Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture is an alternative American history. It is a collection of essays, poems, and art, documenting America’s lost drop-outs, rebels, and other undesirables. The majority deal with the revolutionary period.
The book has its ups and downs. Some pieces are crafted in such a way that I only skimmed through them, others enthralled me. I recommend it for fans of Hakim Bey.
These men cannot live in regular society. They are too idle, too talkative, too passionate, too prodigal & too shiftless to acquire either property or character. Finding all their efforts vain, they become at length discouraged and then under the pressure of poverty, the fear of a gaol and consciousness of public contempt, leave their native places, and betake themselves to the wilderness.
-Timothy Dwight
According to Clamor, American Apparel has prevented their workers attempts to unionize and the company’s founder has had three different sexual harassment charges filed against him by workers. (Article preview here) So, there’ll be no more purchasing of their products by me. I recommend No Sweat.
Sadly, this also means I can’t buy from Proletarian Threads anymore (they print on American Apparel shirts).
I find myself standing in the midst of an eternity, a vast and inexhaustible present. The whole world rests within itself -- the trees at the field's edge, the hum of crickets in the grass, cirrocumulus clouds rippling like waves across the sky, from horizon to horizon. In the distance I notice the curving dirt road and my rusty car parked at its edge -- these, too, seem to have their place in this open moment of vision, this eternal present. And smells -- the air is rich with faint whiffs from the forest, the heather, the soil underfoot -- so many messages mingling between different elements in the encircling land. ... Things are different in this world without "the past" and "the future," my body quivering in this space like an animal. I know well that, in some time out of this time, I must return to my house and my books. But here, too, is home. For my body is at home, in this open present, with its mind. And this is no mere illusion, no hallucination, this eternity -- there is something too persistent, too stable, too unshakable about this experience for it to be merely a mirage...
The following is an excerpt from Susun Weed’s Healing Wise. It may come in handy, in a world where the government seems to be having nukes on their mind.
Workers at Swedish nuclear power plants eat seaweed to reduce and eliminate their absorption of strontium 90, a radioactive element. Research at McGill University finds that alginic acid, one of the main components of seaweed, binds with radioactive strontium to form strontium alginate, an insoluble compound, which is rapidly eliminated from the gastro-intestinal tract, reducing the absorption of strontium 90 by fifty to ninety percent. Strontium 90, released in nuclear accidents as well as in the running of nuclear power plants, has a high affinity for calcium. When released into the air, it is easily concentrated in calcium-rich foods such as milk (including mother's milk) and leafy greens. Eat these contaminated foodstuff and the radioactivity, now combined with calcium, enters the bone marrow where it can damage delicate immune and blood cells. Consistently eating seaweed helps eliminate any radioactive particles already absorbed, repairs damage to the bone marrow, and prevents further absorption of strontium 90. Fucoidan and algin, components of brown seaweeds, diminish blood levels of lead in animal studies. Seaweeds have been shown to remove mercury, cadmium, lead, barium, tin and other heavy metals from tissue, according to the Marine Technology Society.
Today I finished reading The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, a book about the author’s time with a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco. The book has its ups and downs, becoming boring at times with the attention payed to the parrots’ every action, but, overall, it’s a good read.
MutantFest served as my testing ground for Good Natured Earthling’s bug spray, made by my soap teacher. I was surprised how well it worked. During my whole time in the Forest, I was bit only once, and that was before I broke out the bug juice in the evening.
I highly recommend picking up a bottle.
Wise Woman Herbal: Healing Wise is an excellent book written by Susun Weed, one of those shifty feminist witches. She begins the book with an examination of what she sees as the three different healing methods: the scientific method (who’s motto is “your body is a machine, you broke it, and now must be punished” and who’s symbol is a line), the heroic method (who’s motto is “you broke the rules and must suffer the consequences, repent” and who’s symbol is a circle), and the wise woman method (who’s motto is “accept the illness and learn what good it has to offer” and who’s symbol is a spiral).
After analyzes the three methods and their healing practices in depth, she moves on to describing 7 herbs – common weeds that can be found in the crack of any sidewalk, in any city – but she doesn’t just devote a page or two to each. Instead, each “green ally” receives special devotion in its own chapter, and she introduces and teaches about them in wonderfully unique ways.
Obviously the book is written from the female perspective, for the female, but, as a male, I didn’t find that hindered the book for me in any way. (Though it does show how even the most seemingly free-thinking people can be boxed in by our culture and it’s duality, but that’s another discussion).
I highly recommend the book for everyone. Even if you have little interest in herbs or healing, this is a book to have on your shelve for battling the common cold. No id check required.
Gregory Tilford’s From Earth to Herbalist, which I purchased with my herbal kit, is an herbal field guide that “challenges us to reconsider our roles as herbalists, to go beyond health care consultant, medicine-maker, wildcrafter, and gardener/farmer to become earth-steward”. It combines the two roles of field guide and medical resource in one book that has managed to show me a new, “earth-conscious” way of looking at plants.
Reading it at MutantFest, all I had to do was simply adjust my gaze in order to locate most of the plants mentioned in the book. A great learning experience.
I recommend the book for anyone interested in herbal medicine.
http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1539952
Last February the Department of Homeland Security oversaw a large-scale international cyber terror simulation involving 115 public and private organizations in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, all testing their ability to coordinate with one another and respond to computer-driven attacks. It was called Cyber Storm. Nobody's said much about the results, or the details of the exercise scenario. But a newly-published DHS PowerPoint presentation on the exercise reveals that the real terrorist threat in cyber space isn't from obvious suspects like al Qaida types or Connecticut voters; it's from anti-globalization radicals and peace activists. The attack scenario detailed in the presentation is a meticulously plotted parade of cyber horribles led by a "well financed" band of leftist radicals who object to U.S. imperialism, aided by sympathetic independent actors. At the top of the pyramid is the Worldwide Anti-Globalization Alliance, which sets things off by calling for cyber sit-ins and denial-of-service attacks against U.S. interests. WAGA's radical arm, the villainous Black Hood Society, ratchets up the tension on day one by probing SCADA computerized control systems and military networks, eventually (spoiler warning) claiming responsibility for a commuter rail outage and the heat going out in government buildings. The Black Hoods are a faction of Freedom Not Bombs, whose name is suspiciously similar to the real Food Not Bombs, which provides vegan meals to the homeless. ...
I always knew Food Not Bombs was really a front for Harrison Ford’s 37337 band of h@x0rs. Free food? They must be devil worshipers.
Scroogle is a nice tool. No cookies, no logs, no worries concerning leaks. But is it too much to ask for a stylesheet? Google presents results in such a clean, organized way. Scroogle is just ugly.
The majority of my searching I do via Google, accessing it only through Tor and denying it cookies. This is undoubtedly an anonymous way to search, but is ruined by Google’s attempt to please. Because of my shifting IP, I rarely every reach Google.com, but am instead redirected to Google.de, Google.fr, Google.it, or some other. Without cookies, the “Google.com in English” button does nothing.
Results tend to be the same, and in English, with the exception of other language sites receiving higher placement than they would on Google.com, but I can’t use the spell-check feature, the dictionary feature, or any of those other little conveniences.
Anyone have any suggestions for another search method?
Update: Good timing
I’ve an abundance of dried Lemon Balm hanging around, so last night I decided to tincture 2/3 of it. Trouble is, none of my books contained alcohol percentages or ratios for the herb. Google seemed to think that 100 proof alcohol would be fine, but couldn’t come to a conclusion as to the ratio. Some sites said 1:1, some 1:4, and still others claimed 1:5.
The most important part of tincturing, I’ve been taught, is that the herb is completely covered for the first two weeks. I made my measurements to use the 1:5 ratio, but, to cover everything, ended up with a mixture closer to 1:16. Let’s hope it turns out.
In one and a half moon cycles, it will be ready for use – calming nervous systems, fighting fever, helping digestion, and even combating herpes (hey, you never know).
Robert Young Pelton’s Come Back Alive is a pun on survival guides. At least, that’s what I thought when I picked it up. As it turns out, the books makes fun of most other survival guides, but takes itself seriously – slightly disturbing, as most of his advice is questionable. It focuses on urban survival (driving, crime, etc) and, of course, war zones, forsaking wilderness survival for another time (or perhaps I just glazed over the wilderness sections, knowing they wouldn’t hold much of value).
It’s written in the same dark humor found in DP, so I would recommend it for fans of RYP, but only as entertainment.
There’s a lot of garlic around here not doing anything, so today I decided to make a tea, using this recipe as a base. It claims:
In Mexico, or Spain for that matter, garlic tea is served up for coughs or colds. People swear by it! The garlic oils inhibit cough and cold microbes, and they are effective decongestants. Lemon juice reduces and thins mucus, which makes it easier to unclog a stuffed up respiratory system. Lemon juice also changes the body's pH, making it less hospitable to viruses and bacteria.
I altered the recipe a little bit to fit the ingredients I had laying around, and the tea turned out great. A bit too much honey for my taste, but other than that, great. 16oz of the stuff is sitting in the fridge for me to try chilled tomorrow.
- 3 cups waters
- 5 whole garlic cloves
- 3oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
- As much Italian honey as is left in the jar
- The stuff was practically solid, not that cheap liquid honey you get at the supermarket. Were I to toss it into a measuring cup, I'd guess it would report about 4oz
- 2 pinches of Lemon Balm
- Bring 3 cups water and garlic cloves to a boil
- When boiling, turn down heat and add lemon juice, honey, and Lemon Balm
- Return water to boil for 30 seconds or so, allowing chunky honey to liquefy
- Strain, serve, enjoy
Now if only I was sick, I could report back the medical benefits.
Update: That stuff went right through me. Perhaps it cleans the kidneys?
Second Update: It’s tasty cold, though the honey all sunk to the bottom.
And so another midsummer’s new Moon birthed in the Gifford-Pinchot. This is becoming a ritual of some sort. I’ll have to continue it next year, regardless of what festivities are held there.
The Tenth Annual Autonomous Mutant Festival was a success, I’d say. Hobos, hippies, punks, gypsies, clowns, and all other sorts of degenerates gathered in the enchanted forests of Cascadia for celebration, music, chemicals, and what-not. Sadly, the weekend brought with it those who were there only for the booze; the type you wouldn’t pay a second glance to here in our culture of make believe, but, thrown into a forest of Mutants, looked incredibly out of place with their buzz-cuts, blue jeans, and white XXL undershirts. Their drunken idiocies are part of why I chose to break camp early.
And I missed bananas.
Providence is Daniel Quinn’s autobiography. Though it obviously differs from Ishmael, a work of fiction, I kept feeling that while reading Providence, I was reading what that book would be, had it been narrated by Ishmael.
The book tells of Quinn’s 50 years leading up to writing Ishmael, from growing up in the Great Depression, to studying as a Trappist monk under Thomas Merton, and his eventual rejection of Christianity and its god.
At one point, Quinn describes what he experienced as a Trappist monk when he was allowed to go outside for the first time in three weeks:
I turned and faced the sunshine, and the breath went out of me as if someone had punched me in the stomach. That was the effect of receiving this sigh, of seeing the world as it is. I was astounded, bowled over, dumbfounded. Everything was burning. Every blade of grass, every single leaf of every single tree was radiant, was blazing -- incandescent with a raging power that was unmistakably divine. I was overwhelmed. In a single second of this, of seeing this truth, tears flooded my eyes and poured down my face as I walked along... What I was seeing was reality, was the world as it actually is, every moment of every day.
What struck me so about this, is that the passage describes something akin to what I experienced after opening my eyes after meditation in the arboretum upon Sehome hill – though more of a white radiance than raging flames. Perhaps there’s something to that, no?
The book is a recommended read for fans of Quinn’s other works.
I went to Baker Blues festival yesterday. My third or fourth year, I think. They moved to a new location this year, and amped the whole thing up to three days.
Music this year eclipsed the past. Chris Duarte? The closest thing living to a Hendrix or Vaughan today.
My arms are burnt to a crisp.
The Spell of the Sensuous is a mystical trip into the heart of animism. Magician David Abram bridges the questioning of Civilization with a look at traditional Shamanism – the “ecological dimension of the shaman’s craft.” From the first paragraph of this text-book of Deep Ecology, I was hooked. Abram’s claim is that, as humans, we have cut off contact with the non-human world, and that this is a deadly way to live. He waxes poetically on the emergence of the phonetic alphabet, analyzing that as the act that severed our connection with the sensuous, feeling world.
It is an amazing book that with every word tears away the veils of perception – shows you the world in a different light. I’ve read it twice now. Once, I started it before leaving for Thailand, and finished it there in the North. And again I picked it up towards the end of my trip and completed it upon return. It has carried me on my journey, There and Back Again.
I was linked to Mountain Rose Herbs through LearningHerbs.com. They are a “global provider of bulk organic herbs, spices, teas, essential oils and other herbal miscellany,” and have become my standard herb provider.
In my order was their Tea Sampler, which includes the following:
Dream Tea This infusion blend is based on an ancient formula said to evoke powerful and colourful dreams. It is especially blended for the dreamer, stimulating vivid and easily recalled dreams. A light, minty yet, rich flavor. Very enjoyable after a rich or large dinner. Contains: peppermint*, mugwort* and damiana leaves, chamomile* flowers, gotu kola* and rosemary* leaves, rose petals* and, a pinch of stevia*. Traditionally used for- Enhancing dreams Fairytale Tea A delicious drink for children and adults. A delightful and inspiring infusion blend full of flowers & fairy magic; perfect for bedtime stories. Contains: calendula*, red clover*, lavender* and chamomile* flowers, lemon balm*, catnip*, spearmint*, skullcap* and thyme* leaves, oatstraw*, lemon peel* and, a pinch of stevia*. Traditionally used for- Encourage calming Peace Tea This is a gentle and calming nervine blend; a chance for reflection;an opportunity to imagine a peaceful world. Takes the stress out of life for a while. A wonderful infusion drink for meditation and quiet moments. Contains: Chamomile* flowers, spearmint* leaves, passionflower herb*, rose petals*, lavender* flowers and, cinnamon bark*. Traditionally used for- Encourage relaxation
And I purchased a bag of 21st Century Tea:
There are so many ways that our immune systems can be overwhelmed ... air, water, workplace, stress etc. This infusion blend is not only helpful, but comforting, strengthening and delicious. Contains: Red clover blossoms*, nettle* leaves, pau d'arco, alfalfa* and sage* leaves, St. John's wort* herb and a hint of ginger* root. Traditionally used for- General health and taste
I love all the teas. They’re all, without doubt, the best tasting I’ve had.
I also picked up some dried Lemon Balm for ice tea and a little powdered goldenseal root.
LearningHerbs.com is run by John Gallagher, one of the creator’s of Wilderness Awareness School’s Kamana program. The site offers a DIY kit that caught my eye a while ago, but I only recently decided to order. It came last Wednesday.
Included are the instructions and ingredients to make an echinacea tincture and an herbal salve. It’s amazing how simple both are to create, and they both provide a great confidence boost for an herbal noob like myself.
The salve I’ve been using for about a week as a lip balm and on itchy bug bites. It works great for both. I was only able to get my hands on some vodka a couple days ago, so the tincture still has another 6 weeks to sit before I can report back on that.
For anyone interested in herbs, I definitely recommend forking over $50 for the kit. I love it. It also includes access to a 7-day online course, that I’ve yet to begin, but plan to when the time is right.
Today was my Red Cross CPR and First Aid class. The 2 hours spent on first aid were a joke. Compared to that, Wilderness First Aid might as well be an EMT course. We just watched a video for the different illnesses and wounds covered, and the solution for all of them was “dial 911”.
The CPR portion of the 9AM-4PM class, on the other hand, was great. I learned a lot – not surprising, as I didn’t know anything about it going in – and might even remember a thing or two.
I recommend signing up for the CPR class. The instruction was good, the classmates fun. (Speaking of which, I was the only one taking the course for fun. All else were required by work or school.)
So now I am certified by the Wilderness Medicine Institute in Wilderness First Aid, the American Red Cross in Standard First Aid, and the American Red Cross in Adult CPR. This winter I plan to take the week long Wilderness First Responder course. Look out medics.
