February 8, 2009
Trippy tatts
In a fun article in the Feb. 6-8 USA Weekend Magazine, Luke Walton's upper right arm is shown proudly displaying four dancing skeletons. Walton, of the LA Lakers, gets the "G for Grateful Dead" in the NBA Tattoos, from A to Z article. All four skeletons balance basketballs and represent Luke and his three brothers-- it's a multi-generational family thing.
American Beauty Project
Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series recently featured an evening devoted to the lyrics and music of the Grateful Dead. The American Beauty Project, an ensemble of nine musicians, performed pieces with introductions made by Larry Campbell. (Campbell these days often plays with Phil Lesh. To read Blair Jackson's interview with Larry Campbell go to http://www.dead.net/features/interviews.) The evening at Lincoln Center gets a good write up by Stephen Holden in the January 19th issue of the New York Times.
February 1, 2009
SWTXPCA 2009 Conference: Dead Lessons
The 30th annual meeting of the Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association is being held this month (Feb. 25-28th) in Albuquerque. Focus sessions on the Grateful Dead have been prominent in previous conferences and this year fourteen are being offered. Speakers are coming from all over the U.S. and include deeply involved scholars such as Nicholas Meriwether, Rebecca Adams and David Gans. This year in a special session devoted to "Dead Lessons: The Grateful Dead Organizational Model" Michael Grabsheid of U.Mass, Amherst and Sandy Sohcot of the Rex Foundation will present, as will UCSC's University Librarian Ginny Steel. Ginny's talk will delve into UCSC's Grateful Dead Archive and is appropriately entitled: "By the Waterside I Will Rest My Bones." For more on the Association, the conference, and to get a complete program go to http://www.swtxpca.org
January 9, 2009
Peter Rowan
The Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band plays locally at Don Quixote's in Felton this Saturday (Jan.16th.) See www.donquixotesmusic.info for details. Rowan with band mates just played last month's Rex Foundation 25th Anniversary bash, and in the 70s was part of Old & In the Way with David Grisman, Jerry, Vassar Clements, etc.
January 1, 2009
Bill Kreutzmann in Santa Cruz
Bill Kreutzmann, with Oteil Burbridge and Scott Muawski will play Moe’s Alley here in Santa Cruz (1536 Commercial Way) on Thursday February 12, 2009. Tickets are on sale now: www.moesalley.com.
Two books revisit late 1960s culture
Popular culture readers will find two new books just out as darkly fascinating. Both weave rock with political and social history, both specifically make reference to the Grateful Dead.
Peter Doggett’s There’s a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars, and the Rise and Fall of the ‘60s (Canongate, 2008) looks at the period of 1965-72 when music “fueled the revolutionary movement with anthems and iconic imagery,” and the stars were asked to respond to, endorse and defend (sometimes reluctantly or defiantly) political action. Steve Morse in a Boston Globe review of Nov. 7, 2008 finds this book “brilliant,” “ambitious,” and “wrenching”.
Journalist Mikal Gilmore (whose pieces frequent Rolling Stone) has just published Stories Done: Writings on the 1960s and Its Discontents (Free Press, 2008), a collection of essays examining the lives of several of the era’s cultural figures. Often visionary, these figures may be publically engaging though personally tragic. As noted in a NY Times review of Dec. 30th, Gilmore has a “keen sense of the dark undertow of the American dream.”
Peter Doggett’s There’s a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars, and the Rise and Fall of the ‘60s (Canongate, 2008) looks at the period of 1965-72 when music “fueled the revolutionary movement with anthems and iconic imagery,” and the stars were asked to respond to, endorse and defend (sometimes reluctantly or defiantly) political action. Steve Morse in a Boston Globe review of Nov. 7, 2008 finds this book “brilliant,” “ambitious,” and “wrenching”.
Journalist Mikal Gilmore (whose pieces frequent Rolling Stone) has just published Stories Done: Writings on the 1960s and Its Discontents (Free Press, 2008), a collection of essays examining the lives of several of the era’s cultural figures. Often visionary, these figures may be publically engaging though personally tragic. As noted in a NY Times review of Dec. 30th, Gilmore has a “keen sense of the dark undertow of the American dream.”
Jamband psychology
Research on jamband subculture and psychology continues to be a topic of interest and the Grateful Dead of course, continues to be cited. Pamela M. Hunt has just authored an article, “From Festies to Tourrats…,” on this topic. It appears in the December 2008 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly (Vol. 71, No.4). Additionally, in his new book Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us (Portfolio, 2008) Seth Godin credits the Grateful Dead as helping us to understand how people become connected to one another, how shared passion is inspired, and how groups can effect lasting and substantive change.
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