HW:More Assembled Trivia

[David Jones]

Sorry for the length of this post.

These are a few additions to the assembled trivia that was posted about a
week ago.


---------
*Hawkwind*

>Mirror of Illusion - "perception's doors" references Aldous Huxley's *The
>Doors of Perception* [1954].

Which is itself stolen from William Blake - "If the doors of perception
were cleansed everything would appear as it is, infinite"

---------
Silver Machine

>>From Robert Calvert : The Action Man Explains - Cheescake No 5
"I read this essay by Alfred Jarry called How to Construct a Time Machine"
and I noticed something ... what he was describing was his bicycle.  Jarry
got into this thing called Petaphysics which is a sort of French joke
science.
I thought it was a great idea for a song. At that time there were lots of
songs about space travel and it was the time when NASA was actually doing
it.  I though it was about time to come up with a song that sent all this
up which was Silver Machine.  Silver Machine was just to say Ive got a
silver bicycle and nobody got it. I didnt think they would I thought that
they would think we were singing about some sort of cosmic space travel
machine."

Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) French writer who invented a logic of the absurd
which he called pataphysique and his work is considered a precursor of the
theatre of the absurd.

See http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~ngzF92/jarrypub/commence.html
A very intersting page on Jarry particularly for the description of him
which bears a remarkable similarity to the photograph of Calvert with his
bicycle from the Cellar Tapes CD.

---------
*Space Ritual*

>Orgone Accumulator - refers to the scientific theories of Dr Wilhelm Reich.
b 1897 d 1957

> In his theory, "orgone" was a vital force, permeating the universe, which
>could be collected in "orgone boxes", and used to cure certain diseases.
> This theory failed to gain widespread acceptance.
An orgone box is a sort of upright coffin made of alternate layers of metal
and an insulator sitting inside is suposed to charge up a person and cure a
few common ailments from the cold to cancer.
Reich died in prison in the US prosecuted for promoting a fraudulent
treatment. He was very clearly mentally ill near the end of his life and
his persecution by the US Food and Drugs Authority which resulted in his
imprisonment is a really shocking story.

---------
*Hall of the Mountain Grill*

Goat Willow
The tree Salix Caprea, widespread in Europe, same tree as the pussy willow
I think.
A natural History of Europe on my shelf lists this plant as a source of
foodstuff or medecines, but I cant find out what exactly - is it aspirin ?


---------
*Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music*

The Aubergine that ate Rangoon

Rangoon is the capital of Burma

----------
*Quark, Strangeness and Charm*

>Hassan I Sahba - leader of mediaeval Moslem sect known as the Hashishim, or
>"assassins", who used hashish to induce an ecstatic state;
Ismaili Shiite grouping founded in the late 11th Century.  Their
headquarters was in the virtually impregnable castle of Alamut in the
Elburz Mountains in Iran they also spread to Syria in the Ansariyya
Mountains where they caused big problems for both the crusaders and
Saladin.  There is a story of them trying to impress someone (French
Crusaders I believe) by lining up the faithfull on the walls of the castle
and ordering them to jump.  The sect was dissolved inthe mid 13th C by the
Mongols.


>Black September
Black September refers to September 1970 when Fedayeen and the PLO resisted
an attempt by the Jordanian governement to establish control over their
guerillas who were operating against Isreal.  A civil war resulted - I
assume the terrorist organisation is named after this event.

Forge of Vulcan

Vulcan is the Roman god of Fire and hence Blacksmiths

-----------
*Space Bandits*

Black Elk Speaks

see http://www.unl.edu/UP/e-bes.htm

-----------
*Alien 4*

Area S4 is a US airforce base in Nevada, 125 miles north of Las Vegas
I think it is the same as Area 51 or Dreamland and the location of the Blue
Room that the Orb single takes its title from.
This place is where the remains of the Rosewell UFO crash are supposed
to have been taken. Stealth technology is supposed to have been
developed from this  wreckage, or from a pact with the surviving aliens
depending on whom you believe (!) There is a lot of stuff on the
internet about area 51.

The abduction imagery is passim in the X-Files and also Whitley Streibers
book Communion and the Book/film Fire in the Sky which tells of the
abduction of Travis Walton again lots of stuff on the internet.


Xenomorph is a term in geology that I dont understand sufficiently well to
explain, literally I suppose it means "strange form".

---------
OThers

Mists of Meridin

Meriden (slightly different spelling) is the town that is traditionally
supposed to be the geographical centre of England.

Dream of Isis

Isis was the Egyptian Queen of the Gods

Sonic Attack

Could we have some mention on sonic weapons there was some discussion of
this on the list a few weeks ago.

The Right Stuff

Book by Tom Wolfe turned into a film about test pilots and astronauts most
of the lyrical content of the song is taken from the book.  This leads us
to Calverts solo work which is a rich source of references...


It is the business..

I have gone through a great number of books of quotations.  I can find the
following which is Alfred North Whitehead "THe major advances in
civilisation are processes that all but wreck the society in which they
occur" but not the other bit - It needs checking in a bigger library than I
have access to.

All for now

David






~===========================================================================~
 David Jones                               david at mastmoor.demon.co.uk (Home)

        On English land the people dance like moths caught in a lamp
~===========================================================================~