Gonzo Weekly #157
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Subscribe to Gonzo Weekly http://eepurl.com/r-VTD Subscribe to Gonzo Daily http://eepurl.com/OvPez Gonzo Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/287744711294595/ Gonzo Weekly on Twitter https://twitter.com/gonzoweekly Gonzo Multimedia (UK) http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/ Gonzo Multimedia (USA) http://www.gonzomultimedia.com/ 3 afternoon, but for all sorts of reasons (think Graham having to change the filament on Corinna's huge industrial size oven ... No that isn't a euphemism, and it involved far more faffing around, drilling holes in the wall, and the purchase of a new hammer action drill, whatever that is) it was mid evening before Corinna had finished doing her bits. Then, just before we went to press history was made. OK, I want to qualify this. History is being made every day. One of the things that I love about history is that we live it and make it every day. I always remember when I was a stripling of eleven or so, my father explaining to me about the living veracity of historical process. At that time (1971) my paternal Grandmother was an old lady in her eighties, and - so my Father told me - when she had been a little girl living in Clovelly (a village only a few miles away from where we Dear Friends, live now) her family had a jobbing gardener, a very old man who had been a boy soldier at the Welcome to another issue of the Gonzo Weekly, a Battle of Waterloo. magazine which evolves happily into new and variable incarnations without me having to do This got me thinking, and in one of the minor anything to prompt it. epiphanies that growing minds are wont to have, I realised that when the 21st Century dawned, there Last week I tried extremely hard to get the would be some people alive who were born in the magazine finished in time for me to have a 19th Century, and would then have experienced restful weekend. Things have been getting on top part of three whole centuries. In fact there are of me recently, and I really wanted some time still two old ladies - one in Italy and one in The off. I finished my bits quite early in the 4 “For Desolation Row read Facebook.” USA - for which this is true. literally) drinking himself to death. I remember in the days after 9-11 feeling punchdrunk, and But I digress, and I have digressed even worse worse, feeling that sitting at my computer in my than I usually do, and that is saying something. little sitting room in Exeter, trying to write deathless prose about breeding angelfish was both On Friday night, however, just as we were going irrelevant, and somehow inappropriate as - like to press, a historical event took place, and most of the rest of the world - I was trying to furthermore it was a historical event that shall, if come to terms with what had happened. I am not very mistaken, reverberate down through the years, if not decades, to come. And I feel much the same now. Trying to get back into my daily routine when my mind is still full of Back in 2001 I was working as the Deputy Editor the images of the carnage in France seems of a tropical fish magazine, which was slowly and somehow disrespectful. But, of course, it’s not. surely going down the drain because the owner/ editor was a chronic alcoholic who was (quite If we don't get on with our normal routines, 6 which for me means sitting trying to write French tricolour. I am not draping it in the deathless prose about cryptozoology, aberrations Lebanese flag or the Russian flag either, and both of British butterflies, and rock music spattered those countries suffered brutal terrorist attacks with a teensy weensy bit of history and politics, within a few weeks of those in Paris. then they have won! Whilst I was not a supporter of the Iraq War, believing it to be both illegal and ISIL are a rogue organisation who, as far as I am unfounded, and - like many others - I warned aware, are not recognised as a legitimate against an inevitable backlash that would come as government by any country on Earth. It is a result of it, I was shocked at the precise scale of interesting, therefore to see another rogue, the backlash, and am terrified at its implications. organisation, and furthermore one who has appeared in these pages before, facing up to them. Whatever happens next, and although I have my In Monday's Daily Mirror a leader article states suspicions, I know no more than the rest of us, that "Hacker group Anonymous have declared war the world is never going to be the same again. against ISIS after the attacks in Paris on Friday night. Posting a video on YouTube, the group said And am I going to continue writing amusing it would use its knowledge to "unite humanity" bollocks about mystery animals, butterflies and and warned the terrorists to "expect us". rock music. Of course I am. Terrorism is aimed at destabilising society and making it too afraid to Behind their signature mask, a spokesperson function. Although I am sure that the Islamic speaking in French said: "Anonymous from all State would find the Fortean stuff with which I over the world will hunt you down. You should deal blasphemous superstition, and much of the know that we will find you and we will not let you stuff that appears in this magazine to be decadent go. beyond extreme, it would be completely ludicrous for me to claim that the men from the deserts "We will launch the biggest operation ever against have any interest at all in stopping me personally. you." But they want to stop us ALL from functioning, and to continuing what we do normally is the best As friends and relatives of mine covered their way to defy them. Facebook avatars in the tricoleur to show solidarity with the victims, another friend of mine I am sure that there will be some people who wrote: "When literally hundreds of thousands of accuse me of not being sympathetic to the cause, innocents are butchered in the DRC, Sudan or because I have not draped this week's issue in the some other 'unfashionable' African country, why 7 don't we see folks adorning their FB pages with David Bowie, Motorhead, Pr ince, David Gilmour, Paul THOSE flags or tearful declarations of "We are McCartney, Jeff Buckley, Jarvis Cocker, Barbara Dickson, all Congolese" or "We are all Sudanese"? But Eagles of Death Metal, Steve Ignorant, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Warren suddenly "we're all Parisians" now?" Mitchell, Cynthia Payne, P.F. Sloan, Nucleus, The RAZ Band, Mark Murdock, Brand X, Alexis Korner, 13th Floor It is easy to see what he means, and I mostly Elevators, Daevid Allen, Gong, The Glissando Guitar agree with him. As Claire Bernish wrote: Orchestra, Invisible Opera Company Of Tibet, Monty "Without question, I mourn for Paris’ recent Oxymoron and Friends, Shankara Andy Bole with Elliet victims and their families — and I would never Mackrell, Mark Robson (Magick Orphan) with Elliet Mackrell, Andy Bole, Arthur Brown, Cruise to the Edge, claim knowledgeable firsthand experience of the Anglagard, Martin Barre, Haken, Moon Safari, Premiata same. Forneria Marconi, Saga, Three Friends, Yes, Marillion, Caravan, Michael Raz, Joey Molland, Joe Vitale, Davey But I refuse — despite my partial French heritage Curtis, Walter Paddy McAloon,Bridget Wishart, Roy Weard, — to cloak myself in nationalism of any stripe or My Dad's LPs, A.J. Smitrovich, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, The Beatles, Xtul, The Rolling Stones, Buddy Holly, Michael star, particularly not now. Because, besides Jackson, The Cure, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Metallica, victims in Paris, an incomprehensibly astronomic Motorhead, David Bowid, Yes, Chris Squire, AndersonPonty, number of people have been grieving loss of the Billy Sherwood, Jon Anderson, Matt Malley, Neil Nixon, highest order for some time — in places whose Vishwa Mohan Bhatt & Ry Cooder, Empyrium names roll off our tongues as if it’s accepted that violence simply happens there — and a majority likely couldn’t guess the colors on these victims’ IT’S A LEGAL MATTER BABY flags." A lot of the time the pictures that we include Me? I am staying on the sidelines in my in this publication are unique to Gonzo tumbledown potato shed, on the outskirts of a Weekly, and used with the photographer’s village nobody has heard of in rural North Devon. permission. However, this magazine is free, I am praying for Peace, but expecting War, and I and at least at the moment only available really wish Mick Farren were still here.... online, and so in our opinion we are covered by a recent decision by the European Courts of Justice. Praise be to Nero's Neptune The Titanic sails at dawn Websites can link to freely available content Everybody's shouting without the permission of the copyright "Which side are you on?" holder, the European Court of Justice says. And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot The court's decision came after a dispute in Fighting in the captain's tower Sweden between journalists and a web While calypso singers laugh at them company that had posted links on its site to And fishermen hold flowers online news articles. Between the windows of the sea A Swedish court had asked the EU court to Where lovely mermaids flow consider whether this broke copyright law.