DEAD ALIVE ON TAPE, ONLINE
That’s good, because God knows there aren’t enough Grateful Dead tapes in the collections of the world’s eight billion Deadheads.
The transfers have been facilitated by equipment made by Euphonix, a (surprise) Northern-California digital audio company. Hart was especially impressed with the Euphonix R-1 Transferstation.
"We’ve been able to keep it at warp 10 all day and it hasn’t choked," Hart said in a colorful, turn-of-the-century Haight dialect. "It has passed the acid test, as they would say." Hart then strapped on his jet-pack, picked up his pet Hobbit and flew to his secret living place on the other side of the rainbow.
In other Dead news, Rhino Entertainment has inaugurated its marketing alliance with eBay by putting a special package up for auction that includes a two-hour tour of the Dead compound in San Francisco.
Designed to promote "The Golden Road (1965-1973)," Rhino’s 12-CD Grateful Dead boxed set to be released October 16, the auction can be found at www.ebay.com/rhino, where it joins other up-for-grabs Rhino stuff such as Echo and the Bunnymen after-party passes and an autographed INXS condom. In addition to the tour of the Dead’s production facility, the Rhino auction package includes souvenirs such as drinking glasses, roundtrip coach airfare, a night in an S.F. hotel and–get this–a meet-and-greet/autograph session with Bob Weir.
As of this writing, the bidding stood at only $3,550 after 26 bids. The auction ends July 22, with proceeds going to the Dead’s Rex Foundation charity, so put on your best Steal Your Face T-shirt and jump on in–Bob can’t wait to meet you... and get The Man’s latest capitalist exploitation of his creativity out of the way.
