bitethehand.org

As We Hang

Posted on June 10th, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: Bite the Hand Poetry.

As we hang…

As we relax…

Let’s listen to the sounds of pencils scratching,

Our friends’ songs,

And ideas that pop into our head like new clouds,

Let’s hang like vines together…

Like fur on a brier…

Or old man’s beard in oak trees,

And be a part of the scenery that feeds us

(The above picture was taken at our first Cheap Art Day at Assa ni Assa earlier this year. We listened to music and made art together and basically goofed around all day. It was great for the whole community. Our next Cheap Art Day of hanging and creating together will be on June 29th!)

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After a Year… A Day in the Park

Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: Music, The Pharmakon.

 On Sunday, June 1st, Bite the Hand Productions showed up at Santa Rosa’s Doyle Park, sound permit in hand, to enjoy local music and celebrate the one-year anniversary of The Pharmakon periodical.  We sat up in the center of the park, under the shade of a giant oak tree, and spent the day listening to music and spending time with people in our community.  From noon to dusk, it was a great way to celebrate a year of fantastic production!

We played with soccer balls and frisbees.  We met new people and our dogs ran around.  Food Not Bombs brought fruits, veggies, and breads.  The sounds of Drugstore Chemist, Jugbone, The Semi-Evolved Simians, Blue Shift, Erstwhile Medicine Show, A Mother Like Sun, Three Mile Island, Bryce Style and Goodriddler filled our ears.  A new musical project from Bite the Hand, called The Crooks, reared its head for the first time! 

But the best part of the day was the people.  Many of the guests were folks we had never seen before!  They had just shown up because of their contact with The Pharmakon!  That was one of the really amazing parts of the day- meeting the people who have been reading our work.  Thanks for showing up and celebrating with us.  We look forward to another year…

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Herbs and Music!

Posted on May 31st, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: Soundings, Music, Local Businesses and Non-Profits, Events, Workshops.

Today went so well that we had to sit down immediately and start writing.  A  big group turned out to enjoy music and to learn more about how to use herbs medicinally.  Our friend Kaitlin put on THREE workshops for the public explaining how to make salves, tinctures, and fire cider!  Hannah Rose, Travis Hendrix, Tyler Wagner, I Cut People, and Low Five all played music and proved that they were some of the best artists in our county.  We also planted a new herb garden for Community Market!   It was a great mixture of sounds, smells, and do-it-yourself energy…

This project was a joint effort between Bite the Hand Productions, Vuildings Building Themselves, and Santa Rosa’s Community Market.  For more information on Buildings Building Themselves, cleck here:  BBT Web Page   For more information on Community Market, click here:  Community Market Web Page

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The Pharmakon One-Year Anniversary!

Posted on May 28th, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: Food Not Bombs, Bryce Style's Poetry, Music, Events, The Pharmakon.

This Sunday, June 1st, we will be celebrating ONE WHOLE YEAR OF THE PHARMAKON PERIODICAL! Come on out to Santa Rosa’s Doyle Park from noon to sundown and enjoy a day in the park with Bite the Hand Productions!

It is going to be a great day! Here is the schedule of the musical acts:

• 12:00- Jugbone
• 12:30- Drugstore Chemist
• 1:00- The Semi-Evolved Simians
• 2:00- A soccer game with music by Blue Shift
• 3:00- Erstwhile Medicine Show
• 3:30- Three Mile Island (featuring Bill Wild)
• 4:15- A Mother Like Sun
• 5:15- Goodriddler
• 6:00- Hannah Rose

Bring something to barbeque! We will have food from Food Not Bombs, poetry by Bryce Style, and more! Also, the whole event will be hosted by Timmy Redface and The Skinny Man in their new musical project- The Crooks! We want to fill the park with Pharmakon fans, so bring your friends!

$5 suggested donation, no one turned away for lack of funds. Call 707-326-5274 for details and directions.

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Community Market Herb Day!!

Posted on May 27th, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: Soundings, Music, Local Businesses and Non-Profits, Events.

Come to Santa Rosa’s Community Market this Saturday and enjoy great local music as we learn more about how to identify and use herbs! It is going to be a fantastic day! Here is the line-up:

• 11:00- Music by Hannah Rose
• 11:30- Salve Workshop
• 12:00- Music by Leila Anne
• 12:30- Tincture Workshop
• 1:00- Music by Travis Hendrix
• 1:30- Fire Cider Workshop
• 2:00- Herb Walk
• 2:30- Music

Call 326-5274 for details.

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The Crux are Hiding Out…

Posted on May 24th, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: The Crux, Music.

Dear People of Sonoma County,

Thank you for coming to our shows.  Thank you for stomping.  Thank you for dreaming us into being.  It has been a grand year.  Together, we have propped up The Pharmakon and have welcomed new artists into our community canopy.  Such sounds.  Such spirit.

Now, we shall be wandering the streets for a month or so, searching for good acoustics as we shape an album out of the things we find.  We’ll return with it between our teeth and we’ll drop it at your feet like a fish.  So be true while we’re away and we’ll meet again another day.

- The Crux

PS:  You can still contact us here:  www.myspace.com/thecruxandfriends 

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Pharmakon #12 is Out!

Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: The Pharmakon.

Our May issue of The Pharmakon (titled “Poison/Medicine”) is out on the streets. We’ll be dropping it off over the next couple days at all of our usual spots:

COLOR issues are for sale at Copperfields in Sebastopol and Petaluma, and at Community Market in Santa Rosa.

FREE BLACK AND WHITE copies are at Community Market, Treehorn Books, Flying Goat Coffee, 1710 Coffee, The Boogie Room, Free Mind Media, The Last Record Store, Aquus Cafe, Coffee Catz, Hardcore Espresso, Infusions Tea House, North Light, and Zone Music.

This year-ending issue invites you to our One Year Anniversary and a Community Market event, introduces you to the people who print The Pharmakon, presents the third part of Phaedrus (the philosophy of The Pharmakon), tells the last part of our Shady Dealings comic, and much more! Buy one if at all possible, or you can always pick a black and white copy up for free! Enjoy!

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An Underground Sonoma County Film is Coming!

Posted on May 21st, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: Films, Events.

You may have seen them at Monday Night Mass.  You may have seen them at a Crux or Lines show.  You may have seen them at The Insect Carnival.  Groups of people with cameras, leaning into windows, in the middle of crowds, hanging from open car doors.

Last summer a documentary was made that focused on the growing art and activism scene in Sonoma County.  It has many interviews, show footage, Monday Night Mass, The Insect Carnival, and more!  The director, “Movie Mike” worked tirelessly to put together a peice that does justice to what we are doing.

And one year later… Movie Mike is returning!  He will be showing his film at a number of places in the near future and will be discussing and re-editing as he goes along. 

So, keep coming back to bitethehand.org for times and places where YOU can see the film!

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Phaedrus (Part Three)

Posted on May 20th, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: Phaedrus, Philosophy, The Pharmakon.

  Part Three:  Our Prescription 

Dear Reader,

Poison and medicine.  As I mentioned in my first letter, the word pharmakon means both.  Not either/or, but both poison and medicine at the same time.  The same way that we have seen the text itself is both composed and decomposed (see “Phaedrus 1” in September’s issue), the same way that my writing is both a straying and hunting (“Phaedrus 2” in January’s issue), the pharmakon is that which both heals and kills. 

It makes sense: in the logic of the supplement (the pharmakon), whatever comes from without cannot be entirely beneficial, nor can it be entirely harmful.  It remains simply “different.”  Every encounter with the supplement is new and it contains both healing and destructive power. An ambiguous experience, an encounter with the pharmakon never proves to be entirely one-sided . What you get is more like a subtle description of the whole.

Descriptions: mythic and metaphorical hints.  This is what the pharmakon offers us.  It requires a bit of meditation and imagination to fully digest this ambiguous metaphorical supplement.  This poison, this medicine, this pharmakon is something that comes from the outside and conjures up reactions in whoever encounters it.  It is just like the written word, which conjures up a number of different image and ideas in the reader.  Remember how in ancient Greece, the word pharmakon referred to writing…

Now, look at The Pharmakon periodical.  Our little written supplement is also like poison and medicine.  Full of hints and descriptions of art and activism, it has both a constructive and deconstructive effect on Sonoma County.  Merely the presence of a monthly publication has created plenty of positive and negative effect.  People have been pleased and people have been upset, all from a little mixture of writing… just scribbles… like a wolf paw scratching… What The Pharmakon represents is the ambiguous power that an inscribed message has on reader and writer alike.

“Really?” you may think, “but why all of these articles on art and activism?  Isn’t there some great political scheme behind this?”  I think not.  The Pharmakon, though not outside of politics, should not be misunderstood as logical political discourse.  There is a political world that we live in, but our writings are more like artifacts left over from that world. Our writing is a magic bag of tricks and inspiration, it is not meant to be a definitive commentary.  The Pharmakon does not work in a logical way.  It is more physical than that, working on many levels at once.  A collection of scribbles, it sails through our community, effecting us in a variety of unpredictable ways.

So, what are we hoping you get out of The Pharmakon?  What is this supplement supposed to do?  That is a difficult question to answer, since The Pharmakon can be read in many ways.  It is not meant to tell you anything in particular.  It is more of a strange invitation.  A prescription.  To accept it is to let the poison and the medicine take their effects.  It is to join in the creation and discovery.  It is to paint your world with an intimate and artistic vision.  To compose and decompose.  To stray and to hunt at the same time.  This inscription is our prescription.  This script… this script… this script… 

Yours in Service, 

Phaedrus  

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Some More of Annie’s Art

Posted on May 19th, 2008 by The Captain.
Categories: Annie The Ghost's Art.

The event at Dardevils and Queens Saturday night was lots of fun. The crowd got to see Annie’s fantastic art as well as musical and theatrical acts. We can’t wait for her next art show.

As you know, Annie had to change the date and make a new flier. We wanted to post her original flier here, because we like it so much.  Click on the image for the full picture.

To see more of Annie’s art go here: Annie the Ghost’s Art

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