Dock Ellis’s LSD No-Hitter Animated
While LSD has a healthy rep for inspiring great art (e.g., R. Crumb, Ken Kesey, the Beatles) and great science (Francis Crick deduced the double-helix structure of DNA while tripping), it’s rarely considered much of a sports enhancer — with one important exception. On June 12, 1970, formidable yet eccentric Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis…
AMA Calls For Marijuana Schedule Review
To the surprise and delight of those who support medical marijuana, the American Medical Association announced Tuesday that it will call for the schedule I status of marijuana to be reviewed: “Our American Medical Association (AMA) urges that marijuana’s status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct…
Nashville’s Ticket Troubles
NewsChannel 5 in Nashville has been airing a sobering investigative report this week on the high cost of tickets to see country music stars such as Keith Urban and Taylor Swift. Ticket scalping is endemic through the concert business, but since when did the “workingman’s blues” cost a second mortgage on the family trailer? Reporter…
Reverb Greens Phish, Dave Matthews, O.A.R., And More
Reverb, the nonprofit dedicated to greening up tours and informing fans about sustainability, has a snazzy new video to launch its refreshed website. Since 2004, when it was founded by Guster’s Adam Gardner and his wife, Lauren Sullivan, Reverb has worked with the Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, O.A.R., Maroon 5, and many other acs…
Joni Mitchell, James Taylor Help Launch Greenpeace
Joni Mitchell, then 26, was the consummate folk star and James Taylor, 22, the cool new kid on the block when the two toured together in the fall of 1970. There’s a great bootleg and some amazing YouTube videos of their late-October Royal Albert Hall show floating around. A couple of weeks earlier, however, the…
Kenny Gamble And Patti LaBelle’s New National Anthem
“We need a new a national anthem,” says Patti LaBelle in the trailer for I Am An American: The Making of an Anthem, a CD/DVD to be released today, Veterans Day. “I Am an American” was part of the repertoire of spirituals sung during services by Reverend Major Jealous Divine, AKA Father Divine, who died…
Next Danny Boyle Project Likely To Include Phish Music
Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is slated to direct a movie based on Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston’s harrowing 2004 account of being trapped under a boulder in a Utah canyon, where he was forced to amputate his own arm. In this Aspen Times interview, Ralston discusses consulting with Boyle about…
Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Foundation
New Jersey’s second favorite arena rocker puts his money where his home is by investing millions of dollars in environmentally friendly LEED-certified affordable housing. The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation‘s projects include the Genesis apartments in Newark, New Jersey, a quarter of which are reserved for persons who’ve tested HIV positive. Bon Jovi visits the…
Government Sachs
Today’s required reading would be this very long London Times profile of Goldman Sachs and its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein. Ominously titled, “I’m doing ‘God’s work’. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs,” the feature takes readers into the inner sanctum of the company Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi described as, “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face…
How The Beatles Brought Down The Soviet Empire
Everyone loves a poll, which is like an election only much less consequential. New York City public television station Channel Thirteen wants to know which musical artist had the greatest impact on history. Over the past few weeks, entries have been narrowed down to the Beatles, Bono, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Michael Jackson. Something…