Greetings Heads!
Long time and little seen! My apologies for this brief 9 month vanishing act I just pulled. I mean, I do like to do this at parties after I'm a bit too tipsy, but 9 months is pushing it. I DID get so many nice emails from DSP readers being concerned that I had pulled a Garcia or gotten so pissed off that the finish on my Alligator guitar wasn't perfect that I gave up the blog. Not true!! Thank you for those notes btw, but alas, after the Weir Symphony last year, my work and personal life took a dive for...well not the worse, but let's just say I was in dealin' mode! My wife and I have 2 boys, currently aged 2.5 and 1.5 years old...and that should say it all. Those boys needed some Grateful Dead education, and that meant the blog had to hold.
It's too bad too, as I have this wonderful interview with Dennis McNally I've been sitting on for over a year now....as well as great posts started on Olompali, 5/8/77, hanging with Betty, visiting Dan Healy in his studio, an afternoon exploring FM waveforms with Ron Wickersham, having Bob Weir cut me off in traffic...etc. etc. All this weirdness that I know you weirdos will love to get wigged on. Oh well, we all need to prioritize and focus.
SO.... as I was laid up in bed with a thrown out back this weekend due to picking up my little beasts from their cribs, I started thinking of Las Vegas '92 and '93 and how MAGICAL it was to be up in those stands as lighting was striking all around the stadium and dust storms were brewing up behind the band...and how the rain clouds all cleared as they opened the 2nd set with Here Comes the Sunshine. Man! How did those wizards do that?!? How lucky to have been bitten by that nasty little Dead Bug all those years back! I though right then and there that I'd get up off my ass (mentally at least) and get this blog rolling again. How to do it so that I don't get in my mode of turning each post into a mini-novel and picture book that takes up more time than I seem to have from now on...... then the answer came:
THE DARK STAR PALACE ARCHIVE!!
I figure I can start to do an inventory of DSP's Grateful Dead collection of STUFF, and using the Artifact of the Week model we started so many years back, would post a few quick pictures of said Artifact and then write up some interesting info on the item (if I have any). It won't be as fancy, detailed and together (!) as I've done in the past, but at least you can check out and enjoy some of the truly insane and silly things in the collection. I mean, the Chia-pet Garcia? A set of signed Wall of Sound documents and drawings? The Dead's main sound system equalizer by Meyer Sound? One of 21 custom silver Steal Your Face belt buckles made by Bob Thomas? A home video of Garcia tickling a Eel while scuba diving? I mean, really?
So what do you think? Is this worth the time and effort? Is this still of interest to all you Heads out there? Post a comment and let me know. If it's sounding promising, I'll start up the engines and light a match. We'll see what and who get's lit first!
Until next time at Dark Star Palace....
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