Grateful Dead

The bank that Rip broke into looked a lot like a regular house.

I heard about the bank incident. Funny as hell.

Damn, hadn't heard that til I saw Carlo's post. Guy was hilarious on the Larry Sanders Show. Another reason he's a legend is a drunken binge he went on several years ago had him outdoing Lee Marvin. Marvin was a notorious drunk, and one night, plastered, as usual, he drove himself home and found his keys wouldn't open the door, so he broke in, only to find out he had moved several years before, and the current owner was pretty pissed. Well, how does Rip top that? By doing the same thing, only he had stopped at a bank, and broken into the bank in the middle of the night thinking it was his house. Also, he was armed at the time, because, of course he was. How he got just probation is a sad tale for the American legal system, but I hope the old Salty Dog rests in peace.

https://youtu.be/4uWXcuu5MY0

Also, my favorite Artie line from Larry Sanders may be from what became the first episode, The Garden Weasel when he says to a new female network executive, "Don't take this as a threat, but I killed a man like you in Korea. Hand to hand."

Did I make it first . Could use it. Thanks let me know.

Need your address

Just sent!

A "burned"copy of Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings + Bonus. I made it for someone who no longer needs it. First to PM me. I have an extra book for it as well.

As mentioned in Part 1 of the story, BIL (Brother In Law), and I had just gotten off the bus which had dropped us off all the way at the back of the lot. This was approximately ¼ - ½ mile from the entrance to the venue, which wasn’t so bad except for we were carrying a 12 pack (minus the 2 beers we drank on the bus) in a large bucket filled with ice. The lot looked to be almost completely full at this point with more cars cramming in. The atmosphere reminded me a lot of the tailgates we have here in KC at Arrowhead, except for folks were decked out in Dead gear, Tie Dye, and other various costumes & hippie wear. We trudged along, checking out the scene while I tried to call a friend of mine named Chuck who I had met the past year on Dead.net. Chuck is a KC native who has spent the last few decades living in the Seattle area and started sporadically touring with the band last year. Chuck and his crew of 7 tour buds were camping in the main public camping area at the Gorge which was visible to BIL and I from where we stood, but way up on a hill and very far away. I’m not sure how far it was, but it looked like a mile or more, up-hill, and with the heavy bucket weighing us down, we didn’t think it was worth the walk as by the time we got up there and found Chuck , we would have to start walking back or risk not getting into the show on time, which would have been entirely unacceptable. So, we opted not to take this particular trip. This turned out to be a catch 22 as we later found out that the camping area is where Shakedown was located at The Gorge which would mean no Shakedown for us this weekend, and also the logistics made it so I wasn’t ever able to meet up with Chuck  (next time my friend)……..but we ended up being correct about getting into the show on time, as many folks were still in line and missed some of the first set even after arriving at the entrance at least an hour before start time.

When we arrive near the entrance, the place was a zoo. There were long lines already formed at will call and at the VIP/media entrance. We already had our tickets so this was not a problem for us. We did not have VIP entrance passes or wristbands for the VIP drink area inside, and being that Shakedown was no where in site, we decided to post up and take a seat on these large boulders that separate the parking from the entrance to the venue. As it turns out, this was a very fortuitous decision. There was already an old Deadhead biker dude who had done the same, so we cracked some beers and started shooting the shit with him. Turns out he was at Woodstock and saw the entire show including the Dead and the closing Jimmy Hendrix act. Wow, this was the first person I had ever met who could make this claim! About this time, another dude came around selling Stealie stickers for $1, so we checked those out, but nah we don’t want one, and as the dude walked off I said….”hold on a second wait! Would you be interested in trading one of your stickers for one of my buttons?” After checking out the buttons he was quick to agree, and so my button adventure had officially begun!!! I turned to Woodstock biker guy and said would you like one too? “Yeah, I’ll take one” he said with a big smile, and pinned it to his jacket. Holy shit….that was cool! I felt really good at that moment and started looking for others whom I could give away a button!

As the song says, Once in a while you can get shown the light….and while the reason that I came was most certainly the music, followed by the communion with 20,000+ like-minded folks & freaks, giving away the buttons was without question my strangest of places if you look at it right. I made a few trades with them; a little bar of homemade soap shaped like a dancing bear, and a couple of stickers, but mostly I just gave them away. I only had 100 per night, so I was somewhat selective in who I gave them to. I chose people who had on Grate outfits, really cool Tie Dyes, or who showed a lot of spirit through good dancing, good deeds or just general happy nature and good vibe that I could feel. This was so much fun, and felt so good, I can’t even begin to describe it. Tears me up a little right now just thinking back to some of the moments. The smiles after giving these buttons were big, full and truly grateful for such a tiny trinket. I can’t tell you the number of people that would hold it up to their hearts, smile huge and then look me in the eye and thank me with all sincerity, after which some of them would give me a big hug like we were long lost friends or family and had known each other for years. Word was getting out a little, and some folks were starting to come up to me and either offer me trades and or ask outright if they could have a button. I didn’t once turn anyone down who asked for either. One filthy looking hippie dude came up to me and asked me if I would like to trade him for a used tube of CBD infused chap-stick, and I answered yes after hearing the word trade! “What, wait hold on a second…..no way man, I said laughing, after realizing what I had just agreed to. Keep your chap-stick and just take a button for free dude”! He then took the button, smiled that big smile I was getting used to, then like a true head, dead pan asked, “Do you want to hit my joint”?, as he held up a half-smoked fired up spliff. “Fuck yeah”, I say, taking the joint for a couple of puffs while we all laugh our asses off at the hilarity of the moment. Only at a Dead show, ha, ha….laughing now just thinking about it!

Much has already been said about the line at The Gorge, and I have to agree the situation at the gate was in true Dead fashion, a complete clusterfuck. As early as 3 hours before (but probably significantly longer), the official start time of the show, we noticed that lines to the normal entrance were already started to form. We were not far from the entrance sitting on our boulders and it just so happened that the line formed almost directly into our spot, so without even having to move from our little party spot, we found ourselves already in line and maybe only a half of a city block from the entrance. Aside from tiny movements in the line we basically were able to stay in this spot until they started letting people in, which was maybe 1.5 hours before show time. BIL and I made friends with some of the folks around us in line, drank on our IPA’s, smoked a few joints along with our oil pipes, and I gave away buttons. Before we knew it, the line started to slowly move forward, and our party moved with it.

As we inched our way slowly toward the entrance, I started to get the munchies, so I figured now was just as good time as any to have the first serving of veggies. I pulled out the Wild Willie’s Reserve Joint tube where I had stored them and split them up equal, 2 parts for me and 1 part for BIL. I ate mine and then handed BIL his share which he happily gobbled down. I had asked some folks in line earlier about security, and specifically marijuana being that it is legal in Washington. Due to legality, no one seemed to think it would be an issue and so I took no security precautions whatsoever as we approached security, and left all of my pre-rolled joints (3 or 4 left at this point) in the plastic tubes that they came in. Boy were they wrong, and was I stupid!!! We were getting really close now and I still had a few unopened beers in the bucket (BIL is not much of a beer drinker). I gave away a couple of “miracle” beers, popped a top and guzzled one myself, paying little attention to what was going on in front of me at security. When we finally got to the metal detectors, my idiot plan was just to openly put all of my shit into the tubs they offer to pass around the metal detectors and so that’s exactly what I did. My lighter, plastic tubes full of pre-rolled joints, tube of veggies, wallet, phone, basically everything went into that fucking plastic tub. The next thing I know the dude is rifling through my shit in the plastic tub while stating “you can’t take this in”. One by one he reads each tube and says sorry this isn’t allowed, and then he yells “BLACK BAG, BLACK BAG”…..this chick then walks up with an already full trash bag and the dude drops all of my shit while she calmly smiles at me….”No, you can’t…..but that’s my….” I start to say, but it was too late. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!
BIL has a similar experience, as did a lot of other folks in line. They were going through everything; blankets, bags, jackets etc….even dumping out full boxes of cigarettes to find the hidden joints inside. The one thing they were not doing is full pat downs, so everything left in the pockets was fine. Luckily, I had forgotten to put my oil pen in the plastic tub and BIL had purposefully omitted his so those got through. Since the tube with the last helping of veggies was not sealed, the guy slid the tube open, I guess he must of looked at the empty side or just didn’t notice because he politely handed that tube back to me. Tragedy narrowly averted there.

Now being robbed of our goods we regrouped, quickly took inventory of what we had left which was very little and congratulated each other on not being arrested. As my good friend Jeff would say who designed the buttons, Onward!!!

$90 out the door including tax from a local brick and mortar.

Morning Dew sounds great so far. Going to spin side 1, then go outside for a while with the dog. Once the sun has set I’ll be back on the couch to spin the rest of the show and watch TDF on mute.

Let’s stick with the 80’s as the third release and go with 3-9-81. We know there are good sounding recordings of that show.

I just read the Earthquake article in the New York times and these foreshocks as they say could be a warning. You live in this area? What is it like in the public? Are people still on eggshells? What are you thoughts. Be safe.