Grateful Dead

Sad ass day. Dantian and Jim. Both of you. But you know what? I am with you. My sport was just ruined today. Ruined. Sorry Vguy, but it was. Glad for your victory, but I just totally lost interest in the finals. Vegas vs. Tampa? That ain't hockey. We used to drive hours north every Saturday just to catch a game on CBC. You could barely see the TV screen, the reception was so bad. Snow storms so fierce, we often had to stay for the night. We did it for the love of the sport. The games were great. I miss it. And those days are never coming back. Now they play in the desert.

My pop used to take us to see the Orioles in the 70's regularly.. bleacher seats were $1.50 then too. Then $2.00.. then $2.50 and he quit taking us. ..but then again, I bet gas was something like 35 cents a gallon. Funny though.. it was more fun then than now. I think we did game 7 in the 1979 World Series and the goddamn Penguins (I mean Pirates) beat us. I have no idea what those tickets cost, but it was the last game my pop ever took us to. I am at a loss how to tie this into the GD.. I will do better tomorrow. Vegas vs. Tampa Hockey. Ironic and quite funny.. I'm happy to share in the enthusiasm though.. just not likely to buy a ticket or support TV commercial revenue. It's all good though, if it makes people happy, then it can't be bad. Enthusiasm is a good thing.

it is from a long-ago Relix magazine article something to the effect of "April 1971, also known as 'Acid Month', as the GD play 8 shows in NYC" one of those things that stay with you over the course of time

I kinda hear what you're saying, I haven't really been a sports fan since I was a kid and Billy Martin was managing the Yankees. Thurman Munson was team captain. Lou Piniella, Mickey Rivers, Roy White, Bucky Dent, Willie Randolph, Greg Nettles, Ron Guidry, Catfish Hunter, Goose Gossage, Ed Figuroa, and of course Reggie Jackson, now that was a team! I remember paying a whopping $1.50 for bleacher seats. Me and my cousin (later on this was the same cousin who was my Dead mentor and touring buddy when we were older) would go out to Yankee stadium with our mitts, hoping to catch a fly ball. I remember when on "Bat Day" you actually got a freakin' real bat! The one I got back then was a "Mickey Mantle" bat. Not like today, when you get a little novelty bat. But after that, I grew out of it, and never had the same excitement and affinity for sports again. All the guys I work with are all sports, all the time. And I couldn't care less, and have no idea about the players they are talking about. Just give me my Grateful Dead, and other music I love, and I'm a happy camper... Not to take away from the sports lovers, we all enjoy different things, just not my thing anymore...

Have a good 5-0 with no 5-0 ;)

Where does April = Acid Month come from? I like it. Decades ago, when owners of professional sports teams seemingly took municipalities hostage for fear of them moving their teams to other cities to extract large sums of taxpayer funded money to pay for mega sports complexes.. I lost my love for professional sports. To me, it's just bad economics and forcefully funnels money from the average to the uber-wealthy. ..but college sports, hockey and amateur sports still seem fun. Lacrosse is a cool sport. I cut my teeth on music that many here love but I have all but lost interest... The pre-fab stuff can't sustain my attention even if it's good where each show sounds exactly like the last. To me it's good for one listen, sort of a cocaine high then I get distracted and into something else. What captivates me with the GD, besides the raw talent are the songs and the continually evolving arrangements, the reinvention and improvisation, the effort. It evolves and breathes. Every show, song, every moment is different. Doesn't hold true with most metal, country, RAP and anything that is pre-packaged commercialized crap. For the most part country bores me the most with the exception of.. well.. you guys know, real country, roots, the folks that were actually musicians and not cheap business models that reeked of pre-packaged crap. So Willie came on some standard cable channel tonight (who I always had a bit of a soft spot for and have some space on my shelf for his CDs) and I found myself enjoying it immensely. Really took the edge off the work I was doing. In in the banter in-between songs the harp player commented Willie's the guy in the middle and he picks the songs an starts the songs, plays lead and there is no song list for the shows.. so the trick is just to listen to the music and complement what the band is doing. Does that not sound GD like to you? There is a rumor out there that Willie got dosed at one of the infamous 4th of July stadium gigs he sponsored... July 78 anyone?

Acid Month :)))

hot 4/6/71 potent new Dave's beautiful

i have learned to keep it at arm's length

The cone kid gives some good advice. Do it. If you have crappy insurance, I can send you the home colonoscopy kit I got from Aetna (well, Aunt Aetna).