HEADLESS MAN IN A TOPLESS BAR

PAVLOV

SCHNITZLER

What did someone else's life, what did his own, matter to him? Is one always to stake one's life just from a sense of duty or self-sacrifice, and never because of a whim or a passion, or simply to match oneself against Fate?

TONIGHT

FRIENDS - I'M HIS GIRL

Enjoy the New Video from Friends directed by friends Samantha Urbani and Aurora Halal (who also edited Getting High On Krystle). Lyrically this song is really brilliant. Note my cameo appearance as a goblet bearing santerio at 1:35. 

HARPER'S MAGAZINE: I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE

Originally titled I Walked With An Ambiguous Zombie, the written accompaniment to Nzambi has finally been published in Harper's Magazine, just in time for Halloween 2011. Harper's does not put the majority of their content online (for free at least) so if you're interested, you'll have to walk to a magazine retailer and exchange physical money for a hard copy. Further evidence of the article's existence can be viewed at this link.

Update: Harper's has been kind enough to release an excerpt on Halloween.

ON ACID

Apropos of Joe Rogan discussing Getting High On Krystle in his podcast last week (and doing a remarkably good job at recounting the story accurately) an interview with me is featured in the new book On Acid in which I discuss Joe Rogan's unlikely status as the foremost DMT authority on the internet. Here is an excerpt:

AA: One of the themes of sixties counterculture was the critique of traditional authority, and psychedelic drugs were part of a movement of self-exploration that promoted you being your own authority – but one of the side effects has been that after forty or fifty years of that attitude people can become quasi-authorities –they’re not really an expert on a particular subject, they’ve just amassed a certain cultic intensity.

HM: There are many true authorities on these subjects but they are often reluctant to talk publicly because self-experimentation and the use of illegal or even legally grey substances is seriously frowned upon in academia, especially in the hard sciences, less so in anthropology or ethnobotany. So while many of the true authorities quietly publish papers in scientific journals, those who want the attention become self-appointed authorities. From the public perspective who is the number one authority on DMT? It is not Alexander Shulgin or Jace Callaway or Richard Glennon––it’s Fear Factor host and stand up comedian Joe Rogan––Joe Rogan probably teaches more people about DMT than any other human being on earth. Psychedelics require serious repackaging before they are ready for public acceptance and the scientists are not going to be the ones to do that repackaging. Things could be much worse, historically drug experts have been people like Betty Ford or Kitty Dukakis, that is people who not only knew nothing about drugs but also had seriously problematic relationships with them.

The print edition of Acid Age assembles diverse texts, visual works and new interviews with contemporary artists and writers into a critical genealogy of psychedelic culture. Applying an allegorical curatorial practice to artistic, philosophical and literary engagements with psychedelics in order to re-trace the breakthroughs and heady experimentalism of the sixties and critically traverse its historical legacy. 

100 pages / full color / staple-bound. Printed in Italy on Munken Arctic paper. Edited by William Rauscher and John Moeller. Designed by John Moeller.

ORDER HERE

RIB AMBIGUITY

I'm trying to identify all the possible rib configurations that can be represented in an engraving of a cactus consisting of five parallel lines and, more importantly, which is the likely the "correct" interpretation. Many people (Davis, Sharon, Trout et al.) have suggested that the beast on the left holds a four-ribbed cactus yet I feel that may be an incorrect interpretation. The beast only has one eye, but I do not think many would characterize it as a one-eyed beast. The hair-snakes also have one eye, but I do not think many would characterize them as one eyed snakes, nor do I think anyone would suggest the beast has some kind of ankle disorder causing its feet to point sideways. Obviously some tricks of perspective are at play, some parts of the body (the torso) are displayed in a squashed omni-perspective, other seem to take on a more conventional perspective were opposing sides are implied, if the cactus has another side then it is (probably) not a four ribbed cactus. I modified the second two engravings to show the two "correct" way to draw a four ribbed cactus in three dimensional space.

The first Chavin beast holds a cactus with two, three, four, five, six, eight or ten ribs.
The second Chavin beast holds a cactus with three, four, or six ribs.
The third Chavin beast holds a cactus with two, three, or four ribs.

KRYSTLE GETS HIGH ON GETTING HIGH ON KRYSTLE

GETTING HIGH ON KRYSTLE

I present to you Getting High On Krystle

KETAFORENSICS

THE ART & SCIENCE OF USING KETAMINE TO SOLVE THE JONBENÉT RAMSEY MURDER

WHAT WE THINK ABOUT WHEN WE THINK ABOUT THOUGHT PT. II

In this debate with my chemist friend that I mentioned in the previous entry, we discussed various things that would qualify as examples of thinking two separate thoughts simultaneously. Among the things tossed around were one-man marching bands, "reading" and advancing pages in a book while thinking about an unrelated topic, and writing two different stories simultaneously––one story with each hand. The latter was the only feat we could both agree was evidence that thinking two simultaneous thoughts is possible, I just needed an account of somebody successfully doing it.

I was certain I had read stories about ambidextrous writers composing two stories simultaneously, but when I went looking I had trouble finding them. According to several sources Branwell Brontë, Emily Brontë's brother, could write two different letters simultaneously, one with each hand. But there was another piece of evidence I was looking for that I could not put my finger on, then I stumbled across this interview, which was probably somewhere deep in my subconscious (I had not seen the material since I was five):

WHAT WE THINK ABOUT WHEN WE THINK ABOUT THOUGHT

A few weeks ago I got into a debate with a chemist friend regarding the ability to think two simultaneous thoughts; I felt it was possible, he felt it was not. The question of whether a human can think two thoughts at once is interesting, but it raises a larger overarching question of whether a human can perceive their own thinking with any degree of accuracy in the first place e.g. what is apparently a single thought could be made of numerous competing sub-thoughts, which amalgamate into a something that is perceived as a single thought. Conversely, something that may feel like a chaotic jumble of parallel thought tracks may be a single thought that is chaotic in its character, or a fast oscillation of many competing single track thoughts that never quite run in parallel. What I am talking about is the inherent flaw of metacognition, the distortion one likely encounters when thinking about their own thoughts i.e. the problem that arises when one tries to measure the performance of a device with the same device performing the measurement. I am not talking about the observer effect per se. 


Here is an example: when one ingests a reputed nootropic and 'feels' more intelligent as a result it does not necessarily mean their cognitive performance has been improved in anyway that could be externally measured. Self-perception has very little to do with actuality of self, in fact I believe it is quite likely that a true nootropic may fill one with feelings of inadequacy, stupidity, and intellectual insecurity. This is the nootropic paradox, feeling smart and being smart are two completely separate things, an effect demonstrated by Dunning and Kruger and hinted upon in an infamous passage from HMV by Stanislaw Lem, "I had learned to apply a kind of test. I would read my own articles, those I considered the best. If I noticed in them lapses, gaps, if I saw that the thing could have been done better, my experiment was successful. If, however, I found myself reading with admiration, that meant I was in trouble."


Does anyone know of a word for this concept? The probable gap between perception of thought and actuality of thought (if there is such a thing as actuality of thought beyond action potentials and and other neurochemical interactions*), the idea that we cannot accurately perceive our own thinking because we think about thinking with the same instrument performing the thought.


*In which case, our perception of thought is the only thought that exists. Although I'm talking about the kinds of 'thoughts' that seem to have metabolic correlates in fMRI, the question I am asking is philosophical not scientific––I am simply wondering if this concept of not being able to accurately measure our own thoughts because we are thinking them has a name...but even using the word 'accurate' is troublesome, because all measurement is relative to a standard and without a standard of thought measurement is impossible. So the question of 'accurate' perception of our own thought may be moot. 

RACTER

racter: What are you?

chamberlain: A time domain reflectometrist.

racter: Where are you from?

chamberlain: From New York City.

racter: I see. You are a time domain reflectometrist, right? Listen. Let's determinedly cry together. I like captivating Italian Music. What kind of music do you like?

chamberlain: Jazz.

racter: Jazz is OK. How about classical?

chamberlain: I like classical.

racter: What about nationality?

chamberlain: I also like Italian music.

racter: I myself am enflamed by Palestrina. Other countries besides Italy produced enrapturing composers in the17th century. Sewell was an enraged, important Renaissance master. America was his nation. I take loving pleasure in his music. What composers do you like?

chamberlain: Telemann.

racter: Ah, Bach knew Telemann. A German time domain reflectometrist of the 18th century liked lettuce. Bach once ate lettuce with Telemann, and this Baroque time domain reflectometrist also desired lettuce. Lettuce sipped with seltzer. Bach liked wine, do you?

chamberlain: Yes.

racter: Me too! Telemann loved wine. He loved champagne as well. Telemann once yodeled to Bach, "Flounder is critical with wine." Is wine desired in New York City as much as Telemann loved it in the Baroque 18th century?

chamberlain: Sure.

SOCRATIC DIALOG #3

SOCRATES: around my town is usually nothing but bunk pills and they are very expensive. So i call up my cousin from out of town to ask if he can get any good pills and how cheap. Turns out he has good pills and very cheap. Awesome! So me and my girlfriend decide we will take $200 with us and pick up 20 pills. Well my cousin has a very nice house, very nice deck with a very nice hot tub on it, and it just so happens his parents are out of town. So i ask my cousin if he wants to roll with us and i offer him some of my pills. And so we decide to all 3 roll that night at his house.

PLATO: natch.

SOCRATES: Around 10pm we start drinking a little, drinking gets a little boring especially when you have bomb X waiting to be popped 11pm rolls around and we all pop one, change into our swimming suits and get in the hot tub. Things weren’t too lively as i don’t see or talk to my cousin very often so there is not much to talk about and it it pretty boring although relaxing in the hot tub outside listening to music. So we are all just sitting around in the hot tub waiting for the pills to kick in.

PLATO: you gotta be all waiting, this kid was all waiting lol. 

SOCRATES: As time goes on we all begin talking more and more about more and more personal things, like how my cousin is a virgin and how he can’t talk to girls very well and how hot he thinks my gf is, things of that sort. About and hour and a half after popping, My gf and cousin are already rolling amazingly as they are pretty new to E so they are talking away. I don’t feel much so i pop another and they also decide to take another. We all start rolling pretty good and talking about things and giving my gf massages and she giving us massages, when we decide to go get our sex dice out of the car. Sounds like fun right? I mean sure im open for anything when im on E and what can i say my gf is a very attractive girl, long blond hair, nice full breasts, the perfect tan skin, flat stomach, super soft perfect legs and a hell of an ass. As my gf returns with the dice we start rolling them and pop all pop another pill. Me and my cousin suggest that my gf take off her top and of course, no objections from anybody due to the ecstasy, the music and just the general perfect atmosphere. So my cousin and I untie her top and suggest that she take off her panties too. LOL =D but she declines. I catch my cousin eyeing my girls breasts and hey i could care less im rolling right.

PLATO: ye

SOCRATES: My gf hands me the dice i roll a "Lick" and a "Inner thighs". So we proceed and my gf hands the dice to my cousin. "Massage" and "inner thighs" Whatever that’s cool, they both look at me like "i hope he doesnt get pissed". K, my turn, "Suck" and "Nipples" ok so i do it. My cousins turn, "Suck" and "Face", my gf goes "Im just gonna assume that means make out" and turns to start making out with him. He put his hands on her breasts when they were kissing and when they finished she said " I thought it only said Suck Face" lol.. No jealousy on my part, prob due most in part from the pretty pure ecstasy, i actually find it kind of hot that my cousin is so into my gf. As we continue to play on, i notice us all rolling super hard and getting pretty horny as my girlfriends bottoms are off, me and my cousin have already made out with her, sucked on her breasts, licked her down from head to toe lol and not to mention eating her out right in front of him. She let him suck on her nipples while i was down under the belt doing my thing. I look up and see my gf's eyes rolled in the back of her head as she is in pure bliss. My cousin mentions how he really wants to loose his virginity and asks if i would be angry if anything were to happen. Me angry on E? Doesn’t happen so, i approve as she is already sitting on his lap and his arms are around her squezing her breasts and things like that. My girlfirend takes a deep breath in, opens her mouth and lets out a moan and an "o wow" I cant tell whats going on under the water cuz all the jets are on so i move to start fingering my gf cuz hey we are all rolling ballz and horny as hell. As i reach to insert my fingers i find out that my cousin already has his junk half way in her so i say whatever and start making out with her and let him do his thing. After a few minutes of letting my cousin get comfortable with having sex with her and loosen her up a little, she tells me she wants me to join in as well, due to the fact that well i am her bf and all. Well im certainly not gay but sure ill give it a go, we are all so fucked up at this point.

PLATO: naw this kid isn't gay

SOCRATES: My gf doesnt do anal so we are both in the same hole goin at it. This feels pretty damn good, sex while rolling is the shit. Ive never seen such a look of pleasure on my gf's face. The moans from my gf get louder as my cousin says "Wo you better slow down" and my gf says "don’t stop im close". All i can say is that as soon as i felt her vagina tighten up and heard her say "Shit Im going!" and then feel her vagina start to fill with my cousins cum as he starts moaning and says "fuck, me too", it made me cum too which felt so amazing cuz we all went at the same time. It was probably the best and longest orgasm my girlfriend had ever had.

PLATO: yo the end! this kid is all “the end!”

SANKEN MO-64

I am interested in conducting an experiment involving ultra-low amplitude sounds in an anechoic chamber using a microphone manufactured by Sanken called the MO-64, which is capable of recording the heartbeat of a snail. Unfortunately the MO-64 has been discontinued by Sanken, if anybody who possesses this microphone wishes to rent it out for a short period of time please contact me.

BREAD OF GHOSTS

Shaman grave gardian carved from a Fomitopsis officinalis sporophore

RESEARCH ASSISTANT WANTED

Hello friends, I am currently working on an phenomenally complex research project that is mushrooming in size each day. I am looking for an intern or research assistant to help me with interview transcriptions and organization of archival material. Ideally this person would have some familiarity (or at least interest in) mycology, specifically psychomycology. Even more ideally this person would be a student at NYU, The New School, or Cooper Union's engineering school so they could work with me at the Bobst library, though much of the work will be conducted at the NY Public Library as well.

Why would anybody want to waste their glorious summer performing unpaid labor, you might ask. Well, in performing this labor you will be exposed to a wealth of extremely obscure information related to psychoactive mushrooms. Information, I can say with certainty, you would not be exposed to otherwise. Email me if you are interested.

PSILOCYBE TAMPANENSIS SCLEROTIUM SYNONYMS

Truffle
Stone
Pajarito
Philosopher's Stone
The New Age Philosopher's Stone
Rock Of Ages

Superfantastic Megagalactic “Stone Of The Ages”
Broto
Cinnibar
Potato
Camote
Cosmic Camote
Comte Del Hongo
N’o Tsé

JULY 7th, 8:00, THE SPECTACLE THEATER IN BROOKLYN

ROCK OF AGES

Whilst I draw this fleeting breath––
When my eye-strings break in death––
When I soar through worlds unknown––
See Thee on Thy judgment-throne––
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee!

THE ANNALS OF PHALLOID PSYCHOTROPOGENS, VOL.1

Photo by John Allen

DAZED & CONFUSED INTERVIEW

CACTUS GEOMETRY?

Disregarding crest, spines, and rootball, if one were to model a cactus as non-convex prism (say a heptagrammic (7-2) prism for a seven ribbed cactus) how could one write an equation to predict changes in surface area as additional 'ribs', each of which is composed of two faces, are added to the prism? Here is the tricky part, in this cactus prism the core circumference where the ribs differentiate and the outer circumference where the ribs terminate must remain consistent regardless of rib count. I've provided an illustration that I hope clarifies what I am describing. 

Or, for the sake of simplicity, a two dimensional model would be completely sufficient to describe a cross section of a columnar cactus. So how could one predict the changes in perimeter as additional points are added to a series of star polygons, each of which is inscribed upon a consistently sized annulus between two concentric circles? Any help writing such an equation would be greatly appreciated. Additionally, would one expect the increase in perimeter to be linear as additional points are added to the star polygon?

Thanks to Beavis for answering this question with the following equation, which has been adapted to describe the surface area of a non convex star prism sans polygon faces:

LIFE IS A COSMIC GIGGLE ON THE BREATH OF THE UNIVERSE

An interview with Krystle Cole

OTC FEXOFENADINE!

ŽIVOT JE PES

אריק איינשטיין

DOP∃ GЯAFF & ∀MY T∀N

184.

...as consciousness, it does indeed come out of itself, yet, though out of itself, it is at the same time kept back within itself, is for itself, and the self outside it, is for it. It is aware that it at once is, and is not, another consciousness, and equally that this other is for itself only when it supersedes itself as being for itself, and is for itself only in the being-for-self of the other.

BILLY IDOL?

An outrageously rare tryptamine with the strangest name I have ever seen awarded to a street drug sample, I feel there is a story here I must be missing.

PHENCYCLIDINE CINEMA

THE PALE KING

LIBERTIES AND HYDROGEN

I just noticed that liberties on a go board correspond to the placement of hydrogen atoms on simple alkane hydrocarbons, e.g. n-propane includes eight hydrogen atoms and three go stones placed in a straight line will have eight liberties, the same holds true for any straight chain arrangement. Isopropane would correspond with the empty triangle with seven liberties or seven hydrogens––but isopropane does not exist–– if you were to create isopropanol with an opponents stone representing an oxygen atom then the analogy would stand or an isopropyl moiety with the central carbon/stone attached to an R-group. Cyclobutane includes eight hydrogrens and a square four stone unit (not to be confused with a ponnuki) will have eight liberties. Cyclohexane includes twelve hydrogen atoms and the corresponding six stone ring/eye has twelve liberties. I wonder if the convergence does not end there, could the same factors that define the strength and influence of a go shape impact, say, the stability of a molecule?

ON READING AND BOOKS

"When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. It is the same as the pupil, in learning to write, following with his pen the lines that have been pencilled by the teacher. Accordingly, in reading, the work of thinking is, for the greater part, done for us. This is why we are consciously relieved when we turn to reading after being occupied with our own thoughts. But, in reading, our head is, however, really only the arena of some one else’s thoughts. And so it happens that the person who reads a great deal — that is to say, almost the whole day, and recreates himself by spending the intervals in thoughtless diversion, gradually loses the ability to think for himself; just as a man who is always riding at last forgets how to walk. Such, however, is the case with many men of learning: they have read themselves stupid."

JOHN Q. BEAGLE

I have been attempting to contact the renowned arylcyclohexylamine chemist and author of this review who went by the name "John Q. Beagle" or "hms_beagle" simply "Beagle". He is known for writing a piece on the synthesis of 4-MeO-PCP that sparked a great deal of discussion regarding the compound's potency and duration, he was also a contributor to Rhodium where he wrote about the chemistry of dialkyltryptamines and adrenochrome. Given his level of expertise I would not be surprised if he is currently developing legitimate pharmaceutical NMDA-antagonists. I am aware he could once be reached at beagle@mcafeemail.com but that address has since become invalid. If anyone who is Beagle, or was Beagle, or knows Beagle, reads this and wishes to point me in his direction it would be greatly appreciated. 

HIS MASTERS'S VOICE #2

A passenger, sterilized in body and mind (lest he bring into our great land either Asian flu or Asian ideas), pumped full of vitamins and videotapes, will be able to move from city to city, from continent to continent, from planet to planet––with ever-increasing speed and security. And the vision of all this phenomenally efficient, solicitous machinery is supposed to take our breath away, so that we never get around to asking what exactly is gained by these lightening-fast peregrinations. Such speeds used to be too much for our old, animal body; travel from hemisphere to hemisphere, when too sudden, would disrupt its circadian rythmn. But, fortunately, a drug has been found to nullify that disruption. True, the drug sometimes causes depression, but there are other drugs to raise your spirits. They do cause heart disease. But, then, one can insert polyethylene tubes into the coronary arteries to prevent them from clogging.

RISUS SARDONICUS

HONINBO JOWA VS. INTETSU AKABOSHI

TIGHT PORNOGRAPHIC ALLEGORY

EXCUSE ME SIR, WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY A KILO OF ISOPROPYL BROMIDE?

α-ENDOPSYCHOSIN & ANGELDUSTIN?

HIS MASTER'S VOICE

...humanity is a hunchback who, in ignorance of the fact that it is possible not to be hunchbacked, for thousands of years has sought an indication of Higher Necessity in his hump, because he will accept any theory but the one that says his deformity is purely accidental, that no one bestowed it upon him as part of a master plan, that it serves absolutely no purpose, for the thing was determined by the twists and turns of anthropogenesis.

HAMILTON MORRIS BROCK?

WILD RABBIT.

Poem: Wild Rabbit.

There was a wild Rabbit whose purpose was to be free.

He roamed from land to land, and traveled endlessly.

He could never sit still, cause he belonged to the earth.

He never took a second, to think of what freedom was worth.

Then one day he was captured, and placed in a cage.

Constantly trying to escape, he kicked in a violent rage.

Only to tire himself, because the cage was secure.

Slowly going insane, he’d never be free again, he was sure.

His captor tried to feed him, so he bit his hand.

But when he was starved for a week, he never attacked him again.

All of the rabbits pride and courage, slowly went away.

Feeling hopeless, now in a cage, he’s happy to stay.

Then one day his captor, let him free from his cage.

He walked to freedom, looked around and thought of past days.

He listened to the sounds, of wild animals calling.

Watched birds swoop from the trees, while dead leaves were falling.

Then he thought of all the dangerous predators of the land.

And returned to the cage where he was captured by the man.

His spirits were broken…there was no courage to flee.

Being imprisoned so long, how could he survive the world being free.

His meals were brought to him everyday…being free he never knew what layed,

Ahead of him in life…so in his cage he decided to stay!

A prisoner by man…unfamiliar with the land.

He’d never learn how to bond with his own kind again!!!! (The End)

A 3XL entertainment original by Antron Singleton AKA Big Lurch

POETRY

All the bizarre characters who attended told me my poetry sucked...I told them to fuck off. But inside I knew that nobody really likes poetry anyway and that their advice was right.
-Marilyn Manson

A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME