Psychedelic links

Since you stopped by happyhomeland chances are that you have a sweet tooth for psychedelia. Go to http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/lsdmenu.htm for multitudes of free, downloadable psychedelic text. You can find work by Timothy Leary, Albert Hoffman, Alan Watts and Aldous Huxley (all of the greats!) If you haven’t read “The Doors of Perception” by Huxley or “Joyous Cosmology” by Alan Watts you probably should ….and you can find them there on occasion, while you’re there read any Timothy Leary you can get your hands on! Even if the Sixties don’t appeal to you, Leary will. His spiel wasn’t peace and love, it sounded closer to intelligence, experience and love.

Check out http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/drugs_lsd/ for links to anything psychedelic…current and antique.

Would you want to build a machine that flashed lights onto your eyelids and triggered alpha waves that made you feel calm, creative and inspired? Get directions on how at http://www.10111.org/dreamachine/ (skip it if you are an epileptic…. for obvious reasons! ) They work...I built two…I leave one running in my studio when I draw. Though the experience can be very other worldly the science used to build a dreamachine is not…not expensive either. The dream machine was the brain child of William Burroughs’ buddy Brion Gysin who helped design the machine on childhood memories of the effects of sunlight flashing through tree rows in an automobile ride as a child.
If String Theory wasn’t strange or demanding enough for you …..

Stephen Wolfram’s “New Kind of Science” will be…trust me. His theories have made him an outcast in many scientific circles. The book is chock full of very psychedelic graphics as well which attempt to illustrate Wolfram’s theories of the ordering of chaos.

If you’re a fan of psychedelic art you may know Lee Conklin ‘s drawing from his iconic lion that graced the cover of the first Santana album. Lee’s art really inspired me to draw as a kid . Rick Griffin was another art giant who inspired my addiction to drawing ink. Griffin passed away some years back but his art is just as glorious and current today…maybe more glorious! Go to http://www.myraltis.co.uk/rickgriffin/galleries1.htm to see the largest collection of his work that I’ve ever seen on line or in print.

Just fun inks

Want to make an electric spirograph image on line and spin it? Sure you do.. They explain the math involved as well. At http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/ you can make your own snowflake.

Go to http://www.permadi.com/java/spaint/ and build your own kaleidoscope on line. I bought a teleidoscope recently. Teleidoscopes are shaped like a traditional kaleidoscope, but instead of a chamber full of bits of glass etcetera it has a convex lens so you can hold it up to anything you like ….and achieve the same effects! You can pick from hundreds of custom designed kaleidoscopes and teleidoscopes at http://kaleidoscopeheaven.org/

If you like old toys, candy wrappers and cereal boxes check out http://theimaginaryworld.com/page4.html. Every link is just amazing….especially Tick Tock Toys, it has the most awe inspiring toy/candy ephemera site on the net in my opinion.

Music links

I have been conspiring with music's cryptic uber men The Residents since 1995 when they first solicited my work to help create "Dixie's Kill-a-Commie Shooting Gallery" for their award winning cd-rom release "Bad Day at the Midway."

http://www.theresidents.co.uk/recordings/dvd/disfdvd.htm has a selection of my images from The Residents’ film “Disfigured Night” posted. I was pre-computer at the time and the gracious genius Homer Flynn of
The Residents' in house graphics deities Poreknow Graphics received my line work and preceded to color the pieces lusciously.

The Residents are still a touring entity after more than a quarter century. Their shows are indeed “shows” in everysense of the word….filled with drama, choreography, fantastic lighting situations and of course finely crafted tunes. Though I believe these great eyeballed ones have never released anything short of genius, I would recommend “Duck Stab/Buster and Glen” to start off with…if not for it’s quirky genius alone but also for fact it was the first LP of theirs that I encountered.

For a large collection of Resident’s prints and posters peruse my “Happyhomeland Store”…just click the “BUY” button at the top of any page.

Collect all of The Residents’ discs and accoutrement (that’s a French word) at Ralph America .

If you are as interested in what drummers have to say as I am, you can find my interviews with both Bill Bruford and Terry Bozzio on my read page (check’em out!). In the case that you might be prog’ rock challenged Bill Bruford was the original drummer for Yes, he also played with King Crimson,National Health and Genesis( for a very short time). In my opinion Bill is to prog’ rock drumming what John Coltrane was to jazz. If you are one of those people who dig prog’, jazz or just appreciate good musicianship check out some other skin beater’s projects like Terry Bozzio (Zappa, Missing Persons, UK) or Gary Husband (Alan Holdsworth). This past year a giant died. Elvin Jones passed away, he was undoubtedly the king of them all. As a jazz drummer Elvin is best known for his work with John Coltrane and rightly so! He’ll be missed.

Paris, France's Dragibus have mastered the art of "cutesy".... Labelled "lolita rock" because of vocalist Laure Barges' prepubescent tones.. Dragibus creates a mood somewhere between Edith Piaf and Teletubbies. Laure's vocal tracks are also abundant in the recordings of my own project Lettuce Little that's been kept alive for the past 10 yrs by myself and bassist/trombonist Roger Kummert. Listen for Laure on my happyhomeland “listen” page!

My friend Sal Canzoneiri’s punk rock extravaganza Electric Frankenstein has been pumpin’ out great tunes for years. Their site is no less of a work of love and attention. Chat rooms, sales, club dates, record release parties etc. etc.…perfect for the fan boy in you. Sal is also hard at work on yet another collection of poster art. Check for my stuff in the new one. He’s going to run some of my first posters from the very early 90’s. One of the pieces is the second drawing I ever did in brush. A real archaeological oddity!

Into Captain Beefheart at all? http://www.beefheart.com/ is by far the densest, deepest and most updated of all of the Beefheart fan sites. I’ve been going to it habitually for 4 years and I have yet to run out of road. I interviewed Beefy’s former drummer John “Drumbo” French through their site a while back, you can find that interview on my “READ” page….. and a talk with the Captain’s close friend and “Trout Mask Replica” cover photographer Cal Schenkel as well. If you get the urge to sample some Beefheart tunes I highly recommend the classic “Trout Mask Replica,” “Doc at the Radar Station” and “Ice Cream For Crow.” The faint hearted or fans of the blues might want to start with “Strictly Personal” and “Spotlight Kid”, though still avante garde

If musical innovation and exploration is your thing read up on your Raymond Scott at http://www.raymondscott.com/. Raymond is one of the most imitated performers in history. Scott, though best known for his cartoon soundtrack smash “powerhouse” was inarguably the DaVinci of electronic musical invention. He is responsible for the sampler, drum machine, synthesizer and multi-track recorder to name only a few. He created a machine that instantaneously created musical compositions…and from what I’ve read he ran it to entertain his wife and himself during family dinners.

Another mad musical inventor was instrument maker, philosopher and former hobo Harry Partch . Partch combined various scales on his string and percussive inventions to create music not quite like anything that came before it. He believed instruments should be created for physical beauty as well as sonic beauty. Go to http://www.harrypartch.com/ for all of your Partch needs. My two favorite discs of Partch’s are “The Bewitched” and “The Harry Partch Collection volume #1.” There is a rare book of Harry’s writings that pops up now and then as well…let me know if you find one! While on the topic of interesting tones, my friend Mike Langlie released his third disc of his one man band http://www.twink.net twink on Negativland’s Seeland label. Though Twink’s other releases are showcases for Langlie’s toy piano expertise this newest disc “The Broken Record” is a complex mix of rescued children’s music recordings that Mike sampled, mixed and looped. This disc is dense and trippy and more than just a little haunting. Check for me on track 8 of Twink’s “supercute” cd…I play hand drums,cymbals and xylophone.

I’ve was recently contacted by Psybertribe records to design graphics for their shirts and cd packages. Trippin’ dance tracks from around the globe. After talking to the Psybertribers I am convinced they may take over the world…starting in San Francisco.