Dick's Picks 34

Live Music on Disc:
Dick's Picks 34 is from a great year - 1977, when all the "Blues for Allah" and "Terrapin" material was brand new and the band, post hiatus (and having lost the summer to Mickey Hart's busted collarbone) was raging to play. So even though it's from cold, lonesome upstate New York (funny how many great shows come from that neighborhood), you'd better buy it!
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Apple/iTunes/GDMusic Store:
OK, OK, we realize it's the 3rd millennium and lots of you don't want plastic cases and packaging. So the only way to buy music is digital and direct, right? GDP hears you and gets it together: All the Dick's Picks and Vault Releases are now available for direct downloading at GDStore.com (whole shows only, in MP3 or FLAC formats), or at iTunes (single tunes up to 10 minutes) ... And hey, pretty soon there will be unreleased shows available only digitally - stay in touch!
     iTunes GDStore.com

QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT

Question:The booklets that accompany the Dick's Picks releases include some excellent photos and other historical items from the shows and eras. Where do you get all of this material, and do you have a lot of it?

Answer:The content we include in the booklets for the Dick's Picks come from a variety of sources. For photographs, we start by contacting the "usual suspects," about 10 or 15 photographers who took photos over the entirety of the band's career. These are some of the names you see quite frequently on Dick's Picks and other releases. Also, we dig deeply into the Grateful Dead's photo archives, which are things that have been sent in to the Grateful Dead over the years, either unsolicited or via the photo request on dead.net. Eileen Law, the Grateful Dead's long-time archivist, has collected thousands of documents over the years, including virtually every press clipping on the band since the 1960s. These are a major source for the content we include in the booklets. Additionally, Eileen has countless other items that make suitable inclusions into the Dick's Picks booklets, such as the Dead Head newsletters from the 1970s, backstage passes, hand-bills, tickets, posters, etc. All of these visual elements are handed over to our package designer, Bob Minkin, who determines the length of the booklets based on the quantity and quality of content, and he lays it all out. It takes a lot of digging to put these booklets together, but we leave no stone unturned in creating what we hope are interesting packages to accompany our CD releases.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist

From an encyclopedia link on JDarr's homepage

A grotesque imitation of Xtian fashioned out of lifeless matter. Clad in an invulnerable costume just like Xtian's and endowed with all of his mighty super-powers, Bizarro possesses a dim copy of Xtian's super-keen mind.

His flesh is white, the color of chalk, and his face appears faceted, as though it had been chiseled out of rock. His black hair is matted and unkempt. He is well-meaning but witless, super-powerful but pathetic. His speech is illiterate and ungrammatical. Because Bizarro's mind is an imperfect imitation of Xtian's, however, he is capable of flights of occasional super-genius. Because he possesses dim duplicate memories of all that Xtian knows, he is well aware that Christian Johnson is secretly Xtian.

Unlike Xtian, Bizarro is immune to lame 77 shows, but like all Bizarro creatures, he is vulnerable to crispy 82 soundboards.
Brought into being by an ingenious duplicator ray built by Robitussin, the renegade scientist who is Xtian's bitterest enemy, Bizarro is only lifeless matter in human form - a thing composed of unliving matter. "Me not human... me not creature," moans Bizarro pathetically in July 1959, "... me not even animal!"

Bizarro can also think and feel and engage in reproduction: his mate, Bizarro-Cooks, gives birth to a baby boy Bizarro in October 1960 and by February 1961 the couple have acquired a daughter.

Together with Bizarro-Cooks, Bizarro rules the far-distant planet Htrae, a wacky, cockeyed world where all the men are imperfect imitations of Xtian and all the women are distorted doubles of Cooks. It is to distinguish himself from all these other male Bizarros that the original Bizarro has taken to wearing a large medallion around his neck plainly identifying himself as "Bizarro No. 1"

Indeed, although the name Bizarro is used as a proper noun, designating Bizarro himself, it is also employed in the texts as a general term to designate any Bizarro creature. All Bizarros are imperfect duplicates of other living things; all are illiterate and ungramatical; and all share the grotesque physical characteristics - including the chalk-white, faceted faces - peculiar to Bizarros. The first Bizarro, in fact, was an imperfect double of Stephen Kinsch created by a scientist in Fairfax while Xtian was growing up there. When SK first saw the grotesque duplicate of himself, he exclaimed that it was "bizarre"; the witless creature heard him and adopted Bizarro as its name. It is by stealing the plans for the Fairfax scientist's original duplicator ray that Robi is able to reconstruct the apparatus and create his own Bizarro - this one a grotesque imitation of the adult Xtian - in July 1959. It is this Bizarro that is the subject of this article.

In the texts, Bizarro is often referred to as Mr. 82. Other texts call him a blundering menace, "a grotesque, imperfect double" of Xtian, a "pathetic, grotesque creature," and "an artificial imitation of X that came out imperfect!" One text describes him as "the imperfect, unliving duplicate of Xtian who does things in a crazily mixed-up manner."

Bizarro, however, thinks of himself somewhat more generously, as the "most famous monster in history," the all-time "champion monster," the "most famous monster of all," and the "scariest monster" of all time. However, he sometimes sees himself as others do: "Me unhappy!" he declares sadly in July 1959, "Me don't belong in world of living people! Me don't know difference between right and wrong - good and evil!"

How much time did you spend on that?

Bizarro X

http://www.namesuppressed.com/kenny/

The time it takes to block, copy, and paste, of course.

ok, so after bitching and moaning about another 77 pick, I was talked into buying this thing. I hate to admit it, but I think it's pretty damned good. Consistently excellent set I and solid set II with some great highlights. Yes, the Eyes. terrific rendition. Nice TOO>Peter>Mags too.

The filler is quite nice, but I think the Stephen>Truckin is maye a tad "overrated" based on the comments on this page Yes, it is very good, but there are better renditions of both tunes from 77, imo. The LL>Supp, tho, that smokes!! I'd still rather have seen the Scarlet>Fire over MAW, Estimated and RxR

overall, thumbs up. A worthy companion to DP 3 and DP 29

Why don't the two of you go get a shack in Montana.

good thing there aren't any of those around.

Wonder who is responsible for that? ;)

I have you to blame as well, Michael Myers of the DP series.

I think some crazy canuck is going to be looking for you pretty soon.

Nah, he said he was "talked into". I'm more the brow beating type.

Oh, you mean that other moron. Yeah, he's on my shit list now.

harharhar

I'd still take lame 77