If You Have 30 Minutes Or So To Spare...

...check out the dark star from 8/27/72. there is something about the way this is filmed...i can't quite put my finger on what it is...but the music and the setting and the cinematography all seem to mesh into one. as one youtube commenter put it, "WOW! This is so tranquilo! It is in itself mood altering and the setting and nature are in harmony with the music".

Sometimes I Do Really Miss Ithaca

from jambands.com:

It appears that Ithaca, New York Mayor Carolyn Peterson is a fan of crisp “Scarlet”>”Fire” transitions and dig the “Dew.” The Ithaca Journal has announced that in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the band’s May 8, 1977 performance at Cornell University’s Barton Hall, she will declare May 8th 2007 as Grateful Dead Day in the City of Ithaca.

The proclamation reportedly reads: Whereas, the Grateful Dead have been recognized by many highly credible organizations, individuals and entities including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as significantly important and integral to the musical and social fabric of our contemporary culture, and

Whereas, on May 8th, 1977 the Grateful Dead performed in Barton Hall on the campus of Cornell University in the city of Ithaca New York, a concert that is widely acknowledged and regarded as a defining and transcendent occasion and example of the art of contemporary musical improvisation, collaboration, musicianship, and performance, and

Whereas, many tens of thousands of individuals who were not in attendance that night in Barton Hall, have become knowledgeable & familiar with the extraordinary nature of the performance on May 8th 1977 through the trading and sharing of recordings of the show, and

Whereas, the cultural identity and perceptions of Ithaca as a community, have been informed and bolstered by the widespread acknowledgement of the magic of May 8th, 1977, and

Whereas, it has been said many times by many people that, “there is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert”,

Now therefore, be it resolved that as Mayor of the City of Ithaca, and in heartfelt recognition of the thirtieth anniversary of the May 8th 1977 concert performance, I declare May 8th 2007 as Grateful Dead Day in the City of Ithaca.

To mark the thirtieth anniversary of one the band’s most celebrated shows (and perhaps more specifically, one of its most celebrated live performance tapes) the Dark Star Orchestra will interpret that show this coming May 8 at Ithaca’s State Theater.

link to show (for those who have never listened to 5/8/77 it is perhaps the most approachable grateful dead concert out there and can be appreciated by newbies and old-school heads alike)

setlist 5/8/77 Ithaca, NY
I: Minglewood Blues, Loser, El Paso, They Love Each Other, Jack Straw, Deal, Lazy Lightning-> Supplication, Brown Eyed Women, Mama Tried, Row Jimmy, Dancin'
II: Scarlet Begonias-> Fire On The Mountain, Estimated Prophet, Saint Stephen-> Not Fade Away-> Saint Stephen-> Morning Dew
E: One More Saturday Night

How Is Jerry The Most Lucid One?

the below video is from a CBS news documentary from 1967 about the haight-ashbury, the hippies, and the grateful dead. its a very interesting piece. there are a few revealing things i found:

1) the reporter accurately expresses the thoughts and concerns of mainstream america about the hippies. most of what he says is total BS, but from his perspective at the time, the hippie movement represented a big threat to the established order, so his concerns, from his point of view, were justified. again, even though most of what he talks about is complete BS, he does make some salient points about the hippie movement.
2) jerry was a very smart guy and had an unbelievable charisma about him. his personality jumps off the screen.
3) bob weir is a total fucking idiot.
4) i consider '67 dead to be in the second era of the dead (the first era was the acid test era. second era was '67-'69, third '70-'72, fourth '73-'74, fifth '75-'80, sixth '81-'86, seventh '87-'91, ninth '91-'95. these are just rough dates, but each era, to my ears, has a distinct sound), but even though the band was still in its infancy and had not yet reached the heights they would reach in '69, you can still hear the raw energy and power they possessed at the time. you can tell that they were destined for greatness, much in the same way that if you listen to phish in '87 or '88 (my favorite of those shows being 5/25/88) you get the same feeling.

enjoy!

Once And A While You Can Get Shown The Light In The Strangest Places If You Look At It Right

last night i was watching one of my favorite TV shows, 30 rock, when they cut to a scene of liz lemon (tina fey) and floyd (jason sudekis) standing in front of a particularly iconic red building in new york. i had to rewind the DVR to make sure i saw them correctly, but sure enough, there they were, standing on the corner of houston and lafayette, right in front of the puck building, which serves as the headquarters for the wagner school (the school i am going to next year).

the puck building

now, why is this significant, you ask? well, a few reasons. 1) it was cool to see them standing in front of puck. the puck building itself was one of the things that pushed my decision to attend NYU, so i felt some sort of validation that the crew of 30 rock felt that the building was significant enough to film in front of. 2) i was impressed with myself that in a post-kickball state of mind i was able to recognize the corner of lafayette and houston, one of the few corners in new york that i can officially say i recognize right now (the other would be the corner of 16th and 3rd, the home of the infamous joe jr.). 3) it got me excited for school again.

let me expand on #3 for a moment. its not that i have fallen out of excitement with school, its just that some of the initial gloss has rubbed off. school is no longer some sort of idyllic idea or concept. while it still represents a new beginning to me, i now have to deal with things like college loans (thank you, citibank), finding a place to live, finding a job, ect..., which makes school much more real and less a fantasy, which brings me back to the title of the post.

the title of the post comes from the grateful dead song "scarlet begonias". my apprehension about the real world implications of attending school were slightly abetted simply by reminding myself of the romantic vision i have of new york, and that i still have the capacity to view the city in such a way. i dont even remember what the characters were talking about, all i remember is that they were standing in front of the puck building. the building wasn't even the focus of the scene, it was simply in the background, but, in a way, i think that speaks volumes to the magic that is new york city, that buildings have their own magic and stories to tell and that every building has a different and special meaning to those who pass it by. to live your life in such an inspiring environment must surely be a treat.

i also found it amazing that yet again 30 rock was speaking to me, which is a strange thing to say about a sitcom. for whatever reason i really identify with this show, especially liz lemon (tina fey), which is even weirder when you consider that the show is a) a sitcom and b) lemon is female. i cant explain it. maybe tina fey is one of those artists that has the special capacity to speak to me directly, like the way i can identify with any klosterman book or any hopper painting or any pre 1998 phish.

enough rambling. its finally nice outside. soon i hope to expand this idea and talk more about why i like 30 rock so much and why i think that we are entering into a golden age of television, where some aspects of TV will bridge the gap between entertainment and art.

now if i could only find a way for this post to segue seamlessly into "fire on the mountain"...

New Site Feed

another topic we will discuss at length here on just a bit outside will be another one of my just a bit outside pursuits: music.

today's post about music will discuss the new feed i have listed on the left hand side of the page called "tapers section". the links in the tapers section will, through the power of the internet 1.0, magically transport you to dead.net, the cyberspace home of the grateful dead. there you will find the dead's weekly soundboard archive releases, which are pretty cool.

i highly suggest you check these links out if you are a) a deadhead (duh) or b) know nothing about the grateful dead and are looking for a good place to get started on your road to understanding the dead and their fans.