Item #V31- my copy was in a hand-dipped painted box, signed by Ken Kesey. Doubt they come that way these days.
Produced, filmed, directed, edited and staring Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.
- It was 1964. Mercury sold a convertible. The Beatles wanted to hold your hand. Barry Goldwater was running for president. Hud was the best movie. A group of people were getting together on the West Coast. Ken Kesey had just written, "Sometimes A Great Notion." The publication party was to be in Madhattan the middle of June. The whole group decided to go. They bought a bus, painted it, outfitted it with a sound system, bought movie cameras and tape recorders, their plan: to film and record everything along the way, inter-acting with Americans, swilling big jugs of electric kool aid. When done, they would put out a feature film of the whole trip. Their fortunes and careers would be made. It didn't happen. Matching the film and the sound was too grueling. The whole thing was arrested. There were fits and starts, other attempts, but it wasn't until the digital age that the possibilities smiled and nodded. 35 years later, we achieve primal success.#This is Episode 1, 'Journey To The East,' which shows the preparing and painting in California, the bus stuck in Arizona's Big Muddy River, the loss of a Prankster in Houston, Texas, the integration of Lake Ponchatrain in New Orleans, plus numerous wild adventures inside the bus, featuring Neal Cassady at the wheel, rapping and rolling.
56 MINUTES. STEREO
Also released (but I don't have it yet) is:
"NORTH TO MADHATTAN"
THE MERRY BAND OF PRANKSTERS LOOK FOR A KOOL PLACE #2 Item #V32
Episode 2 is a little more than an hour, and it's pretty good. Not beatifically clumsy and surprisingly inspired like episode 1, but still pretty good. For one thing it's Cassady's best driving footage-- two cameras on him and words finally fitted accurately to his whirring lips. His face is healthy and tight and his rap righteous, and his spirit is flying. And his mind? Terrific. Vintage Speed Limit. But it's more than his mind. His mind is like his healthy face, and it's more than that. More, even, than his spirit. It's, aww... wait, I got it! Here's a sample of what I mean:In episode 1 when Cassady first comes driving over the bridge to our place in La Honda, you hear him before you see him, jabbering over the exhausted vehicle and the scratchy old radio-- talking us stuff that you can't make out until he turns off the car and the radio. And as soon as the song stops you realize it was Love Potion No. 9. A charming little entrance for Neal at the Wheel-- The 1960's Acid Anthem.
Then in this 2nd episode he resumes this theme, driving the freeway and slipping into the subject just as the stuff begins to buzz through our brains. It's a wonderful frill of words-- "Strict!" he says. "It's strict! Strict, uh, as they say in 'Arsenic and Old Lace'-- it's strict-nine...strict-uh-nine...nine... Look! Sign! ....says it's nine miles to exit nine... nine... number nine..."
Then he begins singing in that low vaudevillian voice he used when he wanted to make a profound pronouncement but didn't want anybody to get real serious or hung up or brought down-- "And we mixed up a bottle of-- Love Potion No. 9 doop de doodle doodle dee...."
Now, I know that isn't exactly gospel. Of course not. It's just... Cassady behind the wheel, driving and jerking, spewing words on the world....
But it makes you think.
--Kesey
Produced, filmed, directed, edited and staring Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. This was Kesey's final project!
and (not sure if I've seen this, I've seen a Kesey produced video of the acid tests)
THE ACID TEST, DIRECTORS CUT
Item #V02
Refurbished and reedited by Zane Kesey and Simon Babbs using state-of-the-art "toys". This dramatic quality difference is from re-transferring original film and audio from the Merry Prankster vaults in Hollywood. Featuring added scenes, new songs, new interviews, and now synched sound. Featuring the Dead (Pigpen, Jerry, Bobby, Phil and Bill), Ken and the Merry Pranksters (Cowboy Neal, Mountain Girl, Babbs, Hassler, Betsy Flagg, George Walker, Gretchen Fetchin and of course Owsley, the man behind the stereo and the electric punch). In this special "Directors Cut" the Prankster pose as moviemakers, "simply shooting a party scene". Their planning is interrupted enroute to the event, to hide the stash, because a patrol car has spotted Furthur. Pigpen improvises as the amplifiers around the room find "Power". Naturally you are treated to plenty of Dead (Warlock) classics and Prankster craziness. As the night builds, and the Kool-Aid kicks in, newly crystallized minds melt with the colors and music. Eventually the Ballroom manager attempts unplugging this electronic mayhem, but they can't see to turn anything or anybody "off". This exiting slice of history is everything Tom Wolfe wrote about, and more (like Jerry sweeping up after the show). Approx. 55 min.