Tonight the Empire State Building dons "Psychedelic Tie-Dye Colors" in honor of an upcoming exhibit, "The Grateful Dead: Now Playing at the New-York Historical Society," which opens at the Historical Society on March 5, 2010. The exhibit will display material from the extensive Grateful Dead Archive housed at the University of California-Santa Cruz.
The lights are a nostalgic reminder of the Dead's annual fall runs at Madison Square Garden. They're also a clever way to draw attention to the exhibit and, more specifically, an October 21 fund raiser for the exhibit: Tickets ($300) are still available for the cocktail reception at which Phil Lesh and Bob Weir will appear. A group of local Deadhead real estate tycoons are co-hosting the reception.
“We’re all good friends, we’re all in real estate and we all love the Grateful Dead,” said Robert Lapidus, President, Chief Investment Officer and Co-founder of L&L Holding Company, LLC, a privately owned real estate company dedicated to investing in office buildings, primarily in Manhattan. “We thought there are so many Deadheads (what devoted fans of the band are known as) in New York, and what better area to bring the archive to and what better place than the New York Historical Society.”