Alone Inside My Shadow

Tonight my thoughts lead me to a place where I am wondering within my shadow.  In a way, I might describe it more as having two central nervous systems inside one mind.  There is the one nervous system that celebrates an ordinary schedule and is happily capable of performing it all.

Then there is this underlying electricity of the immediacy and urgency of everything, as if  one has just bumped the trashcan off the end of the world.  It’s this staring mortality in the face which is in a very real way the only time we are really alive.

Although I think that times when I’m mindlessly walking around holding my baby to keep her from crying, might be more the thing I’ll think about on my death bed.  I think I will remember the experiences givin by the first nervous sysem in my mind which happily and quite by rote, has me doing the glorious task of living, raising a baby and a prescooler, making videos, albums, teaching people how to play guitar…I only accomplish these things by the Under Control nervous system, not the Face Of Death one.

The problem is The Face of Death makes the muscles twitter while the happily In Control nervous system moves me, so I never qiute know where it’s at, man. It’s like two separate realities taking place in one mind at the same time.

Can anyone out there relate?

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John Lennon Saw The World

Yes, John Lennon saw the world.  He was a musician of the street.  As is perhaps too obvious to say, it is the musicians who live on the street and what happens to musicians effects the music. I hope you would forgive me if this is just too obvious to be said. …but I think it has to be said.

I heard a radio interview when I was a child.  John Lennon said that on his acid trip, he was driving a submarine and kept ascending toward the ceiling and then down.

Again, as all you friends of mine know, I am mot a historian and I can’t remember what form of radio network would have aired that.

That’s just one of my memories of what John Lennon said. I am a psychedelic musician who remembers hearing Ringo Starr report that the song “Rain” was his best drumming performance with The Beatles.  Ringo, if you’re reading this, blessed be thou for reading my humble ramblings of thought.  But, Ringo, is that true or is that just something that I might have misheard?

But again, I am not a member of the liberal media. I am a member of the set of psychedelic rock musicians for which I do not even claim to be the legitimate spokesperson.

I heard John Lennon tell all about the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. and Communist China under Chairman Mao.  He was speaking of the insanity of these superpowers of the day.  Through his long beard he said that he thinks they have no end goal.  He said (and I do remember this verbatim) “If they have one, I would love it if they would write it down on a piece of paper and send it to me.”

Again, John Lennon saw the world.  And what kind of submarine operator am I?  Well, if I the sort on The Beatles “Yellow Submarine,” I am a submarine operator of the diesel motor variety. Hard to believe that you follow A guy like John Lennon who sees the world and then, obtusely, it ends up all being about submarines.

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No One Should Profit off Others’ Illness

I’ve been reading a bit about Obama’s plans to overhaul health care in this country.  Now for those of you who are checking out our site for the first time and are reading this post, no, I am NOT a member of any liberal group.  I am an independent thinker who likes to look at numerous sides of every issue. 

I am not aligned with any particular wing of politics be it left or right.  I believe in freedom and upholding our constitution. I am a free writer who is writing my thoughts separate from the Big Media Dogs who are constantly throwing propaganda at us to tell us how to think and celeb gossip to anesthetize us with  glitter.

I was reading an article on Obamas health care plan and I don’t know that he has done any kind of brilliant job designing it, but here in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, a staggering number of people do not have access to doctors.  That is unacceptable.

If the private health care providers were charging reasonable rates and covering the claims that come in, then maybe America wouldn’t be having this discussion about an overhaul.

But a corporation can’t be expected to have morals. All any corporation has is its bottom line. That is why they charge outrageous premiums that most families can’t afford and they don’t pay their claims justly.

I’m not against free enterprise in and of itself, but the profit system doesn’t work for all American institutions.  America has never been 100% privatized.  We’ve always had a government-run military, public schools, state and federal law enforcement, a postal system, etc.

Even though government systems are often less efficient than private companies, that doesn’t not mean that the for- profit system is always the best application.

I was reading some dumb comments  someone wrote on AOL last night.  This person said, “Most Americans don’t want health coverage.” WHAT?  I don’t know where some of these radical right-wingers get their notions but unless you have some kind of evidence that shows U.S. citizens would rather die from thier ailments that accept health care, than don’t make a dumb statement like that.

In reality, health care reform was part of Obama’s election platform and he won both the electoral and the popular vote. Obviously a lot of Americans want health care.

I have a close friend, Mark, who just died of prostate cancer.  He didn’t have health insurance because he couldn’t afford it and was trying to hold out until he was 62 to get Medicare.  He didn’t make it. My sympathies to Mark’s family. I have no sympathies for insurance companies.

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The Electric Marmalade New Stuff

High, Everyone,

It’s Friday night, actually it’s Saturday morning. I am looking forward to a nice weekend after having shot some live footage for our new video.  Larry Robinson of the L.A. based ’60s psychedelic act Thing To Come, sits in with us on drums.  And Micky Saunders plays bass.

Devin plays keys and, being the video production whiz that he is, has already started working with our production people on the editing and psychedelisizing of footage for three songs.

That’s what’s going on with The Electric Marmalade right now. We are also in production of some new recording projects.  Micky has volenteered her bass and vocal skills to upcoming sessions.

What’s up with these guys around the world who collect vinyl? We keep getting requests for our old vinyl records from the ’80s. Which means that we are on the map of rare collectable vinyl.  That’s a nice honor that we are on the map out there from Europe to Japan with requests.

Although thoses old records are out of print, we are working on restoring some rare and live recordings from the old days as The Wail and The Electric Marmalade.

We’re really excited about these vids. Also, a bunch of new studio tracks to be released, well, in a while.

I hope the weekend finds you in complete happiness my friends.

Peace and Love.  And as Sabrina Saxon wrote to me, “Love. Love, Love”

Robin

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My Clock And This Modern World

High, Friends,

I was just staring up at my bedroom ceiling from down on my pillow. Except for the darkness in the room, the feature presentation on my ceiling is the soft red time which is projected from my clock on the night stand.

As much as I like to celebrate the artists of the late ’60s and early’70s for bringing open-minded experimentation into the lime light of pop culture in a very modern-world way, I am mainly fascinated by the future because the modern world is always the one were going to be in, (dumb as that may sound).

Well, I know.  Here I go delving off the deep end again and just getting ridiculous with rhetorical meandering, never getting to the point, and then probably a multitude of sins in the scope of the editorial critique.  But my question is this: Would that be a Psychedelic editor or just a plain old literary editor? 

Dear Reader,

If you are a literary editor, please see my poetry blog. You will find poems written more for the editor’s ear. If you are not an editor of literature, please read on.

On this blog you will find anything from a news item to just me rambling, maundering to myself.  But alas after many shooting lights from my wild wondering eyes, I shall at last come to a point of some sort, (well, kinda).

At least I’ll return to the original thought about my clock. This IS the future we’re living in and my clock is proof. When I was a kid they only had those digital or, I suppose, quasi-digital clocks. The numbers were on little plates that would flip on per minute, exposing the next printed number.

At least that was the mod clock my grandfather had on his desk.  Most clocks just hung on the wall and if you wanted to know the time you had to turn the light on in your room.

This clock I have, I bought at Target for about $20. I just plugged it in and it knew automatically what time zone I’m in and it set itself to the correct time. It projects the time onto my ceiling and I have the choice of 3 colors.

I wonder how much my grandfather payed for that clock he had on his desk. I bet it would have been expensive for the day. In today’s world I got a clock that does tons more, tons better for the price of lunch.

Look how far into the future we already are.

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Psychedelic Defined More Closely According to Me

High Everyone, well a couple of entries ago, I set out to define the word psychedelic. Athough it is hard to put a definite answer to what experiences, perceptions, feelings and emotions actually constitute psychedelic and which ones don’t, it is at least safe to say that psychedelic is a state of mind.

But how can one say that certain perceptions are psychedelic and others aren’t? It seems absurd and even silly to tell some one, “Oh, what you’re feeling is psychedelic.” or “What you’re feeling is not psychedelic.”

I did give the dictionary definition of psychedelic in my last blog on the subject.  But even the Dictionary.com definition is elusive at best.  If I am experiencing feelings of euphoria for example, for whatever reason, who is to say that it is or is not part of my psychedelic life?

One thing for sure, if psychedelic is a state of mind, who is to say that it has to be brought on by a chemical? It doesn’t. Maybe my feelings of euphoria come from holding my baby daughter. –what a joy!!  Who would argue that euphoria resulting from a situation of love for my daughter is any less of a psychedelic experience than if I had the same euphoria sparked by a drug?

Wouldn’t that be kind of a silly argument? It doesn’t matter what the catalyst is for a psychedelic experience. 

Carlos Castanada, in his writings, the most famous of which is probably, his book “The Teachings of Don Juan,” explores the American Indian rites that include the use of peyote.  Peyote is a part of a cactus that causes psychedelic experiences.

He uses the drug to find a certain truth and reality that he is searching for. But even Castanada learns at the end of it that you really don’t need the drug to arrive at what you are searching for. Although peyote did serve as a catalyst for him, it really was not the answer in and of itself , only a vehicle for the “Separate Reality” of which he wrote in his book, “A Separate Reality.”

As John Lennon sang in The Beatles ‘ song, “Tomorrow Never Knows,” on the Revolver album, “Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.” I heard John Lennon say in an interview that he got that line from Timothy Leary.

But you can turn off your mind, relax and float downstream by kicking back with an herbal tea and just being at one with your environment.

That’s why we have designed this web site. –to be an open forum for any one who embraces, Peace, Love and the Psychedelic. When you log on, you can communicate with others who embrace the same.

Whatever your vehicle for getting to that state in your mind, you can be at one with other like minded people here. Enjoy Friends!

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Michael Jackson, (my humble thoughts)

Michael Jackson, as a child, left very cool images in my head and great sounds in my ears. He was a couple years older than I, so I suppose I was watching reruns, but I remember being a kid and watching those old videos of The Jackson 5.  They always had great tunes. My personal fav’: “I Want You Back.”  I had the 45.

Those performances were golden moments, the kind that could never be done again (or manufactured like so many pop acts today).  The Jackson 5 was the real deal, baby.  Armed with day-glow jumpsuits, high healed shoes, and really cool instruments of the late 60’s and early 70’s, they were psychedelic before the average middle-American household even knew what psychedelic was. And then of course, there was this little kid who could belt out lines and dance around on stage like he did. 

I think most average Americans were intrigued, excited, maybe a little shocked at what was on their TV on the nights those videos were first aired. I know I was and I was only watching reruns.

Everyone is talking about all the mystery Michael Jackson left behind. But I think the charisma and charm with which he sang those great old hits like “ABC,” gave us Wonder Year kids something really hip. And the cool style of the Jackson 5 gave us a really far out way to groove and dress.  After all, what kid in the 60’s wouldn’t want to be as cool as Michael Jackson?

I feel sorry for him and any suffering that was caused by the lack of a regular childhood.  It isn’t the norm for a child to have a life like his and undoubtedly that  had an effect on him as it would for any person.  But then again, you can’t hold back that kind of child talent no matter how hard you try. 

I don’t know why his appearance changed over the years.  I don’t know why he wore surgical masks.  That stuff doesn’t interest me.  What interested me were those cool 45′s and cool videos of little Michael Jackson and his brothers, decked out with their groovy gear and attitude. I’ll still watch a clip.

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Psychedelic According to the Blog of Robin Reda

As you may have noticed, we claim to be all about the psychedelic side of the reality sphere, which in this case is more of an oblique spheroid. Be that as it may, I suppose I have a lot of explaining to do just about what this psychedelic thang is that I’m about.  For example, you may ask me (or anyone else if you like):  Well, what does psychedelic actually mean?

Dictionary.com writes of the word psychedelic with this one long, doozy of a definition:  “of or noting a mental state characterized by a profound sense of intensified sensory perception, sometimes accompanied by severe perceptual distortion and hallucinations and by extreme feelings of either euphoria or despair.”

But who’s to say if that long quasi-sentence actually encompasses all or even any of what psychedelic really is, and then of course, since you have asked me this question, (supposedly), I now have the right (supposedly) to ask you for your definition, even as I offered to you, only a dictionary definition.  But honestly, if you want to know what it means to me, just go through our new web site and store. Like so many before me, perhaps like you, my message is my story.

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High, Friends

Welcome Everyone.  I’m sure that most people reading this page are friends, fellow musicians or people who have followed The Electric Marmalade for a long time. I could go on about our rise from relative obscurity (in fact, absolute obscurity) to a self-actualized unit of music-makers who have delved into the very crevasses of the inner universe…and you who know me are aware that I just go on like this, no biggie.

But, this is the night we have just gone live with our new Electric Marmalade Psychedelic Hippie Shop. Now, wow, you need a couple breathes to say the name of it right? Well, that’s because, just as, marmalade is spread across toast, we wanted to spread the meaning out among several words to emulate the flow of  jam and jamming…but, see, I’m going on like this again (see the aforementioned.) 

Tonight, is also the first real post on this Electric Marmalade Psychedelic Blog. So, friends, hippies, advocates, go check out our new store with tons of new psychedelic bootie, yes, bootie. And there I go off like this…, but shop the store. –You’ll find the name is self-explanatory.

                                                           Robin

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Come check out the new store

Welcome to the all-new, Electric Marmalade Psychedelic Hippie Shop.  How may we exeed your wildest expectations? Relinquesh your mind with new all-natural spreads.  Some of these items could have been imported by space aliens.

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