SCREW YOUR CELLPHONES, ALL MY LIFE I'VE WANTED ONE OF THESE...

Pic from Tom Sutpen

JUST AS I THOUGHT I WAS OUT OF THE DOOMSDAY RACKET...

It’s pure Michael Corleone. “Just as I thought I was out…etc.” I mean, I thought I’d closed the file on the End of the World (as we know it or otherwise) but then Sabrina sent me this item about the Large Hadron Collider in France, and how it might create black holes that would eat the planet (although Stephen Hawking says it isn’t so.)

"MEYRIN, Switzerland (June 29) - The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August. But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?" (Click for full story)

The secret word is Quark

THIS BLOG IS APPROVED BY THE CORLEONE CRIME FAMILY

SHOULD THIS BE ALLOWED?

“So Farren finally manages to crawl out of his hole and favor us with a post? Should he be allowed to get away with all these non-appearances, or should punishment be exacted?”

CALIFORNIA BURNS AND GERMAINE GREER MAKES A TOTAL FOOL OF HERSELF

Rising from the work-filled, smoke-filled gloom as more than a thousand wild fires threaten California, I feel that I have to take exception with my former friend Germaine Greer who, writing in The Guardian, seems to feel the need to draw attention to herself by rubbishing the work of Bob Dylan, in a screed so demented and without reason that I hardly feel the need to refute her tediously, wafer thin argument that she actually managed to collapse herself in the final line.

"Great lyricists? Bah! Humbug! In the 1960s and 70s, I battled students who wanted me to teach Bob Dylan rather than Donne or Yeats. Ever since, I have had screeds of stuff sent to me by people who thought that rhyme equalled reason, to whom I had gently to explain that their agonised posturings wouldn't pass for poetry. I blame Dylan. In my eyes, he wasn't fit to tie Woody Guthrie's shoelaces. I have never forgiven him for keeping his fans waiting at the Isle of Wight festival in 1969 for three hours, from 9 o'clock till midnight, before he would sing a word. Creeps sometimes make good poets, but Bob Zimmerman isn't one of them." (Click for the full measure of nonsense and the payoff)

The secret word is Imbecilic

AND NOW A WORD FROM ROBERT CRUMB...

OR IS THIS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS?

In this week’s LA CityBeat, I attempt to explain everything. Click here!

The secret word is Nevermore

OR MAYBE THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS

I just couldn’t resist posting this. Along with the blurb from the Cinefamily newsletter that follows. (The Cinefamily are reviving this monster next Saturday at the Silent Movie Theatre here in Hollywood.)

"The one-and-only Rudy Ray Moore aka Dolemite aka Petey Wheatstraw drives the cinema train straight off the tracks with Disco Godfather, the world's only kung fu dance party anti-angel- dust comedy. Rudy stars as an ex-cop turned popular DJ/nightclub owner, who grabs the viewer's attention by the kidneys from his first astounding and jiggly purple-suited entrance. When his nephew gets all strung out on PCP, hallucinating something fierce, he dives headfirst into the equally ridiculously garbed underworld to investigate, to almost no positive effect whatsoever. The film is a trademark heady mix of kick-ass distended elements, a blend of serious anti-drug talk, dance, martial arts and Rudy's repetitive catchphrases ("Put A Little Slide In Yo' Glide" and the truly haunting "Put Your Weight On It!"), which moved one anonymous Internet reviewer to write: "This movie was like witnessing the Civil War. It was loud, hard to understand what people were saying, and downright horrifying."

The secret word is Bad

IS THIS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS?

For the past few weeks I have been immersed in the paranormal. I’ve been exhaustively (and exhaustingly) researching all the end of the world prophecies that focus on December 12th , 2012 for a cover story for LA CityBeat. I’ll post that this coming Thursday, and maybe some thoughts on the new regime at the paper. In the meantime, I've attended occult events that have drawn packed houses, I’ve toured brimming quadrants of the internet. I cannot pretend that I’m anything but totally convinced (and Victor Renquist would agree) that a new interest in the metaphysical and the unknowable is on the rise. And I have to say I find that totally understand when the last eight years of supposed normality and reality have come courtesy of the Bush administration and random fascist madmen & madwomen. Then, with my head stuffed full of the supposed truths that are out there, I had one of those almost-falling-asleep experiences when lines of a poem flowed through my head. Elvis Costello has reported similar experiences with song lyrics and he keeps a pad beside the bed. I just turn over and hope I remember in the morning. This is what remained in the morning light. It will probably grow, since I have this nagging feeling that the perception of time underpins the whole phenomenon. (pic from Valerie)

THE PARANORMAL CONFORMS…

THE PARANORMAL CONFORMS
TO ITS OWN UNNATURAL LAWS
AND FUELED BY THE POWER SOURCES
THE ORGONES OF WILHELM REICH
THE ALTERNATING ELECTRONS
OF NIKOLA TESLA
TO PRECIPITATE THE OCCURRENCES
OF CHARLES FORTE
AND YET BENEATH IT ALL
ROLLS THE MAJESTIC RIVER
OF THE TIME STREAM
THAT BEARS ALL BEFORE

EQUATIONS
OF TIME AND SPACE AND ENERGY
IN MEASURELESS CURVATURE
AS THE RIVER BENDS

FROGS FALL
DISPLACED FROM A ONCE AND FUTURE POND
SWIRLED THROUGH A TEMPORAL EDDY
TO SLIP INTO AN ALIEN DRAIN
THAT HUMANITY MAY YET EXPERIENCE
(REMEMBER, MY WILD LOVE
FROGS FALL FIRST)

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPHET
IS TO SURF FORWARD ON THE BOW WAVE
OF THE SAME GREAT RIVER
FOR AN OBSERVATION OF WHAT WILL BE
RATHER THAN WHAT IS

SAIL ON, SEER AND SENSEI
THE WATERS OF TIME
ARE THE KEY

The secret word is Passage and the secret numbers are 012

AND IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE WE VISITED ELVIS

But what better way to follow the paranormal with this truly bizarre clip of an Elvis Presley stadium show in Detroit in 1957? (Sent by BillH)

Or this equally absurd dope story (see yesterday) from Munz.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

AND SOME OLD FAVORITES

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. – William Blake

Dope will see you through times of no money better than money will see you through times of no dope. – Phineas Freak

If smoking dope doesn’t damage your brain, why do so many Jamaicans believe a dead Ethiopian is God. – Darius James

When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, I didn't like it, I didn't inhale it, and never tried it again. – Bill Clinton

I never had trouble with drugs, only with cops. – Keith Richards

Smoking dope and drinking beer is like pissing in the wind. – Lemmy

The secret initials are THC

DID YOU EVER FEEL...

…paranoid? (Scattered thoughts for Friday 13th) Pic lifted from Tom Sutpen.

People have more than once made me aware that I am supposedly famous for my paranoia. On the other hand, a close friend once declared that as time passed and, we hope, mellowed all things, my legendary paranoia retreated to the level of a “friendly old dog that follows you anywhere.” In my own defense, I can only say that I am not sure where expecting the unexpected ends and paranoia begins. I guess somewhere at the frontiers of the psychotic state. (“There are no trials inside the Gates of Eden.”) I also wonder if it is truly paranoid to peer into the anomalies of the JFK assassination, the Jonestown Kool Aid mass suicide, or the 911 attacks? And most times I thought they were out to get me, they actually were. And what about this Yisrayl 'Buffalo Bill' Hawkins, in the following news report sent by Elf Hellion, how does he feel this morning when his predicted nuclear war failed to materialize and the wrath of people called Hawkins became palpable?

"Nuclear war will begin next Thursday, June 12, or sooner, according to the latest prediction of self-proclaimed prophet Yisrayl 'Buffalo Bill' Hawkins, the founder of a religious sect in Abilene, Texas. Hundreds of truck trailers have been loaded with food and water on the group's 44-acre compound, in preparation for the coming war. Everything that he preaches has to do with people buying something," said former House of Yahweh elder David Als of New York City. Like many of the his followers, Als actually legally changed his last name to Hawkins because he became convinced that only those named Hawkins would be saved.”

The secret name is K

DID YOU MISS ME WHILE I WAS IN RETRO ORBIT?

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 43

The Doc has been in the deep space of hellhound recall and failing life support. (Only in the Age of Bush could one be constantly overworked and constantly broke.) I was, however, forced to return to this quadrant of reality when Valerie sent me this clip from New Scientist with the absurd and maybe dangerous news that our first transmission to possibly inhabited planets will be a Doritos commercial.

"It could be the longest commercial break in history. Over a six-hour period this morning, high-powered radars in the Arctic Circle broadcast an advertisement into space for the first time.
The advertisement, for Doritos tortilla chips, was being directed towards a solar system in the Ursa Major constellation, just 42 light years from Earth. The solar system contains a habitable zone, and could host an Earth-like planet and extraterrestrial life." (For the whole story)

The secret words are How To Serve Man

FORTY YEARS AGO TODAY

On June 3, 1968, Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol (and also art critic Mario Amaya). Solanas was arrested the day after the assault. By way of explanation, she said that "He had too much control over my life."

The secret number is 15

CALIFORNIA VOTE NO ON PROP 98!

FINAL BO

MrMR sent the image and our pal Tim Stegall pays his tribute.

I OWE BO

So many epitaphs as the shadows lengthen. I grew up on Bo. The beat fascinated me in the way that it took no prisoners. It was always there, a launch platform to anything you wanted it to be. It was the foundation of PTOOFF! It was the reason for Mona, and while we were recording Mona, Paul the cello player hipped me to how the same rhythm was totally replicated for a few measures in one of the Bartok string quartets, (I forget which one off hand, you gotta go look for it) written at the dawn of the 20th century. The beat talked of Detroit steel cars and heavy industry, and endless highway, and thus it became background for demented poetry in Tijuana Bible’s “Memphis Psychosis.” Bo is gone, my sisters and brothers, but -- it’s mercifully trite but the truth all the same -- the beat goes on. (Whip it out Cher.)

BO DIDDLEY -- RIP

Right now I can hardly sum up how much he meant to me.

The secret word is Time

DID I SAY WEIRD?

It’s only Sunday morning and Valerie has sent the above and the suggestion that Marilyn was not in fact murdered, but abducted by a retro-UFO (from other worlds, of course) and is, in fact, pictured here – the top figure on the right. What more proof is needed, I ask myself? Of course, Marilyn was still alive when the magazine was published, but time's only relative, right?

Meanwhile, munz emails a link with the message, “thought you might dig these '60s grindhouse cheesecake trailers.”

The secret words are Back To Bed

THIS JUST IN...

It's getting weird out there.

WHEN JIM MORRISON TRIED TO OVERTHROW THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT

Our good pal Steve sent this video clip from the BBC that provides an amazing insight into the levels of paranoia which the British Government and their grim minions in the Special Branch – the Brit anti-terrorist equivalent of the FBI – viewed the anti-Vietnam War movement and the belief of some right-wing extremists that The Doors were behind it all.

As Steve writes…
Loads of official documents obtained by the Beeb about the 1968 protests. Some fascinating stuff -- apparently we were making Molotov cocktails out of lightbulbs (!) and filling eggs with acid and hiding them in lunchboxes to avoid detection. And, of course, the whole shebang was orchestrated by the Doors (those rascals)...

Click to watch this quite extraordinary video.
And if you want to see a rerun of me on another show talking about the same events click here.

Younger readers might well comment that this was all back in the day, and would hardly be possible here in the 21st century. I can only agree. Today, those in power appear twenty times more paranoid.

The secret word is Insanity.

Meanwhile, back at LA CityBeat I talk about the quality of Barack Obama’s suits. (But my run at CityBeat is almost done. More about that in the future.)

I DON'T THINK THIS IS WHAT BOB DYLAN HAD IN MIND

DON'T FUCK WITH NIKOLA TESLA (#7 in a series)

“The spread of civilization may be likened to a fire; First, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power.”

And, having rolled out of bed, facing a morning of the mundane, I feel unnaturally energized, wondering as I walk from room to room, feed the cat, check the mail, if the fight for freedom and the metaphysical are the flint and steel to kindle the true spark of the revolution I crave. Thus I post a picture of Nikola Tesla and go about my business wondering, hoping. I have the strength to hold this thought and act upon it.

The secret word is More

THEY DON'T MAKE FILMS LIKE THIS ANY MORE

“Fortunately Bob Dylan, unlike like Johnny Cash, was too busy reinventing rock & roll to appear.”

(Yes, Farren has been busy writing so he’s posting a picture to cover the continuity.)

The secret is A Thousand Words

Sydney Pollack -- RIP

WHERE'S THE DOPE? WHERE'S THE DOPE?

“Never send a dog to do a narc’s work.”

Officials admit that an unwitting passenger arriving at Japan's Narita airport unknowingly walked away with 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, A customs officer hid a package of dope in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security. Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in. (Click for full story from Valerie)

The secret word is Aroma

SMOKE 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM

"When peace comes (if ever) you won't be able to smoke any fucking place."

MEMORIAL DAY MESSAGE

Which would be to force George Bush and his grasping cronies to pay veterans and their families, and the serving troops for that matter, decent pay and benefits.

BUT WE'RE BACK ON MARS

I, for one, are damned glad we’re back on Mars. Space is, of course, (as Sun Ra once put it) the place. Admittedly I’d be a whole lot happier if we found some Martians. Maybe the Phoenix Lander should just try following the canals.

The secret word is Thark

DON'T FUCK WITH THE BLENDER (#6 in a series)

"Werrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

The secret word is Liquefy

SAVE THE PANDA!

As pandas are saved from the Chinese Chinese mega-quake, it might raise the ethical question of whether we first save Pandas or humans, but I will not engage in it. Me, I’m with the pandas. (Click for video)

“BOBBY KENNEDY WAS ASSASSINATED IN JUNE IN CALIFORNIA”

For Hillary Clinton to blurt out these now notorious words on camera in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that inevitably linked Barack Obama, Bobby Kennedy, and the specter of assassination, surely must be the termination of any plausible political career. I supported Hillary in her run for the Senate, I was a huge fan of her husband, but, these eight words opened a door on a character so insensitive and single-minded in her hopeless quest for power that I would hate to see this woman anywhere near the White House. And if you might wonder why such words are so dangerous in modern America, just read on…

A car dealership in Butler, Missouri is offering a free handgun with every vehicle sold. The car lot in question, Max Motors, says sales have quadrupled since the start of the offer. The reason for the somewhat grim promotion? Owner Mark Muller explained "We did it because of Barack Obama. He said all those people in the Midwest, you've got to have compassion for them because they're clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive. We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns." Click for the rest of the story (Sent by Valerie)

The secret word is Firepower

MARILYN AGAIN

At Doc40 we can’t go for more than a month or so without posting a picture of Marilyn Monroe. This one of her when amazingly young is from Tom Sutpen

TWO CASH FACTS

HCB send over the following facts (or maybe trivia) about the late lamented Johnny Cash…

Fact 1 Johnny Cash was the first American to learn of Stalin's death. As an expert Morse code operator in the air force during WWII, Cash was at the keys when he intercepted a message that Stalin had died.Source: BBC Radio, World Service.

Fact 2 One of the most criminal myth-making episodes on record concerns the 'live' recording of Johnny Cash's song "Folsom Prison Blues." When he sings "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" the room full of real prisoners, and some real murderers, was dead silent. To create excitement, Sony added cheers of delight as the line was delivered. The source is Michael Streissguth’s book "Johnny Cash at Folsome Prison."

The secret word is Sue

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR CALIFORNIA

VOTE NO ON PROP 98!

***(Yes on Prop 99)***

Vote on Tuesday, June 3rd

THIS IS IMPORTANT! It's just a minor primary election that normally goes unnoticed... but if you are a California voter -- particularly if you're a California renter -- this could be the most important vote you'll cast all year!
Proposition 98 purports to protect private property rights and to limit abuses of the government in seizing property for eminent domain. But that's not all it does. Prop 98 would eliminate rent-control laws on a statewide level. Even if your city or neighborhood has rent control, this law would make those laws irrelevant. Rent would be completely deregulated, allowing landlords to jack up prices any way they wanted.Even if you're a homeowner, it's still important to vote NO on 98, because these changes could also affect the stores you shop in and the businesses where you work. (Most businesses rent from property owners.) If you even think that you or someone you care about may ever have to rent a property in California, it's urgent that you vote NO on Prop 98.This item was put on this summertime ballot specifically because its supporters knew turn-out would be low. (If you don't believe me, watch this YouTube video where the head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association gloats about how the low turn-out will help them win.)The greedy bastards behind this law are depending on the fact that no one pays attention to this summer election.They're counting on you not showing up. Over a dozen California cities have some form of rent control law. These cities include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Monica, and San Jose. In addition, about 100 cities and counties have laws limiting the rent mobile home park owners may charge people who lease space in their park. Altogether, about one million California households live in rent-controlled apartments or mobile home parks.Please pass this onto every California voter & renter you know.Please vote NO on Prop 98 on June 3rd.Please vote YES on Prop 99. (This is a law that seeks to limit eminent domain abuses without eliminating rent control. Voting "yes" on 99 will help us defeat 98. If 99 gets more votes than 98, Prop 98 will never go into effect.)
MORE ON 98
MORE ON 99


The secret word is Homeless

EINSTEIN WAS AN ATHEIST

Religious true believers have always claimed Albert Einstein as their own, largely because of the famous quote, "God does not play dice with the universe." A handwritten letter, however, that the great physicist wrote to the philosopher Eric Gutkind in 1954, a year before his death at age 76, suggests he had serious problems with organised religion. "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends, which are nevertheless pretty childish."

The secret formula is E=MC2

BEWARE THE INSECT TRUST

“We’re fleas, not ants. But we look real menacing and you’ve yet to discover what we have planned.”

Uncle Bill Burroughs always warned us how the planet was drifting to random insect doom, but doom seems to be a hell of a lot closer with the arrival in Texas of crazy raspberry ants that like to attack computers and other electronic hardware. The following story from The Daily Tech was forwarded for our education and concern by some girl…

"A new species of ant has arrived in Houston and is believed to have come to Texas via a cargo ship that arrived at the Port of Houston. The ants are called crazy rasberry ants. The ants get the odd name from the fact that they tend to move erratically around in search of food rather than moving in orderly lines like typical ants." Click for full story

The secret word is Formic

CHE IS STLL WITH US

In this week’s LA CityBeat I have a reflection on how the image of Che Guevara (perhaps as a symbol of global resistance) is still potent after more than forty years. (Click to read.)

The secret word is Comandante

POPE DIGS EBEs THE MOST

Elf Hellion sent over the following, and it makes me very happy that the Catholic church is okay with aliens. But I worry somewhat that an underlying motive might be that the greys do kind of resemble a fetus.
"VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God. The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones. In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures." (For the full story)

The secret word is Indulgence

GODDAMNED POLITICS

“I mean, wouldn’t you want to see a woman president?”
But Bob said nothing.

And if you’re wondering why Doc40 hasn’t joined the Democratic primary fray, it’s because the total saturation of the news media is becoming, to say the very least, fucking tired. I just wish it was January 2009, Barack Obama was being inaugurated, and George Bush indicted.

ON HER MAJESTY'S OCCULT SERVICE

This is a book. Buy it!

In the Renquist Quartet – my four-novel cycle centered around the character Victor Renquist, the debonair, erudite, thousand year-old vampire – I made numerous references to how Renquist, at various times in his long nosferatu existence, hired on with the occult divisions of a number of intelligence agencies, from the sixteenth century creation of Queen Elizabeth I’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham to a World War II group formed by Winston Churchill to mess with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis’ Aryan paranormality. All of this came from my own fevered imagination (plus maybe a bit of borrowing from Dennis Wheatley) but now I discover that there are folk out there who make a serious historical case for it all being real. (Except, of course, for the dark eminence of Renquist.) All of which makes me all the more determined to delve into an investigation of morphogenetic fields (see yesterday) or, at least, pseudo- morphogenetic fields.

The secret word is Cryptoid

DOC 40’s NEEDLEWORK CORNER

THAT OLD MORPHIC RESONANCE

“Morphic resonance is a term coined by Rupert Sheldrake in his 1981 book A New Science of Life. He uses the expression to refer to what he thinks is "the basis of memory in nature....the idea of mysterious telepathy-type interconnections between organisms and of collective memories within species."Sheldrake has been trained in 20th century scientific models--he has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cambridge University (1967)--but he prefers Goethe and 19th century vitalism. Sheldrake prefers teleological to mechanistic models of reality. Rather than apply his scientific knowledge and training to, say, trying to develop a way to increasecrop yields or a way to heal the sick, he prefers to study and think in terms outside of the paradigms of science and inside the paradigms of the occult and the paranormal. One of his books is entitled Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals. One of his studies is on whether people can tellwhen someone is staring at them. (He says they can; others have been unable to duplicate his results.*) Another tests the telepathic powers of a parrot. He prefers a romantic vision of the past to the bleak picture of a world run by technocrats who want to control nature and destroy much of the environment in the process. In short, he prefers metaphysics to science, though he seems to think he can do the former but call it the latter. Perhaps it would be fairer to say that he sees no borderline between science and metaphysics.'Morphic resonance' (MR) is put forth as if it were an empirical term, but it is no more empirical than L. Ron Hubbard's 'engram', the alleged source of all mental and physical illness. The term is more on par with the Stoic's notion of the logos. Bergson's notion of the élan vital, or Plato's notion of the eidos than it is with any scientific notion of the laws of nature. What the rest of the scientific world terms lawfulness--the tendency of things to follow patterns we call laws of nature--Sheldrake calls morphic resonance. He describes it as a kind of memory in things determined not by their inherent natures,but by repetition. He also describes MR as something which is transmitted via "morphogenetic fields." This gives him a conceptual framework wherein information is transmitted mysteriously and miraculously through any amount of space and time without loss of energy, and presumably without loss or change of content through something like mutation in DNA replication. Thus, room is made for psychical as well as physical transmission of information. Thus, it is not at all necessary for us to assume that the physical characteristics of organisms are contained inside the genes, which may in fact be analogous to transistors tuned in to the proper frequencies for translating invisible information into visible form. Thus, morphogenetic fields are located invisibly in and around organisms, and may account for such hitherto unexplainable phenomena as theregeneration of severed limbs by worms and salamanders, phantom limbs, the holographic properties of memory, telepathy, and the increasing ease with which new skills are learned as greater quantities of a population acquire them.*While this metaphysical proposition does seem to make room for telepathy, it does so at the expense of ignoring Occam's razor. Telepathy and such things as phantom limbs, for example, can be explained without adding the metaphysical baggage of morphicresonance. So can memory, which does not require a holographic paradigm, by the way. The notion that new skills are learned with increasing ease as greater quantities of a population acquire them, known as the hundredth monkey phenomenon, is bogus.In short, although Sheldrake commands some respect as a scientist because of his education and degree, he has clearly abandoned conventional science in favor of magical thinking. This is his right, of course. However, his continued pose as a scientist on the frontier of discovery is unwarranted. He is one of a growing horde of "alternative" scientists whose resentment at the aspiritual nature of modern scientific paradigms, as well as the obviously harmful and seemingly indifferent applications of modern science, have led them to seek their own paradigms in ancient and long-abandoned concepts. These paradigms are not new, though the terminology is. These alternative paradigms allow for angels, telepathy, psychic dogs, alternative realities, and hope for a future world where we all live in harmony and love, surrounded by blissful neighbors who never heard of biological warfare, nuclear bombs, or genetically engineered corn on the cob.”

The above was sent by Elf Hellion and, while still digesting most it, an idea threatens to take form in the swirling mist that this could be a factor in one hell of a monster creative adventure if one could tap into a "morphogenetic field", or even synthesize one, mayhap? Keep watching this quadrant of the skies. We have nothing to lose but our brains.

The secret word is Kinesis

THE FINAL WORD?

“I have had quite enough of all this nonsense about lipstick in space. There is only one place for lipstick.”

BACK IN THE GROVE, BACK IN THE DAY

A few years ago, I started working on a compilation CD project that was intended to showcase the best and most bestial bands that came out of my old neighborhood – London’s notorious Ladbroke Grove – during its pre-gentrification heyday between the psychedelic late 1960s and the punk rock of the late 1970s. Sadly, before the collection could be completed, my contact at Sanctuary moved on and the idea was shelved. I thought that was the end of one more cunning scheme that never quite took flight, but, as luck would have it, our old pal Nigel Cross breathed new life into the concept, and it has now come to fruition in the form of a double CD titled Cries from the Midnight Circus – Ladbroke Grove 1967-78, and includes tracks by, among others, the Pink Fairies, Hawkwind, the Pretty Things, Sam Gopal, Mick Farren and the Deviants, Tomorrow, Motorhead, Mighty Baby, High Tide, the Action and Misunderstood, Steamhammer, Cochise, Bob Calvert, the redoubtable Michael Moorcock, and many, many more.

A glowing review can be found on Phil McMullen’s Terrascope Online – plus a link to Nigel’s excellent booklet notes – and, if that wasn’t enough, Nigel emailed me that the 2CD set had been nominated for best compilation album for the 2008 Mojo Awards. Ain’t we the business?

And while we’re all stroking our egos, Suzy from Bomp forwarded the following from a character called Snogsdog. “It was when I heard Mick Farren /Deviants /Fairies /Kim Fowley, etc [late 70's] when I was around 12 -14 years old that I realized that I wasn't alone on this rock in space anymore...and that's the truth...so I always owe a million thanks especially to Mick for that..."

The secret word is Smug

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 42

IS THIS THE END OF BORDERS?

The following commentary about Borders -- the US uber-bookstore -- came from our good friend Alan Beatts, who, along with Jude Feldman, owns and operates Borderlands Books, a truly fine specialist bookstore in San Francisco. Extracted from his monthly newsletter, it’s kinda long, but it's crucial information for all who read and write books, and will have a major impact on how the latter will sell their work to the former.

"First off, a quick disclaimer -- I don't like Borders. I like them better than Barnes & Noble but still, like any independent bookseller, I don't like them. Despite my intention to be as objective as possible in the article, I'm sure that my bias is going to creep in here and there. But, if you were looking for objective, dispassionate news, you wouldn't be reading this I'm going to start with what has been going on with Borders over the past year, then I'm going to talk about the implications, and I'll finish off with the reasons that it matters to everyone who loves books.What's Been Happening - At the beginning of 2007 reports indicated that Borders had a poor holiday season and that their same-store sales were down compared to the 2005 holiday season. Same-store figures are one of the best measurements of sales since they compare sales at stores that have been open for more than one year and cut out the (usually huge) sales increases that are typical at a store that has just opened and is still in the "honeymoon" phase of a rapidly growing customer base. To be fair (and clear) the drop wasn't very large, somewhere around 1%, but in the world of big business that's serious. What was even more serious was that Borders' showed a loss of $151.3 _million_ in 2006 (that's compared to a profit of $101 million in 2005). Most of that loss was a result of their overseas operations (over $100 million) but the domestic side wasn't doing very well either.Borders' reaction was very strong -- they decided to close or sell all their overseas stores, close more than 120 of their shopping-mall oriented Waldenbooks locations (they started 2006 with 678 Waldenbooks stores and ended 2007 with 490) and started a massive redesign effort for their flagship stores. This store redesign is based on stocking _fewer_ books, providing all sorts of high-tech, multi-media services (vanity book publishing, photo album design and ordering, eBook and music downloads and more), and, according to the original plan, a stronger focus on CD and DVD sales (which changed to a much _weaker_ focus on CDs sometime last year when they realized that music downloads were killing the CD business). The multi-media services come along with staff specifically trained to give assistance to people who aren't terribly comfortable with computer stuff.This process moved along slowly (the first of the redesigned stores opened this January and they still haven't found a buyer for their overseas stores anywhere except in the UK) and, as last year progressed, it seemed to be too little and a bit too late. By the end of last year, Borders' management was really hoping for a good holiday season. Which they didn't get. At the beginning of this year, Borders was short enough on money that they set up a loan from Pershing Square Capital Management (an investment fund and one of their major shareholders) at a very high interest rate. Exactly what Borders needed the money for is beyond the scope of this article but, to put it very simply, companies are just like you and I -- they don't take out loans at a high interest rate unless they really need the cash and don't have another place to get it. Based on Borders' recently released shareholder report . . . wow, did they need the money. Their loss in 2006 was $151.3 million, right? In 2007 the loss was up -- $157.4 million. In two years, Borders has lost over three-hundred million dollars.As of last month they managed to get better terms on the loan (still not great though -- around one-and-a-half times the current, usual interest rate for businesses) and they've gotten themselves some breathing room so that they can, in the words of Borders' CEO George Jones, "review their strategic alternatives". But they're still in financial trouble and everything hinges on whether their new business model is going to work (and if they can manage to make their interest payments). If it doesn't, they're very likely on the way out.What Might Happen - It's possible that Borders' current plan will work. Closing less profitable stores and their new super-store format should reduce their losses and open up new sources of income. But closing stores isn't a cure-all. Closing a store creates other types of loss (selling off the fixtures at a loss, returning inventory, and getting out of leases which are far from expired) as was clearly demonstrated last year when closing their overseas stores produced an enormous loss. This may be a little graphic but closing stores is a little bit like cutting off a mangled limb -- the blood loss and infection stops but the patient is still missing the leg.The new super-store format is very smart in a couple ways: The plan to reduce stock by eliminating titles that sell slowly (or not at all) instead of trying to have everything that any possible customer might want is a technique that has worked well for independent stores that were struggling (Cody's in Berkeley and Kepler's in Palo Alto are two prime examples). Offering computer services, free computer time, and tech help for people trying to build a "digital lifestyle" are all things that make a bookstore both a destination and hang-out spot. The best-case assumption is that these services are going to both attract shoppers as well as creating a new source of income. Of course, attracting shoppers is only useful if they buy something but in principle it's a good thing.The flip side of the new store format is that it's still predicated on selling books, DVDs and (to a much lesser and perhaps vanishing degree) CDs. A fair amount of Borders' current troubles came from the unanticipated (at least by them) crash of the music CD market (their CD sales were down more than 14% last year) and, based on plummeting CD sales, they abandoned the CD-heavy element of their new store design and have been shrinking their CD sections in all stores like crazy. But may DVD sales go the same way? Apple is busily building their movie download market and Amazon is working on a similar project (more about Apple and Amazon's competition for downloadable media next month). If DVD sales follow CD sales then Borders can expect another huge revenue hit in the next couple of years.As for book sales, Borders is still facing competition from on-line retailers (21% of overall book sales last year) and places like Target, Walmart, and CostCo (9% of sales). Though the last two outlets are not likely to increase their sales, internet sales will probably continue to grow over the next few years, especially as some towns are left without a bookstore as Borders continues to close Waldenbook locations. Overall 33% of book purchases are at chain bookstores. In comparison, independent stores get 3% of sales. Though it's possible that the sales going to the internet will come from independent store customers, it seems unlikely since the majority of people who shop at independent stores do so for qualities that the internet cannot provide, whereas shoppers at chain stores are often motivated by price, convenience and selection -- three qualities that on-line companies have in abundance. In summation, one of the three lines that Borders concentrates on is pretty much gone (CDs), one of them may be on the way out (DVDs), and the final one is certainly not going to grow and is likely to shrink (books). They are building a new service-based income source (on-demand book printing, photo album printing, download services, and etc.) that, while useful to many people, is dependent on a customer base that doesn't have the knowledge to do it themselves. The catch here is that, if their customers get educated, they evaporate, since everything that Borders is offering can be had on-line at a lower cost and with greater convenience.As my brother, the bank-guy, said, "_I_ wouldn't invest in them".So, let's say that Borders continues to have financial trouble. What happens? My bet is that they close. I'm pretty sure no-one is going to buy their business, neither the whole company or piecemeal (i.e. a local chain buying up three or four locations). The only business that might be interested in buying Borders as a complete business entity would be Barnes & Noble and, to be blunt, there's no reason that B&N would want it. Most places where there's a Borders there's a B&N nearby so B&N wouldn't buy Borders to add to their markets. Borders' inventory is very similar to B&N's and the same goes for their staff. Borders doesn't own any of their buildings so there is no real estate asset that would be attractive. In short, Borders doesn't have anything that B&N would want, other than its customers. And, if Borders goes out of business, all B&N needs to do to get the customers is wait. It's possible that some other company would want to buy Borders but essentially all that Borders owns that's worth anything is its inventory and store fixtures. That's not enough value to be worth the trouble of buying the company. The same argument applies to the possibility of Borders being broken up and sold piecemeal to other bookstores. There just isn't anything that Borders has that's unique or particularly difficult to duplicate.Without a buyer or a source of capital, continuing losses for Borders probably means bankruptcy. In cases of bankruptcy like this, it's very common for creditors to be paid somewhere between 30 and 70 percent of what they are owed by the bankrupt company (though it can go as low as 10% or less in some cases). That would mean that almost all of the publishers in the US could lose as much as 14% of their _total_ accounts receivable. To put that in real-world terms, imagine what your personal financial situation would be like if your employer cut your pay by a similar amount (i.e. instead of making $40,000 a year you made $34,000). The effect on publishers would be at least as bad.What Are The Consequences - If Borders declares bankruptcy and closes there will be a cascade of effects. Publishers will lose a great deal of money owed to them. The five major US publishers (Hachette, Macmillan, Peterson, Harper and Bertelsman) and the the big distributors (Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Diamond Books, and so on) will be able to weather it without too much disruption but all the smaller publishers in the country are going to be hurt. Many of them may be hurt badly enough that they'll close. Publishers closing has the immediate effect of reducing the number of books that get out to the consumers and also reduces the number of places that authors can sell books.These effects will be amplified by the loss of bookstore shelf space nationwide. Here's a simple equation -- the ability of a publisher to purchase a book from an author and print it is determined by the number of copies the publisher believes will sell. The format (i.e. hardcover, large-size softcover, or paperback) of the book is also determined by expected sales. You would think that the number of copies that will sell is simply based on the number of readers who will buy the book but it's not that simple. For a reader to buy a book, they have to find it and the most common way that readers find a book is on a shelf at a bookstore (though word of mouth and publicity are also important). If there are fewer shelves and fewer stores in the country, fewer books will sell. So, in the immediate aftermath of Borders closing, fewer books will be sold in the US. Perhaps a great deal fewer -- remember, of every six copies of a book that are sold anywhere in the country, Borders sells one of them.So, on the heels of financial losses as a result of a bankrupt Borders not paying its bills, there would also be a potentially major decrease in book sales over all. Which would cause more independent publishers to go out of business. Consequently even fewer books are published, authors have more trouble selling their books and readers have less choices in reading. It's also possible that print runs would get smaller, which means less money for authors. Less income from writing means that some authors won't be able to spend as much time doing it, which also means fewer books out there for readers.Which brings us to the final consequence -- readers' access to books. Borders and Barnes & Noble have been so successful over the years that there are many towns and cities in which the only bookstore is either one or both of those chains. If Borders closes, there are many towns that will be without any bookstore of any sort or, if they do have a bookstore, it will be Barnes & Noble. In the first case, the residents will have the choice of either ordering books on-line or driving long distances (in these days of four-dollar-a-gallon gas) to get to a store. In time, a local store might open or B&N might move into the area but it could be a long time coming, if at all. In the areas that have a B&N as well as a Borders things will be better but there's a catch - the buying decisions for chain bookstores are made at the corporate level. In other words, for any given section (like SF and fantasy for example) one person decides for all the stores not only what books are going to be stocked but also how many copies each store gets. As far as I know, the buyers for the chains are all nice people and they really care about books but they are still individual people with all the assumptions, biases, and foibles that you'd expect.Let's say, for example, that the science fiction buyer for B&N decides that British hard SF is too complicated for an American audience and therefore won't sell. In a world without Borders, that might mean that a huge number of readers wouldn't be able to read Iain Banks or Alastair Reynolds since the only store near them wouldn't have their books. Even worse, without significant orders from B&N, it's quite possible that those authors wouldn't even be published in the US. And there would be no way of proving that the authors would be popular since the books would simply be unavailable (though people might order them from British outlets). If this seems farfetched, consider that A) that comment about "too complicated" is an exact quote from a US editor and that, due to their huge market share, B) both Borders and B&N have enough influence with publishers to get cover art and even book formats changed, pretty much on a whim.To sum up, Borders closes. Some small publishers close. Book sales drop. More publishers close. Number of books published per year drop. Print runs get smaller. Authors sell fewer books and get less money for the books they do sell. Fewer books get written. Many areas are without bookstores or only have a representative of the one remaining chain. Readers have less access to books and the books they do have access to are increasingly the product of a single corporate "style".Who loses in this scenario? Publishers, authors, and most of all readers. And who wins? To some degree, independent bookstores since some portion of Borders' former customers would end up going to them. But the big winners are Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com when they divide up what's left. However many of the pressures that have been squeezing Borders are going to affect B&N as well, so how long will they stay profitable? And then we're left with Amazon. Who is making a huge bid to avoid the fate of their non-virtual competitors."

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