Tag: art

KunstlerCast 377 — John Michael Greer on Magic and the Reenchantment of Daily Life

KunstlerCast - Suburban Sprawl: A Tragic Comedy

#377 — John Michael Greer blogs at Ecosophia, subtitle, Toward an Ecological Spirituality. JMG has been an astute observer of Western Civ’s arduous economic and cultural descent, and is the author of many books, both novels and non-fiction, including Green Wizardry, After Oil, The Wealth of Nature, and Not the Future We Ordered. Star’s Reach, is a novel set 400 years ahead in America’s neo-medieval future, The King in Orange, a meditation on the relationship between archetype psychology and the occult as acted out in politics and culture. Things are getting weird in America, wouldn’t you agree? Even a bit supernatural. To help us navigate through this wilderness of the weird, JMG and I talk about magic and the re-enchantment of daily life in these turbulent times.

The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

Sound artist eavesdrops on what is thought to be world’s heaviest organism

Artist records underground sounds generated by Pando, a huge group of aspens in Utah considered to be a single organism

Pando is made up of 47,000 genetically identical quivering aspens, which are considered to be a single organism, with the ‘trees’ actually branches thought to be connected by a shared root system. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Pando is made up of 47,000 genetically identical quivering aspens, which are considered to be a single organism, with the ‘trees’ actually branches thought to be connected by a shared root system. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/10/sound-artist-eavesdrops-on-what-is-thought-to-be-worlds-heaviest-organism-pando-utah

When it comes to the world’s heaviest living organism, it is a “forest of one tree” that is thought to take the crown. Now a sound expert is listening into the quiet grove in an attempt to hear its secrets.

Known as Pando – Latin for “I spread” – the 47,000 genetically identical quivering aspens in south-central Utah are considered to be a single organism, with the “trees” actually branches thought to be connected by a shared root system.

The upshot is a vast living entity, thought to be thousands of years old, that covers 43 hectares (106 acres) with a dry weight of about 6m kg, making it, putatively, the Earth’s heaviest living organism. But it is also an organism in danger, with experts warning Pando is probably dying off due to human actions.

Now an acoustic artist has revealed how he has delved deep to uncover fresh insights into the tree.

How To Blow Up A Pipeline – Official Trailer – In Theaters April 7

A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline in this taut and timely thriller that is part high-stakes heist, part radical exploration of the climate crisis.

On The Nameless Episode I

Julian Langer and I often haunt the same spaces. Julian is writing a story, the first chapter of which is here. It resonates with similar forest spirit themes I am working with these days. Looking forward to more in the future.

Click to access julian-langer-on-the-nameless-episode-i.pdf

A Computer Generated Swatting Service Is Causing Havoc Across America

A Computer Generated Swatting Service Is Causing Havoc Across America

As the U.S. deals with a nationwide swatting wave, Motherboard has traced much of the activity to a particular swatting-as-a-service account on Telegram. Torswats uses synthesized voices to pressure law enforcement to specific locations.

LINK: https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7z8be/torswats-computer-generated-ai-voice-swatting

Hundreds of teenagers flood into downtown Chicago, smashing car windows, prompting police response

Hundreds of teenagers flooded into Downtown Chicago on Saturday night, smashing car windows, trying to get into Millennium Park, and prompting a major police response. A woman whose car was smashed by people jumping on the windshield said her husband was beaten as he sat in the driver’s seat. Police were escorting tourists and others back to their cars in the Millennium Park garage.

The Savage Reservation

Refusing the Total SystemThe Savage Reservation

‘Did you eat something that didn’t agree with you?’ asked Bernard.

The Savage nodded. ‘I ate civilisation.’

The Machine is like an exotic gemstone unveiled before us, laid out on a cloth of black velvet. At first we gasp, then we wonder. What is this miracle? Where did it come from? Who made it? It glisters in the daylight in ways which our best artists cannot capture. The Machine glisters and it makes promises.

I will save you, it says. And then: I will become you. Entwined, we will go forward together. We have always been together. You need me.

READ ENTIRE ESSAY

Xen The Zen Of The Other – The Audio Drama, Free Version

As is my custom, after a year of commercially making Xen: The Zen of the Other audio drama commercially available, I am releasing the entire bundle for free on Archive.org and Youtube. It is released with a Creative Commons license, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International. You may download and listen to it, share it, or post it, as long as it is not for commercial purposes, with no changes and full attribution to the source. Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/ezra-buckley-xen-the-zen-of-the-other-audio
Youtube: A personal downloadable version
https://archive.org/details/ezra-buckley-xen-the-zen-of-the-other-audio

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