“Blown minds of screaming-singing-beaded-stoned-armed-feathered future-people are only the sparks of a revolutionary explosion and evolutionary planetary regeneration. Neon nirvanas finally overload their circuits—Watts pulls out the plug and sets the country on its own inextinguishable electrical fire as we snake dance through our world trailed by a smokescreen of reefer.”—from the essay “Acid Armed Consciousness”
Mandatory reading for modern anarcho/artists, this collection of writings and manifestoes from the notorious ‘60s revolutionary group Black Mask (later to become the Motherfuckers) reveals what havoc can be wrought by cultural workers who take seriously the tenets of Berlin Dada circa 1918. From “Black Mask No. 1—Nov. 1966: On Monday, October 10 at 12:30 p.m. we will close the Museum of Modern Art. This symbolic action is taken at a time when America is on a path of total destruction and signals the opening of another front in the worldwide struggle against suppression. We seek a total revolution, cultural as well as social and political—LET THE STRUGGLE BEGIN.”
Of special interest is the section dealing with the clash between this group and hip capitalist Bill Graham, centered around his Fillmore East venue and its possible status as a cultural center for the East Village. A “free” concert for the MC5 brings out the Motherfuckers who, following what they perceive as a not very revolutionary show, proceed to rough up the group and call them “phonies” after they jump in a limo headed for Max’s Kansas City. The MC5 may have “kicked out the jams,” but it took the uncompromising Motherfuckers to kick out the MC5. AS

Publisher: A&B
Paperback: 140 pages

There is a lake in southern Wisconsin between the cities of Milwaukee and Madison called Rock Lake that has mysterious stones and mounds lying within its chilly waters. Frank Joseph, writer, scuba diver and researcher into lost civilizations, has been immersing himself in those waters for many years, and this book is his thesis on the origins of those conical mounds and their connection to the lands of Aztlan and Atlantis. His theory is that at one time the seafaring people of Atlantis journeyed to North America and established colonies in what are now Michigan and Wisconsin. The central focus of those colonies was mining the upper peninsula’s vast copper stores. The metal was then traded with Europeans and had a major impact on the Bronze Age. Unfortunately for the Atlanteans, a great catastrophe buried their continent beneath the surface of the Atlantic, and their former colonies declined. The people mixed with others of the area, and eventually the only remnants of this civilization were the legends of the Native American tribes and the conical and pyramid-shaped stone burial mounds. AS

Publisher: Galde
Paperback: 206 pages
Illustrated

A study of Marian or Madonna phenomena, with the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917 as the focal point. At that time there appeared to a gathered crowd of tens of thousands a visual spectacle often called “the miracle of the falling sun.” Observers, believers and nonbelievers alike, fell to their knees as they witnessed the sun—or what they perceived to be the sun—spin from its orbit and come so close to the ground that beams of colored light could be seen radiating in all directions. Some described the “whirling wheel of fire” and how it scorched the soil, drying up the muddy field and the rain-soaked crowd that had been standing in it. This event has been called the most impressive UFO sighting of all time.
The book chronicles the various apparitions of the Virgin Mary around the planet and studies the statements made to witnesses which are often known as “prophesies.” These prophesies usually relate to coming world catastrophes and their possible avoidance. For example, at Fatima the apparition foretold the coming great war. Also discussed are the appearances at Guadalupe, Mexico; Lourdes, France; Zeitoun, Egypt; Medjugorje, Yugoslavia; and Bayside, Queens, New York. In a “new age” closing chapter the authors compare Marian phenomena to other UFO sightings and relate the messages from Mary to messages given by “space brothers” to alien contactees since the 1940s. Usually the message is something akin to “your planet is in deep trouble…” AS

Publisher: Inner Light
Paperback: 160 pages
Illustrated

The mysterious Commander X, a former military officer, here comes clean about the U.S. government’s knowledge of, and interactions with, UFOs over the past 50 years. The ultimate deception referred to in the title concerns an agreement between the short gray-skinned aliens known as Grays and the American government which allows the aliens to abduct a certain number of humans annually in exchange for giving the Government some of their technology. And you thought that Whitewater was a big deal.
There’s a chapter on what past presidents have known about the UFO question, including an anecdote about the private pre-screening of the film E.T. in the Oval Office of the White House after which Ronald Reagan walked up to Steven Spielberg and said, “There are only a handful of people who know the whole truth about this.” Jimmy Carter’s admitted run-in with a UFO prior to his presidency is also described, with Jody Powell, his press secretary, saying, “I would venture to say that he has seen stranger and more inexplicable things than that during his time in government.” Tell us more, Jody!
The Commander also introduces us to Val Thor, a handsome dark-haired alien who visited the Pentagon in the late ’50s and who allegedly still walks among us. He is recognizable by his lack of fingerprints. The book ends with a short summary of the various UFO-related military and government projects and their code names: Project Plato, Project Deliverance, Project Aquarius and, most interesting of all, Project Guiding Light, an operational program whose sole purpose is to convey false information and to spread discord among UFO organizations. AS

Publisher: Inner Light
Paperback: 125 pages
Illustrated

In 1990, the British Museum in London mounted an exhibition consisting entirely of fakes. It gathered together paintings, sculptures, reliefs, ceramics, prints, manuscripts and other artistic and historical artifacts all of which had been initially validated as authentic but which were eventually found to be fraudulent, the products of skilled artists and artisans whose main objective was to fool the experts. It was a visionary show, to say the least, and courageous in that it questioned the authority and the expertise of museums themselves. This book is the catalog of that important show.
Study closely the Cottingley Fairy Photographs believed to be actual images of those elusive beings. Gaze with wonder upon the fur-covered trout, previously owned by the Royal Scottish Museum and at one time believed to be an actual specimen brought back from the wilds of Canada. See the supposedly ancient marble head of Julius Caesar, revealed to have been artificially weathered—perhaps by pounding it with a nail-studded piece of wood. All of these marvels and more are to be found in this remarkable book, at once an investigation of the limits of expertise, a chronicle of the varieties of human gullibility, and an illustrated catalog from a fascinating art show. AS

Publisher: University of California
Paperback: 312 pages
Illustrated

To truly understand the phenomenon of Dean Martin, one needs to be familiar with the meaning of the Italian slang term menefreghista. This is a word that loosely translates as “one who doesn’t give a fuck.” This is ultimately the essence of the Martin world view, as revealed in Nick Tosches’ poetic biography of the man who began his life as the son of an Ohio barber. As a youth, Dino Crochetti did a little boxing, a bit of card dealing, and a lot of fucking around. He decided to try the singing racket, and for a while was known as “Dino Martini,” singing mostly standards in a voice which owed a lot to Bing Crosby. Eventually, he developed a looser style, vocalizing and behaving in a manner which indicated that he could take or leave whatever he was singing about. He seemed to be saying, “This singing crap is for the birds, but if you folks dig it, well, then I’ll keep doin’ it for you all, and if you don’t enjoy it, then fuck you ‘cause soon I’ll be playing ‘hide the sausichia’ with some broad anyway.” The crowd seemed to appreciate this philosophy, and he was gaining some success when placed on the same bill as one Jerry Lewis at the 500 Club in Atlantic City. The rest is, as they say, history.
Tosches’ book looks behind that obvious history and traces the growth of the recording industry in the U.S. showing Martin’s importance as a vital component of the burgeoning late-20th-century American distraction machine, otherwise known as “entertainment.” It’s all here: the organ grinder, the monkey, the Rat Pack, the gals, the wives, the booze, the pills, the movies, the T.V. show, even the early ‘80s music video. There is not much about Dean’s life after the mid-’80s, possibly because not much went on and, unfortunately, the book was published before Dino finally cashed in his chips on Christmas Day, 1995. Folks who fancy themselves citizens of “Cocktail Nation” will want to read this book to catch up on what empty assholes the founding fathers were. Then again, who gives a fuck. AS

Publisher: Dell
Paperback: 652 pages
Illustrated