Oh Oh, look what I just stumbled across - the information about how the terrorist boarded Flight 253 - with the help with an as of yet - unidentified man. Additionally, it's revealed that the passengers were forced to remain on board for 20 minutes after arrival - despite no one knowing for sure if a bomb was still on the plane. Barf Stew all over this link - be careful - http://interwebblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/bombshell-eyewitness-revelations.html
Letting cops handle the garbage - http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/10463/letting-cops-handle-the-garbage/ A couple days ago I posted about the FAA statement encouraging contact of BAASS in case of UFO sightings - well, evidently, it goes a little further and even brings in your local police force. WTF? Again, Barf Stew at its spiciest.
47 Million Year Old Skeleton Reveals the Missing Link Between Lemurs and Humans -
http://io9.com/5261379/47-million-year-old-skeleton-reveals-the-missing-link-between-lemurs-and-humans The word `humans' associated with something 47 million years ago. Your Barf science link.
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/196-ufo-hotspots-map/ Hey, how about a mapping of thousands of ufo sightings compared to population bases - then color coded to reflect the areas with lots of UFO sightings and those with less. Do you live in a `ufo hotspot'?
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/chi/1437101323.html A letter to my dead girlfriend - Barf Stew is all about bringing you great reads. Tear jerker.
And here's today's fun link - going viral with 80K views in the last two days - the poor kid who literally got stuck behind the sofa,
BTW, I run a similar page to this one at www.squidoo.com/anomalyman - check it out too.
WOW - Barf Stew's Other BACK-HIDDEN Pages - `Old' Magazines You Will Remember!
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Ginger Baker: The Devil Looks After His Own
On occasions, such as today - Barf Stew will run `copy and pastes' of some great reads that are totally over the top - like this.
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/ginger-baker-the-devil-looks-after-his-own-1879629.html
'Fuckin' hell!" Ginger Baker shouts at the South African sunrise. Once his ritual morning curse is complete, the 69-year-old drummer for Cream takes a deep pull on his morphine inhaler and throws his body back into the leather recliner where he spends the majority of his days.
As the drug takes effect, his tanned, weather-beaten face contracts and his vivid blue eyes go wide. His girlfriend, Kudzai, a beautiful 27-year-old from Zimbabwe he met on the internet, hovers over him counting out his daily handful of anti-depressants, stomach pills and painkillers. "What are you looking at, Yankee!" Baker barks at me, his voice cutting through the silence like an animal shriek. Now that the morphine is running strong, he pops up out of his chair with the nervous energy of a teenager, but still he walks like a creaky old man. Over the course of his life, during which he's raced bicycles and played polo, Baker has broken most of his ribs, mangled one of his arms and had his front teeth smashed in. He was recently diagnosed with a degenerative spine condition and the onset of emphysema. "God is punishing me for my past wickedness by keeping me alive and in as much pain as he can," Baker says bitterly. Then, the man who helped invent the rock drum solo stomps over to the door of his ranch house, trailed by his pack of six dogs, and coughs out what sounds like part of a lung onto his front lawn.
Throughout his five-decade career, Baker has been one of rock's most influential and innovative drummers, combining the raw power of Keith Moon with the subtler rhythms of jazz and African percussion. He has played with everyone from Eric Clapton and Johnny Rotten to Max Roach and Fela Kuti, but he's just as famous for being one of music's original junkie mad men, alienating family, friends and band members at every stop. Since 1999, Baker has been living in a self-imposed exile in South Africa, having been forced out of homes in England, Nigeria, Italy and America.
In 2005, when Cream briefly reunited, the New York performances imploded with Baker and bassist Jack Bruce fighting onstage. "It's a knife-edge thing for me and Ginger," Bruce said afterward. "Nowadays, we're happily co-existing in different continents . . . although I was thinking of asking him to move. He's still a bit too close."
Here in the heart of South Africa's wine country, it would be hard for Baker to be further removed from the rock world he spent his adult life terrorising. Tulbagh is a racially divided farming town of wealthy white landowners and poor black labourers 80 miles north-east of Cape Town. Baker came here to play polo and live in seclusion: the entrance to his 80-acre spread is marked by a gigantic sign that reads, 'beware mr. baker'. Yet even in this remote corner of Africa, decades after superstardom and his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Baker can't escape controversy. After years of battling the IRS and British tax collectors, he is at the centre of a host of new lawsuits in South Africa, and rumours about him have spread throughout the nearby villages. "Ginger Baker is the biggest local drug dealer," goes one. "He always has three black women by his side," runs another. And then there's the one tale that holds at least a hint of the truth: "He only lives here because he has been chased out of everywhere else."
Now, after following his morning morphine with a cup of tea, Baker sees something that sets him off on a fresh rant. Kudzai has moved his drum set -- the same kit he used onstage at the Cream reunion -- and the dark-green tom-toms, giant cymbals and double bass drum that defined his distinctive sound are propped haphazardly in a corner of the guest room.
"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT'S GOING TO TAKE ME TO PUT THAT BACK TOGETHER?" Baker erupts. Kudzai, who had never heard of Baker before they met a year ago, offers to help, but he angrily waves her away. "GET OUT!" he shouts, painfully bending over the kit.
For the next hour, Baker meticulously reassembles the tools of his trade, carefully matching the angle of each cymbal, only to take them off in disgust and hurl them against the wall. "I used to have two roadies do this for me," he mutters. Five cigarettes later, Baker is breathing heavily and covered in sweat. The drums are back in their rightful position.
"I bet you expect me to play for you now!" Baker shouts, suddenly looking at me. "Persistent c**t!" Since the Cream reunion, Baker has performed in public only a few times, when he has picked up his sticks to play for the crowd after a polo match. The sport has been his all-consuming passion for years: Baker owns 39 polo ponies and regularly sponsors charity matches for orphan kids stricken with HIV.
Grabbing a set of sticks, Baker slams his body into the seat behind the drum kit. As he flails away, it's as if he's back at the Fillmore, pounding straight-8th grooves into the double bass drum, creating a rhythmic hypnosis from a dizzying array of rimshots, smashing cymbals and 16-note fills. A master of polyrhythms -- multiple time signatures played simultaneously -- Baker seems less like a broken-down former drug addict and more a force of nature.
"His playing was revolutionary -- extrovert, primal and inventive," says Rush drummer Neil Peart. "He set the bar for what rock drumming could be. I certainly emulated Ginger's approaches to rhythm -- his hard, flat, percussive sound was very innovative. Everyone who came after built on that foundation. Every rock drummer since has been influenced in some way by Ginger, even if they don't know it."
The solo finished, Baker gently places his sticks on the drums and threatens to cut my head off with a sword before storming back to his leather chair in the living room to spend the rest of the evening in silence.
"Ginger's just a grumpy old man!" Kudzai says. "He yells, but inside he's a good man." If so, he hides his endearing qualities well. As he passes his days in South Africa, racked with pain and pumped full of drugs, Baker seems intent on devoting his remaining energy to railing against the world. After the other pioneering drummers of his era, Bonham and Moon and Mitchell, have all passed away, Baker is alive and breathing, albeit in a three-pack-a-day way. He has survived, it seems, through a kind of sheer foul-mouthed perversity, a manic brutality that pervades both his drumming and his life. "If a plane went down and there was one survivor, it would be Ginger," says his first wife, Elizabeth Ann Baker. "The devil takes care of his own."
Peter Edward Baker was born on August 19, 1939, in a working-class neighbourhood of London. The son of a bricklayer, Baker was four years old when his father was killed in World War Two. As a kid, Baker had a single dream: to compete in the Tour de France. He rode his bike for mile after mile, pushing himself to prepare for the gruelling marathon. "I was a good fucking cyclist because of my build -- tall and thin," Baker recalls. But on a rainy day in 1956, as he raced across town, a taxi threw the 16-year-old, crushing his bicycle. Not long after, at a party, Baker's friends dared him to sit at the drums. He was a natural. "The high-hat, the bass drum, the cymbals -- I don't know how, but I could do it all," he says. At that moment, Baker forgot all about a new bicycle -- he wanted drums. He also discovered that he could outlast every other musician in the room. "Long-distance cycling conditioned me for playing the drums," Baker says today.
By age 17, he was earning £16 a week performing in a traditional New Orleans jazz band. He spent hours poring over the science of the beat, learning how to write music and constructing his personalised drum kit. "Time moves differently with Ginger," says jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who recorded with Baker in the Nineties. "You could find 100 drummers to play the same tune, and Ginger would find something different to do with it."
The still-teenage Baker became a fixture in the Soho jazz scene -- then the centre of European beatnik culture. He learned about African rhythms from his hero, the English jazz drummer Phil Seamen. "Ginger was the first drummer to understand the importance of world rhythms and turn them into something commercial," says Chip Stern, who produced one of Baker's later jazz albums. Seamen also introduced Baker to injecting heroin. "Ginger was a loner," says Cream songwriter Pete Brown. "It helped him escape. It also went with the perception of the tortured artist. He was following in the footsteps of Charlie Parker."
But by 1962, jazz was giving way in popularity to rhythm and blues in England. Instead of joining a modern-jazz quintet, Baker replaced a young Charlie Watts in blues pioneer Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, where he performed alongside keyboardist Graham Bond, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith and bassist Jack Bruce. One day, a singer named Mick Jagger stopped by to perform with the group. "This effeminate little kid showed up, and I hated him," Baker recalls. "He was a musical moron! Alexis asked me to give Jagger a chance to sing during the interval. But the interval was when I would go and have my fix!" Baker and Bruce picked on the newcomer, throwing in complicated jazz licks to confuse the young Jagger.
Growing tired of playing for little money, Baker says, he "decided to go commercial and play music that appealed to the public." So he, Bruce and Bond formed the Graham Bond Organisation, an R & B group that quickly became one of London's most influential bands. "What the Beatles were to the public, the Graham Bond Organisation was to musicians," says Brown. Bruce and Baker also became infamous for their onstage feuding: one night, after Baker hit Bruce in the back of the head with a drumstick, a fight broke out in the middle of a set. Later, when Bond became too addicted to heroin to lead the band, Baker took over the group and fired Bruce.
By that time, Baker was deep in the grips of his own heroin addiction. One night, his first wife needed to find a jazz club in Brighton where the band was performing. "So I followed the intervals of Ginger's vomit all the way to the club," she recalls. "And I found him."
In 1966, after sitting in with Eric Clapton, Baker proposed that he and the guitarist start a band together. Clapton, who already had a cult following, immediately agreed. But to Baker's dismay, he suggested that Jack Bruce be the third member of the band. Clapton had seen Baker and Bruce play together, and he considered them "a well-oiled machine".
Baker and Bruce put their problems aside to form Cream, and the combination of Clapton's blues riffs and Baker's monstrous beats made them the first supergroup of rock. Cream created a new rock format: a power trio that emphasised instruments over vocals. Over the next two years, Cream sold 15 million albums, with hits such as White Room, Strange Brew and Sunshine of Your Love opening the door for a generation of heavy-metal and prog-rock excess.
"My brother and I used to listen to those Cream records, trying to emulate them," says Alex Van Halen. "Those musical extravaganzas set the stage for Led Zeppelin and Van Halen." It's not a legacy that Baker is proud of. "People try to say that Cream gave birth to heavy metal," he says. "If that's the case, we should have had an abortion."
But what began as Baker's creation soon turned into something beyond his reach. Cream made Clapton into a rock icon, and Bruce and Brown received the majority of writing credits -- and royalty fees -- for Cream's music. "Cream was doomed three months after it started," Baker says bitterly. "It was my band, and Jack tried to fire me! I didn't get any of the writing credits. It will piss me off for the rest of my life."
In 1968, Cream performed two farewell concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. The following year, Clapton joined forces with Steve Winwood and Baker and formed the supergroup Blind Faith. "Ginger kind of muscled his way in," recalls Bad Company's Simon Kirke, who toured with the band. "But fair play to Ginger -- he's a powerhouse on drums. Still, if a person is disliked, the writing appears on the walls."
Blind Faith lasted less than a year before Clapton -- spurred in part by Baker's addiction -- quit. "I took one look at his eyes and was sure he was back on it," Clapton wrote in his autobiography. "I felt that I was stepping back into the nightmare that had been part of Cream."
Baker recalls it differently. "My habit had nothing whatsoever to do with the end of Blind Faith!" he insists. "I was straight for most of that period. I only got fucked up at the end of the US tour!" He pauses. "I was an evil person back then," he acknowledges. "I think Eric just wanted to get away from me."
In the end, it was another musician's death that pushed Baker to change his life. "The night Jimi Hendrix died we were out looking for him," Baker recalls. It was September 1970, and Baker was sitting on the toilet at a London airport hotel, injecting heroin as Sly Stone, in town on tour, watched. Baker also had two bottles of cocaine in his possession, and Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix's drummer, suggested they track down Jimi and get high. Hendrix and Baker had grown close and planned to record together. Mitchell and Baker spent the night searching in vain for Hendrix all over town; then, tired and out of heroin, Baker injected the coke and suffered one of his near-fatal overdoses. While Baker survived the night, Hendrix died choking on his own vomit.
Shattered by the death of his friend and desperate to get clean, Baker left the music scene. "I had to get the fuck out of London," he says. "I had the money and the time, so I went to Africa." In 1971, he set out to drive from London to Nigeria in a Range Rover to immerse himself in African drumming. "I told him there was an ocean and a desert in the way," says Tony Palmer, who filmed the trek for his documentary Ginger Baker in Africa. "And Ginger said, 'Great!' He drove through the desert like he played the drums: he just put his foot down and hoped for the best. He has this 'fuck it, I'm going to do it, nobody can stop me' attitude."
Arriving in Lagos, Nigeria, Baker set up west Africa's first 16-track recording studio and formed a lifelong friendship with Afrobeat star Fela Kuti. Performing with the musical icon for crowds of 150,000, Baker became famous throughout Nigeria as the Oyinbo [White] drummer. "If Ginger wants to play jazz, he plays jazz," says the Nigerian drummer Tony Allen. "If he wants to play rock, he starts Cream. If he wants to play Afrobeat, he moves to Nigeria. Whatever he plays, he brings his own pulse and sound. He understands the African beat more than any other Westerner."
Unlike his revolutionary friend Fela, Baker was invited to join the Lagos Polo Club, where members of Nigeria's military dictatorship held court. The members took bets to see how long the white man could stay on the back of a wild pony. Baker never let go, and he began what would become a deep passion for the sport. "I said, 'Where's the brakes!''' Baker recalls of his first ride. "But that was it. Ten days later, I was playing polo." Off the field, however, Baker continued to get into trouble. Before long he was at war with his business partners, who used their connections in the police force to threaten him at gunpoint. Pushed out of Nigeria, Baker sold his studio for a fraction of what it cost and fled to London.
Flat broke, Baker started delivering drugs to support his habit. Now, instead of playing with Clapton, Baker sold cocaine at the studio where Clapton was recording. "It was not a very pleasant situation," Baker says. "Keith Moon died around then. His manager came up to me and said, 'You've got to help Moony. You're the only person he'll listen to.' But I had my own problems." Estranged from his first wife and behind on his taxes, Baker fled England in 1982 with a 22-year-old girlfriend and settled in central Italy to try his hand at olive farming.
In Tuscany, Baker suffered through terrible crops and another failed marriage until avant-garde music producer Bill Laswell recruited him to play with Johnny Rotten. "He lived on top of this mountain and drove us up there drunk as hell in this old jeep," Laswell remembers. "The farm was a disaster. There was no electricity, and he had this tiny bed he would sleep in with his dogs. It's a miracle that he was still alive." Laswell succeeded in getting Baker into the studio again, eventually recording a pair of experimental albums, Horses & Trees and Middle Passage that merged jazz and world music. But local farmers in Tuscany falsely accused Baker of peddling drugs, and he got into a dispute with the local mafia. Shortly after someone killed one of his dogs, he decided to move to Los Angeles in 1988 and become an actor.
"Living in LA was quite hard for a former heroin addict," Baker says. "It's the smack capital of the world!" But he remained clean and met Karen Loucks, a college student who became his third wife. Then, in 1993, after settling a lawsuit with his record company over royalties, he moved to a ranch in Parker, Colorado, where he could raise his polo ponies.
Baker, now playing at an elite level, was drawn to the sport in part because of the status it seemed to confer on those who played it. "He's always wanted to be part of the aristocracy," says Loucks. Polo replaced heroin as Baker's costly new habit. "As soon as the royalty cheques started coming in, the money was gone," Loucks says. "He's like a little kid with his money, since he never had it growing up."
Baker played polo like he did the drums: all out. "We were really wondering if he was going to be OK," says trumpet player Ron Miles, who performed with Baker. "He was really killing it on the field, and then he would just jump off the horse and play a drum solo." But Baker was soon in financial trouble again. In the late Nineties, as the IRS hounded him for income taxes, Baker was divorced by Loucks and in trouble with US Immigration. Baker sold his Colorado spread, loaded up his horses and moved to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where he bought a farm.
Once again, it didn't take him long to make enemies. Baker paid his staff more than other South African employers, and he allowed locals to squat on his farm -- a policy that attracted criminals and transients. When a white militia offered him protection, Baker rebuffed them. "They said I needed them to protect me from 'the black devils' who were going to kill me," he says. "I told them, 'Fuck off!''' He also ran afoul of the local all-white polo club by fielding a team of black polo players from Nigeria -- which promptly beat the whites. Baker found himself unwelcome in town. "They forced me out!" he says. "They wouldn't sell me supplies." Before he could sell his new farm, a riot took place among the squatters, who refused to vacate the premises, and Baker was forced to settle for a fraction of its value. He took his horses and moved to his current home in Tulbagh.
"One of the best things about not being married to him is that I don't have to be involved in the drama," Loucks says. "He's not evil. He has great intentions. They just go wrong."
"What?" Baker shouts at me as he places dog bowls around the kitchen. It's his reply to every question: "What?"
"How are you?" I ask again.
Baker blames his hearing loss on years of listening to Bruce's amplification, but it was further compromised by an incident last year. When Baker cut off a local Afrikaner farmer on the road, the man followed him to a gas station and punched Baker so hard that he blacked out and damaged an eardrum. When Baker came to, the man was trying to break his middle finger. "Who the fuck are you!" Baker screamed. The man left Baker his business card and drove off.
This morning, after the morphine kicks in, Baker heads to the two stables that house his 39 polo ponies. The doctors have warned him to stop riding, but without the horses, Baker says, he has no reason to live. "It's therapeutic," he insists. On the verge of entering his eighth decade of life, Baker can still play at a professional level.
The stable workers scurry into position as Baker visits every one of the horses, patting each on the head and calling them by name. He pauses when he gets to Gold Finder, a horse whose tendons were cut in the middle of the night last year by what Baker calls "assassins" -- unnamed local enemies bent on retribution. Baker massages the horse's damaged leg and apologises for the pain. The beast should be put down, but Baker has decided to keep Gold Finder, no matter the cost.
Ready for his morning ride, Baker mounts an ageing horse, takes the reins of two more horses and begins to canter around the estate, trailed by a dozen polo players. Steam rises from his head as the morning rain hits his poncho. He surges into a gallop, mud flying off the crashing hooves as 10 men herd 30 horses between them.
After exercising the horses, Baker soaks in a tub and lets Kudzai bathe him. Then he retreats to his living room and lies back in his leather recliner for his daily dose of the History Channel.
Dressed in Prada loafers, Prada jeans and a pink Dolce & Gabbana button-down shirt, he jabs the remote. His loafers hang off the recliner's footrest, kicking the air in rhythmic spasms, as if he is still smashing the double bass drums before a crowd of 150,000 screaming Nigerians.
A soccer match between Chelsea and Arsenal is about to begin. "You feel like talking?" I ask.
"You see that! Yankee! The television!"
"The soccer game?"
"Fucking Americans! It's football! 'World Series' of baseball! You're the only ones who play the stupid game! No talking during football, Yankee!"
For the next hour, Baker threatens the lives of the players while inhaling cigarettes. Then, suddenly, the estate's front buzzer goes off. Baker looks up at a monitor that's hooked up to four cameras around the property. A police car sits at the gate. "Kudzai!" he screams. She comes running and opens the entrance gate.
"Fuck!" Baker roars, storming off to confront the officer -- who, it turns out, has come to investigate the death of Baker's dog. Two weeks ago, Turbo 1 was found dead in the front yard, poisoned with a chemical used by local farmers to kill jackals and baboons.
The police officer tells him that they have discovered nothing new -- but Baker is sure the attack is related to his ongoing lawsuit against Lindiwe Noko, a teller at his local bank whom he hired to serve as his accountant. According to Baker, Noko stole about $50,000 from him. Noko claims that she was romantically involved with Baker and that he gave her permission to remove the funds. When the case went to trial, Baker offered to drop his trousers and show his penis to the court. "I've got a scar down there that only a woman who has been with me could describe," he says. The judge declined the offer.
"Unfortunately, he is generous to the people he should trust the least," says his son Kofi Baker, a drummer who lives in LA. "They see his soft side, and they milk him for it. He never learns from mistakes." In addition to Kofi, Baker has two daughters, all from his first marriage.
"South Africans are the most inconsiderate drivers in the world!" Baker says, manoeuvering his Range Rover down a steep mountain pass at 110 miles per hour. Overtaking a tractor trailer, he swerves to the left, passing over the double line of the no-passing zone. He cranks up the volume on a Cream reunion CD and passes a Volkswagen that's in his way. Visibility is minimal, but Baker turns around in his seat to taunt the defeated VW. "Wanker!" he yells at the driver, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
As we enter town, several locals wave from outside the Tulbagh Animal Hospital, where Baker donated $25,000 to build a horse clinic. At a nearby restaurant, Baker sits down for lunch with his polo team. Rain pelts the grass behind us, filling the awkward silence as the players wait for an opportune moment to discuss the dismal state of his polo field. The ground is flooding, and it will most likely not be ready for the season opener.
Baker has just received word that Jack Bruce wants to do another Cream reunion, a gig that would provide them with several million dollars. But despite a vast list of expenditures -- new horses, 20-plus employees, a Range Rover, a Land Rover, six dogs, a young girlfriend, not to mention flying in Chilean polo players for the season opener -- Baker isn't interested. "There is no way!" he says. "The reunion was 1968 all over again. Jack was playing so fucking loud. And he's shouting at me, saying that I'm playing too loud. On stage -- in front of everybody! And Eric got pissed at both of us. I think Eric now knows who the culprit was."
Lunch over, Baker throws his cheque book on the table and pays for the group with a sigh. Without a goodbye, he marches to the car. As we get into the Range Rover, Baker pulls out a stun gun. "If you think about getting super-stroppy with me," he says menacingly, "remember I've got this." The stun gun emits a loud crackle. "It's a people zapper!" he says. "It's for people who try to assassinate me. One day it might happen. I've already had enough threats to last me a fucking lifetime."
At home, Baker settles in his recliner after another dose of morphine and pills. With his Oakley sunglasses resting on the end of his nose and Kudzai on his lap, he watches a Beyonce video on MTV. He can bear pop music, he says, because of his hatred for current rock 'n' roll. Holding Kudzai by her waist, Baker begins to tickle her. "Gin-ja!" she squirms. "Stop tickling!" For the first time in days, he looks content.
"Tea!" he commands, sending Kudzai running. Switching to the National Geographic Channel, he watches a show on the Big Bang theory. "You know, one day they're going to take all the best humans, go to Mars, leave us behind, and that's going to be it!" he says. "But death is the final great adventure! When I die, put me in a lead coffin and throw me out to sea!"
Baker lights a cigarette and turns his attention to CNN and the financial crisis in the United States. "The world is coming to an end for you Yankees," he says gloatingly. "And I'll be sitting here watching."
Later that night, I awake to the sound of dogs barking. "Who's there?" Baker screams. He stomps outside to investigate, the dogs running into the darkness ahead of him, Kudzai timidly following. Baker heads to the stables, ready for whatever awaits. Out of breath, his eyes wide in alarm, he looks down at the wet grass. The backyard is flooding.
"The water main exploded," he says. No enemies or assassins have come for him tonight. I tell him I'll fix the pipe.
Back in his living room, Baker tries to watch television and drink his tea, but he seems preoccupied. He keeps glancing over at the security cameras, which show nothing but the trees blowing in the high wind. He chain-smokes, his hands shaking as he pats the dogs that surround him. His sunglasses have been replaced by spectacles, and he can no longer hide his paranoia.
"Ginger, we fixed the pipe," I tell him.
He surveys my wet clothes. "Thank you very much. Good job." Then Baker catches himself. He points at the television. "Yankee -- you see that?" The replay of the Chelsea soccer game has come on.
"No talking during football?" I answer.
Baker nods his head and grins, struggling to keep a straight face. Then, for the first time, we laugh together.
- Jay Bulger
Thanks for visiting today. Have you seen my political blog? http://realheavypolitics.blogspot.com
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/ginger-baker-the-devil-looks-after-his-own-1879629.html
'Fuckin' hell!" Ginger Baker shouts at the South African sunrise. Once his ritual morning curse is complete, the 69-year-old drummer for Cream takes a deep pull on his morphine inhaler and throws his body back into the leather recliner where he spends the majority of his days.
As the drug takes effect, his tanned, weather-beaten face contracts and his vivid blue eyes go wide. His girlfriend, Kudzai, a beautiful 27-year-old from Zimbabwe he met on the internet, hovers over him counting out his daily handful of anti-depressants, stomach pills and painkillers. "What are you looking at, Yankee!" Baker barks at me, his voice cutting through the silence like an animal shriek. Now that the morphine is running strong, he pops up out of his chair with the nervous energy of a teenager, but still he walks like a creaky old man. Over the course of his life, during which he's raced bicycles and played polo, Baker has broken most of his ribs, mangled one of his arms and had his front teeth smashed in. He was recently diagnosed with a degenerative spine condition and the onset of emphysema. "God is punishing me for my past wickedness by keeping me alive and in as much pain as he can," Baker says bitterly. Then, the man who helped invent the rock drum solo stomps over to the door of his ranch house, trailed by his pack of six dogs, and coughs out what sounds like part of a lung onto his front lawn.
Throughout his five-decade career, Baker has been one of rock's most influential and innovative drummers, combining the raw power of Keith Moon with the subtler rhythms of jazz and African percussion. He has played with everyone from Eric Clapton and Johnny Rotten to Max Roach and Fela Kuti, but he's just as famous for being one of music's original junkie mad men, alienating family, friends and band members at every stop. Since 1999, Baker has been living in a self-imposed exile in South Africa, having been forced out of homes in England, Nigeria, Italy and America.
In 2005, when Cream briefly reunited, the New York performances imploded with Baker and bassist Jack Bruce fighting onstage. "It's a knife-edge thing for me and Ginger," Bruce said afterward. "Nowadays, we're happily co-existing in different continents . . . although I was thinking of asking him to move. He's still a bit too close."
Here in the heart of South Africa's wine country, it would be hard for Baker to be further removed from the rock world he spent his adult life terrorising. Tulbagh is a racially divided farming town of wealthy white landowners and poor black labourers 80 miles north-east of Cape Town. Baker came here to play polo and live in seclusion: the entrance to his 80-acre spread is marked by a gigantic sign that reads, 'beware mr. baker'. Yet even in this remote corner of Africa, decades after superstardom and his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Baker can't escape controversy. After years of battling the IRS and British tax collectors, he is at the centre of a host of new lawsuits in South Africa, and rumours about him have spread throughout the nearby villages. "Ginger Baker is the biggest local drug dealer," goes one. "He always has three black women by his side," runs another. And then there's the one tale that holds at least a hint of the truth: "He only lives here because he has been chased out of everywhere else."
Now, after following his morning morphine with a cup of tea, Baker sees something that sets him off on a fresh rant. Kudzai has moved his drum set -- the same kit he used onstage at the Cream reunion -- and the dark-green tom-toms, giant cymbals and double bass drum that defined his distinctive sound are propped haphazardly in a corner of the guest room.
"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT'S GOING TO TAKE ME TO PUT THAT BACK TOGETHER?" Baker erupts. Kudzai, who had never heard of Baker before they met a year ago, offers to help, but he angrily waves her away. "GET OUT!" he shouts, painfully bending over the kit.
For the next hour, Baker meticulously reassembles the tools of his trade, carefully matching the angle of each cymbal, only to take them off in disgust and hurl them against the wall. "I used to have two roadies do this for me," he mutters. Five cigarettes later, Baker is breathing heavily and covered in sweat. The drums are back in their rightful position.
"I bet you expect me to play for you now!" Baker shouts, suddenly looking at me. "Persistent c**t!" Since the Cream reunion, Baker has performed in public only a few times, when he has picked up his sticks to play for the crowd after a polo match. The sport has been his all-consuming passion for years: Baker owns 39 polo ponies and regularly sponsors charity matches for orphan kids stricken with HIV.
Grabbing a set of sticks, Baker slams his body into the seat behind the drum kit. As he flails away, it's as if he's back at the Fillmore, pounding straight-8th grooves into the double bass drum, creating a rhythmic hypnosis from a dizzying array of rimshots, smashing cymbals and 16-note fills. A master of polyrhythms -- multiple time signatures played simultaneously -- Baker seems less like a broken-down former drug addict and more a force of nature.
"His playing was revolutionary -- extrovert, primal and inventive," says Rush drummer Neil Peart. "He set the bar for what rock drumming could be. I certainly emulated Ginger's approaches to rhythm -- his hard, flat, percussive sound was very innovative. Everyone who came after built on that foundation. Every rock drummer since has been influenced in some way by Ginger, even if they don't know it."
The solo finished, Baker gently places his sticks on the drums and threatens to cut my head off with a sword before storming back to his leather chair in the living room to spend the rest of the evening in silence.
"Ginger's just a grumpy old man!" Kudzai says. "He yells, but inside he's a good man." If so, he hides his endearing qualities well. As he passes his days in South Africa, racked with pain and pumped full of drugs, Baker seems intent on devoting his remaining energy to railing against the world. After the other pioneering drummers of his era, Bonham and Moon and Mitchell, have all passed away, Baker is alive and breathing, albeit in a three-pack-a-day way. He has survived, it seems, through a kind of sheer foul-mouthed perversity, a manic brutality that pervades both his drumming and his life. "If a plane went down and there was one survivor, it would be Ginger," says his first wife, Elizabeth Ann Baker. "The devil takes care of his own."
Peter Edward Baker was born on August 19, 1939, in a working-class neighbourhood of London. The son of a bricklayer, Baker was four years old when his father was killed in World War Two. As a kid, Baker had a single dream: to compete in the Tour de France. He rode his bike for mile after mile, pushing himself to prepare for the gruelling marathon. "I was a good fucking cyclist because of my build -- tall and thin," Baker recalls. But on a rainy day in 1956, as he raced across town, a taxi threw the 16-year-old, crushing his bicycle. Not long after, at a party, Baker's friends dared him to sit at the drums. He was a natural. "The high-hat, the bass drum, the cymbals -- I don't know how, but I could do it all," he says. At that moment, Baker forgot all about a new bicycle -- he wanted drums. He also discovered that he could outlast every other musician in the room. "Long-distance cycling conditioned me for playing the drums," Baker says today.
By age 17, he was earning £16 a week performing in a traditional New Orleans jazz band. He spent hours poring over the science of the beat, learning how to write music and constructing his personalised drum kit. "Time moves differently with Ginger," says jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who recorded with Baker in the Nineties. "You could find 100 drummers to play the same tune, and Ginger would find something different to do with it."
The still-teenage Baker became a fixture in the Soho jazz scene -- then the centre of European beatnik culture. He learned about African rhythms from his hero, the English jazz drummer Phil Seamen. "Ginger was the first drummer to understand the importance of world rhythms and turn them into something commercial," says Chip Stern, who produced one of Baker's later jazz albums. Seamen also introduced Baker to injecting heroin. "Ginger was a loner," says Cream songwriter Pete Brown. "It helped him escape. It also went with the perception of the tortured artist. He was following in the footsteps of Charlie Parker."
But by 1962, jazz was giving way in popularity to rhythm and blues in England. Instead of joining a modern-jazz quintet, Baker replaced a young Charlie Watts in blues pioneer Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, where he performed alongside keyboardist Graham Bond, saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith and bassist Jack Bruce. One day, a singer named Mick Jagger stopped by to perform with the group. "This effeminate little kid showed up, and I hated him," Baker recalls. "He was a musical moron! Alexis asked me to give Jagger a chance to sing during the interval. But the interval was when I would go and have my fix!" Baker and Bruce picked on the newcomer, throwing in complicated jazz licks to confuse the young Jagger.
Growing tired of playing for little money, Baker says, he "decided to go commercial and play music that appealed to the public." So he, Bruce and Bond formed the Graham Bond Organisation, an R & B group that quickly became one of London's most influential bands. "What the Beatles were to the public, the Graham Bond Organisation was to musicians," says Brown. Bruce and Baker also became infamous for their onstage feuding: one night, after Baker hit Bruce in the back of the head with a drumstick, a fight broke out in the middle of a set. Later, when Bond became too addicted to heroin to lead the band, Baker took over the group and fired Bruce.
By that time, Baker was deep in the grips of his own heroin addiction. One night, his first wife needed to find a jazz club in Brighton where the band was performing. "So I followed the intervals of Ginger's vomit all the way to the club," she recalls. "And I found him."
In 1966, after sitting in with Eric Clapton, Baker proposed that he and the guitarist start a band together. Clapton, who already had a cult following, immediately agreed. But to Baker's dismay, he suggested that Jack Bruce be the third member of the band. Clapton had seen Baker and Bruce play together, and he considered them "a well-oiled machine".
Baker and Bruce put their problems aside to form Cream, and the combination of Clapton's blues riffs and Baker's monstrous beats made them the first supergroup of rock. Cream created a new rock format: a power trio that emphasised instruments over vocals. Over the next two years, Cream sold 15 million albums, with hits such as White Room, Strange Brew and Sunshine of Your Love opening the door for a generation of heavy-metal and prog-rock excess.
"My brother and I used to listen to those Cream records, trying to emulate them," says Alex Van Halen. "Those musical extravaganzas set the stage for Led Zeppelin and Van Halen." It's not a legacy that Baker is proud of. "People try to say that Cream gave birth to heavy metal," he says. "If that's the case, we should have had an abortion."
But what began as Baker's creation soon turned into something beyond his reach. Cream made Clapton into a rock icon, and Bruce and Brown received the majority of writing credits -- and royalty fees -- for Cream's music. "Cream was doomed three months after it started," Baker says bitterly. "It was my band, and Jack tried to fire me! I didn't get any of the writing credits. It will piss me off for the rest of my life."
In 1968, Cream performed two farewell concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. The following year, Clapton joined forces with Steve Winwood and Baker and formed the supergroup Blind Faith. "Ginger kind of muscled his way in," recalls Bad Company's Simon Kirke, who toured with the band. "But fair play to Ginger -- he's a powerhouse on drums. Still, if a person is disliked, the writing appears on the walls."
Blind Faith lasted less than a year before Clapton -- spurred in part by Baker's addiction -- quit. "I took one look at his eyes and was sure he was back on it," Clapton wrote in his autobiography. "I felt that I was stepping back into the nightmare that had been part of Cream."
Baker recalls it differently. "My habit had nothing whatsoever to do with the end of Blind Faith!" he insists. "I was straight for most of that period. I only got fucked up at the end of the US tour!" He pauses. "I was an evil person back then," he acknowledges. "I think Eric just wanted to get away from me."
In the end, it was another musician's death that pushed Baker to change his life. "The night Jimi Hendrix died we were out looking for him," Baker recalls. It was September 1970, and Baker was sitting on the toilet at a London airport hotel, injecting heroin as Sly Stone, in town on tour, watched. Baker also had two bottles of cocaine in his possession, and Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix's drummer, suggested they track down Jimi and get high. Hendrix and Baker had grown close and planned to record together. Mitchell and Baker spent the night searching in vain for Hendrix all over town; then, tired and out of heroin, Baker injected the coke and suffered one of his near-fatal overdoses. While Baker survived the night, Hendrix died choking on his own vomit.
Shattered by the death of his friend and desperate to get clean, Baker left the music scene. "I had to get the fuck out of London," he says. "I had the money and the time, so I went to Africa." In 1971, he set out to drive from London to Nigeria in a Range Rover to immerse himself in African drumming. "I told him there was an ocean and a desert in the way," says Tony Palmer, who filmed the trek for his documentary Ginger Baker in Africa. "And Ginger said, 'Great!' He drove through the desert like he played the drums: he just put his foot down and hoped for the best. He has this 'fuck it, I'm going to do it, nobody can stop me' attitude."
Arriving in Lagos, Nigeria, Baker set up west Africa's first 16-track recording studio and formed a lifelong friendship with Afrobeat star Fela Kuti. Performing with the musical icon for crowds of 150,000, Baker became famous throughout Nigeria as the Oyinbo [White] drummer. "If Ginger wants to play jazz, he plays jazz," says the Nigerian drummer Tony Allen. "If he wants to play rock, he starts Cream. If he wants to play Afrobeat, he moves to Nigeria. Whatever he plays, he brings his own pulse and sound. He understands the African beat more than any other Westerner."
Unlike his revolutionary friend Fela, Baker was invited to join the Lagos Polo Club, where members of Nigeria's military dictatorship held court. The members took bets to see how long the white man could stay on the back of a wild pony. Baker never let go, and he began what would become a deep passion for the sport. "I said, 'Where's the brakes!''' Baker recalls of his first ride. "But that was it. Ten days later, I was playing polo." Off the field, however, Baker continued to get into trouble. Before long he was at war with his business partners, who used their connections in the police force to threaten him at gunpoint. Pushed out of Nigeria, Baker sold his studio for a fraction of what it cost and fled to London.
Flat broke, Baker started delivering drugs to support his habit. Now, instead of playing with Clapton, Baker sold cocaine at the studio where Clapton was recording. "It was not a very pleasant situation," Baker says. "Keith Moon died around then. His manager came up to me and said, 'You've got to help Moony. You're the only person he'll listen to.' But I had my own problems." Estranged from his first wife and behind on his taxes, Baker fled England in 1982 with a 22-year-old girlfriend and settled in central Italy to try his hand at olive farming.
In Tuscany, Baker suffered through terrible crops and another failed marriage until avant-garde music producer Bill Laswell recruited him to play with Johnny Rotten. "He lived on top of this mountain and drove us up there drunk as hell in this old jeep," Laswell remembers. "The farm was a disaster. There was no electricity, and he had this tiny bed he would sleep in with his dogs. It's a miracle that he was still alive." Laswell succeeded in getting Baker into the studio again, eventually recording a pair of experimental albums, Horses & Trees and Middle Passage that merged jazz and world music. But local farmers in Tuscany falsely accused Baker of peddling drugs, and he got into a dispute with the local mafia. Shortly after someone killed one of his dogs, he decided to move to Los Angeles in 1988 and become an actor.
"Living in LA was quite hard for a former heroin addict," Baker says. "It's the smack capital of the world!" But he remained clean and met Karen Loucks, a college student who became his third wife. Then, in 1993, after settling a lawsuit with his record company over royalties, he moved to a ranch in Parker, Colorado, where he could raise his polo ponies.
Baker, now playing at an elite level, was drawn to the sport in part because of the status it seemed to confer on those who played it. "He's always wanted to be part of the aristocracy," says Loucks. Polo replaced heroin as Baker's costly new habit. "As soon as the royalty cheques started coming in, the money was gone," Loucks says. "He's like a little kid with his money, since he never had it growing up."
Baker played polo like he did the drums: all out. "We were really wondering if he was going to be OK," says trumpet player Ron Miles, who performed with Baker. "He was really killing it on the field, and then he would just jump off the horse and play a drum solo." But Baker was soon in financial trouble again. In the late Nineties, as the IRS hounded him for income taxes, Baker was divorced by Loucks and in trouble with US Immigration. Baker sold his Colorado spread, loaded up his horses and moved to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where he bought a farm.
Once again, it didn't take him long to make enemies. Baker paid his staff more than other South African employers, and he allowed locals to squat on his farm -- a policy that attracted criminals and transients. When a white militia offered him protection, Baker rebuffed them. "They said I needed them to protect me from 'the black devils' who were going to kill me," he says. "I told them, 'Fuck off!''' He also ran afoul of the local all-white polo club by fielding a team of black polo players from Nigeria -- which promptly beat the whites. Baker found himself unwelcome in town. "They forced me out!" he says. "They wouldn't sell me supplies." Before he could sell his new farm, a riot took place among the squatters, who refused to vacate the premises, and Baker was forced to settle for a fraction of its value. He took his horses and moved to his current home in Tulbagh.
"One of the best things about not being married to him is that I don't have to be involved in the drama," Loucks says. "He's not evil. He has great intentions. They just go wrong."
"What?" Baker shouts at me as he places dog bowls around the kitchen. It's his reply to every question: "What?"
"How are you?" I ask again.
Baker blames his hearing loss on years of listening to Bruce's amplification, but it was further compromised by an incident last year. When Baker cut off a local Afrikaner farmer on the road, the man followed him to a gas station and punched Baker so hard that he blacked out and damaged an eardrum. When Baker came to, the man was trying to break his middle finger. "Who the fuck are you!" Baker screamed. The man left Baker his business card and drove off.
This morning, after the morphine kicks in, Baker heads to the two stables that house his 39 polo ponies. The doctors have warned him to stop riding, but without the horses, Baker says, he has no reason to live. "It's therapeutic," he insists. On the verge of entering his eighth decade of life, Baker can still play at a professional level.
The stable workers scurry into position as Baker visits every one of the horses, patting each on the head and calling them by name. He pauses when he gets to Gold Finder, a horse whose tendons were cut in the middle of the night last year by what Baker calls "assassins" -- unnamed local enemies bent on retribution. Baker massages the horse's damaged leg and apologises for the pain. The beast should be put down, but Baker has decided to keep Gold Finder, no matter the cost.
Ready for his morning ride, Baker mounts an ageing horse, takes the reins of two more horses and begins to canter around the estate, trailed by a dozen polo players. Steam rises from his head as the morning rain hits his poncho. He surges into a gallop, mud flying off the crashing hooves as 10 men herd 30 horses between them.
After exercising the horses, Baker soaks in a tub and lets Kudzai bathe him. Then he retreats to his living room and lies back in his leather recliner for his daily dose of the History Channel.
Dressed in Prada loafers, Prada jeans and a pink Dolce & Gabbana button-down shirt, he jabs the remote. His loafers hang off the recliner's footrest, kicking the air in rhythmic spasms, as if he is still smashing the double bass drums before a crowd of 150,000 screaming Nigerians.
A soccer match between Chelsea and Arsenal is about to begin. "You feel like talking?" I ask.
"You see that! Yankee! The television!"
"The soccer game?"
"Fucking Americans! It's football! 'World Series' of baseball! You're the only ones who play the stupid game! No talking during football, Yankee!"
For the next hour, Baker threatens the lives of the players while inhaling cigarettes. Then, suddenly, the estate's front buzzer goes off. Baker looks up at a monitor that's hooked up to four cameras around the property. A police car sits at the gate. "Kudzai!" he screams. She comes running and opens the entrance gate.
"Fuck!" Baker roars, storming off to confront the officer -- who, it turns out, has come to investigate the death of Baker's dog. Two weeks ago, Turbo 1 was found dead in the front yard, poisoned with a chemical used by local farmers to kill jackals and baboons.
The police officer tells him that they have discovered nothing new -- but Baker is sure the attack is related to his ongoing lawsuit against Lindiwe Noko, a teller at his local bank whom he hired to serve as his accountant. According to Baker, Noko stole about $50,000 from him. Noko claims that she was romantically involved with Baker and that he gave her permission to remove the funds. When the case went to trial, Baker offered to drop his trousers and show his penis to the court. "I've got a scar down there that only a woman who has been with me could describe," he says. The judge declined the offer.
"Unfortunately, he is generous to the people he should trust the least," says his son Kofi Baker, a drummer who lives in LA. "They see his soft side, and they milk him for it. He never learns from mistakes." In addition to Kofi, Baker has two daughters, all from his first marriage.
"South Africans are the most inconsiderate drivers in the world!" Baker says, manoeuvering his Range Rover down a steep mountain pass at 110 miles per hour. Overtaking a tractor trailer, he swerves to the left, passing over the double line of the no-passing zone. He cranks up the volume on a Cream reunion CD and passes a Volkswagen that's in his way. Visibility is minimal, but Baker turns around in his seat to taunt the defeated VW. "Wanker!" he yells at the driver, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
As we enter town, several locals wave from outside the Tulbagh Animal Hospital, where Baker donated $25,000 to build a horse clinic. At a nearby restaurant, Baker sits down for lunch with his polo team. Rain pelts the grass behind us, filling the awkward silence as the players wait for an opportune moment to discuss the dismal state of his polo field. The ground is flooding, and it will most likely not be ready for the season opener.
Baker has just received word that Jack Bruce wants to do another Cream reunion, a gig that would provide them with several million dollars. But despite a vast list of expenditures -- new horses, 20-plus employees, a Range Rover, a Land Rover, six dogs, a young girlfriend, not to mention flying in Chilean polo players for the season opener -- Baker isn't interested. "There is no way!" he says. "The reunion was 1968 all over again. Jack was playing so fucking loud. And he's shouting at me, saying that I'm playing too loud. On stage -- in front of everybody! And Eric got pissed at both of us. I think Eric now knows who the culprit was."
Lunch over, Baker throws his cheque book on the table and pays for the group with a sigh. Without a goodbye, he marches to the car. As we get into the Range Rover, Baker pulls out a stun gun. "If you think about getting super-stroppy with me," he says menacingly, "remember I've got this." The stun gun emits a loud crackle. "It's a people zapper!" he says. "It's for people who try to assassinate me. One day it might happen. I've already had enough threats to last me a fucking lifetime."
At home, Baker settles in his recliner after another dose of morphine and pills. With his Oakley sunglasses resting on the end of his nose and Kudzai on his lap, he watches a Beyonce video on MTV. He can bear pop music, he says, because of his hatred for current rock 'n' roll. Holding Kudzai by her waist, Baker begins to tickle her. "Gin-ja!" she squirms. "Stop tickling!" For the first time in days, he looks content.
"Tea!" he commands, sending Kudzai running. Switching to the National Geographic Channel, he watches a show on the Big Bang theory. "You know, one day they're going to take all the best humans, go to Mars, leave us behind, and that's going to be it!" he says. "But death is the final great adventure! When I die, put me in a lead coffin and throw me out to sea!"
Baker lights a cigarette and turns his attention to CNN and the financial crisis in the United States. "The world is coming to an end for you Yankees," he says gloatingly. "And I'll be sitting here watching."
Later that night, I awake to the sound of dogs barking. "Who's there?" Baker screams. He stomps outside to investigate, the dogs running into the darkness ahead of him, Kudzai timidly following. Baker heads to the stables, ready for whatever awaits. Out of breath, his eyes wide in alarm, he looks down at the wet grass. The backyard is flooding.
"The water main exploded," he says. No enemies or assassins have come for him tonight. I tell him I'll fix the pipe.
Back in his living room, Baker tries to watch television and drink his tea, but he seems preoccupied. He keeps glancing over at the security cameras, which show nothing but the trees blowing in the high wind. He chain-smokes, his hands shaking as he pats the dogs that surround him. His sunglasses have been replaced by spectacles, and he can no longer hide his paranoia.
"Ginger, we fixed the pipe," I tell him.
He surveys my wet clothes. "Thank you very much. Good job." Then Baker catches himself. He points at the television. "Yankee -- you see that?" The replay of the Chelsea soccer game has come on.
"No talking during football?" I answer.
Baker nods his head and grins, struggling to keep a straight face. Then, for the first time, we laugh together.
- Jay Bulger
Thanks for visiting today. Have you seen my political blog? http://realheavypolitics.blogspot.com
Monday, December 28, 2009
FAA Makes Curious `UFO Call Statement' - As UK Shuts Down Same
Hello, welcome to Barf Stew @ Blogspot - I appreciate your visit today. As many of you may know, I run several blogs including one about UFO Disclosure since late 2007. And, recently, again as you may know, I ran a post about how the UK has shut down the office that used to collect UFO reports from the public for investigation - here's that link - http://ufodisclosurecountdownclock.blogspot.com/2009/12/what-uks-ministry-of-defenses-shut-down.html. The reason given by the UK was that in 50 years of investigating the reports - there never has been a security issue in regards to UFO's - and - it will save money in these tough economic times - indeed, enough to even afford (now that the UFO office is shut) body armor for the UK troops in the middle east. ----------------------------------- OKKKKKAAAAAY.
THEN, about a week later - the FAA - out of the blue -- decides to issue a statement about where airline pilots and air traffic controllers should report UFO's - this was the supposed statement:
"Persons wanting to report UFO/unexplained phenomena activity should contact a UFO/ unex plained phenomena reporting data collection center, such as Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) (voice: 1-877-979-7444 or e-mail: Reporting@baass.org)"
Now, being the type of person I am ------- suspicious ---------- this seemed odd; weird, strange, ----- almost Fortean. Why would the FAA, after ALL these decades, suddenly, have an interest in UFO reports and WHY would suddenly - there be a `specific' group to call? WHY? And who is BAASS?
But, upon reading the story - I immediately was familiar with the Bigelow name - having read `In Search Of The Skinwalker' years ago. I also knew about NIDS (National Institute For Discovery Science, I believe) a `study group' that was funded by Bigelow in the past (perhaps still) to study anomalous events - I even ordered one of their `reports' once. And, by following the links within this story - you can find out much more about Mr. Bigelow. Also, if you have read `Skinwalker' you are aware that Mr. Bigelow's study of the ranch basically `confirmed' the existence of `dimensional portals with dimensional entities/creatures'.
Now, believe it or not - this is where all of this begins to get interesting to a UFO blogger like myself. The reason being -- Mr. Bigelow recently became the moneyman behind a new MUFON endeavor called `Star Team' - a supposed 24/7 group of folks ready to investigate UFO reports of an anomalous nature. Here's the lowdown on `Star Team'http://www.mufon.com/documents/STARTeamImpactProjectOverview.pdf.
Are you still with me?
Now, all that sounds like GREAT news - right? I mean, what could be better than some money FINALLY being available to study UFO reportees - by an independent agency such as MUFON?----------------- Right? ----------- Well, not so fast, perhaps.
You see, some bloggers have been on MUFON's case in the recent past and even before - always ignored up to now. Indeed, Joe Capp at UFO Media Matters recently outlined MUFON's horrible `Star Team' response of an amazing UFO encounter that ultimately involved, after the fact, MIB (men in black) and the typical unmarked helicopters. Here's that post - http://ufomedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/mufons-600-lb-gorilla-common-sense.html --- and, earlier this fall, Joe Capp also called for MUFON to release a study they supposedly did with folks who claim bedroom alien abductions using video cameras and such - wondering -- where are the study results?
But, even before Joe's post about MUFON's 600 pound gorilla, Lon Strickler had printed
this criticism of MUFON from the internet forum called Above Top Secret - called `MUFON, Who Are They Really' - http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/following-is-from-thread-on-ats-for.html then Lon on Christmas eve posted `Press Release Proves MUFON And Feds Connected' http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/press-release-proves-mufon-and-feds-one.html. And, as a result of those posts -- MUFON directly answered back to Lon with this response defending the organization http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/mufon-responds-to-posts.html.
Now, reading between the lines about Mr. Capp's assertions about MUFON and Lon's readers experiences (Joe's readers too) -- it doesn't take too much of an imagination to believe that UFO reports are now being `funnelled' - into organizations that may be less than forthcoming with the results - (In the links above you can see how some MUFON reports `vanish'.) - while providing the `cover' of real investigative interest.
Now, as Lon says - I don't want to get into a pissing match with MUFON or BAASS either - and I've already detailed on my blogs Real Heavy Politics and UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock - how the government seems interested in my viewpoints* - so, lord - I'd hardly wish to cause their feathers to ruffle further - BUT, it seems mighty strange for the FAA to give one damn about who those reports should go to by the MOST BELIEVABLE AUTHORITIES - PILOTS AND AIR CONTROL --- and then - for THAT company to have ANY link to MUFON - doubles that strangeness.
Or, could this be a way for Mr. Bigelow - to be positioned by our government - as the ultimate spokesperson for `Anomalous Disclosure' to the world?
Or, is this all Barf Stew? I welcome your comments.
*Real Heavy Politics has been visited by the Presidents office (Nov20th). UDCC has it's MOST visitors in the world from Alexandria Virgina. My personal views on where the politics of UFO Disclosure stand can be found at http://realheavypolitics.blogspot.com/2009/10/real-heavy-politics-of-american-ufo.html.
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THEN, about a week later - the FAA - out of the blue -- decides to issue a statement about where airline pilots and air traffic controllers should report UFO's - this was the supposed statement:
"Persons wanting to report UFO/unexplained phenomena activity should contact a UFO/ unex plained phenomena reporting data collection center, such as Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) (voice: 1-877-979-7444 or e-mail: Reporting@baass.org)"
Now, being the type of person I am ------- suspicious ---------- this seemed odd; weird, strange, ----- almost Fortean. Why would the FAA, after ALL these decades, suddenly, have an interest in UFO reports and WHY would suddenly - there be a `specific' group to call? WHY? And who is BAASS?
But, upon reading the story - I immediately was familiar with the Bigelow name - having read `In Search Of The Skinwalker' years ago. I also knew about NIDS (National Institute For Discovery Science, I believe) a `study group' that was funded by Bigelow in the past (perhaps still) to study anomalous events - I even ordered one of their `reports' once. And, by following the links within this story - you can find out much more about Mr. Bigelow. Also, if you have read `Skinwalker' you are aware that Mr. Bigelow's study of the ranch basically `confirmed' the existence of `dimensional portals with dimensional entities/creatures'.
Now, believe it or not - this is where all of this begins to get interesting to a UFO blogger like myself. The reason being -- Mr. Bigelow recently became the moneyman behind a new MUFON endeavor called `Star Team' - a supposed 24/7 group of folks ready to investigate UFO reports of an anomalous nature. Here's the lowdown on `Star Team'http://www.mufon.com/documents/STARTeamImpactProjectOverview.pdf.
Are you still with me?
Now, all that sounds like GREAT news - right? I mean, what could be better than some money FINALLY being available to study UFO reportees - by an independent agency such as MUFON?----------------- Right? ----------- Well, not so fast, perhaps.
You see, some bloggers have been on MUFON's case in the recent past and even before - always ignored up to now. Indeed, Joe Capp at UFO Media Matters recently outlined MUFON's horrible `Star Team' response of an amazing UFO encounter that ultimately involved, after the fact, MIB (men in black) and the typical unmarked helicopters. Here's that post - http://ufomedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/mufons-600-lb-gorilla-common-sense.html --- and, earlier this fall, Joe Capp also called for MUFON to release a study they supposedly did with folks who claim bedroom alien abductions using video cameras and such - wondering -- where are the study results?
But, even before Joe's post about MUFON's 600 pound gorilla, Lon Strickler had printed
this criticism of MUFON from the internet forum called Above Top Secret - called `MUFON, Who Are They Really' - http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/following-is-from-thread-on-ats-for.html then Lon on Christmas eve posted `Press Release Proves MUFON And Feds Connected' http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/press-release-proves-mufon-and-feds-one.html. And, as a result of those posts -- MUFON directly answered back to Lon with this response defending the organization http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/mufon-responds-to-posts.html.
Now, reading between the lines about Mr. Capp's assertions about MUFON and Lon's readers experiences (Joe's readers too) -- it doesn't take too much of an imagination to believe that UFO reports are now being `funnelled' - into organizations that may be less than forthcoming with the results - (In the links above you can see how some MUFON reports `vanish'.) - while providing the `cover' of real investigative interest.
Now, as Lon says - I don't want to get into a pissing match with MUFON or BAASS either - and I've already detailed on my blogs Real Heavy Politics and UFO Disclosure Countdown Clock - how the government seems interested in my viewpoints* - so, lord - I'd hardly wish to cause their feathers to ruffle further - BUT, it seems mighty strange for the FAA to give one damn about who those reports should go to by the MOST BELIEVABLE AUTHORITIES - PILOTS AND AIR CONTROL --- and then - for THAT company to have ANY link to MUFON - doubles that strangeness.
Or, could this be a way for Mr. Bigelow - to be positioned by our government - as the ultimate spokesperson for `Anomalous Disclosure' to the world?
Or, is this all Barf Stew? I welcome your comments.
*Real Heavy Politics has been visited by the Presidents office (Nov20th). UDCC has it's MOST visitors in the world from Alexandria Virgina. My personal views on where the politics of UFO Disclosure stand can be found at http://realheavypolitics.blogspot.com/2009/10/real-heavy-politics-of-american-ufo.html.
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Sunday, December 27, 2009
Geese Point The Way To Saving Jet Fuel
Barf Stew is all about far out ideas - like this - http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/27/jets-fuel-geese-carbon-dioxide and, as the article says "Planes flying in V formation are more efficient and produce less carbon dioxide, say scientists"
Grow-your-own to replace false teeth - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/may/03/sciencenews.health No, this is not a fantasy. Barf Stew, always a good read.
Turtle farts raise a stink - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/may/03/sciencenews.health The edgy Turtle Farts type of stuff is on BS. (Barf Stew)
That's the mix for today - go to our front page and page down for MUCH more fun - http://barfstew.blogspot.com -- thanks.
Grow-your-own to replace false teeth - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/may/03/sciencenews.health No, this is not a fantasy. Barf Stew, always a good read.
Turtle farts raise a stink - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/may/03/sciencenews.health The edgy Turtle Farts type of stuff is on BS. (Barf Stew)
That's the mix for today - go to our front page and page down for MUCH more fun - http://barfstew.blogspot.com -- thanks.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Pentagon now spending more for war than all 50 States combined spend to run the country
Hello - anyone home? Is there any limit, at all, to our quest for war and `safety'? Barf Stew link for sure - http://www.inteldaily.com/news/173/ARTICLE/13219/2009-12-25.html
10-Year-Old Suspended for Peppermint Oil - PSSSSSSSSSSStttttttt ..... look what I got .... http://www.1010wins.com/10-Year-Old-Suspended-for-Peppermint-Oil/5972787 Come on - Barf it up.
Kinkiness Beyond Kinky -- http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/12/22/kinkiness-beyond-kinky/ -- You will NEVER learn as much about Duck penises as you will in the next few minutes. Spicy Barf Stew for sure - might want to have some peppermint oil around.
Finally, what if someone built a 1-10 scale model of a Saturn V missile and launched it from their backyard? You have to see this to believe it.
10-Year-Old Suspended for Peppermint Oil - PSSSSSSSSSSStttttttt ..... look what I got .... http://www.1010wins.com/10-Year-Old-Suspended-for-Peppermint-Oil/5972787 Come on - Barf it up.
Kinkiness Beyond Kinky -- http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/12/22/kinkiness-beyond-kinky/ -- You will NEVER learn as much about Duck penises as you will in the next few minutes. Spicy Barf Stew for sure - might want to have some peppermint oil around.
Finally, what if someone built a 1-10 scale model of a Saturn V missile and launched it from their backyard? You have to see this to believe it.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
All The Fun Of The Psychic Fair
Here's a great Barf Stew piece from just a bit back. Ok, so you go to a `Psychic Fair' and are going to offer your first `readings' for free - but - only when the people have already had a paid reading with another `Psychic' --- for comparison. All and all, makes for a fun read of four minutes. http://spiritualjunkie.blogspot.com/2009/10/all-fun-of-psychic-fair-pt-3.html
http://thepeepshowpresents.blogspot.com/2009/07/shakira-she-wolf.html Woman in a cage in a flesh colored suit. Popular culture. Barf Stew.
In my blog The Heavy Stuff - I called this link the number one link of the year. It's about Orbs and what they could be. Find out more. http://supernaturalparanormal.com/abstraction-in-ufology/
Alien Abduction: Wyoming Woman Comes Forward -- Lon has another first person account of alien abduction -- this one has a new twist - they took her kidney. http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/alien-abduction-wyoming-woman-comes.html
Barf Stew? --- Hey, who knows, -- you decide.
Now, here's a Barfable one for you ----Two-thirds of cocaine in US is cut with veterinary deworming drug ---- http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/20/two-thirds-of-cocain.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29
Ron Paul: in a libertarian society, socialists could voluntarily live in their own communities - Here in this short, under two minute, Ron Paul YouTube clip - we have Mr. Paul speaking to a Student TownHall - killer stuff - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhl3IYkle9s
"The United States cannot force foreign governments to increase their holdings of Treasuries," - http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/print.asp?id=423054 Is the Barf about to hit the fan?
Okay, check this out --- a house INSIDE of a CAR -- worth the view for sure.
http://thepeepshowpresents.blogspot.com/2009/07/shakira-she-wolf.html Woman in a cage in a flesh colored suit. Popular culture. Barf Stew.
In my blog The Heavy Stuff - I called this link the number one link of the year. It's about Orbs and what they could be. Find out more. http://supernaturalparanormal.com/abstraction-in-ufology/
Alien Abduction: Wyoming Woman Comes Forward -- Lon has another first person account of alien abduction -- this one has a new twist - they took her kidney. http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/alien-abduction-wyoming-woman-comes.html
Barf Stew? --- Hey, who knows, -- you decide.
Now, here's a Barfable one for you ----Two-thirds of cocaine in US is cut with veterinary deworming drug ---- http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/20/two-thirds-of-cocain.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boingboing%2FiBag+%28Boing+Boing%29
Ron Paul: in a libertarian society, socialists could voluntarily live in their own communities - Here in this short, under two minute, Ron Paul YouTube clip - we have Mr. Paul speaking to a Student TownHall - killer stuff - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhl3IYkle9s
"The United States cannot force foreign governments to increase their holdings of Treasuries," - http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/print.asp?id=423054 Is the Barf about to hit the fan?
Okay, check this out --- a house INSIDE of a CAR -- worth the view for sure.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The Top 10 Cryptozoology Stories of 2009
The yearly awaited Loren Coleman listing of the crypto side of forteana. Includes a wide variety of re-discovered `extinct' creatures. Great read - http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/top10cz09/
Kansas dad somehow lifts car off 6-year-old girl - http://www.philly.com/philly/news/weird_news/20091218_ap_kansasdadsomehowliftscaroff6yearoldgirl.html Here's that story you heard about but didn't believe.
http://from-the-shadows.blogspot.com/2009/12/things-children-see.html The things children see - your dose of paranormal for today. Can children see into dimensions adults shut off?
Kansas dad somehow lifts car off 6-year-old girl - http://www.philly.com/philly/news/weird_news/20091218_ap_kansasdadsomehowliftscaroff6yearoldgirl.html Here's that story you heard about but didn't believe.
http://from-the-shadows.blogspot.com/2009/12/things-children-see.html The things children see - your dose of paranormal for today. Can children see into dimensions adults shut off?
http://xrayer.blogspot.com/ Second of many blogfinds that will be added to the `strange' Blogspot roll. Tons of content.
Book Review: Contactees: A History of Alien-Human Interaction Mr. Hanks, one of my favorite writers in the anomalous scene - really really likes this new book. You might also.
Alien UFOs and Our Astronaut Heroes - http://www.ufodigest.com/news/1209/astronaut-heroes.php A very full collection of statements from Astronauts about UFO's -- page after page after page. Barf Stew much too hot for the MSM.
Remember the Barf Stew claiming all kinds of cellphone calls were made by those on the hijacked flights on 9-11-01? Well, here's were all that stands as of today:
Monday, December 21, 2009
Humans Grapple With Understanding Blue Whale Song Changes In Last Eight Years
Hello, welcome to Barf Stew. One of the most interesting things on Earth yet discovered by humans is that the Blue Whales in our oceans have complex `songs' - actually, we assume, it's their `language' of course. A language that humans have yet to `break' but we assume (there's that assume again) they are talking `mating' or doing some self-identifying (fearing that they are really talking about how humans may be F'ing up the planet).
Anyway, today's post is about a finding concerning the Blue Whales `song' that is challenging ocean scientists thought processes. You see, worldwide, - yes, worldwide - in the last eight years the Blue Whale `song' has been `deepening' - to quote from the article:
"that the songs’ tonal frequency is falling every year by a few fractions of a hertz."
To which our scientists have offered some of their best guesses as to why this phenomena is happening. Such as:
Anyway, today's post is about a finding concerning the Blue Whales `song' that is challenging ocean scientists thought processes. You see, worldwide, - yes, worldwide - in the last eight years the Blue Whale `song' has been `deepening' - to quote from the article:
"that the songs’ tonal frequency is falling every year by a few fractions of a hertz."
To which our scientists have offered some of their best guesses as to why this phenomena is happening. Such as:
- the increase in ocean noise
- adaption to warmer ocean water
- `recovery' of species has more older deep voiced males being imitated
- that the Blue Whales listen to each other and imitate
But, each of these theories have a counter-point. If it was ocean noise - and the Blue Whales wanted to be heard `over-above' it - they would be higher pitched, not lower. Additionally, it's speculated that the changes to the oceans over the last eight years would not seem significant enough to trigger this yearly downward tone change. Also, in areas with stable older male populations, the change is happening - suggesting the `older male Whale theory' may not be valid.
Which, finally leaves - that Blue Whales, somehow, are in touch with their species on a world level. AND, that they are all `talking' in unison, in a new way, to get our attention.
Here's the link - http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/blue-whale-song-mystery/ - tell a friend you caught this link at Baft Stew. Thanks. Have a look around as there is lots more to see in other posts too.
More Barf Stew links for today - http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-zealand-reader-chronicles-close.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PhantomsAndMonstersAPersonalJourney+%28Phantoms+and+Monsters%29 Lon lands another first person account of high strangeness - rapidly becoming one of the websites best features. And, this tale from New Zealand has all the elements for a great experience with the twilight zone.
Ohio study finds conservatives believe that Stephen Colbert dislikes liberalism - http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/ohio-study-finds-conservatives-believe Lots of Barf Stew analysis here.
And, talking about analysis - here's Al Franken - "Franken Spars With Thune Accuses Him Of Not Reading The Senate Health Bill"
Saturday, December 19, 2009
UFO Pyramid Reported Over Kremlin
First, we had the Norway Spiral and now it's the Kremlin Pyramid - all within 10 days.
Here is a link to the site with the above video and story http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/6837200/UFO-pyramid-reported-over-Kremlin.html. Not only that - here's another link of someone else observing a pyramid UFO over the United States - http://exopoliticsnews.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/multiple-ufos-spotted-over-manchester-tennessee/. Pyramid UFO's? Barf Stewable for sure.
http://atomiceye.blogspot.com/2009/09/handcuffs-for-boys.html Back in the Barf Stew land before political correctness - we had ads - directed at pre-teen boys - for handcuffs. And one wonders why the hippies of yesteryear are so hip.
Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest - From the article "The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin – in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities. Now deforestation, increased air travel and satellite imagery are telling a different story" - http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427383.800-ancient-amazon-civilisation-laid-bare-by-felled-forest.html Are you ready for a new history about South America?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2776684/UFO-filmed-over-Kremlin.html An excellent picture here of the Kremlin Pyramid UFO.
The 50 most interesting articles on Wikipedia - http://copybot.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/the-50-most-interesting-articles-on-wikipedia/ Man o Man - here's a real keeper listing. Lots of Barf Stew here.
See You Tomorrow.
Here is a link to the site with the above video and story http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/6837200/UFO-pyramid-reported-over-Kremlin.html. Not only that - here's another link of someone else observing a pyramid UFO over the United States - http://exopoliticsnews.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/multiple-ufos-spotted-over-manchester-tennessee/. Pyramid UFO's? Barf Stewable for sure.
http://atomiceye.blogspot.com/2009/09/handcuffs-for-boys.html Back in the Barf Stew land before political correctness - we had ads - directed at pre-teen boys - for handcuffs. And one wonders why the hippies of yesteryear are so hip.
Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest - From the article "The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin – in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities. Now deforestation, increased air travel and satellite imagery are telling a different story" - http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427383.800-ancient-amazon-civilisation-laid-bare-by-felled-forest.html Are you ready for a new history about South America?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2776684/UFO-filmed-over-Kremlin.html An excellent picture here of the Kremlin Pyramid UFO.
The 50 most interesting articles on Wikipedia - http://copybot.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/the-50-most-interesting-articles-on-wikipedia/ Man o Man - here's a real keeper listing. Lots of Barf Stew here.
See You Tomorrow.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Religious Sightings Of The Decade
As the article states `Objects as diverse as the base of an iron, a toilet door, a restaurant griddle and the surface of the planet Mars were claimed to boast depictions of a spiritual nature.' with some great pictures too. http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/photos/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=150370108
And, talking of pictures http://www.lifeinitaly.com/files/linea_2.jpg - another virtual hottie. PG rated. Part of the Barf Stew Mix.
The Closet Door and the Reptilian - Long Island 1968 - http://endlessjrny.blogspot.com/2009/12/only-13-days-till-christmas-are-you.html One helluva high strangeness entity story. Captivating. BS worthy.
The ultimate in Barf Stew - watch out for this one - http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/afee6/what_was_the_most_fucked_up_thing_that_you_ever/
Adult language and situations.
http://www.futurizon.net/2009/12/population-growth-and-ethnic-mix.html `In reality, the 2030 enterprise will be staffed almost entirely by AIs and robots, the human crew will almost all be people of Asian, African and South American descent, and there will hardly be a white face in sight. As Spock would say, fascinating.' - What trends suggest.
UFO experts: Shock, panic possible when official disclosure made! - http://www.ufodigest.com/news/1209/ufo-experts.php Let us finish up today with a thoughtful article about UFO Disclosure. Four minute read.
And, talking of pictures http://www.lifeinitaly.com/files/linea_2.jpg - another virtual hottie. PG rated. Part of the Barf Stew Mix.
The Closet Door and the Reptilian - Long Island 1968 - http://endlessjrny.blogspot.com/2009/12/only-13-days-till-christmas-are-you.html One helluva high strangeness entity story. Captivating. BS worthy.
The ultimate in Barf Stew - watch out for this one - http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/afee6/what_was_the_most_fucked_up_thing_that_you_ever/
Adult language and situations.
http://www.futurizon.net/2009/12/population-growth-and-ethnic-mix.html `In reality, the 2030 enterprise will be staffed almost entirely by AIs and robots, the human crew will almost all be people of Asian, African and South American descent, and there will hardly be a white face in sight. As Spock would say, fascinating.' - What trends suggest.
UFO experts: Shock, panic possible when official disclosure made! - http://www.ufodigest.com/news/1209/ufo-experts.php Let us finish up today with a thoughtful article about UFO Disclosure. Four minute read.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Beatles Never Broke Up
Ok; so you are teleported or somehow find yourself in a parallel reality - one that is so similar to our reality that the Beatles exist. Not only that - they never broke up. ------------ Ok, now, you, being a big Beatles fan, want to bring back proof that the Beatles continued to make great music. So, you take a cassette tape and bring it back with you to our reality. Then you put it onto the internet for all to enjoy. The name of the album - Everyday Chemistry - http://thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/ ------ then, make sure to read the story behind how the tape was returned to our reality at http://thebeatlesneverbrokeup.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=53 - then, and only then, will you have digested your Barf Stew for today.
$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html Today's Barfable front page news.
Dollar Cafe: World’s most expensive wallpapers - http://www.moolf.com/travel/dollar-cafe-worlds-most-expensive-wallpapers.html Wallpaper. Made out of money. Fun read. Great pictures.
UFO evidence: 'Just the facts, please' http://www.examiner.com/x-2363-UFO-Examiner~y2009m12d12-UFO-evidence-Just-the-facts-please Here's a great 1978 first person account - by a policeman - of a UFO - and the effects on his body too. Great read.
The Beggar's Benison - Secret societies of the upper crust with ties to sexual escapades is just conspiracy fodder - right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beggar
http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2009/12/political-piggy.html The nearly annual Huge Hog in the woods story. With picture.
http://beautifulwrestling2.blogspot.com/ A blog about Female Wrestling - with pictures.
Have you told a friend about Barf Stew yet? http://barfstew.blogspot.com/ .
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$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html Today's Barfable front page news.
Dollar Cafe: World’s most expensive wallpapers - http://www.moolf.com/travel/dollar-cafe-worlds-most-expensive-wallpapers.html Wallpaper. Made out of money. Fun read. Great pictures.
UFO evidence: 'Just the facts, please' http://www.examiner.com/x-2363-UFO-Examiner~y2009m12d12-UFO-evidence-Just-the-facts-please Here's a great 1978 first person account - by a policeman - of a UFO - and the effects on his body too. Great read.
The Beggar's Benison - Secret societies of the upper crust with ties to sexual escapades is just conspiracy fodder - right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beggar
http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2009/12/political-piggy.html The nearly annual Huge Hog in the woods story. With picture.
http://beautifulwrestling2.blogspot.com/ A blog about Female Wrestling - with pictures.
Have you told a friend about Barf Stew yet? http://barfstew.blogspot.com/ .
Sell Used Books - Ship Your Books For Free And Get Fast Cash Back!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Rant 303
From time to time, I'm going to share various E-mails that I've gotten over the years that might fit the idea of Barf Stew. This e-mail is from a buddy of mine J.S. Flower - also known as Strouther Wiggins. Now, when J.S. begins to rant, which is rare, it usually is about the failings of the governmental level to address peoples concerns.
As you will read in this upcoming post Mr. Wiggins didn't respond too well well a friend of his sent him photos of the Queen of England posing with every President since Truman. Anyway, here's Flowers response.
Shakes One up a bit, doesn't it!
Lori, sent these Photo's and this was my response:
Yo Sister,
What shakes me up is the total historical context
Not that she has aged...
The under belly of "manifest destiny"
In that manifestation we see the total disregard for a comprehensive relationship...
Upon entry into the "new world" rivers were not looked at as the source of life, but rather ways to transport goods and services to remote regions and set up forts. They were a great place too dump whatever and this dumping continues to this day or rather flushing: turds, piss, and now endocrine inhibitors from the morning after pill of an 11 year old who is having her period...or all the over medicated bloated mass of a dem-rep americana invasive species who truly believes that everything is here for us to use because some deity GOD in the sky said so...and don't get down on what I want "to flush away"[there is no away] Mr. Highorse rider who just did his own hypocritical poop... kinda like:"Where does all that window washer fluid go after it gives you a "clear windshield"??? Why would I want to think where it goes as long as I can see the car in front of me??? I've got an important meeting to attend...the rat race has turned into a runaway burn it up humanoid marathonical demise
Hi? Monday Morning Rantology 303\Seeing these Images of the "Queen" and our euro-way sickens the systems of non-monetary support patterns...and on and on and on...
Its amazing looking at that old bag and the baggage she represents could stimulate such vitriol
Whole lot of shakin goin on...
Riding a Hopewellian edge
JF
On future responses I will refrain from this type of rantage, because I know is serves no real purpose of merit...
Sphereical cube mentality a force to reckon with, "they" used to call them squares...you hip to what I'm saying?
=
I hope to see you back here tomorrow. Tell a friend about Barf Stew.
As you will read in this upcoming post Mr. Wiggins didn't respond too well well a friend of his sent him photos of the Queen of England posing with every President since Truman. Anyway, here's Flowers response.
Shakes One up a bit, doesn't it!
Lori, sent these Photo's and this was my response:
Yo Sister,
What shakes me up is the total historical context
Not that she has aged...
The under belly of "manifest destiny"
In that manifestation we see the total disregard for a comprehensive relationship...
Upon entry into the "new world" rivers were not looked at as the source of life, but rather ways to transport goods and services to remote regions and set up forts. They were a great place too dump whatever and this dumping continues to this day or rather flushing: turds, piss, and now endocrine inhibitors from the morning after pill of an 11 year old who is having her period...or all the over medicated bloated mass of a dem-rep americana invasive species who truly believes that everything is here for us to use because some deity GOD in the sky said so...and don't get down on what I want "to flush away"[there is no away] Mr. Highorse rider who just did his own hypocritical poop... kinda like:"Where does all that window washer fluid go after it gives you a "clear windshield"??? Why would I want to think where it goes as long as I can see the car in front of me??? I've got an important meeting to attend...the rat race has turned into a runaway burn it up humanoid marathonical demise
Hi? Monday Morning Rantology 303\Seeing these Images of the "Queen" and our euro-way sickens the systems of non-monetary support patterns...and on and on and on...
Its amazing looking at that old bag and the baggage she represents could stimulate such vitriol
Whole lot of shakin goin on...
Riding a Hopewellian edge
JF
On future responses I will refrain from this type of rantage, because I know is serves no real purpose of merit...
Sphereical cube mentality a force to reckon with, "they" used to call them squares...you hip to what I'm saying?
=
I hope to see you back here tomorrow. Tell a friend about Barf Stew.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Build Your Own UFO For 60 Grand
A guy in the comments said it best - he wishes a Mythbusters show would build one of the UFO's from the `papers' available online - this is a classic out today - http://io9.com/5426220/why-arent-you-building-your-own-ufo-yet and is perfect for a Barf Stew lead story of the day.
Test your news IQ - http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php I'm ashamed to say I got 12 out of 12 right. Takes one minute, instant results. Send this to friends like I did.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-lanza/does-death-exist-new-theo_b_384515.html Good to know that death doesn't exist. Interesting read.
The mystery of Zomia - http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/12/06/the_mystery_of_zomia/ 100 million live there. They are hearty people not interested in the civilized governments. Who are those in Zomia? Interesting trippy read.
Test your news IQ - http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php I'm ashamed to say I got 12 out of 12 right. Takes one minute, instant results. Send this to friends like I did.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-lanza/does-death-exist-new-theo_b_384515.html Good to know that death doesn't exist. Interesting read.
The mystery of Zomia - http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/12/06/the_mystery_of_zomia/ 100 million live there. They are hearty people not interested in the civilized governments. Who are those in Zomia? Interesting trippy read.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Did Drug Money Save The Banks During Financial Meltdown?
Now here is a real strange story worthy of Barf Stew (BS) -- http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims is it really possible that this is the real truth? If so, how did the money come into the system so conveniently? This could be a huge story - let's see if the MSM touches it.
55% underwater - http://housing-kaboom.blogspot.com/2009/12/55-underwater.html Already 55% underwater in an area of California. Good graph. Barfable.
Indian scientists detect signs of life on Moon - http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_indian-scientists-detect-signs-of-life-on-moon_1322785 Here's one for the dubious BS file for now. Nonetheless, interesting.
Say what? http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/potter-broomstick.jpg Part of the stomach turning BS. Funny. One minute read.
http://www.sodahead.com/other/ron-paul-to-co-host-on-television-this-tuesday/blog-212649/ Ron Paul to co-host on CNBC tomorrow at 8-9 AM.
See you tomorrow.
55% underwater - http://housing-kaboom.blogspot.com/2009/12/55-underwater.html Already 55% underwater in an area of California. Good graph. Barfable.
Indian scientists detect signs of life on Moon - http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_indian-scientists-detect-signs-of-life-on-moon_1322785 Here's one for the dubious BS file for now. Nonetheless, interesting.
Say what? http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/potter-broomstick.jpg Part of the stomach turning BS. Funny. One minute read.
http://www.sodahead.com/other/ron-paul-to-co-host-on-television-this-tuesday/blog-212649/ Ron Paul to co-host on CNBC tomorrow at 8-9 AM.
See you tomorrow.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Do Chemtrails Have Approval Of CFR - Council Of Foreign Relations?
One of the biggest in your face changes to the world in front of our eyes has been the increase in `those lines in the skies' that really were very minimal until the mid to late 90's. This idea - that the chemtrails are used to regulate the world temperatures - is something I've covered before in my blog The Heavy Stuff. Here it turns out that my speculation years ago may have been dead on. http://gorightly.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/chemtrails-stratospheric-aerosol-insertion-approved-by-the-cfr-to-save-the-planet/ and here's my June 2008 post http://theheavystuff.com/?p=63. Now, regardless if it is the CFR - it is almost certainly some organization of beyond world politician level IMO. Barf Stew at its best for sure - don't get any on you.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
20 Ways Tiger Woods And Pee-wee Herman Seem Connected
Tiger/Pee-wee
Wore Sweaters/Wore Sweaters
Prim and Proper/Prim and Proper
Boy Face/Boy Face
Almost White/Too White
Intense/Insane
Clubhouse/Playhouse
Clean image begged for tarnishing/Clean image begged for tarnishing
sometimes displayed childish tantrums / sometimes displayed childish tantrums
Creepy image after tarnishing/Creepy image after tarnishing
Police at the scene of tarnishing/Police at the scene of tarnishing
Given inconsequential fine but will lose big/Given inconsequential fine but lost big
Image removed from webpages after incident/Pee-wee toys removed from shelves after incident
Hero To Legions Of Fans Of Multiple Generations/ Hero to Legions...
Hero to many kids/Hero to many kids
Violated Trust Of Wife/Violated Trust Of Image
pornstar/porn theater
Could have rented movie of `girlfriend' instead/When caught-movie on screen could have been instead rented from xxx stores
Nickname can be moniker for male member/Nickname can be moniker for male ..
Was possibly wacked by a club/Was possibly wacking his `club'
This line applied to both - "Heard any good jokes lately?"
Friday, December 11, 2009
Two Hot Female Teachers Caught Naked In School By Janitor
Did hell just freeze over? I mean, WTF! --- With picture of the two hot ladies too http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/12/09/2009-12-09_teachers_pet__each_other_naked_lust_was_part_of_their_lesson_plan_at_high_school.html
Two more hot - inappropriately dressed ladies - http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/984/ballheadstoneoz1.jpg you don't mind - do you?
Which American accent do you have? - http://www.youthink.com/quiz.cfm?obj_id=9827 Here's an interesting quiz you can take yourself in a matter of minutes. Fun and interesting. Ready?
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/mn-bf-tc/ Bigfoot trailcam photo.
Caution Will Robinson,,,,, ---http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_10000000/newsid_10003300/10003337.stm
You have seen the ads to just send off your gold on TV, right? Don't do it before you read this.
And, below is today's video -- "Hey Michael J. Fox a Parkinson's cure"
Two more hot - inappropriately dressed ladies - http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/984/ballheadstoneoz1.jpg you don't mind - do you?
Which American accent do you have? - http://www.youthink.com/quiz.cfm?obj_id=9827 Here's an interesting quiz you can take yourself in a matter of minutes. Fun and interesting. Ready?
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/mn-bf-tc/ Bigfoot trailcam photo.
Caution Will Robinson,,,,, ---http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_10000000/newsid_10003300/10003337.stm
You have seen the ads to just send off your gold on TV, right? Don't do it before you read this.
And, below is today's video -- "Hey Michael J. Fox a Parkinson's cure"
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Gallup: Obama Lowest Rated 1st Year President In History
Numbers are numbers and President Obama has claimed the lowest of them yet for a President in his first year. I smell another Carter - http://therobalution.com/2009/12/08/gallup-obama-lowest-rated-1st-year-president-in-history/.
Oh, BTW, the incredible video on yesterdays post may have been the soviet missile some were saying - then again, others say it is a cover story.
http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/10407/forecast-foiled-by-reality/ A review of the year from the probable number one UFO blog on the internet. What is his summary of 2009's sightings? "the UFOs are getting bolder and coming closer.”
http://forgetomori.com/2009/aliens/the-alien-autopsy/ All month Forgetomori has been doing `pictures of aliens' - here's perhaps the most famous one - the Alien Autopsy. With some video too.
http://doodleicious.amplify.com/2009/12/07/the-top-10-anomalous-dubious-hoax-events-and-links-of-2009/ Here's a link type site that picked up my most recent post on THS.
http://ra.2mcl.com/wp/sexy-girls/girls_World_Cup_Girl_Spain_20.jpg Just like on the AnomalyMan Listing - this site too will have pretty girls.
Here's another of these folks who say they can just go out and film plasma UFO's - take a look and decide.
Oh, BTW, the incredible video on yesterdays post may have been the soviet missile some were saying - then again, others say it is a cover story.
http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/10407/forecast-foiled-by-reality/ A review of the year from the probable number one UFO blog on the internet. What is his summary of 2009's sightings? "the UFOs are getting bolder and coming closer.”
http://forgetomori.com/2009/aliens/the-alien-autopsy/ All month Forgetomori has been doing `pictures of aliens' - here's perhaps the most famous one - the Alien Autopsy. With some video too.
http://doodleicious.amplify.com/2009/12/07/the-top-10-anomalous-dubious-hoax-events-and-links-of-2009/ Here's a link type site that picked up my most recent post on THS.
http://ra.2mcl.com/wp/sexy-girls/girls_World_Cup_Girl_Spain_20.jpg Just like on the AnomalyMan Listing - this site too will have pretty girls.
Here's another of these folks who say they can just go out and film plasma UFO's - take a look and decide.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The 2008 `UFO In My Barn' Blog Prediction - Has Come True!
Hello, welcome to Barf Stew - the blog where `anything can come up'. Today's entree is a new probable hoax about two folks claiming to have an object (teasingly not described as a UFO but as a small craft that has a strong sulfur odor) in ` locked refrigerated storage' - that when you take a picture of it everything shows as a deep blue color. Then, a day later, pictures arrive that were supposed to be in the first mailing http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/12/update-ufo-crash-reported-kettle.html.
Unfortunately for the probable hoaxers - Lon at Phantoms and Monsters has a huge memory bank for the shape of crafts and lo and behold - the supposed photo of the craft in `locked refrigerated storage' - seems to be anything but a craft found in the woods. And, unlike the Georgia Bigfoot hoax a year ago - which supposedly did involve cash exchanging hands - it doesn't look like these hucksters will be as successful at swapping the `UFO In My Barn' (which I predicted could happen here http://theheavystuff.com/?p=83 on Aug. 17th of last year - read how close I was to this folly) for a bounty.
Don't worry - we still have room for the `Elf In The Cellar Hoax' -- I guess if it was a Gnome or Alien that would work too. Such is the world of running anomalous websites - where it all comes running at you.
Hope you enjoy my new blog - bookmark and return if you would. http://barfstew.blogspot.com/ .
Today's Barf Stew (BS) worthy links:
http://www.realufos.net/2009/12/norway-spiral-ufo-lights-did-you-see.html Something truly strange happened the other night in the skies of Norway - something that I've never seen before in many many strange videos of the sky. This link contains the theories and Great photos too.
This is the video below of the phenomena: Wow. Includes pictures of the phenomena from different parts of Norway.
Unfortunately for the probable hoaxers - Lon at Phantoms and Monsters has a huge memory bank for the shape of crafts and lo and behold - the supposed photo of the craft in `locked refrigerated storage' - seems to be anything but a craft found in the woods. And, unlike the Georgia Bigfoot hoax a year ago - which supposedly did involve cash exchanging hands - it doesn't look like these hucksters will be as successful at swapping the `UFO In My Barn' (which I predicted could happen here http://theheavystuff.com/?p=83 on Aug. 17th of last year - read how close I was to this folly) for a bounty.
Don't worry - we still have room for the `Elf In The Cellar Hoax' -- I guess if it was a Gnome or Alien that would work too. Such is the world of running anomalous websites - where it all comes running at you.
Hope you enjoy my new blog - bookmark and return if you would. http://barfstew.blogspot.com/ .
Today's Barf Stew (BS) worthy links:
http://www.realufos.net/2009/12/norway-spiral-ufo-lights-did-you-see.html Something truly strange happened the other night in the skies of Norway - something that I've never seen before in many many strange videos of the sky. This link contains the theories and Great photos too.
This is the video below of the phenomena: Wow. Includes pictures of the phenomena from different parts of Norway.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Progress - With The White Culture
"Before our white brothers came to civilize us we had no jails. Therefore we had no criminals. You can’t have criminals without a jail. We had no locks or keys, and so we had no thieves. If a man was so poor that he had no horse, tipi or blanket, someone gave him these things. We were too uncivilized to set much value on personal belongings. We wanted to have things only in order to give them away. We had no money, and therefore a man’s worth couldn’t be measured by it. We had no written law, no attorney or politicians, therefore we couldn’t cheat. We were in a really bad way before the white man came, and I don’t know how we managed to get along without the basic things which, we are told, are absolutely necessary to make a civilized society."
-- Lakota Sage Lame Deer (from John Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions)
Part of the purpose of Barf Stew will be to bring you visions of other folks - all kinds of visions (which is why I encourage you to send yours in or put it in the comment area). What you see above I have in the sidebar of my politics blog on blogspot called Real Heavy Politics. Tomorrow, I will bring you one definition of `white culture' (by the way, I'm white) from a friend of mine which also is on my politics blogs sidebar.
-- Lakota Sage Lame Deer (from John Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions)
Part of the purpose of Barf Stew will be to bring you visions of other folks - all kinds of visions (which is why I encourage you to send yours in or put it in the comment area). What you see above I have in the sidebar of my politics blog on blogspot called Real Heavy Politics. Tomorrow, I will bring you one definition of `white culture' (by the way, I'm white) from a friend of mine which also is on my politics blogs sidebar.
Now, onto the links for Barf Stew today 12-8-09
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2009/09/episode-204-mysterious-universe/ Yesterday I brought you Episode 213 where these 2 guys in podcast talked about my one post. Here is where they spoke of my post on THS about life on mars about 30 minutes into the show again. Give these guys and this show a listen, it's like having Barf Stew on the radio.
Treemometers: A new scientific scandal - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/29/yamal_scandal/ While this is about 10 weeks old, it was this story that began to open folks minds up to the fact that the climate warming data might not be all it's cranked up to be about certain attributes.
Radical Pruning in a Closet Environment - http://forums.mycotopia.net/holding-tank/32353-radical-pruning-closet-environment.html With great pictures.
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/sa-tracks/ Location San Antonio Texas - Event - Bigfoot or Baboon sighting Proof - footprints (with pictures) and even turned into a TV news story. Watch it here.
Now, below, will be our first YouTube Video on Barf Stew (BS - for short) - one that just as easily could have been on my UFO blog. Enjoy this excellent video shot earlier in the year.
UFO creates molecular plasma shocking video!!!
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Birth Of Barf Stew
Why Barf Stew? Because `Going Postal In A Fed Ex World' was too long. And, anyway, the way I see this blogs positioning is to be like a daily overflow from some of my other online offerings. Now, an overflow from some of my other online offerings can only mean one thing - lots of UFO's, esoteric thought, and political crappola - much like my main Squidoo webpage (without the preponderance of personal links to my blogs - this space will have less of that). But, unlike my Squidoo page that is only G rated, here, I won't worry so much about the sensors. All that said, I don't want to lay down any rules about what kind of links I will be providing --- but --- I hope you will enjoy the mix and interact with them.
Finally, if you have an interest in my other blogs - they are in the blogroll along with a few other great sites that have supported my other blogs original material (my posts) on a frequent basis. I will also try to support Blogspot blogs with material I think my readers will like in a separate blogroll - so - if you have a blogspot blog that you think I should have in that area let me know. And, lastly, if you have some sort of `paraNormal' story that you'd like to share with the world - feel free to put it in the comments for the day or send it to me via masters4ever@aol.com and it could appear as a givens day main and featured posting.
Barf Stew Links - 12/7/2009
Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges -http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6736517/Copenhagen-climate-summit-1200-limos-140-private-planes-and-caviar-wedges.html
Yet Another Alien Autopsy - http://forgetomori.com/2008/aliens/yet-another-alien-autopsy/ With Video.
Denver's Proposed Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission - http://ufoview.posterous.com/item-255-lifting-the-ufo-et-ostrichs-head-fro You can't make this stuff up.
Modern hipsters sat here - http://www.shorpy.com/node/7257?size=_original Chautauqua: 1890s Are you familar with the Shorpy website? Real time travel.
Breeding and the Beast - http://durangoherald.com/sections/Opinion/2009/12/06/Breeding_and_the_Beast/ "the 800-pound gorilla lurking in our midst"
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2009/12/episode-213-mysterious-universe/ One of the real thrills of blogging is when another site talks about your posts - literally on the air - even if it is a podcast. Here is a real cool podcast that from about the 35 minute mark to the 40 minute mark talked about this post I did http://ufodisclosurecountdownclock.blogspot.com/2009/11/exopolitics-movement-discredited-by.html a few weeks ago. You will like this podcast.
Much more to come - return and bookmark.