Grateful Dead

Tiger Lilly, Very good suggestion and I look forward to hearing from Heads around the world. I am also not living in Deadhead land myself. In fact my story is as follows when it comes to the Dead and more properly said "realism and a connectiveness to both time and space." My first Dead Show was with my parents back in Utica, New York in 1981. I don't know if there are any Hockey fans out there, but this is the same venue that some parts of the movie "slap shot" were filmed. My god what a great movie! Anyway I was 6 years old so that makes me 31 years old today. I really started seeing the dead when I was in high school and then around 1993 I was hooked on Phish and after graduation in 1994 I tried going to college but dropped out and went on Phish tour up until 2000. The fact that Phish was breaking up was a blessing for me because life on tour and living in hotels etc etc is not something one could keep up for too long. So I went back to school in 2000 (fall) and completed my undergrad degree and my masters degree in about 3 years. I was going to school year round and taking 5-6 classes per quarter in Portland Oregon. During those years I stumbled upon China and fell in love with Asia in general. So here I am in Shanghai China and I have been here for about 4-5 years. As soon as I graduated from Uni I took the US CPA exam and drove from Portland Oregon to New York where I caught a flight to Shanghai. All I had were my Bose speakers and my clothes. Actually on my last drive accross the States I passed (and pulled over to talk) one of my dear friends (in Nebraska) who I used to travel with from Ned, Colorado. That’s the magic I am talking about and the magic that I miss. Anyway I have been here in China ever since and now have a company in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and I have sold 10% of the company to a Swiss company. I travel a lot (Africa and Europe) and work my !@#$ ass off but it has been a long and strange trip and I am always looking to find another adventure. When I was in Mali, Africa I wrote my Aunt an email which was focused on where I was and what I was feeling and she wrote back the following: “You know Greg, I can’t believe that at one time you had dreadlocks and were such confused young men following the Grateful Dead and Phish." I replied that those experiences are the very reason why I have the courage and street smarts to do what I am doing now. Well that’s my story in a short comment and would love to share more and talk about music, global events, and politics etc.

Fellow Deadheads, here in Lafayette, CA we are working on a fundraising event for our Town Hall Theatre. Raising funds is the second motive. The first is to honor Brent's life. Brent was a resident of this semi-rural city, just east of San Francisco. Our community is rich with music tradition. With that tradition, doing something for Brent is way past due. A local artist has agreed to paint a portrait of Brent to be displayed permenently at our historic Town Hall. We are looking for a photo of Brent you would be willing to share with us for the artist to use. The photo would have to be something you took and would give us the rights to use it. In exchange for permission to display Brent's portrait and plaque, we will be organizing a celebration in October to raise operating capitol for Town Hall. If you think you can help us with this request, please send Brent's photo to: Jay Lifson, Executive Director, Lafayette Chamber of Commerce jay@lafayettechamber.org 100 Lafayette Circle #103 Lafayette, CA 94549

Are you kind? Hey, I'm in Germany too! Sent u a pm!! I agree with ur comments there! At least there are lots of good concerts here unlike New Zealand where I was previously! Still, it's just not the same cats! Send some love out to your lost sailors and ramblin' roses!!!

As I asked for it, guess I should start talking, eh? My real name is René, and originally I come from Chicago. First Dead show was in 87 or 88, and caught a show whenever I could, up until 1992, when I moved to Germany. Had a job opportunity here, and decided why not try Eurpope for a while. Would be an adventure, right? It was indeed, but am still here, amongst a population where it is few and far between that anybody has even HEARD of the Grateful Dead. But I digress. Was rough to adjust here, in the beginning, but I learned alot about life in America by leaving, and now I do not care to go back. Or at least for the moment. But what I DO miss are the community of friends who are Deadheads, the dancing frenzy late at night to somebody's tape, the exposure to tapes I haven't heard before, the joy seeing of a car driving by with a Deadhead bumpersticker and knowing is a potential friend, talking about show experiences with somebody/anybody without having them look at me with a blank stare on their face, and and and. Have met the occasional Deadhead here, even a guy in Düsseldorf who saw the shows in '72, but is uncommon. Anyhow, am done w/Germany now, and will be moving to Sevilla in the fall. Again not Deadfanland there exactly. But is enough blabbering from me for now. Will be back again, for sure!