Classical Values :: Dead blogging the Oscars II

Dead blogging the Oscars II

Yes, I'm afraid it's now an annual tradition. I just turned on the Oscars in time to see Al Gore with a sycophantic young admirer (a future cabinet member who starred in "Titanic"), and Gore then made what sounded like a tantalizing major announcement, is if he was going to say he was gay or run for president or something, but then he ran off stage with the sycophant so I turned it off and reminded myself that the thing to do in cases like this is to watch the Grateful Dead like I did last year.

Only this year, I thought I'd share a Grateful Dead video.

It's "Easy Wind," sung by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, 1970.

Hey, it beats watching Gore play casting director with future cabinet members.

Things were cooler in those days.

This Global Warming stuff is giving my inner child nightmares.

UPDATE (11:11): Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth."

Don't expect me to PhotoShop anything, OK? I'm too damned tired for inconvenient trophy placement.

UPDATE (02/26/07): Via Glenn Reynolds, Pajamas Media describes Gore's rather peculiar "announcement":

The Goracle is anointed by Leo DiCaprio... and then pretends to, kind of, almost, announce he's running. (Why would he? Nobody says such nice things about you when you actually are a candidate. It's worse if you're president.)

PJM has the video of the announcement, although I still think the Dead are cooler than Gore, and they always will be.

UPDATE (02/28/07): After reading about Hollywood's attempt to censor the Oscars on YouTube, I decided after much agonizing to link the video of Al Gore's "announcement":

(I guess Al owns enough stock in Google that he won't let himself be censored.)

But Pigpen is still cooler!

Comments

Leo needs to be the lead in the autobiographical masterpiece "Martin Eden" by Jack London. Remember him on the rail of the Titanic yelling "I'm king of the world" and then picture him as Martin Eden.
Forget a loser like Gore, DiCaprio, and make the movie of your career.
Besides, Gore's straight (I think), and getting old and fat fast. Not Leo's type.

Frank · February 25, 2007 11:06 PM

I had no idea you were a Dead Head.

Me too.

M. Simon · February 26, 2007 05:19 AM

Yeah, I've been a Deadhead since 1970. I think we've probably attended some of the same shows. Were I inclined to speculate about the unknowable, we might even share a few scientifically inexplicable neural connections. Or would that be mutations?

Eric Scheie · February 26, 2007 09:14 AM

Should I tell Gore he got a loki point from each of you?

It was a bit. In Net parlance, a troll. There was no major announcement, Gore and DiCaprio put you on, and you fell for it.

What's next? The Arctic Ocean isn't thawing? :)

Alan Kellogg · February 26, 2007 02:05 PM

What? Was I taking my speculations about his cabinet too seriously?

Eric Scheie · February 26, 2007 02:29 PM

God I miss Pigpen. He lived before my time but my explorations through Dicks Picks and the open source material leaves me in awe. I only wish I could have seen him on stage in his prime. Oh well, I'll always have the April 1971 Fillmore shows to get me through.

Captain Ned · February 26, 2007 07:52 PM

I'm incredibly lucky to have seen the band in those days, because Pigpen was somehow the cosmic drunken center of their whole thing, and I don't know how he did it. There was no delineation between audience spaces and backstage spaces in those days, no security except a few Hells Angels hanging around in case people got violent. Pigpen used to just hang around and talk. Or if the band was playing, he'd sit around on the edge of the stage, and maybe interject when he felt like it, sometimes play the organ a little, but the craziest thing is that it was his band. He was the closest thing they ever had to a leader, except he wasn't. Well starting the group was his idea, but it had a life all its own that nobody understood least of all the band members. Some crazy extraterrestial joke which everyone reflected on in different ways. That something very strange was going on was undeniable. But what? Grasping at glimpses of infinity and letting it take over? Why? How? Pigpen's glimpses were alcohol fueled, of course, and it's a shame they couldn't have popped a new liver into him like they did Lesh for different reasons.

That damn impenetrable mortality thing! It's like running into a brick wall, killing everyone in its path, even the Dead, starting with Pigpen. I'm not trying to be overly cosmic or anything, but these aren't ordinary thoughts.

Eric Scheie · February 26, 2007 08:24 PM

Eric,

I was lucky enough to see the Dead and the Velvet Underground on the same bill at The Family Dog.

The stage was raised about 6" above the dance floor.

M. Simon · March 1, 2007 11:53 AM

Now I'm really jealous! I was just a kid then.

Here's a link to Pigpen at the Family Dog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKpOWEdVWBU

Eric Scheie · March 1, 2007 05:34 PM