JGJK: Eisenhower Auditorium, Penn State University, November 16, 1984
Archives of the Penn State Daily Collegian are available online at http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/, which might prove useful for others (I have found lots of Jerry-related stuff).
Just for giggles, I thought I'd post this little snippet from the police blotter over the weekend of the Jerry Garcia/John Kahn show (Robert Hunter opening) at Eisenhower Auditorium on 11/16/84:
Tee hee.
Good scheme, too bad it didn't work. Also funny to me because it's so east coast. Hard to imagine anyone at, say, CU-Boulder thinking a university blazer would draw attention away from them. :)
Lost Live Dead and related have inspired me. Sorry to steal your schtick! I don't get into depth (nor turn a phrase) the way LLD does, but it sure is fun, anyway.
So the SF Chronicle is almost certainly loaded with stuff of interest. Unfortunately, unless I am missing something it does not seem to be available electronically prior to 1985. The San Francisco Public Library has paper indexes back into the 70s, and fiche indexes from before then. These latter seem unreliable at best. The former (paper indexes) are fine, but obviously don't pick up things like ads or concert listings. So it's really a needle-in-a-haystack resource, involving the dizzying and eye-drying work of scanning microfilm, the quality of which ranges from OK to illegible.
Anyway, one of the really good articles I found, based on a lead (though I think it had a mistake in it) from David Dodd's quite amazing annotated bibliography (1), is the Ellwood one referenced below (2). There is so little known about these early Garcia gigs that every little piece of information is golden.
correction: I had this listed as the Chronicle, but of course Elwood was the music guy at the San Francisco Examiner. Same situation applies, a fortiori.
The article references a Jerry Garcia - Merl Saunders gig "last night" (i.e., 2/11/72) at "a far out club, Bo Jangles, at 709 Larkin" (San Francisco, CA 94109). It notes that Armanda [sic] Peraza was present on congas and Bill Kreutzmann on drums. There is no information about tunes played.
This article interests me for a few reasons.
First, until now there has not been a show for this date at the Jerry Site (TJS). I have remedied this.
Second, there is a show dated 2/12/72 at TJS, with location given as Bojangles Club, Sacramento. This listing seems to derive from the list of uncirculated Betty Boards, and gives Roger "Jellyroll" Troy as one of the guests. A few thoughts on this.
2a. Although TJS goes so far as to say that "The venue is known today as Beau's Bojangles", I certainly wonder whether this show was actually played in SF. It always seemed odd to see that Sacramento show in the mix this early - this band at this time was pretty exclusively a Bay Area (and largely a San Francisco) phenomenon. Given that they played at a Bo Jangles in SF on 2/11, I suppose its possible that the "Iranian combine" that ran the place also had one in Sacto ... stranger things could have happened.
2b. We are also left to wonder whether the "2/12" show is actually the 2/11 show discussed by Elwood. A listen to the tape, to check for the presence of Peraza, might shed some light, but at this point that's not one of my options. So this remains an open question.
As an upshot on this point #2, I'll just work under the assumption that JGMS played a Friday (11) and Saturday (12) engagement for Bo Jangles. I'll list the Friday show as SF and will leave the Saturday listing as Sacramento unless more evidence emerges. Perhaps I'll put a note on TJS listing to mention the uncertainty around the Sacramento location.
Third, in a case of Serendipity, Corry had asked in comments on the NRPS ca. 11/1/70 post whether the Both/And club was still open as late as late 1970. While it could well have opened and shut and taken on various permutations, I simply note that Elwood's article also mentions a gig "at the relatively sedate and traditional Both-And jazz club". So something by that name was running in early 1972, FWIW.
References
(1) Dodd, David G., and Robert G. Weiner. 1997. The Grateful Dead and the Deadheads: An Annotated Bibliography. Music Reference Collection no. 60. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
(2) Elwood, Philip. 1972. Distinctive Variety of Musical Styles. San Francisco Examiner, February 12, 1972, p. 8
--> -->
The San Francisco section of the "From the Music Capitals of the World" Feature in the November 21, 1970 issue of Billboard (p. 25, available via Google Books), written by Mary Turner, indicates that the New Riders of the Purple Sage performed at an event called "Marathon 70," put on by Both/And Productions, over the Halloween Weekend of 1970. The image is below. We know that GD and NRPS were at SUNY Stony Brook on Halloween night (Saturday). We also know that the GD were in Port Chester from Thursday, November 5th.
Did the NRPS (and Jerry) come back to the Bay Area rather than just hanging around the east coast? Hard to say for sure, but there seems to be enough evidence (fragmentary, but independent) suggesting that they did, and thus that this gig might well have happened.
First, the Jerry Site lists a Monday, November 2nd "Jerry Garcia and Friends" show at the Harding Theater, SF, based on information contributed by Joey Newlander from a listing in the Berkeley Barb. TJS further speculates that the gig did not happen, what with the GD out east. OK.
Second, the PERRO tapes (in this case, sessions for David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name) include at least one cut ("Cowboy Movie") said to have been laid down at Heider's in SF on Tuesday, November 3rd. (This has always been important to me, since that was the date of my birth and I *love* the idea that that's what Jerry was doing on that day!)
Third, Good Times (v.3 n.43, 10/30/70, p. 16) ran a listing for a Garcia/Saunders show at the Matrix on this same night, Tuesday, November 3rd.
Fourth, though not independent of #2, I also have a PERRO session listed for Wednesday, November 4th, though I have no notes on where that information might have come from.
Now we have a fifth piece of evidence in the indication that NRPS might have been back in the Bay Area in between Stony Brook and Port Chester.
I am going to go ahead and speculate that the "Halloween Weekend" notion plus the gigs seemingly booked for every other night during this short window, both militate in favor of a Sunday, November 1, 1970 listing.
I'd like to hear from anyone who knows more about this event ("Marathon 70") and/or the Both/And. Thoughts?
In an earlier post I had asked about a show scheduled for Folsom Field at CU-Boulder on August 28, 1977. Turns out it was for a festival known as "Sun Day" (this being Sun Day 3), with the following on the bill: Willie Nelson; Emmylou Harris; Dave Mason; Jerry Jeff Walker; Stillwater; Jerry Garcia. This was going to be co-organized by Feyline and the CU Program Council. I originally became aware of this through a Calendar listing in Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, August 27, 1977, p. 22D.
The Boulder Daily Camera had one earlier mention that I found, regarding a hassle about the provision of emergency medical services (Linda Cornett, "Ambulance Debate Rises in Plans for CU Concert," Boulder Daily Camera, August 14, 1977, p. ??)
This didn't sink the gig, though, at least not according to published reports. It turns out that an illness in the Willie Nelson group and "personnel issues" in the JGB led to the cancellation. The notice speculates that these latter are in connection with Tutt and Elvis, the latter of whom died a bit before the scheduled gig. It also notes, however, that ticket sales had been slow. May have been win-win-win all around to cancel it. For the skinny, see "Big Concert Canceled; Borrow Some Records," Boulder Daily Camera, August 19, 1977, p. 17.
I plan on poking through the Program Council archives to see if there's more to the story, just for giggles.
A mention in the "From the Music Capitals of the World" feature in Billboard, September 11, 1971, p. 22 says that "Columbia's New Riders of the Purple Sage play the Manhattan Center Ballroom, Wednesday (15) at 34th St. & 8th Ave."
Hard to know what to make of this. That particular week was a blank slate until recently, when in my searching around I discovered listings and such for the following gigs:
Friday 9/10/71, JGMS @ Harding Theater, SF (1)
Thursday 9/16/71, JGMS @ Keystone Korner, SF (2)
Friday 9/17/71 and Saturday 9/18/71, NRPS @ Friends and Relations Hall, SF (2, 3)
So while it's not impossible that JG could have gone east to play with the NRPS on 9/15/71, it seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it? I'd be grateful for thoughts and/or leads about how to figure out whether this happened. Who would have been promoting Manhattan Center gigs at that time?
References:
(1) listing in Hayward Daily Review, September 16, 1971, p. 25.
(2) Oakland Tribune, September 15, 1971, p. 25
(3) there is also a poster IIRC.
I love El Dorado Canyon. Driving there today, the Flatirons just seemed to be stretching and reaching for the sky under the brilliant autumn sun. Never particularly noticed how their angling back from town gives them that "reaching" feel.
Driving back, just basked in the golden glow. Man it's nice up there.
Pretty nice water. From Boulder, 93 to 6 to the second bridge. Caught some pretty good-sized (for me) rainbows. Used a little rainbow something-or-other nymph on top and did OK with big green beadheads on the bottom. Needed some split-shot but couldn't find it, so had to rely on the big fellas just sinking.
Was told that it would be good where the river curves around the mountain, since the road goes through a tunnel and few venture out that far. Good-looking water, but I didn't do great that far over. I was getting tired, could partly be it.
May try this again if weather is still good over the next month, because flows seemed ample enough to hold up for a bit yet.
There has been a lot of confusion over the years about the Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders shows played at the Ash Grove (8162 Melrose Avenue, Santa Monica, CA) in May of 1973. The Jerry Site has listed a pair of shows (early/late) on 5/23 and a pair of shows (early/late) on 5/30.
I believe there were two shows on 5/29, two shows on 5/30, and none on 5/23. I’ll make the case in this post.
Evidence for 5/23: questionable
What evidence is there for a 5/23 dating? As far as I can tell, there is only the Jerry Site’s listing and a 69-minute audience recording with the following:
MAR (Taped by Night Crew, Sony ECM-22Ps > Sony 770) > 2R >playback on Akai GX-4000D > ART DI/O > Egosys Waverterminal 2496 > HHb 800 master CD > one or two CD gens > HP 9350i extraction using EAC (v0.9 beta 4) > tracking using CD Wave (v1.6) > sector boundary verification using shntool (v1.01) > .shn encoding using mkwACT (v0.97 beta 1). A > D by David Minches, CD > SHN by jjoops.
Single Disc (6 tracks, 69:12)
1. //It Takes a Lot to Laugh It Takes a Train to Cry [7:30#] [1:07]
2. Expressway [11:33] [1:45]
3. Money Honey [6:21] [2:18]
4. Little Bit// of Righteousness [18:39#] [1:52]
5. Like a Road [10:33] [0:15]
6. That's Alright Mama [6:53] [0:23]
Notes:
d1t01 Train to Cry cuts in, not much missing
d1t04 LBOR brief cut/splice @ 17:29
So, what about this tape? Harvey Kaslow (one of the “Night Crew” tapers, with Craig Todd, Rob Bertrando, and others) says that he did not tape this. In email correspondence, Rob Bertrando says “I would guess Bruce Harvey taped it, and I thought the date was 5/30/73.”
I have found no other evidence for a 5/23 show except this tape, around the date of which there is lots of doubt. By contrast, there is strong evidence that there were two nights of two shows each, *and* that these took place on 5/29 and 5/30/73. I’ll make that case now.
Evidence for 5/29 and 5/30
First, Hillburn (1973) makes this mention:
-->“on the way [at the Ash Grove]: Merl Saunders (with Jerry Garcia, May 29-30)”.
Second, Davis (1973), writing in the first week of June 1973, writes the following: "
-->Merle [sic] Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn and Bill Vitt flew down from San Francisco last week and played two mid-week nights at the Ash Grove to full houses." The "last week" obviously implies the last week of May, and the language can also be read to imply back-to-back nights. (May 29th-30th were Tuesday-Wednesday, by the way.)
Third, most importantly, Merl Saunders, Jr. supplied me with a handbill for the gigs, show dates of 5/29 and 5/30. (Note, too, that George Tickner, later to play with Journey, is listed here.)
Perhaps not QED, but pretty darn close, IMO. I consider the case for 5/29 and 5/30 shows, with no show on 5/23, very near to closed.
There are two remaining issues to clear up, having to do with early/late shows and with the songs played.
Evidence for early and late shows
Bill Greenspan, who was actively seeing Garcia-related shows in the LA-Santa Barbara area around this time, has said that on 5/30 there were not two shows, but a single show with intermission. The evidence does not support this, suggesting instead that there were separately ticketed early and late shows on both nights.
First, McGuinn (1973) alludes to "two evenings of four completely sold-out performances". This implies separately ticketed early and late shows.
Second, Davis (1973) notes that a
-->fter playing a set, “the informal band without a name sat around waiting for one crowd to file out and another to get seated”.
In short, there is pretty strong evidence for early/late shows on two nights (four shows total).
Songs Played
Regarding the songs played, unless more tape turns up it's unlikely that we'll learn much more than what we know. Davis (1973) mentions Train to Cry, Expressway, Money Honey, and “That’s Allright”, all of which are on the tape (assuming the latter is That’s Alright Mama). He also mentions After Midnight. McGuinn (1973) mentions After Midnight, Money Honey, That’s Alright Mama, and Dixie Down.
-->
The only new information here, relative to what we know based on the tape, is that they played "After Midnight". We should probably enter this at the Jerry Site, along with the other tunes represented on the tape that are currently listed as the 5/23/73 late show. I am uncertain whether to change this to 5/29 or 5/30, though ...
Regarding track 4 of the circulating recording, Alan Bershaw had identified it as a jam on Blind Willie Johnson's "I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes", which is how we knew it for some years. But I have verified that it is Merl's "Little Bit of Righteousness."
One other thought about setlist. It's either just dumb luck that the tape we have is of the show that these authors caught and wrote about, or Jerry and Merl were playing more or less the same set (or least sets with the same standards what would be recognizable to the reviewers). I don't have much to add.
REFERENCES
-->Davis, Randall. 1973. Musical Notes.Arcadia Tribune, June 7, 1973, p. 13.
-->Hilburn, Robert. 1973. Rock ‘$’ Rollers … to Coin a Phrase. New York Times, May 19, 1973, p. B7.
-->McGuinn, Jim. 1973. Garcia and Saunders. door 5, 1 (June 14-19), p. 14.
A calendar listing in Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, August 27, 1977, p. 22D, indicates a show on Sunday, August 28, 1977 at Folsom Field in Boulder featuring Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Dave Mason, Jerry Jeff Walker, Stillwater and Jerry Garcia.
I am going to check the Denver/Boulder papers for this. Stay tuned.
In the Canyon, about 10.5 mi. from the Canyon/Broadway intersection. Maybe two hours. Elk Hair Caddis on top with various nymphs down below.
Started slow in some likely-looking water. Thought it was gonna be a dead day. Then started pulling out lots of fishing. Mostly tiny-to-small cutthroats, like this fella:
They fight pretty nicely. Deep salmon/red coloring inside the gills and along the bottom.
Anyway, probably ended up with ten fish in 2 hours, and had a pretty nice time. Still having a hard time finding water that rivals my home water. And still (and increasingly) pondering what skill differences drive catching the little ones vs. the big ones.
So last year I did the South Fork of the Stanislaus from the bridge in Strawberry. This year I wanted to hit some more remote terrain and so was asking around about access points to the Middle Fork. There was a campground (can't remember name ... bad blogger!) about 8 mi. down from Pinecrest that was recommended, but I figured that being near a campground it'd get fair pressure. Unhelpful Old Forest Service Guy wasn't very helpful. Younger Forest Service Guy recommended Beardsley Reservoir. Fellow camper said he had gotten advice to try the Clark Fork, so that's where I went.
Feh. Nice scenerey, water was quite low and pleasant. Caught about 10 "fish" in 2.5 hours, but they were absolutely tiny. Not so much joy in it when they're so little. Not to mention I had the stomach bug that ravaged our tent circle and just wasn't feeling enthused.
Next year I am either trying Beardsley or maybe some of the obscure forest service roads revealed by the map.
Merl Jr. said that the tape to find would be Garcia/Saunders at the Great American Music Hall on a day that Crosby, Stills and Nash had played a Day on the Green. He says that Jack Casady and Stephen Stills came over after the CSN gig and jammed with Jerry and Merl and that it was amazing. 7/14/74 fits the bill - JGMS were at GAMH, and CSN were playing a Day on the Green.
Interestingly, I found an ad from the San Francisco Phoenix which lists two shows for the date, starting at 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. Very unusual. I wonder if it was planned ahead of time that Casady and Stills would come by?
Had a great Father's Day outing here. Flyshop in Silverthorne, Cutthroat Anglers, made it seem like it'd be a tough day. Probably was, but I had some decent action and caught two fish. Was using a 14 or 16 golden stonefly nymph (caught one on that) with a big (probably 10) hot pink San Juan worm about 10" below. Used 5x leader and tippet.
Nabokov's Lolita. Voltaire's Candide. Adam Fawer's Improbable. Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. Stephen King's The Stand. Shelley's Frankenstein (1818 text). Stephenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (can't believe I never read this before -- incredible!) Several short stories by Joseph Conrad. Escohotado's A Brief History of Drugs.
Re-reading Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series, which I had read when I was 15 or so. I wanted to see if I enjoyed the philosophical bent more now than I did then.
Eh ... it's OK. Neat premise (all 36 billion humans who ever lived resurrected on the banks of a 10-million mile long river, with their material needs cared for and the possibility of permanent death initially gone). Allows him to really look at social/cultural interactions and evolution in a little laboratory, with the material side more or less controlled (though of course people still pursue more and more material stuff, especially at first). But the prose is rather stilted and the whole thing is a little sophomoric. Oh well, I guess that's why it's science fiction, not usually my preferred genre.
Read Jose Saramago's Blindness a month or so ago. It was recommended by a Barnes & Noble guy when I asked for something "dystopic, preferably post-apocalyptic," and he did a pretty good job for me. Right on, B&N guy! The writing style is haunting and beautiful, the story and characters fascinating.
Seemingly new-to-circ OAITW show via Matt Smith and the Pacific Northwest crew running at Lossless Legs. Fun stuff. Richard Greene is there, which puts it to April-May '73, in all likelihood. It's also in a goodish sized hall, not the Keystone or Boarding House or whatever. My own guess is either Santa Barbara 4/12/73 or one of the Oregon shows in May (5/8 or 5/9), but that's just base speculation.
Pat Lee suggests that the fact that the reels were on BASF tape stock is consistent with the Santa Barbara soundman stuff (cf. 4/20/74, 4/24/74 GASB shows that Will Boswell also had on reel from that source). Funny thing is that the 4/12/73 wasn't even listed on TJS until it was added based on info from Richard Greene, and now this tape cames along that might well be it.
Was thinking I need to start leaving some notes for myself re: The Book.
Example: I'd really like to track down Sara Fulcher. Anyone help? She sang backup on the GD's Wake of the Flood (sessions would probably have been August '73?) and sat in with Jerry and Merl a fair amount in early '73. I can't tell if she's black or white. Let's assume she was 23 in '73 ... she'd be ca. 59 now. I have a hunch she's from Texas.
So I am told that I have been catching browns. They do look a lot like the guy above, most distinctively with the row of pink spots that can appear along the midline.
Caught a bunch yesterday. I really need to spend more time between the big rock (my name for it) and the vehicle bridge. Was in a huge rush yesterday on the last stretch of water and was getting all kinds of action there right around 12 noon.
Family came up and we picnicked at the Visitors' Center. On a lark just fooled around in the very shallow water near all of the picnic tables and must have hauled in five teeny-tiny fish in 15 minutes, mostly on a Copper John that they could barely fit in their mouths. Silly fishies.
Been out there a half-dozen times in the last couple of weeks. and am having a blast with it. Yesterday morning (Monday, 8/4, 6 a.m. to 11 a.m.) I caught ten fish over pretty much the whole main stretch in the park, i.e., the lower pedestrian bridge near the lower parking to the upper vehicle bridge before you get to the visitor center. Morning was cool enough that I put on waders and a light windebreaker. But as soon as the sun came into the canyon, maybe around 6:30 or so, things warmed up nicely. It was a beautiful day, a little overcast, warm but not scorching.
Was catching on nymphs until about 9. After then the fish seemed to start looking up and I started catching on a ca. 18# caddis up top. Overall, 4 were really small (i.e., 6" or so) and 6 were just small (maybe 8-10").
I have been looking at some maps and need to drive back up through the canyon ... some maps seem to suggest that you can drive all the way to Gross Reservoir, which I'd really love to do. But not sure if the Family Truckster is up to the task. We'll see.
Colleague invites me up to his place, from which we can fish. Beautiful drive to his place, beautiful water to fish, but not as much time on the water as I would have liked. First day fishing on the new line (Gold something or other, 5 weight) and the casting is good. I identify a likely pool on the broad and shallow Colorado and get going. First pool, maybe 2nd or 3rd cast, get a nice strike on the nymph and have a real fighter online for about 45-60 seconds. I am feeling really confident. Then my knot comes undone and fishy (fat-looking underwater from a few feet) earns his freedom and a nice $2 lip piercing. D'oh! When tying the knot I knew it probably wasn't good enough, but I got impatient. Never. Get. Impatient. When. Flyfishing. I guess this was something other than what I am used to (not a brookie, I guess) because the fish was really fighting. Oh well.
Had another good size fish almost in-hand, when it flopped off the hook at the last minute. Keep the tip up, man!
Caught a smallish one (8-10"). Succesfully spliced two pieces of line after a good, patient 20 minutes or so. Around 3:45 the fish start rising, around 3:50 it starts to rain, and just as I am tying on a dry fly to see how hungrily they're rising Colleague and wife and young adult son catch up with me and signal that they're done. Sigh. So not enough time on the water, and I really wanted to try up top for a bit.
Apparently a moose was spotted in the area, and Colleague says they saw an eagle up-close. All-in-all, a nice day and a spot worth revisiting.
So, Old Colleague asks if I want to fish. Is the Pope Catholic?
Ends up being 2.5 hour drive to small, blown out creek on private water (paying $60 for the privilege). I catch the same fish twice, I think, in the very first pool, though I made two passes on the mile or so heading upstream (south on the map).
Generalization: fly-fisherman tend to overcomplicate things. Just fish!
I am going to try to post some recollections of my too-infrequent fly-fishing excursions. I am rapidly becoming obsessed with this incredible pastime and want to remember where I fish and how it goes.
I am a novice fly-fisherman and frankly don't have 5% of the knowledge I'd really need to do things right. Hell, I can't even identify what kind of trout I catch, less still what kind of fly I use to do so. But the bottom line is that I have been out and at it, loving it, and want to remember as I can.
I do know that I am using an ancient 5-weight Orvis rod and an Orvis reel on-loan from a colleague. I am mostly grabbing flies and such catch-as-catch-can, though trying as often as possible to shop at Rocky Mountain Anglers in Boulder.
Let AFJ be crystal clear on a subject where these men are opaque: Waterboarding is a torture technique that has its history rooted in the Spanish Inquisition. In 1947, the U.S. prosecuted a Japanese military officer for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II.
Waterboarding inflicts on its victims the terror of imminent death. And as with all torture techniques, it is, therefore, an inherently flawed method for gaining reliable information. In short, it doesn’t work. That blunt truth means all U.S. leaders, present and future, should be clear on the issue.
In an interview with the BBC, Professor John Marburger, Bush’s chief science adviser, said it was an “unequivocal” fact that climate change is man-made and that greenhouse gases emitted by human activity are to blame.
CU may take yet another step to free itself from controls imposed by the state of Colorado. The university may file to become a “public authority,” a public corporation contracted by the state to fulfill a public benefit or service. CU is currently an “enterprise,” a governmental organization that executes state power and responsibility. Moving from an enterprise to a public authority would loosen CU from limits imposed by the state.
Also found this little tidbit interesting:
"Colorado is ranked 48th in the nation for higher-education funding as a share of personal income, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities."
1Methodology changed dramatically between 2006 and 2007, so numbers are highly suspect. 2Number is for March 2007. 3Numbers are for June only. No July numbers are available.
Infrastructure Metrics
June/July 2006
June/July 2007
Change
Diesel Fuel Available
26.7 Ml
20.7 Ml
Down 22%
Kerosene Available
7.08 Ml
6.3 Ml
Down 11%
Gasoline Available
29.4 Ml
22.2 Ml
Down 24%
LPG Available
4,936 tons
4,932 tons
Down 0.1%
Electricity Generated
8,800 Mwatts
8,420 Mwatts
Down 4%
Hours Electricity Per Day
11.7
10.14
Down ~14%
4No numbers available for June/July. Figure is extrapolated from May and August numbers.
the surge is working if your definition of "working" doesn't require a decrease in violence or an increase in the viability of Iraq's basic infrastructure.
Man, shit is totally out of control. I am actually frightened. Just a tidbit from Glenn Greenwald:
McConnell clearly described that in 1978, we enacted a law prohibiting warrantless eavesdropping; the Bush administration broke that law repeatedly; and the telecommunications companies actively participated in that lawbreaking. And now -- as a matter of national security -- the Bush administration is demanding that Congress pass a new law declaring that telecom companies are immune from any and all consequences -- both civil and criminal -- in the event they are found to have violated the law. It is hard to imagine open contempt for the rule of law being expressed more explicitly than this.
The number of phones secretly wiretapped by Colorado law enforcement hit a 10-year high last year, leading to large drug busts statewide while raising concerns about the privacy of innocent people.
The increase in the court-authorized wiretaps was led by the U.S. Attorney's Office, which used 108 wiretaps in its first year under U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid. That's four times the number used in the 12 months prior to Eid's August 2006 arrival, according to data from his office.
State prosecutors, meanwhile, got permission to use 43 wiretaps in 2006 - more than in the previous nine years combined, according to an annual report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
... but actually, I think I'd rather err on the side of civil rights, thank you very much.
Just finished reading Harry Potter books 1-6. Have #7 ordered and will probably read it on Sunday.
Not sure where things will go. There's a great blogpost somewhere that has given me some ideas, so what little is below is probably not of my own devising. Anyway, a few thoughts.
1) R.A.B. is Regulus Black. 2) The Hog's Head barman, Dumbledore's brother, has a role to play. 3) Harry is, himself, a Horcrux. I believe he's the one from Godric Gryffindor, because I believe he is descended from GG. 4) I had thought that HP would have to sacrifice himself (Jesus-like) to get rid of the Horcrux, but it's been made clear that the 7th bit of Voldemort's soul, the bit residing in his body, has to be destroyed last, so I don't see how that will work. But I do think Harry vanquishes V and dies in the process. 5) The International Relations/diplomacy angle will figure in, as both sides compete to form coalitions with the various other kinds of magical creatures.
Summer 2006, Turquoise Lake. Wildernet. Beautiful, to be sure. But a little overcrowded. Running water was a big plus for TW.
On the way home, K#4 got to go horseback riding on "Hawken" ... with Mount Massive in the background!
Summer 2006, Pearl Lake State Park. Wildernet. Gorgeous, serene, tranquility!!! Highly recommended if you are looking to escape for a few days. Didn't catch any fish, but lots and lots of crawdads there to keep the kids entertained. We did some canoeing thanks to TW's friend and had a great old time.
Summer 2007, Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Wildernet. I thought this would be a cheesy day-visitor type of place, since it's so close to Denver, Golden, Boulder, etc. But boy was I wrong. We were in the Aspen Meadows area, which is tent camping only, at about 9,000 feet. Beautiful spot, nice and serene. No action at all on Dude's Fishing Hole, though the views from there are pretty nice, with some especially nice rock outcroppings. Big downside, not mentioned in any guides or descriptions that I saw, was that cars are parked away from campsites. So, for our campsite (#35), we had to hoof our stuff maybe 200 yards to our campsite. D'oh! The creek isn't much either. But this was a beautiful, tranquil spot.
Summer 2007, Pawnee Campground on the shores of Brainard Lake, near Indian Peaks Wilderness, in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. Wildernet. Ahhh, the Rocky Mountains. This place is incredible. Gorgeous views of glaciers and glacier trails. Snow still on the ground at the campground (elevation ca. 10,300). Easy catching of brookies on Powerbait in Brainard Lake -- Ks 1-3 all caught, #s 1 and 2 totally on their own. K2's was actually a beatuful 14" rainbow. Massive hailstorm put a damper on our second day, but this places is truly glorious. We'll definitely be going back, if only for day trips.
Up second week of July 2007, fly fishing on the Arkansas!!
Farls, in a long post considering various things having to do with the case some are making for invading Iran, says this about Iraqi WMD:
While the allegations about chemical weapons formed the center of the administration's case for war, the real problem is not that the administration was lying (although it was), but rather that Iraqi WMD, even if they existed, did not furnish a plausible reason for war. It doesn't excuse the administration to say that its sin was two-fold; on the one hand, it lied about the existence of WMD, and on the other it lied about the implications of WMD. Even if the United States had found a rump WMD program, it would not have justified the war, and I doubt very much that it would have affected the course of the insurgency. Like an attack on Iran for supporting Iraqi insurgents, invading Iraq for having WMD was stupid on its own merits.
Exactly. This was, in my view, the soundest reason for opposing the Iraq War at the time. It just wasn't necessary.
Saw Battle of Algiers again today. Great stuff, and so resonant with US in Iraq. You've got your torture, and your generic willingness to forego legality at the altar of lethality and alleged effectiveness. You've got Mathieu telling the media to toe the line (though US MSM ca. 2007 would never dare to ask such tough questions, nor politicians to give such frank answers). You've got moral ambiguity all over the place. You've got your major power unleashing and eventually losing to forces that it seemed not at all to understand. Etc. Really strong film.
This here is some classic EU-speak. Still, it's amazing and imporant to see ridiculous, artificially-precise and seemingly legalized procedural arcania representing the presumptive response to disagreement -- as opposed to, oh, I dunno, war.
In addition, until 31 March 2017, if members of the Council representing at least 75% of the population or at least 75% of the number of Member States necessary to constitute a blocking minority as provided in Article [I-25(2)] indicate their opposition to the Council adopting an act by a qualified majority, the mechanism provided for in the draft Decision contained in Declaration nº 5 annexed to the Final Act of the 2004 IGC [shall apply]. As from 1 April 2017, the same mechanism will apply, the relevant percentages being, respectively, at least 55% of the population or at least 55% of the number of Member States necessary to constitute a blocking minority as provided in Article [I-25(2)].
Saw Midnight Express for the first time a few nights ago. I guess it looked interesting based on the Blockbuster online description.
Feh. Didn't like it. Was not persuaded or in the least moved by the main character's descent into madness. Poorly acted, phony feeling, in particular in the rendering of the Turkish as monsters, but also in Billy Hays's initial indifference to being imprisoned. Didn't really get the point of the British-educated guy in section 13 (the nuthouse part) ... whole thing just felt lame and overdone to me.
One of imdb's commentators refers favorably to it as a "delicious, homoerotic S&M-tinged slice of the 70's", which I guess is about right. (Not the 'delicious' part, mind you, NTTAWWT.)
Wait, Oliver Stone was involved? Shocking that it would be lame.
Saw "Judgment at Nuremberg" for the first time last week. Loved it. I wish our current regime would take a look at this and see how those accused of even the most heinous acts should be treated. The way we treat our captives expresses who we are, not who they are.
I like the way the movie builds up our sympathies for Dr. Ernst Janning, played by Burt Lancaster, only, at the end, to remind us that he was, indeed, guilty. However bad the system in which we find ourselves, and however much we try to rationalize doing bad things because alternatives are even worse, we are still responsible for the bad things we do. Janning had choices and he chose to do some very bad things.
Just read this for the first time. Loved it. Have a few quotes that I'd like to single out but don't have the book in front of me. Anyway, a neat American adventure that's utterly without a purpose, which purposelessness, of course, makes it deeply suspect in today's America.
Of course have seen it said many times, but I was struck by how much this anticipated Kesey's trip. Also read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test a few months ago, and of course it sounds like Neal (Dean Moriarty) didn't change a lick in the 15+ intervening years. What a wild man.
I was no fan of Slick Willy, and found his "depends on what the meaning of 'is' is" to be a real low in the annals of democratic (small 'd') accountability.
So was surfing this morning and caught the middle part of the first "Planet of the Apes" movie. I am sure that others have picked up on this (not that it's particularly subtle), but I love the idea that Chuck Heston is on the side of science, with the apes subjugating science to religion (with Dr. Zaeus both Minister of Science and "keeper of the scrolls"). It makes for pretty funny viewing in light of the christianist position against evolution and the general anti-science stance of a chunk of not just our population, but our "leadership".
Neat little piece in the June 2nd "economics focus" feature, entitled "Guests v gatecrashers". Bottom line:
illegal immigration might cost native-born residents some 0.07% of GDP.
But that net cost, if it exists at all, is clearly less than the price of keeping illegal workers out. Since 2001 Congress has more than doubled the amount of money spent on securing the borders and enforcing immigration laws. Mr Bush's 2008 budget proposes spending $13 billion, or 0.1% of GDP. The senators' plans would be even more expensive. A needlessly cumbersome guest-worker plan and a costly war on gatecrashers are bad ideas—even if you don't give a fig for the welfare of would-be migrants.
Yes, I think our concern about illegal immigration is largely misplaced and racist.
OK, I know that globalization has some very real negative consequences on some people who can ill-afford to suffer them. But let me just point out another downside of globalization: all that damn flopping in the NBA. Anyone who watched last year's World Cup soccer match will recognize Manu Ginobili's technique, for example -- BAM, as if taking a close-range shotgun blast. All that's lacking are the stretchers.
Worse, blue-blooded American boys have recognized the incentive to play along and are doing the same thing, with no apparent pride whatsoever.
Finished it a week or so ago. Feh. Didn't really get what people see in it. That it's nonlinear and therefore somehow jazzy? I thought it was self-indulgent crap. I need to look up some info (maybe read a real biography of Mingus) to find out when it was written. It wouldn't surprise if it was ca. 1970, when what CM was playing doesn't move me much, either. But what do I know.
I just wish there were some actual discussion of, ummm, music.
Also read Theodore Roszek's The Making of a Counterculture, which I enjoyed a lot. A little heavy-handed at places, and the author seems to be trying too hard to sound profound, but his analysis, that the counterculture represented an attempted to rediscover magic and rescue life from the technocracy, made good sense to me.
The Economistsays it won't quite use the term "new Cold War", but notes the CFE withdrawal and a slip of the tongue by Condi Rice, in which she allegedly refers to "Soviet" rather than Russia.
I am glad to hear that Putin reasserted that he'll step down as Russian President, though I do wonder who will be next, and he will be like.
Not terribly surprising. It was definitely the safest bet, though of course "safe" is not a word one generally uses in connection with predicting French election outcomes.
CNN.com's lead story is, perhaps predictably, a little weird. In particular, there is a strongly gendered dichotomy on offer here. First, this:
The choice is now between two starkly different visions for France -- the pro-American hardline ex-interior minister promising swift change or the first woman with an honest chance at becoming the country's leader, a candidate who is promising a gentler approach to reform.
So, the man is "hard" (or some derivation thereof) and the woman is "gentle"? Hm. Then, this:
Royal, a lawmaker and feminist who says she makes political decisions based on what she would do for her children
Feminism of a sort, I guess.
Anyway, should be an interesting two weeks. If I had to go out on a limb I'd guess Sarkozy takes it on May 6th, but I don't feel particularly confident about it.
The EU's attempt to transcend sovereignty and traditional power politics by establishing a transnational rule of law is much more in line with a "post-historical" world than the Americans' continuing belief in God, national sovereignty, and their military.
Moravcsik has a piece in Newsweek Internationalwhich I have only skimmed but which, on that basis, I largely agree with. The Europe of 2007 reflects a truly remarkable set of achievements which my Tata Madeleine (nee 1909) would never have considered possible. Let's not let its pathologies, complexities, etc. obscure this from view.
Saw the New Riders of the Purple Sage in town last month and now, through the generosity of Dawg House Audio and Tim Steigler, have a chance to re-hear the show. Had a great old time that night and think it holds up well on disc. Highly recommended.
Just watched Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. Despite the overbearing subtitle, it is actually pretty deft in making its case to the average 1st World coffee drinker. It starts off with the coffee side of things for the first 50 minutes or so, then spends some time on the more general issues of the developing world and the workings of the WTO. I like the latter angle, too, as it focuses less on the WTO qua IO and more on the ways in which the US and EU dictate terms to the poor all while maintaining their own ridiculous agricultural subsidies.
Via Farls at LGM I read that the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has withdrawn the Japanese government's official 1992 apology for atrocities to "Comfort Women", enslaved into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII.
Celtic Dragon runs a longer entry on this, including some gut-wrenching, absolutely nauseating first-hand testimony. What a horrible, horrible thing.
edited 20110903
In January 2007, Hanno Bunjes made a post at his now defunct blog at yurk.net describing the joy of discovering some almost-unseen video footage of the Grateful Dead playing at Chateau d'Hérouville near Paris, France, on June 21, 1971, from the French government's archival copy (Vive la bureaucracie!).
I had a link to that post here, made in February 2007, but linky-no-worky for the defunct blog. So, with Hanno's permission, I am just reposting his post, for posterity, Hanno's original post to posting to yurk.net from January 16, 2007:
I feel like I'm one of the first deadheads in the world to watch this.
The film footage from the legendary Grateful Dead concert in Hérouville (6/21/71) has finally surfaced. For decades it has existed only as a rumor, nobody in deadland claimed to have seen the footage.
How did this come to light now, 35 years after the fact? The French Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) keeps archives of everything (more or less) ever broadcast on French television and radio. They have started to sell the contents of their archives online. Among them are three editions of "Pop Deux" from 1971 that contain footage from the Hérouville concert*. It's that simple.
You can watch short snippets online, but only € 18 will get you the real thing: high-quality, copy-protected DivX video downloads. You'll only be able to watch them with special players and "authenticated" DVD players. The files are watermarked so that INA will be able to trace any copies to your credit card. I don't think we will see this footage on bt.etree.org anytime soon.
It is worth the hassle though. The footage is a deadhead's wet dream coming true. There are several full-length songs** shot with two cameras in colour, with an interview with Jerry Garcia in between. The stage in Hérouville is set up in what looks to be the inner courtyard of the Chateau d'Hérouville. The small audience seems to consist of French villagers who very likely have no idea of who is playing (the gig was never advertised). They do the right thing and dance - probably not least to fight the cold nighttime air that makes the singers' breath condensate. In short, the film is very well done and captures a unique atmosphere. The finding of this footage is a major event in the dead's long history of taping. The footage should be somehow "liberated" and distributed for everyone to see. For now, unfortunately, it looks like that's not going to happen.
[note 2011- I was obviously wrong about that part]
(Wait until the lawyers find about this one - Pop Deux had some really big names on their show.)
* July 24, October 9, November 27 are the relevant dates that come up when you search for "grateful dead". The other search results do not contain Hérouville footage as far as I can determine from the description.
** Loser, China Rider, Hard to Handle, Deal, Sugar Magnolia and Sing Me Back Home, and others
P.S. After I finished the post I found "http://paris70.free.fr/auvers71.htm">this excellent account of the events at Château d'Hérouville. Read it. Garcia calls it "the group's most exotic gig".
I will be making a full-on post about this gig at some point. In the meantime, thanks Hanno!
Henry notes that Putin is pushing back against the OSCE.
First, I am less sanguine than Henry about the pure-drivenness of the OSCE's motives. Makes perfect sense to me that it should be anti-Russian. Power --> institutions.
Second, Putin is a scary man. "Spook spooky spook" -- hilarious!
Third, sure is getting chilly in East-West relations. Brrrr.
Finally saw Battle of Algiers last night ... magnificent! It will reward repeated viewing. Of course, the torture and counterinsurgency techniques depicted seem, with certain exceptions, relatively mild compared to what we are surely doing in Iraq and in connection with the GWOT. With certain exceptions (the bombing of occuped houses, execution), a sense of civilization and restraint, however vague, still seems to permeate things. And this notwithstanding Mathieu's denial (really, evasion of the question) of constraints imposed by law.
Check out Farls on The Dark Soul of Colonel Mathieu. Brilliant stuff. Not the banality of evil, Farls claims, but more a statement about how humans can be mere technologies of domination. For whom or for what may be irrelevant.
I plan on posting on some of Joy Gordon's related ideas at some point.
"The Music Never Stopped" torrent site (tmnsp.net) has been rebranded as Jerome's Place, likely in anticipation of a less benign attitude toward torrent Grateful Dead related material by the new "keepers of the vault", Rhino Records. Will the Rhino roar? Too soon to say, but I wouldn't bet against it.
In the meantime, RIP TMNSP -- the project that created the techtonic shift in what we imagine possible in terms of collecting GD &c music.
Carol Brightman's Sweet Chaos: The Grateful Dead's American Adventure offers the thesis that Garcia and the Grateful Dead were "apolitical" and should be condemned to that extent, having failed to stand up (as the Berkeley radicals did) to the injustices and corruptions of American and international politics in the 60s and 70s. The GD/San Francisco/Merry Prankster thing was about sex, drugs and rock & roll, the denial of political responsibility, while the Berkeley thing was about politics first and foremost. She pursues a book-length exercise in head-scratching, asking herself and the reader how these people could have been so irresponsible while there was injustice in the world and while good radicals such as herself fought the good fight.
This is unadulterated bullshit. Wavy Gravy said on 2/9/73 at the Maples Pavilion (Stanford) that "taking a shit is a political act ... ", and he was dead right. Garcia's and the GD's politics weren't of the in-your-face-to-fight-injustice kind favored by the Berkeley radicals. But they were a politics nonetheless. Indeed, I think they were based on a coherent (if implicit) political philosophy in which living well (hedonism?) expresses an aspiration toward which we all (and society itself) might work.
These thoughts are obviously half-baked, and I am sure there are serious works of political philosophy which might articulate this kind of world view. I'd sure like to track them down and check them out.
