Fly agaric 23 presents...
720 shows in 365 days:
JOHN SINCLAIR IN CYBERSPACE by Fly Agaric 23
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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
730 shows in 365 days…if you please
730 shows in 365 days
Posted in: Radio Free Amsterdam, Steve Fly
Homage to John Sinclair and Radio Free Amsterdam.
The hardest working poet in show business
Maybe the hardest working radio DJ and producer on earth?
Sinclair On The Air
the good stuff, the street marrow.
730 shows shared with a world wide web of thirsty ears
And starving brains. 730 Shows of a unique intuitive design
And precise execution, a depth unfathomed
By many DJ’s these days (2011)
Over Automated, predictable, pre-programed’
Classic slop. Enough already.
Thank goodness for John and his world record breaking
Output of consistent quality music, and thank goodness
He keeps smoking that reefer and finding extraordinary
Musical inspirations and sharing them.
A John Sinclair radio ballad for all. 730 of em’
Radio Free Amsterdam represents a shadow side
To American culture, (that strange bird)
And by default Global perspectives often eclipsed in Europe.
RFA is a ‘live’ portal to many great American’s
Without the usual mainstream trappings and trimmings
The ads and the fads of American culture;
Trickled in drips and can’s to the rest of the world by the closely guarded
Monoliths of media and sales. Fuck them.
I ask the question:
What other radio DJ’s have travelled so extensively
And produced but ‘half’ the amount of quality shows
John Sinclair has made, played and relayed to your head?
Moving like a one man nation of music, an Indian nation
from city to city, country to country,
Eyes and mind blazing, a true burner, one of the one’s, you dig.
Lap-toppling the System, carrying his humble bag of essentials.
Living with the music and with the musicians, passing the flames
Fast Forwarding the work of his associates and friends,
Paying tribute to friends who pass over to the great gig in the sky
Rewinding their lives and our lives through the music.
Coltrane, Monk, Bird, Satch’, the greats, you got it.
In the best way imaginable, Radio performance by example
With a ‘Monkish’ team of associates, some
Starving to keep the music alive, and the peeps’ fed with culture.
Detroit and Amsterdam and London are
Breathing together like a herd of mammals,
But thinking different, synthesized by John Sinclair.
Thousands of artists and tens of thousands of songs,
And countless miles detailed, recalled and contextualized
Interviews, explorations,
New music that holds the spirit of the old.
I see John’s unique compositional art and crafts of
‘On-the-fly’ Radio production, and I’ve heard some shows
More than six times each, the flurry of editing,
Removing unwanted silence, making it COHERE
Fine–watchmaker–adjustments to the ‘head clock time’
Usually coming in around 59 minutes, 59 seconds.
John’s shows have a beginning, middle and an ending,
Voila! each show exhibits internal continuity
Twinned with the music with the host’s experience with
That of his guests, an info’ rich listening experience
Unparalleled, in my humble opinion, in its relentless originality
And experiential scope; due in most part to John’s worldly experiences
And of course to his helpful friends. Special thanks to Larry Hayden!
Like with all the arts; the closer attention you pay
The more you are rewarded with the micro-subtleties
Subtle jokes, gems and timeless treasures revealing
Deeper insights into the world-views of the artist, creator.
To listen or read for yourself and then make-up
Your own MIND is the best advice I can give,
However here I wish to wax lyrical on the interlinking
“Interstellar” pathways using radio, poetry, and travel,
If you please.
Like an album telling its tale, each show gives
An opportunity to take the listener on a journey;
Historical, anthropological, epistemological, but without
Them fancy words.
John’s radio shows often program the music
And the talking in a special way,
Easy to overlook if you’re not dialled into the track titles
The artist names and the segues that produce, in me…
An exciting feeling of radiance, beauty and harmony.
Cool beans.
A closely related set of exhibits; maybe a personal recollection,
An unreleased demo, some lost gem from the vault,
So many fresh cuts, they make any Butcher weep.
I recall our outward bound trips together
To craft shows and perform, interview and record ‘live’:
The Ei-complex, the Fiery Tongues festival (Ruigoord Amsterdam)
The Bonded Warehouse (Stourbridge U.K)
The Headpress bunker (London) and countless shows
At the 420 Cafe, Cafe the Zen and Eat at Jo’s restaurant
(Amsterdam); my current home.
In September of this year (2010) I was fortunate
To be invited to play and record with some friends of John’s
From New Orleans who stopped off in Amsterdam
On the final leg of a Euro-tour as the 101 Runner’s.
Chris Jones, Tom Worrell, and local Amsterdam Blues Scholars:
Leslie Lopez, Vincente Pino, and I played a live show at the 420 cafe’
And during that week captured two days’ worth of studio recordings
From Zen Studio’s in Amsterdam East.
These sessions can be heard cycled into John’s shows
Thanks to a fast and friendly file sharing operation he got.
The project is dubbed ‘John Sinclair and his International Blues scholars’
‘Let’s Go Get Em’ has already been featured on the album
‘spirit bear rebellion’
The combination of the ‘live’ show, the ‘studio’ tracks,
And other songs, all fixed up with John’s segues binds well
When you know a little of where and when
And how each part was crafted.
Just two weeks ago I was invited by John to join him
At a recording session in London with producer ‘Youth’
The session included George Butler on drums,
Al Clayton and Brian James on guitars,
Youth on bass and John Sinclair on the mic’,
Plus other special guests.
Tentatively titled Beatnik Youth,
The session features straight ahead rock and roll
Excursions into some of John’s tracks,
skilfully arranged by ‘Youth’
To highlight once ‘hidden’ themes
(e.g.; vamping on ‘Ain’t nobody’s business’)
A new chorus to put a whole new take on the tune.
I played percussion and some
‘out there’ free kit-drumming, adding
Some colour and contour to the jazz-punk
Rock project that seriously Kicks large holes in speakers.
Once again John roared his ass-off on the mic’
And gave every piece of energy he had,
Arms raised above his head, howling at the mic,
And barely two hours later he’s already
Engineering another radio show,
And on and on and on.
These recollections are only a small slice
Of John’s activities in Europe.
In America John has been playing
And recording and writing and making shit happen
At a similar pace and intensity, i.e.; like a small country.
But, due to the fact that I’m not there
I can’t really report back on the details first hand, like this.
However at www.detroitlife313.com and
www.radiofreeamsterdam.com and www.johnsinclair.us
You can read and listen for yourself.
On closing I would like to add that John operates
From the goodness of his heart and without payment,
Therefore any donations you can make to him
And to his foundation would be of great help
Making this shared multimedia vehicle
Continue to blossom.
–Steve Fly Agaric.
JOHN SINCLAIR RADIO ON LOCATION
Starting out in the coffeeshops and gathering spots of Amsterdam, the John Sinclair Radio Show has followed its host all over the world, posting one-hour programs each week from London, New York City, Detroit, New Orleans, Santiago, Tokyo, Genoa, Paris, Rome, and numerous points in between. The full list of program locations includes:
119 Gallery, Lowell MA
420 Café, Amsterdam
5th Estate, Pumpkin Hollow, TN
Akhnaton, Amsterdam
All Tomorrow’s Parties UK
Amsterdam Dreams, Amsterdam
Amsterdam Espresso, Detroit
Amtrak—Chicago > New Orleans
Amtrak—Memphis > Chicago
Amtrak—New Orleans > Memphis
Amtrak—NYC >Toledo
Ann Arbor Alive Radio
B & B il Pittolo, Elmo, Italy
Bamalama Poster Shop, London
Barney’s Brasserie , Amsterdam
Berkeley Liberation Radio
Biddle Bros Bar, London
Big Green Books, London
Bitter Zoet, Amsterdam
Blues Bunker, Amsterdam
Blues Hotel @ KXLU-FM, Los Angeles
Bohemian National Home, Detroit
Bombadill’s, Ypsilanti
BookBeat, Oak Park
Butchers inn, Detroit
Cafe Aroma, Amsterdam
Cafe La Bettola, Amsterdam
Cafe Mentelocale, Genoa
Cafe Oto, London
Café The Zen, Amsterdam
Caffe Etc, Los Angeles
Cannabis College, Amsterdam
Chelsea Hotel, New York City
City Inn Art Cafe, London
Club More, Amsterdam
Clubside Breakfast Club, Olympia WA
Coffeeshop Amnesia, Amsterdam
Coffeeshop Basjoe , Amsterdam
Common Ground on the Hill, Westminster MD
CosmoPoetica, Cordoba, Spain
CS Post, Amsterdam
CSOA Cox 18, Milan, Italy
CSOA Forte Prenestino, Roma
DFM Radio, Amsterdam
Diva Radio, San Francisco
The Dolphins, Amsterdam
Easter Hill Studios, Amsterdam Sud-Oost
Eat at Jo’s in the Melkweg, Amsterdam
Fantasio, Amsterdam
Fat City Coffeeshop, Amsterdam
Festival Rochefort-en-Accords, France
Firenze, Italy
Fly Agaric Studio, Amsterdam
The Foundry, London
Frenchy Gallery, New Orleans
Funky Farmers Seed Shop, Amsterdam
Galeria Tongue in Groove, Amsterdam
Gray Area, Amsterdam
Handa Wanda’s, New Orleans
Hash Bash, Ann Arbor
Hastings Street Ballroom, Detroit
Headpress Bunker, London
Hempshopper, Amsterdam
Hemp Works, Amsterdam
High Life Cup, RAI, Amsterdam
Hi-Ho Lounge, New Orleans
Holice P. Woods Studio, Detroit
Homegrown Fantasy, Amsterdam
Honest Tune, Oxford
Hotel Ibis, Berlin
Inn on the Green, London
Jazz Loft, Detroit
Kent Stage, Kent OH
Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin
Kyriad Hotel, Perigeaux, France
Lee Harris Croft, East Anglia, London
Legalize! Parade, Amsterdam
Libri Stampa Alternatva, Pitigliano, Italy
London Print Studio, London
Longcat Studio, London
LuveR.com/Berkeley Cable TV
Main Squeeze, Oxford MS
Mama’s Crowbar, Portland ME
Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Megaplaten, Jaarbeurs Utrecht
MOCAD, Detroit
Museo Arte di Paolo Pini, Milano
New Dodge Lounge, Hamtramck
New Grass Center, Florence MA
OCCII, Amsterdam
Ooze Charm Coffeeshop, Tokyo
Opal Fly’s Feelgood Lounge, Fayetteville AR
Orleans Records, Covington LA
Overtoom 301, Amsterdam
Paradise Theatre, Detroit
Paradiso, Amsterdam
Paradiso Balloon Party, Amsterdam
Park Bar, Detroit
Peabody Hotel, Little Rock
Perrier Lounge, San Francisco
Pheasant Hollow, Wittenburg IL
Piazza del Erbe, Genoa
Piety Street Recording, New Orleans
Pigeon Poetry Boat Canal Cruise, Amsterdam
PRE Café, Amsterdam
Press Room, Portsmouth NH
Radio Marigny, New Orleans
Radio Onda Rossa, Roma
Raindance Film Festival, London
Ray’s Jazz, London
Rebel Radio, Ole Miss, Oxford
Republic Coffee, Memphis
Resonance Radio, London
Rock-It Coffeeshop, Amsterdam
Roots Music & Arts Festival, Westminster MD
Rough Trade, London
Royal Festival Hall, London
Santiago > Valparaiso, Chile
Schipol Airport, Amsterdam
Scream Studio, London
Second Layer, London
Sensi Museum Coffeeshop, Amsterdam
Shepherd’s Bush, London
Siani Mews, London
SkyDog Tower, Paris
Smoking Bull Café, Amsterdam Smoking Bull Café, Amsterdam
Spam, Rotterdam Noord
Square Books, Oxford MS
St. Christopher Hotel, Amsterdam
Standing Ovation Studio, Chicago
State Theater, Starkville MS
Stena Line Ferry, English Channel UK
Straight Ahead Studio, Oak Park MI
Subterranea, KCSN, Los Angeles
Sugar Factory, Amsterdam
Teatro del Fuoco, Foggia, Italy
Thacker Mt. Radio, Oxford
Think Coffee, New York City
Tokyo Hipsters Club, Tokyo
Trans-Love Energies, Detroit
Tri-Tone Club, Philadelphia
Two Media Whores, KLSX, Los Angeles
Two Stick, Oxford MS
Voyagers Rest, Oxford
Vurige Tongen @ Ruigoord, Amsterdam
Waterstones, London
WDET Radio , Detroit
What Is Happening Here, Amsterdam
Who Do You Think You Are, London
Winston Hotel, Amsterdam
Winston International Hotel, Amsterdam
WMMQ-FM, Lansing
World’s End Tavern, London
WVAS-FM, Montgomery AL
WWOZ-FM, New Orleans
XM Satellite Radio, New York City
Yippie Museum Café, New York City
Zebulon Club, Brooklyn NY
Zotz Coffeeshop, New Orleans
ZXZW Festival, Tillburg
Special thanks to Larry Hayden, Joeri Pfeiffer, Sidney Daniels, Hank Botwinik,
The John Sinclair Foundation, 420 cafe’, Mau and Cafe’ The Zen, Hempshopper, The Dolphins, Headpress, Cannabis College, Eat at Joe’s, Mark Ritsma, Detroit Life Radio 313, Salto World FM, Adam and Hash Bash, The Unabonger, The Global John Sinclair Blues Scholars
Posted by FLY AGARIC 23 at Thursday, December 02, 2010
© 2011 The John Sinclair Foundation
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Conspiracy theories: Reader reactions to drug policy enlighten
Higher Ground
Conspiracy theories
Reader reactions to drug policy enlighten
Published: January 19, 2011
My memory isn't that great anymore, but I can't remember a single study that concluded marijuana is bad for human beings or has any negative effect on the workings of our society. As far as I've read, no deaths have resulted from marijuana use. It's not toxic, it's not addictive, it doesn't lead to violent or abusive behavior, and, in fact, marijuana offers great medicinal and healing benefits not found elsewhere — with the added attraction of blessed mental relief from the incessant poundings of daily life.
None of this fits with the orthodox mythology, however, so findings are routinely ignored, alcohol continues as the authorized social drug of choice, the pharmaceutical industry continues to boom as the nation's official drug supply, and the political underwriters of the established policy keep up their barrage of gibberish while voting billions for the relentless enforcement of their endless laws against recreational drug use.
Nixon got one of these reports just before firing the opening salvos of the War on Drugs that's raged almost 40 years and torn apart the lives of millions of American citizens who chose to reject the government's phony science and to smoke marijuana or get high in other prohibited ways in informed defiance of the law.
We've paid dearly for these choices; some think that's the point. Robert Carpenter writes, "It is, of course, true that the drug war has failed, insofar as its stated goals are concerned. The question, however, is whether the stated goals made in support of policy by the political class are necessarily the actual goals. ...
"On the Watergate tape recordings, President Nixon left no doubt as to his deep hatred of hippies, the counterculture, every minority group one can name, gays, and of course blacks. On the tapes Nixon demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of racial slurs and says words to the effect that the problem with the country now is the blacks. And H.R. Haldeman famously remarks that what's needed is a program which can deal with the blacks while not appearing to do so.
"What he means of course is that, in the wake of the civil rights legislation, a new means of containing blacks must be devised, now that the Jim Crow laws have been dismantled. That new means was the War on Drugs in which Nixon deployed his DEA and militarized civilian police forces with his SWAT programs, tanks, armored carriers and the like.
"With the War on Drugs, I believe Nixon — perhaps the most cynical and diabolically ingenious president of all time — understood that with the DEA interdictions he could drive up the street price of drugs, entice the poor, black urban underclass into dealing in them, and use the newly militarized civilian police forces as the front lines of a massive plan to begin turning blacks into felons and creating a ruling class in poor black ghettos where, as W.F. Buckley put it, the drug dealers would become the overlords.
"In brief, I think Nixon's War on Drugs can best be described as a strategy for producing delinquents. ... His problem was how to reverse the integrative processes under way, to delinquintize black populations so as to quell integration and instill in whites a great fear of a dangerous, delinquent black class.
"On that score," citizen Carpenter concludes, "the War on Drugs has been a resounding success, and, as many point out, nearly one out of three young black males in urban areas are under the administration of the Justice Department — in jail awaiting trial, as convicted felons, incarcerated or as parolees.
"There are, of course, many other goals and interests one could name in the War on Drugs — from asset forfeiture, which turns law enforcement into third-party beneficiaries, to the prison guard unions, the treatment centers and so on. But I believe Nixon, the president who federalized on a massive scale the War on Drugs, had in mind the delinquintization of newly emancipated blacks as his primary goal for the program."
Here's another reader, Justin Kline: "I recently had a friend serve up the idea that 'prohibition' was due to Henry Ford manufacturing cars with newer engines that ran on corn liquor (ethanol). Prohibition was contrived to force the farmers to keep using the output of the fledgling oil industry. i.e., protecting a special-interest group [that] was an entire industry.
"Next, my friend claimed that marijuana was declared illegal nearly to the day that nylon was invented. The grand obfuscation was to word the law with the name 'hemp' as the general scheme of the scam, which is a general category that merely includes marijuana. Almost nobody knows, even now, that the law reads 'hemp.'
"Thus, the true mission was cloaked right from the beginning, i.e., protecting a special-interest group — nowhere close to the claims of health or morals. ... Let me know if this starts to look like something worthy of your time and not just another rant from the 'conspiracy theory squad.'"
It's good to think of all these potential causes in our search for truth, because we know the official anti-drug gobbledygook is false. It's sad to keep beating this same dead horse, but they've got to drag it off the track and let real life return for our nation's recreational users.
Asset forfeiture: I was tipped off by Eapen Thampy of Americans for Forfeiture Reform, a nonprofit group based in Kansas City, to the chilling article "Stealing Camp Zoe: The Forfeiture Gang Strikes," where William Norman Grigg of the Pro Libertate blog and radio program details the massive raid on a rural Arkansas music venue by federal, state and local law enforcement authorities "dispatched to clean out the personal and business accounts of Jimmy Tebeau, the musician and entrepreneur who owns and operates the campground."
Camp Zoe was opened in 2004, by Tebeau, bassist in a popular band called the Schwag, and "by some accounts, the 330-acre Camp Zoe is Shannon County's largest employer. ... Tebeau himself is not accused of a crime. Yet Camp Zoe has been seized and Tebeau's personal financial assets have been confiscated by a motley assortment of 'law enforcement' groups [who] ... will be permitted to keep [the assets] and divide [them] among themselves unless Tebeau can prove a negative — namely, that he did not knowingly permit the sale and use of proscribed substances by others."
This will take some readers back to the vicious felony prosecution of the promoter of the Goose Lake Pop Festival in 1970. Then they just wanted revenge: Now they want the land itself.
I'm out of space now so I'll try to explore asset forfeiture more fully in future columns. Let me close with the words of reader Kimberly Miller, who points out that "Americans have been consuming, growing and distributing pot from the time settlers set foot on this land, with or without the approval or guidance of anyone else but themselves. ... And those who don't understand or care about the remedies marijuana has to offer, guess what? "You don't have to use it." —Amsterdam, Jan. 13, 2011
http://metrotimes.com/columns/conspiracy-theories-1.1092037
YEAH YER RIGHT!--Steve fly
John Sinclair Radio Show #365
John Sinclair Radio Show #365
Posted in: John Sinclair Radio Show
The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
420 Cafe
Saturday, January 15, 2011 @ 10:30-11:30 pm [20-1103]
Amsterdam, NL.
We’re at the 420 Café in the center of Amsterdam celebrating my daughter Celia’s birthday on Monday by smoking joints from Amsterdam and playing records from New Orleans by the Lil’ Rascals Brass Band, Dr. John, Alvin Batiste, Craig Klein, and three “live” numbers by The Meters from the Kingfish Lounge in Baton Rouge in 1976, plus cuts from a bunch of great discs my pal Don Scherdin sent me in a CARE package from New York City this week, including the North Mississippi All Stars “live,” Big Jack Johnson from the soundtrack to Deep Blues, The Fugs, John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars recorded at the Studio Zen in Amsterdam, and a closing side from the D with my man Chris Codish & the Brothers Groove.
John Sinclair on Facebook Where ya at ?
Playlist 365
[01] Opening Music: Lil’ Rascals Brass Band: Knock With Me—Rock With Me
[02] John Sinclair ID & Opening Comments with Larry Hayden
[03] Dr. John: How Come My Dog Don’t Bark (When You Come ‘Round)
[04] Alvin Batiste: My Life is a Tree
[05] Craig Klein: Marie Laveau
[06] John Sinclair Comments with Larry Hayden
[07] The Meters: Hang ‘Em High
[08] The Meters Honky Tonk Woman
[09] The Meters Just Kissed My Baby
[10] John Sinclair Comments with Larry Hayden
[11] North Mississippi All Stars: Long Way From Home
[12] Big Jack Johnson: Catfish Blues
[13] The Fugs: Wide, Wide River
[14] John Sinclair & His International Blues Scholars: humphf
[15] John Sinclair Closing Comments & Outro
[16] Closing Music: Brothers Groove: On The Corner
Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Recorded by Larry Hayden
Produced, edited & assembled by John Sinclair
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Larry Hayden, Steve Fly, Joeri Pfeiffer & Sidney Daniels
© 2011 The John Sinclair Foundation
Calling planet earth: A critic-turned-performer reflects on playing with Marshall Allen (feat John Sinclair)
Calling planet earth: A critic-turned-performer reflects on playing with Marshall Allen
Marshall Allen, shown in a separate performance, played with CapitalBop writer Luke Stewart. | taken by flickr user Seth Tisue
On an evening when the celestial bodies of jazz were aligned in D.C. – with three superb jazz shows going on across the city – Marshall Allen truly took things out of this world Tuesday night with his experimental performance at Twins Jazz. And for this writer, the night was also a dream come true: With Allen’s bassist unable to make the gig, I played the entire night with the band.
Allen is an iconic figure in avant-garde jazz, having played with Sun Ra’s Arkestra almost for the band’s entire existence. (He’s now its leader.) Through unrelenting attacks on the various wind instruments he plays, Allen exhibits both fiery and introspective moods – and his sound is as resonant and enveloping as it is often atonal. As a bandleader, he spreads a contagious, cosmic energy.
So for me, as a student and performer of avant-garde music, playing with this man amounted to no less than the completion of a life’s goal. The show was also part of a new chapter for D.C.’s music culture that’s just beginning to be written: Never before had I seen such a crowd for an avant-garde music ensemble at the usually straight-ahead-centered club.
Allen was joined by fellow Sun Ra alum Danny Ray Thompson on baritone saxophone; Philly tenor sax titan Elliot Levin; and local D.C. talents Ed Ricart on guitar, Sam Lohman on drums and myself, Luke Stewart, on bass. Also, the revolutionary poet John Sinclair made a very special appearance.
Allen was certainly in top form throughout the night, leading the ensemble with his energetic nuance and conceptual focus. He seamlessly transitioned from alto saxophone to flute to the E.V.I. (Electronic Valve Instrument), playing each with the touch of a true master of emotional exploration.
Allen began the first set on the E.V.I., calling to the cosmos with sweeping sine-wave sounds reminiscent of Sun Ra’s synthesizer calling to Planet Earth. The performance then quickly moved into a full-on energetic assault with the entrance of Thompson and Levin on saxophones. Ricart filled in the sonic gaps, playing with an array of pedals and looping sounds to create a low drone. Lohman and I built slowly underneath, ecstatically raising the intensity level until, after about ten minutes, sudden silence took over.
Sinclair, all the while cheering from the front of the audience, soon joined the musical fray with a recitation of his poem for John Lennon. The group provided a strange swing as a background, as if an otherworldly creature had been created and was slowly learning how to walk. With each stanza, the creature seemed to creep forward as the energy rose ever so slightly. The end of Sinclair’s poem marked the emergence of this creature – whatever it was – in full form. Allen then captured and tamed the beast with his energetic focus, and helped it grow even stronger.
The ensemble settled into a classic, Arkestra-styled groove set by Thompson’s baritone sax, allowing Levin and Allen to blow freely over the established foundation. Eventually, Allen led the ensemble into deeper explorations of the groove, expanding it and stretching the feel, until it culminated in a furious barrage of sound.
The second set was much the same, but our band had gelled even further. Allen began with a solemn and beautiful solo, backed by bass and drums. As others entered, the spirit was lifted and expanded into a collage of colorful sound, demonstrating the group’s newly strengthened connection. After a tense silence in reaction to the settling spirit, the audience responded with thunderous applause.
Next, Allen instructed me to create a bounce swing to back dueling flute explorations by himself and Levin, while Thompson played the Brazilian Timbe drum. This finger-popping groove was occasion for another recitation by John Sinclair. Twins Jazz suddenly turned into an underground poetry club filled with bereted beatniks sipping double shots of Jameson, whispering, “Yeah, man … cool.” Well, all of that – but on another planet with Martian beats.
After a huge applause upon the poem’s completion and Sinclair’s departure from the stage, the audience stayed rapt by the groove. Levin then reclaimed his tenor while Thompson picked up his flute and joined Marshall. The groove never stopped, only expanded, as Lohman began a palpitating drum cadence. It was a perfect example of free groove.
As Allen recovered his alto sax, the group settled into yet another groove set by Thompson on baritone. I picked it up on bass and once it was locked in, the horn section began a march through the audience, picking up new recruits to OuterSpaceWays Incorporated. The rhythm trio was left on stage – Ed’s guitar, Sam’s drums and my bass – and began an onslaught of sound. There was a collective vibe that indicated how much we had quickly grown comfortable together. As the horn line returned, the level of energy reached its peak for the night, lasting for what seemed like hours but in reality was only a few minutes. Marshall’s attack on the alto, together with Elliot’s squeals and Danny’s bleats, took the ensemble into light speed as the sound traveled across the cosmos only to stop suddenly at the band leader’s whim.
The music that I got to be a part of on Tuesday night at Twins was something not heard in D.C. very often: an experimental performance that connected with the audience through musicality, collectivity and energy. It was certainly a special performance and something that I will not ever forget.
http://capitalbop.com/2010/10/25/live-review-calling-planet-earth-a-critic-turned-performer-reflects-on-playing-with-marshall-allen/
John Sinclair Radio Show #364
John Sinclair Radio Show #364
Posted in: John Sinclair Radio Show
The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
420 Cafe
Sunday, January 9, 2011 @ 9:30-10:30 pm [20-1102]
Amsterdam, NL.
We’re at the 420 Café in the center of Amsterdam at the very beginning of the Carnival season in New Orleans and we got to get ready with our opening theme by Bill Sinegal and extended performances today by the Treme Brass Band, 101 Runners with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars featuring Wayne Kramer & Charles Moore, Charles Neville & Diversity, the BlueBrass Project, and the Lil’ Rascals Brass Band.
John Sinclair on Facebook Where ya at ?
Playlist 364
[01] Opening Music: Bill Sinegal: Second Line
[02] John Sinclair ID & Opening Comments with Larry Hayden
[03] Treme Brass Band: Food Stamp Blues
[04] 101 Runners: Injuns Here Dey Come
[05] John Sinclair Comments with Larry Hayden
[06] John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: History 101
[07] Charles Neville & Diversity: Blue Monk
[08] BlueBrass Project: Omyomeo (Give It to ‘Em Phil)
[09] John Sinclair Closing Comments & Outro
[10] Closing Music: Lil’ Rascals Brass Band: Knock With Me—Rock With Me
Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Recorded by Larry Hayden
Produced, edited & assembled by John Sinclair
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Larry Hayden, Steve Fly, Joeri Pfeiffer & Sidney Daniels
© 2011 The John Sinclair Foundation
Drug War Now Killing More People Than War in Afghanistan
Surprise -- Drug War Now Killing More People Than War in Afghanistan
Mexico's death toll is a wake-up call that drug prohibition is as dangerous as the 'war on terror.'
http://www.alternet.org/world/149424
Mexico's death toll is a wake-up call that drug prohibition is as dangerous as the 'war on terror.'
http://www.alternet.org/world/149424
Smells Like Sulphur Here - John Sinclair
John Sinclair was invited to preform at celebration of The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal: 2nd Session on the Philippines in Den Haag, The Netherlands.
The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal: 2nd Session on the Philippines is a major part of the campaign of the Filipino people to expose, condemn and fight the crimes of the Gloria Macapagal - Arroyo regime and its principal foreign accomplice. The United States, particularly the Bush administration, is the force behind the intensification of exploitation and oppression of the Filipino people as well as the peoples of the world.
The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal is an international opinion tribunal, independent from any State authority. It examines and judges complaints regarding violations of human rights and rights of peoples that are submitted by the victums themselves or groups representing them.
John Sinclair is legendary as the manager of the rock-and-revolution MC-5 and as the political prisoner in the early days of the War on Drugs whose 1971 release from a 9-1/2-to-10-year sentence for possession of two joints was secured by high-profile supporters like John Lennon and Stevie Wonder.
A marijuana activist since 1964, Sinclair has served as the High Priest of the Cannabis Cup and has recently had a potent strain of Dutch marijuana named in his honor. He was also honored in Foggia, Italy, as the International recipient of the Targa Matteo Salvatore for 2006.
www.johnsinclair.us
John Sinclair Radio Show #363
John Sinclair Radio Show #363
Posted in: John Sinclair Radio Show
420 Cafe
Sunday, January 2, 2011 @ 10:30-11:30 pm [20-1101]
Amsterdam, NL.
We’re at the 420 Café in the center of Amsterdam the day after New Year’s with a program of music that transcends the season with an opening selection from the Dutch group called Houseband, a bunch of cuts by me with the New Orleans Jazz Vipers, Michael & the Cats, Beatnik Youth, the Motor City Blues Scholars, Mark Ritsema, and the Planet D Nonet, plus sides by Howard Glazer & the EL 34s, Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra, Idris Muhammad, and Wadada Leo Smith & Thomas Mapfumo.
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Playlist 363
[01] Opening Music: Houseband: House Party
[02] John Sinclair ID & Opening Comments with Larry Hayden
[03] John Sinclair with the New Orleans Jazz Vipers: If You’se a Vipergc
[04] John Sinclair with Michael & The Cats: Sparkplug
[05] John Sinclair & Youth: Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness
[06] John Sinclair Comments with Larry Hayden
[07] John Sinclair & His Motor City Blues Scholars: (just one way to say) i love you
[08] Howard Glazer & the EL 34s: Reel Me In
[09] Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra: Love In Outer Space (Part 2)
[10] John Sinclair Comments with Larry Hayden
[11] Idris Muhammad: Power of Soul
[12] Wadada Leo Smith & Thomas Mapfumo: Masimba / Strength To Overcome
[13] John Sinclair Closing Comments & Outro
[14] John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema: everything happens to me
[15] Closing Music: John Sinclair & Planet D: Chant of the Weed > It’s All Good
Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Recorded by Larry Hayden
Produced, edited & assembled by John Sinclair
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Larry Hayden, Steve Fly, Joeri Pfeiffer & Sidney Daniels
© 2011 The John Sinclair Foundation
From shoddy premises to final 'failure,' a look at the War on Drugs, By John Sinclair
The roots of the fiasco
From shoddy premises to final 'failure,' a look at the War on Drugs
Published: January 5, 2011
I'd like to take as my text a statement by — of all people — TV evangelist Pat Robertson, who commented recently on his 700 Club broadcast on the Christian Broadcasting Network: "We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana, and the next thing you know they've got 10 years.
"I'm not exactly for the use of drugs — don't get me wrong," Pat said, "but I just believe that criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, I mean it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people. Young people go into prison ... as youths and they come out as hardened criminals, and it's not a good thing." Robertson's spokespersons later tried to back away, saying that he only wanted government to "revisit the severity of the existing laws," but the episode is telling.
Our subtext is provided by the Associated Press in a piece cited by Tony Newman in Alternet last month. The AP headline: "The U.S. drug war has met none of its goals." The AP said, "After 40 years, the United States War on Drugs has cost 1 trillion dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence more brutal and widespread."
"This year," Newman adds, "Mexico President Calderon called for a debate on drug legalization to help reduce the bloody war in Mexico. Former Mexico President Vicente Fox has since gone further and called for an end to prohibition. Just last week, United Kingdom's Bob Ainsworth, the former drugs and defense minister, called for the legalization and regulation of drugs.
"All of this follows a 2009 report by three former Latin American presidents, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, where they called the drug war a failure and emphasized the need to 'break the taboo' on an open and honest discussion on international drug policy."
"An open and honest discussion" would lead first to an examination of what the War on Drugs is all about: Why do they have a War on Drugs? What are its goals? Who are the combatants? Why has there been no measurable success at all?
First off, it's not a war on drugs per se, because all sorts of drugs are more prevalent than ever, and the pharmaceutical industry is indeed the most profitable of enterprises, but it's a war on recreational drugs and their users.
The purpose of the War on Drugs is to persecute and punish users of recreational drugs in an effort basically to try to keep people from getting high on substances ruled illegal by a political process with little regard for medical or moral niceties — nor for due process of law, for that matter.
Recreational drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin were once legal. One day, through some mystical process that took place in the houses of Congress and in state legislative bodies in turn, each of them was determined to be illegal.
Marijuana was declared a narcotic. The narcotics themselves were deemed to have no redeeming social value whatsoever. Users and suppliers would be subject to long punitive sentences up to and including life in prison, and there would be no provision for medical or mental health uses. The shit would be illegal, period. Case closed.
This "tissue of horseshit" (as William Burroughs would put it) was sold to lawmakers and the nation's press by a creep named Harry Anslinger not long after the repeal of alcohol prohibition (remember that?) in 1933. Four years later, the idiotic marijuana laws were enacted by Congress with absolutely no convincing medical evidence in support, and users of cocaine and heroin began to be characterized as bigger threats to society than bank robbers or kidnappers.
Like the great novelist Upton Sinclair (no relation) pointed out, as cited by Paul Armentano on AlterNet: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Quickly, however, the stakes progressed beyond simply Herr Anslinger's measly salary to spawn a vast legion of drug law enforcement personnel that gradually reshaped our nation's approach to the very nature of law enforcement itself.
This is all in my own lifetime. I was born four years after marijuana was criminalized, started smoking weed in 1962, and was a criminal user of marijuana until the age of 67, when I was recognized as a medical marijuana patient by the same State of Michigan that had held me for three years in its various prisons some 40 years before.
I started my own war against the marijuana laws 46 years ago this very month, even before the government admitted that there was a War on Drugs — or better said, a war on drug users. The drugs weren't going anywhere, and in fact the government itself has arguably been responsible for importing massive quantities of heroin and other drugs from Afghanistan and Southeast Asia since World War II.
The drug user is a pretty easy target for the drug police. The real criminal elements who present a law enforcement problem are the large-scale suppliers of drugs to the recreational drug users, and they're a problem because incredible sums of money are at stake in their operations as a result of the criminality of the drugs themselves.
If the drugs were legal, these people would be druggists, not criminal drug dealers, they would purvey a uniformly high-quality product and they would be taxed on their sales and earnings. Duh! Instead both users and suppliers are viciously demonized by the forces of law and order, and their parrots in the press, persecuted as a danger to society, and subjected to the entire range of penalties and punishments mandated by the lawmakers.
While I'm sick of hammering at the same old wall — not only for the past few months in this column but almost my entire adult life — somebody's got to say something to try to break this issue open and end the War on Drugs at last. There's progress on several important fronts, and the incessant hammering on the wall is beginning to be heard over the babble of law enforcement, legislators and the sensational media.
But we're fighting a fearsome opponent whose dimensions are revealed in news bites like these gleaned from an AP story by Barry Hatton and Martha Mendoza: "Arrests for marijuana possession in California totaled 61,000 last year — roughly triple the number in 1990" and "The U.S. is spending $74 billion this year on criminal and court proceedings for drug offenders, compared with $3.6 billion for treatment."
Hatton and Mendoza point out that "the first drug court in the U.S. opened 21 years ago. By 1999, there were 472; by 2005, 1,250. This year, new drug courts opened every week around the U.S., as states faced budget crises exacerbated by the high rate of incarceration on drug offenses. There are now drug courts in every state, more than 2,400 serving 120,000 people."
Now, they say, "even [U.S. drug czar] Kerlikowske has called for an end to the 'War on Drugs' rhetoric. 'Calling it a war really limits your resources,' he said. 'Looking at this as both a public safety problem and a public health problem seems to make a lot more sense.'"
No shit, Sherlock. How about ending the rhetoric and the War on Drugs itself — starting today? Happy New Year, everybody.
—Amsterdam, Dec. 29-31, 2010
Top 8 Drug Stories of 2010
Top 8 Drug Stories of 2010: Momentum Is Building to End the Failed Drug War
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/149296
John Sinclair Radio Show #362
John Sinclair Radio Show #362
Posted in: John Sinclair Radio Show
The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
420 Cafe
Sunday, December 26, 2010 @ 9:30-10:30 pm [20-1058]
Amsterdam, NL.
We’re at the 420 Café in the center of Amsterdam the day after Christmas with a program of music that transcends the season—starting at the top of the show with a musical salute to the recently departed Captain Beefheart and continuing with sides from the Rolling Stones, the Urbations, a cut from Howard Glazer’s new album Wired For Sound with his EL 34s, Eddie Jefferson sings James Moody, Sonny Boy Williamson speaks & sings, John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars, Wadada Leo Smith & Thomas Mapfumo, Kenny Post “live” at the Cannabis College, John Sinclair & Pinkeye Orchestra, and Tom Worrell & the International Blues Scholars “live” at the 420 Café. And a Happy New Years to all! See you in 2011 for our next show, don’t you know!
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Playlist 362
[01] Opening Music: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band: Yellow Brick Road
[02] John Sinclair ID & Opening Comments with Larry Hayden
[03] Rolling Stones: All Down the Line
[04] Urbations: Hot Foot
[05] Howard Glazer & the EL 34s: Happy In My Arms
[06] Eddie Jefferson: I Feel So Good
[07] Eddie Jefferson: Workshop
[08] John Sinclair ID & Comments with Larry Hayden
[09] Sonny Boy Williamson: Little Village
[10] John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: Decoration Day
[11] Wadada Leo Smith & Thomas Mapfumo Epic Memory
[12] Kenny Post: Atomic Bomb Babies
[13] John Sinclair & Pinkeye Orchestra: Nuclear War > Fat Boy
[14] John Sinclair Closing Comments & Outro
[15] Closing Music: Tom Worrell & the International Blues Scholars Tipitina Fantasia l
Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Recorded by Larry Hayden
Produced, edited & assembled by John Sinclair
Executive Producer: Larry Hayden
Special thanks to Larry Hayden, Steve Fly, Joeri Pfeiffer & Sidney Daniels
© 2010 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
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