Grateful Dead

Yes Blonzo -You're absolutely right! Last night i was so frustrated by the clueless camera director and now again tonite. Last nite i didn't even know trey was playing until about 10 minutes in! And i think the Director has a crush on Phil. Trey is singing and/or soloing and we get long shots, sometimes 30 seconds or more, of just Phil. Same thing when Bobby is playing. I heard Justin Kreutzmann is in charge of the filming. If so, he's really not that talented. Maybe behind the scenes editing and what-not, but certainly not capable of doing a live broadcast of this magnitude. And if this the filmwork to be included in the FTW DVD/BluRay set then i definitely won't be buying.

You know, if you turn your back to the stream, and close your eyes, there are times when you hear Jerry, and that is really comforting

Last night was good to see Trey & Phil interacting - Rusty Group - but looked like they had some good fun! Great, solid set list if not slightly anticipated. Awesome storyline they have created over the last two. Phil rocked 1/2 step. The anger from Bobby - way to rip it! I would have been holding the persons hand to the left and right of me during Deal. I would have Thanked Phil for being there. I would have sung as loud as I could during SSDD. And yes I cried during Stranger. Please, can We make sure (as corney as it is) that We give the boys a stadium wave goodbye!

isinmyhead & direwulf

Hehe gardenamesX2 :) I was thinking just the opposite... direwulf isinmyhead I hope they play it next week!!! Don't murder me I beg of you don't murder me Pleeeeeeeeeeaaase don't murder me

Eric Abrahamson At my age, it's already predetermined that I'm not going to go to all that trouble unless I like it. The glass is either half-full or half-empty. Nobody twisted my arm, put me in a headlock, and made me listen to it-I think it's cool. I asked my brother for money to go, and he gave me 2 tickets. My friend Billy "Buzzboy" Rose, "Wavy Gravy's adopted son", used to be a Grateful Dead roadie, he got me backstage at the first show I went to after I met him, so I think they're good to me. My other friend, Richie Shirley, from the Hog Farm, was in the backstage Crew, traveled around the country with them and sold official T-shirts, and his wife, Andrea, "Mom", the cook at Camp Winnarainbow, used to work in their office in San Rafael and they had an apartment there. I met Richie and Billy at Woodstock where the Hog Farm was the Security and the Please Force, so you kids who pan them, fuck you and your worthless idiot opinions. You've never even been there yet, if you ever get there, at this rate. I think they were the best rock and roll band that ever was, and the Rolling Stones was #2, and I've seen them both. Compared to what, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? The technology is pretty good for playing in a stadium as big, new, and modern as that. They can hear everything you say and see everything you do, and my brother bought me a ticket way up in the back. In between songs this kid 10 rows down says, "Shoot him!" and I go, "I have a gun!" and immediately they started into "Loser", "If I had a gun/For every ace I have drawn/I could arm a town/The size of Abilene!" I don't like it when they get that personal, ad hominem, but I'm still a fan, because even if they ever had a bad day, they recorded plenty of *good* days, which can always happen, always *do* happen at least a little bit, and silicon is immortal. Great light show. The only problem is with the critics and nay-sayers, who have pre-judged it all instead of, "Judge not!"--like "prejudiced". They already don't like it, they were prepared not to like it--there is nothing the band could have done or could do that they would have liked or would like. It's against their religion. It couldn't be worse if they sang traditional Moslem hymns to Allah in Arabic. They probably know how. There was a day when *everybody* liked it, even my parents. They were the #2 top-grossing entertainment act for 2 years in a row; #1 was Bill Cosby, by concerts, not by record sales, by word-of-mouth, household names, I remember. Nobody listened to that thing about rock-and-roll being "the Devil's music", and if you play it backwards it says, "Hail, Satan!" In my opinion, the Church rejects dancing, "worldly", as opposed to gospel or spiritual music, commercial music, art, literature, drama, culture, one of the reasons, because it's linked in their mind with pagan religion, which certainly applies to the Grateful Dead. However, I would argue that when the Christians converted the Roman Empire and tore down the Pagan temples, later they incorporated some of the features of the pagan religions into their own, from what I've heard. For example, do they say that the gods and goddesses of the polytheistic pantheons of the ancient cultures like Greece, Italy, Egypt, Babylonia are really One, the Lord God of the Old Testament? Or it says on Wikipedia that the Lord God of the Old Testament was the war god of the Phoenicians, like Mars Hill, though I don't see why not the head god Jupiter, Zeus, Ra, or Aten, where Moses got it. Then the Christians say Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Trinity is One, with Jesus Christ being the Son, a bow to pagan polytheism, but just 3. But they also have the Virgin Mary, who some say is Mother Earth, lots of saints and angels, etc. They say the 30,000 Roman and Greek gods were angels and demons, it's confusing, but some of them were like the Christian God in some ways. For example, Zeus sounds like "deus", which means "God". Jupiter, the Roman for Zeus, has also the name "Jove", which sounds like "Jehovah", which is translated "LORD" in the Old Testament. I read that the Christians used features from the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter, the Earth Mother in the Mass, the table, I think, maybe cups, candles, etc. to attract pagans. Some of the saints represent pagan deities from other cultures, and now they become Christian. The Greeks and Romans also had animal sacrifices like the Jews in the Tabernacle and Temple. Lots of their gods had wings like the Jewish angels, like Cupid, Victory, and Iris, the Rainbow. Maybe Moses got the snake on the pole from Mercury's Caduceus, and Asculepius the healer. The Elysian Fields is similar to the Christian Heaven, and Hades to the Christian Hell. Of course, there are just as many differences as similarities. Online I saw a book by the Church Father St. Clement where he uses Ulysses tied to the mast not to hear the Sirens' Song in Homer's "Odyssey" as an example of successfully resisting temptation, "Epistle to the Greeks". Of course, the Pope and the Vatican have always been in Rome. The Father represents Odin from Norse Germanic neo-Paganism, and Thor Jesus in a way. The word "Holle", "hell", isn't in the Bible, it's in the Norse "Eddas". *Valhalla* was their "Heaven". They mixed it with the Jewish Old Testament, the Greek and Roman paganism, etc. They included some of the old Jewish Mosaic prohibitions. Religion has art, music, literature, architecture, and Greek religion was somewhat based on plays. The Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple had a lot of art, sculpture, music, and architecture, and the Bible itself really is man-made literature. They just want a monopoly and no competition, and to control the State. A lot of art, music, literature, architecture, and sculpture got it's start in religion and then some Christians object for those artisans to become commercial, to use it for money, because they want to control the money, which is also man-made. It belongs to the person whose picture is on the money, who owns the metal mines, the mints, and who coins the money. "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." There *is* no picture of God. Some of the Caesars, Roman Emperors, made the people worship them as gods. Constantine himself was Apollo the Sun-God before he was a Christian. Go figure. Another reason the Church may prohibit "drugs, sex, rock-and-roll, drinking, smoking, and cussing", besides Scripture, as well as art, music, literature, theatre, and culture, science, technology, medicine, "the works of men's hands", the prohibition on idolatry, "make no graven image","bow down to no graven image", well that's another one. *Another* one, "God has made everything sufficient, but they have sought out many inventions." But the Church wants the money that people spend on entertainment, art, music, literature, plays, to go to them. Maybe they *did* think they were all being guided by *God* when they were on LSD and they were deceived by the Devil, "caught in the Devil's bargain", "Satan Himself appears as an Angel of Light to deceive if He can the very Elect," but they were experimenting and they thought they were right. Maybe if you got psychedelic by fasting 40 days in the desert those are true, not Satanic, visions. I think they came true for some of them; potentially could have come true for a lot more. Ram Dass called them "entheogens, 'theo', Greek for 'God', 'God-manifesting', you see God, become One with God, become God". "I am That I am." "I and the Father are One." "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." "I said ye are gods; nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes." "We are as gods, and we might as well get good at it." The only psychedelic church I ever heard of was the Native American Church in New Mexico, who had a cross on the altar. They converted all the American Indians to Christianity, but they can still do some traditional Indian things they all (or at least some of them) like to do, just to preserve the culture for posterity. People are always interested in what happened in the past; it's valuable information. The price of Indian jewelry has gone up at least 100x in my lifetime, as it becomes more scarce, as they become lost arts, and they were better before the Wasichus came. There's that Jesse Colin Young song, "Before You Came", how great the Indians had it. A lot of pagan spirituality is a lot higher than a lot of Western spirituality; it's the same thing. If you call the Virgin Mary the Earth Mother, or Father God, Mother Earth, or the Yin-Yang, that's Paganism, or different forms of it, generally speaking. Freud in "Moses and Monotheism", says the Egyptian polytheism was better than the Egyptian monotheism, because when Iknaton switched them to Aten, the One God form of the Sun God Ra, he made Pharoah Iknaton at the top of the "pyramid", with all the ranks of nobles, courtiers, priests, and common people. With the polytheistic system, Isis, Osiris, all that, even though it's true what the Christians say, they worshipped animals, crocodiles, cattle, ibises, hawks, birds, elephants, lions, etc., as the Christians say, "brute beasts", power was more diffuse throughout society, less centered in the king. And he says they were more prosperous, too, with polytheism, that their society declined with monotheism, they overthrew Iknaton, called him a heretic, and restored polytheism. That was why one of the reasons Moses had to get out, to preserve the monotheistic concept somewhere else by founding a new religion. He was raised by the Pharaoh's daughter. There are traces of the Egyptian roots in Moses' writings; he uses the Hebrew word "Elohim", "gods", plural, for "LORD God", and "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," admitting they exist, but fighting them, and "Who is like unto Thee, among the gods?" "You're the best!" I don't know; I'm not a theologian. I just had a year of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Yale, and graduated from Mountain Heights neo-Pentecostal Bible College in 1974. I saw the Jupiter-Venus conjunction in Leo tonight, the same as the Star of Bethlehem. It was out for about an hour. Astrology is from paganism, too, and probably the Dead used an astrologer when they set up the stadium dates as a Christian joke, although who knows how forgiving the Christians can be about that. The Bible accuses those who "worship the host of heaven upon the housetops" and they said that meant the pagan Babylonian astrologers. But the Christians reject a lot of other things the Jews said, like the rule against pork. Maybe that verse condemns the Roman astrologers, too. I read that not only were the Romans, and Greeks, into that, but they had augurs, or prophecies by things like the flight of birds, which might signify things like victory or defeat in war, or they'd read the entrails of animals they sacrificed, like tea leaves, or "sibyls" at the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi would prophecy the future in poetry, Socrates had a "inner god" that told him what to do. The Christians say "abandon all that" and then years later when you're "mature in the Lord" it wasn't so bad, and won't really hurt you, "all things are pure to him who is pure", "nothing is unclean of itself", etc. This issue is "if __________ makes my brother to stumble, I will eat no ____________," "Blessed is the man who is not condemned by the thing he alloweth," and something about the "commandments of men". I'm going to write more on another post so it isn't too long.

Next stop, Chicagoland !

Sir, you should go back on your meds. Rambling such as this posted are the work of a very troubled mind.

Glad you're in the soup. But I think you're missing a few noodles.

Watch 'em knock 'em dead in Chicago. I must've gone to at least 100 shows. The first one was in 1966 in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle, or the Furthur Fesival at San Francisco State College, whichever was first. I actually felt like Phil was addressing me personally when he made his speech at the end and thanked everyone for coming out, because I tried to get tickets to as many Phil Lesh and Friends at Terrapin Crossroads shows as I could. He came up to me there and let me say, "Hi," which rock stars don't have to do. However I couldn't afford to follow Bobby around like I used to, and he always lets me know, which is flattering that he invited me. He sang a song about losing money, which is true. He sang some other songs which might have been directed at me, and I instinctively responded by singing along. Then, at the beginning of the last song, "Fare Thee Well, My Honey", "Brokedown Palace", I thought he was like, he wanted me to sing along, so I did, and then he ended it abruptly, got in line with their arms on their shoulders, did their bow, and it was over, but I'm planning to see the live stream of all 3 Chicago shows at Terrapin Crossroads. When I went to UCI in 1987, my dad gave me $100,000/year, an apartment in grad student housing, a car, and a bunch of credit cards on his account. They tracked me into the Information and Computer Science major. Then he came down and took some of the credit cards back, and my sister took all 6 of my Irvine Meadows Grateful Dead tickets. Like William Burroughs wrote, "When did they ever give anything that they didn't take back if they could, and they always could!" and he went to Harvard. I went out and bought 6 more, at the inflated price of $50, for $300, and canceled the aftershow party at my apartmnent I'd posted on the Well. Because of losing the credit cards, I got a bad grade and had to go to CSUB. Laurie Senit moved in, and life was pretty good. We lived across from the campus in an apartment complex with 4 swimming pools and 4 jacuzzis, the 2nd best in town. My parents bought me a brand-new Toyota Tercel. Then my mom said, "We're going to send the two of you to Hawaii. Pick out a hotel from this brochure." I picked the Big Island because I'd been to Maui, and the Kona Hilton because the Dead liked Hiltons. In nearby Paradise Cove the scuba boat captain claimed he was on a first-name basis with Jerry. When Jerry died the Rolling Stone article said his house was in Kona, which I didn't know, and gave the name of his dive shop. I called information and the dive shop, they said it was across the street from the Kona Hilton, and Jerry probably did used to go scuba diving at Paradise Cove. They were showing videos of him scuba diving tonight. That's why I wanted to do it, but I had to do it straight, not being a rock star. I proposed to Laurie on the beach in Kona. We stopped at my parents' house in San Francisco on our way home. My dad, James Abrahamson, had 3 restaurants, Pam Pam East on Geary and Taylor, Rosebud's English Pub next door, and Biff's Coffee Shop on 28th and Broadway in Oakland, and he sold institutional furniture, commission contract sales, for Thonet and American Chair Co., and later Serta Mattress, in the Merchandise Mart on 10th and Market. My mother, Lucille Abrahamson, was elected to the San Francisco School Board twice, two years as President, worked in Mayor Dianne Feinstein's Office of Childcare, and was appointed S.F. Human Rights Commissioner by Mayor Frank Jordan, the former Police Chief. I told them we were engaged and my Dad said, "Don't marry her, I can't afford it. We sold the restaurants to Mama's, they went bankrupt, didn't pay, we went to court, the judge fined me $160,000, and they wanted me to declare bankruptcy." My little brother said later it was his half-partner, Bill Munro, the manager's fault. He abused the help, especially the head cook, who really ran the place, the union went on strike, won so many benefits they had to go out of business and sell it. Munro had cooked the books, the judge saw it, and hence the fine. My dad said it was because I had spent too much money on Grateful Dead concerts, but I don't think that was correct, although I may have spent too much money. They wanted me to go to this psychiatrist in Bakersfield, Dr. Perelli-Minetti, who was a nice man. He said the Grateful Dead was OK. He was always telling me expensive restaurants to which to take Laurie, like where he took his wife, and encouraged me to spend lots of money on her, buy expensive dresses, jewelry, etc, so I thought it was OK. He gave me Risperdal when it first came out, in 1994. We didn't really go to that many Grateful Dead concerts. My dad didn't like the Grateful Dead and Bill Graham for other reasons. When I first got back from the New Mexico Hog Farm after Woodstock, I tried to turn him on, he thought about it for a minute and decided no, he was afraid to get busted, he was too square to get on the bus. Later he said that Bill Graham had applied to join their Jewish men's club, the Concordia-Argonaut, on Van Ness and Geary, and that he was going to vote against him. Not only was he a hippie, and made his money that way, but he was an orphan, an immigrant, and a Holocaust survivor. What it really was is that Graham was more successful than him in the role of Jewish businessman. My brother moved to Mill Valley, said he saw Graham's house and was impressed. Graham made more money than all of them, and he started as a hippie, and that filled squares like my dad with jealousy, anger, envy, and rage. My dad said, "I wish the Grateful Dead were dead," in his outrageous way. When Bill Graham's helicopter crashed on the way home from the Concord Pavilion and they had his funeral in my dad's temple, Temple Emanu-el, my dad said, "I hope it didn't hurt the helicopter!" He even hated them during the Haight-Ashbury and helped the City Fathers drive them out of town. My family was spending a lot of money at first, and I thought they were encouraging me to emulate them. When he first gave me the $100,000/year, the credit cards on his account, and sent me to UCI, my dad was acting like he could afford for me to buy anything I saw that I wanted. Then he told not to buy anything over $200, and I complied. They were all spending lots of money. He had 2 new BMW"s and a new Mercedes-Benz. He and my mom went on a temple tour of Eastern Europe and stayed in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, she said it was a five-star hotel. My sister went to Yale after me, in Art, then got a Masters in Art Education at Stanford, an Ed.D. at Harvard, a J.D. at Cal, got a job in the White House as Assistant Chief-of-Staff to Vice-President H.W. Bush in the Ronald Reagan White House and then Founding Chairman of the Barbara Bush Campaign For Family Literacy (me at UCI) in the President H.W. Bush White House. There's a photo of her and Vice-President H.W. Bush having an audience with Pope John Paul in Sweden, and she is shaking hands with the Pope. That dress must have cost something, not to mention the travel. In her closet I saw hundreds of French gowns, and more shoes than Imelda Marcos. She met this guy from the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., a USC Professor of International Relations, Jonathan Aronson. He went to Harvard and Stanford in Political Science, and his father was a rich St. Louis banker. They bought a mansion in Bel-Air near the Reagans', put in an Italian marble bathtub, baby grand piano, swimming pool, his self-portrait in the living room, pirates' table, Persian rug, and he drove a Jaguar S3. He said, "We're going to Paris for 2 weeks," "I'm going to Thailand to speak," and they had their son's Bar Mitzvah in Bali, so they didn't hold back on the spending. They took the whole family, including me, to the Club Med in Ixtapa, but they went bankrupt because I spent too much money on Grateful Dead concerts! My brother spent $2000 of my dad's money for a Rolex watch to keep up with the other Oshos and flew back and forth to India every few weeks for years. They flew me there, to Europe twice, and to Hawaii twice. I guess my dad was having problems, and he asked me to spend less money, but he didn't really communicate that I should spend less money because he was having financial problems. I was spending too much money on Laurie. So I ignored him. So he took away some credit cards, and I kept spending at the same level. I couldn't comprehend that commission contract sales is an up-and-down business. Then two new credit cards, each with a $5000 limit, came in the mail. I should have sent them back, but I couldn't resist the temptation. Soon I realized that I couldn't let my dad find out about them, because he would take them away, too. I set out to get revenge on him for taking away my credit cards by charging even *more* money. The first thing I did was take Laurie to the most expensive restaurant in Los Angeles, Spago's, $140 for salmon for two. Then the 2nd most expensive, Palms in West Hollywood. Then dresses, jewelry, and when we went to Hawaii we did the same thing with the recreation. Maybe *that's* what drove my dad into near-bankruptcy, not the Grateful Dead concerts. We really didn't go to that many. I just spent a lot of money on her. She just liked to go to movies, comedy clubs, country-western dance halls, miniature golf, roller skating, she was always thinking of something. They cut my allowance from $100,000/year to $40,000/year, my sister and brother-in-law, Joan and Jonathan, became "trustees of your trust fund", keep the Blue Cross PPO. They took away all 12 of my credit cards and defaulted on them, leaving me in debt to the credit card companies for $15,000, with bad credit to this day, since 1993. They raised it up to $60,000 and I moved to New Mexico, near the Castagnas who used to live at the Hog Farm. Alberto asked me to call my mother, father, sister, and brother-in-law and ask each of them for $10,000 for a liver transplant for his Hepatitis C because his job as Director of Taos County Ambulances, working his way up from paramedic and EMT, didn't have good insurance. They said no. Maybe that's what set 'em off. They asked me to go to a psychiatrist, who dismissed me. Then Laurie wanted me to come back to Los Angeles and move in to her apartment. They wanted me to find another psychiatrist. I found psychedelic therapist Dr. Robert Newport online at the Island Group in Santa Cruz, referred by Bruce Eisner, but my sister fought with him and he lost his license for prescribing medications, including Risperdal, without seeing the patients. I called him and he said, "Did your sister let up on you yet? I'm not a psychiatrist any more, I'm a painter." So they took me to Dr. Lisa Fine, who also gave me Risperdal, which gave me diabetes. Laurie got it too, from Seroquel. They found the diabetes when a cardiolgist wanted to do an emergency heart surgery,an angiogram and an angioplasty. My brother drove my sister-in-law's Ford Escort to L.A. from Sedona. They said they were going to give it to me. He showed it to me and said, "This is your car." They said they were going to give it to me after the surgeries, but they changed their mind and never did. My car had totally broken down at a job interview in Irvine just a few days before my appointment with the cardiologist, who decided I was going to have emergency heart surgery. When I recovered I stopped by at some friends from the Cubensis shows and they talked me into starting going to shows again, to the Phil Lesh and Friends show and the Ratdog show at the Wiltern, and the Ratdog show at the House of Blues. I'd told Richie on the phone I'd stopped going to shows when Jerry died and he'd said, "I did too." They had a picture of them with the 4 original members in an airport on the way to a concert called The Dead. After that, this psychologist Eric Asa-Dorian from the Life Adjustment Team, probably a drug rehab, they said her mother called, shows up in our living room, posing as a Deadhead, except with more, better tickets than me. Then they got me to go to LAT and I never knew it was a drug rehab, it was disguised as marriage counseling or something. In the end they took the $60,000/year except for meds, medical bills, Anthem Blue Cross PPO, SSI, and put me in Brentwood Manor board-and-care home for two years, I think illegally, before I had learned how to treat the diabetes, so it had developed another complication besides the heart disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetic neuropathy, or diabetic nerve pain, or "burning feet". When they moved me out of Laurie's apartment 12 years ago with the Comcast that was the last time they let me have cable, except for a brief period. No police, no arrest, no charges, no hearing, no trial, no sentence, no jail, no prison, no due process. No evidence or proof that *I* ever did anything wrong, as far as I'm concerned, frames and smears I've never heard, let alone allowed to answer. I said I'd sue all of them for $2 billion for attempted murder, elder financial abuse, false imprisonment, psychiatric torture, medical malpractice, emotional anguish, pain and suffering, and my attorney, Bruce Margolin, who'd been Timothy Leary's attorney (I went to a fundraiser they had at Timothy Leary's house in Beverly Hills when he was running for State Senator), said, "Where'd you get the $2 billion?" so $200 million is more in the range, I think. I had to get a job selling Sprint phones B2B to small businesses in the South, work my way out of there and get some financial aid from Cal State East Bay. I'd been a junior Computer Science major at Cal State Northridge when I was living with Laurie before the surgeries. And Tina Kimmel, a Cal Ph.D. in Social Work I met at the New Mexico Hog Farm after Woodstock got my sister to give me a $68,000 annuity that my dad left me, so that was pretty good, so I got to go to Monterey and Camp Winnarainbow, and they're paying for a lot of things now. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I'm still a senior Computer Science major and pre-law. Afterwards Alberto died, I called Richie from the board-and-care, he called my sister, I called him back, and he had terminal liver cancer. Alberto flew out and carved his tombstone, and he picked out wood for Tinker to make his coffin, but my sister wouldn't give me $100 to visit him at Camp Winnarainbow before he died. Steve had died of hep C. Then Hunter Thompson committed suicide. When I was going to the LAT psychiatrist to whom they forced me to go, I emailed Cap'n Skypilot to post something I could show him on his office computer, and he wrote a story about a man whose parents he said were responsible for the death of Ken Kesey and the assassination of JFK. When I got up here Vince Welnick committed suicide. I ran into Lou Todd, then he got sick and died, and then Tinker, who I once saw drive the Furthur bus. Charlene said her landlady wouldn't rent her house anymore, she moved in with her daughter; her other daughter got accused of murder, and she didn't do it. Laurie's elementary schoolteacher friend's apartment caught on fire and they blamed her. My Deadhead lawyer friend said his SUV caught on fire. I can't figure out the reason for all this. I would be interested if anybody, especially with legal knowhow, had any helpful advice. I'm thinking of appealing to my Yale classmates, to see if any of them are big-time lawyers yet, and I don't think any Democratic politicians have seen it, since most of them don't have email addresses. They were telling people I was dying, but the doctors said my numbers were good, so you can't die from controlled diabetes, maybe it was just wish-fulfillment. And Jerry famously died of a diabetic heart attack in a drug rehab, maybe someone got ideas. While I was in Brentwood the lawyer sent me a copy of the trust instrument where my parents had initialed that when my mom dies, the inheritance, which it originally says was divided into thirds between me, my brother, and sister, they rubbed me out and divided it in half between my brother and sister. She'll get my mom's house worth about $2 million, and she has a $4.3 million house in Bel-Air, and a house in Telluride, and my dad bought my brother a house in Sedona. I was living in Laurie's apartment. My brother will get my dad's commercial property in Oakland, a tire and party store. And there's some money they'll divide in half. Eric Abrahamson Yale University Class of '71 Pierson College

Thanks for my morning eye-opener!!

Listened to KFOG replay and the mix had Trey so out front I couldn't hear the rest of the band. Could just be the radio replay, but I wanna hear Phil, Bobby and the rest of the band. Can't wait to see it at the movie theater on Friday (and maybe Saturday and Sunday)

I live-streamed the show last night from youtube, thinking I could watch it on my big screen because I've had youtube available with directv for over a year, but found out it is no longer compatible...youtube's email receipt said this show would be available anytime I want to watch, but after falling asleep during "Drums" and trying to back up to watch the end of the show, all I could get was message saying "this was a live event, sorry" What did they play for the end of the show and encore?

I think you are in for a treat. Rest up, you'll need it!

What a "rip off"!! Parking cost $60.00 Beer $11.00/ 12oz. forget about the food. The band played ok, but nothing like the Dead I remember. They mostly jammed. And considering the first set was about 40 min. and the second set about 90 min their was no need for drums and space (were they that tired?) I never saw the band, I had to watch a video screen, as the way the stage was built, it totally blocked my view. The show was a bad experience and will probably be my last "Dead reunion show" (I am sure their will be more, as the fellows need more $$$$$) Boy, I miss Jerry!!!!!!!!!!!

Loved every second great seats - no parking (used the light rail) spent about $100 on beer and a tee-shirt Look Out Chicago!

Sorry you feel that way.... I streamed it and had a blast.....last night twice as good....Chicago..... Can not wait..... Trey gained street cred with me, no Bieber or Hitler sightings, guess they're holding out for Chicago....

As mentioned in my "rules" post, I'm also giving a prize to the first person to guess the 2nd night opener (from the original pool of entries). Wow - 4 people guessed "Feel Like A Stranger" right at 6:00, and 2 others a bit later - nice! Correct entries were received from Dennis Wilmot, Wilfred T Jones, peakshead, chilly1214, Syracuse78 and uv1 - the last 4 all at 6 PM. The first one to hit my inbox was...syracuse78. Congrats! Enjoy Chicago - all who are going, watching, listening, or getting a direct feed to the brain from the cosmos. Cheers!

I thought for sure the Biebs would be there in Cali. Oh well, maybe I'll get my Wonderland in Chicago.

I hear the Mayer is coming.....not the guy we elected.....

I'm hoping for some DJ banshee screaming during drums!

Totes you look like Klangstone....what up with that Avatar.....? It don't beecome you.....

Dude, I just realized I didn't have one. Okay, deleting. Dead.net should let me get a new one in about a month. Bam!

Now I recognize you....whew your body is indeed a wonderland....especially that fuzzy part..... 3 more daze pendejo

After coming so close, is there another contest in store,Bolo, or are you headed back underground or back to Anchorage or wherever? Oh, man, am I excited for this weekend !!! If they can dig up What's Become Of ....then everything is on the table.

... a full on Rhythym Devils / 'Kung' (a sort of Stockhausen thing from early Phish repertoire that makes drunk fratboyz run for their cars) mashup? lollz. "... Dizzying, the possibilities. "

Wow!! I have read some negative comments about the show!?? Complaining about parking, food and beer cost??? What? People think the band controls Levi's Stadium and the NFL's policies...strange!! Welcome to 2015, you have to PAY TO PLAY! Anyway....The shows were perfect in every way...The energy, the crowd...many old faces!! The tunes... nostalgic, energetic, psychedelic,..not perfect...as with most Dead shows!! I had an amazing experience yesterday. My wife and I had GA floor. We hung out at the sound tent and we stood next to Trixie Garcia and Mountain Girl. Then I had the opportunity to meet Peter Shapiro and took a pic with him. He was a very cool dude hanging out partying on the floor!! Chicago... you are in for a wild ride...ENJOY!!!

Great shows, eh? I had a frikkin blast myself, don't get the negative reviews either...

Sorry we did not get a chance to meet!! So much awesome energy...dancing my ass off!!! 1st set yesterday was rippin!!! On the floor in the sun was so much FUN!!! Sweat pouring down surrounded by all the beautiful people!!!Just got home about an hour ago...wife wants to go to Chicago!!! Peace Bro!!

Enjoyed your post. It is curious the range of impressions and reviews!I think that soon these arenas will be charging to use the restrooms. You are correct, it's 2015. Sounds like you had a great time which is what it's supposed to be.

I hope the Chicago shows will turn up the keys in the mix and not just blast Phil the entire time. I could barely hear Bruce and Jeff either night while streaming in HD. I'll be at all 3 in Chicago...let's get the sound right.

FYI - Like some others I was unable to watch the YouTube stream Saturday night through my smart TVs or DVD players ("unavailable on this device") and had to watch on my computer monitor. Then I was unable to watch any portion on any device the next day ("this event has ended") - living on the east coast I could not make it to the second set. I filled out the e-mail feedback form on line through the help tab, hoping to just be able to replay the second set somehow...YouTube responded by giving me a full refund...FYI See yous in Chicago!!!

3 words Trey

I got a great chuckle and even bigger smile when they busted out St. Stephen--it had to happen, right? Well, we can both settle down easy now that we both have finally heard it after all these years...hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Trying to find someone who can help me find the management for the upcoming shows. Would like a table FoR NFA. Madison House or band members,REX Foundation??? Anyone know??? Help can be on the way....

Not one negative thing to say. The boys were getting their groove on, the web stream was awesome, the crowd was into it. Loved it, loved it, loved it !!!.............again.

I paid to watch the Santa Clara shows on my PC. Definitely was not impressed. I've attended GD shows since 1976. One a year until 1980 when I saw 3. After that I always saw more than that. I stopped in 1988. I used to tape. The whole deal got to be too much trouble. In 2005 I found out about download sites. Since then I have amassed, let's just say a hell of a lot of shns & flacs. I've got so many shows I'd never be able to hear all of them. So I've decided that I am not going to spring for any of the "Fare Thee Well" stuff or the 30 show thing. The only stuff I like where the four remaining members played together was the 2003 shows with Joan Osbourne. I don't even listen to those. As one Beatles song goes "It's All To Much"

Had a blast Saturday night. I want a recording of that second set! Need my last Drumz archived! Bobby was possessed! He was pissed when he screwed up the one line in St Stephen. Wouldn't be a show without Bobby forgetting some lyrics. Great Vibes in Santa Clara! People were having fun!!!!!

I had a great time Sunday. I went with my wife and a couple of very close friends with whom I attended shows 40 years ago. The band’s playing was tighter on the second night, as I had hoped, and I danced a bit too vigorously for a 60-year-old hippie. I’m feeling it today, soon time for a hot bath. As a previous poster said, people were having a lot of fun, and it wasn't sold out so there was plenty of room. We had great sight lines, straight to the band from our cheapo "obstructed view or no view" seats. All that said, I would pay $1000 cash right now to trade my Sunday night ticket for your Saturday night ticket, retroactively. It’s all in the set lists. I’ve always gone for the Space. I remember one year I skipped a show in the New Year’s run at the last moment. When everyone got home at 3 AM, Doug came running up the stairs and said “Mike, you really blew it! They played Dark Star”. It’s also true that several songs from Sunday are among my least favorite Dead songs. Everybody’s got ‘em, I just happened to get Loose Lucy, Row Jimmy, and Helen a Bucket all in the first set! Honestly now, for your last-ever second set, would you rather hear Cryptical>Dark Star> St. Stephen> the 11…or Half Step, Wharf Rat, Eyes>He’s Gone…? I knew you were gonna say that ;-) So these were the warm-up shows? I can’t wait for Chicago! We’ll expect hourly reports from our scouts in the field…”Golden Road” opener!

My wife pulled out a large trunk, opened it and said pick out your t-shirt for the week-end. I looked inside and 70 plus t-shirts was staring up at me. As we took them out, memories came flooding out as we looked at everyone. Quite a few won,t fit anymore, but I found three and counting down the days. Weather is going to be nice. Listened to 6-29-76 Auditorium Theater, Chgo

I feel complete now my friend. Had a smile on when they hit the first few notes of St Stephen. Did your location on Sat allow you to witness the fireworks show at Grate America behind the stage/stadium during Dark Star? Wow! Pure magic. The rainbow during end of set one was also magic.

Saw Furthur at Radio City MH, NY. Killer 3 show run w/ a tight line up along w/ Lesh and Weir > John K, J Russo, J. Chimenti!!! Larry Campbell and Elvis Costello on board most of show. Mind blowing final night after the previous night w/ one of the sickest setlists > 03/27/11 (Sun) Radio City Music Hall - New York City, NY Set 1: Samson and Delilah, Chest Fever (1), Tennessee Jed (2), Friend of the Devil (2), Ship of Fools (2) > Must've Been the Roses (2) > Ship of Fools (2), Cassidy, Ripple (2)(3) Set 2: Throwing Stones, Sunrise (4), St. Stephen > What's Become of the Baby (4) > The Eleven > Uncle John's Band(5) > Unbroken Chain > The Wheel > Morning Dew > Sugar Magnolia, E1: Days Between, E2: Jam (6) (7) > Fever (7), E3: Attics Of My Life (8) Comment: (1) The Band cover, with Larry Campbell, first time live (2) with Elvis Costello and Larry Campbell (3) with Diana Krall (4) with Teresa Williams (5) with Larry Campbell (6) with Babylon Sister tease (7) with Diana Krall, Elvis Costello and Teresa Williams (8) with Elvis Costello and Teresa Williams I know it's not the Grateful Dead, but If this ain't the real thing, then it's close enough to pretend!

I was really touched when Phil spoke of his Liver Transplant and the need to donate organs. My buddy Bryan died in prison last Jan. because they will not treat Hep C in any penitentiary in the U.S.. People go in for doing something stupid, and get Death Sentences. Fortunately I survived with less time and Tx. There's trouble from the guy up ahead of you, and trouble for the guy behind…Beware, it could be on the wrong track and headed for you… 1st Night 2nd Set really took some interesting turns up some unsuspected trails. It must be hard with 6 different band leaders on the stage at the same time. Trey had much of the traditional Garcia sounds captured but also stretched the band's comfort zone from my perspective (especially 2nd night). After-all he's the new driver on the stage with this ol' machine, how can they instinctively know where he's going? "Oh, iPads!" said the blind man. Wish I could get a stream of that live! Trey played the "lead role" quite nicely. Yum. I can't believe I've followed this band so close for so many years. They sure have been the highlight of many an occasion. If we had more organs, maybe we could get 50 more years? Be Smart, and if you can't do that, Be Safe.

Those at Levi’s last Saturday experienced a live, in-stadium moment that I’m not sure can ever be rivaled. Ever. And then the doubting Thomas’ came out (they always do) citing “sources” that the rainbow was fake and was in-fact, a $50K Shapiro-produced effect. What a buzzkill - right? Well, yesterday SF Gate and Billboard made their retractions and corrections - yep...the good guys won:-) UPDATE: Paul Hoffman, the Dead's lighting director, said in a new post:"Guys. The rainbow was real." Meanwhile, Billboard also amended its report: "... Upon further investigation (the rainbow) appears to have been real. Turns out this band really does jam with God." Jerry from heaven…incredible. Chicago here we come !!! http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2015/0629/20150629_…

Then I sure hope Shapiro spends the big bucks to release a dozen Bald Eagles over Soldier Field on the 4th!

Looks like their busy getting that Grate stage set up and the weather forecast looks promising for the duration. I'm really needing a weather report suite to compliment the grate news. Let the beautiful memories and songs commence. So not disppointed in the least for my side stage seats. I think for us true working mans dead fans its a sincere blessing. Be safe on the way to the shows good people and see ya smiling in the lot.

The rainbow was fake and gullible is actually spelled like this: orange. That radio city music show was an insane way to cap off the weekend. Only a friend and I stuck around from the group. Never miss a Sunday show!! Nope no bald eagles though my sources say there will be a 3D hologram of Jerry playing with the band.

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF WE KEEP OUR MAIL ORDER TICKET WHEN WE ENTER THE SHOW AT SOLDIER FIELD IN CHICAGO ?

2 days in a row, basically in the same spot and at a very similar time of day,, I should arrive in Chicago thursday, which is the only night I have a hotel reserved,, not sure what to expect. I would hope for a few tweaks from the band after hearing some feedback -More Bruce on vocals -More Trey on vocals -Less Phil on vocals -A few Special Guests to join the party, Donna, TC, Branford, an appearance a night - join for a song or 2 by a selected musician related to the GD family. -Another Live Dead Sequence Dark Star > St Stephen > Eleven