Janis Joplin 50 Years -- October 4, 2020

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Janis Joplin died 50 years ago today, on 04-October-1970.  I remember the story on the news.  I always looked forward to hearing her music on the radio. 

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I remember seeing the cover of Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills. It may have been my first exposure to R Crumb. 

Years later I read an article that said she had auditioned for San Francisco traditional jazz band leader Turk Murphy.  He liked her voice but he didn't want to hire a "beatnik."  It would have been interesting.  This is not the original article, but it has some nice details about Janis singing some songs with Dick Oxtot.  Oxtot recommended her to Turk Murphy: http://jazzhotbigstep.com/428723.html

Trips Festival 50 Years -- January 21, 2016

Fifty years ago, on 21-January-1966, the tribes gathered at San Francisco's Longshoreman's Hall for the Trips Festival.  I don't remember this, but I do remember later events in Golden Gate Park, which we could hear from our back yard.

Years later I read Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.  I better understood many things I had heard about when I was a kid, about Ken Kesey, Stewart Brand and the Merry Pranksters.  The Festival went on for three days.  The Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company performed.