Build Date: Sun Feb 15 00:30:07 2026 UTC
I'd rather shake it with a shoggoth.
-- Kat
McKenna, 1990s Dying Real Bad
1999-08-15 17:32:18
Damn. Well, sure, of course it was going to happen sometime, but I wasn't really sure that the 1990s were really going to end until I heard that Terence McKenna was super dead sick.
Like, I dunno if anyone else remembers this stuff, but the 90s came on REAL STRONG here in San Francisco, around 1989 or so. It was this really weird, optimistic yet cynical, bad crazy time. There were basically 4 planks to the 90s platform: electronic music, computers, green politics, and Terence McKenna.
Terence is the world's foremost expert in ethnobiology -- in other words, he knows all the best plants to get you fucking HIGH. But unlike a lot of cynical drug advocates, Terence BELIEVES in drugs. He thinks they're IMPORTANT -- that they're a gateway to the IMMORTAL and INEFFABLE world. He thinks that the Shadow People that you meet in Mushroom Land have something to say to you. That all those guys in loincloths with blood coming out of their ears in remote Amazon villages are doing something right.
Anyways, he was the spectacular godchild of early 1990s SF. Like, people would quote him all the time and stuff. Even long after all that THING that made the 90s cool and interesting and important kinda got dashed on the rocks by venture capitalists and W I R E D and whoever, even after that, Super Terence was still making the rounds, telling people about s. divinorum or whatever. He's been putting in the time to make the Dreamtime happen.
Well, now, he's dying. Check out the info at the site below, and take an extra cap tonight in honor of the Mushroom Man, eh? Tell them the Shadow People sent you.
T O P S T O R I E S
The Crossroads are real and The Blues is a place; The enduring myth of Robert Johnson (More...)
California Glory Hole attracts huge crowds
A glory hole at Napa's Lake Berryessa is drawing huge crowds. According to Chris Lee, the general manager for the Solano County Water Agency, the glory hole hasn't been active since 2019, and only restarted operations on Feb 4. (More...)
Republican State Senator busted after soliciting a teenage girl
Republican State Senator Justin Eichorn of Minnesota was arrested for soliciting a teen girl on Monday just hours after he introduced a bill proposing "Trump derangement syndrome" (TDS) as a form of mental illness. (More...)
Parents claim measles is not that bad after having only one child die
The parents of a Texas girl who died from the measles are defending their decision not to vaccinate their daughter. "She says they would still say 'Don't do the shots,'" an unidentified translator for the parents said. "They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be." (More...)
Delusional rich man tries to fire town staff
"I'm mayor now" said write-in mayoral candidate and founder of Pirate’s Booty Snacks Robert Ehrlich after losing the election for Mayor of Sea Cliff, NY. Then he tried to take over the Village Hall and fire everyone. (More...)
Musk claims Xitter security is staffed by idiots
Earlier this month Xitter experienced a massive outage. In an interview, Musk told Fox Business that he believes the attack came from "IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area." (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
It's that time of year again -- Burning Man Season -- and that means fresh SCIENCE! Here is a new lab experiment for the fruity hillbilly in all of us. (More...)
Suru and I were at the local supermarket recently when we found ourselves in the booze isle, surrounded by rum. Banana rum, coconut rum, vanilla rum, unfiltered run, Jamaican rum, rum, rum, and more rum. We bought one of each and started experimenting... (More...)
It's winter in Idaho, and Boise personality "Lego-Man" reports on how he celebrated Thanksgiving. "I fed my wife, mother and sister wine slurpies!" (More...)
The Liquidation of Hobo Junction
Albany, CA's homeless hooverville by the Bay, "Hobo Junction," is going to be torn down by The Man. Entrances are already being blocked off, and it's now difficult and dangerous to get there. Worse, these obstacles are making it hard to get to the nearby HORSE TRACK on foot. Local historian, Pao Tzu, has an overview of situation. (More...)
Patient Joab's scientifick editorial discusses aspect of the space-time-beer continuum never before processed by sub-bush-robot minds!!! Too fabulantastic to contempulate! (More...)
The Deep Dark Underbelly of the Star Wars Myth, or Ramayana Remembered
It's a fact: Star Wars is a blatant plagiarism of an ancient Asian legend, and the long lines of devout Star Wars freaks are really unscrupulous Asian copyright busters. From Indonesia to Thailand to Nepal, videos are available for sale or rent before they're even released in the US and UK due to this nerdy camcorder-clutching bunch. (More...)
