An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for June 17, 2019

If you’d like to participate, head over to Omnium Gatherum on the BBS, or suggest something.

• Dronesmuir II. An evening of ethereal drone music. A tax-deductible crowdfunding effort by Hermetic Library Anthology Artist Kim Cascone‘s Silent, umbrella for Silent Records and more, for a live performance at Wheelhouse in Dunsmuir, CA on October 19, 2019.

  

  “Dronesmuir II will consist of three drone musicians at the rustic Wheelhouse restaurant on Saturday, October 19, 2019. Drone music will be performed by three artists on the Silent label: Jack Hertz (San Francisco)—small hand-percussion and acoustic instruments processed via synthesizer, Stuart McLeod (Portland)—hydrophone, brainwaves, waterphone & digital processing, Mark Schlipper (Seattle)—guitar and effects. Stuart McLeod’s performance will make use of a hydrophone (underwater microphone) dropped into the underground rivulet below the restaurant. The signal from the hydrophone combined with the waterphone will be processed digitally and controlled by the artist’s brainwaves. Jack Hertz promises to enthrall the audience with realtime processing via synthesizers of small handmade instruments. Mark Schlipper plays guitar in the Seattle drone doom band The Luna Moth and will perform a solo guitar drone set.

  It’s a safe-space, all-ages event to which everyone is welcome.

  Events are expensive to produce, so we are reaching out to you, our friends, family and community, to help us reach our goal of $3500 dollars that will be used for to pay for artists’ fees, lodging, meals, transportation, promotions, printing, administration, etc. We believe in a model where artists are paid for their work, and are treated with respect. In order to meet this goal, we are asking for sponsorships from businesses and individuals who believe in and support the arts. Any money raised beyond our actual costs will be put towards future events.”

• “Mystery of the ‘mini bagels’ found in rubble at ancient fort. Odd chunks of dough might have had a ceremonial purpose.” — Nature; from the Take-Eat-This-Is-My-Bagel dept.

  

  “The rings were probably not meant to be eaten, but their actual purpose is a mystery. They resemble clay rings called loom weights, which weavers used for millennia to keep their threads taut. The pit that held the dough rings also contained loom weights, and the researchers propose that the doughy version could have had a ritual function.”

• “Small donors are rebuilding Notre-Dame as French billionaires delay” — France 24
  

  “As Notre-Dame holds its first mass Saturday since a devastating fire two months ago, billionaire French donors who pledged hundreds of millions for rebuilding have ‘yet to pay a penny’, a spokesman for the cathedral said.

  Instead, the funds paying for clean-up and reconstruction are coming mainly from French and American citizens who donated to church charities like the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris. Those charities are helping pay the bills and the salaries of up to 150 workers employed by the cathedral since the April 15 fire destroyed its roof and caused its iconic spire to collapse.

  ‘The big donors haven’t paid. Not a cent,’ André Finot, a senior press official at Notre-Dame, told AP on Friday. ‘They want to know what exactly their money is being spent on and if they agree to it before they hand it over, and not just to pay employees’ salaries.’

  Less than a tenth of the hundreds of millions promised has been donated, the French culture ministry said Friday. Only €80 million of the €850 million pledged has been handed over – and most of that has come in small sums given by ordinary people.”

• “Are crystals the new blood diamonds? Gwyneth loves them, Adele can’t sing without them and Kim Kardashian uses them to deal with stress. Many of us are lured by their beauty and promise of mystical powers, but are ‘healing’ crystals connecting us to the earth – or harming it?” — Eva Wiseman, The Guardian UK
  

  “But while it’s claimed crystals help people harness the energy of the earth, the more they are mined, the more that earth is suffering. Here is the dirty truth of crystals, and it’s not simply that their efficacy as healing objects is unproven. It’s that, as Emily Atkin at The New Republic reported last year, their origins are murky, and their environmental impact worrying. Much like diamonds, crystal mining is an industry buried in conflict. There are issues around sustainability: crystals are a non-renewable resource. There are issues around labour: most jobs are low paid, unsafe, and sometimes performed by underage workers. And there is an issue around accountability: the industry is unregulated, allowing exploitation to go unchecked.”

• “A Norwegian City Wants to Abolish Time” — Ryan F Mandelbaum, Gizmodo
  

  “Every day, the Earth rotates. The Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, and then some time later, it sets. We’ve built our lives and societies around this periodicity, with days that are divided into hours, minutes, and seconds, all kept track of by clocks. But in some places on Earth, the Sun rises only once per year, and sets once per year. With their concept of a day already so estranged from the rest of the world’s, one Arctic population started thinking: What if we ditched the concept of time altogether?

  …

  ‘You have to go to work, and even after work, the clock takes up your time,’ Hveding told Gizmodo. ‘I have to do this, I have to do that. My experience is that [people] have forgotten how to be impulsive, to decide that the weather is good, the Sun is shining, I can just live.’ Even if it’s 3 a.m. “

• “YouTuber Claims WWE is Promoting ‘Every Satanic Agenda’; Targets Bray Wyatt” — Jay Alletto, PWP Nation
  

  “The world of “conspiracy theories” can be a bit much if you aren’t ready to open up your mind & embrace the possibilities…even if skeptical.

  The YouTube Channel, “A Call For An Uprising“, has called out WWE numerous times for their agenda driven entertainment with hidden symbolism, political views & classic mind control techniques.

  …

  He also discusses Aleister Black & all of the satanic symbolism he uses in his character, mostly traced back to infamous occultist Aleister Crowley.”

• “Televangelist Warns Of Satan Burgers” — The Young Turks; from the I-Can-Has-Demonburger? dept.

  “C-List televangelist Rick Wiles thinks Impossible Burgers are made of demons.”

• “Books Podcast: does tripping balls tell us anything profound about human consciousness?” — Sam Leith, The Spectator; an interview with Mike Jay, author of Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic

  

  “This week’s books podcast promises to be a trip. I’m joined by Mike Jay to talk about the history of mescaline — a psychedelic drug whose influence goes from the earliest South American civilisations through the 19th-century Indian Wars up to W B Yeats, Aleister Crowley and (of course) Aldous Huxley and Hunter S Thompson. Does tripping balls tell us anything profound about human consciousness? How come Mexico got all the good drugs? And why did Aldous Huxley lie about his trousers?”

• “Wickedest man in the world, Alice In Wonderland and former Top Gear presenter mapped” — Catherine Thompson, Leamington Observer; about “A People Map of the UK, where city names are replaced by their most Wikipedia’ed resident: people born in, lived in, or connected to a place.” at The Pudding

  

  

  “THE WICKEDEST man in the world, a former Top Gear presenter, and the author of Alice in Wonderland, have more in common than some might think.

  The unlikely group feature on an unusual new map of the UK compiled by their most Wikipedia’ed resident – with names instead of places.

  Leamington is represented by the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley. Dubbed the wickedest man in the world, he worshipped Satan, practised black magic, and was known to sacrifice the odd cat, although rumours babies were also sacrificed were never proved.”

• “Tulsi Gabbard Had a Very Strange Childhood. Which may help explain why she’s out of place in today’s Democratic Party. And her long-shot 2020 candidacy.” — Kerry Howley, The Cut
  

  “How far does our commitment to religious diversity extend? Is it weirder to follow the dictates of a surfer guru who believes the moon landing was a hoax than to claim, as does Evangelical Mike Pence, that the establishment of Israel represents biblical prophecy? Georgia representative Jody Hice believes you can predict major political events through a succession of “blood moons.” A recent member of Congress claims pregnancy by “legitimate rape” is impossible. Because he believes bee pollen cured his allergies, former Iowa senator Tom Harkin has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars failing to prove the legitimacy of various alternative medicines, pollen among them.”