text:
Peoples Church of Chicago is located in the historic Preston Bradley Center in Uptown. We are a worshiping community of Christian, Unitarian Universalist, and other seekers who care deeply about justice, extravagant hospitality, and living our faith grounded in progressive values and Christian teachings. You are welcome here "If you believe in God some of the time, or none of the time, or all of the time," so we state in our opening worship affirmation each Sunday. We are a multiracial congregation with members from all walks of life. Some of us are employed, some underemployed, some searching for work, and some retired. All of us endeavor to live out our call to be a faith-filled people. Some of us are housed, some homeless, and some temporarily housed. We honor the struggles that each of us may face in our day to day lives. And we join together, all of us, to form a community and make a difference in our neighborhood and city.
Join us for worship at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday. The Coffee Hour is at 11:00 a.m. You are always welcome!


text:
Those of you attending Nikolas's 22 May Funzing talk on the power of magic, ritual and sorcery in London will also be able to purchase copies of the newly printed limited edition book Satan Superstar featuring an extensive interview with NS entitled "The Nikolas Schreck Files" by our friend David Flint of The Reprobate Press. Nikolas will sign your copy that night. Advance tickets for talk available here: https://uk.funzing.com/funz/funzing-talks-the-power-of-magic-ritual-sorcery-16773
Category Archives: Left Hand Path
Nikolas Schreck London Lecture on Magic – 22 May 2018
Order your advance tickets here https://uk.funzing.com/funz/funzing-talks-the-power-of-magic-ritual-sorcery-16773
NIKOLAS SCHRECK TALK ON MAGIC – LONDON – MAY 22 2018 – Drawing on decades of practical experience and research into the ancient but forgotten art and science of magic, sorcery and theurgy (invocation of the gods), musician and author Nikolas Schreck provides an interactive teaching on how you can apply the theory and practice of magical practice to expanding your consciousness and changing your life circumstances. Dispelling the myths and fallacies about the misunderstood topic of magic Putty ISO download , Nikolas also provides participants with pragmatic techniques to focus and improve mental clarity and achieve real-life goals effectively.
Venue: Lighthouse, London
Doors: 7pm / Talk starts: 7.30pm
Schrecktober Report Photo Gallery: New Vinyl Release, Public Teaching, Film Screening, Radio Show…
October became Schrecktober when Nikolas:
- Celebrated the release of his new limited edition vinyl EP The Futura Model on The Epicurean record label. You can order it here: https://epicureanescapism.bandcamp.com/album/the-futura-model
- Delivered a rare public teaching on sonic magic
- Screened his 1989 film Charles Manson Superstar with Q&A.
- Prepared for the imminent release of his long awaited updated final edition of his book The Manson File: Myth and Reality of an Outlaw Shaman by granting a comprehensive interview to S.T. Patrick of the Midnight Writer News Show. Listen here: http://midnightwriternews.com/mwn-episode-026-charles-manson-and-the-myth-of-helter-skelter/
- Concluded the month's activities with the premiere of his monthly radio show on Radio On.
- Below is a photo gallery documenting the past month's events.
Behind the Scenes at THE NIKOLAS SCHRECK SHOW Halloween Scare-a-Thon
If you were too busy trick or treating to listen to the live broadcast you can now listen for eternity at Nikolas's new Soundcloud account here: https://soundcloud.com/user-687235752/the-nikolas-schreck-show-halloween-scare-a-thon-2017-broadcast-by-radio-on-berlin
A HAPPENING AT THE HOLE 14 October 2017, Berlin
For those who could not attend Nikolas's teaching that night, you can hear it on The Nikolas Schreck Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-B0sZI92mM
From the Archives: Interview with Nikolas and Zeena Schreck from Obsküre Magazine, 2011
Max Lachaud (Obsküre): First of all, let me tell you that I was quite impressed by this one thousand pages volume of this new edition of the Manson File. I must also say that we are honoured that this work is first translated into French before it being released in its original language.
Nikolas : I'm glad you enjoyed it. There was a method to my madness of publishing it in French first. European audiences have always understood the nuances of my work better than most of my fellow Americans. Then there's the many "French Connections" to this case, beginning with Roman Polanski's birth in Paris in 1933, one year before Manson's birth. And if Polanski's old friend Voytek Frykowski hadn't followed him into French exile, would the drug dealing disaster that exploded in Polanski's house in 1969 ever have happened? Then there's Bobby Beausoleil, who set the catastrophe in motion and who Manson calls "The Frenchman". On a more personal level, I fell into the Tate-La Bianca rabbit hole in Paris, where I saw Polanski's Le Bal du Vampires in the late 60s. Watching the film, I was struck by what I now feel was an uncanny premonition of what was to come. Twenty-six years later, the actor Ferdy Mayne, the star of that very film which first drew me into this web, revealed some of the hidden circumstances of the Cielo Drive slayings to Zeena and me, which was the genesis of this book. Also, Camion Noir is continuing a long tradition of subversive American books being published in France before they hit Anglo-Saxon shores that goes back to the Olympia Press.
Zeena : On a more mystical level, the French edition for me was also directly inspired by Sethian gnosis. Nikolas originally intended to have the English and French editions released simultaneously. Concurrent to signing the contract with Camion Blanc, we were negotiating with two other English speaking publishers. But sometime between correspondence exchanges, something strange happened during the creation of my God Bless Charles Manson suite. While working in the darkroom on the piece, "You don't see the light," it became clear to me that we should withdraw negotiations with any English speaking publishers for The Manson File. This wasn't a rational thought but a "message" in the developing darkroom while the chemicals were at work slowly bringing the religious iconography of that piece to view. It was crystal clear. And I know where it came from. Seth is the god of many things. He is known as the God of Foreign Lands and of Sovereignty. He is the Awakener and the Severer. He is the god who breaks from his native land and is always in exile. He is the god of oases and crossing borders. He is the same as Abraxas. And Abraxas, as you know from Le Dossier Manson is who has guided Manson in his own sovereign struggle through the borderlands of his mind, in the "hallways of always" – what he refers to the prison he's been in so long. Another thing: In the darkroom the only light is red. Seth's color. So the conditions were ripe, the message was clear, and I received it. This book needed to be released into the world first in a form Foreign to its author's and subject's native language. And in its native language it will maintain its Sovereignty, free from the shackles of potential censorship or selective editing.
Nikolas, it's been 25 years that you have worked on the Manson case, that you have made research and tried to find what really happened. Where did you find the energy and the will to work on such a project? What did fascinate you on a personal level to get so involved in this story?
Nikolas : There've been many times since I began staring into this bottomless pit when I didn't have the energy to carry on. After the banned Radio Werewolf benefit concert for Manson in '87, the first Manson File in '88 and my film Charles Manson Superstar in '89, I was totally burned out on the subject. When interviewers asked me about the case, I'd tell them I was finished with the topic. Even though my affection for and supportive correspondence with Charles continued, I got sick of the pop culture merchandising of his image. I also realized that for every intelligent person my work enlightened about Manson, it encouraged many more idiots to adopt him as a safe subcultural consumer product with no more depth than a T-shirt or a tattoo. Once something revolutionary becomes a cool toy for hipsters, I lose interest. But even after that, a steady stream of people on all sides of the Manson universe continued to provide me with unknown pieces of the puzzle. As these clues mounted, I saw that my work wasn't over. I learned that the "copy cat killing" explanation for the murders I'd previously accepted was wrong, and was just as much as a cover-up as the "Helter Skelter" theory. In 1993, a close friend of Dennis Wilson interviewed me for a BBC show about Manson's music, and confirmed my suspicions when he revealed some of Wilson's secret knowledge about the case. Shortly thereafter, Zeena and I befriended Ferdinand Mayne. He told us about the role a drug-dealing actor of his acquaintance played in his friend Sharon Tate's murder. That led us to the inner circle of Hollywood figures who broke their silence about what they knew. From then on, the information came to us. It still took a long time before I accepted my moral obligation to reveal the truth about what happened, a task which required an immense amount of detective work. As for my own fascination with this saga, I could offer you a glib explanation but truthfully it's mysterious even to me. Ultimately, I got enmeshed in this cosmic riddle due to ancient karmic bonds with all those involved that needed to be resolved. In that sense, writing this book was an exorcism. Or should I say a Texorcism?
Zeena, Le Dossier Manson tries to put some truth in a story which is rather based on myths and fantasies than on what really happened. Can you clear up for us the myth about the relationships between the Manson family and the Church of Satan? Were they just at the same place at the same moment or were there much more intimate connections between the two?
Zeena : The story of how there came to be a perceived connection between Manson, Polanski, and The Church of Satan could be a book in itself. And although I'm centrally positioned with all the data to pen such a volume, I have no interest in that endeavor so this answer will have to suffice.
It's well known that my father hired Susan Atkins as a stripper for his Witch's Review night club act in San Francisco. Bobby Beausoleil's involvement with Kenneth Anger, who was very enmeshed in my family's lives at the same time, has also been well documented. But those two drifted into my family's orbit independent of each other. And these brief connections were made before Atkins and Beausoleil even met Manson. Even when the news of Beausoleil's murder of Hinman reached us, which came to us personally via Anger, we had no knowledge of the name "Manson". Only when the news broke about Susan Atkins's involvement in the Hinman and Tate murders did we recognize Atkins and first heard media talk of her supposed "guru". But we just assumed she was the type of drifter there were so many of in the 60's that got "passed around" from one group to the next, looking for a leader.
After the media depicted Manson as a "satanic" cult leader, The Church of Satan, with its then very "law and order" and pro-Hollywood public image as counter-culture to the counter-culture stance needed to take a hard-line opposition to the murders and the so-called Manson Family. There was also the fear that someone might leak the fact that Susan Atkins had been directly associated with a Church of Satan event, which would've been a public relations disaster at the height of LaVey's popularity. So, LaVey granted numerous interviews in part to take the opportunity to do damage control to avoid guilt-by-association media accusations. Many of his early 70s interviews in my files underscore the difference between what he thought the Manson Family, and even the victims – who he also disliked for their "hippie aesthetic" – represented as opposed to the Church of Satan ideology. Even during Manson's trial, one of the Manson girls wrote a standard form letter asking The Church of Satan for help for his case. My mother filed it away, never to speak of it again until she met Nikolas many years later and gave him a photocopy of it. But to her it was just something to be filed away under "nut cases" – "do not respond", which certainly makes it clear there was no prior connection between the two groups.
Without a doubt, the media's inaccurate portrayal of the Tate-LaBianca murders as "ritual" and the Manson "Family" as a satanic cult directly led to satanism as we experienced it from being thought of as a "fun cocktail party", a devilish Playboy-After-Dark, to something dangerous that needed to be stamped out. By the early '70's, by the time Helter Skelter came out, there was a marked shift in the difficulties The Church of Satan had to deal with both publicly and privately in terms of daily harassment and vandalism to our home, death threats, letter bombs, telephone abuse, murderous stalking, kidnapping, murder and rape threats against my sister and me, and accusations of sacrifice, murder, and what later became the full-blown '80s "satanic panic".
So it went without saying that after 1969 The Church of Satan's party-line, for its own survival, was to distance itself from anything to do at all with Manson and his associates. This was a firm Edict passed down from the Black Pope himself. No, I'm not joking, it was deadly serious. In interviews, we were not to even suggest flirting with the very idea of an association with the Manson Family. My father's cover-up of his having known Susan Atkins succeeded until she let the cat out of the bag in her autobiography, which led to a new wave of problems for The Church of Satan. You'll notice that even in some of my own interviews as High Priestess of the Church of Satan prior to meeting Nikolas I dutifully maintain my father's party-line about that topic. That's how firmly The Church of Satan was Anti-Manson.
Until 1988 when Nikolas contacted LaVey to interview him for a book he was doing on satanism in general. When my father saw the treatment Nikolas gave a notorious reviled character like Manson in The Manson File and noticed the media attention it got, I watched LaVey's attitude about Manson change over night. Old LaVeyan satanism's ego stepped in and thought, "If he can do that for Manson, what could he do for ME???" LaVey promptly presented Nikolas with a bright red membership card to The Church of Satan and proclaimed him an "Agent" which basically meant, "I'm flattering you into wanting to write The LaVey File." I was living in Los Angeles at the time and heard from my father about this writer who came to interview him, who'd written a book on Manson. In the past year, I'd already begun to notice that Manson and I were always on the same T.V. shows together, and wondered if Manson wasn't being as falsely portrayed by the media as I was. Gradually, I began to back off of our party-line about Manson and just leave it out of my interviews. But when my own father who was so rabidly hostile to Manson called me in Los Angeles and told me I've got to see this guy Nikolas on an upcoming TV interview promoting his The Manson File, I thought my father had gone senile. You can imagine after the previous years hearing this sudden turnaround in attitude about Manson and how shocked I was. This was totally against everything he stood for. But anything to get a similar book about himself which might rehabilitate his image too.
There was absolutely NO public connection between The Church of Satan and Manson until 1988 when I was invited to perform at the 8-8-88 rally as the High Priestess of the Church of Satan. By the way, there've been numerous reports that Anton LaVey either attended that rally or performed at that rally. Let's set that record straight once and for all. He wasn't there at all that night in any way whatsoever.
After Nikolas completed Charles Manson Superstar, LaVey's insistence on a similar documentary about himself, as with The Manson File, grew even more emphatic. I'll allow Nikolas to describe the details in another forum. Briefly, video footage was shot and the beginning of a Video Werewolf documentary like Charles Manson Superstar for LaVey was begun. But LaVey made the conditions so intolerable that Nikolas put an end to the production. In short, Manson was more professional and easier to work with than LaVey. Now, twenty years later, the historical background is long covered up. People would like to conveniently forget that I've got documentation. We find extremes on all ends claiming wildly differing versions of revisionist Manson/Church of Satan history. On one extreme we find the very squeamish Church of Latter-Day Saint LaVey who believe that "Manson = Nikolas Schreck" so there can be no mention of anything to do with Manson whatsoever. On the other extreme, you've got fantasists like my very own mentally challenged offspring, who ignorantly spout whatever pops into their heads to whomever holds a microphone in front of them, without a clue about what they're talking about. People like this, whose need for attention is so out of control will babble anything, no matter how ludicrous. My estranged son for example is quoted by credulous "authors" and "journalists" as saying that Manson actually co-founded The Church of Satan with LaVey, Susan Atkins, Bobby Beausoleil et al. And the pea-brain journalists never question if this fantastic cast of characters he describes makes any sense, but report it as fact. Nor do they do just a little extra fact checking. They might learn that Manson couldn't possibly have helped found The Church of Satan in 1966 while incarcerated at Terminal Island Prison! Nor could Susan Atkins since she wasn't yet employed by LaVey in 1966 but a little too busy with two boyfriends on a cross-country robbery spree. This sort of rewriting of history is at the other extreme of the squeamish but rather of anything goes, make it up as you will.
Most of us have read about the Manson case through Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter which was obviously a romanticized horror story rather than an account of what really happened. This new book is a kind of answer to all the false things that were written in this book. Nikolas, Bugliosi is now quite old but do you know if he is aware of your research ? And what kind of reactions did you receive?
Nikolas : Based on my observation of Bugliosi's violent reaction to a colleague who confronted him with the many inconsistencies in his Helter Skelter cover-up in the 90s, I decided it would be a waste of time to interview him directly. However, considering my frequent critique of Bugliosi during my interviews on mainstream American television and radio in the late 80s, I'm sure someone as concerned about his "good reputation" as Saint Vincent must be aware of my accusations. Some of my sources for the book were private detectives and law enforcement personnel who worked closely with Bugliosi during the trial, so they may have mentioned my research to him. But knowing his modus operandi as well as I do, I'm sure Vince would just dismiss me as a heinous lunatic fringe "Manson follower" and "conspiracy theorist". He was assigned to do a job for the powers that be in Los Angeles and he was handsomely rewarded for pulling it off. I'm sure he's not losing any sleep on my account.
One of the main points of the book is that what happened at Cielo Drive was a kind of vengeance between drug dealers and everything in this story was linked, in a great part, to the drug traffic and criminal activities that were taking place in this house. So what was the role of Manson in all that and had he a role at all? In other words, this argument can be felt as provocative in some ways because some people can think that you try to suggest that Manson was innocent.
Nikolas : If I said "1 plus 1 equals 2" some people would say, "There he goes, being provocative again!" I've never said Manson had no role in what happened. It's just that he played a relatively minor supporting role, whereas Tex Watson, his supposed "follower", was the sole instigator of the Cielo Drive carnage. My book establishes the precise degree of Manson's guilt and/or innocence not only for the Tate slaying, but in all nine counts of murder he was convicted for. I'll limit my remarks here to the Cielo Drive episode since that's the one you asked about. Manson was aware that Watson had a grudge against Frykowski and Sebring after they sold Tex and his girlfriend Linda Kasabian a defective solution of the new drug MDA and he knew the couple planned to go up to the Polanski home to get back at Frykowski and Sebring by stealing their drug stash. What's been erased from the public record is that Manson, Watson and the girls had all partied at the Cielo Drive house many times, going back to when Manson's musical patron Terry Melcher lived there over a year earlier. Melcher even let Tex live in the Cielo Drive guesthouse before the Polanskis moved in, so there's nothing "random" about this. Not only was this revenge robbery Tex's plan alone, Manson didn't order anyone to be murdered, for the simple reason that dead bodies of people you know tend to attract police attention, something any competent crook wants to avoid. As you say, the crucial fact that's been concealed about the Hinman, Tate and La Bianca murders is that they resulted from the mutual drug dealing activities of the killers and the victims. They were typical underworld disputes between two criminal factions that turned deadly. Manson's only role in the Cielo Drive incident was that he participated in the desperate attempt to erase evidence when this routine drug theft went wrong. That makes Manson an accessory to the crime, as he acknowledged during at least one parole hearing. But it's a charge for which he should have served 12-18 years maximum rather than a lifetime sentence. After his arrest, he was offered an eighteenth-month sentence if he testified about what really happened, but he stayed true to the criminal code of silence. In fact, a major reason why he's still locked up is because of his own refusal to talk about it. All three Manson trials were fatally flawed by major judicial errors and malfeasance by both defense and prosecution. Based on those legal technicalities alone, including the fact that he was deprived of his constitutional right to defend himself, Manson would have been freed decades ago if he was anyone else. So what I argue in my book is something much more complicated than Manson's innocence.
Other people talked about this drugs use and abuse in the underbelly of Hollywood's milieu. You quote Michael Caine who spoke about a party with Manson and his girls at the house of Mama Cass from the Mamas and Papas. I also thought of the movie Mondo Hollywood in which we see Jay Sebring, Bobby Beausoleil and many others who are mentioned in your book, as if all these very different people had all one common point: acid and LSD. How would you describe the Hollywood of that time?
Nikolas : A non-stop psychedelic orgy whose drugs were supplied by the same East Coast Mafia syndicate running the movie studios and record companies which employed the celebrity orgiasts. It was an open secret that the 10050 Cielo Drive house in which record producer Terry Melcher lived and which Roman and Sharon Polanski later rented was the center of a swinging acid and orgy social circle. This endless party spilled over to the Woodstock Drive home of the Mamas and the Papas singer Cass Elliot and the Sunset Boulevard mansion of the Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson as well as the villa owned by Elvis Presley. That incestuous scene had been going full blast since 1966, even though it began with the earlier excesses of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack. One of the main sources for acid and cocaine for this exclusive clientele was Jay Sebring, whose hairdressing business was a front for an organized crime enterprise funded by a New Jersey Mafia family. This was the already wild situation Dennis Wilson brought his new ex-con musical discovery and lover Charles Manson into in 1968. When Wilson introduced Manson to his young live-in friend and dope dealer Charles Watson and his show biz colleagues Terry Melcher, Sharon Tate, John Phillips, Mama Cass and the agent/realtor Rudy Altobelli, the stage was set and the cast was selected for the bad trip that happened one year later. As my book uncovers, a major motive behind the Helter Skelter cover-up orchestrated by the entertainment industry and the L.A. legal establishment was preventing the public from learning about the secret lives of the stars who invited Manson and his circle into their mansions, their recording studios and their beds. Zeena's art accompanying "The Beverly Hillbilly" chapter in my book captures the spirit of late 60s Hollywood better than any words could.
What I liked very much in your book is that you emphasize the fact that Manson was a Southern boy, a "redneck" and farm boy from rural Kentucky, brought up in Southern churches and listening to country music. And when we listen to his music, this aspect is much more obvious than the supposed influence of the Beatles (but once again, it was Bugliosi's fantasy). He seemed to speak quite a lot to you about this "hillbilly" upbringing. It leads to very interesting social questions: Is a "hillbilly" an outcast in modern American society? Is it impossible for this class of people to be accepted in artistic, intellectual or other urban circles? Is the case of Manson a kind of allegory or metaphor of the discrimination that can be felt when you are a "redneck" from the South? Of course, I thought of some books like Jim Goad's The Redneck Manifesto, but, according to you, how is this rural background manifested in Manson?
Nikolas : Charles is the last Confederate soldier, holed up in a cave, waiting for the rebel yell that means the South has risen again. His revolutionary and ecological ideas as well as his free-form Christian mysticism can be traced to his hillbilly roots in a traditional love of the land, connection to animals, deep religiosity, and distrust of the federal government, which many rural Southerners still see as the diabolical invention of the hated Abraham Lincoln, who they view as a despot who destroyed the Constitution. The social questions you pose are very important to understanding why Manson is perceived as the archetype of Evil in America. In the late 1960s, when Manson emerged in the media, the murders of Kennedy in Texas and Martin Luther King in Tennessee were still fresh, as was the violent Southern opposition to the civil rights movement. There was no more stinging insult among the liberal intelligentsia and the hippie counterculture than "redneck". So, yes, a hillbilly like Manson is definitely an outcast in U.S. society, whose norms are dictated by a media controlled by East and West Coast urban intellectuals who regard Southerners with contempt. Despite this bias, Manson's rural outlaw Southern authenticity was embraced by the rock music elite. His persona fit perfectly into the country rock fad popular among the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriters springing up at a time when Dylan and the Rolling Stones flirted with the Nashville sound. If the Capitol Records Manson LP and rockumentary Terry Melcher and the Beach Boys were preparing to release in '69 hadn't been rudely interrupted by the murders, Manson would've had a career in the vein of The Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Kris Kristofferson or Willie Nelson, more Lynyrd Skynyrd than Helter Skelter.
Of course, a writer puts much of himself when he writes such an investigative work, and sometimes I had the feeling of reading more about yourself than about Manson himself, especially when you talk about his Gnostic shamanism. We know about your interest for the history of religions, your analyses are very interesting, but don't you think that's putting too much intelligence in the logorrhoea of Manson?
Nikolas : One man's logorrhoea is another man's Logos. As I say in the book's epilogue, there's no such thing as an "objective author". I openly reveal my prejudices in this book rather than pretend at scholarly impartiality. I'm not claiming that Manson himself defines his spiritual insight in the language I used to analyze it. What makes him a remarkable figure in contemporary Western mysticism is that an uneducated self-described "dummy" and common criminal attained spontaneous realizations identical to the most profound teachings of Gnosticism, shamanism, Sufism, Tantra, and Christian mysticism. The Manson myth claims that he merely spouts a con-man's half-baked double talk borrowed from popular occultism. By comparing Manson's metaphysics with these ancient traditions, I sought to demonstrate that he possesses a genuinely prophetic and visionary wisdom of universal initiatory value. I really believe that he's an "outlaw shaman", with all the contradictions that phrase implies. Having had the privilege of learning from several realized spiritual masters from many religious lineages, I can testify that many of my conversations and religious debates with Manson have been on an equally insightful level. Privately, the person Charles is very different from the Manson act he puts on for the media. If he hadn't been dragged into a series of Tex Watson's drug robbery scams, Manson would be revered today as a religious teacher and as a force for positive change instead of being doomed to his current status as a media monster. That's one of the many tragedies of this case.
One of the most delicious part of the book, and one of the funniest ones, is the part in which you speak of Manson's homosexual tendencies, his fantasies about Cary Grant, and his refusal to have sex with Robert Conrad and Peter Falk. There is even, if I remember well, the suggestion of a sexual relationship with Dennis Wilson. What's your point of view on all that? Do you think it's true or part of Manson's provocative talk?
Nikolas : Not only is it true, there's much more to the neglected homoerotic aspect of the case than there was room to include. Manson really did become involved in the closet Hollywood homosexual underworld when he parked in Cary Grant's space in the Universal Studio parking lot. And he's told me in great detail about other closet cases in the music and movie industry who he serviced as a "rough trade" male prostitute, clients he calls the "secret suckers." Manson's relationship with Dennis Wilson was so intense it even made some of the girls in Charlie's commune jealous. One of the many show business secrets the Helter Skelter myth covered up was the then career-destroying fact that Dennis Wilson, the Beach Boys' only sex symbol, was a promiscuous bisexual, who, like Manson, was notorious for fucking anything that moved, regardless of gender. Worse still for the Beach Boys innocent public image was the notion of their macho dreamboat drummer being sodomized by a man reviled as the most sinister serial killer in history. While none of these escapades would shock anyone today, these were deep dark secrets even in the "free love" atmosphere of the late 60s. But these hidden homosexual hijinks aren't just celebrity gossip – they led directly to the murders. Manson first met Dennis Wilson while buying dope from their mutual friend, the gay drug dealer and musician Gary Hinman, who also discreetly serviced Hollywood homosexuals. Bobby Beausoleil only met Hinman, who he killed, because he was trying to get away from Kenneth Anger's unwanted advances. The Hinman connection led directly to Wilson introducing Manson to his live-in friend Tex Watson, who Manson and several other sources allege was also an active bisexual. Again, much of the secrecy this case is enshrouded in was meant to obscure the kinky lifestyles of the rich and famous and their sexual slumming in society's lower depths.
The portrait you make of Voytek Frykowski, one of the persons who were killed at Cielo Drive, is just terrifying: he killed Sharon Tate's dog, he sodomized Billy Doyle in a public humiliation ritual that was apparently shot on video. Where did you get these pieces of information? What kind of person was this Frykowski, who was also a close friend of Polanski?
Nikolas : Polanski's autobiography describes how Frykowski accidentally killed Sharon Tate's dog Sapirstien. It's also mentioned in several other accounts by people who knew him. Frykowski's public rape of the drug dealer Billy Doyle is chronicled in police reports, since homicide detectives investigated this incident immediately after the murders in search of motives. Doyle sold the bad MDA to Frykowski that Frykowski then sold to Tex Watson and Linda Kasabian, which, in turn, motivated their revenge robbery on August 9, 1969 that ended with a stoned Frykowski getting killed. Every source described Frykowski as a brutal self-destructive drunk with an uncontrollable violent streak. Even the day after the murder, Polanski said Voytek was a "loser" who he should have thrown out of his house. Sharon Tate hated this dangerous houseguest dealing drugs to strangers from her living room, even though her ex, Jay Sebring, was doing the same thing. Tate's mother later admitted that Sharon bitterly complained that she wished Polanski would get rid of Frykowski in the days before her death. But the most interesting puzzle about Frykowski is how an exile from a Communist country during the Cold War could travel freely in the USA without a proper visa. As I explore in the book, one layer of secrecy surrounding the murder investigation had to do with what the FBI and other agencies suspected about Frykowski's intelligence connections, since he knew many Polish exiles who were CIA agents, some of whom also died mysterious deaths.
You have talked about a malediction concerning the persons who try to find the truth about all this? Have you encountered some special problems and magical events that make you believe in this malediction?
Nikolas : I know that seems absurd to materialists unaware of the role unseen spiritual forces play in our lives. But experience has shown me that this is a very real phenomenon that should be taken seriously. Contrary to what one might imagine, I don't think this malevolent power has much to do with Manson himself. He's only one of a long list of people fated to be involved in a case much bigger than him. One example of the malediction is the almost unbelievable series of tragedies that have dogged Roman Polanski's whole life. Then there's Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. When he was drunk or stoned, which was most of the time, he told his friends about the true circumstance of the killings, dismissing the Helter Skelter legend as "bullshit" and suggesting that he bore some motivating responsibility for the crimes. He kept threatening to write a book that would tell the true story. I believe his death by drowning was a result of the curse. Closer to home, one summer day in 1987, I was collecting the material for the first Manson File. I'd had trouble making a copy of the coroner's drawing of Gary Hinman's wounds, which clearly showed how his ear had been sliced by Manson's sword a few hours before Hinman was killed by Bobby Beausoleil. The copy kept coming out wrong so that I had to look at this picture again and again. That night, I was attacked by unknown assailants who cut my right ear off. If that wasn't magical warning enough, as soon as I got to the hospital, a social worker told me that I was eligible for financial compensation from a fund Doris Tate, Sharon Tate's mother, had set up for victims of violent crime in Los Angeles. A magician ignores such obvious synchronicities at his peril. In the mid-90s several investigative journalists interviewed Zeena and me about what we'd discovered about the hidden facts of the murders. None of these sceptics believed Zeena when she warned them that this was a black hole one should only approach with spiritual precautions. When they researched what we told them they were hit by instant bad luck, unexplained violence, mental and physical illness or financial catastrophe. Even while getting this new edition of The Manson File into print, a ridiculous number of obstacles delayed its completion. This happened so often, every time my editor called to tell me the latest problem, he'd say, "the Manson curse strikes again!" After a few decades of this kind of thing, you feel like you're trying to open a locked door that some demon's holding shut with all of its strength.
Zeena, there are links between your own story and the story of Manson, and you have crossed each other's paths several times. What does he represent for you today?
Zeena : I almost feel that I know Charles too well at this point to put words to our relationship and the bizarre connections we've had to each other before we even knew each other, that he was like the patron saint that brought Nikolas and me together, and that he's brought many very wonderful things into our lives that people would find difficult to imagine. For this reason, I felt I really needed to connect to Charles and the saga that has become his curse in this lifetime through the nine-fold artpiece I created God Bless Charles Manson. I feel I've come to know this person in ways that can't be described in mere words. Even when I was doing the transcription of Nikolas's interview with him for the book, getting every nuance of his special language, I got into his mind and understood him on a level of love and compassion. Many people who think they understand Manson, because they think he's cool or interesting or funny, or "mean", think they understand him. But they're only understanding a projection of themselves. He's said as much. But when I got into my artwork and carefully placed the details of his own formulae of positives and negatives, lightness and darkness, mirrored images, Abraxas as the counterforce to all duality, I believe I came to understand Charles in an even deeper way that often brought tears to my eyes while working on the whole project.
To end up with Manson, why is there such a fascination for him in America? I have talked to many American artists, lately with Lydia Lunch, and he is still, like some famous serial killers are (even though he did not commit any murder himself), a source of inspiration for those who shared the "American nightmare". Why is it so?
Nikolas : The pop cultural fascination with Manson is mostly inspired by the fantasy Bugliosi manufactured than by the real human being. Manson's telling the truth when he says that he's a mirror in which people see in him what they're capable of seeing. We need to separate the positive inspiration he exerted on many of the people who met him during his pre-notoriety 1967-69 phase from the legend which consumed him after his arrest. Even in his own lifetime, he's become just as much of a myth as King Arthur or Bluebeard. And like them, the myth doesn't have much to do with the historical reality. Some anti-Manson obsessives are convinced he's Satan incarnate. They're vicariously excited by the idea of hypnotic powers turning innocent "followers" into sex slaves and mindless killers of random strangers. When I explain that that wasn't what happened at all, and that it was a squalid drug robbery, they react with the same indignation of Christians presented with facts that cast doubt on the literal truth of the Bible. At the opposite extreme, there are equally fascinated Manson admirers who naively believe he's a harmless Santa Claus figure, a saint martyred by the pigs because he wanted to save the trees. These dreamers tend to be in denial about his long criminal history as a thief, pimp and drug dealer with Mafia ties going back to the 50s. They don't want the complicated details about the crimes to intrude on their simplistic fantasy. When the first flying saucer sightings took place, Carl Jung theorized that humanity projected the suppressed archetypes of all of their buried religious fears and hopes onto these inexplicable apparitions. Manson, too, is an UFO who touches some deep chord in the human imagination. The mystery of the fascination Manson inspires is rooted in the equally mysterious nature of charisma itself, which was originally understood as a gift from the gods. That's why I predict that in centuries to come Manson, for better or worse, will be remembered as a religious figure. I should point out that nobody's more bemused and amused by this weird fascination with his person than Manson himself, who recently asked me, "How the hell did I get this life?"
Of course, we remember you as the leader of Radio Werewolf. Musically speaking, what did you work on since that time? Have you had other projects? Are you working on new stuff? Is it very different to your earlier work? Are there plans for re-releasing your past records?
Nikolas : My first post-RW musical project was completely removed from the bohemian subcultural milieu I'd spent so much time in. I conceived, organized and produced Sir Christopher Lee's first album as a singer, a logistical and artistic intercontinental challenge that encompassed opera, country music, and Broadway musicals. That expanded the musical horizons of my own work. Since then, I've composed many songs and longer instrumental pieces, and now that I've finished a series of forthcoming books, the first of which to be published was the new Manson File, I'm recording a solo album. Yes, it's very different from Radio Werewolf, but my voice, my preference for the keyboard and my penchant for the minor key probably offers some continuity to what came before. We're frequently asked to record new Radio Werewolf music, or to go out on a Radio Werewolf "comeback" tour. Going backwards doesn't interest me at all, so that will never happen. But because new generations keep discovering Radio Werewolf, we've agreed to put out a re-release of the beast from its cage. It doesn't really matter that Radio Werewolf withdrew from the field of battle so long ago. We still get mail addressed to "Radio Werewolf" as if it's still in operation. The Frankenstein monster that escaped from our lab now lives a posthumous life independent of its creators.
That band was quite difficult to classify. In its first period, it was quite rock-oriented, not so far from a theatrical "batcave" sound (the song "Cadillac Hearse"), then there has been a more dark ambient/ magical side (The Lightning and the Sun) and finally the more spoken-word oriented side, with sermons based on a minimal accompaniment of organ and percussions. Looking back on that band, was the message more important than the music itself? Did you consider yourself as a musician or more like a man who had a spiritual mission and a message to tell?
Nikolas : When I'm writing a song I never think about what genre someone might label it. I've been condemned to the Gothic and Industrial ghettos, but none of the ten musicians who did official duty in Radio Werewolf, including myself, had any interest in those styles of music. The "Werewolf" in Radio Werewolf refers to the shapeshifting inherent in lycanthropy. That's why I presented a different persona in each performance and recording just as we used whatever musical form suited the subject matter rather than limiting ourselves to one fixed mode of composition. For instance, from the early RW period, "1960 Cadillac Hearse" draws on early Beach Boys hot rod tunes and corny horror novelty records circa 1964-65 without a trace of the usual whiny and suicidal "Goth" sound. A theatrical character piece like "Triumph of the Will" could've come from cabaret or a Broadway musical and certainly doesn't fit into the Gothic genre. As far as "The Lightning and the Sun" being more magical, all of our music followed magical principles, including the songs that don't announce themselves as obviously "occult". I prefer the German phrase "Tonkunstler" or "sound artist" to "musician". The spiritual mission you mention was inseparable from the musical vehicle that conveyed it. When I left the USA and went to Egypt in 1983, I intended to renounce worldly life and settle down there to devote myself to quietly mastering the art of magic and meditation with a commune of like-minded souls. But I was given divine marching orders that told me to go back to the West with what I'd learned and confront the forces of ignorance and repression directly with the power of sound. RW's music and message were equally important, as in our many instrumentals, where pure sound absent any verbal overlay was the only means of communication.
Love Conquers All remains my favourite album of Radio Werewolf (especially haunting pieces like "Barbarossa" or "Heidentor"). Do you think you had reached the ending point at that moment and said all you had to say?
Zeena : Not an ending, but as the first part of Love Conquers All symbolizes, a new beginning. When we recorded that album we'd come to a stage where Radio Werewolf's ritual performances at various magical and sacred sites in Austria and Germany caused us to realize that what we were doing was mutating into a strictly religious phenomenon. After you've had intense initiatory experiences at such sacred genius loci it changes your consciousness and spiritual sensitivity so that you can't go back to the mainstream music marketplace. When I wrote the songs "Heidentor", "Barbarossa", "Pleasure Dome", "TWO", and "Luchorpan" I found I was tapping into the same timeless mystical experience that inspired some of my favorite religious music such as Messiaen, Hildegard von Bingen, Satie's Vespers and his mystical compositions. Those songs mark a turning point in my initiation that eventually led me to renounce worldly life in general and make my spiritual development my main priority. After you've seen behind the facade of a stage set you can't take the play seriously any more. In other words, you can't go backwards and regain your ignorance, you have to move forward.
Nikolas : Love Conquers All was the climax of the journey from darkness to light our publicly available album-length recordings takes the listener on. The Fiery Summons, as the title indicates, invokes the Fenris Wolf, Abraxas, and the other spiritual forces required for the rite. Songs for the End of the World's evocation of Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, was the necessary act of destruction and opening of empty space, the long night of the soul the initiate passes through to be reborn. Love Conquers All is the dawn of a new creation, the rising of the alchemical phoenix from the ashes. The three vinyl sonic magic talismans released in between the albums served to seal each stage of the transformation and to effect augmenting magical changes in the material world. However, that was only all we had to say to a public forum. After Zeena and I called a moratorium on public performance and the conventions of the mainstream music industry after a rally in Switzerland, we recorded and performed several esoteric Radio Werewolf transmissions which were only made available on a sworn contractual basis to initiates who signed the Werewolf Order pact. If we'd stayed within the limits of the alternative music scene we would have become dancing bears offering what could be misunderstood as escapist entertainment. So we created a purer vehicle that clearly separated spirituality from show business.
There was also this cover of "These Boots Are Made For Walking", which was very surprising at that moment. Was this song just a kind of joke or something much more seriously ironical with a special meaning?
Nikolas : "Seriously ironical" is the mot juste. By that time, we'd endured years of right-wing Christian fundamentalist police and media harassment during the "Satanic Panic" witch hunt. Our albums were declared "Jügendgefährlich" (dangerous to youth) by the notoriously irony-free German government, thanks to some overly sensitive left-wing cultural commissars. And our reputation made us what Zeena called "the world's most banned band", so that our concerts were carried out like secret military operations. Our Sinatra tribute had a deeper encoded meaning, but it's also a deliberate self-parody of our image, a reaction to all of the heavy seriousness with which we were regarded. Black humor, sarcasm, and irony were always essential to the Radio Werewolf experience. But because we kept unsmiling poker faces throughout the public part of the rite, only those on our wavelength got the joke. Loki, a deity central to Radio Werewolf, is a trickster, a cruel cosmic comedian who breaks boundaries through laughter, mockery, and inappropriate behavior. As with our song "The Last Laugh", humor can serve a deadly serious purpose. What appears to be a joke can touch on hidden truths a more sober presentation wouldn't get across. In describing Radio Werewolf to one interviewer, I quoted that line from a Bee Gees song that says, "I started a joke that got the whole world crying."
Zeena : On the most obvious level, my recording of "Boots" was having fun with our public image. But there was a special meaning too that was communicated in the entire package. Don't forget that we are magicians, and that every aspect of what we release has a specific alchemical balance, from the costume I designed and wore in the cover photograph to the precise location at which that photograph was taken. I can say that I was working with the energy that comes from mixing extreme hypereroticism with humor and fear. But as with all magic, a talisman like "Boots" achieves its desired effect on a subconscious level. So I'd defeat the purpose if I explained the "special meaning." One of the problems with the downloading of music originally issued on vinyl in a sleeve is that the listener only gets the song itself without the necessary context that the package provides. When the original recording was presented as a magical object of art, and you're only hearing a digital distillation of the sounds without even the correct accompanying image, then obviously the special meaning has been lost.
I do not want to get into your personal life, I know it must be painful enough, but you were spokeswoman for the Church of Satan at the same time you got involved in Radio Werewolf, and you appeared in many TV shows and were a kind of "public person".
Zeena : Though it's true I was "a kind of 'public person'", that wasn't my own choice. As soon as I was born, my parents used me as a media prop for their circus act, like the family lion, the interesting artifacts, the antique cars, the Black House, or any number of accoutrements that made their "show" more interesting. They thrust me into their PR activities when I was still an infant, even before The Church of Satan existed. By the time I entered school, I was already notorious as the "real Rosemary's Baby". Discrimination from teachers and schoolmates was my constant shadow once I entered the structured world of schools and rules and rights and wrongs. Nonetheless, I was raised to believe that this was our religion. I took it seriously and argued my Constitutional right to freedom of religion in school, because so many people in The Church of Satan took it seriously in those early days. We didn't know we were the suckers the High Priest was referring to when he quoted P.T. Barnum about a sucker is born every minute. We didn't know that we were all being conned by both the High Priest and his live in partner who everyone thought was his wife (my mother). And that old saying about blood being thicker than water isn't true because they lied to their own blood as much as they did to their customers.
Appearing in TV shows was the result of a specific event. In 1985, a US news show called 20/20 accused The Satanic Bible of being responsible for child daycare center molestations, animal mutilations, and the rest of the allegations we're familiar with now – but which were new then. I was working for The University of California's Department of Environmental Health and Safety at that time. Prior to the night of that broadcast I never had any problem at work. Only close friends and colleagues knew who I was. But the morning after that show when the first co-workers came into the office, one person asked me, "What's your father's name?" Then I knew this was going to be a nightmare to deal with. I called my father and asked him what his media strategy would be to deal with this catastrophe. Nothing. He didn't care. As far as he was concerned it didn't concern him. It wasn't anything he needed to worry about. He certainly wasn't going out in public to do anything about it. He admitted that many media sources had already contacted him and he was just going to ignore it until it went away. I tried to convince him that this would only get worse if he didn't respond and that he really needed to get someone to answer calls quickly or it would be taken as an admission of guilt or suspicion. Finally he admitted he had no one to deal with interviews or media. I offered to help temporarily until he found someone. This was not what I'd intended to do with my life, I had other plans. After about the third TV interview the byline under my name, instead of the title "Magistra", mistitled me as "High Priestess". To me, my mother was the only High Priestess, so in my mind this was a big mistake. But my father's bitterness about my mother leaving him was so great that when he saw the caption, he was so relieved to have someone doing anything for him, his exact words were, "Well, I don't see anyone else around here doing anything for me. You may as well be the High Priestess." So from May 1985 until I left in April 1990 that's what I was. And to this day I have no doubt as to the blood, sweat and tears I poured into my dedication to that position and my work for that organization. I only regret that I'd been lied to since childhood about what it really was and that my dutiful nature was wasted on ingrates all the way around. But all for the better to have opened my eyes, which was very painful, as you pointed out, but necessary.
Now, as for Radio Werewolf: I should clarify how I became involved since there's so much confusion about Radio Werewolf's different phases. The notorious 8-8-88 Rally was the only time the old line up of Radio Werewolf and the yet-to-be new line up of Radio Werewolf worked together. It would be the only performance that Nikolas, the original percussionist Evil Wilhelm, and I ever performed live together. That marked the transition point spanning three phases of Radio Werewolf: 1) the Nikolas Schreck/Evil Wilhelm collaboration, 2) the solo Nikolas Schreck (The Fiery Summons), and 3) the Nikolas Schreck/Zeena collaboration. However, back in May of 1988, I went to see Nikolas and Gisela Getty and Non perform in Berkeley. This wasn't specifically a Radio Werewolf performance. But Nikolas was reciting Ezra Pound's poetry to Gisela's Japanese Kodo drum performance. I had a strong theatrical background with an emphasis on surrealism, Dada, and Expressionism but also in ancient Hellenic drama. Having no knowledge of the earlier Radio Werewolf performances, I came to the Berkeley performance fresh and its stark, streamlined delivery very much appealed to me. I'd known and dated many musicians, and though I'd supported them as artists, I never considered having anything to do with them professionally. I just had no interest. And to be honest, had I seen the previous Radio Werewolf, I also wouldn't have wanted to do that type of music either. But when I saw Nikolas perform entirely to his own design with Gisela's accompaniment, I was very impressed. In retrospect, I'm very glad that the first time I saw Nikolas perform was a rare occasion like that. It gave me the opportunity to see who he alone really was. Based on that performance, we got talking about other performances we'd both done of a similar nature and out of that developed the idea to do something together but still it was too early to know that it would be Radio Werewolf. Perhaps something different, because things had not yet worked out the way they did between Nikolas and Wilhelm yet. When I'd shown Nikolas my artwork and a draft for a piece called "Bring Me the Head of Geraldo Rivera" inspired by the Geraldo Rivera TV interview with Manson prior to my meeting Nikolas, we began plans to do something together with that, which later became the Radio Werewolf EP of the same name. So it's not as though Nikolas simply incorporated his wife into Radio Werewolf, but rather we would've collaborated as equals on something regardless. That Wilhelm stopped participating in Radio Werewolf just allowed Nikolas to continue what he'd done with The Fiery Summons anyway, but with new collaborators. But really, Nikolas and I, and only a couple of months later, Kirby, all began working quite nicely together as a unit when we recorded Songs for the End of the World. So it was I who made the decision to work with Nikolas as a collaborator, not as a hired hand or a "back-up singer" to Radio Werewolf. In fact, we probably would've formed our own "other thing" if Wilhelm had continued on with Radio Werewolf and not pulled out. So it's all a matter of shifting collaborators.
I know you rejected the Church of Satan, your family, and what you consider to be lies, but do you think these thoughts have had an influence on the records you have made with Radio Werewolf or, on the contrary, do you see Radio Werewolf's subject matters as something purer, devoid of these external influences?
Zeena : Overall, I try to reach something more transpersonal and religious in music, though the message might not be readily apparent. So, no, my experiences from my past and upbringing didn't play a part in what I brought to my Radio Werewolf recordings. Even the ones recorded during my time still in the Church of Satan. For example when I was working on The Lightning and The Sun. I would say the mindset that I was in when recording or conceiving of the pieces was so faraway from the influences you mentioned, not simply in terms of theme but in crossing over into other dimensions, and that feeling of absorption one gets when working on a composition that you know is linking to other celestial forces or entities, then you can't say that has anything to do with you personally or your personal human experiences in terms of a contrived thought that creates the piece. When I create music, I work it until I feel I've hit something that is connecting to whatever is the "not-me" eternal mental continuum that can in a more pure sense navigate other energies ancient or future to act as a medium. But I try to avoid what's popularly termed personal expression. For some people personal expression is a very rewarding form of artistic experience. But I tend to find it rather boring. Even though it can be cathartic, and I occasionally create things privately for such purposes. In the end, and this could have much to do with my meditation and spiritual practices as well, if there were to be some feeling of representation in my music of that nature, it wouldn't be entirely personal but rather an overall mood as experienced generally in the human condition.
Nikolas, have your vision of things changed since the late Eighties? Do you assume everything that you have said and believed in your early career?
Nikolas : My work since then makes it clear that I've renounced a great deal of what I said and believed in that early period. I've always been happy to admit when I've been wrong about something and to change my mind accordingly. In the late Eighties, I was an arrogant and vengeful blood-drinking theistic Devil worshipper with "visions of swastikas in my head and plans for everyone" to quote the poet James Osterberg. In the years to come, to make a long story short, Zeena and I discovered that the Devil we thought we were worshipping was actually God. I know you Frenchies have a problem with God since you chopped your king's head off, but bear with me. After some misguided wandering through the more confused depths of organized occultism, we founded the Sethian Liberation Movement in 2002 as a vehicle of this revelation. Another major change was our realization that the West was spiritually dead and that nothing will revive it. When we moved to Austria we began to reincorporate Eastern yoga techniques we'd learned as teenagers back into our practice. Slowly but surely, over many years, that led us to formally convert to the left-hand path of Tantric Buddhism, which is centered on generating the universal compassion we used to disdain and dissolving the very ego we used to glorify. That doesn't mean that I now deny the existence of the Devil, by whatever name you prefer to call him. But now he's more like an old friend I don't have much reason to keep in touch with anymore.
What memories do you keep of the artistic exchanges you had at the time of Radio Werewolf and the energy that was going on at that time? Have you got a certain nostalgia about what was going on at that moment? Or on the contrary, do you think that everything was driven by a certain anger and disgust at the world around you?
Nikolas : Honestly, I have fonder memories of the more pleasurable exchanges of bodily fluids at that time than I do of some of the "artistic" exchanges. I have no nostalgia for the "good old days". I know our activities from that more intense pre-virtual reality era have been idealized and demonized through the fog of legend. But when I look back, I see that my youthful naivete, idealism, and wishful thinking blinded me to the negative nature of much of what I was involved in. And it's painfully obvious to me what terrible character judgement I used in choosing some of my collaborators. I do have positive memories of the actual creative work accomplished in the studio, the stage and the screen which has stood the test of time and continues to inspire our admirers and annoy our detractors today. And yes, Radio Werewolf, as a creature born in the ominous year 1984, was definitely driven by my anger and disgust at the grotesque conditions that ruled Reagan's America. But my reactionary and destructive revulsion to the times was balanced by a creative urge to provide a positive alternative and a force of spiritual guerilla resistance.
What was your relationship to public performance as you were the leader of Radio Werewolf and as you participated in many TV shows? When we type your name on the Internet, we fall upon these TV shows, and a friend of mine told me he discovered you through these appearances? How do you react to that?
Nikolas : My performances drew on the discipline of traditional ceremonial magic and my early theatre experience in classical drama, the theatre of the absurd and musicals. On TV or in our concerts we were carrying out public magical rituals. One unbreakable rule of ritual, as in theater, is that you stay in character and you keep going no matter what happens around you, even if the curtains are on fire, the amps have blown and the audience is rioting. As for your friend learning about me from YouTube, that happens a lot, and it's been a mixed blessing. It's interesting when people from the former Soviet Bloc, the Middle East, and Asia who never encountered my early work contact me to share their positive feedback. The Internet's illusion of immediacy makes it brand new for them. The same thing's happened with young Internet-bred Radio Werewolf enthusiasts for whom the 80s and 90s are ancient history but who are even more fanatical than our original admirers were. And we've won plenty of new enemies too, who wrongly assume that our Satanic Televangelism crusade over twenty years ago still reflects our current position. The Internet's random, digressive and fragmentary nature takes bits of audio-visual data out of their historical context. Mix that with information-overloaded multi-tasking attention spans that can't focus longer than a Tweet and it's very unlikely that the data received will be understood on more than the most superficial level. When someone watches these old programs on the web today they don't grasp that when Zeena and I defended our religious beliefs on national TV in the last century, we weren't providing entertainment. We were fighting a very real threat from a well-funded right-wing Christian political movement determined to persecute all occultists and minority alternative religionists. And Zeena had already been fighting that battle alone for four years before we met each other.
Nikolas Schreck's Sonic Magic Lecture in Leipzig WGT 2017: A Photo Gallery
Pictures speak louder than words in conveying Nikolas's 3 June 2017 lecture on Sonic Magic, held at Leipzig's Black Whitsun event in conjunction with his WGT concert. If you were there that afternoon, you may well find yourself immortalized below. Thanks to Heathen Rae, Monopol Gallery, Ronny Light, Laetitia Mantis and the others who contributed photos to this gallery. CLICK on photo to see larger image, – ADMIN NSHQ
The Black Whitsun event also featured a 3-D recreation of a cemetery scene of German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich created by Dresden artist Vinsterwan.
Nikolas Schreck On His Conversion to Buddhism
From a 2007 interview:
"Q: After a long time in the Hindu vamamarg tantra you converted to the Buddhist tantra. Can you say why you decided to make this change?
Nikolas Schreck: Taking refuge in Buddhism wasn't a conscious decision. It was the result of spontaneous insights that came to me during a particularly intensive meditation session. Namely, what this flash of realization consisted of was that three of the basic Buddhist precepts I'd previously not accepted were undeniably true.
I don't know how technical you want your paper to be, so I'll try to put this in relatively simple terms. As you know, the Hindu-based Vama Marga's yogic practices purify the personal atman, or eternal indestructible soul, refining it and dissolving the clouds of maya until the atman attains the state of one's chosen deity, or ishtara-deva.
During this particular meditation, however, it dawned on me that yoking one's mind to simply reincarnate as a deity rather than as a human being was still a relatively low step in the process of liberation. This accords with the Buddhist teaching that most of the gods are still enmeshed in the chain of samsara, and that their positive karma will eventually run out, which will return them to the lower states of being, such as human, animal, ghost, and hell-being. Through that realization, I understood that the aim of union with deity central to the Hindu-based Vama Marga was only one stage, but was not the end of the journey by any means.
The second understanding – and this came without words or conceptual thinking – was that the atman itself was an illusion of maya. In other words, what reincarnates is not a personal permanent soul. It's merely another temporary and ever-changing set of mental conditions created by one's actions in this and previous lives. And more importantly, that without letting go of that most subtle spiritual distillation of the ego, one could not possibly be liberated.
The third understanding, and this one broke most dramatically with my own deeply-seated belief system of many decades, was that all that appears to exist is not only maya, as it's understood in the Hindu-based Vama Marga, but is in fact empty of all qualities when perceived without one's subjective lens obscuring reality as it is. Previously, I worked on the thesis that behind the play of maya there was a permanently "real" state of things hidden under the illusion. That idea popped like a balloon during the meditation as well.
Now, I had learned from many Buddhist meditation teachers in the past, most in the Zen tradition. But I had always accepted their meditation techniques without accepting the Buddhist truths stipulating the nature of the god realm as part of the wheel of suffering, rather than transcendent of it, the non-existence of a permanent soul, and emptiness.
In 1983, when my teacher gave me the abisheka into the Vama Marga, I made the typical youthful error of seeking only power, or Shakti, in the feminine force of the left-hand path. And Shakti certainly does provide power. It took many decades of meditative taming of the ego before I accepted that the Hindu left-hand path's understanding of the leftwards feminine force as power is extremely limited if it's not balanced by Buddhist left-hand path devotion to the feminine as wisdom, or prajna.
What was also lacking in my previous practice was one of the main things separating Hindu Tantra from Buddhist Tantra – specifically, that the final goal of initiation is not to be reborn in the bliss of the god realm but is to take up the bodhisatttva way of freeing all sentient beings from the causes of suffering.
A few days after this meditation, I experienced a vision too complicated to describe here. But it confirmed this change of spiritual direction. That convinced me to take refuge in the Three Jewels from a monk. I told him I thought it was ironic that it was through decades of meditative worship of the Hindu goddess Kali that I broke through to Buddhism. In a matter-of-fact way he said that in his native Sri Lanka some believe that Kali has been liberated by accepting the precepts of Buddhism, so he didn't think it was strange at all. And when I took the Tantric vows shortly thereafter, I discovered that Kali is in fact revered in the pantheon of the vajrayana yidams."
Read full interview here: http://nikolasschreck.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=67
Nikolas Schreck Interviewed on Tantric Buddhism, Magic, & the Left Hand Path
After a long time in the Hindu vamamarg tantra you converted to the Buddhist tantra. Can you say why you decided to make this change?
Nikolas Schreck: Taking refuge in Buddhism wasn't a conscious decision. It was the result of spontaneous insights that came to me during a particularly intensive meditation session. Namely, what this flash of realization consisted of was that three of the basic Buddhist precepts I'd previously not accepted were undeniably true.
I don't know how technical you want your paper to be, so I'll try to put this in relatively simple terms. As you know PuTTY SSH tunnel X11 forwarding , the Hindu-based Vama Marga's yogic practices purify the personal atman, or eternal indestructible soul, refining it and dissolving the clouds of maya until the atman attains the state of one's chosen deity, or ishtara-deva.
During this particular meditation, however, it dawned on me that yoking one's mind to simply reincarnate as a deity rather than as a human being was still a relatively low step in the process of liberation. This accords with the Buddhist teaching that most of the gods are still enmeshed in the chain of samsara, and that their positive karma will eventually run out, which will return them to the lower states of being, such as human, animal, ghost, and hell-being. Through that realization, I understood that the aim of union with deity central to the Hindu-based Vama Marga was only one stage, but was not the end of the journey by any means.
Continue reading Nikolas Schreck Interviewed on Tantric Buddhism, Magic, & the Left Hand Path

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Los Angeles Kings
Sponsored By
CBS Local Sports' 2014 Stanley Cup Final PredictionsIt's LA vs. NYC. It's Quick vs. Lundqvist. It's west coast vs. east coast and with that being said ... let the games begin! Here are our predictions for what is sure to be an unforgettable and thrilling Cup Final.
Martin St Louis Plays His 1000th Game But The Bolts Fall 5-2
Marty St Louis Gets His 900th Point As A Bolt And The Lightning Win 5-1
Kings' Brown Makes Case To Keep Squad TogetherAfter two straight playoff runs extending well into June, Dustin Brown believes the Los Angeles Kings only get the full benefit of all that experience if they stay together.
Kings Look Ahead After Championship Run Falls ShortLos Angeles is the 14th consecutive NHL champion to fail to repeat, but the first in four years to make it back to the conference finals the next year.
Line Change Sparks Kane, Blackhawks In L.A.Head coach Joel Quenneville made one thing clear: The Blackhawks had to get the puck to Patrick Kane.
Kings Go Down 3-2 To Blackhawks In Game 4, Chicago Up 3-1 In SeriesMarian Hossa scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and the Chicago Blackhawks moved to the brink of the Stanley Cup finals with a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.
Chicago's Keith Suspended For Gm 4 Of West Finals For High-StickIf the Chicago Blackhawks are going to end the Los Angeles Kings' perfect postseason on home ice in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals, they'll have to do it without their top defenseman.
Kings Take Game 3 With 3-1 Win Over BlackhawksSlava Voynov had a goal and an assist, Jonathan Quick made 19 saves, and the Los Angeles Kings beat Chicago 3-1 in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night, trimming the Blackhawks' series lead to 2-1.
Blackhawks Fail To Fight Back As Kings Get One BackThe Blackhawks' series lead has been trimmed to 2-1 with another game at the Staples Center -- where the Kings have now won 15 straight -- Thursday night.
Kings Hope To Stay Perfect At Staples Center In Game 3After back-to-back losses in Chicago, the Kings are hoping they can stay perfect at Staples Center in a crucial Game 3 on Tuesday night.
Kings' Quick Chased Out In 4-2 Loss, LA Falls Behind 2-0 In Conference FinalsBryan Bickell and Michal Handzus scored on consecutive shots in the second period, and the Chicago Blackhawks chased goalie Jonathan Quick on their way to a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals.
Kings Need To Score More To Beat BlackhawksAfter a rare day off for rest and contemplation, the Los Angeles Kings came back focused on what's missing from their run at a second straight Stanley Cup title.
Kings Will Host Sharks For Game 7 Showdown After 2-1 LossJoe Thornton got San Jose off to a fast start with a power-play goal in the first period and TJ Galiardi added a goal in the second to help the Sharks force a decisive seventh game.


text:
Two employees at a gas station in Florida City fought back against a pair of robbers, one armed with a baseball bat and the other wielding a knife, who entered their store Saturday.
Surveillance video released Wednesday shows the attempted armed robbery at the Shell Gas Station located at 10 Southeast 1st Avenue.
The video shows two men storm into the store and approach the clerk's counter. One suspect began slamming the bat against the register then went behind the counter and began swinging the bat at the two clerks.
U.S. & World
One of the employees was able to get a hold of the bat, turning it against the suspect, and started hitting him as his co-worker held him down.
Meanwhile, the second robber climbed on the counter and grabbed money out of the register before the co-worker lifted the his feet off the counter, tossing him back. The suspect then runs out of the store with the stolen cash. The first suspect managed to break loose and bolt from the store. Police say he fled in a gold colored SUV.
One of the employees suffered a hand injury.
If you have any information on this case, you are urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.


text:
Western Piedmont Community College Stats, Info and Facts
|Institution Type:
|Campus Setting:
|Southeast Small city
|Highest Degree Offered:
|Associate's degree
|Level of Institution:
|At least 2 but less than 4 years
The typical reason most people attend a community college is because of its affordability, but Western Piedmont Community College offers a more rich environment in which students experience a diverse…
It is a great community college. The staff are wonderful. The resources for this campus are much better that some of the other colleges around.…
Western Piedmont Community College, WPCC, had greatly helped prepared me to go into a 4-year University. Attending WPCC was a challenged, but with the help of my instructors I managed…
A great community college that you can learn many things from some great teachers. …
Western Piedmont has a relaxed atmosphere with teachers who have a vivid experience of the subject they art teaching. They are not there to be condescending or deceptive, they give…
In accordance with the mission of the North Carolina Community College System, the mission of Western Piedmont Community College is to open the door to high-quality, accessible learning opportunities that minimize barriers to postsecondary education, maximize student success, and improve the lives and well-being of individuals by providing:
Education, training and retraining for the workforce, including
basic skills and literacy education, occupational and pre- baccalaureate programs.
Support for economic development through services to and in partnership with business and industry.
Services to communities and individuals to promote continuous learning and improve the quality of life.
Sound management practices which measure and enhance institutional effectiveness.
The overall experience at Western Piedmont Community College has been a positive one. From the administration to the students, everyone has been very eager to help anyway they can.Read More
I HATE having to go to Western Piedmont for a SIXTH semester. The teachers are great but the ADIMINISTRATION IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. If you are expecting guidance from you advisor - BEWARE. Double check everything yourself and keep your files organized - you'll need them. Ask anyone but college staff and officials for advice. Incredibly long story short, I ended up mistakenly getting a degree that doesn't transfer to a four year college after I had told my advisor I wanted to transfer to UNCA when I was done at WPCC. I now have to continue going to WPCC to get the transferable degree because if I tried to go to a different community college, a lot of my WPCC credits wouldn't transfer to the AA degree they offer. Trying to coordinate financial aid, transferring credits, and even graduation, is next to impossible. College staff (administration) is rude, irresponsible, and incompetent. IF YOU CAN AVOID IT, DO NOT GO TO WESTERN PIEDMONT.Read More
I am enjoying my time at Western piedmont for many reasons. The staff is friendly and ready to help in anyway possible. The community college is conveniently close to town, work, and home. There are many clubs that one can be a part of and the classes are diverse and interesting.Read More


text:
Hunters Chase Farms
Adventure Camp: Horseback Riding
Both Boy's and Girl's Camps - Day and Overnight Camp
Religious Affiliation: None
wimberley, Texas, USA - (512) 842-2246
HCF equestrian summer camp is designed for boys and girls to learn about the care of the horse and horseback riding, English and western. We offer day and overnight camp & our pool is great for cooling off daily or taking a relaxing trail ride in the Texas Hill Country. Fam. owned & oper. since 1988


text: 11 I received an email this morning from a mural artist with an interest in working to restore/repaint Ghostsigns in the UK. She found me via a great project being run by the London Mural Preservation Society. I started drafting a response and then realised I've […] Fresh lick of paintThis entry was posted in Sign Preservation and tagged Alcohol Ale Animals Archive Baker Banks's Beer Bile Beans Black & Son Bread Bulls Dairies Cake Coal Coke Corn Dairy Daren Donovan Bros Fish & Chips Food Forage Grocers Health Illustration Isaac Marsh Lime Medicine Melox Clarke's Melox Marvels Merchant Stores Milk Paper Bags Pies Price Tickets Protection Puddings Pulbis Dog Food Restoration Retail Seed Signwriter Stage Wagon Stationery Strong Carrier Bags The Tulketh Transport Travel William Swan on May 7, 2011 by Sam Roberts


text:
Contribute to ReadWriteThink / RSS / FAQs / Site Demonstrations / Contact Us / About Us
Learn All Year Long
Kids and teens should read and write even when they are out of school. Why is this so important?
ReadWriteThink has a variety of resources for out-of-school use. Visit our Parent & Afterschool Resources section to learn more.
Home › Parent & Afterschool Resources › Activities & Projects
The Great Save: Exploring Costs and Savings
Activity Description
As most adults know, children like to think that money grows on treesthat whenever they want something, there will automatically be enough money to buy it. Using a story about a family that must save to buy something it wants, this activity gets children thinking critically about money that comes in (income) and the choices involved in deciding how to spendor saveit. Not only is this a great bridge between literature and math concepts, it's also an important lesson in responsibility.
Why This Is Helpful
When children are able to connect the stories they read to real-life ideasin this case, learning to save for something they wantthese ideas become even more meaningful to them. In one way, this activity focuses on math skills, such as the importance of income, spending, and saving; how to make cost comparisons; and figuring out how long it would take to save for a particular item. But on another level, it also teaches about goal-setting, planning, and appreciating the money that is earned, not to mention the sacrifices it sometimes takes to reach a larger goal.
This activity was modified from the ReadWriteThink lesson plan Exploring Cost and Savings Using Childrens Literature.


text:
Be together, whenever.
A simple way to text, video chat and plan things all in one place.
So many ways to connect with all your friends
Get the group started
Easily find your friends and get the group started, even without their phone numbers.
Hang out and have fun together
See who's online, send messages and reactions, and group video chat together. It's the closest to hanging out.
Say everything better
Make them laugh with stickers, GIFs and camera filters. Plus, choose available custom colors to make Messenger entirely yours.
Coming soon! Message your Instagram friends right from Messenger. Learn More.


text:
Golden, CO Real Estate
Golden truly has everything: from breathtaking views to a friendly, hometown atmosphere and a variety of work and recreational opportunities. Known as the "Gateway to the West," Golden began as a gold mining community that transformed into a railroad hub as the Colorado Central Railroad became the first to access the Rockies through the city. Since then, Golden has become home to coal miners, the Coors Brewery, the Colorado School of Mines, and a thriving residential community.
Golden's recreational opportunities range from thrilling outdoor adventures to explorations of Golden's rich history in its many museums. With over 400 miles of open space and 24 miles of interconnected trails, outdoor fun abounds. Cyclists enjoy Golden Bike Park, a trail system built exclusively for mountain bikers, featuring a gravity-fed flow park and obstacles for cyclists of all levels. Other activities include a day at the local Splash Water Park, viewing 100-million year old dinosaur tracks, golfing, fishing, canoeing, kayaking and so much more!
Home to more than 20,000 residents, Golden offers a range of housing choices. The city, nestled against the mountains, lies just 15 miles from Denver. Likewise, Golden is a perfect home for avid skiers and snowboarders, with nearby I-70 offering access to Colorado's major ski resorts.
- Square Miles9.92
- Population20,571
- Per Capita Income$33,865
- Median Household Income$59,028
- Housing Units7,660
- Homeownership Rate56.8%
- Median Home Price$423,600
Golden, CO Homes for Sale
Search for Properties in Golden, CO
Sorry, there are currently no properties available that meet this search criteria
Sorry, there are currently no properties available that meet this search criteria
Select a Point of Interest and Radius from the form above.
Gold discoveries in local Clear Creak brought the first settlers to Golden in the mid-1850s. The area became a natural place for supplies to be sold as miners headed into nearby mountains in hopes of finding riches. The city quickly evolved as successful agricultural, industrial and coal mining opportunities developed. The Colorado Central Railroad became the first to access the mountains through the city. The Coors Brewery opened in 1873, at the banks of Clear Creek and is now the largest brewing plant in the world.
In the 1870s, the Colorado School of Mines opened its doors, appealing to engineering and science students and creating an intellectual hub in an industrial city. Since then, the National Earthquake Information Center and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have exemplified Golden as an intellectual, progressive and innovative center.
The twentieth century brought population booms as the city developed new subdivisions and modernized infrastructure. Today, Golden continues to thrive as a place for people to live and work with a friendly, small town feel.
Serving a little bit of everything from soups and salads to meats and fish, this seasonal...Website
Ali Baba Grill
All food is cooked fresh daily at this Lebanese and Mediterranean style grill.Website
Barrels & Bottles Brewery
Brewing barrels of beer and serving bottles of wine, Barrels and Bottles Brewery emphasizes the...Website
Bob's Atomic Burgers
Reasonable priced, locally owned and operated burger joint serving the freshest, highest quality...Website
Cannonball Creek Brewing Company
A dog-friendly patio, excellent beers and food trucks every night make this a local favorite.Website
Getting many of its ingredients from local farms and the farmers market, this sandwich shop gets...Website
Sherpa House Restaurant & Cultural Center
Delight in classic Himalayan dishes as you are immersed in Sherpa customs, traditions and...Website
Woody's Woodfired Pizza
Opening in 1993, this is a family owned and operated pizza parlor with 16 high definition TVs...Website
Boettcher Mansion
Built in 1917 and donated to Jefferson County in the 70s, this historic mansion now serves as an...Website
Clear Creek History Park
Truly a piece of Golden's rich history, Clear Creek History Park features a handful of...Website
Clear Creek White Water Park
Built especially for kayaks and canoes, the Clear Creek Water Park is a quarter-mile course with...Website
Golden Bike Park
Cyclists love Golden Bike Park, a trail system built exclusively for mountain bikers, featuring...Website
Lariat Loop National Scenic Byway
A 40-mile looped roadway running through Evergreen, Morrison and Golden. Stop at the Lookout...Website
Lookout Mountain Nature Center and Preserve
Reconnecting kids and adults to the natural world, the Nature Center offers a hands-on play...Website
The Splash Water Park
For summertime family-friendly fun, Golden residents flock to the Splash at Fossil Trace. The...Website
Triceratops Trail
A 24-mile trail system catering to all hiking abilities winds through sandstone walls and...Website
Buffalo Bill's Gravesite and Museum
Golden pays tribute to buffalo hunter William "Buffalo Bill" Cody at his gravesite on...Website
Colorado Railroad Museum
Set inside a replica 1880's style depot, the Colorado Railroad Museum celebrates over 125...Website
Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum
Visit the Colorado School of Mines' Geology Museum of Golden to see rare moon rocks from the...Website
Community Gallery at the Foothills Art Center
Located in historic downtown Golden, the gallery is located in a gothic-style church and Queen...Website
Dinosaur Ridge
Hundreds of dinosaur tracks can be seen at Golden's famous Dinosaur Ridge. Geological and...Website
Buffalo Bill Days
A Golden original, Buffalo Bill Days is a celebration of William "Buffalo Bill" Cody and the...Website
Fine Arts Festival
The Fine Arts Festival, held in downtown Golden, is a celebration of art, with over one hundred...Website
Lions Club July 4th Celebration
This 4th of July community celebration includes music, entertainment, kids' activities,...Website
Olde Golden Christmas
A month-long holiday celebration, Olde Golden Christmas includes an elf run, candlelight walk,...Website
Coors Brewery Tour
Opened in 1873, the Coors brewery allows the public to tour their traditional brewing...Website
Golden Community Center
The Golden Community Center is a multifunctional facility with a complete recreational center...Website
Golden Library
The Golden Library offers a collection of 88,000 items, including books, reference material,...Website
Colorado School of Mines
Prepares students to be industry-ready scientists and engineers in topics related to earth,...Website Directions
Golden offers a number of resources and amenities for bicyclists, including an extensive trail...Website
Bus Services: Community Call-n-Ride Bus
The City's Community Call-n-Ride bus began simultaneously operating a flexible route that...Website
Light Rail: West Rail Line
The 12.1 mile light rail line connects Denver Union Station to Golden's end-of-line station at...Website


text:
The cold sets in. The good old fireplace will soon find our feet, our hands, our faces and our best smiles. It will offer us warmth and the crackling of its logs as soon as we get close enough. The fireplace is very practical, but it can also be very beautiful if you take the time to refit it with a nice exterior when you're doing renovations, decoration or construction work.
A fireplace can be a column of rough and massive stones or, on the contrary, a column with a finely sculpted mantel that evokes Greek or Roman esthetics, to the great pleasure of owners with a classical taste.
A fireplace can be monumental in size and its relief or built in for greater discretion. The contemporary look is ideal for a built-in fireplace, because it spreads softness and simplicity. This makes the contemporary look perfect for a suspended fireplace. Most fireplaces are made of metal. They are so slender that they appear to be mobile.[……]


text:
BBC News
- Police officer shot dead at Croydon Custody Centre
- Covid: Jobs scheme 'won't stop major rise in unemployment'
- Covid-hit university students: 'Why have they sent us here?'
- Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank expecting a baby, Buckingham Palace says
- Tesco joins Morrisons to limit sales of some items
- County lines raids: 1,000 arrests and £1.2m drugs seized
- UK borrowing soars in August as Covid costs mount
- Northampton letter from grandad arrives 22 years late
- Covid: Tory MPs bid to increase scrutiny over coronavirus rules
- Covid: Royal accounts show potential £35m shortfall due to pandemic
- Government 'got into a tizzy' about civil servants home working
- Covid-19 restrictions: 'South Asian weddings should have 400 guests - not 15'
- Coronavirus infection: Is there a North-South divide in England?
- Parkrun: October return scrapped due to coronavirus measures
- Coronavirus: Working from home 'costs central London £2.3bn'
- University self-isolation: PPE to pee and running out of food
- NHS Covid-19 app: One million downloads of contact tracer for England and Wales
- What do university Covid outbreaks mean for Scotland's students?
- UK travel restrictions: Which countries are on the UK's quarantine list?
- NHS Covid-19 app: How England and Wales' contact-tracing service works
- Cineworld swings to huge loss after virus closures
- Coronavirus: Eighteen Altnagelvin staff off work due to Covid outbreak
- Covid-19: UK volunteers could be given virus to test vaccine
- Coronavirus: UK lacking leadership, says ex-civil service head
- Covid-19: Row after Birmingham football team player tests positive
- Covid-19: Daily reported UK cases rise by a quarter
- Covid rules: What are the new coronavirus restrictions?
- Coronavirus: How many people can attend a wedding?
- Sex and coronavirus: What are the rules?
- Documenting lockdown through drone photography
- Coronavirus: 'We're Australian but we're trapped in the UK'
- Britpop: Photographer Kevin Cummins revisits the 90s
- Why Little Mix insisted on aftercare for the contestants on their talent show
- Mercury Prize-winner Michael Kiwanuka: 'I am not an imposter'
- Job Support Scheme: How is furlough changing?
- Newspaper legend who started local and changed the world
- Ryan Reynolds: Wrexham school friends 'predicted' arrival
- Islamic State: Relatives of British hostage braced for coming trial
- Coronavirus: What do the latest restrictions mean for grassroots sport in England?
- Covid-19: Wedding industry reacts to latest restrictions
- Could churches double up as bank branches in cash-stricken areas?
- Great British Bake Off: 'Excellent' Matt Lucas charms critics on show debut
- 'A stitch in time saves nine' - what does it mean?
- Manchester Arena Inquiry: Jane Tweddle was 'shoulder to cry on'
- Covid-19: Health workers 'sick' with fear at thought of second wave
- The off-duty policewoman who lost her life in Arena attack
- Coronavirus restrictions: Students on their 'last night of freedom'
- Michael Kiwanuka accepts Mercury Prize in TV studio
- Chancellor Rishi Sunak announces new Job Support Scheme
- Hancock: 'Upgrade' may be needed to access NHS Covid app
- NHS Covid-19 app: How to install and use it
- Labour: Dodds reaction to Sunak Job Support Scheme
- Newspaper headlines: 'Job fears' despite chancellor's 'rescue plan'
- M25 crash: Two-vehicle collision closes motorway in Kent
- Covid: Scottish university students told not to go to pubs
- Coronavirus: Medical officers to discuss cross-border travel
- Covid: Cardiff 'could go into local lockdown'
- Reece Thompson signing for Selby Town 'misjudged', says manager
Is it time to find a new partner? See here who is looking in your area:
Why join?
- Free to join
- Send a free 'Ice Breaker' message to hundreds of local people
- Personalised recommended members
- All members' profiles checked
Sign up now. It's free!
Or join using your Facebook account
Old Site: ANY-Village.com Dating
Region: 41


text:
Lunch in the Loop: Burrito Buggy (aka the U.N. of Lunch)
Reviews of restaurants in the Loop.
Editor's Note: Whether you're a tourist or an office worker in downtown Chicago, you can get sick of eating at chain restaurants all day. So we've started a series to get you the lowdown on where to find a great and affordable lunch.
I've been waiting a while for Lunch in the Loop to be established before I unleashed my introduction of Burrito Buggy to you all. I wanted to make sure you were here reading, absorbing, and enraptured by my masterful use of the English language to capture the experience of fine midday cuisine (read: office lunch). And there is a good reason. Burrito Buggy easily serves the strangest combination of food I have ever seen in the Loop. It is mind-boggling and amazing. And it never fails to make me laugh.
In my mind, it's like the owners brought Greece, Mexico, India, Jamaica, and America all together into a meeting where they joined hands and agreed to make a superpower... of food! Then they gave each other a lot of high-fives and left in the afterglow of cultural brotherhood. My imagination may run rampant in golden fields filled with unicorns and rainbows, but Burrito Buggy easily surpasses some of my beautiful, beautiful, dreams.
Since the restaurant is called Burrito Buggy, they have to serve burritos, right? The fine specimen on the left is the Gyro Burrito ($5.98), and the one on the right is the Jerk Chicken Burrito ($5.89). Yes, you read that correctly. That is a burrito stuffed with Kronos gyro meat, tomatoes, onions, and tzatziki sauce. The meat is carved right off the rotating cylinder, crisped on the griddle, and jammed into a flour tortilla. It tastes just as you would imagine; the meat is a savory combination of beef, lamb, and spices with a uniform loaf-like texture, the tomato adds little sweet moist bites, the onion is sharp and crunchy, and the cooling tzatziki sauce brings it all home. The flour tortilla somehow makes it less of a gyro sandwich, and more of a burrito. It works. Your eyes say "burrito," your mouth says "gyros," and your stomach says "food." Greece, high-five Mexico.
The Jerk Chicken Burrito is stuffed with char-grilled jerk chicken, cheese, rice, lettuce, onion, and tomato. The chicken is well-marinated with the strong flavors of jerk seasoning, including allspice, a slight touch of cinnamon, and fiery dried chile. The meat is well grilled to the point where you can taste the char with every bite. It's got some decent heat to it, which builds as you eat. Jamaica, high-five Mexico.
This is where things get a little more interesting. On an entirely separate menu, Burrito Buggy serves an array of Indian food. Don't want burritos? Have some daal, lamb curry, or in my case, the butter chicken combination ($7.99), which comes with butter chicken, rice, naan, a small salad, and a samosa. The focus here is really the butter chicken. The name is somewhat misleading, considering the chicken is cooked in a tomato and yogurt based sauce, seasoned with garam masala, a hint of cumin, and a touch of cayenne. The butter really isn't truly the main flavor.
The chicken is tender, and picks up the flavors of the rich sauce, and mixed with the basmati rice, you get a bit of curry flavor finished with the tomato-based creaminess of the yogurt sauce and just a bit of heat. The samosa is stuffed with curry potatoes and peas, and is deep fried. Unfortunately, the samosa soaks up a fair amount of grease, making it a little tough to enjoy, but the chicken should keep you busy. India, high-five your neighbors, Greece, Jamaica, and Mexico.
And finally, we have fried whitefish nuggets ($4.49), which is also on a completely separate menu set aside for fried fish, chicken, and shrimp. That's a total of three different menus in the same restaurant, all served at the same counter. Astonishing! Sadly, this is my least favorite item of the bunch; the fish is a bit too, well, fishy, and since it still had its skin under the cornmeal breading, entire pieces of batter slid off the fish. Overall, the breading lacked crunch, and the nuggets were thin and soft. The french fries below aren't cooked all the way through, and end up being limp, soggy, and almost raw. Good try, America, but high-five your culinary neighbors, Mexico, Jamaica, Greece, and India anyway!
So if you're out at lunch and you're asking yourself, "Hey, do I want Mexican, Greek, Indian, Jamaican, or American food today?" You can find all of it at Burrito Buggy. And if that doesn't suit you, you can go next door for Chinese and Korean at Lai Lai and Korean Express, also both in the same restaurant. Oh yeah, and don't forget the Jerusalem-inspired street food at Benj Yehuda on the other side. Diversity! Unity! Food!
Burrito Buggy
206 West Van Buren Street, Chicago, IL 60607 (map)
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.