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odinsblog · 2 months

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No one loves Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman more than America’s elite. In recent years, we’ve seen leaders, investors, and celebrities hold out a Saudi exception to human rights in the service of a blurry concept of national interests that requires the U.S. to constantly compromise its values in service of an autocrat. And so MBS has been welcomed back into the establishment fold, and he won over Washington. And now he’s taking a victory lap.

When Saudi Arabia convened a 2018 summit in Riyadh, businesspeople shielded their name tags from view, sheepish about seeking MBS’s money just days after journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. But the stigma has apparently worn off, and big names in finance, tech, media, and entertainment showed up at the Miami edition of Davos in the Desert.

The entire conceit of the conference is that Saudi Arabia can be abstracted from MBS, who is hardly ever mentioned yet remains the unspoken force behind the events. The host, the Future Investment Initiative Institute, a mouthful, is essentially the crown prince’s personal think tank. Session after session offered platitudes and ruminations on the least controversial ideas ever—AI is going to change the world! Climate is important! Sports bring people together! The two-day gathering was titled “On the Edge of a New Frontier,” itself a sort of redundant name. (Isn’t a frontier an edge?)

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of a major sovereign wealth fund that’s currently under Senate investigation, led the proceedings. The Public Investment Fund that Al-Rumayyan runs is the conference’s founding partner and powers its lavish events. That Al-Rumayyan has $70 billion in annual investments to dole out is enough to draw out financial titans, curious entrepreneurs, and former Trump officials.

Jared Kushner, who had grown a beard, was talking about his theory of investing, without noting that MBS’s sovereign wealth funds had reportedly contributed $2 billion to his Affinity Partners. Steve Mnuchin, who similarly snared $1 billion of Saudi funds for his Liberty Strategic Capital, wore a suit and dress sneakers and talked about Israel as a tech hub. Mike Pompeo, in a tie, said that U.S. leadership in the world requires a “stability model” that involves working with “like-minded nations,” though “they’re not all going to be democracies.” Little wonder he rushed U.S. arms to Saudi Arabia as secretary of state as part of an end run around Congress.

Doing business with Saudi Arabia has become so normalized that the CEOs of major corporations and investment firms showed up in droves. There was Accenture’s Julie Sweet, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, and Thiel Capital’s Jack Selby. David Rubenstein—the billionaire who has played host to President Joe Biden at his Nantucket estate—spoke alongside his daughter Gabrielle. (This year, the Biden administration didn’t send an emissary, but the deputy commerce secretary, Donald Graves, attended in 2021.)

Journalists have kept a distance from Saudi Arabia after the dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi, but in Miami the moderators included CNN’s Bianna Golodryga, Fox’s Maria Bartiromo, Bloomberg’s Manus Cranny, and The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker.

MBS has especially used boldfaced names to rehabilitate his standing post-Khashoggi, his crackdown on women activists, and the destructive Yemen war. In Miami, there was a fireside chat with failed Senate candidate Dr. Oz. “Saudi Arabia is, I think, doing some wise investing and shifting mindsets by trying to leapfrog, in some cases, where the West is,” Oz said.

For Gwyneth Paltrow, it was just another fun public event. She spoke about how Goop had “built meaning” for its fans, in conversation with entrepreneur Moj Mahdara, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton. It was particularly incongruous when Paltrow discussed bringing more women to the cap table to fight the patriarchy.

Rob Lowe had some advice for Riyadh’s efforts to break into Hollywood and create its own film industry. “My view is there’s no reason that Saudi shouldn’t be the leader in IP in the same way they’re attempting to be the leader in sports and everything else,” Lowe said. “You need to have someone who can communicate: Why Saudi, why now.”

For all of the glitzy stage management and slick social media branding, at many moments there were fewer than 50 people watching the livestream on YouTube. But what mattered more were the opinion leaders, financiers, and tycoons in the room.

Big Tech was there, too, with Google’s Caroline Yap and Dell’s Michael Dell. Nothing was quite as obsequious as last year’s gathering in Miami when Adam Neumann, Marc Andreessen, and Ben Horowitz—all beneficiaries of Saudi Arabia’s financial largesse—gushed about how MBS is like a “founder,” except “you call him, ‘His Royal Highness.’”

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#politics #saudi arabia #jared kushner #mohammed bin salman #jamal khashoggi #davos #uae #corporate greed #mbs

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starklyscifi · 7 months

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All The Good Men Are Dead

Jake has a secret that he thinks he can bury in the desert.

Jake Henderson’s teeth were near rattled straight out of his head by the time he reached the end of the dirt track passing for a road in the Nevada desert. The sensation continued for a good five minutes after he turned the engine off. He dreaded getting out. The desert was a forbidding place in the daytime, never mind at night. And this far away from everyone.

The landscape was empty as far as the eye could see, except for the graveyard right in front of him.

It belonged to a town that had vanished into the sagebrush decades ago. Not even the outline of a foundation remained. Only a rusting iron fence stood defiant to the endless wind, surrounding little rusting iron fences still protecting their graves from the coyotes.

Or keeping something else in.

The only light was from the cold stars above as Jake forced the door to his 1987 Chevy pickup open. It protested, squealing.

The former town had long vanished from any map. He was convinced only a handful of people even knew it existed.

Jake wrestled the duffel bag and a shovel from the bed of the pickup. The wind whistled through the sagebrush. His shoulders tensed. Mama had taken longer than normal to fall asleep tonight. He didn’t have a lot of time.

He picked a grave and sunk his shovel into the dirt. It scrapped against a rock. He clenched his teeth at the awful sound.

The hole was halfway dug when he heard it. But there was no one out here to clear their throat, so he ignored it. His school guidance counselor, Miss Vicky, was always saying to just do it scared.

“What in holy hell are you doin’ to my grave?”

The fear that flashed through Jake’s body, causing him to drop the shovel, was the same fear that coursed through his veins when he was five and Mama found him eating him candy from the cupboard over the stove that he knew he wasn’t supposed to touch.

A pair of worn cowboy boots stood across the grave from him. An old man with weathered skin and broad brimmed hat was wearing them.

And Jake could see right through him.

“I asked you a question,” the ghost said, one moment on the other side of the graveyard and then right in front of him, ghostly nose almost touching his. Jake felt a cold wind on his face, the breathe of the dead.

“Hiding something.” Jake didn’t see the point in lying to the dead.

The ghost looked him up and down. And smiled.

“You should hide it over there,” the ghost said, pointing a bony finger two graves over, “Ain’t no one looking in the preacher man’s box.”

Jake finally read the name on the headstone of the grave he was desecrating. Harry Thiel, died 1891.

He used to be a good person. Before Mama lost her job. And he robbed a bank. It was just to pay the bills, he told himself. But he’d taken more than just enough to pay the bills. And he’d been stupid, only going one town over with a ski mask and a handgun. Sheriff Billy had already been around to Mama’s place twice this week, asking questions.

The ghost laughed at the story.

“Boy, you sure landed yourself in it.”

Harry appeared next to Jake’s rotting husk of a truck and then back next to Jake. “Beside, they’ll know where you’ve been.”

“How do you know about GPS?”

“You have lots of time to listen when yer dead.”

Jake picked the shovel up. Harry watched him dig for a while.

“You’re not too bright are you.”

Jake grunted, putting pressure on the shovel. The handle slipped, hitting him in the face as the ground gave way.

“Where is the last place that you’d ever look?”

“I dunno, but I think I’d be looking in the fresh grave.”

“But this isn’t—“ Jake shut up as he realized what the ghost met.

Fuck.

“It doesn’t matter.” He stopped shoveling. “No one will be out here until the ground has settled.”

Right?

“How do you think I know about them there GPS?”

Apparently not.

Jake slumped to his knees. The desert ground was as cold as the stars fading overhead. The eastern hills were faintly visible.

He was out of time.

“I guess this is the part where you tell me to do the right thing,” he muttered.

The ghost laughed. It chilled Jake to the bone. It was a swirling, screaming wind that threatened to ripe the sagebrush out by the roots.

“Boy, I robbed banks for a living. I’ll not tell you to get yourself hanged.”

“We don’t do that anymore,” Jake said, still muttering.

Harry looked at the blue duffel bag again, hungry. Even in death his eyes were filled with greed. “That’s a pity.”

Jake didn’t think ghosts had much use for cash. Harry laughed again. Jake wished he would stop doing that. That sound would haunt his dreams for eternity.

“Just put it in the mine,” Harry said, up close and personal again.

Jake shivered. There were reasons why he had thought about the long abandoned, though apparently frequently visited, graveyard before any of the abandoned mines that littered the landscape. Most of them having to due with a fondness for his unbroken body. Mines were treacherous things at the best of times.

He had no desire to venture down into one, especially not the gaping hole in the hillside Harry was pointing at. That mine had swallowed more people than this graveyard held.

“You put it down there and no one will every find it, not till you’re nice and ready. Folks these days are a bunch of scaredy cats.”

Jake looked Harry up and down, as much as one can a non-corporeal entity.

“Are you stuck here?”

Harry laughed, sucking the last bit of warmth out of Jake’s bones, and vanished as the sun broke over the mountains.

@flashfictionfridayofficial

#flash fiction #horror #writing #flash fiction friday #original writing #western horror #western #ghost #writeblr #writers on tumblr #creative writing #writerscommunity

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year

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Here are just two of the corporate giveaways hidden in the rushed, must-pass, end-of-year budget bill

Yesterday, Congress finally voted through the must-pass, end-of-year budget bill. As has become routine, this bill was stalled right until the final moment, so that Congressjerks could cram the 4,000-page, $1.7 trillion package with special favors for their donors, at the expense of the rest of the country.

This year’s budget package included a couple of especially egregious doozies, which were reported out for The American Prospect by Lee Harris (who covered a grotesque retirement giveaway for the ultra-rich) and Doraj Facundo (who covered a safety giveaway to Boeing and its lethal fleet of 737 Max airplanes).

Let’s start with the retirement scam. The budget bill includes Rep Richie Neal’s [DINO-MA] SECURE Act 2.0, which gives savers with retirement funds until age 75 to cash out their retirement savings — netting an extra three years of tax-free growth for the lucky, tiny minority with substantial retirement savings. This follows on Neal’s SECURE Act 1.0 of 2019, when the age was raised from 70.5 to 72.

The tax-exempt retirement savings account is a Carter-era bargain that replaced real pensions — ones that guaranteed that you wouldn’t starve or freeze to death when you retired — with accounts that let people gamble on the stock market, to be the suckers at Wall Street’s poker table:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#are-there-no-poorhouses

The market-based gambler’s pension is a catastrophic failure. Half of Americans have no retirement savings. Of the half that have any savings, the vast majority have almost nothing saved:

https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scf/dataviz/scf/chart/#series:Retirement_Accounts;demographic:all;population:all;units:have

All in all, America has a $7 trillion retirement savings shortfall:

https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IB_19-16.pdf

But for a tiny minority of the ultra-rich, tax-free savings accounts like ROTH IRAs are a means of avoiding even the paltry capital gains tax that you have to pay if you own things for a living, rather than doing things for a living. Propublica’s IRS Files revealed how ghouls like Peter Thiel avoided tax on billions in “passive income” by abusing tax-free savings accounts that were supposed to benefit the “middle class”:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/26/wax-rothful/#thiels-gambit

Meanwhile, Social Security is crumbling, thanks to a sustained attack on it by the business lobby and its friends in both parties. Progressive Dems had sought to amend SECURE Act 2.0 by inserting some clauses to shore up Social Security, and none of these were included in the final bill.

One of the fixes that died was the Savings Penalty Elimination Act, introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown [D-OH] and Rob Portman [R-OH]. This act would have tweaked the means-testing for Supplemental Security Income, which supports 8m low-income disabled adults and kids. Right now, you can’t collect SSI if you have $2k in the bank, a limit that hasn’t been adjusted for inflation since the 1980s (adjusted for inflation, $2k in 1980 is $7226.00 in 2022).

The $2k savings cap means that you have to be substantially below the poverty level to receive $585/month in SSI assistance — this being the only source of income for the majority of SSI recipients. Means-testing is a self-immolating fetish for corporate Dems and in retrospect, this betrayal seems inevitable:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/03/utopia-of-rules/#in-triplicate

(Notice how no one proposes means-testing billionaires when they get PPP loans or hundreds of millions in IRS “refunds” — like Trump, who paid substantially less tax than you did:)

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/21/trump-income-tax-returns-detailed-in-new-report-.html

And it was a betrayal: progressive Dems bargained with Neal and co not to publicly condemn SECURE Act 2.0 if they could get some concessions for the 8 million poorest disabled people in America. In the end, Neal rug-pulled them. Of course he did! This is Richie Fucking Neal, the best friend the Trump tax giveaway ever had:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/13/youre-still-the-product/#richie-neal

As with everything Neal touches, this screws poor people in multiple ways. First, it leaves the SSI cap intact. But it also creates a giant unfunded liability in the federal budget. Technically, there’s no reason this should lead to cuts. The US Treasury can’t run out of dollars, and giveaways to the rich are only mildly inflationary, since rich people put their money in the bank and mostly spend it on buying politicians, not goods.

But because of the delusion that currency producers like the US Treasury have the same constraints as currency users like you and me, Congress will need to come up with “Pay Fors” in future budgets to “make up for” the money they’re giving to rich people with SECURE Act 2.0. Dollars to toenail clippings, they’ll do that by hacking away at the tattered remains of the US social safety net.

Fear not, you don’t need to be a desperately poor disabled person or child to get fucked over by late additions to a 4,000 page must-pass bill! If you can afford to get on an airplane, Congress has something for you, too!

Remember when Boeing (the monopoly US airplane manufacturer that squandered $43b on stock buybacks and had to borrow $14b from the US public to survive the pandemic) told the FAA that it could self-certify its 737 Max airplanes, and then killed hundreds and hundreds of people with its defective planes?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/12/boeing-crashes/#boeing

The 737 Max was unsafe for many reasons, but one glaring factor was the fact that Boeing sold some of its core safety as “extras” — like they were downloadable content for your Fortnite character — leading to multiple crashes in which all lives were lost:

https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-indonesia-accidents-ap-top-news-international-news-140576a8e9d4449eae646c8c479fdc3a

Boeing was forced to take the 737 Max out of service, but it eventually brought the plane back, “fixing” the problems by renaming the “737 Max” to the “737 8”:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/20/dubious-quantitative-residue/#737-8

Supposedly, Boeing has been diligently working on fixing the problems with its defective jets that can’t be addressed by a rebranding campaign. This wasn’t voluntary: the 2020 Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act required Boeing — and every other manufacturer whose aircraft were certified by the FAA — to meet new minimum safety standards by December 27, 2022.

Every manufacturer met that deadline, except Boeing, and someone amended the budget bill to give the company three more years to meet these security standards. Critically, the new security measures, when they come, will be certified by an FAA that Republicans will control, thanks to the House changing hands.

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/government-spending-bill-waives-aircraft-safety-deadline/

Boeing is slated to ship 1,000 new 737 Maxes, which will fetch $50b for the company. Many of these planes will fly directly over my house, which is on the approach path for Burbank airport. Southwest Air flies dozens of 737 Maxes right over my roof every single day.

As Facundo points out, the FAA can ill afford any more hits to its credibility. It was once the case that if the FAA certified an aircraft, every other country in the world would waive any further certification, so trusting were they of the FAA’s judgment. That is no longer the case: today, the European Aviation Safety Agency does its own aircraft testing, holding jets that enter EU airspace to a higher standard than the FAA does for US planes.

It’s just another reminder that the US doesn’t have “corporate criminals” because the US doesn’t have any meaningful enforcement for corporate crimes. In America, we love our companies like we love our billionaires: too big to fail and too big to jail:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-criminals-no-crimes/#get-out-of-jail-free-card

Image: Ryan Lee (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/190784293@N05/50862532686

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Henry Wadey (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flames_%2858765896%29.jpeg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[Image ID: A living room scene, featuring a sofa in the background and a sofa in the foreground. A man's hand reaches into the frame to lift up the corner of the sofa. A broom enters the frame to sweep a pile of dirt under the rug. Mixed in with the dirt are a crashed WWI biplane with Southwest Airlines livery, and an old lady in a rocking chair.]

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goalhofer · 4 months

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2023 In Memoriam Part 27

Peter Horbury, 73

(Ralph) Marty Huff, 74

Don Kennedy, 93

Angel Wagenstein, 100

Darren Drozdov, 54

Viktoriia Amelina, 37

Frank Field, 100

Rob Lieberman, 75

Lawrence Turman, 96

Bishop Joseph John Gerry, 94

Cecil Exum, 60

Mario Guerrero, 73

Léon Gautier, 100

Don Reinhoudt, 78

Vince Tobin, 79

Fred Willis III, 75

Archbishop Prof. Ezekiel Guti, 100

Walkiria Terradura Thiele, 99

Brig. Gen. Francis R. Dillon, 83

George Tickner, 76

Johnie Cooks, 64

Gene Gaines, 85

Dick Sheridan, 81

Alamgir Tareen, 63

Jimmy Weldon, 99

Tara Heiss, 66

Nikki McCray-Penson, 51

Bishop Elkin Fernando Álvarez Botero, 54

Gary Allen, 63

Bryan Collins, 58

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filosofablogger · 2 years

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The Race Is On -- And It's Gonna Be Ugly

The Race Is On — And It’s Gonna Be Ugly

In January 2021, Ohio’s Republican Senator Rob Portman announced that he is retiring at the end of his term and will not seek re-election in 2022. Now, you might think I’d be jumping up and down with joy, but the announcement did not please me in the least, for Portman is one of the few remaining Republicans in the Senate with both intellect and a conscience. While I have frequently disagreed…

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#J.D. Vance #Josh Mandel #LGBTQ rights #Peter Thiel #Senator Rob Portman #separation of church and state #the former guy

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ltwilliammowett · 3 years

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The Luf- Boot

The Luf-Boot, an ocean-going outrigger boat, was made on the main island of the Hermit Islands in Papua New Guinea. In 1903, the managing director of the German trading company Hernsheim & Co. Max Thiel, acquired the boat on Luf Island a German Colony at these time. It was said to have been built especially for him and that he had bought it legally. More about this below.

The Luf-Boot, about 15 to 16 metres long, is one of the last of this design. Boats of this type were used for trade and war. On longer voyages on the open sea, up to 50 people could be carried. The outrigger is attached to starboard. The platform above was used to transport goods. It is similar to a proa.

The boat is a seaworthy two-master. The two almost rectangular settee sails are used for propulsion. These sails were typical for the region, but unusual in the South Seas. In addition, paddles could be used near reefs and beaches. Depending on the wind strength, the crew could stabilise the boat by shifting their weight.

The keel was made from a single large tree trunk. The hull is planked, but the boat was built without a single nail, all parts being held together with plant material. Plant glue sealed the boat. Bow and stern are arched up. The entire hull and other construction elements are richly decorated with ornaments and were usually used by the chief.

At the beginning of 2021, the historian Götz Aly claimed in his new Book that this boat was robbed and not bought as mentioned above. However, there is no solid evidence for both statements. The Republic of Papua New Guinea responded to this dispute by saying that they would not demand the return of the boat under any circumstances. They consider the Luf-Boot and all other cultural assets from the territory of today's Papua New Guinea as advertising media for the country, as ambassadors of a material nature.

#naval artifacts #luf boot #art robbery or legally acquired #early 20th century #age of steam

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herzlak · 2 years

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Ok but if ARD robs us of a scene with Mirko on Thiel's bike I'M GOING TO CRY, I WANNA SEE THAT, HE'S SO ADORABLE-

#tatort münster #Mirko schrader

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rheingoldweg12a · 2 years

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Und das Tragische an allem: Wir werden nie erfahren, welchen Joke/Story Boerne (Jan?) Thiel (Axel?) zur Aufmunterung genau erzählt hat. We were robbed... :/ Ich will das wissen! Ich bin so kurz davor, frech auf Insta nachzufragen. :D

#Des Teufels langer Atem #tatort münster #thiel und boerne

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chrisgoesrock · 3 years

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03. Apache - Craig Smith (Maitreya Kali) - Color Fantasy - 3.50

Craig Vincent Smith (April 25, 1945 – March 16, 2012) was an American musician, songwriter and actor. He began his career in the 1960s playing pop and Folk music, and appearing on The Andy Williams Show. Smith wrote several songs that were recorded by successful artists of the time including Glen Campbell, The Monkees, and Andy Williams. After experimenting with drugs while travelling on the hippie trail, he suffered mental health problems which worsened over time. He released two solo albums, Apache and Inca, in the early 1970s under the names Maitreya Kali and Satya Sai Maitreya Kali. After spending nearly three years in prison for assaulting his mother, he spent the majority of the next 35 years homeless.

Early and personal life. Smith was born in Los Angeles, the son of Charles "Chuck" Smith and Marguerite "Carole" Smith (née Lundquist). His father was a descendant of gospel songwriter Charles H. Gabriel. His mother was of Swedish and German descent. Smith had two older brothers and one younger sister. Chuck Smith had worked as a manager at the Jade Room, a nightclub owned by Larry Potter, and was known by the stage name Chuck Barclay. After World War Two he worked as a welder and a salesman. Chuck died in 1978, aged 64, from a stroke, and Carole died in 1998, aged 82, from pulmonary disease.

Smith attended Grant High School, becoming class president and being on the school gymnastics team. He graduated in June 1963, and turned down a number of offers from colleges in order to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.

Career 1963–1966: the Good Time Singers. In August 1963 Smith was recruited by Michael Storm and Tom Drake (who had performed together as the Other Singers) to join the Good Time Singers, a band formed to replace the New Christy Minstrels on The Andy Williams Show. From December 1963 to January 1964 Smith and Storm also performed shows with Gordon and Sheila MacRae, supported by their daughters Heather and Meredith. The Good Time Singers released their debut self-titled album in January 1964, and their second album One Step More in October 1964. In between the albums they had embarked on a 17-city tour. Around this time Smith began songwriting, and he wrote a song called "Christmas Holiday", which was recorded by Andy Williams for his 1965 album Merry Christmas. As the Good Times Singers' was ending, Smith and fellow bandmember Lee Montgomery intended to form a new duo called Craig & Lee, but Smith had to pull out after successfully auditioning for a new ABC television show, called The Happeners. Smith had previously unsuccessfully auditioned for The Monkees. The pilot for The Happeners was filmed in November 1965. The Good Times Singers' contract for The Andy Williams Show was not renewed past 1966.

1966–1967: The Happeners and Chris & Craig. After a successful audition process, Smith won the role of Alan Howard on The Happeners. The show was to be directed by David Greene, and was a mix of acting and singing, set in New York and based on the fictional eponymous folk trio. However, ABC declined to pick up the show following the pilot episode. Smith and his The Happeners co-star Chris Ducey decided to form a musical duo called Chris & Craig. They moved into an apartment together and began writing songs. They signed to Capitol Records, recording a number of demos throughout the summer of 1966. Their first single, "Isha", was written by Ducey b/w "I Need You" written by Smith, and was produced by Steve Douglas utilizing session musicians Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye of The Wrecking Crew. It was released in July 1966. Another single, "I Cant't Go On" (written by Ducey), was produced with the same line up. Originally an acoustic duo utitilizing session musicians, during their later 1966 sessions they began experimenting with a full band, and in November 1966 they played a show supporting the Mothers of Invention with such a full band, with Smith and Ducey playing electric guitars. Throughout late 1966 and early 1967 the duo continued to write and record more songs, but they were never released by the label. In 1967 Smith befriended Gábor Szabó and the Beach Boys, unsuccessfully offering to write songs for the latter. In early 1967 Chris & Craig began playing with a permanent backing band. Through their friendship with Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, they hired Jerry Perenchio as their manager. They changed their name to the Penny Arcade, shortly becoming the Penny Arkade for trademark reasons.

1967–1968: the Penny Arkade. Nesmith began producing Smith and Ducey, initially pairing them with John London (bass) and Johnny Raines (drums). They were eventually replaced by Donald F. Glut on bass (who had appeared in an earlier incarnation of the band) and Bobby Donaho on drums. While the band worked on their own material, Smith continued to write songs, including "Salesman" for the Monkees, and "Hands of the Clock" and "Lazy Sunny Day" for Heather MacRae. Smith was also credited as co-producer for the songs, alongside Bob Thiele. He also wrote "Holly" for Williams. Nesmith took the band into a studio to record their album. One of the songs written at this time by Smith was "Country Girl", which was later recorded and released by Glen Campbell for his Try a Little Kindness album. The album never materialised, but some of the songs were collected and released as Not the Freeze in 2004. After a bad review of one of their live shows, the band decided to concentrate on writing and recording songs. In early 1968 they unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of house band on the TV show Peyton Place. In February 1968 Smith and his father went into business together, running a bar called the Buckeye Inn. In late 1968 Smith was associating with the Manson Family, and exploring an interest in Eastern philosophy, particularly Transcendental Meditation. Smith eventually left the Penny Arkade and decided to go travelling. The band continued without Smith until 1969, renamed as the Armadillo and with Bob Arthur as a replacement guitarist.

1968: travelling to Asia. After previously smoking small amounts of marijuana with friends, Smith began experimenting with LSD in 1968. During his travels Smith took LSD on a "regular" basis, and he smoked "copious amounts of hashish" while in Afghanistan. Smith decided to travel to India alone, with just a guitar and a backpack. He set off to join the hippie trail, arriving in Turkey in October 1968, possibly via Austria and Greece. Smith met fellow Western travellers (an Irishman and two American women) in Istanbul, and they set off together in a VW van, intending to drive to Delhi. After the van broke down, they hitched a ride in a lorry transporting olive oil, before taking a bus to Iran. They passed through Afghanistan, with Smith deciding to leave his companions for a few days in Kandahar while they travelled on to Kabul. Smith never joined them in Kabul; when his companions returned to Kandahar a few months later, they heard rumours that he had "gone crazy", running through the market with a knife threatening people, and then disappeared. It later became apparent that after threatening a market vendor, Smith had been beaten close to death and robbed, and possibly kidnapped and raped. Smith possibly spent some time in an Afghan insane asylum, where he is thought to have developed acute schizophrenia. It is not known if Smith ever reached India, although he and his travelogue claims he did visit India and reconnected with the Maharishi and went to Nepal.

1969–1970: return to United States and travelling to South America. Smith returned to the United States in late 1968 or early 1969, initially living back with his parents. He was possibly institutionalized and medicated for a short period. By this stage he was using the name "Maitreya Kali", which he intended to become his legal name, although this didn't happen until 1971. He continued to receive royalty checks from his historical songwriting for Williams and Campbell, amongst others. After his girlfriend left him, Smith decided to travel to South America, spending time in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, and the Galapagos Islands of Chile. Returning from South America, Smith reunited with his girlfriend, and they became engaged. When the engagement ended, Smith ripped up the wedding dress his fiancée had chosen. Following another brief re-connection, the relationship ended for good when Smith violently threatened one of her male friends.

1970–1971: deterioration in mental health. Smith claimed to have mystical powers, and thought he was a messiah. He prophesied that he would be "King of the World" by 2000. He claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha, and Hitler. As his erratic and bizarre behavior became more pronounced, such as claiming voices were telling him to kill people, his friends started to ignore him. One friend eventually had to obtain a restraining order against Smith. His appearance became more and more unkempt, with long hair and a wild beard. At one point, he shaved his head and beard off, and dressed in robes, his appearance comparable to a Buddhist monk, although his hair and beard would later grow back. He visited Heather and Sheila MacRae in Miami, and was asked to leave by Sheila's new husband after he woke up to find Smith standing over their bed with a knife. Heather saw him again in Los Angeles in 1972, when he "looked really scary [...] just totally looked insane, and would say weird things."

1971–1972: Apache and Inca. Smith wrote two solo albums Apache and Inca in 1971, which were self-released in 1972. In the liner notes to both albums, Smith claims to have played every instrument. The liner notes as a whole have been described as "bizarre [and] rambling", and display his belief system. Apache was released on his own 'Akashic Records', and features three songs from the Penny Arkade recording sessions. Inca was released a few months after Apache, in the summer of 1972, not as a standalone album but as a double gatefold with Apache on his new 'United Kingdom of America Records' label. Like Apache, Inca also features songs from the Penny Arkade recording sessions. The albums were mainly distributed to Smith's friends or sold on the street.

1973–1976: prison. After the albums were released, Smith sold his car with the intention of going to Ethiopia. His mental health problems continued, such as suggesting to a friend that they fight to the death using samurai swords. He also had a small black spider tattooed in the middle of his forehead in 1972 or 1973. On April 22, 1973, Smith attacked his mother at the family home. An attempted murder charge was not established, and following a psychiatric examination, he pleaded 'no contest' to a charge of assault. He was sentenced in November 1973 to six months to life, the maximum sentence for the offence, and the Judge suggested intense medical and psychiatric treatment. He began his sentence at the California Institution for Men, before transferring to the Deuel Vocational Institution in December 1973. He transferred again, to the California Men's Colony, in February 1974. He was granted parole at the fourth attempt, and was released from prison in June 1976.

1977–2012: later years and death. Suzannah Jordan, the third member of The Happeners trio, ran into Smith in LA in 1977; he was homeless but did not display any mental health issues. He drifted in and out of mental hospitals until the mid-1980s when funding was cut, and would then spend the next years homeless. He also had various run-ins with the law. In 1981 or 1982 he saw another old friend and told her he had been recording music. He has been indeed recording music, according to Mike Stax, as late as the late 1990s, which includes the 1994 song "Waves", which was released on the 2018 CD version of the album Love is Our Existence. By the early 2000s his "ramblings" had moved from Eastern philosophy/his Maitreya Kali persona to aliens. Smith died on March 16, 2012. His family declined to collect his ashes, and they were eventually collected by journalist Mike Stax.

★ Apache (Released under the name Satya Sai Maitreya Kali) (Akashic Records, 1971)

01. Ice and Snow 03:25 02. Black Swan 02:50 03. Color Fantasy 03:51 04. Voodoo Spell 02:01 05. Salesman 02:55 06. Music Box 02:55 07. Love Is Our Existence 02:30 08. One Last Farewell 02:35 09. I'm Walkin' Solo 02:28 10. Silk and Ivory 03:05 11. Swim 02:43 12. Revelation 03:12

★ Inca (Released under the name Satya Sai Maitreya Kali) (United Kingdom of America Records, 1972)

01. Lights of Dawn 02:56 02. Thesis 02:46 03. Knot the Freize 12:31 04. Jesus Owns 01:32 05. Sam Pan Boat 03:18 06. Fearless Men 03:38 07. Cheryl 03:05 08. Country Girl 02:51 09. Old Man 03:47 10. King 00:08

#Apache #Craigh Smith #Maitreya Kali #Color Fantasy #03:50

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wild-icarus · 4 years

Text

Judas Costume Masterpost, in-progress...

Find all the version I covered here. Divided by country/region, each section is ordered from oldest to newest (productions done yearly will be placed at the end of the section). Some productions were in multiple countries, so if at least two were in another country, rather than splitting it I decided to create a separate section dedicated to the production, for example Timothy Sheader was both in the US and the UK so it has its own section.

Format: Actor’s Last, First Name (Year Location/Theatre): Post links

Symbols:

* - Judas being played by women

(#) - Productions with the same Jesus actor, key at the end for which number means which Jesus actor

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Timothy Sheader Production:

Huntley, Tyrone (2016-17 Regent’s Park): 1, 2, 3, 4

Shaw, Ryan (2018 Lyric Opera of Chicago): 1, 2

Afonso, Ricardo (2019 Barbican Centre): 1, 2

(1)Beeks, James Delisco (2019-? 50th US Tour): 1, 2

Films (NOT Minchin or Volendam):

(6)Pradon, Jérôme (2000 Film): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

North American Productions:

Non Broadway/Tour:

Williams, Aaron (2015 HartHouse Theatre, University of Toronto): 1

Douglas, Napoleon M. + LaFontaine, Matt (2017 Arvada Center): 1

(1)Faison, Chris (2017 Seven Angels Theatre): 1, 2

Kemmerer, Adam (2017 Bristol Riverside Theatre): 1

Kilgore, Mykal (2017 Paramount Theatre, Aurora, Illinois): 1, 2

Smith, Shawn W. (2017 Arizona Broadway Theatre): 1

*Watson, Ali (2017 North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre): 1

Wilford, Ari McKay (2017 Signature Theatre): 1, 2

*Pickett, Jocelyn (2018 Ray of Light Theatre): 1

Vona, Ryan (2018 Connecticut Repertory Theatre): 1

Ryan, Rob (2019 Algonquin Arts Theatre): 1

Sanders, Adam (2019 Quad City Music Guild): 1

Helsman, Jamey Helsman+ Gibilisco,Gigi + ? (Yearly, Keswick Theatre): 1

Broadway/Tour:

(6)Jason Pebworth, Manoel Feliciano, Tony Vincent (2000 Revival): 1, 2

Mexican Production:

Ruben, Erik (2019-2020+2021 Mexico Tour): 1, 2, 3

Australian Production:

Frangos, Zoy (2017 Arts Centre Melbourne’s State Theatre): 1, 2, 3

Irish/British Productions:

Non-West End:

Minchin, Tim (2012 Arena Tour):1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6, 7, 8, 9

(6)Rogers, Tim (2015 UK Tour): 1, 2

West End:

Polish Production:

Sebastian Machalski, Łukasz Mazurek, Jerzy Gmurzyński, Łukasz Zagrobelny (2016-2020 Teatr Rampa): 1, 2, 3, 4

German Production:

Gaines Hall (2008 Emslaendische Freilichtbuehne, Meppen): 1 (4)

Jakobs, David (2013 Theatre Bonn +Theatre Dortmund): 1, 2

(5) Melcher, Alex (2014 Circus Krone): 1, 2

Bernsdorff, Yannick (2016+2020 Waggonhalle Marburg): 1

Di Capri, Sasha (2016 Theatre Trier): 1

Mang, Mischa (2016 Freilichtspiele Schwäbisch Hall): 1

del Soldar, Francisco (2017 Mainfranken Theatre): 1, 2

Dengler, Manuel (2017 Hessisches Staatstheater): 1

(5) Di Capri, Sasha (2017 First Stage Theatre): 1

Jakobs, David + Vooijs, John (2017-18 Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz): 1, 2

(2) Roller, Timothy (2018 Theatre Magdenburg): 1

Di Capri, Sasha (2019 Open Air Theatre Vorpommern): 1

(2) Lamberty, Marc (2019 Thüringer Schlossfestspiele Sondershausen): 1, 2

Johnson, David-Michael (2019 Staatstheater Augsburg): 1

Rupert Markthaler (2019, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater): 1, 2, 3, 4

Austrian Productions:

Kellner, Michael (2015 Stadttheater Bad Hal): 1

Bech, Johan + Ackermann, Martin (2017 Linz, ARTworkers): 1, 2

Swiss Productions:

(4) Stanke, Patrick (2016 Theatre Basel): 1, 2

Thiel, Kevin (2019 Le Théâtre Emmen): 1, 2

Swedish Productions:

Ronny Danielson + Ola Salo Production:

(3) Martinsson, Patrik (2008 Malmö Opera): 1, 2

(3) Martinsson, Patrik (2012-13 Göta Lejon): 1, 2

(3) Johansson, Peter (2014 Swedish Arena Tour): 1, 2

Just Ronny Danielson Production:

Bones, Mads (2020 Theatre Trøndelag): 1, 2

Danish Production:

Kaastrup-Mathew, Mikkel (2017 Aarhus Theatre): 1, 2

Dutch Production:

van der Starr, Martin (2005-2006 Dutch Tour): 1, 2

Dulles, Jan (2005+2007 Volendam): 1, 2

Bauck Bårdstu, Erik (2017 Haugesund Teater): 1, 2

Italian Productions:

Russian Productions:

Nogin, Vyacheslav + Kazmin Alexander (St. Petersburg Rock-Opera Theatre): 1, 2

Litskevich, Oleg + Egorov, Evgeny + Ivan Guskov (Stas Namin Theatre): 1, 2

Japanese/Gekidan Shiki Productions:

(7) Iino, Asami (1973 Gekidanshiki, Rock Opera JCS ver.): 1

(7) Terada, Minoru + Takita, Sakae (1976-80′s Gekidanshiki, Early Jerusalem ver.): 1

(8) Jun, Sawaki + Shiba, Kiyomichi + Kanamori, Masaru (1987-2013 Gekidanshiki, Japonica ver.):1(1991), 2(1998), 3(2007), 4(2013), 5(Superstar)

(8) Kanamori, Masaru + Shiba, Kiyomichi + Sakuma, Jin (2009-19 Gekidanshiki, New Jerusalem ver.): 1 (2009), 2 (2013/14+18), 3 (2019), 4 (Superstar)

Korean Productions:

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Jesus Actor Key:

1=Aaron LaVigne, 2=Tobias Bieri, 3=Ola Salo, 4=Alexander Klaws, 5=Drew Sarich, 6=Glenn Carter, 7=Kaga, Takeshi, 8=Kaminaga, Tougo

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Actors who played both Judas and Jesus:

Patrick Stanke played Judas once in the Swiss Theatre Basel production, and has played Jesus in Freilichtspiele Schwäbisch Hall, (he has played Jesus more times, but I have yet to cover those production)

David-Michael Johnson played Judas in the Staatstheater Augsburg production and has played Jesus in Theatre Trier.

#judas iscariot #jcs costume

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