OT: Another legend gone today - John Sinclair
I feel like the grim reaper today.
Well at least he got to see...
Wait for it...
Weed legalized in a number of states.
At last, finally, John is free...
"Sinclair’s utopian dream of a post-industrial society based on leisure and marijuana never went beyond a small group of collaborators."
In retrospect I must've been one of his collaborators back when I was at Michigan.
A society based on leisure??!! Nah I'd rather live on a capitalist planet that maximizes profit, destruction, and misery.
How about being productive and advancing knowledge, improving conditions, and other activities that enhance civilization... rather than idleness and hedonism?
My personal timeline:
0-25: Idleness and hedonism
25-60: Productive and advancing knowledge, improving conditions, and other activities that enhanced civilization plus a healthy dose of capitalist planet that maximized profit, destruction, and misery
60 - ?: Back to idleness and hedonism
Hopefully you make it past 70 so your account ends up in the black!
Within that 0-25 range were the years of education and training, I assume. Those probably were not idle.
Let's not forget the obligatory efforts to "organize a “guitar army” of young revolutionaries to mount a “total assault” on the “death culture” of America." 😉👍
That was implied.
These are Erik Erikson's stages, but there was another psychologist's stages that I was looking for. The other guy said that between 0-20 you were learning, between 20-40 you were productive, between 40-60 you were a mentor and I forget what 60+ was. Something about reflection or something like that.
“Productive” for whom? “Advance civilization” for whom? Some of the best advances have started in what you may assume to be an idle place. Hedonism is so rarely practiced other than by those privileged enough to afford it that it isn’t worth addressing.
In response to crg:
Eh... Nah!
A few hours a day is plenty of time for productivity
Oh please Euchre Champ, tell us which economic model is optimal for humanity? (Readies notepad)
I always thought that Dennis, the "37 year old woman" from Monty Python, was truly on to something with anarcho-syndicalism:
I was at the John Sinclair Freedom rally at Crisler in late '71. Or was it early '72? The star of the show was Stevie Wonder. Waited until like 2am for John and Yoko to perform. The arena was thick with marijuana smoke.Quite the evening for this freshman.
RIP John. You were a true original.
Bob Seger and Commander Cody were also excellent.
I was there, also as a freshman.
For me, it was mostly boring radical speechifying interspersed with some great live music from people like Seger, Cody, Wonder, Archie Shepp, and Teegarden & Van Winkle.
Musically speaking, "Free John Now" was the worst music of the evening, but then anything with Yoko Ono participating sucked.
As an Ann Arbor native of that same timeline, Don I have to ask - you were a UM freshman in 1971 and found radical speechifying boring?
That would definitely not fit in with the professors & professors' kids social universe I evolved in, as a townie.
Hey, at least we tied osu in '73 during your school years - but alas, just to be screwed over by sparty!
I'd forgotten Commander Cody. I did see them at Hill Auditorium in, I believe 1972. An excellent show! A lasting memory, besides the music, was that the Commander stayed off to the side playing piano except when he stepped in front for Hot Rod Lincoln.
A true Ann Arbor band. The Commander himself had two degrees from U-M. Band member John Tichy earned a PhD at Michigan and went on the chair the Department of Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic. Lead guitarist Bill Kirchen grew up in Ann Arbor.
Mama hated diesels, so bad.
I guess it had sumthin’ to do with dad.
Rock On, Lost Planet Airmen!
Down to seeds and stems again, too.
Ditto. Don’t forget David Peel and the Lower East Side.
The dreaded double post. Move along.
Finally Free.
He was one of the first purchasers of legal weed in the State Of Michigan on December 1st, 2019, when it became legal.
His court saga is also part of the reason electronic surveillance requires a warrant now, I believe.
"In the stir for breathing air."
I attended the John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Crisler Arena on December 10, 1971, my 1st semester of undergraduate studies at M with 9 others from my Bursley dorm floor.
Great music (except for Yoko), way too many speakers and it went on FOREVER! Lots of good stories from that one.
Did you see Robbie Moore there?
And just before hash bash.
He sure lived an interesting life. The AA library has an interesting essay on all of his troubles, for those who don't know the backstory behind his MJ conviction.
The time has come for each and everyone of you to decide....
Can we get a shoutout to Louis Gossett Jr. as well? He passed away last Friday.
Used to see John Sinclair around every now and then when he came back to Ann Arbor/SE MI in the mid-2000s (he'd been living in New Orleans and/or Amsterdam for a while, IIRC). Totally a guy who gave off strong vibes even when doing super mundane stuff.
Super important figure in the Detroit art and jazz community, maybe even more than his work with the White Panthers/MC5, weed advocacy, anti-war stuff, general radical tomfoolery, etc. An original in every sense of the word.
Rest in Power.
So help me if you dare mention Keith Jackson. Final straw.
Met him about 20 years ago when my band opened for him at New Holland Brewery. We sounded awful; he did some spoken word. He was a great dude. Absolutely stoned out of his mind the entire time, and a super nice guy.
Ann Arbor at its finest.
He falsely claimed credit for the Hash Bash.