The 48th California International Antiquarian Book Fair

It was the Bay Area’s turn for The 48th California International Antiquarian Book Fair. It’s held every year, but it alternates between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. This year it was at the Marriott Convention Center in Oakland. This was a unique chance to browse. There aren’t even that many bookstores left to haunt, and walking the aisles here is a feast for the eyes of any book lover.   

The convention center is a large room in the Marriott. There’s plenty of space for many booths and treasures. The Concourse in San Francisco had been the home of the Antiquarian Book Fair for many years. It held a certain nostalgia for me after going to the fair there for years, but once inside the Oakland Convention Center, it was the same show. 

This event may sound a bit dry to most people. One friend told me it was stupid to see such expensive books that I can’t afford to buy. Why not just browse online? Like anything else, it is better live. I have new interest in the world of collecting, but I’m certainly not a buyer or accumulator right now. The details and stories about book collecting can be endless and fascinating. 

There are almost two hundred vendors. The layout is dazzling for any bilbliomaniac. There are dealers from around the world. There are very high profile book sellers from Europe. Their booths display museum quality incunabula, illuminated manuscripts and other tomes. This is a bit of a hodge podge and read more like a list,  but hang with me for the Jack London lecture. 

  Here are some of the dealers who were there. Most of them are titans in the antiquarian book world: Thomas Goldwasser, Philip Pirages, John Winkleman, Peter Harrington, Bernard Quaritch and an Antiquarian Book Fair stalwart, Ken Sanders. 

The Kelmscott Bookshop is here from London. Philobiblon, Antiquariat Botanicum, Blackwell’s, Liber Antiquus, and Sokol Books are here. Looking for maps or prints? Check out Antipodean Books. Sorry if I left anybody out.     

It’s interesting to scan the covers and prices of these rare books. There are sinister looking medical texts from the dawn of medicine. Most dealers look serious, especially the ones from Europe. This is a big business opportunity for them.

I’m content just to look at the books in the glass cases. It’s exciting to see books that are worth a fortune, but today I’m drawn to more modern, colorful works. There was plenty of them around. The last I heard, Bolerium Books still had a store in the Mission district of San Francisco. They have some great Robert Crumb stuff. There are posters that he had made for events before he became famous. There were small poetry books that Charles Bukowski had printed himself before he gained game.  

One of the first things I saw in the Special Exhibits area was the Patti Smith Collection from the nearby Mills Library. There was a hand written page from the manuscript for “Just Kids” and some hand written poetry. There were photos of the Punk Rock icon with Robert Mapplethorpe. It’s always exciting to see something written by an idol in long hand. 

Several companies at the fair specialized in autographs. You could find the autographs of figures in history and entertainment. Some famous, and some infamous.  

A friend had given me a copy of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. It was the tribute issue that came out after the killings. I saw a copy of it at the F.A. Bernett Books booth.  “Are you selling those?” She said that it was there to call attention to a blog posting, “Charlie Hebdo’s Ancestors.” (http://rectoversoblog.com/) It’s an entertaining look at the history of satire in France. Satire was banned in France until the 1800’s. Even after the ban was lifted libel suits and their penalties were severe.

Maybe I just noticed it more, but there were first editions of James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake at various booths around the floor. One first edition of Ulysses was offered at $150,000. Another Ulysses first edition was offered for $36,000. The difference must have been the dread condition issue. 

I always see copies of John Steinbeck’s “Cup of Gold” at this fair. It’s his second book. There was a first edition for $48,000. It got me thinking of something that may be obvious to veteran book collectors. The early works of great authors go for big bucks. They weren’t discovered yet, and the print runs had to be smaller. Some of the early novels from a writer were duds. When an author proved he could sell books, they printed more. Sometimes the early, usually inferior books, demand a higher price.  

There’s always great Beat literature here. The dealers know there’s more interest in the Beatnik era in the Bay Area. I saw a copy of John Clellon Holmes’ “Go.” It predated Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and some consider it a more accurate portrayal of the Beat scene. John Fante’s “Ask the Dust.” There were obscure, early works by Allen Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti, and even some Gregory Corso.

Another reason I go to this event is that you see books you just won’t see anywhere else. There was a volume by one Sam Clemens entitled “The Curious Republic of Gondour.” A copy of “To A God Unknown” by John Steinbeck. “Beyond the Wall of Sleep by H.P. Lovecraft. There are always Science Fiction classics. An original manuscript for “R.U.R.” A script from the movie “Metropolis.”  

The Lux Mentis booth had fetish scrapbooks that were made in the Fifties. It was someone’s personal work. Lux Mentis has a great blog.   

There was what looked like a complete run of an historic San Francisco poetry magazine, The Lark. Some of San Francisco’s legendary writers appeared in it. In another booth there was a complete run of early Star Trek comic books. 

The Douglas Stewart Fine Books booth offered a hand out advertisement on a book they were selling. “Aurora Australis” was the first book printed in Antarctica. They brought printing presses onboard for these expeditions. They printed scientific works, but it was also for the amusement of the crew. They did print poetry and other writings of the men on board. The book can be had for $108,000 American dollars or $135,000 Australian.

Another regular feature of the Antiquarian Book Fair is the Discovery Day appraisal event. Exhibitors would do up to three appraisals for free. It was like a small Antiques Road Show.   

Today’s big lecture event is “Jack London, the Photographer.” It was presented by Sara S. “Sue” Hodson. There was a small, but attentive audience. I had heard a few vendors comment that they were glad anyone showed up today after the rainstorm that morning. There were about fifty people filling about half the room. It was a fitting topic for Oakland. London had grown up here. A bar he frequented, Heinhold’s Last Chance, is still standing in Jack London Square.  

Hodson is a small woman and conservatively dressed. She’s the Curator of Literary Manuscripts at the Huntington Library. A screen shows us some of London’s photos while Hodson talks.  

“Everyone is familiar with Jack London the writer,” but few know that he took thousands of pictures. London called photography, “writing in light.” 

Hodson shows us two photos that Jack London did not take. They are stiff and formal looks at two natives. One is a side view of a native’s head, emphasizing his long skull shape. The other is a photo of a victim of elephantiasis. His arm has swelled up so badly that he has a forked stick supporting it. His arm is almost bigger than his torso. These were typical photos taken for their shock and medical value.

London had a different eye. He liked to take pictures of individuals. He said his photos were “human documents.” He saw people as people, not just the subjects of a photograph. London didn’t consider his photos a look at a freak show or primitive people. He looked at them as equals. He was looking for the soul and spirit in people.

In 1902 London went to London, England. He had been hired as a war correspondent, and he would ship out from there to the Boer War. The newspaper editors called him back. Apparently the war would be over before he would get there. There would be no story. 

London stayed in London. He visited the notorious slum in the East End. London wore shabby clothes. He could certainly pass as working class after growing up on the rough streets of Oakland. He noticed that those greeting him went from “Hello, Sir, or Governor,” to “Hello, Mate!” He lived in the East End for a while. He ate what they ate, and slept where they slept. 

The residents of the East End were in a constant struggle for survival. Some said the conditions were worse than those described by Dickens. It was subsistence living. London took pictures of them sleeping on park benches. In one shot bodies litter the lawn of a public park. People just dropped in their clothes and slept in the park. It looked like the aftermath of a battlefield. 

London called them, The People of the Abyss. He described the horrid conditions in letters home and in a later book. One thing that struck him was that most people had no hope. They couldn’t imagine a way out of the abyss.

A photo shows us one of London’s new friends, Bert. London did make friends wherever he went.  

An upbeat photo is of a group of children dancing in the street when an organ grinder went by. It was a rare bright spot in their day. London said that it was especially sad that the children showed little hope of escaping the East End. They could not see a way out.   

Another photo shows a woman staring off into space. Hodson points out her despair: “There is nowhere for her to go. Nothing to do.” 

London said that people were entities. They rose above their situations and their spirits shone through in his photographs. He returned home to his ranch in Sonoma and wrote Children of the Abyss. 

In the early morning of April 17, 1906 Charmian London was writing in her diary. “We know what happened that day.” We’re shown the page she was writing when the earthquake hit. In large red letters it says, “Earthquake!” The couple headed to San Francisco. London’s description of the ruins from the quake and fire would be published later in Collier’s: “Story of an Eyewitness.” “The fire raged for three days and nights.” 

We’re shown a series of London’s photos of the ruins: The shattered remains of the Crocker mansion. The ruins of the San Francisco Stock Exchange on Pine Street. It was one of the first descriptions of the destruction from the natural catastrophe. 

Did London’s celebrity status help him gain access to the ruins of San Francisco? Things were pretty tense there with martial law. Men were pressed into cleaning the wreckage. Did his celebrity keep him off the chain gang? 

In 1904 London was in Korea waiting to cover the Russo-Japanese war. He was also escaping “women troubles.” Hodson tells us that, “London was good at that.”  London was often the subject of cartoons. His celebrity overshadowed any news story he was doing. There was more interest in London’s adventures than there was in whatever story he was covering, and London knew it. He exploited it to sell more books. Then he’d use the money to have more adventures. What a life he had!

Both Japanese and Russian military authorities tried to keep the foreign war correspondents far from the action. London used the time to photograph the locals. Most of the photos were taken in Seoul. London took photos of the everyday people in the streets of Seoul. Beggars. An opium pipe salesman. He loved to take pictures of the children. The Korean people of all ages had a shining innocence about them. 

When London took pictures of people he went down on one knee. We are always looking up at them, into their faces. Most other photographers at that time used an angle at which they looked down on their subjects. London never considered people as just the subjects of a photo. He wanted to capture and show their spirit to the world. 

London had respect and admiration for the Japanese soldiers. Most of them had come from farms where they had never worn shoes. During training they were issued military boots. London saw their sore, blistered and bleeding feet. He was impressed that they never complained.  

London was also impressed by how little the Japanese soldiers in the field could live on. Rice was boiled down to small size to make it easy to carry into battle. The soldiers lived for days on the chow that they could carry. London was amazed that they did not complain.  

There are pictures of a village that had been taken and retaken by each side several times. “Imagine the suffering of these people,” Hodson said. It had to be a very unfortunate spot to be in.

London did get some pictures of the Russian side. He took a picture of a Cossack sitting on his horse. To Western eyes the horse looks small compared to his owner, but this was one of the biggest horses the Russians had. The horse was named Bell. London bought it, and brought it home to his ranch in Sonoma. 

London and his fellow correspondents did get to see some of the naval battle at Incheon. They’re shown looking over a battlement at the action. They look like quite a crew.

At the Battle of Yellow River London got some photos of the Japanese artillery in action. He also got photos of the aftermath of the battle. Exhausted and wounded soldiers are shown marching back from the battle. Some have to be carried. 

When London returned home he bought the ranch in Sonoma. The plan was to settle down and stop traveling so much. So of course, after a couple of months London started making plans for a trip around the world. They would start by sailing across the Pacific. His wife Charmian was into it. They were true life partners and she gladly joined in his adventures. 

London had a sailing ship built, The Snark. The earthquake hit during its construction. The ship suffered some damage in the quake. It wasn’t able to turn or maneuver. It was repaired at a much greater cost than expected. Building materials were scarce and expensive after the quake and fire. The cost to build The Snark was eventually $30,000, a very large sum for the time. 

Charmian’s uncle, Roscoe Eames, had been in charge of getting The Snark ready. They finally left on April 7, 1907 and headed to Hawaii. After a couple of days out London asked Eames were they were. Not only did Eames not know, but he admitted he had no idea how to navigate! 

London had brought four hundred books with him on the ship. Hodson says that, “God saves fools and Jack London.” London found books he had on navigation and started studying. He learned how to use a sextant. London believed he could learn anything if he could find something to read about it. There was great risk that they would get lost in the Pacific Ocean. London not only got them to Honolulu, but it was “like threading a needle.” Roscoe was sent home.

They visited the leper colony on Molokai. It was considered very dangerous to go there. He and Charmian stayed for a week. They participated in the daily life of the lepers. It was the week of the Fourth of July and photos show them enjoying a parade and donkey races. The lepers had been shunned by society and separated from their families. They not only survived at the leper colony, but they built new lives for themselves.  

The next stop was the Marquesas islands. There were three routes from Hawaii and of course London chose the shortest and quickest. “The route that nobody takes.” Nobody took it because it was the most dangerous. “They courted disaster on much of the trip.” This was not just a luxury cruise. Even the first leg to Hawaii had risk on the wide and wild Pacific.

A big danger was being caught in an area of the sea with no breeze to sail with. They were “becalmed.” This was another example of Hodson’s saying: “God saves fools and Jack London.” They were stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Food and water had almost given out when they chanced upon a rainstorm. It gave them water and a breeze. 

They survived and got to the Marquesas. London took photos of the natives and we see some of them gathered around an old gramophone. The natives were fascinated by the sound. There’s a picture of Ernest Darling, The Nature Man. Darling had gained some fame by rejecting Western society and “gone native.” 

London was the de facto doctor and dentist on board The Snark. The crew was reluctant, but London was confident that if he could read something about it, he could do it. He did pull some teeth. London had brought a mini-pharmacy with him. “He was always ready and willing to dose someone.” 

The only picture the newspapers refused to run was one of Charmian smiling as a group of naked natives passed by her on the Solomon Islands. it wasn’t censored because we could see the natives bodies. It was censored because Charmian looked relaxed, and didn’t have the shocked look on her face that the editors expected. Victorian morals were still strong. London insisted the picture was printed and eventually it was. 

It wasn’t a luxury cruise but Hodson tells us that they still partied their way across the Pacific. “They tried hash!” We see a shot of a masquerade party they had on Guadalcanal.  Among their friends in the picture is George Derbyshire, dressed in drag. He liked to dress in women’s clothes and was fascinated by Charmian’s lingerie and stockings. Martin Johnson, The Snark’s cook, is also in the picture.

Martin Johnson desperately wanted to be hired for the voyage. He wrote London and convinced him to hire him as the cook, even though he admitted he had never cooked anything! “He wanted to try something new.” Somehow London went for this. 

The photo of Johnson shows him with a huge bandage on his leg. He had yaws. It’s a nasty disease caused by a spirochete that digs into the flesh, sometimes all the way to the bone. Everyone on the trip got yaws and other tropical diseases. Hodson says London used mercury on the yaws, which draws a laugh from the audience.   

In the New Hebrides London took a photo of some natives surrounded by tobacco leaves. Almost every one has a cigarette in their hand or mouth. Tobacco was a status symbol. They were displaying their wealth.

Hodson ends by praising London’s humanity, caring and trust. He treated the people he met around the world as equals. She’s given us a great look at an adventurous man and his time. 

The Q&A. 

When did London start using a camera? Hodson tells us that they know he didn’t have one on his trip to the Yukon. Other writers did take photos, but they were not as perceptive as London’s. “London was always interested in something new.” He did his own developing in the dark room at first, but later he was too busy and had to give that up. 

Did he sell the photos? There’s no evidence that he sold any photos. Hodson does point out that often the newspapers would run a huge headline with a head shot photo of London underneath. They knew his celebrity would sell papers. They couldn’t wait for the photos he had taken for the story. They couldn’t be wired in. Text could be wired in. Editors knew a photo of London on the front page would sell papers.  

Were the photos numbered or cataloged? No, but many had captions on the back. Most of them were kept in albums and the curators at the Huntington were afraid to take them out. They feared they might get damaged. 

A woman says, “Tell us about the book.” Hodson says that she and her colleague at the Huntington Library, Jeanne Campbell Reesman, were getting many requests for pictures of London that had not been published before. This got them wondering why a coffee table book of London’s photos had never been published. At the Huntington they had access to some four thousand of London’s photos. There are four hundred more in the archives of the California State Parks.   

The book took ten years because they did it in their spare time. It was a labor of love, but it also became “a logistical nightmare.” Hodson praised the University of Georgia Press for doing a great job on the book. 

An audience member makes a comment on London’s use of mercury to cure yaws. At the time mercury had been used against syphilis, a similar disease, so London wasn’t “far off the mark.” The same guy asks, “What is the best biography to read?” Hodson says there are two: Earl Labor, Jack London - An American Life, and a biography by Jay Williams. She says Williams book, “Author Under Sail,” is more challenging. It’s a history of London’s imagination and the way he thought. 

London had been in ill health for some time. He had an appendectomy and learned his kidneys were failing. Hodson does not believe that he was suicidal or that he killed himself. A medical doctor, Dr. Philip Klemmer, has written a book theorizing that London died of mercury poisoning. Hodson adds that London had been studying Carl Jung and had been planning to use some of his theories in his writing. “He showed no signs of despair.” 

London had a short life, but he crammed many lifetimes into it. His books still sell, and he still has fans around the world.  

Noir City 13

Every year I plan on going to more of the Film Noir Festival, but due to circumstances beyond my control I didn’t get there until Closing Night this year. There were nights I should have made it, but I avoided films I’d seen before. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. This year the festival had a very interesting theme: Marriage, especially marriage gone wrong. 

All the films would “revolve around the theme of marriage.” On the cover of the program a femme fatale holds another woman’s hand. She has a box of rat poison in her other hand. The hapless husband lies twisted on the stairs above the champagne glass he’s just dropped. The two women have gotten rid of an obstacle to their relationship.   

“When they said until Death Do Us Part... SHE meant it!” From the program: “You’ll see how the bonds of matrimony affect an array of characters - those who crave a perfect and permanent union, those who’ll stop at nothing to preserve it, and those who will do anything to escape it.” Somewhere the cinematic gods were smirking. I had a good laugh at the irony. “25 Cinematic Samplings of Unholy Matrimony.”   

It was great to be back in the jewel of San Francisco movie theaters, The Castro. The Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller, and Miss Noir City 13, Audra, did the introductions. “After ten days, we’re still standing!” Eddie made a few cynical remarks about marriage, “Church and state’s most important institution.” Part of the theme is that Noir exposed the darker sides of the American Dream. Things were not what they seemed in post World War II America, especially domestic bliss.   

Most of the films were about mates trying to get out of a marriage. In Film Noir that usually means murder. There was also a double feature honoring Noir’s “perfect marriage,” Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man movies.

Miss Noir City 13 tells us that Eddie Muller had a deep secret. He’s been married for thirty years! “People ask me if I have a special secret to staying married.” Muller says that the way to stay together is, “Candlelit dinners at good restaurants once a week... I usually go on Tuesday or Wednesday. She always goes on Friday!”

I like the older Noir films more. Tonight’s films were made in 1966 and 1969. As usual, Muller does a great introduction to the films. “Seconds” was made in 1966 by John Frankenheimer. “There’s a lot going on in this one.” Rock Hudson was “living the lie” back then. He was living a nerve racking existence in the closet, and he plays a similar role in the film. This is a point not lost on a Castro theater audience. It was Rock’s favorite film.  

Studio executives freaked out. They didn’t want one of their top star’s image tarnished by a “depressing” movie. It was released, but they tried to bury it. It bombed at the box office, but then it became a big cult film.  

Director John Frankenheimer hired actors and writers who had been blacklisted. Most of them had evil, corporate roles. Muller says they had to have exorcised some demons playing sinister corporate types. 

Muller warns us that we will be seeing two very dark and depressing films.  

John Randolph plays Arthur Hamilton, a bored banker. The movie opens with  scenes of his routine commute and frustrating job. It’s the every day reality of the American dream. His wife is loving, but they both go through marital angst in the bedroom. Hamilton just can’t get excited. Their marriage is dead in the water. 

An old friend calls him on the phone. Arthur is stunned because this old friend is dead!  “Charlie” says he can get his buddy another chance at life. Hamilton is contacted by “The Company” with mysterious messages. There’s a bit of cloak and dagger, and he’s directed to a meeting. For $30,000 he can be “reborn” and have a new life. The Company will fake his death, give him plastic surgery and a new identity. Sounds like a great deal! The Company will provide “extensive training,” including psychotherapy.   

Hamilton is shown a film of him raping a young woman. He can’t remember this happening. How did The Company do this? He must have been drugged and filmed. The Company wants to make sure he won’t reveal their existence. He’s shown to an ominous waiting room. It’s full of white males at desks. They’re wearing suits and ties, and waiting for their name to be called. Some have been waiting a long time, but  Hamilton is quickly called and is wheeled to an operating table.  

So he wakes up as Rock Hudson. He’s living in a beautiful Malibu home on the beach with a pool. (They used Frankenheimer’s home for filming.) He has a new career as an artist. There is a butler, sent by the company to help him get started, and to keep an eye on him. He sees diplomas, awards and other evidence that there once had been a “real” Tony Wilson.  

He starts to question things. What does this guy want? Being Rock Hudson with a home in Malibu isn’t enough? He is a painter, a searching artist. During an existential walk on the beach, he meets a young woman who takes him to some kind of “wine ceremony.” It must have been fun shooting this scene. What must have been some of the original Hippies dance through the woods. They come to a huge wine vat. The revelers get naked and jump into the vat and stomp grapes. Rock (“Tony Wilson”) is shy at first, but he eventually winds up in the vat. (The wine ceremony scene was cut from the film for years. It was restored on DVD.) 

Tony’s valet keeps suggesting he have a cocktail party to meet the neighbors. He finally agrees. He gets so drunk at the party that he starts blabbing about The Company. He doesn’t know that all his neighbors are “re-borns.” Tony agrees to go back for a chance at another identity.  

It’s a dark, unsettling film. Even with his glamorous new identity Tony Wilson isn’t happy. The Sixties American Dream unravels in an ending that is disturbing, but not that surprising. 

Muller and Ms. Noir City conduct a raffle during the intermission. It’s a bit quaint. They read ticket numbers and if the winner isn’t present they keep pulling numbers. It’s the last night and they want to get rid of the prizes. The raffle is a bit of a throwback to the old movie house days.

The lobby was packed with Noir related merchandise. Green Apple Books had a great selection to browse. There were Film Noir paper dolls. Vendors sold great vintage Noir movie posters. Most of the vendors and many of the audience wore vintage period clothes. There was a bar setup giving away free vodka drinks.   

The second film is “The Honeymoon Killers.” 1969. Muller fills us in. Martin Scorsese was the original director, but after two weeks of shooting, they decided he was spending too much money. He was replaced by the writer, Leonard Kastle. It’s based on the true story of Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez. They went on a “cross country murder spree.” They found their victims by running a Lonely Hearts club. The story was filmed four different times! 

Muller says it’s even more depressing than the first film, and “The weirdest film we’ve ever shown at Noir City.” Now, that’s impressive.  

Shirley Stoller is the female lead. She’s a bit heavy, especially for movies back then. Her size lends a strange realism to the film. Tony Lo Bianco is her lover and the murderer. The film looks cheaply made at times. It looks like they used a home movie camera. It makes the film a bit voyeuristic, like you’re watching someone’s home made porno film.  It adds to the desperation and despair. It’s “a favorite of both John Waters and Francois Truffaut.” 

Serena Bramble made another great mix for Noir City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A28hDtZbqUc   

 

Wild In The Streets!

I was surfing cable TV for free movies. Some of the free movies offered On Demand are old classics worth watching again. Most of them are films that just didn’t make it. Once in a while you can stumble on a gem. Here is my analysis of a cinematic masterpiece, Wild In the Streets! Well, it’s some kind of masterpiece. Yes, there will be spoilers. 

The trailer for Wild In the Streets hit theaters in the spring of 1968. The Generation Gap may have been at its widest. Teen fads had been recognized before, but now teens had more economic power. What would happen if they got political power too? The film’s trailer sparked some interest. At least it would be a wild drive-in movie.   

Wild In the Streets is a bizarre time capsule. It was brought to us by American International Pictures. American International provided drive-ins with Beach, Biker, Monster and Horror films. It was the home of Roger Corman. When that logo comes on the screen we know we’ll be in for a wild ride. Next we see the names of the producers: “Samuel Z. Arkoff and James Nicholson.” Another sign of quality! Wild In the Streets was directed by Barry Shear. Shear was known more as a “TV director.” Some of the early scenes in suburbia look like they were filmed for a sitcom.  

The movie came out in May, 1968. Back then, I had free access to the local drive-in. Two high school buddies worked there, and they would let me drive in the exit at any time. (Thanks Tony M. and Pat A. Even though the drive-in is long gone, I’ll leave their last names out, just in case some statute of limitations is still in effect.) This was very cool. It was a place to go, a teenage haven where I saw many drive-in classics for free. One night I caught the second half of Wild In the Streets. 

  Young Max Jacob Flatow is played by Barry Williams, who was later in The Brady Bunch. Max just doesn’t fit in. He’s stifled by the American suburban nightmare. Shelley Winters plays his overbearing mother. She visits him in the basement where he’s playing with a chemistry set. She picks up a suspicious looking stick. “What’s this?” “Dynamite,” Max flatly answers. She picks up a vial of clear liquid. “What’s this?” “LSD” is his laconic reply. Shelley humors Max, and she doesn’t appear concerned. She doesn’t know, like we do, that it really is dynamite and LSD! 

He tells his mother he’s saved up eight hundred dollars. “Is that enough to move out?” Max runs away from home, blowing up the family car on his way out. No longer hampered by his parents and stifling suburbia, he becomes a wealthy Rock star. He’s a millionaire, “After taxes.” The adolescent Max of the first half of the movie is gone. The new Max is played by Christopher Jones. It’s a whole new movie!  

Chris Jones was born Billy Frank. His mother was an artist, and she was committed to a mental institution when he was four. Billy bounced around with relatives, orphanages and foster homes. He lived at Boys Town for a while. 

Jones had a strange career. Maybe everyone had a strange career in the Sixties. He was a James Dean look a like. He thought he could escape his dreary life as an orphan by joining the military service. He quickly learned it was not for him. He stole a car and went AWOL, heading for New York City.

Jones already knew that he was a dead ringer for James Dean. He saw Dean’s films and tried to learn as much as she could about his life. On the trip to New York after he went AWOL, he stopped in Dean’s home town in Fairmount, Indiana. Dean’s relatives were so struck by his resemblance to their lost relative, that they took him in and showed him Dean’s bedroom and motorcycle. The motorcycle was still out in the barn. 

After he got to New York, a friend talked him into turning himself in and resolving his AWOL problems. He spent six months in jail. After he got out of the brig he stayed in New York and studied painting, sculpture and acting. He acted on TV shows. His “uncanny resemblance” to James Dean got him into The Actor’s Studio. He performed in a long run of “Night of the Iguana” where he met Shelley Winters. They became close friends. 

He married Susan Strasberg, Lee Strasberg’s daughter. The marriage was short lived. His “erratic behavior” and jealous rages drove her away. Jones played Jesse James on a TV series. Female fans loved Jones, but the show was crushed in the ratings.   

Jones certainly had “it.” With his looks and charisma he attracted some of the most beautiful women in the world. He had affairs with Pamela Courson, Sharon Tate, Pia Degermark and Olivia Hussey. 

Jones almost had his own fatal car crash. He was in the film “A Brief Season.” Dino DeLaurentiis produced it and gave Jones a $20,000 365 GT Ferrari as a bonus! Jones loved to get the car up to a hundred miles per hour. It seemed to be only a matter of time. He had a scary crash near Rome. The similarity to Dean’s car crash was eerie. Jones said he “flattened himself out” to avoid being decapitated. The car came to a stop on the edge of a hundred yard cliff. Jones had only minor injuries. 

The role of Max was a break through role for Jones, and he got some good parts after the film’s success. David Lean cast him as the British soldier in Ryan’s Daughter. Lean realized at once that it was a bad choice. During filming, Jones learned of the death of Sharon Tate. He became morose and hard to deal with on the set. His voice had to be dubbed. The filming of Ryan’s Daughter was a year long ordeal for most involved. When it was over, Jones returned to Los Angeles. He already had a reputation for being difficult, but he was still offered film roles. He turned them down. He rejected Hollywood and became a recluse. Many called him a disturbed individual. He lived off his movie earnings and painted.  

Max and his friends hang out at his mansion. He has what’s called an entourage or a posse now. There is constant drug taking, cuddling and slow, sensual massage. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this scene? It’s the Sixties dream! 

The drug scenes seem innocent now. This was long ago, when drugs were “cool” and few knew the real dangers of experimenting with them. Many people were afraid of drugs, but not many really knew how destructive they would be. At this point in the Sixties it was still a bit of a lark. At Max’s mansion they pass around a plate with lines of white powder.  

The band is Max Frost and the Troopers, and they are a collection of characters. Billy Cage (Kevin Coughlin) is the genius accountant and guitar player. The bass player is played by Larry Bishop. He has a hook on his hand, so he’s “Hook.” Bishop had to know his way around show business. He was the son of late night talk show host and member of the Rat Pack, Joey Bishop!

Sally Leroy (Diane Varsi) sings and plays keyboards. She’s also Max’s girlfriend. Varsi had broken through with a role in the movie Peyton Place, but she was known as being a rebel. She clashed with studio execs and eventually dropped out of acting.   

The drummer is Stanley X, played by Richard Pryor. He’s an anthropologist!  Pryor doesn’t get much screen time. I kept waiting for him to break into one of his savage monologues or maybe have his hair catch on fire. This film had to be one of his first big breaks. Larry Bishop told IMDb.com that Pryor freaked out the cast and crew, especially  Shelley Winters, when he showed up naked on the set one day. Have to wonder what the real story on that one is. Must have been a long night.  

How did Shelley Winters wind up in this one? They must have wanted a recognizable name on the marquee. Winters was 48 and had been in show business for over twenty years. She was a regular on late night TV talk shows, and was definitely someone from the other side of the divide of the Generation Gap.  

Max’s mother learns of her son’s success and insists she and her husband go see him. She shows up at one of his concerts shrieking at security, “That’s my son!” Later, she winds up driving Max and some of his posse around. She’s uncomfortable behind the wheel and after a puzzling joy ride she crashes into a young kid, killing him. Max picks up the dead tyke. He’s outraged. It looks like he really does care about his people.

Hal Holbrook is John Fergus, a liberal running for Congress. He’s looking for the youth vote. Max and his band perform at a rally for him. Their first number is “Listen To the Music.” They play a song for their adoring fans, “Fifty-Two Per Cent.” (Fifty-two per cent of the population is under twenty-five.) Max addresses the crowd. It’s a long monologue about the injustices of the day. A kid can be drafted and sent to Vietnam, but he can’t vote. They play a song with the ominous lyrics, “Fourteen or Fight!” Max wants the voting age to be lowered to fourteen! The crowd gets into, it chanting, “Fourteen or Fight” over and over.

It struck me how much Max acted and sounded like Jim Morrison in these scenes. His stance and timing closely resemble The Lizard King during one of his crazy onstage monologues. The Doors would keep a slow, nervous beat going while Morrison rambled on about getting pepper sprayed by security or some other atrocity. Max’s pacing during his political rant sounds like Morrison on “Five to One” from the Doors Absolutely Live album. “No one here gets out alive... They got the guns, but we got the numbers.” 

  Max calls out “the troops” for a demonstration on Saturday night. Anyone who believes in the cause should come out to the Sunset Strip on Saturday night. This was after the real riots on Sunset Strip chronicled in the Buffalo Springfield song “For What It’s Worth.” “Something’s happening here.” The authorities fear the worse and assume the demonstration will be violent. 

The big hit from the soundtrack was “Shape of Things to Come.” It was a crazy, rocking song, and “is not to be confused with The Yardbirds song of the same title.” “There’s a new sun, rising up angry in the skies!” It rose to #22 on the charts in 1968. Most of the songs on the soundtrack were written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, a very successful songwriting team. They had written hits for The Drifters, The Vogues, The Animals and Paul Revere and the Raiders. The song was used in a commercial recently for an ad campaign for Target stores. It was another jarring use of an old song. The revolution will be televised. It’ll just be part of TV commercials. 

All the music scenes are lip synched and dubbed. A group of studio musicians named Davey Allan and The Arrows recorded most of the music. Les Baxter helped with the arrangements. Some of the songs were arranged by Mike Curb. He was a successful producer who later ran as a conservative candidate for governor of California.  

Other bands credited on the soundtrack are The 13th Power, Jerry Howard and The Second Time, and The Gurus. They’re pseudonyms for the studio musicians. Davey Allan had a long career making movie soundtracks. He was “the King of the Fuzz Guitar.”     

Senator Allbright is played by Ed Begley. He’s outraged by the call to demonstrate and demands a meeting with Fergus and Max. He insists that Fergus  persuade Max to call the demonstration off. Also at the meeting is famed San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli in a cameo. Allbright even calls him “Belli.” Max and his crew are obnoxious and Begley storms out with his eyes bugging out in rage. 

Belli is only one of many cameo appearances. Peter Tork buys a ticket for a Max Frost and The Troopers concert. Teen idol Bobby Sherman interviews Max. Walter Winchell plays a puzzled reporter who tries to explain the demonstration scenes to Mr. and Mrs. America. Dick Clark ties to give some perspective to the demonstrations.   

The Troops gather. We see some clips of the Sunset Strip. American International had released Riot On Sunset Strip, a look at the recent disturbances. Most of the footage looks like a busy Saturday night on the Strip, but there are some scenes that look like real clashes with police. 

  Max and Fergus work out a compromise. Max wants to make sure his genius fifteen year old accountant can vote, so after some haggling they agree to lower the age to fifteen. It doesn’t seem to be much of a compromise. The authorities have given in. Max and Fergus calm the demonstrators by flying to various hot zones in a helicopter. They’ve won! It made me wonder: What the heck would happen if they lowered the voting age to fifteen? The voting age was lowered to eighteen in 1971. 

A Congressman dies and Max figures out that one of his entourage is old enough to be elected to the vacant seat. It will be his girlfriend Sally Leroy, played by Dianne Varsi. She takes her seat acting very stoned and wearing a goofy, tri-corner hat. She defiantly proposes an amendment to lower the age for holding office. 

Dianne Varsi catapulted to fame in the movie Peyton Place. She was always a rebel, and wouldn’t play the Hollywood game. She rejected the lifestyle and avoided doing movies.  

To make sure the amendment gets passed they pour LSD in the water supply. There’s a comic scene where the band members sneak up to a river and dump LSD into it. In the Sixties this psychedelic threat was taken seriously. The mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley, feared the water supply would be dosed during the Democratic National Convention in 1968. The Yippies had threatened to do that. Chicago police guarded the reservoirs. Daley tried to have the movie banned within Chicago city limits.    

Each legislator has a teenage “guide.” Max instructs each guide not to eat or drink anything. Then they won’t be tripping and they can make sure each legislator votes for the amendment. The stoned legislators yuk it up in uncontrollable hilarity. Their legislative chambers swirl around them in uproarious psychedelia as they vote. The amendment is passed and quickly ratified. Now Max can run for President. 

With the new voting age it’s easy for Max to get elected President. The only problem is figuring out what party he’ll run for. He’s a bit bummed when they decide he should be a Republican. There’s a quip about Ronald Reagan that insinuates he’s washed up. During the campaign Max speaks from the historic Monterey Fair Grounds. It’s obvious that they’re just using some stock footage and that Max isn’t really there, but it’s an interesting shot of the old fairgrounds. 

The campaign is not without trouble. Some cops panic and start firing on the young demonstrators. This was years before Kent State. Was the movie predicting the inevitable? Was it only a matter of time before demonstrators got shot?

In one of the key scenes Max shrieks at the crowd, “If you give me THE POWER!!!” So, that’s what it’s all about. If we give the vote to teenagers we’ll wind up with a Rock and Roll dictator. It is a cautionary tale. As the ads said, “If you’re under thirty you’ll want to see it. If your over thirty you have to see it!” 

Max wins in a landslide. He quickly enacts his plan. He puts young geniuses and computers in charge of the economy. He withdraws U.S. military forces from around the world. The soldiers become his police force. Surplus grain is shipped to Third World countries. He dissolves the FBI and the CIA. The solutions were so simple! It’s “the most truly hedonistic society the world has ever known.” 

Mandatory retirement is now 30 years old. After age 35, people are rounded up and sent to reeducation camps to be “re-grooved.” The former military are now police. They herd the terrified middle aged people to the camps. The camp members have to wear a robe, and are constantly dosed with LSD. Ed Begley, the former Senator, is at “Paradise Camp.” He looks ecstatic, and he’s not the only one who seems to be enjoying his new life. They wander the camp, stoned out of their minds all the time.  

Max’s mother takes to the new lifestyle at first. Fergus tries to get her aid in stopping Max. She can’t be bothered, “I’m doing LSD therapy.” Later it turns into a bad trip. The soundtrack plays “Shelley in Camp” performed by The Gurus as Shelley tries to escape the camp by climbing over the barbed wire fence. It’s another chance for Winters to chew the scenery.  

Even some of Max’s closest followers seem to be having their doubts. Sally Leroy has a freak out scene in a fountain. Maybe you shouldn’t take LSD every day. Someone wonders if it is a good idea to get rid of everyone over 35. Won’t they be needed for something? Max goes off on the older generation. “What do you ask a sixty year old man? You ask him if he wants his wheelchair facing the sun, or facing away from the sun.” Ouch! 

Fergus decides he has to take matters into his own hands. He realizes he’s created a monster and he tries to assassinate Max. This was filmed before the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. Violence was in the air. Max almost becomes a martyr, but Fergus is stopped before he can shoot him.  

Everything is now peaceful and Max is in control. He wanders into the countryside alone. He comes across a group of young boys playing. They don’t trust him. “You’re old!” The young boys look innocent but ominous. The apparent leader of the boys says to the others: “We’re gonna put everyone over ten out of business!” It’s Billy Mumy, who later appeared in many science fiction classics and the TV series Lost In Space. 

After watching the film I did the obligatory Google search. IMDb.com and Wikipedia give the usual basic information, and some great stories.  

Wild In the Streets is based on a short story by Robert Thom. “The Day It All Happened Baby” came out in paperback when the movie was released. American International had planned an action film named Wild In the Streets that fell through. The title was too good to waste. The film hit theaters on May 29, 1968. It had a budget of $700,000 and brought in four million dollars at the box office. 

IMDb says that “according to Kenneth Bowser,” Phil Ochs was offered the role of Max. Ochs read the script and thought that it made fun of youth culture and turned the part down. 

Now the Internet search gets juicy. Chris Jones had a torrid affair with Pamela Courson, Jim Morrison’s long time lover and soulmate. Courson found a love letter Jones had written to his ex-wife, Susan Strasberg. Courson flew into a jealous rage and they split up. Morrison flew to Paris to bring her home. Was this humiliating for The Lizard King, or was it just one of those Sixties things? “Yeah man, I got to go to Paris and get my old lady.” 

Jones had an affair with Sharon Tate, even though she was married to Roman Polanski. Her death at the hands of the Manson family shook him deeply. In a bizarre twist he later lived in the caretaker’s cottage at 10048 Cielo Drive, the house where Tate had been killed! What went through his mind when he was living there?

He was also shaken badly by the death of Jim Morrison. Morrison had been his other idol. Jones said that when he heard the news of his death, it was the worst he had ever felt.  

The movie was a minor sensation at the time, but it was hard to take it seriously with the real social changes going on at the time. Maybe Phil Ochs was right. It did demean the youth culture and put it up on the screen with bug eyed monsters, Beach and Biker movies. It was fun, but it reduced the the movement to a drive-in movie. Hey, people are trying to fight a Revolution here, man! 

Wild In the Streets is a look back at a not so innocent time. The film has some eerie moments. Did it predict the assassinations of national leaders and the shootings at Kent State? There was something in the air back then.  

Most facts and stories came from iMDB.com or Wikipedia.  

I was surprised how much there is about Wild In the Streets in the Blogosphere including: http://www.moviefanfare.com/wild-in-the-streets/  And I thought it was an obscure subject. 

A short description of the soundtrack is at: http://mreliminator.blogspot.com/2013/09/wild-in-streets-soundtrack-1968-vinyl.html

A biography of Dianne Varsi: http://www.legacy.com/news/legends-and-legacies/goodnight-diane-varsi/539/

Roger Ebert’s review: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/wild-in-the-streets-1968

A sharp look with some great stories: http://www.videowatchdog.blogspot.de/2006/01/14-or-shop.html

Pop culture critic Sam Tweedle weighs in here: http://popcultureaddict.com/pca-retro-review-wild-in-the-streets-1968/

The trailer is readily available on Youtube.com. There are also sites that make the entire film available.  

 

 

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2014

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. 2014. 

This year’s post may read more like a list. I’m not going to say a lot about the conditions and crowd. There will be some standouts that I’ll mention. Most of the crowd were normal, law abiding citizens. Again, my theory is to spend as much time there as possible. I did wander this year, much more than I expected. Some song titles are approximations, or a scrap of a lyric. 

Some of the titles I figure out after a Google search of a lyric on that Internet thing. This one will be rough around the edges. I want to get it posted before it’s ancient history. There are many clips already posted on Youtube, and the Hardly Strictly web site has great footage.     

When the schedule came out John Stuber of the Albany All-Stars gave me a call. “This year it’s Hardly ANY Bluegrass.” Many of the Bluegrass icons who performed when the festival started are no longer with us. There were not as many of the huge stars as years past. No Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton or Steve Martin. There were still some big names, but it’s the mega-stars who bring out the masses.   

10/3. Friday. Heat wave in San Francisco. Temperatures near the nineties. Sunny. The crowds will be huge. Nearby casual fans would come at the last minute.  

Friday is by far the best day to go. The crowd did build up later in the day. There are four stages active today. Saturday and Sunday will see seven stages active. Helicopters hover overhead.   

Arrow Stage. There’s a small, new stage at the back of The Arrow Stage. The Bandwagon Stage. It’s a converted RV camper. It’s opened up so that it’s a stage. The banners with Warren Hellman’s bio hang nearby. There’s also a larger trailer that I assumed was some kind of VIP thing. We can hear Peter Rowan’s Twang an’ Groove starting in the distance. Our MC is Zeke Moats from Grizzly Radio. 

11:00. Bill Kirchen & Too Much Fun. I missed him the last couple of years. “Hammer of the Honky Tonk Gods.” “Get a Little Goner.” Austin de Lone is on piano. “Here’s our pro-science, evolution song: Rocks In the Sand. “There’s a Man At the Bottom of the Well.” 

Blackie Farrell joins for “Rockabilly Funeral.” Kirchen says he needs some sun screen for his Telecaster. It’s early, but the sun is a big factor. Great, rocking version of Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changing.” Kirchen says, “I hope they are!” “I Ain’t Never Had Too Much Fun.” 

The last song is “Hot Rod Lincoln,” and Kirchen seems rushed to get his entire history of Rock and Roll into the time left. He plays a few riffs from the greats of Rock and Roll. He does Elmore James, Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf riffs in less than a minute. There’s a shout out to his fellow high school student, Iggy Pop. (Must have been a hell of a class.)  

Great start. I would have walked over to see this act alone. 

I wander a bit to get out of the sun. Catch the last song of Peter Rowan’s group at The Banjo Stage. They make an announcement that John Prine will be late. His flight out of Chicago was delayed by the recent control tower problems there. He will play later, at 4:15. This last minute change to the batting order opens up a chance to see Dave and Phil Alvin at The Star Stage, but first, Buckwheat Zydeco at The Arrow Stage: 

“What She Said Boogie.” Long Zydeco Rocker. Buckwheat has great stage presence. Great live act, and the crowd loves it! He goes to the organ for a Blues song. “Peace Love and Happiness.”

I head to the Star Stage for the Alvins. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down are still onstage. Female singers. “California Line.” “Open Your Hips.” 

A guy and his wife are searching for a spot. “Shade is at a premium,” he tells her. I can hear Hurray for the Riff Raff from The Arrow Stage. For a while, it sounds like Pink Floyd is playing over there. 

Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin With the Guilty Ones. There’s a delay. At least fifteen minutes. Looks like a technical problem. 

An old guy is on his cell phone: “Somebody stole my tarp!” I’m tempted to taunt him. In past years people have spread large tarps and then wandered off leaving prime real estate empty. They’re really putting a stop to it this year. You just can’t spread out a huge tarp and leave it empty. Security will remove the tarp if there’s no one there. 

The Alvin’s new CD is Common Ground. It’s a tribute to Big Bill Broonzy. Dave says that during recording: “No one got hurt.” (The brothers have had a stormy relationship.) “Feel So Good.” “Key To The Highway.” Dave tells us Phil took harmonica lessons from Sonny Terry. He plays harmonica on a Blues song. “Southern Flood Blues”   What would it be like to wake up and find the Ohio River on your doorstep? “Trucking Little Women.” 

They do a comic song: “All They Ever Do Is Ask About My Brother.” They can kill a rattlesnake with their bare hands or write a paper on numbers theory, but people will only ask about what the other Alvin brother is doing. Phil Alvin has written scholarly tomes on mathematics. Many people say that’s impressive and then ask him what his brother has been doing lately.  

People huddle in a strip of shade on the left. On the right is a big open space in the sun. You can walk up much closer to the stage. People will usually brave the sun to get close, but not today.   

“Dry River.” “Please Please Please,” The James Brown song. Rocking version of “Marie Marie.” “Get Back Baby.” Closing medley with band introductions. 

This year’s panhandling sign: “We need like seven dollars.” Three ragged, but attractive young women are looking for funds. An old guy cracks, “They’ll get it.” 

Back to the Arrow Stage. The trailer I noticed before is open. It’s a preview of an exhibit about Warren Hellman and HSB at the The Contemporary Jewish Museum downtown. There are posters from every year of the festival. TV monitors show highlights and interview from over the fourteen years. It’s air conditioned! 

Cibo Matto With Nels Cline. No idea who this is, but the small “bio” handout says they’re from “New York/Tokyo” and that “guitar great” Nels Cline of Wilco is in the band. Everyone onstage is in total white. They do an odd Devo/Rap song. The crowd loves them. They are entertaining. I can imagine them in a night club. Another HSB surprise. 

John Prine at The Banjo Stage. “Grandpa Was a Carpenter.” “A song about a woman from the North: “Iron Ore Betty.” “Christmas in Prison.” “Angel From Montgomery.” “Whistle and Fish.” Song about murders in a forest preserve: “Lake Marie.”

One guy close to the stage stands up. He just starts going totally psycho, flailing his arms and head. It could be dancing, but I’m not sure at first. It’s one of Prine’s more upbeat numbers, but this guy seems to be on a different level.

The crowds are getting much bigger. Four o’clock seems to be the witching hour. Prine’s set is very subtle in parts and the party people chatter through it. This happens whenever Prine plays here. The party/cell phone crowd seem to be better about obnoxious talking. Maybe it’s because they’re texting. There are still times they’re totally oblivious. Steve Earle joins for “Muhlenberg County.” 

There’s a half hour gap in the action. It’s too far to get back to The Star Stage for Lucinda Williams. She has many hard core fans. I can see them heading over there. I wait in the shade for: 

You La Tengo at the Arrow Stage. First song sounds like a Lou Reed song. Droning Heavy Metal. Then they do a Country and Western song. They sounded interesting, but I was fading. “Rushing By Too Fast.” 

I started my exit route. Ryan Adams was at The Banjo Stage. Surprisingly good. Hung out at the picnic tables in the back. “Stay With Me.” Made a short stop at The Rooster Stage for some of Coner Oberst. 

Day Two. Saturday 10/4. 

The heat wave continues. It will be another sunny, clear day in the Park. 

Arrived 11:00. Top priority is Whograss at The Star Stage. It’s a band put together especially for this occasion. On the way I wondered who was going to be Keith Moon. It’s Praire Prince on drums! I’m not sure, but the concept may have been his. Also in the band: Chris von Sneidern (guitar) and Peter Straus (bass.) I can just imagine these guys playing one night. Maybe one of them does a Who riff. One note leads to another. The Who played Bluegrass style? The results are amazing.  

“Theme from Tommy.” It will be a big sound. There’s a blasting “I Can’t Explain.” Adrenaline is rushing in the morning. It’s some of the “majesty of The Who.” “Substitute.” 

Pete Sears joins on accordion for “I Am One” and a great version of “Squeeze Box” featuring Sears on the accordion. 

“Baba O’Reilly.” Jeff Ryder nails the string part at the end on his fiddle. 

“It was forty eight years ago today that The Who recorded Boris the Spider,” but we’re not going to hear that one. Chuck Prophet joins to sing “Pinball Wizard.” It starts as a slow C&W Johnny Cash style song. It’s really funny how the lyrics fit. “From Soho down to Brighton, he must have played them all.” The crowd laughs at the synchronicity. Prophet says, “OK, let’s do this!” and the band plays the “real” Rock version. 

“Joseph” joins to sing “My Generation.” He sang onstage at the memorial show for super roadie Marshall Holmes at the Fillmore.

One of the best acts I’ve seen at any Hardly Strictly Bluegrass! Great sound. They really captured the spirit of The Who. Another day that starts with the first act being well worth the walk. 

My original plan was to save the legs and camp out at The Rooster Stage where Buddy Miller would be presenting a “Cavalcade of Stars,” but first I stopped at The Arrow Stage. Blue Rodeo is a member of the Canadian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They sound great, so I hang for a while. “Rise Up.” A sad song: “You Are the One.” “Disappear.” Great song. “Hasn’t Hit me Yet.” 

A V formation of Canada Geese do a low fly over of the crowd during a great piano solo on “Disappear.” “I Am Myself.” “Feeling Left Alone.” The crowd loves these guys, and they sound like they deserve their spot in the Hall of Fame. 

It’s not that far to The Banjo Stage for the Alison Brown Quintet. I never plan on it, but I always see her at HSB. This year I only catch the end of “The  Appalachian Celtic” set.

They announce that the festival is being streamed on the HSB web site, courtesy of Moonalice. It’s hot enough that I find it tempting to go home and just watch it online. It would be easier to see what’s going on onstage. Is that the future of HSB? Well, I’m here already. Might as well watch it live. 

There are seven stages going today, but there are still thirty to forty minute gaps where nothing is going on. I want to see The Porch Stage at least once this year. It’s usually pretty laid back here. The Felice Brothers come onstage. I’m surprised they’re playing here. I saw them at The Rooster stage last year and they drew a big crowd. It’s a larger than usual gathering for The Porch Stage. 

“I’m All Right If You’re All Right.” “Put Some Whiskey In My Whiskey.” “The World Will Go On.” “Sixteen Miles.” 

Back to The Banjo Stage for The Time Jumpers. It’s now 1:25, and I still haven’t even seen The Rooster Stage. I get into the old time sound of The Time Jumpers. “Six Pack To Go.” “All Aboard.” “I Hear You Talking.” Vince Gill joins and they do “You Got My Number, Liza Jane.” 

The Time Jumpers are great, but I find myself drawn to the bigger sound coming from The Arrow Stage: St. Paul & The Broken Bones. Have to check them out just for the name. They’re from Birmingham, Alabama and play a Stax/Volt style of R&B. 

An old guy lets a young lady off the hook in “You’re Too Young.” “A Sam Cooke song, done Otis style,” “Shake.” It’s still early, but the crowd is getting into this party music. “To Die For Me.” “Your Love Is Like a River.” Band has a great horn section. 

The singer’s voice is a bit abrasive, but he’s pouring his heart and soul into it. The crowds are getting big. They do a Gospel song. I missed the title. “Call Me.” The big finale is “Try A Little Tenderness.”    

Maybe it was because some of the veterans I usually attend with were not here this year, but the demographic here seems to be changing. The crowd looks younger. Maybe the older generation is getting tired of traveling to the festival and dealing with the crowds. There are still geezers here, but it looks like things are changing.

The Bandwagon Stage at the back of the Arrow fills some of the time between sets with Heidi Clare (Go To Hell Man Clan) and Ron Thomason from Dry Branch Fire Squad. It’s a small area with an intimate setting. Instrumental. “Sing As We Ride.” The Bandwagon’s online address is: bandwagonSF.com. I check it out later. It says The Bandwagon will be like a food truck for music. 

I walk by the Polo Fields, back to The Star Stage. I know it will be crazy crowded, but I’m shooting for the back to back Social Distortion / Chris Isaak. This is the one time I get “trapped” in the crowd. I’m trying to cross Lindley Meadow. Most people are already camped out in spots. It’s hard to navigate. Sometimes it looks like there’s no where to go. People in large groups stop and look around for a spot, but it’s too crowded. There’s no where to go. Pedestrian gridlock. Because I’m solo it’s easier for me to wind my way through the crowd and get to the street. 

On the other side of John F. Kennedy Drive, people have gathered in the shade. The drive is blocked off by a temporary fence of iron traffic “horses” for the carts that whip VIPs and musicians from stage to stage. There is an occasional intersection where we can cross. On the other side of the street we can hear, but we can’t see. This is great after escaping the crowd. There’s some breathing room over here.   

Mavis Staples. The Gospel and R&B legend who was there when it happened. A walking historical legend. The band sounds great. Professional R&B sound. “If You’re Ready.” Mavis reminds us that she was there for the history. “For What It’s Worth.” Great version of The Buffalo Springfield song. “He’s All Right.” “Can You Get to That?” 

People start to jump over the metal fencing on John F. Kennedy Drive so they don’t have to walk to the next intersection where they can get across. They’re sneaky about it. Mounted police are patrolling the area. Once in a while they catch someone, but then they just give them a lecture and let them go. Guess they don’t want to dismount and do the paperwork. Some people sneak across, ignore the mounted cops and then just melt into the crowd. It’s a little piece of HSB anarchy! 

After a little break I walk around and get the side view of the stage for the end of Mavis. “Respect Yourself.” “I Won’t Turn Around.” “The Weight.” Powerful R&B!  

The Towers of Gold Stage is right next to The Star. I was just going to go to the back for the Heavy Mental act Social Distortion, but I could see there was nowhere to go. The whole area looked filled. I just stayed with the side view. 

There’s a short wait. The Rolling Stones “Gimmie Shelter” is blasted over the speakers shortly before they take the stage. It gives me chills! 

Social Distortion. Shaky on these song titles. Song about Hell. “Hell Comes To Your House.” Their sound reminds me of The Clash. They played a song that sounded like The Pogues: “Prison Bound.” Great Heavy Metal Punk sound. 

Usually there’s a tarp put up on the fence at the side of this stage so people don’t stop to watch. It does cause traffic flow problems. A small group near the fence very subtly took the tarp down so we had a great side view. 

There have been mosh pits at Hardly Strictly before, but this one was huge. I never got the mosh pit thing. This one looked like a “fun” one. It didn’t have the menacing edge I’ve seen in more hard core pits. Guys stood on the periphery and I noticed their mosh pit function was to push guys back into the rotating mass. There were very few women even near the pit. One brave young woman did crowd surf. 

They finished with a great cover of “Ring of Fire.” 

The Star Stage. Chris Isaak. “I’m Gone.” “Somebody’s Dreaming.” “Six Blocks.” 

Isaak tells the crowd he lives six blocks away. “I can walk here!” He talks about playing guitar in this same meadow thirty years ago. Never imagined he’d be playing here in front of a crowd like this. 

Isaak’s set brought back memories of other shows of his that I’ve seen, but I faded and started back. It had been another long day, but I had to stop at The Rooster Stage for Robert Earl Keen. Got there in time for “The Road Goes On Forever.” The crowd was in a festive Saturday night mood. Whooping it up! 

Sunday. The Rooster Stage. Arrive about 11:30. It’s a little cooler today. Still sunny and clear. There are no Blue Angels this weekend. Fleet Week will be next week, so we won’t be buzzed by jets this year..

Get there in time to hear the last song from the Go To Hell Man Clan: “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.” Head to The Arrow Stage for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Jimmie Dale Gilmore was playing at The Bandwagon Stage in the back. “Beyond the Blue.” “I thought I had a handle on religion.” Jimmie Dale says, “I slept on streets that Warren (Hellman) owned.” 

I knew The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has a fanatic following. There are more people here this early than I’ve ever seen at HSB. “Down In The Easy Chair.” A Steve Goodman song: “Face On the Cutting Room Floor.” Another low flying formation of Canada Geese flies over the crowd. 

Their 1971 album “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” arguably started the modern roots, Americana music scene. They play a Jimmy Martin (“The King of Bluegrass”) song: “My Walking Shoes Don’t Fit Me No More. John McKuen plays a banjo song for Warren Hellman, “Return to Dismal Swamp.” (He played with Dave Mason at Napa’s Uptown Theater. http://worldfest23.blogspot.com/2014/01/dave-mason-at-uptown-theater-in-napa.html  

Jimmy Fadden tells us some of the history of the band. They’re from Long Beach. They played the Carousel and Fillmore ballrooms in San Francisco in the heyday of the Rock Ballrooms. 

A Fadden song: “Working Man.” (Nowhere To Go.) Their big hit: “Mr. Bojangles.”
“Here’s a Colorado song,” “Rippling Waters.” It’s a long song with great solos, especially piano. The crowd gives them a big ovation. They do a Bayou Party song medley. It’s still  early, but it’s Cajun party time!  

Went to The Banjo and caught some of Hot Rize (featuring Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers.) “Shady Grove.” One of the band members is called Dr. Banjo. 

So far today things seem more relaxed. More laid back. Is it because the acts aren’t as big? Is it because the party people prefer Saturday night?  

Jerry Douglas Presents The Earls of Leicester. “Salty Dog.” Real old time sound, but no dobro. I’d caught Douglas two years in a row. Psychedelic sounds drew me back to The Star Stage. 

Moonalice started with what sounded like a Jefferson Airplane song. There’s a long jam that they work “Eight Miles High” into. “Let’s Ride.” For Warren they cover “Down the Road A Piece.” Pete Sears joins on piano. “That’s All Right Mama,” the Big Bill Broonzy song again. 

I see Praire Prince sitting at one of the picnic tables. He’s on a cell phone. I do a double take and he gives me a little nod. He acknowledges that I know who he is, but I can tell he isn’t in the mood for the fan thing. 

I catch one scene. An old guy is with four twenty something guys. It looks like his son and his friends. The old guy demonstrates some kind of wild mountain dance. He flails his arms and legs around. A bit of a rooster dance. The young guys laugh, but they are impressed the old man can still move like that. He’s passing it on to a new generation.

Dr. Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys. “Sing a Worried Song.” “One Day.” “Walking Down the Road.” “The First Mistake I Ever Made.” 

Stanley is eighty seven years “young,” and he has been performing for sixty nine years. He doesn’t play banjo today and sings on half of the songs. He’s the stone face of HSB now. 

“Little Boy Called Joe.” Jim Lauderdale joins for “I Feel Like Singing Today.” 

The new album is The Legacy Continues. “Orange Blossom Special.” 

T Bone Burnett at The Rooster Stage. “Never Wonderland.” I love his dark, ominous sound. Get ready to be stung or bitten. There’s a big beat, but the first number sounds more like a spoken word piece. We’re going to “Hefner’s Land.” Walt Disney lives there and takes pictures of go-go girls. He sells them to the local kids, who love Uncle Walt. 

A song about hard times, “There Would Be Hell to Pay.” 

A small hawk flies up into a nearby tree and perches. Thought it could be a Cooper’s, but when it flew out later it looked like a juvenile Red Tailed Hawk. The big crowds don’t seem to bother the raptors at all. 

“La Bamba.” An old Rocker from Texas has to have a good “La Bamba” in his repertoire. T Bone praises Richie Valens. 

A Waylon Jennings song: “Long Time Gone.” “I like to play songs by my friends,” T Bone says before a great, rocking version of “Blowing In the Wind.” Burnett is one of a very few who can name drop Jennings and Bob Dylan as “his friends.”  

“Humans From Earth.” Eerie and ominous. 

“River of Love.” “The frightening thing is not dying.” A great line from “Primitives.” “Scarlet Tower.” “That was a little night time music.” 

Burnett says this is the first time this band has played together in eight years. He says Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is the best music festival in the world! “Ordinary Man.” 

I head to The Star Stage for a last lap. It’s now five o’clock. The crowds are enormous now. The meadow in front of The Star Stage is packed. I stand way in the back and listen to Lake Street Dive. They sound like a good party band. Oddly, they’re not from Chicago. Another band I’ll want to look into.   

I toyed with the idea of going to The Star Stage for Dwight Yoakam. He had put on a great show a couple of years ago, but I’ve learned to look ahead on JFK Drive before I join the herd. Masses of people are headed for the big finale that will feature Emmy Lou Harris. I’ve learned to stay away from that stage. I decide to just go to The Rooster and see whoever is there. It’s on the way home. 

Jason Isbell. Many people had left The Rooster Stage after T Bone Burnett. It’s an HSB mass exodus. I get a pretty good spot on the hill on the right. This is Marx Meadow. It’s where HSB started for me. In fact, it’s where I saw my first free music in San Francisco, many moons ago. 

About ten minutes before the scheduled start, streams of people come in from other stages. I can hear people: “Oh! There’s so much room here.” They’re refugees from the other stages. They’re ecstatic to find a place to throw a blanket. 

“Go Home.” “Can You Leave Our Love Behind?” or “Rising From the Past.”  

“Decoration Day.” Jason’s knockout wife, Amanda Shires, is on fiddle and violin. Chad Campbell plays keyboards and accordion. He’s the brother of a member of St. Paul and the Broken bones.”

“Tired of Traveling Alone.” “Codeine.” “One of her friends has given her codeine.” I remember this song from The Drive By Truckers a couple of years ago. “Live Oak.” “I wonder who she’s pining for now?” “Somebody Take Me Home.”  

Another great Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival for me. I did wander more than I planned and saw many acts and the usual HSB surprises.