Sothis Medias

Sothis Medias Has Moved

2009-12-15T15:32:00.002-05:00

This blog has moved to www.sothismedias.com
Please join me there for further adventures in dreams, magick, musick, literature and more.

Robert Moss Interview & more

2009-05-28T09:38:00.002-04:00

Dear Friends,
Joining me "On the Way to the Peak of Normal" tonight is special guest, Robert Moss, a gifted raconteur, writer, and dreamer, discussing the "three only things" of dreams, cooincidence and imagination. We will also be talking about his latest publication, " The Secret History of Dreaming", a book that "restores a missing dimension to our understanding of what drives the human adventure: the vital role of dreams and imagination in science and literature, war and religion, medicine and the survival of our kind. History without the inner side is as shallow as history without economics, and as boring as history without sex. This book makes history fun. On the foundation of decades of original scholarly research and synthesis, it eloquently delivers the necessary past: the lessons that can help us create a better future."

After the Interview, the rest of the show will be devoted to musick inspired directly from dreams and visions.

The shows airs live on Thursday, May 28th between 10PM and Midnight EST, at 88.3 FM, WAIF Cincinnati, or online at the following address:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/waif-cincinnati or follow the link from www.waif883.org
From the bio on his website, www.mossdreams.com : Moss describes himself as “a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture.” He identifies the great watershed in his adult life as a sequence of visionary events that unfolded in 1987-1988, after he decided to leave the world of big cities and the fast-track life of a popular novelist (already the author of four New York Times bestsellers) and put down roots on a farm in the upper Hudson Valley of New York. Moss started dreaming in a language he did not know that proved to be an archaic form of the Mohawk language. Helped by native speakers to interpret his dreams, Moss came to believe that they had put him in touch with an ancient healer – a woman of power – and that they were calling him to a different life. Out of these experiences he wrote a series of historical novels (The Firekeeper, Fire Along the Sky, The Interpreter) and developed the practice he calls Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of contemporary dreamwork and shamanic methods of journeying and healing. A central premise of Moss’s approach is that dreaming isn’t just what happens during sleep; dreaming is waking up to sources of guidance, healing and creativity beyond the reach of the everyday mind.He introduced his method to an international audience as an invited presenter at the conference of the Association for the Study of Dreams at the University of Leiden in 1994.
Core techniques of Active Dreaming includeThe “lightning dreamwork” process, designed to facilitate quick dream-sharing that results in helpful action; the use of the “if it were my dream” protocol encourages the understanding that the dreamer is always the final authority on his or her dream Dream reentry: the practice of making a conscious journey back inside a dream in order to clarify information, dialogue with a dream character, or move beyond nightmare terrors into healing and resolution Tracking and group dreaming: conscious dream travel on an agreed itinerary by two or more partners, often supported by shamanic drumming Navigating by synchronicity: reading coincidence and “symbolic pop-ups” in ordinary life as “everyday oracles”.

Robert will also be giving a talk about his latest book, "The Secret History of Dreaming" at Joseph-Beth on friday June 4th at 7:00PM All of us are living a STORY. What BIG Story is hunting YOU? The Healing Power of Story Workshop When: Sat June 6, 10-5 Sun June 7, 10-4If we fail to define ourselves, we let ourselves be defined by others.

All of us are living a story. If we don’t know what it is, it’s likely to be a little, limiting story, woven from past disappointments, stitched tight by people forever telling us who we are, what we can and cannot accomplish.Great healing becomes available when we draw on the immense energy generated by serving a larger purpose. We gain courage and stamina to get through the ups & downs of daily life, aware that we’re acting in a deeper drama. Australian Aborigines say that the BIG stories are hunting the right people to tell them, like predators stalking in the bush. The trick is to put ourselves in a place where the BIG stories can find us. In this weekend of creative play, we’ll let the BIG stories hunt us, and learn to embody their power and healing in our lives.We’ll explore and perform some of the BIG stories from myth and literature...*The Japanese story of the sun goddess who hid her light because she was abused, and how she was coaxed back...*The Gnostic story of the forgetful envoy sent into this world on a vital mission, but forgot what it was...*Dante’s story of how we approach our truest life teacher by knocking on the heart.From dreams and shared journeys, spontaneous theatre and entertainments, we’ll harvest personal stories, charged with energy and meaning, becoming the authors of our own life scripts!When: Sat June 6, 10-5 Sun June 7, 10-4 Where: Writing for (a) Change 6906 Plainfield Rd. Cin, Oh 45236How: Write check to “Robert Moss.” Mail to Robin O’Neal 1 Osprey Ln Cin OH 45246Cost: $225 before 5/15/09; $275 after. TO REGISTER: Contact Robin 513.659.3356or roknrobinwrites@mac.com

Media Squat

2009-04-20T16:35:00.002-04:00

"President Obama may be smarter than most of us, but he’s still attempting to rescue the very institutions that robbed us in the first place. He’s not a socialist, as conservatives may be arguing, but he is a corporatist. Using future tax dollars to fund government job programs is one thing. Using future tax dollars to give banks more money to lend out at interest is robbing from the poor to pay the rich to rob from the poor." -Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas has a new radio show/podcast on one of my favorite stations of all time, Jersey's WFMU... check out Media Squat here: http://wfmu.org/playlists/RK
This sentence is a link to the whole article the quote is taken from.

Writers of the Future, Honorable Mention

2009-03-13T11:35:00.003-04:00

My novelette, "Trepanning for Gold" received an Honorable Mention in the 1st quarter of the Writers of the Future contest. Congratulations to those who won in each respective category, and to all the others who made the Honorable Mention list. We'll keep on keeping on. Write, write, revise, edit, rewrite and write some more.
For those whom don't know, Writers of the Future is a great contest, run in quarters (winners drawn from each quarter, all winners printed in the book each year). If you write Science Fiction or Fantasy you should really consider entering this contest. There is a parallel contest for illustrators. This contest has been a gateway for many entering the publishing world.

Systems Failure

2009-03-11T08:10:00.003-04:00

I saw the cover of the Cincinnati Enquirer today at the coffee shop. "Our System Has Failed Us". It should have read "Our Systems". Plural, with an S. If the human race got a report card, like I did in the dream I had last night, it would be studded with F's and D minuses. Sure, their might be a few C's where we are just muddling along, maybe even a B. An A might represent those stunning achievements of our geniuses and cultural innovators. If the assesment was for a midterm, the notes at the bottom would read, "unless drastic measures are taken, by the end of the quarter, Cultural Fugue will certainly have been entered."
Cultural Fugue is a term coined by Samuel R. Delany, a writer of, and critical thinker on, Science Fiction. It comes from his book "Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand." It is sort of a combination of toxic ills, uncontrolled pollution and toxic waste, and nuclear war all propelled by socio-economic stress. When a planet enters Cultural Fugue their might be no turning back. In Delany's own words it is when "socioeconomic pressures reach a point of technological recomplication and perturbation where the population completely destroys all life across the planetary surface." Sometimes it can be averted. Often times it is not. Luckily, for those planets, they exist only in a world of fiction.
So what to do in this time of planetary crisis in all systems, economic, education, environment?Our judicial systems crumble and health care is a farce. Can we halt the claws of entropy before several arteries are sliced?
I believe so. But to do it we need to dip our hands into the realm of magick and dreams, bring back the gifts present there.
A study of history shows that humanity has always been ushered along by contact with extra dimensional beings, angels, fairy folk and the like. This will be the subject of my next post.

Kim Stanley Robinson

2009-03-09T10:23:00.003-04:00

"Does the word postcapitalism look odd to you? It should, because you hardly ever see it. We have a blank spot in our vision of the future. Perhaps we think that history has somehow gone away. In fact, history is with us now more than ever, because we are at a crux in the human story. Choosing not to study a successor system to capitalism is an example of another kind of denial, an ostrich failure on the part of the field of economics and of business schools, I think, but it’s really all of us together, a social aporia or fear. We have persistently ignored and devalued the future—as if our actions are not creating that future for our children, as if things never change. But everything evolves. With a catastrophe bearing down on us, we need to evolve at nearly revolutionary speed. So some study of what could improve and replace our society’s current structure and systems is in order. If we don’t take such steps, the consequences will be intolerable. On the other hand, successfully dealing with this situation could lead to a sustainable civilization that would be truly exciting in its human potential" -Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim is one of my favorite science fiction writers and a leading environmental thinker. Do yourself a favor and read this quick article by him... and pick up one of his books. My favorites are the "Three California's" series (The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge) and his Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). He is a fascinating, thought provoking writer.

H**ster Haiku

2009-03-06T14:01:00.001-05:00

Went to the Tavern
make a lot of money,
still bought PBR

2009-02-26T16:59:00.003-05:00

Friends: Tune in to On the Way to the Peak of Monster this evening, presented by Dr. Sydosky on 88.3 FM, Cincinnati, between the hours of 10PM and Midnight, February 26th. Dr. Sydosky will be sharing his life long obsession with all things monstrous. You, as a listener, will become the guinea pigs in his depraved experiments. Mad science takes over the airwaves! Tonight! ...and with the possibility of a thunder storm, the creation of new life...

Cincinnati's Climate Protection Action Plan

2009-02-19T11:40:00.002-05:00

Cincinnati may not seem like it is on the cutting edge of Green initiatives, but that isn't necessarily true. They just haven't been all that well publicized. The City's Climate Protection Action Plan can be found here.

Pullman/Delany

2009-02-18T14:14:00.005-05:00

I hope Philip Pullman writes a long book soon. In the meantime I've satisfied myself with his most recent book, that takes place in the world of His Dark Materials trilogy, "Once Upon A Time in the North". It tells the story of how Iorek Byrnison and Lee Scoresby first meet, and is a fine one at that, told in his inimitable style.

I also read an excerpt from "The Splendor and Misery of Bodies of Cities"... the second part to Samuel R. Delany's proposed diptych, the unfinished sequel to the excellent "Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand". The excerpt I read was from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. XVI, no. 3, 1996.

Taste of the Day

2009-02-18T14:02:00.004-05:00

I met Dave at the grand opening of Take the Cake. Someone took a picture of us for Cinweekly.

Taste of the day: Milk Chocolate. I had a craving for dark chocolate, but could only find third rate chocolate in the machine...

Sound(s) of the Day

2009-02-16T13:41:00.002-05:00

Yesterday: 4/4 beats
Today: Lurching beep of errant barcodes.

Sound of the Day

2009-02-14T13:42:00.002-05:00

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sound of the Day

2009-02-13T15:57:00.001-05:00

Old wet leaves squelching under my feet, the dog panting behind me.

Sound of the Day

2009-02-12T13:24:00.001-05:00

The buzzing hum of electromagnetic fields and fluorescent lights.

Valentines...Monsters

2009-02-12T09:06:00.004-05:00

Tonight I will be doing a valentines show on WAIF 88.3 FM in Cincinnati (ten to midnight, Feb 12th)... in two weeks, Monster Syd has prepared something that will make all of your nightmares look tame:

Sound of the Day

2009-02-11T11:44:00.002-05:00

The clanky roll of metal carts across the bricks of the atrium floor.

New Reviews & New Sounds

2009-02-10T08:53:00.002-05:00

A new review up at Brainwashed: Blah Blah 666 and from last week, when I failed to blog, 17 Pygmies.

Now also, back to the five senses:
Sound of the day: Electric fan hum drone whirring air.

Sight of the Day

2009-02-03T16:21:00.002-05:00

The rusty crust on the bottom of the coffe pot: it looks as burnt as our coffee smells.

Sight(s) of the Day

2009-02-02T08:15:00.002-05:00

Happy Imbolc.
I know I missed a few days, so here are three sights of the day in one post!
Satyrday I saw: a chair on a pile of snow straddling the highway meridian.
Sunday: old rusting cast iron skillets through the lens of a cosmorex.
Monday: Slush of black ice as it trickles to the storm drain.

waifstream run dry

2009-01-31T08:53:00.003-05:00

Why "On the Way to the Peak of Normal" isn't streaming online anymore... finally an explanation. Find out why the water has run dry in the waifstream. It is a shame that the station I am part of can't seem to make it into the 21st century in any significant way. We used to have online archives of past shows, a good stream, and more. It is one of my goals this year to bring the show to you in a podcast format. I have a really full plate so I don't know when that will be, but I'll keep you posted.

Sight of the Day

2009-01-30T15:28:00.002-05:00

A post it note saying: M. Mitch, Found False Teeth, followed by a phone number...

Books I've Read

2009-01-30T11:35:00.005-05:00

Clockwork by Philip Pullman... He should be listed in the steampunk cannon, if he hasn't been already. I've thoroughly enjoyed all 8 or so books I've read by him. A highly recommended writer to read.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J. K. Rowling... a nice diversion with good insights into the world of the wizards. I want more though... further immersion into that world.

From Shit to Biofuel

2009-01-30T09:51:00.001-05:00

Alchemy at its finest: turning the dross of shit into the gold of biofuel. I hope American cities can learn something from the rest of the world and follow suit.

Sight of the Day

2009-01-29T16:25:00.002-05:00

A Crow sitting on my neighbors tree branch, a piece of meat clipped in its beak.

Sight of the Day

2009-01-28T22:52:00.001-05:00

Icicles trickling down off the trees like cones of light frozen in time.
So begins a week of visual exploration.

Smell of the Day

2009-01-27T10:54:00.001-05:00

Green tea that smells like a popcorn kernel. Thanks for the Tea, Elliot.
That's the last smell... tomorrow we move into another sensory world.

smell of the day

2009-01-26T15:07:00.002-05:00

Smell of the day: Money, green, dirty, and freshly laundered, as cotton always should be.
I saw the G-Man sniffing a wad of cash in the breakroom today, and it inspired the smell.

Two New Reviews Up On Brainwashed

2009-01-26T08:58:00.003-05:00

Two new reviews of mine are now up on Brainwashed. They are "Strings of Consciousness & Angel" and "Anahita".

Smell of the Day

2009-01-25T17:01:00.002-05:00

I know... yet another smell of the day. This is the 5th one, so only three more to go after this. Anyway, when I woke up today I had a nasty black and red booger I had to hack out of my nose. It was actually more like a scab in case you wanted to know. Since then I haven't really been able to smell anything. Except the yummy cookies I didn't eat at Sitwell's this morning.

Smell of the Day

2009-01-24T11:23:00.002-05:00

Smell of the day:
Coffee roasting over an open fire... Busch beer percolating in garbage cans.

Smell of the Day

2009-01-23T09:55:00.001-05:00

The cold antiseptic of the doctors office, clean and sterilized

Exhaust Fumes

2009-01-22T08:37:00.003-05:00

Smell of the day: Exhaust fumes, from the fucking car that hit me on my way to work today, crossing Hamilton at the Chase intersection. I feel okay. No pain. Just in shock. That doesn't mean your prayers aren't needed or appreciated.

Smell of the Day

2009-01-21T08:37:00.002-05:00

A new feature I hope to implement for the next five weeks... A description of something perceived with one of the five senses each day, each week being dedicated to a different sense... then in the sixth week, moving into the sixth sense.

Todays smell: "Like old moth balls and diet soda."

The Prisoner is now Free

2009-01-18T12:27:00.003-05:00

R.I.P. Patrick McGoohan

March 19, 1928 - 13 January 2009

If you haven't ever watched The Prisoner do yourself a favor and take a viddy. It portrays a very orwellian big brother town in which everyone is under constant surveillance, has no names, only numbers, and is unfortunately too close to home. The creator and actor in this show, Patrick McGoohan recently passed away. May he rest in peace, in the Light of God.

"I am not a number, I'm a free man!"

Back to Pure Musick

2009-01-16T10:32:00.003-05:00

Set List for On the Way to the Peak of Normal, Jan 15th broadcast:

1. I Hear A New World - Joe Meek
2. System - Calder
3. Velvet Shoon - Anahita
4. Cover Me (slowly) - Deerhunter
5. You Are My Home - Rivulets
6. Born Into You - Pantaleimon
7. Larsen w/ David Tibet - ABECEDA pt. 3
8. O Felix - Azim Ali (St. Hildegard Von Bingen)
9. The Cusp of Magic - Terry Riley / Kronos Quartet with Wu-Man
10. #2 (from & Angel) - Strings of Consciousness
11. Far Away from the City - Cranes
12. I Wear Your Ring - Cocteau Twins
13. I Go With Him - Nina Nastasia
14. Brompton Oratory - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
15. Komm mit - Faust
16. Guess the Politician - the Legendary Pink Dots
17. Mother - A Bad Diana (Diana Rogerson)
18. The Lonely People (are getting lonelier) - Stars of the Lid

background music - Black Hole Sun ala Moog Cookbook

The Cusp of Magic

2009-01-13T20:58:00.003-05:00

Terry Riley / Kronos Quartet and Wu Man, “The Cusp of Magic”

Ever since 1970 when composer Terry Riley first became a disciple of legendary Indian vocalist and yogi Pandit Pran Nath, Eastern inflections have pervaded his music. It comes as no surprise to find him dipping into those waters once again on this release where the virtuosic pipa player Wu Man joins Kronos Quartet for a sacred journey reminiscent of initiation into adulthood, of innocence transformed into experience.

Nonesuch Records

The title of this six song cycle, “The Cusp of Magic”, refers to the summer solstice –the longest day of the year- and the transition from the sign of Gemini to Cancer. During the night it is a time of revelry and ritual. The composers own birthday is on June 24th and this work was commissioned in honor of him turning seventy. The album begins with the slow and steady pulse of a shamanic drum accompanied by a lush synth chord. The beat keeps my attention focused and centered, grounded to the earth. A peyote rattle soon joins in and it shakes from my head all the useless debris accumulated over the course of a day, the necessary cleansing that must occur when approaching the sacred. Then strings come in, lifting me up, holding me in their rich harmonic interplay, bouncing off each other, causing a rushing spurt of kundalini to run up my spine. Among the strings is a Chinese instrument known as the pipa, often compared to a lute. The flavor of it colors the whole album with its playful joviality, as it moves effortlessly across the oceans, melting the boundaries between East and West.
On “Buddha’s Bedroom” Wu Man also adds her soft voice, singing a lullaby as the cello is bowed and sticks hit together in the background. In English the words are “Mama’s back home/my sweet baby/please go to sleep.” I don’t know if the quartet will let the baby sleep; I wouldn’t be able to. The softness is replaced by a somber mood as the strings carve out a space where I toss and turn during a restless night, as racing thoughts flit around my head.
Toys abound in “the Nursery” joining detuned bells and an electronic murmur that buzzes like cicadas outside the window. Riley’s distinctive voice, trained for raga, drifts from below the subliminal surface of the mix with his own lullaby, “rest your head/and don’t you fret/the best times for you are coming yet” and then a jack-in-the-box pops out laughing.
“Royal Wedding” is just that: the sound of celebration as two people join together at a soul level, marrying not only themselves but also their families, having kids, and their kids having the grandchildren whom I visit on the next track. “Emily and Alice” is a song that continues to haunt me. The voice of Elisabeth Commandy sings the voice of the Russian Cheburashka doll and cartoon character in a way both innocent and possessive of an anxious awareness. A snippet from the nutcracker as played on a music box pops in for a moment, but afterwards the child like voice is even more distant; warped as if processed through a looking glass, bending and distorting it.
All is not lost. Souls can be recalled to their home and “Prayer Circle” does the trick. It stirs the fire inside the shamanic lodge, recalling to me a sense of purpose I had somehow lost along the way. Like anyone else I have been scarred on the road to adulthood, but these marks carved out in the lineaments of my spirit are part and parcel for the journey. The shaman breathes life back into the body. The sun comes up over the hills, and like a red tailed hawk perching on an obelisk, when the music is over, the soul resumes its flight; all making for another solid collaboration between Terry Riley and Kronos Quartet.

2009-01-12T08:35:00.000-05:00

Aetherial Sonography

2009-01-10T18:46:00.002-05:00

I upcycled a new song today from three old tape tracks I recorded circa 'o2- '04. Instruments used:
Juno-6 Polyphonic Synthesizer, Acoustic Cat Chicken Guitar, Rainy Days on Fenton, an Old Sequencer, Undisclosed Samples, Effects, Eurorack Mixer, etc. It is called Aetherial Tones.
You can listen to my other songs on soundclick as well from the links above or the flotsam, jetsam, and recalcitrant debris on the sidebar.

I made this image using a cool program called Apophysis. It's free.

Add Zest With Adderall

2009-01-08T22:11:00.003-05:00

My blog seems to be taking on a pharmaceutical quality. Did I mention what fuels my writing sessions?It was a bus stop, complete with a graffitied up bench, all fogged out because of it’s close situation next to the mill creek. Nobody ever liked to hang out by the mill creek, except for the haggard and despondent ones. The oracle had been calling to him, and now in his hand was a battered up box made out of cardboard. It had stickers on it and tape, with a few precious secrets also kept inside. He didn’t have to go far. He had found what the oracle wanted exactly, in his own city. But it had taken him a very long time to find his peculiar present, and purple grooves reminiscent of flowers were worn underneath his insomniac eyelids.

Return of the Tribe

2009-01-06T09:38:00.004-05:00

Here is an interesting article on families, tribes, the extended family, what happened to them, and what is being done to restore them.
Chuck Byrd and Betsy Young of Aurore Press are doing a lot to build up the writing and political dissenters community here in Northside and Cincinnati at large. I will be reading at their "Farewell to Bush" event they are hosting at Cluxton Alley Coffee, on Hamilton Ave., just down from Hoffner Park, at 7 PM on Saturday January 24th.
Other readers include: Nathan Singer, Robert "Jughead" Sturdevant (the Godfather of Cincy Punk), Chuck himself and more to be announced.

2008 Readers Poll Awards at Brainwashed

2009-01-04T21:48:00.002-05:00

The Brainwashed readers poll awards for 2008 are up... and ephedrine is back. (Photo by my beloved Audrey).

The Last Lecture

2009-01-03T08:58:00.002-05:00

This is the most recent book I finished. I liked it quite well. An inspiring read, the focus being on achieving your childhood dreams.

Paul Metzger & Tim Kaiser: November Tour

2008-12-28T11:47:00.001-05:00

Monday, November 10^th, was a cold night in Cincinnati, Ohio. Paul Metzger and Tim Kaiser warmed the air inside the Gypsy Hut considerably with their otherworldly sounds. Although playing separate sets, the two Minnesotans are united in their love for tinkering and tampering, building their own instruments or altering existing ones. Each expands the world of timbre to fit their unique specifications.

Metzger took to the stage first brandishing his wildly painted acoustic guitar like a whirling dervish prophet transported through time from the days of yore. He winds up the innards of a few decimated music boxes attached to his instrument, providing a percussive element to the warble he hammers out on the strings. His fingers thrum manically up and down the neck, twanging out thickly resonant drones on the extra strings fitted at strange angles (as if his instrument might serve as a makeshift crossbow in times of need). Fastened to the bottom is a cymbal he elbow hits for the in progress expletives that punctuate his freewheeling improvisations. The cymbal also serves as a convenient upright prop, allowing Paul to bypass toting another cumbersome stand to the gig whilst simultaneously showcasing his object of art, as much of a pleasure to look at as to listen to.

The first song is over and twenty plus minutes have passed.

The next sound meditation began when he picked up his twenty-three stringed banjo. Starting with a bow he lulled me into a quiet attention as the cat like whiskers of his beard spark out to drink in the ether that seemed to be fueling his music. As the harmonic hum arched he melded into the banjo. Plucking and lilting, notes cascaded into the air. He played an exuberant eastern raga rich with newly discovered scales and keys, a richness that extended into a deep physicality. Oscillating between slow lines and quick flourishes the movement of his hands and the bobbing of his head developed into an all out attack, an assault upon a mountain. As a listener I ascended with him to the summit and found it to be a holy place. From those heights you could look on the world with new perspective. Coming back down was harder and I did so only in an avalanche caused by dissonant rupture. His nimble hands tumbled over the frets leaving me snow blind, but assured in his dexterity, he skied downhill with breathless velocity.

A half hour has passed and when I realize I’m once again sitting inside the back room of a bar I need to catch my breath and grab another pint to cleanse my mental palette before subjecting myself to the twisted machinations of Tim Kaisers home made instruments.

Tim could be the poster boy of the scientist aesthete. Perhaps, before going on the tour, he was pulled out from a secret underground bunker, for in his military green uniform he looked prepared to survive the vagaries of nuclear fallout. His bizarre menagerie of electronic toys must have also been hit by the blast for they glowed as if having absorbed bursts of radiation. Maybe that is what mutated them, making them sound so alien and alive. Or maybe it is the fact that Tim Kaiser is a master craftsman, a wizard whose wand is the hot tip of a soldering iron.

His set opened with fuzzy voices intercepted on a short wave receiver, and appeared intermittently throughout as he developed a circular call and response with the radio. He lifted glass tubes that could have contained precisely combined elements mixed for chemical reaction, but instead by shaking them, produced deep bells, the perfect looping ingredient to balance the long tones he sustained and flutters while moving his hand over a Theremin.

Although at times edgy, the electronic sounds Kaiser concocted in his traveling laboratory were never overly harsh or abrasive, nor overly loud. Far too many “experimental” musicians compensate with loudness in place of talent. Not that there were not moments of atonality or spasms of noise, but these he managed to restrain, not letting his abnormal children lose control. And because tinnitus was not the sole fare offered, it made the swelling noisy moments all the more enjoyable. Whether using an LED to trigger a light sensitive box containing chimes in an array of various pitches, or bowing an upright instrument stringed with a thick gauge of metal wire that could have been salvaged from a construction site, the music Kaiser crafted out of the things he made himself, captivated me from beginning to end.

And the warm smiles of these friendly musicians sent me home with one myself.
You can find them at paulmetzger.net and timkaiser.org

Zantac CoOpts Claus

2008-12-17T12:56:00.002-05:00

It should be no suprise as to what lengths big pharm will go in pilfering their products, but walking past 7th & Vine today I was struck by the hilarity of it all. A cluster of people were standing on the corner handing out samples of the over the counter heartburn drug (just outside of Skyline Chili!!!) using a smelly old Santa to lure people in, and having their photos taken with him. When asked if I would like a free sample of Zantac, I said, "No. I just won't eat crap that gives me heartburn."

Zantac Side Effects
Constipation, headache, and diarrhea are common side effects of Zantac. Side effects of the medication that are less common include muscle or joint pain, blurred vision, and hair loss. If you experience any serious Zantac side effects, such as trouble breathing or heart problems, be sure to notify your healthcare provider right away.

Mind Mapping In Your Browser

2008-12-16T19:17:00.001-05:00

I like this mind mapping, brainstorming tool. It has neat features. It is fun to see your chain of rambling thoughts and associations neatly linked together.

Brainwashed Review: Nocturnal Emissions "Nightscapes"

2008-12-15T08:33:00.003-05:00

My first review for Brainwashed is now online, for the Nocturnal Emissions album, "Nightscapes". A big thanks goes to Mr. Jon Whitney.

The Scar by China Mieville

2008-12-12T09:20:00.005-05:00

While I would like to write a full review of every book I read, I must be realistic about my time and commitments. I hope it suffices to say that this has been one of my favorite reads all year. I love a book that brims with ideas that can be applied in the real world. This book is full of such ideas. The charachters are well drawn, the plot keeps you guessing, and as Mighty Mur said, Mieville is a master of description porn. Bas-Lag is a world you can sink your fangs into and drink rich experiences from.

Sombient Set Tonight!

2008-12-11T13:23:00.004-05:00

Tonight tune in to "On the Way to the Peak of Normal" in the Cincinnati area for an extreme drone-sombient set to help usher in the Full Moon in Gemini, between the hours of 10PM and Midnight, tonight Dec. 11th on the 88.3 FM WAIF Frequency. I was due to provide, along with good friend Terrible Taste, "A Manson Family Christmas", but sadly those plans have been waylaid. Early in 2009 though, Terrible Taste and I will bring you a "Manson Family Something"... In the meantime relax with exotic hums and tones.

From Queen City Bike via Mobo Bicycle Co-Op

2008-12-11T08:35:00.003-05:00

All you people living in Cincinnati please step up to the plate and take action on this:

Your help is urgently needed to make a step change to improve bicycling in Cincinnati! The window is short - days, not weeks - so please do not delay!
We need to start a BIKE QUAKE at City Hall. In October, Queen City Bike led 125 bicyclists to City Hall to urge the to city place a greater priority on bicycling as part of making our city more livable. We need you to act now to make sure our elected officials seize the historic opportunity they have been given by President-elect Obama to move the city ahead quickly and make up for years of neglect!
Please send an e-mail today to the Mayor and each City Council member urging them to:
1) Adequately fund a NEW BICYCLE PLAN for the city in the City Budget for 2009/2010.
2) Ensure that bicycle lanes and other on-street accommodations for bicycles are included in the Mayor's Main Street Economic Recovery Plan projects that have been prepared for President-elect Barack Obama.
Below is a short example e-mail message for you to copy, modify as you see fit, and send. A little personalization is good, but keep it brief. Please send your e-mail separately to each member rather than just copying them all on a single message. Let us know you've taken action by forwarding a copy to me as well.
E-mail addresses and phone numbers follow the sample message.
-Gary Wright
PS: If you do not have time to call or e-mail each one, please contact the Mayor's office and at least one City Council member. Get your friends to do this too. Our strength is our passion and our numbers. Show them that we're the wave of the future in this city and region.
PPS: Want to start a BIKE QUAKE for change in Newport, Covington, Loveland, Wyoming, or elsewhere? Contact me--Queen City Bike is your organization, too!
Gary Wright Queen City Bike
www.QueenCityBike.com http://mobobicyclecoop.org/
******* CUT, PASTE, MODIFY AND SEND NOW! ***************
Dear [Mayor Mallory or Council Member X];
President-elect Obama has provided the City with a once-in-a-century opportunity to rebuild the city for the future and improve our environment. Bicycles are rapidly becoming an important alternative means of transportation everywhere in the country. I urge you to take two actions now to ensure that Cincinnati is not left behind.
1) Funds to prepare a Bicycle Master Plan for the City of Cincinnati have been included in the City Budget. The Bicycle Master Plan for the City was last updated over 30 years ago in 1976. We cannot afford to fall further behind other cities in our region like Columbus, Louisville, and Pittsburgh who have made bicycles a priority. Please let me know that you support providing adequate funding for the Bicycle Plan in the 2009/2010 budget.
2) The City's infrastructure proposals that have been prepared for President-elect Obama include millions of dollars for infrastructure spending. Let's make sure that we are building for the future and not paving over yesterday's mistakes by seizing this moment to make a step change in the City's on-street bicycle facilities. The best time to add bicycle lanes and sharrows to our street is while they are being repaved, not after. $60 million has been included in the Mayor's Main Street Economic Recovery plan proposals for a street repair program, but bicycle facilities on those streets have not been included. Please modify these plans to set aside at least 1% of these funds for on-street bike lanes and other bike accommodations. In one stroke, the City can catch up from decades of neglect.
I want to see more bicycles on the street in every neighborhood in our city. Your bold leadership now is needed to make that happen.
I look forward to your response,
Sincerely,
[Your name]
cc; Queen City Bike [It will let them know you are an active supporter of change for a better city!] ******** E-mail addresses - CUT AND PASTE into your e-mail program ************

Your help is urgently needed to make a step change to improve bicycling in Cincinnati! The window is short - days, not weeks - so please do not delay!
We need to start a BIKE QUAKE at City Hall. In October, Queen City Bike led 125 bicyclists to City Hall to urge the to city place a greater priority on bicycling as part of making our city more livable. We need you to act now to make sure our elected officials seize the historic opportunity they have been given by President-elect Obama to move the city ahead quickly and make up for years of neglect!
Please send an e-mail today to the Mayor and each City Council member urging them to:
1) Adequately fund a NEW BICYCLE PLAN for the city in the City Budget for 2009/2010.
2) Ensure that bicycle lanes and other on-street accommodations for bicycles are included in the Mayor’s Main Street Economic Recovery Plan projects that have been prepared for President-elect Barack Obama.
Please send your e-mail separately to each member rather than just copying them all on a single message. Let us know you’ve taken action by forwarding a copy to me as well.
PS: If you do not have time to call or e-mail each one, please contact the Mayor’s office and at least one City Council member. Get your friends to do this too. Our strength is our passion and our numbers. Show them that we’re the wave of the future in this city and region.

Mayor Mark Mallory mark.mallory@cincinnati-oh.gov
Council Members
Jeff Berding jeff.berding@cincinnati-oh.gov
Chris Bortz chris.bortz@cincinnati-oh.gov
David Crowley david.crowley@cincinnati-oh.gov
Y. Laketa Cole laketa.cole@cincinnati-oh.gov
John Cranley mailto:Cranleyjohn.cranley@cincinnati-oh.gov
Roxanne Qualls roxanne.qualls@cincinnati-oh.gov
Cecil Thomas cecil.thomas@cincinnati-oh.gov
Chris Monzell chris.monzel@cincinnati-oh.gov
Lesley Ghiz leslie.ghiz@cincinnati-oh.gov

Adventures At the WorldCon

2008-12-08T09:22:00.002-05:00

A Dream from October 7th:

I am exploring a park that has all manner of old watercourses and play areas, concrete dams and other things. Next I am in another park on the outskirts of the city. Audrey is with me and we are getting ready to go on a big trip to the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. It is held in a different city each year and in fact sometimes they build a city within the convention based on a theme...
...I see FLOWERS above a city made up of Chinese style buildings... The flowers have been created /utilized by the worlds top designers as a way of reversing air pollution. From their position they are sucking out, acting as biofilters, the black clouds of smog hanging above the city.

Germaniac Pizza

2008-12-01T11:17:00.001-05:00

Here is my ingredient list for a Germaniac pizza:

rye crust
coarse brown mustard instead of tomato sauce
raw onions
sauerkraut
goetta (vegetarian where applicable)
shredded limburger cheese

Rectoverse:

2008-11-29T09:07:00.000-05:00

A holographick copy of the universe downloaded into a magickal book.

From Recto and Verso, the right and left hand of a folded sheet in a bound book.

Confabulato

2008-11-25T14:47:00.000-05:00

Confabulato: Someone who is on an ever expandering meandery of mined imaginatoriums.

Energy Door

2008-11-23T17:58:00.001-05:00

A Recent Collage...

Enzotrope

2008-11-23T16:30:00.000-05:00

Enzotrope: a hackneyed storyline afflicting diverse imaginary species.

Cincinnati Tape Deck Orchestra

2008-08-25T09:54:00.000-04:00

The Cincinnati Tape Deck Orchestra (CTDO), founded in 1928 by Pfleumer Hiss, will be performing live prerecorded show in their capacity as a radio chamber ensemble this very evening of Monday overnight August 25th/Tuesday morningside August 26th from 12:00AM to 2:00AM EST on the Art Damage program, at WAIF 88.3 FM Cincinnati, and at www.waifstream.com .The CTDO seance session will be conducted by Feral Oxide conjuring the lof-fi ghosts of the recorded past with spectral assistance from EsotErik, Joe W., Frater Say Cay Waz Kay, Mysterioz Tronsonic, and Blaze. Together we will delve into bedroom and basement recorded projects such as the Sadistik Undertones, the Mystical Riders of the Apocalypse, ZGW, Planet of Evil, Therapeutic Ejaculation of Mankind, E-Space, Belch Puke, WildCraft, Psychedelicatessin, Astral Surf Gypsies and much much much more. Blended smoothly from gravel and mixed to order in a simultaneous free for all minus the dolby noise reduction. 6 tape decks times 2 mixing boards equals an earplosion of insidious delight. Tune in to these mysterious frequencies.

Cincinnati Tape Deck Orchestra conducted by Satyr Oz tribute to Dr. Albert Hoffman

2008-06-05T14:41:00.001-04:00

Tune in to On the Way to the Peak of Normal tonight for a live performance from The Cincinnati Tape Deck Orchestra conducted by Satyr Oz... 4 tape decks with effects, two mixers, one keyboard, one microphone, ... yet this is a collaboration with whomever happens to be recorded on the tapes that Satyr Oz has dug up from deep within the Sothis Medias archives.... all homemade music recorded on... you guessed it... tape, mixed to order, served to trip. This show is dedicated to Dr. Albert Hoffman, may he rest in peace. I first started making collage-found sound-appropriation mixes on tapes when I was 16 years old to be used as soundtracks for my psychedelic voyages... tonight they will be presented as a metacollage with much tweaking and intermodulation, a chance operation at the radio station. So tune in, turn on, and space out: www.waifstream.com 88.3 FM in Cincinnati, OH: Thursday 5th of June, 2008, 10 PM to Midnight Eastern Standard Time.P.S. some of the tapes I will be using tonight I have not listened to in years and years and years,maybe 10 or more for some... so it will be quite a mystery, even to me, what the exact sounds will be, but think: psychedelicThansks. Justin

Little Brother

2008-05-15T09:16:00.000-04:00

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is the kind of book that makes me remember why I took up writing in the first place. When I first heard an excerpt of it on Mur Lafferty's podcast "I Should be Writing" I knew that I would have to finish reading the book... and that after only hearing the first chapter... Simply, it blew me away. It has me fired up, charged, excited and motivated, not only about my various writing activities, but about my radio broadcasts as well, especially the ones where I create massive two-hour audio collages, like the upcoming Beauhemian Groove culture jam... (more about that Iluminatic experience on a later post, as the dates for it, in late July arrive).
Little Brother tells the story of a 17 year old hackers fight against the Department of Homeland Security after they injustly abduct him and his friends in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Upon his release from an island where ... you'll just have to find out for yourself...
Aimed for the Young Adult market, the book has the potential to boost the already burgeoning youth movement of cultural creatives. It's filled with tidbits of real history (the beats, the civil rights movement) and real hacks. Its got slam bang action and emotional poignancy (out in the reading garden at the library where I work, one section brought tears to my eyes). I know that many adults will love it but I am going to do my level best to persuade all the kids in my life to read it. I want everyone to read it because it helps expose the very real threats to our liberties imposed by the Homeland Security Act and what teenagers with tenacity and intelligence can do to stop it. This book serves as a blueprint for revolution.

I'll also be sure to catch up now on all the other Cory Doctorow books I've missed.

Milk Money Magazine: Volume 2%

2008-05-15T08:51:00.000-04:00

The new issue of Milk Money Magazine, a Cincinnati literary rag, is out. They have published two of my poems:
check it here....http://www.milkmoneymag.com/issue.html

ABSTRACT FROM RADIO

2008-04-18T18:16:00.001-04:00

Haven't been here in awhile, hope to remedy that. In the meantime enjoy a prose-poem:

ABSTRACT FROM RADIO

Last year I was bent out of shape, out on the street, obliterating the conspiracy on the obstruction of justice. I was a man of fierce pride, but also of negativity, trying to stop the politics of personal destruction. There was too much liquid up in my brain. The great illusion converged inside of me; we can’t control the mind when we feel like its time to die inside. Still, we have reason to believe that great things are possible even on a day gone bad.

My mouth is watering under the spell. I can’t help it. We must have no more compromise with the master manipulators of image control. If we compromise we will have no peace of mind. Forward March! They try to spiritually control and influence our children. They don’t know what is right. Times are hard. Who are we to complain? Yet we do it. We let them do it. 365 ½ days a year, 24 hours a day. I probably shouldn’t have done it. I do it all the time.

I don’t know how to think about it (the devil wanting me to shout in school). I wasn’t willing to do it until he wrestled me out of the chair, until I writhed on the floor, possessed. Spinning flax. Bits and pieces from things kept getting wound up to the story. I couldn’t talk (only the devil could talk through me) wizards being able to see the future from here. So take it from me, you should never point your finger at anyone or you might suffer for fifteen years. Engaging in war against the mighty morphin power rangers will improve the quality of your life. This is the only solution we can find.

Take it from me. I heard it on the radio.

Go Shopping

2007-12-08T09:47:00.000-05:00

This is an experiment. I don't know if it will work.

Secret Revelations of the Secret Revealed

2007-11-29T13:29:00.001-05:00

Hello Dear Hearts, Divine Stars of the Cosmic Dance,
Tune in to "On the Way to the Peak of Normal" this evening for a radio documentary about the so-called "Law of Attraction" and the Secret Revelations of the movie "The Secret" and it's Secrets. In a heavily collaged cut-up manner we will romp through the bric-a-brac, flotsam, jetsam and recalcitrant debris of our popular culture and see what effect this so-called spiritual path is having on the mindset of the world. Or is it that the mindset of a materialist society (whose major value is the consumption of mass produced goods and reality) is the kind of soil from which beliefs in a "Law of Attraction" would naturally arise? I recently returned (two days ago) from a trip in New England where I visited Yale to find the Secrets behind the Secrets learning that the propagators of the secret are none other than the Order of the Skull and Bones. I was joined on this trip by Commander Zebulon and CIA Agent Johnny Raad. It has been discovered that the Law of Attraction is part of a vast Illuminati plot to control us all by entrenching us even deeper into consumerist lifestyles.
Joining us in the studio for a live channelling session will be Reverend High Priestess Innana Light Feather Ph.D. of the Temple of the Most Holy Angel Melchizidek Drunvaloid with a message from the Arcturian star system about how you can use the Law of Attraction to change your life for the better - more money, more cars, more sex and than ever before. What are you waiting for? Visualize the radio dial now and tune into a higher frequency.
All this and more will be explored tonight between the hours of 10 PM and Midnight EST at WAIF 88.3 FM Cincinnati, and at www.waifstream.com on the world wide web.

Post Traumatic Halloween Disorder

2007-11-01T13:43:00.001-04:00

Tune in to WAIF 88.3 FM tonight, November 1st (All Saints Day), from Ten PM to Midnight EST for a Ghoulish blend of Musick so Macabre your Mother would be Mollified... (go here for internet listening www.waifstream.com ). That's Right! Tonights episode of On the Way to the Peak of Normal is the "Post Traumatic Halloween Disorder" show exploring the aftermath of a diet consisting soley on candy and gore. Join me, Jackal Justin, and my Graveyard Guests as we explore Demons, Death and Decay!!!

Return of the Highway Clown

2007-10-19T00:27:00.000-04:00

Return the Highway Clown

he’s lifted me up and let me down.

Return the Highway Walker

face harlequin painted

with the smile of a stalker,

smooth telepathic talker.

He can mime his way through anything.

He returned from the stars and what did he bring?

A Holy Grail whose glory we sing.

And it’s filled with Robitussin.

Yes it’s filled with Robitussin.

Return of the Highway Clown

a vagrant from some other town.

He looks haggard with the Riddlers sin

with a face painted grin

to hide thin lines

wavering across his face.

The hourglass ticks, offbeat

displaced.

The world closes in on him every which way

as he sits and drinks at the Rusty Spoon Café.

He is lost in the desert of an endless night

with dementions encroaching,

his last draw fast approaching.

He’s a wild card wizard with no place to call home

but the nothingy zero, the empty all-one.

He’s a cowboy renegade who makes the quick draw

who has shattered reality, snapping the straw

that broke the camels back over the abyss,

he’s in the presence of snakes who eternally hiss.

The spark of his existence is blinded out in a flash

as he runs to steal the crown in one last mad dash

he wears the dunces cap and he’s got a gleam in his eye

as he sits on heavens roots, gazing at the branches

hanging down from the sky.

2007-10-19T00:17:00.000-04:00

On the Way to the Peak of Normal - Hosted by Commander Zebulon with special guests CIA Agent Johnny Raad and Dr. Dare. Broadcast: October 4th, 2007

1. I Hear A New World - Rod Freeman and The Blue Men (Joe Meek)
2. Chant Da Amour/Chant Da Mort - A Bad Diana
3. Heat From Every Corner - Diane Gluck
4. You Must Turn - Entrance
5. Arkestra - Tarwater
6. Crazy for You - Ulrich Schnauss
7. Lumi - Vladislav Delay
8. Sylvenstein - Steingarten
9. Celebrity Commercial Tape
10. Thats the Way It Is - Puffy Amiyumi
11. Commander Zebulon Interviews CIA Agent Johnny Raad
12. How Deep Is The Ocean (How High is the Sky?) - Bob Braun
13. Yodel
14. Forever - Puffy Amiyumi
15. Just One Look - Klaus Nomi
16. Ja, Ja, Ich Habe Mich Verliebt - Schmertz Der Welten
17. Heonxonx - Skinny Puppy
18. The Gun and The Bible - Negativland
19. I Didn't See You - Bearded Intruders
20. Blue Nile - Alice Coltrane
21. Dark, Dark, Dark - The Mekons
22. Silence As Christine - Current 93
23. The Engulfed Cathedral - Debussy/ Tomita
24. Radio Babylon - Meat Beat Manifesto

Haunted Spectrally

2007-09-17T11:09:00.001-04:00

Memory of dreams, download certain files, shuffle at random. Upload for later plan. Embroiled in a mystery of many alternating planes. Wandering through the twisted and convuluted passages of the of the library house, that ancient mansion that is a museum lined with floor to ceiling books, precariously stacked on every possible geometric tower of babel shelf, moving through its hallways and passages, routes to hidden and unknown things, in the secret wing of this place that is haunted spectrally.

Spider tentacles. Climbing the ladder to get to Dak's Shak. Looking out at the skatepark all underwater. Afraid of the giant spider.

More Radio Shows

2007-09-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

September 6th 2007 Set List
1. I hear a new world - Joe Meek (Rod Freeman & The Blue Men)
2. Thesea(/us) vs. The Minotaur - from "The Labyrinth" CD of the Mutation Parlour
3. "Rhyme Game" mixed with beginning of....
4. Penis Fruit Loop - Nurse With Wound
5. I had too much to dream last night - The Space Lady
6. Valerie - Broadcast
7. The Weatherman - The Residents
8. Summer Without Sun - The Charles Kingsley Creation (produced by Joe Meek)
9. I'm Not A Bad Guy - Heinz & The Wild Boys (produced by Joe Meek)
10. Ding Dong - Klaus Nomi
11. The Good Humor Man Sees Everything Like This - Love
12. Akin - Larsen
13. track 3 from Tito Bitar - Dungen
14. Apoteosi De Mistero - Morte Macabre
15. sixtyten - Boards of Canada
16. Notes to the Underground from a Crazy Girl - Bad Diana (Diana Rogerson)
17. Of Feminine Proportions - 3 Eggs
18. track 6 from Mimyriad - MIMIR
19. The Well is Deep - Nocturnal Emissions
20. Peter's Stone - Nocturnal Emissions

from August 23rd

1. I Hear A New World - Joe Meek
2. track 3 from "Under A Yew Tree Possessed" - Sorrow
3. Off Duty Trip - The Raincoats
4. 2003 - The Magic Carpathians
5. Baby Pop - Frances Gall
6. Alfie - Lily Allen
7. Knock Em Out - Lily Allen
8. A Groovy Kind of Love - The Mindbenders
9. Frou Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires - Cocteau Twins
10. A Shepards Tale - Backworld
11. Lullaby - Little Annie
12. Jojo - Efterklang
13. Articulate Silences Part 1 - Stars of the Lid
14. Melancholia (track 14) - William Basinski
15. Where is this Dream of Youth? - Strawbs
16. Do U C? - Nelson Slater and His Bored Teen War Team
17. Just A Taste - Nelson Slater and His Bored Teen War Team
18. A Tender History in Rust - Do Make Say Think
19. Breaker - Low
20. The Kingdom of Heaven Is Within You - Mother Earth
21. Tell It Like It Is - Bill Fay
22. Thats All There Is - Nina Nastasia
23. Daedalus Rising - Death In June
24. It's Hard To Believe It But It's True - Glenda Collins (produced by Joe Meek)
25. R&B Through Collis Brown - Nurse With Wound
26. Far Out Son of a Lung and the Ramblings of a Madman - Future Sound of London

America Over the Water Radio

2007-08-09T11:16:00.001-04:00

Tune in to "On the Way to the Peak of Normal" this evening, Thursday August 9th, from 10pm - Midnight (Eastern Standard Time), @ WAIF 88.3 FM Cincinnati and on the web @ www.waifstream.com for a musical journey through the South of 1959, following the legendary recording trip of Alan Lomax, as told through the eyes of his then companion and lover, Shirley Collins, on their search to uncover the music of America's Heartland. Presented for the radio by Justin Patrick and Audriel, featuring recordings from the archives of the 1959 trip from the Alan Lomax Collection, the music of British folk singer Shirley Collins and excerpts from her book "America Over the Water". Please visit www.shirleycollins.com for more information on this great voice in traditional music.

On the Way to the Peak of Normal

2007-07-15T13:56:00.000-04:00

from the show on July 12th
1. I hear a New World - Joe Meek
2. He Lived Deeply - Vladislav Delay
3. Miss Place, The Mist - David Torn
4. The Man With No Name (tribute to Lee Perry) - Mayan Ruins
dedicated this track to Brian & Angie
5. Living In Love - Phyllis Dillon (dedicated to the lovely Audriel)
6. January 1st, 067 - Orgonautic
7. Soma Holiday - G.O.L.
8. It's The Music - Meat Beat Manifesto
9. Strawberry Fields - Candy Flip
10. Freaky Friday (excerpt) - Alan Licht
11. Green Is the Colour/Careful With That Axe Eugene (BBC Sessions) - Pink Floyd
12. Vow of Silence - Throbbing Gristle
13. The Scar of Cold Kisses (excerpt) - Ulver
14. Going Up - Coil
15. (That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace - Low
16. Amazing Grace (from Vena Cava) - Diamanda Galas

Transformers, Big Oil, The Illuminati and You

2007-07-10T09:54:00.001-04:00

Transformers, Big Oil, the Illuminati, and You

By Monsieur Jot, conspiracy correspondent and Freemasonic liaison for the Dyslexicon

The subject of my talk this evening is of the little known facts surrounding the recently released Hollywood film, Transformers, its relationship to Big Oil, the automobile industry, the Illuminati and you. I’ll begin by setting the record straight as to where the monetary funds for this movie were received, two corporations whose names are legendary for their involvement with the Satanic forces of the Illuminati. I am speaking of none other than Exxon-Valdez and GM Motors.
Not only is this the one and only authorized version of the truth but Osama Bin Laden plays a lead role in the film as the arch villain Megatron.
Maybe it would help, for those of you who wisely refrain from viewing the demonic television with all of its subliminal messages and mind control programming, if I describe the plot of this evil movie.
It is a movie about robotic alien life forms from beyond space and time that have the amazing ability to transform into cars, the ultimate vehicles of death, destruction, and freeway disaster. The Autobots –allegedly the “good” guys- and the Decepticons –allegedly the “bad” guys- were embroiled in a war over energy resources and raw materials that eventually led to the destruction of their home planet, Cybertron. The survivors, scattered throughout the universe, are seeking the Fountain of Oil, the only source of the life giving petroleum that will keep their engines running.
Discovering that the Fountain of Oil is on the planet Earth in a region known as the Middle East, the Decepticon Al Qaeda forces attack a United States military base in an attempt to hack into the computer defense network.
Meanwhile in the suburbs of Cincinnati, someone mysteriously known as Uncle Sam tries to sell the old oil prospecting equipment he inherited from his Great Granpa Captain Rumsfeld Witwicky on eBay to raise some cash for a new car. Uncle Sam is unaware that amidst Rumsfelds old equipment is a secret map encoded with the coordinates for the Fountain of Oil. The coordinates were discovered when Captain Rumsfeld “accidentally” encountered Decepticon leader Megatron –a.k.a. Osama Bin Laden- buried in the desert sands of the Middle East.
Aware of Sam’s ancestry within the aristocratic families of the Illuminati, Autobot Cheney has been assigned to protect him posing as a sports utility vehicle complete with a built in hunters gun rack and complimentary fully loaded double barrel shotgun. When Uncle Sam starts that car for the first time a homing signal is sent out to the rest of the Autobots lurking in garages and driveways all across the US of A.
As the Pentagon brings together the greatest collection of intelligence it has ever seen in an attempt to discover who hacked into their network, a Decepticon terrorist infiltrates Air Force One and hacks his way into the system. While surfing for Star Trek collectibles and memorabilia on eBay the Decepticon comes across clues about the secret location of the Fountain of Oil, Rumsfelds expedition, and the whereabouts of Megatron who had gone into hiding.
With their new knowledge the Decepticons target Uncle Sam.
Cheney, in SUV form, finds himself defending Uncle Sam from a series of brutal attacks by the Decepticons.
The other Autobots, taking the form of various American cars and trucks, rally behind their leader Optimus “George W.” Prime. He explains their mission to stop the Decepticons from finding the Fountain of Oil. The Autobots want to use the Fountain of Oil to return America to its former glory so that it will one day be as powerful as their imperialist homeworld Cybertron once was.
The Decepticons hope to raise an army of robots trained in guerilla fighting to wage a war of terror against the Autobots.
The Autobots, in a preemptive strike, confront the Decepticons in Baghdad where the ensuing carnage and senseless destruction of countless lives results in Uncle Sam being responsible for keeping the Fountain of Oil out of Decepticon hands. With the help of Optimus “George W.” Prime the Autobots are able to keep the Decepticons at eBay, firmly squashed and smothered. During the final saloon room showdown shoot out between Optimus Prime and Megatron, Uncle Sam inserts a hose of gasoline into Optimus Primes tank and they realize that the Fountain of Oil is slowly running dry. Prime, in the form of a Hummer surges with overwhelming power, and with his pedal to the metal, crashes into Megatron leaving him killed, totaled in the process.
The Autobots choose to remain in the Middle East deeming themselves its guardians.
The military dumps the wrecked bodies of the defeated Decepticons into shallow graves, but in the final scene of the movie Megatron is shown to be alive, flying into outer space.
I would say that ninety percent of movies released during this sad moment in human history contain subliminal content about occult doctrines placed into them by the Illuminati. They are geared to keep us complacent, entertained, and most of all loyal customers to the Big Oil and Automotive industries. That is why money made with this movie and the many others like it will be used to line the coffers of Exxon-Valdez and GM Motors with gold.
While we watch TV and keep the tanks of our cars filled with gasoline the killing goes on.
It’s hard to believe, but it’s true.
What I tell you next will be even more difficult for you to believe.
A sixty foot tentacle-clawed, vampire-fanged octopus monster is hovering above planet Earth now, slobbering copious amounts of drool over the controls in the cock pit of its flying saucer ready to destroy us all with a blast from its nuclear death ray.
Welcome to the slaughterhouse.
It is time to change the charnel.
And remember, when dealing with the media, there is always more than meets the eye.

- Intelligence Report Delivered at Sidewinder Coffee House, August 7th, 2007

please visit: http://www.aurorepress.com/

2007-07-10T09:41:00.000-04:00

I haven't been comprehensive or timely in posting my radio show set lists, and least of all, consistent... but here is one that hearkens back to my June 21st summer solstice show and tribute to Harry Smith:

1. I Hear a New World - Joe Meek
2. Tishbite - Cocteau Twins (dedication to my daughter Lucy)
3. Hanohano Wale - IZ ( dedication to my stepdaughter Ilia)

the following songs are all from the original Harry Smith Anthology of Folk Music orginally released on Folkways, and now from Smithsonian...

4. coo coo bird - Clarence Ashley
5. Sugar Baby - Dock Boggs
6. the Butchers Boy - Bulle Kazee
7. Dry Bones - Bascom Lamar Lansford
8. John the Revelator - Blind Willie Johnson
9. Spike Driver Blues - Mississippi John Hurt
10. See that My Grave Is Kept Clean - Blind Lemon Johnson

on the next set I played all the same songs by contemporary musicians who appeared on the tribute boxed set "The Harry Smith Project"

11. coo coo bird - Richard Thomas w/ Eliza Carthy
12. Sugar Baby - Kate and Anna McGarrigle
13. The Butchers Boy - Elvis Costello
14. Dry Bones - Roswell Rudd & Sonic Youth
15. John the Revelator - Nick Cave
16. Spikedriver Blues - Marianne Faithful
17. See that My Grave is Kept Clean - Lou Reed

next I went it to play some "alternative" standards, Americana sounding stuff, and whatevah...

18. Black is the Colour of My True Loves Hair - Nurse With Wound
19. Superstition - Blanche
20. Inn - Chris Whitley
21. Get With It! - Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
22. The Dull Flame of Desire - Bjork (w/ Antony on backing vocals!)

GASAHOL

2007-06-18T15:26:00.000-04:00

GASAHOL

The oil in my mouth
tastes like lies
all the chemical untruths
are slick petroleum
on my tongue that slide

I want to spit it out
but the distillates are between my teeth
gumming up the works
a smoldering fire water
that chokes me as I breathe

my lip linings are saturated
the wound sutured, washed with gasoline
a sick alcohol poison
that bites with a venomous sting

and my words
are fossil fuel fumes
burning up dangerous emotions
sending them off into the atmosphere
of fear
tetraflurocarbons
invisible monoxide gas
released in daily portions
sitting at the bar, I have another glass.

Thoughts on Media Fasting

2007-05-22T09:45:00.000-04:00

Pollution begins on a spiritual level then infiltrates the mind. The mind poisoned, desecrates the temple of the body with junk food garbage. When we ourselves are so full of filth is it any wonder that we spew out trash on the earth?
Notes from my journal on fasting:
The idea that the mental atmosphere of our current culture is indeed poisonous gives rise to the necessity of fasting, and in our age, bloated by the desires of entertainment, media is the substance from which we should fast. I have often thought that a Media Fast of varying lengths of time would be very beneficial for recharging my batteries. We receive so much information, so much of it is in conflict and odds with eachother, that periods of time are necessary just for its assimilation, synthesis, or rejection. It needs to be sorted out like junk mail. To fast from the internet, books, TV, movies, music, etc... would be very refreshing not only mentally, because all these activities, while seemingly being passive, actually use up the energy of the mind that might be put towards more useful activity, or the useful activity of no activity. (So much of what we see and hear results in reactivtiy anyway.) This type of fast from the media would be very beneficial during a more traditional fast from food, during a time of spiritual reknewal... for instance on a retreat or pilgrimage. It is almost necessary to have complete solitude for it to be totally effective. When the ancients fasted, retreated to the desert or wilderness to pray and seek visions, direction in life, they did not have the mass media to contend with, to distract them from the inner journey. To make our fasts from food and other things more effective it needs to be conjoined with a fast from the media and the distractions of the dominant culture.
To sum up, fasting from the media is a kind of preliminary enema that gets your mind back to ground level, to help you know your own thoughts and feelings outside of the constant barrage of emails and blogposts (such as this) and the general atmosphere of information overload. That is one of the major problems of the age of aquarius: the phemonal, exponential explosion of information of media of all sorts. We need to consider it as a kind of mental pollution and take actions to safeguard ourselves from it, because its influence is pervasive and pernicous.
Even so: I still have the drive to add my own two cents into the mediasphere: creating 'Zines and CD's and sending out my voice and music of my choice on the radio, writing books. Not only am I addicted to reading and listening to music, I want to add my own contribution. And where will all those plastic CDR's and xeroxed copies of the Dyslexicon end up anyway? I'm sure some of them have already made it to the landfill.
Something in me is compelled to create and share with others the ecstasies and sorrows of the human condition. Sharing love and compassion with other beings are what is most important to me now, no matter how cheesy and cliche it sounds.
Periodic fasts from the media and other thins in our life might help us as individuals to be more loving and compassionate. The experience of fasting can be humbling for us. Going within, lessening our appetites for the accumulation of fame, reknown, and so-called "spiritual powers" can help us make more optimistic decisions that are not only self seeking but take in to consideration the lives and well being of those around us, humans, animals and earth.
In love and thankfullnes,
Justin Patrick

two old radio show set lists I meant to post awhile ago

2007-05-09T09:10:00.000-04:00

from april 26th, 2007

1. last walk around mirror lake - Boom Bip (remixed by Boards of Canada)
2. a track by DROME from the Mesmer Variations, disc 1
3. fateful compulsion - Matt Frantz
4. shattered cradle playground/ the last swirlings - Satyr Oz
5. O Euchari - St. Hildegard Von Bingen (Gothic Voices)
6. Sudugurata - Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson
7. False Soap - 3 Eggs
8. Skauneis - Troum
9. the matter of our discussion - Boom Bip w/ Nina Nastasia
10. this is all I ask - Tiny Tim
11. wheres your master? - Simon Finn
12. great bloody and bruised veil of this world - Current 93
13. asylum on the moon - the Magic Carpathians
14. russolo, a little fella on very ordinary legs on the verge of getting it on - Nurse With Wound
15. voice of the frog - Justin Patrick
16. amber rain - Coil
17. belladonna - Legendary Pink Dots
18. melt - Jeff Greinke
19. a nightside tale - Justin Patrick

from april 12th,
1. haywire - Bedhead
2. blurred vision - Bevis Frond
3. loreli - Cocteau Twins
4. tatayama - cEvin Key
5. boo - Pinback
6. moon beats yellow - Gorkys Zygotic Mynci
7. the red telephone - Love
8. best sanvay unst bit somnover - Thighpaulsandra
9. standard audio front end - Oval
10. cantus in memoriam of Benjamin Britten - Arvo Part
11. cobalt pools - William Basinski
12. july 18th (from Shipwreck Radio vol. 2) - Nurse With Wound
13. stairway to heaven - Rodrigo y Gabriela
14. clear day - Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions
15. drum gets a glimpse - the Liars
16. second peng - Autechre

Sidewalk Transmission #2 Haute Cuisine at the Hive

2007-04-26T10:22:00.001-04:00

I am downtown on my way to the Cathedral de St. Chaleigh. Distraction lures me from my path in the guise of powerful aromas: the food vendors of this city releasing grease scented steam from their alchemical kitchens.
I walk into a restraunt called The Hive, a trendy bohemian spot where small amounts of fashionable food is served on large white platters. It is all about the presentation. I ask the Maitre D for a table, but this stern looking woman insists that I have come here to work.
"This is your part time job" she insists, escorting me back past the mosaic of tables. Hipsters out on the scene dine in an atmosphere of candlelight, buzzing with the overflow of expensive wines.
The staff is busy: hustling, bussing tables, trying to pick their way out of the weeds.
Dodging my way past sizzling saute pans and angry cooks hyped up on adrenaline, I am led to the back of the building.
The owner of The Hive is waiting for me looking smart with black plastic spectacles, lips wrinkled in a smirk.
"You can clean the grills" he says.
There is a whole row of them all covered in the carbon char of burnt flesh. He hands me a wire brush and I go at it grudingly. Still, the cleanliness of the grill IS of prime importance. How can the masses be served when the kitchen is ill kept?
After I empty the ashes I will make my way to the Cathedral de St. Chaleigh, annointed with them.

Scientology Limerick

2007-04-24T15:39:00.000-04:00

There once was an alien named Xenu
who told L. Ron Hubbard what he knew
he took Tom for a Cruise
while Katie Holmes snoozed
with cash in his hand he said "see you!"

Neologisms: Frenemy, Homoprobia, Hypnagrafik, Squigil

2007-04-10T09:31:00.000-04:00

Frenemy: (freh-enn-uhm-ee) 1. A nagging friend who causes you to look at your unsightly shadow side.
"With a friend like you I don't need an enemy, you're a frenemy!"

Homoprobia: (hoe-moe-probe-ya) 1. A meaty antidote for homophobia. 2. A throbbing alternative to a colonoscopy.

Hypnagrafik: (hip-gknow-grafik): 1. Hypnagogic cursive scribble of magickal graffiti words into unrecognizable squigils, subconcious scrawling of hieroglyphic symbolism.

Squigil: (sss-qui-jil): 1. A magickal sigil made by focusing the mind and drawing a random line on a page.

Art Damage night @ the Gypsy Hut

2007-04-02T09:15:00.000-04:00

Here is the real skinny on the Neato Torpedo show: some of the info was wrong or has changed since the previous post:

Art Damage Presents-
A night of live improvised soundtracks to experimental films

NEATO TORPEDO performing to an excerpt from "Microcosmos"
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:136358

TIM SCHWALLIE (of Gordy Horn, BPA, Wolverton Brothers)- performing to "Faith in Walls" by Tim Schwallie

JON LORENZ (of Fire/Water, 1,000 Saxophone Voices) performing to Man Ray films
http://www.myspace.com/jonflorenz
http://www.kassetterevolution.com
http://www.filmreference.com/Directors-Pe-Ri/Ray-Man.html

ROESING APEperforming to an episode of "24" sped-up, upside-down and backward
http://www.roesingape.org
http://www.myspace.com/roesingapenoise

Wednesday, April 4th @ The Gypsy Hut (corner of Spring Grove and Dame inNorthside)
http://www.myspace.com/thegypsyhut

18+ / 9pm / free

Silver Star 7/ Neato Torpedo April 4th

2007-03-29T09:44:00.001-04:00

The latest issue of Silver Star, the online journal of magick, mystery, mysticism, is now up and contains two works by me and many works by friends and colleagues. My pieces are called "Dianetic Clones of the Collective Unconscious" and "I am a Cat". Check it out here: http://www.horusmaat.com/silverstar/SILVERSTAR7.htm

Also the improvisational electronic outfit I play with, Neato Torpedo will be appearing alongside other local heroes the freakout free-jazz and noise collective, Gordy Horn, and experimental rock group 24 Hour Flu all accompanied by video projections at the Gypsy Hut in Northside (Cincinnati) on Springrove Ave., Wed. April 4th. Hope to see some familiar faces...

On The Way to the Peak of Normal

2007-03-23T09:43:00.000-04:00

Set List from the March 22nd Broadcast. My lovely girlfriend Audriel joined me on the airwaves last evening. Here is what we played (from memory... I don't recall at this time what the fourth song was...) :

1. DJ Muggs and Tricky - Wash My Soul
2. Cocteau Twins - Pepper Tree
3. Death In June - 13 Years of Carrion
4. Bonnie "Prince" Bill - Strange Form of Life
5. Antony - If it Be Your Will (Leonard Cohen cover)
6. Tiny Tim and Brave Combo - I Want To Stay Here
7. Slim Whitman - Twelfth of Never
8. from the musical HAIR - Sodomy
9. Bob Braun - Close To You
10. Frank Zappa - Sy Borg
11. Chris and Cosey - Infect Us
12. Cirque De Soleil - Marelle
13. Raison D'etre - Euphrosyne
14. Arvo Part - Salve Regina
15. Spires That In the Sunset Rise - Rattlesnake
16. Current 93 - Immortal Bird
17. Squirrel Nut Zippers -
18. Nina Simone - Four Women
19. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Into My Arms
20. Low - Will the Night
21. Shirley Collins - Adieu to Old England
22. Sorrow - Angel
23. Mum - the Ballad of the Broken Birdie Records
24. Dead Can Dance - In the Kingdom of the Blind the One Eyed Are Kings

Sidewalk Transmission #1: a dream microfiction

2007-03-14T10:48:00.000-04:00

REHABILITATED AND UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I am in a house empty of furniture, under construction. Dry wall dust floats in the air. If you breathe in too deeply the grit will catch in your nostril hair, in the linings of your lungs, putting cilia to work. Push the chalky stuff out. This building is being rehabilitated.
Kids are playing on a mound of dirt piled high in what used to be the dining room. I stand in a doorway, looking, listening to the laughter. The door is laying on the floor and we jump over it.
I go into the kitchen pantry. Ancient moths have multiplied on voluminous cobwebs. There is a black ball floating in the air, dense with a latent electricity: it is a piece of tektite, a pockmarked fragment of an asteroid fallen to the earth. Hovering, it moves towards me, seeking me out.
I duck to avoid it., back out into the room. I tell my partner, in the other room, "this apartment is infested with moths!"
Stumbling over the door, I walk backwards and go outside.
The shed skin of a copperhead snake is stuck between the cracks of the sidewalk squares. Shed between the spaces, in between places.
Dead snakes lay on the ground their heads chopped off, tossed aside like old pieces of meat.
The building is in need of extreme rehabilitation.

Book Review: The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman

2007-03-13T13:04:00.000-04:00

Philip Pullman is always a good read. He starts his books off with a bang and keeps them moving through intricate plot twists. "The Tin Princess" revisits charachters from the Sally Lockhart trilogy, starring Jim and Adelaide in the lead roles. This book was one of political intrigue involving the fictional country Razkavia, plots against the throne, mad princes being locked away in dark grottoes, assasinations.
Pullman, I have noticed, is very fond of portraying powerful women, a heroine who is capable of holding her own, and in the "historical" settings of these books, such a woman is usually at odds with the dominant paternalistic society -despite or because of - knowledge and education and the men not wanting them to "rise above their place."
The story held my attention admirably. I wish that Pullman -as well as many other writers of his caliber- would not be relegated to the "confines" (imaginary and arbitrary as they may be) of writing young adult fiction. To label a book "young adult" seems to be as much of a marketing scheme whether or not young adults are the intended audience. I find in his novels very much that people of all ages would enjoy, the elements of a classic story: mystery, romance, adventure, all told in a well crafted prose that doesn't mince words nor fill the mental gullet with them unnecessarily. I especially like the cockney english that Jim and Adelaide relapse into speaking when not talking to the aristocrats of Razkavia or when in duress.
I look forward to reading the rest of his published work as I shall in due course.

Welcome to Sothis Medias

2007-03-13T12:41:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends, Strangers, Friendly Strangers, Fellow Stars:
You have arrived at the Sothis Medias blog. This is a home for the muse-ings of Justin Patrick where you will find information about his various projects and activities. These include his 'zine the Dyslexicon, other writing projects (short stories, novellas, novels, poetry and essays) forthcoming in book and chapbook formats. You will also find updates about his musick (new releases or upcoming live shows) whether it relates to his solo work or that of the various outfits he is involved with: Neato Torpedo, WildCraft, Astral Surf Gypsies, etc. Further he will post set lists from On the Way to the Peak of Normal, the radio show he is one of the rotating hosts of, which airs every Thursday night from 10pm - Midnight on WAIF, Cincinnati 88.3 FM (and streaming live at www.waifstream.com ) playing musick so ahead of its time it is standing behind you right now.
Other topics will include neologisms (coined, defined, analyzed), dreams, esoteric literary delvings, book reviews, poetry, fiction, essay.
The book reviews are generally my thoughts about the qualities of a book and its writing. They will not always go into specific detail about plot or charachter. They may contain spoilers. Nothing is certain, everything is possible. This is a rock and roll blog session where we can do what we want to do.
Thank you for tuning in, and happy reading.