'Elephant Revival' Magical Reality

> Perhaps the beginning of ‘Elephant Revival’ is in November, 1985. That
> was when 18-months-old, Bonnie May Paine, of Tahlequah, OK. began
> whistling songs with grace, and prodigious musical charm.
>
> Perhaps the beginning is spring of 2002 when Bonnie and Daniel
> Rodriguez, (D-ro) spent a night on a rooftop over Norwich, CT, making
> music until sun-rise.
>
> Perhaps it was at the bluegrass festival in Keystone, CO in August of
> 2003 when Bridget and Dango met while dancing in the rain.
>
> Perhaps it was several weeks later when Bridget, Dango, and Bonnie
> found each other at the Winfield Music Festival and had a rapture of
> music that lasted until the sun rose.
>
> It was then that Bridget and Bonnie realized they were "soul sisters"
> destined to fight over the same clothes in thrift shops across the
> United States of America.
>
> Perhaps the beginning is in early November 2003 when Daniel Rodriguez,
> (D-Ro), was bound from Mystic, CT. to Los Angeles, CA. In Kansas he
> made the strange, mysterious and momentous decision to take a left
> turn and go to Tahlequah instead, to continue to make
> music with Bonnie.
>
> Perhaps it occurred at Webs World of Fun in Ponca City, OK. in late
> November of 2003 when Dango and Bonnie were both booked and Dango and
> D-Ro met for the first time throwing horseshoes on the back lawn.
>
> Perhaps the beginning of Elephant Revival is in February 2004 when
> Bridget Law visited Bonnie in Tahlequah and they slept in the same bed
> and Bonnie heard the “crazy” musical jam playing in Bridget’s dream.
>
> Perhaps the beginning is in May 2005 when Dango Rose was busking in
> front of the elephant cage at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.
>
> The cage contained a couple that had been paired for 16-years. For
> unknown reasons the male was traded to the Salt Lake City Zoo. The
> male died from separation in the back of a big truck traveling on I-80
> through Wyoming. Shortly thereafter the female was dead in the
> elephant cage in Chicago.
>
> Perhaps the beginning is the summer of 2006 when Sage Cook
> encountered and jammed out with Bridget, D-Ro and Bonnie at the Loving
> Oven Kitchen at the Rainbow Nationals outside of Steamboat Springs,
> CO. on July 4.
>
> Then, at the Winfield Music Festival the following September, Sage
> musically engaged Dango. Dango then invited Sage to Tahlequah to
> record songs.
>
> The recording session led to Sage, Bonnie, D-Ro, and Dango opening up
> for ‘The Drew Emmitt Band at Tahlequah’s Dream Theater as ‘Dr. Paine.’
>
> And it was, after these events of the summer of 2006, that all the
> other members of what became ‘Elephant Revival’ understood that Sage
> was the magical, missing, last piece, the keystone, that made the band
> complete.
>
> And yet, there is no doubt the first official performance of the full
> band, Bonnie, D-Ro, Sage, Bridget and Dango as ‘The Elephant Revival
> Concept’ took place in October 2006 at the Gold Hill Inn in Gold Hill,
> CO.
>
> The question of the true origins of the band mirrors the quantum
> physics and magical-reality questions of whether there ever is
> tangible cause and effect, or coincidence in the quantum and magical
> universe. And the quantum and magical universe is from where
> ‘Elephant Revival’ comes.
>
> Other undeniable facts of the band’s origin is that most all
> initiating events transpired in the magical-reality of Tahlequah.
>
> Tahlequah is where the Trail-of-Tears, which started in the Southern
> Appalachians, ended in the 1830s. Tahlequah is the new capital (1838)
> of the Cherokee Nation. Bonnie is tribal Cherokee.
>
> And it is often noted that the reality of Tahlequah is not of the
> usual post-modern, waking consciousness. The city signs are written
> in English and Cherokee. Shamans, not M.D.’s, are the respected
> healers. Many believe the place is an important vortex where
> synchronicity routinely happens.
>
> And the place in Tahlequah where many of the band’s initiating events
> happened is the Spring Creek.
>
> Spring Creek is an Eden-like place.
>
> During the sweltering Oklahoma summers very cold, clear, healing
> waters bubble forth from the earth. The creek abounds with crawdads,
> bass, ancient arrowheads and other native artifacts.
>
> There is no lack of serpents in the garden. There are venomous copper
> heads and water moccasins, and benign king snakes.
>
> A long-held tradition is the gathering of Bonnie’s family and
> unofficial tribe, at the creek, every summer.
>
> The gathering celebrates the birthday of Michael Paine (Bonnie’s dad)
> every July 7. And the gathering sustains and supports musicians.
>
> During the summer of 2005, at the Spring Creek, band-members received
> ideas and inspiration for songs. They wrote germinal, definitive
> songs. They first performed songs at the creek. They had all-night
> jam sessions in which the water sounds and night sounds of the creek
> were important parts of the jam. Jugs of wine were drunk and many
> truths became known.
>
> If there is one place where the unique, definitive sound of the band
> emerged, that place would be the Spring Creek.
>
> Then came the magical-reality of Nederland, Colorado.
>
> It is often noted that Nederland retains much of its character as a
> rough and tumble mining camp. A huge amount of mineral wealth (gold,
> silver, tungsten) has been extracted from the earth around Nederland.
> And yet, by far, the larger fortune was derived from the Caribou Ranch
> Recording Studio.
>
> The likes of Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Michael Jackson recorded at
> the studio, walked the streets of Ned, and did impromptu performances
> at the town’s rustic watering holes.
>
> The likes of Dan Fogelberg, Stephen Stills, Joe Walsh and Chris
> Hillman have lived in the vicinity of the small town of 1,400.
>
> Dango was the first band-member to settle in Ned in 2001. Bonnie
> first came to Ned, in 2004, after being invited by Vince Herman, of
> Leftover Salmon and Great American Taxi (They had met earlier that
> year at a chaotic music festival in Lake Tahoe, CA).
>
> In late 2006 and 2007 band members settled and re-settled in Nederland.
>
> In 2007 ‘Elephant Revival’ became the unofficial house band of The
> Stage Stop in nearby Rollinsville. From this hallowed old musical
> venue the band established its formidable local Front Range fan base.
>
> And then the band began touring in Bessy, Sage’s 1989 Thomas
> school-bus which he had converted to run on vegetable oil fuel. And
> they left a french-fry, or Thai food smelling trail from the East
> Coast to the West Coast, and everywhere in-between. The band has
> traveled astronomical distance, over 350,000 miles, since they began
> touring in 2007. In autumn of 2009 Bessy was retired as the bands
> tour bus and Ivan-Dured, a 97’ Freightliner from Mount Shasta CA. took
> over the bio-diesel reigns.
>
> And then came the fulfillment of one of D-Ro's most long held dreams.
>
> When D-Ro was nineteen years old he piled into a car with some good
> friends and drove from Connecticut to a Dispatch show at the Electric
> Factory in Philidelphia, PA.
>
> It was that night while being inspired greatly by the energy that
> Dispatch was giving and the songwriting of Chad Stokes', that led him
> to a "knowing" that being a professional musician/songwriter/shaman
> was what D-Ro wanted to be.
>
> In 2006, six years later, backstage in Burlington VT. at a ‘Michael
> Franti’ show where Chad's other band ‘State Radio’ was the opener,
> D-Ro got to meet and express his admiration to Chad while Bonnie and
> Bridget performed with Michael Franti and Spearhead.
>
> Chad tried the best he could to defuse D-Ro's worship. He remembered
> the Philadelphia show at the Electric Factory as the show where he
> fell on his head.
>
> D-Ro gave him a demo-tape of some recordings he had put together with Bonnie.
>
> They kept in touch over the next few years, and in 2009 on a solo
> vacation Chad contacted D-Ro and met up with ER at The Sawtooth Music
> Festival in Stanley, Idaho. As D-Ro recalls, “He brought us
> watermelon and fed us while we were writing set-lists; he rafted with
> us down a river in Idaho; he sat in with us at a couple concerts; he
> ran our merchandise for us."
>
> One of the best parts for him was the long drives and conversations he
> would have with his once musical hero. "It was surreal, but mostly
> real," says D-Ro. The tour winded down, and Chad ended up staying a
> few days with Bonnie and Dan at their small apartment in Nederland.
>
> ER then began performing with State Radio at some of their Colorado
> shows. During a concert at The Aggie Theater in Fort Collins, Chad
> proposed that ER become part of his record label out of Boston, MA,
> "Ruff Shod."
>
> Elephant Revival's second album, "Break in the Clouds," released on
> "Ruff Shod" (Nov 10') charted #2 on the I-Tunes Singer Songwriter
> Chart. This led to ER opening for Dispatch at a sold-out show at the
> Boston Garden in June of 2011.
>
> This past autumn ER garnered a standing ovation and encore performance
> during a feature showcase at ‘The Americana Music Awards’ during "The
> Music City Roots" Radio Broadcast in Nashville TN.
>
> Their music has also been featured on NPR's "All Things Considered."
>
> And now all members of the band are fulfilling their most long-held
> dreams. The musicians/songwriters/shamans of 'Elephant Revival' are
> sharing their music and visions with the world.

Itz-ing

(For the full 'narrative of the voyage of the bloody, snake chariot'
see www.libbyhome.blogspot.com )

(Itz, is an ancient Mayan concept regarding the supernatural power
that emanates from the flow of life-effusing/life-dispersing fluids -
particularly blood.)

Why is this last April 20/(4/20) different from all other 4/20's?

On all other 4/20's there are memory issues. Memories of the day are hazy.

And yet I will not forget this past 4/20. Memories of the day retain
vivid clarity.

This last 4/20, for me, is more about being Hitler's birthday, the
anniversary of the Columbine Massacre, days that live in infamy. For
on this 4/20 I was hit (cold-cocked) to the head.

I was hit harder than I've ever been hit in my 56 and-a-half years.
And my head was broken open and I bled or itz-ed more copiously than
I've ever itz-ed in my life.

I'll start at the beginning.

It has been a terrible sadness to see my neighbor of the past nine
months, young Eric, sink into mental illness and violence.

It is often noted that our hometown, Nederland, CO, retains much of
the character of its wild, mining camp origins. And yet, 21st Century
Nederland is more like a wild, mining camp on acid. The wide-spread,
on-going use of LSD and other entheogens is perhaps the most defining
thing of the character of this place.

I am not being judgemental about entheogeons (molecules that bring us
to the infinite). I have partaken of them for over 40 years.

They work for some people. They could be an important agency for the
on-going evolution of our species.

And yet, entheogeons do not work for everybody

For many, entheogens can be a kind of miracle grow for any genetic
predisposition for psychosis that may exist in an individual.

And such is the case with my neighbor, young Eric.

In the beginning we were good friends. We spent many hours playing
music together.

And then the dark whispers in young Eric's mind began speaking to him,
all the time. The dark whispers spoke of dark, evil, nefarious,
over-arching, conspiracy against him.

When it became plain to me how deep into the sickness of the mind
young Eric had sunk, I recoiled from him. We stopped speaking to each
other. I tried to avoid contact with him, his violence, his mental
illness.

I hoped this would make me less of a target for his sickness of the
mind. But it made me more of a target.

On April 19, young Eric took our garbage can.

And yet, this garbage can was not just a garbage can.

When we first moved into our place in Nederland in August, 2010, there
was a putrid, malodorous accumulation of garbage and excrement on our
front porch.

Much of it was from the previous tenant. And yet, much of it was from
young Eric.

It required a Herculean effort to clean this squalor (an external
manifestation of the internal).

Putrid, festering garbage had to be placed in large, black, plastic trash bags.

Underneath the main pile of garbage we found two plastic garbage cans
with the most putrid, most festering of the garbage.

We gagged and some vomited in the effort to bag this slime.

After the garbage was bagged a heroic effort was required to hose the
garbage cans out, so they could be used again.

It was one of these garbage cans that young Eric took.

I flashed to the movie 'The Big Lebowski', and declared "This
aggression will not stand!"

The next day 4/20 I arose at the crack of noon and began preparing to
go to the big celebration in Boulder.

I saw young Eric on the porch, and in a voice that was more amused
than angry I asked, "Hey, What's up with the garbage can?"

Young Eric explained that he had bought the garbage can at the local
hardware store and that the garbage can was his.

I replied (with some heat) that it wasn't his garbage can when he had
left it there the entire previous summer full of disgusting, putrid
offal, it wasn't his garbage can when it was emptied, it wasn't his
garbage can when it was cleaned, it wasn't his garbage can for the
last eight months when it was being used by us.

Then young Eric began speaking in the tongue of mental illness. He
said that "the great Sam Libby was about to be unclothed, was about to
be made to stand before the world in his nakedness. He began rubbing
my stomach and berating me for not being an observant Jew, because I
ate pork. And then he called me a fat, Jew bastard. (Eric believes
that 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' are the gospel truth.)

I began jabbing young Eric with my index finger telling him to get his
hands off me. Young Eric continued to put his hands on me.

I had brought my lunch out on the porch and left it on the railing.
Young Eric flipped the plate off the railing to the ground.

I then went toe-to-toe with young Eric and shouted loudly, in his
face, that he was a "white devil fuck." (Young Eric wears his hair in
dreads, he poses as a Rastafarian, and yet, he is a mentally ill,
white devil fuck. I was feeling it.)

My arms were at my side. There was no way I could block the punch.
Young Eric punched me right between the eyes.

One of those vivid, clear memories I retain of the day is seeing young
Eric's clenched, ringed fist the moment before impact

My head snapped back. It was as if a blood-bomb had gone off. The
blood was gushing from my head.

There was a moment when I thought I was going out. And then I
surprised the shit out of young Eric (but not half as much as I
surprised myself) by coming back with a right to young Eric's mouth
that busted his lip open.

Young Eric is 24 years-old. Young Eric is about six foot three. I'm
five foot eight. Young Eric's arms have at least a foot of reach on
me.

Young Eric was wearing a ring with a sharp metal edge that had gouged
me to my sinus cavity (later, at the hospital in Boulder, the guy who
was sewing me up with 16 stitches said "Dude, I can see into your
sinuses.")

I immediately tasted my blood. I went to a very primal place.

I raged and I charged.

For every punch I landed, young Eric landed two. He kept his aim on
the place where he had already busted my head open.

Where I was standing it felt like he was trying to kill me.

Still I raged and charged and backed him up to the door of his apartment.

Then he grabbed my shirt with his left hand, and kept me a young Eric
arm's length away from him, and began punching me where the blood was
gushing with the other hand.

I kept on swinging but I couldn't reach him. I tried to break his
grip, but couldn't.

There was a moment when I thought, "This is me being kilt."

And I thought, "We die alone."

Young Eric was laughing the way a white devil fuck laughs as he
pummeled me where he had broken my head open.

But then my friend Josh intervened.

He tried to pull young Eric off-me.

Young Eric punched Josh.

And then I broke young Eric's grip and got inside, and got my weight
behind punches that began the beating of young Eric to the ground.

Josh and myself got on either side of young Eric and beat young Eric
to his knees with his shirt over his head.

I pulled back and began aiming a kick to young Eric's ribs (My plan
was to scientifically, methodically kick every one of young Eric's
ribs in - I was still tasting my gushing/itz-ing blood).

But when I began to put my kick in motion, my entire leg went into a
prolonged and agonizing spasm.

The fight ended with young Eric on his knees pitifully (like a
bee-otch) begging us to stop hitting him.

We did.

But my bleeding/itzing didn't stop.

My blood covers the porch that was the arena of these events just
described. There is a trail of blood from our house to the Nederland
Police Department. I bled all over the Nederland Police Station, until
the Nederland Ambulance crew finally stopped most of the bleeding.

The Nederland Ambulance crew wanted to just pile me into the ambulance
and take me to Boulder Community Hospital, and yet I have no health
insurance and I was told the ambulance ride would cost me $3,000,
which I don't have.

I finally got a ride to the hospital from another neighbor, the E-man,
got stitched up, and hitch-hiked (even though I looked like I just
escaped from Victor Frankenstein's castle) back to Nederland.

When I returned to my place, young Eric was waiting on the bloodied
porch and threated to "Fuck me up good if I ever set someone on him,
again".

Young Eric is charged with 3rd degree assault (a misdemeanor).

His mentally ill narrative of what happened is that he was attacked by
Josh and myself and that we should be charged with assault.

When he see's me he yells, "Tell the truth old man!"

So I have - the whole truth and nothing but the truth - so help me God.

The stitches have been taken out of my head and I now wear a scar that
goes from my forehead down the bridge of my nose.

It looks like an ancient rune whose meaning has long been lost.

And yet in this runic scar is young Eric, naked in his violence and
mental illness for all to see.

And what of the supernatural power that emanates from the flow of
life-effusing/life-dispersing fluids, particularly blood.

All I can tell ya is that in my chest I feel this supernatural joy and
amazing grace in being still alive.

Liberty First!

It had seemed like Proposition 19 had big momentum and the national
repeal of cannabis prohibition was imminent.

And then Proposition 19 which would have brought the end of cannabis
prohibition in California (and eventually the end of cannabis
prohibition in the rest of the country) was narrowly defeated by 53.5
percent of California voters.

Opponents of this measure for the repeal of prohibition included many
medicinal cannabis
growers seeking to preserve their profits. And yet, for the most part,
Proposition 19 was voted down by Republicans and the many tea
baggers/douche baggers who have taken over the Republican Party.

Proposition 19 would have made it legal for adults 21 and over to
possess up to an ounce of cannabis, smoke it in non-public areas, and
cultivate it in private plots. It would have also granted local
authorities control over commercial cultivation and sales of cannabis.

Supporters of Proposition 19 emphasized such benefits of cannabis
legalization as reduced law enforcement costs, additional tax revenue,
and stronger restrictions on under aged minors getting access to
cannabis (which seems to have been an unconvincing argument since many
California mothers voted against it fearing it would increase their
childrens' access to cannabis).

These benefits would certainly happen if repeal of prohibition would
happen, and yet the most important benefits of repeal would be an end
of government interference in a private decision, an end of government
infringement of natural right, an end of the government's war on the
U.S. Constitution, an assertion of American citizens' constitutional
rights, and the end of The War on Plants.

The great opportunity in this struggle for repeal of prohibition is
the possibility that the tea-baggers/douche-baggers can be made to be
consistent,
that they can be made to at least limit their hypocrisy.

Tea-baggers profess that they are against government interference in
our lives. They profess to be for the full restoration of our
constitutional rights, they say they are about personal freedom.

And yet, in a clear demonstration of their fundamental hypocrisy, many
tea-baggers continue to be adamant, war-on-plants, warriors.

Cannabis prohibition is the most clear and present danger that
government poses for millions of American citizens. For growing,
using, transporting or distributing a plant American citizens are
imprisoned, have their private property confiscated, have their
children taken from them, are deprived of their constitutional and
natural rights. It is the main reason why these United States of
America, this land of the free, leads the world in the percentage of
its citizens who are imprisoned (we have a larger percentage of our
citizens in prison than China, Cuba and North Korea).

The last thing that must happen in these United States of America for
cannabis prohibition to fall, and a rebirth of freedom, is for the
tea-baggers/douche-bagger to end the
hypocrisy, to be consistent.

Reply Forward

Dispensary Review by Hassan i Sabbah

Soon after the fateful presidential memo to federal prosecutors on
July 7, 2009, the Nederland landscape suddenly and dramatically
proliferated with
medical cannabis dispensaries making this little town, reputedly, the
most and best cannabis medicated community...perhaps in the world (see New York
Times, Herald Tribune and Rollin' Stone Magazine).

Now there is only four.

And yet, even though there are fewer, it is possible, that like an
invisible hand, the best dispensers to Colorado medical cannabis
patients survive and continue to serve.

And even though Nedicate, at 150 North Jefferson, Suite 3b, is the
priciest, it is, at this time, my personal favorite.

A feast to the eyes as well as the brain is the sparkling, jewelry bud display
of their featured strains: Triple Diesel (and Bob Marley's favorites)
Lamb's Breath, and Light of Jah. The dispensary's inventory also
could include such popular favorites as Strawberry Cough, Grape Ape.
Mother's Finest, Maui Wowy, Blue Cheese, and Blue Moon.

One hundred percent of the cannabis is grown by the dispensary, and
they do a fine job.

Nedicate and their sister enterprises are not fooling around.

Nedicate, Well, (at 3000 Folsom Street, Boulder) TreeLine Medical
Cannabis dispensary, in Vail, Colorado and Colorado Bubble Company, a
hashish laboratory in Boulder, are all owned by Boulder
Cannabis-Entrepreneur Bryan Swantun.

At the Colorado Bubble Company premium medical grade hashish is
produced by water/ice extraction, and inverse carbon dioxide. The
bubble company makes strain specific, bubbling-until-its-white-ash,
bring-you-to-paradise-as-described-by-the-Koran, earwax consistency -
quality hashish.

This is the hashish dispensed at Nedicate.

This hashish costs $42 a gram. (I too, gulped)

A gram of bud is $15 for members $16 for non-members.
An-eighth-of-an-ounce is $50 for members, $55 for non-members.

"We sell only the best, medical-grade cannabis," says Nedicate Manager
Koby Malone.

And then there are the edibles.

I got some Peanut Butter Cups.

I was advised by Malone that I should only
ingest one quarter of the Peanut Butter Cups which contain 2.4 grams
of Medical Marijuana (Hashed) (It says so on the package).

And yet, I ate the whole thing (this is how The-Old-Man-Of-the-Mountain rolls).

I was seeking to throw-off a sinus infection that had been oppressing
me for the previous two weeks. I fell asleep and when I awoke twelve
hours latter, in a seemingly miraculous manner - I was healed.

And in addition, in those Peanut Butter Cups, I was transported to the
gates of this paradise
where there is no final truth and all is permitted.

What They Choose to Write Music About

I have to begin this review of the just released album "Break in the
Clouds" by confessing and testifying - I love Elephant Revival!

I love each member of the band not only for their superb musicianship,
their songwriting, as singers and tellers of narrative in the lyric
and music of the song. I love them for being magical, wonderful Human
Beings. I love the drive for absolute harmonic perfection in the song
which they seek and achieve. And, perhaps, the thing I most love is
what they choose to make songs about.

In the general law of relativity musings of Daniel "D-ro" Rodriguez in
his song "What Is Time?" the song goes:

"...Even Einstein said “Time is not a condition in which we live,

It's a condition in which we think”

And we can change the ways we think..."

The thought naturally goes on that by changing the way we think - we
can change time and the Human Condition.

These lyrics voice a perennial message of the band which is: Our
reality is ours' to create.

In his time travel evoking instrumental "Lexington" Daniel "Dango"
Rose musically narrates an elementary school trip to a historic
mansion in his native Illinois in which he is thrown back into the
American Civil War.

The time trip raises extreme concerns among his teachers of their
young, sensitive student's mental health.

This sense of being psychically sensitive and to some extent haunted
by our personal and collective past time is again presented in Rose's
song "Sleeping With Your Clothes On".

Rose writes: "Is that a cricket in the kitchen
Or is that a tune left unwritten
Was that you of who I'm dreaming
Riding horses through the valleys of Virginia
Bareback in the brier
Soaked by the rain
Asleep with the light on
Asleep with the light on

"You are gone now my dear departed
Broken shades the broken hearted
As I'm dreaming in the morning
Distant shores of distant yearning
Take me back to the river
Back through the valley
Over the highest mountain
Asleep with the light on."

It is also evoked in Bridget Law's in all ways amazing instrumental
"Ancient Seas".

Law evokes her Celtic musical heritage and influence, and in all ways
exhibits her own transcendent, individual, musical genius. She has
composed a beautiful, passionate piece of music that seethes, crashes
and boils with the primal waters and the force of ancient oceans.

In his song "Feathers Fly" Rodriguez narrates his experiences of
loving fellow band member Bonnie May Paine and makes a universal,
timeless anthem about the power of love:

"...We gaze into the stars, bodies on the ground.
Our minds and hearts they leave, become part of the sky.
Now we can go and live forever.
And if we die today, at least we'll know the secret".

"Drop" is Paines' description of her mystical, magical union with the
unity of the universe, and the universe's mystical union with her:

"...But the hour was one time because
I slipped into a flower
Recalled the time to climb the vine
A honeysuckle tower
I was water brought to lifted leaves
Of daffodils and day lilies
Drank into the grace of trees
The aspens eye, the willows weep

That hung so low it touched below
The surface of a still puddle
Did I behold, reflection told
Looking back at me, the eyes of my body
So I jumped in, back into my skin
And sang this song of where I'd been."

And last but in no way least is the prodigious and wise songwriting
and in all ways distinctive singing and musicianship of Sage Cook.

In "Go On" Cook gives his sage advice to all who are leaving their
childhood and preparing to begin their autonomous life:

"...don't wait don't fear

don't work too hard less you love it

cause you're here

you're here through ever shifting shades of now

somehow

its love its LOVE

love it keeps me high enough

the drugs and sex have lost respect and sacredness

its sad but true

most things can hurt or help its up to us

I know we're here to sew some seeds

I hope they grow..."

Another perennial theme of the band is voiced in this song which is:
In the on-going creation of your reality - be guided by Love.

Few bands have the distinction of being the creators of a whole new
gender of music. Elephant Revival are the progenitors of a musical
form which has become known as Transcendental Folk.

This label is an attempt to in some way describe the musical, lyrical
and unworldly, extrasensory powers of the band both personally and
collectively.

During the bands live performances the traditional ending of the show
is for Paine to sing a'capella, in her own inimitable style. This band
tradition is carried on in their albums.

'Break In the Clouds" ends with Paine singing "Breathe" - her call to
transcendental consciousness:

"Open your hands
Breathe deep
Calm yourself
Breathe

Down the valley
Beneath the trees
Alongside the river
That's where you'll be
Whispering through the patient wind carrying cottonwood seed
Saying to resistance now, release
There is a stillness in the ground beneath your feet

Still there is movement to be found both remind us to

Open your hands
Breathe deep
Calm yourself
Breathe."

Alternative Conspiracy Theory - The Assassination of J.F.K.

We are approaching the 47th anniversary of the assassination of J.F.K.

I can't help noting that 40-years-ago if you believed Kennedy was killed by a C.I.A. conspiracy, if you believed aliens from outer space were regularly visiting our planet and corn-holing humans (especially those that live in trailer parks), if you believed the C.I.A. were conspiring to put micro-chips in every one's butt - you were considered to be a crackpot and a fucking lunatic.

And yet 40 years later, in wide swaths of the geography and culture of this nation, (these United States of America), if you do not believe these conspiracy theories - you are considered to be a crack-pot and a fucking lunatic.

Conspiracy theory is no doubt a peculiar mental illness of our particularly paranoid times, and yet - perhaps - conspiracy theory can be said to be a new art form of our day.

In that spirit I will now reveal the TRUTH that is out there.

The homo-sexuals killed Kennedy!

When Jacqueline Kennedy became our nations first lady in January 1961 she found the White House badly in need of a make-over. She appointed the first White House curator, formed the Fine Arts Committee for the White House which was charged with procuring furnishing and artwork owned by previous presidents and/or first ladies, or furnishings and artwork which were representative of previous periods in the White House's history.

She maintained that she was not trying to impose her stylistic tastes, but was just trying to honor American history and craftsmanship.

For three days in January 1962, Jacqueline Kennedy was filmed and interviewed by CBS
as she conducted the nation in a behind-the-scenes tour of the White House make-over. On the night of February 14, 1962 three out of four television viewers and 100 percent of the homosexual television viewers witnessed the make-over.

The homo-sexuals hated it.

Homo-sexuals in New Orleans and Dallas (the same people who eventually founded the tea-bag (douche-bag) movement) decided - that night, that no-taste, bee-otch Jacqueline Kennedy must die.

There were homo-sexual gun men all over Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. They were in the book depository building, they were on the grassy knoll. But while homo-sexuals can be very adapt with knives, they are hopeless with firearms.

They missed Jacqueline and hit Jack.

I am not the first person to expound this conspiracy theory. I am merely elaborating on the conspiracy theory of Jim Garrison, district attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973, who was latter immortalized by Oliver Stone in his movie J.F.K.

Garrison's investigation resulted in the arrest, trial and acquittal of prominent New Orleans gay business-man Clay Shaw.

Garrison alleged Shaw and other homo-sexuals somehow linked to the C.I.A. conspired and killed J.F.K.

And that's my conspiracy theory.

And I'm sticking to IT....

alternative conspiracy theory - aliens from outer space

After fully examining all of the data this has been my alternative conspiracy theory re: aliens from outer space (not to be confused with those illegal ones from Central America).

The powers-that-be (p-t-b) of this world (Earth - I believe) made a secret covenant with aliens from outer space when ufo's first were widely noted in the skies beginning in the 1940's.

In return for advanced alien technologies (atomic weapons, cell phones, microwave ovens, stealth air craft, slinkies) the p-t-b allowed the aliens to have their way with anyone living in a trailer or a trailer park.

This explains the clustering of abduction narratives from these places.

The abduction narratives are, for now, inexplicable. I ax ya - why would technologically advanced creatures, able to cross the cosmos - go to trailer parks, abduct the denizens of such establishments, transport them to operating theatres in alien space craft, and shove mysterious surgical instruments up their butts?

Then there was the ufo sightings over 23rd Street in the Chelsea section of lower Manhattan, at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 13.

I have watched the video.

New Yorkers would not break stride and make eye contact with someone conducting a mass ax murder on the street. And yet they came to a full halt to lift their gaze to the sky where unidentified objects were flying.

Major media have (as of Friday, October 15) debunked the sightings. They claim it was a bunch of party balloons accidentally released by children in nearby Mount Vernon during a party to celebrate their teacher's engagement.

And yet New Yorkers stopped in their tracks to look to the sky with postures of awe-struck wonder.

Hard to believe that a bunch of party balloons would do that.

On the day of the sightings a September 13 press release from Stanley A. Fulham, a retired airforce officer came to light predicting October 13, 2010 as the date for a massive UFO display over the world’s principal cities.

According to Fulham, the aliens were to neither land nor communicate on that date; they are aware from eons of experience with other planets in similar conditions their sudden intervention would cause fear and panic.

The press release also shilled Fulham's new book.

The press release/book is new age gospel.

Benevolent, immortal aliens have come to stop us from reaching the tipping point for carbon dioxide build up in our atmosphere and the ensuing extinction of all life on the planet. They have come in peace with technology to clean the earth's atmosphere of green-house gases.

They will save us from ourselves.

The press release reeked of crack-pot new age orthodoxy.

I still wonder about a bunch of party balloons stopping jaded New Yorkers, in the middle of the day, on 23rd Street.

No doubt we live in strange times.

And yet - I gotz my conspiracy theory - and I'm sticking to It...

The Peewink Mountain Fire

On Friday, September 17 around 4:20 p.m. The Peewink Mountain, on the Northeast side of Nederland, Colorado, started to burn.

The infamous and nearby Fourmile Canyon Fire had just been declared the most destructive fire in Colorado's history after incinerating 169 homes. This fire had just been declared officially extinguished.

Very moderate, but very hot and very dry winds were blowing from the Northeast. Soon the mountains were misted with smoke and all could smell the fire.

It was the eve of Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the Jewish Calendar, the culmination of the days of awe, the time when Jews are called to mystery, the time when Jews are called to examine the existential parameters of the Human Condition.

I am Jewish - but only on my mother's and father's sides of the family. I am appalled and disgusted by all organized religions, including Judaism. Organized religions are horrible parodies of spirituality.

And yet, The Peewink Mountain Fire caught me at a strange time. For the first time in many years I am somewhat materially vested.

Around 5:30 p.m. a terrible mistake was made. For some reason a reverse 911 call told residents they had to evacuate town. Soon after the call I ran into Michigan Mike Torpe, of Nederland Music Festival fame. He told me to tell everyone I saw - to flee.

People freaked out. Heavily loaded SUV's and pick-up trucks could be seen racing out of town.

And suddenly I was in the presence of Mystery, I was examining the parameters of the Human Condition, I was making an evacuation plan.

Soon after, I was told that Boulder County officials were saying there was no evacuation order, and that the fire was mostly contained. Three air-tankers had quickly responded and had bombed The Peewink Mountain with slurry.

People stopped thinking worst-case-scenario. People chilled.

I went food shopping and organized a celebratory feast. All present were invited.

And after feasting I accepted the Mystery's invitation to the fast, and I accepted the Mystery's invitation to examine the existential parameters of the Human Condition.

Something Biblical - Revisited

There is something biblical going on.

And yet it has nothing to do with Johnny Patmos and his Book of Chucklelations.

On 9/11 a great opportunity for liberation consciousness was offered to our nation - and squandered by our nation.

For a while people stepped back from this consumers' special olympics on steroids - this obsessive buying and selling of things that we really don't need, with money we don't really have, this hopeless entanglement in the material, tacky smeg - stepped back from that 24/7 stupid sound about Tiger Woods, Carrie Underwear, Sarah Palin, Oprah etc. And, perhaps, for a little while, people perceived the existential parameters of the human circumstances, the dynamic uncertainty, the mystery.

In a fiery, cinematic moment the most seemingly secure lives - based on good incomes, secure retirements, fat 401k's - ended on that day it rained burning people.

But then people resumed the consumers' special olympics on steroids - this obsessive buying and selling - resumed the mindless 24/7 drone about dysfunctional celebrities, corn-holing aliens, conspiracy theory.

And then capitalism on steroids crashed and burns.

It is as Lenin (not John) prophecized - The capitalists sold the sub-prime mortgage ropes from which they hanged and jerked.
But then our government, as well as ourselves, are revealed as being total, complete bee-otchs of the corporations. The Great Bail-Out occurs. Wall Street and the banks are saved from their grievous delusions. Everyone else becomes eligible for food stamps.

And then the consumers' special olympics resumes - in a somewhat curtailed way. And the 24/7 stupid sound of the media cycle resumed, in full force.

Now cometh the BP Blow-out.

Again a great opportunity - perhaps the last opportunity for liberation consciousness is offered to us as a civilization - to us as individuals.
It is the time for us as a civilization, for us as individuals to end our consumers' special olympics, to end our business-as-usual as slaves of consumerism, bee-otches of the corporations.
It is the time for us as a civilization, for us as individuals to make our plan for Exodus from the grid, Exodus from being slaves of Big Oil.

It is the time to seize the means of energy production.

It is the only commonsensical and moral response to these Biblical things.

Nature Gods of the Summer Solstice

In the Northern Hemisphere, during the longest days and shortest nights, during the time of the most fecund and rapid growth of plants, particularly food plants, our ancestors would be closely observing the movement of the rising and the setting sun on the horizon. They would observe the apparent standing still or solstice of the sun. Then they would observe the sun's movement on the horizon towards winter, and the re-ascendancy of the darkness.

It would take several days for our ancestors to discern this movement of the sun. And that day, June 24, became Midsummer (the middle of the growing season).

In many traditions it was a magical time when the membranes that separated the world of humans from supernatural realms was stretched thin and became permeable. On the eve of Midsummer Day the realm of the fairies and other mythological beings intersected with the world of humans. On this night the present was no longer separated from the past and the future, making it possible for the dead to return, making it possible to see what was to come. On this night it was possible to slip away from the world of the business-as-usual, the world of waking consciousness.

This is the premise of William Shakespeare's play 'Midsummer Night's Dream'.

June 24th, (the summer solstice holiday that is the flip side of the winter solstice holiday of December 25), and the night or eve of the day also became the time of wild gods of nature who embodied dark, relentless, not-conscious forces of nature.

When Northern Europe was Christianized, June 24 became the feast day of Yohannan the Baptister, (a.k.a.) John the Baptist, who is, essentially, a wild god of nature.

The Baptister was an ascetic desert hermit who lived on locusts and wild honey, during the Roman occupation of Judea. Organized Christianity assigns The Baptister a secondary role to Rabbi Yeshua (a.k.a. Jesus) in the spiritual, political and social movement that swept Roman-occupied Judea 2,000 years ago. And yet, Flavius Josephus, a Jewish/Roman historian who wrote the only surviving historical account of the time of the Jewish uprisings against Roman occupation says it was all about The Baptiser.

During the Roman occupation of Judea the royal family of Israel and the priests of the Temple of Jerusalem collaborated with the hated Roman occupiers and lost their credibility and moral authority. During this time poor, wandering rabbis or teachers, in no way affiliated with traditional spiritual or social authority, arose.

The Baptiser was one of these rabbis. He was the leader of a back-to-nature spiritual movement. When he immersed a fellow Hebrew in the Jordon River, he washed away the taint, the corruption, of Roman slavery and Greco-Roman urban civilization. He preached spiritual renewal in the wilderness as happened during the time of Moses, the time of the deliverance from Egyptian slavery and the 40-year purifying exodus in the wilderness.

The Romans were called 'the new Egyptians".

Yeshua in the first Greek scriptures is called a tekto¯n, long taken to mean “carpenter.” A more accurate translation could be something like stone worker or a day laborer. He could have worked as a laborer in the construction of the grand Greco-Roman city of Sepphoris, whose ruins are near Nazareth.

During his three year ministry as a rabbi Yeshua spoke his doctrine to the Jews living in the Greco-Roman cities. He called for a Gandhi-like, non-violent resistance to the Roman occupation, although many of his followers were armed with swords and the long knives of fishermen.

The Romans didn't understand what the 'kingdom of heaven' was. But they knew that whatever it was - it wasn't the Roman Empire.

When Yeshua led his people into Jerusalem during the observance of Passover, the nationalistic celebration of the Jews victory over Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the rough equivalent of the 4th of July, the Romans, of course, regarded the movement as an uprising against the Roman Empire. And, of course, they mobilized the ultimate instrument of Roman Empire state terrorism - crucifixion.

And yet, according to Josephus the movement that the Romans felt was the greatest threat to their occupation of Judea was The Baptiser’s back-to-nature movement. The Yeshua movement was considered a footnote to this history.

The canonical gospels grapple with this issue of who is the star of the story - Yeshua or The Baptiser. And in newly Christianized northern Europe the residual pagan forces often sided with The Baptiser.

Before Northern Europe was Christianized June 24 was the day of the Greenman or the Wild Man, the symbol of nature's rebirth, and the irrepressible forces of nature. Throughout Northern Europe the face of the Greenman still stares out at us, carved in stone or wood, depicted even on the stained glass windows of Christian Churches.

It is often a grotesque face with plants vigorously sprouting from his mouth, nose, eyes or ears.

At Midsummer the Greenman is at the peak of his wild, potent, nature powers. At this time he is in sexual union with the Goddess. And this sexual union gives birth to all the abundance of nature.

By making June 24 The Baptiser's day, Christianity incorporated the pagan traditions (bonfires, jumping through fires, rolling burning wheels into bodies of water, scheduling marriages at this time) that the church was unable to stamp out - try as they might.

The Baptiser was often portrayed in leafy and rustic attire, sometimes with horns and cloven feet (like Pan) and with the foilage of the Greenman, sprouting from every orifice of his face.

The Maypole Cultural War

The Maypole and the festivities that happen around it ignited the

first cultural war in early colonial America, a cultural war that, in

many ways, persists to the present day.



The tradition of the Maypole happens in places influenced by the

German Mythology. In this mythology the Maypole is

Yggdrasil, the tree of life, which brings together, connects many

worlds and realms. It connects the underworld with the middle world

(our world) with the heavens. It connects the mortal realm with the

realm of the gods and the immortals, it connects the realms of death

with the realms of life. And it connects the male with the female.



The first explorers and settlers of Anglo-America came from

Elizabethan England, William Shakespeare's England, Merry Old England.

It was Merry Old England because of its tradition of holidays, and

folk festivals which unabashedly remained essentially pagan, such as

the Maypole festival.


Merry Old England's calendar is similar to Merry Colorado's calendar

in that both are marked by seasonal celebrations which are also free

spirited, unruly musical festivals such as Telluride, Rocky Grass,

Yarmony Grass, Nedfest.



The Maypole ceremony derives from prehistoric phallic worship and

sympathetic magic. Sympathetic magic is about the belief that like

produces like, that a festival that is about free and open sexuality,

music and dance will result in a spirit of fertility that will bring

an abundant increase in food crops, livestock as well as Human

fertility.



England's King James I who reigned from 1603-1625 as Cromwell and the

Roundheads began to rise, revived and supported Maypole festivals to win support

among rural common folk, to entertain his court, and to mock the

Roundheads.



Roundhead Phillip Stubbes wrote a description of an English Maypole

festival in the early 1600's: "... all the young men and maids, old

men and wives, run gadding over night to the woods, groves, hills, and

mountains, where they spend all night in pleasant pastimes.... The

chiefest jewel they bring from thence is their Maypole, which they

bring home with great veneration.... And thus being reared up with

handkerchiefs and flags hovering on the top...they fall to dance about

it, like as the heathen people did at the dedication of the Idols....

Of forty, three-score, or a hundred maids going to the wood

over-night, there have scarcely the third part of them returned home

again undefiled....



Stubbes was sure that the "grand captain of all mischief" the one that

was called "my Lord of Misrule" was Satan himself. He called the

Maypole festival an exercise in "heathenry, deviltry, whoredom,

drunkenness, pride and what not".



In 1644, when Cromwell and the Roundheads took power,

the Maypole Festival was banned, prohibited throughout England.

Yet Maypole festivals continued as a symbol of resistance to Cromwell and

his so-called Republic which was really a dictatorial theocracy.



The earliest erection of a Maypole in America occurred in 1628 in what

is now Quincy, MA., not too far from the Roundhead colony of Plymouth

Plantation. It was erected while Charles I still ruled.



Fifes, horns, fiddles, Indian drums and Indian flutes played as the

Maypole was raised to celebrate the return of life and the freedom and tolerance of

the new multi-cultural, multi-racial community.



The incident is described by Roundhead William Bradford, governor

of New Plymouth:



"They set up a Maypole, drinking and dancing about it for several days

at a time, inviting the Indian women for their consorts, dancing and

frisking together like so many fairies, – or furies rather, – to say

nothing of worse practices. It was as if they had revived the

celebrated feasts of the Roman goddess Flora, or the beastly practices

of the mad Bacchanalians... They changed the name of the place, and

instead of calling it Mount Wollaston, they called it Merry Mount, as

if the jollity would last forever. But it did not continue long...



The Governor of Merry Mount, the erector of the Maypole, and noteable

Elizabethan was Thomas Morton.



He was an influential, socially connected lawyer and social reformer. He defended the

poor and oppressed from the rich and powerful. He rubbed elbows with

the likes of Francis Bacon and Shakespeare, and he was a life-long friend and

drinking buddy of Elizabethan playwright Ben Johnson.



In 1622 he visited the Plymouth colony and was disgusted by the

intolerance of the Roundheads towards all who in any way differed from

them. He was revolted by the Roundheads genocide of the American

Indians.


He called the Roundheads the "Lords of Limbo".


He returned to America in 1624 and established a colony and fur

trading post on a spit of land in what is now Boston Harbor. He

initiated a warm, amiable relationship with the American Indians, whom he loved and

respected.


As a result the Indians traded their furs with

Morton and the free colonists of the community which was eventually

named Merry Mount - and did not trade with the Roundheads. As a result

Merry Mount became the fastest growing and most prosperous English

colony in the Americas.



In 1628 the colonists erected an 80 ft. Maypole, topped with

deer antlers. Around this Maypole the mostly male English

colonists danced with and courted American Indian women.



This provoked a Roundhead crusade.



The Roundheads under Myles Standish raided and occupied Merry Mount the

following month (June). They chopped down the Maypole and arrested

Morton. He was put in stocks in Plymouth,

given a kangaroo trial and marooned on a desert island off the coast of

New Hampshire.



The only thing that saved Morton from the Roundheads' gallows and dungeons was

his social connections back in England.



He was left on the island without food or tools and the Roundheads

hoped that he would starve to death. But he was supplied with an

abundance of food by his American Indian friends and allies who

eventually assisted him in escaping the island, and returning to

England.



Merrymount survived without Morton for another year. But was

continually embattled by the Roundheads who called the colony Dagon,

after the 'evil' Semitic Sea God. They eventually razed the colony to

the ground.



In England Morton began a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Bay

Company, the political power behind the Roundheads' colonization of New England.


Morton gained influential backing for his cause. Charles I, who was eventually

beheaded by the Roundheads, backed Morton and revoked the Massachusetts Bay

Company's

charter. As a result the Plymouth Plantation was isolated, and the

Roundheads were no longer supplied by England and other English

colonies making Plymouth "a place of woe." Many colonists left

Massachusetts for the relative safety of Connecticut.



In 1637 Morton published 'New English Canaan' a scathing denunciation

of the Roundheads' colonization of New England. He called for the

creation of a multicultural America along the lines of Merry Mount.



Morton's victory was short-lived. Soon after the book's publication the Roundheads

began the English Civil War.



In 1642 Morton fled England and Cromwell's theocratic tyranny and

went to Maine.



But in the end Morton couldn't help himself. He went to Plymouth Colony to confront and denounce his mortal enemies.



He was arrested and accused of being a Royalist “agitator”, and put on

trial for his role in the revocation of the colony's charter, as well

as charges of sedition. He was imprisoned in Boston.



The Roundheads kept delaying his trial until Morton's health failed in the dank

dungeon. Only when he was broken, and mortally ill was he released. Morton's life

ended among the West Country planters of Maine. He died at the age of 71 in 1647.



In Morton's war with the Roundheads the Maypole not only became the symbol of

Yggdrasil. The Maypole became the symbol of the then unrealized possibility that

Anglo-America could be a free,

tolerant, multi-cultural, multi-racial society.



In the Roundheads' war with Morton the whipping post and the

hangman's gallows became the symbols of the America that was created

by the Roundheads after their apparent victory over Morton and the

multi-cultural, multi-racial community of Merrymount.



And yet in these United States of America, non-Hispanic whites will

soon be a minority, and our multi-cultural multi-racial reality could

be more like Merry Mount than the Plymouth Plantation.

It's a No-Brainer

(Nederland, Colorado will vote in April re: a municipal law to make
the town into a free cannabis zone.)

This month voters in Nederland will have the opportunity to take part
> in, and to further an important international movement/progression to
> restore our most basic, natural, Human Right.
>
> In 1976 Amsterdam in particular and Holland in general allows for the
> possession of as much as five grams of
> cannabis and the cultivation of as many as five cannabis plants.
> Coffee shops that dispense cannabis are still technically illegal. And
> yet the the commonsensical decision is made by Dutch law enforcement
> authorities to
> not squander law enforcement resources to prosecute those who are
> violating the prohibition on cannabis.
>
> There is less cannabis use, now, in Holland then there is in Italy,
> Germany, the U.K., Spain, and far less cannabis use then in these
> United States. It may be counter-intuitive to many, but it seems when
> cannabis ceases being the outlaw weed it becomes less attractive to
> many, and the profane, non-medicinal use of the plant diminishes.
>
> On July 1, 2001 Portugal decriminalizes cannabis (which is a plant)
> and all drugs (which are not plants). Drugs are said to be
> decriminalized, not legalized. Drug use is still prohibited by law.
> Possession and use are still, technically, offenses under Portuguese
> law. And yet violations are administrative violations. No criminal
> charges are made. Violations are not prosecuted.
>
> While drug use and cannabis use across the European Union has steadily
> increased since 2000, in Portugal prevalence rates, the rates that
> people consume a substance in the course of a lifetime, have
> diminished.
>
> The U.K and Estonia have the harshest most draconian drug laws in the
> European Union. And yet these countries have the highest rates of
> cocaine use in the European Union. These United States has the
> harshest, most draconian drug laws in the world. And yet this country
> has one of the highest rates of drug use - in the world.
>
> It is a no-brainer.
>
> When cannabis prohibition is de facto repealed, when drug abuse is
> treated as a public health issue and not a law enforcement/criminal
> justice issue - then everyone wins - except for pandering, whore
> politicians who manipulate the irrational fears of their conservative,
> Christian constituency's for personal gain and power.
>
> Last April Mexico passed a law that allows for the possession of
> ridiculously small amounts of cannabis and drugs, amounts that are far
> less than the quantities that are usually acquired by Mexican users or tourists.
>
> The intent of the law is said to be to allow Mexican law enforcement
> to be better focused on the bloody, escalating war against the
> drug cartels. The intent of the law is said to be to stop Mexican police
> from extorting money from those caught with small amounts of mota
> (cannabis) and drugs (which the Mexican police will never stop doing
> since it is the major part of their income).
>
> What Mexican politicians have done, is to evade the issue, and evade a
> confrontation with the United States' hated force of international
> oppression the Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.)
>
> The issue is Mexico's grotesque slaughter - the stacked, decapitated,
> tortured, and mutilated bodies. The issue is the assault on,
> brutalization, degrading of the Mexican national psyche.
>
> In this carnage is a clear, not
> pretty picture of the business-as-usual (b-a-u) of
> Mexico and the United States.
>
> The politicians in the United States serve the agendas of the lunatic,
> Christian, fundamentalists, in creating/perpetuating a prohibition
> that does not distinguish between plant medicines and drugs, that
> makes national policy a lunatic thing of sinners and their sins, that
> has the United States, this land of the free, with the highest
> percentage of its population incarcerated (of all countries in the
> world), and a so-called war on drugs which is really a war on the
> constitution, on the most basic natural rights, a war on plants.
>
> This creates a massive multi-billion dollar black market which further
> corrupts an already corrupted Mexican government, police, and
> military, and further corrupts American federal and international law
> enforcement.
>
> Then the world is thrown into the Great World Depression II (GWD II) because of
> the limitless, greed of those masters-of-the-universe who control
> the American banking system and Wall Street.
>
> And now the Mexican cartels are just intensifying their greedy,
> murderous, corrupted, black market capitalism to preserve their
> profits, their markets - like an invisible hand.
>
> We have been here before.
>
> The politicians in the United States serving the agenda of the
> lunatic, Christian fundamentalists made alcohol prohibition happen.
> This led to an intensifying of the corruption of government, of the
> police, of our society - just like in Mexico.
>
> Then the GWD I happened. Then there was the
> gangland violence and slaughter marked by such events as the
> Valentines Day Massacre in Chicago.
>
> And then the problem was so easily solved. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
> repealed alcohol prohibition.The gangsters and criminals no longer
> could do their gangster capitalism - only Wall Street and the Big
> Banks could do gangster capitalism.
>
> And so ended our American Valentine Days of the Dead.
>
> Soon after becoming president President Barak Obama announced that
> federal police
> would not raid medical cannabis dispensaries in compliance with state
> law.
>
> In July, Obama issued a memo to federal prosecutors in states
> with medical cannabis laws telling them not to waste scarce federal
> resources on people in "clear and unambiguous compliance" with state
> laws.
>
> And yet, last November, in Breckenridge, 70.9 per cent of voters
> passed a municipal law, that went into effect on January 1
> to legalize cannabis, that allows for the use of cannabis - without a
> note from a doctor.
>
> Specifically the Breckenridge municipal law allows for the possession
> of up to one ounce of cannabis as well as cannabis paraphernalia for
> people 21 or older.
>
> Preliminary Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce business statistics
> indicate that the municipal law attracted skiers and snowboarders and
> mitigated for the local ski resorts and businesses an El Nino winter
> of modest snow.
>
> In Nederland an effort to establish a summer cannabis festival
> celebrating the many uses of the cannabis/hemp plant was squelched by
> local churches. And yet opposition to the festival was understandable,
> inevitable.
>
> The proponents of the cannabis festival made a confused
> presentation/justification for the use of cannabis and why there
> should be a cannabis festival in Nederland.
>
> Let there be a clear presentation/justification for why there should
> be a municipal law in Nederland that allows for the use, cultivation,
> distribution, transportation of cannabis without a dirty, stinking
> note from a doctor.
>
> When our ancestors were no more, and yet no less than bands of
> primates in the nature of the African savannas, they had the natural
> right to utilize, to cultivate every and any plant they found in their
> natural environment.
>
> Long ago, our ancestors found many uses of hemp/cannabis. The
> archaeological records show that humans have been using/cultivating
> cannabis for at
> least 14,000 years. It is one of the first plants cultivated by
> Humans.
>
> The natural right to use any plant found in nature precedes and
> supersedes the power of the United States and the state of Colorado.

For those of you who shape your observations and opinions on religious
doctrine, please note that the Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Hindu
scriptures all clearly state that God gave the Human the right to
use/cultivate any plant found in nature of which the Human had uses
for, with the possible exception of a couple of trees in the Garden of
Eden.
>
> The United States and the state of Colorado has no right to prohibit,
> to make illegal a plant that is
> found in nature. The nation, the state has no right to tell people which
> seeds they can grow and which seeds they cannot grow.
>
> These are our natural rights as Human Beings.
>
> The law that Nederland residents have the opportunity to vote on will
> allow for people 21 and over to use, cultivate, distribute, transport
> cannabis and its derivatives as well as paraphernalia.
>
> Vote YES for Natural Right/Natural Law.

The Suffering/Dying/Reborn Gods/Goddesses of the Vernal Equinox

(A version of this story first appeared in 'Mountain Music'. To see
the full narrative of 'The Voyage of the Bloody, Snake Chariot' see
www.libbyhome.blogspot.com )

The oldest and most joyous celebrations/festivals are those that mark
the end of the dead season and the rebirth of life around the time of
the spring equinox. These celebrations/festivals, often are centered
around a re-occurring theme (an archetype). This archetype is of the
dying, sojourning in the underworld and then being reborn with the
spring - gods/goddesses. And these joyous celebrations/festivals often
have a dark side.

These gods'/goddesses' deaths/rebirths coincide with the deaths and
rebirths of life in general but specifically are focused on the
deaths/rebirths of vital agricultural foods such as barley, corn and
grapes.The gods/goddesses become the personification of the food
plant.

Barley was the most important food crop in Northern Europe until the
16th Century. The old English folk song 'John Barleycorn Must Die' ,
(popularized in the modern world by the band Traffic) is the personalization of
the pagan Anglo-Saxon god of the barley, Beowa, whose name is the old
Anglo-Saxon word for barley.

In the song John Barleycorn is made to suffer the way the barley plant
is made to suffer through the stages of its cultivation, such as its
harvesting and threshing. But the last verse of the song speaks of the
revenge of the god of the barley's spirit which resides in the beer
and brandy made from his body - the hangover.

'And little Sir John in the nut brown bowl (beer vessel)
Proved the stronger man at last
And the huntsman he can't hunt the fox
Nor so loudly blow his horn

And the tinker he can't mend kettles and pots

Without a little of Barleycorn.'

The song alludes to the primal realities of the human condition and in
particular the annual sacrifice of the Barley King.

The men of the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes, every year, would choose
among themselves the man who would be the Barley King.This man would
be treated as a king, for a year, until the planting of the barley,
sometime around the spring equinox.. Then the Barley King would
carefully dance amidst the freshly planted barley. Then he would be
quickly, violently, bloodily killed, his body dragged between the rows
of barley so his blood would run in the fields' furrows - so that the
barley would grow.

The Barley King's body was then eaten during the fertility feast that
followed and the next Barley King took his place.

In the Americas the agricultural gods and goddesses of death and
rebirth personalized the corn crop.

In the Creek Indian myth of the origins of corn, the Corn Woman
Goddess is an old woman who appears to be in all ways mortal, except
that every day she produces these abundant, delicious meals of corn.
Her family has no idea where the food is coming from. One night her
sons spy on her. In the various versions of the myth the sons find
that the corn is being transformed and produced from the old woman
scraping her sores or scabs, or cutting her nails, or from the water
that washes her feet, or even from the old woman's feces. In all
versions of the myth, the origin of the old woman's corn is something
so disgusting that her family refuses to eat the corn.

The Corn Woman Goddess then tells her sons to clear a large plot of
land, and then to quickly, violently bloodily kill her, and then drag
her body around the clearing seven times. This the sons do and where
the old womans blood splashed or fell, seven months later, there the
sons found corn.

In the Penobscot Indian myth of the Corn Mother, she is the first
goddess of the people, before the people filled the land. But when the
people fill the land they kill all the animals and there is no food.
The Corn Mother tells her husband to quickly, violently bloodily kill
her and then to have her sons drag her dead body on cleared ground by
her long, silky hair, until her flesh is torn off, scraped off of her
bones. Seven months latter they find corn where the flesh of the Corn
Mother had been scraped off her bones.

Bacchus/Dionysus was violently killed as is the grape in the process
of making wine. His body was torn into pieces, he sojourned in the
underworld, and challenged the powers-that-be that he found there and
then he is reborn in the first shoots of the grape vine.

The Romans celebrated the Bacchanalia, on March 16 and 17th, to
celebrate the rebirth of the god, the rebirth of the grape.

In the Bacchanalia Bacchus/Dionysus is celebrated as the god of
spring, of fertility, of new life, merriment, mirth, wine, and
revelry. The god was celebrated with drunkenness and orgies.

The Jesus Christ of conventional Christianity shares most of the
attributes of these suffering/dying/rebirthing agricultural gods. Easter was the
first Christian holiday, and in many places the myth of the death and
rebirth of Christ was superimposed on pagan holidays and festivals
that celebrated the rebirth of the suffering/dying gods/goddesses of the
cultivation.

Buffalo Heart

Elephant Revival was the featured band at the Buffalo Heart Project (B.H.P.) benefit at the Boulder Theater on Feb. 5th which raised thousands of dollars for emergency heating assistance for people living on the Pine Ridge and Rose Bud Reservations of the Lakota people during this particularly cold and trying winter of 2010.

The concert was in all ways a major, defining event for headliner Elephant Revival, which is on the cusp of a major breakout into the greater national musical scene. It also defined the bands unique social activism.

Elephant Revival is the leader in an emerging new, influential musical genre being called Transcendental Folk. All the musical artists who joined Elephant Revival for the benefit concert contribute in some way, to the defining of this new musical genre.

The Plenty Wolf Singers, a traditional Lakota Drumming Society, initiated the concert with prayer and invocation to the Great Spirit/Creator with sad yet triumphal traditional drumming and singing.

The music of the Plenty Wolf Singers is the song of our shared American landscape/American topography, a sad primal lamentation of dispossession and attempted genocide, where economically worthless badlands become Indian Reservations forming new frontiers of despair, hopelessness and oppression. Still the song of the Plenty Wolf is also a song of joy, triumph, and transcendence. A song of still abiding in this bleak, arduous American landscape still connected to a persisting, living counter-culture.

The intention of the evening pulsed forth & gained cadence as the drum, the living heartbeat of the American landscape, inaugurated and invoked the evenings magical unfolding.

The Plenty Wolf Singers were joined by a surprise special guest Silent Bear, a fellow resident and musician from the Rose Bud Reservation. Silent Bear received permission from Pete Seeger to alter the words to Seeger's famous Vietnam protest song, “Bring Them Home.” Silent Bear’s song adaptation entitled “Bring Him Home” - is reference and homage to Leonard Peltier who spends his 34th year wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not do. The song became a shared, heartfelt prayer for justice to come to a place where there is no justice.

The Plenty Wolf Singers were a persisting presence during the concert providing a focus to the show as the bands were setting up, as well as ending the concert with ceremony and prayer.

Jim Page was another persisting presence during the show acting as master of ceremony and providing historic context and demonstrating why he is the most notable, worthy American songwriter plying his craft, today.

Page played his haunting, signature song, '(accompanied by Elephant Revival) ‘The Wind did Blow', about the wind that blew and froze the corpses of the men, women, children, and old people murdered by the U.S. 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee, South Dakota on December 29, 1890.

As emcee, Page wove his own songs in between the other band's sets throughout the evening. Page included his own verse of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land,’ and a current protest song penned about the war in Iraq, 'Collateral Damage'. His song ’Heroes &Survivors’ referenced the overpowering will of humanity to carry on through oppression and persecution. Page sang of ‘Anna Mae’ Aquash, a member of the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) who was found murdered on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1976.

As the late great folk legend Utah Philips stated, “Jim Page is one of the great songwriters of our times. He is a master of the songwriting craft. Jim Page’s songs get right to the point. He looks at the world clearly and reports what he sees with compassion, humor and a biting sense of irony."

The Buffalo Heart Project Benefit was a night, which invited all participants to break-out their best protest songs, and 'The Boulder Acoustic Society' accepted the invitation. They took the posture of rabble-rousers and ended their set by bringing it into the audience. They sang the timeless protest song, "Lift Every Voice" and Steve Earle's "Oxycontin Blues."

Reed Foehl stood before the packed theater with nothing but his harmonica and acoustic guitar evoking a young Bob Dylan in the early days in Greenwich Village. And like young Dylan his songs were sad laments of isolation and alienation. He covered Dylan's "Visions of Johanna" beautifully.

Laura Goldhamer & The Silver Nail also sang songs of isolation and alienation, and the hope of transcending - rising above. The bands songs were illustrated by an on-stage slide show projected on a bed sheet.

Many sad songs were sung. Many angry songs of protest were sung. And yet, in the end, all anger and sadness was transcended by E.R.'s songs of hope and grace.

A magic moment occurred when headliner Elephant Revival took the stage, stood silently posed in the moment and then charged into the savage blood rhythm of their Celtic battle song, with the unlikely title 'Single Beds Were Made for One'.

The quintets fusion of Scottish/Celtic fiddle tunes, original folk pieces, traditional ballads, psychedelic country, & indie rock, and powerful reggae grooves has such a beautiful animal/creature vitality, that it made the dancers dance in new archaic ways.

Other Elephant Revival songs spoke to the delusion of apartness and separateness, while within the narrative of the song - the delusion is overcome. Other songs spoke to the power we all have to make the world anew.

As a whole Elephant Revival’s songs speak of the band member’s collective vastness and great generosity of spirit.

Elephant Revival hails from Nederland, Colorado - a place whose precious minerals have been mined out, yet Nederland is amazingly rich in its abundance of musical talent. Bands and talents such as Stephen Stills, Dan Fogelberg, Joe Walsh, Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident, and Yonder Mountain String Band have emerged from this part of the Coloradoan Front Range to take their place in the greater national musical scene. The unanimous, local folk wisdom is that Elephant Revival is next.

The kind of social activism that was showcased by The Buffalo Heart Project Benefit comes natural to Elephant Revival band members. Bonnie May Paine (vocals, washboard, djembe, musical saw) is tribal Cherokee from the capital of the Oklahoma Cherokee - Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Most all of the other band members have some connection to the Indian Territories of Oklahoma. From there springs forth their song of hope, comfort, and transcendence to the oppressed.

Many sad songs were sung at the Buffalo Heart Benefit. Yet, in the end all sadness was transcended through the convergence of musicians singing of an emerging new consciousness in these changing times. The music, all pervasive and elevating, represents an emerging new musical genre known as “Transcendental Folk.”

Micro-Chips in the Butt - Revisited

Georgia and Virginia have recently joined with North Dakota,
California and Wisconsin in prohibiting, by state law, the
involuntary implantation of microchips into peoples' butts..

The debate in the Virginia House of Delegates was often of a
theological nature with Delegate Mark L. Cole (R-Fredericksburg), the
bill’s sponsor, sharing his concerns that the micro-chips could be the
“mark of the beast” described in the Book of Revelation.

"My understanding — I’m not a theologian — but there’s a prophecy in
the Bible that says you’ll have to receive a mark, or you can neither
buy nor sell things in end times,” Cole said. “Some people think these
computer chips might be that mark.”

I want to again (see www.libbyhome.blogspot.com 'narrative of the
voyage...) clearly and loudly state that I am TOTALLY against
micro-chips being implanted into peoples' butts.

These states have not gone far enough in combating this clear and
present danger, if you ask me.. They should put
anti-microchips-in-the-butt slogans on car license plates. A
suggestion: Live Free of Micro-Chips in the Butt - Or Die. Or this one
(which I personally live and die by) the only way you're going to get
a micro-chip in me - is in my cold, dead butt.

And yet, with all this being said, I still can't help noting that even
if Americans had micro-chips
implanted into their butts they would be no more the bee-otches of
the corporations' agenda, and that Damn Debil - then they are right now.

The Damn Debil is like rust - he never sleeps - he's always, 24/7,
thinking of ways to put micro-chips in peoples' butts

And yet, all I know, is that micro-chips in the butt would not make Americans
any more enthusiastically, ready and willing to go to the barricades,
to go to the town meetings, to go to the tea-bag parties, to go to the
Massachussetts voting booths to fight against their own best
interests,.

Having micro-chips in their butts could not make Americans any more
adamently, militantly moronic in buying into this Sarah Palin
faux-grifter-populism which only serves the interests of the bankers,
wall street gangsters and black-hearted Republicans who continue to
lead the charge into the valley of death, and the Great World
Depression II (GWD II).

Lupercalia - The Celebration of the Divine Male

Our culture's Hallmark Card celebration of St. Valentines Day is a
shadow, a feeble, lame, Christianized, commercialized remnant of the
savage splendor of the pagan holy days known as the Lupercalia - a
joyous, musical, fertility festival in honor of the god Pan/Faunus,
and the pure, eternal and sexual life force.

In the Roman World Lupercalia was celebrated from February 13 - 15.
The holiday had pre-Roman antecedents that probably involved human
sacrifice. But in the Roman world, during the Ides of February,
priests of the god Pan/Faunus, wearing nothing but goat-skins (that
did not conceal their genitals) would sacrifice two goats and a dog in
the Lupercal, the cave where Rome's mythological founders Romulus and
Remus were suckled by a she-wolf - the hill on which the city of Rome
was founded.

Two, high-born male youths would be led to the sacrificial altar and
would be anointed with the blood of the sacrificed animals.

A sacrificial feast would follow. And then the priests of Pan/Faunus
would make the hides of the sacrificed animals into whips. The whips
were then given to three, young, naked, male patricians.

Meanwhile, the women and maidens of Rome would line up around the
Palantine Hill.

The whip-wielding youths would then run around the hill
striking the lined-up women, who would jostle each other to be in
position to be whipped.

They did this to ensure fertility,
prevent sterility, and to ease the pain of child birth.

Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' begins at the Lupercalia of 44 B.C.
Julius Caesar urges his childless wife, Calpurnia to stand directly in
Mark Anthony's (not the Latin American music pop star - Julius
Caesar's best friend and comrade - a Roman patrician who was a fervent
adherent of Pan/Faunus and did everything he could to be awarded the
honor of running around the streets of ancient Rome naked, with a
shaggy whip) way so she could be properly whipped.

In the play Caesar says to Anthony, "Forget not, in your speed,
Anthonius, To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say the barren touched
in this holy chase shake off their sterile curse."

The days of the Lupercalia were known as the days of purification. The
intent of these days was to repel the powers of evil, to avert plague
and pestilence, ruin, and untimely death, and to liberate the powers
that promoted the fertility and the health of people, the increase of
herds of livestock, the abundant growth of crops, and to honor the god
Pan/Faunus.

In some myths Pan/Faunus is the son of Bacchus/Dionysus. In other
myths he is the son of the trickster god Hermes/Mercury. He is the god
of shepards, their herds of livestock, mountain wilds, hunting, and
rustic music.

He has the hindquarters, legs, hairiness and horns of a black goat.
He has the power of arousing panic, (the word is derived from his
name - the Greeks credited him with inspiring the panic among the
Persians that led to the victory of the Battle of Marathon in 490
B.C.) inspiration, beautiful
music and sexuality.

He (and Zamfir) is always depicted with his signature musical
instrument - the Pan flute.

The myth of the origin of the Pan flute involves Pan/Faunus' attempted
seduction of Syrinx, a beautiful water nymph. Syrinx, attempting to
escape Pan/Faunus' attention ran to her sister water nymphs. Syrinx's
sisters transformed her into a hollow, water reed, to hide her from
Pan\Faustus. When the wind blew through the hollow, water reed it made
a sad, plaintive melody. Pan/Faunus couldn't identify the specific
reed that Syrinx had been transformed in to, that was making the sad
and beautiful song. So he cut seven, or in some myths, nine reeds,
joined them side by side in gradually decreasing lengths to make his
definitive musical instrument.

And he is a skilled, supernatural musician.

Pan/Faunus challenges Apollo, the god of the lyre, to a contest. The
mountain god Tmolus is chosen to judge the contest. King Midas (famous
for turning all he touches into gold) just happens to be present at the contest.
Tmolus declares Apollo the winner of the musical contest. Then Midas
disagrees and contests the decision. Apollo then turns Midas' ears
into long donkey ears.

Pan is 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' the title of the seventh
chapter of the book 'The Wind in the Willows' the classic of
children's literature written by Kenneth Graham and published in 1908.
Syd Barrett of 'Pink Floyd' used the title of the book's seventh
chapter as the title of the band's first album. In the children's book
Pan/Faunus is the god that gives the Human the ability to forget pain
and suffering.

Nothing about Pan/Faunus involves a Hallmark valentine's version of
romantic love, the sanctity of monogamy, or marriage. He taught
shepards how to masturburate so as to make their profession more
tolerable and easier on the livestock. His greatest sexual conquest is
the moon goddess, Selene.

To hide his hairy, black, goat form he wrapped himself in a sheepskin.
And then he drew, he charmed the goddess to earth, into a dark forest
with the beauty of his music.

And then he shagged her.

The Lupercalia honored Pan/Faunus in his manifestation as the god of
shepards and their herds, who wards off the wolf. The Romans associated
him with the power that stopped the she-wolf from eating the infants
Romulus and Remus and instead led the she-wolf to nurture the brothers
so they could found Rome.

The Lupercalia was very much a music festival. All the music had
sexual themes which the early Christian
church considered to be totally obscene.

In 476 A.D. Pope Hilary ended all overt celebration of the holiday.
But then a plague engulfed
Italy, and many came to believe the plague was the result of the
suppression of the pagan religious observance.

Christian missionaries were killed, in Italy, when they attempted to stop the
celebration of the Lupercalia. People who called themselves Christians
continued to covertly celebrate the holiday
through the the 5th Century.

And this is the reason why Christianity's, and our cultures depiction
of Pan/Faunus is very similar to the image of The Devil/Satan. And
this is the reason why the Hallmark Card Corporation will never put
Pan/Faunus on no dirty, stinking valentine cards

Repeal of Prohibition

Those who suffered under the oppression "the stupendous blunder" of
alcohol prohibition entered the first Great World Depression (GWD I),
they entered the decade of the 1930's, believing they would not live
to see the day when alcohol prohibition would be repealed.

Republican President Herbert Hoover, who had presided over the The
Great Stock Market Crash of 1929 (and did little to avert or mitigate
the consequences) was a fervent supporter of alcohol prohibition. The
democrat who was emerging as his party's presidential candidate,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was known to inhale and completely
enjoy his martinis. And yet during his time as a New York state
senator The Anti-Saloon League (one of the most prominent
political/Christian religious organizations in the maintenance of
alcohol prohibition) reported that Roosevelt had a "perfect voting
record" in support of alcohol prohibition.

During FDR's campaign he gave only one unequivocal speech in favor of
the repeal of prohibition. He declared that he would, "correct the
stupendous blunder."

FDR considered prohibition to be a stupendous blunder because $100's
of millions of taxes (billions and billions of dollars in 2010 money)
that could be collected for the New Deal (that Roosevelt was already
planning) were instead going into the pockets of gangsters and
corrupted police and public officials. He considered prohibition to be
a stupendous blunder because it led to wholesale contempt and
disregard of the law. And he considered prohibition to be a stupendous
blunder because he knew that America badly needed a drink.

During the rest of his campaign he studiously, politically avoided
speaking on the subject of prohibition.

Then during the 1932 Democratic Convention, in Chicago, a floor fight
broke out about making repeal of prohibition a plank in the Democratic
Party's platform. The "wet" democrats won. In his acceptance speech
FDR said, "This convention wants repeal. Your candidate wants repeal."

In November, 1932 FDR won with 57% of the popular vote. He became
president on March 4, 1933.

On March 12, FDR had his first radio, fire-side chat with the
impoverished, destitute, anxious American people.

After the radio speech FDR knew he had connected, given hope. While he
was relaxing with two of his top aides in the oval office, after he
had given the fire-side chat, he said, "I think it's time for a beer."

That night he began planning the repeal of prohibition.

FDR knew the Volstead Act, which had imposed the hated prohibition in
1919, permitted the legalization of beverages with as much as five per
cent alcohol content. The next day, March 13, 1933, FDR sent to the
House a three sentence message requesting the legalization of 3.2
beer.

Ten days later on March 23, 1933, FDR signed an amendment to the
Volstead Act allowing for the manufacture and sale of 3.2 beer
(Cullen-Harrison Act). The act became law two weeks later - April 7,
1933.

At 12:01 a.m. on April 7 sirens, fire alarms, and bells sounded across the
country. In Chicago crowds stood 12 deep at the newly opened bars. In
front of the White House 800 people assembled. A local Washington,
D.C. brewery sent a truck full of Hawaiian Guitarists and beer and a
sign that read, "President Roosevelt - The First Beer is For You."

"Thousands of bars opened overnight," recalled author Studs Terkel,
"with every other beer on the house.

"In the midst of the Depression it
was a note of hope that something would be better," said Terkel.

By March 24 (two days after FDR had signed the law legalizing beer)
Milwaukee Breweries had hired more than 600 workers. Beer brewers in
New York City announced plans to spend $22 million to refurbish their
semi-derelict plants and bring workers back to the plants' assembly
lines.

In the 48 hours after beer taps opened on April 7, 1933 brewers paid
$10 million in state, federal and municipal taxes (about $155 million
in 2010 dollars).

Final repeal of the 18th Amendment, that had definitively imposed
prohibition, didn't happen until December 5, 1933, which perhaps
became the second happiest day for Americans during the GWD I.

There are many Americans, alive today, who believe they will not see
the day when cannabis prohibition will be repealed. And yet, the
oppression, the prohibition, the cultural war against those who use
and love the flowers of the cannabis plant is
fraying, unraveling.

During the presidential campaign Barak Obama made it clear he inhaled
- "That's the point, isn't it?"

One of his first decisions as president was to appoint, former Seattle
Police Chief, Gil Kerlikowske, as the 'Drug Czar' (head of the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy).

Kerlikowske immediately said that he wanted to "banish" the idea that
the government was fighting a war on drugs and plants which was really
a war against Americans. "We're not at war with people in this
country," he said.

Soon after becoming president Obama also announced that federal police
would not raid medical cannabis dispensaries in compliance with state
law.

In July, Obama issued a memo to federal prosecutors in states
with medical cannabis laws telling them not to waste scarce federal
resources on people in "clear and unambiguous compliance" with state
laws.

In California a petition to bring to referendum the legalization of
cannabis (would legalize the possession of up to an ounce, and
cultivation within a 25 square foot area, for personal use) has
received more than 680,000 signatures. The petition only needed 433,
971 valid signatures.

Polls indicate at least 56 per cent of Californian voters are
ready to vote for the repeal of cannabis prohibition.

If and when this referendum issue is approved by California voters at
least $1.6 billion of state and municipal taxes will be raised during
the first year of legalization.

If and when Californians vote for the repeal of cannibis prohibition a
decisive blow will be thrown against the whole stupendously stupid
blunder, and cannabis prohibition will fall.

Isolation/Alienation the Rebirth of the Light

Many times this time has not been about the rebirth of the light, the
birthday of Dionysus. Christmas has often been a time when this Jewish
kid from Norwich, CT nursed/nourished isolation and
alienation, took a perverse joy in embracing cold and bleakness.

Six years ago I first came into contact with The House of Paine/Garde
and Tahlequah, OK. I came into contact with Magical Realism and It's
Music.

The time since has never been devoid of magic, and yet this particular
time has often been particularly arduous times of isolation,
alienation, the indifference of the elements.

There was the Christmas time, six years ago, when Bonnie ( the Bonnie
Paine), Dan ( the Daniel Rodriguez) y Yo
were traveling from Tulsa to Denver in a raging blizzard, in two
vehicles (see 'narrative of the voyage of the bloody, snake chariot'
at www.libbyhome.blogspot.com).

My car (the original bloody, snake chariot - a 1989 Toyota
Tercel) had a broken, distributor cap. Only the heavy moisture of the
blizzard allowed the electricity to continue working in my engine. And
then when we got to Salina, Ks. and the other side of the blizzard, the
electricity became weak, feeble.

We gave each other Christmas presents and had to part at a gas station
parking lot, in the middle of the
night, in a cold, icy wind - Bonnie and Dan to Colorado - me, to a
six hour, 15-20 m.p.h. (maximum) adventure, east on the shoulder of
I-70, back to the missile base.

There was the Christmas Time I took my leap into the wild, blue
yonder, the dynamic uncertainty of transiting the length of Mexico to
arrive in San Cristobal de la Casas, Chiapas, with 200 pesos to spare
(see 'narrative of....' at www.libbyhome.blogspot.com).

And then there is this Christmas times when I am again arrived at the
place I ought to be, with the people I ought to be with, in the right
time.

It is an arduous time in that yesterday arrived here in Oklahoma City
with the Great Blizzard of 'O9.

It is an arduous time in that I am struck and shaken when it comes
crushingly home to me that each person is such a universe on
to themselves, that each person is such a Mystery.

And so, I come to the conclusion which I often come to - it is about
posture in the face of Mystery.

The posture of embracing, respecting and, most of all, loving and
being compassionate to The Mystery/The
Universe of the Other, is the Victory, the
Transcendence of isolation, alienation, cold and bleakness.

De mi Corazon - May y'all be joyously Reborn in the Resurgent Light,

Kai Bacchus/Dionysus