General discussion

From TechCrunch: Grateful Dead Fan Site Reborn as Social Network Nick Gonzalez At their peak, rock legends “The Grateful Dead” attracted an estimated community of 40,000 self-proclaimed “Deadheads” trailing them as they toured the country. The movement had originally spawned from fans meeting at concerts and networking on mailing lists. Mailing lists turned digital with … Read more

I can’t say I blame her. I’m pretty damn disappointed in the Democrats, too. From Cindy Sheehan’s diary on DailyKos: “Good Riddance Attention Whore” by Cindy Sheehan I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement. Especially since … Read more

Rich Simon reviews my new CD, Twisted Love Songs, in the June issue of Relix, page 82. Some highlights: Gans’ vocal inflection… serves his surprisingly dark, sardonic wit. That’s especially so on political songs like “It’s Gonna Get Better”, which takes the current administration to task with old-timey guitar and chorus like a Woody Guthrie … Read more

Sirius Satellite Radio announces a Grateful Dead channel starting this summer!

I put up a set of “water texture” images, all shot within a hundred yards or so of our vacation house on Kaua’i, from different angles, at different times of day, and with different degrees of naturalness/manipulation.

Douger writes (and I post here with his permission) of seeing Dark Star Orchestra at the Westbury Music Fair: OK, I saw this band last night. A friend called yesterday afternoon with an extra ticket and I had no plans, so what the hell. As far as the creepiness factor goes, I think I understand … Read more

DAVID NELSON & FRIENDS Barry Sless Mookie Siegel Pete Sears John Molo First East Coast Shows!- May 30-June 1 Hi Everyone, As you may have noticed, the opportunities we’ve had to get together and do shows over the past few years have been few and far between. We’ve found a few opportunities in the next … Read more

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a big Summer of Love 40th-anniversary reminiscence package in yesterday’s edition. I’m working my way through all of these pieces, which seem like transcripts of interviews with all the questions stripped out, and every one of them that I’ve read has delivered the goods. Peter Coyote‘s is particularly rich. An … Read more

Email from Lane Steinberg: Hey David- I did a version of ‘Dark Star’ by myself. You might get a kick out of it. I tried to stay true to a ’69 vibe. I have it up in three parts up on Myspace here. Best, Lane Steinberg It’s pretty impressive, considering that it was recorded one … Read more

The Easiest Best Thing Is Be Kind is a book of essays cedited by Luke Myers as a fund-raiser for the people of Darfur. From the publisher’s web site: A study in the causes of genocide and the importance of compassion with help from many of the important figures from the Grateful Dead family. Paperback, … Read more