Tuesday, December 4, 2012

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JAMES FRANCO AND BRIAN BUTLER TO PERFORM ALEISTER CROWLEY RITUAL IN LOS ANGELES ART GALLERY

Three magi: Kenneth Anger, James Franco and Brian Butler - Occult artist / musician / filmmaker Brian Butler will be performing Aleister Crowley’s “Bartzabel Working” tomorrow night, Tuesday, December 4, at the L&M Arts gallery space in Venice Beach, CA. This occult ceremony is part of the gallery’s current “Martian Chronicles” theme exhibit and will employ custom robes made in the original A∴A∴ (Crowley’s magical order) designs and a circle, altar and triangle fabricated in vivid colors. Actor James Franco and Noot Seear from Twilight: New Moon will also participate in the ritual. In conjunction with the current exhibition For the Martian Chronicles, L&M Arts is pleased to present The Bartzabel Working, a performance by filmmaker and artist Brian Butler. Based on a ceremonial evocation of the spirit of Mars, first written and performed in London in 1910 by the famed British occultist Aleister Crowley, the ritual later became part of Los Angeles history in 1946 when Jet Propulsion Laboratory rocket scientist and Crowley protégé Jack Parsons conducted his own version of this rite, with the intention of placing a martial curse on a pre-Scientology L. Ron Hubbard. For his reinterpretation of this historical performance, Butler will conjure Bartzabel, the spirit of Mars, evoking the site that was once home to the late sci-fi author Ray Bradbury and currently comprises L&M Arts. The ritual will have Butler as Chief Magus, leading a cast drawn from his upcoming feature film King Death and featuring Henry Hopper as Assistant Magus, Noot Seear as Magus Adjuvant, and James Franco as Material Basis, the vessel though which the spirit of Mars manifests. The performance will take place on Tuesday, December 4th at 8:30pm, followed by a reception with tunes courtesy of DJ & artist Eddie Ruscha. Butler’s work has been shown at LAXART, in Portugal, Greece and in China. He recently performed with Kenneth Anger at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles as Technicolor Skull. www.brianbutler.com “The Martian Chronicles” exhibit, honoring the work of sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, runs through January 5, 2013 L&M Arts, Los Angeles, 660 South Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA, 90291, 8:30 - 11:30 PM

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Monday, December 3, 2012

CBSNEWS.COM: TRAYVON MARTIN CASE. ZIMMERMAN'S LAWYERS RELEASED BLOODY NOSE PHOTO


opics

Photos
This photograph shows George Zimmerman, accused of killing unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, the night of their confrontation. It was made public by Zimmerman's lawyers on December 3, 2012.
This photograph shows George Zimmerman, accused of killing unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, the night of their confrontation. It was made public by Zimmerman's lawyers on December 3, 2012.
 / GZlegalcase.com
The defense team for George Zimmerman, charged with killing unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin in February, released a color photo of Zimmerman with a bloody nose.
Zimmerman's lawyers say the photo was taken by a police officer on February 26, the night 17-year-old Martin was shot and killed nearby his father's home in Sanford, Fla. The 29-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charges and was released from Seminole County Jail on $1 million bond in July.
The photo was published on GZlegalcase.com, a website created by Zimmerman and his defense attorneys. Although the same picture was made public earlier this year as black-and-white photocopy, this high-resolution version comes shortly after the same website announced a"thank you" card defense fund to raise money for Zimmerman.
Lawyers on both sides of the case disagree on the picture's significance.
"It's not a game changer," Zimmerman lawyer Mark O'Mara told Reuters, adding its only importance was how it vividly showed the injuries Zimmrman sustained during his confrontation with Martin.
"Does it really show what happened that night to George? Yes," O'Mara said.
An attorney who represents Martin's family, Ben Crump, told Reuters the photo adds nothing new to the case.
"Trayvon Martin was defending himself. He had every right to stand his ground to defend himself," Crump said.

THEROOT.COM: CDC to African Americans: Get the Flu Vaccine



 
Tom Le Goff/Digital Vision/Getty Images
(The Root) -- It's National Influenza Vaccination Week, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is encouraging everyone to get vaccinated but especially African Americans, who officials say are more likely to have the chronic diseases that that can lead to flu complications, hospitalization and even death.
The good news, the CDC said in a release today, is that it's simple to get protection through a yearly flu vaccine. The bad news: Many African Americans simply aren't not doing this.
"We've seen an increase in the number of children getting the flu vaccine," says Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service and the CDC's director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "However, we are concerned that vaccine coverage rates remain low in the United States for adults, particularly in African Americans."
What's behind the vaccination disparity? The CDC speculates that some may have concerns about vaccine safety. So it's spreading the message that flu vaccines (both the shot and the nasal spray) actually have excellent safety records and are constantly being monitored, and that any minor side effects are far outweighed by the vaccine's benefits.
Still skeptical? Check out all the CDC's flu information at cdc.flu.gov.
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BRIETBART.COM: CNN BLAMES CULTURE OF 'MANLINESS' FOR BELCHER MURDER/SUICIDE


CNN BLAMES CULTURE OF 'MANLINESS' FOR BELCHER MURDER/SUICIDE


 3 Dec 2012, 11:18 AM PDT 121POST A COMMENT

On Saturday, a rich 25-year-old man, Jovan Belcher, murdered

 his 22-year-old girlfriend, the mother of his child. First, 

columnist Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports suggested that

this “25-year-old kid” wasn’t responsible for his actions

 – it was the “gun culture” that was to blame. 

Then, Bob Costas of NBC repeats this idiotic notion, even though

 the 6’2”, 228 lb. linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs could easily

 have murdered his girlfriend with a knife.

Now CNN is getting in on the act. Leading their website this afternoon
 is an op-ed from Kevin Powell, former Democratic Congressional 
candidate in New York, and cast member on MTV’s original season 
of “The Real World.” Powell’s contention: it’s America’s culture 
of manliness that led Belcher to blow away his girlfriend and 
then turn the gun on himself. That culture of manliness includes
 men hiding their emotion, machoness, and homophobia. Seriously.
He begins:
Since the killing and suicide are so fresh, so recent, we do
 not really know what might have driven Belcher to such 
extreme and horrific actions.
But the knee-jerk reactions have been rampant on the 
social networks. "Coward" is a term being used to describe 
Belcher. But that is too easy, far too simplistic, and name-calling
 never solves a problem.
Belcher was a man living in the supersized macho world
 of football, a world in which many of us American males reside,
 be it football or not. Too many of us have been taught manhood
 in a way that is not healthy. Be tough, men do not cry, man up --
 these are the things I've heard my entire life, and I now cringe
 when I hear this relayed to boys or younger men by teachers,
 coaches, fathers, mentors and leaders.
Or we use derogatory and sexist or homophobic words to
 describe men or boys who do not meet the "normal" of what a 
male is supposed to be. Some of these male authority figures
 mean well, or are simply repeating what they were socialized to 
be or to do, and do not realize that they are unwittingly teaching 
that manhood has little room to express hurt, disappointment
 and sorrow.
Somehow, it is doubtful that Belcher decided to put a bullet through
 his girlfriend’s brain because of homophobia. It is also doubtful that
 Belcher, who grew up in a home with a single mother, had too 
much influence from “male authority figures.”
That is the problem for so many of us. We do not talk about
 much of anything, except sports, women and sex. Everything
 else is routinely ignored. Or repressed. Until we explode.
Belcher had problems. But to express that it is society’s fault – 
the most feminized society in the history of civilization – that 
Belcher couldn’t express his feelings, is moronic.
For the past several years, I have privately advised and 
counseled several professional and amateur athletes, and 
entertainers, all men, all grappling with very warped definitions 
of manhood. The recurring theme over and over is fear of 
expressing themselves fully, fear of letting others down, fear
 of not being the tough and rugged men they were told they
 had to be. And on the inside so many of them are damaged
 as a result. The very definition of manhood they've embraced is more an emotional prison than anything else.
This is probably why the one scene that is locked in for me
 is of Belcher thanking his coach and general manager for
 what they did for him. Then walking away and shooting
 himself in the head.
We must struggle, harder than ever, as men, as boys, as a nation, 
to reach the point where a heart-to-heart conversation is the 
first and only option, not a gun, not gun violence. The lives of 
Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins will have been in vain 
completely if we do not go deeper within ourselves to teach
 and show our sons, our husbands, our boyfriends, our fathers,
 our men and boys, that there is another way.
What is this other way? Less male role models? Belcher had none.
 Less manliness? Belcher wasn’t manly – he never married his girlfriend
 and clearly didn’t care enough about his child not to murder her mother. 
Less traditional values? Belcher didn’t do this because he was gay, 
and put upon by the traditional values establishment. He did this 
because he had no traditional values.
If we are going to blame society for Belcher, let’s look at some real 
societal problems: single motherhood, tolerance for antisocial
 behavior, lack of behavioral standards, multicultural acceptance
 of sexism. But the media is intent on blaming conservative ideals
, from gun rights to traditional manliness, for what is very clearly
 a breach with any conservative ideals whatsoever.

NYPOST.COM: Chiefs linebacker Belcher struggled with head injuries, alcohol and painkillers before he snapped and killed girlfriend: report




  • Kansas City Chiefs linebacker and former Long Island high-school star Jovan Belcher was allegedly battling football-related head injuries and booze, painkiller and domestic problems when he snapped and murdered his girlfriend before killing himself in front of two coaches Saturday.
A pal of Belcher’s told the Web site Deadspin.com that Kasandra Perkins, the mother of Belcher’s 3-month-old daughter, had threatened to leave him for good amid fighting between the pair.
The couple had only recently reconciled after Perkins left their rented house in Kansas City with the baby at one point to stay with friends. Perkins had returned, but friends said the relationship was still volatile.
Kansas City Chiefs running back Jovan Belcher (right) battled head injuries, drugs and alcohol before he snapped and killed his girlfriend Michele Perkins (left), friends said.
It didn’t help that he was drinking every day and taking painkillers while dealing with the effects of debilitating head injuries, the friend said.
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said today that Belcher was "a player who had not had a long concussion history.’’
Belcher, 25, and Perkins, 22, had argued for the last time when she returned home late from a concert Saturday morning. But the Belcher friend said the concert was only a “tipping point.”
“This was the result of a long-term conflict,” the pal said. “She made it clear that she was leaving and would contact a lawyer’’ to fight for custody and child support.
Cops today revealed that Belcher shot Perkins nine times before committing suicide with a different gun. His mother witnessed the slaying; she had been in town to help Perkins with the new baby, sources have said.
Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, will now take custody of the couple’s infant daughter and plans to return with the child to the family’s West Babylon home, where her troubled son grew up, his relatives said.
The kin said the baby was in another room when Belcher snapped and unloaded on Perkins.
“[Shepherd’s] taking it as anyone else would've taken it,” said Belcher’s cousin, Eric Oakes, 20, who lives in the mom’s renovated house where Belcher grew up. “She just lost a son. We're all coming together.”
Oakes, wearing a game-warn Chief’s jersey with Belcher’s number 59 on it, said his cousin was his role model.
"[He's] always trying to steer me right. That's the only person I wanted to be like. A role model, basically my father. He's the person who made me play football,” said Oakes, who played running back for West Babylon HS.
In Kansas City, relatives trickled in an out of the home that had become a murder scene.
“I think she was home alone a lot,” said Kristen Van Meter, 31, a neighbor who went to community college with the victim. “He was kind of quiet. he would come and go.”
When he was there, she said, there were lots of parties.