Alan Cabal

Infobox Writer
name = Alan Cabal


imagesize =
caption =
birthdate = birth date and age|1953|12|1Alan Cabal. " [http://web.archive.org/web/20010716153030/www.nypress.com/13/6/news&columns/feature.cfm Badlands: Burying Camden And My Mom] ", "New York Press", vol. 13, no. 6 (February 9–15, 2000).]
birthplace = Bridgeton, New Jersey
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Journalist, Occultist
nationality = American
pseudonym = Garbled Uplink

Alan Cabal (born December 1 1953) is an American journalist and occultist who has written for "New York Press", "High Times" magazine, "CounterPunch", "Gallery" magazine, and other publications. His colourful tenure at the "New York Press" began in 1996 but concluded in 2005 when he resigned in disgust of Matt Taibbi's controversial satire titled "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope". He continues to write book reviews for "High Times" magazine and occasionally contributes to "CounterPunch".

Biography

Several months after his birth on December 1 1953 in the New Jersey town of Bridgeton to a 15-year-old mother, Alan Cabal was adopted by Albert and Elizabeth Cabal, respectively, a chemical engineer and a housewife; they raised him in Camden, New Jersey.Andrey Slivka. " [http://www.nypress.com/14/32/news&columns/culture.cfm Jersey Shore Diary: Oh the rain keeps a-fallin’, as the great Freddy Fender sang...] ", "New York Press", vol. 14, no. 32 (August 8–14, 2001).] Cabal was a child actor in the theatre, performing on and off Broadway. [cite news |title=Theater: Wilder Is Given; 3 Early Plays at Cherry Lane in Limited Run |author=Dan Sullivan |date=1966-09-07 |work=The New York Times ] [cite news |title=Theater: Lincoln Repertory's 'Galileo'; Anthony Quayle Plays the Title Role Brecht Drama Offered --Hirsch Is Director |author=Walter Kerr |date=1967-04-14 |work=The New York Times] He also appeared on "The Patty Duke Show". [http://www.rheingold.com/electricminds/html/wwj_nyc_1429.html]

Off and on from 1979 to the early 1990s, Cabal worked at The Magickal Childe in Chelsea, NY, an occult shop founded in the mid-1970s as the Warlock Shop by Herman Slater that went out of business in the late-1990s.cite book |title=The Necronomicon Files: The Truth Behind Lovecraft's Legend |author=Daniel Harms and John Wisdom Gonce III |year=2003 |publisher=Weiser Books |location=Boston, MA |pages=p. 39 |isbn=1-57863-269-2 |url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=JW_iqpErrFcC |quote=... a group associated with the Magickal Childe bookshop, then known as the Warlock Shop. Though now closed, this store was for many years the center of New York City's occult community. The shop's owner was Herman Slater, a showman-occultist of the old school.] [cite news |title=FORAGING; Witchcraft for Lovers and Other Explorers |author=Cara Greenberg |date=1993-02-07 |work=The New York Times |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5DC1031F934A35751C0A965958260 ] [cite news |title=SHOPPING; For Uncertain Shoppers, Shops That Know |author=Eve M. Kahn |date=1991-12-15 |work=The New York Times |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5D71438F936A25751C1A967958260 ] The Magickal Childe and other occult bookshops in New York City were important gathering spots for the "occult renaissance" that had begun in the 1960s. [cite book |title=Secret Wisdom: The Occult Universe Revealed |year=2002 |author=David Conway |publisher=Vega Books |location=London |pages=p. 110 |isbn=1-84333-632-4 |url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=aTZF0GdzpQYC |quote=It was in the 1960s, amidst the flower power, macrobiotic food, Zen Buddhism and endless talk of peace and love, that there appeared to be signs of an occult renaissance, with young people determined to make the transcendental a part of their everyday lives.] [cite book |title=Monsters: An Investigator's Guide to Magical Beings |author=John Michael Greer |year=2004 |publisher=Llewellyn Publications |location=St. Paul, MN |pages=p. xiv |isbn=0-7387-0050-9 |url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=YMx3nzTnBB4C |quote=Equally, people in America and elsewhere still practice magic--more so with each passing year, in fact, as the occult renaissance of the last few decades continues to broaden its popularity and deepen its understanding of the traditions it follows. ] Cabal was one of the luminaries of this occultist movement.cite book |title=Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes |author=Christopher Knowles |year=2007 |publisher=Weiser Books |location=San Francisco, Calif. |pages=pp. 197-198 |isbn=1-57863-406-7 |url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=93Mv-1R5yskC |quote=... New York City, where the occult renaissance outlived the Sixties. Groups like the OTO were very active there in the 1970s, and like-minded esotericists gathered in occult bookshops like the Magickal Childe in Chelsea. While the rest of the counterculture movement was being co-opted, these initiates created a counterculture of their own--a close-knit community devoted to drugs, sex, and magic. Luminaries like former "Village Voice" writer Alan Cabal, occult writer Peter Levenda, Bonnie Wilfrod (then wife of "X-Men" writer Chris Claremont), filmmaker Kenneth Anger, and assorted fans of sci-fi and other genres were all drawn into the scene. NOTE: Cabal has never written for "The Village Voice": the error was first committed by astrologer Rob Brezsny and subsequently perpetuated by others.] He later wrote a short profile on the history of New York City's occult and Magick crowd, spanning from the 1970s up to the 1990s, in a "New York Press" piece titled "The Doom that Came to Chelsea".Alan Cabal. " [http://www.nypress.com/16/23/news&columns/feature.cfm The Doom that Came to Chelsea] ", "New York Press", vol. 16, no. 23 (June 3–9, 2003).]

He was involved with the administration of the "Caliphate" version of Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis for nearly twenty years. Since 1995, he has been affiliated with the Temple of Set.

Over the years, Cabal has held a variety of jobs. He was formerly a stockbroker and then went on to work for various circuses for over a decade, including shows such as Cirque du Soleil. [Alan Cabal. " [http://www.nypress.com/14/30/nyc/nyc3.cfm Real American Circus ] ", "New York Press", vol. 14, no. 30 (July 25–31, 2001).] In the mid-1990s Cabal was a member of the New York online community EchoNYC, going by the username "Garbled Uplink", and was also in the employ of Echo, providing technical help over the phones in one capacity; [cite book |title=Deeper: My Two-Year Odyssey in Cyberspace |author=John Seabrook |year=1997 |month=February |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York City |pages=pp. 134–136 |isbn=978-0684801759 ] he was described by Kenneth Li in New York's "Daily News" as "one of the most feared members of Echo," "ill-tempered", and "known for his fierce online reprimands".cite news |title=The Net's Horn of Plenty |author=Kenneth Li |date=1998-03-08 |work=Daily News |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/money/1998/03/08/1998-03-08_the_net_s_horn_of_plenty.html |accessdate=2008-07-14] [cite news |title=Echoids |author=Harold Goldberg |date=1998-02-15 |work=The New York Times |url=http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15/reviews/980215.15goldbet.htm] [cite news |title=Hacker Homecoming |author=Joshua Quittner |date=1995-01-23 |work=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982254,00.html] He was eventually thrown off Echo by owner Stacy Horn for violating the BBS's terms of use.Fact|date=October 2008

His last dalliance with the theatre was in June 1993, when he appeared on stage with controversial artist Ron Athey at New York City's Performance Space 122 in a performance-art piece titled "Martyrs & Saints" involving ritual torture and blood spattered all over the stage. [cite web |title=Performance history |author=Ron Athey |publisher=RonAthey.com |url=http://www.ronathey.com/history.pdf ] In the mid-1990s, he was a singer in the band White Courtesy Telephone using his familiar pseudonym Garbled Uplink.cite news |title=Rock & Roll Fantasy |author=Rob Tannenbaum |date=July 1997 |work=Details ] [cite press release |title=White Courtesy Telephone Press Release |date=1997-06-14 |publisher=EchoNYC.com |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20030418051901/www.echonyc.com/~hugh/wct/wctpr.html ] cite web |title=White Courtesy Telephone Bio |publisher=Monster Island Records |url=http://www.monsterisland.com/wct/bio.html |accessdate=2008-07-01]

As a writer, he is best-known for his contributions to New York City's alternative weekly newspaper "New York Press", but he is also known under the pseudonym Garbled Uplink at "High Times" magazine where he was formerly a columnist. He has written for other publications, such as "Gallery" magazine, and continues to contribute to "High Times" magazine as a book reviewer and occasionally to "CounterPunch", a biweekly newsletter.

His "sympathetic" [cite web
url=http://www.wymaninstitute.org/articles/2004-denialreport.php
title=David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies: Welcome
publisher=www.wymaninstitute.org
accessdate=2008-06-25
last=
first=] article on holocaust denier Ernst Zündel in "CounterPunch" titled "Star Chamber Redux: the Prosecution of Zundel", attracted the attention of the media, including internet forums and blogs and the Jeff Rense radio show, [cite web
url=http://www.ihr.org/news/040326zundel.shtml
title=Some Good News in the Zundel Case: Weber On The 'Jeff Rense' Show
publisher=www.ihr.org
accessdate=2008-06-25
last=
first=] which Zundel called "An amazing break-through" in a letter to the Adelaide Institute. [cite web
url=http://www.adelaideinstitute.org/newsletters/n217.htm
title=ISSN 1440
publisher=www.adelaideinstitute.org
accessdate=2008-06-25
last=
first=] [ [http://www.counterpunch.org/gasper03202004.html Phil Gasper: Chomsky's Lesser-Evilism ] ]

Bemoaning the loss of its iconoclastic edge, Cabal resigned from the "New York Press" on March 3 2005, the day after the newspaper ran a controversial satire by Matt Taibbi titled "The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope". [cite news |title=The 52 Funniest Things About the Upcoming Death of the Pope |author=Matt Taibbi |date=2005-03-02 |work=New York Press |url=http://www.nypress.com/18/9/news&columns/taibbi.cfm] [cite news |title=Take This Job and Shove It! |author=Ryan Underwood |date=2005-03-07 |work=Fast Company |url=http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2005/03/07/take_this_job_and_shove_it.html ]

Influence

Wayne State University Department of English professor Steven Shaviro lists, as one of his favorites, a quote from Cabal's "New York Press" essay "Best Things About Being a Middle-Aged Guy In New York" (noted by Arts & Letters Daily in 2000 with an 'offense advisory') [cite web |title=2000 Archive |publisher=Arts & Letters Daily |url=http://www.aldaily.com/arch00.htm ] in which Cabal stated, "Honestly, at this point, all I really care about is novelty and making sure I have ringside seats for whatever awful spectacle is about to unfold." [cite web |title=Steven Shaviro's Web Pages |url=http://www.dhalgren.com/ |accessdate=2008-06-25] [Alan Cabal. " [http://web.archive.org/web/20010820180853/http://nypress.com/content.cfm?content_id=2739&now=10/03/2000&content_section=47 Best Things About Being a Middle-Aged Guy In New York] ", "New York Press", vol. 13, no. 39 (September 27–October 3, 2000).]

elected bibliography

* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/12/31/news&columns/feature.cfm Paranoid Field: Fringe Scientists Gather in Columbus] ", "New York Press", vol. 12, no. 31 (August 5–11, 1999).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/12/45/news&columns/nyc3.cfm Springing Moser] ", "New York Press", vol. 12, no. 45 (November 14–20, 1999).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/12/52/news&columns/feature.cfm Things Change: Contemplating a Black Hole At Brookhaven Labs] ", "New York Press", vol. 12, no. 52 (December 28, 1999–January 4, 2000).
* —. " [http://web.archive.org/web/20010716153030/www.nypress.com/13/6/news&columns/feature.cfm Badlands: Burying Camden And My Mom] ", "New York Press", vol. 13, no. 6 (February 9–15, 2000).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/13/30/news&columns/nyc2.cfm Keeping HOPE Alive] ", "New York Press", vol. 13, no. 30 (July 26–August 1, 2000).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/13/31/news&columns/feature.cfm Cheese Steaks & Crank: Prelude to a Coronation] ", "New York Press", vol. 13, no. 31 (August 2–8, 2000).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/13/32/news&columns/feature.cfm Elephant Walk: Triumph of the W] ", "New York Press", vol. 13, no. 32 (August 9-15, 2000).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/13/34/news&columns/feature.cfm Cirque du Malaise: Dawn of the Zombies for Gore] ", "New York Press", vol. 13, no. 34 (August 23–29, 2000).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/13/39/bestof/manliving2.cfm Best Things About Being a Middle-Aged Guy In New York] ", "New York Press", vol. 13, no. 39 (September 27–October 3, 2000).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/15/16/books/books.cfm "Zodiac Unmasked"] ", "New York Press", vol. 15, no. 16 (April 17–23, 2002).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/16/23/news&columns/feature.cfm The Doom that Came to Chelsea] ", "New York Press", vol. 16, no. 23 (June 3–9, 2003).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/16/49/news&columns/rotation.cfm L. Ron Hubbub: More attacks on everyone’s favorite whipping boys.] ", "New York Press", vol. 16, no. 49 (December 2–8, 2003).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/16/53/news&columns/feature.cfm Nine hundred and Eleven Missing Pieces: What don’t we know, and why don’t we know it?] ", "New York Press", vol. 16, no. 53 (December 31, 2003–January 6, 2004).
* —. " [http://www.historiansbehindbars.com/amspress.html Star Chamber Redux: the Prosecution of Zundel] ", "CounterPunch" (reprinted at HistoriansBehindBars.com), February 1, 2004.
* —. " [http://web.archive.org/web/20040618031537/www.nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=10228 Five-Lobe Circus: The pills, quacks and crises of a medicated life.] ", "New York Press", vol. 17, no. 20 (May 18–24, 2004).
* —. " [http://www.nypress.com/17/45/news&columns/alancabal.cfm Weimar Falls Indeed] ", "New York Press", vol. 17, no. 45 (November 10–16, 2004).
* —. " [http://nypress.com/17/51/news&columns/alancabal.cfm Christmas Surprise: The happiest mom in the world, if only for a moment ] ", "New York Press", vol. 17, no. 51 (December 21–27, 2004).
* —. " [http://www.counterpunch.org/cabal01272007.html Mayday from the Circus Tent] ", "CounterPunch", January 27 / 28, 2007.
* —. " [http://www.counterpunch.org/cabal02062007.html How Charles Manson Kept Me Out of Vietnam] ", "CounterPunch", February 6, 2007.

See also

* Gonzo journalism

References

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/whitecourtesytelephonenyc MySpace: White Courtesy Telephone's official band web page]