R.I.P. THE "WICKED" PICKETT
CLICK ON "PLAY" TO SEE A WONDERFUL TRIBUTE TO AUTAUGA COUNTY'S OWN WILSON PICKETT http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10929971/
http://www.popsiephotos.com/rock1.htm
THE WICKED WILSON PICKETT & JIMI HENDRIX
On March 18, 1941, THE WICKED PICKETT was born in Prattville. He was brought up in Prattville until about 1955 when his family moved to Detroit so next time you hear "In The Midnight Hour" or "Mustang Sally", please remember that the roots of that music run deep in Autauga County.
from http://atlasofalabama.blogspot.com
HEY YA'LL:
Thursday morning I went down to Rammer Jammers, a cafe next to Bryant-Denny Stadium, to have my favorite breakfast in the entire world, Gary's three egg All-American Omelet with ham, sausage, bacon, peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese inside and out.
As I relished my one meal for the entire day, I saw the headline on Cal Thomas's editorial in the T. News: RECONCILIATION, NOT REVENGE, SOLVES ISSUES
After reading one sentence I knew that the major motion picture that Cal was describing was based upon the life of the mother of one my Ecuadorian friends, Sam Padilla.
The movie is called END OF THE SPEAR http://endofthespear.com
and I was right: it is about Sam's mother. Back again to the old adage "Be careful what you wish for"... As all of you know, I gripe and gripe about Hollywood not giving attention to my pet projects. Well now they have. I haven't seen the film but I got the impression that the dream merchants have "produced a monster even its creator could not control."
I'm not going to pass judgement right now but I do want to tell you the story of how I met Sam Padilla.
Sam was one of the pioneers of "ethnic tourism" in Ecuador. Seeing as how his headhunting uncles had murdered 5 missionaries in January of 1956, Sam was uniquely qualified to introduce curious gringos to head shrinking.
In 1984, I returned to Ecuador after a ten year absence in order to attend the inauguration of their first and probably only pro-Republican President. While in Quito, I attended a book fair sponsored by the Russian Embassy. Among the tons of Marx, Lenin, Che, Mao and Fidel propaganda, I found a beautiful book published in Barcelona entitled MAGIA EN LAS AMERICAS. In the book the author takes you on a tour of voodoo, zombies, psychic surgery, Santeria, witch doctors, drug cults, etc. etc. He concluded that the strangest thing he saw in all of his travels was the family of Sam Padilla.
About a year later I returned to Quito and was sitting in a German bar. At the end of the bar sat Sam Padilla, the headhunter. Not being shy, I approached him and said in my best Spanish,"Perdon, senor, conoce el libro MAGIA EN LAS AMERICAS?"
Sam replied in perfect English with a hint of a Southern accent,"I'd feel a lot more comfortable speaking English." Thus began a three year relationship with one of the most extraordinary men I have ever met.
Here's the type of conversation I'd have with Sam.
"Sam, this is the wierdest shit I have ever heard of in my life. Ya'll take the ayahuasca, bang on the drum and sing. The Jaguar God comes out of the bushes, sniffs on everybody like an old dog and then you all SEE THE SAME FUCKING THING!"
Sam replied," What's so strange about that? How else would we agree on anything?"
Thank goodness for the miracle of the Internet! I contacted Fran Karttunen whose book BETWEEN WORLDS details the story of Sam and his mother Dayuma. What follows is her reply to me.
To give you an idea of the zombie state of the typical professor and student in the modern university, Fran's book has been sitting on the University of Alabama shelf since it was purchased in 1994. Until tonight, this book which details the lives of about a dozen of the most important interpreters who ever lived, had been checked out once and returned two weeks early. Not only is there a chapter on Sam's mother entitled RAIN FOREST WOMAN: DAYUMA but there is also a chapter entitled OVER THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: SACAJAWEA. Ironically, the actess who plays Dayuma in the movie also played Sacajawea in a PBS program on Lewis & Clark.
Type Dayuma into Google and you get 646 hits which go all the way back to 1956. Now she has been discovered by Hollywood.
Can't wait to see the movie.
best,
reg
Subject:
Re: Found You While Googling "Sam Padilla" and "Dayuma"
Date:
Sat, 21 Jan 2006 09:56:20 -0500
To:
"robert register"
I'm sorry to say that I don't have anything recent. When my book was
published in 1994, Dayuma was still liiving. I was prepared to have
continuing contact with/about people who had helped me with the book,
but it didn't happen. I was a bit surprised, but eventually I moved on
to a project in another part of the world. That project took five years
to complete, during which time I myself became a bit inaccessible.
If you haven't seen it, Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and
Survivors is still available. I think Amazon.com is offering it, and
it can be borrowed through interlibrary loan. There's a beautiful
photo of Dayuma in the book, one that hadn't been published before, as
far as I know.
Fran Karttunen
On Jan 21, 2006, at 4:28 AM, robert register wrote:
> I found out about this END OF THE SPEAR movie last week and started
> searching the Net for information on my old buddy Sam Padilla. I
> haven't seen him since 1987 and I was wondering if you knew anything.
> best,
> Robert Register http://robertoreg.blogspot.com/
> http://www.endofthespear.com/
RECENT 2006 FLOWER POWER ANNIVERSARIES
Ca. 13-18 January 1966 Kesey Sentenced. More Info
Ken Kesey is sentenced for his conviction in the April 1965 arrest case for possession of marijuana, receiving a six-month jail sentence and three years of probation.
Jan 19, 1966 (Wednesday) Ken Kesey Busted.Ken Kesey is arrested in San Francisco a second time for the possession of marijuana. He subsequently jumps bail and flees to Mexico, trying to mislead law enforcement authorities with a faked suicide note.
21-23 January 1966 Acid Test and Trips Festival.The seventh (?) Acid Test was held at the Trips Festival (Friday through Sunday) which took place in the Longshoremen's Hall, San Francisco. The Festival was a joint effort of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, Stewart Brand (who showed his "America Needs Indians" slide show during it), and Bill Graham (who handled the business arrangements). Augustus Owsley Stanley III was a financial sponsor of the event: He purchased amplifiers and other electronic equipment for the Grateful Dead to use in playing there (and thereafter) and also donated LSD which he had manufactured for free ditribution at the event.
Reference/Source: (Charles Perry, The Haight Ashbury: A History (New York: Random House/Rolling Stone Books, 1984), 44-45. Lou Gottlieb, a former member of the folk group, The Limelighters, and future founder of the Sonoma County commune, Morningstar Ranch, in his regular folk music column for the San Francisco Chronicle (Tue. 18 January 1966), promoted the upcoming Trips Festival as being "of major significance in the history of religion.")Jan 29, 1966 (Saturday) Acid Test.The eighth (?) Acid Test was held at the Sound City Studios in San Francisco.
February 1966 Bill Graham changes careers.Bill Graham resigns as business manager of the San Francisco Mime Troupe in order to devote himself full-time to the business of acid rock concert promotion, initially at the Fillmore Auditorium.
Feb 06, 1966 (Sunday) Acid Test.The ninth (?) Acid Test was held in Los Angeles (and called the "Sunset [Blvd.] Acid Test"?). It featured the Grateful Dead.
Feb 12, 1966 (Saturday) Acid Test.The tenth (?) Acid Test was held at the Youth Opportunities Center in Compton, CA., which is on the fringes of Los Angeles' Watts ghetto. Some 200 people attended.
Mar 01, 1966 (Tuesday) Kesey Sighting.Herb Caen reported that Ken Kesey is in Mexico, but "he'll be back."
Karttunen, Frances. Between Worlds: Interpreters, Guides, and Survivors. Rutgers University Press, 1994. 360 pp. $24.95. [Analytic biographical studies of 16 men and women who served as cultural mediators and indespensible go-betweens— “uncomfortable bridges” is K.’s phrase — between various indigenous (mostly American Indian) peoples and the Europeans (and Euro-Americans) who invaded their world during the past 500 years.— The American Indian figures include: Doña Marina (La Malinche), who interpreted for Cortés; Sacajawea, who accompanied Lewis and Clark; Sarah Winnemucca, a Northern Paiute scout for the U.S Army; Gaspar Antonio Chi, the Interpreter General for Yucatan; Guaman Pomo de Ayala, who witnessed the destruction of his Inca culture; Charles Eastman, a Sioux physician; Doña Luz Jimenez, Diego Rivera’s model and native informant to anthropologists; María Sabina, a Mazatec shaman who became a celebrity in the drug culture of the 1960s; Ishi, the last survivor of the Yahis; and Dayuma, a Wao (Huaorani) interpreter in 20th century Ecuador. Others are Eva (Khoikhoi, Cape of Good Hope); Dersu Uzala (Nanai/Goldi, Ussuria); Chloe Grant and George Watson (Australia); Laurinda Andrade (Azores); and Larin Paraske, an informant for Finnish ethnographers. The lives of many other incidental people are woven in: Elaine Goodale (wife of Charles Eastman); Sara (another Khoi-khoi woman); R. Gordon Wasson, the self-styled ethnomycologist, and his wife Valentina Pavlovna; and the many children of the interpreters, guides, and native informants. — This is a book for every anthropologist and linguist who has ever reflected on the role of the “informant.” K.’s approach is not merely biographical — she raises many broad issues — but the historical particularity with which she writes gives her analysis conviction and authority.
KATRINA IN THE NEWS
Get a copy of this January's issue of BUILDER, the magazine of the National Association of Home Builders http://www.builderonline.com/
and read "Bailing Out" by John Caulfield. It is a very practical examination of the situation we are facing. Caulfield quotes John Saint of Mobile, CEO of The Mitchell Co.http://www.mitchellhomes.com/ :
"The government doesn't work like you and me," Saint, who barely contained his enmity toward bureaucrats who " have not done a good job. There are still people sleeping in tents, and if it weren't for the churches, private businesses, and neighbors, people would have starved to death."
Also check out an article in the March issue of CONCRETEHOMES http://concretehomesmagazine.com/ entitled BUILDING IN THE FACE OF HURRICANES.
