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.

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