A lot of my childhood summers were spent with my Nana Joan in Newfoundland. As a gift, my mom, Aunt Sherry and myself & Pat flew her out to spend a month with us. Before the month of October, she had never been further west than Toronto.
It was so great having her here. She loved spending all that time with Fox, and sightseeing around Vancouver Island.
I’ve updated my September/October photo album to include some of her favourite shots.
I’ve also started our November album, beginning with Halloween night.
Click on the “Photo Album” tab at the top of this page, or have a peek, here!
It took me two hours to transform myself into a reptilian overlord! Thanks to Patrick (who stayed home all night with the baby), I was able to make it to my gig at the Cambie with just enough mescal in my system to kick-start our set off with The Ballad of Henry Lee by Nick Cave and PJ Harvey.
On the topic of democracy, a person I know poses the following questions:
1. Are we all qualified to make the right decisions when it comes to our governance, and societal policies? We elect people to do this because there is other work for us to do.
2. Would we be overwhelmed by decision fatigue, something that already occurs in our everyday lives?
To which I replied:
Interesting questions. The current practice of the global democracies we see today is so non-functional that it could be hardly even recognized as democracy. In fact, so many believe it’s not even. My answer to your question would be: that we are totally all qualified to make those decisions and choices. And the advent of various technologies (like the internet) means that we would still have the time to do our other “work”. I think at this point there could be a major overhaul in every way we do things. Buckminster Fuller had the incredible idea to play the World Game…and that was 60 years ago! Imagine how things might change positively if we actually employed all the technology we have for purposes outside of entertainment and convenience. Starting with a zoomed-out initiative to end nationalism. Check this out, guys! [links]
As you may know, I have a weekly radio show called The Sweet and Sour Variety Hour, which is a show made up of segments produced by community members. The Radio Malaspina Society is a not-for-profit campus and community radio initiative. The SSVH is a radio opportunity for anyone who wants to share casually with CHLY’s listening audience a radio segment on a topic of their choice, without committing to an every-week spot, and without having to learn any technical skills. It can be a one-time, or regular occurrence. Indeed, this has been a chance for citizen journalism to exist in a medium currently dominated by commercial media.
Recently, I’ve become involved with another non-profit called Mid-Island Television Society. Within the scope of this initiative, I am extending the opportunity for community members to share programming with a television audience on Shaw Cable’s tv channel. Channel 4 is widely watched by many people in the mid-island area.
If you, someone you know, or an organization/business is interested in putting together either a radio show, or a television show, please pass along my e-mail.
It has been more than 50 years since sacred mushrooms were plucked from the shamanic backwaters of Mexico and presented to the modern world by R. Gordon Wasson. After sparking the psychedelic era of the 1960s, however, the divine mushroom returned underground from whence it mysteriously originated. Yet today, the mushroom’s extraordinary influence is once again being felt by large numbers of people, due to the discovery of hundreds of wild psilocybin species growing across the globe.
In THE PSILOCYBIN SOLUTION, Simon G. Powell traces the history of the sacred psilocybin mushroom and discusses the shamanic visionary effects it can induce. Detailing how psilocybin acts as a profound enhancer of consciousness and reviewing the research performed by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Johns Hopkins University and the Heffter Research Institute on psilocybin’s ability to dispel anxiety in the terminally ill and its helpful effects on obsessive-compulsive disorder, he examines the neurochemistry, psychology and spirituality underlying the visionary psilocybin experience, revealing the interface where physical brain and conscious mind meet. Showing that the existence of life and the functioning of mind are the result of a naturally intelligent, self-organising Universe, he explains how sacred mushrooms provide a direct link to the wisdom of Nature and the meaning of life.
Examines the neurochemistry underlying the visionary psilocybin experience
Explains how sacred mushrooms help restore our connection to the natural intelligence of nature
Reviews the research on psilocybin’s ability to dispel anxiety in the terminally ill and its helpful effects on obsessive-compulsive disorder
Here is the movie:
“Manna” is a documentary film about the Psilocybin Mushroom made by Simon G. Powell the author of ‘The Psilocybin Solution’ (2011) and ‘Darwin’s Unfinished Business’ (2012).
Simon G. Powell is a writer, musician, and filmmaker with an avid interest in the biosphere and psychoactive fungi. He is the scriptwriter for the movie Earth 2.0 and lives in London.
