Grateful Dead

Hey - My name is Marc and I have been a Deadhead for about 20 years. Been coming to Dead.net for a long time now, but new to the forums. I am a lighting and experiential artist, and have been working on a performance art/sculptural installation based on Robert Hunter's poem, and the Dead's famous unreleased recording of The Barbed Wire Whipping Party. This project is being done with Hunter's permission, and with the support of Ice Nine Publishing and Rhino Records. I am trying to think of ways to get the word out about this project to the larger Grateful Dead community - anybody have any ideas? http://www.indiegogo.com/Join-The-Barbed-Wire-Whipping-Party Thanks for your thoughts, marc

So Glad i made it. I'm new on here, but not new to the Dead; I've been into them since '80, and saw them a buncha times. I'm a pro musician. I play an instrument called "Prizim", which has 37 strings. It's basically a glorified autoharp, but i play all kinds of dead tunes, including terrapin, eyes, birdsong, etc. I also have played Native American Flute for my whole life. I'm currently building new websites for these instruments. My other "trade" is reading cards...that's right....past, present, future. It's all in there! You can check out my youtube channel, where all the music is, including a buncha dead: www.youtube.com/otto5ification. There'll be websites for the Tarot and Music coming soon. I'm just so glad to be back among 'family". I kinda got blown off path for about 10 years (relationships...ugh) and am now rebuilding just 'zackly who I wanna be. This (and you) are part of that. (If I told you all that went down, It'd burn off both your ears!) See ya round the boards! Mallah (hal) Looking forward to getting to know you.

Hi! My name is Kaylie Cottrell. I've been a grateful dead fan since college. In high school I was into rap and hip-hop, but when I reached college I started to broaden my horizons. I'm glad that I did! Anyways, I'm new here. If you have any questions about myself let me know : )

hey gang!!my name is melissa and i toured as a child with my mom and continued to do so on summers...amazing times and amazing memories... anyhow, i live in LA now, and i am throwing a one day late birthday party for jerry at the restaurant i run. if anyone is interested in coming i put the link to the restaurant facebook page - all the info is on there. http://www.facebook.com/gratefuldead?ref=ts#!/pages/Grub-Restaurant/515… i love cook, act, sing, dance, and make patchwork clothes for myself and friends. love! ~melissa

I'm excited about the online networking, but even more than that hoping to find KIND people around where I live in Columbus, OH.

welcome, welcome all! Great story Fritzsbeard! American Beauty was the first Dead record my parents put on when I was little and it's been a great ride ever since... Thanks for sharing!

welcome to our new friends from around the world. And hey, Fritzsbeard, thanks for the great story.

Hi all, I am new to the Grateful Dead community, writing in from Canada. Got introduced by my fiance when we met last year and I admit it took me a while to appreciate their music and culture. But now I am a convert! Looking forward to the conversations here. Have a great day. Pumpkin-Pie

OK, Well I've posted here once but wanted to introduce myself. I live in Sydney, Australia but have never seen the Grateful Dead due to a combination of things: geography, age, and ignorance. I've listened to a lot of music throughout my life but have only come to the Grateful Dead within the last 8 - 10 years. I was always aware of them, always conscious of the name and recognised Jerry Garcia's face, but before I listened to them that was the extent of my knowledge. Beyond that, there was only speculation and guesswork. Their name conjured up for me images of an all-devouring beast of a band that would eat you alive, a great, impenetrable psychedelic morass of musical machinery that could not be made sense of. And then, one day, I decided to make up my own mind. I walked into Red Eye Records here in the Sydney and started scouring their (back then anyway) fairly extensive Grateful Dead section. I didn't know where to begin. I saw lots of skulls and flowers and tie dye. From about 50 or so CDs (they had a good number of Dick's Picks in there) I chose one completely at random, based on no cover aesthetics at all. It was fate. As I walked over to the counter to ask to listen (the only time I've not taken the risk of buying a disc unheard) I looked the spine. The album was American Beauty. I wasn't hoping for much. The clerk popped it in the CD player, I put the headphones on and waited. I was smiling like a fool within 10 seconds of Box of Rain. I immediately bought the album and ran out of there. Many people here would have seen the final episode of "Freaks & Geeks" where Lindsay discovers the Grateful Dead and drops the needle on the turntable back to the start over and over. That was me that afternoon (except that I kept hitting back on the CD player). I couldn't get enough and that album filled (and continues to fill me) with such great joy as a lot of their music does. That was close to maybe ten years ago. I haven't amassed a massive collection of Dead records. I still don't own all of the studio records but in the days before downloading shows became viable I did a number of blanks & postage with a lot of kind people. I imagine there a number of people in here from Australia but all of my trades were done with people overseas courtesy of rec.music.dead (I think it was called that). I posted in here the other day for the first time because I had the urge to write a letter to Robert Hunter. I've been going through a career crisis of late but just a little while ago I came up with a plan which I've been excited about but will also need to patience for it to come to fruition. Washing up dishes the other night, I was listening to Aoxomoxoa and 'Mountains of the Moon' came on. I sang the following line over and over with tears in my eyes: "Hey, Tom Banjo it's time to matter the earth will see you on through this time the earth will see you on through this time." It was a lyric that I needed to hear (without quite knowing I needed to hear it). So I wanted to thank Mr Hunter for writing that lyric 43 or so years ago, for sending it out into the world so that it could make its way into my kitchen in 2011 to mean something so beautiful and necessary to me. That's my Grateful Dead story so far. I don't think any band has given me such pure joy through their music than the Dead have. I look forward to speaking with people in here and sharing stories. OK, I think that's it. Anthony Frazer - Sydney, Australia

Hiya Friends, My name is jimi and my first show was hamton va. 1979, next show is simpsonville sc 2011. I stuck mainly to east coast tours a couple out west and mid west but have been on the bus many many years and made my life what it is today. Jerry was the man,yes i love the whole band but i was a jerry kid. This is my first post and just wanted to say thx to everyone involved for the most wonderful memories a man could ask for. ( so many roads) we have traveled together spreading joy and love everywhere, thx bob for going furthur friend. cya around the shows friends