s.word
from the Guardian (today)
Ecstasy and other illegal drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms are potentially useful in treating people with serious psychological disturbance who cannot begin to face up to their distress, some psychiatrists and therapists believe. But because of public fear and tabloid anger about illegal drugs, scientists say they find it almost impossible to explore their potential.
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Some 2 years ago, the Senate Health Subcommittee heard chilling testimony about the human experimentation activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over 30 universities and institutions were involved in an “extensive testing and experimentation” program which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens “at all social levels, high and low, native Americans and foreign.” Several of these tests involved the administration of LSD to “unwitting subjects in social situations.”
The Agency itself acknowledged that these tests made little scientific sense. The agents doing the monitoring were not qualified scientific observers. The test subjects were seldom accessible beyond the first hours of the test. In a number of instances, the test subject became ill for hours or days, and effective followup was impossible. Other experiments were equally offensive. For example, heroin addicts were enticed into participating in LSD experiments in order to get a reward-heroin.
Perhaps most disturbing of all was the fact that the extent of experimentation on human subjects was unknown. The records of all these activities were destroyed in January 1973, at the instruction of then CIA Director Richard Helms. In spite of persistent inquiries by both the Health Subcommittee and the Intelligence Committee, no additional records or information were forthcoming. And no oneno single individual — could be found who remembered the details, not the Director of the CIA, who ordered the documents destroyed, not the official responsible for the program, nor any of his associates.
so the story goes…
somehow I am famous to be a pain in the ass for festival organizers…some of them do not book me because they don’t like what I say…(or maybe they don’t like that I say it)…
they are worried of the troubles that I could cause to them.
but i always showed up for my gig…apart of once at the Glade few years ago since they behaved like total wankers…they promised me that I would never play again in UK..and infact I didn’t since then.
the Sol Fest asked me to play many months ago…since I know personally some of the organizers (mr Pat Flanders).
he asked to me to play for half of my usual fee (300 miserable euros) since it is the first edition.
they told me the usual romantic story of a “true to the spirit” festival for the real party ppl…to promote real quality music…
I also been asked to help them in doing the lineup and to promote them….I gave to them my personal contacts with other artists and I even wrote personal emails to convince them to play for a small fee etc etc….
the deal was…you help us and in change the Sol Fest will give you back promotion and exposure…and you will be playing in the next (more successful) editions.
it didn’t take long to discover that the true spirit was a mirage…and that besides of many artists like me playing for peanuts there are instead big names like Jon Aquaviva or Balkan Beat Box who get fees of thousands of euros and that are clearly attracting to the festival the kind of ppl that usually go only to saturday night disco.
I got a bit upset when I discovered that at the end my name in the lineup was very small…smaller than many names not really more “famous” than me.
I got even more upset when I saw that they even wrote my name wrong…MAUAXAUM or something like that…
you might think that it is just an ego issue…maybe you are right…but after so many years I would appreciate a bit more of respect for what I do.
yesterday they sent me an email saying that they cannot even afford to give me a free guest ticket…and that my “wife” or “girlfriend” has to pay 65 euros reduced ticket to get in. (let’s see…squeezing in 200 girlfriends gets them an extra 13000 euros…pre sale must be really low…I wonder if they ask 65 euros also to the Jon Aquaviva’s boyfriend…lol…)
when I dared to complain about this…I got told that I am the usual pain in the ass…always complaining for no reason…
what to say….simply pathetic !…
in my opinion their attitude SUCKS !
this is not a “true spirit” festival…but just another money operation done by mythomaniacs who dream to become rich at the second edition
(next year…they think they will get all the ppl after the Boom in Portugal)
as usual this kind of organizers ask to artists like me to play for nothing because we are all a “family”…and on the side they pay huge fees to the big names on the top of their lineups.
I will not feed this kind of ppl…with my energy and with my music any longer….even if this means that I will not play anymore to any festival.
I will not go to play at the Sol Fest
they are losers and impostors…and I honestly hope that it will be such a disaster to discourage them to even try a second edition.
we do not need more ppl like this in the scene
it’s about time…time to stand and claim
(see you at Sonica :-)
ps. I forgot to mention that once I throw mud on a dj on the mainfloor of the Boom 2006…yep…I was a naughty acid punk who hated cheesy creamy progressive…from that it started a dancefloor revolt…hundred of ppl follow my example and they had to change dj very fast to avoid a revolution…never the less Boom Festival booked me for the last 3 editions at the Liminal Village and the Ambient Garden…
ps2. to you…Sol Fest Organizers who might be reading…this post had more than 100 views in 1 day….and ppl are linking it on their facebooks and retwitting it…I am a small shit…but if you step on me you will stink alot ! (or in plain english…FUCK OFF!)
ps3. pls link this post to your Facebook, Twitter or whatever network you use…pls help me to spread my side of the story…if you liked the story… :D
from The Guardian
Overseas artists boycott Britain in protest at visa clampdown
A Russian-born poet on US passport, Alex Galper, is held in cell and deported for planning to speak at arts festival
A growing number of foreign artists, ranging from grassroots fringe performers to world-renowned stars, are ruling this country out of their future travel plans due to difficulties with obtaining visas. They are following in the footsteps of the admired Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, who abandoned plans to come to Britain to direct an opera after the UK embassy in Tehran asked him to submit his application documents twice….
I can say that even if I hold an european passport I often have problems or I get questioned at my arrival in Uk airports…they not friendly…and I don’t feel welcome anymore in that land…
let’s leave them alone on their island…their own music and art.
women in saudi arabia are not allowed to drive.
some of them in sign of protest started to drive and take a video of it…and post it on youtube and facebook
http://jalopnik.com/5805870/saudi-women-launch-online-fight-against-driving-ban
one of them is facing now 10 years of jail : Manal al-Sherif, a 32-year-old IT expert
as a reaction…more women started to do the same…
i think this is an amazing way to rebel….viva…let them drive !
