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Armistice Day
Entry 9 of 20 | show all | print this entry |
(Daniel Stalpertstraat, Amsterdam, November 11, 2006)-Whew! Now that the elections are over and control of Congress has been wrested from the thugs and brownshirts of the right wing, maybe we can breathe a short sigh of relief.
After following the last three elections from Amsterdam with fear and trembling, especially the Bush putsch in 2000 which was effected with no discernible public outcry, and the idiotic machinations of the Kerry campaign in 2004, it was hard to believe that the American electorate could ever penetrate the viscous tissue of horseshit spun out by the fascist state and its vast multi-faceted propaganda machine.
I'll write more on this in my next post because I'm still trying to recover from a nasty case of food poisoning I've been suffering since I ate some bad fish curry at the Bollywood restaurant off the Leidseplein last Sunday. Don't go there!
I've been knocked out of commission all week while this poison has worked its way through my digestive system, and I'm just praying to be back to normal health-which is pretty damned good as a rule-by the time I leave for Italy on Tuesday afternoon.
In my weakened state I can't remember if I posted my schedule for Italy, so here it is in any case:
JOHN SINCLAIR & MARK RITSEMA
Tuesday 14 November
Amsterdam > Bari, Italia
Wednesday 15 November
Bari: Press Conference for presentation of Premio Matteo Salvatore
- Meeting with regional President Nichi Vendola
Thursday 16 November
Milano: VA TUTTO BENE presentation at City Lights Books at COX 18
Friday 17 November
Milano: Radio interview and possible other press meetings
- Evening: Women of Jenin concert with Mark Ritsema at Bloom
Saturday 18 November
Foggia: VA TUTTO BENE presentation in local bookshop with John Sinclair & Marcello Baraghini (5 pm)
- Midnight: Performance with Mark Ritsema at Belami for Premio Matteo Salvatore
Sunday 19 November
Foggia: Performance with Mark Ritsema at Premio Matteo Salvatore and presentation of Targa Matteo Salvatore to John Sinclair (11 pm)
Monday 20 November
Return to Amsterdam
Mark Ritsema and I have also completed arrangements to appear at the Palabra y Música Spoken Word Festival at Teatro Lope de Vega in Seville, Spain the first weekend of March 2007. More details to follow.
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One personal bright spot in this week of illness is the imminent revival of my website at www.johnsinclair.us which has been down since last February. This site was created for me by my friend Anneke Auer in Rotterdam and hosted by Joeri Pfieffer at CannabisHosting.com in Amsterdam. I spent all last winter when I was in the States working on the site almost every day in Detroit and Oxford MS and New Orleans and posted hundreds of pages of material from my files to the site, including my entire extant poetry and writing files from the last 44 years.
Then one morning I logged in and the site was gone. My advisors told me it had been bombed with viruses and was so riddled with badness that they couldn't restore it. Then Anneke started getting too much work to continue to volunteer her time to my project, and Joeri went through a few major changes that kept him from effectively operating CannabisHosting.com while his Funky Farmers store shut down, reopened in another location, merged into Hempshopper, computers put in storage, a new baby at home (congratulations, my brother), a new job, and now back in control of the Self-Hemployed empire with comrade Sidney and working hard to get my site working again.
In the meantime i tried several short-term solutions with little success. Anneke had preserved all my on-line files on a data disk, but no one could figure out how to use them. Finally I gave up and decided to start again from scratch. When I was in Olympia, Washington last August coming to and from the HempFest in Seattle, I spent a couple of nights as a guest of the Unabonger and made a Joint Production with his Clubside Breakfast Time podcast. Here's the show now in its alter identity as the John Sinclair Show #105:
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John Sinclair Radio Show 105
Clubside Breakfast Time, Olympia WA
Tuesday, August 22, 2006 @ 12:45-1:45 am [20-0631]
Between August 16-28 last summer Jim Epstein and I drove up from San Francisco to Seattle and back in Jim's smooth and comfortable vehicle, stopping in Arcata on the way up to spend the night with my pal Dave Chimowitz, known to RadioFreeAmsterdam.com subscribers as Marx Marvelous, host of the Cosmic Paradigm Shift Show, who had just repatriated from Amsterdam to accept a teaching position at the College of the Redwoods in Humboldt County. From there we continued toward Seattle, stopping short in Olympia, WA to spend the night at the home of Jim's friend Jay Stewart, known in the podcasting world as Cosmo G. Spacely, the Unabonger of the Clubside Breakfast Time show at http://clubsidebreakfasttime.wordpress.com/. We spent the weekend in and around the HempFest in Seattle and decided to spend a second night in Olympia so we could make a "Joint Production" with Cosmo. He provided the music and the production and engineering, and we played cuts by Pacific NW bands C Average, Blind Melon, Mudhoney, Black Mountain, and Pearl Django, plus two cuts from Justin Showah's production of Don't Start Me To Talking by John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars from Oxford, MS with Lightning Malcolm on guitar, Justin on bass and Wallace Lester on drums, just received in Seattle via e-mail. The great Jim Dickinson plays piano on "The 44s."
Listen to the John Sinclair Show 105 with The Unabonger
Playlist #105
[01] Intro & Opening Tokes with Cosmo G Spacely
[02] C Average: Parchman Farm
[03] Conversation with Cosmo G Spacely
[04] Blind Melon: John Sinclair
[05] Conversation with Cosmo G Spacely
[06] John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: Don't Start Me To Talking
[07] Conversation with Cosmo G Spacely
[08] Mudhoney: The Straight Life
[09] Conversation with Cosmo G Spacely
[10] Black Mountain: Drug-A-Naut
[11] Conversation with Cosmo G Spacely
[12] John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: The 44's
[13] Conversation, Outro & Closing Music by Pearl Django
Hosted by Cosmo G Spacely for Clubside Breakfast Time & John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Produced & Engineered by The Unabonger
Executive Producer: John Sinclair
Special thanks to Jim Epstein, Rev. Brett & Apothecary Travel, Don E. Wirtshafter, Brother Vivian McTree, John Blanchette, Tim Sanders, Craig Norberg, Marlee Walker and Chris Morda & his great band in Seattle.
Sponsored by Apothecary Travel & Seeds
©(P) 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
Podcasted by www.RadioFreeAmsterdam.com @ September 24, 2006
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It turned out that the Unabonger is a web expert in real life, and he set me up with a Wordframe site that I could use as my own. But before I could get started on it, I was back in Amsterdam and talking with my friend Joe Spencer, who also wanted to help and suggested that he could translate the data files on Anneke's disc and restore them to life on a new site he would create and host for me.
Well, Joe got that started and then was abruptly stymied by serious illness, knocked out of work and seeking treatment for a severe case of Lyme's disease. Please think of Joe in your thoughts and prayers-he needs all the help he can get.
Joeri had offered to help Joe and me get oriented with the database on Anneke's disc, and when Joe suddenly became unavailable Joeri jumped in with both feet and committed himself in the middle of all his other work to fixing all my website problems and making me whole again at last. Thanks a million, my brother!
The website is at www.johnsinclair.us and should be back to full strength in another couple of weeks, like right after the Cannabis Cup.
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If you might be in Amsterdam for the Cannabis Cup, be sure to join us at one of our official events:
THE JOHN SINCLAIR RADIO SHOW
Celebrates Its 2nd Anniversary
November 22, 2006
A New Show Every Monday at 4:20 pm EST
Podcasting at www.RadioFreeAmsterdam.com since 2005
CANNABIS CUP 2007 FESTIVITIES
Tuesday 21 November
Cannabis College
Oudezijds Achterburgwal 124
2:00-5:00 pm
John Sinclair Radio Show (3:00-4:00 pm)
CRISS CROSS CD Release Party
VA TUTTO BENE / IT'S ALL GOOD Book Signing
Grass-A-Matazz Party
Akhnaton, Nieuwezijds Kolk 25
Doors Open at 8:00 pm
John Sinclair Radio Show (8:30-9:30 pm)
Broadcast Live in Concert Hall
John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema Performance (10 pm)
CRISS CROSS CD Release Party
VA TUTTO BENE / IT'S ALL GOOD Book Signing
Wednesday 22 November
Hempshopper
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 80
4:00-6:00 pm
John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema
VA TUTTO BENE / IT'S ALL GOOD Book Signing
& CRISS CROSS CD Release Party
The Dolphins
Kerkstraat 39
9:00-12:00 pm
John Sinclair Radio Show (9:30-10:30 pm)
Broadcast Live in Lower Lounge
John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema
Performance (11:00-12:00 pm)
CRISS CROSS CD Release Party
VA TUTTO BENE / IT'S ALL GOOD Book Signing
Nederland Election Returns on the Big Screen
Thursday 23 November
Thanksgiving Day
Cannabis College
Oudezijds Achterburgwal 124
2:00-4:00 pm
John Sinclair Radio Show (2:30-3:30 pm)
CRISS CROSS CD Release Party
VA TUTTO BENE / IT'S ALL GOOD Book Signing
420 Café
Oudebrugsteeg 27
6:00-8:00 pm
John Sinclair Radio Show (6:30-7:30 pm)
Live Broadcast of Performance by
John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema
CRISS CROSS CD Release Party
VA TUTTO BENE / IT'S ALL GOOD Book Signing
WWW.RADIOFREEAMSTERDAM.COM
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John Sinclair Radio Show 111
The Dolphins, Amsterdam
Sunday, November 5, 2006 @ 2:45-3:45 am [20-0639]
It's the first anniversary of our brother program, The Dopecast from Dopefiend.co.uk, and Henk and I are paying tribute by rebroadcasting a couple of episodes from The Dopecast as our way of saying Happy Anniversary and Many Happy Returns! The first is an excerpt from Dopecast #37 if my memory serves, an extended testimonial to the John Sinclair Show, and the second is the entire Dopecast #20 from last spring, recorded here at The Dolphins with The Dopefiend and his psychedelic sidekick, The Toker. The Dopefiend manages to slip in a couple of my tunes as well.
Listen to the John Sinclair Show 111 with The Dopefiend
Playlist #111
[01] Intro, Comments & Opening Tokes with Larry & Henk
[02] Segment from The Dopecast #37 with The Dopefiend
[03] Rebroadcast of The Dopecast #20: Opening Comments by The Dopefiend
[04] Long Conversation #1 with The Dopefiend & John Sinclair
[05] John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: Cross Road Blues
[06] ID, Conversation #2 with The Dopefiend & John Sinclair and Outro
[07] John Sinclair with LangeFrans & Baas B: It's All Good
:
A Joint Production
Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam and The Dopefiend for The Dopecast
Produced & Engineered by The Dopefiend
Mastered & Posted by Henk Botwinik
Executive Producer: John Sinclair
Sponsored by Eat at Jo's in The Milkweg
Special thanks to Radouane & the staff at The Dolphins
©(P) 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
Podcasted by www.RadioFreeAmsterdam.com @ November 6, 2006
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One last tidbit: Before I leave for Milano I'd like to post an appreciation of the great Milano poet, author and psychedelic artist Matteo Guarnaccia that I wrote at the end of last month. I'll be seeing him and all the cats at COX 18 in Milano before the week is up, and that's something to look forward to.
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
The Psychedelic Art of Matteo Guarnaccia
By John Sinclair
Matteo Guarnaccia makes psychedelic art out of his accomplished painting and drawing style and the turned-out insides of his heart and mind. He has been making his changeless yet ever-changing art since way back in the days of the Psychedelic Revolution and observed his first quarter-century as an artist 10 years ago with the publication of Smilin' Shaman: The Art of Matteo Guarnaccia-A 25 Years Celebration (Milano: Papalagi/COX 18 Books, 1996).
Like the legendary psychedelic poster artists of San Francisco who inspired him and are now his contemporaries -Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse & Alton Kelly-the great Matteo came by his vision naturally and was moved to express it through his art work. By naturally I mean Matteo's vision came to him through real life experience with various levels of psychedelic experimentation and the insights imparted by these altered states of being.
The evidence is everywhere in Matteo's work, from the crystalline surfaces and glittering landscapes to the minutae of psychedelic vision, the little things that are always throbbing everywhere on the periphery of actual sight. And the throbbing sexuality throughout, the spurting of nipples and genitalia, the ecstatic thrills pulsing and beating against the senses.
This is no mindless sensuality, though-this is the psychedelic, all-seeking, all-feeling, all-knowing experience of sensuality, every pore agape, every aperture stuffed with orgasmic joy and the cosmic, overwhelming sense of oneness with the very universe. Joy, laughter, love, mirth and bliss provide the philosophical underpinnings of Matteo's remarkably personal art work, that and the overarching love for humanity and for life itself that pervades every brushstroke.
The spirit of the psychedelic revolution so perfectly presented in the art of Matteo Guarnaccia has survived the ravages of time and grinding opposition to continue to inspire those of us who learned our lessons at the feet of the gods and brought their teachings into our lives and works from that point on. There aren't so many of us who have stayed the course through lo, these 40 odd years, and of this number Matteo Guarnaccia stands in the very first rank of the truly experienced.
-Amsterdam
October 31, 2006
© 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
Matteo Guarnaccia's books include:
A Tribal Education (Roma: Edito da Papalagi, 1993)
Smilin' Shaman: The Art of Matteo Guarnaccia - A 25 Years Celebration (Milano: Papalagi/COX 18 Books, 1996)
The Summer of Love: A Condensed Hipstory (Milano: Stampa Alternativa, 1997)
The Supper: Live at COX 18 (Milano: Cox 18 Books, 2003)
A Cura di Massimo Tantardini (Brescia: Shin Factory, 2006)
and his great book on Amsterdam in the '60s and '70s but I can't remember the title.
Ciao, everybody....
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