Catinside's Blog
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A multimedia blog featuring Songs, Movies & Poems.
Literary links, and other representations of random synaptic activity.
All comments welcome....and oh yea, cancer sucks.
All You Need Is Love! (and chemo and radiation. and surgery)

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Craig Douglas Baker


April 14, 1952 - April 15, 2004


Visitation will be
Saturday April 17
at Nie Funeral Home
2400 Carpenter Rd.
6pm-8pm


Thank you Craig Baker, for sharing who you are with us.



posted by Craig    4:53 PM  
. . .
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
It's become increasingly difficult for Craig to update his page or to check his email. If you'd like, I'll accept email on his behalf and print it for him to read. You can send it to clroy [at] umich [dot] edu. (Write something referring to "Craig" in the subject line so I won't think it's spam.)

Yes, his CD is available. I can help with that too.

We're doing the best we can to keep him comfortable. Hospice has been great. They are delivering a bed to his house today, which, although he doesn't much like the idea, will make movement easier. Eating has become negligible but he's pushing nutritious beverages as he can tolerate.
DanActive has been a good little calorie-rich standby. He prefers original flavor.

Craig has a niece who is beginning her music career. I think she may be covering his song Tahquamenon one day soon. Some beautiful parts of him will live on. I know he's proud of her.



posted by Craig    8:44 AM  
. . .
Friday, March 19, 2004
Introduction to the Novels Page
by Paul Williams, former literary executor,
The Philip K Dick Estate




. . .
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Welcome to Kerouac.com
Home of the Beat Museum and 1-800-KER-OUAC


posted by Craig    9:07 PM  
. . .
After meeting with each of my hospice team members, I must say I am impressed and feel somewhat more relaxed. Not a nurse Ratchet among them.

posted by Craig    8:54 PM  
. . .
Monday, February 23, 2004
Yesterday I spent some time with my old friend Steve (in town from Pennsylvania) and we watched the Dylan movie Masked and Annonymous. We both loved it despite what the critics had to say about it.
I also passed on to him my much beloved vinyl collection of Rahsaan Roland Kirk records.
Today I visited my oncologist. I told him my body felt less and less like home. Appetite was on the decline and discomfort was on the incline.
Sorry to say that politics is no longer of much interest to me. Music and literature however do retain much interest.


. . .
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Selections from my soon to be available CD Songs From the Stars
Tahquamenon
What I Want
Rainbow's End
Song From The Stars

. . .
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Documents on Al Hubbard
The "Johnny Appleseed of LSD"


. . .
Friday, February 06, 2004
Was George Bush AWOL?
I remind you that Max Cleland is a decorated Vietnam hero who left both legs and one arm behind on the battlefield. He lost his Senate seat when President Bush went to Georgia and accused him of being unpatriotic because, while he sponsored his own homeland security bill, he dared oppose Bush's version of the same legislation.


. . .
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
a poem
software to write our poetry
that we may never need to
Lilly was on to something
not sure what
solid state intelligence
Burroughs too
language is a virus
from, where else, outerspace
because that is where everything is
and it sure is a comfort
to know where one is
because if one did not know where one is
then where would one be?
Nowhere.


. . .
a poem
mingus, medicine and melville
a musical island in my mind
rivers of melody
pools of harmonies
clouds of rhythm
mingus medicine and melville
it is two AM in the moving world.


. . .
Tomorrow night I perform at The Lighthouse Coffee Company in Milan, MI from 8-9pm. Accompanying me will be FiddlerBob. The following week we go into (Good Noise Studio) to record a batch of original material. My old friend Dave will then attempt to lay down some overdubs. The recordings will then be mixed (and graphics created) at World Class Tapes of Ann Arbor. I am racing with the devil, I mean cancer, to see what I can accomplish at this end stage of life. Frankly it is kind of exciting. A couple months ago I didn't think I would ever sing again, and now my voice is back and I am playing as good as ever. "It is better to burn out than to fade away" isn't it?

posted by Craig    9:52 AM  
. . .
Friday, January 30, 2004
Acid Evangelist
In the end, it's crucial to consider Kesey's work in terms of its influence on people, because he was essentially social, a performer who could not long endure the solitary writer's life.

. . .
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Opportunity Closing in on Scientific Jackpot
Scroll down and click on thumbnails for some stunning Martian images.


. . .
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
European Probe Confirms Presence of Water on Mars
Scientists say an orbiting European space probe has confirmed there is water on Mars.


posted by Craig    9:41 PM  
. . .
Rush Limbaugh
in pill probe

Talk radio star had drug habit, maid sez




posted by Craig    6:00 PM  
. . .
The Way Things Aren't:
Rush Limbaugh Debates Reality

"Most of us here in the media are what I consider infotainers.... Rush Limbaugh is what I call a disinfotainer. He entertains by spreading disinformation."
--Al Franken at the White House Correspondents' Dinner (4/23/94)

posted by Craig    5:54 PM  
. . .
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Could it be that it is easier to die and lose the whole world than it is to live and lose a loved one?

Death is no longer creeping around someplace else, like Santa, visiting other people's homes.
It has me in obscene embrace and is breathing down my neck.
I think it is going to grant me one or two more wishes though.


posted by Craig    8:47 PM  
. . .
Saturday, January 17, 2004
A Martin Luther King Flash presentation
Nicely done.

posted by Craig    1:57 PM  
. . .
Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Richard Corliss on the fantastic life and astounding afterlife of SF writer Philip K. Dick

A really great, indepth article that will make you want to go out and buy up a copy of every PKD title you find.

posted by Craig    7:20 PM  
. . .
The Ultimate Insider
By Arianna Huffington

Will this be the wakeup call that finally opens the American public's eyes to the deadly consequences of being governed by a disengaged dolt in the hands of a gang of brazen fanatics?

posted by Craig    7:05 PM  
. . .
Martian Time-Slip (by Philip K. Dick)
I am re-reading the first PKD novel I ever read. I recommend everything he wrote, short-stories, novels and essays from each of the three main periods of his career.


posted by Craig    1:30 PM  
. . .
Sunday, January 11, 2004
Slouching Towards Manzanar
by David Neiwert

The surviving Japanese-Americans who were interned in World War II concentration camps are increasingly worried that conservatives and the Bush administration are taking us down that horrendous path again. Their fears may be well grounded.

posted by Craig    6:18 PM  
. . .
"We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us."
Joseph Campbell


posted by Craig    5:52 PM  
. . .
If we are victorious in any way, we don’t have anyone to whisper in our ear that our victories are fleeting. Sorcerers, however, do have the upper hand; as beings on their way to dying, they have someone whispering in their ear that everything is ephemeral. The whisperer is death, the infallible advisor, the only one who won’t ever tell you a lie.

Don Juan Matus, The Active Side of Infinity


posted by Craig    12:54 PM  
. . .
Saturday, January 10, 2004
Fired Treasury secretary says Iraq war planning came long before 9/11
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill contends the United States began laying the groundwork for an invasion of Iraq just days after President Bush took office in January 2001 -- more than two years before the start of the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein.

posted by Craig    6:39 PM  
. . .
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Poem for a Proselytizer


posted by Craig    2:01 PM  
. . .
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Terence Mckenna VS. The Black Hole

posted by Craig    6:04 PM  
. . .
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
The highest resolution picture of the surface of Mars to date.

posted by Craig    3:12 PM  
. . .
Sunday, January 04, 2004
Arbor Hospice

posted by Craig    3:19 PM  
. . .
Friday, January 02, 2004
Okay, so I won't be getting out of this world alive. On the other hand I may be getting out just in the nick of time.
Do I really want to hang around and see my country shift further to the right? I think not.
Do I want to see the re-selection of GWB? I think not.
Do I want to live through the pages of Orwell's 1984? I think not.
Do I want to see the "faith-based initiatives" put squarely in place? I think not.
Do I want to see the environmental laws rolled backed? I think not.
Do I want to visit the Grand Canyon and learn about 'creationism'? I think not.
Do I want to live under the Patriot Act and the office of Homeland Security? I think not.
Do I want a president that says "It feels good" to drop massive amounts of bombs on populated areas? I think not.


. . .
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Health Update
Received results of lung biopsy. Happy New Year! The news was not good. It confirmed the presence of an aggressive fast-acting cancer that has metastasized from my esophagus into my right lung. Without treatment (chemo) I have been given "months not years" to live. With treatment maybe a little longer but with troublesome side-effects. I am electing to go with no further treatments. The oncologist didn't think this was a bad decision given the options.


posted by Craig    1:43 PM  
. . .
Sunday, December 28, 2003
The Definition of Fascism. Food for thought.

posted by Craig    1:47 PM  
. . .
Saturday, December 27, 2003
The Suppressed Teachings of Gnosticism
"By understanding the nature of embodied life in the universe as possessing certain difficulties, which ensue from the flawed nature of the universe rather than from our own sinful condition, we are liberated from one of the great curses of Christianity and perhaps Judaism, namely the oppressive weight of guilt."

posted by Craig    1:32 PM  
. . .
Friday, December 26, 2003
:: Antiquities of the Illuminati :: << GLOR >> :: Burroughs Special ::

posted by Craig    9:56 PM  
. . .
The Psychedelic Secrets of Santa Claus

posted by Craig    1:04 PM  
. . .
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Health Update
So, yesterday I went in to have a biopsy performed on nodules in my lung. Much to my surprise it was done without sedation, just a local anesthetic. It went alright except my right lung deflated somewhat and didn't seem to want to reinflate. They kept me for 8 hrs and took 4-5 x-rays and it still had not reinflated.. But since I was asymptomatic I went home and was to return today for more x-rays and possible chest tube but decided against it. I feel alright so I will let it be and enjoy x-mas. Next wednesday I will find out result of the biopsy and what treatment is to be recommended. What needs to be known, is this a new primary cancer(?) or is it metastasized from the primary site(?).


posted by Craig    7:12 PM  
. . .
Monday, December 22, 2003
Isha Foundation

posted by Craig    7:45 PM  
. . .
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Philip K. Dick Official Website

posted by Craig    1:07 PM  
. . .
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Health Update:
Tuesday I am scheduled to under go (via light sedation) a biopsy on nodules in right lung.


posted by Craig    9:59 PM  
. . .
The Illustrated Complete Summary of Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow"
This certainly is an amazing site, especially for Pynchon fans.

posted by Craig    1:43 PM  
. . .
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Court exempts medicinal pot from federal ban
In a move that emboldens California patients who rely on medicinal marijuana, a federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that those who grow their own crop or get it for free are exempt from a U.S. law that bans the drug.

posted by Craig    1:36 PM  
. . .
Monday, December 15, 2003
For a Small Kingdom, a Visual History in a Big Book
The plan is to print 500 copies of the book, with a price of $10,000 each. Each book costs about $1,000 to produce; the remaining $9,000 will be a tax-deductible charitable contribution. The proceeds will go to the Bhutan ministry of education and into a scholarship fund to send Bhutanese students to college abroad.

posted by Craig    2:41 PM  
. . .
Bushflash Radio
Have a listen.

. . .
Friday, December 12, 2003
Tahquamenon Falls Video (.wmv) This footage was shot December 10th 2003 at Tahquamenon Falls State Park. Soundtrack from my other Tahquamenon movie (.ram) was added.
Southlake Cabins in Curtis, Mich is where we stayed.

. . .
Monday, December 08, 2003
The Year Democracy Ended

. . .
Sunday, December 07, 2003
Selection of quotes from Wilhelm Reich's Listen, Little Man!
Edited by Gregory Wonderwheel.

. . .
Wilhelm Reich: Listen, Little Man Americans can hardly be too often reminded that there was once a man named Wilhelm Reich who died in an American federal prison on charges which today would be laughed out of any court.


posted by Craig    9:56 PM  
. . .
Saturday, December 06, 2003
Jack 'Chuck' Spinney on NOW With Bill Moyers
A must read, or better yet, watch the program if you can. He has been a Pentagon analyst since 1977 and is now telling us just exactly how things work. The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex indeed! What do 'insiders' call it? A self-licking ice cream cone.

. . .
Friday, December 05, 2003
Dennis Kucinich Speech (.mov)
12/04/03 on U of M Campus. Under 15 minutes.

posted by Craig    8:17 PM  
. . .
Thursday, December 04, 2003
The Truth Uncovered
Watch the trailor and maybe order your own copy of this documentary.

posted by Craig    6:12 PM  
. . .
Welcome to Atavistic Worldwide
A small label putting out some strange and great recordings and videos.

posted by Craig    5:56 PM  
. . .
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Health update: CT scan shows possible metastasis of cancer from my esophagus to the right lung. Looks like it's going to be a very chemo-christmas.

posted by Craig    1:01 AM  
. . .
Monday, December 01, 2003
Mark Twain was a master of fiction, satire, commentary and the killer one-liner... but theater? Although he wrote plays throughout his career, the great American writer was a flop as a dramatist. All but one of his works failed spectacularly, if they made it to production at all. But now, one of those scripts has escaped from obscurity.


. . .
Sunday, November 30, 2003
My latest movie creation is less than four minutes long.Rainbow Box(.wmv) is a music video. That is to say, the song came first.

posted by Craig    3:13 PM  
. . .
Saturday, November 29, 2003
"The America we believe in can't survive another four years of George Bush," says Moby. Adds Lou Reed, "We must all unite and work for whomever opposes Bush, regardless of whatever differences we may have. Our motto: Anything but Bush."



. . .
A BENEDICTION
( by John Baker)

A momentary gift of dust motes
scattered in a ray of light,
the dying dynamo of time
winding down upon its core,
or the sudden emptiness
that follows effort. . .

Let the earth turn in your consciousness.
Let the cities glide beneath their skies.
Your mortality is cast upon you
like the shadow of a hand
that offers the unknown.
Desire silence
and the reed the wind bends
where the ocean moans.

Nothing from below and nothing from above
has judged you.


. . .
Friday, November 28, 2003
Planet On Fire

posted by Craig    2:31 PM  
. . .
Monday, November 24, 2003
Envisioning uses for hallucinogens
Long before Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey and the counterculture generation discovered hallucinogenic drugs, the Indians of western Mexico were using peyote to commune with their gods.

posted by Craig    8:33 AM  
. . .
Sunday, November 23, 2003
"Bush is sabotaging the laws that have protected America's environment for more than thirty years:

By Robert F. Kennedy Jr."

. . .
Friday, November 21, 2003
Exquisite Corpse
Among Surrealist techniques exploiting the mystique of accident was a kind of collective collage of words or images called the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse).

. . .
Frequency 2001-2012
Before the mysterious dissapearance of Joseph Matheny, he had embarked upon a project known as "The Incunabula Catalog: The Frequency Edition 2001-2012" with D.W. Cooper, and the mysterious cyber-hacker-shaman known as Sinn Blayme. We have worked with D.W. and Sinn to finish the catalog, which is a continuance of DW's original Frequency, and hopefully you will find it as helpful to your further studies into this enigma as we have. They seem to have employed the Exquisite Corpse Method in the construction of this "catalog".

Using a method that combines bibliomancy and personal synchronicity we feel that we have created an addendum that will not only aid in your further journey but also bring you closer in touch with the underlying principles of the Incunabula.


posted by Craig    8:05 PM  
. . .
Thursday, November 20, 2003
The Second Coming of Philip K. Dick: "The inside-out story of how a hyper-paranoid, pulp-fiction hack conquered the movie world 20 years after his death."

posted by Craig    8:14 PM  
. . .
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Orchard Radio
Washtenaw Community College student run radio.

posted by Craig    4:57 PM  
. . .
Sunday, November 16, 2003
keoz.com - vertical portal

. . .
Brion Gysin
(1916–1986) was a multifaceted artist whose fertile mind and wide range of original ideas were a source of inspiration for artists of the Beat Generation in Paris, as well as to innovative artists and performers such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Haring, and Laurie Anderson in the next generation

. . .
Burroughs : Gysin Interview

. . .
Eyes wide shut: "He was the Leonardo of the 20th century, whose surreal work could change the way people thought. Genesis P Orridge on Brion Gysin "

. . .
Friday, November 14, 2003
The Michigan Daily -- Paul Krugman: Blasting Bush

posted by Craig    1:15 PM  
. . .
'The Lies of George W. Bush'
by David Corn

posted by Craig    1:08 PM  
. . .
Monday, November 10, 2003
Think

posted by Craig    8:47 PM  
. . .
All Too Human: Can God Explain Anything?

posted by Craig    8:46 PM  
. . .
Is it Time?
A poem written after spending a day/night in a cabin in the woods with a younger brother and sister. We hiked and conversed for many hours without distraction. No radio, no TV, no computer.

posted by Craig    1:13 PM  
. . .
 


 
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