Today is Ken Keseys birthday! Many thanx for everything you did for us Ken. Our world wouldn't be the same if it weren't for you
Ken was a GIANT in many ways. For those of you who never met the man, he lived the legend we would all aspire to become. I had the good fortune of meeting him on several occasions and he was always larger than life, all the way up to his death.
On one such meeting, he was throwing a pseudo-acid test at the Hilton ballroom in Eugene on New Year's Eve (post Garcia). There was a 9 piece live disco band (Satin Love Orchestra) playing in the main ballroom and in his room was wild lights, gells, paintings, music, etc. I was working with SLO at the time and two of the members got a room on the second floor and at 4am, I was in their room and there was a door into the next room. I asked who was in there and they didn't know, so I banged on the door and Kesey rips it open, asking what do I want. I tell him we're just getting ready to burn one when he invites us all into his room! He's swigging from a 1/2 gallon of Gilberts Gin (!?) and holding court. We are introduced to several old prankster friends, are given balloons from down the hall's tank and spend the next couple of hours listening to some of the craziest stories I had ever heard, most of which I don't even remember. One though, was about how Meet The Press had contacted him (it might have been MacNeil-Lehrer?) to come be on a panel about drugs. He asked who else was pro-drug. They said no one was "pro-drug", so he demanded 1/2 the time! They refused, so he wouldn't go on because he wanted both sides represented!
A good friend of mine wrote a book at the U of O with him and some others and his stories are legendary. I read Sometimes a Great Notion and now I live in Oregon! It is, imho, the best American novel of the last 50 years.
He never flinched about anything and there was never fear in this man. I played Ultimate on a team called Dark Star and whenever he saw me in the shirt, he ALWAYS said something like "Nice shirt". I thought it was because he remembered me, but my teammates all confirmed the same response.
Happy Birthday Ken, you are truly missed!
PS. Today's also the day Hendrix died :(
