Reviews from RQ 103 — Plus Our Past Several Here’S an Advance Section from Our Upcoming Online Issue
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WEB FEATURES A special feature from the archives of ReclaimingQuarterly.org an advance section from our latest issue Latest Issue Online! The latest issue of Reclaiming Quarterly Reviews from RQ 103 — plus our past several Here’s an advance section from our upcoming online issue. Save-As to issues save to your hard drive. Pages should print easily. — now available The full issue will be appear in later 2014, publishing faeries permitting. as a free This section is ready now – so why hold it back? You’ll find: downloadable PDF file at • Reviews In Brief – all sorts of books, music, video and film, social RQ.org tendencies, and more – 25 words at a time! Each issue of RQ • Trancers’ Delight – Fabric and Rinse offer hundreds of hours of brings you danceable, tranceable London-based house music. the latest in activism, As a special bonus, we’ve appended “Witchcraft and the Rave Scene” spiritual (RQ #79, Summer 2000). The article parallels the magic woven in Pagan practices, Reclaiming news, interfaith rituals with the alternate environment generated in electronic raves. pagan humor, and much more! This and lots more features – free downloads – visit ReclaimingQuarterly.org Visit www.ReclaimingQuarterly.org You’ll find updates on our latest issue plus downloads of recent issues at ReclaimingQuarterly.org/current.html Reclaiming Music CDs Chants & Music available online Reclaiming has released four CDs of Earth-based chants and music. All four are available on our website. Many Reclaiming musicians and teachers have also released CDs. Witches Brew is a good introduction to Reclaiming’s musicians. The dance floor at Fabric in London – home of tranceable dance music. Visit www.reclaimingquarterly.org/music, or contact [email protected] Reclaiming Quarterly • PO Box 14404, San Francisco, CA 94114 • [email protected] • www.ReclaimingQuarterly.org Alternate Books • Film • Music • Resources TAKES READING MATTE R Nature & the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin offers a coherent picture of What Is The What by Dave Eggers. “eco-centric” human development, Guardian UK Eggers rewrites the very real tales of integrating wisdom from many traditions an extraordinary “lost boy” who fled Number one source of international into a “field guide for creating an elder, the recent civil war in Sudan and spent starting at birth.” An inspiring and news in English — London-based, years in refugee priceless contribution with good US coverage. Web camps in Ethiopia to those wanting to re- pages are print-friendly, so you can and Kenya before indigenize ourselves practically assemble your own daily moving to the US. and our culture. paper. No US paper compares — Hilarious, poignant, www.guardian.co.uk slapstick, nightmare, MUSIC /AUDIO it’s a story of love, Higher Self by Rod death, more death, Kinny (CD). Well- Earth First! Journal fate, and survival. crafted, positive Plus a ground level More international activist news than music by a sincere perspective on East ordinary mortals can possibly read. and tender singer. If African and global EF!J sets the standard for grassroots you’re looking for geopolitics. publications. $25/year to Box 3023, music that supports Tucson, AZ 85702. Or visit www. Rituals of your positive visions, earthfirstjournal.org Celebration by Jane this is it! Meredith. Lyrical and Edda: Myths from Indy Media Centers practical accounts of Medieval Iceland creating a cycle of by Snorri Sturluson Up to the moment, locally-based rituals celebrating the (CD). Excerpts from activist news from around the world. Wheel of the Year. Snorri’s sagas set to When the action is breaking, there Community and family activities as well Medieval arrangements – think Icelandic are no better online sites. Their as personal reflections make this a rich operetta meets Ren Faire instrumentals. flagship site has links to dozens of and multi-layered book. local sites. Visit www.indymedia.org RAP WITH A HEA R T – 1990 The Cosmic Ballgame by David Miller. RQ is lovin’ on Mackelmore and Ryan Reflections on the rituals of Mayan and Lewis and their hilarious, socially- Witchvox American ballgames of creation, the di- positive hit (“Thrift Shop”). lemmas posed by the transformation from Witches’ Voice is the top networking But when we heard a commentator a Grandmother-honoring culture to a war- site for Witches and Pagans online. gush that the duo might have changed rior hierarchy – and lessons for today. Everything from religious liberties rap history if they’d appeared 25 years to the latest local ritual. Events are ago, we had to stop and think about all user-posted and come from every the circa 1990 hip hop acts that did make corner of Paganism. An inspiring site music history, only to be buried by the corporate-funded “gangsta” trend. Check to browse. Visit www.witchvox.com out these classic albums: • Jungle Brothers Done By the Forces RQ.org • De La Soul Stakes Is High RQ.org carries photo-features and • Brand Nubian Everything Is Everything reports on grassroots activism and • Tribe Called Quest Low End Theory Pagan events, as well as reports on Witchcamps and other Reclaiming VIDEO events. Our back-issue archives Long-buried works by 1960s art-video have dozens of magical and activist pioneers: Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, features. RQ.org’s pages are print- Joan Jonas, Yoko Ono, Bruce Nauman, friendly, so you can read offline too. and many more – now on Youtube. Visit www.reclaimingquarterly.org more reviews on next page 5 Re c l a i m i n g Qu a R t e R l y • i s s u e 103 Books • Film • Music • Resources • & More . THE END OF T HE WORLD GE ts RADICAL HI st ORY SOCIAL TENDENCIE S PER S ONAL – tw O RECEN T FILM S The Suppressed History Archives Gentrification (2013) – ongoing Hot on the heels of the apocalyptic me- – coordinated by Max Dashu since performance by San Francisco. gamovies of 2012 come a pair of small- 1970, SHA uncovers the realities of Residents of SF are witnessing an scale, personal comic dramas. Funny, women’s lives across time, challenging ongoing spectacle of forced relocations, insightful, and humane. notions of patriarchy new restaurants, and exodus motivated and slavery, conquest by evictions and buy outs that use the Seeking a Friend for the End and aboriginality. The Ellis Act to force long-term tenants out of the World questions the site offers a grassroots, of San Francisco. Activist response has meaning of culture and re- global perspective been sporadic as solidarity has crumbled lationships in the face of the on women’s history under neoliberalism (individual blame, obliteration of all human life. and how systems of corporate gain) and everyone scrambles Highlight: a disco whose pa- domination perpetuate alone to find their new home. trons have moved in full time. themselves. Visit Thanks for Reviews to; Luke, Keith, Susan, It’s A Disaster joins eight SuppressedHistories.net Seneca, Jacques, Meagan, Frida, Baruch. friends trapped in a suburban house after a nerve gas attack. A postmodern melange of non-sequitors and crossed contexts, this is a film to Consensus & Feminist Process watch at home with the rewind button in Free download at RQ.org hand. Favorite lines: This 16-page handbook is distilled from direct action A: I thought this conversation was hy- handbooks. Sections cover nonviolence in action and in our pothetical. relationships, consensus and group process, affinity groups, B: No, the conversation is real – the working amid diversity, and confronting oppression. problem is hypothetical. Free download: www.ReclaimingQuarterly.org/web/handbook/ 25 Years Ago: a Vintage Reclaiming Newsletter Reclaiming Newsletter, Issue No. 32 - Fall 1988 Note on Page 1: “The Newsletter staff has sworn off its lamentable co-behavior and will not chase down late submissions. We really mean it this time.” Feature articles included: • “That Old Black Magic: Magical Ethics,” by Judy Harrow • “What I Learned on My Summer Vacation,” by Rose May Dance • “Singing Down the Rain,” by Esther Frances • “Trance,” by Roy King • “Hannah’s Household Hints,” by Hannah Clancy Classes included Elements of Magic and Ritual as a Tool for Freedom. Reclaiming Newsletter No. 32 was produced by the RQ production cell’s distant ancestors, whom we honor here: Ann, Danielle, David, Karen, Laurie, Lisa, Rose, Sophia, and Roy. You can order copies of the RQ Archives – Reclaiming Newsletters and Quarterlies RQ Archives — order copies online at www. as PDF files – for just $25/10 issues! – www.reclaimingquarterly.org/archives/ reclaimingquarterly.org/archives/ 6 Re c l a i m i n g Qu a R t e R l y • i s s u e 103 fabric / FABRICLIVE Trancers’ delight — London nightspot releases 100+ DJ mixes by Malcolm Howell / RQ London Trance Correspondent Back in 2000, RQ ran a feature article by Riyana Lilyhawk called “Witchcraft and the Rave Scene” (RQ #79, Summer 2000). The article paralleled the magic woven in Pagan rituals with the alternate environment generated in electronic-music raves: “Layers of music taper off and blend with one another, although that demanding rhythm — fast, driving drums — is always there... The floor is physically, noticeably moving beneath our feet. Everywhere is energy...” Outside of raves and dance clubs, the heartbeat pulse of house music still has enchanting power. From bouncy techno to heavy industrial sounds, the pounding bass unifies a genre created specifically to draw us into altered states. A lot of dance music is dominated by wailing vocals – a trance buzz-kill for some of us. For meditation, instrumental house music is the key. Two cities are pushing the edge of this genre – Berlin and London. WHE R E TO BEGIN ? Thanks to the internet, there’s no shortage of up-to-the-minute house music.