THE FREE REPUBLIC WELCOMES THE MERRY PRANKSTERS!!! (9-09 Book Discussion Thread)

Self | September 2, 2002 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

Okay, I tried to track down some of the Merry Pranksters mentioned in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” so that they might participate in our discussion on this book on September 9. However, I have been unable to contact any of them so in the spirit of the Merry Pranksters, who in 1965 hung a banner in front of Ken Kesey’s La Honda home that said “THE MERRY PRANKSTERS WELCOME THE BEATLES,” I am now hanging this virtual banner in Cyberspace---“THE FREE REPUBLIC WELCOMES THE MERRY PRANKSTERS.”

Hopefully this message will carry across the Cyberspace ether and reach Mountain Girl, Ken Babbs, Gretchen Fetchen, Owsley, The Hermit, George Walker, Hugh Romney, Norman Hartweg, Hagen, Doris Delay, Zonker, Black Maria, etc..

I will also be sending this thread to Tom Wolfe’s publishers. They told me that he usually doesn’t do such events but, hey, there’s an EXCEPTION to every rule.

If any of you happen to know the Merry Pranksters or know someone who knows the Merry Pranksters, please pass this thread along to them. Hopefully on September 9 (or soon afterwards) we can WELCOME THE MERRY PRANKSTERS!!!

Oh, and on October 14 our next book assignment is due. It will be a big change of pace---“Homage To Catalonia” by George Orwell.

[PoisedWoman]

The sulphur springs were one nice feature of Esalen, but the place was not about the baths. Perls, Alan Watts, Ida Rolf, various doctors, psychologists experimenting with alternative therapies gave workshops there. Everything was so different from my conservative Catholic midwest white-glove upbringing, I went catatonic for a week! But stuck it out, had fun, and Rolfing changed my life forever. Fritz's mind-bending did nothing for me, though he was quite interesting to know personally, but Rolf's freeing up my fascia was absolutely profound. (Fascia = connective tissue holding muscle groups together.)

[Cosmo]

Owsley actually resurfaced around 1989 and made a batch of his famous ...er....stuff that many of us at that year's New Year's Eve dead shows got to imbibe....Er...Am I allowed to admit that on FreeRepublic?

[PJ-Comix]

And just excuse the plague-like decay our society has suffered as a result of the culture of the 60's?

Coming soon to your local movie theater---HIPPIE MADNESS.

One drop of acid and it could afflict you, or You, or... YOU!!!

[PJ-Comix]

I have the first of the videos from the 1964 bus trip. It ends shortly after New Orleans (and has the visit to Larry MacMurtry's home in Houston). A second tape of the bus trip has been released but I do not have it yet (I suppose it picks up where volume 1 left off).

I would love to see videos of the double-takes of the Rednecks of 1964 reacting to the first Hippies on the Planet Earth as the Bus drove thru the Deep South.

[PJ-Comix]

Rick Griffin was the best of the poster artists. His work is quite acid inspired though.

My favorite Hippie Art is the Robert Crumb artwork. I still love that famous "Keep On Truckin'" cartoon.

[woofie]

I believe Wavey Gravey is out here in New Mexico with the rest of us burn outs....

[PJ-Comix]

Any plans to read The Pump House Gang as well (there is some crossover between the people mentioned).

The funny thing is that when I recommended "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" as an assignment I thought I had read it previously. Actually what I read before was "The Pump House Gang" which in my memory/flashback came out as "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" because it had a big promo on the copy of the book I had years ago. I quickly realized when "re-reading" "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" that I had never actually read it before. Fortunately it turned out to be a terrific book.

A little Tom Wolfe trivia here---Wolfe was the one who coined the term "Good Ol' Boy" when writing a magazine article about Junior Johnson, a Stock Car Racer/Moonshiner.

[PJ-Comix]

I take it that the actual book discussion thread will be a separate thread.

Naw! Lets keep it on this thread. I already sent THIS THREAD out into the Cyberspace ether and if the Merry Pranksters and/or Tom Wolfe join the party, THIS is the thread they will go to.

Any significance behind the September 9th date?

Yeah, on that day Mars and Venus are in perfect astral alignment with Uranus.

[PJ-Comix]

Kerouac? Two words: Dharma Bums. On the Road is for white guys from the suburbs who want to snag artsy freshman chicks.

HOLD IT! I'm having a flashback to a scene from Animal House.

[PJ-Comix]

I still do not get your idea.

That's because you're not on the Bus.

[PJ-Comix]

I believe Wavey Gravey is out here in New Mexico with the rest of us burn outs....

Taos or Santa Fe?

[PhilDragoo]

Tom Wolfe stated that he never used LSD and that it would have affected the objectivity of his book if he had.

That is correct.

[PhilDragoo]

Might as well invite Bill and Hillary to discuss how they got started.*

Ask Hillary if Gennifer quoted Bill accurately, "Honey, she's [Hillary] probably eaten more [cheese-moose] than I have."

Passion & Betrayal, Gennifer Flowers, Emery Dalton Books, 1995, page 41.

* Bill was turned at Oxford and given his control (Hillary) at Yale Law.

[PhilDragoo]

One drop of acid and it could afflict you, or You, or... YOU!!!

Leary suggested set and setting as determiners. Set being mental set; setting being surroundings, ambiance.

For Sydney Gottlieb and CIA's MK-ULTRA, the stealth administration of LSD led to some notorious depression-suicides, e.g., leaping from windows.

Aldous Huxley remarked, "If the doors of perception were cleansed, we would see things as they are, infinite."

Lysergic Acid Diethylalamide is one more case of Blind Men and the Elephant.

[Glutton]

Here is a link to the McDonald Theatre owned and operated by the Kesey clan.

I was at Ken's home in Pleasant Hill the past two New Year days. I know the Prankster set, and they are a big part of the Eugene, Oregon cultural scene.

Here is Eugene.com if you are looking for a general Eugene, Oregon link as a place to start searching for anyone else who might be able to help you in your quest.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

HOLD IT! I'm having a flashback to a scene from Animal House.

Ethan Hawke in any interview with an "indie"-flavored 'zine . . .

[PJ-Comix]

When Bluto smashed the Folk Singer's guitar, that pretty much ended many a folk singer's career. Notice how you almost NEVER hear folk music nowadays? Thank God!

[woofie]

Wavey may be up around Taos ...Im not sure ...I saw a picture of him doing clowning out here...Richard Alpert (aka Baba Ram Das) author of "Be Here Now"was also out here and may still be...There is also a woman out here that took a lot of photos of the old days ...she may have been on the bus but I cant remember her name....

[woofie]

Try this link:http://www.intrepidtrips.com/