Cloud Surfing

Jon Carroll publishes a version of this fine essay in his San Francisco Chronicle column every T-day. Here is today’s edition. A few excerpts:

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is comfortably free of the strident religious and/or militaristic overtones that give the other holidays their soft emanations of uneasiness.

At Thanksgiving, all we have to worry about is whether we can wholeheartedly support (a) roasted turkey, (b) friends and (c) gratitude. My opinions on these matters are unambiguous; I am in favor of them all. I understand that there’s another story attached to Thanksgiving, all about a meal that may not have happened at all and certainly didn’t happen on the fourth Thursday of November. (Check the New England weather reports. Does it sound like a good day for alfresco dining?)

Thanksgiving provides a formal context in which to consider the instances of kindness that have enlightened our lives, the moments of grace that have gotten us through when all seemed lost. These are fine and sentimental subjects for contemplation.

First, there are the public personalities, artists and entertainers and philosophers, who have been there when they were needed, whether they knew it or not. Let us think kind thoughts about Nancy Pelosi and Helen Mirren, Barbara Lee and Frank Gore, Al Gore and David Milch, David Simon and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Tom Stoppard and Keith Olbermann, Jennifer Egan and Peter Carey, Van Morrison and Clarence Fountain, Don Asmussen and Judith Martin, Duncan Black and Joshua Micah Marshall, Dan Savage and Masi Oka — this is my partial list; feel free to create your own.

Companions. We all learned about good sex from somebody, and that person deserves a moment. Somebody taught us some hard lesson of life, told us something for our own good, and that willingness to risk conflict for friendship is worth a pause this day. And somebody sat with us through one long night, and listened to our crazy talk and turned it toward sanity; that person has earned this moment too.

I’d be most thankful if you’d read the rest.

New song. This was its third public performance (at a house concert 11/12/06 in Forestville CA), and there are a few minor glitches in the delivery, but you get the gist.

Sweet, wise, reverent, blasphemous and witty.  Damn that’s nice.  – Gail Williams

RAN INTO GOD
David Gans
© 2006 Whispering Hallelujah (BMI)

I ran into God a coupla weeks ago
Sittin’ at the bar just before my show
She looks exactly like a female version of me. It’s uncanny.
We got to talkin’ about this’n'that.
Her heart is broken; she’s been laid out flat
Things just didn’t work out the way she planned

She said, “I liked you people better when the wheel was high-tech
You’re gonna leave this place a smokin’ wreck
I said to her, What the hell are you lookin’ at me for? I recycle.
She said, “In my imagination this was built to last
It makes me sad to see you use it up so fast
Driving your Belchfires til the air falls out of the sky
It pisses me off to see my intentions twisted
I’d kick some foolish ass if only I existed”

She said, “I love people more than I probably should
They got some wack-ass ideas about evil and good
Compassion’s out of fashion all around the world
Fundies with their undies in a permanent twist
Don’t they know the heathen have a right to exist
Human nature cannot be denied (and shouldn’t have to)
I meant to lay down the law but I got stoned and missed it
I’d forgive my own sins if only I existed”

God said, “I’ve been the victim of identity theft
Spiritual robber barons right and left
Ridin’ to church on Sunday in their stretch humvees
Telling everybody who to fear and loathe
Never mind the people they could feed and clothe
And claimin’ that the namin’ of their demons is the word of me
They keep callin’ even though my phone’s unlisted
I’d leave them a message if only I existed

“Some think I’m like Geppetto with a whittling knife
Crafting each and every individual life
It’s such a narcissistic notion of the way things work
(And who they work for)
I made this world you’re ridin’ on in less than a day
I’ve cranked out several million, each unique in its way
Set ‘em down and put ‘em in spin, and gave nature the deed
Faith is trying to snuff out reason and you’ve got to resist it
I’d give you some help with that if only I existed”

I ran into God a coupla weeks ago
Sittin’ at the bar just before my show
She looks exactly like a female version of me…

Join Rock the Earth and help protect the planet one beat at a time.

Tim Truman has posted his cover art for the 12/31/76 multitrack set, to be released by Rhino in January.

I like it!

Regarding Blair Jackson’s new book, Grateful Dead Gear: The Band’s Instruments, Sound Systems, and Recording Sessions from 1965 to 1995, Steve Silberman posted this on the WELL:

Well Jesus Christ, this book is frickin’ amazing, and I’m the opposite of a knob-twiddling gearhead pedal fetishist. I don’t know what ANY of this shit is, and have never played an instrument, but this book is so full of the INSIDE SCOOP, with interviews from everyone from the bandmembers to Bear to every luthier and gadgetologist who ever lusted in his heart to see a piece of his gear on the Big Stage, that it’s one of the best, most intimate books ever written on the band. It’s a tad pricey, but the printing job is deluxe, and mark my words: it’s a fantastic gift idea for any Deadhead you love, and will probably fly under the radar of most stoner-enthusiasts because of the off-putting premise of being all about the hardware. It’s really more about the software — the passion for discovery and exploration that drove the evolution of this music and this sound, and made the Grateful Dead the new best band on Earth nearly every time they went out on tour.

My wife and I saw Stranger Than Fiction last night, and really liked it. It’s a lot deeper than I was expecting from a Will Ferrell movie, but with Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman also on board, I figured it could have some substance.

It’s about a guy who suddenly begins hearing a voice narrating his life. He discovers that he’s a character in a story, and he sets about finding out what sort of story it is so he can figure out whether he dies (tragedy) or
gets married (comedy) at the end. We also meet the narrator, a blocked novelist played by Thompson.

It’s a meta-story, because of course the movie itself faces and same conundrum the characters in it have to deal with.

Plus: Maggie Gyllenhaal is a delight.

From the press release:

LEGENDARY COMEDY GROUP
FIRESIGN THEATRE CELEBRATES ITS 40^TH ANNIVERSARY
NOVEMBER 17, 2006;
INVITE FANS TO COUGH UP THE GOODS

LOS ANGELES, CA (November 13, 2006): Legendary comic foursome The Firesign Theatre, creators of over thirty LPs and CDs including such classics as Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, a 2005 inductee into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, celebrates their 40^th anniversary on November 17, 2006.

Founding members Philip Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, and Philip Proctor were a group of aspiring actors/writers when they met at the studios of Pacifica Network station KPFK-FM in Los Angeles in 1966. In the decade that followed, they wrote and performed thirteen albums for Columbia Records, full of dialogue that has become part of the national lexicon, with titles such as How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All, Everything You Know Is Wrong, and I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus.

Firesign celebrates its Ruby anniversary on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of their first performance, as guests on Peter Bergman’s pioneering talk show “Radio Free Oz” on KPFK. On nights when he had no guest, Bergman would invite some of his more subversive colleagues to come on the air and pretend to be a variety of interesting guests. On the night of November 17, 1966, Bergman invited three friends – Philip Austin, the show’s producer; David Ossman, the station’s former dramatic director; and Philip Proctor, an actor – to join him as the four of them pretended to be the panel of an imaginary “Oz Film Festival”. Bergman played film critic Peter Volta, who was writing a history of world cinema one frame at a time. Ossman played Raul Saez, maker of short but exciting “thrown camera” films, who had just won a grant to shoot a movie by rolling a 70mm camera down the Andes. Austin played Jack Love, son of a leatherworker, who was making movies for the Living Room Theatre like The Nun and Blondie Pays the Rent. And Phil Proctor played Jean-Claude Jean-Claude, creator of the Nouvelle Nouvelle Vague Vague movement and director of the documentary Two Weeks With Fred, which took two weeks to watch.

You can get Firesign CDs from the Lodestone online catalog. If you have never heard them, I’d suggest starting with Don’t Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers or I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus. And you have to hear Everything You Know Is Wrong! But they’re all worth hearing. Psychedelic comedy at its finest!

Over the last few years the Firesigns have recorded and performed again, and some of that work is pretty good, too. Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death! takes place in a radio station on the eve of the Millennium, and the station appears to change format several times per hour. The Bride of Firesign reunites many characters from the entire canon, and it’s brilliant.

Arts>World Financial Center Presents:
THE AMERICAN BEAUTY PROJECT
HONORS TWO GRATEFUL DEAD LANDMARK ALBUMS
American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead
with
Jorma Kaukonen, Ollabelle, Toshi Reagon, The Holmes Brothers, Jen Chapin, Dar Williams, The Klezmatics, Tim O’Reagan, Mark Eitzel, Jim Lauderale, Larry Campbell, Catherine Russell, Andy Statman, Tony Trischka, and more to be announced.

Workingman’s Dead Saturday, January 20, at 8:00pm

American Beauty Sunday, January 21, at 8:00pm

Free in the World Financial Center Winter Garden

NEW YORK – Two of the Grateful Dead’s greatest albums, American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead, both recorded in 1970, will each be honored with its own evening when Arts>World Financial Center presents The American Beauty Project free in the World Financial Center Winter Garden, 220 Vesey Street.

Workingman’s Dead, which was recorded in March 1970. will be honored Saturday, January 20, at 8:00pm by a distinctive roster of singer-songwriters, bands and instrumentalists when each perform one of the tracks on the classic album.

The next night, Sunday, January 21, at 8:00pm, another group of singers and musicians will perform cuts from American Beauty which was recorded in August and September 1970.

Performing their own arrangements of the Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty songs are Jorma Kaukonen (Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane), Ollabelle, Toshi Reagon, The Holmes Brothers, Jen Chapin, Dar Williams, The Klezmatics, Tim O’Reagan (The Jayhawks), Mark Eitzel (American Music Club), Larry Campbell, Catherine Russell, Jim Lauderdale, Andy Statman, Tony Trischka, and more names to be announced in the months ahead.

Putting together The American Beauty Project to celebrate 35th anniversary of these two landmark Grateful Dead albums is Artistic Director and Producer David Spelman, who was responsible for similar tributes to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. At last year’s Nebraska Project honoring Springsteen, The Boss himself spent the evening standing unnoticed with the crowd before jumping on stage for the finale.

“Both Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty were ranked on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, 258 and 262, respectively,” said Mr. Spelman. ”Each was extremely innovative at the time for their fusion of bluegrass, rock, folk and country music.”

Workingman’s Dead, the band’s fourth studio album, was recorded in March 1970, and was voted by readers of Rolling Stone as the best album of 1970, in front of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s Déjà Vu and Van Morrison’s Moondance.

American Beauty was recorded between August and September of 1970 and was released in November of the same year. It included instant radio favorites such as “Truckin’” “Sugar Magnolia” and “Friend of the Devil.”

“The acoustic sound and folk/country tunes of Workingman’s Dead would come as quite a shock to many fans, and to the critics as a harbinger of some sort of conscious movement (along with The Band, Dylan and the Byrds) toward country,” wrote Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally in his program notes for the event. Mr. McNally went on to add that: “as usual with the Grateful Dead, the album’s origins were serendipitous and synchronistic, involving no plan or program. Instead, their swerve to include country songs in their work began quite accidentally when their lyricist Robert Hunter moved in with the Garcia family in January 1969 … In March 1970, they went into the studio to record Workingman’s Dead. Hugely in debt to their record company, they were forced to be simple and economize, thinking consciously of Buck Owens’ Bakersfield sound. The simplicity served the music perfectly, and the result was a classic, although not the departure many thought it was. They’d enlarged their vision, not changed it.”

Arts>World Financial Center serves as the leading showcase in Lower Manhattan for visual and performing arts – from the intimate to the spectacular – by artists either emerging or established. Since 1988, year-round and free to the public, it has presented interdisciplinary arts programming with an emphasis on commissioned works, site-specific installations and premieres.

The American Beauty Project MySpace page