Jan 4 Fri 2013 NATIONAL ARTS CLUB - MCKENNA Book Party
The Art and Technology Committee Presents
Dennis McKenna, Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss
Friday, January 4
8:00 PM Book Reading and Signing
National Arts club
15 Gramercy Park South
In 2010, the Art and Technology Committee hosted a presentation by Dennis McKenna in which he shared his ideas about the origins of the human imagination. We're pleased to announce that Dennis will return to The National Arts Club on January 4, 2013 for a reading and signing of his newly released book entitled Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss. In Brotherhood, Dennis talks of his life with his late brother Terence, well known as a radical philosopher, futurist, raconteur and cultural commentator.
Dennis and Terence's ideas advocate strongly for the arts. Terence once proclaimed that "art's task is to save the soul of mankind, and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns. Because if the artists, who are self-selected for being able to journey into the Other, cannot find the way, then the way cannot be found."
Dennis will place the role of art and creativity into historical context, particularly with respect to development of cognition in our species. And we'll hear why, in a world dominated by accelerating technological change, the arts represent an endeavor through which we can maintain our humanness.
Books will be available for purchase, and Dennis will be available to sign them and answer questions. We hope you'll join us for what promises to be an insightful and fun evening.
(Notes) McKenna brother shows family photos for half an hour and loses some of his audience. Faces as we exit form strange phalanx of dark eyes full of the zombie expression of cult love... Erik Carlson and friend are on settee, they putting on the East Berlin Project...Samuel and Jacqueline discuss what should be the topic of the evening, how hallucinogens permanently expand the mind in the aftermath of the experience... and how high normal group resistance is to new ideas...Many stay for the duration which with Q and A extends to 11.30pm.. Costumes seem to be of travelers from Peru and Amazon jungle... they greet each other from such trippy trips it seems... They gather in bar afterwards till shooed out by hand claps from staff...some adjourn to local bistro for dinner... abnormal level of friendliness reminiscent of church groups ... Francesca gets her book signed...Matthew Satz with her from his painting in Amagansett but dislikes paint ...Casey in red dress from Atrocity NGO has thick card whose stiffness she finds reassuring... felt one asked nothing but questions.. hall was packed and some were very patient to sit it out, perhaps the tolerance of the drug tenderized mind... man holding up iPad in front of face was effective...all of it spoke well of the ability of pharmaceuticals of the recreational kind to break down the eggshell defenses of the soul adrift in materialism and give people access to the loving spirit of the universe..,the one we are all born with but lose as the spirit of commerce takes over our minds from an early age...Francesca's hands were very cold...Casey was a little jumpy at too much focused attention on her persona or was it her frame...her daily material of atrocity research must make her a little wary of the dark side...back on 96th miss a bus and a beautiful girl comes running from a cab and asks me to join her in it..keynote of evening is this extraordinary friendliness and kindness to strangers... beneficial effect of mind expanding drugs may be to enhance brotherly love at expense of losing boundary between reality and illusion, external world versus internal experience, which most people confuse to some degree anyhow...unless they have some scientific thinking experience as Samuel and Jacqueline say...to some extent perhaps the Internet is showing all this potential by providing a platform for individual effort to connect free of social barriers which releases all kinds of demons and angels from Pandora's box...released by the total acceptance suggested by the empty screen...in this crowd it seems angels are released by hallucinogens, rather than demons...the only problem appears to be that the speaker may well overrate the interest of family slides to total strangers.
Read MoreDennis McKenna, Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss
Friday, January 4
8:00 PM Book Reading and Signing
National Arts club
15 Gramercy Park South
In 2010, the Art and Technology Committee hosted a presentation by Dennis McKenna in which he shared his ideas about the origins of the human imagination. We're pleased to announce that Dennis will return to The National Arts Club on January 4, 2013 for a reading and signing of his newly released book entitled Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss. In Brotherhood, Dennis talks of his life with his late brother Terence, well known as a radical philosopher, futurist, raconteur and cultural commentator.
Dennis and Terence's ideas advocate strongly for the arts. Terence once proclaimed that "art's task is to save the soul of mankind, and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns. Because if the artists, who are self-selected for being able to journey into the Other, cannot find the way, then the way cannot be found."
Dennis will place the role of art and creativity into historical context, particularly with respect to development of cognition in our species. And we'll hear why, in a world dominated by accelerating technological change, the arts represent an endeavor through which we can maintain our humanness.
Books will be available for purchase, and Dennis will be available to sign them and answer questions. We hope you'll join us for what promises to be an insightful and fun evening.
(Notes) McKenna brother shows family photos for half an hour and loses some of his audience. Faces as we exit form strange phalanx of dark eyes full of the zombie expression of cult love... Erik Carlson and friend are on settee, they putting on the East Berlin Project...Samuel and Jacqueline discuss what should be the topic of the evening, how hallucinogens permanently expand the mind in the aftermath of the experience... and how high normal group resistance is to new ideas...Many stay for the duration which with Q and A extends to 11.30pm.. Costumes seem to be of travelers from Peru and Amazon jungle... they greet each other from such trippy trips it seems... They gather in bar afterwards till shooed out by hand claps from staff...some adjourn to local bistro for dinner... abnormal level of friendliness reminiscent of church groups ... Francesca gets her book signed...Matthew Satz with her from his painting in Amagansett but dislikes paint ...Casey in red dress from Atrocity NGO has thick card whose stiffness she finds reassuring... felt one asked nothing but questions.. hall was packed and some were very patient to sit it out, perhaps the tolerance of the drug tenderized mind... man holding up iPad in front of face was effective...all of it spoke well of the ability of pharmaceuticals of the recreational kind to break down the eggshell defenses of the soul adrift in materialism and give people access to the loving spirit of the universe..,the one we are all born with but lose as the spirit of commerce takes over our minds from an early age...Francesca's hands were very cold...Casey was a little jumpy at too much focused attention on her persona or was it her frame...her daily material of atrocity research must make her a little wary of the dark side...back on 96th miss a bus and a beautiful girl comes running from a cab and asks me to join her in it..keynote of evening is this extraordinary friendliness and kindness to strangers... beneficial effect of mind expanding drugs may be to enhance brotherly love at expense of losing boundary between reality and illusion, external world versus internal experience, which most people confuse to some degree anyhow...unless they have some scientific thinking experience as Samuel and Jacqueline say...to some extent perhaps the Internet is showing all this potential by providing a platform for individual effort to connect free of social barriers which releases all kinds of demons and angels from Pandora's box...released by the total acceptance suggested by the empty screen...in this crowd it seems angels are released by hallucinogens, rather than demons...the only problem appears to be that the speaker may well overrate the interest of family slides to total strangers.
