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Hawkwind: In Search Of Space

Greg Shaw, Creem, June 1972

Have you ever felt the urge to visit the distant reaches of the galaxy? I don't mean in some freaked-out 2001 Pink Floyd acid trip, naw, forget that – it's no fun to take the universe that solemnly, nobody cool wants to be the psychic mad scientist. Instead, imagine yourself Danny Dunn, Junior Space Cadet, making a run to the teenage stars. Maybe you don't have enough imagination, but that's OK because Hawkwind supplies that and all the visual aids you need Inside this bizarre interlocking cover with pictures of strange figures in control rooms throbbing with unearthly lights comes a little booklet (it came in my copy anyway – they do sometimes deprive you peasants out there in Retail Land of these goodies) called "The Hawkwind Log." (Every cadet worth his rocket insignia knows a starship must carry a log.) Inside are all kinds of nifty pix of star clusters and a lot of random quotes from scientific pamphlets. Also a generous serving of hogwash about chakras and mantras and plenty of mystical pieties, but you see the captain of the Starship Hawkwind is a crypto-Buddhist, chasing the Tao through space like Ahab's whale.

Total word count of piece: 793

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