to Mundoblaineo's zone dedicated to the wit and wisdom of that all-round good fella, scholar and gentleman, Steven Brown. I shall resist the urge to impose any kind of editorial control over this page, difficult though that may be at times. Pretend that you are somewhere far far away from the monumental ego of Blaine and are now in a corner of the universe reserved exclusively for Steven and those things which make him tick, tock, lock stock and
barrel. Ladies and gennamen, I give you Even Steven Brown.
baron brown on piano, cagli 2001.photo natale nitti
Blaine
You said to send you stuff to put on
the site right?
OK here goes buddy. ..I
haven't the time to translate these pieces but what the hey right?
it is the World Wide Web.
sty
This is a great piece
I recently read in December's Nouvelle Observateur whilst hanging out in the Alliance Francaise in Oaxaca ,Oaxaca Mexico.-
For the first time somebody has addressed the fucked- up sexual psyches of fundamentalists be they Jews, Christian, or Muslim and resurrected Wilhelm Reich's ideas in the
Bargain...
Illustration: Wilhelm Reich and "Cloudbusting" apparatus.
for more information about Wilhelm Reich and his ideas, go to
http://www.wilhelmreich.com/reich_bio_01.html
The Emotional Plague.
Les intégristes n'aiment pas le corps et se méfient du plaisir. Ce sont des psychorigides aux désirs refoulés. Et qui s'interdit de jouir ne supporte pas que l'autre jouisse.
En prenant plaisir à dominer l'autre, ils se sentent exister. L'estime de soi se nourrit du mépris de l'autre.
Les gens qui sont solidement installés sur le rocher des certitudes méprisent, plaignent et condamnent ceux qui ne les partagent pas. Assurés de leur bon droit et leur vérité, ils cèdent à la tentation d'imposer leur foi par la violence. C'est l'alibi : je le combats pour son bien. L'exil des juifs d'Espagne, 1492, l'Inquisition, les guerres de religion aux XVème et XVIème siècles ou les attentats du World Trade Center illustrent les effets de cet amour dévoyé.
Saint Augustin : 'Domptez votre chair, échauffez-vous contre elle avec toute la sévérité imaginable'
Là où Eros est malvenu, Thanatos prend le dessus.
The Talibans aren't afraid of death, it's true. They're afraid of Woman.
'Nous aimons la mort plus que vous n'aimez la vie'... Bin Laden
English Translation*
Fundamentalists do not like the flesh and are suspicious of pleasure. They're psychorigid, with repressed desires. And one who forbids himself to seek pleasure cannot stand pleasure in others.
By taking pleasure in dominating the other, they confirm their own existence. Their self-esteem is being fueled by their contempt for others.
People who are solidly anchored on the rock of their certitudes despise, pity or condemn those who do not share them. Certain about their own rights and truth, they succumb to the temptation to impose their faith through violence. It is their alibi : I fight him for his own good. The exile of the Spanish jews, 1492, Inquisition, religious wars during the XVth and XVIth centuries or the attacks on the World Trade Center all serve to illustrate this inverted love.
Saint Augustine : ' Master your flesh, chastise it with all imaginable severity"
When Eros is unwelcome, Thanatos takes over.
The Talibans aren't afraid of death, it's true. They're afraid of Woman.
'We love death more than you love life'... Bin Laden
*Thanks to Isabelle Corbisier for
translation.
---------Daniel Beresniak....from his book Les Integrismes
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HIV' the Aids Virus'
This is what in logic is called a hysteronproteron fallacy...what you are trying to prove is assumed in your premise. Show me the proof HIV is the sole cause of Aids
"El SIDA sirve de argumento a una nueva prohibicion sexual ya no moral si no funcional. El objectivo es la circulacion libre de sexo...
Se interrumpe el contacto se frena los flujos. Es en contradiccion con todos los mandamientos de la modernidad; el sexo, el dinero, y la informaccion deben circular libremente. Todo debe ser fluido.
Revocar la sexualidad bajo el pretexto del riesgo viral es tan absurdo como detener los intercambios internacionales bajo el pretexto de que alimentan la especulacion o el alzo del dolar.
A partir del momento en que los estados ya no pueden atacarse o destruirse entre si se enfrentan casi automaticamente con su proprio pueblo o su proprio territorio."
Anyone out there wants to translate either of these feel free...Id be delighted to
post them in ingles.
right now I gotta go feed the cows
st
Illustration:"Maximon" a Santeria Saint.
B
Hi...I got up the courage and went to my first rodeo alone other night.
The first time I saw a Lucha Libre live I couldn't believe that such a phenomenon could have existed without me knowing aboutit! It had nothing to do with tv versions of same.
The rodeo (not called rodeo here) was another such revelation: 100% SPECTACOLO beginning with the lady in back seat of a car selling tickets.
A portable 'plaza de toros' with bleachers and tent top set up in the middle of a campo about 1/2 km from chez moi. And , as it happens adjacent to field where we bought our bamboo for the house. 15 piece banda ;3 trombones, tuba, 2 baris, 2 trumpets, 3 clarinets 2 percussioneist and 2 singers. Real pro musos and they warm up the night for first hour and half with a musical invocation of a carribbean bavaria. They alternate with an emcee that Letterman Leno and co could only dream about...rap at 78rpm .. non stop verbal machine gun improvised rap. ( B. you would really appreciate these guys!) Their job (there are 2) is of course to keep the party at fever pitch and sell Tecate beer....
Finally all the jinetes are presented each crossing himself before entering the ring and once inside kneeling and making cross in the dirt. Then..the first cowboy ..the bull ,many of whom are the indo-african kind with big hump on back, has been tied up in a small pen..the cowboy climbs up and balances over the animal and engages in what can only be described as 'foreplay' with the bull's back..tight skinned boney jean-clad pelvis positioning over the other skin -clad mass of muscle, and then the mounting and they both explode out of the pen
Lots of praying and crossing on part of the riders. During the presentation the banda breaks into the oracion del jinete (or cowboy's prayer) the mc asks everyone to remove their sombreros while he delivers a prayer to the virgen on behalf of the cowboys saying 'they dont ask for much..etc.' of course this is a life and death situation here but the mc delivers the prayer in his usual over-the-top 2nd degree style and its hard to tell how serious it all is..i look around at crowd for a cue...nada..well its as serious as everything else and is an integral part of the show.
One gorgeous young jinete (el churro) spends 20 minutes suiting up in public..carefully lacing his ankles..bandaging his legs in gauze over which he puts on colorful leather chaps followed by football shin guards a red paliacate on his head under his 'texana' sombrero...
The band has been playing for 4 hours..all winds..the percussion only coming in for fills..the brass keeps the beat and the bass ..the tuba player is super human.
Well you on an isle
in the med an me here..not only are we extremely isolated in our respective host countries but typically from each other as well! We are like 2 poles of a magnet ..when we do meet..Look Out!.. Well I hope our next session together is less fraught with break-downs..tecnological and other wise... there are wheels in motion to bring us together again very soon...Carlos has just secured sponsorship for you and peter's airfare...
a suivre...
xxx
st
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Night of the Pilgrims
Juquila 22 February 2002
virgen de juquila
I thought Joel was indulging his artistic bent (he is an engraver by trade) by decorating the car we would be travelling to juquila in. A gold framed portrait of the Virgen of Juquila was fixed to the front grill flanked on each side by plastic bottles filled with water and flowers. The hood displayed more real flowers taped down with pink and white bunting and plastic cut-out patterns :’Viva la Virgen de Juquila’ that draped around the entire vehicle. There was no doubt where we were heading. My first thought on seeing this decorated coche was of India and a Hindu procession. Even here in Oaxaca the car attracted the attention of
Passersby. At the first Pemex station we were amused to see every vehicle in line for gas had its own foto of the virgen and varying degrees of decorations ..none as fine as ours.
The road was paved most of the way. The turn off to Juquila was a short stretch of dirt road then, after 5 hours of travel we arrive: cement block houses precariously perched on hill sides, too many cars in the winding streets,and the iglesia standing out from the cacophony like a golden oasis.
Getting out of the car a woman asks if need rooms. "Maybe" I say "Right around the corner.’ she insists We go to look its about as depressing an abode as you could ask for 150 pesos for a cell with 2 beds and toilet-shower-sink separated by plastic curtain from the beds …250 pesos for the same deal with 3 beds. Outside the entrance a huge charco at the foot of eroding cliff atop of which sits in addition to our vehicle a trailer with 2 goats inside balanced artfully on the edge of the precipice. Im appalled by these accommodations and prices but Joel says stoically it will be the same everywhere and anyway he is used to sleeping on the floor like a true pilgrim. Inertia wins the day, we pay and trek back to the iglesia . Its full of people, standing in the pews. As usual in this situation I am unsure how to act and am happy to follow Joel’s lead who after instants hesitation walks the length of the church to the altar. Its not real clear what is going on, we stand staring at the 2 foot tall virgen shaped like a cone or a pyramid in her glass box suspended over the altar. We turn right and walk into a room off the main chancellery full of candles and another replica of the virgen this one accessible and consequently covered in ‘milagros’ and fotos and notes and tiny replicas of banknotes. We meditate a while here then walk back outside. There is a courtyard with another statue of the tiny virgen and a large room where pilgrims can sleep on their petates (straw mats). I saw the same set-up in Assisi. I had been hearing and recording on MD thunder for a while and then as if to baptize our visit it began to pour. The first rain in many months and out of season at that. We sit in the patio facing the virgen on opposite end both of us watching the torrents.
Later passing through the corridor of vendors glitzy gold and silver portraits of a statue…each stand selling the exact same thing Im admiring a display of ‘milagros’ the little gold or silver painted tin arms and legs and houses and cars . Joel says there is a bottle of wine. I don’t see it and walk to another puesto and there see the tiny metal strip representing a bottle of booze.
The woman sitting in her niche smiles and says : "Have you stopped drinking yet? No I say a little surprised but amused by her manner which is anything but judgmental. She explains the routine; Pin the bottle on the virgen and enlist her to help you stop drinking.
Naturally in a place like this one is super sensitive to anything of a mystical or spiritual bent. In fact I find myself activating an auto-censure at these times: "Come on you don’t believe in that!" and then find myself waiting in line to pass under the veil. Unconsciously you are waiting for some divine manifestation.
So I overrode all the overrides and believed this smiling woman was an angel speaking to ME This was an important message directed to ME . I bought the booze milagro and the next am deposit it at the feet of the statue of the virgen.
Sat. 23 Feb.
Up at dawn with Joel to take 16mm shots of sunrise over Juquila. Then walk to church to get in line to pass under the robe of the virgen. David Joel and I , David is going to shoot video secretly his camera is small and he is filming with it cradled in his arms as we approach the Robe. Just as its our turn the camera runs out of tape and he is in the very awkward position of having to re-load the camera in front of the guard and the ‘No Photos’ sign as well as holding up the line of the faithful behind us. The guardian says :"No fotos" but makes no further attempt to stop David who is now clearly recording. Perhaps the guard is hip or the prohibition is indeed only for Photos. Joel points out a copy of Karl Marx’s Kapital sitting incongruously on a shelf. This is a fine example of Mexican syncronicity: Karl Marx and the Holy Relic with lines around the church to get in. When we pass the Robe we see we are above and behind the altar and the Virgin we had seen earlier inside the chapel. We can see the congregation down below. Joel kisses the Robe extended over us.
Outside again we take shots of ‘Holy Water’ on tap.
That night I fantasized horror+war flics as the obnoxious extended family in the next ‘cell’ blabbered loudly til wee hours….The Night of The Pilgrims….starring Bruce Willis.Sylvester Stallone etc..
President GW Bush launched a new war on drugs this month with no mention of a report released elsewhere by his administration revealing fatty foods and soft drinks are more dangerous than cocaine and heroin.
The document states that approximately 20.000 people die each year as a result of illegal drug use, but the number of those that die as a result of obesity and overweight reaches 300.000.
Almost 2/3 of North Americans weigh more than what is considered
healthy or are out right obese according to the Surgeon General-the supreme physician of the nation. The Surgeon General informs that statistically members of families with lower incomes are more likely to be overweight than are the wealthy who can exercise and diet. In the USA the Mexican-Americans present the highest incidence of obesity followed by white males.
From the book : ‘The Letters of William S. Burroughs 19
"Dec. 13 1954 Tangier
Dear Allen
When I was home I fell into a disgusting state of stagnation , ate and slept to excess. A horrible thing was happening to me. I was getting fat. An inch of nasty soft flesh marring my flat stomach I have always been so proud of. And I felt terrible. No energy no life. It would literally kill me to live in US, except maybe in Frisco or NY I could make it.
Now I feel alert and charged with energy and gut is once again hard and flat. Its like I cant breathe in the US, especially in suburban communities. Palm Beach (Fla) is a real horror. No slums, no dirt, no poverty. God what a fate to live there. The US simply does not provide sustenance for a man. He gets fat and his vitality drains away, and he dies from spiritual malnutrition. It is significant that in other cultures (like Islam for ex.) men live as long or longer than women while in the US statistics show women outlive men by a wide margin."
While the war on Afganistan did not produce Bin Laden it has
Produced a new drug: Concentrated liquid heroin addiction to which is incurable. The substance baptised; "Tears of Allah" is odorless and looks like water. Reports from former Soviet republic of Kirguistan inform of the new drug produced in clandestine labs in Southern Afganistan with the aid of chemists contracted from post-communist Russia. The raw material for ‘Tears of Allah’ is opium. One kilo of the new drug requires 50 kg of opium, whereas a kilo of heroin requires 10 kg of opium. The report states that ‘Tears of Allah’is so addictive that it is practically impossible to cure anyone under its influence. Whereas the Taliban regime had prohibited the growing of opium the Northern Alliance (allies of USA) has not so far instituted similar legislation.
Afganistan is the worlds largest producer of opium.
Sound familiar??? William Burroughs early on writes of a drug which is addictive for life after one fix...