Mandy Martin, Puritjarra 2, 2005. For further information on MANDY MARTIN, refer here: http://www.mandy-martin.com/
If there are diverse kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing place, then we need to learn to value the different ways each of us sees a single place that is significant, but differently so, for each perspective.
adrift on a sea of information at a time when the world's night is a destitute time. In the age of the world's night, the abyss of the world must be endured.
--Adelaide is home. Relaxation is Victor Harbor. I'm a frustrated photographer who has lost his way in life.I have trouble coping in the technological mode of being of our complex digital world.
There is a heatwave in Adelaide --a week or more of temperatures in the high 30's and low 40's---and I've gone down to Victor Harbor for cooler temperatures so that I can work on health policy. It's not much cooler here.There is no sea breeze, it is very still, and the days are hot. At least it cools down at night.
Tonight I am relaxing with a glass of Savingnon Blanc from Nelson, New Zealand, and I'm watching a DVD of a feel good Grateful Dead concert--- Downhill from Here --- courtesy of Winamp on my computer.
'Downhill From Here' was recorded live at Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, Wisconsin in 1989 and the above track ---"China Cat Sunflower"-- starts off the second set as part of the "China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider" coupling. Since the motionless Dead were never a visually compelling live act it comes down to the music and the quality of the filming and sound.
The raw energy of the Grateful Dead’s late-’60s performances and the adventurous freewheeling jams of the its early to late '70s excursions remained a thing of the past. They'd transformed into tight-knit, rock ’n‘ roll outfit that effortlessly could tap into its history as a means of creating some good music that ventures into the experimental in the strange Jam and Drums and Space section of the second set.
This show in 1989 represents a revival of sorts for the Dead and it is basically the peak of the last era of the Dead - the band really did begin to go downhill from there. Below is the "I Know You Rider" part of the opening "China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider" coupling:
The band's improvisory skills are still sharp and became apparent during the playing of the "Playing in the Band" and "Uncle John's Band" sequence This version of "Playin" was stretched out a good 13 minutes- with "Uncle John's Band" intertwined afterwards. It is an almost complete live Dead performance and it gives some experience of a concert's communal experience. However, it is quite average in terms of the Dead musically.
What I would like to see is The Grateful Dead Movie. This was filmed October 16-20, 1974, right before they took a year off to make Blues For Allah & work on solo projects. By all accounts it encapsulated the Grateful Dead’s 1974 "farewell" concerts at Winterland Arena in San Francisco. It also blended the music of the Dead with the feeling of what it was like to attend a '70s Dead show.
I wonder how good it is as a work of film?
| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 10:51 PM | Permalink
I, too, have been listening to the Dead in the Adelaide heat ... a couple of '74 shows and now, an October '72 show. I find it hard to leave the 70s when it comes to the Dead. Their free-form improvisation of that time comes close to some great jazz.
The Grateful Dead Movie is great to see.
I, too, have been listening to the Dead in the Adelaide heat ... a couple of '74 shows and now, an October '72 show. I find it hard to leave the 70s when it comes to the Dead. Their free-form improvisation of that time comes close to some great jazz.
The Grateful Dead Movie is great to see.