FATTENING BLOGS FOR SNAKES

Fly By Night with Steve The Fly 01

2012-02-02T15:41:00.001+01:00

Fly By Night with Steve The Fly 01

Posted in: Fly By Night, Radio Free Amsterdam

DJ Fly Agaric 23 with music by Ras G & the Afrikan Space Program, Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Sonny Boy Williamson, The Larks, Lowell Fulson, Magic Sam, Shuggie Otis, Horace Andy, Lee Perry & Adrian Sherwood, The Mad Professor, Thelonious Monk, Tribe, James Brown, and The Meters

The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
FLY BY NIGHT WITH STEVE THE FLY 01
Café Belgique, Amsterdam, January 20, 2012 [FA-0001]
DJ Steve The Fly spinning at the Café Belgique in Amsterdam on the night of January 20, 2012…Part One.

FLY BY NIGHT 01
[01] Ras G & the Afrikan Space Program > Old Fashioned Disc Jockey
[02] Junior Wells: Snatch It Back & Hold It
[03] Otis Rush: Can’t Wait No Longer
[04] Sonny Boy Williamson: Keep It To Yourself
[05] The Larks: Fattening Frogs For Snakes
[06] Lowell Fulson: You Got To Do Me Right
[07] Magic Sam: Same Old Blues
[08] Junior Wells: Somebody Done Hoodooed the Hoodoo Man
[09] Sonny Boy Williamson: Don’t Lose Your Eye
[10] Shuggie Otis: One Day At A Time
[11] Horace Andy: Angel Dub
[12] Lee Perry & Adrian Sherwood: Yellow Fever
[13] Mad Professor:
[14] Thelonious Monk Quartet: Rhythm-A-Ning
[15] Tribe: Beneficient
[16] James Brown: Man In The Mirror
[17] Tribe: Space II
[18] The Meters: Just Kissed My Baby
[19] Closing Music: Tribe: Son Of Tribe

A JOINT PRODUCTION
Produced & recorded by Steve “Fly” Pratt for Radio Free Amsterdam
Edited, assembled & annotated by John Sinclair
Executive Producer: Sidney Daniels
Sponsored by Ceres Seeds & The Hempshopper, Amsterdam
© 2012 Steve Pratt. Used with oermission.

//www.radiofreeamsterdam.com/fly-by-night-with-steve-the-fly-01/

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Netherlands’ coffee shop confusion (Detroit Metro Times)

2012-02-02T15:36:00.001+01:00

Higher Ground

Netherlands’ coffee shop confusion

Pot tourist ban doesn’t go off as smoothly as planned

By John Sinclair

Published: February 1, 2012

New Year's Eve in Amsterdam was even more festive than usual this season as thousands of European visitors flocked to the city to enjoy what they believed would be the last night they'd be welcome in the coffee shops of the Netherlands.

For several months, the reigning Dutch government had been trumpeting the imminent demise of the old coffee shop regime as of Jan. 1, 2012, and the mainstream media were only too eager to amplify the message.

Under the mandated new rules, all existing Dutch coffee shops would be converted to members-only clubs strictly limited to the patronage of Dutch citizens and registered expatriates, and the dreaded "drug tourists" from all over the world would be barred from entry.

But after the border city of Maastricht and other municipalities in Holland demanded that the government delay its plans for at least a year, Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten announced in November that the system won't be introduced nationwide until 2013.

At the same time, Opstelten insisted that cannabis cafés in three towns in the south of the country — Noord-Brabant, Limburg and Zeeland — will have to turn themselves into members-only clubs by May 1 of this year as a sort of pilot program for the new policy.

Coffee shop owners in Maastrict have already banned all but Dutch, German and Belgian nationals from buying cannabis products in an effort to appease the government, and the border towns of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal have gotten rid of their coffee shops altogether.

Elsewhere in the Netherlands, 16 coffee shops In Rotterdam have been shut down because they were located within 250 meters of schools. If this proscription were applied across the country, another 94 coffee shops would have to close. To make things even worse, the government wants to extend the distance-from-school rule from 250 to 350 meters, which will shut down even more coffee shops.

This whole mess started in 2006 when the city of Maastricht decided to ban tourists from the local coffee shops and a coffee shop owner was forced to close after two non-Dutch nationals were found on his premises.

In upholding the legality of the city's action, The Netherlands' highest court, the Council of State, appealed to the high European court — sort of the EU equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court — to issue a ruling that the Maastricht ban does not conflict with EU laws.

Last July, EU Advocate General Yves Bot said the Netherlands was within its rights to ban tourists from coffee shops. Bot said he considers the move necessary to "protect public order" and "reduce the nuisance caused by drug tourism." In addition, Bot said, the ban would contribute to European efforts to combat the illegal drug trade.

In Amsterdam, the City Council opposes the introduction of the membership scheme. "We are concerned about the problems that will arise from large-scale street dealing," one councilman said, adding that "there are also health concerns, because with street dealing we cannot monitor the quality of the soft drugs or the age of the buyers."

The city had solved these problems in the early 1970s when it decriminalized recreational drug use and allowed the establishment of coffee shops as places where cannabis products could be sold and consumed in-house.

But the Dutch policy of tolerance has never been at all popular with most other European governments nor the draconian American authorities, and the social truce that has allowed over-the-counter cannabis commerce in Holland to flourish has always been an uneasy one.

The recent demonstration of official opposition to the coffee shop culture has been a long time coming, but now it looms large on the immediate societal horizon. The Christian Democratic party (CDA) that ruled in the 1990s and early 2000s and remains part of the current government has never fully accepted the "gray area" philosophy, and now that its coalition partners comprise the Liberals and the anti-Islam party led by Geert Wilders, the CDA is making its move with unprecedented confidence.

The intensified crackdown on the coffee shop culture seems to have been enabled by the findings of a government commission in 2009 that concluded hashish and marijuana are far more powerful now than when the "gray area" policy was introduced in the 1970s. (This increase in potency, of course, is the result of the rapid development of the Dutch growing community and its wizardry in generating new and ever more effective strains of marijuana.)

At the same time, according to the authorities, the bigger the coffee shop industry becomes, the more likely it is to come into the grasp of "organized crime." To that end, the commission recommended cafés become smaller and should sell only to locals.

The illegal growing industry is thought to be worth some $2.6 billion a year, involving some 40,000 people in marijuana cultivation operations on what they call plantations, of which some 5,000 are busted each year. The Dutch government now intends to increase its efforts to drive "organized crime" out of the production and trade of marijuana and to seize the assets of convicted drug criminals.

The crazy thing is that, with marijuana cultivation and distribution remaining illegal, persons engaged in these activities are organized criminals by definition. If they really want to get "organized crime" out of the cannabis business, they would simply legalize marijuana completely and all that crime would just go away since it wouldn't be "criminal activity" any longer.

The war against marijuana users and the cannabis culture is particularly absurd because there's no social harm that's ever been proved to result from viping beyond the possible inducements to race-mixing and guilt-free sexual activity that are proscribed by the orthodox religious order.

Here in Holland, the long-term tolerance of the cannabis culture has both created an atmosphere that attracts weed-smoking pilgrims to make up a significant portion of the local tourist economy and fostered a full-scale cannabis industry that generates billions of euros worth of business within the intimate confines of this tiny nation.

Accordingly, every knowledgeable person I have consulted about the issue continues to scoff at the notion that the state can transform the coffee shop culture by means of the pending legislation.

My friend and mentor Michael Veling, proprietor of the 420 Café and a life-long cannabis activist in Amsterdam, remains convinced that the year-long moratorium now in effect will no doubt end in a further extension of the truce rather than a victory for the suppressive forces.

"There is no way they are going to be able to demonstrate in the courts that 'drug tourism' constitutes a 'public nuisance' or a 'threat to public order,'" Veling told me, adding that Justice Minister Opstelten, a Liberal Party member, will have to report back to the CDA representatives — who started this shit thinking they could finally win the battle — that he tried everything but it proved impossible to enforce their mandate and things will have to continue as before.

At any rate, Veling stressed, would-be drug tourists from America and elsewhere will definitely be welcome in the coffee shops of Holland for at least the entire present year. C'mon over, he said, we appreciate your business.

—Amsterdam

Jan. 26-27, 2012

> Email John Sinclair

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Illuminatus Trilogy : The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

2012-01-25T23:17:00.000+01:00

Constitutional Amendment To End Marihuana Prohibition In Michigan

2012-01-23T02:28:00.002+01:00

Constitutional Amendment To End Marihuana Prohibition In Michigan

A Petition to amend the Michigan Constitution, Article 1, to add:

Article 1 Section 28. Repeal of Marihuana Prohibition.

For persons who are at least 21 years of age who are not incarcerated, marihuana acquisition, cultivation, manufacture, sale, delivery, transfer, transportation, possession, ingestion, presence in or on the body, religious, medical, industrial, agricultural, commercial or personal use, or possession or use of paraphernalia shall not be prohibited, abridged or penalized in any manner, nor subject to civil forfeiture; provided that no person shall be permitted to operate an aircraft, motor vehicle, motorboat, ORV, snowmobile, train, or other heavy or dangerous equipment or machinery while impaired by marihuana.

About us

We are a coalition of Michigan parents, teachers, attorneys, physicians, health professionals, law enforcers and many others with a wide range of backgrounds and beliefs.
We believe police should stop enforcing marijuana prohibition and instead refocus their priorities to arrest violent criminals and other real threats to public safety.

https://help.repealtoday.org/

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2012

Ruth-Marion Baruch & Pirkle Jones Black Panther Photographs, 1968

2012-01-23T02:24:00.000+01:00

SMITH ANDERSEN NORTH presents

Ruth-Marion Baruch & Pirkle Jones

Black Panther Photographs, 1968

January 21 - February 25, 2012

Opening Saturday, January 21, 2012, 6 - 9PM

including a special screening of

The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975

a 2011 documentary featuring never-before seen footage of

the Black Power Movement taken by a group of Swedish journalists

in the late '60s and early '70s, edited by director Göran Hugo Olsson.

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 -
Movie Trailer (2011) HD

Ruth-Marion Baruch, "Black Panther Guards, Free Huey Rally, DeFremery Park, 1968", Gelatin silver print, 16"x20"

"We photographed the Black Panthers intensively from July into October of 1968, during the peak of a historic period and in the Bay Area, where the Black Panthers National Headquarters is located. We couldn't possibly photograph all the aspects of this virile, rapidly growing, and deep-rooted movement, but we can show you: this is what we saw, this is what we felt, and these are the people."

- Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch, 1969

The San Francisco Bay Area was a turbulent cauldron in the sixties. The Free Speech Movement, Vietnam War protests, Haight-Ashbury, Love-Ins and the Black Panthers were all part of the roiling pot of political change, cultural unrest and social upheaval. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, students at Merritt College in Oakland, California founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966, and by 1968 the movement had spread to over 15 U.S. cities with an estimated membership of over 10,000 people nationwide.

The party set out to create practical change, and distinguished itself from both the non-violent civil rights movement of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the black nationalist rhetoric of Malcolm X, instead aligning itself with socially, politically and economically oppressed people throughout the world.

Former Party Communications Director Kathleen Cleaver recalls the Panthers as "a mobilization of tremendously talented but very young Black people who had little financial and institutional resources, but we had unlimited imagination.... We had to imagine how we could make a fundamental change in the United States that would make Black People's lives better."

Despite rampant vilification by the mainstream media and a rash of internal conflicts that would eventually divide the party, the Black Panthers were able to combine divergent activities in a unique way. They provided free breakfasts for school children and other community service programs. Simultaneously, they ran electoral campaigns, challenged racist exploitation, published a newspaper, organized schools, engaged in armed clashes with police forces, formed international alliances with nations and movements that shared their ideologies, and advocated a revolutionary transformation of the political system of the United States.

By 1968, however, optimism had taken some serious hits. FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover vilified the Black Panthers as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States." Huey Newton was awaiting trial for allegedly killing an Oakland, California police officer.

Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones entered the scene at this critical moment. Baruch had proposed a photographic essay on the Black Panthers to Jack McGregor, Director of the De Young Museum in San Francisco, with the idea of presenting "the feeling of the people." McGregor agreed to show the photographs that same year, understanding the timeliness of the subject matter.
After gaining permission to photograph the Free Huey Rally at DeFremery park from Panther Party leaders Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver, Baruch set out to document the party for the next several months, bringing husband Pirkle Jones to photograph alongside her. After showing the Cleavers their first photographs, they were given unprecedented access to the Party and its inner circle.
Stemming from the artists' work with the Peace and Freedom Party, the project reflects a desire to capture in images a closer understanding of the Black Panthers and their organization.
The work of Baruch and Jones stands in radical contrast to mass media images of the time depicting the Panthers as thugs, criminals, or dangerous subversives. Their pictures reflect the dignity and humanity that animated the young revolutionaries, and also suggest universal themes of family, commitment, and hope for the future.

McGregor cancelled the De Young show, fearing media backlash, but when Baruch and Jones fought against the censorship, he eventually agreed to let the exhibition go forward. In December 1968, A Photographic Essay on the Black Panthers opened to record crowds and was viewed by over 100,000 people before traveling to three other venues. The Vanguard, A Photographic Essay on the Black Panthers was published in 1970 by Beacon Press, and Black Panthers, 1968, which includes an essay by Kathleen Cleaver was published by Greybull Press in 2002.

February is Black History Month 2012 and in conjunction with this exhibition, Smith Andersen North will be screening The Black Power Mixtape, 1967 - 1975, a 2011 documentary containing footage shot by a group of Swedish journalists who documented the Black Power Movement in the United States in the late '60s and '70s. The documentary has been edited together by contemporary Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson and features extraordinary, virtually unseen footage from the Black Power Movement.

For additional information, please contact:

Stefan Kirkeby or gallery manager Jennifer O'Keeffe

415-455-9733

info@smithandersennorth.com

Left: Pirkle Jones, "Kathleen Neal Cleaver, DeFremery Park, Oakland, 1968", Gelatin silver print, 16"x20"
Right: Pirkle Jones, "Black Panther Demonstration, Alameda County Courthouse, 1968", Gelatin silver print, 20"x16"

SMITH ANDERSEN NORTH

20 Greenfield Avenue, San Anselmo, CA 94960

Hours: Tuesday - Friday: 10AM - 6PM, Saturday: 12 - 5PM,

and by appointment.

T: 415 455 9733

info@smithandersennorth.com

www.smithandersennorth.com

From Highway 101 take the Central San Rafael Exit. Go West on Third Street. Third Street turns into Fourth Street and then Red Hill Avenue. Make a U-Turn at the Hub by Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and immediately veer right onto GREENFIELD AVENUE. 20 GREENFIELD is the first building on the right. Off street parking in the lot along the east side of the building.

THE LAB

located at our old shop address:

2240A Fourth Street in San Rafael.

T: 415 912 7632

At the LAB we offer an unique range of traditional and contemporary fine art printing services:

Archival Digital Printing, Scanning, Custom Black and White Gelatin Silver Printing, Photogravure,
Master Classes and Workshops.

For more information, please call or e-mail us at lab@smithandersennorth.com

Mention this e-mail and receive 15% off your first print order and if you need framing in combination with your order, you will receive 10% off the framing cost.

We look forward to working with you!

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2012

Prohibition gains ground in Europe, even as U.S. legalization fight continues by John Sinclair

2012-01-23T02:20:00.000+01:00

Higher Ground

Here and there

Prohibition gains ground in Europe, even as U.S. legalization fight continues

By John Sinclair

Published: January 18, 2012

The excellent reporting in these pages by my colleagues Larry Gabriel and Curt Guyette has kept me up to date on the hope for a greener future in Michigan by means of the marijuana legalization initiative. I'm far away from home this month, trying to make sense of the repressive measures presently being championed and soon to be implemented by the Dutch government.

It'd be a beautiful thing if some of the rich people who back these petition drives — or even some of the millionaires among us who've never backed one before — would cough up some funds to help Matt Abel and the organizers of the citizens initiative take their battle against the forces of evil in this issue over the top this year in Michigan.

Whether or not someone gallops to the financial rescue of the struggle to end marijuana prohibition in 2012, however, it's essential to remember that the issue will finally be decided not by money but by the majority of the citizens who support legalization and will sign the petition and go to the polls and cast their votes against prohibition once and for all.

Almost two-thirds of the voting population of Michigan favored the legalization of medical marijuana four years ago. Now there's a bigger political base than ever in support of the issue, starting with the 131,308 patient registrants certified by the state of Michigan by the end of 2011.

Even those medical marijuana patients who have little sympathy for recreational use per se will surely perceive the essential fact that the best way to get the police and the state's attorney general out of their medical affairs is to get them out of the marijuana world altogether.

Once legalization is effected and marijuana prohibition joins alcohol prohibition on the fetid dust heap of history, anyone who uses marijuana for any reason will be free from state intervention in their personal lives — on that issue, at least.

Americans have been so brainwashed about weed by the authorities that have profited so immeasurably from marijuana prohibition for so long that it's hard to grasp the immensity of the change in the life of the marijuana smoker when the police are no longer authorized to interfere with his or her activity — recreational, medicinal or otherwise.

The first time I came to Amsterdam for the 1998 Cannabis Cup, I remained whacked out of my gourd for every waking minute of an entire week. As the High Priest of the Cannabis Cup, I was gifted with enormous quantities of the best weed I'd ever smoked, and I felt it was incumbent on me to ingest each of the 42 strains of indica and sativa entered into the competition that year. So I did — no problem.

After a couple days of this exhilarating existence, I began to notice that my shoulders seemed to be lowering and my anxiety levels rapidly diminishing. Of course, some of this may be attributable to the medicinal effect of the weed itself, but even more so it was the gradual realization that I would not be accosted by the local authorities and treated as a criminal while I was in Holland.

When I first started smoking weed 50 years ago in the north end of Flint, I was taught extreme caution by my mentors when venturing into the outside world. They would roll up two joints and wrap them in a paper tissue and carry them in their hand for sudden disposal at any sign of police interference. There weren't so many people who smoked weed then, and we were fairly easy to spot.

Ever since then, I've spent my life carefully guarding my stash and devising effective means of transporting it from place to place in the course of daily life. I had some problems involving sharing the sacrament with strangers for a few years, but I've been "clean" with the law on this issue since late in 1971. And now that I'm a medical marijuana patient registered with the state of Michigan, I don't feel quite so threatened in my regular activities.

Still, there's that cloud of oppression that always hovers overhead, and the person with you may well not suffer from medical conditions that qualify him or her as a marijuana patient exempt from search, seizure and arrest.

Further, as in the case of our state's leading law enforcement officer, perhaps the copper in question does not adhere to the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in its fullness and decides to ignore my own medical qualifications to give me some grief for having my medicine in my pocket.

The dread question, "Where'd ya get it?" is no longer pertinent, since my caregiver's name and address are listed on the back of my card, but there could likely be some sort of irregularity the copper may wish to pursue and then I'm back in the shit again.

There's been nothing like this in Holland for about four decades — ever since personal use of recreational drugs was removed from the criminal ledger and hundreds of coffee shops selling, serving and providing for the smoking of marijuana on the premises were allowed to insinuate themselves into the Dutch social order.

The coffee shop scene went basically unregulated until the mid-1990s, when the government decided that it was time to institute a system of oversight and control to rein in the unbridled growth of the cannabis industry.

First the purveyors of cannabis across the counter were required to register with local authorities and apply for a license to continue operating. They were made subject to taxation on their profits, and their employees were brought into the official employment scheme.

Since cannabis remained illegal per se under the existing drug laws, the world of recreational use and commerce was considered a "gray area" that was allowed to exist without legal sanction through the grace of the queen and her government.

But now, as decriminalization and outright legalization of marijuana continue to gain significant numbers of supporters in America and the Western world, the current right-wing government of the Netherlands has for some reason decided that cannabis is bad and "drug tourism" is even worse.

In the past few years since the ascension of the current political ruling coalition (within which the "anti-Islam" party is a driving force), the Dutch government and Parliament have dropped all pretense of reasonableness — sort of like the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives — and begun to attack the cannabis culture as morally questionable and quite possibly a source of social degeneration.

Particularly scurrilous in their view are the people who come to Holland from other countries around the world to partake in the openness, convenience and relative social freedom of the coffee shop culture in Amsterdam, or those from neighboring EU states such as Germany, France, Belgium and the UK, who come to Holland to cop and take their purchases back home with them.

I had meant to report here on several revolting developments now under way in The Netherlands but got carried away thinking of how great it would be to legalize marijuana in Michigan in 2012. Now I've come to the end of my space and time for this installment so, as my editor frequently says, stay out there, and I'll add, help end marijuana prohibition.

—Amsterdam

Jan. 13, 2012

> Email John Sinclair

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2012

Photographs from the Freeing John Sinclair events

2012-01-14T15:53:00.000+01:00

Jeff Grand, Wayne Kramer, Phil Hale [piano, hidden], Mo Hollis, Tino Gross, John Sinclair at The Ark, Ann Arbor, December 9, 2011


John Sinclair, Wayne Kramer at The Ark, Ann Arbor, December 9, 2011

Wayne Kramer, Frank Bach, Union Ballroom, Ann Arbor, December 10, 2011

Tino Gross, John Sinclair, Wayne Kramer at The Ark, Ann Arbor, December 9, 2011

Photos (c) 2011 Barbara Weonberg Barefield

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Nutty Logic with Steve Fly

2012-01-14T15:46:00.001+01:00

Nutty Logic with Steve Fly

Posted in: Radio Free Amsterdam, Steve Fly

The John Sinclair Foundation Presents
NUTTY LOGIC WITH STEVE FLY
Cafe The Zen, Amsterdam, January 11, 2012 [SFNL-0001]

Steve Fly created this salute to Robert Anton Wilson and put it together with John Sinclair at Cafe The Zen in Amsterdam Oost last night and we’re rushing it onto the Radio Free Amsterdam airwaves today, with musical selections from Alice Coltrane, John Sinclair & Beatnik Youth, Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane At Carnegie Hall, Dr. John & The Lower 911, Ed Sanders, the Miles Davis Sextet, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Jefferson, and John Coltrane & Duke Ellington, with several contributions from Robert Anton Wilson himself.

NUTTY LOGIC PLAYLIST
[01] Alice Coltrane: Journey to Satchidananda
[02] Robert Anton Wilson: New Tsarism
[03] John Sinclair & Beatnik Youth: Brilliant Corners
[04] Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane: Nutty
[05] Dr. John & The Lower 911: Black Gold
[06] Robert Anton Wilson; Maybe Logic
[07] Ed Sanders: What If William Blake Had Gone To New Orleans?
[08] Miles Davis Sextet: So What
[09] Louis Armstrong: Black and Blue
[10] Robert Anton Wilson: TSOG Rising
[11] Eddie Jefferson: Parker’s Mood
[12] John Coltrane & Duke Ellington: In a Sentimental Mood

A JOINT PRODUCTION
Produced by Steve Fly
Edited, assembled & annotated by John Sinclair
Executive Producer: Leslie Lopez
Sponsored by Ceres Seeds & The Hempshopper, Amsterdam
(c) 2012 The John Sinclair Foundation
6
http://www.radiofreeamsterdam.com/nutty-logic-with-steve-fly-2/

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Photo's from the White Panthers reunion

2012-01-14T15:43:00.000+01:00

Pun Plamondon, David Fenton, Lenni Sinclair, Genie Parker, John Sinclair

Pun Plamondon

Genie Parker

White Panther Party coming home to Ann Arbor, 40 years after bringing John Lennon to town in aid of John Sinclair

Posted: Thu, Dec 1, 2011 : 7:17 a.m.

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/hill-street-reunion/

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

The chronic heaviness of John Sinclair

2012-01-14T15:23:00.000+01:00

The chronic heaviness of John Sinclair

by Christine Metsger

Poet, cultural revolutionary and cannabis champion John Sinclair was raising hell long before he was busted in December 1966 after giving away two joints to an undercover police women. One-time manager of the proto-punk band, the MC5, Sinclair founded the militantly anti-racist White Panther Party, worked as a journalist, writer and activist, and got stoned out loud.

The bull’s-eye was drawn. Sinclair did 29 months on a 10-year sentence for those two joints until friends and supporters gathered at the Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the Free John Sinclair Rally on December 10, 1971. They made so much noise that he was released three days later. It didn’t hurt that some of those friends and supporters were musical icons who may (or may not) have been more popular than Jesus.

Four decades later, Sinclair remains an outspoken and implacable thorn-in-the-side to anyone who wants to crush his buzz.

The following is the story of our recent encounter with the man himself.

An almost warm and sunny day in late September is developing into a dark sprawl of clouds over Gratiot Avenue. In the parking lot at Detroit’s Eastern Market, cars are trolling for a vacancy. Although counter trade is brisk at 2 p.m., the handful of booths lining the wall at Zeff’s Coney Island are mostly empty.

John Sinclair answers on the third ring. “I took advantage of another 20 minutes in the tub,” he says. “I’ll be there in five.”

When he arrives, the behemoth with turbulent curls who epitomized all that was conversely deemed either hip and holy or subversive and dangerous in the 60s and 70s, has morphed into something close to courtly. Just a few days shy of marking his 70^th birthday, Sinclair looks more now like Shakespeare than Rubeus Hagrid.

“Sorry I’m late.” The voice is a serrated hybrid of metal and fog, and although he is 50 pounds lighter these days, Sinclair still seems to fill every inch of space on his side of the booth.

People walking by the table at Zeff’s stop to welcome him back to Detroit. Here, as a young poet in the mid-60s, he founded the Detroit Artists Workshop and was subsequently taggedthe Angel of Detroit by Allen Ginsberg. He has regularly returned to the city for more than 40 years.

“I’m a confirmed urbanite,” Sinclair said. “I grew up in Davison (Michigan). That was enough small town life. I had that for 17 years. I moved to Amsterdam in 2003 and it was tough, but I really wanted to be there. People in Detroit ask me what it’s like and I say it’s the exact opposite of this.”

After forking up scrambled eggs and grits, it’s a short walk from Zeff’s to Trans-Love Energies Compassion Club, Sinclair’s home-away-from-home in Detroit. Climbing through a sliding window on the second floor, onto a small outdoor sitting area overlooking the roof of the building next door, Sinclair settles into a folding chair and lights a cigarette. He exhales and grins. “You got any questions?”

In August, the Michigan Court of Appeals decreed that patient-to-patient medical marijuana sales are illegal, effectively cock-blocking distribution to registered patients through dispensaries and compassion centers. According to Attorney General Bill Schuette, “This ruling is a huge victory for public safety and Michigan communities struggling with an invasion of pot shops near their schools, homes and churches.”

“Oh, they’re going to continue to oppose,” Sinclair said. “You can count on that. 63 percent of the people in Michigan voted to pass the (medical marijuana) law, and they’re going to have to pass another one. You’ve gotta chase these people out of your issue. Their beautiful playhouse has to be torn down. They’ve built this huge empire on our backs because people don’t stand up and say, ‘You’re crazy – The emperor doesn’t have any clothes on. There’s nothing wrong with this.’”

Sinclair lifts his to-go cup of coffee; offers a toast. “They get high – Why can’t we get high? This war on drugs presents the illusion that it’s dressed in a nice suit of clothes, but it’s just naked aggression. I used to think there was more to it than that, but they just don’t want people to get high and contemplate life like we want to. They don’t want us to live like that.”

And, he asserts, this contemplation could lead to “a glimmer” that there’s another way to be.

“They’ve got nothing to do with what goes on inside our heads” Sinclair said. “That’s the bottom line, for me. It’s none of their motherfucking business. The war on pot is really a war on the people who smoke pot.”

“20 to Life,” the documentary that chronicles the events surrounding Sinclair’s 1969 arrest and its aftermath, focuses primarily on the Free John Sinclair Rally. In one clip, the crowd of 15,000 had grown quiet when Sinclair’s voice emanated from the sound system. Seemingly overwhelmed by this outpouring of support, Sinclair stumbled on his thanks, ending with a plaintive, “Say something to me, man!” that triggered an eruption of cheers and applause.

“I was scared out of my wits,” he said. ”It was just my weekly call home to my wife, but they’d rigged it through the speakers (at the rally). I live through it all again every time I see that thing. I was so terrified. To me, that was one of the bravest things I ever did, because I was sure the guards were gonna grab me and throw me in the hole. But then I thought, if they pull me off to the hole in front of 15,000 people, it couldn’t be more dramatic – I’ll take it!”

Sinclair is a showman. As a vocal and highly visible advocate for legalization and civil rights, and an overt purveyor of personal freedom, many believed that the harsh sentence he was handed had more to do with removing him from the scene than anything else. In a line from his song “John Sinclair,” John Lennon wrote, “Was he jailed for what he done, or for representing everyone?”

And he did represent. An early indoctrination into blues and jazz had already influenced Sinclair’s social and musical direction, galvanizing into a political epiphany – “the possibility of being a white liberal” – when he heard Malcolm X speak at Flint College.

“Our kids don’t know the history of the civil rights movement because the schools don’t teach it,” Sinclair said. “They don’t want you to know you can fight back and do something to change the way things are. (Laughs) Okay, maybe it’s not gonna happen tomorrow, but you have to take part in the process. Because the other people are using the process to kick your ass.”

From the front lines of the emerging counter-culture, Sinclair recruited a guitar army during a time when sex, drugs and rock and roll dovetailed with the belief that change could be realized through protest and political activism.

“Democracy is a hell of a thing, in my view,” Sinclair said, “because you can vote. One person, one vote. We could get together and elect the people we want, like we did in 2008, but you’ve gotta do it. Nobody’s gonna do it for you.”

“There’s this myth of America that they sell you from school until you die that’s totally horseshit,” he added. “America’s an awful place. They’re warmongers. They’re bullies. They killed the people who owned this country and then brought the black people here to do their work for them. Then they want everyone to tell them how great they are. White people. They’re just unbelievable to me.”

He concedes that there was a time when this inequity occupied his thoughts more often. But now, it is what it is.

“I try to estrange myself, in everyday life, from the square world. It would be exhausting trying to live like that for even one day,” said Sinclair. “I have this beautiful mental world, and I try to live there as fully as I can. I get cranky when I’m dragged out of it to deal with this shit. Like going to the airport. It’s like going to another planet for me, and it’s not a friendly planet.”

Part of Sinclair’s beautiful mental world is the radio show he hosts. The John Sinclair Radio Show is exactly what he wants it to be, and it holds rank as the job he likes best.

“It’s just old-style radio. The guy talks and plays records and tells you what they were. Free form, they used to call that, remember? They hired guys who knew music and they played the records because they liked them.” (Recent and archived broadcasts can be accessed at radiofreeamsterdam.com, or at detroitlife313.com.)

Besides spinning tunes for his listening audience, Sinclair is the front man for a diverse-but-interconnected series of live and recorded musical projects he describes as an ever-evolving concept.

“Being onstage is like being in a warm shower for me,” Sinclair said. “I feel at home onstage. And once it starts, I don’t even have to think.”

In 1995, Sinclair issued “Full Moon Night”, the first of what became a more or less annual release of CDs. “Beatnik Youth” is number 17, and will be out on Track Records in early 2012.

“This one is a pop record I did with the Beatnik Youth Orchestra in London,” he said. “I cut a lot of my favorite poems, but the music’s all different.”

Sinclair sings without actually singing. He looses his rumbling drawl like a saxophone lead, swooping and punching in the cadence of a compulsive communicator. A revolving cast of musicians, each one so hot they could singe the hair off your arms, backs him.

“With music, you’ve gotta have a few rough spots in your life to feel something, y’know? You’ve gotta have room for some thought,” Sinclair said. “If you’re on Facebook telling everybody where you went to the bathroom, if you’re perpetually bombarded with prepared information, it’s hard to have any of your own thoughts. You’re thinking about who’s going to win American Idol, or Dancing with the Stars. Life’s too short to listen to a Madonna song.”

I speculate that, with the emergence of punk, rock and roll at least got dirty again.

“There weren’t any punks – none who approached the majesty of the MC5,” Sinclair says emphatically. “Those were fun times. That’s as fun as it gets, I’m afraid.”

I tell him I was grounded when my parents found the MC5 album, “Kick Out the Jams,” in my bedroom.

“Rightly so,” he says. “That was the idea.”

A case could be made, I say, that kids aren’t having that kind of fun now.

“They aren’t. They don’t have a chance at it. I feel bad for them, but what can you do?”

He narrows his eyes for a few seconds, then says, “This is my advice to kids: If you’re going to be in the arts, take the vow of poverty. Forget about getting paid, because you’re not going to get paid for doing something interesting or intelligent. So there’s no point in trying to shape your product into something they’ll buy, because they’re not going to buy it. They don’t have to. They’ve got somebody else who’ll give it to them. They’ve got people bending over the table dying for it, y’know?

Sinclair sits back to deliver the punch line. “But if you don’t pay any attention to that, you can do what you want. It’s easy, you just don’t get paid.”

One might consider that the weirdness and weight of doing two-and-a-half years in prison before overturning draconian laws and – finally – winning a righteous and long-overdue victory to the soundtrack of a Beatle’s anthem could capsize anyone’s perspective. The “Rocky” movies don’t deliver like that. What happened once Sinclair was finally free?

“I went back to work,” Sinclair said. “I managed bands. I was in Ann Arbor and we tried to make Ann Arbor a model community. We had free health care, free concerts … We had our own ballroom. We put on the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival and changed the marijuana law so it was only a $5 fine. We did all this because we wanted to.”

Does Sinclair think this sort of community brio is likely to resurface in the face of opposition to the fledgling medical marijuana laws? Or ever?

“I don’t like to speculate-I’ve been wrong too many times,” he said. “It’s whatever people want.

“We hated it the way it was. That was my motivation. I had no idea what I wanted, but I didn’t want to end up at Buick, like my dad. I didn’t want to go in the army.”

Sinclair shakes his head and looks out over the grey roof at the grey sky.

“I think the remarkable thing is that we didn’t know anything.” “There was no precedent; no role model you could call up. We had to read poems by Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and that would give you an idea. That was the fun part…figuring it out.”

In the poem, “brilliant corners,” Sinclair lauds these hipster saints who broke the world open with words, music and vision. He ends his ode to their heaviness with the way it began for him.

“& ‘howl’ was arrested
& tried for obscenity
& the beat generation
was in ‘time’ magazine
& young people in America
suddenly wanted to know
where
they could get some marijuana---
& a road out of the status
began to open up
& out
in front of us---
& we followed it
& we followed it”

We say goodbye in front of the Trans-Love Energies building and I walk the half-block back to my car, digging keys out of my pocket. I fumble, dropping first my notebook and then the keys on the sidewalk. Clamping the gnawed apple core I’ve been holding in one hand between my teeth, I retrieve the spillage and continue on like an over-burdened and ambulatory roasted pig. Juggling to open the car door, I’m surprised to see Sinclair has trailed along and is standing on the curb a few yards behind me. The Angel of Detroit is stationed at the corner of this ally off Gratiot Boulevard, flashing me the peace sign.

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

RELAUNCH OF RADIO FREE AMSTERDAM!

2012-01-02T19:03:00.000+01:00

January 1, 2012

Hi Everybody,

Happy New Year! The fireworks are exploding outside mywindow here in Amsterdam and I’m putting the finishing touches on the relaunchof the Radio Free Amsterdam website today.

Radio Free Amsterdam was founded on January 1, 2005 and isbeginning its 8^th year of operation as a project of The JohnSinclair Foundation. We specialize in music and recordings from the AfricanAmerican cultural tradition.

You may now subscribe to the daily podcasts from Radio FreeAmsterdam via the RSS feature on our website. There is no cost for any of ourprogramming but you are encouraged to donate to The John Sinclair Foundation, aDutch non-profit cultural organization based at Singel 10-saus, 1013GAAmsterdam, The Netherlands.

Due to severe technical problems, since late February 2011our internet radio programming has been carried by Detroit Life Radio at theTrans-Love Energies Compassion Center in Detroit and broadcast nightly byTapDetroit.com while our site was inoperable. The TapDetroit.com broadcastswill also continue nightly in 2012.

Now our daily programming will be coming directly from RadioFree Amsterdam, with a series of one-hour radio programs by John Sinclair, TomMorgan, David Kunian, Harry Duncan, Bruce Pingree, Cary Wolfson, ScottBarretta, and other independent producers who contribute their programs to theRadio Free Amsterdam archive.

In addition to our daily postings, we have added a series ofJohn Sinclair Radio Shows from the past year that have not yet aired on RadioFree Amsterdam and a new series from the Vintage Radio Vaults produced by DavidKunian at WWOZ in New Orleans.

JANUARY 2012 SCHEDULE

01/01 RFA-12001 JohnSinclair Radio Show 419

01/02 RFA-12002 JohnSinclair Radio Show 420

RFA-12003 JohnSinclair Radio Show 371

01/03 RFA-12004 NewOrleans Music Show with Tom Morgan 18

01/04 RFA-12005 InThe Soul Kitchen with Harry D 01

01/05 RFA-12006 Highway61 with Scott Barretta 32

01/06 RFA-12007 Jazzfrom the Hempshopper 42

01/07 RFA-12008 Bartender’sBop 01 with John Sinclair & Tom Morgan

RFA-12009 VintageRadio Vaults 70: Jim Carroll, Part 1

01/08 RFA-12010 SinclairOn The Air 126

01/09 RFA-12011 JohnSinclair Radio Show 421

RFA-12012 JohnSinclair Radio Show 372

01/10 RFA-12013 NewOrleans Music Show with Tom Morgan 19

01/11 RFA-12014 InThe Soul Kitchen with Harry D 02

01/12 RFA-12015 Highway61 with Scott Barretta 33

01/13 RFA-12016 Jazzfrom the Hempshopper 43

01/14 RFA-12017 Bartender’sBop 02

RFA-12018 VintageRadio Vaults 71: Jim Carroll, Part 2

01/15 RFA-12019 SinclairOn The Air 127

01/16 RFA-12020 JohnSinclair Radio Show 422

RFA-12021 JohnSinclair Radio Show 373

01/17 RFA-12022 NewOrleans Music Show with Tom Morgan 20

01/18 RFA-12023 InThe Soul Kitchen with Harry D 03

01/19 RFA-12024 Highway61 with Scott Barretta 34

01/20 RFA-12025 Jazzfrom the Hempshopper 44

01/21 RFA-12026 Bartender’sBop 03

RFA-12027 Vintage Radio Vaults 72:James Black/Poetry, Part 1

01/22 RFA-12028 SinclairOn The Air 128

01/23 RFA-12029 JohnSinclair Radio Show 423

RFA-12030 JohnSinclair Radio Show 374

01/24 RFA-12031 NewOrleans Music Show with Tom Morgan 21

01/25 RFA-12032 InThe Soul Kitchen with Harry D 04

01/26 RFA-12033 Highway61 with Scott Barretta 35

01/27 RFA-12034 Jazzfrom the Hempshopper 45

01/28 RFA-12035 Bartender’sBop 04

RFA-12036 Vintage Radio Vaults 73:James Black/Poetry, Part 2

01/29 RFA-12037 SinclairOn The Air 129

01/30 RFA-12038 JohnSinclair Radio Show 424

RFA-12039 JohnSinclair Radio Show 375

01/31 RFA-12040 NewOrleans Music Show with Tom Morgan 22

Music coming up for the week of January1-7, 2012 includes selections by (inorder of appearance):

Steve Fly & Vicente Pino

MC-5

Rationals

John Sinclair with Ed Moss & the Society Jazz Orchestra

Country Joe & The Fish

Tony Seymour & Eric Sermon

Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter & James Cotton

Jack Kerouac with Al Cohn & Zoot Sims

Allen Toussaint

101 Runners

Thelonious Monk

Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen

Charlie Parker

Big Chief Alfred Doucette

Big Chief Peppy/Troy Andrews

Dr. Marshmellow Cubicle

Houston Person

John Sinclair & Planet D Nonet

Macpodz

Samirah Evans

David Kimbrough & John Sinclair

Howard Glazer & the EL 34s

Jon Thomas

Dr. John and Donald Harrison Jr

James Booker

John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars

Bobby Lounge

Treme Brass Band

James Brown

Meters

Bobby Marchan & The Clowns

Marva Whitney

Lyn Collins

Rudy Ray Moore

Bobby Byrd

Frank Frost
Jelly Roll Kings
Big Jack Johnson

Robert Bilbo Walker

Paul Wine Jones

Planet D Nonet

Brothers Groove

Radio I-Ching

Elvin Jones

John Sinclair & Beatnik Youth

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown

Roscoe Gordon

Amos Milburn

Wynonie Harris

Big Maybelle

Louis Jordan

Roy Brown

T-Bone Walker

Julia Lee

Jim Carroll Band

Jerry Lee Lewis

Ani DeFranco

Bessie Smith

Ohio Players

Lou Reed

The Stooges

Curtis Mayfield

Velvet Underground

Albert King

Honeyboy Edwards

Homesick James

Etta James

Thanks for listening, and highest wishes for the New Yearfrom Radio Free Amsterdam.

With love,

John Sinclair

Program Director & General Manager

http://www.radiofreeamsterdam.com/

John Sinclair 4.16.11 1st Church Of Northampton (Youtube)

2011-12-27T00:34:00.000+01:00

John Sinclair 4.16.11 1st Church Of Northampton His Back up Band includes :Ron Schneiderman - GuitarAndy Crespo - BassJohn Maloney - DrumsTed Lee - Keys

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Radio Free Amsterdam is back! The X-mas Relaunch

2011-12-27T00:26:00.000+01:00

Radio Free Amsterdam is back! The X-mas Relaunch

Posted in: Upcomming Events

Radio Free Amsterdam is back on line with NEW and classic episodes of your favorite radio shows! To kick off the Christmas hlidays we have for you:

HIGHWAY 61 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL WITH SCOTT BARRETTA, Part 1
Scott Barretta features a power-packed two-part program of blues Christmas music
in episodes 30 & 31 of Highway 61 with classic selections by Charles Brown, Mabel Scott, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Llggins, Li’l Esther & Mel Walker, Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Reed, Big Joe Williams, Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, Papa Hop (Wilson), Detroit Junior, Jerry McCain, Sam Myers, and Big Jack Johnson.
Listen now <<<

HIGHWAY 61 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL WITH SCOTT BARRETTA, Part 2
The second episode of Christmas On Highway 61 features another hour of Christmas music with soul blues selections by B.B King, Albert King, Sir Mack Rice, Jerry McCain, Sam Myers, Robert Ward, Earl King, Vernon Garrett, Pete Mayes, Hot Rock Hayes, James Brown, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Charles Brown, Dr. John, Little Johnnie Taylor, and Huey “Piano” Smith & the Clowns.

Listen now <<<

NEW ORLEANS MUSIC SHOW WITH TOM MORGAN
Tom Morgan’s New Orleans Music Show from WWOZ-FM in New Orleans features a splendid set of Crescent City music from the Courtyard Kings, Charles Moore, Tom McDermott, Don Vappie, Ritmo Calypso, Milton Batiste, Big Al Carson, Trombone Shorty, Dr. John, J. Monque’D, Earl King, Schatzie, and Champion Jack Dupree.
Listen now <<<

HIGHWAY 61 WITH SCOTT BARRETTA
Scott Barretta investigates the roots of rap music in this week’s episode of Highway 61, featuring early statements by Frankie ”Half-Pint” Jaxon, Memphis Minnie, Speckled Red, Jimmie Davis, Luke Jordan, Willie Walker, Dan Pickett, Blind Willie McTell, Georgia Tom Dorsey & Kansas City Kitty, The Hokum Boys, Dirty Red, Leroy Carr, Harmonica Frank Floyd, Willie Nix, Katie Webster & Ashton Conroy, Little Caesar, Big Jay McNeely, Richard Berry, and Slim Gaillard.
Listen now <<<

JAZZ FROM THE HEMPSHOPPER WITH JOHN SINCLAIR
This week’s episode of Jazz from the Hempshopper with John Sinclair is back in Amsterdam at the Hempshopper on the Singel Canal with an hour of jazz from.the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festivals of 1972 and 1973, featuring Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Discipline Arkestra, CJQ, Archie Shepp, Miles Davis, the Revolutionary Ensemble, Infinite Sound, Count Basie & His Orchestra, the Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop, and Leon Thomas & Full Circle

Listen now <<<
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from everyone at Radio Free Amsterdam!

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Freeing John Sinclair: The Day Legends Came To Town (Dedux)

2011-12-27T00:04:00.001+01:00

Freeing John Sinclair: The Day Legends Came To Town

The John Sinclair Freedom Rally, held in Crisler Arena on December 10, 1971, is one of the most memorable concerts in Ann Arbor history and one of the most significant in the history of Rock and Roll, due in large part to John Lennon's decision to appear in support of radical White Panther leader John Sinclair, who was currently serving 8 1/2 to 10 years in prison for the possession of two marijuana cigarettes.

But also on the bill that night were Motown's Steve Wonder, folksinger Phil Ochs, and jazz legend Archie Schepp, plus Ann Arbor's own Bob Seger, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Teegarden & Van Winkle and The Up. Speakers included Bobby Seale, Allen Ginsberg, and Rennie Davis.

On the 40th anniversary of the Rally, AADL is launching this site tracing the history behind the Rally, in particular the story of the White Panther and Rainbow People's Parties in Ann Arbor, through a series of interviews; essays; photographs; historical audio files; and thousands of articles from both the Ann Arbor News and the Ann Arbor Sun, the underground newspaper published by the White Panther Party and Rainbow People's Party from 1967-1976.

Highlights of the site include the phone conversation between John and Leni Sinclair and John Lennon and Yoko Ono after Sinclair's release from prison, and our interview with the Honorable Damon J. Keith, Senior Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, about his famous "Keith Decision" in the CIA Conspiracy case. We also interview former White Panther leaders John Sinclair, Leni Sinclair, Pun Plamondon and legendary poster artist Gary Grimshaw.

The essays cover such topics as the hidden history of Ann Arbor's countercultural past and the story behind the Rally. John Sinclair writes about his years in Ann Arbor; Leni Sinclair describes the evolution of the Hill Street commune; and radical lawyer Hugh "Buck" Davis details the Constitutional significance of the CIA Conspiracy case.

But this is just the start. More interviews, historical audio, and browsing options are coming soon!

Freeing John Sinclair is a product of the Ann Arbor District Library in collaboration with the Bentley Historical Library, Cousins Vinyl, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Robert Anton Wilson on medical Marijuana (2002)

2011-12-26T23:51:00.000+01:00

[How does the spirit of the Cannabis protest movement today differ from its 60s counterpart?]

RAW : Well, besides the people who want it legalized because they enjoy it, for one reason or another the medical Marijuana issue which is especially good because - how can I say this - it takes a great deal of faith, blind faith in the government to believe that by taking medicine away from sick people they're doing something to protect us from terrorism which is their official line, and I have the feeling this is gonna - clearly I'm overly optimistic, I often am - but, I think this is gonna bounce back in their faces. They raided the Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana which distributes marijuana to about 300 cancer and AIDS patient's, and a few with muscular dystrophy and post polio syndrome and other problems which are clearly helped by Marijuana very clearly and obviously, and they - the D.E.A - swooped down and arrested the two people who own the farm where most of it is grown and chopped down all the plants and carted them away to destroy them presumably, many believe they sell them on the black market, that's the most popular belief in the counterculture; they only seize them to resell on the black market at higher prices.

Legalization of medical marijuana has a lot more support across the board, even Diane Feinstein, who I think is one of the most reactionary people in congress, she's come out in favour of leaving the marijuana cooperatives alone, the medical Marijuana cooperatives. She's one of my Senators, and my representative Sam Fark, called it an outrage. And we're getting more and more support on that issue. All the enemies of medical marijuana point out as soon as that's legalized there's gonna be no control, how they gonna know who's got a medical problem? You can arrest and harass a lot of people with that kind of conviction stick. It's only the federal government doing it anyway, what's very curious is that where I live 55 percent of the voters of California voted to make medical marijuana legal and in Santa Cruz county 85 percent in the county-wide ballot voted to make it legal for any purpose, so if you need it for medicine or you just wanna get high, use it for meditation and religious purposes or just because they all know it makes a blow job even better, I think, for these legitimate reasons marijuana is the test case.
They're taking medicine away from dying people in pain, I mean gee, that's worse than anything they've done internationally, it's happening right here to American citizens, I think it's gonna bounce back and hit them in the face, maybe it's because I hope it will but as stupid as the American people seem to be a lot of the time I don't believe they are stupid enough to believe in taking medicine away from dying people, and most of the members of WAMM are dying, most of them are terminally ill cases; and they're in pain most of the time and the marijuana takes the pain away or at least eases it and in most cases it takes it away for hours you know. And the idea that these people with AIDS and cancer should die in pain because God doesn't want them to have any relief from the pain, I don't see how long they can hang on, it's like something out the middle ages you know, it's worse than medieval, it's the dark ages. I don't think they can hold onto that position very long but they sure as hell are trying. I get my pot absolutely free from the Women's Alliance for medical marijuana which doesn't charge, its a cooperative and we do what we can to keep it going, now they have been raided we're gonna have to do more, we're gonna have to decentralize even further, decentralize the production, the making of the tinctures, the cookies, the brownies and whatever forms we wanna take it in that's best for our condition, some people still smoke it, and were gonna have to decentralize the growth and production and distribution. What are they gonna do if 85 percent of the people in Santa Cruz County area are against the D.E.A coming in? They gotta arrest the whole Goddamn county, they gotta build a fence around the whole damn county and say were all in jail now! I dunno they might do that. I saw somebody who was kidding but he sounds just like George Bush suggesting we build a bomb that will blow up the whole world and cut a hole in the middle the shape of the United States and we'll survive after we blow everything else up, sounds like a great idea to me, there'll be no more enemies to fear, no more wars to fight, then we can spend our money getting a health plan like the civilized world has so everybody has health care. If we didn't spend all this money fighting the rest of the world we might have a health plan like England or Ireland or France or Germany, Canada or Israel, or any civilized country. We can't afford it because were so busy fighting the whole fucking planet at once, their not even finished in Afghanistan, and I doubt they ever will be. And they're getting ready to start a war with Iraq now, and Saudi Arabia or Iran is next on the list, they're not quite sure which is gonna be the third but it's gonna be either Saudi Arabia or Iran. All the Muslims in the world, which is between 1 billion and 2 billion, depending upon which estimate I believe, say one and a half billion; their all gonna hate the United States even more than they do now. Here we have a planet of six billion people, one and half billion people hate the United States, I don't know, ITS SO FUCKIN CRAZY I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. Who's running this show, the three stooges ? [laughs]
http://www.maybelogic.org/maybequarterly/08/0801FlyRAWInterview.htm

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Sinclair on the cover of HIGH TIMES (Jan 2012)

2011-12-26T23:45:00.000+01:00

Pot’s Greatest Hits
Welcome to the wide world of stoner stats! Since the breadth of our community is staggering, we decided the first issue of 2012 would be an ideal time to lay down our choices for the most notable achievements in the marijuana world: the best, the worst, the biggest, the weirdest, and anything else that struck our ganja-enhanced fancy.

http://hightimes.com/magazine/ht_admin/7401

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Sun Ra and his Arkestra Live at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972-74

2011-12-26T23:35:00.000+01:00

Art Yard Records unveils their newest release with Wake Up Angels: Sun Ra and his Arkestra Live at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972-74

November 13, 2011 Sound Colour Vibration Leave a comment Go to comments

Sun Ra Arkestra Wake Up Angels Art Yard

Art Yard Records has been releasing some of the best Sun Ra Arkestra recordings under one roof in recent years. With a close relationship to the band and a patience and understanding for the overall vision of what Ra and his colleagues have set in foundation, every Art Yard project related to Sun Ra is given the highest attention to detail for research, packaging and quality of materials. Many of the 70′s period Sun Ra studio and live album reissues were much needed additions to the modern digital age and the expanding fan base of young and new listeners for Ra’s legacy.

This year has marked the arrival of a very special collection in Art Yard’s Sun Ra catalog: the reintroduction of monumental and pivotal performances with Wake Up Angels: Sun Ra and his Arkestra Live at Ann Arbor Jazz and Blues Festival 1972-74. John Sinclair and Peter Andrews were the people responsible for organizing and presenting the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz festival events. Under their Rainbow Multi-Media Corporation, the Arkestra were hired for the festival held in 1972 to close out the opening evenings schedule of performance. The Arkestra was expanding into philosophical spoken word elements into their sets, lavish dance arrangements, very heavy African and Latin poly-rhythmic percussion additions, cosmic space sound collages, cerebreal improvisations into regions unknown and a very advanced form of orchestration that marveled techniques akin to Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson, both of which were some of his closest and most respected teachers. Sun Ra had relocated to Philadelphia from New York in the late 60′s from a fairly long period of activity there. Pivotal recordings would soon come forth while Sun Ra would focus on underground projects and releases with his Saturn Records imprint started in Chicago during the 50′s. After a successful tour of the West Coast in 1969 and a lot of touring in France, UK and other regions of Europe in 1970, 1971 and on. Sun Ra of the 70′s was activated in a way he had never been before.

Sun Ra on the cover of Rolling Stone April 19, 1969

Rolling Stone had covered Ra’s gig in San Jose during his early 1969 West Coast tour. The magazine featured him on the cover along with a full cover story on his gig and what he had been up to. This exposure gave Sun Ra the type of attention he further needed to land radio recording deals and other forms of economic security that would ensure the survival of the Arkestra. Recordings in Egypt during this time are probably among the most prized in my collection and was something I was very happy to see Art Yards have a hand in putting back onto the market with the release Nidhamu + Dark Myth Equation Visitation. In 1972, Sun Ra was really starting to gain full exposure and the festival appearance at Ann Arbour took his group to the next level. Performing to an estimated 12,000 people, this was the biggest crowd Sun Ra had played too and was a breeding ground for the fan base created by MC5 due to the association and time they shared with them on bills in the Michigan area during the late 60′s. MC5 had prided themselves on their love for the Arkestra and Sun Ra made good use of this connection with solidifying a closing spot for one of the most important and diverse cultural statements to emerge from the 70′s in Detorit. Listen to the second half of Starship from their first record and there is no denying the influence Ra took on this group.

The newest 2CD set from Art Yard captures the Arkestra in one of their highest periods of critical acclaim and personal growth. The group had completed work for the epic film Space is the Place the same year of the first performance in the set, 1972. Ra would soon release studio materials with Impulse and many other pivotal labels. Tours all over the world became increasingly easier for the group, especially with Arkestra alumni Danny Ray Thompson taking over a lot of the management duties in the 70′s and on. Africa to Europe to Japan, the Arkestra propelled themselves further and further into the realm of world acknowledgement and the damage from press work of United States journalists in the 60′s could no longer trap the buzz and legacy Ra had created up to that point. Art Yard has slightly truncated the 1972 recording to fit on the 2CD layout with the editing out of two pieces from the set. Present is the Sun Ra Arkestra recorded in 1972, 1973 and 1974 at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz festivals. Remastered from 2 track tapes recorded from the board mixes for reference purposes, these provide the clearest window of these Sun Ra shows to date. Previous versions had been released under the supervision of John Sinclair but this new releases serves as the definitive version to date. 16 track masters were documented of all three festivals in their entirety but like many of the professional quality recordings from that era, have been shelved away, lost or purposely hidden due to lack of payment and other reasons far outside of anyone’s reach. Art Yard has teamed with John Sinclair in the hopes to authentically create a home for these important recordings in the Sun Ra canon along with forging a relationship to present many more of John Sinclar’s massive archive of other artists during the time he was promoting and offer professional recording services. Wake Up Angels presents three mind blowing concerts in some of the best audio quality of the Arkestra during the first half of the 70′s. It doesn’t get much better for this period of the band.

1972 was a phase of heavy rehearsals along with the residency at Slug’s Saloon in New York the band was well known for during that year. Ohio, Philadelphia and many other cities around the New York residence on the east coast of the United States became a haven for Ra to grease up his large ensembles. Sun Ra had taught the course ”The Black Man In the Cosmos” at the prestigious UC Berkeley a year before and had spent a lot of time on the West Coast for various projects and tours. The man was simply everywhere and a big festival appearance was needed to further help finance his band and lifestyle. During this phase, Ra started to dive into more proclamations, philosophy and from this the recitation of more poems took place on stage. With the vocal abilities of June Tyson a full time feature of the Arkestra circa 1972, Ra was adding more and more vocal heavy songs to his sets. ‘Space is the Place’ is the clearest example of this switch as a never ending chorus is under pinned by beautiful horns and a constant cycling of percussion. “There is no limit to the things you can do” is just one of the many lyrics you hear the cast of people on stage say under the constant chant “Space is the Place”.

Sun Ra's film Space is The Place. Photo from mubi.com

The people of Ann Arbor were very lucky on the evening of September 8, 1972 as they experienced the first public presentation of his phenomenal and decade defining piece, ‘Space is the Place’. The song is complete with sonic collage freak out moments, psychedelic vocal musings, mutated and crashing horn lines and the rhythmic pulse that reflects what the Arkestra was all about. The film of the same name was shot in Oakland and San Francisco of 1972. The 1972 Arkestra concert at Ann Arbor’s famous Blues and Jazz Festival starts with the piece ‘Enlightenment‘. Dating back to his recordings with his 50′s era Chicago recordings, this piece was one that stayed in Ra’s repertoire of material and always shifted in tone, speed, styling, instrumentation usage and so much more. Ra always pulled a few things from his book of past creation for retooling and Enlightenment is one of the most retooled pieces in his catalog.

The piece Discipline 27-II was a regular composition in Sun Ra’s live shows during this era and appears on all three dates from the entire 2CD collection. Discipline 27-II served as a vehicle for one of Ra’s most sophisticated, beautiful and dynamically rich compositions, pulling spirits of Ancient Egypt and the musings of sound pioneer Duke Ellington into one concoction. It also served as an extension for the proclamations and philosophical ideas that Ra became know for.

Each of these proclamations were like the notes for each song, very unique to each show. For the 1972 version, this release separates each of these sub sections after the main theme with the titles, ‘What Planet is This’, ‘Life is Splendid’, and ‘Immeasurable’. All of these present a very important landing point to anyone unaware of the philosophical side of Sun Ra. The two untitled improvisations are easily the most imaginative and exploratory in sonic scope. The Arkestra molds and stretches outward, diving deep into the foundations set in the early 60′s from the Magic City sessions and Sun Ra’s time in New York. Saxophone players John Gilmore and Marshall Allen pour thunderous towering sheets of shattering all over the band when the group starts to cook. From squawks to squalls to long strident note configurations that go everywhere. It’s mind blowing when you see footage of this and realize there is sheet music in front of these guys.

It should be noted, improvisation was a strong direction the Arkestra took but everything you hear was created in the direction of Ra; most of which had sheet music and was rehearsed for days before performances would occur specific to that performance. It can be very hard at times to believe that Sun Ra wrote all the music for everyone, but it’s all documented from the musicians themselves. Sun Ra’s talents are sometimes overlooked because of costume presentation and the Afrocentric cosmic philosophy that he engraved into his path here as a professional musician. By the time Ra and his Arkestra left the stage in Ann Arbor, the crowd had absorbed about an hours worth of everything Sun Ra created in the last 20 years of his career. For many, this would prove life changing. The chants at the end of the of the 1972 set highlight how impacted the thousands of unexpected concert goers and those in anticipation for various reasons, were. Sun Ra had given everything he had this September night in Ann Arbor. Fate, a high level of musicality and deep levels of dedication brought him the audience he needed to project himself higher into the realm of public consciousness. After September of 1972, The Arkestra’s touring schedule picked up heavily and Europe and the East Coast of America would no longer be the Arkestra’s only safe havens for active and worthwhile gigs.

Various – Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972 Atlantic Records SD 2-502

The 1972 festival in Ann Arbor was a success and a recording compiling the best performances from the 16 track professional audio tapes was quickly assembled and given to Atlantic for release. Included in the Atlantic release Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972 is a 6 minute edit titled ‘Life is Splendid’ with highlights from Ra’s set along with stellar recordings from the likes of Dr. John, Koko Taylor, Holwin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Otis Rush and many others. In comparison to the many performers on the set, Sun ra was light years ahead of his contemporaries in scope and world approach. Nothing taking away from the blues as that is a world all its own, but Sun Ra was now finding audiences who could appreciate modern forms of black music. This release would prove to be very critical as it made the next years festival very successful but also made the engineer from all 3 years take the tapes away when he found out he would not be getting paid for the Atlantic release, his work at the festivals or from anything in the future.

Recordings from Art Ensemble of Chicago and many other artists saw release and this further complicated the matters with the people who owned these original masters. If the professional film and 16 track masters ever surface, it could possibly be one of the most valuable archival pieces to Sun Ra’s 70′s period. Exactly one year and one day to the date of the Arkestra’s first performance at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival and the Arkestra was back stronger, better rehearsed, and versed in the long form residencies they established in many venues on the East Coast of the United States. Rolling Stone was creating buzz, Miles Davis was disgusted, Europe couldn’t get enough of Ra and the world at large didn’t know what to think. It didn’t really matter at this point as the band was clearly on their way to bridging the past history of black classical arts, advanced composer big band work, ancient Egypt and cosmic spiritual tones. The Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival was granted permission from the city for another permit on the same grounds held before: Otis Spann Memorial Field. Where in 1972 the Arkestra followed Seigel-Schwall Blues Band, Detroit’s Contemporary Jazz Quintet, Junior Walker & The All Stars, and the great Howlin’ Wolf to close out the first evenings set of performances, the Arkestra was now included on the closing day of performances of the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. The organizers selected the last day as a highlight the best acts from the previous years performances. These acts included: Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers, Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Discipline Arkestra, the Chicago Blues Revue featuring Otis Rush, Homesick James, Eddie Taylor, Carey Bell, and Lucille Spann who was backed by the Mighty Joe Young Blues Band. Anticipation for the Arkestra was higher than ever and the band was now deeper in numbers. Sun Ra demanded excellence and the momentum in his career afforded him the space to acquire these musicians, record, build and tour them around. Moving, feeding, rehearsing and managing this size of a band took the force and strength of someone like Sun Ra and the commanding presence on the 1973 set shows in great detail how Sun Ra was bringing it all together in the strongest way he had ever achieved in his career.

Sun Ra

The Arkestra performance from 1973 starts off with a really wild organ solo drenched in effects. Frantic runs dash back and forth and the band comes in full charge sooner than you can be ready with Sun Ra modifying his organ tones constantly through this transition. It sounds as if organ is slowly being crushed by a massive weight as it bends and contorts in all directions. The band drops out, allowing interaction and instrumentation to change as easily as the direction of the wind. This is 13 minutes of pure cosmic vibrations. Organ segues the very end of this improvisation into another one of Sun Ra’s Discipline series, this one being number 99. The beginning sounds like a funeral service song with the somber yet elegant mood that is shaded by brushes of drum hits and sleek and dreamy horn harmonies. This is a very contemplative piece and shifts the mood of fire and chaos that was in high doses just minutes before it into something very relaxing and somewhat sad in tone. This song sounds a lot like the material from My Brother The Wind II recorded around 1969, very hypnotic and centered around the pulse of the bass. Love in Outer Space is also centered around a circular bass theme, but the percussion build up that starts right from the start pushes this song to a very charged mood. Ra’s organ is a constant staple of the piece and he adds in perfect rhythm before the horn section takes over. Africa to Philadelphia to Saturn, Ra was now achieving his multidimensional vision with the compositions that grace the 1973 set. 3 drummers and even more percussion players colors in the mix with syncopated hypnotic grooves. Ra plays around the constant melody while different musicians take solos, with the trumpet section being the most adventurous and mind blowing. The type of energy that must have been coming off the stage during this piece.

Watusi was another song in the Sun Ra canon that saw extensive retooling and reshaping during its lifetime performed with the band. The song wasn’t originally his but the way he performs it makes it its own thing. The organ and percussion beginning that starts this song is powerful on all fronts and the horn section takes it home, towering the heavens with line after line. Like the year before, Discpline 27-II serves as the vehicle for the proclamations and philosophical outlines presented from Ra and the band behind him. This time around, the main melody and beginning sequence is more melancholy and more somber, playful on some levels with the harmonies and rhythm section. The previous year saw a much sharper version. The inclusion of Watusi into the 1973 set along with the beautiful organ solo on the intro of Discpline 27-II could have accounted for this more relaxed approach to the piece that has a slight New Orleans feel. The organ intro has shades of the piece ‘Somebody Else’s World‘, but only a small hint and then it falls gently into the main structure of Discipline 27-II. The drummers are is in full swing and it foreshadows a lot of the rhythms Ra would dive back into as he included pieces from his favorite composers in his sets. The band talks about morality, the cosmos, the awakening of all spirits, creation and universal properties of why Ra feels he was here. It’s a testament to the hard work Sun Ra put into all areas of his life, not just music.

Sun Ra in rehearsal October, 1971 Oakland, CA. Photo from nuvoid.blogspot.com

‘Wake Up Angels’, the proclamation that serves as the title for this compilation, is the center piece of the 2CD’s and represents one of the phenomenal approaches Sun Ra took to spreading his views. Even with as much existentialism and untraceable futures as Ra projected, he was still a vessel of order and the ending of the 1973 Ann Arbour set also reflects that of the 1972 performance with the song and philosophical staple from the Arkestra, ‘Outer Space Employment Agency.’ The song is a beautiful calling to not only those he accepted into his bands, but for those who are looking for motivation and inspiration to create outside of the means of money return. This was a bold message in its time and there was no holding Ra back from it, especially after this performance and others during the year of 1973 launched him further into public consciousness. “We open up the door for the outer space employment agency” is a beautiful chant headed by June Tyson that sounds so lovely over the groove set in place. The crowd is ecstatic by the time the mc introduces the band again. You can immediately tell the affect this live presentation had this evening. The crowd knew nothing would ever come around like this again.
John Sinclair and everyone involved with the Rainbow Multi-Media Corporation had big plans for the follow up to the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival. With a simple and easy to purchase permit now required by the city from the promoters, Rainbow booked an incredible cast of talent to present their best booking to date. Some of the artists first booked included B.B. King, Cecil Taylor, John Lee Hooker, the Gil Evans Orchestra, Sunnyland Slim, The Persuasions, Sun Ra & His Arkestra and James Brown. Sun Ra would be the group to grace the stage before the hardest working man in show business, James Brown and was a reality that would prove to be all too special. Due to many issues in Detroit and the 1973 performances, the city of Ann Arbor denied Rainbow’s permit requests and left the promoters in shock. The Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival of 1974 was going to be one of the biggest and most important events of its kind and now the plug had just been pulled by a city who had no qualms in their decision to present this from occurring in Ann Arbor. The unlikely opening of doors occurred with the city of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. They offered to house this event with no more than a few weeks away from the dates set in place. The city also helped with connecting in free promotion and a radio sponsor for the event. The opportunity was immediately seized by Rainbow without open arms and the concert would prove to not be as successful economically as previous years but provided one of the most intriguing and eclectic settings of professional and timeless musicians ever.

By the time the Arkestra took the stage at Wndsor’s St. Clair College Amphitheatre on Setpember 6, 1974, the night had already seen stellar sets from many of the performers mentioned before. With James Brown known to have one of the most entertaining shows during this era, Ra and his group brought every ounce of energy they had to the stage and the cassette master reference tapes preserved that night document this in full glory. The addition of electric guitar player Dale Williams and Detroit resident Reginald “Shoo-Be-Doo” Fields on the electric bass provide a nice twist to the songs laid out in the set. Long time alumni from the Arkestra are present and the set dives deeper into the world of Sun Ra’s vast career. ‘Space is the Place’ from this set is one of my favorite versions from any live take I have heard and that number ranges in the 100′s. The stand out piece of this set is the very rare song ‘It is Forbidden’. Performed well into the set, the Arkestra really show the poly-rhythmic Afrocentric elements of the band.
Lyrically, ‘It is Forbidden’ shows their universal calling for ancient knowledge to be preserved and a questioning of what was accepted as the standard for social morality and the decaying standards of life most lived with during the times. These are some of the most earth shattering sets from Sun Ra and Art Yard Records is the perfect home for the remastered release of these historic Sun Ra recordings. Unlike the dozen plus disc releases that should only sit in the hands of hardcore collectors, this is a live album collection fit for the dedicated fan of Ra and the new and interested listener.
- Erik Otis

Buy any of the incredible albums Art Yard has released so far HERE. This album will release November 21st, full details to come soon on where and how.
Sun Ra and his Arkestra
Wake Up Angels
Art Yard Records
CD012
CD1: Otis Spann Memorial Field, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Friday, September 8, 1972 (tracks 1-8) and September 9, 1973 (tracks 9-18)

Enlightenment
Space Is The Place
Untitled improvisation
Discipline 27-II
What Planet Is This
Life Is Splendid
Immeasurable
Outer Spaceways Incorporated
Untitled improvisation
Discipline 99
Love In Outer Space
Watusi
Discipline 27-II
At First There Was Nothing
The Universe Has More To Offer You
Wake Up Angels
The Universe Sent Me To Converse With You
Outer Space Employment Agency

CD2: St. Clair College Amphitheatre, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Friday, September 6, 1974

Untitled improvisation
Discipline 27
Love In Outer Space
The Shadow World
Space Is The Place
Second Stop Jupiter
Discipline 27-II / What Planet Is This
Images
It Is Forbidden
Watusi
Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space

This 2CD set was Produced for Art Yard by John Sinclair. Mastered by Peter Beckmann at Technology Works. Front Cover design by Nana Makawi, Layout and Design by Sonny Kay. Re-mastered and Reissued by ART YARD ltd
All compositions and arrangements by Sun Ra. Published by Enterplanetary Koncepts except “Enlightenment” {Dotson-Ra} & “Watusi” {Pitts-Merrill}. Publishing and Copyright by Art Yard ltd and Enterplanetary Koncepts.
All rights reserved © 2011 Art Yard ltd.

http://soundcolourvibration.com/2011/11/13/art-yard-records-wake-up-angels/

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

The U.S. vs. John Lennon (soundtrack)

2011-12-26T23:27:00.001+01:00

The U.S. vs. John Lennon (soundtrack)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The U.S. vs. John Lennon

Soundtrack album by John Lennon

Released

25 September 2006

Recorded

1968–1980

Genre

Rock

Length

1:15:27

Label

Parlophone, Capitol, EMI

Producer

John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector, David Leaf, Lisa Wohl

John Lennon chronology

Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon
(2005)

The U.S. vs. John Lennon
(2006)

Gimme Some Truth
(2010)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	^[1]

The U.S. vs. John Lennon is a soundtrack to the 2006 documentary film The U.S. vs. John Lennon. It was released in September 2006 and it peaked at #19 on the 14 October 2006 U.S. Top Soundtracks chart.

[edit] Track listing

All songs by John Lennon, except where noted.

"Power to the People" – 3:22
"Nobody Told Me" – 3:34
"Working Class Hero" – 3:48
"I Found Out" – 3:37
"Bed Peace" (John Lennon, Yoko Ono)
"The Ballad of John and Yoko" (Lennon–McCartney) – 3:00
"Give Peace a Chance" – 4:50
"Love" – 3:23
"Attica State" (live, recorded at the 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan)
"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" (Lennon, Ono) – 3:37
"I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier" – 6:05
"Imagine" – 3:02
"How Do You Sleep?" (instrumental)
"New York City" – 4:30
"John Sinclair" (live, recorded at the 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan)
"Scared"
"God" – 4:09
"Here We Go Again"
"Gimme Some Truth" – 3:15
"Oh My Love" (Lennon, Ono) – 2:44
"Instant Karma!" – 3:20

The live version of "Attica State" from the 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the instrumental version of "How Do You Sleep" are previously unreleased tracks.^[2]

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

internationaltimes.it/ archive/ (Issue 2, 1976)

2011-12-26T23:21:00.000+01:00

http://www.internationaltimes.it/archive/index.php?year=1976&volume=IT-Volume-76&issue=3

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Highway 61 Christmas Special with Scott Barretta, Part 1

2011-12-26T23:19:00.000+01:00

Highway 61 Christmas Special with Scott Barretta, Part 1

Posted in: Highway 61

The John Sinclair Foundation Presents

Highway 61 Christmas Special, Part 1 with Scott Barretta
Mississippi Public Broadcasting, December 15, 2007 [HW-0030]

Scott Barretta features a power-packed program of blues Christmas music
on this week’s episode of Highway 61 with classic selections by Charles Brown, Mabel Scott, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Llggins, Li’l Esther & Mel Walker, Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Reed, Big Joe Williams, Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, Papa Hop (Wilson), Detroit Junior, Jerry McCain, Sam Myers, and Big Jack Johnson.

DETROIT LIFE 713
[01] Scott Barretta Opening Comments over Theme Music: 61 Highway
[02] Charles Brown: Merry Christmas Baby
[03] Mabel Scott: Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
[04] Big Joe Turner: Christmas Day Blues
[05] Scott Barretta Comments
[06] Jimmy Llggins: I Want My Baby for Christmas
[07] Li’l Esther & Mel Walker: Faraway Christmas Blues
[08] Scott Barretta Comments over Theme Music: Highway 61
[09] Lightning Hopkins: Merry Christmas
[10] John Lee Hooker: Blues for Christmas
[11] Sonny Boy Williamson: Sonny Boy’s Christmas Blues
[12] Scott Barretta Comments
[13] Sonny Boy Williamson: Santa Claus
[14] Jimmy Reed: Christmas Present Blues
[15] Big Joe Williams: Christmas Blues
[16] Scott Barretta Comments over Theme Music: Highway 61
[17] Lowell Fulson: I Wanna Spend Christmas with You
[18] Jimmy McCracklin: Christmas Time
[19] Papa Hop (Wilson): Merry Christmas Blues
[20] Detroit Junior: Christmas Day
[21] Scott Barretta Comments over Theme Music: 61 Highway
[22] Jerry McCain: I Wanna Be Your Santa Claus
[23] Sam Myers: Young Girls Drive Me Wild
[24] Scott Barretta Closing Comments over Theme Music: 61 Highway
[25] Closing Music: Big Jack Johnson: Jingle Bell Boogie

A JOINT PRODUCTION
Radio Free Amsterdam & Detroit Life Radio
Hosted by Scott Barretta for TapDetroit.com
Produced & recorded by Joe Yorke at University of Mississippi for Mississippi Public Broadcasting
Post-production, editing & annotation by John Sinclair
Executive Producer: Holice P. Wood
Sponsored by Sensi Seeds, Amsterdam
© 2006, 2011 Scott Barretta. Used with permission.

http://www.radiofreeamsterdam.com/highway-61-christmas-special-with-scott-barretta-part-1/

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Where the movement began (Metro Times)

2011-12-26T23:13:00.001+01:00

Higher Ground

Where the movement began

How, 40 years ago, Sinclair and company laid the groundwork for today

By John Sinclair

Published: December 21, 2011

I'd like to offer my most profound thanks to Amy Cantu and her people at the Ann Arbor District Library for their heroic efforts in dredging up the past and making it live again in the digital age at their new website called freeingjohnsinclair.org, which further includes every page of the underground newspaper known as the Ann Arbor and Detroit Sun in digital form.

The AADL also sponsored two days of events in Ann Arbor celebrating the John Sinclair Freedom Rally of Dec. 10, 1971, including a free concert at the Ark featuring Commander Cody and my own band with special surprise guest Wayne Kramer of the MC-5 joining Jeff Grand on guitar.

The second day of the festivities included a library-sponsored panel discussion centered on the Freedom Rally and the struggle to legalize marijuana, and a reunion of the White Panther Party and its successor, the Rainbow People's Party, reuniting a whole lot of people who first carried the banner for marijuana legalization in Michigan back in the 1960s and early '70s.

You probably already know that I just celebrated my 40th anniversary of being released from Jackson Prison on Dec. 13, 1971, after serving 29 months of a 9-1/2- to 10-year sentence for possession of two joints on Dec. 22, 1966.

Actually I'd been charged with giving the two joints to an undercover policewoman from the Detroit Police Department who had disguised herself as a human being to ask me a favor I couldn't refuse. It was three days before Christmas and she wanted a joint to take home, so I gave her two.

Giving away, or "dispensing," two joints of marijuana — then classified by the state as a narcotic — carried the same penalty upon conviction as selling a few hundred pounds of heroin: a minimum mandatory 20 years in the penitentiary, with a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

From my arrest in Detroit on Jan. 24, 1967, to my release from prison almost five years later, I carried on a fight against the Michigan marijuana laws that ended in March 1972 when the Michigan Supreme Court overturned my conviction and ruled that marijuana was in fact not a narcotic and a sentence of 10 years for possession of marijuana constituted cruel and unusual punishment — just as I had argued in my appeal.

My struggle was aided, abetted and fully supported every step of the way by that indispensable element of a successful legal battle: a great team of dedicated attorneys, led by Sheldon Otis and Justin C. Ravitz, that was motivated not by chance of profit but by intense social conviction. This brilliant team of attorneys and legal workers took up my case and advanced it exactly as I had intended from the beginning.

I wanted to overthrow the marijuana laws, get them declared unconstitutional, put an end to the idiotic classification of marijuana as a narcotic, get rid of the imbecilic and sadistic sentencing structure, and — in the final analysis — legalize marijuana. Most of all I wanted to get the police out of the lives of marijuana smokers and indeed, all recreational drug users.

The last two objectives haven't yet been realized, although the citizens' initiative to end marijuana prohibition in Michigan now being readied for 2012 may, if successful, finally bring us to full legalization, and that would certainly begin to remove the cops from our lives as smokers.

The legalization of medical marijuana has gone a long way in that direction, although Attorney General Schuette and his ilk are not at all prepared to give up their stranglehold on the throats of the smoking public, but I think it's clear that their days are now numbered.

In my case, I never intended to go to prison to prove that marijuana was not a narcotic and that 10 years for two joints was cruel and unusual punishment. I fully expected to post an appeal bond and proceed with my life as an American while my appeal wound its way through the courts to the point where the Michigan Supreme Court would have to consider our arguments and ultimately rule in my favor.

But Judge Robert J. Columbo considered me an unrepentant offender — not an inaccurate assessment — who deserved to be incarcerated without bond, and he sent me straight to Jackson Prison to begin my 10-year sentence. Then I was shipped to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula for a year under maximum security, returned to Jackson and held in an isolation block until shortly before my release.

During the two-and-a-half years of my imprisonment, my lawyers, my political associates, scores of bands and thousands of our supporters rallied on my behalf in a series of countless benefits, protests, press conferences, and other events designed to "Free John Now," culminating in the John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor on Friday, Dec. 10, 1971.

But we also lobbied hard in the state Legislature during that period for a change in the narcotics laws, and on Dec. 9 the lawmakers voted to reclassify marijuana as a "controlled substance" and reduce the penalties to one year for possession and four years for sales or dispensing the evil weed. My appeal had been argued before the Michigan Supreme Court in October 1971 and was pending decision, so the judges decided that I could now be granted an appeal bond — having already served 2-1/2 times the new maximum sentence for possession.

On Monday, Dec. 13, I walked out of the prison gates to resume my life in Ann Arbor as chairman of the Rainbow People's Party and creative director of the Rainbow Multi-Media Corporation, a nonprofit artists' management and production company. Like I keep saying, that was 40 years ago this month, and hopefully this will be the last we hear about these events for at least another 10.

So many of the positive things that people accomplished back then has been erased from the official record and kept from the awareness of the people coming up, who are encouraged to believe that there's not much one can do about the oppressive conditions one finds oneself living under in the 21st century. Just now, that tide is starting to turn as well, and the contemporary movement needs all the information about past struggles that we can make available to them.

So thanks again to the Ann Arbor District Library for bringing it all back home this month, and as you begin to take up the cudgel for ending marijuana prohibition in 2012, take a droll stroll through the electronic pages of the digital edition of the Ann Arbor Sun and follow the progress of the legalization movement when it began, way back in the day.

By the time you read this I intend (the gods of travel willing) to be back in Amsterdam for the holidays and the beginning of the new year. I'll be back in two weeks with a report from Viper Central on the current efforts of the Dutch government to catch up with the leaders of the international War on Drugs. Happy New Year's, everybody!

—Detroit

> Email John Sinclair

http://metrotimes.com/mmj/where-the-movement-began-1.1247708

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Bermondsey Joyriders with John Sinclair - My Generation and 1977

2011-12-26T23:09:00.001+01:00

Bermondsey Joyriders with John Sinclair - My Generation and 1977 FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Sinclair Dec 9, 2011 Ann Arbor, MI (Youtube)

2011-12-26T23:07:00.000+01:00

John Sinclair Dec 9, 2011 Ann Arbor, MI

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Sinclair and the 40 year Freedom Rally by Fly

2011-12-10T12:28:00.001+01:00

Today, the 10th December 2011 is the 40th anniversary of the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, a fairy-tale like happening that led to the main goal of freeing John Sinclair from the clutches of the man (a trumped up 10 year prison sentence for possession of two Marijuana joints).

John has continued his work as a poet activist, writer, performer and tireless drug reform proponent throughout the 40 years since the Rally, and let’s not forget for 10 years previous to 1971 where John helped nurture what became fabled as “the 1960’s countercultural revolution” John was mixing up the medicine: a highly potent cocktail of beatnik poetry, Jazz, Blues and consciousness expanding compounds blended into an open source cultural festival, a social movement, facilitating workshops, concerts, readings, food programs, and underground publications detailing the results of their work: F-E-E-D-B-A-C-K

John soared with his contemporary’s Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Krassner, Jerry Rubin, Ed Sanders, William S. Burroughs, Ken Kessey, and many more; way over the heads of any existing cultural authorities and/or institutionalized squares, and so, like so many of his contemporaries, John Sinclair was ridiculed, hounded, beaten, discredited and jailed by the American Tsarist Government in retaliation for such heady flight, and for his successful social engineering without help, or consent from the Gov. (See Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Tim Leary’s battles with the authorities, or more precisely operation Cointelpro).

However, the recordings of the music and speeches, the posters and the texts cannot be fully erased or censored and many artefacts have made it through into the 21st century, existing to wedge an alternative view, somewhat in step with the Occupy movement, open source movement and anti-war (drug wars and metal warfare) movements. And so what have we learnt from the 1960’s experience with alternate cultures?

Within the capable arenas of John Sinclair’s genius, I’m happy to communicate that John lives and breathes, speaks and writes this lineage into the hearts and minds of any who would grow a new ear. Listen, read and get high with John Sinclair on the 40th anniversary of his Freedom and a moment when the dedication of the people, his friends, rose to reverse injustice and led to the reform of wrong-headed laws. Yes.

--Steven 'Fly' Pratt.

http://www.johnsinclair.us/

http://www.tapdetroit.com/?page_id=141

http://www.aadl.org/node/191049

http://metrotimes.com/mmj

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Let's Go Get Em' (again)

2011-12-09T18:43:00.001+01:00

Let's Go Get 'Em

(Mo-Sounds)

http://www.johnsinclair.us/home/3-newsflash/952-lets-go-get-em.html

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Sinclair Looks Back on "Freedom Rally" 40 Years Later

2011-12-09T18:37:00.001+01:00

John Sinclair Looks Back on "Freedom Rally" 40 Years Later
http://www.wdet.org/news/story/JohnSinclair40thFreedomRallyInterview/

Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of a rally to free a Detroit area counterculture figure from prison. On December 10th, 1971 thousands packed the Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor for the “John Sinclair Freedom Rally”. The performers included Bob Seger, Jerry Rubin, Stevie Wonder, Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, former Beatle John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono. At the event, John Lennon performed a song he wrote about Sinclair’s prison sentence for selling two marijuana cigarettes to an undercover cop.

WDET’s Rob St. Mary met up with John Sinclair recently at the Trans Love Energies Compassion Center – a store front near Eastern Market related to medical marijuana – to talk about what led up to rally, his release from prison and Sinclair’s on-going crusade to reform marijuana laws.

(click the link to hear the interview)
For more on John Sinclair: http://www.johnsinclair.us/

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Why "Ten For Two" is the John Lennon-Yoko Ono Music Doc You Haven't Seen

2011-12-09T18:29:00.001+01:00

http://www.indiewire.com/article/the-john-lennon-and-yoko-ono-concert-film

December 6, 2011 | by Steven Rosen

Why "Ten For Two" is the John Lennon-Yoko Ono Music Doc You Haven't Seen

Poster advertising the Dec. 10, 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally

When John Lennon and Yoko Ono accepted an invitation to perform at the John Sinclair Freedom Rally in Ann Arbor, they knew it would be an event to remember. In addition to their performances, the rock benefit concert marathon featured Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and Allen Ginsberg as well as activists like Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, Father James Groppi and David Dellinger.   

So Lennon and Ono commissioned “Ten For Two,” a documentary of the event; this Saturday, the University of Michigan's student union will celebrate the event's 40th anniversary. And the film is still unavailable for release in the U.S.

“It’s been a sore point with me since it was canned,” says Steve Gebhardt, who shot the film with Robert Fries and two other filmmakers. “I think it’s always had its need to be screened.”   

Gebhardt believes that by the time the film was ready in early 1973, the couple feared its release would further antagonize the Nixon administration, which began trying to deport Lennon for his political activism after the Sinclair rally for Sinclair, an activist and manager of MC5 who received a 10-year sentence for possessing two joints.   “I think the pressure was on from above, lawyers, not to the piss the government off at this point,” Gebhardt says.   

Ono’s attorney, Jonas E. Herbsman, said by email that Ono wasn’t available to talk about the film. In a subsequent email asking for his input, Herbsman wrote, “Sorry, we do not have information on the film's current status or exhibition history to share.”  

Gebhardt used clips of the film, with permission, in his later documentary about Sinclair, “20 to Life.” And portions are used in 2006’s “The U.S. vs. John Lennon,” which was made by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld with Ono’s participation.   

Sometimes, a low-quality version of “Ten for Two” is on YouTube. Recently it was removed following a notice of a copyright claim of one “Waldorf Frommer Rechtsanwalte.” Translated, that means YouTube received a cease-and-desist from a representative of German law firm Frommer Waldorf, which specializes in copyright law and represents clients such as Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music.   (It's up again, for now; it's embedded below.)

As far as a legitimate release goes, the idea of obtaining music clearances for a 40-year-old event is daunting -- all the more unfortunate since the film is a succinct, rousing and well-edited time capsule that’s even more relevant in the world of Occupy Wall Street.   Lennon and Ono brought agit-prop street singer David Peel and the Lower East Side along for support. Besides those previously mentioned, the long show also featured musicians Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, Phil Ochs, Roswell Rudd with Archie Shepp, and the Up.

  The highlight of the Lennon/Ono set, for which he donned a steel guitar while she played a small conga drum, was the bluesy “John Sinclair.” (Other songs were “Attica State,” “The Luck of the Irish” and Ono’s “Sisters, O, Sister.”) Gebhardt ends the film with a seequence that shows an ecstatic Sinclair’s subsequent release from jail into the waiting arms of his family.  

Sinclair wishes the film were available, too. “Other people should have a chance to see it,” he says. “It records a historical event very nicely and it’s in limbo.”

  Both Gebhardt and Sinclair say neither Lennon nor Ono ever told them they wanted to block the film from release. But at a meeting about the film in 1973, Gebhardt says they surprised Sinclair with an unusual request.   

“The way they dealt with it is Yoko said she wanted to give all the money (from the film) to women’s causes,” Gebhardt recalls. “Of course, John Sinclair came up with a list of where he wanted money to go to. His jaw dropped and Yoko and John dug in. And that was that. Sinclair went out the door to catch the plane back to Detroit and that was the end of the story.”  

Sinclair adds: “That was the last time we spoke. I think it was their way to get out of it.”  

Gebhardt met Lennon and Ono through avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas, his employer at New York’s Anthology Film Archives. In late 1970, Ono and Lennon showed up at Anthology to discuss film projects with Mekas.   “They were behind closed doors for 20 minutes and then they called me in,” Gebhardt says. “They wondered if I’d be interested in shooting a couple of films of their design. I said yes, immediately.”  

Gebhardt worked on the films with Fries, a filmmaking friend from Cincinnati who had set up a New York production company. They shot two of Ono’s best-known and well-received films, “Up Your Legs Forever” and “Fly.” In 1971, they also worked on the couple’s long-form promotional film accompanying Lennon’s “Imagine” album, and in 1972 helped record Lennon’s two “One to One” benefit concerts in New York.   They stopped working for Lennon and Ono in 1973.

By then, Gebhardt and Fries had another client, the Rolling Stones, for whom they had filmed some 1972 concerts for a 1974 limited theatrical release called “Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones.”   Fries, now also in Cincinnati, recalls the delicacy of getting permission from Lennon for that. “He said, ‘You’re going to do something with Mick Jagger, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah, if it’s OK with you.’ He said, ‘Yes, but let me give you some advice. Watch out for him – he’s tricky.’ It pleased me that he wished me well.”

http://www.indiewire.com/article/the-john-lennon-and-yoko-ono-concert-film

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Sinclair recalls impact, importance of Freedom Rally

2011-12-02T14:18:00.001+01:00

John Sinclair recalls impact, importance of Freedom Rally.

Related story: White Panther Party coming home to Ann Arbor this weekend

John Sinclair had the worst seat possible for the freedom rally held in his own name at Crisler Arena on Dec. 10, 1971.
But he didn’t miss a minute of the show.

John Sinclair registering to vote, Ann Arbor, March 3, 1972

Photo by David Fenton

Sinclair, then 30, was sitting in his cell at the state prison in Jackson throughout the concert, serving 10 years for giving two joints to an undercover police officer. But he was listening in on a transistor radio to the WABX-FM broadcast of the event, which featured, among others, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Bob Seger and Phil Ochs.
Even 40 years later, Sinclair, who is seldom at a loss for words, struggles to describe the experience.
“I was gassed about it,” Sinclair recalled last week during a phone call from Ghent, Belgium. “It was just very, very heavy.

“Amazing. Unbelievable.”

It was also scary, he said, since he used his weekly call to his wife, Leni, to call in to the concert and have his words broadcast throughout the arena.

“I was terrified, because I thought as soon as the guards found out, they’d carry me off to the hole,” he said, breaking into a hearty laugh. “But I was lucky, because they were listening to the basketball game instead.”
“Then I figured all weekend I figured when the warden came in and heard the report of the phone call, my goose would be would be cooked."

Still, Sinclair recalled, it was worth the risk.
“I felt like I had the chance to speak with people who were supporting me from the penitentiary was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

Ironically, instead of waking up Monday morning to a punishment, he learned that he was going home. On the day before the concert, the Michigan State Senate voted to remove marijuana from the state’s penal code for narcotics and to reconsider all existing convictions.
“We’d won before they even played a note,” he said.

More importantly, after two and a half years in prison, he was going home to his family.
Although his release was secured through a twist in the state’s political machinations, Sinclair believed then—as he does today—that his release came about in part to the hue and cry he and his supporters raised about what they saw as political and social persecution.

“They took two and a half years of my life—but on the face of it, I beat them because I refused to shut about it,” he said. “Ten years for two joints is cruel and unusual punishment, but I was a vociferous opponent of their system and they made an example out of me.”

Today, Sinclair remains a staunch pro-marijuana advocate—particularly for medical reasons—and said that his and his compatriots’ efforts during the 1960s and 70s helped to break down the stigma attached to its use.

“There was nothing wrong with marijuana then and there's nothing wrong with it now,” he said.
Sinclair, who today, at 70, splits his time between Detroit and Amsterdam, will be back in Ann Arbor on Dec. 9 and 10 for a two-day Ann Arbor District Library event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Freedom Rally. He said he’s particularly gratified to see their efforts being recognized for their contribution to Ann Arbor’s history.

“Everything we did in the ‘60s and ‘70s has been erased from modern life, because they don’t want people to do it again,” he said. “They don’t make movies or TV shows about hippies and dope fiends like us.
“So for the library to enshrine this countercultural, left-wing, anti-capitalist movement that we were a part of … well, that excites me.”

He said he also plans to attend the Friday reunion of former residents of the two houses on Hill Street that were the headquarters of Sinclair’s White Panther Party.

“It’ll be a kick,” he said. “I lived with these people and went through some heavy (stuff.)”
Then he added with his trademark raspy laugh: “I’ll try to keep an open mind and not call anybody any names.”

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/sinclair-sidebar/

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

White Panther Party coming home to Ann Arbor

2011-12-02T14:11:00.001+01:00

By Will Stewart
AnnArbor.com Freelance Journalist

White Panther Party coming home to Ann Arbor, 40 years after bringing John Lennon to town in aid of John Sinclair

Related story: John Sinclair recalls impact, importance of Freedom Rally

They came from all over.
Runaways, university students, traveling counter-culture scenesters. And they all found a home away from home in two enormous houses on Hill Street, where they made a lot of noise, talked a lot of revolution, smoked a lot of grass and caused quite a stir around sleepy little Ann Arbor.

White Panthers at 1520 Hill St., Ann Arbor, 1970

photo by Leni Sinclair

And they’re coming back home.Members of the White Panther Party, the communal tribe of politicized hippies who lived at 1510 and 1520 Hill St., are staging a reunion to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the high-profile, star-studded concert they staged at Crisler Arena to secure the prison release of the party’s charismatic figurehead, John Sinclair.
Once again, they’re coming from all over.

“We realized that we were starting to lose some of our friends from those days,” said Anne LaVasseur-Mullen, one of the reunion’s organizers, who moved to the commune on her seventeenth birthday in November 1970. “I really wanted to do this as a tribute to the family we had back then, because we really did some crazy and incredible things.

“I think it’s important that we have a chance to look each other in the eyes before we go over that hill for the last time.”

Talk to former members of the White Panther Party for more than a minute or two and that word keeps coming up: family.

“We made lifelong friends,” said Peggy Bach. “They were all like our brothers and our sisters.”
In fact, Bach was drawn to the party’s house at 1510 Hill Street, because her older brother, Skip Taube, was hanging out there. It’s where she met her husband, Frank Bach, who was then the lead singer in the popular local band The Up, which was also based out of the houses on Hill Street.

“In my case, it really did turn into family.”

The White Panther Party, which was named for its self-declared alignment with the Black Panther Party, arrived in Ann Arbor after Sinclair’s Detroit Artists Workshop commune was squeezed out of Detroit in the wake of the city’s riots.

In bucolic Ann Arbor, just as the anti-Vietnam War movement was fomenting here, Sinclair and his comrades—including the revolutionary rock band MC5, which Sinclair managed—found a perfect environment for a unique social experiment.

Free concert in the park, Ann Arbor, 1972.

Photo by Leni Sinclair

“It was a very heady, interesting time, with free concerts in the park and communal living … the whole thing,” said David Fenton, who arrived in 1971 as a 19-year-old freelance photographer and immediately fell in with Sinclair. “It was a very intense, almost magical time, when we were all so young and so earnest.”But as the White Panthers’ profile began to rise, Sinclair became a target of the status quo. He was arrested in 1968 for giving two joints to undercover narcotics officers. It wasn’t his first offense, and the system made an example of him, slapping with a 10-year sentence under the state’s stiff narcotics laws.

Immediately, the Panthers, led by Sinclair’s wife, Leni, and brother, David, swung into action—organizing a series of concerts and guerilla actions designed not only to raise a defense fund for Sinclair, but also public awareness of his situation.

“As crazy as it was, we were a pretty organized bunch,” Peggy Bach recalled. “There were a lot of different aspects to the whole thing, all of which were designed to bring attention to the cause.”

And all of which led up to the Freedom Rally. If Sinclair is the defining figure of the White Panther Party, then the Freedom Rally is its defining event—even more so than Panther official Pun Plamondon’s alleged bombing of the CIA recruiting office on campus.

poster by Gary Grimshaw

This wasn’t just some concert in the park. This was the big time, featuringl John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, local hero Bob Seger, folksinger Phil Ochs, poet Allen Ginsberg, Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, jazz giant Archie Shepp and countless other bands, poets and counter-culture figures.As members recalled, the Feedom Rally was shaping up to be yet another in a series of low-key events, until Yippee leaders Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman convinced their pal John Lennon that he should come to Ann Arbor in support of Sinclair’s release.

Lennon and Ono eventually agreed, leaving organizers just two weeks to get a show together that would be worth of a visit not only from a former Beatle, but one who would be performing live in the U.S. for the first time since the band’s demise.

“Needless to say, this was a very big deal,” Lavasseur-Mullen said.

Fenton, who by now had begun running publicity for the Panthers and their de-facto newspaper, The Arbor Sun, was among those who swung into action.

“I was the guy who called all the radio shows to make the announcement,” he said. “No one could believe it was really happening.”

In fact, no one was really willing to believe it was true until Lennon and Ono arrived in town.
Just a year after arriving in Ann Arbor, Lavasseur-Mullen found herself serving as one of the show’s two MCs.

As gender equality wasn’t as high on the Panthers’ list as reforms to the status quo, she said she was consigned to announce the show’s lesser acts, while her male counterpart got to announce the big names.
“Still, standing up in front of 10,000 people was a really big deal,” she said. “That was a lot of people to be looking out at as an 18-yea- old.”

Although everyone’s recollections are pretty fuzzy after 40 years, among other factors, (“I remember all these people breaking out literally pounds of pot in the audience,” Fenton said) they all agree that the concert was long. Too long.

Lennon and Ono didn’t hit the stage until well after 3 a.m., at which point they performed a short set, including the tune “John Sinclair,” which the former Beatle wrote for the occasion.

“We came here not only to help John and to spotlight what's going on, but also to show and to say to all of you that apathy isn't it, and that we can do something,” Lennon said on stage. “"Okay, so Flower Power didn't work. So what? We start again."

Ironically, just before the concert, the Michigan State Senate approved a bill that would exclude marijuana from the state’s narcotics code and cut the penalties for marijuana use from 10 years to 90 days. The Senate also agreed to reconsider existing convictions.

Still, when Sinclair was released from prison the following Monday, it was hailed as a victory of the people over “The Man.”

Indeed, it was more likely the result of some really groovy timing.

“It was the culmination of so many things we’d been doing,” Peggy Bach recalled. “It seemed to us as if we’d really made it happen.”

Rock and revolution

The Ann Arbor District Library is marking the 40th anniversary of the Freedom Rally in a number of ways. For more information, see aadl.org:

• "Rock and Revolution" exhibit at the Downtown Library, 343 S. Fifth Ave., with a special opening reception with Michael Erlewine, Leni Sinclair and Gary Grimshaw on Friday, Dec. 2 from 7-8:30 p.m.
A Commander Cody Band Concert at The Ark, 316 S. Main St., with special guest John Sinclair & Beatnik Youth on Friday, Dec. 9. Admission is free.
The launch of a new website, "Freeing John Sinclair," starting Dec. 9 as part of the library's website, aadl.org.
A panel discussion featuring John and Leni Sinclair, Pun Plamondon, David Fenton, and Genie Parker moderated by Professor Bruce Conforth at the Michigan Union, 530 S. State St., on Saturday, December 10, at 1 p.m.

Now, this Friday, former White Panther Party members and associates will reunite in the Michigan Union Ballroom. In addition, the Ann Arbor District Library has organized a series of events to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Freedom Rally.

While the rally was the Panthers’ public high-water mark, their work didn’t end there. By 1972, with change in name to the Rainbow People’s Party, the group had organized its Human Rights Party and gained seats on the Ann Arbor City Council.
“We were able to do a lot of good for a lot of people,” said Fenton, who now runs his own communications company in New York City. “I learned everything I know about my career back then.”

By 1975, the commune had folded and its members began to disburse. The Bachs moved to Detroit to raise their family and organize at the local level. LaVasseur-Mullen moved to Hawaii, where she is a high school art teacher. Fenton moved back to New York to work for Rolling Stone magazine.
An era had ended. But Ann Arbor would never really be the same.

“A lot of us never saw one another again,” Fenton said of the reunion. “So this is really exciting.
“We were so young and half crazy, but now we’ve all grown up and are growing old.”

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

DOCTOR MARSHMALLOW CUBICLE (Youtube Playlist)

2011-11-28T13:39:00.000+01:00

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Belgian Tour 2011 (November-December)

2011-11-24T13:49:00.001+01:00

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Rhythm-A-Ning by Thelonious Monk

2011-11-24T13:41:00.001+01:00

Rhythm-A-Ning

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Rhythm-A-Ning"
Song by Thelonious Monk
Published	1957
Genre	Jazz

Rhythm-A-Ning is a jazz composition by pianist Thelonious Monk. First appearing on the 1957 collaboration between Monk and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan entitled Mulligan Meets Monk, the song has since appeared on dozens of Monk's releases, as well as being covered by musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Kenny Barron, and Chick Corea.

[edit] References

[hide]v · d · eThelonious Monk

Selected solo albums	Genius of Modern Music: Volume 1 · Wizard of the Vibes · Genius of Modern Music: Volume 2 · Thelonious Monk Trio · Monk · Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins · Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington · The Unique Thelonious Monk · Brilliant Corners · Thelonious Himself · Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane · Monk's Music · Mulligan Meets Monk · Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall · The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings · Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk · Thelonious in Action · Misterioso · The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall · 5 by Monk by 5 · Thelonious Alone in San Francisco · Thelonious Monk at the Blackhawk · Monk in France · Monk's Dream · Criss Cross · Monk in Tokyo · Miles & Monk at Newport · Big Band and Quartet in Concert · It's Monk's Time · Monk · Solo Monk · Live at the It Club · Live at the Jazz Workshop · Straight, No Chaser · Thelonious Monk Nonet Live In Paris 1967 · Underground · Monk's Blues

As sideman	Midnight at Minton's · Bags' Groove · Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants · Moving Out · Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 · Nica's Tempo · In Orbit

Compositions	"Blue Monk" · "Straight, No Chaser" · "Epistrophy" · "In Walked Bud" · "Rhythm-A-Ning" · "'Round Midnight" · "Ruby, My Dear" · "Well, You Needn't"

Related articles	Blue Note Sessions · Blue Note Records · Epistrophy · More Monk · Only Monk · Reflections · Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz · Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser · Thelonious Sphere Monk: Dreaming of the Masters Series Vol. 2

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Sinclair's Amsterdam Blues Scholars LIVE

2011-11-22T16:18:00.001+01:00

JOHN SINCLAIR will be joined by Vicente Pino and Steve fly (Guitar and Drums)

for the annual Bill Barth memorial concert

at Coffeeshop 420, Amsterdam:

Wednesday 23rd November, 2011.

FREE ENTRY

OCCUPY YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS!

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Pot, polls and politics

2011-11-18T15:44:00.001+01:00

Higher Ground

Pot, polls & politics

From police to public polls, attitudes are changing, but upholders of the status quo won’t let go

By John Sinclair

Published: November 9, 2011

Larry Gabriel's Higher Ground column that alternates with this one continues to inspire, like the episode in last week's now-annual Pot Issue that revealed the pro-legalization position arrived at by former Detroit Police Chief Dr. Isaiah "Ike" McKinnon after a lifetime in law enforcement.

To read that McKinnon was first moved to change his outlook on Michigan's draconian marijuana laws by my own case was particularly thrilling: "John Sinclair was arrested for one or two joints and sentenced [in 1969] to some ridiculous amount of time," he told Gabriel, "and that stood out for me."

Well, it might have taken him awhile — 42 years! — to say something, but what a breath of fresh air. And the testimony of another diligent copper, Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) — one of my most favorite organizations in the United States — was even more provocative: "To come to the point," Franklin says, "where you think all of this work in drug enforcement has really been problematic for my community, it's kind of hard to swallow."

Brother Gabriel summed my position as eloquently as possible when he wrote, "Those who argue for a total armistice on drugs take the position that most of the problems and violence associated with drugs is caused by prohibition itself. They say there wouldn't be drug cartels if drugs were legal and regulated. They believe drug addiction should be treated as a public health issue. ... Not to mention that the War on Drugs has been an unequivocal failure." Yes, and amen to that.

On the other hand, the sick thing is that the cops have known for a long time that the marijuana laws are just a ruse to let them hassle and prosecute smokers for operating outside the parameters of acceptability as far as conventional morality is concerned. Even when the voting public has begun to recognize — by a ratio of almost 2-to-1 — the medical benefits of cannabis use, and continues to inch toward majority acceptance of recreational use as well, the law enforcement establishment is loath to surrender its prerogatives because it reaps such incredible rewards from the state of marijuana prohibition.

LEAP's Neill Franklin concludes that "at least with marijuana, the majority of the people have moved their position." A recent Gallup Poll surveyed a total of more than 1,000 voters from all 50 states, reporting that the percentage in favor of ending prohibition completely has swelled to 50 percent of Americans, with a majority of 53-54 percent in our part of the country.

Gallup has been polling Americans about legalizing marijuana since 1969, when it was favored by only 12 percent of the populace. This level of support remained stable into the mid-1990s until the medical marijuana movement began to enlighten millions of inquisitive citizens and support for legalization grew to 30 percent in 2000, then to 40 percent by 2009.

Now, in Gallup's annual crime survey for 2011, fully half of Americans surveyed have endorsed ending marijuana prohibition for good. This is a new high mark, and many activists in the movement to legalize marijuana are heartened as never before.

Curt Guyette's excellent cover story in the Pot Issue emphasized that here in Michigan, where right-wing office-holders like General Schuette are still swinging the sword of uptight righteousness against medical marijuana patients and their caregivers, something like 16 separate anti-marijuana bills aimed at the medical community are winding their way through the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Guyette pointed out, "Fortunately for those who want to see patients and caregivers protected, any bill that seeks to change the voter-approved measure would have to obtain a super-majority of 75 percent in both houses of the Legislature."

Still, the forces of activism in Michigan are burning the midnight oil trying to devise a final solution to this avalanche of sheer idiocy that keeps rumbling in Lansing despite the public's clearly expressed opposition to the pig-headed crusade of the phony morality warriors who advance the anti-marijuana gospel with the fervor of biblical creationists and Holocaust deniers.

A group of activists who meet every Monday evening at the offices of attorney Matt Abel, "the Cannabis Counsel" (full disclosure: Matt Abel is my close friend and personal attorney) is weighing the merits of going back to the voters with another ballot initiative in time for the November 2012 election; they continue to discuss the proper course to embrace.

As Guyette put it, "Should voters be asked to support a measure that explicitly calls for the legalization of dispensaries? Or a measure that calls for decriminalization for everyone? Or should they go all the way and seek to completely end prohibition in Michigan? ... Standing by and relying on the courts and politicians isn't really a viable option." As Matt Abel puts it, "People on our side have no choice but to fight."

The Abel group has seriously been contemplating a push for full legalization — they call it "ending marijuana prohibition" — and working on a draft of the actual language for the initiative to be submitted to the voters, although recent word is that a Michigan poll said to have been commissioned by members of the group has yielded unpromising results.

The decriminalization proponents, who contend that the votes may not yet be there for a legalization initiative in 2012, include the Michigan Association of Compassion Centers, a trade association for dispensaries, cannabis cooperatives and compassion clubs, and a group based in Flint called Vote Green, organized by cannabis businessman and Michigan Medical Marijuana Report publisher Ben Horner. (Full disclosure: I also write a monthly MMMR column for Ben Horner.)

Horner has been conducting meetings with cannabis activists in several cities around the state, planting the seeds for a statewide marijuana initiative and enlisting volunteers to organize a voters' movement that can effectively challenge the regressive forces in the state's Legislature and their allies in the court system. He has consulted veteran activists like Tim Beck, attends the weekly sessions at Matt Abel's office in Detroit, and has commissioned his own poll of Michigan voters that indicates support for decriminalization is at 57-58 percent and for legalization more like 50 percent.

Horner has also produced a concise half-hour video presentation of the history of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act and its effects, called Grass Roots, with testimony from Beck, Abel, Michigan NORML officials and a number of impressively articulate medical marijuana patients. Horner plans to circulate the film on the Internet, as a DVD, and hopefully through commercial television buys as an informational and organizational tool in support of the 2012 petition drive.

Whatever conclusion the activists reach in terms of the actual wording of the petition and its ultimate intention — legalization or decriminalization — it seems reasonable to project that these forces will unite around a single objective and mount a serious campaign to get the police as far out of the lives of marijuana patients and recreational smokers as humanly possible.

My prayer is that a solution will be achieved by early December and the 2012 initiative will be kicked off at the 40th anniversary reunion celebration of the John Sinclair Freedom Rally being planned for Masonic Temple on December 10. Stay tuned.

—London

http://metrotimes.com/mmj/pot-polls-politics-1.1229514

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

The John Sinclair and Leni Sinclair papers

2011-11-18T15:34:00.001+01:00

The John and Leni Sinclair Papers, 1957-1999 at the Bentley Historical Library

Introduction

John and Leni Sinclair,
John and Leni Sinclair papers, Box 37

The John and Leni Sinclair papers (1957-79) provide a rich and unique source for the study of America's radical movement in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Beginning with a remarkable series of correspondence that includes letters from Abbie Hoffman, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and Jerry Rubin, and continuing on through extensive subject files, the collection details the cultural, political, and business activities of a man whose energy and charisma made him a local and national leader of the counterculture. In addition, the collection documents the support and creativity of his wife and partner, who as a writer, photographer and publicist helped to showcase the lifestyle which he symbolized.

John Sinclair was born October 2, 1941 in Flint, Michigan and grew up in nearby Davison where he graduated from high school in 1959. He attended Albion College (1959-61) and the University of Michigan, Flint College (1962-64), where he received an A.B. degree in American literature. In April, 1964, her entered graduate school at Wayne State University. He completed course work for an M.A. in American literature (thesis on William Burroughs' Naked Lunch) before dropping out in the fall of 1965 to pursue his activities in the Detroit jazz and poetry community.

(Full text of letter)

Abbie Hoffman with gas mask
John and Leni Sinclair papers, Box 39, "Abbie Hoffman"

at right: Letter from Abbie Hoffman to John Sinclair
(c. 1969) discussing the upcoming trial
of the Chicago Seven. John and Leni Sinclair papers,
Box 2,"Correspondence, September 1969."

On November 1, 1964, shortly after his first arrest for "sales and possession of marijuana," Sinclair founded (with his partner Leni Arndt, poet/film-maker Robin Eichele, trumpeter Charles Moore and twelve others) the Detroit Artists' Workshop, which was a local attempt in self determination for artists of all disciplines. During 1964-1967, under the auspices of the Artists' Workshop and its campus counterpart, the Wayne State University Artists' Society (which he also originated), Sinclair produced countless jazz concerts and poetry readings featuring Detroit talent. He helped organize the Detroit Contemporary 4, the Workshop Arts Quartet and the Workshop Music Ensemble, and experimental group for which he also composed original music. Together with Robin Eichele, George Tysh and Jim Semark he founded (1964) and co-directed the Artists' Workshop Press which published a series of books, magazines, and free sheets by Detroit poets and writers, including his own This is Our Music (1965), Fire Music; a record (1966), The Poem for Warner Stringfellow (1966), and Meditations: a suite for John Coltrane (1967).

The Detroit Artists Workshop produced countless jazz
concerts featuring Detroit talent. John and Leni Sinclair papers,
Box 37, "Detroit Artists Workshop Period (1)."

Sinclair served as editor of the Artists' Worksheet newsletter (1965), the poetry magazine Work, (1965-1967), the "avant-jazz" magazine Change (1965-66), and (with Ron Caplan) the magazine Whe're (1966) all printed at the Artists' Workshop Press. Sinclair was also music editor and columnist (1965-68) for Detroit's Fifth Estate newspaper, one of the original five members of the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), and founded and edited (with Allen Van Newkirk) the first issues of Guerrilla (1966-67), a newspaper of cultural revolution. His other editorial responsibilities in the areas of music and/or poetry-literature included those with Spero (Chicago, 1963-65), Art & Artists (Detroit, 1964-65) and New University Thought (1965). A very prolific writer as well, Sinclair served as local correspondent for Downbeat (1964-65) and Jazz (New York) magazines, and had his article, reviews and poetry appear in numerous other publication besides those he edited, including; American Poet, Camels Coming, Coda, Connections, El Corno Emplumade, Incense, island, Jazz (Warsaw), The Journal, Kaleidoscope, Kulchur, Latitudes, Magazine, Move, New Lantern, Club Review, Orpheus, Other Scenes, Out of Sight, the Paper (Lansing), Poetmeat, San Francisco Oracle, Seed, Sounds (Germany), and Sounds & Fury. In July 1965, he read his works at the Berkeley Poetry Conference along with Ed Sanders, Ted Berrigan, and Lenore Kandel. He taught courses in jazz and contemporary poetry in the self-education program at the Artists' Workshop's Free University of Detroit and his poems were anthologized in For Malcolm X (Broadside Press) and Poems Now (Kulchur Press) in 1966.

Sinclair was sentenced February 24, 1966 to six months in the Detroit House of Correction for a second arrest (Oct. 1965) on "sales and possession of marijuana." Following his release he became associated with the Grande Ballroom in Detroit (October 1966) but was arrested a third time on January 24, 1967, with 55 other people in a "hippie dope raid on campus!"

"Guerilla" was one of the many publications
published by the Artist's Workshop Press in Detroit.
John and Leni SInclair papers, Box 7, "Artists Workshop Press
1964-1968-Guerilla."

In February 1967 Sinclair organized (with partner and now wife Leni Arndt Sinclair and artist Gary Grimshaw) a "total cooperative tribal living and working commune," Trans-Love Energies Unlimited, as an attempt to consolidate the energies of organizes units of the developing counterculture. Trans-Love produced dance concerts, rock and roll , light shows, books, pamphlets, posters, and the Warren-Forest Sun newspaper (founded and edited by Sinclair and Gary Grimshaw), and served as a cooperative booking agency for rock groups, the MC-5, the Stooges, and Billy C. and the Sunshine. In August 1967 Sinclair became personal managing Frank Bach's band the UP, as Trans-Love turned most of its attention to a rock and roll "assault" that would turn young people on to the possibilities of cultural revolution. In May-June 1968, after two fire bombings of the commune, Sinclair re-established the entire organization in two huge homes at 1520 Hill Street near that University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. Despite this move, John Sinclair remained active in the Detroit Scene as the main publicity-production-promotional advisor to Russ Gibb's Grande Ballroom operation and as the producer (along with Darlene Pound) of Gibb's Detroit Rock & Roll Revival in May 1969.

Deeply influenced by the Black Panther leaders Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, Sinclair (with Pun Plamondon) founded the White Panther Party in November 1968, serving first as its minister of information and later as chairman. The ten-point program of the White Panther Party demanded economic and cultural freedom. "Everything free for everybody!" and a total "assault" on the culture by any means necessary were the essence of the White Panther program.

Promotional photograph used by Electra Records
for the MC5.
John and Leni Sinclair papers, Box 37, "MC-5."

The MC-5 and later the UP and UPRISING continued to spearhead the mass work of the now politically conscious revolution, while the other cultural work of Trans-Love Energies was also carried on. Sinclair began to write for CREEM; the original Warren-Forest Sun became the White Panther Information Service's Sun dance; and the Ann Arbor Argus, which had begun independently under the editorship of Ken Kelley, was mobilized as a semi-official White Panther party organ. Originally conceived as an arm of the Youth International Party founded by Abbie Hoffman earlier in 1968, and organized around local issues in Ann Arbor such as free concerts in the parks, the White Panther Party soon had affiliated chapters established nationwide.

In July 1969 Sinclair was sentenced to prison for 9 1/2 to 10 years for possession of two marijuana cigarettes. While in prison he assembled and wrote Guitar Army (a Douglas/World book) and published another collection of writings, Music & Politics (World, 1971), co-authored by Robert Levin. His prolific writings appeared in numerous publications and made him a national symbol more influential than ever before. Two-and-a-half years of legal and political battles culminated at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor on December 10, 1971, when 15,000 people attended the Free John Now Rally headlined by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Just three days later, the Michigan supreme Court, on its own motion, ordered Sinclair released and later overturned his conviction, upholding his contention that Michigan's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional and void.

Deeply influenced by the Black Panther Party, John and others
founded the White Panther Party while living in a commune in Ann Arbor.
John and Leni Sinclair papers, Box 17, "White Panther Party
Press Releases, undated."

Previous to Sinclair's release from prison, the cultural operations of Trans-Love Energies had been inherited by the newly evolved Rainbow Energies, Inc., a Michigan non-profit organization, and its distribution division, the Rainbow trucking Company. After months of self-examination, on April 30, 1971, the White Panther Party dissolved to form the Rainbow People's Party. Chaired by Sinclair, the Rainbow People's Party embraced Marxism-Leninism as its guide to action and concentrated on building a strong local political organization to promote the revolutionary struggle for a "communal, classless, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, and anti-sexist...culture of liberation..." Sinclair's energies for promoting cultural change, however, were soon to be more heavily channeled through another origination.

Early in 1972, Sinclair founded (with Peter Andrews) the Rainbow Multi-Media Corporation, serving as its vice -president and creative director. A Michigan non-profit organization, Rainbow Multi-Media (RMM) was designed as an alternative music-business company with a community-service orientation. To further its ultimate goal of restructuring the music industry and the entire society as well along cooperative, creative and communalistic lines, the company made its resources available on a cost-or-less basis to community organization committed to progressive social change. Besides his direct responsibilities in the Rainbow Productions and Rainbow Management divisions (the heart of the RMM business) and for overall coordination of the company's complex business operations, Sinclair had further direct responsibilities in the Graphics, Advertising, Video, Radio Productions, and Press division. He was personal manager of the band "Detroit," helped organize and establish the Rockets, and co-produced the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival (1972-1974). He handled all booking for the Community Program and the Ann Arbor People's ballroom (projects of the Ann Arbor Tribal Council), managed the Rainbow Room at the Old Shelby hotel in Detroit, and produced a weekly radio program, "Toke Time," on Ann Arbor's WNRZ-FM. During this period he also continued to be active in the areas of prison and drug reform, helping to organize the Michigan Committee for Prisoner's rights, touring California in 1971 and 1972 (with his wife, Leni) to promote the Marijuana Initiative there, returning to organize the Michigan Marijuana Initiative, and serving on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco-based Amorphia, Inc., a national non-profit corporation for drug education, research and reform.

A typical crowd at one of the many free concerts
held in Ann Arbor. John and Leni Sinclair papers,
Box 38, "Free Concerts."

Following the massive financial failure of the 1974 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in Exile and the subsequent collapse of the entire Rainbow Multi-Media operation (Oct. 1974), the Sinclairs, along with other principals of the RMM, formed Rainbow Productions, Inc. Subsequently moving to Detroit in 1975, the firm, which Sinclair headed as president and creative director, continued with most of the activities of the defunct Rainbow Corporation including advertising and public relations, printing, photography, graphics, recording, concert production and artist and club management. Sinclair served as Arts Editor and later as Editor-In-Chief of the Detroit Sun (moved from Ann Arbor) until publication was suspended in October, 1976.

In May 1977, he was named as State Coordinator of Michigan NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), taking a leave of absence from the company to work full time in that capacity. In August 1977 Sinclair, with partners Frank back, Peggy Taube, and other principals of Rainbow Productions, Inc. and the Strata Corporation, formed Strata Associates, Inc., where as its president and creative director he specialized in servicing the entertainment industry, minority business enterprise, publishing consultation, and special marketing. Among the non-profit music cooperatives served are the Allied Artists Association, Jazz Development Workshop and Jazz Research Institute. Sinclair also has served as a board member and project director for the Allied Artists Association, Inc. of Detroit and hosted the popular RE:VISIONS a weekly radio program on WCBN-FM, Ann Arbor. He has been honored for his design work and promotion of jazz in Detroit. Long active in community arts and political circles in Michigan, his other associations include: Friends of Belle Isle Board of Directors, founders Society of the Detroit Institute of the Arts, the African Art Gallery Committee of the DIA, the NAACP, the Michigan Advertising Council, the Detroit Press Club, and the Motor City Cultural Association Board of Directors.

Free John Sinclair
John and Leni Sinclair Papers, Box 20, Folder 29

John Sinclair's partner and wife, Leni was born Magdalene Arndt on March 8, 1940, in Koenigsberg, Germany. Her interest in jazz music and culture brought her to the United States in 1959; she settled with relatives in Detroit and put herself through college at Wayne Sate University (major in geography), where she met her partner John Sinclair while both were students there. She co-founded the Detroit Artist's Workshop in 1964 and was a major moving force in the organization, doing all the printing on the Workshop Book series, co-producing concerts and other events, organizing showings of photographic work by herself and other Detroit camera artists, and serving as president of the campus counterpart Wayne State University Artists' Society. She also co-founded Trans-Love Energies and organized the Trans-Love Light Company, the Pisces Eyes Poster Company, and handled all the photography work for the MC-5. She photographed and co-produced the high intensity Kick Out the Jams film, featuring the MC-5, which was selected for a national four of films from Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1970. An organizer of and principal driving force behind the Free John Sinclair movement and the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, she served as chief photographer for RMM's Productions and Management divisions as well as coordinating the company's Rainbow Video division. She was darkroom manager and layout artist for Rainbow Productions until September 1975, when she became production manager for the Detroit Sun newspaper, acting also as photo editor and chief photographer. When the paper suspended publication in October 1976, she returned to Rainbow productions, Inc. where she served as Director of Agency Services including design, lay-out, printing, typesetting, photography, silk-screening, publicity, promotion, and advertising.

John and Leni Sinclair were married June 12, 1965. They have two daughters, Marion Sunny Sinclair, born May 4, 1967, and Celia Sanchez Mao Sinclair, born January 17, 1970.

The Sinclairs donated their papers to the Michigan Historical Collections of the University of Michigan in the spring of 1979. The order of the collection, except for certain sections, was disorganized with many overlappings and with much duplication. Processing was further complicated by the intricate network of cultural and business organizations which the Sinclairs founded or supported. After many months of reorganization and winnowing, the collection, now totaling 36 feet of materials, was open for research use in January 1980.

Correspondence in the collection has been arranged chronologically. For the period, 1969-1971, the correspondence was sorted down to the day; for the years before and after, it was sorted down to the month only. Whenever possible, correspondence concerned with specific subjects or relating to the operations of one of the Sinclair organizations has been left with the appropriate subject file or organizational record.

The rest of the collection has been arranged by subject or organization, then by type of material, and finally chronologically within the type.

This introduction to the Sinclair papers was prepared by Bentley Historical Library archivist Stephen Meyer in 1979 following the first major donation of papers by john and Leni. Since then additional material has been added to the collection. For a complete inventory of the John and Leni Sinclair papers, updated to reflect the latest donation of material, see the Bentley Historical Library's Finding Aid to the John and Leni Sinclair Papers, 1957-1999

1150 Beal Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113 U.S.A. |734.764.3482 |Fax: 734.936.1333
Reference: bentley.ref@umich.edu |Webmaster: bhlwebmaster@umich.edu
Copyright ©2011 The Regents of the University of Michigan
Last modified: October 11, 2007 11:13:30 AM EDT.

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Sinclair Freedom Rally (at Wikipedia)

2011-11-18T15:31:00.001+01:00

John Sinclair Freedom Rally

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The John Sinclair Freedom Rally was a protest and concert in response the imprisonment of John Sinclair for possession of marijuana held on December 10, 1971, in Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The event was filmed and released as Ten For Two.^[1]
The reason behind the concert was the arrest of Sinclair, who was given ten years in prison for possessing two marijuana cigarettes. Shortly after the event, Sinclair was released.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

[edit] Musical Performers

[edit] Speakers

[edit] References

^ "Ten for Two: The John Sinclair Freedom Rally". The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
^ Meyer, Stephen. "The John and Leni Sinclair Papers, 1957-1999 at the Bentley Historical Library". Bentley Historical Library. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
^ Agis Salpukas, "15,000 Attend Michigan U. Rally to Protest Jailing of Radical Poet," New York Times, 12 December 1971, p. 76.
^ "Twenty to Life: The Life and Times of John Sinclair", New York Times, retrieved 2010-02-14
^ Tobin, James (June 17, 2008). "Free John Sinclair!". Michigan Today. Retrieved 4 May 2011.

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

"Freeing John Sinclair" website and events coming in December

2011-11-18T15:06:00.001+01:00

"Freeing John Sinclair" website and events coming in December

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, which took place in Ann Arbor on December 10, 1971, the Library will launch a website documenting the history of the White Panther Party and Rainbow People's Party in Ann Arbor circa 1968-1975. The site will include the full run of both parties' underground newspaper, the Ann Arbor Sun; a series of original essays; audio files from the Bentley Historical Library's John and Leni Sinclair Papers; and dozens of hours of interviews with people central to this period in Ann Arbor history. For all of this and more, check out freeingjohnsinclair.org on December 9!

To launch the site, the Library is sponsoring a series of events and an exhibit titled "Rock and Revolution", on display at the Downtown Library from December 2 - January 15.

Related events in December are:

December 2, 7:00 pm: "Rock and Revolution" exhibit opening with appearances by Gary Grimshaw, Leni Sinclair and an illustrated talk on Michigan rock poster art by Michael Erlewine. (Downtown Library)

December 9, 8:00 pm: a free concert with the Commander Cody Band and special guest John Sinclair & Beatnik Youth (The Ark, 316, S. Main St, Ann Arbor) (map)

December 10, 1:00 pm: "Culture Jamming: A Long View Back", a panel discussion featuring John Sinclair, Leni Sinclair, Pun Plamondon, David Fenton and Genie Parker. With host and moderator, U-M professor Bruce Conforth (Pendleton Room, Michigan Union, 530 S. State St, Ann Arbor) (map)

http://www.aadl.org/node/191049

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Primal Scream and the MC5 (Meltdown 2008)

2011-11-03T11:49:00.002+01:00

Easy Action Recordings

In a sonic love train that stretches from before the birth of punk in Detroit through UK acid house and into dystopian electrified modern rock, Primal Scream and their heroes MC5 are finally fused together on plastic. And you can taste Bobby Gillespie’s relief in Kris Needs’ breathy liner notes.

This double album and complete concert DVD box set trundles to us three years after Massive Attack invited these two watershed bands to collaborate at the Meltdown festival of 2008. The Scream played first, then MC5 nailed the second set before both bands collaborated on a five-track encore that started with ‘I Can Only Give You Everything’ and ended with MC5’s epic closer ‘Black To Comms’.

With two drummers and five guitarists angling their sonic streams over the Thames, the gig was wrought to an acerbic peak as John Sinclair strode on stage. Sinclair, a former guru of MC5 and leader of the White Panther movement, split with the band in 1969 yet in 2008 stood amongst the tumultuous cacophony and eulogised the ‘fallen brothers’ of the Five - Rob Tyner and Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith (who married Patti Smith) - before he spun off lyrically into some astral free jazz spoken word.
MC5 launched their career with a 1969 live album, ‘Kick Out The Jams’, recorded at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom, but ‘Black To Comms’ is an equally arresting historical cross roads. Rarely have two such influential bands, two decades apart, shared such a loving stage with such electric results.
8/10

Words by MATTHEW BENNETT

http://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/primal-scream-mc5-black-to-comm

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award

2011-11-03T11:45:00.002+01:00

Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award

by Richard Cusick

Tue, Oct 18, 2011 5:33 pm

more: medical cannabis cup, medical marijuana, michigan, headline news, activism news

John Sinclair is an American expatriate, Detroit poet, band manager for the proto-punk MC5 and founder of the White Panther Party – a militant group of anti-racists – which supported the Black Panthers during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. That resume alone would be enough to secure Sinclair’s place in American counterculture history – but when it comes to marijuana law reform, John Sinclair is a pivotal figure.

Sinclair’s revolutionary activities put him in the crosshairs of the ‘60s culture wars and the government sought to suppress his free speech by targeting his marijuana use. A lifelong devotee of the plant, Sinclair suffered a series of convictions for cannabis possession that culminated in a 10-year prison sentence for passing two joints to a narc in 1969.

John Lennon stepped in and wrote his seminal protest song “John Sinclair,” put it on his album Sometime In New York City, and performed it in Ann Arbor at the landmark John Sinclair Freedom Rally in December 1971 with Yoko Ono, David Peel and the Lower East Side. Other performers included Stevie Wonder, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger, the jazz artists Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd, and speakers Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman and his Chicago 8 co-defendants Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale. Three days after the rally the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional, and Sinclair was released from prison. These events inspired Ann Arbor’s annual pro-legalization Hash Bash, which continues to this day. They also contributed to the decriminalization of marijuana in Ann Arbor in 1972 – and when Sinclair’s case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, led to a landmark decision prohibiting the government's use of electronic surveillance without a warrant.

The enduring Michigan tradition of supporting marijuana law reform began with John Sinclair and has led most recently to the state’s voters approving medical marijuana in 2008. Without John Sinclair, there would not be a Medical Cannabis Cup in Detroit, which is why HIGH TIMES is proud to make him the fourth recipient of the Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award.

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Sinclair's 70th Birthday Concert

2011-11-03T11:37:00.000+01:00

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

The Counter Culture Strikes Back (5th November event)

2011-11-03T11:33:00.000+01:00

Hi Everyone

Just wanting to invite you to a event we are putting on next SAT 5TH NOV @ THE EMPOWERING CHURCH, Hackney. We have some very special guests/JOHN SINCLAIR(Jazz poet/manager of the MC5'S/founder of the White Panther Movement/ Plus he is the gentlemen JOHN LENNON, wrote a songs about) SPECIAL NEEDS/KURTZ/ will have a London film screening of a new consciousness movie called PROBLEMA, featuring WILLIAM DEFOE. Plus loads more, check out the flyer attached and the facebook event below. ALL PROFITS ARE DONATED TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.

Door open @ 7pm and it finished @ 4am ish.

here is the facebook event:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126546200782122

SPREAD THE WORD.

************************************************************************************************

▼ REMEMBER REMEMBER... THE 5TH NOVEMBER ▼

▼ ▼ ▼ COUNTER CULTURE STRIKES BACK ▼ ▼ ▼

@ WAREHOUSE VENUE (New Empowering Church)
1a Westgate Street, Hackney, E8 3RL
★★★ in support of: Amnesty International ★★★

(+ on Saturday, 5th November, The Venue is bang in the middle of all the fireworks celebrations in Hackney. " The New Empowering Church is East london's biggest, beautifulest, best kept secret " )
This event sees a huge collaboration of musicians & artists in ONE space for ONE night. The theme and motivation = a rebirth of global consciousness and a frivolous future of revolution, truth and dirty basslines.

★ DUBSTEP ★ PUNK ★ HOUSE ★ ELECTRO ★ GRIME ★

+ + LINE UP + +

▼ DJS ▼

▽ METAMIMETIC
▽ LEGASPI & NIKO
(AUDIO DOUGHNUTS)
▽ SHEET NOISE
▽ JEAN GEANIE
▽ D JUNSEI
▽ THE DA (ENK)
▽ DOC MARTIN

▼ LIVE BANDS ▼

▽ NOVA
▽ SPECIAL NEEDS
▽ KURTZ
▽ BLACK GOLD BUFFALO
▽ CUT

▼ PERFORMANCE ▼

▽ MEYER DANCERS
▽ BUTTERFLY WHEELS
▽ TURBO
▽ FROM THE ASHES COMES 'V'
+ LOTS & LOTS & LOTS OF FIRE!!!!!

▼ ACTIVISTS/POETS ▼
▽ JOHN SINCLAIR (manager of the MC5's & founder of the White Panthers)
▽ DAVID COZENS (Cogers Free Speech Society President)

+ London Screening of
'Problema' (featuring William Defoe)

VISUALS BY : DISRALI
IN COLLABORATION WITH 'LICENSE MY ROVING HANDS'

---------------------------------

DOOR PRICE: £ 5 (Donated to Amnesty International)

The event will be promoted online at www.amnesty.org.uk/events

After a year of riots, wars and general global unrest AND THE BUILD UP TO OCCUPY LONDON, we feel it is our duty to unite the communities of London to celebrate music, love, culture and also promote resistance against the increasingly tyrannical government. The ethos of this event has spread like wildfire and it is dubbed to be the hottest Guy Fawkes party of 2011 with already 100s of confirmed guests. All profits will be going to Amnesty International.
The event will be followed and documented by up-coming film, 'The Culture of Resistance'.

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

THE BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS are to support KING MOB in Bristol and London

2011-10-21T13:53:00.001+02:00

THE BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS are to support KING MOB in Bristol and London

Tuesday, 11 October 2011 16:54
Since they first aired it onstage in May, The Bermondsey Joyriders' next album Noise and Revolution has been the subject of a word-of-mouth buzz which just keeps on growing. As the band now announce for November, three more of the much-praised 'Noise and Revolution Live' shows which have made their punk-blooze concept piece just so talked about, they look to head into the new year with serious "ones to watch" status secured. At two of the scheduled shows - all of which will again see MC5 icon and album star John Sinclair performing his inimitable spoken narration between songs - the 'Joyriders share the stage with Glen Matlock and Chris Spedding's garage supergroup, King Mob. Audiences in London and Bristol ought to be as appreciative as the band are of their receiving the main support invite. When their sets opening for Marky Ramone and Jello Biafra this summer ended in cries for an encore, coming from crowds fully fresh to the tunes, the 'Joyriders proved themselves more than a standard warm-up act, and so punters are promised that, when they play alongside King Mob, it's an entire evening's top notch rock entertainment and a real event that is in store. First though, they're kickstarting November's short run of shows by playing a west London headline on the 12th, with fast friends The Phobics in tow. Additionally frontman Gary Lammin gives a unique acoustic performance with John Sinclair on the 5th, when the pair open for Mercury signings Special Needs at a yet-to-be-disclosed Hackney warehouse location. All full band shows now booked find Lammin and bassist Martin Stacey joined on drums by Chris Musto, a sticksman of some credentials - having previously played with Johnny Thunders, Joe Strummer and Nico, to name but a few! The consensus from all three sides is that this, at last, is the line-up which will enable The Bermondsey Joyriders to achieve the greatness they've been threatening since Noise and Revolution was first heard. ....and what of the album? Well, there's certainly no shortage of interest; in as many months, no less than five labels have entered into negotiations for a 2012 release that are still ongoing - watch this space for news! In the meantime, you can get a feel for the reasons why this record is striking such a chord by checking out opening track Society Is Rapidly Changing (and its fan-made video, inspired by the UK riots) here at YouTube; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh0O8br2tu8. And, of course, Noise and Revolution can be heard live and in full at The Bermondsey Joyriders' next dates; 5th November - Hackney warehouse location TBA! (Gary Lammin & John Sinclair acoustic show. Supporting Special Needs) 12th November - The Kings Head, Acton (+ support from The Phobics) Free Entry! 15th November - The Croft, Bristol (main support to King Mob) Adv. £8.00 from www.the-croft.com / Doors - 8pm 17th November - 229, London (main support to King Mob. With Toy & DJ Doctor Robert) Tickets - £5.50 adv. from www.229thevenue.co.uk or £8.00 OTD / Doors - 8pm ALSO PLAYING - one very special December London date TBA! Details coming soon - you won't want to miss this one! www.myspace.com/thebermondsdeyjoyridersofficial www.facebook.com/thebermondseyjoyriders

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Cannabis Cup in the D

2011-10-13T00:23:00.000+02:00

Higher Ground

Cannabis Cup in the D

Big event comes to town, and Dana Beal's ibogaine odyssey

By John Sinclair

Published: October 12, 2011

Michigan's medical marijuana community will be spotlighted in a big way when High Times magazine brings the Cannabis Cup to Detroit this weekend. The first Michigan Medical Cannabis Cup competition and exposition kicks off at noon Saturday and continues through Sunday evening at Bert's Warehouse Theatre in Eastern Market.

The Michigan Cup will feature the world's premier medical marijuana competition, a two-day medical marijuana expo, and a special medical smoking area where qualified card-carrying patients can meet and medicate.

The exposition will include a series of panels and seminars with doctors, patients, researchers, growers, dispensary owners, activists and leaders of the medical-marijuana movement, including High Times cultivation editors Danny Danko and Nico Escondido.

For sheer medicated fun, High Times will throw a VIP party on Saturday night at the Warehouse, 140 Clark St., on the city's southwest side, with music by the 420 Funk Mob with special guest Dr. Funkenstein, plus rapper Royce Da 5'9".

A gala awards ceremony at Bert's Warehouse will close out the festivities Sunday evening when the High Times judges announce the winning strains of sativa and indica, hybrids, concentrates and medical edibles submitted by Michigan growers, cannabis collectives and compassion clubs.

Patients, growers, activists and cannabis businesses will be offered a series of seminars on cultivation, cannabusiness, legal medicine in Michigan, veterans and medical marijuana, marijuana-law reform activism, and political action, sure to be a popular topic in today's repressive climate.

Panelists include medical hemp-oil inventor Gersh Avery, Detroit cannabis attorney Matt Abel, Dr. Paul Meyer, Michael Krawitz of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, Jamie Lowell of the Michigan Association of Compassion Centers, and representatives from Michigan organizations including Mary Jane's Helping Hands, Michigan Moms United to End the War on Drugs, MedMar, the 3rd Coast Compassion Center, C-4 Dispensary, the Midwest Cultivator and Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine.

On a personal note, this writer will be honored by High Times with the Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award and subjected to questioning from the audience at 4:20 on Sunday. I'm deeply appreciative of this honor, a rare instance of a prophet being honored in his hometown after 45 years as a proponent of marijuana legalization.

There's never been anything like the Medical Cannabis Cup in Michigan before, and it provides smokers of every stripe with the unprecedented opportunity to get together and make new friends, learn things, make important contacts for the future, and generally have a ball celebrating our culture and talking about what we can do to get the authorities off the backs of marijuana users and growers in Michigan once and for all.

On a sadder note, I'd like to pause for a moment and direct our thoughts and prayers to my friend Adam Brook, who started a two-year sentence in the Michigan prison system last week (on gun possession charges, to which he pleaded guilty in exchange for having the weed charges dropped). I've known Adam since he brought me to the Hash Bash in Ann Arbor in the mid-1990s; we've worked and traveled together, and it breaks my heart to see him hauled off to prison.

Meanwhile, our friend Dana Beal, organizer of the annual Million Marijuana Marches all over the world and an early advocate of the healing powers of the African plant called iboga, is being given a medical discharge from a prison sentence for marijuana violations in Wisconsin. He recently suffered a heart attack, and we'll be thinking of Dana while he awaits double-bypass surgery.

Beal's ibogaine preaching won a convert in former Detroiter Dimitri Mugianis, a serious dope fiend who heard about the ibogaine treatment for addicts and traveled to Holland in 2002 to take the cure with iboga healer Sarah Glatt at her home clinic just outside of Amsterdam.

A street hustler and acolyte of original Beat demigod Herbert Huncke, Dimitri chased his habit on the streets of Detroit and New York City for three decades as a heroin addict with a taste for mixing in some cocaine. But after three days of the iboga treatment he emerged as a new and different person.

His transformation was relatively clean and quick without the typical horrors of withdrawal beyond 18 hours of vomiting and voiding of bodily toxins, after which his body no longer required the regular injections of heroin to keep functioning. Mentally he was no longer an addict and had absolutely no further craving for drugs.

Under iboga, Dimitri reports, he underwent a profound spiritual experience that arose from a visitation by the ancient African spirit guides known as Bwiti, who are closely associated with the plant. The Bwiti told him that he now had a purpose in life and he was to help spread the message of regeneration and renewal that the spirits had shared with him.

Dimitri went back to New York City and pondered over his experience for some time with little idea of what to do next. Then he met other ex-addicts who'd been healed and inspired by their own communion with the Bwiti while under iboga to try to help other drug addicts kick their habits and turn their lives around.

They formed a small, mobile guerrilla healing force and began treating addicts in three-day iboga sessions held in apartments or hotel rooms. Psychedelic scholar Charles Shaw describes them as a "small but vociferous ibogaine underground, a community of mostly former addicts whose lives were saved by the psychoactive iboga plant of West Africa, which has extraordinary powers to curb addiction.

"These 'converts,'" as Dimitri calls them, now work tirelessly with the medicine as part penance, part service, believing that this is now their calling. They are "what back in the day used to be called 'angel jobs,' the arduous process of taking care of a physically dependent junkie in the throes of withdrawal."

Dimitri has since conducted hundreds of one-on-one iboga healing sessions and in the process became driven to delve more deeply into the spiritual roots of the iboga experience. He's made several pilgrimages to the African soil where the plant is grown and studied with the earthly representatives of the Bwiti prepare iboga bark for medicinal use, learning the ritual chants and dances associated with the traditional iboga ceremonies.

Now he's called Mobengo, the name the Bwiti gave him, and his quest has been brilliantly documented by filmmaker Michel Negroponte in a feature film called I'm Dangerous With Love. It opened to rave reviews in New York City and around the country earlier this year, and it'll be screened at the Detroit Institute of Arts on Oct. 20.

As Charles Shaw concludes, "Instead of retreading the tales of misery that are endemic to any addiction narrative, I'm Dangerous With Love quickly becomes a sort of shamanic journey into the underworld, with Dimitri as a kind of Ulysses of the Lower East Side. ... For those seeking a path out of darkness, this film is not to be missed."

Amen.

—Detroit

> Email John Sinclair

http://metrotimes.com/mmj/cannabis-cup-in-the-d-1.1216634

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

John Lennon's Birthday (Int. Business Times)

2011-10-13T00:07:00.001+02:00

"John Lennon would have turned 71 on his birthday today, Oct. 9. Best known as one of the founders of The Beatles, he is recognized as one of the greatest musicians and songwriters of the 20th century."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"In 1969, John Sinclair, a poet and head of the militantly anti-racist White Panther Party, was arrested for marijuana possession and sentenced to ten years in prison. Lennon and Ono helped stage a protest and benefit concert for Sinclair, including speakers Allen Ginsberg and Abbie Hoffman and musicians Stevie Wonder and Phil Ochs. The day before the "John Sinclair Freedom Rally," Sinclair's sentence was drastically reduced. Three days after it, the Michigan State Supreme Court ruled that the state's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional, and he was released on bail...

cont...

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/227841/20111009/john-lennon-birthday-yoko-ono-turn-71-legacy-beatles-mccartney-music-album-controversy-activist-acti.htm

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Body and Soul by Eddie Jefferson

2011-10-12T23:55:00.002+02:00

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

2011-10-12T23:54:00.000+02:00

ANN ARBOR: Michael Erlewine, founder of All Music Guide, to lecture on life in Ann Arbor in the Sixties tonight at District Library

Published: Wednesday, October 12, 2011

By James David Dickson, A2 Journal

Michael Erlewine, author and historian, will lecture on what Ann Arbor was like in the '60s.

View and purchase photos

On Wednesday, Oct. 12 — tonight — at 7 p.m., while the Ann Arbor Board of Education is holding its second regular meeting of the school year on the fourth floor of the District Library (343 S. Fifth Ave.), author and historian Michael Erlewine will give a lecture downstairs on what life was like growing up in Ann Arbor in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, a period of great change locally and nationally.

Erlewine is the founder of the All Music Guide and in the ‘60s was leader of a group called The Prime Movers at the time — a group that would later count Ann Arbor native James Osterberg, better known in the music world as Iggy Pop, as one of its members (Osterberg had played in a fraternity band called the "Iguanas," Erlewine would recall, which is how he was given the 'Iggy' moniker as a member of the Prime Movers). Erlewine founded the All Music Guide, a music database, in 1991, more than a decade after he had stopped playing live, and has founded other, similar ventures as well.

Erlewine’s family first moved to Ann Arbor in the 1950s. His experience with the area spans more than 5 decades.

Erlewine’s lecture will be held in the library’s Multi-Purpose Room.

In December, the Ann Arbor District Library will host an event series called “Freeing John Sinclair: The Day the Legends Came to Town,” which will celebrate the 40-year anniversary of the “Free John Sinclair” concert at Crisler Arena on December 10, 1971, a concert that brought musicians like John Lennon and speakers like Allen Ginsberg to Ann Arbor to argue that one of the first victims of the so-called War on Drugs should be freed.

Staff Writer James David Dickson can be reached at JDickson@Heritage.com.
FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Let's Go Get Em' REVIEW in OFFBEAT

2011-10-12T23:33:00.000+02:00

John Sinclair and His International Blues Scholars

Let's Go Get 'Em

(Mo-Sounds)

01 October 2011 — by David Kunian
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Even though he is an expatriate, John Sinclair should be declared a national treasure. He’s a poet, historian and musicologist who, instead of publishing his research and findings, declaims them in the oral tradition with music. His latest works revisits themes he has worked with before and also adds several new poems and interpretations to his work. Let’s Go Get ‘Em features odes to friends and loved ones, whether it is remembering an evening with a lover who whistles Charles Mingus’ “Moanin’” or professing thanks and love to another with a reference to the Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four.” There are also several political pieces here, including his reworking of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ United Nations’ speech “Smells like Sulfur.” The music has a great groove that simmers and occasionally boils over, whether in the acid rock taste of “Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky” or the deep mellow spice of his dedication to Mardi Gras Indians, “We Love Big Chief.”

Honoring the Local Gods is a live recording containing songs/ poems dedicated to two of Sinclair’s heroes and muses, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. Over harder, free-er jazz, Sinclair’s deliberate and raspy cadence details his experiences hearing Trane with visceral images of “hearing saxophones inside his meat” and “getting up from a chair and walking smack into a post after 45 minutes of (drummer) Elvin Jones.” The Monk poems are excellent in explaining details of Monk’s eccentricity and how his genius manifested itself in his music.

As art and as a history, Sinclair’s poetry with music is captivating, stimulating and educational. He is passing the legends and myths of American music and radical politics to the next generation. Honoring the local gods? Yes indeed.

http://offbeat.com/2011/10/01/john-sinclair-and-his-international-blues-scholars-lets-go-get-em-mo-sounds/#.ToPmizX8J6Q.email

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

The Bermondsey Joyriders w/ John Sinclair (Review)

2011-10-12T23:20:00.000+02:00

The Bermondsey Joyriders/The Phobics - London, The 100 Club - 7th September 2011

Written by Craggy

Monday, 19 September 2011 05:00

"Society is rapidly changing", so the Bermondsey Joyriders declare. Like a stolen car from the town of which the name was born, it rapidly descends before it burns. The complexities and difficulties of our current times are so obviously reflected in this commentary. Are we all riding to an inevitable accident in someone else's expensive car?

A relentless development is paralleled in the Joyriders themselves, if only for the better. The last time I stumbled upon this unexpected wonder was at the Bubblegum Slut anniversary at the Gaff (R.I.P.) last October, where they delivered an excellent display of British punk lined with a welcome element of the blues. With a sincere delivery of the British sound complimented by the groove of American-inspired slide guitar, the Bermondsey Joyriders seemingly already had it all. Fast forward to tonight at the 100 Club and the sound remains but the experience is something new...

After Burlesque Beauty Luna Rosa warms up the stage, with the cherry-burst glow from the light upon the wall providing the perfect background, the first band to take to the stage are Deptford punks, The Phobics. I've been spinning a four-track EP (a few years old now) of theirs for the last few days, and I think "yeah, these guys are alright", nothing more, and nothing less. Tonight, though, I'm shown something that the recording obviously failed to catch. The Phobics are smooth and their songs have a driven, yet controlled energy which makes them sound more unique than on the record I have. Even with the guitarist's apparent Tourette's, with his favourite word being "cunt", they remain charming and engaging. They smash through the set with track after track of exciting rock 'n' roll. And so instead of being merely a suitable punk support, The Phobics are genuinely fresh and inspiring.

After another airing of Luna Rosa's defined arse (the crowd being more boozed up and confident by this time), the stage is set for the main (if somewhat less beautiful to the eye) attraction of the night. The Bermondsey Joyriders have emerged with the album 'Noise and Revolution' at an appropriate time, as the reality of discontent within our shores has become apparent. The echoes of urban decay that have been developing through the streets of the capital and other major cities, and which have culminated in violence on the streets so recently, is coincidentally, but not accidentally, realised through the soundtrack of their new concept album. With John Sinclair's Detroit drawl emanating from the stage to compliment this very English attempt to understand, the social commentary here is eerily poignant. The parallel timing of this production of 'Noise and Revolution' and the chaos that recently engulfed London marks a need to understand what is happening within society and the downwards development that is so often ignored or misunderstood, and to avoid such sensationalised calls as "send the army in."

For the master poet, ex-White Panther leader, and of course ex-MC5 manager, to be delivering spoken word in tune to the new Joyriders' concept album is truly excellent. Tonight, John Sinclair's delivery is both humorous and engaging while the Joyriders' rock 'n' roll rhythms are energetic and inspiring. From the opener 'Society is Rapidly Changing' to the closer 'Noise and Revolution', the band fills the audience full of cheer and danceable rock 'n' roll. This isn't so much political punk as a story of social commentary painted on a backdrop of glammed-up bluesy rock 'n' roll.

The excellent music played between bands also adds to the generally positive atmosphere within the 100 Club. And as well as everything works tonight it must be understood that this kind of show - a live outing of an unheard concept album with complete with political commentary - takes some balls. But the strength of songs such as those already mentioned, along with the driving nature of 'Rock Star', the local familiarity of 'Proper English', and the celebration of '1977', laced with the troubadour debauchery of the slide guitar, has enough life pumping around it to keep both the socialist and the romantic bubbling along in a warm London embrace.

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

MC5 and Sinclair reading liner notes

2011-10-12T23:16:00.001+02:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC5

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

I'm dangerous with Love (Talk Back)

2011-10-12T23:12:00.001+02:00

I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE

“I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE is like a boxer. It's a powerhouse. Brutally honest, hilarious, incisive, heroic. To capture a character who lives against the odds is one thing. Negroponte doesn’t just go the extra mile to capture story and character – he goes an extra light year and takes the audience with him. Its one of those docs that’s going to walk all over the festival circuit like it fucking owns the place.” -Sheffield Doc/Fest

VIEW TRAILER

Quotations

"Negroponte turns a compassionate eye on the world of drug addiction, and one man's personal passionate crusade to rescue the addicted, one addict at a time. An absorbing and at times exhilarating film that boomerangs from the underbelly of Manhattan to the jungles of Gabon and back again." Ross McElwee

"A haunting, visceral exploration of addiction and one contemporary man's fearless and determined quest for healing and redemption through the ancient wisdom of the Bwiti and their 'magical' plant, Iboga. For those seeking a path out of darkness, this film is not to be missed." Charles Shaw, AlterNet

I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE is about addiction and rehabilitation, activism and shamanism. Dimitri Mugianis who starts out as the heavily addicted front man for the band Leisure Class ends his long drug and alcohol addiction with an experimental treatment that uses the hallucinogen ibogaine.

African shamans have used ibogaine in their rituals for centuries, but in the U.S. it is a Schedule 1 controlled substance. No longer a drug user, Dimitri illegally takes addicts through the same detox that he says saved his life.

I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE is an underground adventure that traces Dimitri's risky journey as he treats desperate drug users. He is a man of edgy energy going from one addict to the next without stopping to catch his breath. But then one session goes bad in a remote snowed-in Canadian home, and a quiet young man almost dies. Dimitri must decide whether or not to continue his mission. Is it serving the addicts or simply releasing his own demons? Dimitri travels to Gabon, West Africa, to consult with Bwiti shamans, and puts himself through a punishing iboga initiation in search of guidance.

2009 85 minutes
Directed by Michel Negroponte
Written by Nick Pappas and Joni Wehrli • Animation by Lisa Crafts • Music and Sound Design by Brooks Williams and Beo Morales • Photographed and Edited by Michel Negroponte • Executive Producers Julie Goldman, Krysanne Katsoolis, Caroline Stevens • Produced by Blackbridge Productions in association with Cactus Three
DVD by First Run Features

................................................

PHOTO GALLERIES:
Michel Negroponte's I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE
and Ashley Valmere's photos, "Ibogaine in New York City"

LINKS:
Electric Sheep Interview with Michel Negroponte by John Berra
Dimitri's iboga/ibogaine website
The Iboga Insurrection, parts 1 and 2 by Charles Shaw- section on Dimitri under "The Shaman."

Dimitri's band, Leisure Class
More info about Tatayo and his work in Gabon

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Panics, then & now (War on drugs is over)

2011-10-12T23:09:00.001+02:00

Higher Ground

Panics, then & now

By John Sinclair

Published: September 28, 2011

I'd like to start by saying what a pleasure and a privilege it is to have been alternating in this space for almost a full year with one of my favorite writers, Larry Gabriel, whose column last week was particularly informative and told me everything I wanted to know about what's been happening in Michigan since the shit hit the medical marijuana fan last month.

The August events that rattled the cannabis community certainly seem to have been designed to throw a massive scare into smokers and suppliers, leaving patients and their caregivers trembling in fear of arrest or serious disruption of their medicine delivery systems.

In a way, the latest panic took me back almost 45 years to January of 1967, when the Detroit Narcotics Department staged a mammoth invasion of the local bohemian community centered on the Detroit Artists Workshop and the neighborhood around Wayne State University. A total of 56 citizens were arrested in a "lightning campus dope raid" that cast a serious chill on the entire scene that was beginning to cohere around the Grande Ballroom and the burgeoning local rock 'n' roll movement that was showcased there every week.

The 56 arrestees in 1967 ended up being subjected to little in the way of legal prosecution. Most were released without drug charges of any kind, suffering only for their presence in one of the places where 11 felony warrants were being served on persons who had been identified by the narcotics police as users or possessors of small amounts of marijuana.

This writer appeared to be the central target of the operation. I was accused of having given two joints to an undercover policewoman at the Artists Workshop just before the previous Christmas. Since this gift came under the "distribution and sales of narcotics" section of the Michigan drug statutes, I was charged with Violation of State Narcotics Laws and, if convicted of this heinous crime, was subject to a sentence of a minimum mandatory 20 years with a possible maximum of life imprisonment.

More seriously, I had been a vocal opponent of the state narcotics laws and a proponent of marijuana legalization since founding Detroit LEMAR two years earlier and had suffered two previous convictions for possession. As a confirmed marijuana smoker looking forward to a lifetime of arrest after arrest under the existing law, I decided to dedicate myself to fighting back and, with the unswerving support of a fearless legal team headed by attorneys Sheldon Otis and Justin Ravitz, mounted a serious challenge to the constitutionality of the Michigan marijuana laws.

Marijuana was classified as a narcotic. We contended on a pre-trial basis that it was not a narcotic and had been defined as such without any scientific basis. The penalty for simple possession of marijuana in any amount was 1-10 years in prison, with a minimum sentence of 20 years to life for sales or distribution. We contended that such treatment constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Other legal issues were raised and, for the first time in Detroit Recorders Court history, a three-judge panel was appointed to evaluate our argument and decide whether the case should proceed to trial.

Eventually, the panel ruled that the constitutional issues could only be adjudicated upon conviction in Recorders Court and appeal to a higher legal body, the Michigan Court of Appeals. So, in July 1969, I went to trial, sustained a conviction for possession of two joints after the dispensing charge was dropped, and received a sentence of 9-1/2 to 10 years in the Michigan prison system. An appeal was promptly filed based on my constitutional challenge, but the Detroit judge, Robert J. Colombo, denied my petition for appeal bond and sent me to Jackson Prison to begin serving my sentence while my legal appeal worked its way through the Court of Appeals to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Another two-and-a-half years of legal struggle ensued while I was held under maximum security conditions for a year in Marquette Prison in the Upper Peninsula, and then in Jackson, "the world's largest walled prison," awaiting the results of my appeal and taking spiritual sustenance from the concerted efforts of my family, friends and supporters to gain my release. Countless benefits and rallies involving scores of bands and speakers were staged on my behalf while the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against me and my case was argued before the Michigan Supreme Court.

To make a long story just a little bit shorter, my ordeal came to a sudden conclusion on Dec. 13, 1971, when I was released from Jackson on appeal bond. That was three days after John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger, Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, Bobby Seale and an incredible cast of fellow performers and activists came together with 15,000 frenzied supporters at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor for the John Sinclair Freedom Rally. And it was only four days after the Michigan Legislature passed a new drug law that removed marijuana from the narcotics list and reduced the sentence for possession to one year and for sales to a maximum of four years in prison.

This salubrious outcome provided somewhat of a happy ending to the ugly sequence of events that had started with the "lightning campus dope raid" of Jan. 24, 1967— almost five years before. I will always believe that it was our open defiance of the marijuana laws, our overt advocacy of marijuana legalization, and our sustained legal challenge to the constitutionality of the marijuana laws that helped create the climate in Michigan that we are beginning to enjoy now, and I take considerable pride in having been a key participant in the process.

As I never tire of saying, I'm a registered Michigan marijuana patient now, and I continue to look forward to the day when our voters decide to legalize marijuana once and for all. It took a long time to get from marijuana as a narcotic to the $5 fine for possession in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and East Lansing almost 40 years ago, and much longer for us to progress to the legalization of medical marijuana in 2008. Let's not stop now!

On a strictly personal note, I'd like to invite my readers to join me in celebration of my 70th birthday on Oct. 2, at the Hastings Street Ballroom. This is an entirely unanticipated event, but I'm going to give thanks and try to stay around as long as I can. Sometime this winter will mark 50 years since I smoked my first joint, and on Dec. 10, we'll celebrate the 40th anniversary of the John Sinclair Freedom Rally with a jubilant reunion concert at Masonic Temple.

Finally, I'll be honored with the High Times Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award at the Medical Cannabis Cup gathering at Bert's Warehouse Theatre in Eastern Market on Sunday, Oct. 16 — at 4:20 p.m.

I'd love to see all of you there, and if you bring your patient cards, we can light up together and be somebody.

—New Orleans

> Email John Sinclair

http://metrotimes.com/mmj/panics-then-now-1.1209877

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Living without you Mardi Gras 2011

2011-10-12T23:04:00.000+02:00

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

Fly wanna' testify too

2011-10-12T23:00:00.002+02:00

I just started a testament (I wanna Testify!) to RFA, and the foundation. I will write a follow up that includes detail about some of our adventures (please edit as you see fit) love, steve.

I arrived in Amsterdam March 20th 2007 and met John Sinclair a month or so later at my current place of employment (Cafe' 420). Since then I have been lucky to spend a large part of the last four years alongside John as friend, room-mate and band member (drums), sharing hemp-loads of priceless experiences in Holland and the United Kingdom.

John's Radio shows have been a consistent axis around which all of his collaborators and co-conspirators revolve, each show including interviews, exclusive John Sinclair recordings and a cornucopia of Blues, Jazz and Rock n' Roll to make your feets' twitter.

The community building activity of hosting a radio show cannot be overstated. I have witnessed the process bring people from all walks and talks together in an international congregation of friendly sharing, quickly made available for EVERYONE to listen to shortly after the fact, via Internet, and at NO CHARGE.

I therefore would like to pay tribute to John Sinclair and his team of volunteers for creating such an exemplary system of cultural feedback. In no particular order, thanks to the John Sinclair Foundation, Hank, Joeri, Sydney, Larry, Hempshopper, Dolphins Cafe', 420 cafe', Sensi Empire, Detroit Life Radio, Dylan and Headpress, Beatnik Press, Celia Sinclair and all the kindred warriors whom have donated their time, knowledge and resources from right across the planet to help this shit grow strong.

http://www.youtube.com/user/flyagaric23

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011

FATTENING BLOGS FOR SNAKES

Fly By Night with Steve The Fly 01

Netherlands’ coffee shop confusion (Detroit Metro Times)

Netherlands’ coffee shop confusion

Pot tourist ban doesn’t go off as smoothly as planned

Illuminatus Trilogy : The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

Constitutional Amendment To End Marihuana Prohibition In Michigan

Article 1 Section 28. Repeal of Marihuana Prohibition.

About us

Ruth-Marion Baruch & Pirkle Jones Black Panther Photographs, 1968

Prohibition gains ground in Europe, even as U.S. legalization fight continues by John Sinclair

Here and there

Prohibition gains ground in Europe, even as U.S. legalization fight continues

Photographs from the Freeing John Sinclair events

Nutty Logic with Steve Fly

Photo's from the White Panthers reunion

White Panther Party coming home to Ann Arbor, 40 years after bringing John Lennon to town in aid of John Sinclair

The chronic heaviness of John Sinclair

The chronic heaviness of John Sinclair

by Christine Metsger

RELAUNCH OF RADIO FREE AMSTERDAM!

John Sinclair 4.16.11 1st Church Of Northampton (Youtube)

Radio Free Amsterdam is back! The X-mas Relaunch

Freeing John Sinclair: The Day Legends Came To Town (Dedux)

Robert Anton Wilson on medical Marijuana (2002)

John Sinclair on the cover of HIGH TIMES (Jan 2012)

Sun Ra and his Arkestra Live at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972-74

Art Yard Records unveils their newest release with Wake Up Angels: Sun Ra and his Arkestra Live at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972-74

The U.S. vs. John Lennon (soundtrack)

[edit] Track listing

internationaltimes.it/ archive/ (Issue 2, 1976)

Highway 61 Christmas Special with Scott Barretta, Part 1

Where the movement began (Metro Times)

How, 40 years ago, Sinclair and company laid the groundwork for today

Bermondsey Joyriders with John Sinclair - My Generation and 1977

John Sinclair Dec 9, 2011 Ann Arbor, MI (Youtube)

John Sinclair and the 40 year Freedom Rally by Fly

Let's Go Get Em' (again)

Let's Go Get 'Em

(Mo-Sounds)

John Sinclair Looks Back on "Freedom Rally" 40 Years Later

John Sinclair Looks Back on "Freedom Rally" 40 Years Laterhttp://www.wdet.org/news/story/JohnSinclair40thFreedomRallyInterview/

Why "Ten For Two" is the John Lennon-Yoko Ono Music Doc You Haven't Seen

Why "Ten For Two" is the John Lennon-Yoko Ono Music Doc You Haven't Seen

John Sinclair recalls impact, importance of Freedom Rally

John Sinclair recalls impact, importance of Freedom Rally.

White Panther Party coming home to Ann Arbor

White Panther Party coming home to Ann Arbor, 40 years after bringing John Lennon to town in aid of John Sinclair

Rock and revolution

DOCTOR MARSHMALLOW CUBICLE (Youtube Playlist)

Belgian Tour 2011 (November-December)

Rhythm-A-Ning by Thelonious Monk

Rhythm-A-Ning

[edit] References

John Sinclair's Amsterdam Blues Scholars LIVE

Pot, polls and politics

From police to public polls, attitudes are changing, but upholders of the status quo won’t let go

The John Sinclair and Leni Sinclair papers

The John and Leni Sinclair Papers, 1957-1999 at the Bentley Historical Library

Introduction

John Sinclair Freedom Rally (at Wikipedia)

John Sinclair Freedom Rally

[edit] Musical Performers

[edit] Speakers

[edit] References

"Freeing John Sinclair" website and events coming in December

"Freeing John Sinclair" website and events coming in December

Primal Scream and the MC5 (Meltdown 2008)

Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award

Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award

John Sinclair's 70th Birthday Concert

The Counter Culture Strikes Back (5th November event)

THE BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS are to support KING MOB in Bristol and London

Cannabis Cup in the D

Big event comes to town, and Dana Beal's ibogaine odyssey

John Lennon's Birthday (Int. Business Times)

Body and Soul by Eddie Jefferson

Let's Go Get Em' REVIEW in OFFBEAT

(Mo-Sounds)

The Bermondsey Joyriders w/ John Sinclair (Review)

John Sinclair Looks Back on "Freedom Rally" 40 Years Later
http://www.wdet.org/news/story/JohnSinclair40thFreedomRallyInterview/