The PeaceSign Museum-Hospital For Gifted Schizophrenics opened its doors on April 7, 2027
The Gideon Computer
“If tariffs are a TAX, and our government is now a Church, then, the Republican Church of Later Day Conservatives is taxing the American People – without Representation – unless the Democrats have a recognized theologian, or Holy Man! This is why Church of Holy Tariffs was in a rush to anoint Kirk – their first Saint!
Thus spoke Berkley Bill Bolagard to reporter Frank Frodomond of the Springfield Acid Sunshine, a newspaper for the arts.
Saving Merlin and Ken Kesey
Todat is November 11, 2025. I awoke early and lay in bed recalling me hanging my cartton book ‘My Christ Complex’. I hung it on the was at Serventy Kane when I graduated from the New Hope Program. Nancy Hamren nee’ Van BTASCH was there, and was Gary Johnson, the minister of the McKensie Bridge Christian Church. I told Nabcy that the councilor of my program – flipped pot when I talked about my Acid Trips in my First Step. He sto[[ed me from reading it, saying;
“I need to get cpontrol of this group! It is out of contro;!”
I cpmplaoned to Hilleray Larson, the head of Srenity Lane and the Vuckley House, and she had the councilor appolige to me. Then I stood before my peers and finished my First Step. She started seeing me one on one, Did she know Bill W. experimented with LSD? I told her Nancy got ,me on Further, and, she introduced me to Ken outside Autzen Stadium where he handed out backstage passes. We made eye contact. He looked….afraid! As well he should.
Yesterday, I did some research for this post, and read had an operation at PeaceHealth, and lost almos6 half his lover. A brother in AA got close with Kesey, and said he was an alcholic, who was told to quit, or else. Dud Keny get sober? Later, I fguted out Nancy was using me to get Ken sober – and save his life! I considered it, but did not have enough sobrity to undertake….
THE GREATEST INTERVENTION IN THE KNOW UNIVERSE
Ken lost his son. Ken was not writing novels. Ken was killing himself with alcohol. Kem…..could not sto[ drinking – after he got out of surgery?
On April 7, 2026 I will be 39 years clean and sober. I am 79. I would not be alive if it were not for Serenity Lane, AA and the Twelve Steps! I had a falling out with Nancy when I sent her a three page letter about Ken’s need to find Merlin. I understood he was lookng for a way to have his last drink, which meant….
NO MORE DRUGS
Nancy never came out and asked me to do an intervebtion, which would unclude Chuch and Sue Kesey. I understood Ken would have an alomost impossible time in recovery, and, at a AA meeting due to his celebrith stauts. If there olny a Magical Way I dould give Ken what I got. How about give him my UNFINISHED novel….
THE GIDEON COMPUTER!
SO BE IT….
Be careful of what you ask for!
In 1999 I read that Ken Kesey was going to England in search of Merlin. I called my friend, Nancy Hamren, and asked her to talk her friend out of this debacle. I had met Ken on several occasions, and had been on ‘The Bus’ in the Eugene Celebration Parade. At the time I was studying King Arthur and the Holy Grail and chatting on yahoogroups that Dan Brown lurked in.
“There are a lot of people who take this serious, and will not be happy with Ken’s hit or miss tactics. If he wants to find Merlin, look no further, here I am, in his own backyard!”
EXTRA! I wrote the above earlier today, and went to a doctor appointment. I took a nap, and was awoken by a woman in Montana who works for Pacfic Source. Ten minutes into the call, she asks me
“Do you feel safe!”
No! I told her why for another fifteen minutes, and asked her..
“Are you going to send men in while coats over – to lock me up?”
I told her about the Kmiites. Ten minutes later there is a knock on my door. It is……….CAHOOTS!
I began this post last night. I got back to my book The Gideon Computer’ because what was coming true – has arrived!
Novelist and counterculture icon Ken Kesey died on November 10th in Eugene, Oregon; he was sixty-six. Kesey’s death came just two weeks after he underwent surgery to remove nearly half of his cancerous liver. The procedure followed several years of ill health for Kesey, who was diagnosed as diabetic nearly a decade ago, and suffered a stroke in 1997.
Kesey continued to write through the Seventies and Eighties, but Sometimes a Great Notion marked the beginning of a twenty-eight year hiatus from writing novels, which ended in 1992 with the publication of Sailor Song.
“A great good friend and great husband and father and grand dad, he will be sorely missed but if there is one thing he would want us to do it would be to carry on his life’s work,” Kesey’s friend and fellow Prankster, Ken Babbs wrote. “Namely to treat others with kindness and if anyone does you dirt forgive that person right away. This goes beyond the art, the writing, the performances, even the bus. Right down to the bone.”
http://www.shewan.co.uk/wheres-merlin-ken-kesey-august-1999/
WHAT IS SCHIZOPHRENIA?
Schizophrenia is a mental health condition that impacts the way people think. Classifies as a psychotic disorder, people often experience symptoms of psychosis and an abnormal state of consciousness. These symptoms often come and go and appear to be disconnected from reality.
How Alcohol Affects People With Type 2 Diabetes
Alcohol is absorbed directly into the bloodstream from the stomach or the small intestine, carried through the body, and delivered to the liver.2
At this point, alcohol can affect blood sugar in ways that are especially important for people with type 2 diabetes. This is because the liver is where excess glucose is stored in a form called glycogen.
When blood sugar levels dip too low, the liver converts glycogen into glucose. This glucose is released into the bloodstream to bring levels up to normal.
However, the liver can’t do this and metabolize alcohol at the same time. So it will focus on dealing with alcohol first rather than converting glycogen to glucose. As a result, blood glucose levels remain low.
Bill W., the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), experimented with LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) in the late 1950s. He believed that the psychedelic experience could help him gain a deeper understanding of his alcoholism and his spiritual journey.
W.’s experience with LSD was positive, and he reported that it helped him to:
- Gain a sense of peace and acceptance
- See his alcoholism in a new light
- Connect with a higher power
- Appreciate the interconnectedness of all things
However, W. did not advocate for the use of LSD as a treatment for alcoholism. He cautioned that it should only be used under the guidance of a qualified medical professional.
It’s important to note that LSD is a Schedule I drug in the United States, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use. Its use is illegal in most countries.
Where’s Merlin? Ken Kesey August 1999
What a long strange trip it still is!
In 1964 Ken Kesey and a bunch of friends, who later became known as the Merry Pranksters, set off in an old school bus, painted in psychedelic colours, to cross America. The bus trips spawned the Acid tests, the Acid tests spawned the Grateful Dead and so the Sixties as we know them were shaped.
Thirty five years later as the 20th Century draws to a close Kesey once again took the bus furthur (although this was a replacement – the original would be 60 years old and is sitting rotting on Kesey’s farm) on the road. This time the Pranksters set sail for England to view the total eclipse and to search for Merlin who Kesey believed would return before the Millennium.
You’re either on the bus or you’re off the bus
Our first sighting of Kesey and the Pranksters was at the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno, Cornwall the day before the eclipse. We drove for nearly 2 hours from our campsite near Helston to cover the 20 miles or so to Porthcurno. As we got closer the lane narrowed and narrowed and it was hard to see how they could have got Furthur up the hill to the theatre. Once we got past the traffic queue waiting for the beach carpark we climbed the hill and just as we got to the summit we spotted the bus.
The bus was a riot of colour set against the traditional green of the English countryside. It was surrounded by a makeshift village of tents and caravans including the very impressive Channel 4 formation camping club! We parked our car in the Theatre carpark and climbed over the fence to go and see the bus. I started to take some photos of the bus and I could see Kesey and Babbs through the windows of the bus. The bus itself was behind a cordon so that we couldn’t get near to it.
“We were definitely off the bus!”
We hung around for a bit and then wandered off to look at the views from the cliff top. Leaving the camp we went down to spend the afternoon on the beach below. Occasionally we would spot one of the Pranksters on the beach but finally we headed back to our campsite pleased to have seen the bus but disappointed not to have been able to interact with it’s occupants.
Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is…do you Mr. Jones?
The search for Merlin
The Where’s Merlin website said “Bring hooters” so me and the kids sorted through the music box and found a whistle and a small harmonica I could put in my pocket for the show.
The venue, which is normally a standing venue had been laid out with seats tonight. The audience was an assortment of heads both older Deadheads and next generation hippies.I stood in the queue to get a ticket only to find they didn’t accept credit cards or cheques – only cash!! Luckily I had enough but had to go and find an ATM before I could go inside.
The show started with Kesey coming out onto the stage with his top hat and boom mic and standing in front of a white curtain and telling a story about a squirrel kicking a bears butt, with audience participation, before he announced it was time to see the bus. The curtain went up and revealed the rest of the stage. In the centre was a throne, on the left of the stage was Furthur and on the right the “Thunder Machine” and the band. He then introduced the next section which was a performance of Where’s Merlin?
The play started with Mordred’s head being placed on the throne before Kesey introduced the characters from the Arthurian legends such as Arthur, Lancelot etc who were played by the Pranksters including Babbs, Mountain Girl and Anonymous. The play rambled on through technical difficulties until Mordred’s head came to life. It’s re-incarnation being proceeded by the question “Who would want an Ugly Dead head?”
The play ended with the spirit of Merlin coming to life inside the “Thunder Machine”. This was a psychedelic machine with a hole in the centre in which there was a Grateful Dead like skeleton for which Kesey provided the voice.
The whole cast then broke into song with “Love Potion No.9” which then descended into a huge jam. I was getting really frustrated at the audience at this point because I felt we should be up and dancing but I also needed to piss! A chance came as Kesey struggled to get his theremin to work so I ran to the toilet.
When I came back I dashed to the front, if people weren’t going to dance then I was going to make sure the Pranksters could see I was enjoying it! No sooner had I got there than Kesey told us to get up onto the stage and I was the first one up there.
“We’re working as hard as we can to bring the only message there is and it’s the same message it’s always been…..it’s love.”
Soon the whole stage was full of people grooving with the jam, I wandered around blowing my whistle and harmonica (which made Anonymous laugh but pissed off the fool with the guitar!) and having a great time. Kesey wearing a hat with a weather vane on it started a speech the gist of which was “All you need is love” although I couldn’t hear very well as the on stage monitors didn’t carry his voice. Luckily I found this film of it on youtube
We soon had to leave the stage (for insurance purposes apparently) which we did as the bouncers looked as though they’d have given the Angels at Altamont a run for their money! Ken continued with a story about his son who died and then went on to trumpet the value of poetry before the finale (“The sixties aren’t over until the fat lady gets high” he said quoting Garcia)
The finale included Magic Bus and Gloria although Kesey did quote from Trucking changing the last line to something like “What a glorious trip it still is”. The Pranksters grandchildren were on hand to kick balloons into the audience and the band jammed the show to a close. We shouted for more but it was not to be, much to the disgust of the guitarist (who bore a striking resemblance to Trey from Phish!)
Outside we waited for Kesey who had said he would meet us and sign autographs. The stage door opened and out he came wearing a pixie hat made from the stars and stripes. Babbs asked the venue if he could sign autographs in the foyer but this request was refused so Kesey lay down on the pavement and signed copies of “One flew over the Cuckoos nest”, tickets and posters (a bargain at between £10 and £20 – $15-30).
The Channel 4 camera crew who were following the Pranksters on the tour came and video’d the signing, if they had used the footage they shot I would have been on TV as I was sat right behind Kesey and even dared to ask him a question!
The previous week during the eclipse in Cornwall a party of travellers were attacked by police in riot gear for holding a rave on a piece of land. I asked Kesey what he thought of this happening to people who were basically doing the same thing as he had done in the 60’s.
He confessed that he hadn’t heard about it but said something like “There are times when you have to give in and let authority thinks it’s won because there are so few of us we can’t afford to lose any”.
With that he signed my ticket and I stepped aside to let someone else in. As I walked from the venue I noticed the Police searching 2 people for drugs – Plus ca change…
“We’re the psychedelic warriors of today”
(Image credit: Getty / MASTER)
In the heart of Silicon Valley, two freshly built data centers designed for the world’s most power-hungry computing workloads are standing empty. Digital Realty’s four-story SJC37 facility and Stack Infrastructure’s SVY02A campus in Santa Clara, California, were both constructed to host tens of megawatts of high-density IT hardware. Instead, they’re waiting for electricity.
According to a Bloomberg report, both projects are complete but idle, with no firm timeline for full energization. Digital Realty’s 430,000-square-foot site was built for 48 megawatts of critical load. Stack’s nearby SVY02A campus — also designed for 48 megawatts — includes its own substation and eight data halls. Together, they represent nearly 100 megawatts of capacity ready for servers, accelerators, and networking gear that cannot be switched on until the local grid catches up. According to the report, both “may sit empty for years.”
Family Name
BASCH Origin of surname
BASCH, BASH, BRASCH, BASCHKO Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a Hebrew acronym (a name created from the initial letters of a Hebrew phrase, and which refers to a relative, lineage or occupation). For example, between 1787 and the 1830s, authorities in central and Eastern Europe began to force Jewish families to adopt fixed hereditary family names. Many Jews then formed European-sounding family names that were in fact Hebrew acronyms. The use of acronymics is an old Jewish custom. Famous rabbis and sages such as Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki) and Rambam (Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon, known as Maimonides) were generally referred to by acronyms based on their Hebrew titles and names. The names in this group are associated with the acronym (a name created from the initial letters of a Hebrew phrase, and which refers to a relative, lineage or occupation), of ‘Ben Rav Simeon’ (“son of Rabbi Simon”) or of ‘Ben Rav Simshon’ (“son of Rabbi Samson”).
This family name is also a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.
These names may be shortened forms of the place names Bochstein or Borgenstadt in Germany.
Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Baschko include the Polish-born German Rabbi and author Zebi Hirsch Ben Benjamin Baschko (1740-1807). Basch is recorded as a Jewish surname with the Bohemian-born Austrian physician and educator Siegfried (Samuel) Carl Basch (1837-1916) and the 19th/20th century Hungarian-born French professor of aesthe tics and social-democratic politician Victor Guillaume Basch.
Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Brasch include the German philosopher, critic and educator Moritz Brasch (1843-1895).ID Number:209991Written by researchers of ANU Museum of the Jewish People
Nov 10, 2025 12:40 PM
If the US Has to Build Data Centers, Here’s Where They Should Go
A new analysis tries to calculate the coming environmental footprint of AI in the US and finds that the ideal sites for data centers aren’t where they’re being built.
A data center for cryptocurrency mining, cloud services, and AI computing in Stutsman County, North Dakota.Video: halbergman/Getty Images
Tech companies have invested so much money in building data centers in recent months, it’s actively driving the US economy—and the AI race is showing no signs of slowing down. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg told President Donald Trump last week that the company would spend $600 billion on US infrastructure—including data centers—by 2028, while OpenAI has committed already to spending $1.4 trillion.
𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥 — 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭, 𝟏𝟗𝟓𝟗 
⠀
In July 1959, a 17-year-old Brooklyn native known only as “Angel” was crowned Miss Beatnik and declared the First Lady of MacDougal Street at the Gaslight Coffee House in Greenwich Village.
The Village Voice staged the contest to reclaim the word “beatnik,” which had recently been tarnished by negative press. Angel became a symbol of the real Village spirit—artistic, bold, and unapologetically free.
White House says naming new Washington Commanders stadium after Trump would be ‘beautiful’
By MICHELLE L. PRICEUpdated 11:13 AM PST, November 8, 2025
10
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The White House said Saturday it would be “beautiful” to name the new stadium for Washington’s NFL team after President Donald Trump following an ESPN report that an intermediary has told the Commanders’ ownership group that he wants it to bear his name.
Trump could deliver the message in person on Sunday when he is expected to watch the Commanders play the Detroit Lions at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland. American veterans are scheduled to be honored at halftime.
“That would surely be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” said Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Republican president.
A spokesperson for the Washington Commanders told The Associated Press in a text message that the team had no comment on the report. The office of the city’s mayor, Democrat Muriel Bowser, declined comment.
Under a deal announced in April between the team and the District of Columbia, the team will return to the nation’s capital in a new stadium expected to cost nearly $4 billion. It will be built on the site of the RFK Stadium, where the team played for more than three decades when it won three Super Bowls in the 1980s and 1990s.
Curious Northwest
How Oregon’s GOP governor teamed up with hippies to throw a festival and prevent clashes in the streets
By Bryan M. Vance (OPB) and Tiffany Camhi (OPB)
Milo McIver State Park, Ore. Aug. 29, 2020 7:30 a.m.
In August of 1970, at the height of the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon was slated to come to Portland, and so were thousands of antiwar protesters. Oregon was preparing for violent protests in the streets of Portland. That’s when the idea of Vortex 1 was born.
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Drugs, sex, rock ‘n’ roll and Republican politics converged in an Oregon forest in the summer of 1970 to pull off an unlikely scheme. It was a tense time in America. Protests across the nation were ending in bloodshed, including in downtown Portland.
In an unlikely partnership, Oregon’s Republican governor teamed up with a group of self-described hippies to throw a drug-fueled rock festival in the woods. Oregon Vortex 1: A Biodegradable Festival of Life served as a distraction from a potentially volatile situation in Portland. Fifty years later, another group attempted to honor the spirit of Vortex before it was cut short by a pandemic nobody saw coming. Now, in a climate with uncanny similarities to the one in 1970, the story of Vortex 1 lives on as an example of community in a time of division.
Tensions heating up in Portland
America was on edge. On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on a group of students on the campus of Kent State University who were protesting the escalation of the Vietnam War. The troops killed four unarmed protesters and wounded nine others, sparking outrage across the nation.
At Portland State University, students initiated a series of peaceful sit-ins across the downtown campus. After a car barreled into a protester on May 6, breaking his leg, the demonstrators began erecting barricades around the South Park Blocks.
Inundated by complaints about the blocked off streets and the actions of some student demonstrators, Portland Mayor Terry Schrunk ordered the Portland Police Bureau on May 11 to move in and break up the barricades. That afternoon, a group of PPB officers decked out in white helmets, leather jackets and brandishing long clubs lined up outside the park blocks. They descended on the protesters, marching in formation.
The officers used brutal force to disperse the students, sending 31 to local hospitals for treatment in what was later known as the “battle for the South Park Blocks.” Outraged over the show of force, more than 4,000 people marched on City Hall the next day.
As Portland continued to heal from the actions of May 11, news broke that the American Legion, a group of veterans largely supportive of the U.S. role in Vietnam, was coming to town at the end of August for their annual convention. Republican President Richard Nixon, who was the subject of many anti-war protesters’ hatred, was slated as the guest of honor.
The FBI called then-Gov. Tom McCall with a warning. According to the bureau, as many as 50,000 anti-war protesters were planning to come to the city to push back on the American Legion’s message. The law enforcement agency warned of potentially violent clashes on a scale Portland hadn’t seen.
“The FBI advised us this was going to be the most volatile confrontation in the country,” Ed Westerdahl, McCall’s executive assistant at the time, told OPB of the call. “We took that serious.”
In this chaos, an unlikely idea was hatched.
The birth of Vortex 1
A few weeks after the announcement that Nixon and the American Legion were coming to town, a coalition of Portland-based anti-war groups known as the Peoples’ Army Jamboree held a meeting to help organize their response.
“It was very chaotic,” Lee Meier, an activist and local social worker at the time, remembered of the meeting of nearly 300 people. Some people in the crowd were advocating for violent reactions, Meier said. He sensed trouble brewing as the plans for how to respond started to take shape. “It looked like it was heading towards a disaster, a big confrontation.”
It was at that meeting that Meier and a local minister friend started thinking of a different form of opposition — something that promoted a positive statement rather than a negative reaction.
“We figured if we were able to put together a festival or fair that stressed the counter-cultural lifestyle changes that we envisioned — peace, empathy, brotherhood, camaraderie, etc. — that that would be a good draw that would take people out of town,” he said. As far as Meier was concerned, there was only one person who could help them pull this off: the governor.
When they reached out to McCall’s office, they were shocked by the response. They went in thinking it was a Hail Mary to ask for help, but within a few weeks of that meeting, the governor’s office called Meier up with an offer: the use of Milo McIver State Park, 25 miles from Portland, for a weekend-long music festival.
“Containment. That’s why we picked Milo McIver park. Our intention was to draw people out of the city, put them in a location where they could be contained,” Westerdahl said.
Over the course of a few weeks, an unlikely crew made up of members of McCall’s Republican administration and a loosely-affiliated group of liberal Vietnam War objectors and ecological activists — some of whom later formed The Rainbow Family movement — united to plan and pull off the festival.
Elected officials announced Vortex 1 on Portland-area TV, generating buzz for it. Volunteers worked with state-provided resources to construct a stage at the park. Local businesses donated food and supplies to feed and care for the crowd. Doctors and medical professionals came to the park on the banks of the Clackamas River to volunteer their expertise and set up a medical tent. There were even reports of Oregon State Police escorting people arriving in the area to the festival grounds.
‘A hippie zoo’
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On a recent cool August morning, Meier stood at a spot in Milo McIver State Park where, nearly 50 years earlier to the day, as many as 100,000 people had partied during the Vortex 1 festival.
“This thing turned into a hippie zoo,” he remembered. “This whole area was turned into spontaneous campgrounds. Little fire pits here and there everywhere. And we had a sauna, we had a mud sauna, we had a regular sauna. So there was the requisite nudity.”
Cannabis smoke filled the air. Festivalgoers ran around the park naked. Meier remembered the wine being spiked with LSD. The laissez-faire attitude of law enforcement was intentional, according to Westerdahl. “I can be held responsible for the that because I felt it was the lesser of two evils,” he told OPB in 2010.
And though Vortex was also branded as a music festival, not many people who attended remember the music, Meier said. There were rumors that acts like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead would appear, but they never actually showed up.
”It never happened. And most of us here in the park that weren’t up at the music, you know, 100%, we had no clue. I mean, we thought Jefferson Airplane was here.” It was mostly local bands who took the stage at Vortex 1. But still, for one hot August weekend, an Oregon park in the woods transformed into the center of 1970s counter culture.
A political success story
About 25 miles away, the American Legion convention went off with little incident. President Nixon canceled his visit at the last minute, with Vice President Spiro Agnew taking his place. Counterprotests were far smaller than anticipated.
“As it turned out, the predictions from the FBI were way off,” Doris Penwell, McCall’s press secretary at the time, told OPB in 2010.
“Federal intelligence indicated early this summer that upwards of 50,000 young people would be coming [to Portland],” McCall later said. “Vortex was a conscious and direct response to the problem of suddenly trying to absorb those thousands of young people into the city of Portland, young people without a place to stay.”
When all the festivalgoers were gone and the American Legion left Portland, it was clear that Vortex was a success, according to Meier. Few protesters showed up to Portland in the end. The large crowds instead appeared at Vortex, a peaceful festival that spread a message of unity in a divisive time in American history. McCall deserves a lot of the credit for that, according to Meier.
“Without Tom McCall it would not have happened,” Meier said.
Voters seemed to agree. McCall rode the success of Vortex to a landslide victory in November of 1970. He enacted many of his landmark policies — from the Oregon Bottle Bill to the state’s land-use planning laws — over his next four years in office.
Though it only lasted a few short days, the impact of Vortex on Oregon is felt to this day.
The spirit of Vortex lives on
“I think the primary thing that I remember is the unifying effect, the unity of us,” Meier said. “We were all coming together to solve a problem and we didn’t have an authoritarian top-down structure. It was pretty much a community communal response.”
That spirit of community is what inspired a group of Oregonians to honor the 50th anniversary of Vortex 1.
“What we wanted to do from the very beginning was really channel the spirit of the original Vortex,” said Robyn Tanenbaum, one of the organizers behind the Vortex 2020 effort. “[Vortex 1] was planned in three or four months and people just got together, dug in and got it done.”
For the better part of a year, a group of people from across Oregon worked on a plan to honor the original festival with a new type of event.
“Vortex 2020 was to be a celebration,” Tanenbaum said, meant to honor the past event, not recreate it. Like the original, Vortex 2020 was to be a free music festival at Milo McIver State Park, featuring musical acts with local ties. Admission to the festival was tied to completing a service act through volunteering with a partner nonprofit. The goal was to inspire a new generation to volunteer in their communities. “We wanted a culture shift,” Tanenbaum said.
“Things were moving along great,” said Tammy Baumann, the Valleys Region program coordinator with Oregon State Parks. “There were artists lined up. There was money being raised.”
Then the coronavirus pandemic reached Oregon. Like many things in our modern world, the plans for Vortex 2020 were upended. The music festival was planned for Aug. 22-23, 2020. Instead, it’s unclear what the future holds for the effort.
“We just needed to stay in a humble space because the world needed to care about a lot of things and a festival that celebrated a historic time was not something the world needed to focus on,” Baumann said. Tanenbaum agreed with that sentiment but noted this isn’t the end of the road for the Vortex spirit.
“Perhaps there’s something we can glean from this and see in a post-COVID world if there’s something Vortex can do as an idea and as an organization,” Tanenbaum said.
“As far as what’s to become of Vortex: It’s a little too soon to know.”
Editor’s note: Former OPB producer Eric Cain contributed reporting to this story.
Click play on the audio player above to hear a conversation with Vortex 1 organizer Lee Meier.
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King Kesey Lost Merlin
In 1999 I read that Ken Kesey was going to England in search of Merlin. I called my friend, Nancy Hamren, and asked her to talk her friend out of this debacle. I had met Ken on several occasions, and had been on ‘The Bus’ in the Eugene Celebration Parade. At the time I was studying King Arthur and the Holy Grail and chatting on yahoogroups that Dan Brown lurked in.
“There are a lot of people who take this serious, and will not be happy with Ken’s hit or miss tactics. If he wants to find Merlin, look no further, here I am, in his own backyard!”
That was the last time I spoke to Nancy, the first girl I ever kiss, because she was tops in King Kesey’s Court, and everything was set in stone, and, only Ken can withdraw Excalibur. Real hippies did not want leaders, or to collect our magical energy in a big beautiful pile, put it in a bag and hand it over to some clown.
The Cornish folks hated Ken’s act. The Hambley family is from Cornwall and are still mining tin. Above is the Hambley mansion in North Carolina where Viriginia’s great grandfather lived. Melqart is a candidate for Merlin in my book.
In 1966, Nancy and I lived in a SF commune called ‘The Idle Hands’ with the Zorthian sisters. Their father ‘The Last of the Bohemians’ was an artist that was influenced by Thomas Hart Benton. I have been to ‘The Ranch’.
Jon Presco
http://www.shewan.co.uk/furthur/kesey.html
In 1964 Ken Kesey and a bunch of friends, who later became known as the Merry Pranksters, set off in an old school bus, painted in psychedelic colours, to cross America. The bus trips spawned the Acid tests, the Acid tests spawned the Grateful Dead and so the Sixties as we know them were shaped.
Thirty five years later as the 20th Century draws to a close Kesey once again took the bus furthur (although this was a replcement – the original would be 60 years old and is sitting rotting on Keseys farm) on the road. This time the Pranksters set sail for England to view the total eclipse and to search for Merlin who Kesey believed would return before the Millennium.
You’re either on the bus or you’re off the bus
Our first sighting of Kesey and the Pranksters was at the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno, Cornwall the day before the eclipse. We drove for nearly 2 hours from our campsite near Helston to cover the 20 miles or so to Porthcurno. As we got closer the lane narrowed and narrowed and it was hard to see how they could have got Furthur up the hill to the theatre. Once we got past the traffic queue waiting for the beach carpark we climbed the hill and just as we got to the summit we spotted the bus.
http://bluefredpress.blogspot.com/2013/07/merlins-return-ken-kesey-and-merry.html
A day or two days before they reached the Minack site, the Pranksters visited Stonehenge. Merlin would, wouldn’t he? Kesey, according to some stories, was disappointed by the ancient druid site. Perhaps he could still feel the vibes from the Battle of Beanfield twelve years before when, on Margaret Thatcher’s orders, hundreds of cops had brutally attacked the rainbow travellers assembling there for the summer solstice. Maybe the kingdom had picked up its bags and gone somewhere else after that. Things had changed for Kesey too. The last time he was here, his companions included Jerry Garcia and the Hell’s Angels. Things happened after dark, he intimated, that wouldn’t be going on in broad daylight with cameras and spectators surrounding them.
“Merlin isn’t here,” said Prankster John Swan (not buying into my thesis), “but I know we’ll see him before the eclipse.”
The top of the show saw Kesey read his account of coming to London and hanging out at the Apple Building with the Beatles. He was wearing a fisherman’s smock and held the stage in his hand. A deliberate reader with perfect cadence; an ancient American bard. Then there was their play: Where’s Merlin – a great ramshackling Arthurian affair with Pranksters n japes n mistakes n fun and which culminated in a jalopy jam of Dead tunes.
We hung out outside after the show. Kesey and Babbs came and sat on the back of the bus and shook everyone’s hands and exchanged smiles. No doubt I had my legend filters in but Kesey had a golden hue, something other, and serene, about him. At one point a girl, maybe sixteen and beautiful, made her way through the crowd and beheld Ken, and Ken beheld the girl and they hugged like you’ve never seen. Everyone watched, quiet. Bong!
Keseys eclipse show was universally panned by the critics…but then who cares what “The Cornishman” thinks.
The play started with Mordreds head being placed on the throne before Kesey introduced the characters from the Aurthurian legends such as Authur, Lancealot etc who were played by the Pranksters including Babbs, Mountain Girl and Anonymous. The play rambled on through technical difficulties until Mordreds head came to life. It’s re-incarnation being proceeded by the question “Who would want an Ugly Dead head?”
The play ended with the spirit of Merlin coming to life inside the “Thunder Machine”. This was a psychedelic machine with a hole in the centre in which there was a Grateful Dead like skeleton for which Kesey provided the voice.
The whole cast then broke into song with “Love Potion No.9” which then decended into a huge jam. I was getting really fustrated at the audience at this point because I felt we should be up and dancing but I also needed to piss! A chance came as Kesey struggled to get his theramin to work so I ran to the toilet.
http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2010/03/sometimes_a_great_yogurt_nancy.html
http://www.zorthianranch.com/history.html
The Hamblys of Cornwall
William Hambly lived in Cornwall, England, in the eighteenth century. Very little is known of him as an individual, but we know about many of his descendants. Most of the descendants still live in Cornwall, but some have moved to other parts of England or to North America. This site is dedicated to recording what is known of these descendants.
John Hambley married Mary Ann Rowe (christened 25 DEC 1836 in St Blazey) in the SEP quarter 1854 (St Austell 5c 200)
(In 1861 John is a Tin Miner aged 28. Mary is aged 24. The family are living in St Blazey Highway)
(In 1871 John was a Tin Miner and the family were living in St Blazey (District 16, Schedule 113)
(In 1881 John is aged 49 and a General Labourer. Mary is 46. The family are living in Biscovey, St Blazey)
(In 1891 John is 59 and a Tin Miner. Mary is 55. The family are living in Biscovey, St Blazey)
(In 1901 John is aged 70 and a Miner living with his son Joseph and family)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Cornwall_and_Devon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melqart
Hannibal was a faithful worshiper of Melqart: the Roman historian Livy records the legend[8] that just before setting off on his march to Italy he made a pilgrimage to Gades, the most ancient seat of Phoenician worship in the west. Hannibal strengthened himself spiritually by prayer and sacrifice at the Altar of Melqart. He returned to New Carthage with his mind focused on the god and on the eve of departure to Italy he saw a strange vision which he believed was sent by Melqart.[citation needed]
A youth of divine beauty appeared to Hannibal in the night. The youth told Hannibal he had been sent by supreme deity, Melqart, to guide the son of Hamilcar to Italy. “Follow me,” said the ghostly visitor, “and see that that thou look not behind thee.” Hannibal followed the instructions of the visitor. His curiosity, however, overcame him, and as he turned his head, Hannibal saw a serpent crashing through forest and thicket causing destruction everywhere. It moved as a black tempest with claps of thunder and flashes of lightning gathered behind the serpent. When Hannibal asked the meaning of the vision Melqart replied, “What thou beholdest is the desolation of Italy. Follow thy star and inquire no farther into the dark counsels of heaven.”[
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melqart
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One response to “King Kesey Lost Merlin”
Royal Rosamond PressJune 26, 2015 at 7:16 pmEditReblogged this on rosamondpress and commented:After reading my first e-mail, Belle asked me why I use the name AmbROSE I told her it was my pen name. She told me her boyfriend was named AmbROSE. When I googled AmbROSE and Belle Burch, I beheld the truth they had been arrested together. Three roses. I lost my famous friend Nancy when I sent her an e-mail informing her her friend Ken Kesey is washed-up……FINIS……and I was the heir to the Bohemian cause. “I am Merlin!” Merlin was beguilded by the beautiful young Vivian who begged this old Wizard to teach him all the magic he knew. After doing that, she turned on him, and froze him in Amber. Belle is my Vivian who I met in Ken Kesey Square.Reply
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