Full disclosure: beyond Terrapin Station and Box of Rain, I don't see much use in the Grateful Dead. Fuller disclosure: This puts me in the same box of rain with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), who has decided to make a point about public funding for a Grateful Dead archive.
Sen. Coburn picks the University of California at Santa Cruz's Grateful Dead collection, and the $615,000 he says is going to help complete it, for his Wastebook 2010. "[E]stimates place the net worth of two prominent band members, Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, at roughly $40 and $35 million, respectively." I think his point is that if the Grateful Dead want to make their music and associated stuff free and available to the public, they can pay for that themselves.
More directly, Sen. Coburn has picked a classic culture war target. The Grateful Dead and their buckets of hallucinogens, etc., can be counted on to divide opinion, should anyone actually notice Mr. Coburn's Wastebook. And the $615,000 wouldn't amount to single ray of very groovy light from even one note of Jerry Garcia's best ever version of Dark Star. It's purely symbolism. Change the channel.
(Image: The Grateful Slug, from the UC Santra Cruz Grateful Dead blog)
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Thanks for giving the Wastebook some free advertising. Slow news day?
this is a weirdly phrased and written article..
must be the drugs, man...
Sen. Coburn can just Fade Away.
He's with the "Snoopy Snoopy Poopy Pants" guy
Laura, I must be missing something on this.
Why would we spend $615,000 for a Grateful Dead collection.
If Coburn is trying to point out wasteful government spending, I agree with him.
He should keep digging. Those $615,000's can add up to billions.
With the state of our economy I think it would be hard to build a case that this is being divisive. I think most everyone wants to see wasteful government spending stopped.
That's the nature of politics and it is done on both sides. The hope is that a pattern or larger mindset follows, which is not always the case.
Here's an example of symbolism as well:
Obama signs order to close Guantanamo
"Since it costs a lot to win, and even more to lose,
You and me bound to spend some time wondrin what to choose.
Goes to show, you don't ever know,
Watch each card you play and play it slow,
Wait until that deal come round,
Don't you let that deal go down, no, no."
Article incoherent
Sentence incomplete
Since the end is never told, we pay the teller off in gold.
J.P..... but Coburn can be bought and sold! John Barlow, didn't you write those words???? WE LOVE YOU JP!
I'm not much of a grateful Dead fan either.I do see Grateful Dead's contribution to the culture and its memorabilia of a generation. However, regarding Coburn's argument, I hate to say it, but I agree with him.
It's perhaps too easy to pick on "waste" when the target is also a culture war icon. (Full disclosure: I also love Terrapin Station, but don't listen to much else by them -- and I never understood the people in my college town who would follow them from show to show for months on end.) What would you say if this was a Bob Dylan collection? Or if you need something more politically conservative, what if it were Lynyrd Skynyrd? Or to shift the question from music to art here, how about Jackson Pollock? Ansel Adams? Or if those are too left field for you, how about Albert Bierstadt, whose landscapes almost everybody likes? I don't ask these questions to say that one deserves public funding and the other doesn't, but when it comes to the arts, we must be careful to keep in mind that art appreciation -- and valuation -- is a subjective enterprise.
So is the argument that all public funding for projects like this needs to be canceled? No more National Endowment for the Arts? Because if that's the argument you're making, I have to wonder aloud: Haven't the arts been whittled away sufficiently over the past 30 years?
This is a fascinating topic, one that should start thoughtful debate among thoughtful people. Thank you for posting it.
RM writes: "Full disclosure: beyond Terrapin Station and Box of Rain, I don't see much use in the Grateful Dead." Whoa, Rachel! What dropped onto YOUR sugar-cubes? Some Deadhads might not have use for your nightly smirkfest (even though I do)! Lighten up, Rachel, and like Sinnead said -- "Foight the rail inimy, or whale oil beef hooked!".
Not Rachel. Laura posted this.
Rachel didn't write the article. . .check the byline. . .Laura Conaway
J.P. It also does not matter if you like the Dead or not; that is not the issue. Tom Coburn wants to start a culture war with the left, so why not pick the Gratful Dead scab off of the dead body? The poor man wants an ABBA wing for the Banana Slugs..... P.S. I have the $615,000.00 to donate, but only if the collection goes to my house, and I get an Irwin guitar in the deal!
As a huge fan of the band, I've got to admit that for once I kind of agree with the Senator. While I stand by the cultural value of the archive and the importance of preserving it's fragile contents, the remaining members of the band *do* have the money to complete the project. Short of that, there's no doubt that a benefit concert or memorabilia sale could raise that money without much difficulty. Don't get me wrong, the vault is important to me. Important enough that I'd contribute. But this isn't really what I'd like to see federal funding going to right now.
Not sure what point your making.
"[E]stimates place the net worth of two prominent band members, Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, at roughly $40 and $35 million, respectively."
Sounds like he has no concept that Jerry Garcia is dead.
Oh, and JPBarlow: The person you quoted wasn't Rachel, Laura Conaway wrote this post.
Deborah Koons got Jerry's 40 million, and they should hit her up for the cash; it is a drop in the hell in a bucket for what Jerry is still raking in.
Pointing out wasteful government spending is a civic virtue. But when Republicans point out wasteful government spending they use each particular case as an example that all government spending is wasteful, all tax collected is wasted, and we should shut down government to cut spending and give the money to the wealthy because the rich will invest the money and make jobs even when they don't.
When push comes to shove Republicans are as guilty as anyone of nonsensical pork projects. So it is not the pork they oppose. Republicans are manipulating evidence to humiliate and delegitimize the federal government.
Look again JP! RM did not say that quote. The article was written by Laura Conaway.
He does know that Jerry has passed away, right?
So, if we remove the whole "Grateful Dead" thing from the mix, what we have is an attack on the IMLS-- the primary source of federal grant monies that go to libraries, musuems and the like (and in the interests of full dislosure, my current position is funded by an IMLS grant-- I'll leave the whole "government making jobs" thing for a different thread, though).
In that light,
How dare we, as a society, try to preserve culture, heritage, knowledge and enhance learning! The nerve!
The $615,000 grant was from the Institute of Museum and Library Services whose mission is to support Libraries and Museums across the country. I had the pleasure of seeing the exhibit at the New York Historical Society earlier this year which was but a small sampling of what the Archive will make available to future scholars, students, and public alike FOR FREE (and when possible online).
Coburn knows he's not attacking the Grateful Dead, he's attacking a library, right?
agreed Jimbo; we library reading people are the elitist cultural snobs eating the veggie burrito, and we must be stopped.
it's UCSC, what else does he really expect? The only school in the area more known for hippies is UC Berkeley, and I'm pretty sure UCSC has more of them these days.
So, skybleacher-- care to guess what Bill Weld, former Republican governor of Massachusetts, Ann Coulter, ultra-conservative pundit, and Tucker Carlson, bowtie-wearing journalist, have in common with the image of the stereotypical hippie you so blithely toss around?
In the spirit of full disclosure here are some things you should know about me: 1. I am a proud Deadhead 2. I fully support opening the archives at UCSB 3. The Grateful Dead created unique music and created a unique culture 4. I don't usually agree with Sen Coburn.
On federal funding for this project I am in agreement with the Senator. We can find alternative funding methods for this project. We can fund it the way the Rex Foundation was funded for years, through benefit concerts and donations.
I attended the archive showing at the NY Historical Society and was very impressed and fully support building the archive. The federal money earmarked for this endeavor could be better spent on numerous other programs.
Let's show the federal government we are capable of building this archive without their help. The Deadheads and the Dead have proven to be very resourceful throughout the years. Let's put our Heads together and find a way to do this without federal strings attached. Who's up for a bakesale????
I will contribute to the bake sale, only if I can sell my *ahem* special brownies.
yes, there are members of the Grateful Dead who are millionaires, and i guess with people like coburn fighting for their tax cut they now have the $$ to pay for this.
but
isn't it more interesting that he picks on this yet not wasteful spending that goes into the hundreds of millions and billions -- say tax cuts for the super-rich or weaponry that is not needed or contracts to Halliburton subsidiaries or...?
remember this is the same person who stopped aid from going to Hait due to 5 mil of a billion dollar package. and now, the blood of all those who died of cholera can be traced back to him.
yes i said it because he very particular in picking his fights.
JPG; plus, the dead have given more to charity through the REX foundation then most rich people ever had. They have done a hundred benifits for cultural issues such as these, the poor, and even blindness.... it is time for someone else to pick up the slack. The dead can never be questioned for their charitable contributions.
Not only is Jerry C. dead, as a couple people have pointed out, he's been dead for 15 years. You'd think some people would have noticed by now.
Institutions like libraries employ grant writers whose job it is to identify which grants are available to the institution and to then write grant applications. This is a fairly mundane part of the process whereby such institutions gather funds for projects. There's nothing sinister or wrong about the fact that this university was successful in obtaining those funds. They applied; the application was accepted.
If you want to "defund" this particular project, then you have to reform or change the process by which the funds were obtained. That might be a good idea; or not. Singling out this particular project for defunding is definitely not a good idea. The university got the money by following the rules.
Thanks.
mp
Coburn's point is severely diluted by the billions wasted on our military. The amount spent on the Grateful Dead archive accounts for approximately 20 seconds of 2009's military budget. Source:
http://www.oneminuteforpeace.org/budget
Sigh. I posted the following lyric on another thread not too long ago, but it's still been on my mind a lot lately, and I think it's worth repeating:
New Speedway Boogie
by the Grateful Dead
Please don't dominate the rap, Jack
If you've got nothing new to say.
If you please, don't back up this track
'Cause this train's got to run today.
Spent a little time on the mountain,
Spent a little time on the hill.
Some say "You better run away!"
Others say "You better stand still!"
Now, I don't know, but I've been told
It's hard to run with the weight of gold.
On the other hand, I've heard it said
It's just as hard with the weight of lead...
Who can deny? You can't deny
It's not just a change in style.
One step done, and another's begun
And I'm wonderin' how many miles?
Spent a little time on the mountain,
Spent a little time on the hill.
We've seen things we don't understand
But I think, in time, we will.
Now I don't know, but I've been told
In the heat of the sun, a man died of cold.
Keep on pushin', don't just stand and wait
With the sun so dark and the hour so late...
You can't overlook the lack, Jack
Of any other highway to ride.
It's got no signs, no dividing lines
And precious few rules to guide.
Spent a little time on the mountain,
Spent a little time on the hill.
We've seen things get right out of hand,
But I guess they always will.
Now I don't know, but I've been told
If the horse don't pull, you've got to carry the load!
I don't know whose back's that strong,
But we'll maybe find out before too long...
One way or another,
One way or another,
One way or another...
This darkness' got to give! (repeat until you get it).
More than 30 years on (for me) and I still love, love, LOVE the Dead.
God bless the Good Ole' Grateful Dead!
There's still nothing like a Dead show... ;-)
Here's another Dead lyric that's still sadly apropo all these years later, though it was originally written in the aftermath of, and about, the Iran-Contra "scandal":
Throwing Stones
by the Grateful Dead
Picture a bright blue ball, just spinning, spinnin free,
Dizzy with eternity.
Paint it with a skin of sky,
Brush in some clouds and sea,
Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place or so it looks from space,
A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace
Is the human face,
But afraid we may lay our home to waste.
There's a fear down here we can't forget.
Hasn't got a name just yet.
Always awake, always around,
Singing ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Now watch as the ball revolves
And the nighttime falls.
Again the hunt begins,
Again the bloodwind calls.
By and by, the morning sun will rise,
But the darkness never goes
From some men's eyes.
It strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets,
Staking turf, dividing up meat.
Nightmare spook, piece of heat,
It's you and me.
You and me.
Click flash blade in ghetto night,
Rudies looking for a fight.
Rat cat alley, roll them bones.
Need that cash to feed that jones.
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
[Bridge:]
Commissars and pin-stripe bosses
Roll the dice.
Any way they fall,
Guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray,
Selling guns 'stead of food today.
So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Heartless powers try to tell us
What to think.
If the spirit's sleeping,
Then the flesh is ink
History's page will thus be carved in stone.
And we are here, and we are on our own
On our own.
On our own.
On our own...
If the game is lost,
Then we're all the same.
No one left to place or take the blame.
We can leave this place an empty stone
Or that shinin' ball we used to call our home.
So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
[Bridge two:] Shipping powders back and forth
Singing black goes south and white comes north.
In a whole world full of petty wars
Singing I got mine and you got yours.
And the current fashion sets the pace,
Lose your step, fall out of grace.
And the radical, he rant and rage,
Singing someone's got to turn the page.
And the rich man in his summer home,
Singing just leave well enough alone.
But his pants are down, his cover's blown...
And the politicians throwin' stones,
So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And it's all too clear we're on our own.
Singing ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Picture a bright blue ball,
Just spinnin', spinnin, free.
Dizzy with the possibilities.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.
Ashes to ashes, all fall down.