Utah Phillips-Legendary Folk Musician and Labor Activist

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Called The "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest", Utah Phillips, a legendary folk musician and peace and labor activist,died at the age of seventy-three on May 23, 2008.
Over the span of nearly four decades, Utah Phillips worked in what he referred to as "the Trade," performing tirelessly throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. The son of labor organizers, Phillips was a lifelong member of the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies. As a teenager, he ran away from home and started living as a hobo who rode the rails and wrote songs about his experiences. In 1956, he joined the Army and served in the Korean War, an experience he would later refer to as the turning point of his life. In 1968, he ran for the US Senate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. For the past twenty-one years he lived in Nevada City,California, where he started a nationally syndicated folk music radio show. He also helped found the Hospitality House homeless shelter and the Peace and Justice Center.
A few years before he passed, Utah swung by the place where he grew up, to do a show. The place was Salt Lake City, Utah, my home town. I just sat there in awe, listening to his unique brand of folk music and story telling....So sit back, relax, and listen to the stories, music, and most importantly, the message of a true American original....:)

Direct Action - Utah Phillips:
In memory of a great American, a true voice of the worker and a friend to all people that strive to be free.
Utah Phillips
May 15, 1935 -- May 23, 2008
You are loved and you will be missed!



Utah Phillips on Learning on the Road:
Amy Goodman interviews Utah Phillips for Democracy Now! in 2004. In Part 1 of the interview, he talks about his approach to music and learning from his audiences.




Utah Phillips on War and Non-Violence:
In part 2 of the interview, Utah discusses his own military service and becoming a pacifist.



Utah Phillips on His Name, the IWW, and War Resistance:
In Part 3 of the interview, Utah explains how he got the name "U. Utah", the history of war resistance, and the Wobblies.



Utah Phillips on the Role of the Media:
In part 4 of the interview, Utah talks about television, storytelling, capitalism, and alternative media.



Utah Phillips on "Making a Living, Not a Killing":
In part 5 of the interview, Utah tells how he started out in New York, fired his agent, and decided not to play music for profit.




U. Utah Phillips - 4 - Funniest Story Ever!? His performance at the Strawberry Music Festival Spring 2007, Camp Mather, Yosemite.



'I Will Not Obey' - Utah on Anarchism: Utah Phillips talks about Ammon Hennessy and anarchism.



U. Utah Phillips - Miner's Lullaby:
Utah Phillips discusses his song, "Miner's Lullaby," followed by bluegrass duo Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin performing his song. Miners would take a tin of morphine with them down in the shaft, in case of a cave in, or other disaster to ease the pain as they died. The lyrics of "Miner's Lullaby" are:

MINER'S LULLABY (Bruce 'Utah' Phillips)
Once, long ago, he was handsome and tall
And fit to be called to the war
We left our village, family and all
To never return any more

Now he takes his coat, his bucket and lamp
And whistles away to the cage
Where men young and old from all over the camp
Gather in search of a wage

Chorus:
Husband, sleep, lay your head back and dream
A slow fallen leaf borne down to the stream
Then carried away on the wings of morphine
Homeward far over the sea

My husband and I are Roman in faith
And we have a secret to keep
If ever his life is taken away
Then gentle and long will he sleep

Now some men pass with family around
And linens and blankets so clean
But seldom a miner goes underground
Without his tin of morphine

Chorus:
And now here's a word, an explosion is heard
The miners are trapped far below
If any survived down there alive
I'm certain we never will know

Although our families have vainly appealed
No rescue attempt can be seen
Our hope for loved ones in the dark earth sealed
Now lies in a tin of morphine

Chorus Words and music by Bruce 'Utah' Phillips. On Strike Music BMI.

Source: Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin 'Heart Songs: The Old Time Country Songs of Utah Phillips' Rounder CD 0424.



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2012: Doomsday?

A documentary film by Rhawn Joseph, Ph.D. http://BrainMind.com

We are commonly asked about the buildings which remain standing. Most were destroyed. What we see are those in remote areas and those which were so incredibly massive in size it was impossible to destroy them, even with the use of cannons. However, the entire Aztec capital was destroyed, and in its place is the capital of Mexico, Mexico City, and its hundreds of Catholic churches and cathedrals.

We are also asked if we believe the world will end in 2012? The answer is: "no." The next cycle of the Mayan calendar ends on 2012. Does this mean the Maya's believed the world end on 2012? No. It means the calendar ends. Yet, there is also a warning, and we must learn from the past, so let those with eyes, see.

Part 1~Fall of the Aztec Empire~


Part 2~Lost Civilizations, Lost Continents~

Murder Ballads

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Murder ballads are a notable portion of recorded medieval ballads from Scandinavia and Great Britain. In those, the victim overcomes the murderer, tricks him and stabs him to death while sleeping. Thus, justice is fulfilled, and the murderer is punished. Many of those ballads mention a row of dead brides, from seven and up to ten, until the final surviving heroine.
Often the details and locales for a particular murder ballad change as it is sung over time, reflecting the audience and the performer. For example, "Knoxville Girl" is essentially the same ballad as "The Wexford Girl" with the setting transposed from Ireland to Tennessee - the two of them are based on "The Oxford Girl", the original murder ballad set in England.
American murder ballads are often versions of older Old World ballads with any elements of supernatural retribution removed. For example, the English ballad "The Gosport Tragedy" of the 1750s had both murder and vengeance on the murderer by the ghosts of the murdered woman and her unborn baby, who call up a great storm to prevent his ship sailing before tearing him apart. In contrast, the Kentucky version, "Pretty Polly", is a stark murder ballad ending with the murder and burial of the victim in a shallow grave.
A murder ballad typically recounts the details of a mythic or true crime — who the victim is, why the murderer decides to kill him or her, how the victim is lured to the murder site and the act itself — followed by the escape and/or capture of the murderer. Often the ballad ends with the murderer in jail or on their way to the gallows, occasionally with a plea for the listener not to copy the evils committed by the singer.

"Knoxville Girl" at the Museum of Appalachia:
"Knoxville Girl" is an old murder ballad that originated not in Tennessee, but in the British Islands, where it was known by such names as "Wexford Girl." Murder ballads were the tabloid press of centuries past made into a song. Singing it was a spur-of-the-moment act.

The Oxford Girl~Shirley & Dolly Collins:
I fell in love with an Oxford girl...

PRETTY POLLY:


Doc Watson - Tom Dooley:


El Paso - Marty Robbins:

1913 Massacre~Woody Guthrie:


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Ayahuasca, the world's most powerful herbal medicine!

Ayahuasca is the world's most powerful herbal medicine, not a "drug" to be thought of as child's play. a medicine to be respected. it is used to treat diabetes, addiction, AIDS, cancer, chronic fatigue, asthma etc. etc.
for info please visit:http://refugioaltiplano.org/


2012 preparation: Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon:
Peter Gorman writes: "Plants, like everything else, are our co-dwellers in the universe. But man has a special relationship with plants. They provide, and have since the beginning of time, the bulk of our food, our clothing, our shelter. Some provide us with the loveliest scents; some with extraordinary color. They're the source of our medicines, their roots work with soil and stone to keep the surface of the earth intact. They go so far as to take the poisonous carbon dioxide that humans exhale and turn it back into human-life-giving oxygen. That's some relationship. Of course it may be that plants only invented us to distribute their seeds, so I'm not suggesting they live to cater to us. But they do provide us with much of what we need to exist on this planet."

Ralph Metzner writes: "Ayahuasca is an hallucinogenic Amazonian plant concoction, that has been used by native Indian and mestizo shamans in Perú, Colombia and Ecuador for healing and divination for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. It is known by various names in the different tribes, including caapi, natema, mihi and yajé. The name ayahuasca is from the Quechua language: huasca means "vine" or "liana" and aya means "souls" or "dead people" or "spirits". Thus "vine of the dead", "vine of the souls" or "vine of the spirits" would all be appropriate English translations. It is however slightly misleading as a name, since the vine Banisteriopsis caapi is only one of two essential ingredients in the hallucinogenic brew, the other one being the leafy plant Psychotria viridis, which contain the powerful psychoactive dimethyltryptamine (DMT). It is the DMT, derivatives of which are also present in various other natural hallucinogens, including the magic mushroom of Mexico, that provides visionary experiences and thus access to the realm of spirits and the souls of deceased ancestors. But DMT is not orally active, being metabolized by the stomach enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO). Certain chemicals in the vine inhibit the action of MAO and are therefore referred to as MAO-inhibitors: -- their presence in the brew makes the psychoactive principle available and allows it to circulate through the bloodstream into the brain, where it triggers the visionary access to otherworldly realms and beings. The details of this remarkably sophisticated indigenous psychoactive drug-delivery system, and the history of its discovery by science, will be described and explored in this volume."





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