And now the latest installment of John Gillander’s continuingExtra Dimensional. Recently Mr. Gillanders was featured on the weird and irreverent Paratopia, a podcast which takes a controversial look at high strangeness and the paranormal. Check it out here.
When I found her she was huddled on a bed in the basement bedroom, laughing and crying simultaneously – it was quite a peculiar spectacle. They hadn’t held anything back with her, and I should have seen it coming. She was addicted to order, which is why she made such a formidable counterpart. There are holes missing from my brain, she helped fill in the gaps while my mind constantly drifted skyward. We made perfect sense in that quintessential odd couple kind of way. But letting go in the manner necessary to enjoy a hallucinogenic frenzy was probably beyond her current capabilities. I should have known this. If you resist the wave, it beats you into the rocks, and they’d been beating her for a while now. She was sick to her stomach, and one of those people that has problems letting go enough to vomit, so it tormented her internally. But there was more going on. There’d been a level of communiqué afoot. As she stared in the basement mirror something from within forced her to contemplate her self perception, and acknowledge her own distorted self image. Read more…
Friday September 3, 2010 7pm at Elliott Bay Book Company Ralph Metzner will speak about the good old days of experimentation way back in the 1960′s.
Ralph Metzner, veteran (with Ram Dass and Timothy Leary, among others) of the experimentation with mind-altering substances at Harvard, speaks about his experiences in those early days, as chronicled in his new book, Birth of a Psychedelic Culture: Conversations about the Harvard Experiments, Leary, Millbrook and the Sixties (Synergetic Press). Ram Dass and Gary Bravo are co-authors. Co-founder of the Green Earth Foundation, Ralph Metzner also practices psychotherapy and is professor emeritus at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His many books include Alchemical Divination and MindSpace and TimeStream.
This Thursday at the Fun House, unknown legends of skronk and roll Trumans Water make a rare stateside appearance. The show coincides with the release of their 13th album O Zeta Zunis on Asthmatic Kitty who have plans to release the bands entire back catalog. Originating in San Diego in the early 90′s they’ve spent much time overseas in the past decade or so, but never stopped producing amazing and confounding music. Falling somewhere between Beefheart and Flipper Trumans Water still stand up next to most of the greats of 90′s noise rock but have remained elusive to many folks in the states. Trumans was a big favorite of John Peel who had them on for several Peel sessions over the years and once played their entire album uninterrupted over the BBC airwaves effectively melting the minds of the entire populace.
Peaking Lights are on tour but alas I will have to settle for this fascinating film as they are not traveling to my mizrable and goshforsaken burg. Perhaps you are a luckier sort. Check out the whole “Sound Builders” series though it’s pretty nice…
7/27/10 – The Crepe Place, Santa Cruz, CA w/ Pocahaunted + Mi Ami
7/28/10 – Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco, CA, w/ Pocahaunted + Mi Ami+ Late Young
7/29/10 – Muddy Water’s Cafe, Santa Barbara, CA w/ Pocahaunted + Mi Ami
7/30/10 – The Bootleg Theater, LA, w/ Pocahaunted + Mi Ami
8/2/10 – Echo Curio, LA w/Ged Gengras, Sun Araw, Metal Rouge, Robedoor
8/3/10 – Tin Can House, San Diego, CA – w/Metal Rouge
And now another spirited rant from Mr. John Gillanders, here’s his latest installment of “Extra Dimensional”…
If you were to think of our species as united cosmically as one being, which is something that most of our religions and prominent neuronauts have been telling us since the beginning of what we perceive as time – plotlines begin to emerge that don’t necessarily involve self destruction. In not listening to these viewpoints, we’ve separated ourselves from our own eternal nature and the essence of time. We’re kind of like an idiot savant that can program the shit out of a computer but couldn’t get a date if his life depended on it. Another way of putting it is that we’re becoming increasingly and dangerously unbalanced as an individual; a work-a-holic who’s career success has blinded him to the fact that his personal life is in shambles. This unbalance has produced some hilarious and mind blowingly horrific enchantments, but we need to diversify our science now more than ever. Pleasure rather than violence. Cooperation rather than competition. Self love rather than self hatred. Biology rather than synthetics. DMT rather than prozac. Read more…
Moon Duo are currently on the road to celebrate their Woodsist release "Escape" on Feb 16.
Check 'em out tonight on DJ Rick's KDVS show on Feb 15, 10PM PST (http://www.kdvs.org/).
FEBRUARY 2010 WEST COAST TOUR DATES
2/11 • Hemlock Tavern, San Francisco, CA (w/ Nothing People, Epikurs Euforie)
2/12 • Synchronicity Space, Los Angeles, CA (w/ Pocahaunted, Psychic Handbook)
2/13 • Showcave, Los Angeles, CA (w/ Psychic Handbook, Former Ghosts, Popdrone)
2/15 • KDVS Radio, Davis, CA
2/16 • Brookedale Lodge, Santa Cruz, CA (w/ The Entrance Band, Lights)
2/18 • Rendezvous, Seattle, WA (w/ Du Hexen Hase, Midday Veil)
2/19 • ANZA Club, Vancouver, BC (w/ Stellar OM Source, Pacific City Nightlife Vision Band)
2/20 • East End, Portland, OR (w/ The Urinals, Leaders, Eat Skull)
They'll be in Seattle this thursday in the Jewelbox Theater at the Rendezvous 2322 2nd ave.
along with the terrifying sounds of Du Hexen Hase and ethereal vibes of Midday Veil.
Here’s the latest installment of Extra Dimensional. Check out the last installment HERE.
“The soul is not in the body, the body is in the soul. Do you understand? Look…..we….. are……..you. Try to remember.
The above is something that seemingly omnipotent alien beings tell Jack Frost in Grant Morrison’s brilliant series The Invisibles, right before he learns to bend reality to his own will for a brief period. Despite being one of my favorite pieces of art in any medium, I still don’t own the series in its entirety due to my inability to commit to buying things like graphic novels when I can get them for free at the library (you actually have to get The Invisibles through inter library loan as the SPL doesn’t have it). But in this case I’ve made an exception and decided to buy a volume every six months or so to slowly run through it all again for a second time. About a month after reading that particular passage, I woke up from a deep lucid dream state where I felt as if I’d been submerged in a rich and luminous reassuring energy that was hell bent on imparting a distinct message to me.
When I found myself returning to semi-normal consciousness I struggled to grasp onto this particular nugget of wisdom due to its strange and otherworldly nature. It was becoming rapidly lost in translation between realms. But then it was as if a visible translation program emerged in my mind’s eye and quickly codified the intent of the message into terms I could easily comprehend. “The soul is not in the body, the body is inside the soul, try to remember.” It didn’t get through with optimum efficiency, but it couldn’t have come across any more clearly. I briefly basked in a feeling of existential bliss and slowly drifted back to sleep. In attempting to pursue a more shamanic or magickal life path, as I’ve been doing for the last four years or so, events start to happen that seem impossible and yet, if you think of the world as rooted in a more expansive cosmology, they all begin to make sense. Accepting that differentiated world view is a fundamental tenet to truly pursuing a life of sorcery
Of course, The Invisibles was largely written as a means to help Mr. Morrison (who has a documentary coming out later this year called Talking with Gods) explain an alien encounter he had in Katmandu, where sentient beings invaded his life and took him outside of the time stream. He was shown that we are eternal energy sources being grown inside of time as a means of creation, but aren’t even fully aware of ourselves as of yet; still infantile in our development – which further explores the idea that higher forces are manipulating us as a means to expand reality or “increase novelty” as Terence Mckenna would have referred to it. To quote the man himself, they showed him that:
“the universe was, was a larval form of what they are, which is fifth-dimensional entities. And the only way to grow a fifth-dimensional entity is to plant it in time, henceforth our universe.”
Prolific New Zealand experimentalist Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel) will be making only four stops in the US and this is one- Saturday Jan. 9th at the Funhouse in Seattle. Melt your face with sound. Our Love Will Destroy The World (New Zealand) AFCGT (check out their new shit, it will mess you up good) Dull Knife (members of Story of Rats and Du Hexen Hase) Great Falls (Hemingway, Playing Enemy)
With brand new hypnogogic visual accompaniment by Portable Shrines
Have you been wishing for a queer/ fantasy/ Magic/ DnD/ Metal fest?
Well…TOMORROW (11/28) in North Portland it is on! workshops include: Witchcraft 101, Let the Muthaf***a Burn: Intro to Candle Magic, Image Magic: Intro to the history and uses of Tarot, and Hand/Palm Reading.
PLUS…Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Northern Swords, and Forsorcerers and playing it. Damn, Portland is cool.
“Well you know John, the drug war is just an excuse to throw minorities in prison.”
The above is something my uncle, who’s a successful corporate attorney, told me after I was arrested for possession of LSD over a decade ago. It was precisely this advice that persuaded my Dad, who at first vowed zero assistance to cough up the $3500 or so dollars it took to hire a fancy lawyer to talk the charges down to the misdemeanor “attempted possession of LSD”. If it wasn’t for this money, which is little more than a demonstration to the courts that you’re not dirt poor, I might have struggled to have continued access to things like gainful employment and the ability to vote in our society.
The entire process of being thrown in jail and jumping through the endless hoops of the legal system (not to mention being financially drained) left me lower than I’d ever been previously or have sank to since. In short, they had broken my psychologically, which is what the system is designed to do. But in the process I learned a few things. For one, most drug charges are little more than a shakedown. If you can buy your way out of them, you’re probably not going to serve any serious jail time. Secondly, despite what organizations like NORML might tell you, you don’t have any fucking rights in matters like these unless you’re wealthy. It was a blatant case of illegal search and seizure, the cop’s story made zero sense, but you know how much money it would have taken to get that shit in front of a jury? Yeah, more than I had or my Dad was willing to spend. So really it’s just the cop’s word against yours and who do you think the Judge is going to believe?
All of last week’s Halloween festivities left me in the mood to write a horror blog this month, and in my mind, there’s nothing more abjectly terrifying than the drug war. The loosening of the federal government’s persecution of medicinal marijuana and the economic collapse (not to mention having a minority president who has openly admitted to smoking pot) have lead to an increasing dialogue about the legalization of the marijuana. Which is a step in the right direction for sure, but it’s important to understand that the war on drugs is more than just a war on people, it’s also a war on our spiritual development as a species.
Tonight Saturday 10/16 the imminent Kurt Vile returns to Seattle (this time with his band the Violators) along w/ Eat Skull, the Whines and Charles Leo Gebhardt IV. At the High Dive in Fremont…
Coming November 1st- A Portable Shrines Dia de los Muertos show w/ Blues Control, Little Claw and Brother Raven at the Funhouse. Blues Control (of Queens, NY) have been gifting the world with unique and amazing jams on reputable labels such as Holy Mountain, SiltBreeze and Sub Pop for some time now but I believe this rare appearance in the NW is their first journey to these parts. Don’t miss it, cousins.
Little Claw are one of Kim and Thurston’s fave bands (he just put out there 2nd album on Ecstatic Peace) and they leave a trail of fire in their wake wherever they go. Check out some of their new tunes HERE.
Little Claw in the light of day...
Brother Raven are a local Seattle duo who deserve your undivided attention. Their analog virtuosity will take you on an awesome voyage through the pineapple portal and into interstellar space. Dig up on that shit right HERE.
“Art is magick because art transforms consciousness”
Alan Moore
The above nugget of cosmic wisdom was culled from the documentary: The Mindscape of Alan Moore, which was released on DVD stateside in 2008 to little fanfare. When I just checked, there were exactly two holds placed on said movie at the public library, whereas comparatively the Watchmen DVD had nearly a thousand. Which is really too bad, and kind of a reflection on how we want the body of our art and not always the mind. To be honest, I ran out and saw Watchmen on opening weekend back in March and banished Mindscape to the bottom of my ever expanding Netflix cue before just getting around to finally checking it out last month.
If I were to recommend a cogent introduction to so called magickal thought, I’d suggest this to anyone far more than actually reading anything Aleister Crowley’s written (which I’m still yet to get much out of) – which is kind of the aberrant thing with magickal writing. Whereas, people like Austin Osman Spare and Crowley are often seen as the forefathers of western magickal thought, I’ve personally found it far more beneficial to read other’s interpretation of their work rather than hearing it directly from their own mouths. In fact, it was actually attempting to read Crowley that turned me off to all things magick for years.
