almost HW stuff

[Ted O. Jackson]

> Dear all,
>   here are 2 bits of nearly off topic stuff that you don't really want to
> know.
>
> 1. There is a book written by John Gill, entitled 'Hype!', which I
> obviously had to read as it had the tag lines 'sex and drugs and alcohol',
> 'the making of a band' and 'a bad trip you can call your own'. Well it is
> a dreadful book, unsure of what it wants to be. It tells the story of a
> hippy revival, the movement entitled the New Aquarians, led by a band
> called Kenny & the Merry Pranksters. The only other thing of interest
> (other than the book's title) is a PR party where
>
> 'A DJ had set up his decks in a room off the hall, and was currently
> playing early Hawkwind records at near deafening volume', after a while
> the journalist says
> 'Let's go for a walk. Hawkwind records make me nervous.'
>
> 2. OK, so I'm not sure I want to be quite this sad as to type this in,
> and henceforth be known as the saddest man on boc-l, but hey why not.
>
> On the new Tori Amos album (I'm only borrowing it from my mother [who
> cannot be all bad as she took me to Watchfield festival]) she thanks her
> travel agent, who is Dave Brock at Trinifold Travel, London.
>
>
> OK, that's it.
>
> Mike w
MIke,
That reference to the Merry Pranksters is, of course a direct link to
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, a goup who were certainly not
fictional.  These are the folks that Tom Wolfe writes about in 'The
Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.'  Better to read that than 'Hype.'
Also, there is a [largely pictorial] book that chronicles the
adventures of the pranksters, including their psychedelic-painted bus
in which they travrsed the nation.  It's name escapes me now [too
much kool aid?] Kesey is best known for having written 'One Flew Over
the Cukoo's Nest,' and then semi-retiring.  There's an amazing
vignette in Wolfe's book about the Pranksters attending a Beatles
concert in San Fran/Oakland after the whole group dropped acid.  I
don't know if the Pranksters were still around to appreciate early
Hawkwind.  When was their first album issued?  Could be the author of
'Hype' just latched upon the concept of the Pranksters and
appropriated it for use in his book.  Was 'Hype' hyped as a novel?
If not, I think it probably should be.  And, I think Tom Wolfe's
lawyer ought to be in touch with him!  'Electric Kool Aid...' should
be required reading for membership to BOC-L!
theo