Tonight I was going to write about Rhythmix, our own McArthur winner, and Kiva but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I'll introduce you to our theme music and lay out our foundational myth.
OK, children of love, gather round the glow of your monitors, shut out the cold winter night and let uncle Rog tell you a little tale. Ahh, a little sip from my glass of Rosenblum's "Vin du Ordinaire" and I'll get started. I'm a firm believer that every good creative enterprise should have theme music and a creation myth. In the case of my little blog the two go hand in hand.
Way back in 79 when I escaped from the midwest and moved to OZ (S.F.) I shared an apartment with Richard. Richard had a pretty good album collection and among those albums was the Greatful Dead's "American Beauty". We played that album all the time. I particularly came to like "Box of Rain". It was good winter time music for one thing. It seemed to touch hauntingly on the themes of love and loss, of hope and regret. It ends with the line, "Such a long time to be gone, such a short time to be there." I have always interpreted that line as an admonition to get on with your life and do the things that you really want to do.
It has been a lot of years since I've listened to much Greatful Dead. But a few days ago as I was driving back home on Atlantic, in the rain, "Box of Rain" was playing on the radio. As I listened to the lyrics I thought, "Yes, I'm just going to sit down and start doing that blog." I came home and did just that. That is the power of music for you. So that's my little creation story. Hope you liked it. But wait there's more... I was looking around YouTube for a nice concert clip of "Box of Rain" and I ran across a short two and half minute interview clip with Phil Lesh and Robert Hunter about the writing of the song. Turns out this was written when Phil Lesh's dad was dying of cancer. Check it out, it is well worth two and half minutes of your time. The second clip is of the boys in concert playing the song.
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