Patchwork River

This spring expect to see and hear about a second special collaboration of Robert Hunter with Jim Lauderdale. "Patchwork River", their new CD on the Thirty Tigers label gets a preview in a recent posting by Dan Tackett in BluegrassJournal.com. (It has a very sweet quote by Lauderdale about working with Robert Hunter.)

Saint Misbehavin'

Hold on to your rubber nose! Michelle Esrick's documentary on the life of Wavy Gravy is having a Sneak Preview and Special Event Sceeening on April 1st at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA. to benefit the film's release and Camp Winnarainbow.
For more information and to buy tickets on-line please go to Brown Paper Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/103242
For more info on the film http://www.rippleeffectfilms.com/wwwavy/index.php

Confessions

Starburst Commander's recent and fun literary disclosure "Confessions of a Deadhead" is going to fit very nicely in between our copies of George Clooney's "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and Sheldon Norbert's "Confessions of a Dope Dealer." To learn more about Starburst Commander's (aka Bob Drobatz) new book and his trips and travels with a magical band go to http://www.confessionsofadeadhead.com/Site/Confessions_of_a_Dead_Head.html

Crawdaddy mention

UCSC's Grateful Dead Archive is again in the news. This time Crawdaddy is running an article in reference to the fabulous write up we had by Joshua Green in the March 2010 Atlantic. Here Angela Zimmerman talks about how we're inciting scholastic followers. Read it at: http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2010/02/10/grateful-dead-archive-incites-scholastic-followings/

Uroborus

Two new books out by rock critics have spawned reviews looking at that criticism and the role of critics. Corn Flakes with John Lennon: And Other Tales From a Rock 'n' Life (Rodale, 2009), by longtime Los Angeles Times pop music critic Robert Hilburn, and the anthology of writings by the late Robert Palmer, Blues and Chaos (edited by Anthony DeCurtis. Scribner, 2009), give intimate insight into the early writing and various approaches of these two authors, including their paths of inspiration and personal relationships with musicians. For a review of the reviewers see Jon Caramanica's "Writing and Rocking" in the Feb. 12th New York Times.

Something happening here, but we do know what it is.

It's a new show at the new Museum of Performance & Design and it traces rock and roll in California's Bay Area from 1963 to 1973. They say it "envelopes visitors in a blaze of sight and sound." The exhibit includes instruments, posters, footage, and costumes from private and public collections, some of it from local musicians like Carlos Santana, Sly Stone, Dan Hicks, and Merl Saunders. And one can see Jerry's "Captain Trips" hat.
"Somethin's Happening Here" shows at the Veteran's Building 4th floor, 401 Van Ness. San Francisco, and runs through August 2010.

Not dark yet

An article was recently forwarded to those of us interested in archiving visual material (http://tinyurl.com/yeambp9). It notes that an undeveloped roll of Ilford HP5 b&w film of a Bob Dylan concert taken 31 years ago has just been unearthed. Photographer Mark Estabrook checked with Ilford on how best to develop it and the outcome apparently is perfect-- the 37-year-old Bob looks good. Estabrook says it's a testament to the longevity of silver halide photography and he plans to bring out a new book soon. The film of Dylan was kept in a tin along with shots of the band Little Feat. (And Little Feat still looks good too: catch up with them at: http://www.littlefeat.net/)