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msclaritea · 2 years ago

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"Besides his affiliations with the Tavistock Institute,2 the first reason Sargant is relevant to my own family history is that, once again, there is a curious overlap with the world of Fabianism, leftist movements, and progressive creative circles. In 1954, a convalescing Sargant was completing his book Battle for the Mind in Majorca, and had Robert Graves on hand to help him edit it. Robert Graves is of course the famous poet, novelist, and critic who is as responsible as Joseph Campbell for reintroducing ancient myths into popular culture (The White Goddess), and a primary influence in popularizing ancient history (I Claudius). In passing, he was teaching at Oxford during my grandfather's tenure there, but if they met, I never heard about it. So what's the connection between a poet-mythologist and the world of mind control? The answer I found was surprising because also familiar: the world of hallucinogens. In 1952, Robert Gordon Wasson (the man who brought the magic mushroom to the West) wrote to Graves asking him about the kind of mushroom which had allegedly been responsible for Claudius's death. Graves sent Wasson an account of ancient Mexican religious ceremonies that included the ingestion of mushrooms—mushrooms that had “eluded botanists and explorers for nearly five hundred years and, as a result, were generally considered to be mythical” (Streathfield, 2008, p. 60). Graves claimed there was new evidence for their actual existence, but that currently the only thing known about them was that they were referred to as “the flesh of God.” It was allegedly Graves's tip that sent the Wassons down to Mexico in 1955, where they made the discovery that would help kick-start the counterculture and spark off the “psychedelic revolution.” Among the first people to hear of Wasson's discovery were Graves and his “friend,” William Sargant. “In a bizarre turn, the war poet and the psychiatrist had struck up a friendship and agreed to collaborate on a book about brainwashing; two years later Battle for the Mind was a bestseller and had cemented Sargant's fame. Sargant provided the opinions, Graves the structure and layout to ‘make the saliva flow,’ as he put it” (Streathfield, 2008, p. 79). A few months after Wasson's discovery, the CIA was reporting on the work of “an amateur mycologist” and the potential to incorporate his findings into what was then Project Artichoke, soon to be MKULTRA. Small world. (Wasson's team was then allegedly “infiltrated” by CIA agent James Moore, before the next trip to Mexico.) As for Wasson being “an amateur mycologist”: maybe so, but he was also vice president for public relations at J. P. Morgan at the time, one of the biggest banks in the world, so not exactly an “independent researcher.” Researcher Jan Irvin (2015) ran a series of well-documented articles presenting evidence of just how deep Wasson's background was. For example, that Wasson headed the CIA's MKULTRA Subproject 58 program. That he served as a chairman to the Council on Foreign Relations (the CFR). That he had close ties to Allen Dulles, head of the CIA and MKULTRA initiator. That he earned a directorship at a pharmaceutical company for his mushroom discovery. That he was an account manager to the Pope and Vatican for J. P. Morgan. That he was in charge of promoting the Russian Orthodox Church for Russian immigrants. (This an odd overlap with my grandfather's invitation from the Russian Orthodox Church to visit the Soviet Union in 1954, “without any strings.” Though I have read his 35-page report, I am still unclear about the exact purpose of this visit. There is an appendix in the booklet titled: “Decree of the Central Committee of the C.P.SU [Communist Party Soviet Union]: About mistakes in conducting scientific-atheistic propaganda among the population.”)

The Vice of Kings: How Socialism Occultism and The Sexual Revolution Engineered A Culture of Abuse by Jasun Horsley

I don't know what Elmo is doing, but I know about magic mushrooms. They're strong in the form they're sold, now. Taking shrooms should be treated the same way as taking other psychedelics. You want to make sure only to trip with friends that you trust. In my circle of friends, someone would volunteer as a babysitter if it was your first time, promising to keep an eye out. At least, that's how we did it when I was younger. You always want to set a safe, comfortable atmosphere because shrooms can also be unpredictable. And yes, as a psychedelic, mushrooms can be used in mind control. That is most important to keep in mind, going forward as it's becoming legal.

#Keri Kukral

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dougmeet · 6 years ago

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Jerry Lee Lewis Elvis Assassination

dailymotion

For the first and only time, JERRY LEE LEWIS recounts the true, quixotic tale of his crepuscular, failed visit to a desperately lonely, strung-out Elvis Presley, explaining how the King's calls for an audience turned into a Graceland invasion, which turned into an assassination assignation, an arrest, a mugshot, and the untimely death of Elvis, the Golden Goose, who may have been saved from dilaudids and désuétude by one midnight visit from the only man who understood.

In this recently discovered interview, recounted for the first and only time by the Killer himself; hitherto romanticized by all who have dreamed its sartorial possibility, first Nick Tosches in his masterpiece "Hellfire," but formerly dismissed by its piano-pounding protagonist as tabloid fantasy, it is now confirmed by the only man who knows, as la superbe finale de Rock Star!

Discover the improbable cause of the jagged cicatrix decorating the nose of champagne-drunk, Jerry Lee Lewis!

Where truth meets apocrypha, its coruscating glory is real and everything is permitted (champagne défenestration, brandished pistols...and five Memphis Police cruisers are en route to Elvis Presley Boulevard to save the KING!

Due to inspire unbelievers, this is an out-of-control, rock 'n' roll telephone game between the King, the Killer, and the World!

Did he wish to kill the King?

It is for you to decide...at last!

mrjyn

...

In the early hours of November 22, 1976, Harold Loyd, Elvis', and the presiding guard on duty at Graceland, was greeted by an unexpected visitor, Jerry Lee Lewis. Jerry Lee, accompanied by his wife, pulled up to the mansion's front gate in his new Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. He asked Loyd if he could see Elvis, but was told that the King was asleep. Lewis politely thanked Loyd and drove away without incident. Later that morning, at 9:30 a.m., Lewis flipped his Rolls while rounding the corner at Peterson Lake and Powell Road in Collierville.

The police report on the incident stated that the Breathalyzer test yielded negligible results, but that Lewis was obviously tanked on something and that he was charged with driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, and driving without a license. After the infraction Lewis most likely returned to his home to rest.

On November 23, 1976, less than 12 hours later, he was holding court at The Vapors, one of his favorite Memphis nightspots. For reasons that are still debated, Lewis decided to leave the Vapors at about 2:30 a.m.

Precisely 2:50 a.m., almost 24 hours later to the minute, he again pulled up to Graceland, this time in a new Lincoln Continental. The car wasn't the only thing that had changed from the night before. Lewis' manner was markedly different. He was armed, angry, and obviously inebriated -- a dangerous combination for a man mere mortals call 'Killer', He was outta his mind, man', recalls Loyd. 'He was screamin', hollerin', and cussin'.

'Get on the goddamn phone. I know you got an intercom system. Call up there and tell Elvis I wanna visit with him. Who the hell does he think he is? Tell him the Killer's here to see him'.

Loyd panicked. 'I just put my hands up in the air and said, 'Okay, okay, Jerry, just take it easy', Loyd retreated to the guard booth and picked up the house phone. One of 'the boys' answered and Loyd apprised him of the situation. Loyd was advised to call the cops and wasted no time in doing so.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Arrested at Gates of Graceland

Moments later Elvis himself rang down to the guard booth. Loyd recalls their conversation precisely. 'Elvis was on the line and he said, 'Wh-wh-what' -- see, he used to stutter a lot when he got upset -- 'Wh-wh-what the hell's goin' on down there, Harold?' 'I said, 'Well, Jerry Lee Lewis is sittin' in his car down here outside the gate, wavin' a derringer pistol and raisin' hell', 'Elvis said, 'Wh-wh-what's that goddamn guy want?' (I said) 'He's demanding to come up and see Elvis'. 'He said, 'Oh, I-I-I don't wanna talk to that crazy sonofabitch. Hell no, I don't wanna talk to him. I'll come down there and kill him! You call the cops, Harold', 'I told him I already did and he said, 'Good. When they get there tell 'em to lock his butt up and throw the goddamn key away. Okay? Thank you, Harold', (Elvis is said to have watched the 'whole drama on his closed-circuit monitors').

Officer Billy J. Kirkpatrick was the first to arrive on the scene. Though Lewis was still seated in his car, Kirkpatrick knew he was armed and approached with caution.

The Lincoln's sole occupant sat staring out the front window. When the police got to the open driver's side window, they found that the man was Jerry Lee Lewis, balanced on his knee was a chrome-plated, over- under style .38 caliber derringer pistol. Kirkpatrick ordered him out of the car, but Lewis would not comply', (Kirkpatrick) had to pull him outta the car', remembers Loyd.

'He told him to keep his hands on the steering wheel where he could see 'em. Jerry said he just wanted to see Elvis, but Kirkpatrick told him to shut up. Now, Jerry, he had tried to hide his pistol by puttin' it in between his knee and the door. But when Kirkpatrick opened the door, the damn gun fell out onto the floorboard (laughs).

Kirkpatrick picked up the gun, and it was cocked and loaded', Mr. Lewis was extremely unstable on his feet, his speech was slurred, and his breath smelled of alcohol. Mr. Lewis was apprised of his rights and was arrested for carrying a pistol and being drunk in a public place. The police report states that on closer inspection, Kirkpatrick noticed that the front passenger window of Lewis' car was smashed in. This accounts for the deep gash on the bridge of Lewis' nose, obvious from his mugshot. According to Kirkpatrick's report, the injury was sustained 'from broken glass resulting from attempting to jettison an empty champagne bottle thru (sic) the closed window of his '76 Lincoln', Kirkpatrick and four other officers took Lewis away immediately. But Loyd would receive another visitor before night's end. He explains', When the wrecker came down and towed Jerry's car away (at approximately 4 a.m.) they hadn't much more than gotten outta sight when another car comes flyin' up the driveway and two guys got out. I recognized one of 'em as Jerry Lee's dad.

'He was laughin', sayin', 'Ha, ha, ha, ain't this some crap, man? I just got word that they've taken my son to jail. This guy with me here, he just got me outta the Hernando jail. I just got out, and Jerry done gone ahead'. Sure enough, Elmo Lewis -- age 78, no less -- was arrested at 7:30 p.m. on the 21st for speeding and driving while intoxicated. He spent two nights in jail and failed to make his court appearance scheduled for the morning of 23rd. Like father, like son, indeed.

Here is Jerry Lee Lewis' own account of what happened, as related by Kay Martin: the president of Lewis' fan club .... 'Elvis called him and asked him to come out to the house to talk to him. Jerry was out on the town and by the time he got to Elvis' house, it was much past when Elvis had expected him and Elvis was asleep. Jerry had driven up after a sheriff from MS had given him a brand new handgun, but since Jerry did not have a permit for a concealed weapon, he had it on the dashboard of his car, as the sheriff had supposedly suggested. The guard at Graceland asked Jerry what he was doing with the gun, and sarcastically Jerry said he hadn't brought it to kill Elvis, so the guy should chill out. He didn't. He called the cops. Jerry was PO'ed, but the gun stayed on the dash the whole time. The situation blew over because it was a tempest in a teapot.

The sheriff who had given Jerry the gun cleared it up, too'.

Linda Gail (Jerry Lee's youngest sibling) interpretation of November 23rd also tells a similar story. 'Jerry Lee admitted to me that he had been partyin' and drinkin' and that he was a little bit out of it', Gail recalls', but he swore his intentions were good. He's very misunderstood, you see. It's a shame really', By Linda Gail's account, it was Presley who wanted to see Jerry Lee. (As told to her by her father and as he describes in the video below) He was depressed and called over to the Vapors hoping that Jerry Lee would come to Graceland and keep him company. She insists that Loyd never even informed Presley of Jerry Lee's arrival and that Jerry Lee grew belligerent only because he feared for what Presley might do if he didn't see him.

'I believe, really and truly, that the people who were associated with Elvis at that time were trying to manipulate him. He was supporting all of them financially, and it was in their best interest to keep him isolated', Linda Gail continues', Jerry really had no motive to lie. Why would he leave a place where he was having a perfectly good time to go down to Elvis' house and make a scene? It just doesn't make any sense. He had his whole entourage with him, and a couple of girlfriends and they were having a great time. There was no reason for him to go down there other than that he was concerned for his friend', Linda Gail's voice takes on a halcyon quality when she remembers Elvis and Jerry Lee's friendship. She speaks of their mutual respect for one another and tells stories of them riding motorcycles together and even going on double dates.

'Those two guys really did love each other', she says. 'I do believe my brother just wanted to check on Elvis. He went there to cheer him up and kinda bond with him again. I guess everybody over at Graceland didn't want the two of them to get together because Jerry was really havin' one big party at the time. If he and Elvis had started runnin' the roads together, can you imagine what that would have been like? It probably would have been more than Memphis could have stood'.

I called Lewis' production company hoping to get an account of that infamous evening from the Killer himself. I didn't get very far. 'We don't need all that bullshit from y'all', barked an anonymous voice at the end of the line. 'That's in the past. If you wanna write something, write something positive, okay? Thank you much'. Click.

By: Elvis Australia Source: www.elvis.com.au September 2, 2017

Twenty years later, in November 1976, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis' encounter would be a very different affair!

Jerry Lee Lewis vs Elvis Presley 1976

According to Harold Loyd, first cousin to Elvis, and the presiding guard on duty at Presley's Graceland mansion -- in the early hours of November 22, 1976, he was greeted by an unexpected visitor. Jerry Lee Lewis, accompanied by his wife, pulled up to the mansion's front gate in his new Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. He asked Loyd if he could see Elvis, but was told that the King was asleep. Lewis politely thanked Loyd and drove away without incident.

Later that morning, at 9:30 a.m., Lewis flipped his Rolls while rounding the corner at Peterson Lake and Powell Road in Collierville. The police report on the incident stated that the Breathanalyser test yielded negligible results, but that Lewis was obviously tanked on something and that he was charged with driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, and driving without a license.

After the infraction, says his sister Linda Gail, Lewis most likely repaired to his home to rest. Less than 12 hours later, he was holding court at The Vapors, one of his favorite Memphis nightspots. For reasons that are still debated, Lewis decided to leave the Vapors -- alone -- at about 2:30 a.m. At precisely 2:50 a.m., almost 24 hours later to the minute, he again pulled up to Graceland, this time in a new Lincoln Continental. The car wasn't the only thing that had changed from the night before. Lewis' manner on the 23rd was markedly different. He was armed, angry, and obviously inebriated -- a dangerous combination for a man mere mortals call "Killer."

"He was outta his mind, man," recalls Loyd. "He was screamin', hollerin', and cussin'. `Get on the goddamn phone. I know you got an intercom system. Call up there and tell Elvis I wanna visit with him. Who the hell does he think he is? Tell him the Killer's here to see him."

Loyd panicked. "I just put my hands up in the air and said, `Okay, okay, Jerry, just take it easy.'"

Loyd retreated to the guard booth and picked up the house phone. One of "the boys" answered and Loyd apprised him of the situation. Loyd was advised to call the cops, and wasted no time in doing so. Moments later Presley himself rang down to the guard booth.

Loyd recalls their conversation precisely. "Elvis was on the line and he said, `Wh-wh-what' -- see, he used to stutter a lot when he got upset -- `Wh-wh-what the hell's goin' on down there, Harold?'

"I said, `Well, Jerry Lee Lewis is sittin' in his car down here outside the gate, wavin' a derringer pistol and raisin' hell.'

"Elvis said, `Wh-wh-what's that goddamn guy want?'

"[I said] `He's demanding to come up and see Elvis’.”

"He said, `Oh, I-I-I don't wanna talk to that crazy sonofabitch. Hell no, I don't wanna talk to him. I'll come down there and kill him! You call the cops, Harold.'

"I told him I already did and he said, `Good. When they get there tell 'em to lock his butt up and throw the goddamn key away. Okay? Thank you, Harold.'"

Officer Billy J. Kirkpatrick was the first to arrive on the scene. Though Lewis was still seated in his car, Kirkpatrick knew he was armed and approached with caution. Kirkpatrick ordered him out of the car, but Lewis would not comply.

"[Kirkpatrick] had to pull him outta the car," remembers Loyd. "He told him to keep his hands on the steering wheel where he could see 'em. Jerry said he just wanted to see Elvis, but Kirkpatrick told him to shut up. Now Jerry, he had tried to hide his pistol by puttin' it in between his knee and the door. But when Kirkpatrick opened the door, the damn gun fell out onto the floorboard [laughs]. Kirkpatrick picked up the gun, and it was cocked and loaded."

The police report states that on closer inspection, Kirkpatrick noticed that the front passenger window of Lewis' car was smashed in. This accounts for the deep gash on the bridge of Lewis' nose, obvious from his mugshot. According to Kirkpatrick's report, the injury was sustained "from broken glass resulting from attempting to jettison an empty champagne bottle thru [sic] the closed window of his '76 Lincoln."

Kirkpatrick and four other officers took Lewis away immediately. But Loyd would receive another visitor before night's end. He explains, "When the wrecker came down and towed Jerry's car away [at approximately 4 a.m.] they hadn't much more than gotten outta sight when another car comes flyin' up the driveway and two guys got out. I recognized one of 'em as Jerry Lee's dad.

"He was laughin', sayin', `Ha, ha, ha, ain't this some crap, man? I just got word that they've taken my son to jail. This guy with me here, he just got me outta the Hernando jail. I just got out, and Jerry done gone ahead.'"

Sure enough, Elmo Lewis -- age 78, no less -- was arrested at 7:30 p.m. on the 21st for speeding and driving while intoxicated. He spent two nights in jail, and failed to make his court appearance scheduled for the morning of 23rd. Like father, like son, indeed.

However Linda Gail (Jerry Lee's youngest sibling) interpretation of November 23rd reads quite a bit differently.

"Jerry Lee admitted to me that he had been partyin' and drinkin' and that he was a little bit out of it," Gail recalls, "but he swore his intentions were good. He's very misunderstood, you see. It's a shame really."

By Linda Gail's account, it was Presley who wanted to see Jerry Lee. He was depressed and called over to the Vapors hoping that Jerry Lee would come to Graceland and keep him company. She insists that Loyd never even informed Presley of Jerry Lee's arrival, and that Jerry Lee grew belligerent only because he feared for what Presley might do if he didn't see him.

"I believe, really and truly, that the people who were associated with Elvis at that time were trying to manipulate him. He was supporting all of them financially, and it was in their best interest to keep him isolated."

Linda Gail continues, "Jerry really had no motive to lie. Why would he leave a place where he was havin' a perfectly good time to go down to Elvis' house and make a scene? It just doesn't make any sense. He had his whole entourage with him, and a couple of girlfriends, and they were havin' a great time. There was no reason for him to go down there other than that he was concerned for his friend."

Linda Gail's voice takes on a halcyon quality when she remembers Elvis and Jerry Lee's friendship. She speaks of their mutual respect for one another, and tells stories of them riding motorcycles together and even going on double dates.

"Those two guys really did love each other," she says. "I do believe my brother just wanted to check on Elvis. He went there to cheer him up and kinda bond with him again. I guess everybody over at Graceland didn't want the two of them to get together because Jerry was really havin' one big party at the time. If him and Elvis had started runnin' the roads together, can you imagine what that would have been like? It probably would have been more than Memphis could have stood."

** Story by Piers Beagley EIN and also taken from The Memphis Flyer **

Note - Elvis “mug-shot” from 1970 when he was presented with an honorary police badge.

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nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

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A Provocateur Painter Subverts Race in Rainbow Hues

A white woman with blond hair and a gun stands guard over a prison population full of black and brown faces in Nina Chanel Abney's painting Class of 2007. The work is a self-portrait of Abney as the lone white figure, sort of an inverse of Adrian Piper's Self Portrait Exaggerating my Negroid Features. Each of the painting's black inmates are portraits of her classmates at Parsons—all 18 of whom were white. Class of 2007 is on view as part of a 10-year survey of Abney's work, titled Royal Flush, at the Nasher Museum of Art in Durham, NC. And though it's the oldest painting included in the exhibition, its tongue-in-cheek depiction of race and policing bookends themes that run throughout the artist's body of work.

The painting is also an early example of Abney's affinity for swapping out the races of her subjects, an approach that she continues to develop in paintings like Pool Party at Rockingham, which depicts naked black men giving naked white men piggyback rides (a reversal of the photograph Abney based the painting on). Her painting Where shows black cops strong-arming white civilians, a reversal of all-too-common scenes of racially-driven police brutality.

Royal Flush installation view feat. Class of 2007, courtesy Nasher Museum of Art. Photo: J. Caldwell

Abney was propelled to success by her inclusion in 30 Americans, a game-changing exhibition that put her in the company of artists like Kara Walker, Barkley Hendricks, and Jean-Michel Basquiat when she was still in her 20s. But Abney resists a classification as a black artist, and continues to play with race as a fluid concept in her paintings.

"Being white is just understood as being the standard," she tells Creators on a phone call from her studio in Jersey City. "So you're given the distinction of being a black artist instead of just being an artist."

Hothouse, 2016

In Royal Flush, you can trace Abney's painterly evolution from early paintings like Class of 2007, which are filled with specific, at times personal, subjects like President Barack Obama, Condoleezza Rice, Bill Cosby, and the artist's classmates. Other works incorporate stencils, flat colors, and repeating, emoji-like symbols.

"The whole reason I began using symbols," Abney says, "was just to simplify my work so that anyone looking at it can make their own connections."

Nina Chanel Abney, "Always a Winner" installation view

Moving away from the style of painting that resulted in Abney's early fame—big, dripping brushstrokes and caricatures of well-known personalities—might have seemed risky in less qualified hands. But Abney is part of the sliver of America's population that was born before the internet but after hip-hop, and she's witnessed the digital era roll in like a thunderstorm. From the Rodney King tapes to The Real World to Instagram, technology has become the primary influence on visual culture, and Abney's newest paintings speak the language of someone fully immersed in the digital realm but capable of detaching from it, like an anthropologist documenting her hometown.

"I think about the way my mom uses the phone or the internet," she says. "It's kind of like she realizes she has to, but there's not really a connection to it. And then someone like my younger sister, she's always used the internet and it's always been part of her everyday life. But for me, I feel like I've witnessed it happen. And so that's why it's very interesting to me, and it's a little scary to know how quickly all these things have happened."

Untitled (FUCK T*E*OP), 2014

Her painting Untitled (FUCKT*E*OP) incorporates the concepts that have been a throughline in Abney's career, namely the racially charged relationship between police and civilians, with an onslaught of shapes, numbers, symbols, and a color palette that's as much Memphis Group as it is Cross Colours.

"In different paintings, the numbers mean certain things," she says. "Some are birth dates or some other symbolic distinction. Sometimes I just throw things in to throw the viewer off from trying to attach any meaning to it." Abney's mastery of pop culture combines influences from television, politics, the internet, and art history in equal measure—for a truly contemporary artist, there is no higher aspiration.

First and Last

I Dread to Think, 2012

Who, 2015

Where, 2015

Nina Chanel Abney's exhibition Royal Flush is on view at the Nasher Museum of Art through July 16.

Crocheted Cowboys, Nature Nudes, and Elmo Wind Chimes: 9 Highlights from the Dallas Art Fair

Nina Simone's "Young, Gifted and Black" Inspires an Exhibition in South Africa

Generations of Artist-Provocateurs Join Forces in 'Piss and Vinegar'

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#IFTTT #creators

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