oPen tHread for dEad hEads...

On November 16th-18th, 2007, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will host the symposium, Unbroken Chain: The Grateful Dead In Music, Culture, And Memory. Expanding the focus of the current history courses, and with the participation of UMass alumnus (Ph.D., History 1979) and Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally as well as numerous other scholars and luminaries, the symposium will combine academic inquiry, performance, and artistic appreciation in an innovative multi-disciplinary, multi-media program. (for more information see this article and links)

While we were hoping to have some of the more famous (and infamous) of the Deadheads attend (sadly Walter Cronkite is really not well enough to travel, and Peter Jennings has been dead for two years) we can expect a few rare appearances by some of the freaks whose shadows cast some degree of influence over the last forty+ years. Therefore, as part of my own participation in the endeavor, i would like to open this thread to throw out a request for comments about how you, as individuals, have perceived the Grateful Dead, the band's social and cultural influences, psychedelics, the sixties and hippies, etc.??? I will not, and do not, expect only positive comments, as i am well aware, for example of the Chairman-for-Life's own antipathy regarding the band and its music. Negative views of the band's cultural relevancies are encouraged, as, of course, are positive ones. The music is not really the issue at this point, regardless of what Phil Lesh once said that it was only about the music (what does he know, he never once saw a single GD concert). It is more about how the Grateful Dead were experienced and understood by those inside its meme (the Deadheads) and those so far outside that world that they may not even have heard about hippies???