Paul Butterfield's Blues Band is responsible for one of the most insanely psychedelic pieces of music I've heard. The fact that its from 1966, before most psychedelia even took off the ground is astounding. The track, "East-West" is the last cut on the album of the same name but there's very little before it that gives any indication that the band is about to hit the stratosphere. "Work Song" gets kinda out there but that seems like a one off. Even the beginning of "East-West" gives little hint of what's to come. The guitar work sounds a little more free, exploring different tonalities like states of mind but it stays somewhat in the blues universe. When the harmonica kicks in about 1:30 into the piece, there's a convergence there that starts something more cosmic (or kosmic), those long held sustained tones on the mouth organ and intense work on the instrument brings the rest of the band with it to the brink of . . . and then the guitar kicks in to some Eastern chaotic solo sounding a bit like Dick Dale slowed down and spaced out with enough space between the notes to allow for thoughts to get out of town. It builds though, no stopping points, into new frames of thought, hitting plateaus and then ascending past them. Fuzzed out sustained tones from another guitar form intense counterpoints to the free solos on-top. Rock Raga as the instruments seem to grow louder and send each other on to their own trips. Then the harmonics returns, see-sawing while the guitar approaches the center of it all, and all tones raise up to ... quiet space and the tempo relaxes for the last six minutes of the song. Cosmically inflected and holding secrets in the lightness of the notes but the ascension has stopped only to be heard between the notes and in certain phrases that arise and a sense of intensity that almost seems to be building but ends up quieting down, finding the blues walking styles and then once more reaching again for the sounds of the spheres before leaving us there, hanging.

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I did not get to play much of this mind bending video game during the school year. I fear I will spend many a free hour trying to figure out these puzzles. Dare to get sucked in? It's Here. Love the spooky photography too. Reminds me a bit of The Maze stylistically.

Via Cynical-C, a scan of the first Superman comic. I didn't think I would get involved, but it was pretty cool.

He also linked to this fascinating Web page on the history of children supposedly raised by animals.

For those of you in L.A. Yahoo Picks linked to this blog of one man's search to find the best L.A. taco.

Yeah, I have an immortality complex. I get goosebumps when Aubrey de Grey mentions the first person to live to 1,000 is alive today. Damn Interesting has a piece on the theory of caloric reduction to live an extra 10-20% longer, a path I'd be hard pressed to follow. I just love food too much and it's not even a guarantee. Still, it's interesting. They also apparently had this fascinating article on de Grey a while back and this interview with de Grey and Kevin Perrott.

Ah..."Bilbo Baggins," by Leonard Nimoy. Groundbreaking video. Groundbreaking man. Renaissance Man. I wonder why the song was not used when Bilbo makes his first appearance in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings." I also wonder what the hell inspired this song and who was its audience? After watching the video more than a couple times, I admit I am as clueless as ever.