Ron Jacobs :
BOOKS | A ‘Bohemian’ comic rhapsody

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Paul Buhle and David Berger’s graphic history is a fascinating collection of personalities, their lives drawn in a manner equal to the stories they tell.

bohemians

Bohemians: A Graphic History was edited by Paul Buhle and David Berger.

By Ron Jacobs | The Rag Blog | June 5, 2014

[Bohemians: A Graphic History edited by Paul Buhle and David Berger (2014: Verso); Paperback; 304 pp.; $16.95.]

Bohemians: A Graphic History is an ideal medium for the history it presents. There is a growing understanding that comics are one of the few art forms considered purely American in origin. Arguably, the other four are the mystery novel, the banjo, jazz, and the musical comedy. I might throw bluegrass music into the mix, but the focus of this review is comics.

The collection of comics appearing in Bohemians is a broad reaching display of the varieties of the art form and the contributors include many new cartoonists along with some well-known artists who began drawing during the 1960s and 1970s underground comics renaissance. Though most is freestyle in form, the artwork in other stories is more linear in form, even using typeset for the word balloons.
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Posted on June 5, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer
aralyn hughes group small
METRO PODCAST | ‘Queen of Austin Weird!’ Thorne Dreyer’s Rag Radio interview with performance artist Aralyn Hughes, editor of ‘Kid Me Not.’
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Tom Hayden :
The negotiated release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Public opinion supports Bergdahl but Republicans and neocons are grumbling about his anti-war statements and rumors that he went AWOL.

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Still from a video released by the Taliban of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held captive since 2009. Image from TomHayden.com.

By Tom Hayden | The Rag Blog | June 5, 2014

After the negotiated release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, I called an old friend who spent years as a POW in Vietnam’s prison camps to ask for his response. Preferring to keep his name out of the papers for the moment, he was following the situation closely. In summary though, here’s what he said:

First, the Pentagon will debrief Bergdahl for as long as two weeks, eight hours per day, assuming they follow protocols used in Vietnam.
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Jonah Raskin :
INTERVIEW | Howard Machtinger on the old-yet-never-forgotten American War in Vietnam

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Anti-war activist Howie Machtinger, veteran of SDS and the Weather Underground,  believes we should get the facts straight about Vietnam.

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Howie Machtinger, 1969.

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | June 5, 2014

Vietnam was near the heart of Howard Machtinger’s life from about 1965, when he was a 19-year-old student, to 1975, when the war ended and weary American troops came home. Vietnam is near the heart of his life once again.

In those days, he belonged to SDS and later to Weatherman and the Weather Underground. These days, he’s a member of Veterans for Peace, the organization that has launched a campaign that demands “Full Disclosure” and “An Honest Commemoration of the American War in Vietnam.”
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METRO | Roger Baker : The rise and rise of Austin, Texas

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Suburbs experience growth explosion while Austin’s tech bubble could be the next to explode.

growth monster

Austin Growth Monster? Image from Nickelodeon.

By Roger Baker | The Rag Blog | June 3, 2014

AUSTIN — According to Forbes, as reported by KVUE-TV, Austin is the fastest growing city in the country.

According to city of Austin demographer Ryan Robinson, approximately 110 new people move here every day. That’s a net number, including those moving in and moving out. “About 150 come in and 40 leave,” Robinson told KVUE. That number includes all five counties in the greater metropolitan area: Williamson, Travis, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell.

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Kate Braun :
BOOKS | Mariann Garner-Wizard’s informative and timely ‘Hempseed Food’

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

This book is chock-full of recipes and useful information that will fascinate readers who care deeply about what they eat, how it is prepared, and what nutrients it contains.

hempseed food

Mariann Garner-Wizard’s Hempseed Food.

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | June 3, 2014

[Hempseed Food: The REAL Secret Ingredient for Health & Happiness by Mariann Garner-Wizard; illustrated by Charlie Loving (2013: Lulu.com); Paperback; 90 pp.; $15.]

When Rag Blog regular Mariann Garner-Wizard decided in 1995 to write a book about cooking with hempseed, the seed of the Cannabis sativa plant, she thought it would be a quick, easy project. A longtime cannabis activist, she saw hempseed foods then just as she saw other products that could be made from the banned “marijuana” plant: fibers for paper, fabric, and building materials; oil and biomass for fuels; and valuable medicines for cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, and other disease sufferers.
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METRO EVENT | Dude. It’s Hemp History Week!

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Hemp History Week, June 3-9, 2014, promotes the re-legalization of industrial hemp in the U.S.

hemp history weekAUSTIN — Every day, more and more Americans discover the environmental and health-related benefits of hemp (Cannabis sativa). Hemp products now include foods, body care products, textiles, paper goods, clothing, auto parts, building materials, and more.

But despite hemp’s growing popularity, the outdated, misguided federal policy of cannabis prohibition still prevents U.S. farmers from growing this versatile, valuable crop. The prohibition of hemp, the non-psychoactive sister plant of “marijuana,” may in fact have been the real reason the war against marijuana was launched in the 1930s by industrialists who feared hemp’s potential.
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Posted on June 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer
hempseed food
FRONT PAGE | See Kate Braun’s review of Rag Blogger Mariann Garner-Wizard’s new book, ‘Hempseed Food.’
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METRO PODCAST | Thorne Dreyer : Aralyn Hughes, performance artist & ‘Queen of Austin Weird,’ on Rag Radio

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Noted Austin storyteller Hughes is the editor of ‘Kid Me Not: an anthology by child-free women of the ’60s now in their 60s.’

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Performance artist Aralyn Hughes, with Rag Radio’s Tracey Schulz, left, and host Thorne Dreyer, at the KOOP studios in Austin. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interview by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | June 2, 2014

Our Rag Radio podcast features Austin performance artist, storyteller, and visual artist Aralyn Hughes, whose new book is Kid Me Not: an anthology by child-free women of the ’60s now in their 60s.

Listen to or download the podcast of our May 23, 2014, Rag Radio interview with Aralyn Hughes here:
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Bob Feldman :
People’s History of Egypt, Conclusion, Section 2, February 12, 2011-2013

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The Egyptian people continue their fight against domination by foreign governments, foreign-based transnational corporations, and foreign government-selected or promoted puppet rulers.

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Egyptian basins serving as hydrocarbon exploration centers for Houston’s Apache Corporation, the largest oil producer in Egypt.

By Bob Feldman | The Rag Blog | June 2, 2014

[With all the dramatic activity in Egypt, Bob Feldman’s Rag Blog “people’s history” series, “The Movement to Democratize Egypt,” could not be more timely. Also see Feldman’s “Hidden History of Texas” series on The Rag Blog.]

In the view of James Gelvin, author of The Arab Uprising, “social media” had “certainly played a role” in the late January 2011 uprising in Egypt “but they did not cause” the  uprising because “only 20 percent of Egyptians have internet access.”
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Alan Waldman :
‘Luther’ is a dark, powerful English thriller series featuring a star turn by Idris Elba

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

This haunted detective, aided by a deranged former murderess, takes on the most treacherous London criminals.

luther

Luther is an innovative British psychological crime series.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | May 27, 2014

[In his weekly column, Alan Waldman reviews some of his favorite films and TV series that readers may have missed, including TV dramas, mysteries, and comedies from Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, and Scotland. Most are available on DVD and/or Netflix, and some episodes are on YouTube.]

Luther is an innovative British psychological crime drama television series which has aired three seasons and 14 episodes (2010-2013) so far in Britain (two here on BBC America) and has already won eight major awards and 20 nominations (including five for Emmys). Currently, 10 episodes from two seasons, including this one, are on Netflix and Netflix Instant streaming.
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Robert Sharlet :
Lament for the long forgotten war dead

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

For the fallen from Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, it’s home in a box, family and neighbors gather, a sad requiem, the flag folded, presented to the mother.

sharlet high peaks

High Peaks, Adirondacks, northern New York.

By Robert Sharlet | The Rag Blog | May 24, 2014

Nearly a half century ago this season of remembering the fallen — just after sunset on a hillside along the border of New York and Canada — the sad sounds of taps echoed through the hills and valleys. It was a warm evening summer of ’67 when hundreds of townspeople — nearly everyone living in Ausable Forks, a tiny hamlet of 500 or so souls — came out to pay last respects to a local boy, James Saltmarsh, killed a week earlier in Vietnam.

An honor guard had fired 21 rifle volleys as yet another son of the North Country of upper New York State was laid to rest. Finally, the elegiac lament of the bugle was heard, closing the burial ceremony in the breathtaking High Peaks region of the Adirondack Mountains.
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