THOSE DARN ALIENS ARE BACK

Among all the other things Doc40 has been neglecting to do recently is to keep an eye on those bloody aliens. Thus we were well pleased when we received this from our pal Aeswiren who lives up in the Hudson Valley where UFOs are always bothering the inhabitants.

“One such case has just come to light in Chile, and was presented by government officials for the first time at a press conference on March 13. It was a glorious, sunny morning on Nov. 5, 2010, when crowds gathered to celebrate the changing of the Air Force Command at El Bosque Air Base in Santiago. From different locations, spectators aimed video cameras and cell phones at groups of acrobatic and fighter jets performing an air show overhead. Nobody saw anything amiss. But afterward, an engineer from the adjacent Pillán aircraft factory noticed something bizarre while viewing his footage in slow motion. He turned it over to the government's well known Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, or CEFAA, for analysis.” (Click here for the rest plus video)

The secret word is Encounter

BUT THE VAMPIRES ARE SAFELY AT BAY

Click here for Kyla La Grange 

Don’t we all, darling? 

ROBERT CRUMB COMES AND GOES

(Aren’t you glad we have an offensive content warning?)

AND REMEMBER…

SPACE OPERA

SCENES FROM THE DRUG WAR

Robert Mitchum does 50 days in jail for marijuama possession in 1948.

“In 1948 most Americans knew practically nothing about marijuana, and newspapers across the nation pounced on the surly he-man. ''Now we have a young swoon actor, the idol of teen-agers, caught in a marijuana party,'' sniffed the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Some called for Mitchum's movies to be banned. Fearing more raids and scandals, the Motion Picture Industrial Council released a solemn statement in Hollywood's defense, and it looked like a career was going up in smoke. Amazingly, it didn't, although it did go up the river briefly. After a short trial in February 1949, Mitchum was found guilty of criminal conspiracy to possess marijuana and was sentenced to 60 days (reduced to 50 for good behavior). He did his time in an L.A. county jail and the Wayside Honor Farm in Castaic, Calif., where, as a brickmaker, he was voted ''Mr. Cement Block of 1949'' by his fellow inmates. Released in March, he called his stay at the farm an ''experience every taxpayer should go through.''

And the time he remarked…

"The only effect that I ever noticed from smoking marijuana was a sort of mild sedative, a release of tension when I was overworking. It never made me boisterous or quarrelsome. If anything, it calmed me and reduced my activity."

Click here for Little Feat

The secret word is Tired

BUT THERE WILL ALWAYS BE CHOICES...

AND THE PRICE OF FAME...

GRATUITOUS BARDOT

LOVELY FRESH POETRY

Sea Urchin Press in Rotterdam have just published Black Dogs Circled, a slim and elegant volume of 18 of my poems. It’s a limited edition of just 250 copies so I guess, in this instance, we’re doing art rather than free or mass attack. To find out how to purchase one of these wonders click here.

The black dogs circled

Silent and coordinated pack-shapes

Fleeting furtive forms

And hot-coal eyes

Against the blue

Of the moon-shadowed snow

And I counted

More of them than I had rounds

In my revolver

Click here for Farren and Colquhoun doing poetry

The secret word is Buy 

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Every afternoon at four o’clock, Vanderlay Frozdick walked his jellyfish.  

INTERNET

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSICS # 98

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

Before we pour our Sunday breakfast let’s consider the story sent by venerable and revered HCB. It may be true and the research may be accurate, although I do recall how, back in the days when I ate a lot of acid, I frequently needed a shot to steady my nerves.

“The researchers found six different studies of LSD and alcoholism that were scientifically sound, involving a total of 536 people. They showed that a single dose of LSD, provided for treatment purposes, helped heavy alcoholics and made it less likely that they would relapse. “There has long been a need for better treatments for addiction. We think it is time to look at the use of psychedelics in treating various conditions,” the researchers say. LSD patients were less likely to relapse into problematic alcohol use and had higher levels of total abstinence. In some studies their relatives also reported the same findings. Many of the patients said they had gained a new appreciation for their alcohol problem and new motivation to address it.” (Click here for more)

Click here for Larry Wallis

The secret words are Clear and Light

MARILYN SEZ...

“He frequently needs a shot to steady his nerves.” 

A VOTE FOR OBAMA IS A VOTE FOR SATAN

And while we’re on the subject of the GOP let’s not forget Rick Santorum who wants to apply 14^th century philosophy to 21^st century technology – including nuclear weapons. (The following is by Maureen Dows.)

“Satan has his sights on the United States of America,” the conservative presidential candidate warned in 2008. “Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition.” When, in heaven’s name, did sensuality become a vice? Next he’ll be banning Barry White. Santorum is not merely engaged in a culture war, but “a spiritual war,” as he called it four years ago. “The Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country — the United States of America,” he told students at Ave Maria University in Florida. He added that mainline Protestantism in this country “is in shambles. It is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it.” Click here for more.

BUT OTHER PROBLEMS CAN BE MORE COMPLEX

100 YEARS OF WOODY

In July of this year, Woody Guthrie would have been a 100. I didn’t know that until I read this early tribute by Jim Hightower.

“Guthrie unabashedly celebrated America's working class, seeing in it the commitment to the common good that lifts America up. He drove The Powers That Be crazy (a pretty short ride for many of them back then, just as it is today). So they branded him a unionist, socialist, communist and all sorts of other "ists" ­— but he withered them with humor that got people laughing at them: "I ain't a communist necessarily, but I have been in the red all my life." Going down those "ribbons of highway" that he extolled in "This Land Is Your Land," Guthrie found that the only real hope of fairness and justice was in the people themselves: "When you bum around for a year or two and look at all the folks that's down and out, busted, disgusted (but can still be trusted), you wish that somehow or other they could ... pitch in and build this country back up again." He concluded, "There is just one way to save yourself, and that's to get together and work and fight for everybody." And, indeed, that's exactly what grassroots people are doing all across our country today. From Occupy Wall Street to the ongoing Wisconsin uprising, from battles against the Keystone XL Pipeline to the successful local and state campaigns to repeal the Supreme Court's atrocious Citizens United edict, people are adding their own verses to Woody's musical refrain: "I ain't a-gonna be treated this a-way." Where's Woody when we need him? He's right there, inside each of us.” (Clickhere for more)

Click here for Woody

Click here for a real rarity

The secret word is Highway

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

EVENING ALL…

DON’T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY?

POT KILLS

Yes my friends, I know Doc40 has been away for far too long for reasons great and small and too depressing or maybe exciting to go into right now, but I do hope from here on out that we can rectify matters in the coming days and week and put the fun back in fun house again. And what better way to start up a new run than with this true tale from our pal Richard Metzger at Dangerous Minds?   

“Excerpted from a 1988 Department of Justice/DEA brief written by Judge Francis L. Young: “In layman terms this means that in order to induce death, a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately .9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.” Compare and contrast the damage that just two bottles of tequila would do to the human body (Been there, done that and won the booby prize of 4-day hangover...). And while I’m on the topic, whereas you can see that it’s impossible for a human to OD on cannabis, the plant is HIGHLY toxic to dogs. That’s right, do not let your pooch near your stash. If you make pot brownies keep them out of your dog’s reach (Chocolate is also lethal to dogs. So are grapes and onions). If your dog eats cannabis, rush it to a pet hospital without hesitation.”

Click herefor Afroman

The secret word is Return 

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

L. Ron Frozdick founded his cult at a very early age.

LIFE IS FILLED WITH CHOICES

GRAUITOUS BARSTOOL

I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS ALBUM COVER

The best I can do is stare at it in bemused puzzlement and then turn away. And that is just as well because I am supposed to be working as hard as I can on a piece of creative writing that is required soon. I can say no more except it’s guaranteed to be great. Observe the bottom left hand corner, however. It may be one of the roots of catapocalypse.

Click here for Elvis in Absurdity (But maybe only HCB will twig the ref.)

The words are Mousy and Den


Michael Davis – RIP 

BUT FRANK SEZ…

AND JESSICA SEZ…

“Do any of you remember me?”

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Dale Frozdick was devastated when her Flash Gordon imitator revealed he was exclusively gay. 

THE FORMICIZATION OF ELVIS PRESLEY

(Image supplied by HCB – see above)

SPACE OPERA

SOMETHING CHEAP AND NASTY

I may have to go out a get drunk on something cheap and nasty. I just got screwed by Microsoft who cancelled the MSN email account I’ve had since the days of dialup because they claimed they couldn’t process a credit card that didn’t have an US billing address. The sum in question that will force me to spend a whole mess of manhours learning a new system? $9.99. 

Click here for Albert Collins

The secret word is Ire

MARILYN SEZ...

“We will hang the corporate bastards from the yardarms of the luxury yachts.”

WHAT ARE YOU REBELLING AGAINST?

GRATUITOUS HANDHOLDING

FARCEBOOK

While I use Facebook for my own gratification, communication, and promotion I’m under no illusion that it’s anything but two-way street of exploitation and the action is transactional. Thus I’m glad The New York Times has finally discover the social network danger of stereotyping and data aggregation.

“Stereotyping is alive and well in data aggregation. Your application for credit could be declined not on the basis of your own finances or credit history, but on the basis of aggregate data — what other people whose likes and dislikes are similar to yours have done. If guitar players or divorcing couples are more likely to renege on their credit-card bills, then the fact that you’ve looked at guitar ads or sent an e-mail to a divorce lawyer might cause a data aggregator to classify you as less credit-worthy. When an Atlanta man returned from his honeymoon, he found that his credit limit had been lowered to $3,800 from $10,800. The switch was not based on anything he had done but on aggregate data. A letter from the company told him, “Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express.” (Click here for the whole thing)

REMEMBERING SOUL TRAIN

RBP/Yahoo have reprinted my account of a visit to the Soul Train set back in the 1970s. 

“An incredibly beautiful, tall slim girl drifts by. She has a huge afro, skin tight Iron Boy overalls, elaborate platforms and pounds of Navajo silver and turquoise jewellery. Her friend is encased in the full Marilyn Monroe black sequined sheath dress drag and a blonde wig that contrasts stunningly with her light brown skin and black lipstick. They stop and chat with an almost executive a looking boy. He wears a collar, tie and very English cut suit, wide lapels, narrow shoulders and a nipped in waist. His whole images is careful except that the suit is a flaming orange, his shirt a pale lemon yellow, and his tie a riot of red William Morris. The profusion of style variations is so fast and intense that it's almost like being taken back to the heady days of high mod in London. (Click here for the whole thing)

Click here for James Brown

DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSICS # 97

And while we’re talking paganism and dark arts…

MADGE OF SATAN

GRATUITOUS ZENOMORPH

WHEN THE MIND CONTROL BUTTERFLIES COME, WE’LL BE READY FOR THEM

I had not heard about mind control butterflies until our pal Elf Hellion (who else?) dropped it on me last week. But now, after a little research among the Real Crazy Paranoids And Their Ilk I discover that our gaily-winged friends are probably going to be a sources of endless speculative fun and may even make a major debut in the novella on which I am currently working. (A major – but commissioned – secret that will be revealed in good time.) I love this shit!

“One of the best kept secrets in history is the Monarch Mind-control programming which uses trauma-based mind control along with state of the art mind control to create humans who are totally controlled by a 'handler’ without even knowing that they are controlled. This is accomplished by sophisticated use of the brain's ability to disassociate, which is used to the extreme to create structured multiple-personality- disordered minds. For an extremely technical definition of what the Monarch program was: it was used as US Department of Defense code name for a subsection of the CIA's Operation Artichoke which is also known as Project MK-Ultra. However, this technical definition is misleading because the Monarch programming under various names such as marionette programming has been going on since the Nazis.” Click here for more

Click here for the video

The secret word is Flap

BUT, IN THE MEANTIME, OUR LIPS ARE SEALED

Click here for Zombie Attack

AND WHEN THE BUTTERFLIES FAIL…

GRATUITOUS SID

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

Fish? Anyone for fish?

Click here for more fish

The secret word is Aquarium

MARILYN SEZ...

“He’s being surreal again.”