And also a good example of my playing hookey from blogging, but I found a truly great recording of what I think may be the best Grateful Dead show ever, from the Capitol Theater on February 18, 1971. The entire show can be streamed or downloaded here, and the songlist follows:

Bertha*, Truckin', It Hurts Me Too, Loser*, Greatest Story Ever Told* > Johnny B. Goode*, Mama Tried, Hard To Handle, Dark Star > Wharf Rat* > Dark Star > Me & My Uncle Casey Jones, Playin' In The Band, Me And Bobby McGee, Candyman, Big Boss Man, Sugar Magnolia, Saint Stephen > Not Fade Away > Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad > Not Fade Away > Uncle John's Band

I realize only a die hard Deadhead would care about such things, and I also realize that many people would consider my even writing this post to be a classic example of self-indulgent psychedelic nostalgia, aggravated by a narcissistic, passive-aggressive sense of midlife "entitlement" which takes the form of imagining that I need a break from blogging about important issues.

Yes, I really should be paying more attention to Hillary's impending comeback.

I mean, isn't it bad enough that I listen to the Grateful Dead when I'm supposed to be watching the Oscars?

Can I blame Hillary for my malignant malingering?

Yes I can!

While I had tried to ignore politics while wasting time digging through Dead archives, it just so happens that right as I was finishing this self-indulgent post, my insatiable curiosity got the better of me, and I thought to Google "Deadheads" and "Obama."

Was I ever in for a shock.

Not only is there a Deadheads for Obama presence on the Internet, but three Dead band members -- Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Mickey Hart regrouped to endorse Obama, and did a benefit concert for him, an event which Garance Franke-Ruta called "the Obama campaign's boldest cultural outreach effort to date."

I'm even more out of it than I thought.

Here's their press conference:

And here's Obama thanking them.

Unless Hillary wins big enough tonight to force me to register Democrat to vote against her in the Pennsylvania primary, I'm not voting for Obama.

But hey, things could have been worse.

It could have been Deadheads for Hillary.