I am distressed by the Socialist press (World Socialist Website) publishing site) writing articles that appear to support the Spanish police in making raids on the homes of members of the Catalan Independence Movement, saying they are "terrorists" and confiscating such things as pots and pans, a bit of fertilizer for their plants, etc. There are some items that can be used to make fireworks, but Catalonia loves festivals and celebrations and does use fireworks in these events.

I personally do not think that the Catalan Independence Movement is in any way violent. Please read my letter to the World Wide Socialist Publishing site.  Waiting to see if they accept it,

I would like to say that while I am not a "card-carrying: socialist per se, i have lived as one, making room for the poor in my Vermont home and community. I have friends who are dedicated Socialists. Tha Catalan Independence Movement is not a violent revolutionary or terrorist group. Catalonia has seen beloved leaders who have small children go to prison and they have not taken aggressive terrorist action against Spain-- which, I feel, is being haunted by the ghost of Franco. The country is dropping its pretense of being a democracy (while still protecting itself under the EU blanket as one). It is returning to the Fascist way of life, and the consequences can be dire, not only for Catalonia (which I feel wants and deserves her freedom from Spain-- at least Catalonia should have a chanee to voite without being beaten over the head with heavy bats as they were on October 1, 2017, by the Spanish Police. Please, Socialists-- Spain does not deserve your support! Stand with a free Catalonia!

Quote of the Day

George Bernard Shaw said of Mr. Fiske, "The name Irving Fiske is new to me -- I am very old and do not belong to this generation -- but I will say of him, as Mozart said when he heard a youth named Beethoven improvising, 'You will hear of this young man.' "

To learn more about Quarry Hill and its influences...

http://quarryhillvt.livejournal.com/95321.html

Please check out the entries on our Live Journal site. I hope to keep updating and posting more information about our odd lives. But there is quite a wealth to be found on Live Journal.

Also these authors, books, and artists who have influenced Quarry Hill and its denizens over the years:

A. S. Neill of Summerhill School in England

Dianetics before it became (in our opinion) corrupted: it was then a kind of compilation of Eastern meditative techniques, but it has changed.

Sigmund Freud 
C. G. Jung
A. Adler
Wilhelm Reich
and others


Aldous Huxley: Island, (some of our child-raising techniques came from this book), The Perennial Philosophy, Music at Night, and other books.
George Bernard Shaw: most of his plays, especially Back to Methuselah
Krishnamurti
The Buddha: particularly The Diamond Sutra, The Heart Sutra, Zen and Mahayana writings of the ages
The Gnostic Gospels
William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and much else
The King James Bible
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps
Alan Watts
Thomas Merton (Irving loved Watts, Reps, and Merton).
Dillard K. Henderson, Poet Laureate of Quarry Hill
At Times: Anais Nin, Henry Miller, D. H. Lawrence, Anne Morrow Lindbergh's writings especially Diaries and Letters
Amelia Earhart (Irving had a photo of her on his inner cabin door)

The Dalai Lama
Osho (formerly known as Sri something or other)
The I Ching
The Tibetan Book of the Dead and its other forms (The Psych. Experience)
The writings of Garma C. C. Chang (The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa)
The writings of W.Y. Evans-Wentz

W. Somerset Maugham: The Razor's Edge, Of Human Bondage
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Irving didn't like it, but the kids did)

William Shakespeare, especially The Tempest and Hamlet
The Greek playwrights: Euripides, particularly (Irv's favorite)




Leonardo Da Vinci
Sandro Botticelli
Fra Angelico (and others)
Michelangelo
Van Gogh
Cezanne
Monet
Tolouse-Lautrec
El Greco

(and others)

Bach
Vivaldi
Mozart
Telemann
Corelli
J. Pachelbel
Laurence Fingerhut's Auguries, from a suggestion by Ladybelle Fiske
(and others)

The Underground Cartoonists of the Sixties, especially Art Spiegelman and R. Crumb
Binghamton University (Harpur College)
Cornell University (Irving's Alma Mater)
Vermont College/The Union Institute (Ladybelle and Barb's Alma Mater)
University of Vermont (Andrew and William's Alma Mater)

Still Lake/Shoesole Lake, The Ocala National Forest, Central Florida... Irving's favorite spot on earth, I think.
Maple Corner, Curtis Pond, Calais, Vermont (one of Ladybelle's favorites, and her lost home)
Italy... especially Florence and Venice
Scotland, Ireland, England, France, and many other countries around the world
New York City: The West and East Villages

Films and TV:  The Godfather Trilogy, especially Godfather pt. II; Reds; Brother Sun, Sister Moon; Amadeus,
Films of George B. Shaw's plays; Monty Python, Hugh Laurie in all his many guises; House, M.D. particularly
The West Wing and most work by Aaron Sorkin


The Marx Brothers
Sherlock Holmes

 Steve Ellman:
Philip K. Dick, 
The Clash, Timothy Leary,
 Allen Ginsberg, 
J.R. "Bob" Dobbs,
 Augustus Owsley Stanley III, 
Albert Hofmann

Rick Skogsberg Ken Kesey, R. Crumb, Prof. Ben d'Eezy in any guise. Farmer John from Ann Arbor... 

(Yes--  loving memories to Professor Bendeasy-- Steve Slepack, our wonderful hippie clown friend who died here in 1996 of melanoma, and his niece, Maya Slepack, who lived here and then died a little after her uncle in Paris, France; to the memory of Cara Roskens, to the memory of many whom we loved and who are no longer present in earthly form.)

The many, many visitors who came from all parts of the earth to stay or to visit again or to be gone forever, for so many years. Thank you for coming here!