Hot off the presses, the much-anticipated fourth installment of Strange Attractor Journal. Nestled amongst the illustrious contents is an essay by yours truly, ‘Sketches of the Goat-God in Albion’, documenting and ruminating upon the odd manifestations of Pan in my life.

Other highlights include an exploration of voodoo music history by Dreamflesh contributor Stephen Grasso, Peacock angel meditations from Erik Davis, other contributions from Paul Devereux, Alan Moore, Mike Jay, Ken Hollings, Robert Wallis, and David Luke, and splendid artwork from Arik Roper and Joel Biroco.

Essential stuff! Check it out.

My current main writing project, a book on the history of cosmological fantasies and realities from the perspective of the polar axis, is well underway.

Naturally I’ll post updates here as publication approaches (early 2012 a good estimate), but I’ve also kicked off a website for the project with a sign-up for a special mailing list dedicated to the book. The book’s title isn’t confirmed, but the site is named with rough aptness ‘Polar Cosmology‘.

411 years ago today, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in Rome for heretical cosmological beliefs. To mark the anniversary, I’ve contributed another piece to Dorian Cope’s brilliant On This Deity blog: check it out.

No, I’m not going out on a limb to try and connect these two fascinating subjects. Just a couple of iPlayer recommendations for UK readers.

The Secrets of the Tribe

This is an excellent documentary on the anthropological scandals and conflicts surrounding the Yanomami in the Amazon—famed for their bellicosity and tenacious resistance to contact with the modern world.

I covered some of this subject matter in my short study War & the Noble Savage (now available as a free PDF). So, without wanting to go to far into things here, here’s my key observations:

• I’m not sure what to make of Patrick Tierney, author of Darkness in El Dorado. He comes across OK here, but my research indicated that his book was quite misleading.
• That said, his exposé of abuses by (chiefly) Napolean Chagnon, James Neel and Jacques Lizot are a classic case of “no smoke without fire”. This documentary has its faults, but it seems to make clear that Tierney wasn’t entirely off the mark.
• I think R. Brian Ferguson is given short shrift, and his theoretical dispute with Chagnon (which I believe raises more serious problems with Chagnon’s work than comes across here) plays second fiddle to Chagnon’s camera-friendly rhetoric. Do check Ferguson out if your interest is piqued.
• Damn, is there a way in which we haven’t fucked up the Amazon?

Check it out.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

I’ve never really heard of this amazing singer before. Hugely influential on early rock ‘n’ roll, she carved a remarkable career for herself, starting out in church gospel, then finding work in New York nightclubs, but never really abandoning her gospel roots. This is well worth a watch.

Most British people reading this will be aware of the recent wave of news about undercover police infiltrating eco-activist movements in the UK. I’d just like to highlight a couple of short pieces that everyone interested in this story should read.

Firstly, George Monbiot’s ‘The Real Domestic Extremists’ is important because it reveals the disturbing backdrop to this sorry saga.

The National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) employed the undercover officer Mark Kennedy, who was embedded and bedded for seven years among peaceful green activists. Kennedy claims that it has supervised 15 other undercover agents on the same mission. But what is the mission? Sorry, can’t tell you. NPOIU is run by the Association of Chief Police Officers. As Simon Jenkins pointed out last week, ACPO is not a police force but a private limited company, beyond democratic scrutiny, not subject to freedom of information laws. (Read more »)

Secondly, anyone who’s followed the debate around this story will no doubt have heard someone (perhaps themselves) justifying the Mark Kennedy’s “mission” on the grounds that the people he was spying on were planning to shut down a power station—surely a grossly dangerous act that should indeed be treated as terrorism. Merrick’s ‘Lock Up Your Grannies’ demonstrates this argument to be high-grade bullshit, still being peddled by ACPO and anyone else irrationally desperate to demonize people fighting for society’s future.

Being smart human beings, the activists knew full well that the way the National Grid works “meant that there was no chance of anyone’s electricity supply being disrupted. Rather, it meant cleaner-burning gas stations would come onstream.” The judge sentencing them said:

It is right to emphasise that this the planned action would have had no practical effect on the electricity supply … It was your intention that this invasion would have been peaceable and safe. Violence was to be avoided, and the safety of the workers at the power station was paramount. You were fully equipped to carry out your roles safely.

But yesterday, ACPO spokesman Jon Murphy said that some of the people they were monitoring

are intent on causing harm, committing crime and on occasions disabling parts of the national critical infrastructure. That has the potential to deny utilities to hospitals, schools, businesses and your granny. [My emphasis; but you get the impression that it may as well have been his, in a stern, patronizing tone.]

As one of the activist defendants said:

I find it deeply disturbing that a senior police officer with a responsibility for the country’s national security doesn’t seem to comprehend how his own National Grid works.

Douglas Rushkoff spontaneously lent me some money ages ago to fund my weird publishing ventures. When I could pay him back, he refused the offer.

So of course I have a background rosy feeling about the guy. But, while I found his recent books Life Inc. and Program or Be Programmed to be well-written, sound advice, none of it comes close to this closing keynote talk he gave at a social media conference. He says:

I got really tired of listening to brand managers talk about their “Twitter strategies,” and by the time my closing keynote came around, it felt like I had watched the corporatization the net recapitulated over the course of the afternoon.

Please watch this if you’ve not come across Douglas’ recent ideas.

2nd – 3rd April, 2011. University of Kent at Canterbury. Confirmed speakers include Luis Eduardo Luna, Paul Devereux, Mike Jay, Rick Doblin, Andy Roberts, Amanda Fielding, Andy Letcher. Plus films and music.

It’s a good number of years since the UK has seen a psychedelics-oriented conference like this, and it’s sure to be an intensely stimulating gathering. See you there?

Facebook, plus more details and registration.

Photo by Chris Carter

Via Strange Attractor, the sad news of the death of Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson, of music legends Throbbing Gristle and Coil, at the age of 55.

I was lucky to move to London in time to catch most of Coil’s phenomenal 21st century gigs. Last year, at an occult festival in Conway Hall, I caught Sleazy doing his solo turn as the Threshold HouseBoys Choir. Bereft of long-term collaborator Jhonn Balance since his death in 2004, Christopherson nevertheless turned in a beautiful, provocative, outrageous, and fiercely interesting performance. Perception and preconceptions were tweaked and unravelled with abstract footage that supposedly appeared in different colours according to your sexual orientation, and footage of an execution in the forests of Thailand supposedly found amidst the trade in videos from old mobiles by one of his “house boys”. He confronted us with an unapologetic but humble window into his sexual preference for young men, and with the devout Buddhist piety they inspired in him. He spoke candidly of weeping in public on a train in England, crushed by the beauty and sadness of existence.

Fare well.

A couple of items regarding the recent trashing of Conservative party property last week.

Firstly, Jim Bliss has an excellent piece on the absolute culpability of the media in how the relatively minor violent aspects of protests derail the event and its impact in popular consciousness.

Secondly, it seems that the police have succeeded in taking down a site that offered advice to the many who were arrested during that demo. Merrick has explained the situation on his blog, and has joined a number of people reprinting the advice, both to keep it available on the web, and to show solidarity with the protestors. Personally, without the people willing to take to the streets, the near future looks much glummer than it need be. Here is Merrick’s explanation and the original advice:

The trashing of Conservative Party HQ during a student demo last week took a lot of people by surprise, not just the police and public but many of the participants.

Many of them had never done anything like it before. As such, they are largely identifable on the footage, and police have been arresting many.

FITwatch—a site that campaigns about police repression of protest, especially throught the use of Forward Intelligence Teams who film and photograph everything—published some advice to protesters.

The police responded by making the webhost take the FITwatch site down for a year. FITwatch nonetheless remain committed to their work.

In defiance of this censorship, and also to assist with the prevention of people who’d only trashed property from getting arrested, the offending post has been republished all over the internet. The more places do it, the more likeoly it is that the Met will give up and leave it be.

So here it is. If you think it should be in the public domain, please republish it on blogs and message boards.

The remarkable and brilliant student action at [Conservative Party headquarters] Millbank has produced some predictable frothing at the mouth from the establishment and right wing press. Cameron has called for the ‘full weight of the law’ to fall on those who had caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage to the expensive decor at Tory party HQ. Responsibility is being placed on ‘a violent faction’, after the march was ‘infiltrated’ by anarchists.

There are an encouraging number of intiatives to show solidarity with the arrested students – something that is vital if they are to avoid the sort of punitive ‘deterrent’ sentences handed out to the Gaza demonstrators. A legal support group has been established and the National Campaign against Cuts and Fees has started a support campaign. Goldsmiths lecturers union has publicly commended the students for a ‘magnificent demonstration’ .

This is all much needed, as the establishment is clearly on the march with this one. The Torygraph has published an irresponsible and frenzied ‘shop-a-student’ piece and the Met are clearly under pressure to produce ‘results’ after what they have admitted was a policing ‘embarrassment’.

51 people have been arrested so far, and the police have claimed they took the details of a further 250 people in the kettle using powers under the Police Reform Act. There may be more arrests to come.

Students who are worried should consider taking the following actions:

If you have been arrested, or had your details taken – contact the legal support campaign. As a group you can support each other, and mount a coherent campaign.

If you fear you may be arrested as a result of identification by CCTV, FIT or press photography;

DONT panic. Press photos are not necessarily conclusive evidence, and just because the police have a photo of you doesn’t mean they know who you are.

DONT hand yourself in. The police often use the psychological pressure of knowing they have your picture to persuade you to ‘come forward’. Unless you have a very pressing reason to do otherwise, let them come and find you, if they know who you are.

DO get rid of your clothes. There is no chance of suggesting the bloke in the video is not you if the clothes he is wearing have been found in your wardrobe. Get rid of ALL clothes you were wearing at the demo, including YOUR SHOES, your bag, and any distinctive jewellery you were wearing at the time. Yes, this is difficult, especially if it is your only warm coat or decent pair of boots. But it will be harder still if finding these clothes in your flat gets you convicted of violent disorder.

DONT assume that because you can identify yourself in a video, a judge will be able to as well. ‘That isn’t me’ has got many a person off before now.

DO keep away from other demos for a while. The police will be on the look-out at other demos, especially student ones, for people they have put on their ‘wanted’ list. Keep a low profile.

DO think about changing your appearance. Perhaps now is a good time for a make-over. Get a haircut and colour, grow a beard, wear glasses. It isn’t a guarantee, but may help throw them off the scent.

DO keep your house clean. Get rid of spray cans, demo related stuff, and dodgy texts / photos on your phone. Don’t make life easy for them by having drugs, weapons or anything illegal in the house.

DO get the name and number of a good lawyer you can call if things go badly. The support group has the names of recommended lawyers on their site. Take a bit of time to read up on your rights in custody, especially the benefits of not commenting in interview.

DO be careful who you speak about this to. Admit your involvement in criminal damage / disorder ONLY to people you really trust.

DO try and control the nerves and panic. Waiting for a knock on the door is stressful in the extreme, but you need to find a way to get on with business as normal.

Otherwise you’ll be serving the sentence before you are even arrested.