Mad, Mad House
Mad, Mad House, is one of the most fun shows on television. It's about a group of "ordinary," straight people who have to live with some very alternative folks, including a Voodoo Priestess, a Wiccan Priestess, a "vampire," a modern primitive and a raw foodist which one has to leave each week. They judge them on their willingness to change and grow. What a nice twist from the way the world is usually run.
- Patchwork Community.
- Mad Mad House Rewards Enlightenment
- Mad Mad House. A new fansite.
- Mad Mad Realm
- Mad Mad House Fan Site. A discussion board.
- Madhouse Board. Another bulletin board which is not moderated (thank God). But it has very annoying pop-ups.
- Anti-Mad. They love us not. A petition by pagans against the show.
- ALTS
- Art Aguirre, Modern Primitive. I have heard the term, "modern primitive," applied to people who merely wore their hair in certain ways and had a lot of piercings and tattoos. Art Aguirre is into it much more deeply than that. He does the Sun Dance, a Native practice of being suspended from hooks which had been inserted through the skin of the back. This is a deeply spiritual practice which brings the practitioner to a state of gnosis in which s/he comes to know God in a way most of us never dream of. I am really looking forward to learning more of his spiritual practices.
- Exclusive Chat.
- Church of Steel where Art practices piercing professionally.
- Modern Primitives
- Fakir Musafar
- An Exploration of Dark Paganism
- Suspension Experiences
- Lya Ta'Shia Asanti, Voodoo Priestess. Voodoo is the original religion of Africa, predating the advent of Islam. The main gods are the Seven Powers, known as Loas. But there are lesser Loas as well, including the worshipper's ancesters. The religion has traveled over the world, largely as a result of the slave trade. It is practiced in different countries under different names where it was often necessary to take on the trappings of Catholicism to appease the dominent culture. The rituals are beautiful and compelling. Priestesses, or Mambos, often become "possessed" or "ridden" by the Loas for the duration of the ritual who can then speak through them. Ta'Shia seems to have a puritanical side. She has twice ragged on Jaime for being an exotic dancer and made assumptions about her based on that. In the video for week 7, we can see Loana playing up to that puritanical tendency by telling her how "vulgar" Nichole is. Also, I'm becoming increasingly skeptical about the information she gets from her "ancestors" when they lead her to decide that Noel lied to her about the cold medicine. I certainly wouldn't want to be judged by what some "spirits" told someone about me.
- Ta'Shia Asanti's Sacred Door. Her own website.
- Daily Blog
- Exclusive Chat.
- The Church of the Seven African Powers. A detailed description of each of the Seven and information about rituals and philosophy as well.
- New Orleans Voodoo Spiritual Temple
- Voodoo in New Orleans Voodoo is different in every location. New Orleans has it's own version.
- Island of Salvation Botanica, started by Sally Ann Glassman and Shane Norris.
- David Wolfe (Avocado), Naturist and Raw Foodist. He is the webmaster of Nature's First Law, a site devoted to propagating the raw food way of life. Raw food is, really, the only truly healthy diet in the world. That sounds extreme but that's how it is. Avocado's glowing skin and eyes are testimony to the health benefits he receives from eating the way nature intended everyone to eat.
- David Wolfe. His homepage.
- Nature's First Law, Avocado's raw foods site.
- Exclusive Chat with Avocado.
- Healing Waters Band. Interview with Avocado (David Wolfe) about his band.
- Raw and Living Foods.
- My raw foods page.
- Fiona Horne, Wiccan Priestess. Wicca is older than Christianity. There is a lot of confusion around the subject as people (mostly women) were burned at the stake during the Middle Ages as "Witches" in such quantities as to qualify as genocide. History is written by the winning side so Witchcraft has had a bad rap for centuries, being confused with Satanism. The gods of the old religions become the devils of the newer religions. That is well known. And so it is with Wicca. Wiccans worship the Goddess and the Horned God (representing nature). But the Horned God became the Devil in the eyes of the Christian Church and hence the confusion. Today, there is a thriving movement to restore the Old Religion. There are many traditions, each with it's followers. As a person, Fiona has been disappointing. While claiming to be psychic and to have an inside scoop on the truth through her tarot cards, she has let Eric and Loana play her to an alarming degree. I know she says they didn't play her in her behind-the-scenes reports but it is becoming increasingly hard to avoid the verdict that her insight is 20-20 hindsight.
- Fiona Horne September 2000.
- Exclusive Chat.
- Who is Fiona Horne? by Juliaki. A critical look.
- Reclaiming. One of my first contacts with the Pagan community came about through reading
- Starhawk and subsequently taking some really good courses in magick within the context of the faery tradition of Wicca given by this collective.
- Another member of the Reclaiming Collective I came into contact with was M Macha NightMare who, like myself, is into Kali.
- The Women's Spirituality Forum, founded and lead by Z Budapest, used to meet in Oakland every Sunday afternoon for ritual, learning and socializing. Z led a Spiral Dance every year at Halloween.
- Don Henrie, Vampire. The only vampires I ever heard of were supernatural creatures in literature and the media. This guy isn't that kind of vampire, obviously. He lives like a vampire as much as a mortal ever can, drinking blood (from consenting partners) and sleeping in coffins during the day. I understand there's a spiritual element in this involving the derivation of some sort of vital energy from others but I'm not quite clear about that part of it. For a long time, I felt that the ALTS were all real except for Don. They were all into serious spiritual and physical practices. Don was just fantasy role-playing. When he badmouthed Nichole, I got really disgusted with Don. It little behoved him to call anyone else a "fake" when he was playing vampire. And there is evidence that his "energy draining" of Noel was achieved by pressure on the carotid artery. That having been said, I gained a lot of respect for Don after he saw through Loana's good-little-girl tattletale act. If Fiona and Ta'Shia eat up Loana's manipulative rap, how is their spiritual trip any more valid than Don's?
- Exclusive Chat.
- Don Henrie.
- Vampires on Parade.
- Real Vampires.
- The Don Henri Page. A fansite.
- Don Henri a fansite by Cindy. Good work!
- Yahoo group
- Crimson Vision: The Sky Makes You Cry But Water Makes You Bleed
- Renfield's Syndrome.
- Sanguinarius.org For Real Vampires.
- The Vampire Codex Index
- Art Aguirre, Modern Primitive. I have heard the term, "modern primitive," applied to people who merely wore their hair in certain ways and had a lot of piercings and tattoos. Art Aguirre is into it much more deeply than that. He does the Sun Dance, a Native practice of being suspended from hooks which had been inserted through the skin of the back. This is a deeply spiritual practice which brings the practitioner to a state of gnosis in which s/he comes to know God in a way most of us never dream of. I am really looking forward to learning more of his spiritual practices.
- GUESTS.
- Jamie Ethridge, Winner. She's a stripper who had Art pierce her belly button. Other than that, she was kind of low profile until she finally challenged herself and actually won the last competition. She had help, however, in the form of Eric the Asshole sabotaging Nichole by doubling the weight she had to carry. Even so, Nichole lasted a long time, a testiment to her focus and will. Jamie provided the kind of dramatic change I guess the ALTS had been looking for. Until the last minute, Jamie was in cahoots with Eric the Asshole and, like him, was badmouthing Nichole. She seems to have gotten over that in the final hour. I hope she was sincere since she certainly wouldn't deserve to win if she continued to harbor such petty feelings towards Nichole, a true giant amongst the guests.
- Nichole Ferrera, Second Place. Cool and unflappable, Nichole is my all time favorite. She has consistently been the most open of the guests. Her only "failing," as I see it, was to already have been on such a high plane when she started she couldn't provide the dramatic turn-around that three of the ALTS were looking for. Art and Ta'Shia get props for voting for Nichole to win. But their votes were not enough to carry her to victory. All she needed was one more vote. Avocado, Fiona and Don voted for Jamie. Jamie won the contest. But nothing can take from Nichole what she is in herself. She is the Star.
- Eric Lindquist. Eric the Asshole was the kind of jerk that infests most reality shows, conniving, manipulative and smug. Thank God, he was finally voted off and failed to reach the final two. Nevertheless, even after he was eliminated, Eric remained the vindictive
little creep he always had been. When Jamie won, he was all smirks that Nichole had been prevented from winning. In his exit interview, he actually wished gonnorhea on Nichole which, even knowing as much about him as I had to that point, still shocked me. He is not only an asshole. He is a pig. Nichole very graciously refused to blame any of the ALTS for their decision, saying Avocado makes really good decisions and Fiona just let her tarot cards decide. Myself, I can't be quite as generous. Not only did Avocado vote for Jamie to win, but he had a difficult time deciding to eliminate Eric instead of Nichole. At least, he did eliminate Eric. But why was it a hard decision? Eric is the lowest of the low, a sore loser, full of hate. And I am more confirmed than ever before that divination is a dumb was to make a decision. Cards come up randomly, for gods' sakes! They are an aid to tapping one's inner intuition. But all techniques of divination are only as effective as the intuitive powers of the reader.
- An Eric Fansite. Oh, well. I guess his only fan decided he had better things to do than maintain a website for Eric.
- Bonnie Dobkin. An older woman with a very down-to-earth woman-next-door vibe. Very nice. She was the fourth guest to be evicted but the first one to be given gifts. The ALTS held her in very high regard. It has been hard to understand their decision to eliminate her since she was one of the most spiritual guests on the show. Something about her "peaking early" as if that were a bad thing. Bonnie was the only guest to want Nichole to win and she gets 1000 props for that.
- I really did feel like a Goddess, damnit! Interview with Bonnie. (Warning, lots of pop-up windows.)
- Answers from Bonnie
At the finale, all the guests had been eliminated except for Jamie and Nichole. In a surprise move, all the eliminated guests were invited back for dinner. They were asked whom
they wanted to see win and all of them, except for Bonnie, said "Jamie." I find such a dynamic dispicable. They are truly a pack of mental and moral midgets who resent the one who towers over them. Nichole and Bonnie are the only guests who never stupped to attacking their fellow guests throughout the game. They were both unflinchingly supportive of the other guests which is especially remarkable of Nichole when the other guests were so terrible to her.
- Jamie Ethridge, Winner. She's a stripper who had Art pierce her belly button. Other than that, she was kind of low profile until she finally challenged herself and actually won the last competition. She had help, however, in the form of Eric the Asshole sabotaging Nichole by doubling the weight she had to carry. Even so, Nichole lasted a long time, a testiment to her focus and will. Jamie provided the kind of dramatic change I guess the ALTS had been looking for. Until the last minute, Jamie was in cahoots with Eric the Asshole and, like him, was badmouthing Nichole. She seems to have gotten over that in the final hour. I hope she was sincere since she certainly wouldn't deserve to win if she continued to harbor such petty feelings towards Nichole, a true giant amongst the guests.
the competitions. He won the first competition so he was exempt from eviction the first week. The ALTS have said they think he's only there for the money, not the experience, which he tended to reject.