Category: epritchard

4 AM with Ray at the hotel, talking about the news and the Algonquin Leadership Gathering. At 5:30 the paper arrives and I read it to him. There’s an article about D’Amato (we used to respectfully call him Mr. Tomato Head) saying that Cheney should step down, and everyone is saying, well D’Amato is friends with Pataki, and works for his campaign, so obviously Pataki wants to run. Well, folks, (as Rush Limbaugh used to say) I’ve been saying this for years. The reason Pataki screwed us on the budget this past year, and why he’s been so hard on Native Americans in the state is because he is preparing to run for Veep. They think he can win them New York, and of course he’ll be a big presence at the convention. I’ve been saying this for years, and my response was Pataki is not much better than Cheney. The White House immediately denied wanting to dump Cheney, so you know that’s the plan. The standard wording.

Also in the same vein, an article about how the government is planning for a terrorist strike right before the November election. You can read that two ways, preparing to defend against it and the other way. It reminded me of the May 8th 2001 press conference where Rumsfeld implies he can’t have space weapons until that ABM thing is out of the way.

Ray gave me back the one sample of Shawangunk Conglomerate, a piece of it, and I went home and slept in the tent again. Then I got Michael Picucci on the phone. He still was not able to receive either fax or email, the revolt of the inanimate objects. I worked for another hour on polishing chapter one and then sent it. Finally after a good while the first email with attachment got through my server. There are so many bugs everywhere! Then I was very enthused by working through Ch. 1, that I sat down and wrote a big chunk of chapter two, which has to be finished by Tues. or Wed. Then I took a break at 5 PM and talked to Steve Sora for a while. He was a consultant for the upcoming Nicholas Cage flick called National Treasure and is interviewed on the DVD. I saw the previews the other day, another Jerry Bruckheimer film like Arthur, and thought that Steve would have been part of it. The concept is that a treasure map has been placed in invisible ink on the back of the US Constitution and this one man has to steal it back. Well, the political angle is cute, our rights should be treasured, etc. I discussed it with Steve and mentioned that King Arthur had a similar political parallel. He said he went to try to see Fahrenheit 9-11 but it was sold out, so he had to go back again. He gave me (again) his contact at Wiley and Sons for the baseball book. I got the copyright registration in the mail today for that book and we’re at the all star break, so a good day to inquire. Steve is going up to Labrador for vacation, so I said I’d try to get him those place names where the old stuff is. We talked about a writer’s life for a while. He said he was interested coming on my walking tour of Manhattan but his wife had made other plans.

The name Steven Sora to me is almost an institution or a semi-fictional character. I think of it like William Shakespeare, or Aristotle. And yet he is a real person like you and me. He just happens to be an expert on some of the most arcane mysteries on the planet. If you don’t know his work, he wrote The Oak Island Mystery, and is now working on a book on Verrazzano. His writings sit right on the edge of speculation and science, and it inspired the way in which I approached Native New Yorkers.

I was looking through the ABA book from two years ago, and thinking of new publishing projects. And cleaning up my house, which has gotten messy.

I slept in the tent and slept pretty well, no problems, but it gets hot after 10 AM.
I put together three intriguing workshops today over the phone with Red Fox in Canada. I should add them to my website. 1. The way of the animal powers. 2. Dream Time and Connectivity, (How to Enjoy Living in the Days of Prophecy) 3. Speaking Your Truth. It will be this weekend, short notice due to the havoc of this past week.

Red Fox said that yesterday, US soldiers started asking to take refuge in Canada to avoid going back to Iraq. I think we’ll see more of that.Also, Israel has been building a wall around Israel, but building it in Palestine! A UN International court found the wall illegal and told them to tear it down. Israel (shamelessly I think) asked the United States to veto the decision.

Also, from the Washington AP, it is reported that Bush’s military records from 1969 to 1971 have been lost because the microfilm has been broken and “can’t be repaired.” Bush probably said, “Shucks, folks, that’s a cryin’ shame:”

I kept sending all this stuff to Canada, and to Texas, and elsewhere, also to Michael, but it all just went into a hole somewhere. Anything with an attachment was disappearing without a trace. Weird, a problem with the server.

It was an ideal morning for shooting a movie. The air was not too hot, there was some overcast and not much wind. I showed up at the meeting place, the parking lot in Rhinebeck, the same time as Shawna, and Ted showed up three minutes later. We piled into his car and found the site fairly easily. I let him slowly absorb what he was looking at. I said it takes a long time at the site to notice all that is there. Step by step I showed him some of the new discoveries. These were the same as I’d written about for the Saturday entries with Raymundo last week, so I won’t repeat them here.

Ted was pleased. He was really excited about the Shawangunk Conglomerate. He said none of the other sites had exotics, so it was hard to say anything about them. The presence of the Conglomerate might prove once and for all that these were not farmer’s clearing piles.

The three of us worked really well together. Towards the end of the shoot, I we filmed the stone head of the turtle (which I identified as Mullenberg’s Mud Turtle, or maybe a snapper) and I told the Mud Diver story. I used the Munsee words for the four animals in the story: Wusheewayo (duck) squall anhani (bull frog) kwasheesh (muskrat) and t’kwakl (painted turtle). Several times, at the end of the shoot, I referred to the turtle as T’kwakl, Painted Turtle, and spoke that word about four times, loudly. Ted said, “What’s that word again?” TKWAKL.

I ended talking about the painted turtle. As we were preparing to leave, Shawna suddenly said, “Oh my God, look!” and I looked and said “Oh my God,” and said “Ted, you gotta see this! Get over here quick!” He had the camera running and came over and said “Oh my God!” A full sized painted turtle had walked onto the set and burrowed himself halfway into the leaves near a log, less than ten feet from the stone turtle, yet his arms and neck were fully extended, looking at us with great interest. As Ted got up pretty close, and got some headshots, we were speechless! We were trying not to giggle, it was so remarkable. I almost wanted to cry. I said it was a good omen, and told the story of the large turtle that appeared in the center of the circle the day Center for Algonquin Culture was founded.

After a long time, I said to Ted, “You know, I would really like to pick that turtle up and introduce him to the viewers, and hold him up next to the big turtle and show the similarity. He said, “I already had the same thought.” I did so, but instead of coming from behind to give a better camera angle, I kept eye contact with the turtle and approached him face to face. Even when held in the air he came back out to look at us, and we got a close up. I said, “We’re going to have to sign release papers for this guy.” It was a great moment in film. Later, Ted said, “No one’s going to believe this. They’ll think we bought him at a pet store and staged the whole thing.” I said, “If anyone thinks that, they’re pretty sick, and that’s their problem!”

The shape of his back was very much like the shape of the stone turtle. I turned him slightly and showed the camera the 13 moon platelets and the 28 day platelets on his back which I had just talked about. His shell was in perfect condition and the platelets and markings were very clear. Ted also got excellent shots of the Pipsissewa, (also called Winter Green) and not only was it in bloom, but a ray of sun hit it (on an overcast morning) as he was filming. The spirit of the land was very happy today. Shawna also found Indian Pipe. Shawna tenderly placed the turtle back in his burrow in the leaves and he stayed there the rest of our visit, seeming rather interested. Nothing in the film revealed its location. Ted wanted to do topo maps, but later on, over lunch at Schimmy’s, I explained that if we reveal the location it would be destroyed by a particular group almost immediately. A certain man I know saw his son killed on a reservation by native Americans, and he is out for revenge with every breath, sort of like a living Tom Quick.

The Rock and Roll Indian

On the way home, I stopped into the Laundromat to buy a drink from a vending machine, because it was so hot. I saw a Native American guy doing his laundry. He looked to be Lenape. I basically asked what nation of Native American he came from. He was very reluctant to talk about it, but was otherwise friendly. He was very knowledgeable about nature, prophecy, aliens, and writers like Sitchin (The Twelfth Planet) and Urantia, etc. I soon discovered he was a professional guitarist and songwriter like myself, so I got my guitar from the car and we played songs for each other and swapped stories from pop music world for about four hours. I ended up at the house where he was staying and we sang some more songs. We had a great time. His name was J.C. or Jim Lindsay. He said he was Chickasaw, but I still think he was Munsee. He said he was a sixteenth, but I could see he was more like half to quarter. He used to write songs for a band named Sin, which was popular some time in the late sixties. But he also had near misses with bands like CS&N, and the Eagles. He said he was playing at the same bar as Jimmy Buffet in Florida, but on a different night of the week, when Jimmy B was discovered. He says, “If they’d come in on my night, they would have discovered me, and I’d be as famous as he is now!” He had opened for Lynnard Skynnard and Bonnie Raitt. He had a thousand stories of near-misses. Having been in the entertainment biz I believed them and had a few to share myself. I sang him a song I wrote for Arlo Guthrie to sing, one which he never sang. J.C. said, “You beat Arlo Guthrie all the hell on that guitar! Forget him! Just sing it yourself!” That was nice. I really enjoyed all the songs J.C. sang. Kinda reminds me of me. Small world. He also knew Clark White Bird by the way. Another small world connection. He showed me a Traffic album I had never seen or even read about, and he played a few cuts for me. The most small-world coincidence of all, he helped to build the recording studio that I recorded much of Contemplations in, at Magnetic North. I said it was a pretty good studio….except for the fact there was no air when you turned off the AC, but then I added..but that’s true of every recording studio.There’s never any air!”

He said, “I hate it when they try to get a perfect clean sound; it makes it so unnatural. When I record, I want the listener to hear the sound of the wind, the sound of my fingers, the sound of wood creaking under my weight. I want it to sound natural. Ted Timreck is of pretty much the same mind, and I think today we achieved it.

I had fish and talked on the phone to the family, and was up til 3 AM doing research verifying the information I shared on the film. Apparently the tree books see Pinchot’s Juniper as the Texas version of the plant, which has a red berry, but there is a one-seed version that can grow here and has blue berries. Plus its Jimson Weed that is deadly, but Juniper Berries also induce visions, not as toxic. Also there is a Elizaville formation that has quartzite, but not like Shawangunk, so I think. Raymundo agreed to lend me the little chunk he found on the ground for testing.

My sleep was disturbed at about 3 AM, so I went out for a walk, and slept in the car until sunrise. I did a sunrise pipe ceremony this morning by myself by a river, the weather was so perfect. Smoking the sacred pipe and seeing my prayers rise to heaven in the smoke gave me a profound sense of peace. I wrote a poem and got a call from Ray saying he bound some copies of my self-pub’d books for me. At 8 AM I got online and answered my emails and sent several days of this to peacefile. I went to the chiropractor to help correct my neck and prevent a migrane. It worked. I felt much better. Then I went to pick up the bound books from Ray; traffic in New Paltz was bad so I turned around and went back to 9W, where I got some French fires at a fast food place and read the paper in the A/C.

The Republicans had gotten a press release to be distributed by AP that was truly ludicrous. They positioned an article on “how important the voters think this election is,” kind of a non-story, and then used as a graphic a poll showing Bush with 46% and Kerry with 41%. I thought that was a little odd, so I read it over three times and read the fine print, and figured out that the poll shown in the large graphic was from June 9th, one month earlier!! I have heard that the latest poll shows Kerry with 46% and Bush with 44%. Kerry’s popularity has risen at least 5% in one month, and this article was deliberately designed to misinform the public.

That made me wonder just how much the release of Michael Moore’s flick and choosing John Edwards had affected the polls that they had to stoop to simple deception in order to keep up appearances. That’s it. I’m calling the guys (and gals) from FAIR, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. What is the current poll anyway? Hardcopy or Hardball or Hardass, one of those shows, said Bush was at an all time low, and that was days ago.

Then I went to Poughkeepsie and then the library and did another pass on Robert Jay’s editing project, and wrote letters to Robert, to my cousin Mary and Eddie Benton Benaise. I mailed my screenplay to Mary, using Marist’s post office, but sent it to an old address, which I only found out afterwards. Mary is a professor of screenplay writing and worked on the screenplays for the Leprauchan series. Not that it’s fair to say that, since they were meant to be “grade B” by design. She had given me some excellent advice on “Hollywood” plot development two years ago, so I wanted more advice on the finished draft.

I went back to the post office ten minutes before closing time, at 4:20, and they were closed and the employees nowhere to be found. I wrote a note (noting the time) telling them the correct address then floated it through the grate. It floated through the air, across the desk, across the work table and down to the floor behind the counter. I’m sure they will find it, but they will probably not lift a finger to help out, sending it knowingly to a wrong address. They didn’t call me. I had also written a long letter to Eddie and sent him Paths of Light Paths of Darkness, which he has not seen. Then I went to visit a friend and went to see King Arthur after playing some baseball at Riverfront Park in Beacon. I had an appointment to interview Pete Seeger at the Sloop Club meeting, but for some reason the meeting was cancelled. I hope Pete is okay.

Review and Explanation of King Arthur

King Arthur turned out to be a big winner, though not for everyone’s taste. Newsweek gave it a weak review, and indeed some of the acting was bad, especially Arthur, but Gwenevere was totally, like, radical! Anyway, it was not based on King Arthur legends and fairtales, but on recent discoveries in eastern England among Roman ruins, suggesting there was a real King Arthur who lived around 300 AD. The political innuendos were clear, at least to me. The Romans (The United States) pulls out of Britain, (Iraq) a third world country they have occupied for a long time, training and employing locals (Iraqi police) to keep down their own people. The Romans leave suddenly, leaving Britain (Baghdad) in chaos, and the Saxons (Kurds) are invading from the north, crossing Hadrians Wall (the line between Kurdish Iraq and Bath Party Iraq.) King Arthur is one of these half Romans, half locals (like the people Bremmer is turning Iraq over to) who was promised freedom, but is now told he must rescue a princely son of the Bishop who is in enemy territory before gaining freedom to return to Rome, the center of civilization and intellectual knowledge. (New York, location of the Republican Convention). (This reminded me of the National Guardsmen who went back to their families after being promised freedom, and were then told they must return to Baghdad).

Arthur’s men rescue the prince (Bush?) whose life is run by the Bishop (Ashcroft) who is a religious fanatic who imprisons and tortures the non-Christians (Islamic Iraqis) he has captured in his secret prison. (Abu Greib, or I’m a monkey’s uncle). The movie dwells a long time on this issue, and makes strong statements against Christianity and those who torture others. Arthur follows a Roman philosopher who may have been Plotinius, who teaches individual freedom and human rights. The prince then tells him the man has been excommunicated and assassinated. (Wellstone?) Arthur loses interest in going to Rome. The girl (a WTO-style protester type, whose face paint makes her look like she just left a bodypainting workshop at Starwood) kills the Bishop. After Arthur rescues the prince, he joins the Pagan resistance and defeats the Saxons. He and his men are given their “visas” to go to Rome, but he says that real freedom is something you are born with that no one can take from you, and that if people want to follow a tyrant it is really their own choice (so much for Operation Iraqi Freedom; in other words, the people could have overthrown Saddam if they wanted to). I thought the parallels were pretty obvious but clever nonetheless. It reminded me quite a bit of The Last Samurai, which has a similar subliminal message.