Category Archives: Merry Pranksters

Dog Soldiers – Robert Stone (1974)

Posted on May 1, 2020 by

“Dog Soldiers is a novel by Robert Stone, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1974. The story features American journalist John Converse, a Vietnam correspondent during the war, Merchant Marine sailor Ray Hicks, Converse’s wife Marge, and their involvement in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Books, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, LSD, Marijuana, Merry Pranksters, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ken Kesey’s Buchla Box

Posted on April 13, 2020 by

Ken Kesey’s PA Controller, photo credit Don Kennedy, National Music Centre, Studio Bell. “In the mid to late sixties, counterculture was in full swing, and the momentum that was getting behind the ‘High Tide’ (as Hunter S. Thompson called it) … Continue reading →

Posted in Hunter S. Thompson, Ken Kesey, LSD, Marijuana, Merry Pranksters, Movie, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been (February 26, 1976)

Posted on December 18, 2019 by

“The San Francisco scene started at the Red Dog Saloon, as much as you can say it started at any one place. Most of the elements were there: rock & roll, a sort of light show, the first psychedelic dance … Continue reading →

Posted in Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, Bill Graham, Counterculture, Environmental, Grateful Dead, Haight-Ashbury, Happenings, Hippie, Hunter S. Thompson, Jazz, Ken Kesey, LSD, Marijuana, Merry Pranksters, Music, Religion, Street theater | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ken Kesey on the Lam, Voice Goes to 15 cents!

Posted on September 4, 2019 by

“Where is novelist Ken Kesey? It has been months and still no word on him. Not since O. Henry, 70 years ago, has an American literary figure taken it on the lam after getting into trouble with the law. O. … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Hippie, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, LSD, Marijuana, Merry Pranksters, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Youth International Party

Posted on August 22, 2019 by

“The Youth International Party, whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American radically youth-oriented and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the 1960s. It was founded on December 31, 1967. They employed theatrical gestures, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1968 DNC, Chicago Eight, Counterculture, Hippie, Jerry Rubin, LSD, Marijuana, Merry Pranksters, Street theater, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

LSD Turns 75: What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Posted on April 25, 2019 by

March 25, 1966: LIFE Magazine “It would be another 24 years until Jimi Hendrix would release ‘Are You Experienced,’ but Albert Hofmann became the first person in history who could conceivably answer in the affirmative to that when he discovered LSD’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Counterculture, Grateful Dead, Hippie, Ken Kesey, LSD, Merry Pranksters, Movie, Music, Nixon, The Beatles, Timothy Leary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Space Cowboy’s Curriculum

Posted on June 27, 2018 by

“Ten things I know about John Perry Barlow: 1. John Perry Barlow died this past February at age seventy, but people have been trying to describe him for decades. Among the attempts: ‘Internet guru,’ ‘the thinking man’s Forrest Gump,’ and … Continue reading →

Posted in Counterculture, Grateful Dead, Haight-Ashbury, Ken Kesey, LSD, Merry Pranksters, Music | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Science of the Psychedelic Renaissance

Posted on June 4, 2018 by

Three new books suggest that psychedelic drugs did not necessarily have the power to rewrite society, but, instead, brought on revelations concerning earthly themes. “In 1960, Allen Ginsberg wrote a letter to Timothy Leary, then a professor at Harvard. Leary … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Books, CIA, Grateful Dead, Hippie, Jack Kerouac, Jazz, Ken Kesey, LSD, Marijuana, Merry Pranksters, Music, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ken Kesey Talks About the Meaning of the Acid Test

Posted on May 29, 2018 by

“For me, there have always been at least three Ken Keseys. First, there was the antiauthoritarian author of the madcap 1962 classic One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Inspired by Kesey’s own work as an orderly at a Menlo Park … Continue reading →

Posted in Allen Ginsberg, Counterculture, Grateful Dead, Haight-Ashbury, Hippie, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, LSD, Merry Pranksters, Timothy Leary | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Pump House Gang – Tom Wolfe (1968)

Posted on March 8, 2018 by

“The Pump House Gang is a 1968 collection of essays and journalism by Tom Wolfe. The stories in the book explored various aspects of the counterculture of the 1960s. The most famous story in the collection, from which the book … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Counterculture, Hippie, Ken Kesey, LSD, Marijuana, Merry Pranksters | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment