# New and username



## biograph1985 (Dec 30, 2021)

Hello! Username "biograph1985" = Bob Dylan's box set "Biograph" released in 1985. I was 11 the year it came out.


----------



## VRanger (Dec 30, 2021)

Welcome to the site! What sort of material do you write?


----------



## NajaNoir (Dec 30, 2021)

Hello, 

It's interesting how the music of our youth plays such a strong role throughout our lives. It's likely that we all have that definitive album. 
Mine: In Utero by Nirvana, age 15.

Welcome to the forums.


----------



## Taylor (Dec 30, 2021)

Welcome to the forum biograph1985.  I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan.  But I discovered him in the 70s.


----------



## LCLee (Dec 30, 2021)

biograph1985 said:


> Hello! Username "biograph1985" = Bob Dylan's box set "Biograph" released in 1985. I was 11 the year it came out.


I have that set. It is on top of two bookcases full of vinyl. Anyway, welcome to the forum.


----------



## Olly Buckle (Dec 30, 2021)

You are a couple of years older than my oldest boy, and I spent hours listening to Bob 's first album '62-'63. Not many artists manage to span the generations like that. Welcome to the forum, have a good look around and make a few posts, more opens up when you have a post count of ten.


----------



## piperofyork (Dec 30, 2021)

Welcome Biograph!


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

Bob Dylan lived about a half mile from where I lived as a kid. My father connected to him because he was a friend of the owner of the Matrix club in Haight Ashbury. I met Dylan, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Ken Kesey, Jerry Garcia, and others from that crazy time.
Welcome! I’m glad you’re here.


----------



## Kent_Jacobs (Dec 31, 2021)

Welcome aboard, biograph1985. What's your chosen genre?


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

VRanger said:


> Welcome to the site! What sort of material do you write?


Hello, I am trying to get back into writing a bit more, but I really want to try my hand at 19th and 20th century American fiction, perhaps "historical" but not necessarily.


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

NajaNoir said:


> Hello,
> 
> It's interesting how the music of our youth plays such a strong role throughout our lives. It's likely that we all have that definitive album.
> Mine: In Utero by Nirvana, age 15.
> ...


Ah, yes! I wish I could say I was listening to Dylan at 11, but I actually didn't get into him until I was 16 or so. I certainly remember "In Utero," although it took me a while to get into Nirvana as well. Many of us can identify one or more psyche-defining albums, that's for certain.


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

Taylor said:


> Welcome to the forum biograph1985.  I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan.  But I discovered him in the 70s.


Yes, loving Dylan comes with the territory, almost regardless of the territory! I could have seen him in 1978... if I wasn't 4 years old.


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

LCLee said:


> I have that set. It is on top of two bookcases full of vinyl. Anyway, welcome to the forum.


Yes, I guess it's been within the last 3 years or so that vinyl has overtaken the compact disc in sales for the first time since 1986 or so.


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

Olly Buckle said:


> You are a couple of years older than my oldest boy, and I spent hours listening to Bob 's first album '62-'63. Not many artists manage to span the generations like that. Welcome to the forum, have a good look around and make a few posts, more opens up when you have a post count of ten.


Thank you! And all props to the long-time Dylan fans. I will certainly see what I can get myself into.


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

piperofyork said:


> Welcome Biograph!


Who are you? A yes, the user who introduced me to this site!


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

indianroads said:


> Bob Dylan lived about a half mile from where I lived as a kid. My father connected to him because he was a friend of the owner of the Matrix club in Haight Ashbury. I met Dylan, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Ken Kesey, Jerry Garcia, and others from that crazy time.
> Welcome! I’m glad you’re here.


WOW. Well, that is pretty damn impressive. I hope if there are any photos from those days you have secured the rights and plan on publishing them with your memoirs! (If you haven't already!)


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

TheMightyAz said:


> Welcome aboard, biograph1985. What's your chosen genre?


Hi, I'd like to center on 19th/20th century American stories. Of course, if I write what I know I won't have anything! So, we'll see....


----------



## Kent_Jacobs (Dec 31, 2021)

biograph1985 said:


> Hi, I'd like to center on 19th/20th century American stories. Of course, if I write what I know I won't have anything! So, we'll see....


It used to be 'write from your own experience' and no one I knew got confused. Since it's been changed to 'write what you know', people seem to get confused and think it means you only write those things you've done. You know of love of hate of valour of fear of grief. ... That's 'write from your own experiences'.


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

biograph1985 said:


> WOW. Well, that is pretty damn impressive. I hope if there are any photos from those days you have secured the rights and plan on publishing them with your memoirs! (If you haven't already!)


My father was selling pot and acid throughout tha Haight back then. All memorabilia was lost one night when the police / FBI kicked our door and took my parents away.
I do have a lot of “interesting “ memories though.


----------



## VRanger (Dec 31, 2021)

biograph1985 said:


> WOW. Well, that is pretty damn impressive. I hope if there are any photos from those days you have secured the rights and plan on publishing them with your memoirs! (If you haven't already!)


Forgive me for jumping in @indianroads, but I believe the answer to his suggestion is your Outlaw books, correct?


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

VRanger said:


> Forgive me for jumping in @indianroads, but I believe the answer to his suggestion is your Outlaw books, correct?


Yes it is - I was trying to avoid self promotion. The Dark Side of Joy and The Last Dragon are listed in the Members' Published Books forum.

I've not written about what it was like for a 11 year old kid to attend Kesey's Acid Test parties - not sure what I'd say about that, I do have some amusing memories though.


----------



## VRanger (Dec 31, 2021)

indianroads said:


> Yes it is - I was trying to avoid self promotion. The Dark Side of Joy and The Last Dragon are listed in the Members' Published Books forum.
> 
> I've not written about what it was like for a 11 year old kid to attend Kesey's Acid Test parties - not sure what I'd say about that, I do have some amusing memories though.


My imagination thinks pretty funny or pretty scary, and most likely either one depending on the moment.


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

@VRanger
The Grateful Dead were playing - their huge speakers were stacked on either side of the stage. The music had a force that seemed to push through my body. We were sitting up in a balcony, and I got bored and wandered down to the dance floor. People were going crazy there, jumping around like monkeys. One guy, obviously on acid, had his ear pressed to one of the speakers and tears were running down his cheeks. If he's still alive today, he's probably deaf - at least in that ear.

After a while the thundering music was getting to me, so I went into the stairwell intending to go back up to the balcony. On the stairwell landing there was a security guard or cop - Kesey was required to employ them. They guy was laying flat on his back, his hat had fallen off his head and lay nearby. He stared up at the ceiling, seeing... who knows what, and kept saying, "I don't know what's happening," over and over. Apparently no one had told him to not drink from the punch bowl - which was laced with acid. Hippies were sitting in a circle around him, trying to help him cope with his visions.

Back on the balcony, I went into the bathroom - the affect of pounding music was confusion, and after enduring hours of it, I wanted to escape the noise. People were having sex in there, so, feeling awkward, I left.


----------



## VRanger (Dec 31, 2021)

indianroads said:


> @VRanger
> The Grateful Dead were playing - their huge speakers were stacked on either side of the stage. The music had a force that seemed to push through my body. We were sitting up in a balcony, and I got bored and wandered down to the dance floor. People were going crazy there, jumping around like monkeys. One guy, obviously on acid, had his ear pressed to one of the speakers and tears were running down his cheeks. If he's still alive today, he's probably deaf - at least in that ear.
> 
> After a while the thundering music was getting to me, so I went into the stairwell intending to go back up to the balcony. On the stairwell landing there was a security guard or cop - Kesey was required to employ them. They guy was laying flat on his back, his hat had fallen off his head and lay nearby. He stared up at the ceiling, seeing... who knows what, and kept saying, "I don't know what's happening," over and over. Apparently no one had told him to not drink from the punch bowl - which was laced with acid. Hippies were sitting in a circle around him, trying to help him cope with his visions.
> ...


Yep, you've got at least a novelette length memoir in all of that. No question.


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

VRanger said:


> Yep, you've got at least a novelette length memoir in all of that. No question.


Yeah, my childhood was nothing like Beaver Cleaver's.


----------



## VRanger (Dec 31, 2021)

indianroads said:


> Yeah, my childhood was nothing like Beaver Cleaver's.


It's odd. Our childhood and teen years couldn't have been more different. Since then, probably too many similarities to count. And considering what you had to face, that is ALL to your credit.


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

VRanger said:


> It's odd. Our childhood and teen years couldn't have been more different. Since then, probably too many similarities to count. And considering what you had to face, that is ALL to your credit.


Thanks, but it was just a matter of staying on my feet and moving forward. It's weird though, some of the worst times are memories that I cherish now. Living with other kids on the street - our bond was beyond what any regular person could imagine. It's probably similar to what those in the military experience serving with others in combat, yet different because we had no one backing us up.


----------



## Taylor (Dec 31, 2021)

indianroads said:


> Yeah, my childhood was nothing like Beaver Cleaver's.


I only laugh because my childhood was filled with adversity and I struggled with the likes of the Cleavers and the Brady Bunch.


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

Taylor said:


> I only laugh because my childhood was filled with adversity and I struggled with the likes of the Cleavers and the Brady Bunch.


Yeah, but I bet you didn't have a couple detectives kick in your bedroom door in the middle of the night and aim their pistols at you.   But perhaps you're referring to the weird dichotomy of real life vs idealism that was blasted at us through the airwaves. Did anyone actually live like that?


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

Well, hold on - we've kinda hijacked @biograph1985 's introduction post - he or she is gonna think we're a bunch miscreants, which we kinda are, but we don't want to scare off a new member.

So, biograph - trust me, @VRanger and @Taylor are the real trouble makers around here.

Welcome!


----------



## Taylor (Dec 31, 2021)

indianroads said:


> Yeah, but I bet you didn't have a couple detectives kick in your bedroom door in the middle of the night and aim their pistols at you.   But perhaps you're referring to the weird dichotomy of real life vs idealism that was blasted at us through the airwaves. Did anyone actually live like that?


Actually my childhood and closest friend did live like that...and has gone on to raise her family like that too. Which made things all the more confusing for me.  

I apologize to the OP that we have digressed so far but that's what you get when you bring up Bob Dylan.  @biograph1985, you are off to great start making an impact on the forums!


----------



## biograph1985 (Dec 31, 2021)

Thanks, all -- "he" is the pronoun. It's funny, I just read Jim Carroll's "Basketball Diaries" and I'm now reading the sequel "Forced Entries". No real childhood adventures on my past, just a hoary story of growing up in the last quarter of the 20th. I may have enough memoir for a Laffy Taffy wrapper -- and only half as funny -- but I'm glad some of you are in the memoir business. Stories worth telling.


----------



## indianroads (Dec 31, 2021)

@biograph1985 and @Taylor , I'm sure you find this weird. 
Dylan lived about a half mile up the hill from our house (he lived next door to my Savate instructor), and I remember visiting his place a few times. On occasion he would play guitar and sing his songs, and I recall thinking, _man! this guy is awful_. So much for my ability to judge music.

Pearl (Janis Joplin) came to our house several times - I loved her voice and the passion she put into her music, BUT thought she was loony. She had this idea that our soldiers in Vietnam should start giving flowers to the enemy, and that would somehow bring peace on earth - even as a 10 or 11 year old kid, I thought that was nuts.


----------



## VRanger (Dec 31, 2021)

indianroads said:


> @biograph1985 and @Taylor  On occasion he would play guitar and sing his songs, and I recall thinking, _man! this guy is awful_. So much for my ability to judge music.


Shhhhh ... Love Dillon's song writing ... only two or three of them I can stand his performance of. One of them is "Knocking on Heaven's Door". I mentioned that in the Student Center one night when my roommate and I were playing pool, and a Dillon song came on the speakers. He shushed me, concerned that if I was overheard, I'd be ostracized. LOL


----------



## Phil Istine (Jan 1, 2022)

indianroads said:


> @VRanger
> The Grateful Dead were playing - their huge speakers were stacked on either side of the stage. The music had a force that seemed to push through my body. We were sitting up in a balcony, and I got bored and wandered down to the dance floor. People were going crazy there, jumping around like monkeys. One guy, obviously on acid, had his ear pressed to one of the speakers and tears were running down his cheeks. If he's still alive today, he's probably deaf - at least in that ear.
> 
> After a while the thundering music was getting to me, so I went into the stairwell intending to go back up to the balcony. On the stairwell landing there was a security guard or cop - Kesey was required to employ them. They guy was laying flat on his back, his hat had fallen off his head and lay nearby. He stared up at the ceiling, seeing... who knows what, and kept saying, "I don't know what's happening," over and over. Apparently no one had told him to not drink from the punch bowl - which was laced with acid. Hippies were sitting in a circle around him, trying to help him cope with his visions.
> ...


I see a book series: _Tales from the Punch Bowl_


----------

