This is a repost of the email bulletin that was sent out on August 6, 2009. To receive future email bulletins—we usually blast one out once a week—go here and sign up—it’s easy!

“Command Performance” No. 158
The Arthur Magazine Email Bulletin
August 5, 2009

Arthur Magazine resumes publication Autumn, 2009!
Arthurmag Blog: arthurmag.com
Arthur MP3 downloads
Arthur iTunes Podcast
Arthur on Facebook is actually pretty happening: facebook.com/thearthurmag
Arthur on Twitter: twitter.com/arthurmagazine

Arthurmag Store: store.arthurmag.com/
Arthurmag Advertise: jesse@arthurmag.com
Arthurmag Donate (it’s TAX-DEDUCTIBLE!): http://www.arthurmag.com/donate/

So here we are again,

1. NNNNNEWSSSSFLASHHHH: DENNIS MCKENNA! ERIK DAVIS! ALEISTER CROWLEY!
Ethnobotanist/biochemist Dennis McKenna, brother of the late great Terence, will be doing a rare live interview/conversation today on Erik Davis’s new weekly commercial-free online radio program, EXPANDING MIND—the perfect name with the perfect host and perfect guest, really, as the McKennas’ work in the ’80s and ’90s really expanded the cultural dialogue about what altered consciousness was telling us, (or, for Terence, what the Plants are telling us), what the historical record and scientific studies could tell us about entheogen use, and so on (and on, and on…). Should be interesting to hear what Dennis is up to, and his current thoughts on all things entheogenic. The show is on at 2pmEDT/11amPDT TODAY (Thursday, August 6) at Progressive Radio Network, and then will be archived. Here’s the link:
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.org

In other Erik Davis news, he sez: “I will be giving a presentation on Aleister Crowley and the movies at the Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave in Capital Hill. That particular rite will go down on Thursday, Aug 13, at 9pm. If you are in the area, please check it out. Tickets and more info here:
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/page/calendar/942

2. URBAN FORAGE WITH ‘WEEDEATER’ COLUMNIST NANCE KLEHM THIS SUNDAY IN PHILLY
Chicago-based artist/permaculturalist/Arthur “Weedeater” columnist Nance Klehm is taking her show on a different road this weekend as she visits Philadelphia on Sunday to do her first-ever urban forage there. We will walk and explore the plants along the way—both intentionally planted and ones that have simply arrived, the cultivated and the wild, the choice and the weeds—keeping an eye out for those with medicinal and/or culinary uses, and telling some of their stories. Nance will tell us about about the riches that are literally underfoot—the so-called weeds and other plants, trees and bushes whose leafs, blades, branches and/or roots may be safely prepared in homemade elixirs, infusions, decoctions, energetics, pestos, pates, dips, spreads, salves, tinctures, infused oils, flower essences, vinegars and wines…. It’s a lot of wisdom in two hours, for $10 in advance. Space is very limited as Nance doesn’t want to have to yell. Info and registration here:
http://www.arthurmag.com/2009/08/05/sunday-august-9-3pm-nance-klehm-leads-urban-forage-in-philadelphia/
And yes, Nance is planning a forage/workshop in Brooklyn in February…

3. ARTHUR MUSIC FOR YOU
These are extremely difficult times for most working musicians, as their means of making an honest living have been almost totally destroyed in this new corporate digital era. Good record labels are falling; management firms and LiveNation are rising in power; honest media has collapsed, replaced by psuedo-journalism marketing schemes; culture generally is racing to the bottom; the economy is running on fumes. All of this means that quality, headstrong, off-mainstream artists (and purveyors of same) need a hand, and a way to be heard, now more than ever. This period of so-called structural adjustment is just plain brutal, and disheartening.

We’ve been adding music to the Arthurmag blog several times a day since we launched the service a coupla fridays ago. You can listen to it as an individual track stream, or you can download each track as an mp3 and listen to it however you wish, or you can subscribe to Arthur’s iTunes Podcast and get a constant flow of new Arthur-approved music directly into yr iTunes. In the last week we’ve posted music by artists as varied as Jack Rose, Mountains, Headdress, Salaam, Cheval Sombre, The Entrance Band, Brightblack Morning Light and Wolves in the Throne Room, along with a GREAT, wide-ranging 56-minute Grateful Dead Mix by Greg Davis. All of these can be accessed here, all the time:
http://www.arthurmag.com/contributors/mp3/

Please, if you really like what you hear, please consider directly supporting the artists by purchasing their work as directly from them as possible. We supply links to do just that with each download. It’s hard to make (or supply) good music when you’re hungry. Heck, it’s hard to do anything well when you’re hungry…

4. ARTHUR TELE-INTERNS WANTED
Are you into Arthur stuff; have time on yr hands for the next 12 weeks; can afford to work for free like the rest of the Arthur folks are doing right now; have stable internet and computer? Apply to be an Arthur tele-intern… We are especially interested in folks in NYC, Philly, Portland OR, Baltimore, Austin TX, Bloomington IN, SF Bay Area, Chicago and Los Angeles, but it’s okay if you’re not in/near any of those places. Send an apply letter to: jay@arthumag.com

5. LOST LOS ANGELES
a. Two minute, forty-three second promo film for new Thomas Pynchon novel, based in 1970 Los Angeles:
http://www.arthurmag.com/2009/08/05/trailer-inherent-vice-by-thomas-pynchon/

b. An excerpt from Barbet Shroeder’s “Charles Bukowski Tapes” (1985), in which the crusty and hilarious old alcoholic writer (and inspiration to countless terrible would-be alcoholic writers) rides around Los Angeles — specifically, the intersection of Hollywood and Western — in a convertible and shows us where all the crazy people sit, where you can purchase lethal powders for 15¢ and who the hookers and dope dealers are. It’s a telling sign of Los Angeles’ depressingly unchecked development that one of the only buildings that’s still recognizable in 2009 is the dilapidated Le Sex Shoppe just east of Western on Hollywood:
http://www.arthurmag.com/2009/08/04/bukowskis-hollywood/

6. NEW ARTHUR COMICS–THERE’S A LOT OF THEM
Jason Leivian of Floating World Comics, Arthur’s Comics Editor, is posting new comic from an international coterie of undergroundish comix artists, of all styles, approaches and whatnot. Every single one of em is archived here:
http://www.arthurmag.com/contributors/comics/

7. OTHER WAYS OF (NON-CORPORATIST) LIVING IN NORTH AMERICA
Corporate life sucks, but self-reliance is inefficient and basically un-fun, except for a very few loner hermits. So, how to live? Well, here’s some posiible sources of inspiration for the gentle Arthur reader:

a. Arthur is proud to present scans of essential documents produced by and about the San Francisco Diggers, who were in many ways the epicentral actors in the Haight-Ashbury during the epic, wildly imaginative period from late ‘66 through ‘67. The Diggers’ ideas and activities are essential counter-cultural history, sure, but they are also especially relevant to the current era, for reasons that should be obvious to the gentle Arthur reader. We post a page each day. They are archived here:
http://www.arthurmag.com/contributors/diggers/

b. The EcoShack people have just started a new website about communes, old and new, of all shapes and types. Check it out:
http://wecommune.com/

Groovy,

The Arthur Eternalists
Nevada City * Gordita Beach * Lake Tahoe * Privacy Campground * wherever you are