There is nothing like a Grateful Dead show. The music, the feeling that you experience at their concerts is the most original cosmic force existent.
This magazine does an incredible job in 100 pages of capturing and documenting the 48 years of America’s greatest band. It’s a tremendous value at $11.99 to have a well curated, cross-functional collection of excerpted articles from the original pages of Rolling Stone Magazine.
I urge you to buy a copy of this special collectors edition for your very own. The photographs by Jay Blakesberg, Herb Greene, Baron Wolman, Jim Marshall and others beautifully articulate the halcyon era of Rock’s Longest Strangest Trip.
The trajectory of Jefferson Airplane has produced a very solid flight path across three+ decades of rock and roll.
Legacy Recordings has reissued a double CD, The Essential Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Starship, which covers the hits and popular tracks from these various bands from 1966 to 1989
It’s a nice music collection to have handy if you are a fan of any permeation of this group. You get a real sense of the (r)evolution of their sound as they kept current with the times, the fashions etc.
I find myself growing fond of this track from Jefferson Starship’s Spitfire
Take a journey over to the just launched Jerry Garcia Web site . You’ll find it more than a long strange trip its been
The Jerry Garcia Web site accomplishes two main objectives on behalf of its visitors, 1) Rich content about Jerry Garcia’s life, friends and accomplishments, 2) A creative, engaging shopping experience.
The site is designed by Third Door, Inc. I am surprised to learn how many popular music artist sites have been designed by Third Door’s David Maier. David’s choice of tools as a graphics and Web designer map to the Web software I plan to become more skilled in using in 2013 and beyond. The site was constructed with WordPress for content management, Adobe PhotoShop for images and Adobe Dreamweaver for HTML/HTML5 coding.
The Web site has a product tie-in promotion with the first release from the newly launched Garcia Live series which features a recording from the historic Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey on March 1, 1980.
My first assessment of the jerrygarcia.com Web site is based upon the following viewpoint/criteria.
Fan Viewpoint
Shopping Experience – A+
The Jerry Garcia Store is a standout section. It is tightly coupled with the Garcia official merchandise offered through their exclusive arrangement with MusicToday for ordering/fulfillment. Products were easy to view with the Zoom feature available for closer articulation.
Fan level information – B+
The Timeline section has 97 posts but lacks an evolutionary dated timeline for context and correlation (suggestion…). The content offers in depth reading and visual images that drive the reading experience well.
My favorite image is the black and white photograph of Jerry Garcia playing the pedal steel guitar. The Bio is nicely summarized. I would have liked to have seen a Web link to Wikipedia or another more substantive biography about Jerry.
The News section is very initial with just 4 posts. But it is only Day 1 for the site .
Multimedia content – A+
The Music, Artwork and Video sections meld together in cohesive fashion. The Music section offers a cover art jump point to a second page with music vendors, song listings and just the right level of social network icons for now.
The Artwork area is a gem and it is a good first level representation of an evolving Gallery area. I suggest an Amazon link on this page to the coffee table book, Jerry Garcia: The Collected Artwork for visitors (I just love leafing through that book!)
The Video section knocked me out. The highlight for me was Jerry Garcia’s 70th Birthday. I was unable to watch Move Me Brightly on TRIStudios this past August. I am pumped to see the 17:47 video highlight featured on the Video page.
Technology Viewpoint
Usability – A
The Web site fully leverages responsive design and WordPress content management effortlessly. The images are compelling and never oversized or stretched. Navigation is straight forward and relaxing. It represents a landscape book with a menu as table of contents off to the left side, unobtrusive but accessible.
Design- A+
The page design varies between various postings or single Photoshop images of Jerry that are warm testimonies of him.
Responsive design is available throughout the Web site, which makes this a technology appealing visual, audio, video experience.
I have anticipated the Jerry Garcia Web site for sometime now and I wasn’t disappointed one iota!
Great work team! I look forward to the content evolution from here on out.
If you need a miracle every day then you should feel jazzed that the annual tradition for Dead fans is here again.
The tradition is called 30 Days of Dead . Dead.net will be giving away a high-quality 320Kbps MP3 download every day this month. That’s 30 days of unreleased Grateful Dead tracks from the vault, selected by Dead archivist and producer David Lemieux. There will also be a put your knowledge to the test contest where you will have the chance to win some sweet swag from the Dead.
Each day they will post a free download from one of the Dead’s coveted shows. Guess the venue and date correctly and you’ll be automatically entered to win the prize of the day. Each day a winner will be selected at random, so take your time and make your best guess! Answer correctly, and you will also be automatically entered in the Grand Prize – a copy of the SOLD OUT Spring 1990 box set.
I learned earlier that Scott McKenzie passed away this weekend. A statement on McKenzie’s website says the 73-year-old died on Saturday in Los Angeles. McKenzie battled Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease that affects the nervous system.
He sang the song that defined my generation and the Summer of Love in San Francisco, ”San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” which became a huge hit in 1967.
The song was written by John Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas. It was written and released in June 1967 to promote the Monterey Pop Festival. Scott McKenzie was good friends with John Phillips and was asked to join The Mamas and The Papas but he declined John’s offer.
I love his voice and the eternal feeling contained within this song. It always moves me every time I hear it. Truly sad today that he is gone. Truly happy for where his soul journeys.
I was thinking about San Francisco today.I often transport myself there. The music I played in the car today was recorded in San Francisco at Bill Graham’sFillmore Auditorium in 1968, Cheap Thrills, Big Brother & The Holding Company. The album cover was drawn by underground cartoonist, R. Crumb. The liner notes for the remastered edition has photographs by the late Jim Marshall.
I was browsing my Facebook stream this afternoon when I happened upon a very cool picture posted by Robert Altman.
There was a photo from a 1985 book on the San Francisco music scene of famed poster artist Stanley Mouse taken by the great rock photographer Jim Marshall. The copy of this book is from autograph collecter Matt Tadevich. Mouse took the time to add his touch.
I love the synergy of San Francisco’s music, Janis and Big Brother, Bill Graham, R. Crumb, Stanley Mouse, Robert Altman and Jim Marshall, who figures in both references.
The track on this compilation that I was unfamiliar with until the concert is “St. Charles”. I have come to appreciate this song immensely now.
Last week in concert an audience member shouted out “St. Charles” as a request and Paul Kanter and company went right with it. I love impromptu moments that take on other orders of magnitude. The Starship ensemble gave us a beautiful rendition of that song. I was swept along with the melody, vocals and the visual lyrics of this epic tale.
They will be joined on stage by their very special guest, Nona Hendryx. There will also be a unique tribute to the late violinist Papa John Creach. Plus many other special guests! (I wonder who they will be????)
Rosemary bought us tickets to see the Jefferson Starship Paul Kantner 71st birthday gala at the Ridgefield Playhouse on Thursday March 15th, 2012. This secures our first concert for calendar year 2012.
Nona Hendryx is listed as a special guest star. You may remember her from Labelle who had the hit “Lady Marmalade“.
The concert listing also indicates there will be other guest stars appearing with Jefferson Starship that night. My personal wish is that it will include Marty Balin but I’m not confident he will be there.
Take a journey over to the just launched 
Rosemary bought us tickets to see the 
