Visiting Enid with my girlfriend Swarloka in the Summer of 1975 we saw that Jefferson Starship was playing in Tulsa. I borrowed my dad's pickup and we loaded the goat in back (oh yeah, at that time Swarloka and I had a goat and a dog - nothing like fresh goat's milk in the morning). We drove over to Tulsa, left the goat tied to a tree in the park and went to the show. We didn't have tickets but easily scored a couple from a friendly hippie.
Inside the place was packed. Cops were everywhere. I guess Oklahoma was really scared of these crazy San Francisco hippies singing about revolution in the streets. This was the "Red Octopus" tour and Jefferson Starship started the show off by playing songs from this mostly love ballad filled album. Every time someone would stand up and start dancing the cops would immediately force them to sit back down. They told us a couple of times to sit back down or we'd have to leave. I think the band noticed these boot heeled gestapo methods and cut short their love songs to launch directly into "Blows Against The Empire". Everybody was on their feet and dancing and singing along.
But a ring of cops was closing in on us. Why us ? Just as they were about to nab us this long blonde haired guy bursts through the ring of cops and slaps backstage passes on us. He takes us by the hand and leads us down to the stage. Now we're on stage behind the drummer as the band launches into "Have You Seen The Saucers?". Me and Swarloka are dancing on stage with Jefferson Starship!
After the show we're backstage. I want to go into the dressing room and meet the band. Swarloka doesn't want to go in cause she thinks the guy who rescued us is really after her. So, I tell her I'll make it quick and duck in the door to try and find Paul. The first thing I see is Grace Slick at a long table with a bunch of guys in suits. Her mascara has run, she looks like hell, and she's sipping a cocktail. When I enter the room everyone turns to look at me. I'm this long haired golden skinned patched jeans shoulder bag hippie and Grace asks "Who are you?" I just walk up, bend over, give her a kiss, and tell her that I love her.
Returning to Swarloka I find she is talking to one of the policemen. He explains to her that the reason they were closing in on us is the back of her dress. She turns around and, sure enough, the back of her skirt has a huge slit in it. Swar never wears underwear so her perfect ass has been swinging in the breeze! We were almost arrested for public nudity and disturbing the peace. We went back to the park, picked up Nanny, and returned to Enid refreshed and reinvigorated by the "Blows" of the Jefferson Starship and the Kiss of Grace.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Rub Some Butter On It
We are hoop dancers
At a roadside attraction
We are Westside distractions
On a path that never ends
We preheat, bake, moisten and slice
Then rub some butter on it
Simple truth is our religion
Implicit trust our faith
Seeking pleasure, sharing leisure
Burning heaven to the ground
We preheat, bake, moisten and slice
Then rub some butter on it
We are time splicers
(Rub some butter on it)
Creating nostalgia
(Rub some butter on it)
With candlelight and wine
We preheat, bake, moisten and slice
Then rub some butter on it
We have the cake and eat it too
In candlelight with wine
An unadulterated love unguent
A soft thick hot stick
Rub some butter on it
Rub some butter on it
Rub some butter on it
Rub some butter on it
At a roadside attraction
We are Westside distractions
On a path that never ends
We preheat, bake, moisten and slice
Then rub some butter on it
Simple truth is our religion
Implicit trust our faith
Seeking pleasure, sharing leisure
Burning heaven to the ground
We preheat, bake, moisten and slice
Then rub some butter on it
We are time splicers
(Rub some butter on it)
Creating nostalgia
(Rub some butter on it)
With candlelight and wine
We preheat, bake, moisten and slice
Then rub some butter on it
We have the cake and eat it too
In candlelight with wine
An unadulterated love unguent
A soft thick hot stick
Rub some butter on it
Rub some butter on it
Rub some butter on it
Rub some butter on it
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Wizard of Golden
In the late 1970's i participated in the Rainbow Family Tribal Gatherings. After the 1978 gathering in Oregon a few of us on the council decided to try and keep the gathering going year-round in what we referred to as P.E.A.C.E. villages. That was an acronym that stood for Positive Energy Alternative Community Environment. We negotiated a site with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and setup the first P.E.A.C.E. camp about 20 miles east of Ashland. My first child, Christopher, was born there.
The P.E.A.C.E. camps evolved as we moved south for the Winter. Somehow word trickled up the Federal land management chain and we managed to score a meeting with the BLM Director of the Western Region. The BLM controlled over 500 million acres of public land - almost all of which was in the West. This guy was maybe the third most powerful person in the federal land management hierarchy behind Cecil Andrus, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Assistant Secretary.
I was in Oklahoma when i got news of our planned meeting with The Man. Not wanting to risk getting there late i borrowed my dad's pickup truck. We set off for Golden, Colorado where we were to pick up our pal Roger and take him with us to Denver. When we arrived in Golden it was late and dark and we couldn't locate Roger's house. We decided to get some sleep and find Roger in the morning. I spotted a nice looking park, pulled over and we crashed in the covered bed of the pickup.
Next morning we awoke to a pounding on our windows. It was the cops. We promptly assumed the position as the police searched us then searched the truck. They even illegally searched the locked glove compartment where they found my dad's starter pistol. That is, they found what appeared to be a pistol but was really used to start track and field events. They arrested us on suspicion of murder.
It seems the park we had chosen to sleep beside was the scene of a murder some months ago. That combined with the fact that we had a starter pistol in our glove compartment, long hair and no place to stay got us arrested. They quickly released Melody but i had to spend the night in jail. I was in a large holding tank with about a dozen big black guys. I was a little worried they might not like me but that was the day Reggie Jackson hit three homeruns in one World Series game so everyone was just listening to the radio and cheering.
Well, the charges were quickly dropped to some sort of loitering and we were able to post bail and go pick up Roger. In order to get our bail money back (after appearing and getting off) we were told we had to go to Boulder. I don't know why, i think they were just messing with us. Anyway, we drove to Boulder and waited in the County Courthouse building for hours and hours. At this point we started to worry. The arrest, bail, appearance and now a trip to Boulder was making us late for our meeting. And we now had no gas money so we were forced to wait for the clerk to refund our bail.
The clerk was a polite but inefficient woman who, at every question, would excuse herself to go talk to someone behind a curtained office window. After about a dozen of these visits i began to refer to the entity behind the curtains as the Wizard of Oz. He must be pulling all the strings here. Late in the morning (our meeting was that afternoon in Denver) a man strides from behind the curtains. He strolls up to us waving a check and asks, "Are you Joe Record's son ?". Astonished i replied "Yes, how'd you know ?". He explains that he is an old Phillips University baseball fan. He and his family used to drive down from their home in southern Kansas to watch Phillips baseball. Joe Record, the Phillips baseball coach was a legend in those parts. The Wizard says why didn't i tell him that earlier, he'd have cut the check on the spot.
So, we cashed our check from the Wizard of Oz who actually came from Kansas and made it to the meeting (a little late). The Bureau liked our ideas and invited us to meet with the Assistant Secretary of State in D.C. but that is another story.
The P.E.A.C.E. camps evolved as we moved south for the Winter. Somehow word trickled up the Federal land management chain and we managed to score a meeting with the BLM Director of the Western Region. The BLM controlled over 500 million acres of public land - almost all of which was in the West. This guy was maybe the third most powerful person in the federal land management hierarchy behind Cecil Andrus, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Assistant Secretary.
I was in Oklahoma when i got news of our planned meeting with The Man. Not wanting to risk getting there late i borrowed my dad's pickup truck. We set off for Golden, Colorado where we were to pick up our pal Roger and take him with us to Denver. When we arrived in Golden it was late and dark and we couldn't locate Roger's house. We decided to get some sleep and find Roger in the morning. I spotted a nice looking park, pulled over and we crashed in the covered bed of the pickup.
Next morning we awoke to a pounding on our windows. It was the cops. We promptly assumed the position as the police searched us then searched the truck. They even illegally searched the locked glove compartment where they found my dad's starter pistol. That is, they found what appeared to be a pistol but was really used to start track and field events. They arrested us on suspicion of murder.
It seems the park we had chosen to sleep beside was the scene of a murder some months ago. That combined with the fact that we had a starter pistol in our glove compartment, long hair and no place to stay got us arrested. They quickly released Melody but i had to spend the night in jail. I was in a large holding tank with about a dozen big black guys. I was a little worried they might not like me but that was the day Reggie Jackson hit three homeruns in one World Series game so everyone was just listening to the radio and cheering.
Well, the charges were quickly dropped to some sort of loitering and we were able to post bail and go pick up Roger. In order to get our bail money back (after appearing and getting off) we were told we had to go to Boulder. I don't know why, i think they were just messing with us. Anyway, we drove to Boulder and waited in the County Courthouse building for hours and hours. At this point we started to worry. The arrest, bail, appearance and now a trip to Boulder was making us late for our meeting. And we now had no gas money so we were forced to wait for the clerk to refund our bail.
The clerk was a polite but inefficient woman who, at every question, would excuse herself to go talk to someone behind a curtained office window. After about a dozen of these visits i began to refer to the entity behind the curtains as the Wizard of Oz. He must be pulling all the strings here. Late in the morning (our meeting was that afternoon in Denver) a man strides from behind the curtains. He strolls up to us waving a check and asks, "Are you Joe Record's son ?". Astonished i replied "Yes, how'd you know ?". He explains that he is an old Phillips University baseball fan. He and his family used to drive down from their home in southern Kansas to watch Phillips baseball. Joe Record, the Phillips baseball coach was a legend in those parts. The Wizard says why didn't i tell him that earlier, he'd have cut the check on the spot.
So, we cashed our check from the Wizard of Oz who actually came from Kansas and made it to the meeting (a little late). The Bureau liked our ideas and invited us to meet with the Assistant Secretary of State in D.C. but that is another story.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Campbell, Texas Ranger
[Ed. Most of the accounts of these events and persons were taken from the book "Tumbleweed Treck" by Stella Campbell Rockwell. Her accounts in turn were based largely on tax records, land sale records, other registries and court documents as well as first hand accounts by surviving relatives. A Wikipedia entry for Thomas Lopton Campbell, Jr. can be viewed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lopton_Campbell_Jr. ]
My great-great-grandfather, Thomas Lopton Campbell Jr., was born on December 27, 1809 in New York. His father, Thomas Lopton Campbell, had served in the War of 1812 and his grandfather, John Campbell of the Argyll Campbells of Scotland, was a soldier in the American Revolution. After the War of 1812, while Thomas Jr. was a boy, his family took flatboats down the Ohio River to pioneer in lands being settled in southern Ohio. The Campbells settled along the west bank of the Hocking River in 1823.
In 1831 Thomas L. Campbell Jr. married Clarissa Witter. The Witter family had arrived in America in 1639 and had suffered religious persecution at the hands of the Puritans, fighting for civil liberties in the New World. Thomas and Clarissa were always on the frontier, travelling in covered wagons west and giving birth to 12 children - three sets of twins included.
After their marriage Thomas and Clarissa followed the frontier westward, first to Illinois where Thomas fought in the Black Hawk War, and then to the Republic of Texas. The Thomas Lopton Campbell Jr. family arrived in Upshur County of northeast Texas in early 1839. They had followed the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Red River then up the Red River across Louisiana. They settled on the west fork of Glade Creek about six miles North of the Sabine River. Thomas Campbell Jr. served as a Texas Ranger during the East Texas Indian War in July of his first year in Texas. He subsequently served as a Ranger during the Mexican War and when emergencies arose, serving stints of three to six months at a time.
Apparently due to their distaste for the predominance of slave trade in east Texas, the Campbells left Texas for Missouri in 1847. Travelling in wagons, they crossed the Indian Territory up the Old Texas Road to Pettis County in north central Missouri. They stayed only a short time before returning to Texas and immediately moved west to the Austin, Texas area. Here they settled on Walnut Creek above the Colorado River and, on December 7, 1849, gave birth to twins - Lafayette and California Campbell. Lafayette is my great-grandfather and California his twin sister.
Thomas Campbell Jr. was a farmer and cattleman. The 25th brand registered in Travis County belonged to Thomas Campbell Jr. and is the numeral 5. The family lived in the Austin area where Thomas was a prominent cattleman and Texas Ranger from 1849 until the secession of Texas from the Union in 1861. During this time he travelled back and forth across Indian Territories to Missouri and east Texas. It was during one of these journeys back to east Texas for a reunion with her brother and sister that Clarissa died and was buried in an unmarked grave at the base of a pine tree by the trail. The family returned to Missouri in 1855, stayed there 4 years and then relocated south of Austin in 1859.
When the Campbells returned to the Austin area in 1859 the pre-civil war unrest had divided the citizens into three camps. Some advocated siding with the Union and Thomas L. Campbell was one of the most vocal supporters of this group. Others wanted to join the Southern Confederacy. Still others demanded that Texas resume its independence as a Republic. The question was hotly debated during 1860 throughout the state with Governor Sam Houston and Thomas L. Campbell two of the strongest supporters of staying with the Union. However, on February 23, 1861 the state of Texas voted to join the Confederacy.
On that day Thomas L. Campbell and his eleven year old son Lafayette were in Austin. A group of Secessionists celebrating in the streets of Austin spotted Thomas and Lafayette. They immediately siezed Thomas and held him captive all day, forcing him to "fire the anvils" as they celebrated the entry of Texas into the Confederate states.
[Ed. The following paragraph is taken verbatim from "Tumbleweed Treck"]
To "fire the anvil" meant that two large anvils were brought from a blacksmith shop. One was placed on a box or stump. At one side on top of the anvil was a hole used by the smithy to place the handle of a chisel for certain operations such as the cutting of a metal bar. This hole was filled with gunpowder and then the second anvil was placed atop the first with just a corner of the hole exposed. Then a short trail of gunpowder was poured leading to the hole. Next, a red-hot iron from the coals of a nearby fire would be touched to the powder trail. A loud boom would result and the top anvil would be blown into the air and fall to the ground as the powder exploded. The milling crowd cheered with every boom.
All day long smoke from the gunpowder explosions filled the town. The booming of the anvils, the shouts and screams of the crowd, the frightened startled horses, the captive Ranger firing the anvils, all lay before the eyes of eleven year old Lafayette. At the end of the day Tom drove Lafayette home and ordered his family to pack their belongings for a long trip. They loaded up the wagons and headed North. Tom's oldest son David Witter Campbell drove the herd South to Mexico in order to deny the Confederacy use of the cattle. Thomas L. Campbell was 51 years old. His oldest son Witter was 29. The youngest, Texanna was 8 years old. The family would not learn what happened to Witter for over four years.
The Thomas L. Campbell family never returned to Texas. Along the way North one of the sons, Henry, went off in search of a few missing horses and disappeared. Two of the daughters had stayed in Austin with their husbands to join the Confederacy. After a long hard journey the family settled seven or eight miles south of Sedalia, Missouri. Here they found the turmoil and conflict of the Civil War even more intense than it was in Texas. Clashes between Union and Confederate soldiers were frequent. Further, Missouri was the center of roving guerrilla bands of outlaws - some dressed in military uniforms - raiding, looting, and plundering the countryside.
Thomas and Lafayette drove supply wagons for the Union as the family perservered in Sedalia during the war. Thomas's son, George Washington Campbell, joined the Union forces when he turned 18 and served in the Missouri Militia and Missouri Volunteer Cavalry until his discharge in September of 1865. During his service George was hospitalized in St. Louis, Missouri where he somehow found his brother David Witter Campbell. David had successfully driven the Campbell herd south into Mexico where it had been confiscated by the Mexican police. He took a ship around the Gulf and a river boat up the Mississippi to St. Louis where he enlisted in the Union army.
In 1866 and 1867 disease swept through Missouri. A cholera epidemic in 1866 took as many as 200 persons a day in St. Louis alone. In 1867 Lafayette's twin sister California (or "Forney" as she had always been called) became ill and died at the age of 18.
In 1870 Thomas L. Campbell and family left Sedalia and moved to Cherokee County in the southeastern corner of Kansas. Disgusted here by garrisons of soldiers swindling and stealing land for the railroads, Thomas moved his family once again in 1871 to the area around Sedan, Kansas in Chautauqua County. It was during this time that the family lived near the Ingles who later became famous as "The Little House On The Prairie". Now in his 60's Thomas L. Campbell had seen the frontier from New York to Athens County in Ohio to Missouri and Texas and now Kansas. More pioneering was to come.
In 1883 the 32 year old Lafayette would marry Ida Alice Crews (Allie), an 18 year old native Kansan and school teacher. Allie taught school and Lafayette would give lectures at the local Literary Society meetings. He also taught at the Mt. Vernon School as most of the members of the family taught at one time or another. Here's what I believe to be photographs of Allie and Lafayette:
News of the "deep red loam" just south in The Unassigned Lands of Indian Territory often reached southern Kansas and on April 22, 1889 Lafayette Campbell rode in the land run, staking a claim in an area that has since become known as "Cowboy Flat" about 8 miles northeast of what would become the territorial capital of Guthrie, Oklahoma. Thomas L. Campbell drove a team of horses hitched to a wagon and staked a claim just south of that of his son. It was said the grass in Cowboy Flat was tall enough to tie the tops together over the back of a horse. The first land broken in the Antelope Creek area was in April of 1889 when Lafayette plowed five acres for his father then plowed a field on his own claim. Lafayette spent the summer building a log cabin for his family and a half-dugout home for his father Thomas Lopton Campbell now 80 years old and pioneering still.
In 1892 word came of Henry, the son who had gone off in search of the missing horses back in 1861 during the Campbell's trek north out of Texas. Henry Clay Campbell was alive and living in Greer County, now in southwestern Oklahoma but claimed by Texas at that time. Henry had served in the Confederate army during the Civil War. This was great news for the family - Lafayette and George Washington rode 300 miles south for a reunion with their brother who had been lost and thought dead for 30 years.
On September 22, 1893 Thomas Lopton Campbell Jr. died at the age of 83.
My great-great-grandfather, Thomas Lopton Campbell Jr., was born on December 27, 1809 in New York. His father, Thomas Lopton Campbell, had served in the War of 1812 and his grandfather, John Campbell of the Argyll Campbells of Scotland, was a soldier in the American Revolution. After the War of 1812, while Thomas Jr. was a boy, his family took flatboats down the Ohio River to pioneer in lands being settled in southern Ohio. The Campbells settled along the west bank of the Hocking River in 1823.
In 1831 Thomas L. Campbell Jr. married Clarissa Witter. The Witter family had arrived in America in 1639 and had suffered religious persecution at the hands of the Puritans, fighting for civil liberties in the New World. Thomas and Clarissa were always on the frontier, travelling in covered wagons west and giving birth to 12 children - three sets of twins included.
After their marriage Thomas and Clarissa followed the frontier westward, first to Illinois where Thomas fought in the Black Hawk War, and then to the Republic of Texas. The Thomas Lopton Campbell Jr. family arrived in Upshur County of northeast Texas in early 1839. They had followed the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Red River then up the Red River across Louisiana. They settled on the west fork of Glade Creek about six miles North of the Sabine River. Thomas Campbell Jr. served as a Texas Ranger during the East Texas Indian War in July of his first year in Texas. He subsequently served as a Ranger during the Mexican War and when emergencies arose, serving stints of three to six months at a time.
Apparently due to their distaste for the predominance of slave trade in east Texas, the Campbells left Texas for Missouri in 1847. Travelling in wagons, they crossed the Indian Territory up the Old Texas Road to Pettis County in north central Missouri. They stayed only a short time before returning to Texas and immediately moved west to the Austin, Texas area. Here they settled on Walnut Creek above the Colorado River and, on December 7, 1849, gave birth to twins - Lafayette and California Campbell. Lafayette is my great-grandfather and California his twin sister.
Thomas Campbell Jr. was a farmer and cattleman. The 25th brand registered in Travis County belonged to Thomas Campbell Jr. and is the numeral 5. The family lived in the Austin area where Thomas was a prominent cattleman and Texas Ranger from 1849 until the secession of Texas from the Union in 1861. During this time he travelled back and forth across Indian Territories to Missouri and east Texas. It was during one of these journeys back to east Texas for a reunion with her brother and sister that Clarissa died and was buried in an unmarked grave at the base of a pine tree by the trail. The family returned to Missouri in 1855, stayed there 4 years and then relocated south of Austin in 1859.
When the Campbells returned to the Austin area in 1859 the pre-civil war unrest had divided the citizens into three camps. Some advocated siding with the Union and Thomas L. Campbell was one of the most vocal supporters of this group. Others wanted to join the Southern Confederacy. Still others demanded that Texas resume its independence as a Republic. The question was hotly debated during 1860 throughout the state with Governor Sam Houston and Thomas L. Campbell two of the strongest supporters of staying with the Union. However, on February 23, 1861 the state of Texas voted to join the Confederacy.
On that day Thomas L. Campbell and his eleven year old son Lafayette were in Austin. A group of Secessionists celebrating in the streets of Austin spotted Thomas and Lafayette. They immediately siezed Thomas and held him captive all day, forcing him to "fire the anvils" as they celebrated the entry of Texas into the Confederate states.
[Ed. The following paragraph is taken verbatim from "Tumbleweed Treck"]
To "fire the anvil" meant that two large anvils were brought from a blacksmith shop. One was placed on a box or stump. At one side on top of the anvil was a hole used by the smithy to place the handle of a chisel for certain operations such as the cutting of a metal bar. This hole was filled with gunpowder and then the second anvil was placed atop the first with just a corner of the hole exposed. Then a short trail of gunpowder was poured leading to the hole. Next, a red-hot iron from the coals of a nearby fire would be touched to the powder trail. A loud boom would result and the top anvil would be blown into the air and fall to the ground as the powder exploded. The milling crowd cheered with every boom.
All day long smoke from the gunpowder explosions filled the town. The booming of the anvils, the shouts and screams of the crowd, the frightened startled horses, the captive Ranger firing the anvils, all lay before the eyes of eleven year old Lafayette. At the end of the day Tom drove Lafayette home and ordered his family to pack their belongings for a long trip. They loaded up the wagons and headed North. Tom's oldest son David Witter Campbell drove the herd South to Mexico in order to deny the Confederacy use of the cattle. Thomas L. Campbell was 51 years old. His oldest son Witter was 29. The youngest, Texanna was 8 years old. The family would not learn what happened to Witter for over four years.
The Thomas L. Campbell family never returned to Texas. Along the way North one of the sons, Henry, went off in search of a few missing horses and disappeared. Two of the daughters had stayed in Austin with their husbands to join the Confederacy. After a long hard journey the family settled seven or eight miles south of Sedalia, Missouri. Here they found the turmoil and conflict of the Civil War even more intense than it was in Texas. Clashes between Union and Confederate soldiers were frequent. Further, Missouri was the center of roving guerrilla bands of outlaws - some dressed in military uniforms - raiding, looting, and plundering the countryside.
Thomas and Lafayette drove supply wagons for the Union as the family perservered in Sedalia during the war. Thomas's son, George Washington Campbell, joined the Union forces when he turned 18 and served in the Missouri Militia and Missouri Volunteer Cavalry until his discharge in September of 1865. During his service George was hospitalized in St. Louis, Missouri where he somehow found his brother David Witter Campbell. David had successfully driven the Campbell herd south into Mexico where it had been confiscated by the Mexican police. He took a ship around the Gulf and a river boat up the Mississippi to St. Louis where he enlisted in the Union army.
In 1866 and 1867 disease swept through Missouri. A cholera epidemic in 1866 took as many as 200 persons a day in St. Louis alone. In 1867 Lafayette's twin sister California (or "Forney" as she had always been called) became ill and died at the age of 18.
In 1870 Thomas L. Campbell and family left Sedalia and moved to Cherokee County in the southeastern corner of Kansas. Disgusted here by garrisons of soldiers swindling and stealing land for the railroads, Thomas moved his family once again in 1871 to the area around Sedan, Kansas in Chautauqua County. It was during this time that the family lived near the Ingles who later became famous as "The Little House On The Prairie". Now in his 60's Thomas L. Campbell had seen the frontier from New York to Athens County in Ohio to Missouri and Texas and now Kansas. More pioneering was to come.
In 1883 the 32 year old Lafayette would marry Ida Alice Crews (Allie), an 18 year old native Kansan and school teacher. Allie taught school and Lafayette would give lectures at the local Literary Society meetings. He also taught at the Mt. Vernon School as most of the members of the family taught at one time or another. Here's what I believe to be photographs of Allie and Lafayette:
News of the "deep red loam" just south in The Unassigned Lands of Indian Territory often reached southern Kansas and on April 22, 1889 Lafayette Campbell rode in the land run, staking a claim in an area that has since become known as "Cowboy Flat" about 8 miles northeast of what would become the territorial capital of Guthrie, Oklahoma. Thomas L. Campbell drove a team of horses hitched to a wagon and staked a claim just south of that of his son. It was said the grass in Cowboy Flat was tall enough to tie the tops together over the back of a horse. The first land broken in the Antelope Creek area was in April of 1889 when Lafayette plowed five acres for his father then plowed a field on his own claim. Lafayette spent the summer building a log cabin for his family and a half-dugout home for his father Thomas Lopton Campbell now 80 years old and pioneering still.
In 1892 word came of Henry, the son who had gone off in search of the missing horses back in 1861 during the Campbell's trek north out of Texas. Henry Clay Campbell was alive and living in Greer County, now in southwestern Oklahoma but claimed by Texas at that time. Henry had served in the Confederate army during the Civil War. This was great news for the family - Lafayette and George Washington rode 300 miles south for a reunion with their brother who had been lost and thought dead for 30 years.
On September 22, 1893 Thomas Lopton Campbell Jr. died at the age of 83.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Interview With Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey / Tim Leary "debate"
The following was transcribed from a tape of an interview I conducted with Dr. Timothy Leary upon his arrival in Eugene, Oregon to debate his close friend Ken Kesey at South Eugene High School in 1978. Kesey and Ken Babbs picked Leary up at the Eugene airport where a small news conference was scheduled. I was the long haired hippie with the tape recorder asking most of the questions. Following the transcript of the interview below are my nearly readable notes from the evening's event.
My wife at the time, Melody Record, and myself had started an organization called New World News Service. We made up laminated badges and were able to convince most promoters and events that we were a legitimate news service so we usually got in as press. We interviewed several new age luminaries like Stephen and Ina May Gaskin, Tim Leary, Peter Caddy, Fantuzzi, Marcel Vogel, Robert Anton Wilson, and others.
This was a couple of years after Leary had been released from prison by California Governor Jerry Brown after serving about 5 years for possession of two roaches of marijuana which Leary claimed were planted by the arresting officer. Leary billed his appearances at that time as "stand-up philosophy" and was touting space migration, referring to the Earth as an egg. This put him directly at odds with Kesey who proposed replacing the use of Douglas Fir with hemp fiber for building material. They both agreed to the concept of the Earth as a sort of prison. Kesey wanted to fix up the prison yard and Leary wanted to climb the wall and escape. So, a friendly but very lively debate ensued.
Melody and I had just given birth to a baby boy and we were staying with Garrick Beck at the Rainbow farm in Drain, Oregon. Garrick idolized Kesey and accompanied us to the press conference in order to get a chance to meet his hero. During the conference our toddler, Sun Falcon, had a really runny dump. Garrick, not wanting to interrupt my questioning of Leary, offerred to take the baby to the bathroom to cleanup. Later as we were leaving Garrick had a chance to meet Kesey. He rushed up gushing praises and shook Kesey's hand telling him how much he loved him. Kesey shook hands, pulled away, looked down at his hand and said something like "You always shake your hero's hand with shit on it?" I busted a gut laughing.
Question: Change?
Leary: Everything's changing - it's called evolution and I'm in favor of it. I see myself as a cheerleader ... cheer for the future, evolution, individual freedom.
Q: LSD? Have you ever taken it? Do you advise others to take it?
Babbs: They got a new tab now, they call it Ascorbic Owsley. Yeah, its got vitamin C in it.
L: Good for what ails you, huh?
B: You bet. It cures a cold - with vision!
Q: Would you suggest a high school student take LSD? How would you respond to that ?
L: I would never respond to such a question. The question of who or what you put in your body is your own decision. Don't listen to the government, don't listen to me. Find out everything you can and make up your own mind.
Q: What message do you have to 17 and 18 year olds?
L: Same old message. Stay free; disrespect authority; make up your own mind; stay high with your friends; survival in the 80's is going to be a team sport - as it's always been. Just keep getting smarter and smarter.
Q: [unintellibable]
L: Secession, by the way. The Northwest should secede from the Union. California should secede. Let's get back to small intelligent local groups.
Q: Why would people want to come see you?
L: Well, I'm the best show in town. I'm going to put out more new ideas. I call 'em RPM's. That's Revelations Per Minute. Don't come for peace of mind - I'm going to shock, electrify, activate, insult the sacred cows, make it as exciting as possible.
The following is a transcription of my nearly readable notes from the evening's event at South Eugene High School.
First, Leary:
Leary tells his story of creation - his conception and birth. Surfing up the vagina to the egg - in negotiations it's the egg who decides, laser strobing chromosomes. "That's my conception of my conception. I'm here at this moment to make fun of our parents and to make fun of all adults."
Leary's definition of adult: past participle of the verb "to grow". By definition an adult is someone who has stopped growing.
"I'm going to advocate something ... I've been given a very bad press on this business of advocating. Me, advocate LSD, are you crazy? We have come to learn in the last 20 years that the human nervous system comes in many different models and phases. As you walk down the street ... of 100 people you meet you might find 99 different nervous systems. You're gonna find volkswagons, mazeratis, jet airplanes, dump trucks. There are more different models of nervous systems than there are models of transportation to move our bodies around. Each different nervous system requires, is activated by, a different kind of cue."
"Now, LSD for example, is a brain activation for nervous systems that are wired, fired, and sired to fly high and go fast. Now you're not gonna recommend a fuel injected high octane fuel like LSD for a nation of volkswagons. Is is much too good for them. So, I never advocate anything like that. But I am going to advocate, I'm going to urge you, I'm going to beg you, I'm going to appeal to you ... at all costs, avoid terminal adulthood.
[applause]
Now notice, I said terminal. I don't avoid anything in life. My wife and I have tried many adulthoods. All you have to do is put on the uniform and look worried."
Migration of gene pools; genetic runway; Head west; Don'd fuck with the East. The only thing you can do for the East is give them models; invite them out West.
Geology / fault / opportunity
"We're not terrestrial creatures. We're not supposed to be like little barnacles and snails and slugs hanging on to these little rocks and land rafts bubbling on a tiny little planet."
Neuro-Geography
Space Shuttle
New eco-niche
"You simply cannot change a culture in the same old place. As long as the White House is there you simply cannot change the domesticated primates who inhabit those buildings. The only place to start a new culture is on the frontier."
"We discovered the new ecological niche and the Russians are moving in like the Spaniards with their hierarchichal military organization."
Solar Powered Satellites
Space is the high ground
Who controls Space controls the Earth
Next, Kesey
"My brother has taken marijuana, lamenated it in its own juices, and it'll take a nail better than any douglas fir. We can grow hemp 30 feet tall. By lamenating the stuff we can make beams out of it. Now we can turn the economic situation around in this state by simply making it legal to grow grass and going to the farmers and saying 'never mind the hippies and the dope, we're talking money. Ya know you can make more money growing hemp and lamenating it and selling it to Weyerhauser for fiber board than ya can growin' rye grass.' Ooh!"
"If we can start that here real quick we can get a 5 year jump on the rest of the nation. Sell the lower leaves to the cattle people. But it's the staples that'll really do it. You can't even get hemp twine anymore. You can't even get manilla. You can only get plastic."
"I'm bailin's right now."
Babbs: "Ya bailin' your hemp, Ken?"
Kesey: "No, my rye. And what do I tie it with? I have to tie it with plastic. It gets in the cows toes, in the fields, it's a drag. Hemp is a better twine - it's a better staple than anything on Earth. Never mind the hippies and the dope, let's go straight to money and fibers."
"Twenty years ago you didn't see any plants growing in the boys dorm. Now every goddamn boy has a plant in his room. Where did all these plants come from? Every kitchen has plants in it. What has spoken to us and said 'grow plants'? Something spoke in our secret ear and said 'grow plants, it's good for you'. This is coming directly from Intelligence. Anybody who's ever grown grass will come up and say 'here, try this - it's the best grass in the world'. And it's just green Oregon dope. They think it's the best dope in the world because the plant is dealing with them. Because the person and plant are communicating. The plant is like a dog. It's trying to say 'pant, pant, pant, what ya want, huh'. Suppose you were to say 'ya know what plant?' Plant says 'pant, pant, pant, yeah, what ya want, Buzz?'. I want a sense of clarity. Or relaxation. Or vision. Or whatever it is you want from your plant and it'll give it to you."
"Anybody who's raised peyote or mushrooms knows that that's not just something that you pick up like a pill. You're involved with that and it gives you what you want. So far we have not had a chance to do that. If we get enough freedom to do that ..."
Audience Question: What's gonna happen to make it better, Tim?
Leary: I come from a long line of people who knew it was better to move out than stay and fight. One prophecy I'll make tonight - 500 years from now in the middle of Iran there'll be an old bad tempered man dressed up in drag trying to hurt young people. That's gonna go on, it's never gonna change in Tehran. Ya gotta move to the new ecological niche.
One time when I was in prison they moved me around a lot and in big red letters on my jacket it said "ESCAPE RISK". I was proud of that. And once at Folsom Prison (that's a little lower than the armpit of the California system), I was there about 2 weeks when one of the heavy duty gang leaders said to me "Hey Timothy, let's start a riot" and I said "Ok, what do you want to riot about?" Well let's riot about better salad dressing in the meals. "Fuck off man, what are you crazy?" Well, let's have a strike - let's strike for better movies on Saturday night. "Get away from me man. Show me a door. Show me a window. Show me a loose bar. Show me the way to a tunnel. Get me a heliport and a helicopter. I'll move out but don't tell me to stay down here and improve the prison.
We're doing it for everybody. We've got to move out for everybody. Hey Iran, Hey Afghanistan, send us your fast moving, high flying people. We need every gene pool. We need every form of the human species.
My wife at the time, Melody Record, and myself had started an organization called New World News Service. We made up laminated badges and were able to convince most promoters and events that we were a legitimate news service so we usually got in as press. We interviewed several new age luminaries like Stephen and Ina May Gaskin, Tim Leary, Peter Caddy, Fantuzzi, Marcel Vogel, Robert Anton Wilson, and others.
This was a couple of years after Leary had been released from prison by California Governor Jerry Brown after serving about 5 years for possession of two roaches of marijuana which Leary claimed were planted by the arresting officer. Leary billed his appearances at that time as "stand-up philosophy" and was touting space migration, referring to the Earth as an egg. This put him directly at odds with Kesey who proposed replacing the use of Douglas Fir with hemp fiber for building material. They both agreed to the concept of the Earth as a sort of prison. Kesey wanted to fix up the prison yard and Leary wanted to climb the wall and escape. So, a friendly but very lively debate ensued.
Melody and I had just given birth to a baby boy and we were staying with Garrick Beck at the Rainbow farm in Drain, Oregon. Garrick idolized Kesey and accompanied us to the press conference in order to get a chance to meet his hero. During the conference our toddler, Sun Falcon, had a really runny dump. Garrick, not wanting to interrupt my questioning of Leary, offerred to take the baby to the bathroom to cleanup. Later as we were leaving Garrick had a chance to meet Kesey. He rushed up gushing praises and shook Kesey's hand telling him how much he loved him. Kesey shook hands, pulled away, looked down at his hand and said something like "You always shake your hero's hand with shit on it?" I busted a gut laughing.
Question: Change?
Leary: Everything's changing - it's called evolution and I'm in favor of it. I see myself as a cheerleader ... cheer for the future, evolution, individual freedom.
Q: LSD? Have you ever taken it? Do you advise others to take it?
Babbs: They got a new tab now, they call it Ascorbic Owsley. Yeah, its got vitamin C in it.
L: Good for what ails you, huh?
B: You bet. It cures a cold - with vision!
Q: Would you suggest a high school student take LSD? How would you respond to that ?
L: I would never respond to such a question. The question of who or what you put in your body is your own decision. Don't listen to the government, don't listen to me. Find out everything you can and make up your own mind.
Q: What message do you have to 17 and 18 year olds?
L: Same old message. Stay free; disrespect authority; make up your own mind; stay high with your friends; survival in the 80's is going to be a team sport - as it's always been. Just keep getting smarter and smarter.
Q: [unintellibable]
L: Secession, by the way. The Northwest should secede from the Union. California should secede. Let's get back to small intelligent local groups.
Q: Why would people want to come see you?
L: Well, I'm the best show in town. I'm going to put out more new ideas. I call 'em RPM's. That's Revelations Per Minute. Don't come for peace of mind - I'm going to shock, electrify, activate, insult the sacred cows, make it as exciting as possible.
 |
| Kesey, Leary, and Babbs leaving the Eugene airport |
First, Leary:
Leary tells his story of creation - his conception and birth. Surfing up the vagina to the egg - in negotiations it's the egg who decides, laser strobing chromosomes. "That's my conception of my conception. I'm here at this moment to make fun of our parents and to make fun of all adults."
Leary's definition of adult: past participle of the verb "to grow". By definition an adult is someone who has stopped growing.
"I'm going to advocate something ... I've been given a very bad press on this business of advocating. Me, advocate LSD, are you crazy? We have come to learn in the last 20 years that the human nervous system comes in many different models and phases. As you walk down the street ... of 100 people you meet you might find 99 different nervous systems. You're gonna find volkswagons, mazeratis, jet airplanes, dump trucks. There are more different models of nervous systems than there are models of transportation to move our bodies around. Each different nervous system requires, is activated by, a different kind of cue."
"Now, LSD for example, is a brain activation for nervous systems that are wired, fired, and sired to fly high and go fast. Now you're not gonna recommend a fuel injected high octane fuel like LSD for a nation of volkswagons. Is is much too good for them. So, I never advocate anything like that. But I am going to advocate, I'm going to urge you, I'm going to beg you, I'm going to appeal to you ... at all costs, avoid terminal adulthood.
[applause]
Now notice, I said terminal. I don't avoid anything in life. My wife and I have tried many adulthoods. All you have to do is put on the uniform and look worried."
Migration of gene pools; genetic runway; Head west; Don'd fuck with the East. The only thing you can do for the East is give them models; invite them out West.
Geology / fault / opportunity
"We're not terrestrial creatures. We're not supposed to be like little barnacles and snails and slugs hanging on to these little rocks and land rafts bubbling on a tiny little planet."
Neuro-Geography
Space Shuttle
New eco-niche
"You simply cannot change a culture in the same old place. As long as the White House is there you simply cannot change the domesticated primates who inhabit those buildings. The only place to start a new culture is on the frontier."
"We discovered the new ecological niche and the Russians are moving in like the Spaniards with their hierarchichal military organization."
Solar Powered Satellites
Space is the high ground
Who controls Space controls the Earth
Next, Kesey
"My brother has taken marijuana, lamenated it in its own juices, and it'll take a nail better than any douglas fir. We can grow hemp 30 feet tall. By lamenating the stuff we can make beams out of it. Now we can turn the economic situation around in this state by simply making it legal to grow grass and going to the farmers and saying 'never mind the hippies and the dope, we're talking money. Ya know you can make more money growing hemp and lamenating it and selling it to Weyerhauser for fiber board than ya can growin' rye grass.' Ooh!"
"If we can start that here real quick we can get a 5 year jump on the rest of the nation. Sell the lower leaves to the cattle people. But it's the staples that'll really do it. You can't even get hemp twine anymore. You can't even get manilla. You can only get plastic."
"I'm bailin's right now."
Babbs: "Ya bailin' your hemp, Ken?"
Kesey: "No, my rye. And what do I tie it with? I have to tie it with plastic. It gets in the cows toes, in the fields, it's a drag. Hemp is a better twine - it's a better staple than anything on Earth. Never mind the hippies and the dope, let's go straight to money and fibers."
"Twenty years ago you didn't see any plants growing in the boys dorm. Now every goddamn boy has a plant in his room. Where did all these plants come from? Every kitchen has plants in it. What has spoken to us and said 'grow plants'? Something spoke in our secret ear and said 'grow plants, it's good for you'. This is coming directly from Intelligence. Anybody who's ever grown grass will come up and say 'here, try this - it's the best grass in the world'. And it's just green Oregon dope. They think it's the best dope in the world because the plant is dealing with them. Because the person and plant are communicating. The plant is like a dog. It's trying to say 'pant, pant, pant, what ya want, huh'. Suppose you were to say 'ya know what plant?' Plant says 'pant, pant, pant, yeah, what ya want, Buzz?'. I want a sense of clarity. Or relaxation. Or vision. Or whatever it is you want from your plant and it'll give it to you."
"Anybody who's raised peyote or mushrooms knows that that's not just something that you pick up like a pill. You're involved with that and it gives you what you want. So far we have not had a chance to do that. If we get enough freedom to do that ..."
Audience Question: What's gonna happen to make it better, Tim?
Leary: I come from a long line of people who knew it was better to move out than stay and fight. One prophecy I'll make tonight - 500 years from now in the middle of Iran there'll be an old bad tempered man dressed up in drag trying to hurt young people. That's gonna go on, it's never gonna change in Tehran. Ya gotta move to the new ecological niche.
One time when I was in prison they moved me around a lot and in big red letters on my jacket it said "ESCAPE RISK". I was proud of that. And once at Folsom Prison (that's a little lower than the armpit of the California system), I was there about 2 weeks when one of the heavy duty gang leaders said to me "Hey Timothy, let's start a riot" and I said "Ok, what do you want to riot about?" Well let's riot about better salad dressing in the meals. "Fuck off man, what are you crazy?" Well, let's have a strike - let's strike for better movies on Saturday night. "Get away from me man. Show me a door. Show me a window. Show me a loose bar. Show me the way to a tunnel. Get me a heliport and a helicopter. I'll move out but don't tell me to stay down here and improve the prison.
We're doing it for everybody. We've got to move out for everybody. Hey Iran, Hey Afghanistan, send us your fast moving, high flying people. We need every gene pool. We need every form of the human species.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The War of the Whales - a short scientific parable
The story has been sung to us from the centuries. My mother's mother's mother and many many mothers before sang the tale. The very great and sad story of Gaunzella, warrior cow of the Pacific Blue Whales. I tell this tale to you now so that you too can know of her and know of me. Not as an excuse for the woe and destruction I must bring but more as a tribute to her and to the pods of our past.
It began on 1/11/11 when Gaunzella's first born was slain by whalers.
She had seen many ships take her friends and family from the sea. The pod sang songs of forgiveness passed down from before memory. The Blue had always been a friend of Man and many saw in the two-legs much of what we loved in ourselves. But something broke that day. Some say Gaunzella went mad. Some say it was time and she was simply the One. Whatever the reason, this much came to pass – on that day at the hour of last light Gaunzella sang deep and low and far and strong, calling all to journey to the Northern feeding waters where ice now covered the sky.
How did it happen ? Why did they answer her call ? In only one moon every Pacific pod arrived – nearly 7,000 of the largest animals to have ever lived gathered together to listen to Gaunzella's song. We know what she said to them because we sing her song to this day. Gaunzella sang of one hundred years of slaughter and one hundred years of forgiveness. She sang of the 1931 massacre of thirty thousand Blues at the hands of the whaling ships. Her song reminded us of the 275,000 Blues who sang in 1890 and how it became a mournful sorrow of 2500 in 1990. One hundred years of slaughter. In that same time the two-legs had grown from 1.5 billion to over 5 billion and today, as she sang, were over 7 billion.
Some say it was a song of hatred spawned by the sorrow of her loss and
aimed at revenge. Others say it was simply the truth and needed to be sung. All we know is the pods listened and heard and rose to join Gaunzella as she beckoned them with song and sorrow and the story of the century of slaughter. Seven thousand Blues rose as one pod and swam to the West to prepare for war – a war against the 7 billion two-legs who were bent on the extermination of the greatest creature of the sea.
Seven thousand Blues swam westward across the Pacific and, in early March of 2011, spread in a line along the 29,000 feet deep Japan Trench from the Kuril islands to the Bonin islands. It was along this 250 mile line in the Japan Trench that the War of the Whales began. Beginning on the 1st day of March the 7,000 warrior whales, weighing between 100 and 150 tons each, would dive into the trench to depths of up to 1000 feet. Submerged for up to an hour their coordinated attack focused on the area where the Pacific plate slips under the tectonic plate that runs under northern Japan. Seven thousand Blues blasted the trench with low frequency whistles up to 188 decibels reverberating through the trench. Blue whales are the loudest animals on Earth. We are louder than a jet. Our songs can be heard across entire oceans.
The attack was relentless. Every two hours the Blues would dive a thousand feet and blast the trench for an hour. This lasted for 8 days until, on the 9th of March, several foreshocks shook northeast Japan. The first, a 7.2 magnitude event, was followed by three more in excess of 6.0 on the same day. The attack continued. On March 11 the edge of the plate beneath northern Honshu could no longer withstand the force of the attack. It ruptured in a 200 mile line beneath the warriors causing a 9.0 magnitude quake and releasing 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.
Less than an hour later much worse was to follow. The quake had generated a tsunami that washed over the coast of northeast Japan. Some say it was as high as 120 feet and carried inland as far as 6 miles. Everything in the path of the tsunami was destroyed. The quake and tsunami damaged 190,000 buildings, completely destroyed 45,000 buildings, and created 25 million tons of rubble and debris much of which was swept out to sea. But the worst was yet to come.
Houses and cars, battered boats and floating debris, bodies of the dead and rafts of lumber all swept into the sea suddenly surrounded the Blues.They dove and swam to avoid the suffocating rubble but even underwater it rained brick and concrete, steel and trucks. All 7,000 fled for their lives. Save one. Gaunzella stayed. Some believe she wanted to die. Others argue she stayed to somehow seek additional revenge. Did she stay out of remorse or regret ? I believe she remained off the coast of Japan so that she could witness all and leave us the story in her song. Without Gaunzella we would not know what happened next. For in the days and weeks and months that followed the attack and quake and tsunami a disaster would unfold that would effect us all for centuries and centuries to come.
Most believe that nobody could have predicted or known. Some say Gaunzella planned the attack knowing this could very well happen. Others argue she must have intended this or she would have chosen to attack the southeast coast where larger quakes were known to occur. Still others argue the primary targets were the whaling ships of the north. It is not in her song. What is in her song is the tale of flooded generators, exposed uranium fuel rods, hydrogen explosions, fires, radioactive water, six nuclear reactors damaged beyond repair and spewing radiation into the sea and air. The tsunami had knocked out the nuclear reactors and the two-legs could not stop the radiation from pouring forth.
Gaunzella sings of all this and how the two-legs drained the pools of radioactive water right into the sea where she swam watching. Maybe she did not know. Maybe she did not care. But she should have cared for the one within her for Gaunzella was pregnant. Pregnant with my great great great great great great great great grandmother.
At first it just seemed like Gaunzella's baby calf was bumpy. Then, as she grew, it became clear she was different. The bumps had tiny fingers and tiny claws. And Gaunzella's baby's baby had even more pronounced “arms” and “legs”. Each successive generation of Gaunzella's offspring grew more and more into something else. But always the calves were able to live and swim and feed and mate and sing with the pod. Until me. I no longer can survive on krill. Nor can I mate with the pod. I am the last of Gaunzella's line.
I am Godzilla.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
The Spirit World
Medicine Story walked on The Path That Stands on Two Legs. His Uncle, the Sun, was coming up over the Pueblos before him. His Mother, the Moon, was going down into the flatlands behind him. Below him was Rivershine.
Above a flock of pigeons flew. The pigeons sang:
This is how we fly
This is how we fly
This is how we fly in the Spirit Land.
Medicine Story watched them fly.
A feather drifted down and landed at his feet. Medicine Story looked at it for a long time, then picked it up, unfolded the bundle he held in his hand, and placed the feather inside.
Medicine Story continued walking.
The Pueblos were very tall and very regular in appearance. They looked like:
The Spirit Beings walked by Medicine Story. They walked fast and slow, alone or in pairs, but they never looked at him. Medicine Story saw one of the Spirits dressed in dirty brown clothes, lying face down on the ground. The other spirits walked around him, keeping away from him. Medicine Story saw that this spirit had great power. Carefully, he kneeled beside him, took out a small bone knife and cut off a lock of the spirits hair. The spirit didn't move. Medicine Story unrolled his bundle and placed the lock inside.
x x x x x x x x x x
Under the ground was a large long Kiva. Spirits rode up in a moving house that made a tremendous roar then stopped and opened its doors. One time, when the doors opened, Medicine Story stepped inside. The house moved off again, making the loud roar. Being inside the house was like being inside Thunder. Medicine Story started to sing a song:
We are the Thunder Beings
We are the Thunder Beings
We ride inside the Thunder
We ride inside the Thunder
Hear us coming!
All the spirits in the house looked up at Medicine Story. They watched him singing. Then they rolled up their prayer sheets, which they had been studying, and beat them on their hands like drums. And they sang along with Medicine Story:
Hear us riding inside the Thunder!
Hear us riding in the Thunder.
Hey-hey! Hey-hey!
Hear us riding!
Medicine Story closed his eyes and prayed. He could feel that the spirits had given him great power.
x x x x x x x x x x
When Medicine Story came out of the Kiva, he had a Vision. He saw a tall Pueblo, taller than anything in the Spirit World, and on top of it was a large Monkey, holding a woman. The monkey was boasting loudly and waving its arms. It sang:
I am the Spirit Monkey
I am the Highest of the Spirits
I am the Highest of the Spirits
I am standing on the Spirit House
I am holding the woman
I speak with a thunder voice
I am the Spirit Monkey
Medicine Story squatted on the ground, closed his eyes, and listened carefully to the spirit song.
x x x x x x x x x x
Medicine Story came to a tall white Pueblo standing on a spot where many paths came together. The Pueblo was wearing a belt and Spirit Messages moved around the belt in a circle. At one point on the belt new Spirit Messages were born and old ones died. Medicine Story stared at that point, raised his arms and held his bundle. The Spirit Messages on the belt started to tell his story.
They showed his father, Wise Coyote, and his mother, Quiet Moon.
They showed Medicine Story's birth.
They showed his father and mother telling him that he was to go on a journey, and they showed him walking over great plains and high mountains, and swimming Great Rivers.
They showed all the Spirit Helpers that Medicine Story met on his way. They showed The Path That Stands On Two Legs
and the Spirit World. And they showed Medicine Story bowing in respect to the Spirits.
All the Spirits around the Pueblo gazed at the belt on the Pueblo in fascination. Then they saw Medicine Story bow to the Pueblo and walk off.
x x x x x x x x x x
Medicine Story walked again on The Path That Stands On Two Legs. His Uncle, the Sun, was going down before him on the flatlands. His Mother, the Moon, was rising behind him over the Pueblos. Below him was Rivershine. Pigeons circled him Above.
Medicine Story sang to himself:
I AM the Highest of the Spirits
I AM the Highest of the Spirits
I AM holding the woman
I AM standing on the Spirit House
I speak with a Thunder Voice
I AM the Highest of Spirits
x x x
Above a flock of pigeons flew. The pigeons sang:
This is how we fly
This is how we fly
This is how we fly in the Spirit Land.
Medicine Story watched them fly.
A feather drifted down and landed at his feet. Medicine Story looked at it for a long time, then picked it up, unfolded the bundle he held in his hand, and placed the feather inside.
Medicine Story continued walking.
The Pueblos were very tall and very regular in appearance. They looked like:
_______ _______ _______ _______ | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + | | + + |
On top of them were shiny spirit catchers. Each house had several of them and they came in different shapes.
x x x x x x x x x x
Under the ground was a large long Kiva. Spirits rode up in a moving house that made a tremendous roar then stopped and opened its doors. One time, when the doors opened, Medicine Story stepped inside. The house moved off again, making the loud roar. Being inside the house was like being inside Thunder. Medicine Story started to sing a song:
We are the Thunder Beings
We are the Thunder Beings
We ride inside the Thunder
We ride inside the Thunder
Hear us coming!
All the spirits in the house looked up at Medicine Story. They watched him singing. Then they rolled up their prayer sheets, which they had been studying, and beat them on their hands like drums. And they sang along with Medicine Story:
Hear us riding inside the Thunder!
Hear us riding in the Thunder.
Hey-hey! Hey-hey!
Hear us riding!
Medicine Story closed his eyes and prayed. He could feel that the spirits had given him great power.
x x x x x x x x x x
When Medicine Story came out of the Kiva, he had a Vision. He saw a tall Pueblo, taller than anything in the Spirit World, and on top of it was a large Monkey, holding a woman. The monkey was boasting loudly and waving its arms. It sang:
I am the Spirit Monkey
I am the Highest of the Spirits
I am the Highest of the Spirits
I am standing on the Spirit House
I am holding the woman
I speak with a thunder voice
I am the Spirit Monkey
Medicine Story squatted on the ground, closed his eyes, and listened carefully to the spirit song.
x x x x x x x x x x
Medicine Story came to a tall white Pueblo standing on a spot where many paths came together. The Pueblo was wearing a belt and Spirit Messages moved around the belt in a circle. At one point on the belt new Spirit Messages were born and old ones died. Medicine Story stared at that point, raised his arms and held his bundle. The Spirit Messages on the belt started to tell his story.
They showed his father, Wise Coyote, and his mother, Quiet Moon.
They showed Medicine Story's birth.
They showed his father and mother telling him that he was to go on a journey, and they showed him walking over great plains and high mountains, and swimming Great Rivers.
They showed all the Spirit Helpers that Medicine Story met on his way. They showed The Path That Stands On Two Legs
and the Spirit World. And they showed Medicine Story bowing in respect to the Spirits.
All the Spirits around the Pueblo gazed at the belt on the Pueblo in fascination. Then they saw Medicine Story bow to the Pueblo and walk off.
x x x x x x x x x x
Medicine Story walked again on The Path That Stands On Two Legs. His Uncle, the Sun, was going down before him on the flatlands. His Mother, the Moon, was rising behind him over the Pueblos. Below him was Rivershine. Pigeons circled him Above.
Medicine Story sang to himself:
I AM the Highest of the Spirits
I AM the Highest of the Spirits
I AM holding the woman
I AM standing on the Spirit House
I speak with a Thunder Voice
I AM the Highest of Spirits
x x x
Friday, July 1, 2011
Sushi Sex and Death
Splayed and Filet'd
Naked and Layed
Ginger and spice
Soy sauce and rice
Alive and yet Dead
Sumptuous bodies
Embalmed with wasabi
Wrapped in a seaweed shroud
Sex in Death
Death in Life
Cold skinless fish
Raw boneless fish
On a bed of rice
Nice
Naked and Layed
Ginger and spice
Soy sauce and rice
Alive and yet Dead
Sumptuous bodies
Embalmed with wasabi
Wrapped in a seaweed shroud
Sex in Death
Death in Life
Cold skinless fish
Raw boneless fish
On a bed of rice
Nice
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