Psychedelic Poetry - "CEREMONY AND RITUAL" - a story - Fiction - written by Gregory Vanderlaan about a Trip to Philadelphia - Grateful Dead at JFK Stadium and The Spectrum Arena - deadheads: stories from fellow artists

OUR MINDS HAVE BEEN FUSED INTO ONE SHIMMERING

COLONIAL ANIMAL…

FLOWING IN THE

CURRENTS OF THE MUSIC…

adrenaline, serotonin, synapses on fire !

IN THE SHADOWS,TORCHES FLICKER IN THE BREEZE.

THE ORACLE BEGINS TO SPEAK,

FEEL THE HEAT…

adrenaline, serotonin, synapses on fire!

WE DANCE OUTSIDE OF THE TRADITIONAL

REALM OF TIME AND SPACE.

THE CROWD ERUPTS IN OUTBURSTS OF FREE-FORM MOTION

AS THE INTENSITY OF THE JAM PEAKS

adrenaline, serotonin, synapses on fire!

MY BODY IS TRANSFORMED INTO A PINBALL AND

I RICCOCHET AROUND THE SPECTRUM

ARENA BOUNCING OFF THE FLASHING LIGHTS.

A CROWD OF DEADHEADS

SURROUND ME INTENT ON TELLING ME STUPID JOKES…

THEY JUST…know… THAT I WILL LAUGH…

adrenaline, serotonin, synapses on fire!

THANK YOU DR. ALBERT HOFFMAN

***************************************

This was written after attending a Grateful Dead concert in JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was sitting up above the crowd in the bleachers and could see the dancers move more enthusiastically during peaks of the music… less motion during gentle passages… as the dynamics of the improvisation ebbed and flowed, the dancers moved accordingly… like sea anemones moving in the currents of the ocean… I also mention the Spectrum in Philadelphia… It has many blinking advertisements for Atlantic city casinos in the area where refreshments were being served…

Grateful Dead... My Story... American History... and Original Deadhead ART... deadheads: stories from fellow artists

My Sugar Cube Painting...

like the cover of 

"The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" 
by Tom Wolfe.

~~~~~~~~~~my  Gr8ful  story~~~~~~~~~

 I first noticed the Grateful Dead in 1968 in English class at junior high school. Our teacher had put up posters on the wall of the classroom and we wrote essays about them. He was attempting to stimulate creative WRITING but more importantly, creative THINKING.

One was an American flag made out of swastikas and another was a solarized/negative photo of 5 hairy men standing in front of "LITTLE BOXES" type suburban tract homes.

Our English teacher stopped working for the school system that year and has never been heard of since. That has happened often to people that go to see the Dead... They change their lifestyle and start associating with a different set of people...

The first time I went to a concert was 1972. It was a double date with friends. There were three bands playing that night. The Sons of Champlin, The New Riders of the Purple Sage and the Grateful Dead. We all smoked marijuana during the first act and the other couple fell asleep in each others arms on

the floor of the Winterland Arena (San Francisco).

We let them sleep until the last song of the night. Casey Jones.

All that I really remember about that show was that the last song kept on getting louder and more intense and I felt that it was impossible for it to get any more powerful, and then it did...

The next year I went to Chico State College. At That Time...my opinion was that the people who were fans of the Dead were too obsessive. I tried to keep out of that scene because the people were just fanatic... I was more into Johnny Winter...

However,

In 1974 a group of us kids got into a Van and went to see the Dead at the University of Reno. I was in the back playing harmonica with my friend Jimmy on guitar. We spent the night at a cabin at Lake Tahoe. We all bought some 4-way windowpane acid. This turned out to be a mistake. The quality was

frighteningly bad. The next morning we went to the football stadium at 10 AM. We took the LSD and it made us feel anxious and upset all day. Lucky for me, I gave away 3/4 of the gelatin square to some ladies. I apologize to them for their own nightmare experiences... Hey, I just didn't know... sorry...

The Dead were using a sound system called "The Albatross" or "The Wall Of Sound". They NEVER got it to work right. It was a huge sound system that was so complex that it turned out to be impractical to use on the road. They would play half a song and then something would go wrong and they would stop. At 8 that night they finally gave up and we left. By then, the fear caused by the acid had gone away and I had a good time looking at the flashing lights in downtown RENO. There were some sculptures of Showgirls that were 40 feet tall. They were very impressive. I took some photographs at that show. I also had borrowed a Halloween mask from my roommate.  I lost the mask when some kid borrowed it to wear and then ran away thru the crowd...

During my trip I realized that it was way too much stuff to have to keep track of. From then on I carried very little with me on trips... Intentionally dressing for an adventure, with carefully selected supplies...

Eventually, I went to 39 Dead Concerts. What a blessing...

The Wall of Sound did function wonderfully at San Francisco's Winterland... The shows documented in "The Grateful Dead Movie" were spectacular... During the song "Truckin" I realized that "if the roof blew off the building and I could see the stars, I would not really be amazed because what was happening on stage was already the most unbelievable event possible... another unbelievable event would just be trivial"

I was amused by one peculiar action... often, the cameramen would film a lightbulb on a stand... this seemed like odd behavior. 10 Years Later, I was told what they were doing... they were filming a flipboard with a NUMBER written on it lit up by the lightbulb to be used to index the reels of film... for editing... 

They had live fire on stage and

ladies with silk ribbons dancing in front of the band...

and the LSD that night was of excellent quality... THANKS!

It became apparent that there was something ELSE going on in addition to "rock and roll/show business". Some times I would not bother to buy a ticket to the concert at all but was happy to play music in the parking lot. Many people DID NOT attend the concerts. They went to experience the scene that surrounded the DEAD. There was a philosophy that the band was not the center of attention.

Dancing at the Rainbow Gathering in California... Dun Dun Village...

The Rainbow Gathering is the logical outgrowth of this feeling. The people from the audience (and other like minded individuals) meet in a National Forest and have a wonderful camping trip. At this level, the band does not even attend at all.

REBUS PICTURE PUZZLE:

What do the webdings spell?

answer to the rebus picture puzzle:

You can call this song "The United States Blues"

During the late 1970s the band had become unpopular with the general public and I got to see them in smaller places... like the boys gym at the University of Maryland. The baby boomer generation seemed to be embarrassed by their hippie behavior during their youth and those were lean years for the band. Bad for them, but good for me because it was easy to get a ticket...

Then tastes changed and they started playing

huge football stadiums.

One fine show was at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium... 80,000 seats... The Dead played with Crosby, Stills and Nash. They played "Wooden Ships" and "Teach Your Children" which featured a pedal steel guitar solo by Jerry Garcia... such a sweet introduction to that song on the CSN record... The people came from Canada, NY city and Washington DC... an interesting group of people to meet... there was a great violin based gypsy jazz band playing by a bus after the show... then the police made everyone leave the parking lot and drive on down the road. I ended up stopping at a McDonald's restaurant with a playland that was just PACKED with other deadheads... Big fun playing on the toys.

I never went "on tour" with the Dead but it took very little effort to drive one day to see a show... So, when I lived in Maryland, I went to many shows in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Columbia MD, DC, Norfolk

VA and NY City... Like, why NOT?

Madison Square Garden is built directly above Pennsylvania Station... it's quite convenient to ride the train to and from the show...

The 6 shows I saw at Columbia Maryland's Merriweather Post Pavilion were a high point for all... The venue is in an ideal location. It is located in "Symphony Woods", a forested park in downtown Columbia. Across the street is a giant shopping mall. Convenient access to supplies (groceries,

batteries, liquor etc.).

The shows were outdoors in the summer and one night there was a thunderstorm. Lucky US! Many people left and that relieved the overcrowding on the lawn area... Thanks for going away!

The band kept on playing and the lightning flashes seemed to be timed to the music... During the drum/space part of the show, Mickey Hart timed drum rolls to have the thunder play the last note... on a tom-tom fill it would go... from high to low... da da da, du du du, de de de, kaboom!

Sadly, the town of Columbia requested that the Dead play somewhere ELSE... The rumor is that there were too many fireworks in the parking lot and the fans were a danger to the forest... I believe this to be true because there WERE a lot of explosives flying into the air... flying explosives are legal "south of the border" in the Carolina states... a VERY short drive on highway 95... so the DC area always has had a lot of fireworks... and M80 firecrackers.

The next year the Dead moved to a basketball arena... and then eventually ended up at RFK Stadium in Washington DC.

A concert at RFK had Another fantastic thunderstorm... the football field turned to mud with people sliding... In the summer, the weather often gets to 99.99999% humidity and 100 degrees Fahrenheit... It's just miserable... they, when the rain comes at nightfall, it is a relief... a blessing... the people started to cheer when the thunderstorm started...

MORE GRATEFUL DEAD INSPIRED ART...

Poetry inspired by Dead Concerts at JFK Stadium and the Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia.

ceremony and ritual: a story...

OUR MINDS HAVE BEEN FUSED INTO ONE SHIMMERING

COLONIAL ANIMAL...

FLOWING IN THE

CURRENTS OF THE MUSIC...

adrenaline, serotonin,synapses on fire !

IN THE SHADOWS,TORCHES FLICKER IN THE BREEZE.

THE ORACLE BEGINS TO SPEAK,

FEEL THE HEAT...

adrenaline,serotonin,synapses on fire!

WE DANCE OUTSIDE OF THE TRADITIONAL

REALM OF TIME AND SPACE.

THE CROWD ERUPTS IN OUTBURSTS OF FREE-FORM MOTION

AS THE INTENSITY OF THE JAM PEAKS

adrenaline,serotonin,synapses on fire!

MY BODY IS TRANSFORMED INTO A PINBALL AND

I RICOCHET AROUND THE SPECTRUM

ARENA BOUNCING OFF THE FLASHING LIGHTS.

A CROWD OF DEADHEADS

SURROUND ME INTENT ON TELLING ME STUPID JOKES...

THEY JUST...know... THAT I WILL LAUGH...

adrenaline,serotonin,synapses on fire!

THANK YOU DR. ALBERT HOFFMAN

***************************************

Self Hypnosis story. written to entrance the reader.

Imagine that you are floating in a tub of warm water...

every muscle in your body is completely relaxed...

your mind drifts and contentment blooms like

a time lapse film of a rose...

you leave your body and rise up to the ceiling...

you look back and see your body...

it is resting with a cup of tea in it's hand...ahh...mint...

as you watch your body,

your mind seeps thru the ceiling and you see the world.

there is a forest...it is for...rest...

on the shore of a lake a spiral of deadheads dance around a fire.

the flickering light seems to be perfectly synchronized to the rhythm of the drums... alas...the reversal

of entropy is merely an illusion.

one of the deadheads reaches into the shadows and lifts

a five gallon can of gasoline.

it is tightly sealed.he places it on the fire...

they all move back...

it will take time for the gas to expand enough to burst the can...

a slender woman with strawberry blond hair raises a conch shell

to her lips and draws a deep breath.

she blows a long note signaling

the beginning of a new era of mankind.

everything is dripping with meaning.

significance saturates every leaf of every tree ...

then a tiny hole appears in the gas can and

a cone of fire reaches for the sky...

you contemplate metallurgy,welding and strength of materials...

then the gas can resigns itself to fate

and a ball of fire searches for oxygen and of course finds it.

the spiral of deadheads emit a massive yeah! and you drift on...

One fine thing about the Grateful Dead:

They often played three nights in a row at the same location,

without repeating any songs. It is truly amazing that they

were able to remember that much material.

Most performers practice one show and then when they have

learned it, they go on the road...

It makes me wonder if there is a song memorization

enhancing property to the chemical LSD.

How ELSE can we explain what happened?

Each night had a different texture to it.

The first night had more extreme improvisation and more

dissonant chord structure.

The second night was mellow and the third night

was straight ahead rock and roll.

I believe that this was intentional.

Many of us would buy tickets to all three nights and spend

the daytime as tourists exploring whatever town we were in.

On the first night, we would take LSD

and enjoy the spaciness of the jams.

The second night we would be tired out from the previous

night's adventure and were in the mood for those sad old ballads...

By the time the third night rolled

around, we just wanted to party with our new found friends.

 The ART below is based on the fine graphic design

of  Bob Thomas... and a superb redwood sculpture by an

unknown Humboldt County artist...

It is easy to see far when you stand on the shoulders of giants!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Thomas

Bob also did the Lightning Bolt Skull with

artist, sound engineer and

LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley...

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley

nicknamed "Bear"

 The back cover of History of the Grateful Dead, vol 1 (Bear's Choice) showed multi-colored marching bears. Bob's inspiration for the bear came from a 36 point lead slug of a generic bear that was a standardized figure from a printer's font box.

The desire to document the LSD experience is strong...

witness this man trying to photograph an Hallucination...

MLULTRA... WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

Both Ken Kesey and Robert Hunter were paid research subjects...

The ultimate winners of this voyage...

Kid dancing with dad as a Grateful Dead Cover band plays...

Let it Grow...

in beautiful Arcata, California... we can have fun forever... Tribute Bands may be playing Dead songs for thousands of years... after all, people still perform Mozart, Beethoven, Mussorgsky...

 "The Miracle Show" concert. A Dead Tribute band that

re-incarnates themselves as "The Fickle Hillbillies"

to play original tunes.

Playing for free in Arcata. No cover charge, we are all just friends that love to play and dance...

SAMBA! at the all species parade...

FYI... Arcata, California is an entire TOWN

of people that GRASP the concept...

Like the students pictured above...

Come and VISIT anytime... Take Highway 101 North from San Francisco or 101 South from Oregon... Highway 299 leads to us from Redding and the central valley...

Plenty of Guitar pickers and artists here...

READ MORE: 
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/grateful-deadhead-tribute-webpage.html

Grateful Deadhead Tribute Webpage. Pictures and Tall Tales. Many thanks to all that made the Grateful Dead an American Miracle... Just remember, if our lives together were written as a fiction story, everyone would dismiss it as being unbelieveable... Yet it all really happened! ART, Poetry and MyStory... I'm Gr8ful

Grateful Deadhead Tribute Webpage. Pictures and Tall Tales. Many thanks to all that made the Grateful Dead an American Miracle... Just remember, if our lives together were written as a fiction story, everyone would dismiss it as being unbelievable ... Yet it all really happened! ART, Poetry and MyStory... I'm Gr8ful deadheads: stories from fellow artists

Grateful Dead psychedelic art files for your viewing pleasure...

The wonderful Winterland Arena in San Francisco was the home to many Grateful Dead Concerts... It was the ONE PLACE where the Wall of Sound really worked! They had days to set up the equipment and tweak it to perfection... The Movie with the cartoon at the beginning was filmed there... and it was a fine show! They included fire on stage and ladies dancing with silk scarves...

Golden Gate Park, site of the Human Be In

One thing that happened surrounding the Gr8ful Dead was an Intentional Community of people that followed the band around... They earned a living by selling things in the parking lot of the show during the daytime... There were vendors selling tie-dye shirts, bumperstickers, illegal drugs, legal drugs and food...

But it was not all capitalism for currency...

A group called the Diggers founded a free store/free meal in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco and many of their IDEAS were carried along with the Deadheads on tour. Somehow, just giving away gifts to friends is a practical alternative to cash retail sales... If everyone just shares, we can all just bliss out and have a fine time... So, I tried to bring things to give away... and miraculously, people gave me stuff too! and we didn't worry about keeping score with money.

At RFK stadium in Washington DC, I was showing a person some rainbow glasses that I had made. The Air and Space Museum sold diffraction grating by the sheet and I would cut out small pieces and scotch tape them to paper eyeglass frames... this caused the viewer to see rainbows surrounding every light... quite magical... so this fellow asked me  "Would you like to break bread brother?"  I said yes and he gave me the center square off of a round loaf of Sourdough French bread...  I let him keep the glasses and we parted ways... about an hour later I realized that I was tripping on acid... I guess the bread was dosed! That show involved a terrific thunder and lightning storm and dancing in the mud on the football field. Near the end of the evening I decided to practice a Carlos Casteneda type POWER WALK. I took a step and then waited a moment to thoroughly experience that precise location and then I took another step. Then I waited until I had "GROKED" fully that location and took another step... So the ultimate effect was extremely slow walking in a crowd of dancing people... I walked like that for an hour... all the way out to the parking lot where I left my car... This caused some fellow Deadheads to satirize me by making mocking statements... "Watch out for that guy! He's moving so fast he might run you over" I often found a feeling of family at these events... that guy could make fun of me because he was a relative of mine... and after all... "We are all one beneath the Infinite Sun"

Dead Related Events...

Since many people who like the band have learned to play musical instruments, quite often they feel like being IN the BAND instead of being in the AUDIENCE.

In 1972, a friend of mine went to San Francisco and went to the Fillmore West and came back to our high school and said... LET"S BUILD OUR OWN.

That was the beginning of Forbes Mill in Los Gatos California... We had a light show and electric rock music every weekend at an abandoned stone flour mill in the center of town... On Wednesday nights we performed folk music. My band performed... I was the head of security and did advertising posters.

Since we had Town sponsorship of our "Teen Club" thru the organization Youth Unlimited, we had to make sure no laws were being broken or the police would shut us down. Certainly no drinking or illegal drug use or housing of runaways. My take on law enforcement was to direct potential lawbreakers to the nearby hole in the fence that lead to the wooded area next to the freeway.  I admit that a lot of laws were broken on State of California property, but that was NOT MY CONCERN. I was responsible for making sure that OUR property was crime free.

The light show was created by using four slide projectors and two spinning wheels with variable speed motors that blocked the light from reaching the white wall behind the bandstand. Each cardboard wheel had holes cut into it so that the slides would be projected in a stroboscopic manner.  Some slides were abstract art created by "crystal craze" paint and others were photographs.

We also owned a strobe light and I learned to not point it at the electric organ player because the blinking light made it impossible to see which keys were black and which were white...

Other Dead Related Events:

When I was living in Washington DC I got an Invitation to a concert that was to be held deep in the woods near Quantico Marine Corps Base. Some people carried in a generator and about a quarter mile off the road they had a rock concert. The only people that attended were fellow Deadheads that were given invitations at the Grateful Dead concert at the Capitol Center. Quite fun.

A more formal event was held at Wilmer's Park in Brandywine, Maryland. You needed a ticket for that one. Mr Wilmer has been holding barn dances and rock concerts since the 1950's at his farm... Generally it was fiddle square dancing on weeknights and in the summer, local bands... Generations of people enjoyed this recreational facility.  The band I saw was called "New Potato Caboose".  They played tribute songs and Bob Marley... In researching this webpage post, I wanted to spell Wilmer's Park correctly and so I googled it... Mr Wilmer has passed away and It is under new management and they plan to build a big place there to play... marketing bands that are not popular enough for Basketball Arenas but too big for bars. They also say that in recent years, almost all of the groups were for a black audience... Go figure, once again Deadheads and Blacks partying in the same location... Just like The Spectrum and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.

Grateful Dead reunite to play Obama benefit concert...

deadheads for Obama.

Rainbow Gathering in Pennsylvania in the 1980's.

This event really started at the Spectrum Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at a three day Grateful Dead concert. It eventually turned out to be a five month vacation traveling from Florida to Canada looking for the best beach...

I drove up from Washington DC and camped out in the parking lot in my car. During the daytime, we were able to swim at a public pool across the street from the Spectrum. The local residents had the lifeguards pull a rope across the pool so we swam on one side of the pool and they enjoyed the other... sort of like segregation except the black people were the ones that wanted us over on the other side of the rope...

One afternoon I ran into a fellow from Manassas, Virginia that called himself "Lumpy the Biker". He asked if he could rest by sitting in the front seat of my car. He had injured his leg in a motorcycle accident and had trouble standing. So we were relaxing in the car and he told me that he didn't really LIKE the Grateful Dead and did not have a ticket. He was just here to have fun at the parking lot party and to score some acid for resale back home in Virginia. By this time I had already eaten a dose...

I decided to wander over to look at the railroad tracks and admire the trains. They were underneath of some freeways and reminded me of an Escher Drawing.

When I got back I found out that "Lumpy" had been dealing out of my car. He was selling bottles of Visine LSD: Each drops of water had one dose in it. Somehow, someone had started the rumor that since he was dealing out of my car, that I must be his supplier... Therefore, later that night at the concert, many people came up to me and thanked me for the excellent quality of the acid. Then they asked if I wanted any and I stuck out my hand, they squeezed a couple of drops and I licked my hand... many times...

this was a classic case of an unknown large dose...

I ended up dancing in the concourse area where the refreshments were sold. There were many flashing lights on the advertising billboards for the Atlantic City Casinos. Many other Deadheads encircled me to tell me stupid jokes because they were guaranteed that I would laugh... A friend wrote in the dirt on the back window of my car "Mush Brain"... I got his address and visited him in New jersey later that summer. He was a teenager that had built a shack way out in the woods for a party house. I have quite a bit of admiration for creative construction like that! At some time during those three days, someone gave me a card with an invitation to the Rainbow Gathering to be held at an undisclosed location somewhere in Pennsylvania July 4th. I put the card on the dashboard of my car and forgot about it...

As luck would have it, I got fired from my job that week for lack of attendance. I just did not show up for work and a couple of days later my boss knocked on my door and told me to not come in... He was not amused... So, there I was, time on my hands and money in the bank... I had been working steady for about six years and had been throwing my loose change in a dresser drawer for the whole time. So, I pulled the drawer out and put it in the trunk of my car and headed towards Florida. As I headed down the road, I picked up some hitchhikers and they informed me of the location of the Rainbow Gathering. I had no Idea what it was but from their description, it sounded like fun. I dropped them off and went to Epcot Center and Disney World.

I ended up staying there for five days. I found a campground and every day woke up early, went to EPCOT for a few hours, went back to the campground when it got hot and took a nap, then went back to EPCOT near sunset. The place is totally different at night. The most impressive spot is at a lake near the big sphere. They project LASER light that looks like the planet Earth... Outlines of the continents... and then animate the globe to give the impression that it is revolving... at the same time, they have fountains dancing in colored lights, fireworks and loud classical music. Specifically, the Russians: Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky... Quite the sensory overload. Everyone had told me that the best ride was Space Mountain but it's only good the first time when it has the element of surprise... So, for the first day at EPCOT, I took LSD and pretended that I was a secret agent with a goal of climbing space mountain... handy to remember that while tripping in public it's a good idea to maintain one's composure or the Munchkins would throw you out of the park! Space Mountain was excellent but standing in line for a half an hour was difficult while the faces of the people were distorting... Yes, it was an astounding ride.

I also rode the Monorail over to the hotel and went to the top roof and admired the fine view from 10 stories up of Florida... Remember that when tripping, it is not a good idea to wear a t-shirt with a physics joke on it... The "straights" won't understand the joke and will ask you to explain... I made that mistake... I had a shirt with the picture of Einstein wearing a policeman's hat with the saying "186,000 miles per hour, not just a good idea, IT'S THE LAW!"

I also liked the Kraft Foods singing and dancing fruits and vegetables show. They had a giant refrigerator onstage and food came out and did song and dance numbers... Just like in ZAP COMIX by Robert Crumb.

and the Carousel of Progress will stay with me my whole lifetime...

especially the SONG!

"Now is the time, now is the best time,

now is the best time of your life!

Right here and now, you've got it made...

The world's forward marching and you're in the parade!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carousel_of_Progress

originally, the General Electric Display at the New York World's Fair, it shows the same happy fimily and their technology thru time... A diorama shows them in the 1800's using oil lamps, then we sing the song and the Audience rotates to view the next era... electric lights! The song was written by the same fellows that did "It's a Small World" and most of the other Disney classics... The Sherman brothers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Brothers

Mickey Mouse and the Space Mountain.

My hitchhikers said the Gathering was at the intersection of 6 and 666 in Pennsylvania.  I drove there by myself and was greeted by a man that said "Welcome Home, Brother".  I parked and walked in carrying a backpack and sleeping bag... no tent... so the entire time I was sleeping in random different locations... When I arrived at the main campfire circle I noticed that the Gathering was located on a creek and so I wandered downstream to find a nude swimming hole... There by the creek side was a sweat lodge and a group of  bathers. I went swimming and waited for the opportunity to go into the lodge. By this time I had been approached by someone's child who recommended that I not smoke tobacco during my time at the Gathering... I took that advice and soon was feeling the withdrawal symptoms from my addiction... A group left the sweat lodge and I went in... a person asked me to leave as there were two couples that wanted a private sweat and I was a fifth wheel... I got angry because I had no knowledge of a queue waiting for the sweat lodge... and I was freaking from the tobacco "JONES"... I left after arguing a bit and later got to sweat with many other men... The sweat was very therapeutic and helped with my nicotine anxiety. I wandered up to the main circle and met a fellow that manufactured plate glass xylophones and wooden marimbas. I borrowed one and played at the main circle. Then went over to a stage near the entrance and joined a group performing there. I was not wearing any clothes... It's the one time in my entire life that I have performed on stage nude... We mostly played songs like "JINGO" by Santana... that classic beat...

And the song "Infinite Sun"

Lyrics:

We are all one 'neath the Infinite Sun,

forever, forever, forever...

I will never forget you,

I will never forsake you,

forever, forever, forever...

Later that day I met some women and retired to their blanketed campsite for a back rub... One was named Terri and we became friends... Traded phone numbers... She decided to leave the Gathering Early because she wanted to go to the Bob Dylan and The Dead concert at RFK Stadium in Washington DC.

I selected to not go because the Gathering was a better event... In my opinion...

On July 4th at the main circle I found a bowl of Peyote unattended... It had a sign saying Sacrament, Help Yourself... and I did... For the entire day I ate small bits of Peyote... Just a small amount and then wait a half an hour, then another small amount and wait... after about 12 hours I had eaten a LOT and truly got the Mescaline High without barfing. The flavor of Peyote is quite bitter and many people find it to be so bad that they barf... I prefer the slow, steady approach.

I wandered over to a stage made out of hay bales and enjoyed the music. There was a cable slide built into a tree and I rode that often. How it worked: there was a steel cable leading from a platform about 15 feet up in a tree stretched tautly to a stake in the ground... A person sat in a leather seat that was attached to the cable by a freespinning wheel and chain... Jump off the platform and ride the cable to the ground... whee! swing the seat back up the cable for the next rider... That was an amazing ride, home made by Rainbow Gatherers just for our own amusement... Thanks!!!

Then I started dancing with a lady that had coarse brown hair... we became friends and were kissing on the ground when she suggested we go on stage and sing for the rest of the tribe. By this time I was very high on Peyote. She gave me a choice of three songs to perform... the names of the first two songs were incomprehensible so I selected Kumbayah, the third choice. We did go onto the stage and sang for the rest of the tribe... by that time she selected to go to her campsite and we parted ways... I located my sleeping bag and found that another lady was in it... I told her to not worry or leave and we slept together like spoons...

In my reading about the Native American Church, one of the things that happens is that a person high on peyote meets Mescalito and is taught their song... then they perform it for the tribe... My experience was similar... I felt as if the woman with the coarse brown hair was Mescalita and we did perform my song...

A couple of days later I drove home and went out on a date with Terry. We had a fine time and she and her girlfriend wanted a ride to an Ashram in rural Virginia. So the three of us went to visit Dar San Singh near an army base on the Potomac. We could hear the explosions of the warriors practicing with their weapons. The sound provided contrast for what was happening at the Ashram.

The Spiritual Study of Indian Religion.

I didn't quite grasp the message of this GURU (mainly because I could not understand a word he said-heavy accent, talked quietly) so I and the Terry's girlfriend came back to DC and I dropped her off at her house.

And THAT's how I spent my summer vacation...

link to my Rainbow Gathering webpage... a "we did it ourselves" event!

OOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM

New Years Eve Shows... Add a little theater to your classic dead show.

I was lucky enough to see Carlos Santana and the Dead at the Cow Palace. Santana played up until midnight... then a float was pushed from the back of the arena to the front with Father Time riding it and a Newborn Baby took over the hourglass. Then the Dead started playing after midnight... I went with my first wife and we had a fine time... Such a blessing to be in love, stoned and at a Dead Concert! Maui-Wowie!

another New Years eve show was at the San Francisco Convention Center and they let us in really early. We played volleyball until it was time for the band to play. That is just the type of experience that is totally unavailable at any other rock concert... Many Thanks to Bill Graham for allowing us to be part of the family.

Another New Years show involved me purchasing 10 tickets in Washington DC for a concert at the Oakland California Basketball arena. Then I flew out to visit my parents in Los Gatos for Christmas. I sold (at cost) all the tickets to my friends from high school. They were so very happy because the show was sold out and I had the miracle tickets! I got to be a passenger in back of my friends truck... playing guitar and singing as we sped down the freeway... outdoors... with the wind in my hair... FREE!

That show was really drenched with the feeling of family... I was introduced to "Laser" Lester and his wife Marsha... Lester and I walked down to the dance floor in order to score some acid and sure enough, I saw a distortion in the crowd... like someone was dealing... I said "Lester, Lester, Look at that!" and he agreed that it certainly LOOKED like a spiral of deadheads surrounding a dealer... and it was.. all the time Marsha kept hold of our seats... every once in a while we visited her and the kids and my friends but mostly it was dance dance dance...

My other friends (who shall remain nameless) brought their two 16 years old daughters... I enjoyed playing guitar and singing for the girls and one of them wrote down the lyrics to a song she had written in my notebook... In my guitar case are some notebooks where I write down the lyrics and chord changes for all my favorite songs... many people over the years have requested that I learn their favorite song and I do the research and add it to the playlist...  but to write in my book is quite a special event... usually I have to do all the work, but sometimes someone else has a song in their heart!

I forgot the tune to her song but a year later I was visiting Walden Pond near Boston and had the time and the inspiration to formalize a tune and the chord changes... I was missing a pencil or pen so I burned a stick and wrote the chords with the charcoal... BIG LETTERS... in E Minor...

"Laser" Lester got his nickname because he was a laserist for Bill Graham.

The classic "too much information to grasp" artform...

We did it at the Fillmore West with a lightshow, rock band, psychedelic drugs and people dressed in bizarre costumes... ahh... that WAS a little MORE multimedia than just a computer playing sound and displaying images... WAY MORE...

OK, What is a mind sprout anyway?

Well, on LSD, I feel as if my mind had given birth to a new way of life...

a new and better path between the dawn and the dark of night...

At the very least, it caused me to become interested in the search for enlightenment as a worthy goal in life.

The Western World was permanently re-arranged by the millions of people that had the psychedelic experience... but over half of the world simply missed the bus!

http://www.zazzle.com/gregvan/psychedelic+gifts

Please visit the links above for PSYCHEDELIC ART

printed on Shirts, Coffee cups, Buttons, stickers and MORE. 

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

and then on facebook... I read this Touching Autobiography by Holly Osbourne... 

I was in a 9th-grade classroom, a new student-teacher, being introduced to my teacher coworkers, and then there he was, with a ponytail and a cut-off tie-dye that showed the dancing bear tattoo on his shoulder. I vaguely recognized the dancing bear, and I was pretty sure it was related to the Grateful Dead. I was 10 years younger than him, more of a Dave Mathews and Pearl Jam kind of gal. I did, however, know that I wanted the guy under the cut-off shirt to take me on a date, and finally, I convinced him. When we would go out, he always played the Grateful Dead in the car. I did not quite understand the cult following of the Grateful Dead. The singing seemed mediocre at best, the songs were really long, and I recognized almost none of them. During the summer of 2004, he took me to a Grateful Dead Concert, or whatever they were known by then. I danced the night away, but I still was not connecting with the music the way he was, feeling the music deep down into his soul.  I did not recognize one song that evening.  I did, however, enjoy the people watching. Everyone wore smiles and brightly colored clothing. I was mildly intrigued. We were still dating, and I wanted him to like me, so I said nothing about not really enjoying the music. But I fell in love with the guy under the shirt, as he had become my very best friend. We were married a year later, and I have never looked back.

Throughout the years, we went to a couple of Dead concerts. They were all the same for me. I would go to the concerts, enjoy watching the crowd, dance around with a smile on my face, but I still was not really connected to the music. At this point, I had pretty much given up on understanding Deadheads and their love of adequate music. Our lives continued moving forward with 2 children, 2 dogs, and a house.

In 2017, my hubby suggested that we attend the Darkstar Jubilee, which was 3 days of camping and almost constant music. I was open to the idea. It was close, we have a pop-up camper, and we wanted to expose our kids to more live music, so it was decided. We arrived at a sea of tents and campers and all ages of Deadheads. We became fast friends with the family camped next to ours. We all joined in the dancing, the yoga, the tie-dying, the bubble wanding, the kids’ parade, but most importantly, I began to understand and connect with the Dead community. And through my understanding of the community, I began to actually listen to the music.

Over the next year, I began to understand, wanting to be a part of the Deadhead community. So, I listened and learned all I could during the next year. When the Darkstar Jubilee came around in 2018, I was more than excited and ready to fully immerse myself in the community, where music was at the center of the entire experience. It took me a while, but I finally felt like I belonged in the community, not just being surrounded by it.

We planned to go to a Dead and Co. concert in Indiana during the summer of 2019, so we dropped the kids off at my parents, and off we went. Our plan was to camp across the street from the venue, so it was going to be a great experience for me, joining in and spending time with the other Deadheads. Once we arrived, we set up camp and then walked across the street to Shakedown and had an early dinner and mingled with others who were just as excited to be there as we were. We went inside of the outdoor venue, and once the music began, I felt a part of it. I felt it inside of me, whatever “it” is. We sat on our blanket during the break and my stomach began to hurt. I tried to ignore it during the second set, but it just kept getting worse. Finally, I knew that the only solution was to throw up. I was going to be the only non-alcohol infused individual throwing up in the bathroom! I get there and cannot do it, so I went outside of the bathroom to a grassy area to sit, still in the venue. I kept getting stares from the teenage workers collecting garbage. I finally threw up on the grass during the encore. Soon after, people began to leave the pavilion and head for home, and all I could do was lean on a wall, looking pathetic I’m sure. A woman came to me and asked if I was ok and if I wanted water. I said yes, and a bottle of water was thrown our way as soon as she requested it from the crowd. My hubby exited through another exit, so we met back at our campsite, where I climbed into my sleeping bag and did not move until the morning. I fell asleep to the continuous filling of nitrous balloons.

On our way home, I realized that I felt cheated out of a concert, and I wanted more. I proceeded to book a flight to Denver where we could see the last 2 Dead and Co. shows in Boulder and then head into the Rocky Mountains for some camping and hiking. My excitement could hardly be contained!

So, after taking the kids back to my parent’s house, we flew on a planeload of Deadheads headed to the same place as us! Before the first show, we spent some time hiking locally and hanging out on Shakedown Street. And then the real fun began. The music, the mountains in the distance, and the community filled my soul. I was so joyful that I could not stop smiling and dancing and singing! But during the second song, Cold Rain and Snow, black clouds opened and began to pour buckets on us while lightning shot through the sky. The singing stopped, and management said we should leave the metal bleachers for a safer space. Everyone began to walk slowly, in an orderly fashion, until the clouds began to pelt hail down upon us. People began to push, and all I could think in my mind is that the membranes of my lungs were going to be squished together, and I lost my mind. I dug my feet into the ground, pushed back on my husband, and pushed forward on the person in front of me. In my brain, I had to make room to be sure my lung membranes were not going to get squished. At this point, I blacked out, so my memory has been filled in by my hubby. Another gentleman and my hubby made a little pocket, so the crowd flowed around me as I freaked out. But there was an angel in the crowd for me. A fellow Deadhead took my hands into hers, looked directly into my face, and she began to yell at me to breathe in and out.  I kept breathing, and I began to return to something like normal. I had some space around me. Another young girl asked to hold my hand, where I could tell that she understood my pain. I have never been so afraid in my life, and this was my first true panic attack. But I am glad that I was surrounded and supported by the community, of which I just kept feeling more a part of. After about another hour, the show began back up and we had a very wet, cold concert experience that evening. So again, I felt cheated out of an experience I craved.

On the day of the last show of the tour, we started it with a killer breakfast and a beautiful hike near Boulder. We then headed to Shakedown in the afternoon. We found a grassy area where my hubby joined in a game of frisbee. Laying on the grass, gazing at the mountains felt like home for me. It was a peacefulness that I had never felt before and have not since.  We then headed into the venue where the show was perfect, the experience was just what I had been craving for so long. The music spoke to me and the Deadheads surrounding us were full of pure happiness. For me, I guess the third show was the charm for me!

I am sad for all the possible Deadhead years that I lost because of simple disinterest. I am also sad that I never had the chance to see Jerry in person. But that sadness soon turns to gratefulness that I have gotten on the bus at all. I am no longer missing out on a loving, joyful group of people who have accepted me without question. How rare is that in today’s world? And thanks to my best friend and Hubby, Chad Meyers