Someone sent me this image of downtown Amherst as it was in 1965.
Here is the exact same view as it was around noon today, forty-three years later.
Nearby, some peacers were venting against the president.
A little late in his term to be talking impeachment, don't ya think?
I saw this line of poetry from T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland on the chalkboard in the Amherst Starbucks.
The full stanza goes like this:
APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
April was certainly a cruel month for UMass student Liam O'Donnelly. Last week he committed suicide by hurling himself from this skyscraper dorm that is named in honor of President John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts.
Where his body landed is this makeshift shrine his friends erected in his honor.
It's not clear why O'Donnelly killed himself, but it is not unheard of as the academic year nears the end for someone on campus to turn up dead by their own hand. I remember when I was at UMass that in McNamara, the dorm next door to mine, a girl committed suicide. She liked to party too much and was flunking all her courses and was afraid to tell her parents that she had wasted all their tuition money so she killed herself in her room. It really freaked everybody out.
It is wrong to judge people who commit suicide. You can't know enough about what their lives are really like to do that. But I think, in hard times, it is useful to remember that we are dead a long time, so why rush to the end? Plus as someone who has seen a lot of bad shit go down over the years, let me say it is my experience that it is surprising how often good things lie just around the corner. As they say in Narcotics Anonymous:
Don't quit five minutes before the miracle happens!
Wish ya coulda thought of that, Liam.
The weather is so nice that a few of the Northampton restaurants are serving food with their windows open, such as The Teapot.
Also offering semi-outdoor dining is the restaurant called simply Zen.
Here I am sitting at a table on the sidewalk in front of Starbucks yesterday enjoying a lazy cafe lifestyle.
My pal Zak got himself a new tatoo yesterday. It took three hours to embed it in his skin.
Years ago I considered getting a tattoo. I probably would have gotten something Grateful Dead themed, such as the contemplative jester icon.
I once had a boyfriend who tried to get me to have his name tattooed on my ass. Blinded by love I almost agreed but fortunately ultimately refused, as our relationship ended up lasting less than a year. Now I don't think I would get a tattoo under any circumstances, because it has become too trendy. Years ago a tattoo had a stigma attached to it, only people who genuinely lived on the edge of society had them. Now that it's become some kind of mainstream fashion statement, I'm not interested anymore.
Dig this hot car in Hamp.
Another tasteless local joke:
Question: Why did so many Polish end up in Chicopee?
It lifted my spirits to look at the beautiful view out my window this morning.
Near the Amherst Survival Center where I work in selfless service to humanity (translation: for free) is this symbol of the American Dream; pretty flowers in front of a white picket fence.
After my shift at the Survival Center I went to UMass, where some of the students were just hanging out enjoying the sunshine.
Other students were calling for the liberation of Tibet at a rally in front of the Student Union.
One protester was displaying gross pictures of people allegedly tortured for wanting freedom for Tibet.
The campus police were nearby, but the rally was peaceful.
Monks were posing with a picture of the Dalai Lama.
Last year around this time the Dalai Lama came and spoke at Smith College. Here is a video of him arriving at the Hotel Northampton.
The Dalai Lama seems like an okay guy for a dude who runs around the world in flowing robes blessing everybody. But a government under him would still be a religious dictatorship, and history has shown that no matter how benignly these things start out they always end badly.
Since whoever controls your money controls your life, economic liberty is essential for all other forms of liberty. Free markets and free minds are self re-enforcing - you can't sustain one without the other. Capitalism is the only system that allows you to produce products or sell your skills as you wish and to keep the money you earn doing so. Therefore, no society can be called free that has any other economic system other than capitalism.
Also, no government is legitimate where those who must obey the laws are not allowed to participate in making them. Therefore no society can be considered free that does not practice democracy.
Therefore, the only form of civilization that provides for the maximum freedom and the highest level of well-being for the most people is a system embracing a capitalist democracy.
Unless that is what the goal of the free Tibet movement is, then their talk of liberation is just so much blather.
At the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College there recently appeared this germicide contraption.
You put your hand under it and some cum-like goo comes out which you then rub all over your hands. In the old days you didn't have to worry about germs in the library because books are poor surfaces for germs to live. However, today nearly everyone who goes to the library works on computers, and you never know who touched or sneezed on the keyboard before you. I predict these germicide dispensers will soon be in all libraries.
At UMass the manufacturers of Stride chewing gum brought a giant hummer on campus to promote their product.
Some students thought a giant gas-guzzler was inappropriate during Earth Week and made this sign.
It reads: "Big Corporations Off Campus - Stride and their hummers are not welcome at Earth Week."
The University is cleaning the outside of the UMass Grad Research Center. It is not a job for those afraid of heights.
I used to work in the Grad Research Center, before drug addiction made me unemployed. I want to go to work and get off welfare, but who will hire an old queer stoner?
Stoners were ooohing over this hookah on display today in the campus center.
So if you go chasing rabbits And you know you're gonna fall Just tell 'em a hookah smoking character Has given you the call He called Alice When she was just small
I've been meaning to post about the passing of the first 100 days of the Sarno mayoralty in Springfield. It is an arbitrary, though traditional ritual of American politics to judge a new office holder on the basis of what trends are indicated by the first one hundred days of their administration. By no means definitive nor always fair, it's still a worthwhile appraisal. Here is what I think are the most important things about Sarno's administration thus far.
1. No ethical challenges - The first 100 days of the Ryan Administration were filled with radical change, as Charles V. Ryan began his term with a widespread cleansing of City Hall as incompetents, hacks and crooks, some of whom had bled the city for decades, were quickly fired out the door. The biggest fear was that Dominic Sarno would reverse that, and invite the bad guys back inside City Hall. Such fears were magnified in the campaign by Sarno's close association with the notorious sleaze Charlie Kingston and the scandal plagued former State Rep. Ray Jordan. There were even rumors that Brian Santaniello might return as Election Commissioner. None of it has come to pass, as Sarno has successfully kept his shadier contacts at arms length. Critics claim that Sarno is merely afraid of the Control Board and will invite the bad boys back once they leave. However the fact is so far those who predicted that the election of Sarno would lead to a new ethical crisis have not been shown correct.
2. Biggest campaign promise not kept - The most dishonest aspect of Sarno's campaign was the implication that he could do something about the city's unpopular trash fee. Actually that is under the sole authority of the Control Board, which as anyone could have predicted has shown no interest in repealing it. It was a promise voters should have realized Sarno had no power to carry out in the first place. However, Sarno depended on the the voters not to understand this, and no one ever lost an election by relying on the stupidity of the Springfield electorate.
3. Fitchet gets top police post - This is a good thing and a bad thing. It is a good thing because Fitchet is an insider and is unlikely to change anything to harm the department. It is a bad thing because Fitchet is an insider and unlikely to change anything to improve the department.
4. Shows some backbone - Critics claimed that Sarno was a lightweight who would be pushed around by local power players. Yet there's little evidence of that as Sarno has pretty much set his own policies, made his own choices and strongly defended them. One can argue over the wisdom of those choices and policies, but those who predicted that Sarno would be merely a figurehead mayor or a puppet for others are clearly wrong.
5. He's no Charlie Ryan - No matter how good Sarno turns out to be, we already had an old pro at the helm. Local historians will forever shake their heads over why Ryan was shown the door.
6. Good humor - Sarno has held up well in the face of endless corny jokes about his hair. A sense of humor is an essential requirement for leading Springfield.
In conclusion, after 100 days the jury is still out on the Sarno mayoralty, but in general he's off to a solid start and the fears of his worst critics have thus far proven unfounded.
Here is a picture I found online of the first Earth Day celebration at UMass in 1970. Dig the geodesic dome! It's funny how little UMass changes over the decades. If you went to that exact same spot today, and erected a geodesic dome, everything would look exactly the same.
Blues-tinged soul singers Avi and Celia raised a ruckus on Main Street in Northampton the other day by performing on the sidewalk for free. As shown in this humorous video, passerby threw them change, not realizing that the duo were performing later that evening at the Iron Horse for ten bucks at the door.
As I get older I feel the darkness closing in, the shadows growing longer, the light fading, fading, fading....
Just kidding!
However, I can't see as well as I used to. When I was younger I had fantastic eyes, and used to impress everyone by how well I could see the buses approaching at our bus stop in Pine Point by the old wall on Boston Road.
Long before anyone else, I could see whether the approaching bus was the one we wanted - State Boston Road which stopped directly in front of The High School of Commerce - or some other school bus. Now my eyes have weakened until I can hardly read without glasses on. Which brings me to a recent bit of misfortune.
It went down like this: I was sitting on the couch and reading the Springfield Republican when the phone rang. In a hurry to answer, I carelessly put down my reading glasses and went to the phone. After talking for several minutes, I returned to the couch and sat down. That's when I heard a sickening crunching sound. I jumped up and looked where I had sat and this was the condition of my glasses.
Oh shit! I sat on my glasses and knocked the lens out! Try as I might to stick it back in, the lens simply wouldn't stay in place. As an unemployed former drug addict on welfare, how could I get some new glasses?
Taxpayers to the rescue!
I found an eye doctor in downtown Northampton who takes MassHealth. I headed straight down there to 78 Main Street on the second floor.
Right next door, where NBO Tickets is now, was once a smoke shop called Lizottes. They had the best selection of rolling papers in Hamp.
78 Main is a grand old building with an interesting floor of hardwood and glass.
Anyway, the story had a happy ending as I will soon have my brand new glasses. Actually the pair I broke were cheapos I'd picked up at Walmart. My new ones will be prescription glasses made to meet the exact specifications of my individual eyes.
America has been very good to me.
Speaking of freebies, this is where I got today's free lunch at UMass.
You could also get free pot - a planting pot that is - provided you were willing to paint it.
Here I am in Packard's in Hamp, posing by a painting by the famous local artist Greg Stone. That's Stony himself on the right.
I'll be attending a blogger's summit (or whatever) next Monday night at Packard's which I'm sure I'll tell you about.
Here's a painting I came upon outside a student partyhouse in Amherst. Think it has any sexual connotations?
I wonder if this message on a dorm window in the Southwest section of UMass also has sexual overtones?
Or maybe I just don't get it. Drivers however are getting it good.
I promised that I would tell you more about the videos Ken Babbs sent me, and what better day to finally get around to it than 420, the International Stoner's Holiday of High Pride?
Ken Babbs you may recall (or not) is one of the co-stars of the popular book by Tom Wolfe The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. He is soon to become more famous because a film is in the works based on the book directed by the renowned film maker Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) shown below on the left with Babbs.
The subject of the book, and now the film, is the infamous bus trip taken by Babbs and his best friend Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) a trip where legend has it they helped to popularize the use of psycheldelic drugs, in particular LSD, which was legal back in the mid-1960's when the cross country bus trip occurred.
That legend is somewhat exaggerated and simplistic. The real purpose of the trip was to arrive in New York City for the official release of Kesey's second book, Sometimes a Great Notion, a lesser known novel but one which many literary critics consider better than Cuckoo's Nest, at least in terms of style and creativity. While there was drugs of psychedelic types onboard the bus, and many madcap adventures occurred, it was never specifically the desire of Kesey, Babbs and crew to turn on America, at least not by bus.
If the bus ride eventually had a pro-drug influence on society, that is largely the result of Wolfe's book, which had a romanticizing effect on the trip. Ironically not everyone associated with drug culture has praised it, with some complaining that Wolfe sometimes adopts a snarky tone in the book. In any case, forever after Kesey, Babbs and their friends, who sometimes called themselves the Merry Pranksters, were locked forever in the public's conciousness with that bus ride.
What wasn't always appreciated was that most everyone involved with the bus ride lived for decades afterward, indeed, a good many are still alive today. Kesey is not one of them, having died of liver disease in 2001. But much of what is so celebrated in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test continued on through the years, even if no writers were hanging around to write books about it. Much of the psychic and cultural experimentation was recorded in one form or other and stored in the Prankster's legendary archives. Most of it has never been seen by the public, but that may change if the acid test movie is a success.
The most valuable archival material, that owned by Kesey himself, is under the control of his son Zane, who makes some material available on the website Key-Z.com, formerly known as Intrepid Trips, which was originally run by his father as one of the pioneering websites of the cyberspace revolution. The Pranksters were online as one of the earliest colonizers of cyberspace, and among the first to present their daily lives online in the manner that would later be called blogging. Whatever their cultural significance, Kesey, Babbs and the Pranksters were technological innovators as well. Not in the sense that they created new technology, but because they pioneered new uses and forms of self expression that the technology could be used for.
Today we consider it commonplace for people to make videos and other forms of recordings of private lives and then share them with the public through mass distribution online or by other means. But in 1965, when the Pranksters filmed their bus trip, the idea that private lives recorded by regular people could have a wider significance was by no means widespread. Yet the purpose of the film was to show a subculture, hidden from the view of the larger culture at the time, and to express the consciousness that subculture was experiencing. The fact that they were using drugs was almost beside the point.
For the Pranksters, and the musical group most associated with them, the Grateful Dead, it was considered essential to preserve everything one did that was of any significance, either by writing about it, filming or sound recording it, or all three! The Grateful Dead's credo of preserving everything has paid off handsomely in a string of endless live releases. But for the Pranksters, their archives have been less of a mother lode, at least commercially.
Part of the problem is the archives are in desperate need of editing. Kesey reportedly left behind mountains of manuscripts, miles of film and reels of recording from which no one has really attempted to sift the wheat from the chaff. What Zane Kesey has mostly made available is stuff that was already pretty much edited and ready for release around the time Kesey died. Much of this material is excellent, such as the original films shot on the bus trip, some priceless footage of a shirtless and stoned Neal Cassady tripping at Kesey's farm, and a 1970's poetry festival the Pranksters put on featuring some of the most important literary figures of the era. There is a grab bag of later material available, which is not as good but still interesting, such as videos about a trip the Pranksters took to England and the delightful but hopelessly spacey labor of love of Kesey's later years, the play called Twister. All these and more can be obtained here.
Timothy Leary and Neal Cassady.
However, if Zane is the keeper of the vaults, then Ken Babbs has emerged as the definer of the Prankster message in the present. Actually the term Merry Pranksters has been mostly retired since the death of Kesey, in much the same way as the term Grateful Dead was retired after the death of Jerry Garcia. While the spirit lives on, the terms in both cases was too closely identified with a single individual to keep the same name. While the Merry Pranksters were always bigger than Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead were always more than just Jerry Garcia, neither entity could really be called the same thing in their absence.
So for the future evolutions of the Prankster concept, Babbs came up with the Skypilot Club, a loose kind of spoof of the old cereal and comic book clubs of the 1940's and 50's. There are membership cards and other silly knockoffs of kid culture, all presented with a wink and a nod to drug culture sensibilities. And there are videos of what Babbs and his cohorts are up to now. What those videos suggest is that the more things change, the more things stay the same in that wondrously odd world of those formerly known as the Merry Pranksters.
Two excellent examples are some videos Babbs sent me recently. The first is one that is about the United States military base Guantanamo in Cuba. Or at least that's sort of what it's about.
What the video is about as much as anything is wordplay. The Pranksters have always been fascinated by language and sound, whether it be puns and rhymes or just noise and the way it undulates through space. Babbs (and Kesey of course when he was alive) love to play language the way a jazz musician plays sound, arranging it in new and unusual ways that sometimes have only a tangental relationship with the normal usage of the words. The result is a kind of sonic intoxicant that is almost hypnotic in its effect, phasing back and forth between message and medium in a way resulting in fresh understandings. Babbs, a proud veteran, is obviously sincere in denouncing the alleged cruelties committed at Guantanamo, but as this video unfolds the constantly repeated script becomes more musical than political. In the end, it's all about the wordplay.
This is even more apparent in the second video Babbs sent me Dreamin.
Essentially a skit performed as part of a concert by the newly reformed Grateful Dead offshoot band New Riders of the Purple Sage, this short (35 minutes) performance is essentially a New Riders jam session set to a poem by Babbs. The performance, where Babbs and the New Riders are accompanied by a spirited cast of Pranksters and friends, again relies heavily on the juxtaposition of words so that they convey fresh meanings. The tone of the piece is very upbeat, and Dreamin is one of Babbs best poetic compositions.
Alas, if you are looking for a New Riders concert, this is much too freeform for a fair sampling of the current state of the band, which from all reports I've heard is as good on the road as it's ever been. This video is all about Babbs and friends, with the New Riders providing only tasteful noodling among the verses.
However, if you are looking for good videos to put on after midnight at your next party, then these are two certain to surprise and intrigue your guests. Or better still, watch them yourself when you can really get into the words and the rhythm of the literary beat. You'll be surprised by what these videos unveil with repeated viewings.
How can you get your mitts on these viddies? Well, Babbs is currently hard at work completing a novel with a strict deadline, and is officially discouraging any correspondence that makes demands on his time. But maybe if you were to send him a portrait of Andrew Jackson on greenish paper and a polite request to the address here, then perhaps he may be enticed to send you a surprise.
Continuing in a 420 vain, I spotted another one of those hula hoop defaced signs on King Street.
Don't understand what I'm talking about? Then click here
Finally, closing out our 420 post, here is Springfield native and Classical High graduate Timothy Leary, goofing with Cheech and Chong and ending with a worthwhile public service message by PeeWee Herman that I wish I had heeded.
Last night there was a beautiful full moon over Northampton.
Also last night there was a little segment on the news about the half-way house where I live. Alas, the station it was on, WGGB-TV40 doesn't put its news videos online, so if you missed it forget it. However, here are a few pics I took this morning.
As you can see from this sticker, we are big fans of Valley Free Radio and saving junkies.
This mysterious painting hanging in the house intrigues me. It is signed by someone named Drummar and dated 1987. I'm convinced it is a picture of the old Westfield Post Office, which is the current site of The Tavern Restaurant where my sister works. Can any of you Westfielders confirm that?
This poster from the Beatles movie Yellow Submarine was left by the person who had my bed before me.
After relapsing, one cold winter night he passed out stoned behind a liquor store. The next morning they found him frozen like a popsicle. It helps to keep me sober to remember that I'm sleeping in a dead man's bed.
