But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilise me and I can’t stand it. I been there before. – Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn The Dead didn’t get it going Wednesday night at Winterland, and that was too bad. The gig was a bail fund benefit for the People’s Park in Berkeley, and the giant ice-skating cavern was packed with heads. The whole park hassle – the benefit was for the 450 busted a few days before – had been a Berkeley political trip all the way down, but the issue was a good-timey park, so the crowd, though older and more radical than most San Francisco rock crowds, was a fine one in a good dancing mood, watery mouths waiting for the groove to come. The Airplane were on the bill too, so were Santana, the Act of Cups, Aum, and a righteous range of others; a San Francisco all-star … [Read more...] about Good Old Grateful Dead
Harvey weinstein when dinosaurs ruled the earth
Willie Nelson: Holy Man of the Honky Tonks
The desk man at the Greensboro, North Carolina, Holiday Inn shook his head when I asked for Willie Nelson. “Got no Willie Nelsons today.” He turned away officiously and resumed cleaning his fingernails with a Holiday Inn matchbook. He was about as encouraging as my cab driver had been: “You goin’ to see Willie Nelson? Man, he was a no-show last week. They had ta haul that Wet Willie in; he play instead. You see Willie Nelson, you tell him for me, ‘Man, you die fast in this town.’ “ I went back to the Holiday Inn desk man: “See here, I was really looking for the party of Fast Eddie and the Electric Japs.” “Well, goddamnit, why dincha say so.” He started thumbing through registration forms: “Lemme see, Mr. Eddie ain’t here yet, but Mr. Snake is, Mr. Poodie is, Mr. Beast is . . . “ “Okay, gimme Snake’s room number.” Poodie, who is Willie’s road manager, and Beast, his cook and … [Read more...] about Willie Nelson: Holy Man of the Honky Tonks
The Life and Death of the ‘Children of God’ Messiah
That final Friday night In Tucson, Arizona, January 7th, 2005, the Messiah sat at his kitchen table wearing a maroon muscle shirt, sipping a beer. Sum 41’s new album, Chuck, played in the background. It’s a dark record, and it set the mood Ricky Rodriguez wanted. As midnight approached in the one-bedroom dump on the south side of town, he had a good buzz working. Crowded on the table in front of Ricky was everything he needed: a Glock .40-caliber handgun, several high-capacity thirteen-round magazines, Golden Sabre hollow-point bullets, a K-Bar Marine Corps knife, an electric drill, a soldering iron, a 775,000-volt stun gun, a large fork, a thick roll of duct tape and a couple of gags. Duct tape wrapped around the drill’s handle would muffle its mechanical whine. Ricky’s dark hair was cut military short. The muscles in his arms bulged as he snapped bullets into magazines. “This is my weapon of choice,” Ricky said, picking up the K-Bar knife and … [Read more...] about The Life and Death of the ‘Children of God’ Messiah