67 Years Young...

... if he was still alive...

"Oh, I get it. Peace... no middle finger... right?"

- Clifford

Events of the Day

It turns out, "Friend of the Devil" went all the way to the top. Here's the video, but I can't find a video of the interview segment... or the O'Reilly segment. I didn't get to see it today because, while I was actually home & perched in front of my TV, The View was preempted by Obama's speech. I know I should have been more interested in what he had to say, but I just kept hoping it would end so they could get back to The View before The Dead were on.

In other news regarding my inability to see the big picture, 22 people died when a wall collapsed @ a World Cup qualifier in Cote d'Ivore this weekend. I heard about it on Arsenal.com w/ the headline "Tragedy Overshadows Qualifiers" w/ a picture of Kolo Toure (who plays for Ivory Coast & has been captaining Arsenal in Fabregas's stead until he returns from injury). Anyway, I saw the picture & assumed he'd gotten hurt. When I saw what actually happened, the 1st think to go through my head was, "Oh, good... it as just some random people." I'm not proud. Seriously, I'm pretty disturbed by my reaction.

Speaking of reactions, while the rest of the world was enjoying Oberon Day, I was @ Nicola's where I heard this rather one-sided conversation between a woman & her little kid. (By the front of the store, there's a bin of large 4-Square bouncy balls.)
"Hey, look at these balls!
"aren't these great balls?
"Do you like these balls?
"These balls are so soft and squishy!
"Come here and squeeze these balls!
"Don't you just love these balls?
"OOOHHHH, they smell nice too!
"Did you smell the balls?
"Come smell the balls!
"These balls smell so good."

I wanted to shout, "Stop saying balls!!!" but I decided I just had to go to the back of the store and get the Hell out of that situation. That MILF was lovin' balls!

Old People

Old people music
We were listening to "Cryptical"> "Other One" from The Fillmore east 2-11-69 this morning as I was taking the kids to school. I was informed that The Grateful Dead are sooo 20th Century! I reminded them about the great time the had when we saw the Dead a few years ago & Aiden reminded me he fell asleep out of boredom... Solstice claims to have pretended to like. She was (so she says) bored out of her mind. They wondered why I am so unwilling to listen to cool music that is popular which made me realize that the last time I heard "The Other One" on the radio was never & maybe they're right. I hadn't listened to the GD in quite a while, in fact I've been listening to less & less music in general. I remember my parents preferring to listen to the news in the car & it drove me nuts. I just wanted to hear Thriller again. Maybe I'm becoming my parents as I deprive my kids of mediocre pop-crap.
Old People Houses
In Berkshire, south east England, an 18 year old kid was tired of his parents' old million pound estate. Apparently it was too boring & common for him. He did what any genius in his position would do... he painted a huge cock on the roof so he could see it on Google Earth. It's a strange looking cock though... like it had a Prince Albert ripped out of the tip by an angry whore.
Old people television
In other Gwateful Dead news, Bobby, Phil & Wawwen will be on The View Monday along w/ Bill O'Weilly. I highly doubt they'll be allowed to confront Bill O, & I would pwefer Bill Kreutzman to Bill O'Weilly, but eitha way it's pwetty funny. Supposedly, they get a music segment where they'll play an acoustic song & then they'll get an interview segment. Whoopi must be over the moon, but Baba Wawwa will have to say "Jerry Garcia" which, I imagine, she's been pwacticing all week.
I made a bracket of 64 GD tunes in an attempt to figure out what they'll play. In the end, it seems the final 4 are "Touch of Grey" (in honor of all the grey haired women who watch the show), "Cassidy" (in an attempt to get Hasslebeck to name her baby after a Dead song... & half the dogs in any GD Parking Lot), "Liberty" (w/ Bill O' on cowbell... that would be something!), & "Friend of the Devil" (in honor of Hasslebeck's & O'Reilly's friendship w/ GWB). I'm still pulling for an underdog though; a half hour "Dark Star" would be fantastic.

Music and Politics

Last night, the Allman Brothers & the Dead played an Obama rally @ Penn state. From most accounts, the music was sub-par, but I'm about 1/3 of the way through the stream right now, & overall I'm diggin' it. The video-taped Obama speech was good & he name-dropped a few dead songs. Bobby fucked up the "Truckin'" opener, but that is to be expected. Phil's vocals on "US Blues" are much better than expected though... making a boring song tolerable. The playing on "Help on the Way" is fantastic, but Bob's vocals leave something to be desired. "Slipknot" is fun & jazzy as always. Phil's vocals on "Franklin's Tower" are great as is the music., & I usually prefer "Help" to "Frank," but not this time. "Playin in the Band" has a great slow jam that goes for about 10 minutes. It's nice & even Bobby's guitar is high enough in the mix to hear. Possibly the shortest, most boring "Dark Star" of all time though... as if getting to "St. Stephen" was their main priority. it's understandable though as getting to "St. Stephen" is 1 of my main priorities too... & so far it's been well worth it: definitely a highlight. "Unbroken Chain" is also a highlight of the show w/ some amazing jamming. Many of the fan-based reviews claimed there wasn't much impovisiation last night, & while "Dark star" left a shit-load to be desired, "Unbroken Chain" more than makes up for it. That's as far as I am @ the moment, but I'm in hurry to get to the end... it's fun, the intro to "The Other One" sounds good so far & from what I understand, the ABB set streams after the Dead set. This should keep me busy all day while I'm reading Quicksand. I'm excited for the ABB set too because there are a couple songs I'm not familiar w/: "Who's Been talkin'" & "Anyday' are new to me. Revival
Statesboro Blues
Who's Been Talking
Midnight Rider
One Way Out
And It Stoned Me
Dreams
Don't Think Twice
Anyday
Melissa
Trouble No More
Ain't Wastin' Time No More
Jessica
E- Whipping Post

Obama Speech Video
Truckin >
US Blues
Help on the Way >Slipknot >
Franklin's Tower
Playin in the Band>
Dark Star>
St. Stephen>
Unbroken Chain >
Other One >
Throwin Stones >
Playin reprise

E-Phil rap >
Bobby rap >
Touch of Grey>
Not Fade Away

While Jerry Garcia rolls over in his grave upon hearing Bobby's vocals, in other musical news, we can assume Hank Williams Sr. is also rolling over as Hank Williams Jr played a McCain/Palin rally yesterday, debuting his reworked version of "Family Tradition," "McCain/Palin Tradition." He does a nice job of getting all of last week's Palin talking points in there including Obama is a terrorist, but I wonder if he wrote it himself or if her people did it for him. I'm sure they @ least fed him some basic ideas. He even goes so fr as to blame Bill Clinton for this month's economic problems. Talk about poetic licence. I don't know Hank III's politics, but I can't imagine he'll be stumpin' for the GOP anytime soon. In actuality, I don't know much about Hank Sr.'s political views either, but he seems like he would have been an active New deal Democrat... when he could stand up anyways. What ever happened to drinking & smoking pot being the family tradition...

Words of Wisdom

I understand that in the wake of Arsenal's bizarre loss to Liverpool yesterday due to that horrible penalty kick after Torres went to ground in the box w/ 6 minutes left, you might be frustrated. it is in times like these that we need to think positive and remember the words of Jerry Garcia:

Vernal Equinox

When Stephanie was preggers w/ Aiden, people kept suggesting the name Equinox as a match for Solstice. While it was a poor suggestion & never as clever as they thought, the Spring Equinox is 1 of my favorite days. I love that the tulips are popping up. I love that my window is open. I love that I've been cleaning & straightening up all day & things are actually getting accomplished. Spring always puts me in the mood to read Wordsworth too. Cheesy Romanticism like "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" is just what the Equinox needs; that & this sweet sweet tune from the Grateful Dead: "Equinox". This song is from the Terrapin Station sessions. It was neither included on the album, nor played live. It had circulated in bootleg form for decades before it ever made the light of day on an officially released 12 disc box set a few years ago (I never actually got that though since it's 12 discs of stuff I don't really need). I grabbed this version from the Archive a few years ago & then uploaded it today w/ Boomp3. Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've never used this site before. It's pretty awesome. It doesn't have a ton of stuff, but it's free & what there is is all availible for download. Of course, when I say there isn't much, I should preface that by saying there isn't much Phil Lesh. It's certainly possible that more popular, mainstream stuff is all over the place on there.