Counter-culture Journals (文革)

Counter-culture Journals (文革)

Monday, December 31, 2007

Music, TV, Movies for 2007

A look back
By


TV

I liked “Pushing up Daisies” both for its surreal story tale quality and its dark humor.
I like “Dirty Filthy Money.” Not only is this one of the most dysfunctional rich families, but the lawyer, who is the main character is the perfect patsy for the role he plays. What a great line: “All you have to do for $10 million is to find us charities for tax write offs,” the old man tells the lawyer in the first episode. The fool actually believes him – hilarious.



MOVIES
I loved the Stephan King films “1408” and “The Mist.” I also liked the Harry Potter film. I love a good scare.

MUSIC-
While I bought many CDs this year, only the Donnas “Bitchen” was actually released this year. So they released my favorite album of the year. My brothers new album “Ounce and a Half of Whisky,” which he gave me for X-mass was also fantastic. And he just released it. My son will be releasing an album in 2008, so maybe I’ll mention it next year. His band, the Futants, is also excellent.


Music by the Donnas “Safety Dance”





BOOKS
I released Can you Pass the Acid Test? And have spent much of my time on two new books I’m trying to finish. I had no time for anyone else’s books.




Friday, December 21, 2007

Merry Winter Solstice!

Much of what we think of during the holiday season came from our ancestor’s celebration of the winter solstice. Agnostics as myself, who don’t believe in organized religion or divine human figures, still like to honor our ancestors by celebrating this tradition with X-mass trees, Santa, lights and other holiday traditions. And of course many of us must go to our parents home or a close relative and show up for X-mass eve to keep peace in the family.

So for pagans, atheists and agnostics, Happy Winter Solstice.








Sunday, December 16, 2007

Memoirs of a Drugged-Up, Sex-Crazed Yippie, a novel of life in the 1970s

Memoirs of a Drugged-Up, Sex-Crazed Yippie:
Tales from the 1970s counter-culture: Drugs, sex, politics and rock and roll


Ecerpts:


Another day, at Bromalset, ( a nudist lake) I noticed a woman who looked to be looked to be about 30 and extremely middle-class. She wore her work clothes to the lake, a formal dress, white with a brown floral pattern, high heels and fine jewelry, including a pearl necklace. She looked like she could be June Cleaver from “Leave It To Beaver.” She was of medium height, had dark, curly, well-styled hair and a nice hourglass figure. When she got naked she had a beautiful body with long tits with large dark brown nipples and very wide halos. She came almost every time I went to Bromalset. I finally got up the nerve up to talk with her.
“I’m just a middle class suburbanite who just happens to like nude swimming,” she said. “I like to come here right after work.”
Her name was Kate. I found her quite interesting. She had a five-year-old daughter who came with her, but always wore a swimming suit.
“She calls me her indecent mom,” Kate joked.
She also told me she lived in Topeka. After talking with her a few times I asked to visit her home.
“I’m presently looking for a job,” I told her. “I was thinking of spending the day in Topeka to check on jobs there. Can I visit you while I’m there?”
“Will you need a place to stay?”
“That would be helpful.”
“Is Doc coming with you?”
I could tell by her tone that she wasn’t fond of Doc at all.
“No,” I said. “It’s just me.”
“That would be fine.”





She gave me her address and gave me directions to her house. The next day I visited her after she got off work. She had a nice, two-story, green wooden house, in a middle-class looking neighborhood.
“Come on in,” she said as she answered the door.
The inside of her house was neat and clean. There were family pictures and nice new furniture. She had a cloth green couch and a leather brown chair. She had a black baby grand piano in the corner, with family pictures on it.
“All I have to drink right now is Coke,” she said.
“That will be fine.”
“Can I ask you a personal question?”
“Sure.”
“Why do you hang around with Doc?”
“He’s interesting. He tells a lot of wild stories.”
“Really? I find that strange. When I see him, he’s so loaded he’s nearly unconscious. I’ve never seen him talk much about anything.”
“Well, he’s not always like that. Some days he’s not that stoned and he tells really funny stories. He once told me that he house sat for this friend of ours and while letting her cats in, a skunk followed them into the house. He just curled up in the corner with the cats. At first Doc tried to lure him out with some chicken. When that didn’t work, he cooked the chicken and that got the skunk’s attention. He had to cook chicken for a skunk to get him to leave the house.”
“That is kind of funny.”
I was only telling her part of the story. Not only was Doc a great drug connection, but hanging out with him scared a lot of riffraff away from me. His reputation as a dangerous person protected me. No one dared mess with me while I was hanging out with Doc. And I never told Kate about his murderous reputation or his real occupation. She already had a bad opinion of him.
Being in her house reminded me of my middle-class past. Except for holiday trips to my parents’ home, I was completely cut off from middle-class culture. That’s probably why I found her so interesting. She represented something I had once been familiar with, but I was now far removed from. We talked most of the night.
“I’m divorced,” Kate said. “He left me for a young college student where he worked. But I have this house and my daughter.”





Kate was at least ten years older than me. As the night came to an end, she went upstairs to bed and I slept on the couch. The next morning she came down to get ready for her job as a secretary for some government welfare agency. She was naked.
“I figured you’d sleep nude,” she said. “I just figured that since you like the nude swimming lake.”
“Normally I do,” I told her. “But when I stay over at someone’s house I usually just sleep in my clothes. I really didn’t think about it.”

This book is available at Amazon and Barns and Noble.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

more X-mass music

I can’t resist posting more X-mass music.
The Christmas Song from Jethro Tull

Once in royal davids city stood a lonely cattle shed,Where a mother held her baby.Youd do well to remember the things he later said.When youre stuffing yourselves at the christmas parties,Youll just laugh when I tell you to take a running jump.Youre missing the point Im sure does not need makingThat christmas spirit is not what you drink.So how can you laugh when your own mothers hungry,And how can you smile when the reasons for smiling are wrong? And if I just messed up your thoughtless pleasures,Remember, if you wish, this is just a christmas song.


Monday, December 10, 2007

الوقفة التضامنية مع أصحاب رسالة إلى التاريخ بالرباط

Nothing like foreign films to give us an idea of how other countries are dealing with the US occupation of their homelands in the US.




الوقفة التضامنية مع أصحاب رسالة إلى التاريخ بالرباط - wideo
الوقفة التضامنية مع أصحاب رسالة إلى التاريخ بالرباط - wideo

الوقفة التضامنية مع أصحاب رسالة إلى التاريخ بالرباط - wideo
نظمت لجنة الدفاع عن أصحاب رسالة إلى التاريخ وقفة تضامنية يوم الأحد 16 مارس 2007 أمام مقر وزارة العدل بالرباط
Mots-clés : addh-maroc addh


This was taken from the Marxist-Leninist-Revolutionaries (MLR) of IRAQ.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

My radio début

My radio show went fine last night. It can be heard now at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/page/3

The show starts when you click on the above hyperlink.

I believe it went quite well.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

I'll be on the Radio

The World Wide Word Radio Networks Presents Breathe
Hosted By Jane Crown
This Monday December 3 To listen to show or download click belowListen live or later
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/page/3 7Pm Pacific time 1
0 PM easternJoin Jane Crown & cohost Luisiana X. Cundin as they talks with Steve Otto Steve Otto is a free-lance writer, living in Maize, KS. He is theauthor of War on Drugs/ War on People, published by Ide House, 1995,an expose of governmental corruption connected with the "war ondrugs;" Memoirs of a Drugged-Up, Sex-Crazed Yippie, Authorhouse, 2005,a fictional look at the 1970s counter-culture, and Can You Pass theAcid Test?: A History of the Drug and Sex Counterculture and ItsCensorship in the 20th Century, by Publish America, 2007. He haspublished articles nationally, in Contemporary Marxism, The People'sWeekly World, Paraplegia News and Vocational Biographies. In Kansas hehas written for The Andover Journal, The Mt. Hope Clarion, Kansas hehas written for The Andover Journal, The Mt. Hope Clarion, the travelsection of The Wichita Eagle, Kansas Works, and the alternativeculture magazine Plethora. He is the past editor and publisher of twonewspapers The Wichita Public Voice and The South Hutchinson PostDispatch. During the 1980s. Otto worked as a reporter for The ClintonDaily Democrat and The St. Clair Courier, in Missouri. Otto has beenactive in political organizations, opposing aid to Central Americandictators during the Reagan years, and supporting abortion rightsduring the 1990s. He was spied on by the FBI in 1984 for belonging tothe Committee in Support of the People of El Salvador (CISPES).

NO IT WON'T BE LIKE THIS VIDEO!

Saturday, December 01, 2007

My favorite Beatle

It’s was 1980 when we lost John Lennon. Everyone has there favorite Beatle and mine was John Lennon. As time has gone on, it is especially clear to me that he was someone I could identify with. For a long time it was a given that Lennon wrote the better lyrics and Paul McCartney was responsible for the best music. After they broke up, George Harrison found his own niche of supporters and Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) went on to do a number of things, including acting in movies.
In my opinion McCartney, while being a musical genius and probably a driving force when the Beatles were together, can’t write lyrics and has actually gotten worse at it. As Lennon sang:
They only thing you did was “Yesterday”
And today you’re just “Another Day”

Obvious references to Paul’s songs, but in my opinion quite true. As for Lennon’s music, some of it was ahead of it’s time. His first solo album “John Lennon Plastic Ono Band” was filled with what is now known as Minimalism and has been adopted by several punk bands over the years who have refused to refine their music or add extra instruments to accent their sound. “I found Out,” uses a chocked up guitar and drums, his original recording of “Cold Turkey” had a drum, electric guitar and he sang most of the lyrics without music. In “Working Class Hero” he plays only a guitar.
His lyrics have always had an affect on me.

As I wrote in my book, Memoirs of a Drugged-Up, Sex-Crazed Yippie:
So I went to the kitchen and got half a bag of Rold Gold pretzels and my last bottle of Mickeys beer, which I had saved from a few nights ago. I went down to my bedroom. I pulled out the album “John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band,” which I had bought and listened to back in high school. I put it on the stereo and sat down on my old green bed. I put the pretzels and the beer on a small brown coffee table next to the bed. I hadn’t heard that album in a long time. As I listened to the songs, “I Found Out” and “God,” I suddenly understood what Lennon had gone through. I went through

the same thing 10 years later. In the words from “I Found Out”:
“There ain’t no Jesus gonna come from the sky.”
and
“Don’t let them fool you with dope and cocaine.”
He denounced both religion and drugs, almost as if they were the same kind of thing. And in the song “God,” Lennon denounced his role as an LSD mystic, using references from his song “I Am The Walrus” from the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” album.
After a long list of things he proclaimed he no longer believed in he sang:
“I just believe in me,
Yoko and me,
And that’s reality.”