Archive.org / Grateful Dead Roundup

In case you missed it, we had some guest-bloggers stop by last week. Based on the very positive response, this is something that we’re going to try and keep going as long as the words keep flowing in. Jesse Jarnow stopped back by and filed this post below. You can find him bloggin’ on his own site, Jesse’s Frank and Earthy Blog, or he can be reached via email at jjarnow@well.com.

The Grateful Dead/archive.org story keeps going and going. Thanks mainly (I think) to the blogosphere (and further fueled by the fact that there were three f***in’ New York Times stories about it), it’s swiftly become the most public tiff between band members since Jerry Garcia’s death a decade ago. Who knew that civilians still gave a s***?

There’s much to be learned from the various posts below. The Dead have always operated by their own particular brand of anarchy, much of which was just unspoken and generally agreed upon by the misfits-in-charge. Now, it seems, everybody has a slightly different rendition of what it all meant. On one hand, the story itself is getting a little tiresome, but–in a way–it’s turned into something of a philosophical reckoning for its participants (and that includes the Deadheads) and that’s all kinds of interesting.

It’s also a variety of reckoning that’s tied genetically to the recent furor over rootkits and Digital Rights Management, which makes the good ol’ Grateful Dead into something they haven’t been in a long time: relevant. Welcome back, guys.

(Thanks to Sirs Gans and Crumlish for many of the below links. Great commentary on both of their blogs.)

Barlow is first on the scene, and still our finest troublemaker.
Phil says WTF.
Hydra drummer Mickey Hart responds to Barlow. (If anybody saved the awesome parody from Phantasy Tour, please drop it in the comments.)
Robert Hunter strokes his beard. (I, for one, would welcome the return of St. Dilbert to comment on the relative hypnocracy of the mess.)
Weir sounds off on Colorado’s KBCO. Give or take possible mash-ups from the mp3, it doesn’t sound like we’ll be hearing any new Weir/Barlow collaborations anytime soon. Bummer.

(I’m also reminded of the scene from Festival Express where Weir reacts to hippies’ demands that the bands play for free.)

Two fascinating posts from Dead family members:

Owsley “Bear” (remember-LSD?-yeah-that-was-him) Augustus Stanley III blasphemes the name of Latvala and comes out with the not-entirely-popular opinion that people besides him and the band never shoulda been taping in the first place.
Steve Marcus, who used to run Grateful Dead Ticketing, posts a remarkable exposé on the inner workings of GDP before and after Garcia’s death.

At Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow unpacks the meaning of the Dead’s new streaming soundboards / downloadable audience tapes policy. (Xian responds.)

Permalinks to New York Times stories:

Previously: Grateful Dead vs. Archive.org and the Fans