Grateful Dead

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Grate photo!!

Weir is this , is awsome photo

easy to forget how casual it all was--even back in 83 or 84. esp once you got off the coasts. seems i even recall an 85 OK zoo show that had maybe 6 or 8 thousand. that was real nice. didn't know what was coming in a year or 2.

...I know now what it was that I needed then...and it's so simple...find a way to be still...in motion...like a hummingbird...did you ever see one of those little buggers...I was at a show this one time in Utah...it was at a ski area up in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City...but it was like Labor Day weekend so there wasn't any snow...just green grass and tall pine trees running up to a high rocky ridgeline and a stage set up at the base of the hill by the lodge...I was riding with some kind folks from Montana that I met at the show in Idaho a couple of nights before...when we got to the parking lot we had a few hours until showtime so I thought I'd take a hike up the hill...maybe up to that high ridgeline just to see the sights...my ride said to stop by their car after the show if I needed a lift to Red Rocks...I said I might... and then pointed myself up that hill above where the crowd was gathering...I had been looking forward to a hike before the show but forgot about the elevation...so what I thought looked like a five or ten minute walk took me almost an hour to get up...by the time I did make it...huffing and puffing...sun scorched...and dripping sweat...to the top of that ridgeline...and turned around to see what I had done...I just about fell on my ass from the view that opened up for me...there was the crowd below...the stage beyond the crowd...and then mountains mountains mountains...too many to count...too much to understand...I found myself sitting down on a rock that was there...I hadn't planned it...to sit I mean...it was what needed to be done in that moment I guess...and that's when I felt or maybe heard...the air moving...a fluttering whoosh...like atmospheric tachycardia...then right in front of me...hovering there in the air...maybe a foot away from my face...a flash of green and rubies...I was seeing and then I was realizing I was seeing...a hummingbird...and it looks like she's checking me out too...but with that realization it all shifted...it was time...and off she flew...that's when I noticed the crowd below was...turning...I wheeled around to look behind me...but there was only rocks and sage...I turned back to the crowd...and they're looking at...me...why are they looking at me...I was sitting on a rock...I had my clothes on...I hadn't burst into flames...and there's a couple thousand people who a minute before had been facing west and then were turned to the east...then I turned around and looked up...in the sky...and there's a person up there...under a parachute...with purple smoke trailing behind...I thought...well that's just crazy...then...I want to do that...I turned back to the crowd...they were going nuts...woo hoo...woo hoo...woo hoo...then down there in the middle of the scene...I could see from my vantage point high above...there was a large blanket or a tarp being laid out in the middle of the crowd...a target...no way...no fucking way...I turned back to the guy in the sky...he had a beard I could see by then...he's coming in fast and maybe fifty feet above me...and he's dancing...he's fifty no wait forty feet off the ground and he's dancing...there's purple smoke trailing behind him and he's waving something in his hand...a ticket...he's waving a ticket in his hand as he passes over me and I make the loudest sound I can... woo hoo...woo hoo...woo hoo...and the guy in the sky answers...woo hoo...woo hoo...woo hoo...I turned back to the crowd at the roar they made...the guy in the sky steered their way...a little bit to the right...a little bit to the left...a little bit more to the left...several thousand people focused in on this thing...you can see that he's feeling it...like slow motion more or less...there's motion still and sound but it's not the same old tick...it's ours somehow...like we've slipped out of its grip but as soon as we realize this we return...like the guy in the sky has to land...he hits the target...sticks his landing...I jumped up and ran all the way down that hill but it felt like I was flying...the band was hitting the stage just as I hit the rail and there we were...the miracle moment of creation...the only time we ever live in...here and now...miraculous...all the time...

That's a sweet story man. Did you make it to the car and on to Red Rocks? =) "It's got no signs or dividing line and very few rules to guide"

Made it to the car, crashed with those folks that night at a rest stop, met Phil with them in a grocery store parking lot in Rock Springs, Wyoming, the next day, Phil was driving a big black Continental with Oregon plates, a six pack of Heineken and a blonde honey in the front seat, but did not make it to the Rocks because my tour was ending for a while due to economic factors beyond my control. And the story above is part of a play that I've just finished writing for my Master's degree that's titled Waiting for the Show, which should be published this spring. Thanks, by the way. I didn't know if anyone would ever see this here. What a cool surprise.

Great show...few people...amazing thing is...I just skied this place (now called "The Canyons")We hit the road & bought tix outside the gig(our focus was Red Rocks) Beautiful blue sky & the band was really tight.