On Obedience - Updated

This is part of an ongoing series of discussions with Cat regarding human behavior, particularly with regard to manipulating populations.  The latest exhibit is a video of an experiment designed by Stanley Milgram and intended to study obedience in people.  In the experiment a subject is told they are researching the effect of punishment on learning and the 'student' will learn through the administration of electric shocks.  What the subject does not know is that the 'student' isn't being shocked at all and the study is really intended to understand the willingness in people to administer the shock.  (DailyMotion:  Stanley Milgram Obedience)

This discussion is an extensions on the themes of Hitler's execution of Jews, Facebook propaganda, The Third Wave, etc.  Why is it so easy to manipulate people and how far will they go when you do it.

Based on Milgram's experiment, it becomes clear that there's a population of people who will resist the authority that tells them to administer the shock and they will refuse to continue.  However, the interest focuses on the ones who will submit and continue administering the 'punishment' even when they have serious concerns about the welfare of the person receiving it.  In one example, a fellow in a white shirt continues administering the electric shock for long after he has his initial concerns about the welfare of the 'student.'  When asked why he didn't just stop he says the experimenter wouldn't let him.

The video shows the experimenter could not be much more passive or benign.  He is simply insistent the experiment must continue.  There is no threat of any consequence if the experiment stops, he simply insists to go forward with it with the only purpose being to understand when the subject will say stop.  In a surprising number of people they did not stop.

It becomes more clear why the soldiers in the concentration camps went ahead with executing Jews and others when every human instinct tells them it is wrong.  They are being told to do it after years of conditioning that Jews are bad people, they're responsible for the loss of WWI, etc, etc.  Combine that conditioning with the authority of military command backed with extremely high power and it becomes easy to see why they did not resist.  In this case, the authority is neither passive nor benign and even a relatively strong mind will fold in the face of that.

It is a mistake to conclude that I'm functioning as an apologist for Germany as that isn't my purpose at all.  Germany is quite capable of making any apology it likes but that's irrelevant to the reason for writing as much more critical to me is the knowledge that any type of behavior, anywhere on the planet, can be induced by an authority figure.  Germany is not unique and it's an incredibly dangerous assumption to ever think that way.  The experiment shows conclusively the truth of this as it had nothing to do with Nazi Germany and the subjects were all Americans.

Perhaps you fancy you would not be affected by an unreasonable demand from an authority figure and perhaps that's true but more significant is the existence of a sub-population of people who will not resist.  The success of the endless war on terrorism contradicts thinking that it's difficult to control people in this way.  Terrorists have had no effect of any kind on the vast majority of people and yet very large societies are dominated by the fear of them.  In this case, the passive and benign authority figure is the government and the consequence of failing to heed the authority figure is injury or death at the hands of terrorists, notwithstanding the fact that the probability of such an event is not statistically significant.

Sociology in the Brave New World

There is a general thinking that Nazism could only have arisen in Germany because of some unidentified deficit in their culture that leaves their society vulnerable to such a thing.  Apply whatever mystical basis you like as the reason for it as the thinking it could only happen in Germany is fairly common.

Ron Jones wanted to demonstrate to his students that Nazism could arise anywhere and embarked into a sociological experiment in Palo Alto High School in 1967.  During the course of the exercise he and the students created a movement called The Third Wave and it manifested precisely the type of behavior that had been shown in Nazi Germany.  When the students were informed the exercise had been a sociological experiment, they were profoundly shocked at the news.  (Wiki:  The_Third_Wave)

The story was presented in a book and I'm told there is an English-language movie on which the book was based but I haven't been able to find it.  The point of this article is not that movie which is said to be an accurate reflection of what happened but rather a second movie made in Germany in 2008 entitled "Die Welle" (The Wave).  I have watched most but not all of the movie and this was against the advice of Cat who considered it a poor piece of work.  Even without seeing it through I agree.

"Die Welle" is an over-dramatised telling of the story which makes it very difficult to tell what is accurate to what happened and what is moviemaker fluff.  In my view, it also misses the point of the exercise as to do it in Germany only re-emphasises the generally popular premise that such a thing could only happen in Germany.  Telling the story from a German perspective will likely result in a reaction in at least some percentage of the viewers of, "Well, of course it happened there.  Where else?"

Moreover, dramatisation of the story takes it away from the fundamental sociological exercise and transmogrifies it to just another piece of pop culture but the exercise is much more important than that.  Examples of 'third wave' thinking are all over the place and one of the most unfortunate is that of the Fox News conservatives of America.  They're not stupid and they know a great deal of what is presented on Fox News isn't true but they derive a sense of community from the following and they stay with it.  Fox News is also very highly-skilled in presenting propaganda.

That people fail to recognise the relationship between The Third Wave, Fox News, and other such massively-manipulative movements is a generic deficit to society and part of the vulnerability is due to the thinking such things can only happen in Germany.  As my ol' Dad said, Americans don't care about the issues, they just want to be on the side that's winning.  Just as with the idea that Nazism could only happen in Germany, that desire to be 'on the side that is winning' is not limited to America.

People thirst for freedom but they are being controlled by precisely the mediums that proclaim it.  Any threat from government is secondary to the tyranny created by the news and this goes all the way back to Goebbels.  If you control the broadcast media, you own the people.

I realise my opinions are not popular and I'm not part of any particular community at all.  I would enjoy community as much as anyone but only if that community is held together for the common good rather than through fear of some external threat.  An example of the former is the way farmers will often help each other through tough times.  These are communities that are very healthy and have a general history back to when humans first started farming.  However, the artificial communities created through the news media are very destructive and it's paramount to recognise the threat from them is vastly greater than any threat they claim is presented by some external force.

The first way to be free is to turn off the television.

Sonntag Kätzchen Bericht m/Bild

Hier sind die Zwillinge, Kapitän HalbBart Eins und Kapitän HalbBart Zwei!

(Here are the twins, Captain Halfbeard One and Captain Halfbeard Two!)

Alle warten bei meine Tür

(All wait by my door)

Gestern habe ich meine Tür geöffnet und all ging innerhalb!  Sie sind jetzt sehr schneller.  Ich fing zwei Kätzchen und dann ging ich zurück fur mehr aber dann ging die erstern wieder innerhalb.

(Yesterday I opened the door and all went inside!  They are now much faster.  I caught two and then went back for more but then the first went back inside again.)

Would You Have Executed Hitler?

The ultimate test of your principles of non-violence and position regarding capital punishment isn't how you would deal with the execution of women, children, etc but rather how you would deal with the worst of murderers, the real animals where there is absolutely no doubt they did it and what they did was such a hideous crime that you are absolutely revolted by it.  What you would do with the execution of children or women doesn't matter much as only the most bestial societies would consider executing them anyway.

The question is motivated by the viewing yesterday of "Inglourious Basterds" and the most unusual ending that it presented.  It's been a long time since the movie was released so I'm assuming it is not a spoiler to consider the ending.  If that's a problem for you, this would be a good time to bail out from this article.

The movie is excellent and what compelled me to watch was the question of just where the hell is Tarantino going with this.  Discovering that it was successful in the campaign to killer Hitler, Goebbels, Bormann and Goering was an incredible surprise as this wasn't even close to how history unfolded so what was Tarantino trying to tell us.  If such people as the Basterds had existed in WWII then perhaps this would have been the outcome.  Secondarily was the observation of the most demonic deal with the Jew Hunter which perhaps was to show the depths the generals must plumb to end a war.  It's a very long stretch but that would also serve to justify use of the atomic bomb in Japan relative to how many lives would have been lost on both sides in conventional battle on the Japanese mainland.

That "Inglourious Basterds" would have obviated any question of executing Hitler doesn't change the question of what would you have done had Hitler survived the war and been captured.  Cat and I had quite a discussion on this yesterday as both of us are highly-passionate about what we believe and our positions differed on his dispatch with Cat believing he should have been executed and me holding my position that he should not.

It's not my intention to shred Cat's position to justify my own as the question is only of academic interest in any case.  Hitler killed himself so what you would have done is only a personal question of how you would have dispatched him.

Cat's position is that Hitler should have been executed as, even in a jail cell, he presented an extreme danger to the human race.  Therefore, preservation of the society over-rides the commandment of thou shalt not kill.

My position has always been that I would not have executed him as I believe my principles must be consistent and non-negotiable.  If I do not support capital punishment then this must hold for everyone.

Supporting Cat's position is what became of Rudolf Hess who became a figurehead for neo-Nazi youths.

The sign reads 'Martyrs never die' but the most disturbing aspect of the sign is the youth of the people holding it.  Hess wasn't any kind of a martyr and believed as much as Hitler that Germany had lost in WWI because of a conspiracy between Jews and Bolsheviks.  Hess also, among others, signed into law the legislation that began the steps toward The Holocaust in taking away the citizenship of Jews, etc.  He was easily as much of a demon as Hitler.  (Wiki:  Rudolf Hess)

That a similar and likely even larger movement would have developed had Hitler been imprisoned instead of executed appears obvious.  Based on the above and the widespread reverence for Hitler, it seems inevitable that such a movement would have arisen and perhaps to devastating effect.

Therefore, Cat's contention that keeping Hitler alive would have been dangerous to humanity seems quite likely to be valid.

Nevertheless, I stand my ground that any principle of non-violence must be universal if it truly is a principle of morality and a necessary requirement of civilisation.

Before considering that any further, perhaps you are in a jail cell with Hitler.  You have a gun aimed at him.  You could move for the door but perhaps he overpowers you before you ever get there.  He will never get out of the room alive as there are armed guards outside it but the question is what do you do.  Kill him to save yourself or try to make for the door.  There is probably little doubt that Hitler is one of the few for whom most people would have no reservation about pulling the trigger themselves to execute him.  Nevertheless, would would Gandhi do.

(Ed:  Gandhi would have been smart enough to stay the hell out of that jail cell.)

Right you are, my brother (laughs).

In defense of my position not to execute Hitler, I will submit that we have failed to properly address anti-Semitism in society since WWII.  That was one of the roots of Hitler's success and animosity toward Jews is, to this day, a source of power for any despot who chooses to tap into it.  Much of the anti-Semitism traces to the money-lending of the Middle Ages, an enterprise that good Christians considered despicable and thus forced Jews into it.  That they profited greatly from it engendered massive resentment that exists to this day.  One particular irony of the modern age is that Moslems treated Jews much better than Europeans and it wasn't until the creation of the state of Israel that things exploded.

Therefore, I submit that imprisoning Hitler would have been appropriate so long as one can assume that matters of anti-Semitism were appropriately and honestly addressed after the War but we can see just about anywhere that they were not.  There is, to this day, a widespread tale that Jewish bankers are responsible for the economic problems assaulting the world.  I submit that Hitler is only a symptom of a much larger disease that can return at any time should anyone choose to manipulate it as did Hitler.

To some extent, Cat illustrated my point in her reference to "The Wave," a movie and a book about a Palo Alto school teacher who wanted to demonstrate to his students how Nazism could arise anywhere.  He was rather more successful in his effort than he anticipated and called the experiment to a halt.  (Wiki:  The Wave)

So, what does a good pacifist do!  I'm not going to give you an answer as the question is academic but what would you do and, more importantly, why.


Additional reference:  The third wave, 1967: an account - Ron Jones

Samstag Kätzchen Bericht m/Bild

Guten Morgen, Charlie!


Heute sind wir Bergsteigern!

(Today we are mountain climbers!)

Charlie, diese wird nicht gut sein!

(Charlie, this will not be good!)

Vielleicht hat sie mich nicht gehört!

(Maybe she didn't hear me!)

Jetzt alle möchten ein Bergsteiger sein!

(Now everyone wants to be a mountain climber!)

Charlie überlebt!

(Charlie survived!)

Love in Burning Flames at Cat's Art MusikCircus

Cat was talking about changing the stage last night as she likes to make a different one for each performer but Joaquin Gustav arrived while we talked about it and the first thing he said after hello was, "I love this stage!"

That settled it right away.  The stage stays!

Joaquin Gustav comes to us from Buenos Aires and we probably could not find a more romantic performance of Latin music anywhere else in the world.  It's an amazement every time he plays to hear his brilliant speed of play as it's always incredibly delicate and delivered with such a gentle manner.  This is not at all an act as he really is a charming and thoughtful human being.

Joaquin loves taking requests for songs and one person called out for Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire!"  Sometimes you just wonder what the hell but don't say anything (laughs).  During this same time there were multiple requests for Joaquin to sing.  He responded multiple times that he's a terrible singer.  Are you really sure you want me to do it.  They were quite determined and, oh yes, we want to hear you sing.  That's when Cat suggested "Girl from Ipanema."

While Joaquin doesn't think much of his voice, he delivered "Girl from Ipanema" in the same gentle style as his guitar play and it was perfect for it.  Far from being terrible, it sounded perfect for his performance, in Spanish, of the song.  Bravo, Joaquin!

Oh, yes, Cat and I danced!

I will wear just about anything on-stage but not when I'm dancing with Cat because you can see her gown is magnificent and competing with that would not only be ungentlemanly, it would also be plain stupid!

My Internet access was cursed for the last two week-ends so I missed the Healing Friday performances both times.  Cat would tell me after the fact of things Voodoo Shilton had tried and then it would be my turn to curse the Internet for preventing me from hearing them.

But not last night!

Voodoo Shilton started right into his set by using a looper, I don't know which variety, and he also talked to people to give them an idea how it works.  After all, if you don't play why would you know anything about what a looper does or how you would use it.  Since Voodoo is not hear to tell you, a looper records a few bars of your music while you play it and then plays it back (i.e. loops it).  Once that is recorded, you can keep adding more to it with additional instruments.

Voodoo was using a guitar, a bass, an udu, and a peanut butter jar although we don't know if it was Jif or Skippy.  Neither is available in Greece.

(Ed:  A peanut butter jar?)

Certainly!  Music is in all things, my brother!

At the same time as Voodoo started experimenting, Joni TzuAizu became quite insistent that we must have a Conga line and so that began to grow along with Voodoo's set.

From left to right, Joni TzuAizu, Cat Boucher, Silas Scarborough, Jolee Zilz, TrickY Oh


Voodoo's play was brilliant and I finally got to hear his udu, not to mention his peanut butter jar.  While an udu isn't percussion, it can give something of the feel of it but with a quite haunting sound from very deep in the history of man.  A peanut butter jar certainly is percussion and the clink sound adds yet another unexpected twist to an exotic sound.  Combine all this with the most modern style of guitar play and the result is incredible.

The first half of Voodoo's set was filled with experimentation and this is what I admire most in performance.  Lotho and I went to see Jethro Tull during one of his tours and the show was so incredible that we went to see him again in another city the next night only to find the set was identical. Neither of us had considered this possibility and were extremely disappointed by it.  What happened last night was nothing like that.  I missed two weeks of Voodoo's act and the whole set changed!

After using the looper, Voodoo went into some new original work and that was brilliant as well.  Again I hadn't heard it before and, again, it's what I admire the most when musicians keep pushing their work forward.  Cat remarked during one of his songs that she loved the rhythm changes and I said that's one thing you will never ever be able to do with a looper.  They're great for keeping a rhythm but don't ever think of changing it during the song.

(Technical note:  It is possible to change rhythm with a Boss RC50 or Boss RC300 if you turn off Tempo Sync and switch phrases.  That goes beyond the scope of a review into technical gibberish so that will keep for another day as most loopers can't do that.)


Another standout feature of Voodoo Shilton's performance last night was that he did quite a lot of singing and it adds tremendously to his performance.  One of the things that often makes jazz unapproachable for people is there's very little singing but Voodoo brings it all and it's fascinating to hear the changes.

Something I would never have expected from Voodoo was a cover of the "Ghostbusters" theme but lose the jangly beat of the original as that isn't what he did at all.  He made the song his own and that's another thing I admire the most in musicians.  If you're going to cover something, take it somewhere it never went before.  Voodoo did that ... and so did TrickY Oh!

Maybe you have danced in a conga line with a ghost but I never have!

The Ultra-Terrifying Terrorists of Boston and London

The Boston Marathon bombers have enjoyed a great deal of attention lately from a considerable number of U.S. police units, all of which do their best to establish a connection to a vast global network of vicious terrorists who seek to destroy us all.  However, no matter how lofty the ostensible goals of the Boston bombing, the fact is the brothers were two-bit criminals who weren't even any good at it.  (CNN:  Official: Dead Boston bombings suspect involved in 2011 slayings)

In the above reference, it shows that one of the Boston bombers was involved in a triple-murder whose purpose was the theft of drugs although in that theft they left behind thousands of dollars and three dead bodies.  Anyone in organised crime would just roll his eyes at the incompetence of it.  They pull off bigger and better crimes than that every day and they don't even make the paper.

Similarly, the murder in London was horrifying and a tremendous loss for the family but was trivial in the context of global terrorism.  The news channels have done an excellent job of terrifying people that they could be walking down the street and then be murdered by someone with a meat cleaver.  No-one seems to ask if they have ever heard of this before of if they are ever likely to hear of it again.

For some while it has been fashionable for American religious fundamentalists to shoot up abortion clinics and abortion doctors but you never saw the hysteria that has surrounded these latest incidents and you certainly never saw the government call out the Army, the Air Force, and the Boy Scouts to investigate and wage war against fundamentalist Christians.

When people are questioned regarding the priority of coverage of a single murder and the lack of it for corporate killings (e.g. West Texas fertilizer plant explosion, Union Carbide in Bhopal, India, etc), the response is typically that the latter, notwithstanding the extraordinary and deliberate negligence of the owners, was manslaughter, just an accident, doesn't count.  That the latter is considerably more widespread and more deadly than anything all the terrorists combined have managed shows a remarkable and quite callous indifference to the lives of those affected.

Similarly, if you ask the same people about their fear of drunk drivers who kill every quarter in the U.S. more people than died in 9/11, they just shrug.  Accidents, they say.

Feuerwerk im Cat's Art MusikCircus - Neufassung (Deutsch / English)

Silas Scarborough kam zurück zum Cat's Art MusikCircus für seine Sieben Jahren RezDay!

(Silas Scarborough came back to Cat's Art MusikCircus for his Seven Year RezDay!)

Ich kann nicht auf meinen eigenen Konzert berichten.  Es war gut.  Es war schlecht.  Was werde ich sagen!  Ich werde mit Cat reden und vielleicht später schreiben.

(I cannot report on my own concert.  It was good.  It was bad.  What will I say!  I will talk with Cat and perhaps write later.)

Diese ich weiss:  ich mag nicht mein Back Tracks.

(This I know:  I don't like my back tracks.)

Ich habe zwei Stunden gespielt und das letzte Stunde hatte kein Back Tracks.  Für mich, das war viel besser und, ich glaube, für Cat.  Ich werde mit ihr reden!

(I had played two hours and the last hour had no back tracks.  For me, this was much better and, I believe, for Cat.  I will talk with her!)

Neufassung:

Ich habe mit Cat geredet und sie gesagt dass die Show war gut.  Es war sehr cool was sie tat!  Viele Sterne und Mel gesagt dass er braucht ein Fliegenklatsche für die Sterne!

(I have talked with Cat and she said the show was good.  It was very cool what she did.  Many stars and Mel said he needed a flyswatter for the stars!)

Ich werde über dem Back Tracks denken.  Diese Moment ich denke dass Back Tracks werde meiner Show zu viel das gleiche machen.  Aber ich weiß ich denke zu viel an diese und ich werden mehr mit Cat reden.

(I will think over the back tracks.  This moment I think back tracks make my show too much the same.  But I know I think too much and I will talk more with Cat.)

Danke alle und, Cat, ich liebe dich!

(Thank you all and, Cat, I love you!)



Nach der Show Cat begann Feuerwerk!

(After the show Cat started fireworks!)

Freitag Kätzchen Bericht m/Bild

Diese Bild ist nicht so gut aber ich mag es.  Charlie sieht wie einer von den Gremlins!  Wenn wir Hoyt Axton finden, wir kann ein Film machen.  Hoyt Axton war der Vater in "Gremlins."

(This picture is not so good but I like it.  Charlie looks like one of the Gremins!  When we find Hoyt Axton we can make a film!   Hoyt Axton was the father in "Gremlins.")

Fotografieren ist außen hart weil sie im Inneren alle laufen!  Kätzchen, sie kann nicht hier leben.  Aber sie sind nicht hören!

(Taking pictures is outside is hard because they all run inside!  Kittens, you cannot live here.  But they are not hearing!)


Hier ist Hoyt Axton:

Er war sehr groß in Country-Musik vor der "Gremlins."  Ich mag nicht Country-Musik aber die Worte sind lustig

(He was very big in country music before "Gremlins."  I don't like country music but the words are funny.)

Home-Made Mosquito Trap - How Well it Works

There are any number of recommendations about the Internet for a home-made mosquito trap that uses a modified soda bottle containing water, brown sugar, and yeast.  The premise is that this mix will create carbon dioxide and this will attract mosquitos.  Once they're inside the modified soda bottle they can't get back out and good night mosquito.  Catches many of them and change the mix every two weeks for best results.  OK, got that.

Here at the Greek Rockhouse, the experiment has been tried several times to really be sure whether it works.  After quite carefully making the traps and mixing the bait, the traps were set out for three days each.  The total number of mosquitos caught during both experiments was precisely ... ding, ding ding ... zero!

So the research into an effective way to deal with the little bloodsuckers continues.  There is the possibility of putting something deadly poisonous to mosquitos in my blood but this has the unfortunate disadvantage of killing me as well so I am not enthusiastic about this method.

My latest thought is to catch some bats and keep them in the house.  I have not as yet discovered any Internet resource for capturing and house-training bats but you know some lunatic out there has tried it!

(Ed:  Many bats carry rabies.)

Yes, I do admit there are some problems with this approach as well but this is science, damn it!

(Ed:  Before you go off on house-training spiders, just stop.  Stop, right there!)

You didn't think the idea about bats was strange enough to say stop?  (laughs)

Donnerstag Kätzchen Bericht m/Bild

Die Kätzchen weiss nicht das Füße und Lebensmittel sind nicht so gut!

(The kittens don't know that feet and food are not so good!)

Sie helfen mir mit meinem Frühstück Teller!  Ich aß meine Eier und heute die Kätzchen reinigte die Platte.  Gewöhnlich Mutti tut es aber heute wir haben Kätzchen.

(They help me with my breakfast plate!  I ate my eggs and today the kittens cleaned the plate.  Usually Mom does it but today we have kittens.)


Und Blumen!

(And flowers!)

Diese war nicht heute.  Ich ging nur zum Markt heute.  Ich wollte einige Eis kaufen aber mein Freund mit das Markt sagt, "Nein, nein, das ist sechs euros!  Kaufe diese für vier euros!"

Sie ist der Eigentümer aber sie ist eine sehr süsse Frau.

(These were not today.  I went to the market today.  I wanted to buy some ice cream but my friend with the market said, "No, no, that is six euros.  Buy this for four euros!"

She is the owner but she is a very sweet woman.)

Silas Scarborough RezDay in Second Life

Fark, it's been seven years!

When this started, I was recording songs in the Scarborough Rockhouse, so named because it was on Scarborough Road in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and I was submitting them to MacJams where people to this day have a good old time reviewing each other's music and trying to help each other improve it.  MacJams remains one of the most nutritive sites anywhere for learning this craft.  The jammers ask nothing more for listening to their work other than to contribute a few words on what you thought of it.

(Ed:  You got your name from a street?)

Um, yeah, is that alright?  (laughs)

I had no thought of performing live in any way as I was locked solidly into the corporate matrix and escape any way other than death was impossible, financially, practically, whatever.  However, Slim Warrior, known more often as Slimmie, was relentlessly encouraging people to try Second Life.  I resisted for some time as it had a reputation as nothing more than a sex pit and I had no interest.

In May of 2006, I went into Second Life for the first time but it wasn't to perform.  I had been making videos and the time required to generate animations, even with multiple very high-power Mac computers, was excessive (e.g. days to generate fifteen seconds of video due to massive ray tracing).  The prospect of being able to design sets for videos in Second Life and use those in my own creations was most interesting to me.

In Second Life, I met Telia Soyer and Silky Underall and they resolved to turn me into a rock god.  In a relatively short time, their creation was complete and I became a twenty-eight year old rock stud capable of sending any young woman into a state of ecstasy, or so it appeared.  They became the Dangerous Beauties and we did a video show at Sunset (the original before it became the Jazz Club under Circe Broom).  The show was not live but it was still a lot of fun and from there I started auditioning.  The first serious effort was with Circe Broom and she staged me soon after.  So began a relationship that went on until she died.  This all started in 2006.

Telia and I got married but with the provision that we would never actually see each other in real life, not even a picture.  To this day, I have no idea what she looks like and have never met her.  Even so, this went on until 2008.  This was the Age of the Dangerous Beauties and they danced in my shows for almost all of that time.  Near the end, Telia needed to abandon Second Life as her kids were going off to college.

At the end of 2008, I got quite sick and that was fixed by surgery to correct that problem plus subsequent surgery to replace my shoulder.  Even though there was extensive surgery after the bike crash in 1991, the shoulder was now thirty percent destroyed.  The consequence of that medical activity was that I lost my job, my house, and almost everything I owned except for my musical equipment and my computers.  While devastating, this turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me as it freed me from virtual wage slavery that would inevitably have resulted in a heart attack on the job and Good Night Irene.

So began the Galactic Peace Tour in which around a hundred and thirty thousand dollars went up in smoke, some due to theft and the rest to the chaos of the time in trying to survive.  The best part of the Galactic Peace Tour was the Cincinnati concert in 2010.  That's when "I Love Rats" came to life and I've been having fun with it ever since.  Everything went all to hell after that but "I Love Rats" lives!  I've also still got the tracks for "On the Road with a Mouse and a Chicken" and that one may make an appearance tonight.

The story of the Galactic Peace Tour was grossly manipulated and transmogrified on Facebook and any thought I will ever forgive that would be so optimistic as to make even Walt Disney call it absurd.  On deciding that dying in Greece would be better than being anywhere near the bastards who did it, I got in the wind again.  It's been said I was being chased by cops but that's just another stupid Facebook lie and it's being retold to this day!

Once in Greece at the end of 2012 (where I have no intention of dying!), I discovered the Internet speed is about what you would get by putting a string between two cans but it was enough to get into Second Life again.  This is when I met Cat Boucher and she has been an incredible supporter of music for years.  We talked and talked and, what do you know, True Love happened.  I had been to the MusikCircus fairly recently a few times to hear Reis and Aldo but I didn't know about the other performers there and I was fascinated.  She is an incredibly interesting woman and definitely the most Dangerous Beauty of all!

So ended the B-Cubed Era (B³ = Ball-Busting Bullshit) and I found a reason to start playing again even though most of the instruments were sacrificed to stay alive in America.  I did not think there was any chance the Internet speed would be fast enough to permit streaming my music into Second Life but Cat and I talked about it a lot so we tried it and, what do you know, it worked!  We don't care about the physics of why it works, it just works and I'm damn glad to be playing for her and also for you.

Playing at Cat's Art MusikCircus may very well be the only place I play in Second Life but that is just fine with me as it gives great pride to be in the company playing there and it's a particular pleasure and honour to be playing for Cat.  Yes, it is an honour as her knowledge of music is extensive and she doesn't stage anyone unless they meet her standards.  I will be playing there again tonight and, again, I'm damn proud to do it.  The new Silas has been reborn, albeit with grey hair, and the music lives again!

(Ed:  Is that all to say about Cat?)

Hell no but that's for us to know and you ain't going to hear it!  (laughs)