Acid, Music, Mindcrime [PT II]

[Courtney Love as an infant, with father Hank Harrison, and mother Linda Carroll]

Are Rock Stars "born" or are they "made?" The latter assumes a creator - who would likely wield the same power to DESTROY what they made if they saw fit. Suppose such a creator lacked empathy, was perhaps even psychopathic, with a voracious sense of greed - why not market the destruction of one's creation and capitalize even further upon that "rock star" than when they were alive?

These are very dark concepts to contemplate, but sometimes we must think like the enemy in order to discover their tactics and make sense of this mess we see in the world. One of the mainstream media's most important jobs, is to prevent us from doing so. They do it by witholding information, distorting information, or flooding the airwaves with so much that it becomes an indistinguishable cloud of white noise that we'd rather would just go away completely.

["The crookedest street in the world," San Francisco's Lombard Street]

The following is made up of quotes from various articles and interviews which are all publicly available. All quotes from said articles and interviews will be in italics. When an individual is quoted directly, their name will be in [Brackets] "and their quote will look like this." All sources are listed at the bottom of the page.

Her parents...were part of the city’s burgeoning psychedelic scene...Her father, Hank Harrison, had been a college friend and roommate of Phil Lesh in the early ‘60s, had briefly managed the Warlocks “for one week” in 1965, and stayed in contact with the Dead up to the ‘70s, gathering material for his books on them. [Courtney] "He managed the Grateful Dead for 5 seconds and he was an amateur acid maker" [Rozz Rezabeck] "Hank Harrison, he went out as their tour manager ostensibly, actually he was their LSD dealer."

[Harrison] "when she was little she was wonderful. Very very intelligent I gave her an IQ test, she has a 150 IQ"

[Harrison appeared in the 1967 CBS documentary "Etched in Acid," coming off more like a CIA Agent than a former "acid head" that ran with the Grateful Dead.]

A lifelong diarist, [Linda] Carroll always felt she had a story to tell. Her children grew up listening to stories of her time in Catholic school in 1950s San Francisco and her acid trips with Jerry Garcia in Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s...Young Linda was so echt-hippie that Jerry Garcia personally introduced her to LSD on a risky wrong-way ride up San Francisco’s snaky Lombard Street: “I’m going up—it’s how the crow would fly,” said Jerry. Linda liked LSD but wasn’t an alkaloid Icarus. Her addiction was to self-seeking...…Courtney’s also said, “My mother had ties to a lot of the women around the San Francisco hippie scene, like Ken Kesey’s wife and the Magic Bus people.” [Harrison] "Linda had a sort of cadre of chicks from San Francisco. From Catholic school, girls’ Catholic school."

So far, LSD and the Grateful Dead seem like a common level upon which Linda and Hank would meet. Tripping with Jerry Garcia no less! Courtney Love's quote about the "magic bus people" is not a statement to be taken lightly in this regard, as Ken Kesey conducted the infamous "acid test" parties, at which attendees were dosed with copious amounts of LSD. In fact, members of the Warlocks/Grateful Dead are believed to have attended the first of these parties, possibly even playing some music. The CIA is known to have been involved at some level as well - if they weren't the primary organizers themselves. And the "Magic Bus" was an operation in which "hippies" went around the country dosing people with acid, promoting its use. This is all very much at the heart of what people have come to acknowledge as the transition from the "beatnick movement" to the "hippy movement."

Harrison met Love's mother in early 1963 at a party for Dizzy Gillespie, according to Harrison, who both raised and denied allegations by his ex-wife that their daughter was conceived through date rape...She was conceived, Carroll wrote, when an intense and interesting guy she met at a party named Hank Harrison threatened to commit suicide if the 18-year-old Carroll refused to have sex with him. They married soon after in Reno...she was pregnant when they were married in November 1963 in Reno. Their daughter was born the following July, and the marriage lasted less than two years...Linda’s own bad, brief teenage marriage left her with trouble child Courtney.

The above contains 2 versions of how Courtney was "conceived." The first version is from an article penned by Joel Selvin. The latter is allegedly from a book Carroll wrote herself. [It's worth noting here that Carroll defends the reputation of her sexually abusive father in one of the promotional articles concerning said book.] Whatever the case, doesn't sound like Linda Carroll had a very romantic journey into motherhood.

Courtney Michelle Harrison was born on 7.9.1964 in San Francisco, CA. [Courtney] "I was born into a big custody trial. And I was called “child x” in the San Francisco paper. It was a big deal because my grandparents had a lot of money."

This is a reference to Courtney's maternal grandparents [Linda's adopted parents], who allegedly owned a very successful company that made eye glasses. This is something we will get more into later.

"He [Hank] gave me acid, I don’t remember, I’m pretty sure…my father’s just out and out nuts"...[Rozz Rezabek] "He’s always been heavily involved in dealing LSD… [Hank] left Courtney with like some groupie at the commune who gave her LSD in her Corn Flakes like every morning, which made Courtney extremely enlightened and self actualized, but it also did a lot of damage"...

Phil Lesh was her godfather…“We were doing tons of acid, changing sex partners, and tripping out,” Hank said; and in a child custody dispute, her mother would testify that Hank gave Courtney LSD as an infant...[Hank] "There was lots of interactions where I took her over to see friends of mine who were very very famous people in the band at their homes. So she spent a lot of time with all the different band members in their houses and talking to their wives…Mountain Girl and Garcia and Tom Constantan and Phil Lesh and so fourth - knew her…Garcia was a babysitter for her for a while, when we were still married…I never thought anything would happen bad. Was a bunch of people like that, yeah she was exposed to the Dead culture. And also the “Hippie Culture” I was bringing people down off of bad acid trips. I had to often go out and leave her with my girlfriend who was - her name was Jerry Danter. And I never had any worries about that."

While Hank denies ever dosing his daughter with LSD, his elaborate stories where she's being shuffled around between the various icons of Acid culture while he's out "rescuing" acid heads in the street certainly doesn't hurt the case against him in that regard!

In Love’s first year, Harrison became increasingly violent and emotionally unstable, according to the book, and the couple divorced around Love’s first birthday…She depicts Love, as a toddler, watching, unmoved, as her puppy tumbles down a flight of stairs.

The book referenced above is Linda's. I have not read it, but it sounds like her depiction of a young Courtney is that of a mentally disturbed child lacking in empathy for the lives of others. According to Harrison, Courtney is a sociopath, an attribute he takes credit for passing down to her.

"Sociopathy refers to a pattern of antisocial behaviors and attitudes, including manipulation, deceit, aggression, and a lack of empathy for others." - psychology today

At the age of 5 Courtney appeared on the back of the Grateful Dead album “aoxomoxoa,” known for the hidden phrase in the title, We ate the acid...

The above was taken from an MTV documentary. The fact that she is on the back of "aoxomoxoa" is disputed, but Courtney seems happy to play along with it regardless.

[Harrison] "By the way, I took a polygraph…I did not give her LSD I did not expose her to LSD or any other kind of psychedelic. Period. And I can prove it...

Is a polygraph "proof?" Sure, it may count for something in a courtroom. But how does one "prove" they didn't dose their daughter? I don't know if that's even possible! Doesn't make him guilty of the crime, but this concerted effort to establish the idea that he is in possession of such "proof" rings more of guilt than innocence to me.

[Courtney and her adopted father, Frank Rodriguez]

According to divorce papers filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Carroll claimed her ex- husband had threatened to abduct the infant Courtney and take her to another country. Hank denied the allegations, but Linda won the case. By that time, she’d married Frank Rodriguez, who legally adopted Courtney. The court granted only limited visits to Harrison, restricting them to Carroll's residence and insisting on the presence of a third party…[Courtney] "He was alleged in court -- I don't know if it actually happened -- to have given me acid," she said...

Is this the story of a mother trying to protect her daughter from an unstable, abusive man? Where was she, when young Courtney was being shuffled around to various band members and getting LSD in her corn flakes? It's one thing to have a divorce, gain custody, and move to another state. But to actually have her new husband LEGALLY adopt Courtney sounds like an attempt to shut Harrison out of her daughter's life in the most complete way possible.

She got married again, he [Harrison] said, "and suddenly there was a change. They adopted her out from under me. They moved to Oregon and wouldn't tell me where she was.”

[Hank] "I used to manage the Grateful Dead, and this girl who’s an old Dead Head came up and said “hey are you Courtney’s Dad? I’m her banker!” I said “does she have a lot of money” she said “Oh yeah! I can’t talk about it.” All she said was “a lot.”

Hank tells a pretty consistent story about this business of Courtney inheriting money from Linda's adopted parents, the Risis - and insinuates that this is the reason she became so aggressive in her efforts to get Courtney away from him and to strip away Hank's legal rights as her father. More on this later.

She lived with her parents in San Francisco until their divorce in 1969; then her mother took her to an Oregon commune in 1970. She had a loose hippie upbringing: one biographer describes her childhood house as full of musicians, groupies and freaks; and Courtney later shuddered, “There were all these hairy, wangly-ass hippies in our house…running around naked.”

[Courtney and her new family up at the Oregon Commune?]

Linda and her new baby fled north to Oregon with an ambitious trash man, known to her friends as “the garbage Adonis.”...The new family moved to Oregon where [the] family had 2 daughters, and later adopted a son. Linda studying psychotherapy put the family on the couch. [Jamiee King - half sister] We were in therapy constantly. Mom would give us big red batons, and we would have to hit each other to get the anger out. We had teepees in the backyard and people came from England to have conventions of believing in fairies, it was a different time. [Courtney] "We had this family meeting which was called “what’s bugging me about you is...” It was crazy."

[Jamiee King - half sister] My sister’s never really forgiven my mom for the way that she was raised. My dad was probably the best at understanding her and accepting her.

A photo from the book shows Courtney beaming in front of her lovely, hand-built cabin on the site of the former chicken coop. So … there’s more to the story: No, she wasn’t locked up in a chicken coop, but she did live solo in her own cabin behind the house, for the protection of the other kids—and Linda.

So the family moves up to Oregon onto a hippy commune, where the kids are subjected to all sorts of, what sound like, psychological experiments. Now, Courtney was born in 1964, so she would have been around 5 in 1969. I wonder how old she was when they decided to move her into the re-purposed chicken coupe behind the house?

Soon Courtney’s behavior was so out of control that her mother sent her to a new therapist. [Courtney] "The man that I went to therapy with was a pervert. And he had pornography in his bathroom, he was gross. He wrote down that I was slightly schizoid at the age of 9, you can’t be slightly schizoid at the age of 9., besides which, I’m not. And that stayed in my file and haunted me"

Was Courtney the little mentally disturbed monster MTV portrayed her to be in their "documentary," or was she simply acting out the way any severely abused child would? Children who are normal don't need experimental therapy! Normal children FORCED into experimental therapy become ABNORMAL! What really happened here at this commune up in Oregon?

[Frank Rodriguez, Courtney's adopted step-father]

[Courtney] "he [Frank] was great to me, he was the one adult figure in my life who was nice to me." Despite their best efforts, Linda and Frank couldn’t make the family work. They divorced when Courtney was 7.

In 1972 Linda remarried and moved the family to New Zealand, bringing along everyone but the increasingly difficult Courtney. The 8 year old was left behind in the care of a family friend. It was a move that would cement the rift between mother and daughter forever.

Wait, didn't Frank and Linda have 2 daughters after moving to Oregon AND an adopted son? If Frank was such a kind hearted man and father, why would he let his children go like that, all the way to some strange location in New Zealand, with his ex wife? And who was this "family friend" Courtney was left with?

Eventually, Courtney moved back in with her stepfather, Frank. [Frank] "Linda appealed to me, and asked if I would take Courtney and I said yes I love Courtney." Courtney adjusted to her new life well, immersing herself in art and acting classes. For the first time, she began to dabble in music.

[Courtney quoting her own lyrics] "We're gonna go down to shady lake, where we're gonna make sweet sweet love." At least it had a hook, and I was in 5th grade!...I can't remember a time not wanting to be famous...

While stating the above, Courtney grins ubiquitously as she recalls a song she wrote and mailed to Neil Sedaka [pop producer/musician], all about "making sweet love." She was probably around 10 years old at the time.

[Courtney] "All I could see is that I would be famous and then everything would be fair."

What does Courtney mean by "fair?" Was her entire childhood part of some sort of "deal" where she had to suffer, in exchange for the fame - as a sort of "reward?"

At the age of 12 she applied to the new Mickey Mouse Club, only to be rejected. [Courtney] "I wish my mother had been a stage mother. I wouldn't have had to forge my parent's signature when I tried out for the New Mouskateers as Coco Rodriguez, and read Silvia Platt...I was so raised in a cave I read a poem about incest trying out for the new mouseketeers."

"I found out later that Courtney Love had made it to the call-backs and was going to be cast as a Mouseketeer," [Lisa] Whelchel told us. "But she found out some little kid from Texas flew in and got her part."

Love tells it a slightly different way. "I tried out for the Mickey Mouse Club when I was 11," she said in The Independent. "But I read a Sylvia Plath poem… so that wasn’t really flying with Disney."

Here we have Courtney, in her own words, talking about how she brought up incest while trying out for the Mickey Mouse club. Are we supposed to find it ENDEARING that Courtney, at age 11 or 12, thought incest was acceptable enough to bring up while trying out for the Mousketeers? This occured, presumably, during the time she was staying with Frank Rodriguez. The one "adult figure" in her life that was nice to her. She also makes what is supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to being "raised in a cave." This is an interesting statement considering she was kept in a re-purposed chicken coupe behind the family house as a child.

I think what people may percieve as "a punk rock attitude" or a "self-made woman" in Courtney, is actually a mis-reading of her inability to relate to "normal" society, due to the damage she suffered as a child. Perhaps she "acts out," not because she is some kind of "fearless warrior of counterculture and individuality," but moreso because she is the opposite. An imprisoned lifetime slave to the sick machine that created her. And MTV wants us to applaud this, as if these are endearing traits, worthy of praise and admiration.

"Incest: sexual intercourse between closely related persons...the crime of sexual intercourse, cohabitation, or marriage between persons within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity wherein marriage is legally forbidden." - dictionary.com

[Courtney and Frank Rodriguez's 2nd wife?]

After 7 months in Oregon Courtney had to face an even tougher rejection. Living with Frank just wasn't working out.

[Frank Rodriguez] "It came to a point where my wife and Courtney were at odds, and I was presented with a choice. Her or me, and the conflict was just intense and I couldn’t handle it. Who wants her? She couldn’t make it with me. She didn’t make it with her mother. She was abandoned. She was lost."

When Courtney went to live with Frank for the 2nd time, it appears that he had already re-married, and so they all lived together. Why was Frank's wife "at odds" with Courtney? We assume this was due to her psychotic behavior, or some other stepdaughter/stepmother strife. But the reason is never actually given in the segment. Frank then states his wife presented him with an ultimatum, "her or me." Now think about this for a moment...if a man is cheating on his wife and the wife finds out...if he is LUCKY, the wife will tell him "her or me." Were Frank and Courtney involved in an inappropriate relationship, which may have actually been concentual? Was this the real reason his wife wanted him to choose? Maybe, maybe not.

[Harrison] "Some of Linda’s husbands later on had some problems, especially when they went to Australia without telling me. I have really no idea what happened to them down there"

Australia? I thought Courtney's mother fled to New Zealand?

It’s been a messy life, funded by the Risis’ bequest—not millions, but enough cash so that Linda could answer a 1973 ad in The Whole Earth Catalogue and schlep her proliferating brood to a total-loss sheep farm in New Zealand. Her four other kids adapted to the chaos; Courtney went berserk, yo-yoing between Oregon, New Zealand, reform school and Portland punk clubs until Linda emancipated her at 16 and signed over a slice of the inheritance…

It sounds like Courtney did more than yo-yo into New Zealand, as the above post card seems to suggest she was enrolled in school there, and preparing to take part in a theatre play of Oliver Twist - though it's hard to read her messy writing. [I guess she'd be around 9 years old at that point?] The return address seems to be a Hostel. Why was her mailing address a hostel if she was staying with mom on a sheep farm? And what was Harrison alluding to, when he said some of Linda's later husbands in Australia really had some problems? Did he mean New Zealand, during the time Courtney wrote this letter?

Imagine. Courtney is this child, being juggled all over the place - even internationally in some cases - staying with who knows who, being subjected to who knows what, staying who knows where. Yet Harrison, who we assume was nowhere to be found, seems to provide some of the only details as to what was happening to his daughter during this time. And all the while, money from the Risis seems to be flowing into it all in some form or another. The only thing that explains this to me, is that Courtney was in the middle of some sort of mind control/trafficking campaign - and everyone involved is doing their own version of damage control here - which is why nothing ever quite makes sense or feels conclusive.

[Harrison]...So I got a buddy of mine, he had a private plane, fly me up to Salem and I went and saw her…

In this revealing recent interview, Harrison speaks about re-connecting with Courtney while she was in "juvy" [jail for minors]. The interviewer asks Harrison about a part of his recent book where he allegedly states Courtney was subjected to "Stanford Experiments."

[Harrison] "I don’t know if they were Standford per se. But there was some kinda Oregon State bunch too don’t forget, you know? Oregon box. You know, Reich? They had this thing about RE parenting. Reichian psychology. They put her…they were doing Tarot reading, fire walking, hatha yoga, raja yoga…running on no food, that kinda stuff…it was Portland...it was back in the day you know…they were just as bad as the Haight Ashbury. I mean wasn’t nothin different about it, 'cept it was Oregon…. I don’t know what they were exposing her to but it was…oh yeah, they gave her pills…toolinahl. Tuinal. Which is the blue and the red pill. Sleeping pill. It’s a hypnotic. Truth serum type of thing. Secenol, tuinal. ..

Notice that Harrison did not outright deny the "Stanford Experiments" question, but quickly pivoted to Oregon, and what was going on there. If you pay attention, Harrison is really good at changing the topic when he doesn't want to talk about a specific detail. The interviewer then asks how old Courtney was at the time.

[Harrison] "…before she went into juvy, 14. Between 12 and 14. And they were getting her to try and ERASE me from her mind. And I found out that the reason they were doing that….they thought I was after their money! And at the time I didn’t even know they had the money!"

How does Harrison know about all of these experiments and drugs and brainwashing, and memory erasing, and other crazy treatments his daughter was subjected to during those years he was supposedly absent in her life? Perhaps she told him, perhaps he is making it all up, perhaps he was directly involved! But given the shocking detail, we have to wonder just WHY Harrison offers all of this up. There must be either some truth to it, or a will to distort the truth - which insinuates that the real story might have actually been far worse and shocking than he is letting on! But who the hell knows...

[Courtney with former boyfriend, Rozz Rezabeck]

Now, recall the quote earlier from Rozz Rezabeck, about Hank leaving "Courtney with like some groupie at the commune who gave her LSD in her Corn Flakes like every morning"

Rozz was supposedly a former boyfriend of Courtney. So the information he gives regarding her and Hank Harrison, I assume, is mostly from her or the horse's mouth. But whatever the case, observe that above he states it was Harrison who took Courtney to a commune. Well, I thought Linda was the one took her up there in Oregon, specifically under the nose of Hank? Did they both leave her in a commune at different points in time? Is Rozz mixing things up here?

After 7 months in Oregon, Courtney had to face an even tougher rejection. Living with Frank just wasn’t working out. This latest betrayal pushed Courtney over the edge into a world of anger and ever increasing alienation. Now a young teenager, Courtney began living a nomadic life. Bouncing from foster home to foster home, but trusting no-one.

[Courtney] "You’d walk in the door and know that guy would molest you, just know it. Like within an hour and be out."

I don't think young Courtney developed this advanced "molester detector" ability without having been molested previously. In fact, Roz Rezabeck tells a pretty shocking story in one interview involving an underaged Courtney and Ted Nugent. Who knows what fact and fiction is, but where there is this much smoke, there's probably some fire.

Then at 13 after getting caught shoplifting, Courtney was sent to juvenile hall and from there, reform school...After years in juvy and foster homes, Courtney had become an alienated wild child, who’s new monthly stipend never went far enough.

[Are these pictures Courtney drew while at a Hillcrest Reform School?]

The Hole: "The meaning of the hole is a prison cell where a prisoner who is being punished is kept alone : solitary confinement." - merriam-webster.com

[Harrison] "...and it turned out the letter head was from juvenile hall. Frank didn’t say she was in juvy!…because she was “beyond parental control."...When I first got her out of juvenile hall she didn’t have any money at all...She had no clothes, mom had just abandoned her into Juvy. And I said “Courtney what are you doing in this situation you're a millionaire” She said “no mom says the money’s gone.”

[Harrison] "She was told that I was dead…but the real motive behind it was they thought I had some claim to the money…it turns out…the lawyers that were running the adoption…it wasn’t really an adoption it was a “take away” - they were Catholics too, they were telling Linda and Chat Risi and Ruella Risi that…Fararri and Risi is a large optician on Montgomery street in San Francisco….and the lawyers told them if they didn’t do something about me in the end…when the child was of age I could make a claim against the money because the child was in their name, cause they were using the child as a tax dodge….I told her about it [her money], that was a mistake, I shouldn’t have done that.

I have tried to find information on this "Fararri and Risi" Optician company without success. Certainly this aspect of Hank's story could all be valid, or at least partially. Or mostly lies! But the important point, I think, is the idea that Courtney's life was being financed to a degree - and there was an air of secrecy and questionable legality to it all.

On one hand, Harrison speaks of MILLIONS. On the other, Courtney speaks of a measley $500 per month allowance - even though she does allude to her grandparents being wealthy in other places. While $500 per month wasn't a TON of money back in the early 80s - it was plenty enough to pay rent in a nice middle class neighborhood, probably with a couple hundred to spare. For someone of Courtney's age at the time [a teen], that might as well have equated to being "rich." But she goes out of her way to downplay the amount of money she was recieving at the time, as if it was nothing, or not nearly enough!

[Harrison] "...in that era, to have 2 1/2 to 3 million dollars in trust for a 5 year old child or a 3 year old child would be a lot of money."

[Harrison] "At that time, she was ALMOST ruined. I mean she was in juvy. They kinda turned her into a whore and all kinds of street kids…she was beat up by a bunch of punks in Oregon a couple of times..."

Who is THEY and how did they "kinda" turn Courtney into a whore? She is about 14 years old here when she was in reform school. Who was pimping her out and to whom? And how did Harrison, who'd allegedly been estranged from her for years, seem to know every little thing that happened to his daughter when he wasn't around? Why was she getting beaten by punks in Oregon? Hank paints a grim picture of the young teen Courtney - who only seems to get used and abused in all of the worst types of ways. The question I have is, was she just a lost soul who'd been abandoned in the streets - or was she a mind controlled slave who's ultimate purpose was yet to be determined by her handlers?

This blog was researched, written, and continues to be maintained by 1 person. If you enjoyed it and would like to encourage more of them, donations can be made by clicking the button below.

Sources:

deadsources [Blogspot]
lostlivedead [Blogspot]
Kyle and Jackie O [Youtube channel]
www.sfgate.com
Alternative Air [Youtube channel]
diva.sfsu.edu
scarycoyote [Youtube Channel]
www.encyclopedia.com
The Ochelli Effect [Youtube Channel]
RockStop
Mtv/VH1
Etched in Acid [CBS]
observer.com
latimes.com
metv.com

Acid, Music, Mindcrime [PT I]

SECTION I - HANK HARRISON

"DR Allen Cohen and Hank Harrison have tried it, nearly 150 times between them, each has turned away from it...Hank Harrison directs the unique LSD Rescue Mission in San Francisco..."

"Now that we look back at some of our statistics, we've seen people spend many months in mental institutions because of it…Many of the kids who are now consuming LSD and marijuana, and very similar drugs are doing so because they tend to be seeking a new mystique, the hip mystique, and they’ve heard about this hip mystique through television, radio, newspapers, and they’re being drawn towards the Haight Ashbury and Greenwich Village, and college campuses all around the world to try LSD and various hallucinogenics…mainly because of group pressure but also because they feel that something is going to happen to them, some of the misery they feel is going to be alleviated. This is not true, LSD is not a panacea. Nor is it penicillin." - Hank Harrison, "Etched in Acid" 1967

"I think our task is to separate the profundity of the instinct [to take psychadelics] and the ignorance in trying to actualize that instinct by the use of artificial chemicals. In all honesty I could never advise someone I loved or cared for of felt well of to take LSD even once. Except…in a medically controlled therapeutic situation for specific psychological reasons." - Allen Cohen "Etched in Acid" 1967

CBS covered the San Francisco "Haight Ashbury hippy scene" of the late 60s as it was occuring, in segments such as "Etched in Acid." In it, Harrison and Allen Cohen appear to be warning of the dangers LSD presents to people, mainly youths of the then current hippy movement. Harrison speaks like a man who's job is, specifically, to analyze the effects of LSD upon people. In fact, some have said he gave LSD to his own daughter!

"He [Hank] gave me acid, I don’t remember, I’m pretty sure…my father’s just out and out nuts...He managed the Grateful Dead for 5 seconds and he was an amateur acid maker..." Courtney Love - VH1

"At the age of 5 Courtney appeared on the back of the Grateful Dead album “aoxomoxoa,” known for the hidden phrase in the title, We ate the acid."

"she’s on the back of one of the Grateful Dead album covers…Hank Harrison, he went out as their tour manager ostensibly, actually he was their LSD dealer. He’s always been heavily involved in dealing LSD…and left Courtney with like some groupie at the commune who gave her LSD in her Corn Flakes like every morning, which made Courtney extremely enlightened and self actualized, but it also did a lot of damage" - Rozz Rezabek, [former boyfriend] Rockstop 2018

"Hank Harrison, had been a college friend and roommate of Phil Lesh in the early ‘60s, had briefly managed the Warlocks [pre-Grateful Dead] “for one week” in 1965, and stayed in contact with the Dead up to the ‘70s..."

“We were doing tons of acid, changing sex partners, and tripping out,” Hank said; and in a child custody dispute, her mother would testify that Hank gave Courtney LSD as an infant…"

"Of course, it’s not known just how involved Hank was in the Dead scene in 1969, as detailed information is scanty and his books are rather obscure. It’s possible he just had occasional contact at that point. Courtney later wrote that Hank was not as close to the Dead as he claimed: “He had published 2 unauthorized books…writing from the perspective of an insider, when in fact he barely dealt with the band.” On the other hand, Courtney’s also said, “My mother had ties to a lot of the women around the San Francisco hippie scene, like Ken Kesey’s wife and the Magic Bus people.” - deadessays.blogspot.com

"Hank Harrison was a self-described beatnik who lived in Palo Alto with a musician roommate named Phil Lesh. For a couple of weeks at least, he was the manager of Lesh's band, the Warlocks, which soon became the Grateful Dead…His books are not highly regarded in Dead circles." -SFgate

"He lies," said former Dead manager Rock Scully. "He describes events he never attended. He said he went to Egypt. He didn't go to Egypt. He's full of beans." - wiki

"None of that happened! I never gave Courtney LSD! And I took a lie detector test…legitimate, CIA guy…that said I did not give her ANY drugs!" Harrison, youtube interview 2020, user "scarycoyote"

LSD RESCUE MISSION

Harrison's specific connection to the Grateful Dead [or the Warlocks, an earlier version] seems lost in a sea of acid laced recollections. But what's probably more interesting, is this "LSD Rescue Mission" project he was allegedly involved with. I wasn't able to find anything out about this organization outside Harrison's own interviews, and the brief references from CBS. I think it is important to explore this connection between Harrison, the Dead, the CIA, and LSD.

"I was bringing people down off of bad acid trips…if you see someone that’s in real dire crisis, your obligation is to intervene….lay hands on and grab and snatch, put em in a truck or a hotel or hospital or someplace - fix em! No fuckin around! You’re trying to help em, YOU'RE the boss. Not them! You gotta get em under control right away, and I knew how to do that! And I been trained to do that with - There was a guy in San Francisco named Joe Fort with Fort Help. And there’s several other groups like that…and I studied with groups like that" - youtube interview 2020, user "scarycoyote"

The question I have is, was Harrison trained to "help" these people, or was he assigned the task of "rounding them up," after they'd been heavily dosed, in order to gather data - or even further experiment upon them? Persistent rumors that he'd even experimented upon his own daughter, certainly feeds this idea. And while "proof" of just about ANYTHING here is difficult to establish within such a cloud of acid soaked haze, Harrison's own quotes taken at face value, can easily be interpreted as the confessions of a CIA/MK Ultra operative.

During the same interview I've been quoting from Youtube user "scarycoyote," the interviewer actually puts the question of MK Ultra involvement to Harrison. Here's his response:

"there was a lot of “dosing” going on. Never open your orchid in a hailstorm. Whoever was doing the dosing - if - if there was intervention - pardon me - if there was “dosing” going on, and it was with the Grateful Dead, then the CIA involvement was with Owsley Stanley, he’s dead now, the guy that developed all the acid. If there was a CIA connection it was Tim Leary for sure…there’s a guy named Sasha Shulgin. Alexander Shulgin. He was a chemist, he’s the one that taught - Augustus Owsley Stanley III…Owsley the Bear. Owsley Stanley. The Bear. He was the acid king. He was the guy that whipped up the acid…at Berkely, at the 3rd or 4th floor of the chem lab. On Campus, man! That’s the only place they could make LSD from scratch. Where they had the actual equipment...there’s a whole bunch of information about that - now I don’t wanna snitch on anybody but, I didn’t like the idea of them dumping acid on everybody everywhere. I didn’t like it. I thought it should be -LSD should have been used always as an adjuvant of psychiatric or psychology or meditational science - and they’re using it NOW for that! They’re using psilosiben as the go-to process for shell-shocking army - ptsd…

Note Harrison's "freudian slip" above. He said "if there was intervention - pardon me - if there was “dosing” going on"...Recall an earlier quote where he went on about "intervention" and how you gotta "grab and snatch, put em in a truck or a hotel or hospital or someplace" because "your trying to help em!" That's INTERVENTION. He slipped above, and mixed that word up with DOSING. So you see, he made a connection between the DOSING and the INTERVENTION. Were these simply 2 parts of the same deliberate process Harrison was an active participant in?

If you look these names up he mentioned above, it all checks out. One can spend years researching just that last quote of his. But what I want to emphesize here is Harrison's obvious awareness that LSD was being DUMPED on "everybody everywhere." He says he "didn't like it." Ok, fair enough. Maybe he didn't. But on one hand he sees acid being dumped on people. He seems to know the people involved, how, and where it's being made. [Well duh, he's one of them!] On the other hand, he's got this "LSD rescue" foundation. And on the 3rd hand, he's eating tons of the stuff! [before he had his big 75th trip awakening, that it's actually not real good after all, of course] The big conclusion is that he thinks it aughta be used as "an adjuvant of psychiatric or psychology or meditational science." In other words, it aughta be used in a laboratory sort of environment, under close supervision, for some sort of "beneficial" purpose. Well, this can easily describe the precise manner in which it WAS being used! That is, if the meaning of "beneficial" is twisted slightly and the "laboratory" means any f'n environment where people are taking it, like a party or a rock concert!

SECTION II - Linda Carroll

"Linda Carroll is an American author, marriage counselor, and family therapist...Carroll is best known professionally as a couples therapist, and as an author of three books, the latest being Love Cycles: The Five Essential Stages of Lasting Love, in 2014."

"She has worked as a couple's therapist for more than 30 years. In addition to being a licensed psychotherapist, she is certified in Imago Therapy, the couple's therapy developed by Dr. Harville Hendrix and Dr. Helen LaKelly Hunt. She is also a master teacher in the Pairs Psychoeducation Process, a nationally recognized relationship education program for couples. Carroll studied Voice Dialogue with Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone, Holotropic Breathwork with Dr. Stanislav Grof, the Four-Fold with Angeles Arrien, the Diamond Heart Work of A.H. Almaas, and trained with The Couples Institute of Drs. Ellyn Bader and Peter Pearson. She is also certified in the Hot Monogamy program, which helps couples create or re-create a passionate connection between them."

"She teaches workshops and delivers keynote addresses throughout the United States and is a frequent speaker at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico." - wiki

I don't mean to take cheap shots here, but in addition to the above, Carroll's been married 5 times [state.com]. She also once testified in court that her first husband gave LSD to their daughter, a claim that was the basis of her winning custody after/during the first divorce. This daughter of hers is thought by many to have been at least partially responsible for the murder of her own husband in the 90s - a theory also shared by Carroll's own first husband! Does this sound like a woman who should be giving advice to couples?

"Paula Fox was an American author of novels for adults and children and of two memoirs. For her contributions as a children's writer she won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1978, the highest international recognition for a creator of children's books. She also won several awards for particular children's books including the 1974 Newbery Medal for her novel The Slave Dancer; a 1983 National Book Award in category Children's Fiction (paperback) for A Place Apart; and the 2008 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for A Portrait of Ivan (1969) in its German-language edition Ein Bild von Ivan. In 2011, she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame". - wiki

"[Linda] Carroll was born on April 7, 1944 in San Francisco, California to writer Paula Fox, who was 20 years old at the time of her birth. Carroll was conceived of a short-lived relationship between Fox and an UNNAMED MAN. Fox lived under the roof of acting coach Stella Adler at the time, as did then unknown actor Marlon Brando. There have been persistent rumors that Brando was in fact Carroll's father, although neither Brando nor Fox ever commented on the matter. Fox gave Carroll up for adoption at birth. She was adopted by optician Emil "Jack" and Louella Risi, a Catholic family of part Italian descent, and raised in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. Later in life, she took the surname Carroll following the death of her friend, Judy Carroll." -wiki

"Veteran actor Marlon Brando has been revealed as the unexpected grandfather of wild rocker Courtney Love in a new book. The singer's mother, psychologist Linda Carroll, claims she has taken DNA tests to confirm she is the Godfather star's daughter. Love, former wife of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, says, "I am incredibly shocked by this news. I have heard Mr. Brando has more than 30 children so I can't imagine how many cousins I have." The link is Linda's mother, novelist Paula Fox. She met Brando in the 1940's through famed drama teacher Stella Adler, and the two enjoyed a brief liaison. However, it is not known whether 79-year-old recluse Brando knows that Linda - who was given up for adoption - was the result of this. Brando has 11 acknowledged children, although is thought to have many more. Carroll's book in which she makes the revelation, is as yet unreleased." - Imdb

If you've been following all of the above, recall the part about Linda Carroll being adopted by a man named Emil "Jack" and Louella Risi, a Catholic family of part Italian descent. Well Jack wasn't just "some nobody" either! But before getting into that, here's what Carroll said about him recently...

"My father, Jack, although he molested me as a young child, was also a man admired for his kindness, wit, and generosity. He remains one of the most generous people I have ever known…"I resist this culture which tries to make people 'bad' and 'good,' when we are all woven of so many complexities and they all exist within us at once. As my birth mother, Paula, once remarked, 'Good things don't take away the bad, but bad things don't deny the good, either." - https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/carroll-linda-1944

Did you catch all that? Linda Carroll is defending her adopted child molestor father's abuse against her. Publicly! This, a copiously educated couples' counselor!

Now with such impressive leaniage, the likes of which include Paula Fox and Marlon Brando, surely this Emil "Jack" Risi must be some sort of big shot too? [besides just being a child molestor and all round generous guy]. Linda Carroll wasn't gonna let just ANYONE adopt her!

"I was born into a big custody trial. And I was called “child x” in the San Francisco paper. It was a big deal because my grandparents had a lot of money...My trust fund gave me $500 a month. Who can live on that at all? I would just tell them lies. Just lie. " [in order to get larger payments] - Courtney Love, VH1"

"She would get money every month, and just blow it in a huge way. Just go out and just buy like, really expensive perfumes and candles and flowers….and drugs." - Roddy Bottum

"She would start shit everywhere…She would come to your house and she would demolish your stuff, but she had no problem paying for it." - Robin Bradbury

["Courtney Love with her best friend Robin Barbur in San Francisco, ca. April 1981. The photographs were taken by Jon Sievert when Love’s dad hired him to take photos of the girls."]

“When you hang out your shingle as a music photographer, you never know who will walk in your door,” Sievert said. “An acquaintance asked me to photograph his 16-year-old daughter Courtney and her girlfriend in my small dining-room studio. He didn’t offer to pay, but I was intrigued by his description of the girls.”

“Courtney and Robin spent an hour or so flirting and posturing for my camera in a thoroughly enjoyable session,” he added. “I liked both for their sense of humor and deadly insightful young/old wisdom. Courtney and her father left town shortly thereafter, before I showed them the slides and proof sheets. It was 12 years before I discovered them in my files and put two and two together.” - Jon Sievert, vintag.es

So, Hank Harrison "hired" a guy to photograph his 16 year old daughter in 1981, but didn't pay for it, and apparently left before looking at the slides and the proof sheets? Sounds to me like he never even saw the pictures, or picked them up - because the photographer himself says he forgot about them for 12 years after that! So what was the purpose of these "flirty," obviously sexually infused photos where Courtney and her friend Robin Barbur are all dolled up and acting trashy and loose? The photographer even references his delight in their "flirting and posturing for my camera." What happened here that WASN'T captured on camera?

"…a young Courtney Love arrived in Liverpool in 1982…was just 17 when she travelled to Merseyside with her friend Robin [Barbur?]…She had been invited by The Teardrop Explodes front man Julian Cope to stay in a house Devonshire Road in Toxteth, which was in some ways an epicentre for Liverpool's thriving 1980s music scene, after hooking up with the band at a gig in London and jumping on their tour bus home…Courtney would later describe the few months she spent living in Liverpool as the place where she learned "to be a rock and roll star”….Just how long she stayed in the city and what exactly happened when Courtney came to Liverpool is the subject of a new book by writer and DJ David Haslam, called Searching for Love." - www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

Is Liverpool where Courtney "learned to be a rock and roll star," or is it where she was TAUGHT to be a "rock and roll star?" Expected? FORCED to be a rock and roll star? She's only 17 here, what is she doing in a foreign country being tossed around band tour busses? Why does Britney Spears suddenly come to mind? Funny enough, Courtney says in the same VH1 doc referenced earlier, that she once applied for membership to the Mickey Mouse club! [where Spears started her career]

So Courtney has this photo session where she and her friend are acting all trashy and loose - looking like some kind of underground punk goth groupie chicks that would be the wet dream of your average punk/goth/new wave musician of the day. They both end up in England the following year playing those exact roles, hanging with the exact type of dudes mentioned. Is this really the story of a couple rebellious chicks, or is this a TRAFFICKING situation, where Harrison was grooming his own daughter and her friend, for some kind of position in the rock music scene? Be it - prolific groupies, or some other role? You see how this whole "girl rock" thing can potentially represent the polar opposite of what many percieve it to be? What about the Runaways? What's the real story there?

Regarding Courtney's "allowance," although $500 a month could buy alot more in the early 80s than it could today, doesn't sound like an absurd amount. But it certainly could pay rent for a nice 1 bedroom in a middle class American neighborhood [and probably in England as well]. Not many people have income to pay their own rent before hitting 18, and then well into adulthood! Here's what Harrison said about this money situation...

"I used to manage the Grateful Dead, and this girl who’s an old Dead Head came up and said “hey are you Courtney’s Dad? I’m her banker!” I said “does she have a lot of money?” She said, “Oh yeah! [but] I can’t talk about it.” All she said was “a lot.” So I took Courtney on a plane, trotted her down to Wells Fargo on Market and Post [San Francisco], she went into the Wells Fargo Office…[comes out of Wells Fargo] She says, “I’m really Rich. Why didn’t mom give me the money?” Well cause you're fucked up I guess? She was 15 1/2 - 16. It wasn’t a ton, it was 3 tons [3 million]. My wife, Courtney’s mother, was adopted. Her father was an Italian guy who was a lense grinder. In the second world war, Jack Risi got a contract from the US Government to do all the eyeglasses for all the sailers and the soldiers...he made a zillion dollars…and then after the war was over they all got invested and then joined the Bohemian Club and they all got invested in various endeavors. And the next thing you know Jack has a chain of eyeglasses stores. High class, and it’s called Ferrari and Risi. And Milton Ferarri was the salesman in front and Jack was the lense grinder in back. But they were making a huge amount of money…then when dad died, Linda got to inherit the money, [but] they didn’t wanna pay taxes on it so they gave it to Courtney, put it in Courtney’s name. Courtney was about 1 when Jack died. - alternative air

from youtube user scarycoyote: Hank Harrison Interview 2.1.20

"...after all the court cases and the divorce…forcing me to give up custody, because they had the money in her name - a couple of million dollars…that had been transferred to Courtney’s name to avoid income taxes. They were afraid that I was gonna go after the money, [but] I didn’t even know it was in her name till later!"

"...the lawyers that were running the adoption…it wasn’t really an adoption it was a “take away” - they were Catholics too, they were telling Linda and Chat Risi and Ruella Risi that…Fararri and Risi is a large optician on Montgomery street in San Francisco….and the lawyers told them if they didn’t do something about me in the end…when the child was of age I could make a claim against the money because the child was in their name, cause they were using the child as a tax dodge...That money STILL isn’t gone. That money went on forever, dude. Right now, if you went down there you’d see, there’s a couple a million dollars floating around there. They’re WEALTHY people."

"Carroll was the only child of Emil (Jack) Risi, a prosperous optician who used to operate out of well-appointed offices in a medical building at 444 Post Street...When her maternal grandfather died in 1970, Love became the beneficiary of a modest trust fund, long since depleted."

According to Amazon.com, Harrison released the above book in January of 2017. Unambiguisely titled: Love Kills: The Assassination of Kurt Cobain. This is obviously a reference to his own daughter [Courtney LOVE] - and her involvment in the "assassination" of her late husband, Kurt Cobain. Although I have not read the book, one only needs to refer to Harrison's many public interviews over the years to determine that he seems to know an awful lot about the circumstances surrounding Cobain's death - despite his apparent/chronic estrangement from his daughter over the years.

Well isn't this an interesting coincidence? Linda Carroll released her latest book last year [2020] and it's called LOVE SKILLS. Take the "S" off of that 2nd word, and you have the title of Hank Harrisson's last book about their daughter's involvement in Cobain's assassination! Probably just a coincidence...

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Gleaming the Cube

"And all of a sudden, somebody else steps up. And that person stepping up would be Raymond Pettibon. Presenting the logo and the name." - Keith Morris, MOCAtv

The logo for 80s American Hardcore Punk pioneers Black Flag is one of the most iconic ever created in the Punk Rock world. Appropriately, it's creator Raymond Pettibon "has subsequently become widely recognized in the fine art world for using American iconography variously pulled from literature, art history, philosophy, and religion to politics, sport, and sexuality."

But neat looking as it is, what's it got to do with the name of the band and Punk Rock? What are these black lines supposed to represent?

"It is a flag, but it's 4 bars...it does suggest...waving, you know, in the wind. Or like pistons going or you know?" - Raymond Pettibon, MOCAtv

Penelope Spheeris: What does Black Flag mean, the words Black Flag?

Greg Ginn: Uh, it means Anarchy.

- Decline of the Western Civilization

Anarchist: 1: a person who believes that government and laws are not necessary...2:a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power...3:a person who believes in, advocates, or promotes anarchism or anarchy especially : one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order - Merriam Webster

"Anarchists have used the black flag as a symbol at least since the early 1880’s." - Anarchism.net

Since Raymond Pettibon came up with the name and the logo, does this mean he was an anarchist, and that he thought the band should be used as a vehicle to promote it? This is a very reasonable question to ask, given the unambiguous meaning behind the name. There's also those infamous 80s riots, violence, and headbutting with police at their shows, which are the stuff of American Punk Rock legend these days.

anarchist: a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power...

Eric Blair: "Yeah, well it just seemed like the whole Black Flag package was always like, you know, extreme music. Extreme art. An extreme message. I mean, do you think that's wrong?"

Greg Ginn: "I don't know, I don't think of it in that kind of way...as being extreme? I think of it more..not..I don't think of it in extreme as trying to...outrage people or something, I just think of it as songs that...you know...are about things and...um, so I don't think of it in that way, I think we're...we WERE trying to go for extremes as going for as high energy as possible. And uh extremes in energy and what we...you know, put into the performance. And in that way I think the effort was always try to make it as extreme as possible that way, but not to...outrage people or just illicit reaction just for the sake of reaction...We got alot of that, but not intentionally." - Blairing Out

Anarchist: one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order - Merriam Webster

Henry Rollins was known for getting violent with Black Flag fans at shows, while almost naked, flexing his muscles all night, as he screamed angrily into the microphone. There are thousands of pictures and many videos proving this in graphic, sweaty detail - and in fact, is almost a point of pride in many of Henry Rollin's Black Flag "war stories" to this day. So in that sense, the band very much fed off of, and gave back plenty of "reaction for the sake of reaction." But Greg Ginn just doesn't seem to wanna acknowledge or "think of it in that kind of way" I guess?

Anyway, I think we have established that the name of the band stands for anarchy. Greg Ginn admitted it in the film "Decline of the Western Civilization," and we have confirmation from anarchism.net that the black flag has symbolized anarchy from at least the early 1880s. This isn't an "indictment," we're just acknowledging the obvious here!

There's no question that the BF logo looks entirely appropriate tattooed upon the arm of your typical 80s Hardcore Punk, right alongside the Misfits' skull face icon. But I find it a little odd how it is popularly referred to as "the 4 bars," even by the artist himself. Whether Raymond Pettibond intended for the symbol to have multiple meanings or not, I suppose, doesn't matter, since it serves it's purpose as a logo profoundly well. But Pettibon himself suggested other things it might represent, so let's follow his lead down that line of thinking...

The 4 bars are actually elongated rectangles, composed of what appear to be perfectly straight lines - seperated into 2 pairs which sit on their own respective planes. Pettibon suggests they could also represent pistons. I see pillars supporting a structure...especially when we compare it to the photo of 4 pillars above, the exactness intrinsic to the image becomes more obvious. This is not some rough drawing hastily silk screened onto a canvass, or spray painted onto a wall, without concern for whether the edges are clearly defined or not. No, there is something subtly SLEEK about it. The lines are "ruler straight." Everything appears to be perfectly level, both horizontally and vertically. The arrangement of the bars suggests structure and dimension.

Suddenly, I saw a black cube pop out at me. Why is it black? Well the "bars" are black AND the word BLACK is in the band name for starters! Why is it a cube? A flag is typically rectangular, meaning - it is wider than it is tall. But a flag waving in the wind, as allegedly depicted, reduces the width to something more resembling a square. Depth is also suggested. Square + depth [3D] = cube. We can confirm this by connecting coordinate points along the edges with straight lines. The cube is there, but the question is - was it put there intentionally? And how come nobody ever points this out? After all, it's probably one of the most popular tattoo images in the USA! Nobody ever got stoned and went, "whoa, check this out dude!" ???

Incidentally, the earlier quote from Keith Morris was taken from an interview conducted by MOCA [The Museum of Contemprary Art], who's logo has a cube in it. If you watch the video, the entire introduction begins with a close-up on this cube. I know, "Oooooo, creepy!"

"The black cube is a giant's strength to protect Freemasonry. Used thoughtlessly, carelessly, without Masonic reason, it crushes not only him at whom it is aimed but also him who casts it." - themasonictrowel.com

The black cube is loaded with occult symbolic signifficance. Given that, as well as the anarchist/political angle, I began to wonder even more if the band was some sort of vehicle for a secret agenda. That might sound like an outrageous consideration to your typical Black Flag fan - but you cannot truly discount an avenue of inquiry, however absurd it may initially sound, unless you've actually attempted to explore it. Of course, there can sometimes be a fine line between "investigating an avenue of inquiry" and a "witch hunt." Certain things can be determined through basic common sense and logic. The key here is to remain objective, unbiased, and open to any possibilities - while eliminating the impossible whenever we can. As long as one can proceed in this manner, the truth will eventually expose itself, for better or worse.

Many whistleblowers and scholars of the occult tell us that malevolent secret societies love to place their members exactly where you would least expect to find them - for the obvious reason that you can cause the most damage and corruption from the INSIDE. Ideally, this is accomplished without anyone even being aware of the infiltration from within. In fact, former "Vampire," Satanist, and Illuminist William Schnoebelen has stated in his lectures that one task he needed to accomplish before ascending the "next level" in the Satanic Church, was to become a Mormon!

Now I'm not saying this means your typical punk rock "street artist" is secretly working for the Illuminati, but it is extremely easy to assume that such large minded secret societies wouldn't give 2 shits about a bunch of "nobodies" in the small early 80s punk scene, raging in stinky, dark, beer soaked Los Angeles rock clubs - which makes it an ideal place to start your nefarious "grass roots" movement covertly!

Consider the impact of Punk Rock upon youth and society over the years - the violence, the riots, the politics, the fashion, and eventually - the MONEY - what you have is another beast that anyone seeking to maintain strict control over society would want to be holding the reigns of. Why let so much pent up rage and rebellion go to waste? Hey I got an idea, let's CREATE that very scene which drives society in the direction WE want it to go, while hiding behind carefully chosen individuals who will do our dirty work publicly!

"I got an idea of something we can do with a gun
Sink, load, and fire till the empire reaps what they've sown
Shoot, shoot, shoot till their minds are open
Shoot, shoot till their eyes are closed
Push, push, push till we get some motion
Push, push till the bombs explode
Yeah, yeah"

Soundgarden, "Gun"

[Black Flag in the 80s. Greg Ginn is 2nd from the right. He has always been the band leader, and primary owner of record label SST - who released BF albums as well as many others by countless bands - Soundgarden, Saint Vitus, Sonic Youth and Minutemen being just a few.]

Raymond Pettibon was born Raymond Ginn. He is the younger brother of Greg Ginn, and designer of the Black Flag logo. Here he stands, apparently in front of his works, one of which depicts Che Guevarra.]

"Che Guevara was a prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution who went on to become a guerrilla leader in South America. Executed by the Bolivian army in 1967, he has since been regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide. Guevara’s image remains a prevalent icon of leftist radicalism and anti-imperialism." - History.com

"A portrait of Joseph Stalin cleverly read, “I should be president of the United States.” Another, this time of Che Guevara, was headlined, "At least I still got my own good looks.” Like Picabia, Pettibon often lifted images directly out of the mainstream. His drawing of Guevara was no different than the iconic image of Guevara. Yet, by a simple juxtaposition of words with images, Pettibon morphed the image into a provocative caricature." - Brandon Freels.com

I'm not going to attempt an in-depth interpretation of Pettibon's art mentioned in the above paragraph, but references to prominent historical communist revolutionary figures within it seems consistent with the anti-capitalist, anarchist messages embedded within the Black Flag name/logo he designed so many years ago - in the sense that anarchy is a logical step towards the path of revolution, historically speaking.

Does any of this prove Black Flag was a vehicle for some specific political agenda? No, but like Robert Plant once said, "oooooooo it makes me wonder..." Maybe there's a long winded Henry Rollins rant somewhere clearing all of this up...

I honestly wasn't looking for cubes while researching various youtube videos on Pettibon's work, they just seem to appear out of nowhere! What am I supposed to do, pretend I didn't see it and act like it's just a coincidence? Admittedly, I only used the first 2 youtube videos that popped up in my search for source material on Pettibon here, and they both flash cubes at me - one cleary a BLACK cube. Is this like a "high art scene" thing or what?

While reading interviews with various punk rock musicians, I came across rumors that Mike Watt, of the Minutemen, is a Freemason. Doesn't make it true, just got me wondering a bit...Anyway, the Minutemen were on Greg Ginn's SST label until their singer D Boone died tragically in 1985.

"Minutemen were civilian colonists who independently formed militia companies self-trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies, comprising the American colonial partisan militia during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Minutemen provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that enabled the colonies to respond immediately to war threats." - Wiki

I never listened much to the Minutemen, and I don't know if Mike Watt is a Freemason, but I did stumble upon the above post from Twitter, which appears to contain a very interesting exchange between himself and Raymond Pettibon.

Perhaps I am missing the context here or maybe there's some sort of inside joke going on that I don't know about - but Watt appears to say that the one thing stitching all of his art together is "...The Illuminati. N MAKAVELLI."

Watt uses a strange writing style that incorporates what seems to be an intentional use of improper grammer. But the statement seems clear enough. Is he serious?

At first, I thought he misspelled "Machiavelli," an Italian diplomat, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Renaissance. Machiavelli is most famously known for his written work, "The Prince."

"He claimed that his experience and reading of history showed him that politics have always been played with deception, treachery and crime. He also notably said that a ruler who is establishing a kingdom or a republic, and is criticized for his deeds, including violence, should be excused when the intention and the result is beneficial. Machiavelli's Prince has had a mixed reaction. Some considered it a straightforward description of the evil means used by bad rulers; others read in it evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power.Even into recent times, some scholars, such as Leo Strauss, have stated that the opinion that Machiavelli was a "teacher of evil" should be taken seriously." - wiki

Being that the philosophy expressed by Machiavelli in "The Prince" resonates strongly within the later "Illuminist" philosophy for control of societies [aka The World Revolutionary Movement, a term that has also been associated with Che Guevara] - it's fair to say there is a pretty strong correspondence between Watt's apparent uttering of these 2 words within the same Tweet. However, he did say MAKAVELLI, not MACHIAVELLI.

"Tupac Amaru Shakur...born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), better known by his stage name 2Pac and, later, by his alias Makaveli...These are the last songs Shakur recorded before he was shot on September 7, 1996."

The Tupac story is obviously a whole other can of worms we can't get into right now. But Makaveli was the alias he used on his final album, curiously titled "the Don Killuminati...The 7 Day Theory."

Raymond Pettibon then responds to Watt's statement..."The Knights o Templar. Watt's shaken many hands, buyt the Freemason ones are those tht truly matter."

Pettibon also seems to be using some form of intentionally improper grammer, similar to Watt's. Are these fake accounts operated by the same source? Pettibon appears to non-ambuguisly suggests that Mike Watt is a Freemason, an Illuminist, or both. The Knight's Templar is a degree in Scottish Rite Freemasonry - and is probably used in any number of rituals in any number of Fraternal Orders around the world. This thing about shaking hands though...Freemasons literally have "secret handshakes" which identifies their grade or level to the "fellow traveler"[fellow Freemason]. If you watch lots of footage of politicians shaking hands, you will eventually notice a strange looking handshake once in a while. These are Freemasonic handshakes.

"Counting all the hands I shook, now I know why you been shaking..." - Soundgarden "Slaves and Bulldozers"

I think the take away, at least for me, is that names, words, and symbols are being invoked here, seemingly by the artists, specifically referencing malevolent secret societies in connection with the art they are creating. One can take a wild guess at what all of this may hint heavily at, but what does any of it prove? If nothing else, it certainly opens up a very legitimate avenue of inquiry to explore. Perhaps the "eccentricity" and "mystique" we often build around some of our celebrity idols has more to do with secrets they cannot reveal about their motives, than it does with their percieved "genius."

In the book "Spray Paint the Walls" by Stevie Chick, there are 8 Black Flag band pictures. Out of all 8 pictures, Greg Ginn is the ONLY person who does what might appear to be the "Hidden Hand" pose. And he does it in 2 out of 8 of the photos. Again, does this prove anything? No, but....

The Hidden Hand was a short lived project formed by Scott "Wino" Weinrich. Wino is best known for his role as the 2nd, and longest running singer for the band Saint Vitus. Saint Vitus released all of their official 80s recordings through Greg Ginn's SST records.

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