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    clayv
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    Sweet liberty! We're venturing into the depths of 80s Dead with the complete show from 4/20/84 at the Philadelphia Civic Center and we're placing bets you'll think this one is more than fine. A strong contender for our mega 30 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN boxed set, 4/20/84 missed the cut by virtue of its setlist being a wee bit too similar to the years before and after. As DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 35, it's found its time to shine. The first set delivers yin yang harmony between Jerry and Bobby songs, yielding driven and powerful takes on tracks like "Feel Like A Stranger," "Cold Rain And Snow," and "Brown-Eyed Women." The second set begs the question - will we ever stop peaking? - with a monumental "Scarlet>Fire," a ripping "Samson and Delilah," a "Space" that pulls shapes that know no names, and that "Morning Dew" - get.in.to.it! And because this one might have ended just a little too soon, we've packed disc 2 and 3 with knock-your-socks-off bonus material from most of the second set from the previous night, 4/19/84. Grab ahold while you can!

    Limited to 22,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOL.35: PHILADELPHIA CIVIC CENTER, PHILADELPHIA 4/20/84 has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman and is guaranteed to sell out. 

    *Limited to 2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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  • wadeocu
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    Big Names/Small Venues and last show

    I saw both Phish and WSP in small rooms with less than 50 people in attendance in 1990. My truly treasured moment though was catching JJ Cale at a bar in Baton Rouge about 20 years ago. A few hundred people there, but it felt like music history to me.

    Last show before covid not counting my local bar band was the Dead Co NYE run in San Francisco. Good show but JJ Cale in Red Stick was better!

  • Slow Dog Noodle
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    Small Venue Shows / last show

    I saw Taj Mahal at the Ark in Ann Arbor in 2001 or 2002. 400 people. We were sitting two rows behind the piano at the side of the stage. Taj came out solo and played piano, guitar and banjo tunes for 1.5 hours. Nora Jones was the opener and played a 30-40 minute set sitting on a couple of pillows stacked up on the piano bench since she was so much shorter than Taj. She wasn't widely known at the time but was fantastic.

    Last show I saw before the lockdown was Sexfist at the Gingerman tavern in Wrigley.

  • 1stshow70878
    Joined:
    Multi-band show

    Biggest for me: Sun Day #1 put on by Barry Fey at Mile High stadium Denver (around '74)
    Line up; Allman Bros., Marshall Tucker, Steve Miller, Elvin Bishop, Wet Willy, and I think there was one more??
    Brutally hot and muggy on the wet grass on the field. All we had was cheap Mexican ditch weed and warm beer.
    Were those the days? Can't remember so I must have been there.

  • hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    Last show before virus

    Electric Hot Tuna! Feb 29 at Boulder Theater. Great show. Jack caught air a few times jumping up and down. Jorma was terrific, but briefly sagged a bit late in the show and Jack moved in to support him and save the song. Great interplay between old friends. The audience knew we were heading into a covid future. A week later, just before Los Lobos was scheduled to play the Theater (March 14), I decided it wasn't worth the risk. The next day, the band canceled its show. The rescheduled show for October has been postponed to March 2021 and I got a refund instead, as that date is still too optimistic.

    Had to cancel on my Tedeschi-Trucks shows at the Rocks as well this summer and got a refund for their new dates in July 2021. Still ain't gonna happen by that time, at least I don't think so, at this point.

    Locally, a few bands have played outdoor patios in Denver, but that's just about over as days get shorter and average temperatures drop.

    Yeah, sure do miss the crowds, the music, getting out of the house. Feb 29 seems SO far away.

  • Dennis
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    Going to Jersey

    Going to Jersey any day now,,,, maybe late tonite. Anyone around Hacklebarney Park, Delaware Water Gap, Raritan Bay Area? Going to be some day hiking with buddies, love to see anyone from the boards. Hiking, good diner? Will be around for maybe two weeks. Mother in Law's house needs "stuff" done and a buddy needs an extra hand for a few big jobs around his place.

    I don't read email or internet stuff while away. ( I might poke this board with my tablet, but I NEVER use a cell phone) And Email I ONLY do on my desktop. But hit me with a pm if interested, I will check b4 leaving and can send cell number,,,, but will also check while in Jersey. Be nice to meet anyone.

  • bigbrownie
    Joined:
    Unkle Sam, Last Three...

    ...before the virus:
    Ricky Skaggs 3/9
    Electric Hot Tuna 2/19
    Dianne Reeves 2/18

    All at the beautiful Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara, CA

    Re: Cap Centre, never had a problem there. Saw 11/23/78 and 8/31/80 hassle-free.

  • Dennis
    Joined:
    simonrob and those buses

    Thanks,,, that makes a lot of sense (advertising wize). You did only see the front corner of the bus and not the whole front.

  • itsburnsy
    Joined:
    Ah The Crap Centre, it was…

    Ah The Crap Centre, it was absolutely the worst. I saw more bad shit happen there then all my other shows combined. The cops rode horses and did not play. They usually had a makeshift jail on site to book people in the parking lot.

    Anyway, Seattle has a grate(!) fest every year (well, not this year) named Bumbershoot. I went 20 straight years at one point '97-'16. Towards the end it just got too commercial and I gave it up, but man it rocked in the 90s and early to mid 00s.

  • Deadheadbrewer
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    Ranking the shows

    So my faithful bathroom companions (my two Deadbases--never fear--the books don't LIVE in the moist bathroom, but merely come off the shelf many days) list favorite shows by year, but those lists are from way back before Charlie Miller and Internet Archive changed our lives. I'm searching the Interweb for a more recent ranking of GD shows, and am hoping to find rankings that have many listeners participating. But I'm finding mostly one-person rankings. Going through the reviews on Archive is somewhat useless, given that most people these days give five-star ratings to every single thing they hear, purchase, eat, see . . .

    Does anyone know of a good ranking of shows, please? Let's say I want to see which shows from 1984 have percolated up the charts to be the consensus best shows of the year, and have been vetted by many semi-objective Deadheads. Does such a ranking exist? Or do I need to spearhead a project of people on this board and perhaps the FB page? Now that we have EVERYTHING in good quality, it would be useful to have, say, ten Heads go through an entire tour (e.g., Spring '84), and then reach a consensus on which shows were great overall, which were great for 1984, and which shows should be relegated to the dust bin of history. It would also be fun to figure out some choice nuggets from otherwise dispensable shows.

  • Deadheadbrewer
    Joined:
    Bobby Vee

    Bobby was from Fargo, where my mom is from, and since she was just a few years older than he, she was a big fan. He died in an exurbia town near Minneapolis four years ago, but two Christmases ago I sent my mom and dad to see the Bobby Vee Family Show. It's a bunch of Vee's family members playing his hit singles. My folks had a blast!

    p.s. Somewhere around 1990 I saw Gregg Allman, The Marshall Tucker Band, and The Smithereens on the same bill at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, which is next door to the old Saint Paul Civic Center, where the GD played at least once--5/11/77. The Roy Wilkins Auditorium is still there (a few friends skate on rollerderby teams that have bouts there), and the acoustics are about as bad as one can imagine from a cement rectangle built in 1932.

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Sweet liberty! We're venturing into the depths of 80s Dead with the complete show from 4/20/84 at the Philadelphia Civic Center and we're placing bets you'll think this one is more than fine. A strong contender for our mega 30 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN boxed set, 4/20/84 missed the cut by virtue of its setlist being a wee bit too similar to the years before and after. As DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 35, it's found its time to shine. The first set delivers yin yang harmony between Jerry and Bobby songs, yielding driven and powerful takes on tracks like "Feel Like A Stranger," "Cold Rain And Snow," and "Brown-Eyed Women." The second set begs the question - will we ever stop peaking? - with a monumental "Scarlet>Fire," a ripping "Samson and Delilah," a "Space" that pulls shapes that know no names, and that "Morning Dew" - get.in.to.it! And because this one might have ended just a little too soon, we've packed disc 2 and 3 with knock-your-socks-off bonus material from most of the second set from the previous night, 4/19/84. Grab ahold while you can!

Limited to 22,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOL.35: PHILADELPHIA CIVIC CENTER, PHILADELPHIA 4/20/84 has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman and is guaranteed to sell out. 

*Limited to 2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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In reply to by Colin Gould

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Sorry to hear Peter Green passed. To hear the live “Rattlesnake Shake” from early FM recordings - such as Live in Boston - was to hear Thunder itself. A gifted guitarist, but unfortunately a troubled soul. RIP.

Any Husker Du fans 'round here?

Bob Mould's next band Sugar...I got a copy of Copper Blue about a weeknhalf ago. Some good tracks

Husker Du:

Zen Arcade
New Day Rising
Flip Your Wig

If you want to hear some high-octane psychedelia, check out Reoccurring Dreams on Youtube....14+ minutes of fun.

....hmm. I visited a reddit post yesterday about Fleetwood Mac. Posted that the Peter Green Mac was the better Mac. Feedback was 50/50. Then this.
I still don't believe in coincidences.
Husker Du is good. As are the Minutemen and Seven Seconds.

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In reply to by Vguy72

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He replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and played on the "Hard Road" album from 1967. That's the only album I have with him on, and its a good solid blues album. Maybe not quite a spectacular as the Clapton driven Beano album from the previous year-but its worth hearing.
I saw him live once at a blues festival, Bishopstock, round about 2003. That was quite sad, really. He seemed disengaged and all the main solos and audible guitar parts were played by someone else. Peter didn't sing or talk to the audience, as I remember it. He just seemed sort of propped up there, with a guitar hung round his neck. Yet they used his name to advertise the band. The price of being a living legend, I suppose.
I have only heard Fleetwood Mac's singles with Peter on-and they do seem to be significantly better than the MOR band from later in the 70s.

That was the only Husker Du album I ever owned. I don't know how typical it was , but I used to like it. I was surprised when I first heard it how melodic it was-buzz saw guitars and enough energy to detonate a factory...but also quite poppy in way. A good way.

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My favorite Peter Green tune (with Fleetwood Mac)

"I can't help about the shape I'm in
Can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ag8DkipmQ

RIP blues man.......

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I am a big Peter Green fan. After he left the band he founded, Fleetwood Mac, he did go on to make several solo albums, quite nice stuff. The early releases with him and Danny Kirwin were peak early Mac. I saw Peter once at the Fillmore, he was a little subdued. RIP Peter.

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did some 7/24/87 and 7/26/87 view from the vault can't wait for this release and rz thanks for the california earthquake never knew or heard but if only two were played they should be released cool cool stay cool and love early fleetwood mac with peter green have some cds for that and when saw Tom Petty at the pepsi center they ripped oh well...well oh well rip

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Several months after the Dead’s 69 run at the Ark In Boston, Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac held court at the Boston Tea Party across town in 1970. Love those BTP releases, and listen to them a lot. Peter Green was a true guitar God who will be missed. The music remains. Be at peace Peter.

The Dead played 6 shows at the BTP in 69. Including New Years Eve, a rare NYE show outside the Bay Area.

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George Harrison said Albatross was the inspiration behind Sun King from Abbey Road. Now that's a piece of music! I would have been okay if it went on another 5 minutes, but I guess sometimes it's the small bits that keep you wanting for more. It's a perfect union of bass and guitar melodies. I imagine this is what codeine would sound like if it had a voice. Rain has a similar effect, though obviously more upbeat (and one of Ringo's finer moments).

I sense French Roast and Jai-Alai 6/23 in my immediate future.

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Sounds like a good performance here. Audio is just okay, but I'm sure once I treat it with some Poweramp magic it'll get a little better.

It's interesting- I recently read that Betty Cantor Jackson used to record those 70 shows on her private board. Not sure who paid for the actual tapes, but it does sort of answer the nagging question I've had in my mind for a while now - how is it possible that audio quality degraded so badly in the 80s. It also explains how the tapes that were sold off at auction from her unpaid storage bin warrant in so official Grateful Dead Vault somewhere.

But anyway, I really like the keyboard sound Brent uses on Feel Like a Stranger here. It's not too far from Dave's Picks 8 from 11/30/80, which is my favorite version; this may be my second fav.

The track list on here is superb. Hopefully they're on top of things throughout.

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I think the best music has already been played and the greatest musicians are dead and gone. That's not to say there is no new good music happening and no great musicians out there. I think for Blues , Country, Rock & Roll, Jazz and Blugrass the best music has been played. There are some exceptions of course as far as musicians go, but for the most part the legends are all gone.

The music and culture of the 20th century may have been unimaginable to the 19th century mind, so maybe the music of the 21st century will be similarly unimaginable to the 20th century mind. Which most of us still have. With new technologies, new instruments...new drugs...who knows what might happen?

baah humbug. These new kids and their (furry) tennie shoes, loud music with long jams and their long hair. Music hasn't improved since a bit since Glenn Miller, Bennie Goodman. ahh. the golden era.
Boy the old Lasalle ran great.. those were the days.

So turn it down, get a haircut and get off my grass, hippies.

:D (hopefully not to be confused with fact or any resemblance of an honest opinion)

Oh, RIP Brent. You are missed.

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I’m sure Beethoven fans said “All the best music has been created” after he died. One would hope that a Beatles, Grateful Dead, Miles Davis would come along at least every hundred years or so.
I must be crazy ‘cause I’m starting to get excited about Dave’s 35. It’ll be great to have another ‘80’s show to love(at least I hope so).
Even a ‘68-‘72 Head can revel in a fantastic show from ANY era.

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In reply to by Mr. Ones

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Imagine if Beethoven dosed. Deaf or not, we would have gotten another symphony. I bet it would have been real and spectacular.

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In reply to by Vguy72

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Rewatching and listening to Blow Away from 09/29/89 Shoreline as I read your post, VGuy.

RIP Indeed. Let it Blow Away.

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I don't know anything about Beethoven or Classical music, so has there been someone who is as famous or as influential in Classical Music as Beethoven was since he died, just speaking about Classical music. I'm curious.

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I'm going to say Rachmaninov, or Dvorak. Or Chopin, or Schumann or Liszt or Paganini. Or Stravinsky, Debussy or finally Copland. Although, I am partial to Sor (the Beethoven of the guitar), Giuliani, Carcassi, Brouwer and Villa-Lobos... :-)

Absolutely agree with you on the btp mac stuff. We're lucky to have a good amount of FM music from them at that point. It was a dump but they certainly had some great bands

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In reply to by That Mike

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I've racked my brain but other than an old blues song involving women I can't think of a song about self gratification being so popular on radio. Any thoughts?

I know this will come off hasher than I mean but....some things are not funny, they way the CCP treat its people especially minorities is beyond the pale. I am not some woke sjw who needs a safe space at every turn, but sometimes people including myself need to be reminded of the evil out there.

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In reply to by Vguy72

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Go with the website. The bonus is another complete show. Got home from the hospital yesterday now that doc newsom decided my necessary op elective and there it was. Listened to both twice already. Very clean

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...about self gratification on the radio - the Divinyls song I Touch Myself got some airplay in the early '90s and was a catchy little tune, and let's not forget Pictures of Lily by the Who. Not sure who Maryanne With the Shaky Hand was using her shaky hand on, herself or another, but that might be another self gratification tune depending on your interpretation of the lyrics.

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In reply to by Charlie3

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Oh, that's a good one.

That chick brought the ol' shelehlee out of the closet...

But anyway...give a listen to 5 15 70 today, folks.

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Yeah, the Divinyls vocalist had a voice that really made the song.

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Snafu, I just said that I felt that the best music has already been played. I didn't say that there was no new music being played or that there was no really good music being played. I'll just keep that to Blues and Rock & Roll, I still believe that. There is
nobody out there that can come close to Jiimi Hendrix, or the Grateful Dead from 1969 - 1972. As far Blues music, I don't even need to give it a second thought, the best Blues music has been played. You've probably heard of the great harmonica player Rick Estrin, well he said , there are a lot of good harp players, a few great harp players, a couple of excellent harp players, but the best harmonica players are dead and gone.

I think everyone thinks that about everything at some point.

Think you could handle better than the best Dead ever Done?

I'll go with Frank -

Best is yet to come and babe won't that be fine
You think you've seen the sun but you ain't seen it shine

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In reply to by Charlie3

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Good picks I forgot about pictures

To each etc. but even though they're both dead SRV and Fz played years after Jimi and were at least as good if not better. Jimi was great of course but part of the greatness was showman ship which isn't playing.

Thinking about it, I would agree with you in the sense that we may have seen the best in blues...in its current form. What we don't know, is if someone will come up with a new form of expression within the idiom. Its quite believable that someone might have thought that in the 1920s that it was impossible to improve on the blues and jazz of Bessie Smith or Louis Armstrong. And in the way that they played, those people may have been right. What they wouldn't have accounted for would have been the different approaches of Robert Johnson, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix...and many others. I like to think there are more twists and turns ahead. Blues musicians who are informed by the past, but are able to use new skills, instruments and technologies to advance the form. Would it still be blues? Could be! Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix were.

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47 years ago today the Dead did their famous sound check at Watkins Glen. Hendrix Freak, were you at this, or Strider were you there?

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Snafu, I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn play twice, once at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1979, and once at a Wavey Gravey event called.Cowboys for Indians, he played solo acoustic. . You're right he was absolutely fantastic.

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A friend asked me what I had been reading lately, so I thought I would share my latest reads:

Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield's Life in the Blues by David Dann-excellent read if you are into Bloomfield
California Dreaming by Michele Philips - OK with some insight into how fast the Mama's and Papa's took off and then broke up
Rod Serling: His Life, Work and Imagination by Nicolas Parisi - Excellent detailed look at behind the scenes of the Twilight Zone
Simple Dreams by Linda Ronstadt - a great read, very funny and honest, tells her story and the story of the beginnings of Country Rock
Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge by Sheila Weller - If you admire Carrie, this is a great book telling her story

The easiest, most fun read is Linda's.

I am now beginning to read the Beatles Anthology, a huge book, authorized by them and in their own words.

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A sentiment that has been shared by many (including The Greg Kihn Band and their Breakup Song). To put it another way, "It's good to be in something from the ground floor. I came to late for that and I know. But lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over." I suspect this is a generational thing, although I confess that the high point of this feeling came for me in the '80s when there just really wasn't a lot of new music that I dug. I dug some '80s stuff, but not a lot.

Lately, I'm finding a lot of new stuff to dig, although it is not the classic rock sound of yore, nor is it a Dead clone. Mostly, it's artists doing something I haven't really heard before, or doing something old with a new twist. Sturgill Simpson, Khruangbin, Leon Bridges, Flaming Lips, Tame Impala and St. Paul and the Broken Bones would be a few examples of newer artists that I dig. So nobody is gonna do what Hendrix or the Dead did better than the original, I agree with that, but there will be artists finding new forms and styles that will be just as cool in their own way. And honestly, if I only had one artist to listen to, or only one style of music available, it would get old no matter how good it is.

Edit: Or, since I've been on a little Who kick lately, "Rock is dead they say. Long live rock".

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My own latest music reads include Patti Smith's memoirs "Just Kids" and "M Train". And just yesterday I finished Holly George-Warren's excellent Janis Joplin biography "Janis: Her Life And Music".

The latter brought back bittersweet memories. I was fortunate enough to see her perform twice. The first was on the Cheap Thrills tour in '68 and the second time was at Woodstock.

Such a tragic loss to her fans along with Pigpen, Hendrix, and Jim Morrison.

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Richard Wagner died about 60 years after Beethoven who died around 1827 and wagner around 1887. Wagner was considered new age classical who said that "I am going to produce classical music that is much more interesting and new age than Beethoven's boring and sleep inducing symphonies." He said something like this back in the day.

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In reply to by carlo13

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I've been a huge Wagner fan all of my life thanks to my parents playing classical music in our home.

I've seen his operas performed any number of times and like the Grateful Dead, I'm happy to travel great distances to see one. Last summer we made a train journey from Seattle to see his epic four-opera cycle "Der Ring Des Niebelungen" at San Francisco Opera.

Wagner the man was quite unpleasant (anti-semite, philanderer, swindler, etc) but he was a brilliant composer and created the combination of music linked to on-stage action that we see applied today in musical scores for motion pictures.

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Carlo13, the Grateful Dead were huge fans of Wagner, and they even cancelled a couple of shows in 1985 so they could attend the performance of the Ring Opera in S.F. I saw the Dead shortly after at the Greek Theatre, it was a blast!

....I've started, over the waning weeks of the 'Summer of Sixtus'**, the newly released read: "Action Park - Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park", which is a MAJOR callback to my youth (yooot!) in the late '70's and early/mid-80's when spending time in NJ and at 'The Shore' - which always did its best to emulate the death-defying antics via water slides but never approached the true point-of-no-return that was Action Park. My assumption is that there are at least one or two peeps here that had experienced the unadultered chaos of Action Park. I still remember the commercials and visits, which made me buy this breezy, sarcastic, comical, adventurous, very fun book.

** 'Summer of Sixtus' has officially come to an end as today was my first day at my new Pharma gig. No complaints on this end, it's good to be back in the driver's seat.

Looking forward to DP 35 big time, gimme some Philly.

Be Well People.
Sixtus

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Right on, a blast from the past. I grew up across the border from Vernon, NJ in a then rural area of Orange County, NY and went to Accident Park when it was just the Alpine Slide, and maybe a couple of times later. Injuries abounded there, from the minor to the life alteringly tragic. Take a look at the water slide loop that these yahoos came up with, the Cannonball Loop, no engineering or water-ride experience appear to be involved, just the back of a napkin and an idea of what a loop looks like.

Love the fun random connections that come up on these threads.

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