The Manson Family murders in the summer of â69 seared a hole in the American psyche. The Family was a cult of hippie nihilists led by Charles Manson, a frustrated singer-songwriter on the fringe of the LA music industry. In what was to become one of the first acts of social-class terrorism to date, Manson […]
Hugh Hefner: Playboy of the western world
Author’s note: I know at first glance this might seem inappropriate, posting an article on Hugh Hefner the week after the Harvey Weinstein scandal, revealing the latter’s systemic sexual harassment and assault upon young women in the film industry. Bad timing for this article, perhaps, but good timing for Hefner to have died just three […]
Jim Carrey: Man on the Moon?
Every now and again, Jim Carrey gives an interview which causes people to wonder out loud, Is this guy playing with a full deck? Admittedly, Carrey has never been shy about voicing his opinion on matters he considered important. While still partners with Jenny McCarthy, he campaigned publicly against vaccinations, going so far as to […]
Sam Shepard: exit, stage left
Judged by many of his peers to be the greatest American playwright of his generation, Sam Shepard authored 44 plays, and won a Pulitzer for âBuried Child.â But he was also an actor in over 50 movies, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in âThe Right Stuff.â A multi-talented artist, during his […]
Season of the Serpent
Take cover. It’s Kala Sarpa season. While everyone was focused on the solar eclipse of August 21st, another significant phenomenon was taking place on the same day. Ever since the Rahu/Ketu axis had shifted into Cancer/Capricorn on August 17th, only one other element remained to put things in play. So when, in the early hours […]
Mathematical Frequency of Common Yogas
As Vedic astrologers, we routinely scan a chart to note the presence of yogas, ie, the planetary combinations that portend one effect or another for the person under consideration. These anticipated results derive, typically, from the houses the participant planets own, the signs and houses they occupy and, sometimes, the basic nature of the planets […]
John Wayne Gacy: no tears for the Killer Klown
Biography John Wayne Gacy (aka âThe Killer Klownâ) was a Chicago-area serial killer who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men during the 1970s. Most ended up buried under the crawl space beneath his suburban home. Brutalized by his father throughout his youth, and sexually molested as a child by […]
Audrey Hepburn: tiny waif with a big heart
Audrey Hepburn remains one of only a dozen people whoâve won all four of the entertainment industryâs most prestigious honors â the Academy, Emmy, Grammy and Tony Awards. Yet for someone with such a successful career, she has a relatively unremarkable chart. Nonetheless, on closer inspection we realize it illustrates one of the key concepts […]
Mutual Reception: Book review by Mary Plumb, The M...
Mutual Reception by Alan Annand, Sextile.com, 2016. Softcover 340 pp. $19.95 (ISBN 978-1-927799-24-6). Available from Amazon. Alan Annand is an experienced Vedic astrologer who has written two previous books from that tradition. His new book, Mutual Reception, takes a different approach; he begins with a survey of theories of mutual reception from the Western tradition […]
Kathy Griffin: D-list casualty of war
After last weekâs gaffe, Kathy Griffin may have moved from being a D-list celebrity to a D-list train wreck, at least temporarily in terms of her career. Griffin has always been outspoken, and her controversial statements have had her in and out of hot water more often than a lobster determined not to be someoneâs […]