Tag: drugs/Archives

HV141- Ayahuasqueros

An ayahuasca shaman from PeruHearing Voices from NPR®
141 Ayahuasquereos: Amazon Shamans
Host: Jeremy Narby of Soundwalk Collective
Airs week of: 2012-09-05

“Ayahuasqueros” (52:00 mp3):

An anthropologist’s sound-portrait of the ayahuasca plant and the people of Peru:

“Ayahuasqueros” (52:00) Soundwalk Collective

In May of 2012, Soundwalk Collective traveled into the heart of the Peruvian Amazon to document the ancient chanting rituals of the Ayahuasquero, the Master Shaman and practitioner of plant medicine. In this ritual, the shaman consumes a potent brew made from the Ayahuasca, a sacred vine of the Amazonian jungle, the “vine of the souls”. The brew induces a powerful psychedelic experience that causes visual and auditory hallucinations.

It is in this state that the Ayahuasquero conjures the “icaro” or magic song.

The icaro is more than song, it is a language through which the shaman communicates with the spirits of plants and animals of the jungle — he speaks through them and they sing through him. There are more than a thousand icaros, through which Ayahuasceros call on the spirits for healing, protection, or attack. Icaros can stun a snake, cure a bite, call the soul back to the body, make a sorcerer fall asleep. Icaros are “pure sound,” melodies abstracted so as to become intangible, to become air. In this intangible and most powerful form icaros allow shamans to swallow darts, visit distant planets, call the rainbow, and kill.

Blowing, rattling leaves and singing are synergistic modes of sound that are, at once verbal, unintelligible and abstract — elevating the song to something transcending language. This piece by Soundwalk Collective documents the ancient practice by inhabiting the Ayahuasquero’s soundscape where the icaros become a visceral, haunting, and consuming listening experience.

“Ayahuasqueros” is a radio essay by anthropologist Jeremy Narby, in collaboration with Francisco Lopez, featuring Victor Nieto and Ushamano Walter Martinez. It was ommissioned by Radio France Culture, mixed by Dug Winningham, and produced by Soundwalk Collective: an international sound-art collective, winner of several Audies for their soundwalks and a Dalton Pen award for the Ground Zero w/ Paul Auster. Since 2000 they “have been sonic nomads, embarking on journeys from the desolate land of Bessarabia to the desert of Rub al Khali. By exploring and documenting the world around them through its sounds, the Collective abstracts and re-composes narrative sound pieces through fragments of reality to form distinct audible journeys.”

AYAHUASQUEROS (Preview) from Soundwalk Collective on Vimeo.

Film by Stephan Crasneanscki

HV113- Hippies

Merry Pranksters on the bus; photo from Zane KeseyHearing Voices from NPR®
113 Hippies: Flying our Freak Flag
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-03-30

“Hippies” (52:00 mp3):

Tuning in and turning onto alt.Hippie.history:

“Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (soundtrack)” (1998 / 2:00 excerpts) Johnny Depp

A couple choice fearsome, loathsome filmclips, with J. Depp conjuring Dr Hunter S Thompson on the subject of Hippie history, from A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.. (Music: Tomoyasu Hotei & Ray Cooper and Buffalo Springfield “Expecting to Fly.”)

“Asian Policy” (1973 / 0:40 excerpt) Spiro Agnew

From the VPOTUSA’s Greastest Hits, Spiro T. Agnew Speaks Out.

“If 60’s Was 90’s” (1994 / 1:30 excerpt) Beautiful People

With the blessings of the Hendrix family and the record company, the band remixed Jimi’s “If Six was 9,” and other songs, into the album If 60’s Were 90’s.

“The Kool-Aid Acid Test” (2008 / 10:17) Ann Heppermann & Kara Oehler

Interviews with Merry Pranksters Mountain Girl (Carolyn Garcia) and Hardly Visible (George Walker); mixed with audio from the Prankster archives and other 60s esoterica. Produced for PRI Weekend America. (Above photo: courtesy of Zane Kesey.)

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HV107- Strange Days

Paul Bowles sittingHearing Voices from NPR®
107 Strange Days: Paul Bowles, Coyle & Sharp, Ayahuasca
Host: Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-12-29

“Strange Days” (52:00 mp3):

Way beyond the norm:

“Paul Bowles” (21:03)

Host Larry Massett has an audio essay on the life and literature of Paul Bowles (December 30, 1910 – November 18, 1999) on his 100th birthday.

Includes the ZBS 1967 conversation “A Time in Tangier,” readings of The Sheltering Sky by Paul Kiernan (IMDb | “A Slight Discomfort” for stage & HV radio), “The Hyena” (Collected Stories) by Erica Heilman (VT Folklife Ctr | HV), and PB himself from his 1992 album Black Star at the Point of Darkness.

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Mexico’s Drugs- Big Pic

The Big Picture, the Boston Globe photo blog, has some striking images from “Mexico’s Drug War.”

Members of the drug organization Cardenas Guillen

Yaneth Deyinara Garcia (center) and Sigifrido Najera (2nd from left), members of the drug organization “Cardenas Guillen”, are presented to the press at the headquarters of the Defense Secretary in Mexico City on March 20, 2009. (LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images)

HV048- Juarez, Mexico

Mexican military on Juarez streetsHearing Voices from NPR®
048 Juárez, Mexico: City on the Border
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-04-28 (Originally: 2009-01-28)

“Juarez, Mexico” (52:00 mp3):

We go to a war zone, just to our south:

“Cuidad Juárez” (52:00) Scott Carrier

Four years of reports on life in the Mexican border-town of Ciudad Juárez, with poverty and corruption, with daily drug-cartel murders and military violence. Told by photographer/Juarez resident Julián Cardona, author Charles Bowden, and host Scott Carrier.

Juarez: Crime More Powerful Than Government

Police surround a dead body on Juarez street (Part 3 of 3) When people in Juarez, Mexico say ‘drug cartel,’ they mean not only street gangs, but also the government, the military, big business, small business, the upper, middle, and lower classes, the justice system, and the media. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Scott Carrier, “Juarez: Crime More Powerful Than Government” (7:46 mp3):

This Hearing Voices series was produced by Julian Cardona, Scott Carrier and Lisa Miller; Edited by Deborah George; Translation and Research by Molly Molloy, research librarian at New Mexico State University- Las Cruces; Additional assistance from Erin Almeranti, Elaine Clark.

Juarez: Street Gangs, Government Gangs

Police surround a dead body on Juarez street (Part 2 of 3) The Army invades the streets of Juarez, Mexico. Citizens die and disappear. And the military may be as guilty as the drug cartels. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Scott Carrier, “Juarez: Street Gangs, Government Gangs” (7:46 mp3):

This Hearing Voices series was produced by Julian Cardona, Scott Carrier and Lisa Miller; Edited by Deborah George; Translation and Research by Molly Molloy, research librarian at New Mexico State University- Las Cruces; Additional assistance from Erin Almeranti, Elaine Clark.

Juarez: Shooting Crime Scenes

Cover of Juarez book: man climbing over border fence (Part 1 of 3) Murders in Juarez, Mexico now number thousands per year. Photojournalists docuemnt each one. Is it true that “God has a purpose for this city?”. Aired on NPR Day to Day; by producer Scott Carrier, “Juarez: Shooting Crime Scenes” (7:47 mp3):

This Hearing Voices series was produced by Julian Cardona, Scott Carrier and Lisa Miller; Edited by Deborah George; Translation and Research by Molly Molloy, research librarian at New Mexico State University- Las Cruces; Additional assistance from Erin Almeranti, Elaine Clark.

Bowden on Juárez

Mexico’s Red Days” by Charles Bowden in GQ on the escalating Juárez, Mexico murders:

The killings have the cold feeling of butchery in a slaughterhouse, and they are everywhere: done in broad daylight, on streets, in markets, at homes, and even in Wal-Mart parking lots. Women, children, guilty, innocent—no one is safe.

These are red, endless days.