Ulysses's New Writeups

Better Living Through Chemistry (thing)

2001-05-14T02:27:01Z

The debut album released by Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) in 1996, Better Living Through Chemistry was recorded, from start to finish, in eight days. Laid down on tape in The House of Love (Norman's unassuming home studio in Brighton), the title of the album refers to an American slogan from the 1950's which advocates giving children large doses of valium to keep them under control. Here are the tracks:

bear (person)

2001-05-14T02:01:30Z

Nickname of Augustus Owsley Stanley III, one of the biggest and most prolific LSD manufacturers in history and onetime Grateful Dead soundman and graphic artist. Back in the day Owsley's Acid was always considered the epitome of the acid market. If you had Owsley's shit, you were the hip to the grooviest, high status, and most definitely 'with it.' The Beatles dropped Owsley's Acid; shouldn't you?

Owsley Stanley (person)

2001-05-14T01:23:56Z

"Chemistry is applied theology"

Owsley "Bear" Stanley

Probably the greatest LSD manufacturer of his time (including Sandoz Chemical Corporation), Owsley Stanley (born Augustus Owsley Stanley III) was a bit of a problem child. He went from prep school to prep school until he was finally placed in a public high school, which he eventually dropped. He was admitted to the Virginia School of Engineering, mostly likely due to his flair for the sciences. (He dropped that too.) Later enrolling in the University of California, Owsley connected with a hippie chemistry major named Melissa.

Together this time, they dropped out of that school and Owsley set up his first (of several) acid lab at 1647 Virginia Street, Berkeley, California. Conducting a huge business at the time, the first lab was raided on February 21, 1965. He was released, however, because California had no laws against the possession, manufacture, or consumption of…

10,000 Hz Legend (thing)

2001-05-10T22:16:51Z

Speaking of Beck, he collaborated with Nicolas and JB on this one. He can be found contributing vocals on "The Vagabond" and 'spoken word poetry' on "Don't be Light". (Beck, of course, has already done a remix of the notorious "Sexy Boy".)
This release sees the return of (former Red Kross drummer) Brian Reitzell. Brian had already toured with the dynamic duo during Moon Safari, and he did the drums for The Virgin Suicides. Other collaborators include Sugar and Yumiko of Buffalo Daughter on the song "Sex Born Poison".

This is definitely my most anticipated album of the year (and Portishead is supposed to come out with one in December).

Circles (2) (thing)

2001-05-10T20:57:58Z

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Conversation is a game of circles. In conversation we pluck up the termini which bound the common of silence on every side. The parties are not to be judged by the spirit they partake and even express under this Pentecost. To-morrow they will have receded from this high-water mark. To-morrow you shall find them stooping under the old pack-saddles. Yet let us enjoy the cloven flame whilst it glows on our walls. When each new speaker strikes a new light, emancipates us from the oppression of the last speaker, to oppress us with the greatness and exclusiveness of his own thought, then yields us to another redeemer, we seem to recover our rights, to become men. O, what truths profound and executable only in ages and orbs are supposed in the announcement of every truth! In common hours, society sits cold and statuesque. We all stand waiting, empty, -- knowing, possibly, that we can be full, surrounded by mighty symbols which are not…

circles (thing)

2001-05-10T20:48:09Z

From Essays: First Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Circles

Nature centres into balls,
And her proud ephemerals,
Fast to surface and outside,
Scan the profile of the sphere;
Knew they what that signified,
A new genesis were here.

The eye is the first circle; the [horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere. We are all our lifetime reading the copious sense of this first of forms. One moral we have already deduced, in considering the circular or compensatory character of every human action. Another analogy we shall now trace; that every action admits of being outdone. Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth,…