MOUNTAIN GIRL AND BEAR

Stop me if you've heard this. In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip with "The Merry Band of Pranksters," a renegade group of free spirits and weirdos on the prototypical psychedelic Magic Bus. It was a crazy, silly, sunshine daydream, and what becomes of a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Does it turn into an anecdote dropped by an amped-up DJ during morning drive-time? Apparently so. Ignore the clueless talk-jock and listen to Mountain Girl calling from the wilds of Oregon. One of the original Pranksters (and Jerry's wife) Carolyn Garcia has stories to tell. Then, for an added treat, there's a tribute to the crazy psychedelic age, with cameos from Janis, Jimi Hendrix and Augustus Owsley Stanley III, otherwise known as Bear, chemist and sound man extraordinaire, legendary counter culture hero of song and story who recently passed away. Why dig out these archival clippings? Why look in the rearview mirror? In spite of the weirdly repressive political climate we live in, there are still a handful of far-flung freaks who never recanted, who never became Big Chilled, who drank the Kool-Aid but refused the hemlock. Just for fun, take a long strange trip down memory lane.  Peace!