I recently saw this movie about Roky Erickson, the front-man for the seminal '60s rock group "13th Floor Elevators" who supposedly was the first person to use the term "Psychedelic Rock". I didn't know much about the Elevators or Roky Erikson when I checked out this DVD, except that they were one of the early "heavy" bands in the San Francisco scene, and that they fell off the map when Roky took so much acid he went crazy like Syd Barret. This movies chronicles Rocky's rise to fame, his acid years, his downfall, his long struggle with mental illness, and his comeback -- which includes a somewhat successful attempt by his younger brother to get Roky sane, healthy and performing again in his late fifties. It is quite the epic.

I personally love movies like this. I have met people like Roky in my life, people who were schizophrenic, manic depressive, or mentally unstable either naturally or due to long periods of drug abuse. It is interesting to see how long and how far Roky falls before his life gets turned back around in the last chapter. If you watch the DVD be sure to check out the postscripts in the extras to see how far he's come since the end of the movie (which was around 2003). He continues to perform and live a decent life despite being a burnout schizophrenic acid casualty for so many years. His family is a trip too. He definitely had a very fragile psyche to begin with; acid just shot him round the twist. This is a great film for fans of documentaries on the '60s, acid, and mental illness.

This news has been swirling all over the inter-tubes in the past 24 hours: a recent survey conducted amongst 4000 Britons has determined that Albert Hofmann is the "greatest living genius," tied for number one with Tim Berners-Lee. You can almost always take lists like these with a heaping grain of salt, but in this particular case, I'm really left wondering just exactly how those 4000 Britons were selected; it seems like such a left field choice for a survey taken among a mainstream sample. Still, as one individual is quoted in a Telegraph article about the survey, Hofmann certainly "turned the world that we live in upside down" and it's extremely delightful to see his name atop a list like this despite decades of insipid war on drugs propaganda. Cheers, Albert!

In this clip from the Daily Show, Steven Colbert and Steve Carrell demonstrate the dangers of binge drinking - by binge drinking for the camera.

Via MilkandCookies.

Tony Newman, the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance, recently posted his "Top 10 reasons for optimism in the Fight Against the War on Drugs" over at the Huffington Post. Your likely resonance with these ideas undoubtedly depends on whether you're a "glass half full" or "glass half empty" kind of person, but he's certainly got a few good points to make. My favorite:

#9) The Public Is Tiring From Failed Wars

Both the war in Iraq and the drug war at home are unwinnable wars. Thousands of lives are being destroyed every year by both. We are wasting precious dollars that could be used to help people instead of harm people. More and more Americans are tired of the death and destruction and want exit strategies from both failed wars. I strongly believe elected officials who can articulate an alternative vision to the failed wars will be rewarded.

Of course, as much as I appreciate that sentiment, I'm still wildly skeptical that this will translate into serious action. Indeed, another point on Newman's list - "The Democrats Control House and Head Committees" - seems much more optimistic than I'm inclined to be. Still, take a look at the list and report back to us: do you think we've got ten (or more) reasons to be optimistic?

Take a quick moment to get down with this propulsive cover of a track by The Magnetic Fields called "Take Ecstasy With Me," as performed by the dance jam band, !!! (often pronounced Chk-Chk-Chk, although according to the band, it can be pronounced "by repeating thrice any monosyllabic sound").

!!! - Take Ecstasy With Me

From the single Take Ecstasy With Me / Get Up.

Today is my very favorite day of the year. And nothing says Halloween like Betty Boop having ghostly hallucinations to a song about an opium addict.

OR

Claymation Phyllis Diller dancing with a mummy...

Laist.com has a great in-depth look at in the interesting genetic lineage laid out by one of the top-ten great psychopaths of the 20th century, Charles Manson. Having an acid sex cult means babies for the guru, and that means Charlie's children (presumably four, maybe more) are now approaching forty. Whoa.

Oddest bit of info in all the glorious detail: One of Charlie's possible sons (from the Family, paternity uncertain) is named Zezozose Zadfrack Glutz. Damn, that dude walked right the fuck out of a science fiction novel...

Quite possibly one of the hardest rockin' psychedelic bands of all time, MC5 is best known for the party anthem "Kick Out the Jams," but the real deal with MC5 was their live shows. Power riffs, thundering energy, and blistering guitar make this 1970 live clip, "Lookin At You", a classic. It's a shame all the stuck-up college kids at the show can barely work up the courage to bounce along. Turn it up, this one will start your day right.

The blog Outside the Beltway offers some commentary on the recent suicide of a well-known medical marijuana activist, Robin Prosser, who suffered from an autoimmune disease that left her allergic to most painkillers. Unfortunately, as she turned to medical marijuana, the DEA snagged her for possession of a relatively trivial amount, and although no charges were pressed, her case still sent paranoia through her network of medical marijuana distributors. An article in the Missoulian is very sympathetic to Prosser's story; Outside the Beltway offers a more balanced look:

Let’s be clear here: Despite the sensationalism of this slanted story (”Without the relief that marijuana delivered to her, Robin Prosser killed herself”) Prosser did not kill herself because the government wouldn’t let her have marijuana; she did so because her disease robbed her of her livelihood and had her in indescribable pain for the last quarter century. We know this because she was using marijuana to relieve the pain at the time of her first suicide attempt (the police found it in her home, remember) and she was still using the drug at late as July (she couldn’t pass a drug test, despite THC being undetectable in urine a month or less after use). So, please, spare me the hysterics.

That said, it’s absolutely unconscionable that it’s against the law for people like Prosser to seek what relief they can from marijuana....

Even though I think, for a variety of reasons, that we should fight against drug abuse via education and treatment rather than criminalization, I support the goal of a sober, functional citizenry. But, aside from the probability that some number of people will find a way to abuse medical marijuana laws to get the drug for recreational use, it’s hard to make a case for denying 50-year-old chemotherapy patients a means of alleviating pain.

That really gets right down to the crux of it. The fear that some certain percentage of people will divert medical marijuana toward a recreational aim shouldn't be the limiting factor in preventing its medical use; we can't and don't take that approach with existing prescription drugs that we know are used recreationally, since otherwise we'd be depriving ourselves of useful medicine. But when the DEA feels it knows best - intervening in situations like these under the rubric of “protecting people from their own state laws” - it becomes a maze of politics and prejudice to even truly establish marijuana's medical value.

In his final published interview, B. Bunker Spreckels, sometimes known as "the most decadent person in surfing," recounts his philosophy of how drugs and surfing mix. Spreckels was born into a $50 million fortune and died at the age of 27, but his philosophy lives on:

Were there any drugs that were good to do while surfing?

Yeah, LSD, when it first became popular. I believe it was a factor in rearranging the boards. The boards got smaller. The surfing got more radical. People were having hallucinations and visions and vibrations, spiritual revelations. Or else they were having complete bummers. Surfing just seemed to be the only thing to do when you take a dose of acid. It was a hell of a lot better than sitting around in somebody's room staring at them, thinking you were reading their mind or having some kind of hallucinogenic tangent. I think that the only drugs that really brought surfing through to another level were the psychedelic type - mushrooms, mescaline, psilocybin. Other drugs are like anaesthesia. They make you so numb that they shut your senses down so you can't feel the currents that are going on around you. They make you numb.

What drugs in particular?

I think marijuana makes you numb for surfing - cocaine or heroin take the edge off surfing.

Wait a minute - heroin takes the edge off surfing? There goes my whole freakin' weekend...