Category Archives: Yosemite

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas try to start a New Religion

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas  tease the notion of a speculative new spiritual movement. This is a simulcast with Matt’s literary podcast, New Write, and a field-recording, conversation on cults, the new age movement, Matt’s Substack article “The Renaissance of the Ritual“, Robert’s novel “Vaporfornia“, California as fertile soil for new religions, occultism, and much more. Recorded on May 1st, 2022, on a trip through the backcountry of San Diego County, near Palomar Mountain, where Crowlian occultist, Wilfred Talbot Smith, erected an Ordo Templi Orientis temple.

Topics:

Background on the “new religion,” started as a half joke in Yosemite
A self-initiatory religion, comparable to Discordianism
Social reasons for the rise in cults
California ‘s spiritual movements: Mike Marinacci’s book California Jesus, Order of Atwa, and the Partridge Family Temple
Syncretic occultism and the esotericism/New Age to fascist pipeline
The right hand vs. left hand path and Jungian shadow work
The occultist ritual, finding structure in chaos, and a metaphysical/esoteric take on self-improvement
Knowing when to surrender and embrace the photosynthesis of the Universe/Light of God
The relationship between spirituality and biology (speculating where atheism and various theologies fit on the Bell Curve meme)
An anti-liberal and anti-blank slatist case for Theosophy
Robert’s article on a psychological inspired approach to solving political and social problems
Aesthetic alchemy (Sigils), and the spiritual, ethereal component to  aesthetics
Bronze Age Pervert as a foundationalist (not a traditionalist), and Mike Ma as an instinctive Christian
Jason Jorjani’s Prometheism 
Why spirituality and reclaiming vitality needs to come before politics

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark discusses his novel Vaporfornia

Robert Stark is joined with Matt Pegas and Dan Baltic to discuss his new novel, Vaporfornia. Vaporfornia is a surreal dark comedy, a coming of age story set in California, and is the sequel to Robert’s first novel, Journey to Vapor Island. This show is a simulcast with Matt and Dan’s dissident, counter-culture, literary podcast, New WriteVaporfornia is available for purchase on Lulu publishing. Also check out Matt’s review of Vaporfornia.

Topics:

Contrasting Vaporfornia with Journey to Vapor Island, and how both novels capture the zeitgeists of their respective eras
The niche genre of the satirical moving adventure story
Literary comparisons to a Confederacy of Dunces, William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, Lucky Jim, Voltaire’s Candide, and Gulliver’s Travels
The situational humor and dramatic irony
Vaporfornia as a satire of the themes in Robert’s Substack that delve into California’s social, political, class, and demographic dynamics
Vaporfornia as a travelogue for California
Allegories and symbolism in the book
Saudade, a longing for what could have been or nostalgia for lost futures
Gio Pennacchietti’s video about how Robert’s literary fiction and visual art complement each other
The protagonist’s personal and political journey
The politics of the “Chad Centrist” presidential candidate Roger Blackstone
Whether Robert Stark will run for California Governor or have a Vaporfornia tour some day

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson, and subscribe to his Substack.

Yosemite High Country Photo Album

Album of the High Country of  Yosemite National Park  includes Olmsted Point with view to Half Dome, Tenaya Lake, and Tuolumne Meadows. Photos were taken over Labor Day Weekend.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and subscribe to his Substack Newsletter.

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Yosemite Valley Photo Album

Album of Yosemite National Park includes the Wawona Hotel, Glacier Point, Tunnel View, and the Yosemite Valley including the Merced River,  Vernal Fall and Emerald Pool above the falls, the Ahwahnee Hotel, the view to Half Dome, and Curry Village. Photos taken over Labor Day Weekend.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and subscribe to his Substack Newsletter.

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Robert Stark talks to Richard Register about Resilient Design in the San Francisco Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Register is a theorist in ecology and urban design, the author of several books on the topic of ecologically sustainable cities, and founder and President of Ecocity World.

Topics:

The Bigger Bay Ecotropolis
The degree to which sea level rise is inevitable
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
How people in Ancient Mesopotamia adapted to flooding with artificial mounds
How that concept can be incorporated in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mississippi River Delta
How that concept is not adaptable in spread out suburbia
Building on elevated terrain in compact pedestrian developments
The All Bay Collective Proposals
Why damming the Golden Gate is not viable
The long term goal of living car free
Underground highways
Retrofitting suburbs into compact villages surrounded by open space
How that model is more sustainable to natural disasters such as wild fires
Yv 88: An Eco-Fiction of Tomorrow and its depiction of a car free Yosemite Valley

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island