Rolling Thunder Review meets Pittsfield...

Just got this picture in from a buddy who was at practice last night... made me think of Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Review" from 1975.  The whole point of that escapade was to reclaim the soul of the Beat's, bring together some top notch musicians and model joy and abandon throughout America.  They began by making pilgrimage to the grave of Jack Kerouac just down the road in Lowell, MA.

Like is beloved friend, Allen Ginsberg, once said: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn, looking for an angry fix... One of the reasons we put on this show each year is to offer an alternative - a parable of hope - because the best minds of our generation are still going mad and feeding the madness.  Another neighbor down the road in the other direction, Arlo Guthrie, posted this earlier today:

I am not at all discouraged or angry with the politicians and authorities who have shown contempt and disrespect for our young people out there. I feel sorry for them. They are self-made slaves to the great whore of our times - the idea that government is best when it serves those with the most. It should come as no surprise that those bowing and groveling at the feet of privatization - social security, medicare, roads, schools and everything else, should desire that government be privatized. The idea that congressmen and women, judges and elected officials on federal, state and local levels work best when bought and paid for by those who can afford to do so is at the heart of the matter. All the other issues before us, as a nation and a world, arise from this disgusting and anti-American core value.

So I urge everyone, here and abroad to show respect and gratitude to these nameless young people. Talk about them in the coffee shops and luncheonettes with friends and neighbors. They are the heroes of a new generation. They will be vilified and slandered by those who have the most to lose. But, their courage and conviction is exactly right and appropriate. They need all the support they can get as they push us forward as a civilization toward a more perfect union. And they will succeed. Slowly and inevitably they will push us into the light of a better world. The signs are all around us. There is a great hope and a wonderful dream shared by countless generations of good people inching forward through history. It will burst like a dam upon those who try to hold it back. Resistance is indeed, futile.

I'm with Ginsberg - and Dylan - and Kerouac and Guthrie and the Occup Wall Street kids: this is a time of great hope and great potential.  We're going to do our part and encourage folk to "come on up to the house."  How about you?
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