NEWS FLASHES
LAUFER ON DAILY SHOW
Award-winning
journalist and radio host Peter Laufer, whose previous book subjects have
included neo-Nazism, illegal immigration and the Iraq war, made an
unannounced appearance June 17 on the Daily Show to plug his surprisingly
successful book, The Dangerous World Of Butterflies. Laufer explained to Jon
Stewart that after his previous book, Mission Rejected, which deals with
returning Iraq soldiers, he joked to a questioner about his next project, "I
think I'll write about flowers or butterflies." His joke had repercussions and
he received an invitation from a Butterfly Refuge in Nicaragua..
Not yet serious about the topic, Laufer traveled to Central America, where he learned it's a dangerous world for butterflies. Windstorms and heavy rains, Lizards, birds, dragonflies, habitat loss, pollution, pesticides, obsessed collectors, smuggling, poaching, violence and corruption.
For Laufer, his awakening to the true beauty of butterflies was a field trip to the southern Sierra's Greenhorn Mountains, where common California sisters and rare golden hairstreaks fly free on the breeze. Laufer says the "experience has permanently changed me." A Los Angeles Times reviewer wrote; Like The Orchid Thief, The Dangerous World of Butterflies takes us deep into the dark heart of obsessed collectors and the passionate activism of people working to repopulate species like the Palos Verdes blue. Worlds within worlds: Laufer, a veteran reporter on cultural and political borders, understands how these worlds cross and collide. His book is a Venn diagram of the beautiful and bizarre."
Shortly after his appearance on The Daily Show, Laufer flew off to England to march in the Leeds Metropolitan University graduation ceremony, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies (41 years after graduating high school!).
Peter Laufer, P.h.D., is the author of more than a dozen books
that deal with social and political issues, including Mission Rejected: U.S.
Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq, Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the
Mexican-American Border, and Iron Curtain Rising: A Personal Journey through the
Changing Landscape of Eastern Europe. He is the co-anchor of The Peter Laufer
Show on radio station Green 960 in San Francisco. More details at
www.peterlaufer.com/
The Washington Post review:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/22/AR2009052201128.html
Watch Peter Laufer's appearance on The Daily Show here.
ROLAND YOUNG RECORDS NEW ALBUM
Flow Chart Records just released a new Roland P. Young CD:
ISTET SERENADE
ISTET
SERENADE is foray into the area of music space that represents the core of
my
Sound Philosophy, Isophonics. The theory of composed improvisation of stillness
in the fluidity of constant change. The thingness of actualized sound in the
nothingness of acoustic evaporation and recreation from the source of the
indwelling presence. This occurs at a level which defies conscious
comprehension but which reveals abundant spiritual revelatory aspects.
It requires a state of emersion and a freedom to reach toward virtuosic trust
and semiconscious execution of the revealed composition. Upon returning to a
conscious state one hears what was created as though it is being presented. The
thought then thinks about what was thought and executed as a comprovisation of
point instant mixed and remixed sound devices: Breath, Posture, Devotion, Bass
Clarinet, Soprano G and Bb Clarinets and Saxophone, Kalimbas, Native American
Flutes, Electronic Accoutrements, Voice, Percussion, Mac Book, Family, Pen and
the One.
The 10 pieces were chosen from 55 comprovisations created over the past year.
Young's travels to and playing in the atmospheres of Israel, Prague, Rome,
London, Paris, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Istanbul combined with his formative
years in Kansas City, Missouri and the Bay Area of Northern California and
current residence in Brooklyn, New York informs his music with ever expanding
inspirations and possibilities. ISTET SERENADE is a slice of the
possible. Thusly partially defined as: Spatial acid drones of intense acoustic
chill, embracing ambient, world, dub, avant garde, cosmic free and chamber jazz.
Coming in August 2009, from EM Records (emrcords.net), ESCAPE: ALTZ meets
Roland P. Young - The Reconstruction of Isophonic Boogie Woogie Featuring
DJ ALTZ's remix of Roland's legendary 1980 album. It will be available on
Vinyl, CD, and MP3 from emrecords.net and other internet music sites.
NORMAN
DAVIS PUBLISHES MAGAZINE
DJ, writer, producer Norman Davis has added Editor and Publisher to his
long list of credits. Davis became interested in the history of the tiny
community where he lives and after several years of research, has published the
first (and probably the last) edition of the Carson Curmudgeon, a magazine of
history, humor, poetry, art and fun. Distribution is limited to Taos County, New
Mexico, but the magazine is also available on the internet at
www.carsoncurmudgeon.com.

Chan
Laughlin, proudly known as Travus T. Hipp to his legions of radio listeners,
was raided by drug prohibition police last Halloween (how fitting) at his home in
Silver City, Nevada. It was the second raid on Laughlin's home in the past 15
months. His official statement:
“Having completed my summer-long effort to bring in a crop of my own medical marijuana. I’d finally finished clipping about a week ago. Got everything aged out and put it into bags and was set probably through next July with what looks to be about like 2.5 pounds of weed. Sure enough this morning, here comes the same narcotics task force, to bust me … Why in the world are they filling up the jails, using up the sheriff’s time, tying up the courts in the whole process, because people don’t smoke the same cigarette as me?“I am officially in custody of the law enforcement branch of the state of Nevada, for having had the marijuana that I grew under the provision of their law, allowing me 14 plants for my ex-wife and I. They refuse to believe that anything over an ounce is not commercial,”
Laughlin's arrest was reported in the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
Radio host Chandler Laughlin, known to listeners as Travus T. Hipp, was jailed Thursday on drug charges after Lyon County investigators served simultaneous warrants on Laughlin’s Silver City home and three others nearby.
According to Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Sherlock, police received information that Laughlin recently returned to Nevada with marijuana he cultivated in California.
In February, Laughlin told the Nevada Appeal that his marijuana use is related to a health condition.
Narcotics detectives allegedly discovered 5.6 pounds of marijuana in Laughlin’s home and a total of 1.5 pounds of marijuana from the homes of Sandra Bunkley, 66; Toni Heller, 42; and Katrina Heiss, 50.
Laughlin was booked on suspicion of felony probation violation, possession of marijuana for sale, maintaining a residence for use/sale of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana over an ounce.
Laughlin holds a medical marijuana card which the invading authorities ignored. After a few days in jail, he was released on his own recognizance on November 11, and was back at work the next day. More on this story here and here.
Peter
Laufer, our own eclectic author, reporter, activist and trouble maker has
set new parameters for eclecticism with his new book, The Dangerous World
Of Butterflies, The Startling Subculture of Criminals, Collectors, and
Conservationists.War weary after writing a book about Iraq, Laufer joked before an audience that his next book would be about butterflies. The result: an invitation to a butterfly preserve in Nicaragua. There he stumbled into a theater of intrigue full of strange and nefarious characters—all in pursuit of one of nature’s most delicate creatures.
The Dangerous World of Butterflies chronicles Laufer’s unexpected discoveries in the butterfly industry and underground. Readers will learn everything there is to know about the beauty and magic of butterflies. But Laufer’s narrative takes unpredictable turns into the high-stakes realms of organized crime, ecological devastation, species depletion, natural history museum integrity, and chaos theory. Set in locales throughout the Americas and beyond, this fascinating book takes us into a behind-the-scenes world sure to alter our view the next time we delight in the colorful fluttering of butterflies in our yards. The Lyons Press published this book in April 2009.
The webmaster appreciates hearing from you now and then. Are you all living "lives of quiet desperation," or just not doing anything you can talk about?
"I used to be a headline, but now I'm just Old News " . . . Lloyd Jones
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