Saturday, May 26, 2012
Rihanna's pyramid, and her eye
During a performance in the season finale of American Idol, Rihanna begins her performance by emerging from a pyramid, and at one point she is the pupil when her female dancers form the shape of an eye. At the VH1 Web site, Bene Viera comments, "Judging by Rihanna’s performance on last night’s American Idol season finale, she has no intention of killing the Illuminati rumors any time soon. If anything she’s laughing at the ridiculous conspiracy theorists by feeding them exactly what they want." More here.
Hat tip, Jesse Walker on Twitter.
Also, via Mr. Walker: A singer in Kenya denies being a member of the Illuminati.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Haiku, and Timothy Leary
A couple of recent haiku from Pipzi Williams (@lordfanny1723 on Twitter)
my haiku are not
about the world -- only my
own nervous system
(#RAW)
looking through these eyes
being in just this moment
not any other
(#senryu)
William Gibson remembering Timothy Leary:
"We’d bump into one another on the VR rubber chicken circuit. Barcelona, Linz, Venice… He was really great to have at your table. Kept the evening in flux. And people would come up to him and give him drugs, which he’d give to someone else, usually a perfect stranger, as soon as the gifter was gone. He said that this was a win-win proposition, as the first person could now say that he’d given drugs to Timothy Leary, and the second person that Timothy Leary had given him drugs. I never saw him look to see what was in the envelope."
Hat tip, Jesse Walker. More here.
my haiku are not
about the world -- only my
own nervous system
(#RAW)
looking through these eyes
being in just this moment
not any other
(#senryu)
William Gibson remembering Timothy Leary:
"We’d bump into one another on the VR rubber chicken circuit. Barcelona, Linz, Venice… He was really great to have at your table. Kept the evening in flux. And people would come up to him and give him drugs, which he’d give to someone else, usually a perfect stranger, as soon as the gifter was gone. He said that this was a win-win proposition, as the first person could now say that he’d given drugs to Timothy Leary, and the second person that Timothy Leary had given him drugs. I never saw him look to see what was in the envelope."
Hat tip, Jesse Walker. More here.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
A couple of RAW mysteries
I have a post up at RAWilsonfans.com that brings up a couple of questions I've written about here: What has happened to the Robert Anton Wilson-Robert Shea correspondence? Who at Dell bought ILLUMINATUS!?
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
More on 'Reality Tunnels' photos
I have heard back from Scottish photographer Andrew Smith (now a resident of England) about his "Reality Tunnels" photographs that he placed with the Guardian. (I wrote about this in an earlier blog posting.) I asked him to give me a bit of background for the photos and he obliged:
"Background is that they were taken for the Guardian Camera Club which have a monthly assignment that is run via their flickr group and for May the theme is conceptual photography, with the photographs having to have been taken during the month. The Guardian photography team select some sets for review as they get submitted and they publish them on the Guardian website and I've been lucky to have had a review and positive comments.
"I came up with the idea of taking photographs in a stark urban setting and decided on using some of the under-road subways in Croydon as the setting and I also came across the Prometheus Rising quote: "When we meet somebody whose separate tunnel-reality is obviously far different from ours, we are a bit frightened and always disoriented." I felt that the photographs fitted this quote very well due to the different viewpoint and the selective and limited focus which gives a different image than you would expect."
Mr. Smith is on Flickr here.
"Background is that they were taken for the Guardian Camera Club which have a monthly assignment that is run via their flickr group and for May the theme is conceptual photography, with the photographs having to have been taken during the month. The Guardian photography team select some sets for review as they get submitted and they publish them on the Guardian website and I've been lucky to have had a review and positive comments.
"I came up with the idea of taking photographs in a stark urban setting and decided on using some of the under-road subways in Croydon as the setting and I also came across the Prometheus Rising quote: "When we meet somebody whose separate tunnel-reality is obviously far different from ours, we are a bit frightened and always disoriented." I felt that the photographs fitted this quote very well due to the different viewpoint and the selective and limited focus which gives a different image than you would expect."
Mr. Smith is on Flickr here.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Oz Fritz spots an interesting book
Oz Fritz calls attention to an interesting book and to a radio broadcast (available online) about "the controversial Solar Lodge, a Thelemic community that flourished for five or six years in the 60's and early 70's in the Los Angeles area."
The book Oz mentions, Inside Solar Lodge — Behind the Veil, is kind of odd, and I'm not just referring to the subject matter. Oz includes a link on where to buy it, but it doesn't seem to have been "published" in a normal sense. It's not available on Amazon, for example (although a similar book is, for just $280) and it's not available as an electronic book.
The book Oz mentions, Inside Solar Lodge — Behind the Veil, is kind of odd, and I'm not just referring to the subject matter. Oz includes a link on where to buy it, but it doesn't seem to have been "published" in a normal sense. It's not available on Amazon, for example (although a similar book is, for just $280) and it's not available as an electronic book.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Give Dell's editors some credit
My favorite mystery writer is Lawrence Block. This morning, as I was finishing reading his collection of short stories about unlicensed private detective Matt Scudder, The Night and the Music, I came across a passage in Block's afterword in the book that's of direct interest to Robert Anton Wilson fans.
Block explains that when he came up with the idea for the Scudder books, his agent made a deal with Dell, and the first three Scudder books came out in the early 1970s, beginning with The Sins of the Fathers in 1976.
He writes, "Paperback distribution in general was problematic during those years, and Dell's troubles were greater than most; they returned much of their manuscript inventory, paid for but unpublished, to authors and agents, and but for the personal enthusiasm of editor Bill Grose, Scudder might never have seen print."
Dell, of course, was the publisher that brought out ILLUMINATUS! in 1975 which launched the writing careers of Wilson and Robert Shea, and as it is a rather long, unusual book, it probably only wound up in print because of the personal enthusiasm of its editors. I have so far not been able to track down who the Dell editor was who bought it, but I do know that editors Fred Feldman and David M. Harris pushed it into publication.
I haven't published my interview with Feldman yet, but my interview with Harris is here.
Footnote: The Sins of the Fathers is available for 99 cents for Kindle; I believe that sale will expire very soon. Block attended Antioch College in Ohio.
Block explains that when he came up with the idea for the Scudder books, his agent made a deal with Dell, and the first three Scudder books came out in the early 1970s, beginning with The Sins of the Fathers in 1976.
He writes, "Paperback distribution in general was problematic during those years, and Dell's troubles were greater than most; they returned much of their manuscript inventory, paid for but unpublished, to authors and agents, and but for the personal enthusiasm of editor Bill Grose, Scudder might never have seen print."
Dell, of course, was the publisher that brought out ILLUMINATUS! in 1975 which launched the writing careers of Wilson and Robert Shea, and as it is a rather long, unusual book, it probably only wound up in print because of the personal enthusiasm of its editors. I have so far not been able to track down who the Dell editor was who bought it, but I do know that editors Fred Feldman and David M. Harris pushed it into publication.
I haven't published my interview with Feldman yet, but my interview with Harris is here.
Footnote: The Sins of the Fathers is available for 99 cents for Kindle; I believe that sale will expire very soon. Block attended Antioch College in Ohio.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
'Masks of the Illuminati' a 'gateway' book
Some months ago, I suggested The Earth Will Shake as a "gateway" book for readers who prefer conventional fiction and would like to try Robert Anton Wilson's writing.
Some of you held out for Masks of the Illuminati, and it appears that the author of Josephine's Reader's Advisory would agree. "I’ve always found Masks of the Illuminati to be Wilson’s most approachable book; I’ve made several attempts at the Illuminatus (written with Robert Shea) and Schrodinger’s Cat (written alone) trilogies but never gotten more than a few pages in before losing track of the plotline and wandering off to something more straightforward."
I haven't read Masks in years but I plan to re-read it later this year. I'll note that it's available as an electronic book as well as in print editions.
Some of you held out for Masks of the Illuminati, and it appears that the author of Josephine's Reader's Advisory would agree. "I’ve always found Masks of the Illuminati to be Wilson’s most approachable book; I’ve made several attempts at the Illuminatus (written with Robert Shea) and Schrodinger’s Cat (written alone) trilogies but never gotten more than a few pages in before losing track of the plotline and wandering off to something more straightforward."
I haven't read Masks in years but I plan to re-read it later this year. I'll note that it's available as an electronic book as well as in print editions.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Photo essay on RAW's reality tunnels
The Guardian newspaper in Great Britain has published a photo essay built around a Robert Anton Wilson quote about reality tunnels. This is quite a bit of publicity for Bob -- the Guardian is a big deal newspaper, kind of the equivalent of the New York Times or the Washington Post.
The photographs are part of the Guardian's Camera Club feature. The caption says, "Croydon promises to be the perfect setting for this visual exploration of Robert Anton Wilson's extraordinary ideas. " (Wikipedia explains, "Croydon is a large town in South London, England.")
The arresting photographs are taken by Andrew Smith. Mr. Smith's Flickr account explains, "I live in Croydon and enjoy photographing the events going on in and on round London. Being of Scottish origin I do particularly enjoy those which are free and many of them are."
The photographs are part of the Guardian's Camera Club feature. The caption says, "Croydon promises to be the perfect setting for this visual exploration of Robert Anton Wilson's extraordinary ideas. " (Wikipedia explains, "Croydon is a large town in South London, England.")
The arresting photographs are taken by Andrew Smith. Mr. Smith's Flickr account explains, "I live in Croydon and enjoy photographing the events going on in and on round London. Being of Scottish origin I do particularly enjoy those which are free and many of them are."
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Maybe Logic Academy announces classes, teleseminar
Maybe Logic Academy, boasting a new easy-on-the-eyes redesign, has announced a tele-seminar on July 23, Robert Anton Wilson Day. "RAW Retrospective, tele-seminar, free as can be," the site says.
See the site for details on new online courses that have been announced, such as "Initiation" with Lon Milo Duquette, "Cosmic Trigger" with Erik Davis, "Prometheus Rising" with David Jay Brown and "Schroedinger's Cat" with Eric Wagner.
See the site for details on new online courses that have been announced, such as "Initiation" with Lon Milo Duquette, "Cosmic Trigger" with Erik Davis, "Prometheus Rising" with David Jay Brown and "Schroedinger's Cat" with Eric Wagner.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Mystery bones in Italian gangster's tomb
"The disappearance of Orlandi reads like the rollercoaster plot of a Dan Brown thriller, with a touch of The Godfather thrown in for good measure.
"Twelve years ago, a skull was found in the confessional box of a Rome church and tests were carried out on it to see if it was Orlandi after a mystery tip-off, but they proved negative.
"In 2008 Sabrina Minardi, De Pedis' girlfriend at the time of Orlandi's disappearance, sensationally claimed that now-dead American monsignor Paul Marcinkus, the controversial chief of the Vatican bank, was behind the kidnap.
"Monsignor Marcinkus used his status to avoid being questioned by police in the early 1980s probing the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, which the Vatican had invested heavily in.
"The collapse was linked to the murder of Roberto Calvi - dubbed God's banker - because of the Vatican connection, and his body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London in June 1982.
"His pockets were filled with cash and stones and it was originally recorded as a suicide, but police believe he was murdered by the Mafia after a bungled money laundering operation."
Full story here.
Hat tip: "Hagbard Celine" on Twitter (@amoebadesign) who remarks, "P2 Calvi and Marcinkus again in the press, re Mystery In Tomb Of Murdered Gangster. R.A.Wilson would love these days."
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Space within our grasp?
Colonization of space hasn't happened quite as quickly as Robert Anton Wilson and Timothy Leary had hoped, but the news isn't all bad.
Supergee links to this post, noting, "Reminder that Europe punked out on exploring America the way Earth punked out on space. Mildly cheering."
One good sign is the rise of private rocket companies that can put cargo, and even people, into space, breaking the government monopoly. SpaceX has announced it will launch a rocket with a cargo-carrying space capsule Saturday and dock it with the International Space Station.
Supergee links to this post, noting, "Reminder that Europe punked out on exploring America the way Earth punked out on space. Mildly cheering."
One good sign is the rise of private rocket companies that can put cargo, and even people, into space, breaking the government monopoly. SpaceX has announced it will launch a rocket with a cargo-carrying space capsule Saturday and dock it with the International Space Station.
Monday, May 14, 2012
A bit of equal time
Here's a bit of equal time, I guess. Andrew Crawshaw wrote me (HomingBohm in the comments on this blog) to call my attention to a critique of Robert Anton Wilson written by someone named Charles Carreon. Andrew comments, "it struck me as quite an ironic critique of one of RAW's pieces. Enjoy reading it; it's funny - sometimes intentionally, sometimes not so."
Well, I did try to read it, but I couldn't get though it. Carreon says that Wilson's works regularly disappoint because of his "their lack of engaging characters and threadbare plots," using a link supplied by the copyright thieves at his host site to indicate that he's referring to "ILLUMINATUS!" That's fine; no one writer or particular literary work is for everyone. Mr. Carreon's post apparently is not for me.
Well, I did try to read it, but I couldn't get though it. Carreon says that Wilson's works regularly disappoint because of his "their lack of engaging characters and threadbare plots," using a link supplied by the copyright thieves at his host site to indicate that he's referring to "ILLUMINATUS!" That's fine; no one writer or particular literary work is for everyone. Mr. Carreon's post apparently is not for me.
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