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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



Registered: 04/20/01
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Today in psychedelic history (01/22) 2
#24030728 - 01/22/17 02:29 PM (7 years, 6 days ago) |
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- 1966: Second day of The Trips Festival takes place
Quote:
Trips Festival
On many levels, the psychedelic sixties truly began at the Trips Festival held at Longshoremen's Hall at 400 North Point Street in San Francisco on the weekend of January 21, 22, and 23, 1966. Stewart Brand, who would go on to create the Whole Earth Catalog, came up with the original concept along with a musician and visual artist named Ramon Sender. With Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as the featured attraction, by far the wildest of the three events took place on Saturday night. Kesey, who had just been given a six-month sentence on a work farm as well as six months of probation for his marijuana bust at La Honda, had made front-page news in San Francisco just two days earlier by getting arrested yet again along with his companion Carolyn Adams, aka Mountain Girl, for smoking a joint on the roof of Brand's apartment in North Beach. No doubt in part to show their continuing support for Kesey, somewhere between three thousand and five thousand revelers who were stoned out of their heads on LSD that Owsley had provided jammed a hall that was only supposed to hold seventeen hundred people. In the words of Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally, "There were simply more people tripping in a single room ... than anyone had ever seen before." As Jerry Garcia would later say, "It was total insanity. I mean total, wall-to-wall, gonzo lunacy.... Everybody was just partying furiously. There were people jumping off balconies onto blankets and then bouncing up and down. I mean, there was incredible shit going on. Plus, it was like old home week. I met and saw everybody I had ever known. Every beatnik, every hippie, every coffeehouse hangout person from all over the state was there, all freshly psychedelicizcd." What with Hells Angels punching out members of other motorcycle clubs in the hallways as one of the Pranksters tried to force Big Brother and the Holding Company off the stage after they had performed just one song, the scene was so crazy that no one could control it. Which did not stop Bill Graham, who had only just begun putting on shows at the Fillmore Auditorium and had been brought in to help run the event, from doing all he could to stop the Pranksters from letting people in for free. After running all over the hall with a clipboard in his hand in search of Kesey, Graham finally found him standing at the back door letting in a constant stream of bikers. To keep the law from knowing he was there, Kesey was attending the event in a silver space suit with a helmet. After trying in vain to get Kesey's attention, Graham finally lost control and began screaming at him. With-out saying a word, Kesey simply flipped the visor of his helmet down and went right on doing as he pleased. As Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead would later say of Bill Graham that night, "We were with the Pranksters and the buzz was, `Who's that asshole with the clipboard?'" Aside from Jerry Garcia, with whom Graham would forge a lifelong bond on Sunday night by trying to put Garcia's shattered guitar back together so the Dead could play (which they never did), the only other person at the Trips Festival who understood what Bill Graham was all about was Owsley. "It was completely out of control and he was trying to control it, and of course he couldn't, because the harder you tried to grab it, the more slippery it became. I was real stoned when I came into contact with Bill, and I could see right through all the bullshit, and I realized he was half-terrified by what it was and was doing every-thing he could to control it and to suppress the realization that there was something special going on there besides something that was obviously making money." Owsley brought Tim Scully with him to the Trips Festival. Then twenty-six years old, Scully had skipped his senior year in high school to begin attending the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in mathematical physics. Having already built a small computer in middle school and a liner accelerator in high school, Scully had left the university in 1964 to work as an electronic design consultant. A few hours after having mailed in his tax return on April 15, 1965, Scully had taken LSD for the first time. Possessed by the notion that acid was a better solution to society's problems than technology, Scully then spent months tracking "down the source of his dose," who was of course Owsley. After spending weeks carefully checking Scully out, Owsley brought him to the Trips Festival to see how he would react, and the two then began working together on assembling state-of-the-art sound equipment for the Dead as well as the wholesale manufacture of high-quality LSD. One week after the Trips Festival, on January 29, 1966, Owsley joined the Grateful Dead at the Sound City Acid Test. During the event, held in a radio station in San Francisco, the band tried to record what they had been doing live to accompany the swirling madness created by the Pranksters. During the evening, Bob Weir "first sort of logged into Owsley. He was dressed in medieval garb, had a pageboy haircut, and was wearing a ruffled shirt, and he was a dandy. Of course I was loaded on LSD, so all that had its own little resonance with me. "I was on Owsley acid when I met Owsley, and he seemed like one of us. I was eighteen years old and he was as old as Kesey, at least thirty, but they were both more like kids than most kids you were going to see. We connected right away because he was a very, very interesting guy and seemed to know something about every-thing, and that appealed to me. "If you got involved in a discussion with Owsley even back then, you kind of had to pack a lunch. I think Phil was his closest contact in the band. They had already bonded because they both had really high IQ, and real good retention of information and they were both really curious. Together, they added up to different kaleidoscopes, if you will." Then twenty-five years old, Phil Lesh had attended Berkeley High School and the College of San Mateo before transferring to the University of California in Berkeley, where he dropped out after a single semester. Originally a violin player, he had also studied the trumpet and was an avid devotee of avant-garde classical music and free jazz. While working as an unpaid recording engineer at KPFA, Lesh had met Jerry Garcia, who talked him into becoming the bass player for the band that was then still known as the Warlocks. Unlike Garcia, Lesh had been formally trained and so could read music as well as write charts. Lesh and Owsley had first connected with each other at the Fill-more Acid Test on January 8, 1966. Having last seen a completely freaked-out Owsley dragging a chair across the floor in Muir Beach, Lesh thought Owsley now looked "like a conquering hero or some Robin Hood figure out of swashbuckling antiquity." Wearing "an Aussie digger hat and a leather caper Owsley seemed to Us "every inch the figure of the psychedelic warrior ... a man who knows he's on to something cosmic and eternal." Walking up to Owsley, Lesh extended his hand and said, "So, you're Owsley. I feel as if I've known you through many lifetimes." Immediately taking the conversation to another level, Owsley replied, "You have, and you will through many more to come." Lesh then felt as though he were living in Owsley's head, which may have been "the result of all the trips I'd taken using his product." Never one to pass on an opportunity, Owsley then asked what he could do for the band. "Phil said they did not have a manager. Having no interest in that role at all, I declined the offer. He then said they had no sound man, and I figured I could be good at that since I had audio experience in radio and TV. By the time of the Trips Festival, I was their sound man."
(Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III)
- 1970: York Feng is sentenced for possession of "1 kilo of LSD"
Quote:
Feng Sentenced
LAFAYETTE. Ind. (UPI)—York Feng, 22, a Nationalist Chinese and a former Purdue University student, was sentenced Thursday [which was January 22, 1970] to 1-10 years in the Indiana State Prison for possession of dangerous drugs.
Feng was convicted recently of possessing a kilo of LSD at the time of his arrest last September. He was sentenced by Tippecanoe Superior Court Judge Robert Monroe.
(The Republic (Columbus, Indiana), 23 Jan 1970, Fri, Page 8)
Purdue LSD `Lab' Raided; 9 Arrested
LAFAYETTE. Ind. (AP) —Police raided two apartments near the Purdue University campus today and broke up a what they termed "laboratory" manufacturing LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs for distribution among college students in the United States and Canada.
Among the nine persons arrested was York Feng, 23, identified as a Formosa native with addresses in Chicago and West Lafayette.
Police said Feng flew in from California to Weir Cook Airport at Indianapolis early today and they followed him to an apartment in West Lafayette. He was held in lieu of $35,000 bond on charges of sale and possession of narcotic drugs.
Officers said they confiscated thousands of LSD pills, more than 20 pounds of marijuana, and several plastic bags filled with a white powder which police believe is a base for the manufacture of mescaline.
Arthur L. Freyman Jr., 'Tippecanoe County deputy prosecutor, said the drugs were probably worth "hundreds of thousands of dollars."
State police said they believe Feng got most of the raw materials to manufacture the drugs from California.
The second raid. at the apartment of David B. Bachmann, 22. a Purdue student from Oak Park, Ill.. yielded most of the drugs and laboratory apparatus, police said.
Arrested along with Bachmann and held in lieu of $1,000 bond each were Billy J. Lucas, 23, Indianapolis: Thomas J. Zimmer, 22. Kentland, Ind.; Thomas W. Eyre, 20, a student from Wauwatosa, Wis., Gail Ruth Gager, 18. Glen Echo Heights, MD and Robert D. Nunn, 25. Phyllis Lee Glass, 20. and David A. Long, with addresses in Lafayette or West Lafayette.
They were charged with possession of dangerous drugs.
Prosecutor David J. Crouse said an arrest also was made in Chicago today, in connection with the West Lafayette raids, but he declined to elaborate.
Police said they had evidence. that the drugs manufactured in West Lafayette were distributed to college students in central Indiana, Chicago, Washington and Montreal.
Crouse said 15 pounds of marijuana also were confiscated from a third West Lafayette apartment but no arrests were made there. He said the investigation was continuing.
Police said the raids culminated a five-week investigation by Gilbert Buck, chief of Purdue campus police: Gayle Ruhl, a federal narcotics agent at Indianapolis, and St. Edward Loman, a state police detective. Lafayette and est Lafayette city police took part in the raids.
The white powder was sent to Dr. Robert Forney. state toxicologist at the Indiana University Medical Center, for analysis.
The case for Feng was continued to Sept. 18 and for the others to Sept. 19. The prosecutor said all would be transferred to Tippecanoe Circuit Court.
(Rushville Republican (Rushville, Indiana), 12 Sep 1969, Fri, Page 2)
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Edited by Learyfan (01/22/21 04:22 AM)
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,083
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (01/22) [Re: Learyfan]
#24933040 - 01/22/18 05:51 AM (6 years, 7 days ago) |
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Annual bump.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,083
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (01/22) [Re: Learyfan]
#25760084 - 01/22/19 05:37 AM (5 years, 7 days ago) |
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Annual bump.
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: The Apple-Glass Cyndrome - Someday
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,083
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 20 hours, 36 minutes
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (01/22) [Re: Learyfan] 1
#26445934 - 01/22/20 09:30 AM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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If you're wondering what happened to York Feng, he was back in China by 1972.
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Nature Boy
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (01/22) [Re: Learyfan] 1
#26446436 - 01/22/20 01:48 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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A kilo of LSD??? Is that even possible???????
I know there's a lot of people in China, but 'cmon now...
-------------------- All submitted posts under this user name are works of pure fiction or outright lies. Any information, statement, or assertion contained therein should be considered pure unadulterated bullshit. Note well: Sorry, but I do not answer PM's unless you are a long-time trusted friend. If you have a question, ask it in the appropriate thread.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,083
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 20 hours, 36 minutes
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (01/22) [Re: Nature Boy]
#27162839 - 01/22/21 04:23 AM (3 years, 6 days ago) |
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Yeah, it obviously wasn't a kilo of LSD. That would make York Feng, or whoever he worked for, one of the largest LSD manufacturers in history. I assume they're counting precursors and pill binders, etc in that measurement? Either way, I thought it was significant, just because of the claim.
Anyway, today was the 55th anniversary of the second day of The Trips Festival.
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: The Apple-Glass Cyndrome - Someday
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,083
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 20 hours, 36 minutes
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (01/22) [Re: Learyfan]
#27628101 - 01/22/22 08:48 AM (2 years, 5 days ago) |
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Annual bump.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,083
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 20 hours, 36 minutes
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (01/22) [Re: Learyfan]
#28151721 - 01/22/23 08:46 AM (1 year, 5 days ago) |
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Annual bump.
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!



Registered: 04/20/01
Posts: 34,083
Loc: High pride!
Last seen: 20 hours, 36 minutes
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Re: Today in psychedelic history (01/22) [Re: Learyfan]
#28630648 - 01/22/24 04:11 AM (6 days, 4 hours ago) |
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Quote:
It is these organizational talents that concern our story. Having fallen in with the Pranksters around the time of the Palo Alto Acid Test (his slide show blended into the Acid Test without a blemish), it wasn't long before Brand was organizing a mammoth spectacle, which became known as the Trips Festival. Whereas previous Acid Tests had relied on posters and word-of-mouth. Brand hired his own publicist, adman Jerry Mander, and managed to rent the huge Longshoreman's Hall, one of San Francisco's favorite convention venues. Publicity stunts were arranged for the media. For one, three weather balloons were released in Union Square to coincide with the lunch hour crowd. As the balloons lofted over the city, bearing a banner containing the single word NOW, Brand exclaimed over the PA: "Look at it go right into the sun. It's trying to get a little bit closer to the sun before it burns its wings off. Pray for that balloon." "Let's get out of here before we lose our wallets," a name-plated conventioneer was heard to mutter.
The Trips Festival was scheduled for the third weekend in January 1966. Besides the Pranksters and his own Indian Sensorium, Brand invited local theater groups to participate, as well as local businesses. Scattered throughout the hall were booths selling Trips Festival sweatshirts, booths offering incense and psychedelic literature, booths promoting political causes, even booths selling books on insects. Five separate movie screens, each filled with its own surreal montage, were attached to the walls. Strobes washed over the crowd.
Despite all this, Friday, which was devoted to local theatricals and the Sensorium, was dull. "A bust, a bore, a fake, a fraud, a bum trip," lamented the Chronicle's Ralph Gleason in his "On The Town" column. Gleason, who had come expecting the "unspeakable delights" promised by Jerry Mander's publicity, described how "one of the frustrated customers got on stage halfway through the dull evening and said, unselfconsciously, 'this is a bore even on acid.' A little while later, the guy behind me said to his partner, 'let's go out in the car and listen to the radio.' It seemed like a bright idea." But Saturday, which belonged to the Pranksters, redeemed Gleason's opinion of the Trips Festival. It reminded him of a book called The Circus of Dr. Lao. "The place was jammed with a congeries of exotics Dr. Lao would have been proud to exhibit," he marveled. "There was a man bandaged all over, with only his eyes peeking out through dark glasses, carrying a crutch and wearing a sign:
'You're in the Pepsi Generation and I'm a pimply freak.'"
An estimated ten thousand people paid admission to the Trips Festival. They came, they gawked, and some of them grokked in the true sense of the word. As one participant described the feeling: "It was like we were all born at the same time in some ways. Like all brilliant children. And we liked to be around our fellow brilliants."
It was Kesey's biggest moment. A few days after the Trips Festival ended. Jerry Mander told columnist Herb Caen that a New York promoter wanted to book the Acid Test (which had grossed sixteen thousand) into Madison Square Garden. "We'll let him, if he'll call it Madison Hip Garden," Mander quipped.
(Storming Heaven LSD And The American Dream By Jay Stevens")
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