Monday, June 25, 2007

Grateful Philosophy

Fellow blogger and philosopher Steve Gimbel's new book is on the shelves: The Grateful Dead and Philosophy.

I hope that girl - that girl - the sad one who was holding up one finger that night in the cold, pouring rain in Paris - I had been given two "VIP" tickets to see the Dead at Zenith - hadn't found anyone to go with me - that cute forlorn girl, a drenched lonely moppet in an over-sized sweater - I walked over to her and handed her my extra ticket - she didn't even look at me - she yelled out to friends nearby (I didn't know these were friends nearby), "I got one!" - she snatched the ticket and ran to the front doors - no acknowledgment that the ticket was given to her by another human, no thanks - it was as if it was a lucky but natural occurrence, the ticket was a trout and I was the stream - fool, was I - yeah, I hope that girl reads Steve's book.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Helmut. Sadly, the publisher wouldn't go along with my marketing plan: free bag of Doritos with each copy.

This book was so much fun to put together. But the best part was the support I got from the folks inside the Dead organization. I got face time with Bob Weir, John Perry Barlow, and Dennis McNally. Phil Lesh read the book and Alan Trist was unbelievably helpful. As you get older, you get so jaded that you expect your hopes to be dashed, you walk in figuring that eveyrone's a jerk no matter the image; but I can say without hesitation, that everyone I had any contact with that was in any way associated with the band was incredibly kind, supportive, and helpful.