IT’S 1969, OKAY?

No. It’s not. It’s not 1969 and it’s far from okay – and I have to confess that I am more than a little weary of all the anniversaries of everything that occurred forty years ago, back in the days of my youth, when the measures of hope and insanity, at least now and again, seemed to achieve a few moments of insane balance. Woodstock? The moon landing? The Manson murders? The last few weeks has been a parade of memories and things past. A couple of days ago I was informed that it was the fortieth anniversary of The Doors on Ed Sullivan. Poor Jim is dead and gone left me here to sing his song. Pretty little girl with the blue dress on, do you want to fill me in on how far we’ve come and what all that singing might have achieved? The bloody red sun still shines on LA. The engine still runs on glue and tar. The butterfly still screams, but the blue bus left long ago. Is you hair still burning? I cannot see for the smoke – and the miasma of ignorance and stupidity that rises from the modern slime-slurry of rotting, knee-deep, biomass-corruption. But what the hell? It’s Friday. Am I still able to run with the hunt?

Click here for Jim, long time passing. And click here for James Brown (by way of a bonus) doing “Please, Please, Please”, also on Ed Sullivan and in multiple capes.

The secret word is Gone (real gone)

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

When Rosamund (China) Frozdick smoked opium she could become extremely demonstrative. (And also hand tinted.)

SPACE OPERA

Stormtroopers stole my donuts.

(Pic supplied by Valerie.)

CLICK (You are a Person of Interest)

THE WOLVES OF CHERNOBYL

I have serious reservations about some of the ideas presented in this story, but I’m posting it because I find it totally fascinating and also extremely poignant…

“We walked out into a wasteland, grey and desolate. The buildings had deteriorated, windows had been smashed. Trees and weeds had grown over everything: it was a ghost town." It reads like a passage from a post-apocalyptic novel, such as Cormac McCarthy's The Road; in fact, it's how Tim Mousseau describes his first visit to Chernobyl. In 1999, this Professor of Biological Sciences from the University of South Carolina travelled to the site of the world's most horrific nuclear accident, alongside Professor Anders Møller, an ornithologist and evolutionary biologist from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. Their on-site research has sparked an intense controversy over the effects of radiation on humans and animals – one which they hope their latest trip into the fallout zone, which sets out in two weeks, will help to resolve.
In the wake of the accident, more than 300,000 people were evacuated and an 800 square mile exclusion zone created around the reactor. Yet recently it has been reported that the abandoned town of Pripyat has become a wildlife haven. There have been sightings of wolves, bears and moose wandering through the deserted streets, and swifts swoop round abandoned office blocks. The implication is that if wildlife can return so soon, nuclear radiation – and nuclear power – might be less dangerous than has been suggested. James Lovelock, the creator of the Gaia theory, has even written that the natural world "would welcome nuclear waste as the perfect guardian against greedy developers… the preference of wildlife for nuclear-waste sites suggests that the best sites for its disposal are the tropical forests and other habitats in need of a reliable guardian against their destruction by hungry farmers and developers". Click here for the rest.

OH YEAH?

I also have serious reservations about coincidence, especially when Microsoft are changing me fifty bucks to tell me about it in a customer service email…

“I understand from your e mail that Word 2000 is working fine without any problems after you did a system restore. You informed that the updates to MSN messenger have been removed. I would like to inform you that the MSN messenger would not affect the working of Word 2000 and the issue might have been a coincidence. You can try to install the updates for MSN messenger.”

OUR WHACKY AUNT AYN

It turns out that the old broad actually has her own comic.

(Click pic to enlarge)

EVERY DAY CAN'T BE WONDERFUL

I'm right now sitting here unable to write or access files after a goddamn MSN update crippled my Word programme. I await bloody Microsoft and hope tomorrow will be a better day. In the meantime here's a note on 13th century healthcare. Seemingly little changes.

"Then along comes the Black Death, mowing down the sinful and the sinless indiscriminately. ... You can be healthy on Monday, infected on Tuesday, and a corpse on Saturday, leaving precious little time to wipe the sin slate clean by confessing and repenting in preparation for your personal judgement day. The biggest hurdle of all might have been luring the priest, any priest, to one's deathbed of contagion in order to perform last rites, the final cleansing. If a cleric does show up, he might charge an outrageous price for mumbling a few prayers. Stories of deathbed fee-gougers also abound, adding to the popular perception that extravagance and greed motivate more often than not." -- Susan Squire, I Don't

BUT...

We do have additional information for ordering Zones of Chaos by regular mail. (See last post.)

Borderlands Books, 866 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. Phone (415) 824-8203. Toll free (888) 893-4008. Fax (415) 824-8543.

WADDA YA KNOW? WE GOTTA A NEW BOOK!

The long awaited collection of my poetry and short prose is finally here. You’ll probably be hearing more about this in the days to come, but here’s the basic how-to-get-it information…

"Available now: ZONES OF CHAOS, a maelstrom of poetry, prose, essays, lyrics, commentary and fiction from the legendary Mick Farren, featuring an introduction by Michael Moorcock! The book is $14.95, with free shipping in the US (and reduced cost shipping to the UK at $4 per copy). Contact Borderlands Books, toll-free 888 893-4008, or via email at orders@borderlands-books.com . When you order, they'll just need to know the address you'd like the book sent to, the number of copies you'd like, and how you would like to pay for your order. For payment, you can call, fax, or email your Visa or Mastercard information (card number, expiration date and three-digit security code to orders@borderlands-books.com ), or you can send a check or money order made out to Borderlands Books to the address below. Don't miss this mind-blowing collection, which includes a previously unpublished Victor Renquist story. Order now and you'll receive your copy signed by the Dark Prince of Pop Fiction (that's Mick) himself. (For wholesale enquiries or other questions, email office@borderlands-books.com.)"

CLICK (Your soul is captured.)

WADDA YA KNOW? WE GOTTA A SHOW!

No, my friends, that was forty years ago. (Sweet Jesus H. Christ, 40!!!??) The day after tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be doing a live reading here in LA that will probably be slightly more sedate. As the flyer tells it….

“In conjunction with the street date of our third volume, Three, Penny-Ante will be hosting a night of readings and music at Stories Books & Cafe,
1716 W. Sunset Blvd (in Echo Park),
Tuesday September 15th, 7.30 PM (sharp).
Readers include Penny-Ante Three contributors MICK FARREN, LARRY FONDATION, DREW TEWKSBURY, and TOYLIT from the Crap-Poetry Movement. Readings will be begin promptly at 7:30pm, music to follow. This event is FREE to the public and will also feature a live music performance by noise artist SHARON CHESLOW accompanied by JULIA HOLTER, and TEARIST, the musical project of performance/artist and musician Yasmine Kittles and Will (Silver Daggers)."

There’s also mention of “refreshments & beverages courtesy of Penny-Ante.” So maybe it won’t be so sedate after all.

Jim Carroll – RIP

ASLEEP OR DEAD?

Our venerable homeboy Aeswiren crunches some grim numbers for us. He starts with a quote from Daily Kos…

“From 1979 to 1989, real median income grew $2,965, (from $45,498 to $48,463,) and from 1989 to 2000, it grew $4,037, (from $48,463 to $52,500). But for the first time on record, over the business cycle from 2000-2007, incomes didn't rise — they fell slightly from $52,500 to $52,163. And with the weak labor market over this period, the real median income of working-age households fell significantly, from $60,804 to $58,718. This means that working families are weathering the current economic recession without the cushion that a robust expansion prior to the recession would have afforded them. We find that the average income for the middle 20% of households will likely decline by $2,456 in 2009, and by an additional $601 in 2010, for a total decline of $4,813 from 2007 to 2010. This is a decline in income of 9.3% for the typical household over these three years. Given the decline in income over the weak business cycle from 2000 to 2007, this means that after reaching an all-time peak in 2000, by 2010 real incomes for the typical household will likely have declined by $5,729, or 10.8%.”

Then he speculates…

“Was the dot com boom the last gasp of American capitalism? Having hit the high tide mark, is it all going to ebb away now, slowly, but inevitably? Note that China's economy is rebounding rapidly from the recession, but in America spending was still down in August and over the year bankruptcies are up 24%. Is it possible that America is actually bust? That the potential for income growth has gone, except for the wall street gamblers and the very, very rich? That the world's greatest economy, built on petroleum and the fertile soil of the midwest, is succumbing to a failure of investment in non-petroleum sourced energy added to the globalised loss of manufacturing jobs. Globalization has been essential for the takeoff of China and India, and also for stability in Mexico (though that may be ending too), but globalization came at the cost of eviscerating the employment prospects of America's working class. Without good working class incomes can the Consumer Society prosper? Add in the first chilly touch of Peak Oil and rising energy costs and perhaps we really are witnessing the end of the American dream. Considering the political temper of a large stratum of Americans, this could be a very dangerous development for the rest of the world.”

Then, in subsequent emails, he also notes…

"Did you see that item about youth unemployment in US? Up to 40% now. Like a 3rd world country, yeah? And now even Time mag, this week, is saying "10% unemployment-- get used to it!" Of course 10% is a polite term for something more like 15-20%, when you factor in all the "discouraged" ex workers, guys who stay home and live off the wife or gf's pitiful waitress money and so on?”

The secret word is Hellbound

GRATUITOUS BARDOT

(It's Sunday, isn't it?)

AND DON’T FORGET THOSE KOOKIE NUKES…