What is Fracking, Anyway?

Here's a cool Rap Video that will explain it. The title, appropriately, is "My Water's On Fire Tonight":



At the end of the video, you'll find a bunch of links to other videos, if you want more science.

I particularly liked "Fracking: the Dirty Truth in North Dakota".

The Google Test - Don't Panic!!

I'm not giving up the Blog - though I'm most grateful for the concern!

The "Google Test" started when I first posted a screed on the Beat Hotel. 

I was trying to find out whether Google's pageview count, etc, made any sense. So I wrote that I wanted "to see how many people read this post - or more to the point, whether Google's software succeeded in counting them properly.  There have supposedly been 18 new views of the Blog since I posted this about 10 pm California time, yet Google claims only 2 people looked at this post.

"I think they're fucked up.  If you want to confirm that, please email me at thewaronthe60s@gmail.com and say you read it.  If more than 2 people did, then we have our proof."

All I meant to say thereafter, was that the test was over.  NOT that I was giving up blogging!  Blogging is a gas - kind of like having one's own newspaper.  Especially since the numbers of readers seems to be climbing, which is really very pleasing!  On Saturday we almost broke a century, with Google claiming 96 pageviews - thanks very much, all!

Thanks to the 3 people who sent regrets for the premature burial of the Blog; it's actually only been running since January.  I'm still not quite happy with the layout - would rather allow people to choose from a menu of topics - and there are quite a few other changes in layout I'd like to do, but haven't yet been able to figure out how.

And, as you gathered, I'm not impressed with Google's counting software.  They say the Blog has no Followers, though I know there are at least 3.

I may later move the Blog to another provider, but do not fear, we won't lose touch with each other!

Peace and Love, all!

Richard.

Very Cool: The Beat Hotel

Paris, 1957 - the Beats, progenitors of the great 60's cultural movements....

Just finished watching a wonderful documentary, filmed in 2011, at the old "Beat Hotel" in the Latin Quarter of Paris, where in the late 1950s there gathered an extraordinary collection of wayward geniuses including Alan Ginsberg, author of "Howl", ex-criminal wild-man poet Gregory Corso, and William Burroughs ("The Naked Lunch"), followers of Dadaism and inventors of the cut-up technique of novelising.

It's available on Instant Netflix, here.

The film, directed by Alan Govenar, uses an artful mix of old photos, recent interviews with very smart people, black-and-white recreations of scenes using actors to represent the Bohemian originals, and special effects, to show the importance (and lunacy) of this amazing gathering of souls.

One interviewee, Barry Miles, is a vastly prolific author on the counterculture, involved among many other things, with the Beatles and the London underground paper “International Times”. He's the author of a fascinating book called The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Corso in Paris, 1958-1963, and he has this to say:

“... the important thing about the Beat generation was that they looked at life – all of life – as subject matter. Poetry was no longer just daffodils..... they used anything, dirty old shoes, unspeakable sexual acts, they discussed their bowel movements and they discussed the use of drugs – anything and everything became their subject matter.

“They really set about quite intentionally, breaking through the Saturday Evening Post view of middle-class suburban America. Life after Auschwitz and the Holocaust, and after the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki could never be the same, you can't just go back to the old set of values, that's something that had to change. They were looking for answers.”

The tiny, scruffy and above all cheap hotel, at 9, Rue Git-Le-Coeur, was run by an amazing couple, M. and Mme. Rachou, who seem to have gained their love of the gift of freedom from time spent in the WW2 French Resistance.

The Beats' importance, as Barry Miles describes it, was that they “gave a direction to the next generation and to the Hippies, to the young people and the youth movement of the 60s”

“The legacy of the Beat Hotel, I think, was that you don't need a lot of money, or luxury, or comfort, to create. It's the sheer creative energy of endless talking and experiments and projects. By giving them that kind of freedom, they produced incredible works – Ginsberg's “Kaddish”, Burroughs' “The Naked Lunch”, Gregory Corso's [poem] “Bomb”, all of these things came out of this insignificant little hotel on the Left Bank – largely because the conditions were right, and it was Bohemia working at its best.”

And Jean-Jacques Lebel, a notable artist in his own right, who translated the Beats' most notable works into French, adds “one of the proofs of that was that in May '68, which was the most important General Strike in the whole history of capitalism, and a mental upheaval, a mental insurrection, not only a General Strike, … there were bits of poems of Allen Ginsburg written on the walls of Paris. I mean that was the living proof that something had been transmitted of the magical moment of the poetic creativity....

A shot from David Cronenberg's film of William S. Burroughs' "The Naked Lunch.

The Fight for your Social Security......

.... continues to gather momentum.

Here's the petition that Congressman Alan Grayson and other Reps are sending around.  It's simple and to the point - blunt even, which is appropriate.

Petition: "We Are Against Any and Every Cut to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. Not today, not tomorrow, and not ever. No way, no how. Not on your life, and certainly not on mine. N-E-V-E-R. Sincerely, The American People"

As of 10.16 pm Friday, 2,368,239 citizens have signed the petition.  By tomorrow it may well be 3 million!

Grayson says "35 members of Congress have pledged to vote against legislation that cuts Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare benefits."

As always, he summarises the situation succinctly:  "Every few years, Wall Street Republicans come up with some new scheme to gut these programs. These attempts have always failed, because the voters shout out "NO," in big capital letters. So this time, the bad guys are changing their strategy - they are going to float out vague concepts like "entitlement reform" in the media, and then at the very last minute present an up-or-down vote on vicious cuts, while screaming that the end of the world is nigh. That way, Republicans can pretend that we simply have no choice but to cut these popular programs, without ever having to confess publicly that they are in favor of these cuts.

We, The People are going to have to work hard to prevent this. And we can't afford to wait until the last minute, so we're going to short-circuit this malevolent process now. The way to do that is to get politicians on record right now against cuts. But I can't do it alone; I need you to help me. What I need you to do is simple. E-mail your member of Congress asking whether he or she supports a cut in the cost-of-living increase for Social Security and veterans benefits. Then send me the response, so I can make it public. Over time, we'll compile a list of members of Congress and where they stand on these programs. Then, when the crisis moment of "you must vote for this or the world ends" comes, we'll be ready. We can then say, "You already promised your constituents you'd vote NO."

We've set up a website that allows you to ask your Member of Congress where they stand on cutting cost-of-living benefits.
So let's get your Member of Congress on the record. Click here:
http://www.CitizenWhip.com
In a week or so, we'll circle back with you and ask you to share with us the information you received from your Member of Congress. If he or she hasn't sent you anything, we want to know that as well.

Social Security is a promise, an obligation from all of us to all of us. Let's make sure that your Member of Congress sees it that way."

More Glamour from Lise

This beautiful, elegantly-dressed lady hails from...  hmmmmmmmm maybe Kurdistan?  (I'd better check!)

And this beautiful, elegantly-dressed lady hails from Southern California:

They're both on display at Lise Solvang's glorious blog, A Hand Knit Life.

Lise now has so much beauty on her site that it takes a minute or two to load, but it's worth the wait.  She also has some inspiring stories of how Knitting is helping people around the world.

Don't miss it!

LA Times Festival of Books at USC

The LA Times Festival of Books takes place this weekend, at the USC campus.  An exciting 2 days of readings, performances, panel discussions, and literary fun - and admission is FREE!

you can see the full Program here.

The respected Historian and KPFK Host Jon Wiener sent a schedule of guests he has an interest in, and panels he will be hosting: 

Saturday 12:30: RH Smith on James Brown ("The One") featured this week on KPFK

Saturday 2:00:  Rebecca Solnit ("The Faraway Nearby") frequent guest

Saturday 3:00:  Victor Navasky on political cartoons ("The Art of Controversy") featured this week on KPFK

Sunday 10:30:   Amy Wilentz ("Farewell Fred Voodoo: Haiti") frequent guest

Sunday 1:30:    Pico Iyer ("Man Within My Head") frequent guest

Sunday 3:30:    Jeff Wasserstrom "People and Place") frequent guest

and also. . .

Saturday 4:30: "Holocaust Lives" panel moderator Jon Wiener

Sunday 11:00:   "Cold War Hollywood" panelist Jon Wiener

Don't miss it!  See you there!

Geek of The Week's Economist Brother...

... presents an international comparison of the 1%'s rip-off, across the world stage:

(Click on the graph to see it bigger and clearer.)

As you can see, the British greedy-pig class is scrambling to keep up with their American buddies, with the Germans following along behind.  The Swedes and the Dutch still know what civiized values are - no big surprise, really.

The credit goes to an Oregon Blog (rather dry; sorry, I have to be truthful!): http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/