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THE HAPPY COLLECTIVE? SUNNY SIDE UP Let's remind each other to celebrate it!
- SUNNY SIDE UP
From the writer's perspective, The Happy Collective is a medium for
self-expression. Not only does it empower you to create art, but it also serves
as a vessel for you to experience and share beauty with the rest of the world.
Belonging to a community larger than yourself gives you a home where your
best friends are your family. Let's lift each other up so we can look at the
clouds from above as the sun warms our smiles.
of maple syrup. And it's just as the insane and the exceptionally Girl Talk
gifted are so different from the House of Blues 2/26
sticky. You know how you
places where ordinary men and
think you've gotten it all
women live, that there is little or no
cleaned up, and then you find
common ground of memory to
a big mess of it between your serve as a basis for understanding
phalanges, and now there's or fellow feeling. Words are
sand and hair and uttered, but fail to enlighten. The
unidentifiable matter stuck to things and events to which the
it and you're nowhere near a symbols refer belong to mutually
exclusive realms of experience.” “Colors 12” by Sunny Side Up
water source? It's like that.
3
GOIN’ ‘ROUND EXPAND YOUR HORIZON
THE BEND AGAIN (continued from page 2)
MR. COSMIC CHARLIE SUNSHINE SUPERMAN
A little river “Dude, come down here. You’ve got to see this.” I was pretty
lilac shimmer comfortable where I was and didn’t feel like moving. I wanted to keep
berry bush, for me.
watching the flowers dance to the music. After all, they were putting on
A little lucid quite a show. But he finally convinced me to come down. At this point,
in the love-light we were at the end of Dark Side of the Moon, and “Eclipse” was
Love 'n' liquid's all I need.
playing. For those of you who are familiar with this song, you know
By the water how there’s a really climactic tone to it right? So there was this sense
heard they shot her-- of... awesomeness... behind me as I was going around the rock to meet
blew her pretty head away. my friend. It felt really cinematic: the music was playing, I was eagerly
rounding the bend, the wind was blowing, and everything was whirling
The lazy river, answer giver--
gotta go to know, they say. around. I found my friend facing the rock. In the rock was a crack. And
out of the crack, a single flower was sprouting. It was the most
I think I hear her winging beautiful thing that I had ever seen in my entire life. We just lost it at
wind-chime-singing
that point and began laughing uncontrollably. Tears of joy came to our
ringing 'round my way
but I never hear it clear enough eyes. At that moment, everything that there was to understand about
to hear the thoughts she says. life hit me like a fucking brick wall. The entire world was spinning
around me, but all I could focus on was the flower. So humble. So
So I lay out by the riverside
with open face, and wild eyes peaceful. So serene. It was beautiful. We stood there in awe of the
and when I feel I'm songbird flower for a good ten minutes before climbing back up the rock to
high watch the sunset.
I'll fall into grace with a cheshire
The next thing that happened is a prime example of everyone's
smile.
connection to some deeper stream of consciousness. My friend turned
Like a fragile fallen leaf to me and said, “You know what I feel like doing? I feel like flying.” And
I will flurry into flowing right before he said flying, I put on the Beatles song “Flying.” Once the
Going 'round the bend again
song started, we began to laugh at the amazing coincidence. We sat and
and basking in the knowing.
listened to music for a little longer, talking about life, love, friends,
family, music, trees, and everything else. Finally, the sun began to set
and the sky reached the perfect shade of orange. We were completely
drawn into it. It was as if as the sun was going down, it was taking all
the light and energy with it. Not in a bad way. It proved just how
powerful the sun is. The sun is an amazing thing. It’s the reason that we
are all able to live on this planet. I stood in awe until something caught
my attention. continued on page 6
“Fallen Leaf” by kef
4
LETTER TO MYSELF MODERN
DARIUS RAIDER
GILGAMESH
Dear Me, REVEREND GODLESS
Artists and mass-murderers
Hi. This feels quite weird because I am writing a letter to myself, but I
have this in common:
guess it makes sense because I have a feeling that this was an inevitable
conclusion. I am not really writing to myself, but rather, I am writing to They are cowards.
a name which this human body responds to. I assume his body and Normal people are content to
carry out a very peculiar arrangement of daily activities, but I no longer live
feel like it is enough to be him anymore. Whoever is writing this letter To work
is not me, and I am not what is easy to understand. I exist in many
To suffer
different forms and views. Every person that has met me has created
To love
me. Every way of looking at me produces a new me. Every interaction
one has with me leads to the creation of another me to reflect such And then to die
interaction. I exist in these many forms, but the one person who I do But not these
not exist to is myself. They must evade the last and
most important step of this
Now from this point of view it seems as though “I” have identified
Living on forever on the backs
“myself” as both “me” and my name in the previous paragraph.
However, when someone refers to “me” by my name, am I responding and minds of the survivors
as “me” or the version of “me” that they know. Do I conform my Forever reminding them of
behavior to behave in a specific pattern recognizable as “me” and if so, horrors and atrocities and
is that really “me?” Though this could potentially appear very themselves
existential, the purpose is not to confuse but rather to specifically
Reminding them of what every
identify the identity of this one organism. Identity is the key to
understanding purpose, and to understand purpose, questions must be person truly is
answered. Why do I feel at all? Is there a purpose to anything I do if it Whether by word or by deed
all ends? If there is something beyond, am I doing wrong by trying to Not fearing the noose
communicate with it? Am I too curious for my own good? Why is my Regardless of who is the
name so different from me? I have all these thoughts but it seems like
executioner
even though my name acknowledges them, he doesn’t like to share
For they alone have dodged the
them with anyone else. When I am me, I am free to feel anything and
everything. But when my name is with me, am I me, or is he someone worms
different? Is my name only me when he interacts with other people’s They alone have spirits
names? Or is he me all the time and the two of us are the same? What Formed by the collective mind of
am I? I am not a person or a name, I am not a culture or a religion. I am the animal masses
not an idea and I am not what your reality tells you I am. I am
something that I don’t even know or understand.
Don’t forget that they’re all
How can I accept this? going to die
And you with them.
Sincerely,
Yours truly
5
EXPAND YOUR MODERN
HORIZON (continued from page 4) PERSPECTIVES IN
SUNSHINE SUPERMAN PSYCHEDELIC
RESEARCH
NU SSDP
Students for Sensible Drug
Policy is proud to bring three
modern perspectives on
psychedelic research to campus!
6
THE HAPPY HOUR
HERBAL CROSSWORD OF QUOTES
BROWNIES
SUBMITTED BY KEF WITH THANKS TO
SUNNY SIDE UP
Down
SUNNY SIDE UP 1. "We don't have to look
Ingredients: far for miracles because
1 Box of brownie mix they're all around us.
Everything is astonishing.
{pick one that requires oil} The universe on it's surface
4 to 18g.of your favorite herb is alive with mystery."
{the more the merrier} -Terrence ...
I have lived on
the lip of insanity, GRILLED CHEESE.
wanting to know
reasons, knocking WITH BACON.
on a door. It opens. - KEF Well? You know how
I've been knocking to draw a stick figure.
I know you do.
from the inside. Make something funny!
- KEF
- RUMI
1. McKenna 2. Shaw 3. Leary 4. Castaneda 5. Pirsig 6. Huxley 7. Buddha 8. Dass 9. Grey
Crossword Answers: & MAIL SUBMISSIONS TO
WRITEFORTHC@GMAIL.COM 7
SHAMANIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND POET’S LAMENT
THE
ADACK
FUTURE OF PSYCHEDELIA REVEREND GODLESS
Is it worth it to keep living
When even the rain can’t stay in
this town?
Lights flying upward from the
streets
Reddish haze the blood-wrought
crown
We’re told that these things we
do
Will result in some greater good
But when we each have to be
destroyed for it
I wonder if they really even
could
And so bring me another round,
boy
I’ll leave this world to rot
Go and fill up my bowl, girl
I’ve got to keep my mind
burning hot
And here’s another requiem
For the lost meaning of life
And yet another angst-ridden
decrying
Of man’s infinite strife
“Untitled” by Verenice Maybe soon things will change
The world will awaken on a
The psychospiritual, sociocultural phenomenon of indigenous better, newer day
shamanism is often misunderstood and rarely receives more than a I feel as though I could pen the
world’s soul
cursory dismissal as some occult practice when, in fact, much of But no one would read it anyway
shamanism is more closely related to the study of psychology than it is The scariest part of it all
to folk magic. The shaman represents a sort of healer or medicine man, Is that they’re all perfectly
carefree
analogous to what would be considered a “primitive” psychotherapist I’m the only one who’s spending
his sleeping hours struggling
by the contemporary Western world, but the efficacy of their But I don’t see them writing
treatments has been attested to in countless anecdotal accounts. From about me
chronic depression eradicated by a single ayahuasca session, to heroin They seek to make the world
seem beautiful
and alcohol addictions promptly undone by ibogaine and LSD While wallowing in the mire
treatments, the psychosomatic illnesses that plague our culture seem I won’t let the world get out
unscathed
to find their end at the hands of the psychedelic shaman. While my life and love turn to
fire
The shaman, by definition, uses altered states of consciousness
Is the truth so important to tell?
induced through music, dance, chanting, psychedelic drugs, or any Fiction is far easier to sell
number of other methods in order to diagnose and remedy their But until my dying day
I refuse to see things their way
patients’ afflictions. While many who have experienced psychedelics
I wish God hadn’t gone away
can vouch for continued on page 9. Why is it always his flesh that we
flay?
8
LOST DEEP IN SHAMANIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND
DAY DREAM THE FUTURE OF PSYCHEDELIA
MR. COSMIC CHARLIE (continued from page 8)
ADACK
I get lost in deep day dream their positive impact on mental well-being, the knowledge of
of snow petal peppered skies indigenous shamans dates back thousands of years and represents a
and sunny day rainbows in her
boundless database of methodologies for best utilizing the psychedelic
hair
headspace; quite literally, these shamanic practitioners are
They are her favorite ones to psychedelic scientists with thousands of years of practice in the field.
wear While the romanticized “noble savage” view of shamanism as a highly
and she wears them often
advanced form of consciousness science superior to our own is
along with the wings on her back
exaggerative, there are, without question, many things that the young
And she leaves the ground with institution of Western psychology stands to learn from these age-old
me psychotherapists and social mediators. Though the shaman speaks in
and she's gone, too--
terms of spiritual afflictions and demons and magic darts, these are
it helps having someone to hold
onto merely terms of diagnosis and classification: to call something
melancholia, depression, or spiritual impurity makes no difference
But pulled back down by when the ailments behind the names are all the same. The mythologies
something beyond you
of these shamanic cultures mustn’t be read literally, but seen as a
to a world we feel we don't
belong to codification system much like those with which we’re more familiar
I wonder, where else can we be? (e.g.: the American Psychiatric Association’s well-known DSM-IV.)
So, why has this been ignored? We live in a culture that has thrown the
Fighting the gravity; babylon
baby out with the bathwater when it comes to
chains
We wish for flight, and wait in consciousness-manifesting substances. continued on page 12.
vain
What is it we think we should
see?
Morcheeba – Irving Plaza 2/11 Martin Solveig – Cielo 2/20 lacking. He litters his set with
hard electronic, splashes of rock,
Trey Anastasio and the Trey
Donald Glaude & Alex Gaudino and many current hip hop and
Anastasio Band – Terminal 5
– Pacha 2/11
2/22 dance beats. This multi-genre
SOJA w/ Gentleman / Mambo Girl Talk w/ Max Tundra, Junk mix of good music and good
Sauce – The Bowery Ballroom Culture (Sold Out) – Terminal 5 sounds combined with the
2/11 2/24 energy Aoki puts into his sets
Joachim Garraud w/ Fareoh – Vibesquad w/ R/D – Tammany makes for a one of a kind
Wenster Hall 2/11 Hall 2/24 experience. Leaving an Aoki
Sebastian Ingrosso – Webster show, I always feel as if I have
Bob Sinclar – Pacha 2/25
Hall 2/12 just been a part of an epic party.
Skrillex w/ Tommy Lee & DJ With ticket prices usually
Excision w/ Downlink, Aero, Porter Robinson –
Antiserum, Hellfire Machina – Webster Hall 2/25 ranging between twenty and
Best Buy Theater 2/12 thirty dollars, there is no reason
Galactic / Trombone Shorty &
to not get out and see a live show.
Morcheeba – Irving Plaza 2/12 Orleans Avenue – Terminal 5
2/26 Upcoming shows include:
Tiesto – Webster Hall 2/12 February 17th at UMASS
Lutzenkirchen – Cielo 2/27
AMHERST, April 9th at the
Jimkata w/ UV Hippo, Pidgeons
Playing Ping Pong – Sullivan Roseland Ballroom (NYC), and
Hall 2/17 April 14th at club Royale
(Boston).
Nero – Webster Hall 2/18
14
THE HEIGHTS
MR. COSMIC CHARLIE
My weary bones know now
the humble healing of the Heights;
a place where clouds of liquid dew-drop
ripple in the freshest light.
Just by picking this up and reading it, you're one of the most awesome people we've never met. We'd love
to get to know you. Do you want to get involved or submit some of your work? E-mail us. We're all in this
world together and we want to help you make a difference.
We’re all visionary artists.
Sincerely, The palette is our thoughts
Jimmy Jazz and the rest of the staff of The Happy Collective and the planet is our canvas.
- SUNNY SIDE UP
Note: Some of the original work has been edited for content and grammar.