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ZONE
OUT with The ROLLING RIDER
This
Week: No New (Years) Tale To Tell
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Friday,
November 10, 2000
"November
and more, as I wait for the score…" Today finds your
Rolling Rider amazed and perplexed about the state
of affairs in Deadland, and Our Nation and in my own head. The division
in our Nation's government, so neatly cloven in half that it practically
defies description, is a serious yet curious issue. Six is really in one
hand, while a half dozen sits there in the other. Now, normally, your
Rider would find the whole mess so stupefying, he would take a long toke
on the glassie and sink into the kind, warm, hippielovefest that is the
GD scene. Alas, the whispers in the hallways and the chatrooms and the
outskirts of this morphing virtual shakedown scene are saying that All
is not Well in Deadland either. As if to cruelly mimic what is happening
with our National election, the Dead community is split nearly in two
about the upcoming Bay Area NYE "showdown"
between Phil and his Phreaky Friends and The Other Other Ones.
On the surface, it would seem that this turn of events is the most destructive and outwardly obvious incarnation of the "Rift" as so many are loving to call it. As with the Presidential election, strong emotions are stirred up when you discuss the alleged issues the former Dead members have with each other that prevent them from playing as one band again. Equally strong, of course, are each member's reasons for playing in the band or bands he plays in now. While it's easy to get embroiled in the sugar-glazed speculation game; reading menacing meaning into every song and note; the Truth, and the outcome of this one will probably be a bit more mundane.
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'The Boys', as we not-too-long-ago called them, are all smart enough to not want to play shows so close to each other on the same night. Having witnessed December venue booking madness first hand, I don't fully blame Phil or TOO for having to grit the teeth and do what neither wanted to do. New Years Eve has been hit or miss for the last few years, with limited options or ominous predictions keeping many at the house. Now us 'heads can't say we don't have a good option. Hell, with Phil at HJK, The Other Ones with P-Funk and SKB at the Oak, String Cheese with Lost At Last at the Holiday Incident in Portland, and lots of other perfectly great music happening and going off at the Midnight Hour, the global overmind wave done by the entire world at midnight 2001 can only be better for all of it.
It is the
true feeling of this writer (or maybe it was that last goo-ball that I
saved from the Wiltern) that the Rift that now seems so deep and unbridgeable
will be revealed by History to be no more than a healthy desire of each
of them to branch off and germinate the rest of the Music scene with seeds
of Grateful Dead. Time smooths rough edges and harsh feelings, and I would
be very surprised <<twinkle twinkle>> if all of the Boys have
worked with, played with, or laughed with each other for the last time
just yet. Don't let this New Years Eve's happenings make you so upset
that you feel that it's the righteous thing to do to stay home. The trick
is to pick one, bring the love (with no reservations) and above all, have
fun, and believe me my Brothers and Sisters, whichever you choose, you
will be
WHERE IT'S AT.
I promise to comment more on the Wiltern shows when I get with you next - also the aforementioned 2012/Terence McKenna gig pairing one of this writer's personal faves Lost At Last with none other than Phil Lesh himself. Until then…
Share The Love,
Your Rolling Rider
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