MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2001
Time now to focus on the best way to deal with this thing and it looks like the most effective way is to give direct aid to the Afghan people, starting with the refugee camps and then across the borders into Afghanistan itself.
Food, shelter, water, latrines. Actual money. Let's win the people over. They don't like the Taliban either. How can you like anyone who treats the women and kids the way they do? Once we have our friendly foot in the door the merchants can follow, helping the people acquire the goods stuff; and not coincidentally infiltrating our intelligence people. Snoopin' and poopin'.
In the Sixties a pilgrimmage to Afghanistan was almost a required course in spiritual advancement. One of the friendliest, most beautiful places in the world. Our goal should be to assist Afghanistan in restoring that previous splendor.
-- Ken Babbs
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2001
What with all our preparations for our gig at the McDonald Theater in Eugene last night we haven't been keeping up with the website although we have certainly been keeping up with the news as it's been pouring in.
The mood at the theater was somber and serious but definitely upbeat. Everyone aware of the profound impact this new terrorist tactic is going to have on everything but at the same time everyone determined not to let it turn us into a bunch of bunker mentality dunderheads.
Our message was to reaffirm our commitment to kindness and decency to others and we spread it in our inimitable Prankster fashion, beatin' out dat rhythm on dah thunder machine, banging on everyone's earballs with our raps chants and spontaneious prose.
Out of the hundreds of emails we received today there was one concerning the show
at the McDonald Theater. Here it is:
"I was at the benefit for Chez Ray last night (Sept. 13). Before the performance of the Merry Pranksters, I would never have thought it possible to address the events of Sept. 11 in a way that involved satire or humor. But the cacaphony of quotations from the endless barrage of bellicosity spewing out of the mass media was brilliant, and the music was unsettling and hilarious at the same time. It was truly an exercise in mindfulness, a tuning-out of the noise of the world by showing us its insidious and hypnotic character.
Thanks for a wonderful performance."
Stephen Slater
Eugene
In our usual inept fashion we took the digital camera to the gig last night but
neglected to take any pictures.
Today I'm engulfed by emails expressing sympathy, concern and a fervernt hope the horrific tragedy in the east coast doesn't turn into a big bloodbath. There's also a gadzillion forwarded messages telling everyone to display the flag and to light a candle at 7 PM tonight. All worthy expressions but I couldn't help but think how much more meaningful those emails would hve been if they were messages written by each of the person who mailed us. Take the effort to write down your own thoughts and forego the forward button.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2001
PRANKSTERS TO PERFORM
AT HISTORIC MCDONALD THEATER!
On Thursday, September 13, at precisely 8:07 PM the Pranksters will be playing their famous Thunder Machine at the newly restored McDonald Theater in downtown Eugene, Oregon.
The evening is touted as a benefit for Chez Ray, Mike Hagen and the Chez Ray North Beach restaurant right around the corner from the theater. Business at the restaurant has been so bad they can't make the rent and rather than close down they figured, "Hey, let's get a bunch of our friends-- Kesey and the Pranksters and The Flying Karamozov Brothers, David Nelson, Shelly James, Neil Diamond, Patty Page and John Swan-- and do a show at the theater. Keep us all in business."
"This is going to be the premier artistic event of the McDonald's resurrection and we are counting on a full house," said Al Geiger Counter, the theater owner and, not coincidentally, Chez Ray's North Beach Restaurant's landlord.
With tickets at a mere $20 each and seating limited to 850, the buzz on the streets is get there early or miss out. This is a rare chance to catch the Thunder Machine on a big time theater stage with a real loud sound system.
At the end we are hoping for a real wild jam session. We heard Neil Diamond can be pretty good.
-- Ken Babbs
The American Muse did an email interview with Kesey. If you'd like to read it click on:
MUSE
There's a new item in the Menu on the left. Check it out. It is a Prankster history project and wants you to contribute. Look for the icon. Oh hell, here's the link:
New Item
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2001
JERRY GARCIA'S BIRTHDAY
quote from Garcia (regarding his Coma time):
"My main experience was one of furious activity and tremendous struggle in a sort of futuristic, space-ship vehicle with insectoid presences. After I came out of my coma, I had this image of myself as these little hunks of protoplasm that were stuck together kind of like stamps with perforations between them that you could snap off.
They were run through with neoprene tubing, and there were these insects that looked
like cockroaches which were like message-units that were kind of like my bloodstream. That was my image of my physical
self and this particular feeling lasted a long time. It was really strange."
TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2001
R.I.P. EUDORA WELTY
Eudora Welty is one of my true heroes.
A great writer. POWERHOUSE is one of the
best stories in the English langauge,
a few pages that opens the door on
a life and land and time that can't
be seen from any other peephole.
I met her once with a big collection
of writers rallying round the Literary
Flag in Washington DC somewhere. She
came crippling up to the mike, garashly
humpbacked and tiny and old-- except for her
eyes. Her eyes you didn't see so much as
you heard them-- like a pair of tiny, singing
trumpets.
She was obviously the star of the whole
literary event, even to the people who had
never heard of Eudora Welty before.
I can't remember what she read. It
was a piece I knew, I think, but I can't
remember what. I was spellbound. Everybody
was. Imagine Sister Theresa with a twinkle
of humor beneath the wrinkles. Imagine
Toni Morrison only she's very old, very white,
and twisted like a dried rose.
She was beautiful, all the way. Always
will be.
--Ken Kesey
PRANKSTERS AT
WORLD HEMP FESTIVAL
We drove 20 miles up the freeway to Conde's World Hemp Festival on Sunday; hauling the thunder machine and the usual complement of pranksters.
Getting ready to carry the thunder machine up to the stage.
The thunder machine, for those of you who haven't seen or heard it, is a very large musical instrument, big enough for a person to sit inside it. The rest of the players group around it, twinging and zinging on the guitar strings, beatin' out dat rhythm on the sides, subtly of course, so the whole effect is one of an orchestra or, as some say, a massive kettle drum. Everything is amplified, with various other instruments plugged in, adding to the complexity.
At the Hemp Fest the thunder machine was played by Ken Kesey, Ken Babbs, Phil Dietz, George Walker, Carolyn Garcia, Zane Kesey, Simon Babbs and John Swan.
Simon Babbs, Zane Kesey and John Swan at the Hemp Fest.
The thunder machine was originally made in '62 or '63 by Ron Boise, a metal sculptor. He cut and welded sections of a car body into curved shapes and put bicycle wheels underneath it to be able to move it.
In the early seventies, prankster Paige Browning resurrected the thunder machine into its
present incarnation. One of its greatest performances was at the old Dexter theater when the Oregon Repetory Theater
did a show and the Pranksters carried the thunder machine through the big back doors up onto the stage. Randi Douglas
was lounging on a big double bed in her negligee doing the Molly Bloom soliloquy from Ulysses while John Freeman
lay at the foot of the bed nibbling her bare toes.
Zane at his position in the cockpit.
The thunder machine went on a cross-country tour to NYC with Ken Kesey and his son, Zane, and musicians, Steve Schuster, Arzinia Richardson and Art Maddox. They were performing Kesey's "Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double The Bear.
Kesey talking to the crowd at the Hemp Fest.
The thunder machine also went with the bus, Further, to the British Isles in '99 on the Wheresmerlin? Tour, along with twenty pranksters.
Bill Conde, Hemp Fest organizer, major hemp activist, facing a possible prison
sentence for pot but is running for governor so he can pardon himself. Good luck, Bill, you threw another great
event.
-- Ken Babbs
For more great old pages click on: