Photographs of a Journey to the Headwaters Forest - Now a State Reserve... Near Eureka, CA - Plus The Story of How It Came To Be!

Photo of a Redwood on the way to The Headwaters Forest. It's an Old Growth Park with an excellent paved trail that's popular with people on wheels... Bicycles, Baby Buggies, Skateboards, Tricycles and Wheelchairs...

https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/california/headwaters-forest-reserve

American History: MAXXAM - Charles Hurwitz and Michael Milken Junk Bonds... Earth First!

The 7,472-acre Headwaters Forest Reserve was established in 1999 after a decade-long grassroots effort to protect the world’s last unprotected, intact, old-growth redwood forest ecosystem. Several threatened species call the Reserve home, including coho salmon, the northern spotted owl, and the marbled murrelet. Deep in the heart of the Headwaters, old-growth forest is the beginnings or headwaters of the South Fork Elk River and Salmon Creek. This is how the area got its name. The Reserve is managed by the BLM in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

There are two public trails in the Reserve. The Elk River Trail winds along the South Fork Elk River for 3 miles, followed by a 2-mile ascent to a short loop through an old-growth redwood forest. Interpretive signs along the first mile of trail describe the history of Falk, the historic company mill town once located along this section of trail.

To Get There: Drive North on Highway 101 and Turn Right at ELK RIVER ROAD Just before you get to Eureka. Travel a Couple of Miles Down That Road and Take Another Right at the Sign that says Headwaters Forest... Keep on Going Until You Get There...




Highway 101 Just South of Eureka
























There are Maps in the Quest Box for a Guided Tour of the Forest... A Ranger Built Educational Adventure...

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and Now for something Completely Different!

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A Free Concert in Old Town Eureka!
An unknown Tie Dye Artist...
Had these Shirts for sale...
































Samantha Toste - singer for Eureka CA Bands.
Vintage Soul and Blue Rhythm Revue.
Soon to Be Tim Day's Wife!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX2utDYfzCY

Samantha Toste sings
"With a Little Help from my Friends"
Blue Rhythm Revue Band

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and Now for something Completely Different!

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American History: How the Headwaters Forest Came to Be:

https://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1994/09/mm0994_07.html


Ravaging the Redwood: Charles Hurwitz, Michael Milken and the Costs of Greedby Ned Daly

The fate of the largest unprotected redwood forest in the world may now rest in the hands of an unlikely savior, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Since the 1985 MAXXAM takeover of Pacific Lumber, the redwood ecosystem known as the Headwaters Forest, located in Humboldt County on California's North Coast, has been under siege. Lawsuits, direct action, legislative efforts and all other attempts at preservation have so far failed to curb MAXXAM's ravenous appetite for redwood lumber. Now many environmentalists and community activists are hoping the FDIC can stop the forest from falling victim to corporate greed. The federal agency may be able to acquire the redwood forest as partial or full payment for the $548 million outstanding claim against the United Financial Group (UFG), a holding company for United Savings Association of Texas (USAT), a failed savings and loan controlled by MAXXAM and its chief executive officer, Charles Hurwitz.

Hurwitz is not averse to transferring part of the Headwaters Forest to federal government control, but he is insisting on rather different terms than environmentalists are proposing. Ignoring the fact that a company he controls, UFG, owes $548 million to the government, he has asked the government to pay him $600 million cash for a small grove of redwoods; if the offer is refused, he has threatened to liquidate the forest.

"If the federal government does not purchase the Headwaters Forest, Pacific Lumber will go ahead with its timber operations," says MAXXAM's Director of Public Relations Scott Lamb.

A Wall Street Journal article said Hurwitz's proposal "brings new meaning to the term greenmail." Hurwitz paid approximately $900 million for the 196,000 acres owned by Pacific Lumber. If the government were to accept his proposal to buy 4,500 acres for $600 million, Hurwitz would earn a profit of more than 2,800 percent.

The people of California's North Coast know Charles Hurwitz and MAXXAM well enough to take his threat seriously. Twice in 1992, the company cut hundreds of trees in the old-growth grove of Owl Creek on holidays and weekends when state regulators were not working, in violation of the California Board of Forestry cutting regulations. Both times the cutting was eventually stopped by court injunction. Under current plans, MAXXAM will harvest all the remaining old-growth redwoods it owns within the next 14 years.

One of the last stands

The government's response to MAXXAM and Hurwitz's threat will determine the fate of a unique ecosystem.

Many trees in the Headwaters Forest are as old as 2000 years. The cornerstones of an old-growth ecosystem are species diversity and a continual recycling process interlocking life and death. After a 300- foot redwood falls, it serves as a nurse log to help new seedlings grow. The seedlings grow right out of the nurse log, which provides nutrients to the new trees as it decays. As the older tree falls, it creates one of the few canopy breaks in an otherwise shady forest floor. The nurse log lies basking in the sunlight, offering the new seedlings essential light as well as nutrients.

Logging, especially clearcutting, stops this ecological recycling process and seriously threatens the forest's ability to regenerate. When loggers remove cut trees, they also remove the nutrients that the trees would have returned to the soil. The soil itself will be lost after a rain because it no longer has trees holding it in place. As topsoil is depleted, desertification begins.

Though the redwood forests still support a diverse array of species, including California black bear, mountain lion, Pacific fisher and steelhead trout, logging is taking a severe toll on forest wildlife. Many rare and endangered species also call the redwoods of Humboldt County home, among them the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet, pacific giant salamander, tailed frog and coho salmon. Their survival is dependent on a diverse and healthy old-growth forest.

Carl Ross, co-director of Save America's Forests, the nation's largest grassroots forest protection organization, says, "If we fail to protect these last stands of redwoods, we will lose one of the greatest wonders of the living world for all time. Less than 4 percent of native redwoods are still standing, and that tiny percentage is being hacked and cut for the last shred of money that can be sawed from their red roots. If we allow the extinction of these largest of all living things, we will be condemned as a society that knew the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Takeover plunder

The redwoods of Humboldt County may seem a long way from Houston, and United Savings Association of Texas, but whether the FDIC decides to pursue the connection may determine whether the Headwaters Forest survives.

There was little need to worry about the Headwaters Forest before Hurwitz's takeover of the Pacific Lumber Company. The family-run business was one of the most economically and environmentally sound timber companies in the United States. Pacific Lumber rarely if ever clearcut; it generally left standing 30 to 50 percent of the timber in a harvested area. This not only created natural canopy break for new growth, it also kept much of the soil stable, increasing the forests' growth potential.

The company was also generous to its employees. Pacific Lumber rented housing at below market rates to employees and maintained a "no layoff" policy despite downturns in the timber market. The company also funded a very generous pension fund.

Pacific Lumber's strength soon became its weakness, however. The pension fund was overfunded by $60 million, and, because of its sustainable cutting practices, the company held tremendous assets (old- growth redwoods) that could be liquidated quickly. Assessing Pacific Lumber in 1985, Charles Hurwitz decided it was ripe for a takeover, and he plucked it in the fall of that year.

Almost immediately after the takeover, Hurwitz raided the pension fund and doubled the rate of cutting to pay off the loans and junk bonds used to finance the takeover. If there was any doubt about Hurwitz's intentions and his dedication to preserving the sustainability of his new acquisition, it was cleared up in his first meeting with the workers of Pacific Lumber. Hurwitz was quoted by Time magazine as telling his new employees, "There is the story of the golden rule: he who has the gold rules."

Creative financing

The story of MAXXAM's takeover of Pacific Lumber is itself a tale of intrigue, shady dealings and questionable business practices. MAXXAM announced that it would make a cash tender offer for Pacific Lumber on September 30, 1985. Drexel, Burnham, Lambert structured the financing, which consisted of a $300 million short-term loan from the Irving Trust Company and $450 million dollars worth of junk bonds sold by Michael Milken's high-yield bond department at Drexel Burnham.

Shortly after MAXXAM made its offer, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) initiated an investigation into the heavy volume of trading in Pacific Lumber stock which took place in the days before MAXXAM made its offer. A House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation report states that the NYSE investigation uncovered significant evidence of insider trading and parking stock, although no civil or criminal actions were brought against MAXXAM or its associates for their activities related to MAXXAM's purchase of Pacific Lumber.

The NYSE investigation, the subcommittee's report and subsequent congressional hearings all make a strong case that stock parking took place. Parking stock is the practice of buying stock for another party in order to conceal the identity of the true or eventual owner. If Hurwitz had someone park stock for him, he could have accumulated Pacific Lumber stock anonymously and at a lower price than after the company was put "into play" (when it became known a single party was accumulating large blocks of the company's stock), which would drive the price of stock up almost immediately.

Boyd Jefferies, former chairperson of the Los Angeles brokerage firm Jeffries Group, Inc., who later pleaded guilty to parking stock for Ivan Boesky, accumulated 539,600 shares of Pacific Lumber stock and sold the shares on September 27 to MCO Holding Company, a Hurwitz-controlled enterprise. Presumably, this purchase gave Hurwitz enough stock to begin the hostile takeover of Pacific Lumber which he commenced three days after MCO purchased the stock.

Hurwitz and Jefferies both deny any prior agreement to park stock, but Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell, D-Michigan, and Representative Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, concluded in October 1987 that it was unlikely that the sale took place without a prior agreement, because the stock was sold well below the trading price on September 27, 1985. Since there had been so much trading before Hurwitz's offer, the stock price had already begun to rise. On September 27, Pacific Lumber was trading at close to $34 per share. In what was probably one of the more philanthropic stock sales ever seen on Wall Street, Jefferies sold the Pacific Lumber stock at $29.10 rather than its market trading price of $34. The discount sale was not attributable to a prior agreement, according to both parties, but apparently to the fact that Boyd Jefferies felt good-hearted that day.

Jefferies' generosity was not enough to ensure the financial stability of the newly acquired company. Though the interest payments on the junk bonds Hurwitz and MAXXAM used to finance the takeover were not due for four years, it was evident soon after the purchase of Pacific Lumber that it would be difficult to cover the debt. The annual interest payment on the junk bonds was more than the historical annual profit of Pacific Lumber.

To make the bonds more attractive to potential bidders, MAXXAM announced it would terminate the pension plan and sell most nontimber assets to pay the bank loan. MAXXAM also decided it would increase Pacific Lumber's timber cutting rate to pay off the junk bonds.

Getting to the pension fund required some slick maneuvering. According to William Bertain, a lawyer representing shareholders in Pacific Lumber and residents of Humboldt County in a suit against Pacific Lumber, the company attempted to protect the pension fund before Hurwitz's raid by declaring that the pension fund's excess $60 million would vest directly to the employees and retirees in the event of a hostile takeover.

Under pressure from a suit by MAXXAM, the Pacific Lumber board of directors agreed to a "friendly takeover," and MAXXAM agreed to defend the Board if it was found to have breached its fiduciary duty to the shareholders. MAXXAM increased its offer by $1.50 a share, for a total increase of approximately $33 million. But since it was now undertaking a friendly takeover, MAXXAM had access to the $60 million excess in the pension fund - so MAXXAM came out $27 million richer, despite the higher price paid.

Hurwitz was later sued by the U.S. Department of Labor and employees for investing Pacific Lumber's pension fund with the now-failed Executive Life Insurance Co. allegedly in return for Executive Life's junk bond financing of the Pacific Lumber takeover. The suit is still pending.

Failing Finances

Three years after MAXXAM's takeover of Pacific Lumber, another piece of Hurwitz's empire, United Savings Association of Texas, failed. The circumstances of the failure remain hazy. Although MAXXAM's Lamb claims that "USAT's decline can be attributed to a decline in the Texas real estate market," the S& L's deep involvement in Michael Milken's junk-bond schemes appears to have been an important factor in its downfall.

By the time USAT failed in 1988, Hurwitz had already gained the attention of regulators. In 1971, Hurwitz was sued by the Security and Exchange Commission for alleged stock manipulation, and charged by New York State regulators with looting Summit Insurance Company. Hurwitz was not found guilty in either case.

In the three years prior to its failure, USAT purchased more than $1.3 billion worth of junk bonds underwritten by Drexel Burnham. During those same years, the Milken group raised about $1.8 billion for Charles Hurwitz and his takeover ventures, including the takeover of Pacific Lumber, according to a FDIC lawsuit against Michael Milken.

The FDIC told the United Financial Group (UFG) that the company and its officers are liable for breach of fiduciary duty for wrongfully failing to maintain the net worth of a failed savings and loan. The FDIC also alleges that Hurwitz used USAT to aid Michael Milken's scheme to manipulate the junk bond market. And the FDIC accused UFG of wrongfully causing USAT to pay dividends to UFG.

At the time of the failure, MAXXAM owned approximately 22 percent of USAT and 28 percent of United Financial Group, the thrift's holding company. Charles Hurwitz was chair of both MAXXAM and UFG when USAT failed.

The questions of propriety surrounding the takeover of Pacific Lumber and the collapse of USAT may provide hope for the preservation of the Headwaters Forest, as Congress and environmentalists try to fashion a response to Hurwitz's demands.

One possibility is for the government to accede to the proposal for a $600 million cash buyout of the forest. The Headwaters Forest Act, introduced by Representative Dan Hamburg, D-California, would authorize the Department of Agriculture to buy 44,000 acres of the forest. Because of Congress's understandable reluctance to pay $600 million, the bill leaves the amount and method of payment open to negotiation between the Department of Agriculture and Hurwitz.

Hamburg's bill has passed the House of Representatives and Senator Barbara Boxer, D- California, has introduced a Senate version of Hamburg's bill, but it currently has no co-sponsors.

Another, bolder approach would avoid the need for Congress to directly or indirectly authorize funds for the purchase of the Headwaters Forest. Prodded by some environmentalists, Representative Ron Dellums, D-California, Chair of the House Banking Committee Henry Gonzales, D-Texas, and other members of the House have asked the FDIC to consider "disgorging" Pacific Lumber from MAXXAM, on the grounds that MAXXAM's takeover of Pacific Lumber was inextricably bound up with USAT's failure.

The case for disgorgement, Dellums wrote to FDIC Chairman Andrew Hove, "is based on the assessment that MAXXAM acquired Pacific Lumber as a direct result of certain alleged breaches of fiduciary duties owed United Savings Association of Texas (USAT) by MAXXAM, as controlling stockholder, and by similar alleged breaches of duty on the part of certain overlapping officers and directors." The letter explains, "These alleged breaches include causing USAT to invest heavily in junk bonds underwritten by Drexel, Burnham and Lambert as a quid pro quo for Drexel's underwriting of the bonds MAXXAM used to acquire Pacific Lumber."

Jill Ratner, a lawyer at the Oakland-based Rose Foundation was the first to look into the idea of disgorgement. According to Ratner, "We based our theory on the FDIC's own allegations in a related case. The FDIC's complaint in FDIC v. Milken alleged that Drexel, Burnham and Lambert and MAXXAM's CEO, Charles Hurwitz, arranged for the S& L [USAT] to purchase millions of dollars of Drexel's underwritten bonds in return for Drexel's securing the financing that allowed MAXXAM to buy out Pacific Lumber. In the end, these alleged interested insider transactions were very much to MAXXAM's advantage and very much to USAT's detriment."

In sum, Ratner says, "What we're saying is that if the FDIC can prove what it already alleged, MAXXAM should be made to surrender the profit it made on the allegedly improper financing deal, and that profit is Pacific Lumber."

The FDIC has responded to the calls for disgorgement by stating that it is still reviewing the matter, and that it has entered into an agreement with UFG and others who may be responsible for losses resulting from the failure. The parties have all agreed to hold off legal actions and negotiate toward a settlement.

Disgorgement would put the Headwaters into federal ownership, but many in the communities throughout Humboldt County would like to see Hurwitz pay for his actions with more than just trees. Darryl Cherney, an Earth First! activist in Garberville, California, has been working on this issue since MAXXAM took over Pacific Lumber. Cherney has a deep disgust for Hurwitz and his business practices. "Hurwitz has pilfered the Pacific Lumber pension fund, ripped off the redwoods, and swindled a savings and loan to do it. We say three strikes and you're out. The only thing that is up for negotiation as far as old growth redwoods are concerned is the length of Hurwitz's jail sentence."

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American History: "The Thunder Machine" was a Giant Sheet Metal Sculpture that you Got Inside and Played like a Drum. Made by Ron Boise and used at Ken Kesey's Acid Tests.

Thunder Machine:
Their (with Joe Lysowski) best-known collaboration was a large “Thunder Machine”—big enough to enter, and covered in swirling psychedelic color—which produced a cacophony of tone and echo from the pounding, drumming, mumbling and shouting of those within and without. It was a favorite at the San Francisco Trips Festival and occasionally at Ken Kesey's Acid Trips—popular enough to require repeated repainting and re-welding:

Ken Kesey and the Thunder Machine



I have heard many people inquire lately about Kesey's THUNDER MACHINE > Here are some close ups, including a rare shot of the inside! I believe that Zane made mention that it was a "remake of the original" but I very well might have misinterpreted? I must thank Zane for graciously having us all over to the "art barn." posted by Fred Schrott




1967: The Summer of Love... San Francisco, Hippies, Flower Power, Peace, The Diggers, Haight Ashbury, LSD and the Grateful Dead. It certainly has been a Long Strange Trip. Congratulations to all those of us who have survived... One thing is for certain... The culture of the United States was radically different After the 1960's...The conformism of the 1950's was blown away when LSD became widely available. Owsley made the chemical and made it available at Acid Tests with Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead. He also gave it to the Beatles for their Magical Mystery Tour. The spirit lives on in a yearly camping trip called The Rainbow Gathering. It's like Woodstock but the performers are not paid and I'm in the Band.
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The Diggers of San Francisco were a street theatre company famous for their slogan "Today is the first day of the rest of your Life." They provided free food in Golden Gate park to needy Hippies during the Summer of Love. They also created a "Free Store" where all the merchandise was free. I suppose that they were skilled in getting donations. They also walked around Haight Street with a giant picture frame that passers by could step through in order to change their "Frame of Reference." The Diggers were part of the SF mime troupe, Bill Graham worked for them also as a benefit dance promoter/arranger to raise funds by having local bands play and selling tickets. He later became the most successful rock music show promoter in the USA.
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Currently, a peaceful village called Arcata, California thrives using the basic concepts of Flower Power. It's on Highway 101 near the Oregon Border... Home of Humboldt State University... If you want to experience the bliss yourself, take a loan from the Federal Department of Education and go to college at HSU. Arcata also is the center of Marijuana farming in the USA. The vast majority of the Grass is grown in Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte, Siskiyou and Trinity Counties... The extreme North Western corner of California. http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/did-you-ever-notice-arcata-california.html

https://thegdwheel.com/page-231/

Big enough to stand inside a person simply hit the metal sculpture with sticks, mallets, hammers or your hands and you created "Thunder" ... It also had microphones and electric guitar pickups to allow the sound to be fed into the mixing board and modified electronically with echo, wah-wah etc...


Ron Boise
http://boiselifeworks.info/

The Acid Tests were LSD Parties where hundreds of people took the Psychedelic Drug and Danced, Painted Each Other with Blacklight Body Paint under the Ultraviolet Bulbs... played with electric and electronic music machines and instruments... There were trippy light shows and some people spoke into Microphones attached to Echo echo echo Machines.

The Grateful Dead (An American Rock Band) played. Ken Kesey had his own band that played MODAL Oriental tunes... Modal music is easy to teach non musicians because on a keyboard instrument all the black keys may be played in any order and it sounds good... You can learn a modal song in about 10 seconds...

http://boiselifeworks.info/ Ron Boise (1931-1966). American sculptor who worked primarily with sheet metal, often from junked cars, to create nude figures, large abstract pieces, and fanciful musical instruments. He first came to prominence when, in 1964, the San Francisco police seized his series of male and female figures engaged in sexual unions described in the Kama Sutra.1 In the ensuing highly publicized trial, a jury rejected the prosecution’s claim that the works were obscene. Not long after, a large musical instrument—The Thunder Machine—sculpted by Boise and painted in swirling psychedelic abstractions by Joseph Lysowski, was displayed, strummed and drummed at the San Francisco Trips Festival, at the Rolling Stones’ ill-fated Altamont Free Concert, and occasionally at the Acid Tests conducted by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. Boise's early death, at 34, came before his reputation was firmly established.
http://www.gratefuldeadfamilyalbum.com/page-231




http://www.o-art.org/history/50s&_60s/Trips/Boise/RonBoise.html
The Pranksters had just held an Acid Test at the Fillmore Auditorium, a big ballroom in the middle of one of San Francisco's big Negro slums, the Fillmore district. It was a wild night. Hundreds of heads and bohos from all over the Bay area turned out, zonked to the eyeballs. Paul Krassner was back in town, and he heard the word that was out on ... The Scene. Everybody would be "dropping acid" about 5 or 6 P.M. to get ready for the Acid Test to begin that night at nine o'clock at the Fillmore Auditorium. Krassner arrives and__shit!__he sees:

...a ballroom surrealistically seething with a couple of thousand bodies stoned out of their everlovin' bruces in crazy costumes and obscene makeup with a raucous rock 'n' roll band and stroboscopic lights and a thunder machine and balloons and heads and streamers and electronic equipment and the back of a guy's coat proclaiming Please don't believe in magic to a girl dancing with 4-inch eyelashes so that even the goddamn Pinkerton Guards were contact high.


http://www.o-art.org/history/
The Emergency Committee to Make Time Go Forward presents The History of Experimental Music in Northern California...


It was actually Stewart Brand who thought up the great Trips Festival of January 1966. Brand and a San Francisco artist, Ramon Sender. ...The Trips Festival was set for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, january 21-23, at the Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco. The Trips Festival was billed as a big celebration that was going to simulate an LSD experience, minus the LSD, using light effects and music, mainly.




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Shredded Rainbow Spiral Business Cards For Sale.

https://www.zazzle.com/shredded_rainbow_spiral_business_card-256163553649539936 <--- Click on the Link!



MORE Shredded Rainbow Spiral Art


Link to Spiral Art Painted on Bling:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/gregvan/products?qs=spiral&st=Popularity


Link to Rainbow Art Painted on Bling:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/gregvan/products?qs=rainbow&st=Popularity


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The "Beyond Counterculture" Book is the History of the Hippies who fled The Haight Ashbury District of San Francisco and Moved to MATEEL in Southern Humboldt County to Earn their living farming Cannabis. Originally a Doctoral thesis.


Between the Eel and Matole Rivers, Garberville and the Lost Coast.

Mateel is a Sunny and Warm.

Once PALCO logged the area, the land was really cheap. Perfect for growing Marijuana Outdoors. This location is Not on Google Streetview.
Beyond Counterculture: The Community of Mateel – June, 1990 by Jentri Anders.
https://www.facebook.com/jentri.anders



https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Counterculture-Community-Jentri-Anders/dp/0874220602




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Cosmic Art Show - Absurdist Images created in

Potatoshop by Greg Vanderlaan

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/07/cosmic-art-

show-absurdist-images.html


Free Psychedelic Art - Global Awakening is Real

and Happening Now

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/free-

psychedelic-art-global-awakening.html


Rainbow Gathering Idaho 2001: A Gathering of

the Tribes...I went to the gathering with a specific

goal in mind. I wanted to play my guitar and sing

in public. Yes, mission accomplished. I was Living

in Chico, California and working at the plastics

factory. When there was a layoff, my wife suggested

that I borrow the car and drive over to the

gathering. My friend Mike Jensen wanted to go

and so we checked the oil, brake fluid, transmission

fluid and water and set out on a classic American

road trip. We made it as far as Reno the first day

and slept by the side of the road.... READ MORE:

http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/

rainbow-gathering-idaho-2001.html


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Grateful Deadhead ART and MyStory... American
History...


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... READ MORE:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/grateful-
deadhead-art-and-mystory.html


Grateful Deadhead Tribute Webpage. Pictures and
Stories. 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!
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/grateful-
deadhead-tribute-webpage.html


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Great Books: Project MKULTRA: CIA/LSD
American History "The Search for the Manchurian
Candidate" by John Marks

MKULTRA: Was a CIA Mind Control Project in
the USA during the 1950's and 1960's. They were
looking for a way to use drugs as weapons of war.
For example: LSD as a way to simply get the
"enemy" to lay down their arms, voluntarily...
like, too stoned to fight...


The project conducted tests on college students at
Stanford University. Ken Kesey and Robert Hunter
both were employed. Later, Ken started having
"ACID TEST" parties where the participants took
LSD and danced to the Music of the Grateful Dead.
Robert Hunter wrote lyrics for the Dead.
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/great-books-
project-mkultra-cia-lsd.html











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Rainbow Gathering in California 2004.
Photographs and My Story...Om...



What IS the Rainbow Gathering? To me, it is
Woodstock with amateur musicians and I’m in
the band… Thousands of people go backpacking
for a couple of weeks… Every year during the end
of June and the beginning of July… The location
is different every year but it is always in a
National Forest… It’s an intentional temporary
village…


This is a description about my trip to The Rainbow
Gathering in California 2004… I wrote this to help
me remember… READ MORE:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/p/what-is-rainbow-
gathering-to-me-it-is.html






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It appears That The Hippies were right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKEZoY-TMG4

DO YOU SEE SOUNDS?
HEAR COLORS?
WELL...YOU DO NOW!
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... Awakening...
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...
~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

This tale is not a verified experience...
it was just a story someone told me
about at a Grateful Dead concert...
None of my friends EVER
put a 5 gallon can of gas on a fire
just to have fun...







Psychedelic Poetry - "CEREMONY AND RITUAL" - a story - Fiction - written by gvan42 about Trips to Philadelphia - Grateful Dead at JFK Stadium and The Spectrum Arena

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
***************************************
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…




http://www.zazzle.com/gregvan/grateful+gifts
A CIA Employee Spoke to Millions of Americans and said: "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out." - Was That the DEPLOYMENT of Project Mkultra?

That's Exactly What Happened in the Late 1960s... Dr Timothy Leary (Author of the CIA's Personality Test) Went Coast to Coast Encouraging Young People to Eat The CIA's Miracle Drug, LSD and... Stop Protesting Against The War in Vietnam... because They Were Too Busy Being Holy Men, Saints... and Wanted to Play the Guitar all Day... and Go Live in the Country and Grow Vegetables, Weed and Children... and Make Paintings, Pottery and Tie Dye T-Shirts... Write Poetry... Etc, Etc, Etc...

and All of those Interests Added Up To NOT Being a Menace to The Military Industrial Complex... Dropping Out...

SO... Was "The Sixties" part of the CIA Project Mkultra? The Part Where they Actually USED LSD as a "Weapon" Against "Enemies" in the Hope that We Would Simply Lay Down Our Arms and Surrender... In a Way They Were Successful BUT... They Had Not Taken Into Account People Like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Country Joe McDonald and Grace Slick... Who Used LSD to Promote The Protest Against The War in Vietnam (and The 1950's American Culture In General.)








Legalize Medicinal Psychedelics. Let Doctors and Patients Decide for Themselves what Medicine is Best... I Just Emailed My President, Representative and Senators. HERE IS HOW To Find Your Own!

Please Let Your Elected Officials Know That WE Have Had Enough of the Madness!
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

https://www.senate.gov/general/contacting.htm

https://www.house.gov/representatives
I Said: "Legalize Medicinal Psychedelics. Let Doctors and Patients Decide for Themselves what Treatment is Best... Legalizing Recreational Psychedelics is a Great Idea TOO.

Legal LSD Would Be Manufactured by High Quality Scientists and PURITY, QUALITY and ACTUAL DOSE would be Regulated. Often ILLEGAL ACID is Not LSD at all but some other chemical, Like DOM (STP) a Three Day Nightmare Trip... People That Buy Ecstasy Often Do Not Get Actual MDMA but get A Bizarre Combination of Methamphetamines and WHO KNOWS WHAT!

Legalize Psychedelics For the Public's HEALTH... Criminal Chemists Pose a Hazard To The People's Sanity! FDA Approved Psychedelics Would Be Better... Do It For The Kids!"
http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

I Also Emailed a Scott Weiner, State Senator in San Francisco using a Fake Address and Phone Number I Found on Google Maps... Click on this Link and Type In Your Home Address... https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/






Who WAS Ram Dass? In the Sixties, He was a Psychedelics Researcher and Promoter at Harvard with Dr. Timothy Leary. Then He went to India Looking for Enlightenment and Met a Guru. Changed His Name and Published a Great Book... "Remember: Be Here Now" - It Has His Autobiography and then Many ART Drawings Explaining Eastern Religion. Real Name: Dr. Richard Alpert...

A Question asked in the Ram Dass Facebook Group...
https://beherenownetwork.com/be-here-now/

and Then he wrote a Dozen MORE Books and Gave Many Lectures... ALL WORTHY... I Especially Love "Still Here" because I'm 67 Years Old and The Question of My Own Death is Important To Me... Now... https://www.amazon.com/Still-Here-Embracing-Aging-Changing/dp/1573228710

It's Important to remember that Kermit Michael Riggs Taught Dr. Richard Alpert to BE HERE NOW. He was a Laguna Beach, CA Surfer...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavan_Das_(yogi)



and Then After Listening to The Saturday Night Alive for the Global Peace Tribe Show... I Had a Dream: 

We were walking towards the Entrance of the Los Gatos Library and there was a Thin Old Man dressed in a Small Bathing Suit ahead of Us. He pulled on the entrance to the Children's room and It was Locked... Disappointed, he turned around and I asked: "Are You Looking for the Man Who Works There?" He Said: "NO" and I Motioned towards the Main Entrance. We all Entered. He seemed lost so I asked: "Do you Need Help?" as I would ask any Lost Old Man... He Said: "NO" and then I asked again: "Can I Help You?" He said: "No. I'm Fine." and then we went on Our Own Ways. By That time it was Obvious to Me That he was Ram Dass and That it was a Rather "Heavy" encounter to Ask Ram Dass If I Could Help Him... a Meaningful Event... and I was Shaking... So we went downstairs and I went searching for a Book that I Has Started reading before (about Philosophy) - and on the same shelf was a large picture book of the Grateful Dead's Fare Ye Well Tour with four CDs (that were missing) and My friend asked me why I would want to check out that book and I said: "Too Look for Pictures of Myself." and then I woke up and Typed this Document... It's Best to Type it Up before I forget it... For Certain, I would have tried to help any Lost Old Man but It seems Important that I Offered Ram Dass Help in my dream. That's One Of His Main Teachings...

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

and then someone asked about the Rainbow Gatherings:
So what happens after these gatherings? do people just go back to their normal lives. OR are there little factions that just dispurse or stay put??? i have so many questions and I am so close to being able to start my traveling. just a few more moves to make first and tying up loose ends.

Someone answered:
I do what universe leads me to do. Maybe another gathering, back home to work, just travel, solo hike, eat acid, be goofy, basically if it keeps me smiling i'm in. Be happy. Be kind. But most importantly be urself cause everyone else is already taken

I said:
For ME... I return to my Life... WISER! I've gone four times... once a decade... and each time i got to play music and sing in public... but that's just MY TRIP... My Friend Mike Walked around Reading the Book ATLAS SHRUGGED out loud... because he felt that was important... My Friend Sonya Sophia taught a Guided Meditation Class... I also worked as a Fire Tender at the Welcome Home kitchen...