Grateful Dead: the game

All rock fans and deadheads in particular have now a new entertaining way to remember and celebrate the Grateful Dead, the legendary jam band that for 30 years has recorded music and toured the world with their unique blend of rock, folk and psychedelic songs, keeping the flag of counterculture high and delighting generations of hippies and music enthusiasts.
The Grateful Dead Game: The Epic Tour is an online platform game that lets players direct their bear avatar across mind-moving lanscapes while listening to Dead's songs and seeing video performances.
For the game, launched on the Web on April 20 (420, got it?), fans were asked to select their favorite concerts and the makers whittled the list down to 10 unforgettable show 1970-1990.
Players move from venue to venue, joining forces to shine the Dead's "love light" in dark places. The "light" represents the collective "positive vibe" of the Dead and it becomes a beacon as players show acts of kindness, cooperation and cultivation of flower gardens.
Even though the visuals are colorful and decidedly trippy, the makers - trying to appeal the younger generation, in general not so interested in a psychedelic hippie band of the 1960s, and the public at large, have intentionally created a 'family friendly' game without any reference to drug use, so widespread at the band's concerts. If all that triggers off an immediate flashback or simply arouses your interest, make a visit to the game website to play and get more info.

The Fantastic Art of Fabrizio Riccardi

Fabrizio Riccardi (Rome, March 18, 1942) is an Italian visionary artist whose fantastical worlds are populated by gnomes, grotesque animals and Renaissance madonnas, jesters and pages. In 2010 Riccardi has published Les Songes Drolatiques de Pantagruel, a volume with paintings inspired by Rabelais' drawings see few examples posted here...)
Visit Fabrizio Riccardi's website here

Django Django - "Waveforms"

Django Django is a psychedelic band formed in Edimburgh,UK, in 2009. It consists of David Maclean (drums and production), Vincent Neff (vocals and guitar), Jimmy Dixon (bass) and Tommy Grace (synth). They've released their first self-titled album in 2012.

New Müller ad 2011 - wünderful stuff

The official new 2011 Müller TV advert.
...Commercials are ever more intrusive and boring, but sometimes they're at least creative and in some cases even 'psychedelic'....
(via The Presurfer)

R.i.P. Levon

Levon Helm, singer and drummer for The Band, died yesterday in New York of throat cancer. He was 71. Read on Rolling Stone his story and why we loved him...Rest in Peace brother...

Warsnare - "Eris"

ERIS is an impressive music video produced by Visitor Studio, an animation and production design company based in London) for the artist Warsnare ( Dan Potter ). With additional modelling and animation by David Eglinton.

Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light

Nothing 'surreal' or 'underground' here. Thomas Kinkade (January 19, 1958 - April 6, 2012) was a 'mainstream' artist who profusely sold his art and was well known for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other 'licensed' products. For someone, his paintings were merely 'chocolate box art'.It could be, but his bucolic, dreamy landscapes are so fascinating and inspiring and the use of saturated colors and light so skillfull that Kinkade's art isn't anymore 'kitsch' but  becomes pleasantly 'visionary', at least to me...maybe boring on the long term, but indisputably captivating....
(click on pix to biggify...)

Mr. Foley

A darkly funny but nightmarish scenario, a man wakes up in hospital with a group of sound artists soundtracking his life. Mr Foley is an award winning short film directed by Dublin directing duo Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman aka D.A.D.D.Y.
(via everlastingblort)


Mr. Foley from D.A.D.D.Y on Vimeo.

T is for Toilet

" T is for Toilet (The ABCs of Death" is a  funny - but also rather disturbing - 'splatter' (clay) animation by Lee Hardcastle. If you like it, make a visit to Lee's website for other stuff...

The Talking Shoes

To all my readers who keep on asking me why I don't post gifs anymore...Enjoy this one (more in the near future...) 8-)
(click to see full GIF)

Man Free

Man Free is a new documentary by director and writer Kinsey Beck. It shows the daily living in Jamaica  with several people - workers, artists, dreads, cocaine addicts... - telling the story of their life on the Carabbean island. Late director Perry Henzell ( "The Harder They Come") acts as the narrator.
( Purchase here )

Stop the Medical Marijuana Raids !

On Monday, April 2, Oaksterdam University in Oakland  was raided by the DEA, IRS, and US Marshals. Oaksterdam provides training to the medical cannabis industry, and is fully compliant with state and local law.

President Obama promised at the beginning of his administration to respect state medical marijuana laws. He has broken this promise time and time again -- and the consequences have been devastating.
This was a senseless act of intimidation. But times have changed, cannabis is a globally acknowledged medicine and people, patients and activists are no more disposed to become intimidated -- and with the majority of Americans (and global support) and common sense on our side, we know this is a fight we can win.
With American government trillions in debt, why is the government using taxpayer dollars to come after  Oaksterdam, and the thousands of patients who need medical marijuana just to get through the day?

Tell President Obama and the DEA: Enough is enough. Keep your campaign promise, and stop the raids on the medical cannabis industry!

Let's support Richard Lee (O.U. founder) and Oaksterdam University signing the petition HERE 

and send a letter to President Obama through StoptheDrugWar

More about Mark Bryan

After seeing my previous post about Mark Bryan, my friend reggaepsyc has immediately sent me other few Bryan's paintings, as beautiful as the former ones...Enjoy !

The Visionary & Satirical Art of Mark Bryan

" Ever since I can remember, I have been troubled by the state of things. Maybe it was all that talk about heaven in Sunday school. A perfect world, why isn't like that here? I feel ripped off. Even the animals didn't eat each other in heaven. Imagine that.
Given this beautiful planet, our intelligence, talent and opposable thumbs, one would think that things for us would be a lot better than they are. I suppose I've carried a general disappointment in human nature for quite a while that makes itself apparent in most of my work. It seems to me that in terms of what we do to each other and to our environment, we really are fiddling while Rome burns. Perhaps we are either too smart or too dumb for our own good.
As a result of this perspective, satirical work is the logical direction for me...."

Mark Bryan (born in Southern California in 1950) is a very interesting and talented painter, gifted with an amazing technique and a 'pungent' point of view. Without doubt, he deserves our praise and attention...
Visit his colorful website to see paintings and read his artistic statement (and yes, buy originals and prints...even t-shirts...)
(click on paintings to see in larger format)

More Weird Houses

I want to thank you my good friend reggaepsyc who after seeing my post on 'Weird Shroom & Tree Houses' has pointed out to me another beautiful 'freak building'.
Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga's dream was to create a house like no other in the world. Situated in the city of Da Lat (Vietnam) the Crazy House was initially a personal project, not intended to be a hotel or a tourist destination. Once completed, its true potential became evident. It had cost a lot of money  and it was the financial burden of building and keeping up the house that led the creator to open it to the public as a guesthouse with ten themed apartments, each having an animal as its subject. Nga envisioned them as a homage to the various nationalities that stay there...
(If I remember well, Da Lat was a place well known for its psychedelic marijuana among American soldiers...If the local people keep the ancient tradition of growing the healing herb, it would be really nice to smoke a joint ant then visit or stay at the Crazy House...)

(click on pix to biggify)

Weird Shroom and Tree Houses

The Magic Mushroom House is a quite unconventional multi-level house of Aspen, Colorado (USA). It was designed in the 1970s by Andre Ulrich who was said to be under the influence of 'magic mushrooms' and occasionally Lsd while he designed and built it...When one talks of psychedelics and creativity...!

and now see the world's greatest tree-house built by one Horace
Burgess in Crossville, Tennesse (USA)
(tree.house via thepresurfer)  

Helping Ann & Sasha

To all the good people of the world interested in entheogens and psychedelic research, Ann and Sasha Shulgin don't need any presentation. In late 2010 Sasha (b. 1925) suffered a stroke and although he has been slowly recovering since that time, the Shulgins are struggling against a tide of medical and care bills. Sasha continues to face a variety of age-related health challenges.
Despite Sasha's work in the laboratory enriching the lives of millions and the books written by Ann and Sasha (I like to remember Pihkal, Tihkal and the more recent The Shulgin Index) brightening the days of all who have read them, the Shulgins have received very little monetary gain from their endeavours.
Now you can help this lovely and amazing couple of researchers and psychonauts visiting the Shulgins to make a donation and in particular to participate in the Shulgin Auction of rare, signed (by the duo and other psychedelic luminaries) sheets of Blotter Art.
Please browse the Shulgin Blotter Art Fundraiser to learn more about the items in the auction.

Burning Spear - Live at House of Blues, LA

Reggae legend Burning Spear (and his amazing band) performing live at House of Blues, Los Angeles, USA, 2000. The cream of the cream of roots reggae music...1 hour & 30 video