The Brooklyn Griffin

Photos by Brooklyn Beat

Waterbury and Meserole Streets in Williamsburgh

Nine Years Later: The Complexity of Freedom

Frequent crossings into Manhattan this summer had me thinking about the World Trade Center site. While it was clear that an enormous amount of construction and development on the site was in progress, I wondered --why had it taken so long to really get underway?  Granted, it represents a precious piece of lower Manhattan real estate, but larger projects are no doubt undertaken and accomplished in a shorter amount of time. There clearly  is an enormous amount of  emotion tied up with the loss of more than 2700 lives. At the same time, did the delay, wrangling, and lack of speedy process serve as a metaphor -- perhaps a metaphor of living -- for an identity crisis that afflicted the United States of America in the wake of this most grievous terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

With George W. Bush's attack on Iraq, which essentially destabilized that country, followed by years of economic malaise and now Barack Obama's own equally well-intended but questionable expansion of our military adventure in Afghanistan,it would appear that there may be something to this. After all, America has always been, first and foremost, a land of action. In the days foLlowing the 9/11 attacks, the _US basked in international goodwill and sympathy. Many Muslims worldwide criticized the actions of the hijackers and their puppetmasters, saying this did not represent Islam. The current threats of Koran burnings and polls showing that Americans supported freedom of religion but were not completely comfortable with the building of the mosque within the Ground Zero neighborhood, suggests, if nothing else, that this national soul searching continues. Anger and distrust toward Islam continues. American Muslims,who deplored the 9/11 attacks, are now pressed into a corner.Can moderate Muslims worldwide do more to find ways to challenge the extremists ? Who knows if that is even possible. Does American democracy and the freedom that it offers unwittingly provide fertile ground for those who would destroy or subvert it? President Obama's most recent statement on the growing hostility toward Islam within the US was eloquent and decisive but at the same time fails to address the fears and concerns of other Americans who see us fighting uncertain wars against Muslim peoples overseas, at the same time we are reminded to "never forget" the attacks of that awful day nine years ago. The World Trade Center and memorial rises from the ashes. The fighting overseas continues. Secretary Napolitano warns that the chance of another major terrorist strike continues to exist. New Yorkers remember those long days of fire, smoke and death. The sirens and alarms of emergency vehicles continued for days without end. Nine years later, the sadness remains for the families that lost loved ones, children who last parents.But nine years later,the soul searching and reflection, as evidenced in the current confusion, hostility, and uncertainty, continues without any sign of ending. The New American paradigm in the Age of Terror continues but thankfully so does the Unites States of America as a rambunctious, argumentative and complex home of freedom. There are no easy answers to the complexity of freedom.

Days of Awe: Wrestling with the Known and Unknown

A friend at work asked me if I am ready for the Jewish holidays. I guess.


This year, we are going to a different congregation in Flatbush..Personally, I vary between spiritually-looking-forward-to-the-Days-of -Awe (a lot of reading, contemplation, anticipation in the weeks before) to “please leave me alone”—this year I am in leave-me-alone-mode…

That is what strikes one most about the "fall Jewish Holidays" more properly known as the Days of Awe. Certainly, it is the sense of humanity, in this case represented by the subgroup of the Jewish people, appearing before the might and spiritual complexity of the Creator with awe and dread. Or in the modern sensibility, our contemplation of our brief and fleeting existence in a Cosmos that seems to neither require nor care much about us. Or, perhaps in a post-modern sense, our contemplation of our identity, which exists simultaneously in conflict with and allegiance to the power relations of a Supreme Being who may or may not exist but on whom we may choose to rely, as a spiritual talisman of sorts, to thank for getting us and those we love through the year past, and to help guide us through the unknown days ahead in a too-be-sure perilous world filled with other beliefs and believers.



However, despite this year's preliminary sense of distance, I can already see that it is beginning...Based on past experience, usually once I am at services, that Yiddishkeit starts to slowly seep into my soul…by Yom Kippur it usually connects...and there I am, looking around at My Better Half and our growing kids at the services, and I might be overtaken by a powerful wave of emotion, as I contemplate the blessings and pains of the year gone by and anticipating the unknown that exists in whatever time that lies ahead. 
I imagine it is a different and curious experience for me, a Fellow Traveler, than for those who are Born Jewish…but for everyone reading this, Jewish or not, for today and the next week, best wishes for health and happiness, and also moments of awareness, contemplation and understanding in the year ahead.

These caught my attention:

Emerging cultural practices in Judaism. Link here

If Christopher Hitchens Met Primo Levi would they agree about G-d?  Link here

West Nile Mosquito Spraying in Brooklyn Zip Codes Tonite

Notification issued on 9/1/2010 at 4:00 PM. The Department of Health will be spraying for mosquitoes to help prevent West Nile Virus from 8 PM on 9/2 until 6 AM on 9/3 in the following Brooklyn zip codes:

11210,11214, 11223, 11224, 11229, 11230, 11234, and 11235.

Department of Health recommends that whenever possible, stay indoors during spraying. Go to http://www.nyc.gov/health or call 311 for details.

Remembering Septembers

from the classic and hilarious NY Observer article --Why Have a Night Like This In times Like These?' by Frank DiGiacomo

Just weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Friars Club warily proceeded with its planned roast of Hugh Hefner, which included a classic telling of ‘The Aristocrats’ joke. The result? As Frank DiGiacomo reported, the laughter humanized an inhuman time.

On Saturday, Sept. 29, Freddie Roman, the dean of New York’s Friars Club, stood before audience members in the Grand Ballroom of the New York Hilton and asked them to familiarize themselves with the fire exits.

Then, because he’d said that “these are very different times for us all,” he attempted to answer a question that people had been asking him. Mr. Roman’s Vulcanesque eyes and brows scanned the audience before him. The question sounded a little like something that would be asked at Passover. “Why have a night like this in times like these?”

Mr. Roman was referring to the Friars Roast, the club’s yearly ritual of profane humor and insult that was about to get underway with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner in the hot seat.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on New York, the Friars organization and Comedy Central, the cable network that, for the last three years, has taped and televised an expurgated version of the roast (this one will debut on Nov. 4), had, after some debate, decided to go ahead with the event. “It’s time we get back to normal, like Mayor Giuliani and President Bush have asked,” Mr. Roman said. “And for the Friars, this is normal. Telling dirty jokes, making fun of people. That’s what we do, and we’re proud to do it for you,” he said. “So you can get some laughter back in your life and into your hearts.”

While the crowd waited for the cameras to start rolling, Mr. Roman eased into the task at hand.

“A couple married 48 years. Wife takes sick and passes away. Funeral at the Riverside, 78th and Broadway,” Mr. Roman said. “After the service, the pallbearers pick up the coffin. As they’re leaving the building, the coffin hits the wall.” From inside the coffin, he said, the woman’s voice could be heard.

“They open the coffin—it’s a miracle,” he said. “She stays married for another two years. Gets sick, passes away again. After the service, the pallbearers lift the coffin. As they start to leave, the husband yells, ‘Watch out for the wall!’”

The laughter sounded grateful. Mr. Roman got the high sign to introduce Mr. Hefner. A small group of Playmates led the flesh magnate—who looked frighteningly robust and wrinkle-free for a man in his 70’s—to the big red swivel chair on the stage....

At the conclusion of the evening, Gilbert Gottfried took the stage -
The man in the gray tuxedo jacket looked out over the crowd. “I have a flight to California. I can’t get a direct flight,” Mr. Gottfried said. “They said they have to stop at the Empire State Building first.”

There was a silence. Then hissing and hooting flooded forward.

“Too soon,” a man could be heard saying in the back of the ballroom.

When the booing started, Mr. Gottfried responded: “Awwwwwww, what the f...k do you care?” Silence fell once more.

Mr. Gottfried had his answer. Up on the podium, he began making strange movements with his arms, as if he was working some sort of invisible machine that could take him back in time to the moment right before he had pushed too far. Seconds passed.

“O.K.,” he continued. His voice was not so loud.

“A talent agent is sitting in his office. A family walks in. A man, woman, two kids, their little dog, and the talent agent goes, ‘What kind of an act do you do?’”

..and there began his classic, insane, recitation of "The Aristocrats."

The full New York Observer link here

Midtown West

Above: 99 Cent Pizza

Top 2: George Segal's Commuters 1980, Port Authority, NYC

Photos by Brooklyn Beat/TN August 2010

International View: Does 44 Want to Be Re-Elected in 2012?

Few Americans consider themselves bigger than the presidency but Obama might be one of them. The man in the Oval Office, argues Toby Harnden in the U.K. Telegraph, may already be preparing for a role as a post-president in a post-American world.

"Obama is the first black American president, an established author, multi-millionaire and acclaimed figure beyond American shores.


It seems highly unlikely that Obama will decide not to run in 2012. But he might well be calculating that a embarking post-presidential role as the leading global thinker in the post-American world as a Republican successor enters office is more attractive than being sullied by the political compromises and manoeuvrings necessary to win."

UK Telegraph's full article  by Toby Harnden here

On Missing Gary Shteyngart and Pondering the Future of Books

Circumstances, waning memory, and my eagerness for this reading resulted in our inadvertantly missing the Gary Shteyngart reading at BookCourt on Thursday. We showed up a day early (ouch) and then a prior commitment prevented a return for what was no doubt a funny and highly literate evening at the always delightful BookCourt on Court and Pacific. I read a digital chapter of Shteyngart's new tome, Super Sad True Love Story, and was again enthralled by the humor, speed and sheer literary brio of the book. Ironically, I read the digital sample chapter on the Kobo app on my BlackBerry  on the way to what I thought would be the reading on Wednesday evening.

Gary Shteyngart, author of "Super Sad True Love Story"

I haven't yet purchased the book. We are in the process of reorganizing our home. Books, books, books---ours, our kids, plus library books, newspapers, magazines. There is a constant paperflow and clutter in the house. I began to think - should I go digital with my reading? [NOTE: I purchased and read a hardcover copy of this entertaining and future-gazing book shortly after this posting appeared.]

There was a recent article in the NY Times that discussed the potential impact of digital editions of books on mega booksellers, such as Barnes and Noble. The article noted that, as in the film "You Have Mail" the romantic comedy which had Tom Hanks' "Fox Books" book chain pushing Meg Ryan's "The Little Shop Around the Corner" out of the book business, digital books sold online at lower prices may now be threatening the large book chains with their relatively high mortar and brick overheads, in the same way the big chains previously muscled the little book stores out of business.

The Times article notes, ironically, that the independent book stores that have survived have proven that they can make it (BookCourt is only a couple of blocks away from a large Barnes and Noble also on Court Street).  Like music/CD stores, the big book chains may be fighting a tough battle for survival. The little stores may prove to be the Last Bookstores Standing.

In any case, as I was reading the sample chapter of Super Sad True Love Story, I happened to think that it was ironic that one of the charms of  author readings was the opportunity for booksigning. With the move toward digital by many readers, What now? I mean, the point of the reading is of course seeing the author in person and hearing him or her read aloud and perhaps answer a few questions. But it was also always fun to buy and walk away with a signed copy. It definitely gave the act of reading a certain extra frisson. 

Will printed books now go the way of the vinyl LP record? A specialty item, less available and higher priced, perfect for signing and collecting but not necessarily for reading?  Will the remaining bookstores (or Starbucks for that matter), offer downloads at the reading? Will that offer a better "vintage" than an e-book purchased at a differnet time online? Maybe the store will throw in a signed photo of the author.

The late Serbian writer Milorad Pavic (author of Dictionary of the Khazars and many other volumes), believed in novels taking many other forms - dictionaries, acrostics, nonlineqar works, books with 100 possible endings. Prescient, he also was interested in the novel as computer file or program.

Although it is a great to hold and read a book -- that connection between the internal (reading) and the external (the book as commodity), in some ways, it would be easier without the physical burden of years and years of accumulated books --  In conversation, one of our daughters (15) acknowledged preferring bound books. Buit part of the joy of books is gonig to a shelf, having something pique your interest again, and picking up the book to delve in and enjoy the experience again.  In my opinion, browsing books on a shelf  is completely different than browsing CDs on a shelf or music files on your Ipod. I enjoy reading stuff online, but just as often, I will print an article out to read later.

I tend to think that people appreciate that you are paying  for the author's talent (and occasionally, genius) and the bound book is only the medium for the author's mesage. But there is still something special and wonderful about that antique commodity, the printed book.  If it is black and white and read all over -- I am on it. I for one hope the printed book never goes away. Completely.

Sample excerpt at Barnes a nd Noble website here. (Ironically, the first edition of the book avaialble at the B & N website is the e-version. The printed copy says "also available as an e-book.)

Coney Island on a Tuesday Evening

A cool breeze off the ocean offered delightful release as the sun began to set. The boardwalk and beach were busy but by no means crowded. We strolled down past Luna Park and back and then stopped at Ruby’s for a drink at the bar. We then walked out onto the pier, where couples walked, fisherman tried for one last catch, and a few intrepid swimmers dove off the pier, ignoring the "no swimming" signs, and bravely swam to shore, then walking back down the pier to do it all over again. The steel blue and grey clouds, under the setting sun, and the illumination of the parachute jump tower and the Big Wheel, set the parameters for a quiet mid-week summer evening.

Families with kids in strollers, teenagers, tourists--after the months of oppressive heat, it's still summer, but you could almost feel the gentle shift, as the seasons once again slowly begin to change. But for now everyone was out and about, craving a change of scenery from stifling apartments, hotel rooms, or even homes with backyards where the grass is turning to hay. Enjoying the cool breeze and comfortable delight of this particular evening while we still can in anticipation of whatever new extremes the next seasons might bring.

Photos by Brooklyn Beat/TN

Bob Dylan and The Beats -- American Visions and Highway Dreams

Photograph: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Barbara Rubin, Bob Dylan, and Daniel Kramer backstage at McCarter Theater, in Princeton, New Jersey, September, 1964. © Daniel Kramer.

Eli Wilentz's Eighth Street Bookstore between 8th and MacDougal in Greenwich Village, "Three Floors of Books," was such a cool destination. Books, authors, students, serious readers, it was an important off-campus resource to me as an NYU student. Established in the 1950s, it was gutted by fire in 1976 and was rebuilt. However, it was closed in 1979. According to the NY Times obituary, Mr. Wilentz decided to close it when it became clear that none of his children were interested in carrying on the family business. Well, yes and no. Sean Wilentz, son of co-founder Eli who passed away in 1995, may not have been a retail kind of guy, but he has certainly made his mark in the literary world of course as a Princeton University professor of American History and an author/historian. His most recent book, Bob Dylan in America, will be released in September.  It looks to be a very good one, indeed.  The New Yorker is publishing a generous excerpt:

From Chapter 2: Dylan’s continuing link to the Beat generation, though, came chiefly through his friend and sometime mentor Allen Ginsberg. Dylan’s link with Ginsberg dated back to the end of 1963, a pivotal moment in the lives and careers of both men. Thereafter, in the mid-1960s, the two would complete important artistic transitions, each touched and supported by the other. On and off, their rapport lasted for decades. And in 1997, in New Brunswick, Canada, Dylan would dedicate a concert performance of “Desolation Row” to Ginsberg, his longtime comrade, telling the audience it was Allen’s favorite of his songs, on the evening after Ginsberg died. -from Sean Wilentz's new book Bob Dylan in America, scheduled for September publication by Doubleday

Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz. Read more in this excerpt in The New Yorker here

Eighth Street Bookshop Photo by Fred McDarrah

Remembering Jean Michel Basquiat - December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988

The Artist at Rest in Armani -Photo AP/Brooklyn Museum

Jean Michel Basquiat, Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY

Photo by Brooklyn Beat/TN 2010

"Origin of Cotton" Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol 1987

Poster for Show of Paintings By Basquiat  and Warhol

On the Road Again II

Delaware River, New Hope, PA

Above: Franklin Mills Mall, Franklin Mills, PA

Photos by Brooklyn Beat/TN

For some  reason, Pennsylvania proved  to be our target state this summer. Back in May, we didn't anticipate spending much time on the road, but we did, as far as Pittsburgh and now New Hope. We didnt anticipate the intense heat and humisdity that the summer broguth, either. Consequently, it was good to get away, with and without the kids. While away, we also drove to a cool mall in Northeast Philadelphia, patrolled  by security on Segway, with a little bit of the yellow brick road feel to it. Wandered around looking for that special something... We made our way to New Hope, took what turned out to be a private boat ride on the Delaware, saw a blue heron and a snowy egret, and walked a cross the bridge to Lambertville, NJ. The important role of rivers and bridges in Pennsylvania is unmistakable from the road. We did a lot of walking, hiked along the trails at Washington Crossing, had a few nice meals, talked about the year past and what's coming up ahead (as far as we can see), got to do some reading and writing.Visited the small galleries in Lambertville, lunch at the Lambertville Station pub which makes a nice salad and a nice Bloody Mary, bourbon street style. Taken by the Woodstock-y ambiance of New Hope.Went into Type B, a fun tie-dye shop in New Hope, where the friendly proprietors were making shirts and listening to the Grateful Dead. Had a romantic lunch at Marsha Brown's , a Cajun-Creole place, located in a former church in New Hope.

The upstairs dining room at Marsha Brown, in New Hope, PA

Along the way,  I was reading about Max Frisch's 1957 novel Homo Faber, and then stumbled across a newish copy in Farley's bookstore on Bridge Street. That was a nice surprise. A few moments to think, enjoy some quiet time, and just be...

Oh Well, seems like another summer is nearly gone.

This seems to fit  the mood. Wicked Game by Chris Isaak.

Movies: Eat Pray Love

Eat Pray Love, directed by Ryan Murphy, starring Julia Roberts, based on the book of the same title by Elizabeth Gilbert, is a light but exceptionally entertaining take on a woman's search for meaning.  While it reflects the struggle of a woman to find herself as a human being outside of the context of her unhappy marriage and the expectations that have shaped her so far, at the same time, there is no mistaking that it is a summer film, filled with wonderfully photographed, romantic locales, amusing and warm characters, and the pleasures and pitfallas that can come from living life on your on terms. Perhaps it strives to be a sort of of existential adventure film, escaping the complexities of complicated personal life life in 21st century America, by running free in Italy, India and Indonesia.

The story has taken some hits recently. Feminist literary magazine Bitch, in an article entitled  Eat Pray Spend, criticized the true story of the book as priv-lit,  an existential crisis that is too informed by materialistic fears masking as a search for meaning: To quote just one excerpt: If more women become willing to put aside their fears, open their eyes to cost-free or inexpensive paths to wellness, and position themselves as essentially worthy instead of deeply flawed, priv-lit could soon migrate to a well-deserved new home: the fiction section. 


Gilbert, played by Jula Roberts, does extricate herself from a failing marriage and a messy divorce by first heading to Rome and Napoli (a lovely travelogue, featuring a da michele l'antica pizzeria, circa 1870, that we visited on a trip to Naples last year that leaves even the legendary Brooklyn pizzarias in the dust). This section is a sensual obsession, with delicious Roman cuisines  (the fried artichokes looked scrumptious) and a joyful engagement with language, humor, and warm social contact. Moving further east, India and her visit to an asharam provide an opportunity to begin to search within herself. Here too she meets Richard, the American expat, played by Richard Jenkins, another seeker who, through his own complex bio, is able to finally hold up a mirror to Gilbert, as she first begins to try to see herself and where she is running from and running to.   The last section, Bali, where she meets Felipe, Javier Bardem in another warm and delightful role , as a Brasilian businessman, escaping his own failed marriage by hiding out in Bali, allows the seeker to begin to open up to the possibilities of new relationships, and how romantic love is not the only kind of love in the world.


Perhaps it is ironic (isn't everything these days?) that of  the two big late summer movies, Eat Pray Love  features Julia Roberts as the hero/anti-hero, while The Expendibles features Eric Roberts, Julia's brother man, as the summer villain. 


There are so many terrific performances in this movie:  Viola Davis as the author's best friend, James Franco as a young actor, Billy Crudup as her husband, Richard Jenkins as the Ashram expat, but also Christine Hakim as Wayan the healer, many scenes stolen by Hadi Subiyanto as the Balinese shaman, Giuseppi Gandi as Spaghtetti, and Welker White as her attorney. 


This is not Last Year at Marienbad or L'Aventura. It is a story of a struggle told gently, in warm climes and amid warm people. The film does not ignore the poverty and struggles of the world that she passes through, but neither does it wrestle with the questions of -- as I believe philosopher-mytic George   Gurdjieff referred to it, the material question." This is a story told always in motion and always on the move.  It feels like less a dark night of the soul, than a tale of a woman who wakes up in interesting and beautiful places but can't understand why she is still unhappy. Ultimately, like in Groundhog Day, another existential story come to think of it, her life begins to take new form and provide new possibilities when she begins to take risks that touch the lives of others.  While this may seem a tad superficial and facile, here, it all works.  We struggle and if we are lucky, we also think and reflect. I loved the travel aspects of this film,the ideas of making new friends in exotic places. But the real reason that it all comes together into such a satisfying film is that the questions that are raised here, despite any political backlash, are all eternal questions. And in this case the seeker is a brave human being who just keeps trying everything, including the courage to move toward nothingness,  until she finally gets something right. This is a warm, complicated and colorful story, and director Ryan Murphy has translated the book to film in a gentle and less fractious way, but still has caught it all perfectly.


Brooklyn note: Bookstore scenes filmed at BookCourt.

Coda: Worth Doing and Seeing in Harrisburg, PA

Above, The Midtown Scholar, huge, wonderful dealer of more than one million discounted, used, rare, academic and general interest books.  It may well be the largest bookstore in Pennsylvania. Also the site of literary readings, music and theater events, and other community activities, the Midtown Scholar is a nexus for cultural activities in the Midtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area. It features a great coffee bar and chairs and  sofas for browsing throughout. A sort of alternative Barnes and Noble, laid back with a strong literary focus, this is the kind of place that New Yorkers visit and think, "Wow, it must be cool to live here and have this as a local spot." (Although, in fairness, Harrisburg folks probably think -- "I wonder what it must be like to live in Brooklyn." In any event, an interesting roadside attraction that we encountered on our trip through PA to Pittsburgh. More on the Midtown Scholar, Harrisburg,  here.

Just across the street in the Midtown Harrisburg area, the Broad Street Market is a fun destination for casual eating and shopping at great prices. I had a great Lebanese mez platter for lunch, but there was West Indian, Asian, Mexican, Italian, Viet Namese, BBQ, burgers, tons of choices. Folks were friendly and prices good. Next door was an equally large building with local merchants and farmers (including Amish and Mennonite families) selling organic meats, seafood, fruits and veges, flowers, dairy products, candies, bread and baked goods, etc. Vendor list here

More details on the Broad Street Market here.

The Chestnut Street Bridge over the Susquehannah to City Island in Harrisburg, PA.

All photos by Brooklyn Beat/TN

We had a great roadtrip through Pennsylvania !

You Are the Eyes of the World: Remembering Jerry Garcia, 1942-1995

Remembering Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995), an American musician best known for his lead guitar work and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead. Though he vehemently disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader of the group.

One of its founders, Garcia performed with The Grateful Dead for their entire three-decade career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders-Garcia Band with longtime friend Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, and Legion of Mary.Garcia co-founded the New Riders of the Purple Sage with John Dawson and David Nelson. He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story. Later in life, Garcia was sometimes ill because of his unstable weight, and in 1986 went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin addiction, and was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995.

The NY Times front page obituary...

More on the 15th anniversary of the passing of Jerry Garcia

Jerry Garcia biopic in the works (early years prior to the Grateful Dead)

Jerry Garcia's long, strange trip continues to roll on, as the 15th anniversary of his death will be marked by a Jerry Garcia Tribute Night at the San Francisco Giants' stadium tonight. In addition, Ben and Jerry's ice cream reports that Cherry Garcia continues to be the favorite flavor. More here on the myth and the very cool man.

Video:  Eyes of the World, Winterland, 1974. Jerry and the gang, in the groove.

Fictional Fragments:  And last but not least ---- last year, here at DITHOB, I fictionalized two brief but very real and memorable encounters with Garcia that I had back in the 1970/80s. Meetings with Remarkable Folks:  Fragments from the Gone World