DECADE 2001-2011
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Hi I finally got around to posting this, it's been hanging around for a while. I hope you'll forgive my errors, any feedback will be well received.
So friends...which events seem important to you? Which would you choose to define any given period of time? How do you make sense of them, what conditions nurtured them, which human interventions and which natural disasters led to the events you pick?
If we are to make sense and meaning of history, and sanity--a risky endeavour in these times of global Internet but one which any poet worth the name might pursue--then a 'poem including history' of the last decade seems a good place to start to me. (after writing this introduction I learned that Mark Zukenburg and facebook plan to release a ‘timeline' application that allows for a similar chronological study of events. However History also moves in cycles, and non-chronological spirals, it is of my opinion.
The launch of Wikipedia in February of 2001 has impacted this writing a great deal due to the simple list of some events deemed worthy of inclusion by the Wikipedia commons group, that are made available for all to see and make sense of at your own risk. The risk seems to me to be somewhat reduced when attention is paid to the subjective nature of perception, and to methods such as ‘operational language used by some-but-not-all scientists and ‘E-prime’ and its variants, used by some-but-not-all linguists.
When put Into chronological order it becomes increasingly difficult for me to avoid drawing conclusions based on the ordering, one thing leads to another, or so it seems to a linear oriented mind set. The question remains: which ‘events’ should become pivotal ones and which shall be relegated to the footnotes or relegated all together? How did the author or protagonist come to choose such events based on which values and principle, what ordering system, what right knowledge? How many are justified by later events and how many need revision, considering, let’s say; the Wikileaks exposures of the period 2007-2010, or the News Corp. phone hacking racket?
Maybe you'll have a crack at this process, outside of facebook, of putting the last ten years (or any period of time) into textual form. Music, painting, dance, sculpture, textiles and other art based activities also help communicate this information.
In mixing private events with those events deemed as Historical in the broader sense, I hope to take the edge off of history a little bit, I mean to say balance what we perceive as ‘historical’ with our personal infinite flux of perception—at the moment these events are perceived to be taking place. Unless you happen to be fortunate and in the physical location of such an ‘historical event’ then rather you may not view it as ‘historical’ at all, by your own standards, yet another fleeting moment on planet earth.
The questions: where were you, what were you doing and why were you doing it?, introduces ‘subjective context’ into the thinking process encircling the question of History. I repeat, I have taken great liberty through a poetic licence to inject my own value system upon the last ten years. Forgive my ego-centric perception and decadence, I will be editing and updating this work towards 2012, keep in touch friends, love--steve.
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2001
Jan. 1st:
fly over Golden
Gate bridge to S. F. early
new yrs. Day in love.
Jan 20th:
Dumb G. W Bush succeeds
Wild Bill Clinton after
Flor. Re-count.
Feb. 24th:
Claude Shannon dies:
Information theory creeps
Doctor Wilson shares TSOG.
DJ with Garaj Mahal
at the last day saloon
San Francisco
July 23rd:
G8 Protest Italy
Carlo Giuliani shot
dead: police.
Sept. 11th:
Surprise Attack in U.S
Sep. 12th:
Israel op’ in Jericho.
Oct. 7th:
Afghan war game
Oct. 26th:
U.S Patriot Act
passed by Bush.
I Fly to S.F to DJ.
2002
Jan. 29th:
Antarctic Larson ice
shelf crumbles, my
RAW Entview
March 1st.
Invasion of Afghanistan
begins with Op’
Anaconda: a large snake
High Sierra Music Fest.
w/ Garaj and
7/7 No Parking
jams.
Burningman Fest
DJ, fresh fruit piss clear
leave no trace
gifting culture.
Sep. 10th:
RAW intview S. Cruz
muffin coffee M. Logic
kind wise teacher Bob
July 21st:
Worldcom file for
Chap. 11
Bankruptcy.
Oct. 25th:
Paul Wellstone his
family and most of his staff
killed in plane crash.
Nov. 18th:
Hans Blix arrives
in Iraq looking
for weapons of
mass distraction
Nov. 25th:
GWB passes The
United states Homeland
Security Act.
GM
at DNA lounge
with Mahavishnu's
Jerry Goodman
2003
Feb 15th.
Mass worldwide protests
against war in Iraq.
shouting ‘what WMD’s?
Release of ‘As if true’
in a collection of
shroom’ tales by Paul
Krassner.
April 14th:
Human Genome Project
complete, over
99% sequenced.
May 1st: GWB sez...
‘mission accomplished’
from Aircraft carrier
May 1st:
New Orleans Jazz Fest'
Mama’s Blues DJ
Crescent city life
Pharmageddon Arkestra
formed in New Orleans
Chris, Quinn, fly and friends
July 23rd:
Maybe Logic Movie premiere
S. Cruz, the last time
I saw Bob.
Sep 4th:
Bullring shopping
centre open’s in
Birmingham UK.
Alan Hertz and Friends
tour West coast
California
Oct 31st:
Halloween launch
Mondo Garaj album
Avalon Ballroom fly
2004
Feb 4:
Facebook founded
Feb 12th:
Mardi Gras New Orleans.
March 25th:
T. Blair meets Col. Gaddafi
April:
Ideogrammic Method and
Illuminatus classes
with RAW
June 16th:
911 commission report
release on
Bloomsday
July 1st:
Cassini-huygens craft
meets Saturn
Vatican joins the
U.N. ship.
July 28th:
Rocks off Cruise
NYC, my poem skirts Hudson
from pier 23
Aug 29th:
RNC, GWB and Dick
Chenney
renominated
I carry a coffin up sixth
av', Illuminatus!
in hand.
Dec 21st:
Maybelogic Quarterly
Issue 1 Winter Solstice
2004
Dec 25th:
Record ‘Bicycling in Bombay’
for Garaj Mahal's
Blueberry Cave
Dec 26th:
The Indonesian earthquake
2004 claims
230’000 victims.
2005
Jan 14th:
Huygens robot
lands on Titan one of
Saturn's moon,
near Xanadu
Jan 20th:
GWB inaugarated
for second term.
Garaj Mahal tour.
July 2nd:
High Sierra Music Festival
ft. Garaj
Mahal
& No-Parking
July 6th:
Olympic Games Handed
to London in IOC.
July 7th:
London attacks
and security analysis
failure
Aug 29th:
1900 killed
Hurricane Katrina
New Orleans flood
Oct 8th:
Kashmir earthquake
kills over 80’000
Oct 30th:
Chet Helms tribute
concert Golden Gate
park.
Dec. 23rd:
MaybeLogic UK Premier
at Birch Tree Pub
Amblecote
Dec 31st:
Brierley Hill Baths
protest, steel fence, police
pulled the plug, no news story
2006
April:
Week trip to Amsterdam
start collected writings
World Piss.
June:
Audio Remixing: RAW
meets Garaj Mahal
Bar work at Windmill Pub
in lye town.
MLA meet in Milton
Keynes, Mushrooms
Temples, swimming and
good friends
Howordz Way
poem for MQ
I discovered
‘Stourbridge’ in Cantos
LXVI by Ezra Pound
Sep 11th:
Stourbridge busking
to raise money for Pope
Bob and his medical
bills
Pulled Shop' trolley
from River Stour
Captured by S’bridge news
fisherman
Dec:
Refused entry to USA
at Atlanta airport
Dec 24th:
Dressed as Santa
‘Shroom ‘Claus
I roamed the streets of Stourbridge
2007
11/1
Robert Anton Wilson
passes on.
12th, Alice Coltrane.
joins him.
February 17th:
RAW tribute
Stourbridge Skate Park
shut down
March 18th:
Coldcut RAW tribute
Alan Moore, Ken Campbell
VJ DJ dream wake
21st: March.
‘Jam in The Dam’ festival.
I arrive and setlle
in Amsterdam
Dish washing
MLA in Belgium and Ams’
Lasagna catapult in
Dutch Lake
Life in Amsterdam
audio remixing
and writing:
Coffee-shop
Meet John Sinclair,
Be-bop Jazz, blues and
New Orleans
tales shared
2008
Feb:
Western Esoterica
vinyl sigil, step-sign
word turntable
July 23rd:
MLA in Paris:
The great Gherkin
experiment special
friends
Oct 3rd:
Global Market crash crisis
of imagination strikes
bankers
Nov. 1st:
I start my ‘first Novel:
Open Source History:
a tale of the tribe
Dec 24th:
arrested for Graffiti
on bank “in banks we trust”
DNA cells
2009
Jan. 4th:
John Sinclair, Vicente Pino
Fly record: Amsterdam
blues scholars
Crazy Wisdom of PKD
with Erik Davis
MAYBELOGIC ACADEMY
after a strange dream I met
Dutch Royal Family outside
the Trope Museum.
July 26th:
Longest solar eclipse
of 21c: 6 min 38 sec.
MLA in Berlin
The Birth of Doctor
Marshmallow Cubicle
siblings: Pino and Pratt
Treaty of Lisbon
becomes law
I Visit Norway, shrooms, trees
and teas
14th Aug:
John Sinclair performs
poetry at Bonded Warehouse
Stourbridge UK
High life in Amsterdam Oost
with sweet Janne
John Sinclair and
John Coltrane
Evolver Dream Spore
Save Coseley Baths
campaign
Nov. 20th:
LHC restarted at CERN.
2010
Wikileaks release
Collateral Murder.
April 20th:
fly at Café Belgique
420 Deepwater
Horizon Oil Spill
July 25th:
Wikileaks release
Afghan war diaries
Sun Ra: Essays and
Interviews released.
Started new novel: ‘Sixty’
MLA go to Oxford
James Brown on Organ
ghost tour, inception.
Stour clean up
Album: Let’s Go
Get Em’ Sinclair’s
blues scholars
Art by Frenchy n; Chu
Sep 23rd:
Out of East
Hangai in Park,
Dogon and
Francis Huxley in my book.
Sep 28th:
Email to The Tribe:
six wk/ web class
Bruno, Vico, Joyce, Pound
Shannon
Nov. 26th:
John Sinclair and
Amsterdam blues scholars
at the 420 cafe
Nov. 28th:
More Wikileaks
cables push for
no more secrets
John Sinclair and the
Beatnik Youth ensemble
& i record in big smoke
Start my Novel SIXTY
First full lunar eclipse
on Winter Solstice
2011
Global Media Village
MLA class
with Bobby Campbell
Arab spring couch
Surfing, blog fatter
Tsunami
Marshy Chu Queegsday
June
Mirror in the Buurvrouw
wall painting delight
aerosol by CHU
July 23rd:
Barcelantis underwater
test video in BCN
Spain
Aug 8th:
London Riots
Sod the rich,
phone hack scandel
Marshy album
FLY'S WEB CATCH
YOUTUBE
BLOGSPOT
WIKISPACES
LULU
SOUNDCLOUD
FLICKR
MYSPACE
ARCHIVE.ORG
--Steven James Pratt (fly agaric 23-Acrillic) September-October 2011.
