Posts Tagged ‘Diggers’
On the road…
The Mothers of Invention emerged in 1964. Frank Zappa had joined an R&B band, The Soul Giants, and had taken control, insisting that they play original music (mostly his) and change their name… a move that established them at the heart of the underground music scene in the late 60s.
But by 1969, the original line-up fell apart. So in 1970, Zappa recast the Mothers: drummer Aynsley Dunbar, jazz keyboardist George Duke, Ian Underwood, Jeff Simmons (bass, rhythm guitar), and three members of The Turtles: bass player Jim Pons, and singers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, who, due to persistent Turtles-related legal and contractual problems, took the stage names “The Phlorescent Leech and Eddie”, or “Flo & Eddie.”
To celebrate the relaunch, Zappa conceived a film, 200 Motels— loosely described, “The Mothers of Invention go berserk in the small town of Centerville.” The first theatrical feature (mostly) shot on video then transferred to film, it was released in 1971, and featured the band along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ringo Starr, Theodore Bikel, and Keith Moon…
And it featured a remarkable piece of animation, the seven-minute segment “Dental Hygiene Dilemma.” Animated by Charles Swenson (who went on to do the animated feature Dirty Duck the following year, then [among other wonderful works] Rugrats), it has Donovan, the Devil… a kind of morality play that captures the fading of the flower-powered 60s into the crank-ed up 70s.
[TotH to John Shirley for the lead to DHD]
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As we remember to floss, we might recall that it was on this date in 1964 that Ron Thelin (member of the Diggers and contributor to The Oracle) and his brother Jay opened the first “head shop”– The Psychedelic Shop– near the corner of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco.
You eat what you are…
“Taste of Migration,” by Eleonora Ivanova
The different foodstuffs on the plate represent the population numbers of non-Finnish citizens living in the country. Salmon is Swedish and rice is Chinese, but who knows what those picked peppers mean…
What does the demographic shift in Finnish immigration over the last two decades taste like?
Well, if you were to imagine the data as a hot hunk of lasagna, the left side (representing 1990) would be rather bland. But toward the right edge (2011), the spice levels would shoot up, a gustatory signal of all the new ethnic groups moving to the country.
This surreal dish, “Spiced Foreigners Between Pasta,” was on the menu of the recent Open Data Cooking Workshop in Helsinki. Its creator, Symeon Delikaris-Manias, isn’t your usual chef: He’s a researcher at Aalto University who studies esoteric topics like beamforming and parametric audio coding. The pasta-man was joined by other researchers and data geeks who wanted to see Finland’s wealth of statistics translated into something they could chew on…
Participants focused mainly on Finland, but a couple branched out; for instance…
“Age and Language in Lentils,” by Matt Zumwalt
These twin bites are the median age, population size and number of languages spoken in Italy and the United States. The amount of yogurt represents the totality of English speakers and the tomatoes Italian speakers, for example. The number of lentils fills in for population size, and their doneness corresponds to age.
One can tantalize one’s taste buds further at Atlantic Cities‘ “Finland’s Demographics, Translated Into High Cuisine.”
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As we re-understand “ethnic cuisine,” we might send communal congratulations to Gerrard Winstanley; while his birthdate is unknown, we know that he was baptized on this date in 1609. A protestant religious reformer and political activist, Winstanley was leader and theoretician of the group that called itself the “True Levellers,” but is better known by the name their contemporaries gave them: “The Diggers.” An Anabaptist anti-authoritarian, Winstanley was committed to securing land for the poor, and led his group in cultivating the commons in Surrey– until they were forcibly dispersed by the “Commonwealth” forces of Oliver Cromwell, who sneered, “What is the purport of the levelling principle but to make the tenant as liberal a fortune as the landlord. I was by birth a gentleman. You must cut these people in pieces or they will cut you in pieces.”
Soon thereafter, Winstanley got involved in the then-nascent Quaker movement; he continued to advocate for the redistribution of land until his death in 1676.
Let reason rule the man and he dares not trespass against his fellow creatures, but will do as he would be done unto, For Reason tells him is thy neighbour hungry and naked today, do thou feed and clothe him, it may be thy case tomorrow and then he will be ready to help thee.
– Gerrard Winstanley
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