.

Image: TonyMo22 shared under creative commons license.

[malcolmstarchild7]

U.K. R&B export Daley has returned with a new offering, “Until the Pain is Gone” featuring Jill Scott, and it's premiering exclusively on Billboard. Daley emerged in 2011 as an artist with his own form of soul-stirring, forward-thinking alternative R&B with his debut EP Those Who Wait. He also garnered attention for his collaboration with Gorillaz for their song "Doncamatic." The Manchester native broke through in the U.S. market in 2014 with the sweet and enduring “Alone Together” featuring the talented vocalist Marsha Ambrosius. The British crooner, who has collaborated and toured with the likes of Maxwell, Pharrell Williams, Miguel, Emeli Sande and Jessie J, began writing the song at the end of 2015. The singer tells Billboard, "Sometimes I'll start a song and I'll come back to it six months later and actually finish it. So this is one I started and lived with for a while. And then I came back to it." READ MORE Jill Scott, Andra Day, Steve Winwood & More Set for 2017 Jazz at the Bowl The song hits close to home for Daley, who admits, "The song kind of came out of frustration I was feeling in a relationship. The situation was going nowhere because we both weren't really fully able to admit how we felt about each other and just be honest. And that situation didn't really work out, but for the purposes of writing this song, I just kind of gave it a happy ending and idealized it a little bit." While writing the song, the singer felt Jill Scott, whom he’d met two years prior in London, would be the perfect collaborator on the record. “When I was in the studio writing the song, I just had a feeling, and I kept hearing Jill's voice in the mix when I was writing. It was kind of strange, almost like it was asking for her energy.” Though he has worked with most of his favorite artists, he hails Chaka Khan as a powerhouse vocalist he would like to one day collaborate with in the future. “She's one of my all-time favorite singers, vocalists. That would just be on the bucket list for sure.” Go on and on 'till the break of dawn with the smooth jam :

[c666o]

Botchamania 387 from maffew gregg on Vimeo.

Music... Stage Chun Li by Shun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, Tatsuro Suzuki (Street Fighter Alpha 2) Title Tune by Richard Ede (Wiz 'n' Liz, Amiga) Eladard by Kozue Ishikawa, Yumiko Kanki (Star Fox 2)

Thanks To... RJCity & Frank The Clown for the fabulous intro Smokey Bear for the fan cam of Brock killing a dude ReneusMeister for the AND I FOR ONE WELCOME AEW inspiration OMGitsD4N13L for PROGRESS' Aerostar Erik Veszelka for the killer indie Ian Hamilton for Beyond coast-to-coast BAHU FMW for the WMF clip Mark Ptasnik for the NWL Winwood for the Jannetty clip (love you nL) Bix for Tom Magee vs. whatshisname matthewmacklin for the OTT training floor Tom Anstey aka Wrestling Memes for the chair to the head dick tubbs for some of the Barts hunktears for inspiring the Subtext xxshawn for another Bart thrashpandAridh for Andre kidswol for the Steaks skrongstyle for thanosureaboutthat cultaholicedits for spongebob __Ben_Nicol__ for more Bart wrestling memes for Janela Wars megadrivecustom for even more Bart steve williams for Simpsons that wasn't Bart

Notes...

Well Vegas treated me very well and a big, big thank you to everyone who showed up or said hello. I'm pretty much recovered from the food and edibles but rather than type up some stuff that will be read by three people, I'm going to talk about it while streaming games (probably Gungeon) as I enjoy the sound of my own voice, that way if three people are watching then at least I'm having fun.

Boy, those refs at MITB had a great night keeping me busy. Those fuckers needed VAR.

Jim Ross was better than expected but because the universe needs to be in balance, Other Guy looked and sounded like he was on camera for the first time ever. Excalibur was his usual knowledgeable self and I didn't even hear him call Jericho "Generico" until people told me.

Did I mention Double Or Nothing was cool yet? I'm not bragging about being flown out, I just wanna make it clear they wined me and dined me so you know you're getting a very biased opinion. You think I'm going to say anything negative about them after that? Joke's on them, I'd have sang their praises for a Pot Noodle. We'll know how much they actually like Botchamania depending on how long this video stays online.

There was a lot of Bart in this episode, but that's to strike while the iron is hot. Or luke-warm as it's been a week since the explosion of them on twitter.

[tinymixtapes]

Interview: Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV)

As one of the key originators of industrial music, organizer of the occult art collective Temple ov Psychick Youth, and participant in the ambitious body-altering pandrogyne project, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge has embodied the artistic process for over four decades. Observing and critiquing culture from the vantage point of a disruptor, P-Orridge draws from the teachings of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, whom s/he counted as friends. Throughout the years, P-Orridge has dabbled in occult practices, pouring h/er thoughts out in a 500-page tome, Thee Psychick Bible. But h/er band Psychic TV also mastered the mainstream with the pop hit “Godstar,” which remained a number one song in Britain for months. Oh, and Psychic TV was also in the Guinness World Records for releasing the most albums in a year. That doesn’t mean P-Orridge rests on h/er prior achievements. Recently, s/he performed with Psychic TV at a rare show at this year’s Moogfest and was the subject of the documentary Bight of the Twin, which chronicled h/er experiences with Voodoo practitioners in Benin. A second documentary, A Message from the Temple, is forthcoming. --- Is there any kind of ritual or practice you undergo before going onstage with Psychic TV? No, no. There used to be a drinking ritual where we would get plastic bottles of water and put in vodka and cranberry or vodka and orange to take onstage, and that became this really ridiculous little ritual that we used to all do. And then everyone would all go and have a pee [laughs]. The band now is without any question my favorite lineup we’ve ever had. It’s basically stayed pretty stable since 2003. We’re on our third keyboard player. Our keyboard player seems to be a bit like the Spinal Tap drummer [laughs]. But we’re so bonded at this point that it’s a true organism. Everyone’s hyper aware of what’s happening in each other’s lives, what emotional journey they might be on at that given moment. So if we feel somebody needs encouragement, it just happens. Psychic TV is such an amazingly integrated organism that everything goes unsaid a lot of the time, but there’s an amazing amount of love. It really is a family in the truest sense. In Benin, when someone passes away, they say that “a twin goes to the forest to look for wood,” which is explored in Bight of the Twin. You’ve been involved with the idea of twins since at least the pandrogyne project, but there’s also a history of this in the Vodun religion. Yeah, as you carry on through life, you discover that there are twins in all sorts of hidden doctrines and groups with different belief systems. I mean, the Garden of Eden begins with twins. So we draw those into many experiences of rituals and psychedelic trips and what have you, and myself and Jaye concluded that either symbolically or literally, we were here to reunify as a species, that things like either/or, male/female, black/white, Christian/Muslim are all tools used to control us. The only way out of control is unity, where there is no difference. Therefore, no strategies are irrelevant. That’s why we felt pandrogyny was so important as an idea, and the twins idea in Africa was just confirmation on a really exciting, deep level. As the oldest continuous religion, Vodun would have the earliest concept of creation. We were asking them about their creation story. And they said, “In the beginning there was one god, Mahu, made up of both male and female parts named Segbo Lissa. Segbo is a female chameleon, and Lissa is a male python.” But they were one, or in other words, a pandrogyne. You can argue Adam and Eve is one being. In the earliest paintings of the Garden of Eden, the paintings were of God, Adam, and Eve, and they all have male and female genitals and breasts. The Vatican suppressed it, of course. So we’re not card-carrying dogma followers of anything, but we keep an extremely open mind. Psychic TV is such an amazingly integrated organism that everything goes unsaid a lot of the time, but there’s an amazing amount of love. It really is a family in the truest sense. Can you tell us about the idea of “occulture” you wrote about in Thee Psychick Bible? That was one of those words that just seemed inevitable. There’s a TOPY [Temple Ov Psychick Youth] member now in Asheville named Chandra Shukla who got involved with what we were doing on many levels when he was a teenager while living in a very traditional Asian family. He couldn’t bring himself to surrender into repetition of what his parents had lived, so he started looking for different stories. He’s working on a Psychick dictionary of all the phrases and slogans and new word definitions we’ve developed the last 50 years. Occulture was one of those words we just felt should always have existed. Even as a teenager, we’d read about Freemasons, the Process Church of the Final Judgment, different secret cabals, the Knights Templar, all these different organizations, some mythological, some actual, that were about, if you like, the real history of the world. Like what was the real reason that the first World War happened? It was a fight between two members of the same family, Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm, and they had a family argument and neither of them would back down, and then we have a war where millions die. So what were the real reasons that we went to war? Why was America so rich and powerful in the 50s? Profit came from the war where the Morgan bank financed both sides. If you start looking into the nitty gritty of where control really resides, there’s probably 100 families that tell us the primary story of what’s really gone on so far. Occulture is a great framework to think about these latent practices and organizations that have always been there throughout history outside of the mainstream. When I was a teenager, I started to daydream. “Wouldn’t it be fabulous if someone or myself identified the real history of the world?” It’s a long, big topic, but the bottom line is we’re constantly fed stimulation, but we’re not constantly fed education, and to me, that’s very suspicious. And it’s a vested interest. We want to keep the true story quiet. The real reasons that they decided to go to war in Iraq, was that for the oil or was that ego? We don’t know, but it wasn’t the reason they gave. A cult is hidden from the eye and culture is a control system. Occulture is also about people’s hidden motives. You know, Burroughs was brilliant at revealing these kinds of dynamics in society, and his work with Brion Gysin, with cutups, still to me is one of the greatest tools for breaking control, because it reveals things that cannot be revealed any other way except through what appears to be random chance. People now are surrendering on a level that we’ve never seen before. My years of mental formation were heavily influenced by the liberationist concepts of the 60s and some of the most positive changes that happened in society. Squatting, prison’s rights, organic food, gay rights, women’s rights, alternative medicine, yoga, there’s an endless list of changes that occurred. There’s a huge array of simple but identifiable improvements in the lot of humanity that came from that era, because we said, “Let’s take our daydreams really seriously. How would we like to be treated? How would we like to live? Why can’t we? There must be a way.” One of the ways we believe that has to come in the next real step of rebellion is communities. Not communes, but communities and collectives where people share their resources. So if there’s 10 of you, you don’t need 10 cars. Maybe three for emergencies. Sell the other seven and you’ve still all got access to cars. The money from those seven can buy a new computer that everyone uses or pay for the roof to be fixed. It’s always shocking to me how many people are terrified of sharing. They’ve been trained to think in terms of career as a success. You know, in the art world, which we’ve been dabbling in lately, it’s all about divine inspiration. It’s not a continuum, but in fact, everything that we make is a continuum. My life, I’m thrilled to say, is the result of all the different things that have happened and influenced me. All the people we’ve met, all the people that have spoken to me, all the places we’ve been, all the books we’ve read, all the music we’ve heard. All of that is what we then percolate and refine in order to make a response or create an object or a piece of music that we feel contains what we know so far in some way, in the hope it will inspire others to be less afraid of sharing. You were listed by Guinness World Records for the most albums released in one year. What was your work ethic like then? Well, I don’t know if it’s true anymore. I’m sure someone’s beaten us. A lot of them were live concerts released on vinyl. We were on CBS Records when we did Dreams Less Sweet, and then I wrote “Godstar,” a great little pop song, and I went in to Muff Winwood, the head of A&R, and I said, “Muff, listen to this tape.” And he went, “Hmm, it’s not weird like the other stuff.” I said, “No, but it’s a great pop song and this is what I want to do now. We’ve done the weird, now we want to do psychedelic pop.” And he said, “Oh, no, no, no. We don’t want the music to change like this. Your scene is weird music, so you’ve got to keep doing weird music.” And we said, “Muff, we just left your label. And I’m going to prove that even a monkey could make this into a hit record.” [laughs] I released it myself with a new label, Temple Records, and it was number one in the indie chart in Britain for 16 weeks, and it got into the top 30 in the national chart, too. It was our big hit. One of the ways we believe that has to come in the next real step of rebellion is communities. Not communes, but communities and collectives where people share their resources. To get the money to do a proper mix, I went to my bank manager and said, “Could you possibly loan me some money to remix this song?” And he went, “I don’t know, what’s the collateral element?” “Well, I don’t have any. I’m on the dole, living in a squat.” And I don’t know how, but the conversation changed and I was talking about bootlegs, and we came up with this idea to do a series of live albums that people collected, and each one had a token in it, and when you had all the tokens, you got a free record that was only available in that way. And on that agreement of me saying we’ll do that, he loaned me the money to do proper mixes and recordings of all the psychedelic stuff. That’s how we got in the Guinness World Records, because I was releasing a live album every month and then there were other records too, and it just built up to about 14 in a year or something, which at that time was a lot. We were next to Michael Jackson in the Guinness World Records. That’s really incredible. What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from studying Austin Osman Spare? The potency of the orgasm. The idea that you can open up any inhibitions or gateways that might normally be closed between layers of consciousness and actually reprogram your neurology, your brain, your mind. That in fact the orgasm is a moment of absolute unity. And of course, two beings having a simultaneous orgasm is a superb image of androgyny where the two become one. Spare said that’s when you can reprogram a self. You decide how you really want to change or what you need to achieve. The choices you make afterwards, without you really being aware of it, will always be geared towards what your mind thinks is going to get you closer to the desired place. You’ll continue with certain activities, drop others, maybe end or begin a relationship, travel or stay home, whatever it is. Those decisions will be made to maximize your potential of reaching the most divine version of yourself. That’s what he taught me. Can you relate a memorable encounter you had with William S. Burroughs? Oh, god. [laughs] Memorable… I don’t know if it’s memorable. I’m trying to think… no, I can’t. I mean, there’s lots of little things, but it was the entirety that really made him so special. You know, at one point we came over to New York when we were still in England. I think it was in 1980 and we were in the bunker. William wanted to try the Raudive experiments of using a crystal radio set plugged into a tape recorder to get the voices of the dead to appear in the static. Have you ever heard about that? I haven’t, no. Konstantin Raudive — I think he’s Latvian — did a book called Breakthrough, and it’s just full of all these conversations with the dead recorded on blank tape using this little crystal set. It’s incredible, and there was a record with the book so that you could actually listen and hear some of them, but unfortunately, that’s been lost. But we recommend you have a look at that at least. Yeah, I’m definitely going to. That seems super interesting. It is. But we did it together, me and William. We still have the reel-to-reel tapes. You have to release those. Well, actually, it’s funny you should mention that, because when we did it, me and William listened to them back afterwards and, “Ah, there’s nothing.” [laughs] But now that technology’s improved we were just talking to Ryan Martin [of Dais Records], and he wants to play those tapes through really high-quality speakers and see whether we can hear things. The thing that made me a little bit unsure about Raudive is that most of the voices he heard were speaking in Latvian. And you think, “Really? Do they actually know that this is a Latvian speaking? Or is he just imagining Latvian because that’s his language?” Right, like out of all the languages, why would it be Latvian, or even something humans created? Yeah. So there’s a question mark, but it’s an interesting area. Certainly there are voices. That seems pretty definite. My hope would be that they’re voices from alternative dimensions. You know, when people take psychedelics, no one asks, “Why were you traveling? What did you want to learn that was so important and who did you want to benefit beyond yourself?” We think about all these people who now do DMT and ayahuasca as psychedelic tourists. It’s like Mount Everest, which is drowning under human feces and trash. People are leaving behind their consciousness trash. They’re popping into these other worlds where all the DMT creatures are and looking around. “Oh, wow, man. Look. Ooh.” Like they’re having a picnic at the zoo. Isn’t that really impolite? You know, in that kind of situation, we believe you should cleanse yourself, bathe, talk to the spirits, ask for permission, and really be hyper aware that you’re visiting somebody else’s world. The other thing I often wonder about is, are we ripping holes in the veil between these two alternate realities where things can come through into this apparent dimension that we didn’t invite? Now, what exactly is happening? It needs to be thought about much more seriously, in my opinion, before you do that. Now, are you letting things come back this way without even realizing it, and if you are, what are those things and what’s their agenda, and are you leaving a big mess like Mount Everest? Right, like it’s shortsighted for us to think that we can have these experiences without affecting either ourselves or another realm. Exactly, and it’s a typical short-sighted human response. It’s an aspect of the capitalist society that should be very carefully kept away from the sort of shamanic spiritual experience. If we make a mess on Everest, how dare we go somewhere even more precious until we know what we’re doing and we’re respectful? This is an example of thinking about things from different directions when you’re working, and that’s an occulture moment too, you know? What’s hidden in this process? What might be going on? And you can look at it and think of certain things that seem ridiculous. But maybe somebody’s having dinner in the DMT world and then we pop in going, “Hey, this is interesting. Oh, sorry I’ve stolen your food. Blah, blah, blah, blah.” It’s a great way to consider it. I never thought about it that way. Oh, good. Well, see, that’s what we’re here for. http://j.mp/2oLE5zt