Tuesday, March 17 2009 HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY !!!
At 3:30 Philip Smith, an artist and former managing editor of GQ magazine, reflects on his youth in 1960s Miami. He wanted a father who mowed the lawn, drank beer, and fell asleep in front of the TV. Instead, his dad, Lew Smith, was a successful interior decorator, who went through a macrobiotic transformation and began tuning into mystical vibrations. Young Philip was introduced to fasting and yogic diets, while Lew explored esoteric spirituality, reincarnation, Bach Flower Remedies and such metaphysical arcana as the akashic records, an ethereal Library of Congress of every soul in human history: [Philip] wasn’t sure if this endless invisible database also included reruns of I Love Lucy or Perry Mason, but it probably did. After a 1968 encounter with famed trance medium Arthur Ford, Lew found his true calling as a psychic healer, and overnight our isolated house became Lourdes central. Smith’s fine flair for waggish anecdotes is especially evident in his riotous recall of being suckered into Scientology at age 17. He looks back at his father with much affection in this mirthful memoir that bounces between the comic and the cosmic. Smith is a gifted humorist, and readers are certain to request more merriment” Reviews “Philip Smith’s compellingly readable memoir of his father — a psychic, exorcist, hands-on-healer, and…decorator! — is as entertaining as it is bizarre, all the way to its unexpected and deeply moving conclusion.” — John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Falling Angels “At long last, a subject worthy of a memoir. Philip Smith recounts the story of his father, a visionary, a psychic healer, and a saint, with matter-of-fact grace, without ever denying how difficult it was to be the child of a man with unlimited supernatural gifts. Lew Smith was a man we are unlikely to ever see the likes of again, one of the few fathers in literature whose death I mourned as if I’d known him. I wish I had known him; he was a miracle. Every page of Walking Through Walls reminded me of how vast the universe, and how meager the dreams of our philosophies.” — Haven Kimmel, author of ‘Iodine and A Girl Named Zippy’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ4emXxcysA http://www.walkingthroughwallsthebook.com/Reviews.html
At 4 PM Carl Conetta has been Co-Director of the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) since January 1991. Prior to joining PDA, Mr. Conetta was a Research Fellow of the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS) and also served for three years as editor of the IDDS journal Defense and Disarmament Alternatives, and the Arms Control Reporter. As co-director of PDA, Mr. Conetta has authored and co-authored numerous reports on security issues and has published in Defense News, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, NOD and Conversion Journal, the Boston Review, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the American Sentinel, Security Dialogue, and Hawk, the journal of the Royal Air Force Staff College of the United Kingdom. Mr. Conetta has also made presentations at the Pentagon, US State Department, US House Armed Services Committee, Army War College, National Defense University, UNIDIR, and other governmental and nongovernmental institutions in the United States and abroad. He is a frequent expert commentator on radio and TV. He edits the Chinese Military Power and Revolution in Military Affairs Webpages.
At 5 PM Mamakind (a/k/a Lisa Kirkman) attended the Universities of Lethbridge, Calgary & Poona (Pune, India) working toward a degree in Religious Studies. After the birth of her first child, Mamakind moved to British Columbia to pursue her passion for writing & editing with ‘Cannabis Culture’ magazine, heading out on a long road of anti-prohibition activism. While in BC, she founded a medical cannabis dispensary (the ‘Sunshine Coast Compassion Club Society’), was a contributor to ‘Cannabis Health Journal’, started her own cannabis-related advertising directory, had another baby & was convicted of growing medical cannabis for her sick husband in 2005. MK started contributing to ‘SKUNK Magazine’ the same year, answering stoners’ sex & relationship questions & later moved to Montréal, Québec to become SKUNK’s Senior Editor & Sales Director. After two-and-a-half years of writing, editing & activism in Québec, Mamakind recently moved back to her hometown of Calgary to raise her children, continue her activism (as a member of Calgary420, the ‘Canadian Cannabis Coalition’ & panelist for NORML Canada’s’ Resolving Marijuana Prohibition National Tour’) & contributions to SKUNK, as well as finish writing her book, “A Girl’s Guide to Ganja”. She continues to freelance; she’s the only female blogger on Celebstoner.com, her work has appeared on Ireland’s ‘Cannazine’ website & she has an article appearing in the May `09 issue of ‘High Times’. She’s also developed a writing course called ‘I Wanna Write for the Pot Magazines’ for those interested in breaking into cannabis-related publications. Mama’s favorite strains are DJ Short’s “Flo” & Sensi Seeds’ “Skunk #1. She has an article coming out in the May issue of High Times about the state of cannabis in Canada & is a panelist on NORML’s upcoming “Reconsidering Cannabis Prohibition” national tour when it hits Calgary (a particularly important stop on the tour, seeing as Calgary’s Canada’s Conservative stronghold and home to over 80 000 Americans– the most in Canada). She’s also holding a webinar next month: “I WANNA WRITE FOR THE POT MAGAZINES” & continuing work on a book, “A Girl’s Guide to Ganja”
http://www.SKUNKmagazine.com
http://www.Celebstoner.com/blogs/mamakind/
http://cannabiscoalition.ca/
www.myspace.com/mamakind
We also spoke with Joe Brewer, Founder, Cognitive Policy Works Joe Brewer is the founder of Cognitive Policy Works. He is a social entrepreneur and cognitive scientist who brings the bounty of his studies in psychology, cognitive linguistics, complexity and politics to the progressive movement. His writings as a fellow of the Rockridge Institute have drawn international attention, where he applied cognitive frame analysis to the discourse around climate and energy. Joe is working with a community of cognitive and behavioral scientists to build a new foundation for politics in the 21st Century. Cognitive Policy Works is both an educational center that provides professional trainings to people in politics and a research/consulting firm that analyzes the workings of the political mind for nonprofits and social businesses. We’re a team of experts in political behavior and social change with a powerful combination of skills ranging from psychology and linguistics to media studies and strategic planning. Cognitive Policy Works is devoted to the application of the cognitive and behavioral sciences to politics. Our mission is to build a new foundation for politics based on a 21st Century understanding of the mind, one that works for real people as we come together to address the great challenges of our time. http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/
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