We left off Part One after street preaching for the first. I will next try to cover the period of time from late August until, well, now.

September thru November could probably best be described by these verses:

1 Corinthians 2:1-2 “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

I write these posts praying that someone will read them and God would give them a spirit of power, love, and sound mind. Pray to God to be made more like Jesus. You will not be perfect. There will be trials. Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Be wise where you spend your time. I spent a few weeks in September blogging with staunch Catholics (a fragment of which you can see in the “Sola Scriptura” post) and, as you can imagine, there was not much movement on either side of the authority of the Word of God discussion. Not having the extensive knowledge Church History that they did, plus not seeing the Holy Spirit apply the true, saving gospel to their hard hearts, I ended my participation. It was not easy, because I want to contend for the faith (Jude 3), however around this time I felt the pull of street ministry and began to read articles about public evangelism and watch other (good) street preachers.

Handing out tracts for the first time was a bit strange. Yes, the gospel is on the tract. Yes, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. Yet it was out of my comfort zone. Thank God for the encouragement of Bobby, Alex, Peter, Mike, and Scott who helped me to see that a man is just that – a man, and that I should not fear him. Since preaching that first night, I’ve been out a few times. I feel at home on the street corner. Yes, people shout mean things at me. Yes, many walk by without responding. No worries. Most of the time that I’ve gone out has been after Georgia football games.

Isaiah 55:10-11, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Without these verses, I don’t think I could preach in public. These verses, along with Isaiah 58:1, Luke 14:23, and Romans 1:16-17 are the catalysts for what I hope is a permanent calling of God to this wonderful ministry. And not just public preaching, but also one-on-ones with family and friends.

A quick story – after the Georgia/Auburn game on Nov 14th, I read Romans 3 downtown. My voice was strained from yelling at the game and an earlier mini-sermon, but I preached nonetheless. Someone was standing in front of me for most of the reading. When I was done, it turned out this guy was one of my residents when I was an RA in the summer of 2003. I was in my heyday drinking down iniquity like water (it’s in the Bible, see Job 15:15-16) and it surely blew this man’s mind to see his partying RA reading the word of God on a street corner. Bless God that he saw me! His life may be changed forever.

Here I must note that I do not believe the Bible only allows for street evangelism only. I have been taught that the Great Commission is an “as you are going” commission and it would unwise, I think, to only make the gospel known once a week when there is the internet, phones, etc. There is definitely a place for relational evangelism. A word of caution is that relational evangelism without the gospel is not evangelism. Befriending lost people, hanging out with them, while not introducing them to Christ is not evangelism. I have a friend who is not a believer who I see twice a year (he lives five hours away). I have to take advantages of those times to preach Christ to him. If we just hang out and he doesn’t hear that God is angry with him, he is dead in his sins and cannot save himself, yet Christ died accursed of God and become sin though he did not sin in order to set free cursed sinners like him…then what have I done with that time spent with my lost friend who I have known for over six years?

The point – keep the gospel in the middle of relationships that God is forming with unbelievers. And by the gospel, I mean contrasting the holiness of God with the utter depravity and wickedness of man, using the law to convict of sin and the gospel of peace to shed light into darkness. They may reject the gospel and therefore reject you. Many of them will profess to be Christians. Don’t worry. You are just obeying your Master. The evangelist don’t save souls, God does. It will be a constant battle between your flesh and the Spirit dwelling within you to not take credit for any soul that may be awakened or any sermon that is powerful. Pray. Read Scripture. Flee from the distractions of the world.

Please know I’m not perfect at evangelism. Obey the Holy Spirit. It is not possible to stop and talk to everyone you see in the course of a day about the true gospel. Pray. Take tracts with you wherever you go. God has only been my Father and counted me righteous through Christ for a little over two years. I’m still reckless and unrefined in a lot of ways. I’m still spontaneous and make somewhat odd decisions. Please pray that God would be gracious with me and keep killing my flesh.

Other good news: God has sent me people to have great one-on-one conversations with. Many of them are close friends and many back and forth facebook conversations, phone calls, and face-to-face visits have taken place. Surely there will be more to come to the future. Please pray for inroads with my family and co-workers, as well as God-worked repentance and true faith in Christ in my adopted hometown of Athens, GA.

(Copyright © 2009)

I trace the fall of natural religion to the removal of the rites of Dionysus from the Greek countryside to Athens early in the sixth century B.C.E. (before current era) when the tyrant Peisistratus founded an official Dionysiac feast. After that, the wisdom of synchronizing human activities with seasonal cycles of dieback and regeneration was replaced by effete, urban reenactments, many echoed in various liturgical calendars of today. Religious rituals persisted, but no longer moored to favorable growing conditions and the cycles of nature, they became matters more of superstition and convention than survival.

In the case of rural Dionysian rituals as transplanted to Athens, earlier ceremonies promoted human sensitivity to fertility and reproductive vigor of crops and soils through the flow of vital juices symbolized in the person of Dionysus himself. He was the embodiment, as W.K.C. Guthrie points out in The Greeks and Their Gods, “of not only wine, but the life-blood of animals, the male semen which fertilizes the female, the juicy sap of plants.” Earlier orgiastic rites mimicking the high drama of the year were replaced in the city by occasions for staging new tragedies, originally in honor of Dionysus, but soon deflecting his creative genius onto mere mortals who were awarded prizes for the fecundity—not of their juices—but their dramatic poetry.

Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides certainly deserved the acclaim, and every mortal should aspire to their level of creative achievement. But when people are content to serve as spectators of rather than participants in events, we run the risk of passively living through other people’s trials and adventures, which is not the same as forging lives of our own. If we do not live on the forefront of our lives, can we claim to be alive anywhere at all?

Migration of the human mind and spirit to urban centers led to a huge change in consciousness as emphasis shifted from the personal to the cultural. Citified human understanding wanted to housebreak the creative enthusiasm exhibited everywhere in nature as a kind of bad habit, so disciplined it to conform with culturally acceptable symbols and ideas. The former personifications of ritual energy released at appropriate seasons (in the guise of Dionysus, Attis, Adonis, Tammuz, Osiris, et al.), became characters in myths and stories rather than forces to be dealt with in everyday life. They served as cultural metaphors for what everyone might feel if they felt anything at all. As Guthrie writes, “The authorities of the Greek states . . . did not accept the barbaric stranger [Dionysus] without, in some cases at least, emptying his worship of its most characteristic content.” You could honor his antics from a safe distance without risking ecstasy, muddy feet, or mussed hair. Guthrie characterizes the result as “emasculation of his worship” by civil authorities in Athens.

In Seasonal Feasts and Festivals, E. O. James writes:

Greek tragedy or comedy began . . . as a religious service held at the festivals of Dionysus, in the country in December, in the city in March, and at the Lenaia in January. . . . But as it lost its seasonal character, by the third century B.C., the drama became secularized, very much as the medieval Mystery and Miracle plays were dissociated from the Church and lost their sacred significance and character when in the secularized versions they were enacted in the marketplace by strolling players.

My point is that when a culture’s practices control the minds of its members rather than the other way around—innate, natural consciousness expressing itself through cultural practices—then the primary purpose of membership in a tribe or larger group striving to live in harmony with its place on Earth has been subverted by top-down authority for the sake of its own power, wealth, influence, and position. We dress this transformation in positive guise as a means of becoming civilized, forgetting the price we pay in putting fetters on personal consciousness. The difference is similar to that between true democracy in opposition to self-serving monarchy, oligarchy, plutocracy, or other schemes by which the consciousness of the many is shaped by the will of a privileged elite.

Speaking of which, consider the case of Jack Welch. In keeping with the violence done to natural values by adoption of a medium of exchange in the form of a particular currency accepted throughout a culture (topic of my last post, Reflection 160: Of Two Minds), David Owen writes of Nell Minow’s realizing the import of the retirement agreement C.E.O. Jack Welch worked out with General Electric:

The agreement gave Welch not only millions of dollars but also free lifetime use of a company Boeing 737 and a helicopter; floor-level tickets for the Knicks; box seats for the Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Metropolitan Opera; exclusive use of a company Manhattan apartment; fresh flowers for the apartment; dry-cleaning and Internet service; tips for his doormen; home security systems for four residences that he owned; numerous golf-club memberships; and dozens of other perks and amenities. . . . Whereas less extravagantly compensated people often take pride in being able to make purchases from their earnings, [Minow] said, ‘If you are super-rich, that thrill is gone’ (“The Pay Problem,” The New Yorker, Oct. 12, 2009).

That’s what spectatorship leads to—a wholly cultural life. Welch’s perks kick-in only upon his leaving the company, proving, for the elite at least, there is life in the hereafter. The very model of a modern tycoon, Welch was gaming his company, his culture, and his planet for all they were worth, playing by city rules the whole time, supporting a lifestyle based not on personal, biological needs and values, but on money (the one value officially sponsored by his culture) to an extravagant degree of degeneracy. Such a life is a caricature of civilized man—all take and no give. With no respect shown the environment (here the Hudson River Valley) that makes life itself possible in the region, the river in this instance receiving G.E.’s waste stream laced with PCBs.

Speaking of cultural devils, members of Congress cease to represent their constituencies when they become members of political parties which intercede between them and their supporters. Here again, the cost of living a cultural existence is the cause, which renders the sound judgment of mere mortals null and void. Every Democrat in the Senate voted to move the healthcare debate to the floor, every Republican voted to keep it safely hidden where it was. As if humans came in two colors—red and blue—with no shades of purple in between. This is a crude example of lock-step consciousness, all members of each party hiding behind the same grimacing masks. Forcing the nuanced values of the people who elected them into either of two molds—pro or con—go or no-go.

In rural areas, people are generally taken as they are; in cities, they spend much of their time posing because, with their individual values stripped from them, they can only go through the motions of trying to make themselves attractive. Now over half of America lives in cities removed from the land, removed from personal values, removed from the mental acumen they began acquiring at birth. There are few self-made men or women left. It is easier to open yourself to your culture and let it take your soul. That is, let the aggressive, arrogant, and over-confident elite—the Jack Welches of the world—take over your mind so you come to believe in them and the values they serve. Where Dionysus stood for getting with nature’s program because human life depended on it, demigod Welch tells G.E., “Get with my program because my lifestyle depends on it!” and G.E. sees its duty and goes along, paying Welch by picking the pockets of its customers, shareholders, and workers.

Whatever your price, buy in to the system and let the magic happen. Pledge proper allegiance, sing the proper national anthem, pray to the proper gods and celebrities, buy the right clothes, mumble the right slogans, go to the right schools, root for the right teams, see the right films, vote the right ticket—you are one of Us! All it will cost is a lifetime of your personal earnings, originality, and self-respect. The main thing is to pay your dues to your culture. To be its creature so you don’t have to deal with the anxiety of thinking for yourself. If you live up to others’ expectations, your culture will see to it that Jack Welch gets his retirement package, leaving you free to live vicariously the rest of your days.

The alternative is to raze the corporations and cities where culture rules every thought and gesture. Visualize the scene. Smell the lust. Savor the greed. Then send everyone back to the country to become bumpkins again—fallible human beings who have to discover who they are the hard way without being sold the answer in advance. Ease back on culture, strive for individual integrity and personhood. Define your own projects and challenges for yourself. Come up with your own answers and solutions. Live your own life. Don’t subscribe to the same old views, don’t keep sending the same checks; forget paying your dues. Aspire to be more than just another member; be your own person. Become conscious again.

That way, when you die, it will be your own life you lose, not someone’s whose mind you have paid for, stolen, or enslaved.

Grace Kelly lo utilizzava tutti i giorni come un Tulpan, perché avrebbe protetto i suoi capelli impomatati  durante i viaggio sullla sua roadster.

Sabato 28 novembre 2009, i foulard di Hermes, dalle ore 10.00 fino alle 18.00 sfileranno in passerella, lungo la più famosa via pedonale di Atene  e a pochi metri di distanza dall’ Hermès Boutique a Voukourestiou Str. 1.

Origins of Democracy in Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherer Groups

A paper by Doron Shultziner, PhD, referenced in Part I of this essay and entitled, “Evolution and Liberal Democracy,”  highlights the shortcomings of definitions of democracy in the 20th century that ignore and obscure the evolutionary nature of democratic ideals.  The discussion is found in a section labeled, “Setting Democracy in a Larger Evolutionary Context,” 

Democracy at the beginning of the 21st century is a term that denotes a variety of regimes that share similar main characteristics. Democracy has a thin procedural definition and thicker definitions. The thin definition of democracy is a political system with universal suffrage and “whose leaders are elected in competitive multi-party and multi-candidate processes in which opposition parties have a legitimate chance of attaining power or participating in power” [citation in original]….Thicker definitions of democracy require effective and enlightened participation as well as human rights and freedoms beyond what is necessary for a democratic process [citations in original]. Thicker standards of democracy usually relate to liberal-democracies, namely democratic countries which are free and respectable to human rights. The two categories, however, are not necessarily synonymous [citation in original].

Defined by these criteria, however, democracy is a very recent invention that appeared only in the 20th century after women gained voting rights. The merits of these definitions have been recognized by political scientists for providing a useful analytical tool and for distinguishing democracies from other types of regimes, at least since the 20th century [citation in original]. 

Unfortunately, 20th century definitions of democracy, useful as they may be to distinguish democracies from nondemocracies at present, are not applicable to democracies prior to the 20th century [citations in original].  The famous democracy of Athens (and other Greek cities) about 2500 years ago is not a democracy by today’s definitions because not all men, women or slaves were allowed to vote or have any say about matters that influenced their lives. For similar reasons, the American democracy was lacking significant characteristics prior to the 20th century. In Switzerland, men gained suffrage as early as 1848; women in Switzerland, however, began gaining suffrage only in 1971 and the Swiss canton Appenzell Innerrhoden was forced by the Supreme Court to give women voting rights as late as 1990.  Still, it would not make much sense to argue that Switzerland became a democracy only in 1971 or 1990. 20th century definitions of democracy detach democracy from its historical roots for reasons of analytical clarity. It is not that these historical roots are not unacknowledged; rather, they are perceived to be irrelevant for the purpose of analyzing the unprecedented number of democratic transitions in the 20th century. This logic, as I intend to show in the following pages, is flawed because it fails to recognize seminal historical democracies as forerunners of a much deeper and profound phenomenon….

Egalitarian Social Structures in the Paleolithic Era

I believe that much of our ability to understand the transition to democracy is impaired by the focus on 20th century standards of democracy. I argue that shared features exist between 20th century democracies, democracies prior to the 20th century, and ancient forms of human egalitarian societies.

Estimates for Homo sapiens appearance are between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago [citation in original].  We know that all human beings lived throughout this period, known as the Paleolithic era (2 million -10,000 B.C.E), in small nomadic societies of hunters and gatherers (i.e. foragers) who were usually of an average group size of 25 people, although at times of festivals group size could reach over one hundred [citations in original].  Human beings in the Paleolithic era have [sic] had the same physiological and psychological capabilities as us (“biologically they were us” [citation in original], although their cultures and ways of life were obviously different.  These forager bands sustained their ways of life and social structures into the 20th century. Forager bands, albeit influenced to different degrees by external factors, were extensively studied around the world by anthropologists, and these studies provide valuable information regarding behavior and social structures in the Paleolithic era. 

An important characteristic of forager bands, which has become a topic of interest especially since the 1990’s, is their egalitarian social structures.  Wide agreement exists that the social structure of small nomadic societies in the Paleolithic era was egalitarian [citations in original]. Even at the present, after a long period of environmental influences, only a few examples of nonegalitarian foraging societies exist, and these too are affected by high population density and large group size, sedentary life, and other specific characteristics [citation in original]. As Boehm [citation in original] puts it, “Indeed, this egalitarian approach appears to be universal for foragers who live in small bands that remain nomadic, suggesting considerable antiquity for political egalitarianism.”  No strict hierarchical structure existed in foraging bands: decisions had to be reached through consensus, leaders usually had little, if any, substantial power over other group members, and people could come and go as they pleased [Emphasis added].

The Linkage Between Technology and Democracy

As Shultziner points out:

The Paleolithic era, however, ended with the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago, human beings began to settle permanently in one place and to grow plants and animals for their subsistence. This period in human history is known as the Neolithic era. Gradually, sedentary agriculture became the dominant mode of life in most areas of the world inhabited by humans (but not in all areas). The invention of agriculture revolutionized the environmental conditions human beings once lived under, and consequently remarkably changed social structures. Small egalitarian foraging societies were replaced by larger scale sedentary settlements, some of which later became empires. As these sedentary settlements developed and grew, central authoritative power of large scale societies came into being. Put differently, the invention of agriculture resulted in far-reaching consequences on the social structures of human beings.

Shultziner aids understanding by putting the “entire time-span of human history, into an intriguing, one-day, temporal scale.

In order to put the emergence of democracy, and the transitions to democracy, in the right context, then, it would be helpful to compare the scope of this phenomenon to the entire time-span of human history, namely at least 102,000 years (if not 200,000) since Homo sapience began to dwell on the earth. A helpful perceptual scale and illustration would be to compare the relative portion of historical periods to their equivalent in a one-day scale. For more than 21.5 hours of the day (more than 90% of human history), human beings lived in small egalitarian societies of foragers. The emergence of agriculture and the beginning of the Neolithic era occurred in the last 2.5 hours of the day. The Athenian democracy briefly emerged and disappeared 36 minutes before midnight. The modern territorial sovereign state system that began to crystallize after the Peace of Westphalia (1648) was created in the last 8 seconds of that day. Democracy, as a type of regime that qualifies to 20th century definitions, emerged barely 2 seconds ago! In this context, and by 20th century standards of the term, democracy is a very recent development in human history [Emphasis added].

Shultziner goes on to state:

Although democracy by 20th century definition may be a very new phenomenon, I argue that its historical roots and causes lie in ancient times, long before the Athenian democracy came into being [citation in original].  In order to gain a better understanding of why we witness a fast rate of transitions to democracy in recent history we are required to look more closely at the egalitarian social structures under which human beings lived through the Paleolithic era.

In Part III of this essay, I shall discuss the development of these egalitarian social structures as they relate to the culture of early man and their linkage with what is known about social behavior in other species.

I reached 100% of all God of War Trophies with 2 run-throughs inside a single week. The first run was on Hard Mode! It was though but I never accept the offer to switch to Easy Mode. Hurray! The second run was on easy to grab the last missing trophies. Now I want to give you some tips how to get em all. You should note that there is no “Complete the Game on God Mode” trophy in the list, wich means that you dont need to complete the game in this Difficulty Mode unless you want to unlock all the Treasures in the game itself (costume select, the truth about Kratos family and the second secret message).  If you are up to beat the game on God Mode and to unlock all the treasures, be advised that you can get the first secret message by destroying the two statues in the last room of the game (200 hits each) I was very satisfied about this circumstance not to be forced to play through God Mode.

Anyway, lets begin with the trophy list. Here we go:

BRONCE TROPHIES

• Rockin’ the Boat – Complete the Sex Mini-Game
  • After fighting the Hydra and reaching Athens you start in your cap with two beautiful naked woman lie on your bed. By Pushing the R2-Button you just talk with them. You need to jump on the bed and to push the Circe-Button to interact with them. It’s not only a good practice for the many Quick-Time-Events, it also rewards you with red globes and a trophy.
• Don’t Leave Her Hanging – Rescue the Oracle with 10 seconds to spare
  • This is a easy one. Just finish the race to rescue the Oracles with 10 seconds left on the timer.
• Splash – Kiss the Nyad
  • There are 4 Nyads that can be found during the Test of Poseidon under water. By pushing the R2-Button you just read Kratos thoughts. You need to push the Circle-Button near the Nyad to kiss her and to get the trophy.
• Zero Health = Bronze Trophy
  • This is an easy one. Just open a Chest when your heath meter is already full.
• Hitman – Get a 100 Hits Combo
  • There are to places to achieve this trophy. The first one is near the locked door that you need to open by a puzzle short before you can acquire Zeus Fury or during the Test of Atlas while a block is coming near you and you have to kill all enemies before it smashes you.Make sure to have Poseidon’s Rage at last on Level 2 and play on Normal or Hard Mode.
    It’s near impossible to get this trophy on Easy Mode because the enemies have less health and die very quick what makes it hard for you to collect enough hits.
    All you have to do is to wait until you are surrounded by a lot of enemies. Now is the time to cast Poseidon’s Rage and to smash the Circle-Button. Tada! Now you have over 100 hits and get the trophy.
• Getting My Ass Kicked – Die enough times to get offered Easy Mode
  • You need to play the game at last on Normal Mode and to die during the same battle exactly 5 times to get offered to change the difficulty to Easy Mode. Dont win a battle and activate the next checkpoint or the counter will be set back to zero.

SILVER TROPHIES

• Kratos’ Marble Collection – Collect all the Gorgon Eyes
  • There are 18 Gorgon Eyes wich increase your healt-meter. You can find more than 18 Gorgon Eyes spread all over the Chests that can be found in the game. You get the trophy by collecting all 18 Gorgon Eyes.
• Stick it in Your Cap! – Collect all the Phoenix Feathers
  • There are 18 Phoenix Feathers wich increase your mana-meter. You can find more than 18 Phoenix Feathers  spread all over the Chests that can be found in the game. You get the trophy by collecting all 18 Phenix Feathers.
• Hitman 2 – Get a 200 Hits Combo
  • Check the Trophy “Hitman 1″ above to know the two best places to reach the trophy. Cast Poseidon’s Rage once more and bash the Circle-Button again to get over 200 hits. The trophy is yours now!
• Legend of the Twins – Watch the ‘Birth of the Beast’ Treasure
  • After you have completed the game once you unlock a short movie in the Treasure list. Just play this video and you get the trophy.
• Seeing Red – Max out all Weapons and Magic
  • It’s near impossible to max out all weapons and magic on Normal Mode or higher, because you get less red globes by defeating enemies. Play the game on Easy Mode and try to follow this simple rules:
    - Kill your opponents very brutal to get more red globes as you would get by just killing them the normal way
    - Open the by two Muse-Keys locked secret room in Rings of Pandora to get a large boost of experience
    - Try to find every chest wich include red orbs during the game
    - You get the most globes in chests on your escape from the underworld
    - During the first battle against Ares try to fail the mini-game after the first sequence when Kratos jumps on Ares shoulders to get lots of experience levels, up to 5 times

GOLD TROPHIES

• You Got the Touch! – Climb the Spiked Column in Hades without taking damage
  • You only have to climb the first Spiked Column in Hades without taking damage to achieve this trophy. It’s not very hard to solve this task. Just focus on the blades of the column and dont hesitate. I can’t tell you if you need to load your game after you got hit by one of the blades to reset the requirement not to get hit. I always quit the game and load the savegame before the next attempt to survive this column untouched.
• I’ll Take the Physical Challenge – Complete the Challenge of the God
  • You can select the Challenge of the Gods in the treasure menu after completing the game for the first time. Just beat the 10 stages of this challenge to archive the trophy.
• Speed of Jason McDonald – Beat the game in under 5 hours on any Difficulty
  • I completed this task together with the trophy “Seeing Red”. It’s possible to be under 5 hours and to max out all weapons when you play on Easy Mode.To accomplish this task follow this simple rules:
    - Play on Easy Mode
    - Dont kill every enemy on your way to spare some time and just kill all enemies if you are forced to through a magical barrier
• Key to Success – Collect all of the Muse Keys
  • There are only 2 Muse-Keys in the world, but enough chests to find one. I found one in a chest behind Atlas and the second one during the climb on a wall.

This is it folks! Now grab your Platinum Trophy! Oh wait.. there are still more trophies to discover during the game. Just progress through the game and complete it once to get the last missing trophies by just playing the game

And here are the missing trophies:

BRONCE TROPHIES

• 1.21 Gigawatts – Acquire Poseidon’s Rage
• Rocking Out – Acquire Medusa’s Gaze
• Bolt Action – Acquire Zeus’ Fury
• Sword Man – Acquire Blade of Artemis
• Soul Search – Acquire Army of Hades
• Matador – Win the first Minotaur fight
• Scape Goat – Win the first Satyr fight
• Roll Over & and Die – Win the first Cerberus fight
• Don’t They Ever Shut Up! – Defeat the Desert Sirens
• Beat a Dead Horse – Complete the Centaur sacrifice to Hades
• Kickboxer – Complete the Spike Room Box Puzzle
• Get the Ball Rolling – Complete the Challenge of Atlas
• Totally Baked – Complete the Human sacrifice
• Get Me a Beer Kid – Free yourself from the depths of Hades

SILVER TROPHIES

• It’s the HUGE One – Retrieve the Captain’s Key
• Take the Bull by the Horns – Defeat Pandora’s Guardian
• Head Hunter – Obtain the head of the Architect’s wife
• The Power to Kill a God – Retrieve Pandora’s Box
• God Killer – Kill Ares

GOLD TROPHIES

• Prepare to be a God – Beat the Game on any Difficulty

The Near-Sighted, Albeit Democratic, Mr. Magoo

In conceptualizing the evolution of democracy, it is just as important to look to the past as to the future.  Nonetheless, most individuals tend to have a myopic view of democracy that regards this form of governance as static, rather like an image fixed on photographic paper.  The prevailing perspective is that democracy, as it exists today, is  basically what it has always been in the past.    However, when one adopts the farsighted view of history, nothing could be further from the truth.   Also, this near-sighted view fails to perceive that democracy has, and historically has had, many forms.

Ben Wilson, in reviewing Professor John Keane’s recently published book, The Life and Death of Democracy, for the Literary Review  has written about the historical myopia.

‘NEW, NEW, NEW,’ Tony Blair marvelled early in his premiership; ‘everything is new.’  He personified a willing amnesia that is so much part of our age. The temptation to dwell in the present, with its bewildering newness and illusion of liberation, outweighs an interest in history as a vital part of our political life. This is an age ruled by restricted definitions of what is relevant. The decline of history and the languishing state of our democratic institutions and liberty are not unrelated.

The myopic perspective prevents our seeing the forest, because our collective noses are plastered to one gigantic, vision-obscuring tree, viz., the rapidly changing NOW of the Information Age.  This NOW is compelling and distorting, simply because it prevents an apprehension of the NOW in a broader, more encompassing perspective that integrates the Past and the Future with the Present in something approaching the Eastern notion of the “Eternal NOW.”  To the modern individual caught up in the bombarding influx of information, the NOW is incredibly short, flashing by so quickly that it disallows a broader view of his/her personal involvement in the larger context of existence.  Our present moments, our NOWs become like a snap of the fingers played out in “real time,” as opposed to the same snap played out in exceedingly slow motion.

Toward a Farsighted, Historical View of Democracy

Wikipedia elaborates the compelling, myopic perspective that has been exacerbated by the Information Age.

At the core of Keane’s book is the author’s belief that history is a necessary key for understanding democracy in the present time. Keane’s worldwide perspective is an important corrective to the (mainly Western) idea that democracy has one and only distinctive form; one type of model that can be brought as a gift to peoples with different attitudes and histories. There is no such a thing as a singular form of democracy. Following the line of thinking that history is the only way we can make sense of what democracy means, The Life and Death of Democracy provides fresh details of the obscure origins of old institutions and ideals like government by public assembly, female enfranchisement; the secret ballot, trial by jury, and parliamentary representation.

Keane observes that even…

In the Greek world, democracy was not a single or fixed form: although the assembly was its core institution, it resembled an odyssey, in which different mental imaginings and various practical experiments were par for the course.

But, as Keane also points out, democracy did not originate in the Athenian Assembly as commonly believed.  David Aaronovitch in a review in Times Online  observes:

Departing from the convention that locates the birth of democracy in late 6th-century BC Athens, he finds evidence of citizen assemblies in the ancient Middle East, epitomised by how the men of Nippur were called upon to decide the fate of those accused of killing one Lu-Inanna; four fellow Nippurians, including the dead man’s wife, the euphoniously named Nin-dada, were sentenced to death.

Wilson goes on to point out that Keane also noted how India revived and invigorated democracy after it was on the verge of dying out in Europe following World War II. 

In doing so it defied limited theories of democracy.  It showed how democracy was not confined to white men and women; it succeeded in a vast country with a diverse society; and it riveted the loyalty of illiterate millions with scant knowledge of Western traditions…. Later in its development, Indian democracy incorporated many innovations to keep itself in good order: power-checking mechanisms such as people’s courts (lok adalats), participatory budgets, water consultation schemes and other grass-roots manifestations of civil society. It resembles the banyan tree, whose vast size is supported by many entwined trunks and roots.

But, even this grand display of the evolution of democracy from the historian’s perspective, developed over the course of nearly 1,000 pages, cannot do justice to the origins of democracy when viewed from the viewpoint of the anthropologist or the evolutionary biologist.  Doron Shultziner, Ph.D., currently a Post-doctoral Fellow and Instructor at Emory University, presented a fascinating paper to the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 1-4, 2005 while still a doctoral student  in the Politics & International Relations Department of Lincoln College of the University of Oxford.  The paper was entitled “Evolution and Liberal Democracy,” which reviews evidence tracing the origin of democracy  to the egalitarian structure of small hunter-gatherer groups in the Paleolithic era dating back at least 10,000 years.  Shultziner’s thesis is that “the transitions to democracy in the 20th century cannot be fully understood without reference to the evolutionary forces that shaped the human mind and human societies.”

Shultziner’s intriguing work will be discussed in the next part of this essay.

Nouvelles Vagues live @ Gagarin 205

http://www.nouvellesvagues.com/

source of article and updates this libcom.org article

Fascist bomb in Salonica, racist pogrom in Athens

Last Monday the fascist parastate made a double attack in Greece with the bombing of an antiauthoritatian centre in Salonica, and the pogrom against the arab community of Neos Cosmos in southeast Athens.

The fascist para-state has waged a double attack in the two major Greek cities, Athens and Salonica, on the night of Monday 23 November with police providing impunity to the perpetrators and the bourgeois media systematically under and misreporting the events.

In the case of Athens, a mob of fascist thugs attacked the arab community of Neos Cosmos, a southeastern neighbourghood of the metropolis, in the area of the proletarian blocks next to Syngrou avenue after 21:00. The fascists shouted racists slogans while beating the arabs on the street and smashing their shops, looting the tills and destroying their merchandise. The arab community was quick to mobilise a counterattack, chasing the fascists and forcing them to seek refuge in a block. At that moment strong riot police forces arrived which attacked the arabs, and let most of the fascists to escape. The cops then moved to detain 6 arabs and two fascists who claimed to be accidentally in the area playing basketball, and thus set free. Besides, the greek police in an attempt to cover the traces of its para-state accomplishes published a communique that claimed the clashes were between rival arab gangs. For many hours this story monopolised the news, and had to be revised in gross embarrassment after the intervention of left-wing parties and anti-racist organisations. The Radical Left Coalition has accused the police of being “provocatively inert” allowing the fascists to escape. Three arabs are reported to be in hospital wounded. The attack comes as a climax of racist bigotry on the side of the extreme-right, which seems to be losing its ability to control the area of Agios Panteleimonas where with the support of the police it had created a white-only zone through stabbing and beating people of color.

In the case of Salonica, the attack against the antiauthoritarian centre BuenoVentura came in the early hours of the morning, causing only material damage to the premises. Although initially the media reported the story as an anarchist attack against a cafe, once it became obvious it was a fascist bomb attack against an antiauthoritarian centre all reference to it stopped. The centre is located in a central spot of the city and is an active venue of social action and counter-information. What follows is the communique of the centre:

Regarding the ignition of an explosive device at the free social space “Buena Ventura” (Thessaloniki)

At the dawn of November 24, at 03:55 am, the free social space Buena Ventura (which hosts the assembly of the group Solidarity – Antiauthoritarian Movement) came under attack with a strong explosive device.

The way in which the device was placed reveals much about the morality of the perpetrators, a morality of murderers – since they did not just attack Buena Ventura, but the entire neighbourhood. In short, the windows of neighbouring blocks of flats were smashed by the explosion in a radius of 15 meters, while shattered pieces were whammed all around, posing an imminent danger to the lives of neighbours. Shattered pieces also hit three cars, which also highlights the murderous nature of the attack since any random passer-by could have been hit by them too.

The attack comprises the tip of the iceberg – part of the framework of repression and of the blooming of para-statist action over the decades. It begins with the activity of the para-statist group “Karfitsa” in the 1960s and comes all the way to the placing of the explosive device at Buena Ventura.

It becomes painstakingly obvious that free social spaces are being targeted – as approximately six months ago the haunt of the “Struggle Movement” (Sfentona) was also attacked. The method of the attack and the construction of the mechanism reveals that the perpetrators are the same, naturally raising the question of who will be next and – what scale of attack they will come under.

Such attacks comprise expressions of a fascist-type logic that aims at the terrorising of people in struggle; a logic that finds refuge and legitimacy on a practical level in the coordinated attack launched by authority against everything last year’s December has given birth to.

This witch haunt, the zero-tolerance schemes, the demonization of the anti-authoritarian movement both from mass media and from the state (from the mouth of the “Citizen Protector”, Minister Chrisochoidis), offers the strongest alibi for the activity of such circles, within and in parallel to the action of the state.

In our face, the entire movement was attacked, since we consider the choosing of our particular group for the attack entirely random. In our place it could have been anyone who has chosen the paths of struggle and resistance.

It could have been any free social space, haunt or squat. Through us, they attacked all those parts of society that revolted in December, since the symbolism of the date cannot be overlooked: the attack came only days after the mass mobilisations of November 17th and ten days before December 6th, marking a year from the assassination of Alexis Grigoropoulos.

Our response cannot be other than the one given by society itself during last year’s revolt: The state and its dogs won’t scare us.

Open Assembly: 24/11, 7pm at Buena Ventura

Solidarity – Antiauthoritarian Movement

UPDATES

Nov 25 2009

Update: Today after a press conference by the Buenaventura centre, the bourgeois media made a u-turn, portraying for the first time the attack as “ultra-right paramilitary”. Forensics demonstrated that the explosive device was a pipe-bomb filled with metal shrapnel which would have caused certain death to any passer-by. The media claim that the explosion was felt all around the centre of the city and that the police in making investigations amongst extreme-right groups.

2nd Update: As a response to the fascist violence against the arab community of Neos Cosmos in Athens, a protest march took the the streets around the scene of Monday’s pogrom. It must be noted that one victim of the racist violence remains in hospital due to a stab in his eye with a knife.

 

Most of the work that we carried out at UCL in evaluating the quality of OpenStreetMap is focused on England, and particularly on London. This is mainly due to the accessibility of comparative datasets. The reason for this was the availability of data, as the Ordnance Survey research unit kindly provided me with the full Meridian 2 dataset for comparison. More detailed comparison, for which we used MasterMap, came from the wonderful Digimap service, though because of the time that it takes to process it we were limited in the size of the area that was used for comparison.

One of the open questions that remained was the accuracy of data collection in other parts of the world. Luckily, Ourania (Rania) Kounadi, who studied our MSc in GIS at UCL, had access to detailed maps of Athens. She used a 1:10,000 map from the Hellenic Military Geographic Service (HGMS) and focused on an area of 25 square kilometres at the centre of the city. The roads were digitised from the HGMS map, and then the Goodchild-Hunter procedure was used to evaluate the positional accuracy.

The results show that for most of the roads in the evaluation area there was an overlap of 69% to 100% between OSM and HGMS datasets. The average overlap was very close to 90%. Her analysis also included attribute and completeness evaluation, showing that the quality is high on these aspects too.

OSM positional accuracy for Athens

So a pattern is starting to emerge showing that the quality of OSM data is indeed good in terms of positional accuracy. This is surprising at first glance – how come people who are not necessarily trained in geographical data collection and do not use rigorous quality assurance processes produce data that is as good as the authoritative data?

My explanation for this, as I’ve written in my paper about OSM quality, is that it ‘demonstrates the importance of the infrastructure, which is funded by the private and public sector and which allows the volunteers to do their work without significant personal investment. The GPS system and the receivers allow untrained users to automatically acquire their position accurately, and thus simplify the process of gathering geographical information. This is, in a way, the culmination of the process in which highly trained surveyors were replaced by technicians, with the introduction of high-accuracy GPS receivers in the construction and mapping industries over the last decade. The imagery also provides such an infrastructure function – the images were processed, rectified and georeferenced by experts and thus, an OSM volunteer who uses this imagery for digitising benefits from the good positional accuracy which is inherent in the image. So the issue here is not to compare the work of professionals and amateurs, but to understand that the amateurs are actually supported by the codified professionalised infrastructure and develop their skills through engagement with the project.’
Rania’s dissertation is available to download from here.

We arrived at Piraeus, the port for Athens at about 8am and met our tour guide.  On our way to Athens, we learned a bit about Piraeus, which isn’t just a port, but an active city of its own.

After a short drive, we arrive in Athens – the birthplace of civilization. We visited the Olympic stadium that was used in the last two Olympics held in Athens.  We took a walk through beautiful gardens, close to the Prime Minister’s residence and saw the traditional Greek guards at the entryway.  We went to the Acropolis  and spent more than an hour exploring.  There is a charge to walk up to the Parthenon (12 euros), but it is well worth it.  Quite a bit is in scaffolding which you find everywhere in Europe.

With only a day of excursions we only had a chance to go to the Plaka and have lunch.  The Plaka is Athens’ old town – lots of restaurants, shopping, old churches, tourists and locals.  Our guide took us to a restaurant and they suggested dining family style and started bringing out the dishes.  All the regular Greek favorites starting with bread and salad, appetizers of hummus, fried chick pea-balls, cheese balls, followed by stew, dolmates and mousaka.  The food and wine just kept coming!

Our trip did not leave much time for shopping, but the Plaka is a great place to buy gold jewelry.

This Tuesday we will be throwing a special Mean Mic Tuesdays: Thanksgiving Edition!!

We are calling it The Hometown Heroes Show, and it will feature not only a Beat Battle but also performances by as many acts as possible of the local scene.

The point of this is to pack out New Earth Music Hall, have a great time, and show everyone that is home for the holidays exactly what has been going on here while they were away!!

Confirmed acts already include:

* Elite Tha Showstoppa
* Brian Walker
* Son 1
* Profound Breadth
* Frosty-B
* LaDarius “Kayez” Thomas
* and more to be announced

BEST OF ALL: THE SHOW IS FREE WHEN YOU BRING ONE CANNED GOOD! That’s right! ANY canned good. We don’t care if it costs 50 cents … all we care about is giving you and your friends a chance to see a great Hip-Hop show, while helping raise some food for those in need!

If you want to be a part of this show, as a performer or battler, please respond to this note, text 706.296.3583, or email tommy@meanmic.com

wellcome to the show, baby
now cry for the trees that are cut

Halloween is a chance to be a kid again.  It’s a chance to be whoever you want to be.  Dress up, play the part, have fun.  A few days before Hollow’s Eve this year, it was a chance for a handful of creative Athenians to put on their directing boots and recreate the classic horror film Halloween.  The result was an hour and a half of amusing, haphazard fun.

A friend and I weren’t sure what we were getting ourselves into when we heard of Halloween: Live!  It was kept pretty low-key around town, so I was particularly stunned when I met my friend outside and saw people pouring in from all directions.  Hipster college kids, townies and everyone in between were coming out of the woodwork to see this production.

We made our way inside, through the swarms of people, and hurried to find a seat in the Lab at Cine.  We were certainly one of the lucky ones, as more than 200 people squeezed into a room with probably 75 chairs (not sure how this event passed fire code regulations; claustrophobics need not participate). People flanked the walls and took shelter on the floor, all ready to watch the live version of Halloween.

As we all got comfortable sitting on top of our neighbors, the idea of Halloween: Live! finally became clear.  John Carpenter’s 1978 classic horror flick, where an indestructible Michael Myers bumbles around a sleepy town offing teenagers on Halloween, was projected in front of the audience with no sound.  A crew of 13 brave souls ambitiously attempted to recreate the entire soundtrack of the film– the score as well as the voices of the characters.

The cast of  seven sat at the front of the room facing a small television playing the film simultaneously with the big screen.  Fortunately, each had a script in front of them and a microphone. Impressively, most cast members dutifully orated more than one character’s voice.  Next to them were the four members of the pit orchestra and the two people handling sound effects.  They were a talented bunch of folks, tackling an enormous affair for the (free!) viewing pleasure of others.
The famous score sounded amazing in the hands of Jeff Tobias, Mat Lewis, Luke Fields and Robert Gunn.  It sounded flawless and perfectly in sync with the movie.  The sound effects were beautifully done as well.  Their detail was really impressive: footsteps on grass, rain on the windshield, birds chirping.  All of it came together brilliantly.  Of course, there were mishaps like a lack of thunder, a missing creak of an opening door or complete silence when someone was moving around.  But overall, the music and sound effects were tremendously orchestrated.

The characters’ voices were less exact than the sound, but considering the feat at hand that was to be expected.  Their mouths and the crew’s voices were mismatched a good amount, and if this were a boys versus girls contest, the girls definitely would have won in terms of accuracy.  A fabulous Amy Whisenhunt, who was barely off cue the entire movie, voiced main character Laurie Strode, and Erin Lovett did an equally stellar job as the voice of Annie Brackett.  Dr. Loomis, voiced by John O’Loughlin, and Sheriff Leigh Brackett, voiced by Ryan Lewis, were less precise.  It was awesome to watch the mouths match up perfectly with the film, but when they were seriously off it was comical.

One of the funniest parts of the reenactment was the voices of the kids in the movie.  The kids in the film were not more than 7 years old, but they were voiced by men and women in their 20s or 30s.  It was hilarious to hear an adult man’s voice in the mouth of a little boy.  The sole sex scene in the film ranked as the funniest moment of all (“I love how fast you are” was an improvised line.)

The climax of the film, when Mike Meyers tries to kill Laurie, was disappointing.  Whisenhunt just didn’t have the vocal chords for this series of attacks; too much quiet whimpering, not enough hysterical screaming.  Another cast member should have leaned over and said, “Someone’s trying to kill you!” Maybe the reminder would have encouraged more passion in the screams.

Halloween: Live! was a roaring trip through the 1978 classic horror movie.  The key to its success was the crew’s ability to take their bold mission seriously without discouraging the comedy of it all.  The night was full of laughs and it was the perfect predecessor to Halloween night.

-Maggie Summers

There is no shortage of art in Athens.  Local artists’ work hangs in nearly every restaurant downtown, displaying an array of styles, techniques and inspirations that seems almost too vast for this small town, and there are studios and even entire airplane hangars full of people producing innovative works.

Many of these artists are or were students of the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia.  On Friday night, October 23, a select few of these student artists were honored at the opening night of the First Annual Student Juried Show, a gallery of over 80 pieces that are as pleasing to look at and contemplate as they are varied in their styles. It was a high class but laid-back evening with art to please all tastes.

The evening showcased some promising student art in a relaxed and inviting atmosphere, complete with tasty catering from local restaurant Mama’s Boy, with a large crowd milling about admiring the students’ artwork.  And the free wine gave the crowd a jovial mood — always a good thing.

All kinds of artistic mediums were represented — from photography to clay sculptures.  This small cross-section of the Lamar Dodd School exhibited some of the best of these students’ artistic outputs, with a few questionable pieces thrown in here and there.  The sculpture “Inevitable Extraction No. 2” by Chrisha Yanti blended childlike and adult features into the two characters, invoking a feeling of simplicity from the interaction between the two statues.

Then there was the breathtakingly detailed “Global Welfare,” a drawing rendered in graphite and mixed media by Dara Porter. The dragonflies depicted were massive but impeccably lifelike, giving the piece a creepy, but beautiful, science book feel.

The exhibit, curated by Julian Cox of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, relied heavily on photographs for its content.  Some of these photos, such as Alison A. Smith’s print entitled “Driveways,” were lackluster at best.  The subject matter — an uber-suburban home on a hill and its long driveway — failed to inspire any prolonged thought and did not keep the eye interested for long.  The light, composition and subject of this photograph fell short, and it is surprising that this piece made it into the exhibit.

Other photos represented a level of technical skill and an artful eye that escapes the pedestrian photographer, and these were a much more aesthetically pleasing addition to the show.

Running from Oct. 23 to Nov. 10, the exhibit is open to public view in the newly built — and beautifully so — Lamar Dodd building on UGA’s East Campus.  The art school’s new home did much to elevate the exhibit, giving the evening a professional art gallery feel, which is no easy task to do on a university campus. But with the building’s clean and open atmosphere, the exhibit felt modern and classy, not dated or overlooked as college art departments sometimes are.

So, while not all the pieces were especially noteworthy, the First Annual Student Juried Show certainly displayed some of UGA’s wealth of artistic talent. It’s obvious these pieces required an eye for detail and many hours of work to complete.

With so many artistic outlets and inventive minds in Athens, it shows through these selections of art that the Lamar Dodd School and Athens in general is a great environment for the development and exploration required to produce great art.

-Kristen Callihan

At the 40 WATT CLUB in ATHENS, GA members of CHAIRLIFT jabbered with me behind stage.

Any interview that starts with a quote from Dr. Dre is destined for greatness. Although it’s hard for them to escape their iPod commercial fame, Chairlift is proving they have more to offer than the poppy sweetness of Bruises. Patrick, the rhythm behind the band, started the interview and soon we were joined by Caroline. Our talk took us from a desert island with a stereo to dinosaur debates, and although my questions were “too easy” for Patrick, both he and Caroline were great fun.

Anytime you guys are in Austin, I’ll scrounge up some harder questions for you.

Full Transcript: (Audio)
Patrick Wimberly: Before we start this, can I just read a quote from Dr. Dre?
Ethan Silverman (Tour Manager): She already started it.
PW: Can I use a quote from Dr. Dre?
Nichole Bennett: Let’s do it.
PW: In 1993, Dr. Dre said “Everybody has something they can do in the studio. I can take a fuckin’ three year old and make a hit record on him. God has blessed me with this gift.”
NB: So, I’m Nichole, and I’m here in Athens, Georgia at the 40 Watt Club with Patrick of Chairlift.
PW: Hi.
NB: We were just starting off with a Dr. Dre quote that we are all still recovering from. I guess to start us off, if you could kind of describe the story of Chairlift would it be a pop-up book or would it be a graphic novel?
PW: Oh definitely a pop-up book. That’s an easy question.
NB: Would it have pull tabs? Like interactive pop-up books?
PW: Yeah. There would be pictures of us dancing. There would be pictures of us meeting each other, with big smiles on our faces.
ES: I picture a pop-up mountain with a chairlift with the two of you sitting on it.
NB: With a little wheel to make it go around?
PW: This is Ethan, he takes care of us on the road.
NB: You guys have a pretty varied sound. For most people who have just heard the iPod commercial, they get this “Bruises” poppy sound. But you’ve really got more of a darker sound as well. How would you say it all ties together? Or how would you describe your sound to a five year old? Or maybe that three year old that Dr. Dre was hanging out with?
ES: Patrick is really good at talking to three year olds.
PW: First off, I’d like to say that I really like three year olds. “We’re in a band called Chairlift, and we play songs for dancing and for having fun. And for exploring your own mind.” We did play a show recently for a bunch of three year olds, and they got up on stage and danced. It was really cute.
NB: So, if you could take five albums on a desert island…
ES: On a deserted island?
NB: A desert…well, you can have your friends.
PW: Do I have a stereo there?
NB: Yeah, you’ve got a stereo.
PW: I would take Sexuality by Sebastian Tellier because I can’t stop listening to it. What else would I take?
ES: You would take a Rolling Stones record, but I don’t know which one.
PW: I would take a Led Zeppelin record. I would take III.
NB: Three of them?
PW: No, I would take the third one. That’s only two. I would take Abby Road. That’s kind of like a standard. I would take the new YACHT record. I don’t have it yet, and it comes out July.
NB: Hopefully you’re not deserted by then.
PW: Yeah, hopefully I’m not getting deserted on this island until after July, and the YACHT record comes out. And one more: I would make a new one and take it with me.
NB: Just take a blank disk with you.
PW: Yeah, I would record it on the island.
ES: Just bring a four-track.
PW: And I would call it All Alone.
NB: What is your favorite dinosaur?
PW: This is another easy question because I would take the…wait. If I could take any dinosaur to a desert island, it would be a brontosaurus.
ES: I would take the new YACHT record.
NB: My favorite dinosaur is the new YACHT record!
PW: Next question.
NB: So you guys are touring. What is the most annoying thing about touring? You guys just came from Austin, and you are zooming around.
PW: The most annoying thing about touring is…
ES: All these free drinks we get.
NB: Oh, how terrible!
PW: No, that’s not that annoying.
ES: It’s being in cool places but not spending much time in them.
PW: Yeah, that’s it. It’s not having enough time in areas that you want to spend time in.
NB: Do you ever read press or reviews about yourself?
PW: Never. Some other members of our band do, but I never do.
NB: If you could replace your arms with anything, what would you replace them with?
PW: Other arms.
NB: Other arms?
PW: Because I need my arms. They’re important to me because I’m a drummer. I would replace them with Al Green’s. He’s got nice arms.
ES: You should replace them with another drummer’s arms.
PW: Well, maybe if I had his arms, I could sing that well.
NB: Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?
PW: Crunchy because it has peanuts in it.
NB: What is one question you wish interviewers would ask?
PW: I wish they would ask…Are you going to ask this one in your next interview?
NB: Yeah, maybe. And you can answer it if you like. If it’s good, I’ll steal it.
PW: Probably not. I’m not that good of an interviewer. I would ask me on this desert island…
NB: With a brontosaurus running around.
PW: …I would ask “What would you name a brontosaurus if you had a brontosaurus on a desert island?”
NB: That’s a good one.
Caroline Polacheck: I’m just going to hump into this interview
NB: Sure.
PW: Caroline is here.
NB: Caroline just arrived.
CP: Is this for radio?
NB: This is for college radio.
CP: I should not have said hump. Hi guys, I’m Caroline. I’m in a band called Chairlift.
NB: Thank you for joining us. Well, we should probably catch her up on the important questions. Mainly, what is your favorite dinosaur?
CP: Definitely a pterodactyl.
NB: That’s a good one. Let’s see, I guess the only other good one is: If you could replace your arms with anything, what would it be?
PW: I take that back. It would be Stevie Wonder’s arms because he can do everything with his arms.
NB: This is true.
CP: So it can be other people’s arms?
PW: Anything counts. I would put one hairdryer on one of your arms.
CP: I would probably have a giant snake coming out of one arm…
PW: And a hairdryer.
CP: No. Wait, yeah how will I dry my hair? Well, the snake can be trained to hold a hairdryer. In its mouth. It would be really long. It would be way longer than an arm size. It would go from here to there. But it would learn to coil for transportation purposes. And then the other arm would be some kind of moving light show with speakers in it.
NB: I’d want to hang out with you. Party time, Caroline’s here. If Chairlift had a catch phrase, what would it be?
CP: We have so many. “My dude.” “It’s on.”
NB: What is the most embarrassing CD in your collection? Or are you not embarrassed by anything?
PW: I’m not embarrassed by anything. I have music that people say I should be embarrassed to have, but it’s not embarrassing.
CP: I have some CDs at my mom’s house that are pretty embarrassing.
NB: Do you guys prefer performing in bigger venues or smaller ones?
CP: I like playing in place with good sound and good lights because that affects the show more than size. Playing in an intimate place and the lighting is really moody and the sound is really spectacular and submersive. That makes for a good show.
NB: I asked him earlier: Do you read reviews about yourself?
CP: Yeah, probably more than I should. Less and less. I think it’s interesting. I don’t take it all to heart. It’s like throwing a ball back and forth. It’s interesting watching your reviews consistently change. Like if all of them are saying the same thing at one point in time and all of them are saying another thing at another point in time, then it’s like “Okay, that’s a legit point you made.”
NB: I was talking to Matt of Matt and Kim last night and he said “I want more haters.” The more haters you have, the more people are paying attention. It changes the way I thought about criticism.
CP: To me the most brutal thing isn’t press because you can take that with a grain of salt, but for me it’s live videos. It freaks me out to see myself play live.
NB: What can we expect to see from Chairlift in the future?
CP: Probably Aaron, Caroline, and Patrick. A lot of those people.
NB: Those three.
CP: Yeah sometimes instruments….sometimes clothes.
NB: I will let you guys go grab dinner, but I have one more question: If you were any animal, what would it be?
PW: A monkey. Easy question.
NB: He was ready. He needs harder questions next time.
PW: Next time you come back why don’t you challenge me a little bit, okay?
CP: I think I would be a killer whale. It seems like it would be fun to be a whale.
NB: That would be really fun.

While music director at WSBF-FM in CLEMSON, SC, we celebrated the release of OF MONTREAL’s latest CD by trying to interview as many band members as possible. By adding BRYAN POOLE to our collection, we had two out of five.

Among his other musical endeavors, Bryan is the guitarist for Of Montreal. Join me on college radio as we talk about gumball machine metaphors, his many musical projects, and how he got his wings.

Note: the interview starts about a third of the way through the file.

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: You are listening to WSBF-FM Clemson. I am Nichole Bennett, the music director of the station, and I have something very special for you. In the background you are listening to a track of off Of Montreal’s latest release Skeletal Lamping. The band is currently on tour, and they were kind enough to let us do a phone interview. In a few minutes we will be calling Bryan Poole. He’s the guitarist of the band, but that’s not all he’s been. He’s involved in the whole Elephant Six Collective era of music in Athens. He was the bassist for Elf Power for many years and one of the founding members of Of Montreal. He’s also been involved with Olivia Tremor Control and Great Lakes, to name a few. Additionally, he has a side solo project title The Late B.P. Helium, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to ask him a little bit about that.

Right now I believe they are in Florida. We’ll double check with him. If you want to catch Of Montreal in this area, you can catch them on the television. On December 18, they will be on the David Letterman show. Over winter break you can catch them December 30^th and 31^st at the 40 Watt Club in Athens. That should be an interesting New Year’s show. I’m sure to be there if I can get a ticket. If you miss them at their New Year’s show, you can catch them January 4^th at the Grey Eagle in Asheville. Seems like they are circling around the U. S., and then they are headed to Europe.

The way that Of Montreal has worked lately since the release of Sunlandic Twins, Kevin Barnes has just been doing the records himself, and the band has just been a touring band. We’re mainly going to talk to Bryan about some of the stage stuff. If you’ve never seen an Of Montreal show, it’s pretty theatrical. Personally, I’ve been seeing them since my freshmen year, so over time it’s gotten even more and more bizarre. For instance, Kevin Barnes actually hangs himself during the show.

We are going to give Bryan a call, and see if they are ready for an interview. I apologize because the interview was originally supposed to be at 1PM, but I think that Mr. Poole’s phone was dying.

If you are a fan of Of Montreal, you will probably like his work as The Late B.P. Helium. Elf Power shares some of their psychadelia, but it’s a bit darker. About every person who lives in Athens is in Elf Power. Speaking of bands that everyone in Athens is in, I believe Bryan plays with Dark Meat, and I’m going to ask him about that because hopefully they will be coming to Clemson in the spring.

It’s ringing—good. Well, I will give you sample track while we are waiting for Mr. Poole.

I am here with Bryan Poole of Of Montreal and also The Late B.P. Helium. Hey Bryan, how are you?

Bryan Poole: I’m pretty awesome.

NB: You guys are on some sort of crazy tour right now.

BP: It’s pretty good. It’s like a gumball machine. We keep spitting gum out for people to chew. Only good balls, not like pre-chewed gum. It’s like one of those things at the mall that has a big spiral. It’s a big event. You watch that gumball go around and around, and you finally get it. And you’re really happy, hopefully. Unless you wanted the pink one and then you got the purple one.

NB: I keep checking your tours, and you guys keep coming around here. You guys are actually going to be at the 40 Watt for New Year’s?

BP: Yeah, we actually added a second show because I think that one is almost sold out. We added a second show the day before, on the 30^th, which isn’t technically New Year’s. But if you wanted to celebrate two New Year’s.

NB: New Year’s practice?

BP: No, it’s going to be a totally different show. We have The Gerbils.

NB: OH.

BP: Yeah, The Gerbils are going to play with us, and they are not playing on New Year’s Eve. They are old friends of ours, Elephant 6 compatriots.

NB: We talked with Davey Pierce last week about the stage performance. It looks like it’s gotten even more and more theatrical.

BP: Yeah, since you’ve talked to Davey, we’ve probably added a cannon or two. We’re not shooting out people, though. We’re shooting out objects that keep you warm and satiated.

NB: I was wondering if you guys pick your own stage costumes, because I’m a really big fan of the wings that you have.

BP: Yeah, we all figure it out. Those came to me when I was in Tuscon, Arizona about a year and a half or two years ago. I walked by this girl’s shop and looked inside and there they were. They weren’t open, but she let me in. I was her first customer, and I bought those wings. She’s made me a few other sets since then. She’s really awesome.

NB: So you guys are in Florida now?

BP: Actually, we are still in Athens now. We are leaving slowly…slowly. Oh, I was about to say a bad word. We are driving right now, and my little shortcut got messed up. Detour. Road’s Closed. Yeah, we are leaving tonight and going to Florida. We are playing five shows. Florida always seems to get its own tour because it’s the penis of America. Nobody really likes to go there unless they have to. Wow! I say that, and I’ve come across this big truck that says “humpin’ to please” on the side of it. It’s really awesome. It’s kind of a one-of-a-kind. It’s got a camel with a 66 and the stuff that might come out of somebody’s private parts.

NB: I’m really glad you are on-site to report this for our listeners.

BP: Yeah, this is what is happening in Athens. I’m sure this is happening all over Clemson, you know.

NB: I hope. I really hope.

BP: Do you guys know about Greenwood, South Carolina?

NB: Yeah, it’s relatively close.

BP: We have lots of friends from Greenwood, and there are probably some Greenwoodites that decided to go to Clemson instead of Lander. And I’m saying you probably made the right decision on that.

NB: Actually, a lot of the music lovers from Clemson travel to Athens. It’s only about an hour and a half away.

BP: Now, why doesn’t Clemson have the same music scene that Athens does?

NB: That is a very good question…that we are working on. We have good radio!

BP: Yeah? How many watts are you kicking?

NB: We’ve got three thousand.

BP: We’ve got 26,000. But 3,000 is better than 300. I’ve definitely been on some stations where you couldn’t get it past the parking lot. Or cable FM. I played a benefit once in Richmond, Virginia, and we wanted to tune in. They were like, it’s only on the cable.

NB: A lot of stations are internet-only as well. We went to CMJ this year, and I realized how lucky we are.

BP: There’s this thing called Orange Twin. That’s a group of friends of mine, loosely affiliated. My solo records are on Orange Twin Records, and it’s kind of run by Elf Power. It’s turning into this land conservation project. It’s starting to be a grand eco-village on the outskirts of Athens.

NB: I’m so glad you mentioned that. A couple of weeks back I was at the No Age show in Athens, and I got to meet Jim of Dark Meat. They were talking about the conservation project.

BP: Dark Meat is a band that I play in when I can. You must have partied all night to stay at the Secret Squirrel.

NB: Yeah, we are trying to book Dark Meat for our spring concert. Maybe you’ll be able to visit if you aren’t busy with your things.

BP: Yeah I haven’t talked to Jim lately. They got to open up for Quintron and Miss Pussycat, but I was out of town. Dark Meat, one of Athens’ finest.

NB: This is a nice segue to talk about some of your solo work. How do you balance the many bands you are in?

BP: It used to be that we would just tour in the spring and the fall during the normal times that bands tour when colleges are in session. We’re lucky to have a following that we get offers to tour in other times of the year. Once an album comes out, we tour for at least a year or a year and a half almost straight for each record. Then we’ll finally take six months off and recover and Kevin can work on a new record. And then we do it all again. Before, it was a lot easier to be able to have my own band and play with other bands, but to be honest now it’s kind of hard. In fact, I was talking to my friend Josh McKay of this band, Pancha. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them. They were the great band of Athens from the early to mid 90’s to the 2000’s. We have a band, and we play ESG covers in Athens. It’s kind of a party band. We have an original project that we’ve been trying to get off the ground, but our schedules never meet because he tours with his band too. I told him we have to do it because I’ve been doing interviews, and I’ll be a liar if this doesn’t happen. I miss Athens and my friends and being a part of the scene when I’m not here, so it’s difficult.

NB: Well I guess we were talking about camels earlier. My favorite interview question to ask is if you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?

BP: Besides human being or space alien? I think I would be a space alien because hopefully they are smarter than we are. Supposedly the Egyptians and the Mayans were hanging out with them. They probably come down every now and then, but they’r probably hard to spot. They like doing their own thing. They probably like to be voyeuristic gods. I’d like to be a space alien, and I think that qualifies as an animal if they are living matter. I can’t say from what planet or star system.

NB: That’s justified. That’s good. With that, I’ll say I cannot wait to bring in the New Year with you guys, and I’ll let you get on with your busy day. Thank you so much.

BP: Yeah, for whoever’s listening. If you are looking for a good party, we are having one…or two. Spend the night. Hang out at the Secret Squirrel. Take care. Party on.

Drenched from the rain, I showed up at the 40 WATT in ATHENS, GA to meet NO AGE before their show.

It was my first live interview, so I was nervous to be around a couple of musicians that I admire. Luckily Dean and Randy are some of the nicest guys in music. We had an excellent discussion about everything from personal politics to how to screenprint a skateboard. This interview also contains the best use of the word “shambolic.”

Full Transcript: (Audio)

Nichole Bennett: This is Nichole. I’m the music director for WSBF, and I’m here with No Age. Dean and Randy of No Age. So you guys just came in from Asheville?

Randy Randall: Yes

NB: Did you play the Orange Peel?

Dean Spunt: No

NB: The Grey Eagle.

Dean Spunt: It was awesome.

NB: Was that your first time in Asheville?

DS: We played one time before. We opened up for Liars, and we played the Orange Peel. One of our favorite restaurants is in Asheville. It’s called Rossetta’s Kitchen. It’s a vegetarian restaurant.

NB: Speaking of vegetarian restaurants, have you tried The Grit?

DS: We are going to go there after this.

NB: You guys are vegan—is that really hard on tour?

DS: Not really. We’re both vegan, so it’s one of the main agendas. We play, and then we gotta find food. We’re both pretty crafty.

RR: I eat more often on the road because there’s a schedule.

NB: Like a never-ending field trip. Everbody stay with your buddy!

RR: Yes. We are the field trip buddies.

NB: One of the questions that some of the people from the station wanted me to ask was about your appearance on CBS.

DS: BOOM. Rando.

NB: Yes, I wanted to talk about the shirt and the censorship.

RR: It was really nice that a show like Late Night with Craig Ferguson. Being before one of the most important political decisions in our country, that it would be apropos to voice my support for Barack Obama. So, I chose to wear a t-shirt. We go through rehearsals and everything. It’s a tiny little stage. You don’t meet anybody. We have five minutes to go one, and one of the people there are like “We’re so excited you are here. The only thing is you can’t wear your t-shirt.” It’s free time. Everyone who is a candidate for president has to be given equal time. That sounds fine—let’s make a John McCain t-shirt. And they were like, no it’s everybody who is running. And I thought this was even better.

NB: Make a list!

RR: We were going to be creative, but due to weird legal…

DS: They just didn’t want you to wear the shirt.

RR: There’s a lot of loopholes around it. I couldn’t really understand what their reasoning behind it was, but they were going to stick to it. We had to make a decision. I was ready to walk away and go home. I didn’t live too far from the place where we were filming. I was done. I didn’t care. It just felt like too big of a compromise.

DS: But, my grandfather was there.

RR: Yeah, Dean’s grandfather was there.

DS: He’s like 81. We should do it.

RR: So I thought we should take advantage of it. We can still do it. So we did it. I flipped the shirt inside-out and wrote “free health care,” which is an issue that I thought was more important even than a political figure. So I thought I would pick an issue and support that.

NB: Yeah, at that point I thought it was funny that equal time didn’t apply to issues.

RR: The reason I even like Barack Obama is that he stands for some of the issues I believe in.

DS: After that, Randy posted on our blog and the media go a hold of it.

[Interrupted by Soft Circle sound check]

NB: Now we are recording! Just a summary of what we just said.

RR: I believe that politics are personal, and its what you believe in. Us as a band…we don’t have a voice or any more of a right to speak than anyone else. No matter who you are, you can do what you believe in.

NB: We were talking about the skateboards earlier. Are you guys getting more into the visual side of things? For our listeners that don’t know, there are some No Age-designed skateboards, and they look pretty rad.

DS: We’ve been doing some stuff with a skateboard company. We curated some t-shirt designs for them, and we are going to make some more clothing designs for them. We never really made a skateboard before that, but it was a cool collaborative effort with AAM. We’ve always wanted to make skateboards

RR: Even before No Age was around, one of the things we wanted to do was create a skateboard company that was just for bands. It costs a little bit of money. More money than we had at the time.

DS: The main thing was that we wanted to screen it. My mom owns a silkscreen shop, so we wanted to screen them ourselves. Skateboard companies don’t easily give out information on how to do that. They are really secretive, and there are only a few companies. It’s weird. The screens have to be bent.

NB: Tell me about how this tour is going.

RR: This tour’s been awesome. We started out in England with Los Campesinos! and Times New Viking, who are really awesome. We then went on to play a few European show with a band from Belgium called White Circle Crime Club. We then started up in New York with Titus Andronicus and Soft Circle.

DS: Then after Titus, we meet up with a band from New York, friends of ours, called Silk Flowers.

NB: This is your first time in Athens, Georgia. What are your first impressions?

DS: It’s awesome. We just ate at…

RR: The Grit!

DS: We have a friend that has lived here for a while in a band called Dark Meat named Jim. He’s always wanted us to come here.

NB: If you could be any animal what would you be?

DS: A kitten. I just got a kitten, so I want to be that little kitten.  A different kitten. I would be it’s buddy. I think years ago when I didn’t have a cat I would be a different animal. Something like a giraffe. What would you be?

RR: I would be…

DS: a potato

RR: That’s not an animal. I was thinking of something along the lines of a mussel or a barnacle. I could just hang.

DS: You could be algae.

RR: No, not quite evolved enough.

NB: And you would get eaten a lot. Maybe a barnacle on a whale. You could get around.

DS: The whale…is America.

DS: I just want to say that No Age is the best band ever and you should buy all of our records. Not! But really, I think that if you are in a band, you should think you are the best ever or there is no point.

NB: What brought you guys in this direction? Your sound is a bit punk-y but experimental.

DS: I think it was just growing up being weird kids, listening to music, skateboarding a lot. Seeing things a little differently.

RR: Are you asking why we sound the way we do?

NB: Was it a choice or did it just naturally evolve?

DS: I think the only choice was that we wanted to make music that was the best music ever, for us. We like pop music, so we like hooks. Or not…sometimes just some noise. Music that we liked.

NB: Yeah No Age spans that barrier between poppy and noise.

RR: It just reflects our taste in music. I would be just as happy to go to noise show one night and a pop, sort of punk, show the other night. I get something out of both things. In one area you can push the boundaries of composition and sound and mind-blowing. And something else can be the perfect pop record.

DS: Yeah, crafting a song.

RR: Like a great hook, and this static sort of euphoria rushes over you, and you are like “I can’t believe they did that.” When a song explodes into complete chaos and is cathartic and it’s a release. You are like, ah, this is shambolic. It’s just as exciting as when a hook comes back around. It’s exciting when it works. It’s what I like in listening to music, so those are my priorities in making music…a crescendo of noise and pop aesthetics spilling over everywhere. That’s what I love to hear. I love listening to music loud. You take The Ramones or Paul McCartney and you turn it up and it all starts to distort. That’s exciting. That’s really fun. Or you hear it from the next room. You’re only catching every other note and the bass is all washing everything out together, and you hear a few ghosting kind of melodies. And then you pull it open and it’s a Brittany Spears song, but from three houses down it sounded like this wave of bass. Sometimes it’s the quality of the sounds you hear that makes the moment. It’s the time and the place.

DS: And I think it is the person too. I think there are lot of people that play pop music who are just crappy people. Or just going to make money. Usually people we like are people that seem to have a different attitude towards it and are writing music for different reasons. Not for money and not for fame.

RR: It’s always clear why this person is here. They are here to have a good time and share an experience with the audience, or they are just there to make a dollar.

DS: And goodnight.