Grateful Dead - Touch of Grey

My first true, great love: The Grateful Dead. No matter where I wander, no matter how far I stroll, I always come home to my Grateful Dead. And they always sound as good as the first time I heard them. Ask any Dead Head "why?" Odds are they won't be able to put it into words. But one look at their smile and you'll see why.

My reason... my favorite Grateful Dead song before I finally saw them live was "Jack Straw." I absolutely adored that song, especially the version from Europe '72. So its 1990, I think, and the Dead are playing at Carter Finley in Raleigh. Jud's mom gets us 10th row for the show. And finally, I'm getting in to see the Dead (I've tried a few times prior, but never with a ticket). I'm on cloud nine and then it happens... I see the boys walk out on stage. My knees are shaking watching Jerry walk out just 10 rows up. They tune up and fiddle for a minute and then open the show with......... Jack Straw. I had tears in my eyes. And that friends and neighbors is why people followed those amazing guys around................

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Thoughts on Phish

The first time I heard about Phish was my senior year at Episcopal back in 1992. At that time in music history, grunge was just beginning to explode on the scene. Pearl Jam was about all we listened to. But I always kept time for my jam bands. I had already seen The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, Widespread Panic and many others. CDs were still the way we listened to music, but cassette tapes were still around and were what you got all your bootlegs on. The internet didn't exist, or at least not to the public. Hearing about new bands was largely done by word of mouth. And that's how I heard about Phish. My first taste of Phish was their album "Lawnboy." I remember being impressed with the musicianship. I thought there was some Zappa-esque arrangements going on, as the music seemed to dart in crazy tangents. I also remember seeing a picture of the band and I thought they looked like a bunch of Trekky nerds. They definitely didn't look like MTV material,...

From Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"

"It is not advisable to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener."

At some point recently, the kids and I were telling each other stories. I can ’ t remember who went first, but Wyatt and Pepper each told their stories amid interruptions and corrections and suggestions. Let’s say for the sake of argument that Briar wasn’t talking yet, so it became my turn. Rather than the usual stories of kingdoms and unicorns and the garden variety stuff I usually went for, I decided to pull from my memory of past events. The kids listened in amazement, not really understanding what I was talking about. The story was a hit. And I think I’ll share it with you now. It was the summer of 1993. I had finished my first year of college at The College of Charleston. At the end of summer, I would be transferring to NC State. I enjoyed College of Charleston very much. I loved the 9-to-1 girl-to-guy ratio. It had been a great year. But I had spent most weekends driving up and back from Raleigh to see my girlfriend Marcia. At some point during the year, I had decided...

Malkovich

Malkovich malkovich. Malkovich, malkovich? Malkovich malkovich malkovich. Malkovich malkovich, "Malkovich, malkovich malkovich malkovich." Malkovich. Malkovich malkovich: malkovich. Malkovich... malkovich, malkovich. Malkovich!!!

Hillary F-in' Clinton

For the second day in a row, these god damn Hillary volunteers have taken up residence at my go-to coffee shop. The bitch is campaigning here in NC tomorrow, so these fucking idiot children are all excited about the prospect of seeing their savior walk on water. And these god damn children are barely old enough to vote. They still have their little heads in the clouds, thinking that Clinton gives a single damn about any of them. This is the exact class of morons that can single-handedly ruin this country. Them and the latinos, who probably won't be voting legally anyway. But these kids haven't been out in the real world. They haven't worked, sweated and then had asshole liberals tax them like crazy. They'll see. When their savior turns around and burns every one of them, they'll know they were stupid little fuckers all along. I'm really just pissed because I'd like to go to my coffee shop in peace and read my book without hearing these stupid fucking...

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