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Exponentiation 04
n
E exponentiation ezine [4.0] ISSN 1555-693X
http://www.corrupt.org/zine
CONTENTS
I. News
II. Culture
III. Features
IV. Self-Sufficiency
V. Literature
Against all odds, trails and tribulations, we stand firm against the
raging tempest of the world around us. Where the earth is defiled, we
will step in and fertilize, where the spirit is ravaged, we will step
in and purify, where the cultures lay in ruins, we will step in and
build. One of the great virtues of living in the Kali Yuga is the
potential to acquire strength and growth through battle. Growth occurs
best on the battlefield, be it physical or spiritual, because
challenges spark creativity, spirit and evolution. The goals of
Exponentiation are to reintroduce the sacred, to rebuild the broken
castles and visages of the primordial way of understanding and to
replant where greed has left ruined soil. Exponentiation is dedicated
to the heroism that still remains in this world.
-------
News
-------
Skateboard Art Kick Flips Rembrandt
October 3rd, 2006
LOS ANGELES, CA - Los Angeles, the land of pristine skyline and
shimmering rivers, will not be wearing another cape of beauty on its
shoulders next week as the famed Rembrandt painting "The Night Watch"
has been removed from its world tour visit to the J. Paul Getty
Museum. The reason? Skate Punk Art week at the Getty. Officials have
stated that the scheduled date of arrival for the Rembrandt piece
conflicts with the Skate Punk Art week's massive BBQ and board art
fiesta. Because of the massive popularity of the Skate Punk Art week
it has become, in the words of Museum Director Donald Hersh,
"artistically, spatially and economically unfeasible to host both
events simultaneously."
An executive meeting was held at the Getty Center on September 27th to
decide the fate of the two events. Director Hersh gave the following
comments on the decision making process, "it was a tough one, I'll
tell you that. Twelve of us voted and it came to a split vote, six to
six. We were about to pull straws to settle the dispute, but luckly we
heard the evening security guy whistling in the halls so we called him
in to cast a tiebreaker. The final vote fell in favor of ousting
Rembrandt, seven to six." Hersh continued, assuring the Skate Artists
that their event was safe, "well we want everyone who was planning on
this event for some months to take a deep sigh of relief. We are still
hosting the Sixth Annual Skate Art Week. We appreciated the support of
the United Skate Art Foundation for working closely with us in this
dilemma. And to all those coming out for the event, don't forget to
bring your appetites, there's gonna be a BBQ!"
Evening security guard Luke Richardson was contacted for a comment
regarding his tough tie breaking decision. He issued the following
comments on a blood stained bar napkin (ed.- numerous expletives have
been omitted. Nothing else has been deleted or altered in Mr.
Richardson's writing and the text has been displayed in full in
accordance with his demands on the back of the bar napkin):
"well it wasn't an easy decision to boot Rem manz art work, ya now? I
mean the guys like famous for lighting in his pictures or somthin'
like that, but while thats cool historicilly en all, it's not what the
kidz are into anymore...besides, I'm not even sure Remmy man could
have put out some of the sweet paint lickz on the bottom of the new DC
boards. I mean have you seen the shading work on the Flaming Satan
does an olly board put out recently by the DC guys!! I mean
[expletive], you tell me with a straight [expletive] face that you
want to jam stale old smelly art in ur museum halls when you have that
bitchin [expletive] in your midst...and holy [expletive] you should
see some of the airbrushing detail on the new Independent truckz.
Don't even get me started on that tasty line of work."
Because the Rembrandt has no other location to be displayed during the
week of the Skate Art festival, officials have decided that it will be
stored in a large box in the Getty's basement. At the end of the week
it will be shipped to Seattle to be displayed and deconstructed in a
gay and lesbian coffee art house for dyslexics.
-=-
American Standard Announces Revolutionary Toilet
October 15th, 2006
PISCATAWAY, NJ - The bath and kitchen fixtures and fittings branch of
company American Standard has announced the newest creation in its
line of home toilet bowls this week, handsomely titled the Mr. Warm
Buns. Unlike American Standard's older toilet bowl models, the newest
member of the American Standard family is revolutionizing what it
means to take a trip to the "royal throne." The Mr. Warm Buns is
unlike more conventional toilet bowls that sit there cold and sterile
waiting for you to do something, the Mr. Warm Buns comes stocked with
toilet seat warmers, a mechanical arm that does the wiping for you (in
all the tough to reach spaces), a plug in for you ipod or mp3 player
so you can listen to tunes as you go, and a latte maker so you can
enjoy your favorite cup of joe while you visit your bathroom paradise.
American Standard has announced that it is already taking further
steps to make sure future models of the Mr. Warm Buns are just as
revolutionary. American Standard Company CEO Frederic Poses has not
let any secrets out of the bag, but has announced that future models
will be fully automated with the HAL 5000 chip so that the owner of
the prestigious bowl can program voice recognition, music, videos and
greetings into the Mr. Warm Buns. Spokeswoman for American Standard
Diana LeHey had this to say about the Mr. Warm Buns, "we here at
American Standard are modest, but we can't hold our excitement back
any longer. Going to the bathroom will never again be the same after
the release of the Mr. Warm Buns. Imagine, sitting on your own
private throne...and mind you we are developing some models to look
like a very royal throne...and then when you make that special
delivery you are congratulated with your favorite sports tune, or by
that sexy little voice you programmed into the voice system telling
you you've done an A-class job...now that's living the life." That's
living all right, not since the bidet and the squat toilet has there
been anything quite so exciting to announce in the world of bathroom
engineering design.
What's the price of a creation that Roman Emperors could have only
dreamed of? Four hundred and Fifty Five dollars. "What's so
fantastic about it," says Diana LeHey, "is that this little piece of
Kinghood is going to be moderately priced for the average man. Most
bowls go for about three hundred and fifty dollars. What we have is a
revolutionary product that only costs one hundred dollars more than
the old, cheap model toilets. Pricing it so cheap might be something
revolutionary too, but we don't want to brag too much! We want
everyone to enjoy our creation. Our slogan is, 'enough with having to
bend over to wipe those hard to get places, lay back and be treated to
a curtsey wipe and massage by Mr. Warm Buns.'"
Perhaps like natural growing processes in the agricultural industry,
wiping will be a thing of the past. Could American Standard be the
Monsanto of the bathroom Industry? Only time will tell. One thing is
for sure, the future of the bowl looks springtime fresh, wintertime
white!
----------
Culture
----------
Music:
Maeror Tri - "Myein" (1995 ND)
Slow, vibrating key strokes piece together these extremely drony
landscapes, shaped by ambient masters Maeror Tri - now hailed as cult
legends within the ambient/drone genre.
A dark layering of sound begins the album and is used effeciently by
improvising the sound of a guitar string that's constantly pulled and
later into the music the dark layered sounds are accompanied by
several extended key tones that overlap their forerunner. Like diving
into an unexpected void of emptiness, the music becomes more intense,
more drony, the longer it goes on.
At a certain point, strange sounds start to appear as rythmic
inducers, hypnotizing the mind into a state of total esoteric
mindexploration. What follows, is an openedness into soundscapes
totally unknown. The monotone and persistent vibrating sound in the
background becomes the basic structure, and disorted and dissonant
noises become leaders, dictating where each song is going.
Almost like living inside an airdrum, these noises eventually build up
into an intense tribal dance and become harmonies against beautiful
melodies, similar to the music of Autechre or Beherit's later ambient
works. This is a welcome experience and Maeror Tri proves its
undeniable artistic brilliance when the second movement of this album
begins. A calm ambient key stroke is introduced as a basic structural
layer, and placed on top of it is a highly emotional and almost epic
vibrating drony key stroke. It may be compared to a leaf slowly
flapping in the wind, or streamlined thoughts colliding between two
lonely individuals in a room of emptiness.
Maeror Tri uses the notion of singularity to enhance and provoke awe
and love to what they wish to present; around these gently droning
soundscapes exist nothing, and as such, "Myein" is well balanced and
easily projected into the mind of he or she who wishes peace, but
peace found within brainstorms of thoughts, memories and old wisdom.
Certain points of these drawn-out keystrokes beckon to the listener
and become enhanced, as found in the way the music is built up:
harmonies range from dark and low, to relatively high - and when the
key note has reached its peak - it brings forth a gentle resounding.
Profound is the one and only word to use here.
After having built up a general mood of unknown epic and strange but
emotional feeling, the almost fifty-minute opus begins. Hardly
expected, it starts with a myriad of melancholic and deranged noises,
like twisted illusions of a dream never before experienced. A slow,
dark, eerie ambient texture lies beneath it, sometimes interfering
with the process of compressing massive amounts of energy into a
limited space (expression), other times relying completely on the
roar, and from there going back to its original state. Here we find
the basic technique of "Myein," in its way of letting different drony
keynotes interact as a roleplay between the dark, the high, the noisy
and the disturbingly clear.
Unsettling, this listening experience suddenly loses its rushing
atmosphere and instead continues forward through its basic dark key
notes, putting the focus on itself. Although it for a while stands on
its own, it quickly becomes acquainted with overlapping synth-layers
that sound like processed guitars, until the harmonies transpire into
an expression of the organic and wordly: suddenly it is the all.
Twisted and dissonant, these drone-driven sounds eventually imitate
that of an electronic flute player beyond space and time. Maeror Tri
uses this function to its advantage: it removes all outside contact
with reality, and instead builds up a whole new one, only to tear it
down and replace it with singularity - somethingness surrounded with
nothingness.
Further into this unimaginable journey, the ambient layers suddenly
stop their diverging evolution and instead become two single key
drones, affecting one another by what feels like ritualistic and
evergrowing knowledge of something left far behind. The music
therefore becomes more reflective, more certain of a way than before
there was either total chaos or total emptiness. Surprisingly, this
journey is concluded by a cold and desolate key tone, opposed to the
warm and gentle breeze of different harmonies experienced before.
It is not without reason that works by this trio of German dronists
have become intensely sought after by virtually all serious ambient
music lovers; their music is affectionate, careless, desolate, warm,
epic, timeless, droning, disturbing - all compressed into a a single
unit. While it in many ways is fit for the esoteric mind, and in most
ways is too far out for most mainstream ambientists, "Myein" reflects
the internal mechanisms of Universe; opposites fulfilling eachother by
co-working and creating a relevant whole. Like no other ambient
artist, Maeror Tri succeeds in pulling the listener deeper and deeper
down until it becomes suffocated by its visions - only to discover a
new world beyond the subtle ways of watching the surface, but never
touching the internal and unexplored. As such, "Myein" is a daring
journey into what the inside can create by itself as single influence.
This ethereal work stands on its own: A masterpiece. -Alexis
-=-
Robert Fripp - Exposure
Like William Blake, Robert Fripp is one of those figures in art who
contribute so much they're constantly overlooked, in part because what
they create is inscrutable to a wider audience. Together with Black
Sabbath, Fripp invented what heavy metal would become through his
abstract but dissonant symphonies and knotted song structures which
like demi-operas navigated a course of story to arrive at sense. He is
most famous for his work with prog-rock band King Crimson, but it is
foolish to overlike his modern chamber music made on sustain-boosted
guitars.
"Exposure" was a Frippian attempt to both join and comment on music of
his time, as if chronicling a history of it, and while it scrambled
for that difficult beachhead -- less repetitive than rock but too
repetitive for classical, mixing progressive stylings and retrofitted
cliche to be postmodernly both self-critical and creative of a future
-- it makes great listening for those not seeking consistency. This
album sounds more like a summary of learning so far, a philosophy of
beauty within tortured sound and clarity within noise culminating in
spiritual peace within a chaotic and lost time, more than it is meant
for casual listening; it is an event. It is not the type of album one
sits down to for a simple experience, but almost has to be hoodwinked
into and ends up better for it: this album grows on the listener like
a routine passage to work on which dailyl noticed is newly
proliferating detail.
To the dismay of many it is avant-garde art with two capital A's,
quirkily restless in its desire to incorporate sounds which would
later find their way into other compositional styles. Its voice
compositions in particular would find counterparts on middle-period
Ministry albums, as its many licks and detours would be appropriated
by any of a number of rock and pop bands. Although the music is
softer, comparisons to punk are valid here because like hardcore punk
bands, this album takes a dim view of our society's "progress,"
likening it via music to extraneous noise that because of its outer
shell is unrecognized as valueless, since it sounds like it might be
meaningful, even if it is repetitive. Fripp takes that style of sound
and explodes it outward, steering the directionless time-filler toward
unsettling conclusions, like a G.G. Allin of the artrock movement
showing us a mirror of our empty souls, in the depth of which
something -- serpent or angel or both -- begins to stir.
The weakness of this album, like many forms of demonstrative protest
music, is its tendency toward the outlandish and gesture-heavy, which
interrupts listening with drama that does not find beauty in life;
Fripp is more successfully when instead of pointing out the
dischordance, he uses it to make higher creations which incorporate
beauty and darkness into clarity. Yet despite these jarring aspects,
the music expands its depth as it is inspected, creating a tunnel into
the mind of one of the 20th century's most uncorruptible advocates of
Art. Two versions of the CD are included here, the original and a
modern remix including tracks dropped for contractual reasons, but
this reviewer prefers the first disc for its clarity of delivery.
-vijay prozak
-=-
Dead Can Dance - Serpents Egg (1988 4AD)
A trip into the mystical world of the medieval orient is the ticket
offered in "The Serpents Egg" by this groundbreaking duo consisting of
Lisa Gerrard and Brendan
Perry.
Organs create an ambient undertone at the beginning of this album,
while Lisa's voice provides an emotional overscoring, leaning towards
the
suffering, but at the same time upholding the reactionary opposite.
Continuing on this journey, voices of different tonal levels
masterfully work together in both homophonic and monophonic textures
and manage to create an ultimately interesting piece of medieval
spirit rarely found in other artists of similar stylings.
Brendan, although in many ways fond of the positive and optimistic,
surges forward with a calm exclamation of the fatal individualism that
splits and
severs the ties that create a strong and unified people. His
recognition of this in "Severance" is clear and profound, and it is
not without a sprinkle of sadness that this song ends with an
emotional violin as a reaction to the problem.
However, it is Lisa's performance that mostly impresses this listener
- as in songs like "The writing on my father's hand", where total
sorrow and hopelessness is upheld and taken to its emotional extreme -
without losing its musical honesty and integrity. A background harp
that leaves a small gap in its playing for an echo plays the dominant
melody of the song and imaginatively seems to suggest a closed and
distant room in the tower of a castle, where feelings and wishes are
repressed - both physically and mentally.
At an interval no longer than the despondent feelings can soak into
the heart of the observer, Brendan immediately presents a reactionary
piece where the modern ignorance is replaced by tolerance and an
opened mind, freed from the sins imposed by those with God but without
eyes to see the beauty of life. These feelings and counter-feelings
are some of the things that give this album a balanced picture and
leave it more in the space of dynamic change, rather than linear
thinking.
Further, it seems like the album itself is unconsciously divided into
two separate chapters; one of suppression and reflection, and one of
spiritual
enlargement and celebration. Songs like "Mother Tongue" affirm this
idea, as the album suddenly takes a different turn in which multiple
layers of rhythmic drumming enter the music, sounding similar to
bells of crystal ice blowing in the wind, and then seducing, mystical
and monotone ambient tones wave the sounds into a blurred vision of a
forest undergoing a magical change - all of this is later accompanied
by the sound of a secret waterfall somewhere deep into the mouth of
Mother Nature.
"The Serpent's Egg" ends with a hopeful and optimistic vision of the
future, something which probably should be seen as the underlying
motivation behind this album; the pieces of sorrow and pain are
included in the music to strengthen the message of the problems being
addressed. The sadness on the album stems from the negative forces
circulating around the medieval times, but it is reconditioned into a
comment upon the modern times.
What makes "The Serpent's Egg" so beautiful - apart from the well
arranged musical structure and use of strings and ambience - is its
profound and
honest aesthetic, as well as its way of handling emotive situations,
the historical past and the philosophical future. While Lisa focuses
on scrutinized sorrow, pain and spiritual mystique, Brendan thereafter
lifts the mood up by addressing the ignorance inflicted upon the
modern soul, and instead announces a new way of living - a new life,
where the past is unified by the future. - Alexis
-=-
Books:
"Beowulf." Translated by. Kevin Crossley-Holland. 128 pages. Oxford
University Press (1999)
"Beowulf", regarded as one of the most important texts within
Indo-European literature, is a vast Anglo-Saxon poem of epic
proportions, set in a half-historical, half-mythological Germanic
past. The events portrayed are located at what now is the south of
Sweden and north of Denmark.
"Beowulf" is the story of a man with the same name, who lives among
the people of the Geats. There, his father Ecgtheow is a powerful and
noble leader, son to Hrethel. One day Beowulf hears of the misfortunes
that have struck the Danish ruler Hrothgar, and thereafter decides to
bring some men with him, to help Hrothgar in need. It turns out that
the mighty Danish hall Heorot has been under attack by a fierce
monster named Grendel. This beast of nature has slain many of
Hrothgar's men, and he now cries out for help. Beowulf comes to
Hrothgar's rescue and manages to kill the monster with his might,
strength and bravery in fight.
However, not a long while after this deed, a new monster shows up in
Heorot and continues to unmercifully take the bloody life of a man
very close to Hrothgar. In time, he finds out that this is Grendel's
mother, acting out her revenge on the mortal foes that killed her son.
Beowulf sets out to slay Grendel's mother as well, which he also does.
The last deed told of in the poem, is when a cruel dragon attacks
Beowulf's own kingdom, Geatland. This monster spits fire across the
land where Beowulf now is king, and the only chance for his people to
survive, is for him to prove his bravery in a last life-threatening
battle. So he does, and it is here that he finally dies in the arms of
a friend in war.
"Beowulf" is a very beautiful and immersive poem. Lengthy and
descriptive, the adjectives are often those of celebration of the life
as a hero. The poem itself could best be described as an archetype of
Indo-European culture. These three events that together make up for
the reading experience as a whole, set the reader into an epic past
where civil wars, monsters and vengeance are part of the daily life as
a warrior under the rule of a leader. The poem celebrates, not only
Beowulf, but the men that travel with him and the men he helps.
Hrothgar, although seemingly in a desperate need for help to save his
people and kingdom from Grendel and his mother, is still described in
the book as a heroic and brave man, where his old age has set in and
prevented him from acting out his anger and sadness toward the threat.
As such, "Beowulf" is not merely upholding one man, but instead tries
to explain and have the reader engage in values that are eternal to
Indo-European culture. Self-sacrifice, bravery in war, love and hate,
vengeance and despise, mockery and laughter; all of these feelings and
values define a period of time where people transcended their human
state and sought to reach for things higher than personal comfort and
material wealth.
This is experienced in moments like when Beowulf and the dragon are
dead, and the Geatish men take the gold from the cave where originally
the dragon safeguarded it, and bury it deep down under the surface of
the earth. Having seen their king sacrificing his own life for glory
and heroism, they regard the treasure as mere material objects with no
inherent value, and from there decide to instead honour Beowulf by
building an enormous barrow on the headland to his name. As much as
this is breathtaking, it is also saddening and emotive.
There is a more emotional side to this poem, especially at the end
when Beowulf slowly is bleeding to death, and he makes his last
request as the bravest man ever to have walked the Earth, to have his
men build a barrow to the memory of his deeds. One cannot hold back
the strong emotions afflicted by such intense events, notably as a
result of a past that the reader engages in. The fact that this epic
poem can induce such strong feelings for the people involved in the
text, is both amazing and understanding. "Beowulf" is written, not as
a cold and pale description of suffering and death, but as an
oftentimes warm and celebrative way of upholding forces of good in a
time when evil forces were trying to take over.
In relation to this, it might be worthwhile to mention the notable
Christian influences found throughout "Beowulf". Many heroic deeds are
concluded as influenced by God, and more celebrative feelings and joys
go out to the same. However, as one could guess, this is not something
that produces an overall negative reading experience. Although there
is a certain presence of dualistic notions of good and evil, these two
are defined from the aspect of Indo-European culture. Where goodness
is heroism, self-sacrifice, generosity, bravery and thankfulness, evil
is most often defined as destructive forces upon a people, such as
inhuman monsters representing plagues or manslaughters of innocent
men. However, something that should be mentioned, is that the old
heathen (pagan) religions from the past are viewed by the characters
in "Beowulf" as evil and up roaring against God and His kingdom. Found
only as small traces from larger criticism, this fact can easily be
overseen as a mere result of the belief and history of the time this
poem was written.
Another thing which is reoccurring throughout "Beowulf", besides the
beauty and expressiveness of intense moments, is the despise for
cowardice and fright instead of immediate action. Where gratitude for
war gear is given, the use of and return for it, are less given.
Beowulf at one point hands over parts of the gifts received by
Hrothgar, to many of his closest men. However, as he will see, this is
a favour not entirely to rely on being returned and taken use of.
"Beowulf" condemns the treachery where men fail to oblige their heroic
life and instead relapse into passiveness. Also, experienced later
into the book, this is one of the main causes that lead to the tragic
end for our hero.
There is much to analyze and regard as beautiful in "Beowulf", as well
as there are moral and cultural lessons to value and uphold for future
European generations, hence its priceless value as art, historical
document and living proof of times once so great and rich on human, as
well as natural, understanding, that now have degenerated into
passiveness, cowardice and material comfort. Where it is vague, it
nonetheless achieves clear conclusiveness and self-reflection. It
remains as one of the most important Indo-European literary works, and
to this day baffle its vivid and curious readers with stories of
unimaginable heroism, human vengeance and a strong will to live.
Timeless. - Alexis
-=-
Aldous Huxley: A Biography
by Sybille Bedford (1973, Alfred A. Knopf/Harper & Row, New York)
Biographies are summations of lives; lives include ideas; thus
biographies of great people are a mixture of travelogue ("and then he
went to, and then she went to") and idea analysis. Sybille Bedford,
while dramatic in the way most English women drive English men to
homosexuality, is a talented writer and had a second-row seat to the
drama, thus gives us a nicely factual biography divided by the
progression in idea-scope of the writer Aldous Huxley.
The 730-page behemoth is nearly comprehensive but one can tell the
writer agonized over what to leave out; a full life, after all, is
rarely simple and Huxley's was more of a journey than most, from
middle class "post-aristocratic" origins to the disease that nearly
removed his sight to a series of ideological problems as he analyzed
the major source of study in his life: the future of twentieth-century
humanity. While Huxley is a mixed bag, ideologically, and often failed
to leave us clear statements of belief on certain ideals, he is alone
with the greats (Conrad, Melville, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Mencken,
Hemingway) in believing that we in the West as a meta-culture have
lost our way and are heading for disaster.
Huxley is best known for his apocalyptic "Brave New World," a novel of
the future in which the pursuit of individual pleasure has replaced
rationality and through that, created a "fair" but tedious and empty
world in which characters surfeited by pleasure cannot find moral or
intellectual significance to any act -- a world that, to this
reviewer, scarily resembled my own or at least the destination it
seemed to seek. That book, written during his 38th year, defined the
rest of his career as he tried to posit a Utopia to counter the
Dystopia he had not just conjectured but saw arising around him. One
of Bedford's greatest strengths is that she does not characterize him
as backing away from the ideas of "Brave New World," but for expanding
on them, even if sometimes he has said the opposite.
Unlike most writers both then and now, Huxley did not believe that
greater distribution of wealth and political power would dramatically
solve the problems of humanity. Although he spoke in the tokens of
power manipulation common to democratic societies (Bedford gives us
linguistic analysis indirectly as chapters pass, attempting to define
these terms outside of their assumed meanings) Huxley had a more
existential view of the human purpose and thus was not confined to
either material or spiritualist viewpoints, solely; his seemingly
paradoxical approach is that of a scientific mind which sees beyond
the manipulation of matter, as have most of the greatest thinkers.
"All that is being maintained here is that progressive science is one
of the causative factors involved in the progressive decline of
liberty and the progressive centralization of power, which have
occurred during the twentieth century" (450) he wrote. Bedford's
triumph as a biographer is making the balance of Huxley's ideas
despite the ease in which they could be assimilated into the dominant
trend of liberal democratic thought.
Indeed, if praise for this biography has a rational basis, it is
laudative of the way Bedford stitches together the scraps of
Huxley-related material that remain, mating them to ideas from his
books in a double helix of ideal and action. Its failing, by contrast,
is in the history of the Huxleys, which is often wordy and gives us
too much detail where a scene or two of profound demonstrative
influence would do. Still, it's easy to forgive, since the author
clearly has enthusiasm for her subject and if it's a rainy day,
nothing feels better than a brick of seven hundred pages of which
several hundred will contain provocative, succinct formulations of
ideas. Some of this excess seems intended to balance out the
explorations of Huxley's more provocative behaviors, such as his
LSD-taking or perceived promiscuity or adaptation to his
near-blindness, and in those difficult subjects Bedford succeeds in
turning sensationalism into an exploration of the reasons Huxley
indulged in such ways. She is also adept at revealing by omission the
somewhat nerdly and world-confused outlook of her subject.
Where the writing of this book may be admissible of critique, the
information it holds is so vast that one wants to suggest it as a
textbook next to Huxley's cut-and-paste book of modern spirituality,
"The Perennial Philosophy" (60% of the text was derived from
historical sources of spiritual information; it does not so much
present a perspective as the essential data for obtaining the
grounding necessary to have one). Of interest to traditionalists are
three major planks of idea. First, his approach to genetics. Second,
his belief in coming ecological crisis. Third, his political
assessment of our future, including his belief that Europe had not
only depleted itself but bought itself a future of many enemies.
Huxley would be inscrutable to both a modern neo-Nazi and
anti-fascist. Although he detested fascism, he also feared its
opposites, both the overflowing death camps of Stalin and the
pleasure-seeking vapid and tedious society of the imminent future
portrayed in "Brave New World." Fortunately, this puts him in good
company, since most of us both fear totalitarian regimes but recognize
that since most people are airheads, totalitarian methods are
necessary in some if not many cases. (It's another five years before
you can say that in public, however.) Bedford expertly juxtaposes his
fear for Europe, originating in his time living in fascist Italy, with
his migration to the United States and the bizarre disposable culture
he confronted, including its effects on his family and mental
stability. This dual avoidance led him to seek a Realism that was
praised his whole life, something formulated in a theory of genetic
determinism: "Our fundamental physical pattern is something given and
unalterable, something we can make the best of but can never hope to
change" (428).
Unlike almost all writers and leaders of his day (notable exceptions
for Hitler and Faulkner), Huxley saw an ecological crisis looming
before the world even had three billion people upon it and wrote about
it, although not unopposed by a string of editors who could not
visualize what he saw. "Industrialism is the systematic exploitation
of wasting assets. In all too many cases, the thing we call progress
is merely an acceleration in the rate of that exploitation. Such
prosperity as we have known up to the present is the consequence of
rapidly spending the planet's irreplaceable capital. Sooner or later
mankind will be forced by the pressure of cricumstances to take
concerted action against its own destructive and suicidal tendencies.
The long such action is postponed, the worse it will be for all
concerned...Overpopulation and erosion constitute a Martian invasion
of planet...Treat nature aggressively, with greed and violence and
incomprehension: wounded Nature will turn and destroy you...if,
presumptuously imagining that we can 'conquer' Nature, we continue to
live on our planet like a swarm of destructive parasites--we condemn
ourselves and our children to misery and deepening squalor and the
despair that finds expression in the frenzies of collective violence"
(465). Other than a failure to connect the "freedom" of most people
with their low judgment as a motivic factor behind industrialization,
the above could have been written by Ted Kaczynski, Adolf Hitler or
Pentti Linkola.
Intelligently, Huxley was apolitical, or rather, he criticized
philosophical trends and values instead of obsessing himself with the
politics of the moment. World War II broke his heart in that while he
wanted peace, he knew that the peace which was coming would not be a
positive either, in that while he detested fascists they were taming
some of the out-of-control aspects of English and American thought.
Like most of the great thinkers, Huxley did not fit into a political
category, and by freeing himself from such artifically polar
allegiances, he was able to grasp that Realism which made his vision
farsighted: "What we are paying for four hundred years of white
imperialism --and how long, to all appearances, we shall go on paying!
Asians and Africans do not forget and are so far from forgiving that,
if they can thereby do some harm to the ex-imperialists, they will
blithely damage themselves, even commit suicide. If I can spite your
face I will cut off my nose. There is no appeal from these passions
even to self interest...And the trouble is that these deep rooted
passions can now be implemented in violent practice. The great truth
enunciated by Hilaire Belloc: Whatever happens, we have got / The
Maxim gun, and they have not -- has unhappily ceased to be true. They
now have the Maxim gun -- and unless the West is prepared to out-trump
the gun with atomic missiles, they will soon be in a position... to
win all the "little wars." If I remember rightly, Nostradamus
prophesied that in the year two thousand or thereabouts, yellow men
would be flying over Paris. It may easily turn out that he was right"
(608).
As one can easily see from these excerpts, Huxley did not offer a
simple task to the biographer, and despite its failings, Bedford's
lengthy tome avoids the critical error of leaving its subject
unexplained. At a time when more and more people are suspecting that
none of the multiple-choice options offered by a society in decline
will reverse that decline, interest in Huxley is reviving, as he was
one of the few who dared "peer behind the curtain" and examine the
motivic forces of modern society. Patience is a virtue, and for those
so virtuous, "Aldous Huxley: A Biography" is a circuitous but
rewarding read. - vijay prozak
-=-
Cinema:
Even Dwarfs Started Small (dir. Werner Herzog 1970 B&W 35mm. 96
min.)
German New-Wave director Werner Herzog's comedy of the absurd proceeds
from the simplest of premises: Eight wards from an isolated
reformatory have rebelled against their head counselor and proceed to
wreak havoc on the building's grounds. With one catch; each stands no
higher than 4 ½ feet tall. The context of this element is decisive:
The group is not interned because they are dwarfs. Awkwardly, they are
not even supposed to be viewed as such; the entire cast, not just our
rabble-rousers, is Lilliputian --completely out of scale with the
material world around them. With this metaphor the film breaks from
similar ventures like Todd Browning's "Freaks" to offer a prescient
subtext to the debauched antics of its characters; whose struggle to
attain independence ultimately collapses through base desires and
interpretations of power.
Their tale begins in a chaos we're led to believe continues long after
the camera stops. A mob scuffles with comedic impotence to free one of
their own from the head-counselor's grasp. These efforts fail as their
comrade is seized and then tied to chair in a prison cell / office
occupied by only himself and the counselor for the duration of the
film. The inmates, four male, four female are sick of their regimental
lives. Sick of the health drills, powdered milk, grooming the animals,
"...sick of mother nature". Now free, they wander around the complex,
set on a desolate island capped by a distant volcano. Chastising one
another as cowards while scrambling for a new course of action --
possibly deserting the area, the question arises, "Where would we go?"
The greater idea of imprisonment is now primed for exploration through
the remainder of the narrative. As the mania unfolds, the troupe will
uproot the island's palm trees, slaughter a pig, set fire to the
gardens, crucify a pet monkey, display a box of insects dressed as a
wedding party and almost make it through a traditional family dinner
("your knife on the right, fork on the left"). While in between,
blissfully rummaging through porno mags and parading on top of
motorcycles in grotesque and hilarious parody of modern archetypes.
The latter half of these offenses is the most poignant, exhibiting a
ferocious cynicism of revolt still relevant today: that those seeking
to overthrow the world in which they find themselves, ultimately do so
through a deranged imitation of their masters.
An oft-repeated excuse for the pillaging of New Orleans during the
aftermath of hurricane Katrina was that it was a way to "get-back" at
the system. In a culture that presents material wealth as the apex of
living, naturally the effect of "getting back" and by extension,
assuming power, will be translated by some into crates of plastic,
electronic equipment, guns and lots of beer, even as life itself is
washed away. The future lost in the Lethe, the natural order of the
world is magnified: People survive at the expense of one another. And
so too, in one of "Dwarfs..."most stunning sequences, the gang happens
upon a garage and at once hot-wires the car inside with the intention
to finally ride off into town. For the next fifteen minutes, the
automobile, without passengers, will drive itself in a circle on the
lot (a chaotic theme central to the conclusions of other Herzog films
like "Strozeck" and "Aguirre: The Wrath of God") before being shoved
into one of the island's volcanic pits. Finally consumed by the
situation, the counselor apparently murders his captive soon after
emptying the contents of the office onto the roof-top, while shouting
that he needs room! He will eventually escape and flee into the
desert, provoking arguments with desiccate trees upon his exit; his
former responsibilities continuing their revenge against the earth. In
one of the greatest non-resolutions in history, the film ends with the
gang's "leader" laughing hysterically at a camel shitting in front of
him.
Not a political film per-se, "Even Dwarfs Started Small" was initially
pegged as fascist cinema due to it's depicting such a failed uprising
during the era of student revolutions and the Vietnam War. To this,
not much more can be speculated as to the direct motivation for the
film, which is, all told, shot brilliantly through the kinetic lens of
camera-man Thomas Mauch. The shocks contained in "Even Dwarfs" have
not worn over time because in them are the deeper insights to our
mismanagement of civilization; seen as caution for the future,
seemingly eternal. Although Herzog would later agree with his critics
dismal view while expressing his own distaste for the socialist
ideology at the time (though denying it as any kind of political
statement) he would suggest, rather ironically, that what takes place
in the film is not an actual defeat because, after all, "they're
happy". Further underlining the unreason and perversion of this
context, he noted that, had he returned weeks later to the spot of
filming, "...they would still be there, the midget laughing away."*
*Herzog on Herzog. Edited by Paul Cronin: Faber and Faber, 2002 - Smog
-=-
Throne of Blood (dir. Akira Kurosawa 1957)
Throne of Blood is a generally regarded as the best screen adaptation
of Shakespeare's Macbeth and it is one of the greatest literature to
film adaptations ever accomplished. The film is a Japanese take on the
classic Shakespearean tale of madness, deceit, fate and betrayal.
From the original Japanese title of Kumonosu jô, the title translates
to "Cobweb Castle" as opposed to the American version of the film
known as Throne of Blood. Both titles are fitting, but Cobweb Castle
reaches into the heart of the film more than Throne of Blood does as
this epic Kurosawa film is filled with webs of deceit and filaments of
fate, which are strung out in a divine pattern.
Throne of Blood takes place in feudal Japan and follows the legacy of
two feudal lords as they see a prophecy fulfilled which was given to
them by a spirit in the woods. One of them, Taketori Washizu (the
Macbeth character), is foretold that he will assume the throne as
Emperor and the other, Yoshiaki Miki, is foretold that he will be the
father of the line of the Emperor's who will come after Washizu. Both
men discuss the meaning of the prophecy given to them and shun it off
as lunacy, until the Emperor promotes them to higher positions upon
their arrival back to the castle, which was prophesized by the spirit
in the woods. This begins the fall into self-fulfilling prophecy,
betrayal and deceit.
Kurosawa adds a slightly different touch to the Macbeth equivalent
character of Taketori Washizu by making his ambitions for power very
subtle in the beginning of the story. Through the first quarter of the
story Washizu remains loyal to the Emperor and denies that he wishes
to become Emperor himself. However his wife is cold, cunning and
hungry for power and decides to use Washizu as her vehicle to obtain
her own personal lusts. She is perhaps the vilest and most devious
character in Throne of Blood - stoic in her expressions and cold
hearted in her calculations. She, in essence, begins the long sequence
of betrayal and deception by manipulating Washizu to kill the Emperor
and take the throne. In doing so she betrays both her husband and the
Emperor in favor of her own lusts.
The Macbeth character of Washizu resists disobedience more than
Shakespeare's Macbeth. This is a strikingly Japanese element in
Kurosawas story that is played masterfully to the point that it adds a
whole other realm of complexity and depth of the character of Washizu
as it exposes him as a man with hidden desires that even he denies or
does not fully accept. It takes strong manipulation from Washizu's
wife before his inner lusts for power really start to take bloom. Once
Washizu is manipulated into killing the Emperor backstabbing, deceit
and madness takes full stride in Throne of Blood and the pace and
intensity of the film increases.
Friends turn their backs on each other, paranoia and madness causes
massive blood shed inside the castle, Washizu begins to become
tortured by the deeds he has committed and eventually the fates come
to collect their hand as the power of Washzu's meets a fatal and
tragic end. The final moments in Washizu's kingdom are some of the
most powerful and stunning scenes put to film.
The laying of webs for other victims backfires on the spider when they
become so greedy and zealous that they lay so many webs that they
entangle themselves in a corner and suffocate. This is what happens to
many of the characters in Throne of Blood. Their selfish ambitions
become their own undoing and the trail of backstabbing eventually
lands a knife right in their own back, where it belongs. The
destructive nature of selfish ambition is one of the biggest themes
that Throne of Blood spends time probing, along with the nature of
fate and destiny.
Characters plot their own futures and seek to solidify their power
through deception as the film progresses forward. The lords abuse
their power and begin to plot against those around them in order to
fulfill some aspects of the prophecy that suit them and prevent others
which do not. The film brings into question the nature of fate and
destiny as the characters have fate thrust upon them and at the same
time self-fulfill many of the aspects of the prophecy. The nature of
fate in the context of Throne of Blood is highly paradoxical and full
of irony.
Tragedy. Melancholy. Fighting the currents of fate. Descending into
madness. All of these are ripe in Throne of Blood. One of the great
achievements of this film is that it manages to capture the spirit of
its source and it does so precisely because it was not trying to be
the source. Throne of Blood does not attempt to be a Shakespearean
play played out on the screen, it instead seeks to be a Shakespearean
tragedy interpreted into the language of film. As such it takes full
advantage of the language that is unique to film: visuals,
expressions, landscapes, atmospheres, silence, symbols and music. What
has been a fatal flaw to many other Shakespeare to screen adaptations
is that they have tried to be a play on the screen and as such they
have neglected the unique language of film.
Perhaps one of the greatest Shakespeare to screen adaptations came
from Japan due to the fact that the language barrier was broken and
the Japanese did not feel obligated to live up to the exact words and
formulations of a western literary giant. Kurosawa, by turning the
symbols and themes of Macbeth into a uniquely Japanese context managed
to liberate the themes of the Shakespearean tragedy from the over
powering mythos of the western conception of Shakespeare and as a
result he did the film, the topics and the themes the greatest of
services. - phantasm
-=-
Food:
Cold Plate Drop Candies
You may or may not have noticed that we live in a time where the most
extreme evil consequences to our behavior are considered acceptable
and in fact normal, since after all, we don't <i>intend</i> to be
evil. However, we are on a sure path to tedious wage slavery, polluted
air and water, overpopulation, resource depletion and race war.
Luckily, you can strike back -- by making candies.
Especially if you have children, you may have found yourself studying
the candy available in this society. Almost all of it has three major
flaws: it's expensive considering the ingredient value, it comes in
non-biodegradable landfill-swelling packaging, and it's full of weird
chemicals that will probably turn your little darlings into bug-eyed
mutants. We have a solution.
Ingredients
Sugar
Flavoring
Instructions:
1. Place 3-5 plates in your freezer
2. Heat pan on low
3. Add 1lb sugar, slowly.
Stir constantly -- spoon always in circular motion -- for about 15
minutes. This stuff burns faster than napalm, so no bathroom breaks.
Your goal is to melt the sugar, but not caramelize it fully. It will
melt into a thick liquid that is no longer gritty under your stirring
spoon (it will become translucent).
4. Turn off heat, remove from flame and add flavoring, stirring madly.
5. Using stirring spoon, drop candy in whatever form you prefer --
here we sprinkle it randomly to make small candies -- on plates and
return them to freezer. Using wax paper on the plates makes this job
easier and cleaner.
6. After 15 minutes, remove plates and let them warm up slightly, then
pry off candies. You should be able to store these at room
temperature.
Flavoring:
Cinnamon
This is a favorite because it is blazingly easy. 3 tbsp of cinnamon to
one pound of sugar produces a sweet candy; adding in 1/5 tsp of
powdered red pepper makes cinnamon hots (stir thoroughly).
Lime/Citrus
Wash a lime with ScotchBrite or similar abrasive sponge to remove
oils, waxes, coloring, pesticides, AIDS and other artifacts of
industrial society. Using the fine mesh of your shredder, make powder
of 1 tbsp of rind and then juice 2 tbsp of liquid on top of it. Mash,
mix, pound until it's nearly uniform. Wait a few minutes for mixture
to half-cool before stirring in.
Ginger
Use 2 tbsp of ginger; see cinnamon instructions.
Strawberry
Use wet towel under running water to remove seeds from 3 medium
strawberries. Liquefy with blender and heat on low for 20 minutes,
then add sugar as the original recipe calls for.
Your children will kvetch and bitch and moan because after all, these
candies didn't come in plastic packaging with their favorite cartoon
characters on it. Tell them this is candy for spirited people who
would rather spend their money on trees than colored plastic garbage.
In about 18 years, they'll get it, and you can look forward to seeing
them blow up industry lackey scientists and burn down ecointrusive new
subdivisions.
At the time of this writing, making the cinnamon version of these
candies cost approximately 80 cents per pound, versus nearly five
dollars per pound for off-the-shelf cinnamon candies. This is the
perfect activity while waiting for the phone to ring or S.W.A.T. team
to finalize entry. vijay prozak
----------
Features
----------
Bathhouse Meditations: A Dialogue with Jesus of Datejesus.com
DateJesus.com has been online for five years supplying us with
cunning, often comical, insights and references into modern and
ancient culture. Throughout the years the site has been promoting
traditionalist perspectives, Indo-European values and the beauty and
joy of taking baths. To say the least DateJesus.com has turned a few
heads and raised a few eyebrows since its conception. The
Exponentiation interview team caught up with Jesus at his private
bathhouse where he cordially obliged to answer some of our queries.
It was a cool April evening when we caught up with Jesus at his
private bathhouse in a remote rural section of Virginia. He greeted
us with open arms and escorted us inside where three sudsy tubs
awaited our bodies. Our kind host offered us a fine selection of
wines and cheeses to further enjoy our bathing experience. We kindly
accepted and then dipped into the warm water to begin our dialogue
with Jesus.
Jesus sat nobly in his sudsy bath water and informed us as to why he
decided to take on the persona of the messiah. "Friends said my
appearance and mannerisms were often as they imagined a good Jesus to
be, so the website started as a little joke for friends but gradually
became much larger." Jesus sat back and let his hair dip into the
bath water and then took a sip of his wine. He looked contemplatively
towards the ceiling and continued his dialogue." I've never taken
Judeo-Christianity seriously or been troubled by it, but I was
surprised to see how the U.S. fundamentalist regime shapes people's
minds and instills Middle Eastern values and culture while claiming to
take no religious position. As a result of this programming, many
"enlightened" Americans didn't understand the website or pretended to
be "offended", but I never trouble myself over the opinions of
idiots." Jesus took in more silence and then continued to tell us
about Judeo-Christianity and his views towards it. "Christianity is
just liberal Judaism for gentiles, an insane monotheism that hates
strong spirits and views the world materialistically while burdening
itself with so many contradictions that a study of its values explains
why its followers are so nutty. Since Christianity and Judaism differ
only on their specific mythology and not at all in their values, they
can effectively be treated as the same religion in terms of
understanding the world view, ideas, and spirituality they promote."
Jesus continued, informing us of his youthful contacts with
Judeo-Christianity, "I had little contact with churches, but soon
after realizing that Santa Claus wasn't real, the idea of the Middle
Eastern god seemed silly as well. In my teen years I tried to convey
this to others through blasphemy and now find humor to be a good
vehicle as well."
Laughter filled the air of the bathhouse, followed by sips of wine and
a ponderous five minuets of silence to allow the ambiance and aroma of
the bathhouse to tantalize our senses and propel us into a meditative
state. We couldn't help but wonder what molded a man like Jesus, what
made him tick, what crafted his spirit? Without our even asking,
Jesus answered our questions. His ability to look into our eyes and
understand our questions before we even had them was astounding. "My
orientation to life is European, but I can only claim to really
understand northern Europe, as the cheerfulness, sociability,
celebrations, and personal indulgences of the southern Europeans is
not of my nature. I enjoy the seriousness of the northern Europeans
and their direct honesty, perhaps cultivated by brutal winters. While
it is true that they are not "fun" in the southern sense, I don't have
any interest in that kind of fun." Jesus continued telling us about
himself, giving us insights into his educational pursuits and
interests. "My academic period was spent studying as many fields of
interest as possible in detail, with a focus on philosophy and
psychology, as well as functional fields like economics, physics, and
computers." Jesus took a small sliver of swiss cheese, chewed, and
took us deeper into his soul. "I understand the world from spending
time in nature growing up with an active knowledge of my roots and
participation in my culture, being exposed to a wide range of ideas
without judgment, being allowed to explore the world without limits,
having a natural curiosity rather than fear, always having
inspirational music around me, preferring what is true to what is
easy, and believing in making dreams true." We took the time to
reflect upon Jesus' insights. In a world as fractured and as
overly-specialized as ours it is inspirational to hear of a man who
cultivates his intellect, body and spirit together as one as opposed
to accepting the modern worlds demand to fulfill a singular mode of
being via a career or through purchasing decisions.
This made us wonder, with the diversity of interests Jesus has, how
does he make way? How does the messiah bull his way through the 21st
century? Could he possibly bog himself down with the career life?
Was he accumulating a 401k at a little office job? Jesus spake,
"Occupationally, I've done well in business consulting, but prefer to
spend my time writing various texts, composing music, and working on
traditional cultural activities." Fitting that a man with his mind
focused towards the deeper depths of being would not allow himself to
become bogged down with the careerist's mindset. Modern work to Jesus
seems to be a pragmatic activity, a reality of the current world that
he must participate in to some degree in order to accomplish his
greater goals. It is not the summation of his being, which is
something the current western world would like us to believe about our
"careers."
What cultivates a meaningful being to Jesus is better understood in
how he spends his free time: writing music and texts, taking in a good
work of art, enjoying a walk through the countryside, and taking a
nice dip in a sudsy bath. In contrast to this, Jesus feels that what
makes a meaningless life is the pursuit of pleasure for the sake of
pleasure. "Hedonism is what makes life meaningless; a meaningful life
is what makes life rewarding. The purpose of life isn't pleasure or
happiness, but these often result from the fulfillment of a meaningful
life. As long as people chase happiness they are unlikely to find it,
except perhaps superficially, and will always feel empty inside."
Jesus continued, "Hedonism seems to be the answer pitched by
advertisers so that dummies buy products, hoping for a quick fix to
their unhappiness. Then when they find they are still unhappy, they
futilely redouble their efforts."
After hearing Jesus speak on hedonism we insisted on probing his
thoughts about the current governments and economic systems of the
western world as so many western nations today seem to be promoting
the hedonistic lifestyle. Jesus smirked, knowing the questions were
inevitable, and then he began to speak methodically, "Financial
liberal democracy is the lowest common denominator and appeals to the
broadest base possible by asserting nothing of distinctive value. As
such, any alternative that understands differences between people,
ideas, and values is a threat because it undermines democracy's claim
that everything is identical and all aspects of all issues are
apparent to everyone. If people started questioning the ability of
voters to make decisions, or to understand even basic issue, then the
premises of democracy would be revealed as comical and it would have
to be restrained. This is especially funny in nations like America
where the average voter has virtually no knowledge of the issues he is
voting on. Why not let a monkey throw darts or have a lottery to pick
a leader? Such a method would not do any worse than to let the mob
vote." We asked Jesus why then America was so powerful and
influential throughout the world if it had uninformed voters and
leaders making its decisions. Jesus laughed heartily and articulated
a response for us, "American entertainment and junk culture is only
considered a leader by people within its borders. Europe mostly laughs
as America because the educated can see the inevitable consequences of
its problems and hints of the rot festering inside waiting to burst
forth." Jesus forwarded the discussion; "America lost its direction
after WW2, finding the need to define itself in opposition to other
powerful nations instead of with some positive statement of values. It
sought soft tolerance as its new identity, but this meant that
previous values that unified people had to be discarded and every
aberration and nonsensical protest had to be accommodated. Once we
start tolerating what is harmful to the community, the idea of
community quickly disappears, removing the foundation for culture."
So then the value and power of such a culture is really an illusion?
Jesus continued, "Citizens are allowed to purchase any products they
want and are encouraged to be entertained, but this bread and circus
existence of "freedom" yields nothing of value." We thought deeply
about the possibility that all the western worlds material dominance
was really just an illusion, a disease resting in the bed waiting to
take over the host organism.
As we thumbed through these ideas Jesus continued to engage us,
"America's purpose for the world is in boasting of its greatness so
its impending bankruptcy in ten years and reduction to third world
status within twenty-five years will encourage other nations not to
emulate the behaviors and values that it promotes." He continued,
"The rest of world culture is also harmed by a hesitation to assert
themselves and instead tolerate the loud trends promoted by
disintegrative forces. Every nation should to be true to their
heritage and traditions instead of going along with trends that are
contrary to what is related to their people. The trends will pass in
time, but those who followed them will have wasted time and
misdirected many others from what belongs to them." So it appears
America itself becomes an example of the destructive powers of
hedonism and the futile, destructive pursuit of materials. How does
Jesus see an American being able to get a look at real culture if all
they have ever seen is a two-dimensional plastic culture? "I
encourage people to visit Europe and promise that it will be
eye-opening and refreshing for someone from America because for a few
weeks you will get to experience civilization. While some say I am
biased for preferring capable, thoughtful people, the value of the
lives they have far exceeds what Hollywood culture, Walmart,
McDonalds, ballgames, and videogames offer to Americans." Material
gain without spiritual value is no real gain at all. It is a loss for
individuals and cultures as it sucks them dry of their marrow and
leaves them hollow shells without meaning.
Bellies full of wine and fine cheeses, heads astir with thought and
toes and fingers crimpled and withered from bath water, we decided to
exit the bath and take our conversation into Jesus' chamber room where
he offered to entertain us with some musical compositions on the
cello. He continued to speak to us about politics and economics as we
toweled off and put on our robes. "Economics are not important in
healthy societies and are certainly not the first or second most
important thing. Today's arguments that frame all issues in terms of
economic impact lose all perspective - of course doing things costs
more (and "hurts" the economy) while dumping toxic waste in someone's
backyard is less expensive and thus is economically sound." We made
our way down the hall into the parlor where we refreshed our wine
glasses as Jesus voice continued to echo in our head. "The primacy of
economics means that the quality of life suffers and shows that the
goal of having a healthy, sane, civilized culture has been forgotten.
Fix society and you'll have good enough economics. Focus on economics
and you'll wreck everything of legitimate value as you cut corners to
satisfy short term goals."
But how do we argue logically for a system based on qualitative
values? Today's society is so focused on quantity and rating things
by numbers as they are percieved as being more tangible than the
qualitative aspects in things Jesus shook his head and spoke,
"through logic and the rules of different systems of arguing, it is
possible to argue convincingly for or against anything, irrespective
of the validity of such arguments. The Greek philosophical school of
rhetoric should be understood as a demonstration of the futility of
arguments and their distance from truth rather than as a handbook for
making winning arguments for stupid ideas or legal cases." Our drinks
refreshed, we continued our walk down the hall. Perhaps attempting to
argue for or against a particular way of living is limited and
incapable of getting at truth. Argument and logic are useful tools
for understanding the world but they are not the end of the road as
they have limitations and boundaries that prevent them from grasping
ecstatic truths.
Jesus spoke more on the secular matters of politics and economics as
we walked onward to the music chamber. "If we are forced to live
under democracy, then capitalism can be our only system of valuation
since the two are inseparable. Capitalism says that value only exists
in what someone would pay for something, so wilderness could either be
preserved or
leveled for another strip mall, depending on the highest
bidder." Interesting thoughts. It appears that the union of logical
inquiry, scientific analysis, industrial modes of production and
materialist's modes of thinking have contributed greatly to our life
out of balance. The esoteric and sacred have been forgotten in favor
of the exoteric and profane and as such the world is looked upon as a
resource to be exploited and not as a spiritual center of becoming and
interdependence.
What type of governance then can replace the dysfunctional ones? To
this question Jesus was highly responsive, "A political system has to
serve its people, with leadership that is concerned with what is best
for the nation, fixing short-term concerns without introducing
long-term problems. Government needs to have fewer opinions, but
better ones from more qualified and thoughtful people." Jesus kept
our ears occupied, "Many traditional systems throughout history
operated effectively for the benefit of their people, without the need
to appease every thoughtless opinion. Even Plato warned us that
democracy was the worst form of government and constituted a crime
against the community because it treated all people equally. His
Republic details the general structure that works: the best should
lead and the rest will fall in place."
In the midst of the materialistic frey of modernity we asked Jesus
what future he saw for the natural world, the forests, oceans and
savannas that mold our beings. It became obvious to us that Jesus was
highly passionate yet despondent about these matters. "To fully know
our roots and have a quality life we need to maintain our environment,
but sadly this looks like a losing battle. While a locality or even
nation can make an effort, the idea of economic "growth" puts the
future aside in exchange for results now. The results are a massive
destruction of nature, with things we all know about like
deforestation, overfishing, and toxicity in our air and water. We
acknowledge these issues but are unable to work together to stop the
people who produce these causes. As a result, movements like
ecofascism begin to make sense as a reaction to the futility of trying
to work with the established financial democracy system." We made our
way into the music chamber and Jesus arranged his cello and sheet
music in the corner of the room, all while continuing to serenade us
with his thoughts. "Until the system is changed away from democracy,
the only way to preserve land or anything else of eternal,
non-economic value, is to value it in economic terms and for
preservers to gather money to protect it. This approach would be
unnecessary in an intelligent system, but we have no options other
than dealing with a materialistic system on its terms until it is
replaced." He then stared out the window to the forest creek running
behind his garden and spoke with subtle intensity. "We need to have a
future where there is open space, not every piece of land settled with
the maximum number of people crammed together like cockroaches." This
spoke to everyone in the room who had been in an urban traffic jam,
had seen the sunset stifled by pollution and the rivers filled with
grime. We took a moment of silence to think everything over and then
Jesus began to play the cello to intensify the moment and solidify all
that had been discussed on our travel from the bathhouse to the
chamber room.
After entertaining us with some of his moodiest compositions he
informed us about his love for music and his influences as a cellist.
"I've been playing off and on for about twenty years, but only
composing over the last five. Bach's unaccompanied cello suites are an
influence, and I've played an extensive classical repertoire, favoring
Haydn's quartets, most of the classic cello concertos, and many
symphonies where the great works of Beethoven and Mozart left the
strongest impression and inspiration." Jesus continued, "I listen
mostly to classical music because it communicates to me about the
world I understand. Occasionally I listen to black metal classics from
the 1991-1995 black metal period, favoring Burzum, Immortal, and
Darkthrone." Art is important to the human soul. It exposes to us
the unforeseen realms deep within reality and allows us to ponder what
can be; in that sense, art is a representation of spirit in its many
manifestations. Art is the silent universal voice that tells us of
our inner character, our phobias and loves, it bespeaks of the flaws
and beauties of our society and of our universe. Jesus expounds upon
these thoughts when he speaks of music. "Music tells me what great
minds see. I consider it a language rather than merely notes - a
musician of value communicates something that is understood by the
initiated and this is why some composers have lasting power. My works
are still primitive and my recordings still sloppier, but I aspire to
be able to leave behind something of worth to my culture, or at least
be humorously self-sufficient in writing my funeral music." We all
engaged in laughter for some minuets and once again fell silent as a
serious wind reentered the room.
Jesus turned around and stared deeply into a large painting hanging
over the mantle above his fireplace, "The Solitary Tree" by Casper
David Friedrich. As he stared deeply into the painting tears welled
up in the corner of his eyes and he began to speak passionately about
art. "Real art must express something of significance, which modern
art fails to do. It is even doubtful that any of the junk art produced
today to the praise of post-modern critics will be studied in ten
years time. Work originating from a shortage of ideas and talent
simply has no lasting power except as a history of the hype that
critics and advocates were able to produce." He paused, realizing he
was getting overly impassioned, took a sip of wine to calm his nerves
and then continued, "merely using the form of art does not constitute
content." What is it then that makes great art? One thing is for
sure, the art feeds on purpose and spirit. Art without spirit belies
whatever extravagant methods were used to create it, or whatever hype
was kindled to attempt to market it. Jesus' words were well taken by
the interviewees.
Realizing that Jesus was highly passionate about the arts, we decided
to ask him what he felt about art in the industrial world. Does the
technology affect the creation? Does it drastically alter the
culture, and the art? Would an angst ridden man smearing feces on a
canvas be creating art? It is then worth wondering if all the angst
ridden art of the 20th century, the art depicting man and nature as a
jumble of meaningless abstract symbols, the art depicting us as a
million eyes staring separately into the abyss is an amalgam of the
modern worlds inner nature, a fractured world floating in the abyss.
Jesus spoke in depth on these matters. "With modern technology making
it trivial for anyone to put out books, art, and music, this doesn't
add to the culture in any way because culture is always defined by the
highest creative examples, and not merely a mob of voices making
plentiful junk. Britney Spears is no Beethoven, and the artist
expressing himself with feces is no Rubens. As we are in Kali Yuga,
no great art should be expected and the almost complete absence of art
over the last century confirms this. It is also noteworthy that there
has been an absence of philosophy which is especially troubling
because society needs a thinker or two now more than ever, but none
appear." What then is going on with this deconstructionist attitude?
How is it viewing the world, art, culture? Jesus enlightened us.
"Postmodernism seems to be a form of mental indigestion concerned with
deconstructing the whole into small elements that are disconnected
from their structure and thus rendered meaningless once removed from
their context. This same approach would take the wheels off of a car
and dismiss them as circles, or remove the axles and call them poles,
yet the car is rendered inoperable without them."
What then are we to do when faced with this void, this deconstructive
emptiness? Are we to give in, accept nihilism? Jesus enlightened us
as to his perspectives on these matters. "There are varying
definitions of nihilism, ranging from "hopeless despair over
meaninglessness" to "rejection of arbitrary valuation and acceptance
only of what is real." The latter definition I embrace, but consider
it a variation of tautology in that reality must always be favored
over idealism and delusion, and something is only what it is, and not
what it is not. Since the way humans commonly communicate means
assigning values and definitions crudely, many people understand the
world through a hierarchy of mistakes where there is error at every
level. Removing that error with careful analysis would be a nihilistic
or tautological process that would clarify one's understanding of all
things." We all paused to take in the words of Jesus and when he saw
that clarity shone through our faces he continued. "Those who find
despair and claim the world is meaningless seem to be acting out just
as people drowning like to pull down others with them. Again, cause
and effect seems backwards: those who see the world as meaningless
will despair, but their lack of insight is of no concern to the world,
or to others who have seen and experienced more."
But how is it possible to get people to understand the importance and
value in the world as well as being a part of a greater whole when
they are so focused on themselves and their individual gain? Jesus
responded, "Some people can understand ideas in the abstract, such as
how a functioning community would work, or even loose coalitions of
people working for common values though geographically separated.
However, such awareness exists only in a minority of people, thus more
tangible demonstrations are needed." What kind of demonstrations are
those? "Nature is the ultimate judge of reality, quickly confronting
lies and delusions by punishing those who follow them. People should
be exposed more to plants growing, animals birthing and dying - and
how they go about hunting and being hunted. Everything is mortal in
the cycle of life, but the animal form is only form and not the
substance of life, thus transient existence is no objection to the
whole of life, nor is any individual separate from it." We looked at
each other in agreement and he continued, "Once some of these basic
concepts of nature are grasped, people can understand that they too
are animals and live according to the same natural principles. Just as
animals and plants are raised for food, people should realize that
they too will soon die and be gone forever. Since almost no one can
accomplish anything as an individual, the individualist lifestyle
leads nowhere, but as part of the group of like-minded people working
for common goals, much of lasting importance can be accomplished."
As the sun sank low on the horizon we decided to ask Jesus more
questions that were spiritual in nature. There was no doubt to us
that Jesus was a deeply spiritual man and he confirmed it when we
began to ask him. "I think spirituality is very important and
consists of one's relationship with the universe -- obviously this
would matter only to those who look farther than the immediate." We
already knew his position on Judeo-Christianity so we wanted to know
what he felt was a viable spiritual path for a western world crushed
and drained of true spirituality. Jesus spoke, "Each race has it's
own spirituality reflecting its position with the universe, and thus
each is valid in that way. In what strikes Indo-Europeans as the most
pathological, you have the Abrahamic people virtually confessing to
moral degeneracy and an instinctual lack of decency in their holy
texts where they fixate on "sin" and how to stop themselves from
behaving badly. This seems like comedy to Indo-Europeans who never had
any notion of "sin", but only saw "evil" in people who were stupid and
made decisions that harmed normal people who did good by instinct. The
old Indo-European myths of devils were equated with the forces of
stupidity, each of which had to be confronted, outsmarted, and
exterminated so the people weren't hampered by its existence." Jesus
paused, judging our responses and then continued, "the caste system is
important, as each person does best in the world by knowing how they
contribute to the whole, and to do so in an appropriate way instead of
contrary to their abilities and nature."
But we wanted to know more. In the modern world of science, what does
that do to spirituality? Can the two coexist, or do they clash. In
the past there have been scientists who have felt science undoes
spirituality and they declare beliefs that are religious in nature
mere "superstitions." But there have also been individuals within the
scientific realm such as Carl Jung who have sought to defend aspects
of spirituality and mythology. Jesus informed us as to some of his
perspectives on these matters. "While scientists are free to comment
on spirituality or anything else they like, discussions of
spirituality quickly cease to be scientific, which calls the idea of
coexistence into question. I think Jung was massively insightful and
mostly correct, but don't think his spiritual discussions can be
called scientific." Jesus continued probing the topic, "Science is a
relative of industrialism, i.e. functional reproducibility without
regard for the human consequences of that structure. Just as putting a
human in a factory assembly line and having them make jars all day
long will destroy their spirit in short order, so does living in a
society governed by the reckless use of scientific physical
possibility." We were about to interrupt with another question when
Jesus raised his finger, telling us he wished to continue, "further,
scientists tend to have an unusual psychology that marries arrogance
and ignorance, so they make absolute assertions that are often proven
wrong in short order, while they dismiss possibilities that are
discovered by others later -- all this while at the same time moving
forward to apply industrial uses of their "knowledge" for the highest
bidder. This has reckless consequences as shown by modern ideas like
genetically modified crops, or past inventions like cars that pollute
the environment while foolishly using a non-renewable fuel source.
These people are either incapable of envisioning consequences or are
willfully ignorant of the long-term impact they create. In either
case, this type of thinking is contrary to a concern with eternity."
Pleased by the response we received we decided to ask Jesus what he
thought of some of the present day religious traditions besides
Judeo-Christianity. Jesus began speaking, "Islam has several sects -
some Abrahamic and thus suffering the same problems as
Judeo-Christianity, while others seem tied to a traditional view that
has more in common with Hinduism and ancient Indo-European religions."
He continued, "Buddhism and Taoism offer clever solutions to retreat
within and find satisfaction in disinterest, but such approaches are
only appropriate for Eastern spirits, and Westerners who attempt to
take on those values will typically find themselves contradicted
against their instincts and ultimately dissatisfied for existing by
avoiding life." He paused to stretch and then went on, "Hinduism is
wiser and is related to traditional Indo-European spirituality and
values. The notion of the cycles of life, and our existence in the era
of Kali Yuga is essential and comparable to teachings in the Nordic
Edda." But what of some of these new religious creations that have
erected themselves during the 20th century? Jesus spoke, "New Age
religions like Wicca are humanist and really little more than secular
Judeo-Christianity. They want peace, love, equality, and other slave
values, but these can provide no effective solutions since they only
deal with effects of what they consider problems, and not causes." We
shook our heads in agreement and then relaxed our minds by peering out
the window into the misty evening.
Realizing that the sun had now dipped far below the horizon we decided
to bid our farewells so as to not overstay our welcome. A warm smile
grew over Jesus' face, thanking us for our coming into his home and
being gracious guests. We felt our questions provoked good responses
and were pleased with the hospitality and insights of our host. As he
directed us to the front door he invited us back for more wine,
conversation and sudsy bath taking. We cordially agreed to take him
up on the offer again sometime and wandered away into the night
stricken countryside and vanished into the forest glade like ghosts.
-phantasm/no fun
-=-
"Kalevala and the Finnish soul"
The Finnish spiritual landscape is an odd one, for we have been
subject
to all kinds of cultural influences, most notably that of the Hammer
Axe
culture which left a lasting mark on us in its brief yet influential
wake. Our people's beliefs have traces from the ancient, deeply
shamanistic traditions to the clear consciousness of the active
culture
of the Aryans, but we are fully neither. Fortunately, Elias Lönnrot
had
collected traditional poetry to create Kalevala in 1835 and 1849, our
national epic, the mirror of our collective soul. From that we can
gain
knowledge about the cultural shifts that took place then, although the
information is preserved in such a form, that it must not be looked at
with eyes deadly serious; rather, with eyes that allow imagination to
run freely and see what most cannot see anymore.
The characters
The poems that Kalevala is comprised of form a story revolving mainly
on the characters Väinämöinen, an age-old shaman/wizard of immense
power who is able to wield great magic and cast spells by playing his
kantele; Lemminkäinen, a great warrior with a fiery will and sword, he
is an active conqueror; Joukahainen, another active type of man, who
challenged mighty Väinämöinen itself in a battle of words; Ilmarinen,
a skilled blacksmith, the forger of Sampo and the intermediary between
Väinämöinen and Lemminkäinen/Joukahainen; and last, Louhi, the Hag of
the North and an adversary of Väinämöinen. Also, Kullervo, a man of a
tragic life, has his own sidestory in the Kalevala, which is important
nonetheless as the East/West-dichotomy and Finnish mentality in
general culminate in this single character. The five main characters
also have their corresponding elements: Fire, Water and Air;
Lemminkäinen/Joukahainen, Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen, respectively.
Louhi could be associated with Earth because after all, she was the
Golden Woman herself, now only demonized and considered as a remnant
from the past.
Hunter-gatherer societies
These five characters represent the major cultural forces of olden
times. Where Väinämöinen is a deep, shamanistic person, Lemminkäinen
blazes headlong into battle and adventure. The reason these two men
appear in Kalevala is that Finland has been subject to cultural
changes and outside influence, most notably by the Hammer Axe culture,
which had a profound impact in all its 400 years of effect in 2500
B.C. Väinämöinen and his 'blue' mindset is a representation of the
old, original culture, that inhabited the lands before the
Indo-European influence, namely Lemminkäinen. The old culture based on
hunting-gathering and because of this, people were by far at the mercy
of nature. They had to move frequently from place to place in search
of
food, and so they came to respect nature. They recognized that life is
a cycle where death isn't an end but merely a new beginning of life, a
necessity for the wheel to turn round and round. These hunter-gatherer
tribes thus thought they lived in a "dream world" of sorts, without
having a clear self-image to thrust upon the world as they were in a
perfect harmony with the surrounding environment. They depicted this
state of mind with the goddess Golden Woman, who was depicted to hold
a boy on her lap, who laid in a foetal position. People died and were
born in this position, and thus they were eternally contained within
the loving Mother. They are the tribe of Kalervo, who are to face the
great deluge, after which nothing is the same.
Whereas the Golden Woman represented the whole of the world for the
hunter-gatherer people in their "dreamlike" consciousness, Louhi
depicts the old and terrible, a distant past yet still looming below
the sons of Kaleva. Louhi is the one whose daughters are being sought
by heroes and to marry one, they must pass tests requiring skill and
magic. These are quests to the past and perilous lands, and like the
Aesir warred and plotted against the giants of Jotunheim, the heroes
of Kalevala scheme and battle against Louhi, for she is the deep, dark
unconscious, and battling against her is paramount to the achievement
of the Sampo-state and founding a cosmic way.
The waterflood event and the following Sampo-state
Many religions have a myth about a great waterflood that brings forth
complete change with its rushing waves. Thus, flood is associated with
change and as a landmark between the past and the future. While there
aren't any literal references to waterfloods in Kalevala, except for
maybe when Väinämöinen hits his knee with an axe and blood flows over
the earth, there are several that correspond with its meaning: the
quest for Sampo, Kullervo's story and the duel of singing between
Joukahainen and Väinämöinen at the crossroads, for example. The flood
event comes forth when two opposing sides confront each other: East
and West, North and South, often depicted by characters having certain
attributes. The clash results in a synthesis of the two forces which
are left in the past then as something new is born.
The symbol of Ukonvasara, which is the Finnish equivalent of Thor's
Hammer, depicts exactly this cultural change and new direction.
There's
one variation of it that has two men on horseback facing at opposite
directions at the both ends of the hammer's head. These men are
Lemminkäinen/Joukahainen and Väinämöinen, West and East respectively,
and it is the struggle between these forces, united by Seppo
Ilmarinen, that creates the upward column, the hilt of the hammer.
Some variations actually have a tree as the hilt of the hammer, so it
seems that it resembles the World Tree that harbours this conflict
between the opposing forces within its roots. The state in which this
unifying happens, the moment of finding new direction, is called the
'Sampo-state.'
Kullervo, the incarnation of Sampo-state
Kullervo's tale is a story separate from the main plot of Kalevala. It
is described in it how a man is severed from his roots, having not
even
born among his kin but strange men, and facing constant hardships
within the foreign culture of Untamo. After Kullervo is given birth,
only three nights old he breaks his cradle and Untamo senses that he
will bring misfortune upon them and thus tries to kill him three
times, failing every time. Untamo then thought to himself that the boy
could be
perhaps used for some work at the farm, regardless of Kalervo's blood
flowing through his veins. As it turns out, Kullervo fails miserably
in each task that Untamo assigns him simply because he is a
spiritually broken man, and the chaos within him prevents him from
focusing and channeling will towards any goal. The unconsciousness -
the blood of Kalervo - is too potent for him to resist it.
Untamo is then frustrated with such a wretched man and sells him as a
slave to Ilmarinen, the blacksmith and an unifying factor as the
element
of Air. Ilmarinen lives at a farm with his wife, and they put Kullervo
to do normal house chores and one day he is sent to herd cattle,
Ilmarinen's malicious wife, however, baked a rock inside the loaf of
bread they gave to Kullervo for food. Battered by the constant
hardships
of his life, he even doubts the substance of his bread, although it
possesses a delicious appearance. When he started to cut to bread
with his precious knife, inherited from his father, the blade suddenly
snapped in half. In that moment of utter despair and the pinnacle of
inner conflict, he let out the famous "Kullervo's Curse," which marked
a
turning point in his life. The forces that had previously battled each
other in him to no avail, now formed a definite direction and a
"cosmic
space." Through will, he rose and decided to leave from under the yoke
of Ilmarinen, summoning wolves and bears to the peril of Ilmarinen's
wife. Kullervo then sought out his parents, who already thought he was
dead and gone forever, like his sister is.
After that, Kullervo takes part in the daily chores of the family but
still his spirit is a wounded, miserable one: in anything he tries his
hand at, he fails miserably, even though he is now united with his
kin.
But he is neither of Kalervo or Untamo; he is the middle pillar.
Eventually, returning from a trip of paying taxes on which he courts
many women - being the young man he is - and suffering two drawbacks,
the third woman takes interest in the gold in the sled and jumps in
with obvious results. However, it turns out that she is the lost
sister of Kullervo and by his chaotic action, he has defiled his own
kin. Upon realizing this terrible deed, the woman runs into thundering
rapids and drowns herself. Returning home, he tells the dire news but
his mother tries to comfort him, for there would be many places in the
vast depths of the woods to hide from the truth, in hopes of fading
and forgetting the guilt. Kullervo declines as for him, there is no
other option than to avenge against Untamo and ultimately, meet death.
Others of the family claim not to miss him were he to perish and
despite his mother's wishes, Kullervo severed himself from his kin,
like he did with Untamo, and set out to war. - frostwood
-------------------
Self-Sufficiency
-------------------
Gardening in Baskets:
A small vegetable or fruit garden can be grown in basic laundry
baskets. This is ideal for those who do not have the land or ability
to grow a garden directly in the ground. It is also economical, as it
doesn't require a lot of money or resources to construct one.
For anyone wanting to grow their own food yet find it problematic
because they are living in an apartment or small home, basket
gardening is a wonderful way to solve that problem.
Here's how to start a small garden using laundry baskets:
Collect large and small laundry baskets wherever you can find them.
Some cheap places to start looking are at dollar discount stores and
salvage yards, but anywhere you buy them, laundry baskets are cheap.
Try and collect at least one basket or so for each crop you wish to
grow.
Once you have the baskets line them with garbage bags. The tough
industrial garbage bags are better to use than others but most any
garbage bag used will do fine. Fill the bottom of the garbage bags
with about two inches of coarse gravel for drainage and top the gravel
with a layer of newspaper.
Next in the process comes filling the basket with dirt. Try and find
soil rich in nutrients to add to your baskets. If you get your soil
from an empty lot take note that the soil is most likely depleted of
needed nutrients. It might be usable as is, but it doesn't hurt to
add some of the needed minerals to make it healthy, nutrient rich
soil. You can mix the soil with potting soil if you like, or add
nitrogen, potassium and phosphoric rich materials into your dirt.
Many gardening shops sell soil replenishing objects and organisms.
Ideally you want dirt that is sandy in consistency, doesn't have many
rocks in it and is dark like compost (depending on your region you
will have different colors of sand and dirt, so nutrient rich dirt
won't always be a rich brown or black). Too much clay in the dirt is
no good for planting. You want loose soil that allows for aeration.
If you have any sort of compost on hand go ahead and mix it into the
dirt. If you don't have any compost then mix the dirt with an equal
ratio of green and brown vegetation. Peat moss works fantastically.
Organic materials such as table scraps and fruit peels can be added as
well, but make sure they are chopped up well. Let the dirt remain
loose and don't compact it because that will restrict needed aeration
(for more info on soil nutrition and compost, refer to the article on
composting).
Finally poke a few holes in the base of the lined containers to allow
for extra drainage. Once this is done you are ready to begin planting
your seeds. Make a note of what you are planting in each basket and
put stakes in the baskets that harbor vine growing plants such as
tomatoes.
You can plant your seeds directly into the baskets or you can seed
them first outside the baskets and then transplant them. One idea for
seeding your plants outside the baskets is to plant them inside the
cups of egg cartons.
Grab a cardboard egg carton and poke small holes in the bottom for
drainage. Fill each cup in the egg carton with potter's soil and put
two or three seeds in each cup. Place the seeded egg container on a
windowsill of a room that gets plenty of sun and maintains a
temperature of around 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Don't forget to water
the soil occasionally.
As soon as the seeds sprout through the soil in the eggcups they are
ready to be transplanted. You can cut each eggcup out of the
container individually and plant them directly into the basket garden;
since the cups are made of cardboard they will biodegrade as your
seedlings continue to grow. If your egg container is made from
plastic or Styrofoam, don't plant it.
The advantages of seeding in this manner are a controlled climate,
prevention of birds nabbing seeds and sprouting occurs prior to the
normal growing season.
If it is your first time gardening beware of frosts that can destroy
your crops. Know the climate you live in and tailor your garden to
fit it. If you are in a dry area make sure to keep your basket garden
well watered, as one of the disadvantages of gardening in baskets is
that water isn't effectively retained.
There are plenty of agricultural digests, magazines and books on the
market that can help you choose the proper growing strategies for your
area. Hopefully, however, this article has explained a simple,
economic and efficient method for getting started on your own garden
no matter where you reside. With a little elbow grease and light
maintenance you can be enjoying your own home grown foods by next
fall.
*Note: other containers can be substituted for laundry baskets,
however laundry baskets are recommended because they are relatively
cheap, large and inexpensive. Small crops and herbs can be grown in
leftover coffee cans, milk jugs or just about any other container one
can think of. - phantasm
-=-
Survival Basics - Understanding the Tools and Psychology of Wilderness
Survival and Prepardedness
Interview with:
Gabriel V. Moreira
Kittitas Search & Rescue
Mounted/Canine Unit
Interview taken 03-18-06
Gabriel: I guess what I would say...about survival, is that the first
thing you have to do is be prepared. Which means, having the right
equipment...matches, candles, flashlights, "survival blankets," a tarp
is also very important, a [pocket] knife (you've always gotta have
something like that)...
Victor: A popular one these days is the Leatherman, right?
Gabriel: A Leatherman is quite exceptional because you can do so many
things with it. ...Always have dry matches, lighters, and/or
fire-starters of any other kind. You should always have a tin-cup that
you could maybe tie onto your belt, and if you can make a fire, then
you can also boil your water or melt snow if that's still around, cook
soup, pretty much survive out of the cup! Fire-starters are pretty
important year around, really, because you don't always have dry wood.
You can strike dry wood [with flint or the "rubbing method"] even if
it's wet, then you can dry it out, which a fire-starter will do for
you.
Victor: Is it best to carry as little as possible yet try to have
extras of certain items, just in case?
Gabriel: You should always have extra socks, shorts/underwear...
That's about the most important thing as far as clothing would go.
Also, a large garbage bag can be turned into a poncho, keep you dry,
hold in some heat. Of course, a survival blanket will do the same, but
it's much larger [and keeps you warmer]. And, if you have a couple of
survival blankets, or at least one and a tarp [to have overhead], then
you can have a little tent, a shelter by wrapping up inside the
survival blanket. It will keep you warm up to a point, but it'll keep
you alive. Depending on what the situation is, if you're lost, you're
better off to stay put and start building a fire. Get the fire as big
as you can...make it huge. Keep it burning, that way someone can spot
you [with the smoke] from miles away, and it'll keep critters away and
keep you warm. Really important. If you've gotten wet, it should be
enough to dry you out, if you need to cook something, sterilize
water... Smoke signals don't do you any good anymore, because nobody
knows how to read 'em.
In most cases, if you're up high in a mountain, you can pretty much
drink the water out of stream. It depends on your terrain. Animals go
to where the water is, which means there's gonna be crap in it. That's
why you sterilize water in a cup under a fire. You can boil it, or
there are sterilizing pills that you can throw in your canteen, shake
it up, let it sit for a while, shake it up again, air it out, and then
you can drink it. (You can still taste some of the pill, which doesn't
taste good, but it's drinkable.) Always stay hydrated.
Whistles, light-colored handkerchiefs, and mirrors are signaling
devices. With mirrors, you can flash light at someone far (even at a
plane). If you're walking, it's good to have red tape to leave behind
you [tied on branches] so you can trace your way back. One of the
biggest mistakes that people do is when the moment they realize
they're lost, they panic and start moving. And in most cases, wind up
moving in circles. Better to stay put, build a shelter, start a fire,
find food. If you don't have food, and you're in the wilderness,
there's no excuse for that - there's a lot of food in the wilderness,
if you have certain things that you can make to get it. If you have a
string, you can always make a bow and cut some arrows. Hell, even if
you have to kill chipmunks, or sparrows, that'll feed you!
V: Even pine needles are rich in vitamin C, aren't they? Don't taste
very good though...
G: I think the nuts in some pine cones are probably the tastiest nuts
you could ever eat!
V: Ever read Sun Tzu's "Art of War"?
G: No, but I've read the Army's Survival manual # 21-76 of June
1992... That one was made for Desert Storm, so much of it covers only
that type of terrain, though there are some parts that describe field
tactics in winter, forests, mountains... From it I learned that wool's
one of the best clothing materials. You still wanna layer it so
there's dead air in between for insulation. Even if you're in arctic
regions, you'll get hot so quick that you'll want to take some of the
layers off! Nowadays you've also got high-tech synthetic clothing like
Gor-Tex. What happens with these synthetics is that they don't hold
water; it'll run down over it, whereas cotton absorbs water and holds
it. Like, if a man is jogging in the rain, and takes it off when he
gets home, then puts it back on to continue running, he'll think it's
wet, but it's not the coat - it's his sweaty cotton shirt.
V: So would you only want to wear cotton in desert areas then, so you
could stay cool with the dampness of your sweat?
G: No; I would never wear cotton in the wilderness ever, not even in
the summer. In the summer, you sweat, it soaks it up, and yeah it has
the tendency to cool you, but the clothes will get nasty with your
body fluids and you'll have to constantly change into clean clothes.
If you wear the cotton in the winter, and because it holds water, the
water's gonna make you freeze. You want your body perspiration to move
through the clothing, and dissipate. So cotton's no good...You need
the right stuff.
V: You remember Ted Kaczynski?
G: Mmm, yep...
V: How do you think he did so well out there in his cabin?
G: All you really need is to have a lot of dry food in stock, a lot of
canned or bottled stuff, stuff that don't spoil. Nuts are pretty good,
some high enough in protein that they'll make you strong enough to
work through the day. You're basically working throughout the whole
first three seasons just to have enough things you need to survive the
winter. Stack all your wood in the summer. If you're thinking about
building a cabin in an area that gets really snowy, you want to find a
place with a lot of trees of course.
V: I can see that if you're going on a year-long hiking adventure, as
long as you know what types of environment you'll be traveling
through, you won't have to bring as much equipment, as you could just
make it out of the surrounding resources.
G: But if you were just on a short-term hike, and you end up getting
lost, there's no need for that either, because you'll be waiting for
someone to find you. Use that bright-colored handkerchief and tie it
to a branch next to you where people will see it. A GPS is really
important. Everybody should carry one in the wilderness, and set it
before you take off on the route for your trip, and that will show you
where you came from. But you wanna make sure it's the type that shows
the geological formations of the terrain, plus the route. Showing if
you're stuck in a canyon, or you've got mountains all around you.
The only alternative is a compass and a map, the only disadvantage
being that they don't tell you themselves where you're at. Using the
sun isn't going to help you with any more than showing how much
daylight you've got left. As far as "moss growing on the north-side of
a tree," that's not always right.
Remember, if you get lost, just stay put, until someone finds you. The
first thing to do after that is build shelter, and a fire. Then you
worry about finding something to eat, but most importantly finding
water. You have to have water; you can go a couple of days without
food, but if you're dehydrated, you're not going to last especially
if you're walking, because your body needs at least to liters a day.
If one thinks they can substitute vitamin pills for food, that's
incorrect.
V: Is there any particular situation where you shouldn't stay put,
other than when you're getting chased by carnivores?
G: Nah...I think that, if you figure out you're lost by lost, I mean
you have no idea what direction you're in it's time to build a
shelter and a really big fire, and just hang out. Even if you have a
Survival Blanket, it's still best to put up an overhead tarp shelter
as well that'll keep the wind offa ya, and you won't get wet. Your
clothes have to keep dry, or you'll get hypothermia. And when that
happens, you're doomed. Of course, if you don't have a tarp, you can
sit under trees that have a lot of branches, and in there will be a
lot of dry ones you can snip with your Leatherman to use for your
fire. If you are in snowland, one of the best places for shelter is
the bottom of a tree trunk, or a cave. It will help a lot if you know
how to burrow into the side of a mountain...we [Moreiras] learned that
in the Marines. All the heat's in there, and if you have a fire or
even a candle lit, it'll get so hot you'll wanna go back outside. A
hole made correctly will be round, and if you have a candle burning,
you can glaze the inside of the cave and make the frosted water run
down the side instead of letting it drip on your face from melting
slowly. Then you can put branches, like from a Douglass Fir, and have
a drier, more comfortable bed to sleep on.
V: Anything else, grandpa?
G: Just this...if you're going out into the wild, and you get into a
really ugly situation like the Donner Party, understand that nature
knows no "morality" - its rules are survival of the fittest. When a
human's out there, his key to survival is pragmatism. When you're
young, summer camp is good training.
Oh, and if you have to take a crap, and you have no air-packaged
toilet paper, or you're unsure if the leaves around you are
non-poisonous, your only option left is to do what Arabs do use your
hand, then wipe it off on the grass. That's why they don't greet with
their left hand.
Links:
http://www.textfiles.com/survival/
http://www.theecologist.info/key27.html
http://www.weyrich.com/book_reviews/survival_index.html
http://www.survivalring.org/
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Forest/5003/index.htmlv
http://waltonfeed.net/grain/faqs/index.html
http://www.logicsouth.com/~lcoble/password/survival.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8NWHQON4 (for the ascetic of enduring
adversity) - piktorio
------------
Literature
------------
"Aimless"
The writer paused in front of his - no, make that her - keyboard. She
knew that literary fame was fleeting, a series of indelible marks and
superlative praise fading like the 1950s signs in the town part of
what's now a city, soon to be consigned to the giant landfill outside
of town, along with the writer's computer, her typewriter, her CD
collection. It's only a matter of time, and your frame of reference
matters. To a cancer patient, the landfill is closer than to a child,
but to the mountains that are - were, before the strip-mine - above
the city, it's always there and always has been. The little creatures
running around trying to make themselves more colorful than the last
are like tadpoles in the ponds that form by the curbs, soon to be
dried up when the oil - I mean the water - goes away.
The writer paused in front of her keyboard. The goal: to make a
supercalifragilistic modern story that would ring all the bells in the
literary quarterlies, burn up the pages of the culture magazines, and
eventually get her onto a talk show or in some other aspect of fame
(talk shows are archived on DVDs, which have approximately ten years'
greater lifespan than paper, assuming of course that when the oil runs
out everything will collapse right away, which probably isn't right -
paper, for example, is invaluable for starting fires in a postnuclear
landscape). The host, who will be whatever mixture of heritages that
catches the eye of the media barons at that moment, can almost be
felt, now, leaning closer in the future, breath smells nonexistent in
the bright colors of camera. "Where did it all start for you?" The
writer knows, in the sage wisdom of her 25 - probably better off at
27, that's when they all suicide - 27 years that the
where-did-it-start question is only slightly less feared than the "How
does it feel..." question, but she's prepped herself for years to be
able to handle the tough ones.
It's not much different than a physics assignment. Find what type of
answer is desired, and work backward through what you've been told to
find the tools to get there. And they say modern humanity is "The
Trousered Ape"! Ridiculous. She'll toss her hair - curly, kinky,
straight or wavy, depending on what the latest girlpop stars are doing
- and look right into the eye of that interlocutor and say, "You know,
it sounds very funny, but for me it all began when I realized that I
could do anything I wanted. I'm the captain of my ship, the sculptor
of my soul, and my world is me. In my world, I saw myself as the kind
of girl who could come back from ten thousand failed relationships,
embarrassing moments in bedrooms of men I met once and would never
acknowledge in public again, credit reports that make my high school
performance seem exemplary, and most of all that terrible moment when
I staggered into my parent's bedroom and found they were doing
something so biological it shocked my youngest of minds. I'm the kind
of girl with pluck, with moxie, with savoir faire, maybe stretch that
even to self-possession. I can do it; I can write a world-beating
story; I can turn all my doubts and fears into triumphs and
inevitably, bank account numbers reaching in a ladder to the heavens.
Then I paused over my typewriter, and I did it, and you can too."
The talk show host will pause with frozen smile and then laughing
launch into the next question. As they say in prep school, you don't
answer the question, but answer the audience. Tell them what they'd
like to hear to get past the next car payment, the next chemo
treatment, the next move at midnight while the rental office is closed
tight and its employees elsewhere, drinking to numb the pain of taking
applications and showing people empty boxes stale with unmoving air
and feeble lights. They don't care at all - no; really; we can use
profanity here, and we should utilize it, like a bank loan from the
future to burn up all the sacreds now - they don't give a goddamn
bloody fuck about you. They fucking only care about how it applies to
them, to their mes and Is, what's left for the self? Insert trendy
reference to drunken anal sex, or experimental lesbianism, or even
drug culture, what's a good one, maybe methamphetamine. God, look at
that word. It's like a trip down a mountain. Fucking methamphetamine.
Probably the word "amp" in the middle is what does it. Profanity is
trendy, so is sex, but we can't have any violence, unless it involves
sex, preferrably rape, preferrably anal. Most of that audience have
been anally raped in some form or another, so they'll sympathize. If
you do it right, the talk show ends with them chanting VIOLENT ANAL
RAPE NOW and using profanity, which the network's computers bleep out
but still you're on the front page of the daily distraction of the
newspapers the next morning. Put in lots of swearing.
Since the author is female, she can also make trendy references to her
own cunt, and to her sexual appetite. "Well, I was fucking these guys
like I eat malt balls, in big clusters, and suddenly I realized, I
didn't even own my own ass anymore. So I started to write, because
suffering makes the best story." You've suffered too, dear audience,
and you'll lap it up. Hardbacks are ten bucks extra. The cover's
important too. If you can't explicitly reference anal sex,
methamphetamine or lesbianism, try something symbolic, like Georgia
O'Keefe meets KMFDM. Hah! That's the ticket. Write something like
that, get a few hundred thou in the bank, and then find yourself a
broker. Brokers live on cocaine and take-out sandwiches and love a
trendy client, so when they're at that breakpoint between passing out
from alcohol and snapping into coherence from the cocaine, they can
slur about how refreshing it is to find someone who still wants to,
you know, LIVE. God, independence is so goddamn trendy now, but it
will always be trendy. Like a smart woman popstar once asked, "What
have you done for me lately?" Gimme the power, and give it to me now.
Really, give them the power, because then they'll buy my book, and
then I don't need power. I've got the crushing armies of accountants
and lawyers, psychologists and public relations consultants, security
guards and lawn men at my side. A house in the Hollywood Hills, or
maybe someplace slightly less trendy, like Silverlake, which makes it
even more trendy, for those who know their trends.
And really, you've got to work up more of the childhood trauma. "My
parents never stopped hitting me, except when they were having sex,
which to me was a shock back then, but more of a shock now since"
(roll eyes) "their technique was strictly boardroom." Nothing conveys
boredom like the idea of people in suits in a boardroom, unless of
course it's your money they're doubling, at which point each of them
is Indiana Jones or Catwoman, Jesus Christ or Genghis Khan. Make sure
your female character breaks all the rules for women, including having
lots of sex, swearing, smoking and drinking, probably tapping out
cocaine with a delicate and slightly feminine motion, only to follow
it up with a quick roundhouse punch to the meaty ballcap head of the
nearest conservative-looking dork. "It's people like you who voted for
George Bush!" Oh, the delightful slice of taboo shattered. The
audience is cheering. She's with us, man, she's standing up for the
little guy. Everyone can have insight into her condition because
actually, it's OURS. We like cocaine. We like cigarettes. We like
swearing. We like to think about orgies and lesbianism and violent
anal rape, especially if it shows up in our DVD players. Come on baby,
give 'em hell! Everywoman is a hero to everyperson, and everyperson
inside of them has everygod, the personal savior and sword of Justice
and Freedom. It's not that we live in our past mistakes, no, nor that
we're whores. We're like her. She's got a purpose, a quest, a cause, a
vision and clarity of thought in an aimless world. You won't find her
in the dictionary under "neurotic housewife," or in a home for the
homeless. She's on the path to success, walking right up that ladder
to heaven.
But still she pauses over her typewriter. Maybe a wistful moment,
thinking this whole thing is the last bad deal gone down bad, or that
it might be easier to get that job writing grant proposals for that
save-the-toads-and-lizards foundation, or put together one of those
bestseller also-rans about global warming, with its own unique title:
"Climate Change: Illusion, or Obliteration?" Truth, or fantasy? Sex,
or celibacy? Swearing, or sodomy? All the decisions are up to you,
dear reader, as I wouldn't presume to state. Not that I really care
what you decide, as long as you get over the most important decision
of all, namely to buy my book. Each latte I drink is the royalties
from one copy, and my rent takes a few thousand sales a month, but
that's before the magnifying power of my attorneys and brokers turns
this seed of wealth into a forest of luxury. No more hunching over
typewriters, or computers, flicking out phrases about trendy people in
trendy reality-defying situations. We all love wealthy people with
problems, or scrappy fighters rising from the lowest to the highest,
or career good guys who never falter from the path of the true and
demand no reward in the end except a cold beer and a warm smile. These
things make our lives seem friendly and take us away, past the oxygen
tanks and IVs, past the rent notices and collection agency cold calls,
past the divorces and firings and interest rates... the writer grasps
cigarettes out of a hidden shelf, behind that old copy of Moby Dick,
sending bills fluttering to the grainy surface of the desk. There's no
way out but ahead. Light up and be done with it. And remember, put in
lots of swearing. - vijay prozak
-=-
"Observing nature"
As I walked the lush path through the frail undergrowth; as the first
drop of dew plunged through my pants on the bare skin, I was shocked
by that sudden feel of cold. I had stepped into the forest invigorated
by the noon. Sun did throw its last beams on the horizon, painting the
scarce dreaming clouds with its golden-yellow light, against which the
verdant trees stood ready for yet another night, who knows how many
they've seen in their lifetime. Birds were conversing with a language
unknown to me, presumably about their daily matters, and fluttered on
through the damp air from a branch to another. I felt I was an
outsider in some way, separate from all this when I could observe
things like this. There, at the end of a small trip, lied my home as
well, a warm bed waiting, in which I could then dream and gather some
strength for the next daybreak, as that is when I'm at my most active.
Although, this time I had chosen to make a visit to this another,
colder, but perhaps a more honest kingdom which felt like a deserted
home, which's residents no longer recognize the prodigal son returning
to home.
The chill fell upon me as I walked into the middle of a tiny opening,
from where the path which I just used split in two directions, both
heading into the forest. Without any larger thoughts, I headed on
another of these two almost overgrown paths. And there I was greeted
as well. Mosquitoes smelled a human in their barren kingdom and the
instincts of the insect directed them towards my skin, from which they
could suck my blood for nutrition. Well, I had to flail them away and
slap them into formless lumps as they were feeding for enough, and
this did perfectly disrupt my concentration. As I was walking on the
path through dense thickets of plantlife, there wasn't much more in my
mind than slapping the mosquitoes and keeping them off my skin. You
couldn't observe particularly anything then. The same did go on,
albeit more ferociously, in a spruce forest where grand trees shadowed
almost everything of that soft moss, which covered the ground and the
roots of the trees. At some other moment when you wouldn't have had to
run away from these mosquitoes and their whining and stings, this
green palace would have offered something to see for onlookers, but
now this spectator had just the thought of leaving from there, from
under the shadows, from over the moist earth, from midst of hungry
dwellers of the woods, as experiences stacked into the depths of mind.
Blueberry leaves. Originally I set out to fetch them from the forest
for tea along with some observation, which has failed by now. This
time however I didn't use the same path to go back, but instead I
decided to look around a bit in other areas as well. Next to the more
sunny forest of pine trees which floor the blueberry twigs covered in
great numbers, there was a both darker and danker area where the tiny
guardians of the forest surely had been lurking for their prey, and
who knows what else was there? Home and it's wonderfully warm bed
started to return to my thoughts as I briskly made journey through the
woods trying to have a look or two around me, mosquitoes shattering
the thin glass of concentration. Finally I arrived to the another one
of those two paths which headed to the forests from the opening at the
start of the trip. This one was as overgrown as the other one was so
again, pace slowed and the hopes of the mosquitoes rose up
simultaneously. This trip to the woods didn't bear fruit exactly the
way I expected. There really weren't many peaceful moments as insects
charged on, trying to get a filling meal for themselves. Too bad that
they didn't quite succeed in their attempts because I had given up on
just observing and focused on my next goal, which was to go home. As
this opening, which I had been waiting for, spread out before me
leaving only the sky above me, an another goal dashed to my mind:
those leaves of blueberry.
Well, blueberry leaves do not fly all alone to my little hands so more
lively than before, I walked straight back to the woods where
mosquitoes, presumably very delighted, came to greet me and to feast
me a little as well in all their whining hordes. Hasting, I snatched a
few twigs from the ground, because now there was nothing left of my
desire to look around, only the will to do what I had to do. As I
returned to the opening, again amidst the singing of the birds and
away from being centered by mosquitoes, I even could make glances
lasting more than just one small moment at trees and at birds gliding
in the air. Sun had gone down too, so a little later these forests
would have been quite populated with all kinds of bugs who I wasn't
very keen on meeting. So from there on, it wasn't a long trip to the
warmth of my own home, and I said goodbyes to this other home, which
didn't always feel like one but was honest in all it's coldness. It
was an experience to visit it.
In the light of realizing this my original thought about observing the
forest as behind some glass, from safety and protected from all evil,
felt quite naive. When the chilling dew splashed on my skin making me
shiver, when mosquitoes chased me, their prey, I lived the life that
the forest dwellers live each and every moment. There really isn't
much time to think grand thoughts, because nature knows no mercy.
Hunger, the cold and the beasts do exist. We can observe from our
shelters the woods just like we want to and see them in a larger
scale, as we do not have to run there in the middle of trees searching
for food or shiver, covered by the cold. So we do have time for other
things as well. This principle can also be applied so that we would
run to safety away from this modern society, and examined it with the
eyes of an owl, from the branch of some distant tree, fully
unreachable by the target, in protection. The forest dwellers run
after food just like we do, it's just that we have only money, which
is analogous to that running. So, if we stop and stand away from money
and at the same time, society, we can concentrate and observe without
the useless needs, social expectations and other temptations attacking
us with their ear-agonizing whine and efforts to suck our blood,
unless we turn our attention to them and simultaneously be pulled away
from the safety of observation.
In the past, we lived according to the forest. It was our home.
Experiences determined our way of life, and we lived and didn't
observe as outsiders since we had no other home to run to safety to.
Nevertheless, as time passed on we developed on the fields of
technology and the forests didn't scare us so greatly anymore, so we
forgot the language of the trees and animals and started to live in
our own world. From this isolation we grew to think that we have
nothing in common with the forest, that we are humans, the highest of
all. We had built our own home from where we could examine the woods
as from above so that we saw a larger whole, but we couldn't see
beneath the leaves where the experiences wait.
I shall do the same now in an opposite manner and move under the tree
boughs in search for experiences. Bugs will bite me, cold winds will
shiver me and branches cut my skin, but that is the way of the forest
of which I have sought to become part of once again, stepping out from
our little windowless cottage built on the tallest of all trees, deep
in the woodlands. - frostwood
[ exponentiation ]
Issue [4.0]/October 27th, 2006
Published Quarterly
by Corrupt: A Civilization Watchdog
http://www.corrupt.org
With assistance from
Forest Poetry
http://www.forestpoetry.org
and The American Nihilist Underground Society
http://www.anus.com/
Editor: Gestalt
Writers:
frostwood
vijay prozak
piktorio
Alexis
no fun
Smog
"When a place gets crowded enough to require IDs, social collapse
is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about
space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere."
-- R.A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love
[EOF]
