Tuesday, April 07, 2009

"Match Day'' tonight in Palo Alto

My friend Brian Eule will be speaking tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park. He will be reading from his much-praised new nonfiction book, "Match Day.''

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dan, it's amazing how everything comes full circle. When I saw "Kepler's", that rang a bell to a distant memory of Jerry Garcia, and sure enough thanks to Google:

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.11.05/alleys-0519.html

I would have sent Zook an email on that...and today is the 25th anniversary of my first Dead show, April 7th, 1984 at Irvine Meadows.

As Jerry sang, "it all rolls into one..."

Youndy Hung

Anonymous said...

Hi Youndy -- funny because I was just thinking about my first-ever Dead show (with David, of course!) over at the Ventura County Fairgrounds back in 1987. I can't remember whether it was spring or summer (but hoping a Deadhead who kept record of these things can help me out.) The crowd was so mellow that David and I - -after smuggling in some lukewarm Pacifica beers -- somehow ended up out front, right in front of Phil Lesh. I even remember the first song ("Mississippi Uptown Toodleoo") and a group of knuckleheads standing near the stage, shouting out requests!!! As if. It was a grand old time.
DW

Anonymous said...

Dan, I have a great Zook/Mississippi Half Step story:

We happened to be together at the Oakland Coliseum on my birthday on 12/13/1992 for a Dead show. After waiting in line all afternoon, Zook, myself, and about a dozen other friends scoped out a killer spot right in front of the stage. I happened to be in an extra festive mood (hey, it was my bday), and in that state of mind, I flashed that it would be cool to hear Mississippi Half Step for my birthday because of the first line in the song "On the day that I was born, Daddy sat down and cried..."

Well, I told Zook this, and then he commences to tell our whole group they have to yell out for Jerry to play it. So indeed, when the band comes out to start the show, they all start yelling "Half Step! Birthday! Half Step! Birthday!" pointing at me. Strangers around us join in the "fun" which embarrassed me to no end. Garcia is kinda looking over at us with a puzzled look, but they tune up a bit, and sure as shiite, they kick off the show with it. Made my year. Best birthday present, ever!

Youndy

cactuseaters said...

That is really incredible. So they do requests after all -- or was it one of those strange coincidences? In any case, what a great story.