ELVIS PRESLEY DIED THIRTY ONE YEARS AGO TODAY

Like Edna O’Brien already told us, August is a wicked month. It killed Elvis Presley, 31 years ago. And today he is a one dollar coin, and a Barbie doll, and maybe an ancient, 20th century fertility symbol. Maybe. We have long since mourned. Now all we have to do is remember. And I still think we owe the man. I do. His was my very first revolution. The linear precursor of the one in which I still struggle today. Not I hope with the last of my strength.

The night Elvis died I was in a converted church hall in South London with Larry Wallis. We had been writing the song “Half Price Drinks” but a massive thunderstorm had broken out, complete with thunder, lightning, and the beating of torrential rain on a tin roof. A Sony TV was playing something unwatched, and then a still picture of Elvis flashed up. Oh shit! I though, he’s dead. (This is recounted at greater length in the book Give The Anarchist A Cigarette.)

CRYPTIQUE – I shoulda been given the chair of Elvis Presley studies at Princeton, Charlie.

Commercial break

Forty bucks for a painted dollar?

REMEMBER HIM LIKE THIS...

The active remembrance of Elvis past has schismed into two distinct camps. The more positive remember the young Elvis and celebrate him on his January 8th birthday, and then there is the gloom of aging ladies who go to Memphis on this day in August to assemble for his death. And who I personally find exceedingly depressing. (In Memphis today it is 90F and 90% humidity.)

...NOT LIKE THIS

The secret word is Entropy

A THOUGHT FROM CHAIRMAN PATTI

Patti Smith delivered the following during a recent performance of Rock and Roll Nigger in San Francisco. (Sent by Munz)

'To be outside of society is a lot of responsibility. To be a sacred bum of art, a sacred bum of the earth, we can't stumble like some disconnected abstract telephone. We have to wire up, we have to look each other in the face, we have to let our numbers be known, we have to find our brothers and sisters, we have to strengthen our numbers, we have to rise up, and a new generation, they will rise up. Which way will they rise up? With an air of positivity? If we don't give it to them, every fucking thing will burn! We have got to give them something. We have got to give them some hope. We have got to give them some recognition, that they are alive, that they matter, that they're not just a bunch of mindless consumers. We have to give them love, we have to give them an example, we have to get clean, we have to get tough, we have to get ready, because if the revolution comes, man, we're going to be there and ready! AWAKE! AWAKE! Outside of society…”

We the people, we must be a thorn in the side of the Bush administration...'

DOC40 WISHES DOC HOLLIDAY A HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today is Doc Holliday’s birthday. Had he lived, John Henry Holliday would have been 157. Doc was my favorite western gunfighter. The Thomas De Quincy of shootists and pistoleers, he had consumption, a laudanum habit, a dandy’s taste in threads, and covered a bad attitude with exquisite Dixie manners. When asked if he had a conscience, he reportedly replied, “I coughed that up with my lungs years ago.”

A poem. My take on what Coleridge might have done had he written a western...
IS THERE A CHINAMAN IN TOWN?

Is there a Chinaman in town?
Doc always asked the same question
As the room fell silent
At the ponderous tread of his bootheels
Down the length of the hardwood floor
And the slight creak of his damaged lungs
Every eye covertly upon him
And there wasn’t a saloon in the territory
Where at least one barfly asshole
Didn’t recognize him for who he was
And whisper it to the others

Is there a Chinaman in town?
Doc always asked the same question
A slow survey of the interior
Never turning his back
On the sunlight leaking through the door
And the gawkers would avert their eyes
Through three fast shots of bourbon
Like his life depended on them
His hands shook slightly
As he pulled off his gloves
But then he’d fix the bartender
With a stare that could freeze gin

Is there a Chinaman in town?
They all knew what Doc meant
They all knew what Doc needed
Was there a room with a secret door
That led through the Portal of Time
To the Palace of Mirrors?
Was there a hidden place
Behind the laundry
Knock three times and say
That Woo sent me?

Is there a Chinaman in town?
Is there a place where men
Racked and inert
Could dream the dream?
Is there a place
Of sweet smoke and glowing coals?
A long pipe and a cooling fan?
Is there a place of silent safety
Where the tail of the dragon
Will finally come to rest?

Is there a Chinaman in town?
Can anyone direct me
To the solitude of divine night
To the chamber of shadows
Where legend can be laid to rest
Along with all the reproaching ghosts
Is there an enclosure
Of small death and brilliant images
Where memory stills
With the flask of laudanum
Beyond the reach of the bodies and the old perfume
And I am no longer required to listen
To the echoes of dead men’s pistol shots

Is there a Chinaman in town?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Thomas de Quincy
Doc Holliday
Please tell me, gentlemen
Is there a Chinaman in town?

ALSO...

Doc Holliday is one of the primary characters in Jim Morrison’s Adventures In The After Life, one my best and favorite pieces of fiction, and a book that, although woefully out of print, should not only be read by all but made into a major motion picture.

THE DESTRUCTION IS BY THE DETAILS

Maybe worse than the fear of possible FEMA helltrains and high apocalyptic totalitarian paranoia is the ongoing reality of being nickeled and dimed to death by a constant hard radiation of petty details. The email that follows arrived this morning, I signed the petition and went about my business, but continued to fume at the audacity of these Republican bastards, and the time and resources that have to be expended by the good guys to stop this arrant crap.

“Can you imagine living in a place where birth control is considered an "abortion" and health insurers won't cover it? Where even rape victims are denied emergency contraception?
It seems unbelievable, but the Bush Administration is quietly trying to redefine "abortion" to include birth control. The Houston Chronicle says this could wipe out dozens of state laws that protect women's reproductive freedom and protect rape victims.1 Access to basic health care for millions of women would be jeopardized. And it's being pushed as a "rule change"-meaning, it doesn't need congressional approval.
Can you sign an emergency message to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, whose department is considering this rule change right now? Tell him: "Contraception is NOT abortion. The Bush Administration's proposal to change the definition of abortion and reduce women's access to birth control must be stopped."

Click here to sign and click here for the full story

CRYPTIQUE – My time ain’t long enough to be wasted, pilgrim.

This blog offers no explanations

BUT THE OMNIPRESENT CHE LOOKS ON

Down from the wall of Lost Jimmy. (Thanks, pal.)

The secret word is Everywhere

THE BIKER VOTE?

To borrow a phrase from Edna O’Brien, “August is a wicked month.” And perhaps, for one of my mindset, today might be the wickedest day. I thank heavens the 13th doesn’t fall on a Friday. Maybe I should just stay in bed.

I woke this morning (it was still the 12th) and some media clown (I was so disgusted I forgot the source) was going on – in the aftermath of John McCain’s visit to the Sturgis bike fest – about how Barack Obama couldn’t win the “motorcycle vote.” Okay, so worry about the white proletariat and the NASCAR vote, but outlaw bikers? Gimme a break. Who ever worried about the biker vote? If for no other reason than by far the majority of bikers that I have ever met or hung with – and there have been quite a few – had felony convictions and couldn’t vote. Personally, I’d worry more about the stoner/dopefiend vote. Despite getting high as a youth, Obama hasn’t said a word about his attitude about the War on Drugs and we all know why. He’s too chickenshit a’ feared of the reaction from Middle America to any talk of legalization. But he also knows there’s hardly a stoner for McCain who could find a polling booth.

Then I open my email and find a missive from Elf Hellion that “A body that may very well be the body of the creature commonly known as ‘Bigfoot’ has been found in the woods in northern Georgia. DNA evidence and photo evidence of the creature will be presented in a press conference on Friday, August 15th from 12 Noon to 1:00pm at the Cabana Hotel-Palo Alto at 4290 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, California, 94306. The press conference will not be open to the public. It will only be open to credentialed members of the press.” A joke that, after the press conference, the body would be roasted and served for lunch with a robust Sonoma red wine did not go down well.

And that left me sitting in front of the computer wondering about the general sense that many of us seem to be waiting for the Bush crew to pull some horrendous totalitarian coupe that will be the death of us all. I did however receive a link to a cool movie, False Flags, Lies, & Nuclear Bombs, recounting the rap-sheet of Bush horror, bookended by clips of Bill Hicks. Do yourself a favor, click to watch.

CRYPTIQUE – The government has no more right to regulate what I put in my mouth than it can dictate what comes out of it.

BUT KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES

Fortunately the Perseid meteor shower is still in full swing and visible to all but we in the starless cities. In the pic from Valerie, the meteors meet the aurora. Which, admittedly, is not common.

The secret word is Orbit

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 45

MY PROBLEMS WITH THE NUMBER THIRTEEN

Some you may have noticed that I become uncomfortable when the Doc40 comments number thirteen. I have no idea when or how it started. There must have been a time when the number thirteen cast no dark shadow or held no sinister if unexplainable significance, but I am unable to remember it. I must have come upon me when I was unaware. Maybe that’s the way of it with phobias. And I count myself lucky that it’s the fairly innocuous number thirteen that bothers me, and I’m not so challenged by superstition that I’m afraid to touch doorknobs because of the germs. Indeed, I have actually twisted and used the fear as an aid to greater productivity in my work. And I also console myself with rumors that Stephen King suffers from the same malady. The following is from Wikipedia. I had always though the concept of unlucky thirteen had something to do Jesus and his twelve disciples, but they're not mentioned here.

"Thirteen is regarded as an unlucky number. Fear of the number 13 is termed triskaidekaphobia. The thirteenth of a month is likewise ominous, particularly when it falls on a Friday in some English-speaking cultures, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Belgium and Germany (see Friday the 13th) or a Tuesday in the Greek and Spanish-speaking world. Thirteen may be considered a "bad" or "unlucky" number simply because when a group of 13 objects or people is divided into two, three, four or six equal groups, there is always one leftover, or "unlucky", object or person. According to another interpretation, the number 13 is unlucky because it is the number of full moons in a contemporary year, but two full moons in a single calendar month (mistakenly referred to as a blue moon in a magazine article of the 1940s) only happens about every 5 years.Early nursery rhymes stated there were thirteen months in a year because of the natural moon cycle that was used to count the lunar year. In England, a calendar of thirteen months of 28 days each, plus one extra day, known as "a year and a day" was still in use up to Tudor times.It was suggested by Charles A. Platt writing in 1925 that the reason 13 is considered unlucky is that a person can count from 1–12 with their 8 fingers, two thumbs and 2 feet, but not beyond that, so the number 13 is unknown, hence frightening, hence unlucky.[1] This idea discounts the use of toes or other body parts in counting.Another hypothesis about the origin of Friday the 13th as an unlucky day is attributed to this being the day that the Knights Templar were slaughtered in a collaboration between King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V finishing with the burning at the stake of Jacques De Molay.The legion with which Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon was the Legio XIII Gemina or the 13th legion.13 is the 6th prime number. 6 is sometimes considered an unlucky number due to its association with 666."

The secret number is 12A

THEY DON'T STAGE SHOWS LIKE THIS ANY MORE

DAMN! SOMEONE HAD SOMETHING NICE TO SAY ABOUT HIPPES

L to r Michael English, Nigel Weymouth, and Guy Stevens (who would later produce London Calling for The Clash)

The follow item from Fortean Times was sent over by Munz.

“…UFOs were not just in the air, they’d become a religion and the word a common sacrament to everyone who’d tripped.” - Neil Oram

The word hippie conjures visions of brightly clad youth rebelling against society while advocating peace, free love and the right to alter their consciousnesses in whatever way they chose. But behind the fashions and fads, the hippie underground movement in the UK was responsible for the greatest expansion of interest and belief in fortean phenomena in history.Social historians invariably associate the hippie movement with Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, sources of both inspiration and imagery, and the hippies’ interest in these belief systems has been well documented. But there was another alternative to the blinkered Western worldview of the 1960s already deeply embedded in the British cultural psyche, and already present in the lives of those who would form the movement known as the Underground – the flying saucer culture.In the mid-1960s, although flying saucers were being discussed among the influential group of post-beatniks and modern mystics who would form the core of the Underground, the nascent movement lacked a voice. A figurehead was needed, someone who could breathe life into the background hum of belief in flying saucers, articulating it for the burgeoning subculture.That voice came in the form of John Michell, whose influence on the Underground, and forteana in general, cannot be overestimated. (Click for the whole story)

The secret word is Groovy

BLOBSHOW!

"Seems like old times."

The coded message is
54686520446f633430206465636f646572207269
6e6773206d617920676f20696e746f2070726f64
756374696f6e20696e20746865206e6578742063
6f75706c65206f66207765656b732e

To decode…
Copy message
Click link
Clear box on webpage
Paste in message
Click decode.

ISAAC HAYES -- RIP

MARILYN FOR SUNDAY

Here at Doc40 we have an incurable habit of posting pictures of Marilyn Monroe. Usually these post are a happy events, but this one is so loaded with grim symbolism it seems to suit the restless hungry mood. (Pic lifted from Tom Sutpen)

A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUCEMENT

Picture lifted from Bedazzled.

The secret word is Intoxicant

MR NUKE SAYS...

“You may be seeing me sooner than you think.”

I’ve always had the uneasy feeling that, when it came to the unthinkable, ultimate showdown, nuclear powers might just behave as badly drunks in a bar carrying guns. When one whiskey-drunk idiot pulls his gun and starts shooting, the others just can’t stop themselves doing the same. Okay so Kennedy and Khrushchev skated by in the Cuba Missile crisis, but that was just two of them. These days, the barroom is a lot more crowded, and when we hear what follows, we do well too well to worry. Or run out angry and amok in the street, crying bloody murder.

(On Aug. 9, 1945, the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, Japan, instantly killing an estimated 39,000 people. The explosion came three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.)

TWO WARS ON THE BOIL

While not one but maybe two wars seem in the making, the cable news channels have scarcely mentioned either, focusing instead on John Edwards career going down the tubes. And I find myself wondering if this is Bush’s big play to overturn the election and seize permanent power while the world is supposedly watching the Olympics. (But it also reads like the first ten minutes of a post-apocalyptic sci fi movie.)

"Massive US Naval Armada Heads For Iran
Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area. The massive war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the "enemy force".
The build up of naval forces in the Gulf will be one of the largest multi-national naval armadas since the First and Second Gulf Wars. The intent is to create a US/EU naval blockade (which is an Act of War under international law) around Iran (with supporting air and land elements) to prevent the shipment of benzene and certain other refined oil products headed to Iranian ports. Iran has limited domestic oil refining capacity and imports 40% of its benzene. Cutting off benzene and other key products would cripple the Iranian economy. The neo-cons are counting on such a blockade launching a war with Iran."

And if that wasn’t bad enough we also find that…

"UPDATE 8 August 2008 ~ War has broken out between Georgia and South Ossetia. At least 10 Russian troops have been killed and 30 wounded and 2 Russian fighter jets downed. American Marines, a thousand of them, have recently been in Georgia training the Georgian military forces. Several European nations stopped Bush and others from allowing Georgia into NATO. Russia is moving a large military force with armor towards the area. This could get bad, and remember it is just a strategic diversion....but one that could have horrific effects. FURTHER UPDATE ~ Russian military forces in active combat; now total of four Russian fighter jets reported downed. ADDITIONAL UPDATE ~ Georgia calls for US help; Russian Air Force bombs Georgian air bases. DEBKA, the Israeli strategy and military site, states that Israeli military officers are advising the Georgian armed forces in combat operations and that 1,000 Israelis are in-combat on the side of Georgia at this time." (Click for the full story)

The secret words are Duck and Cover

The coded message is
57686963682077617920746f2043616e6164613f
(for decoding instructions, scroll back to Thursday)

Added Later -- With no word of the naval build-up in the Persian Gulf in The New York Times, I have to wonder if the first part of this post is fanciful disinformation. I keep an open mind , however.

Later Still -- This would be some kind of confirmation.

BLACK HELICOPTERS ARE COMING -- BUY THE KID A GUN!

"Are you a tough guy or just a pussy with a pistol?"

The atmosphere was one of danger, imminent but less than clear.

FEMA DEATH TRAIN IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA

I still have a vestigial tendency to scoff at FEMA death camp fear, but this historic clip from the San Francisco Chronicle was sent by our pal Iggy to clearly demonstrate that whole thing is not just the product of the paranoid web but has actually been validated in the mainstream media. All I can really add is that, if they come for me, I profoundly hope I have the courage to tell the bastards I ain’t going. “Shoot me on the spot, motherfucker. There are worse things than death.” And meanwhile someone here in LA needs to have a very serious talk with Rep. Jane Harman.

"San Francisco Chronicle. By Lewis Seiler and Dan Hamburg. Monday, February 4, 2008

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943

Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists."Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of "new programs" require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people?Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," gives the executive the power to invoke martial law. For the first time in more than a century, the president is now authorized to use the military in response to "a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order."The Military Commissions Act of 2006, rammed through Congress just before the 2006 midterm elections, allows for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on a list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies. The law calls for secret trials for citizens and noncitizens alike.Also in 2007, the White House quietly issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51), to ensure "continuity of government" in the event of what the document vaguely calls a "catastrophic emergency." Should the president determine that such an emergency has occurred, he and he alone is empowered to do whatever he deems necessary to ensure "continuity of government." This could include everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack. Congress has yet to hold a single hearing on NSPD-51.U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County) has come up with a new way to expand the domestic "war on terror." Her Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which passed the House by the lopsided vote of 404-6, would set up a commission to "examine and report upon the facts and causes" of so-called violent radicalism and extremist ideology, then make legislative recommendations on combatting it.According to commentary in the Baltimore Sun, Rep. Harman and her colleagues from both sides of the aisle believe the country faces a native brand of terrorism, and needs a commission with sweeping investigative power to combat it.A clue as to where Harman's commission might be aiming is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that labels those who "engage in sit-ins, civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal rights" as terrorists. Other groups in the crosshairs could be anti-abortion protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration activists, environmentalists, peace demonstrators, Second Amendment rights supporters ... the list goes on and on. According to author Naomi Wolf, the National Counterterrorism Center holds the names of roughly 775,000 "terror suspects" with the number increasing by 20,000 per month.What could the government be contemplating that leads it to make contingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens?The Constitution does not allow the executive to have unchecked power under any circumstances. The people must not allow the president to use the war on terrorism to rule by fear instead of by law.Lewis Seiler is the president of Voice of the Environment, Inc. Dan Hamburg, a former congressman, is executive director."

The secret word is Resist

Now play Guns Of Brixton by The Clash

THE MOST SUBVERSIVE INDIVIDUAL IN AMERICA?

But just suppose we are all going to be rounded up and put in camps, who would be the first to disappear? Who are deemed the most subversive individuals in America and the greatest danger to a fascist dictatorship? Who do we watch so when they vanish we know we are all in trouble? Noam Chomsky? Stephen Colbert? Jenna Jameson? Hank Williams 3? Jack Daniels? Original thoughts as comments please.

THE WORLD IS A DANGEROUS PLACE

"Ain't it just, comrades."

FEDS THREATEN INTERNET

The following disturbing tale comes from the excellent Prison Planet website and was sent by Kass.

“Amazing revelations have emerged concerning already existing government plans to overhaul the way the internet functions in order to apply much greater restrictions and control over the web.
Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet.
Lessig also revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an “i-Patriot Act” if you will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.” Click for more.

The secret word is Totalitarian

UFOs JUST KEEP CRASHING

A large object with a turquoise hue plummeted out of the sky and plowed into the earth south of Las Vegas. Eyewitnesses say this was no meteorite. It could have been aliens, but the official response would seem more in keeping with one of their ultra-secret, black-budget, super planes. To watch a TV news video with the excellent George Knapp, click here.

The coded message is
44612056696e6369206469642069742e204c6565
204f7377616c642064696e27742e202854686520
536861646f77206b6e6f77732e29

To decode…
Copy message
Click link
Clear box on webpage
Paste in message
Click decode

WHERE EVIL LURKS IN THE HEART OF MAN, THE CHICKEN KNOWS

The secret words are Sweet and Sour

CITIZENS ARE PISSED OFF

“More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they "personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be.
Widespread resentment and alienation toward the national government appears to be fueling a growing acceptance of conspiracy theories about the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Suspicions that the 9/11 attacks were "an inside job" _ the common phrase used by conspiracy theorists on the Internet _ quickly have become nearly as popular as decades-old conspiracy theories that the federal government was responsible for President John F. Kennedy's assassination and that it has covered up proof of space aliens.” Click for more.

The secret word is Movement

The coded message is
57652077696c6c206669676874207468656d206f
6e2074686520626561636865732e205765207769
6c6c206669676874207468656d20696e20746865
2068696c6c732e2057652077696c6c206e657665
722073757272656e6465722e

To decode…
Copy message
Click link
Clear box on webpage
Paste in message
Click decode.

A VAUDEVILLE ACT

“Hi there, I’m David,
Hi there, I’m Bill
Performing to you people
Would give us such a thrill.”

A FEASIBILITY STUDY

A feasibility study is now being conducted regarding the manufacture and distribution of the Doc40 Secret Decoder Ring. It’s also high time that I updated Doctube, the Doc40 video juke box that has been neglected for some months after a promising start. If my luck holds, it should be done before the weekend.

WILLIE NELSON IS SEVENTY FIVE

"I have outlived my dick." (supplied by Munz)

TO LIVE OUTSIDE THE LAW YOU MUST BE HONEST

I think this early picture of Elvis was one of the elements that convinced me as a youth that it would be pretty fucking cool to be Elvis. Of course, Elvis has been dead thirty one years this month and I'm still here. (Hows that for a lead-in to a spot of malcontent philosophy?)

'The formula works. He stumbled on the first and last truth about the leisure society, and perhaps all societies. Crime and creativity go together, and always have done. The greater the sense of crime, the greater civic awareness and richer the civilization. Nothing else binds a community together. It's a strange paradox.' - J.G. Ballard (in Cocaine Nights)

The secret word is Nihilist

The coded message is
4f62616d612077696c6c20636f6e7461696e2074
6865204d6f6c652050656f706c6520627574204d
634361696e2077696c6c2065617420796f757220
627261696e2e

To decode…
Copy message
Click link
Clear box on webpage
Paste in message
Click decode.

These are your first words in Turkish

IN THE MATTER OF SECRET DECODER RINGS

For a very long time I have wanted there to be a Doc40 Secret Decoder Ring as merchandise and a prize, and for fun and insurrection. Now it seems the dream may be within my grasp. I have discovered a manufacturer who claims to be able to supply the object of my anarchist desire, made from recycled plastic, and very cheap – although not so splendid as the Ovaltine one above. If it hasn’t been discontinued since the web post. The only snag is that the minimum order is 1000, and since I have never been a mail-order wizard (quite the reverse in fact) I will need all the help, advice, input, donations I can get, plus a consensus that we need this thing as badly as I think we do. (It would also seem an ideal tool for Iggy and his post-FEMA resistance. See last Friday “Amazing Email”) Meanwhile here’s a basic rundown on decoder rings from the website Exploratorium.

“The Captain Midnight decoder ring (which is an "encoder" ring as well) allows you to do a simple substitution cipher. It usually has two concentric wheels of letters, A through Z. You rotate the outside ring and substitute the letters in your message found on the outside ring with the letters directly below on the inside ring (see diagram). Here, the algorithm is to offset the alphabet and the key is the number of characters to offset it. Julius Caesar used this simple scheme, offsetting by 3 characters (He would have put the "A" on the outer ring of letters over the "D" on the inner ring if he had owned a Captain Midnight decoder ring.) The word "EXPLORATORIUM" thus becomes "HASORUDWRULXP." Such a scheme was easily broken and showed a certain level of naivete on Caesar's part concerning the enemy's intelligence.”

And also a history from Wikipedia

And now for an experiment.

The secret message is…
53484f57204d4520594f555220504150455253

To decode…
Copy message
Click link
Clear box on webpage
Paste in message
Click decode.
(Disappointed? It’s just a test.)

BANANAS

Bananas contain beneficial quantities of potassium.

THE RATSO REVELATIONS (hero of pedestrians)

“I’m walkin’ here! I’m walkin’ here!” So click here. (sent by Munz)

THIS IS PETER WYNGARDE

(This true confession is triggered by comments on yesterday’s post Amazing Ego)

Back in 1969/70 after I had split from the original Deviants and they were rapidly becoming The Pink Fairies, I grew a full beard in what, I figure, must have been some kind of subconscious, Al Gore penance. The beard made me look like Phineas Freak so I shaved it off, leaving a handsome Zapata mustache of the kind that were currently all the rage. Unfortunately, it caused me to bear a unfortunate resemblance -- with or without a purple shirt -- to a fictional character called Jason King, the somewhat effete hero of the then popular, mod-a-go-go TV series Department S. This was less than enjoyable. Small children would shout at me in the street and I would have to threaten to murder them and stuff them in a drain to make them desist. Then uncomfortable turned to downright dangerous when actor Peter Wyngarde, who played Jason King, was busted for "gross indecency" with a truck driver in the toilet of Gloucester bus station, and drunken swaddies, thinking I was Wyngarde, (or close enough for rock & roll) would howl after me in the street and want to play “brutalize the homo.” Thus the mustache was also put to the razor, and I have been, give or take some spaghetti-western stubble, clean shaven ever since. The whole experiment with facial hair only lasted a matter of months but it comes back to haunt me because it occurred at the time Mona – The Carnivorous Circus was being released and is preserved in the publicity and cover photos.

Peter Wyngarde was actually quite an interesting cat, grew up in a Japanese POW camp, and released a strange and cult-sensitive solo album (which I would like to hear.) Click to learn more.

AMAZING PICTURE

The Shuttle Challenger is struck by lightning on the launch pad. (Both today’s pics send by Valerie.)

AMAZING EGO

The psychedelic website Trip Inside This House has some incredibly nice things to say about me. Just click to check them out.

AMAZING EMAIL

The following email arrived from our pal Iggy who is clearly less than happy about the State of the Nation. I’m keeping my peace and will wait for you guys to comment. (The Doc40 post to which Ig refers is for last Saturday – July 26th.)

"Ah, the coffins... they're on Doc40 with a link to Alex Jones... they, Sir, are pure evil, manifested in the banality of dark gray plastic. Discovered years ago but just coming into popularity now, along with the Gunnerson Steel shackle-equipped railcars, destined for folks like me, we think. Red list, blue list... you know... the company that makes 'em is a legit maker of such things and other funerary goods, but these are FEMA owned and number in the hundreds of thousands. There are other sites like the one in the vid, which is out there all over the place in different lengths... along with a smattering of others by different folk, one of which I've located on Google Earth. Just as big. Jeezus.Basically, the prevailing theory is that, in addition to the population reduction that's part of the 'big picture' as envisioned by Kissinger, Brezinski, et al, that their next false flag operation will be much bigger than 911, and will signal national martial law, with the REX84 detention plans coming alive... (been scaring the bejeezus out of myself for the last couple weeks seeking them out... there's lots)... So, a couple of weeks before the s hits the f, they're to round up baddies like me (I so hope it's false as my dream of the future will be deftly dashed)... us Red guys will be offed and put in these things to be conveyor belted into a crematory doorway after a neatly stacked train ride out... after experiencing the exciting shackle-train ride in. Blue guys (less bad) get slave labor duties starting two weeks after the flinging of freedom out the window... being told there's some sort of thing or happening that requires their, uhum, relocation... I saw photos of the cars... which were almost immediately taken down... sigh. A bit far-fetched for the mainstream, but I look at these things pretty intensely and it just scares me. A lot. I just don't see any good explanation for them otherwise... and REX84 and similar things are quite real, along with a list of executive orders removing any feeble hint of freedom seemingly at their whim.So that's the nutshell... be glad to go into more if you'd like of course... Be well, Mick, Ig"

The secret word is Fear

AND I HAVE A NEW PHONE NUMBER

I know that a man can't give his address out to bad company, or his phone number for that matter, but if you’re a personal friend and feel you need it, just drop me an email at byron4d@msn.com

CRYPTIQUE – But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?

THIS BLOG IS STILL PROTECTED BY...

YESTERDAY WE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE

It wasn’t much of an earthquake, although it’s been a while since we had one. (The above picture is, alas, from a movie.) The motion felt like cognac being swirled in a giant balloon glass and I was the cognac. Just a 5.1 with the epicenter some thirty miles away in Chino Hills. Of course, one never knows that it’s not going to be much of an earthquake when it starts. There’s always the chance that the ceiling will fall down and kill you and that will be the last thing you see, but yesterday I couldn’t overcome the inertia enough to panic. It had been a bad night. Insomnia from nicotine withdrawal, some fool drilling in the wall outside my window, some other fool playing Verdi very loud. (Yes, Verdi) And then, well a fucking quake. I looked at the cat. The cat looked at me. Should we even get out of bed? The cat, who is very old, shrugged and shook his head. Why bother? What were we going to do? Stand under a doorway? If we lived to see the authoritarian lady from Cal Tech on the local news, all well and good, but, if the seismic event had our name on it, so be it. You can’t influence tectonic plates. But here we are, and all was well, and, I guess, on to the next one.

FOR LONE GUNMEN EVERYWHERE

Thanks to Iggy I have a whole new set of perspectives to choose from regarding the Zapruder film and how the version that we see today may well have been totally fucked-with by Time Life or other culprits back in the late 1960s so it conformed to the scarcely plausible timeline for the JFK shooting established by the Warren Commission. (Fascinatingly Time Warner now owns the cable that enables this blog to reach you.) For another angle on the conspiracy, just check out what happened to the members of the Warren Commission in later life. They were so well rewarded, one even became President. This is as opposed to the witnesses who had a terrible habit of turning up dead. Click for the Zapruder analysis.

Abraham Zapruder's Bell & Howell Zoomatic movie camera

AND THIS IS FOR YOU JACK KENNEDY, WHEREVER YOU ARE

Maggie Gyllenhaal has been the subject of so many hundreds of Doc40 search engine hits it seems close to churlish not to post this pic of Maggie in her underwear.

The secret word is Drawers