Grateful Dead

Hey guys, Wanted to make the boards aware of an amazing coffee table photo book by Deborah Chesher that pays tribute to 48 musicians she shot in Vancouver and LA b/w 74-79 who have since passed away. Keith Godchaux is one of the musicians featured in the book. It shows never before see photos and includes Deborah's own behind the scenes memories. You can get the book on Amazon.com or through her website at: www.cheshercat.com. The blog about the book is at: www.everybodyishotisdead.blogspot.com. Would love to hear what anyone thinks of the book as well - getting great response this week as the Vancouver gallery show just happened on Sat. You can see 90 prints if in Vancouver at the OH MY GODARD GALLERY, LA, Austin, etc...shows coming soon!

More on this. You asked me "who would you say have been Watts' successors in popularizing Buddhism, Zen and the Tao? Any recommendations?" The major history on the opening of the west to Buddhism is "How the Swans Came to the Lake" by Rick Fields and is a very nice read. The two major figures internationally are of course the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, both of whom have many books out. A good one by Thich Nhat Hanh about the Life of the Buddha and his teachings is the story told by a fictionalized buffalo boy in "Old Path White Clouds". My favorite introductory books to Buddhism are "The Heart of Buddha's Teachings" by Thich Nhat Hanh, "What the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula and "Light on Enlightenment" by Christopher Titmuss. An easy intro is the comic style Introducing Buddha by Jane Hope and Baron Van Loon. As an introduction to Zen my first choice would be “Taking the Path of Zen” by Robert Aitken, along with the” Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” and “Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”. One that covers many of the facets of Zen and of Zen in the arts is The World of Zen by Nancy Wilson Ross. Can't forget Chogyam Trungpa the great and controversial Tibetan teacher. You could start with his The Essential Chogyam Trungpa". There are so many more incredible teachers and books and I want to acknowledge and thank them all here even though I can't mention them. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

You asked me "who would you say have been Watts' successors in popularizing Buddhism, Zen and the Tao? Any recommendations?" A huge question for me because there is so much on this flowering of Buddhism, Zen and the Tao over the past 50 years. Kind of like someone asking us to recommend a book about the environment. Watts and his contemporary Christmas Humphreys did a lot to open the doors for the west to Buddhism. D.T. Suzuki wrote volumes on Zen and translated and was very important and an influence on Watts and Humphreys. I would say that the next wave after them were the teachers that came to the U.S. and to Europe and the folks that studied in Asia, mainly Japan at first. In Zen, Shunryu Suzuki founded Zen Center in San Francisco and wrote, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" which was very influential. Also very important in U.S. were Taizan Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles and Katagari Roshi in Minneapolis, both of whom have books that are out and I relish. These three were all Zen priests from Japan. Then of course there was Gary Snyder, the central figure in Jack Kerouac's the Dharma Bums. Many of the beats were involved at some time either directly or indirectly in studying, practicing and popularizing Zen and/or Buddhism. Snyder and Ginsberg lived it. Another important book was Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps which had short versions of many classic Zen tales and also Koans which are a type of Zen riddle to open your mind beyond rational thought. Then there were the first American students to become Zen teachers or priests and to write. The earliest in the 60's was Phillip Kapleau and his "Three Pillars of Zen". Also Robert Aitken has many works out and is my main teacher’s teacher. I highly recommend anything by him. End of part 1 If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

Thanks so much for the interest in "Slipknot". Everyone in the GD community has been wonderfully supportive, starting with Alan Trist who actually called me at home and chatted with me at length about the project after I had timidly contacted him. (Ice Nine allowed the limited and reasonable use of the lyrics. Very indebted for that.) Both David Gans and John Henrikson, too, have been gracious. Sometime in the next couple of months there will be some "Slipknot" coverage on their shows and/or blogs. But however "well" the book does, for me the best part is it offers some small insight into what it means to have embraced the Dead ethos then struggle to bring it into our daily lives. It's nice to have some artistic expression of that feeling.

thanks for the heads-up! (And yeah, Dennis is not in the habit of praising stuff he doesn't like, so good for you!)

The wife and I enjoy true crime novels, but I just mentioned to her the Slipknot novel, might make a nice christmas gift. We'll see.

That book will be on my list to read!! :)

Gary,That's great! I'll definitely have my eye out for your book on November 1!

It is me, actually, Gary McKinney. The publishing house is tiny and has no marketing budget to speak of, so they've ask me to do some posting. It's kind of embarassing to tout your own book, but it really is very good. Certainly Dennis wouldn't have blurbed it if he hadn't liked it. Like him, a lot of people are interested in what I've done with this theme. And it's been great for me as an author, because I've been a Deadhead since 1969 (Springer's in Portland), and it was so much fun to immerse myself into this character's (dead) head. Among other things I had fun with was interpreting the lyrics via this character and bringing them into everyday life situations that so many of us can relate to. Thanks for taking notice!

who's the author?