Ken Kesey appreciation thread

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Messages 1 - 82 of total 82 in this topic
taorock

Trad climber
Okanogan, WA
Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 11, 2010 - 01:38am PT
I loved his work from his classics to the little known works and Garage Sale too. Post up if you ever meet him or have a good Kesey story.

My one story is this: I was with my step sister/friend, going on a long walk which included going by Autzen stadium in Eugene, Oregon. My first time there, she a long time resident. The Greatful Dead were playing in the stadium (late 80's) so the parking lot was devoid of people. We heard the music as we get closer to the stadium. Then she saw Kesey, alone, leaning against a wall. She said, "lets go talk, I sorta know him". As we got closer, feminine intuition kicked in, and she whispered "not now, he's chillin". As we passed by he looked at us both and broke loose with a very broad grin. Loved it. So appropriate, especially at a Dead concert. Our walk continued onto Skinner Butte where I had a fine day bouldering around on columnar basalt.

As to Kesey, in addition to his earlier novels, I enjoyed both Sailor Song and his book of short stories called 'Demon Box'.

In Demon Box, 'Now We Know How Many Holes It Takes to Fill the Albert Hall' and 'The Demon Box: An Essay' are my favorites.

TR

Reilly

Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 02:08am PT
That's very tao! I doubt I could have resisted bothering him.
I walked by Autzen a few months ago and noted how special it felt.
Now I know why, in addition to Pre having touched the earth there.

Still one of my favorite lines though probably not letter perfect:
"Let's let a little daylight into the swamp!"
Watusi

Social climber
Newport, OR
Feb 11, 2010 - 02:20am PT
"Get on the Bus!!"...What a guy!
Tom

Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 02:44am PT
I think the best Kesey story is the Neal Cassady story. That guy drove the Cadillac in On The Road, and then drove the Prankster bus. He was the real, living link between the Beat and Hippie generations. Jack Kerouac called him Dean Moriarty, and later Cody Pomeray. Allen Ginsberg called him "cocksman and Adonis of Denver" in Howl. Hunter Thompson called him "the real-life inspiration for the protagonist in several recent novels" in Hell's Angels. Ken called him Houlihan in the obituary piece he published in Demon Box.
Wayno

Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
Feb 11, 2010 - 02:48am PT
All this talk kinda makes me wanna drop again. One more, just for old times sake. I wouldn't even know where to get a hit of clean these days.
taorock

Trad climber
Okanogan, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 02:49am PT
"Entropy," she whispered behind her hand, like a resistance fighter passing a vital secret under the very nose of the enemy, "is only a problem in a closed system." "What's more, a singing fisherman from Florence sounds better to me than a singed pig from Canada. How about you, Slick?"

Along with "You can't unscrew the inscrutable"

survival

Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
Feb 11, 2010 - 03:08am PT
I can't think of Ken Kesey right now.

That will make my head hurt too much.


Maybe later.







He was awesome.
taorock

Trad climber
Okanogan, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 03:20am PT
Sure nuff

tao
jack herer

climber
veneta, or
Feb 11, 2010 - 03:26am PT
did you really just tell him to change that?
Tom

Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 03:31am PT
I wouldn't even know where to get a hit of clean these days.

Nowhere, unless you make it yourself.

Street acid these days has worse odds than the lottery. Even twenty years ago, the sordidians were putting strychnine, MDMA and low-rent speed into their "LSD".

It's no longer safe to drop.


I don't partake, but cowshit mushrooms (after the rains) often come up as psilocybin. They're quite distinct, and easy to identify. And good luck eating strange mushrooms.
taorock

Trad climber
Okanogan, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 03:33am PT
"It was into this smoldering scene, right between these two forces about to clash, that John Lennon came, in a red Santa Claus suit and a silly white beard."

"'Awright, then,' he said, not loud but very clear, and reasonable, and unsmiling,that thin bespectacled face pale yet intensely bright, polished by more time spent beneath the blast of that high-voltage beam than any face I have ever seen, the thin hands coming out of the white fur cuffs to hold back the two sides of the room, like Moses holding the waters -- 'That's enough.'"

tao
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 08:57am PT
Ken was a awesome guy. A lot of fun to be around.

Norwegian

Trad climber
Placerville, California
Feb 11, 2010 - 09:08am PT
astronauts of inner space.

what a crew, those pranksters.

anyone spend time within the further inquiry?
drljefe

climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
Feb 11, 2010 - 09:41am PT
The bus came by
and I got on
that's when it all began.

Road trips
and paper strips.

NEVER trust a prankster.

Worthy thread!
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Feb 11, 2010 - 10:00am PT

Bump for the merry prankster!!!!

not so much for Nurse Ratched.
hooblie

climber
from where the anecdotes roam
Feb 11, 2010 - 10:09am PT
i guess if the essay had been in response to a different thread title i would have emphasised that the angels in question
were ambassadors of sorts from the kesey compound in la honda, and carried the kind of paper work that left no doubt

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=849357&msg=849734#msg849734
drljefe

climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
Feb 11, 2010 - 10:58am PT
The "Sunstroke Serenaders" played one of their best shows ever on his farm in Veneta in 72.
I brushed shoulders with Kesey a few times, and definitely benefitted from his exhaustive research.
I'm eating yogurt right now.
Thanks KK.
RIP
Gary

climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Feb 11, 2010 - 11:06am PT
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a favorite of mine. I read One Flew Under the Cuckoo's Nest after dropping a blotter of Mr. Natural. Tripping and reading the beginning where Chief is off on his own trip was...well.. trippy!

I used the same technique on Mr. Sax. That book made absolutely no sense until you dropped a hit of Windowpane. Then it flowed beautifully. Same with Tim Buckley.

No wonder my head's scrambled.
Norwegian

Trad climber
Placerville, California
Feb 11, 2010 - 11:07am PT
its a wonder when whimsical wanderings lead into the realm of angels.

hobblie you "lean your words against each other so they don't fall down."
taorock

Trad climber
Okanogan, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 11:07am PT
Like climbers, I certainly have the sense that he was "of the people", the real deal. No poser there - engaged as he created new routes in literature and in the minds of those around him. Certainly, he knew how to run it out.
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 12:59pm PT
Bump for Ken and The Merry Pranksters.

Zane and Stephanie Kesey's website
http://www.key-z.com/
mountain dog

Trad climber
Feb 11, 2010 - 01:30pm PT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ilnADvT2s
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 01:45pm PT
"People don't want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in." -- Ken Kesey
taorock

Trad climber
Okanogan, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 02:02pm PT
Interesting observation Sully.

Mountain dog! Great find. I loved his one line zingers about the space shuttle, passage back, nothing for free, etc.

Especially liked (with reference to gov't sponsered LSD experiments):

"...government wanted someone to look in that room...we got this nice room..8 months later we walked out and the government said don't let anyone else in that room.

What bright lights Kesey and Garcia are in this interview.

Carolyn C

Trad climber
the long, long trailer
Feb 11, 2010 - 03:49pm PT
Sometimes a Great Notion has been one of my favorites since...a long time ago.

"You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you."
-K.K.
Chief

climber
Feb 11, 2010 - 03:54pm PT
I spent some of my formative years living next to Rayonier's logging camp near Port McNeil on the north end of Vancouver Island. Dad worked for that outfit and we lived next to the yard in a funky neighborhood known as "Dogpatch" That would have been 67-68. I can't describe the experience as well as Ken Kesey did in Sometimes a Great Notion.

PB
Charlie D.

Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
Feb 11, 2010 - 04:19pm PT
In the late 60’s I started hearing wild stories about Kesey and the pranksters. I read his novels and heard some BS in Pasadena about him moving to Nepal having discovered the ultimate psychedelic flower that grew on some vine!

Moving to Eugene proved to me the psychedelic vine was some sort of embellishment, having run into Kesey fairly regularly on campus and in the community. I did see him and Wayne Morris debate at a housing co-op and remember Kesey’s opening remark after listening to the long winded Morris, “well he sounds pretty good from where he’s standing, but we’ve been standing there for a 100 years” which was accompanied by a loud applause.

My buddy Vic knew a few of the old pranksters which added to much entertainment at parties. The imagine of folks lined up in the rain waiting their turn for a hit of laughing gas off the tail gate of and old pickup amuses me to this day, indeed nothing lasts. That was a long time ago, thanks for jarring the memories.
Carolyn C

Trad climber
the long, long trailer
Feb 11, 2010 - 04:25pm PT
Thanks for the cool photos, Walleye. That must have been a great experience.
FinnMaCoul

Trad climber
Green Mountains, Vermont
Feb 11, 2010 - 04:32pm PT
Sometimes a Great Notion... truly one of the underappreciated jewels of American Literature.

I only wish I could have met the man. Spent some time in his world. But there is a man who put it out there for all of us to enjoy, whether we were there with him or not.

The 'Test', man. How many people has it sent on their own merry journey?

I had a funny thing happen to me while livin in Australia. Surfer stoner redneck Aussie friend of mine, Mick, saw me reading it. He borrowed it. Came back to me amazed... no idea really what they were talking about. This guy, I mean his command of English was sketchy at best... and no notion whatsoever of the scene that Kesey was writing about. AT ALL. He was confused and thrilled and he just wanted a piece of it BAD.

So he and I and a coupla girls hiked way back into this National Park on the coast and turned it on and spent all day in the rainforest and on the beach. WOW. One of THE funnest trips EVER. It all started with this couple passing by in the rainforest, naked except for their blue tennis shoes. 'Did you see that?' Later, watching the sunset, Mick the Aussie nodding and goofing, getting it, sayin 'You knew, man... you knew..."

Ahhh, moments such as these.

Thank you Mr. Kesey.
altelis

Mountain climber
DC
Feb 11, 2010 - 05:00pm PT
I just gotta say Sometimes a Great Notion. Too young to have any part in, well, any of it first hand. But that book, man, that book. I read it after living in Edinburgh for a number of months during the winter and I just KNEW the rain. Not sure I would've understood it without that experience.

I might just have to pull that back off the shelf and drift through it again...
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 05:12pm PT
Some shots around the farm at the time of Zane and Stephanie's wedding.
taorock

Trad climber
Okanogan, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 05:32pm PT
Great photo history BillO and Walleye. Thanks.
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 06:03pm PT
Thanks taorock, I sent this link to Zane I thought he might enjoy it.
Zane and Stephanie are very good friends, they are our daughters home away from home while she is at the U of O. I'll post some more photos as I find them.
Some nice old photos there Walleye.
d-know

Trad climber
electric lady land
Feb 11, 2010 - 06:12pm PT
who but kesey could have
brought two groups of people
such as the pranksters and
the hells angels together?

a visionary and great
writer.
taorock

Trad climber
Okanogan, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 11, 2010 - 06:18pm PT
Not to mention the lads at Apple Records. ^^

BillO - Honored that you are passing this along to Kesey's family. He was an explorer in the true sense of the word and much like the explorers of our climbing community.

tao
Ricky D

Trad climber
Sierra Westside
Feb 11, 2010 - 07:36pm PT
Finally - a thread worthy of more than hyperbole and sacrosanct drivel!

I loved the idea of this man's life - as a young wanna-be-hippie trapped in the bowels of the South I devoured Tom Wolfe's novel on the Kesey trip.

After migrating to California, taking a road trip to Oregon was on my to-do list - mainly in hopes of seeing the man himself. Never did get to meet Mr. Kesey - did get to see Further - but to this day am still enthralled by Sometimes A Great Notion.
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 08:31pm PT
"Leary can get a part of my mind that's kind of rusted shut grinding again, just by being around him and talking." -- Ken Kesey
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 08:34pm PT
A few more shots.
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 11, 2010 - 08:42pm PT
A couple bus shots
Norwegian

Trad climber
Placerville, California
Feb 12, 2010 - 09:50am PT
the journey is so thoroughly exhausting,
it is difficult to author the dreams that will ignite tomorrow.

thus my interjections upon the future are silenced, and the silence itself
orchestrates my march.

the clock it spun backwards for 36 days straight.
spam became gormet and i moved in to the right rear
seat of a '74 chevy club cab. two others dodging the rut shared the roof that this truck offered.
one of my mates was having her baby, so i gladly gave up my acreage for
her dula.
i slept under the truck for a night. avoiding the oil drips and the rain.

she labored right there in the back seat of the truck. the rain fell proud that night, and in the morning a rainbow dawned and a new baby too.

crazy reality. that club cab that never burdened my freedoms.

they say, according to relativity laws, as you move about faster, the clock hands slow down. i musta been at some sort of warp level to get the clock to spin backwards. backwards for 36 days straight.
BillO

Boulder climber
Whittier, CA
Feb 19, 2010 - 10:30am PT
Bump for Ken just to make an even 50 posts.
PhilG

Trad climber
The Circuit, Tonasket WA
Feb 19, 2010 - 11:37pm PT
Ken Kesey indirectly had a big influence on my life. I read his book One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest while I was working at a Mental Hospital in LA. It was one of the voices that caused me to Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out and head for Camp 4.
Thanks Ken
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Dec 9, 2011 - 06:26pm PT
I'm all about letting a little daylight into the swamp.

leena

climber
Pinecrest, CA
Dec 9, 2011 - 06:37pm PT
This Guy:



I'm pretty sure the protagonist from One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is modeled after him.
tom Carter

Social climber
Dec 9, 2011 - 07:18pm PT
It's all true even if it didn't happen.
fosburg

climber
Dec 9, 2011 - 07:42pm PT
"The bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began"

Sometimes a Great Notion is a great American novel!

"What a gray world it would be without LSD", Jerry Garcia

I love the part in Electric Kool-aid Acid Test where Kesey is berating the guy for secretly polishing off the last of the acid in New York, "We needed that, for the Rockies!"
zBrown

Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
Jul 11, 2012 - 11:29pm PT
bump Sometimes A Great Notion


Good night Irene.
guido

Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
Jul 12, 2012 - 12:05am PT
There is a certain link to climbers in the Tetons and "the bus." If I remember, think 63 Everest expedition. Someone out here must know. Jennie?
Jennie

Trad climber
Elk Creek, Idaho
Jul 12, 2012 - 12:53am PT
I’m perplexed on the connection to Teton climbers, Joe.

My mother knew Barry Corbet from Jackson who was on the 1963 Everest team but doesn’t know the link.

(She claims she was a mormon hippie…but I think she’s lying…or maybe gotten an F in Psychedelic Studies, ;-)
Fritz

Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
Feb 22, 2015 - 07:28pm PT
I had forgotten about this great thread. Stuff like this is a big part of why ST is a wonderful place to hang out.

Pieces of gold among the dog turds.

Makes it all worth-while.
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Feb 22, 2015 - 07:32pm PT
At the show in lake placid
Where we all were on acid
From the third row
To the Raffters
Of the Olympic stadium
Where USA Hockey won gold,
The To Lay Me Down,
was turned up to Stun !!

Wheel to the turnig Sky
Wheel to the turn an' FLY
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 22, 2015 - 09:47pm PT
I maintain that his greatest work was Sometimes A Great Notion.
It certainly ranks in the top 5 American novels list.
Gilroy

Social climber
Bolderado
Feb 22, 2015 - 10:11pm PT
I and others here (it appears) agree, Reilly. Southern Gothic set in the Pacific Northwet. Too bad the movie was so flawed. A waste of great actors and Kesey's novel.
Gilroy

Social climber
Bolderado
Feb 23, 2015 - 06:07am PT
Oh, I enjoyed the film aplenty but it fell so short of the novel's scope and story-telling for me. Henry Fonda as the curmudgeonly patriarch was memorable. I think the flick was re-titled "Never Give an Inch"?
Reeotch

climber
4 Corners Area
Feb 23, 2015 - 06:10am PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]

He admits the CIA's involvement, interesting. So, what do we, or they (the CIA) have to show for their little experiment? What was the overall outcome? Are we better off for LSD? What if it was never invented? Would we be missing out on some grand revelations?

My feeling is that the doors they don't want us to look behind are not the ones in our minds.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Feb 23, 2015 - 06:14am PT
Geuss I'll have to give notion another try....
smith curry

climber
nashville,TN
Feb 23, 2015 - 07:33am PT
I got to know Kesey fairly well about 25 years ago as my GF's mom was Jane Burton (her pregnancy being the reason for the infamous bus trip)...He was unbelievably kind and generous---Very encouraging to me about my musical aspirations. The man just exuded charisma---the very definition of a born leader.
For my birthday he bought me a tiny wooden guitar that rotated on a stand and played a song (like a music box) and had Bob Weir sign it for me. Unfortunately it disappeared during my tumultuous 20's.
A great writer and human...Sigh.
smith curry

climber
nashville,TN
Feb 23, 2015 - 07:35am PT
For the record he hated the Cuckoo's Nest film hahaha
zBrown

Ice climber
Brujň de la Playa
Feb 23, 2015 - 07:52am PT
The man single-handedly invented the word "poozle".

"...legs long enough to lock around his mighty back , and a little cup of poozle warm and juicy and sweet as butter an' honey..."



Though Leadbelly gets the invention credit, Mr. Kessy gets the award for best adatpation of someone else's work.

Sometimes I lives in the country
Sometimes I lives in town
Sometimes I take a great notion
To jump into the river an’ drown


Birdman



Professor stackin' signs

Reeotch

climber
4 Corners Area
Feb 23, 2015 - 07:55am PT
Listen to Jerry talk about the Acid Tests and the Haight Ashbury scene. Then, consider what Kesey says above about the CIA involvement in LSD distribution.

My question is: To what extent was all this a truly organic movement, and to what extent was it instigated or contrived? Did it start out as an authentic grass roots movement that, like so many others, soon got co-opted and twisted. Or, was it contrived from the beginning?

This interview with Jerry is fascinating and entertaining. He was right in the middle of all this.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

zBrown

Ice climber
Brujň de la Playa
Feb 23, 2015 - 10:06am PT
A CIA research program code named Project MK-ULTRA administered LSD to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public to study their reactions, often without the subject’s knowledge. None of this was known publicly at the time, and only surfaced in the mid-1970s when the Rockefeller Commission – led by then Vice President Nelson Rockefeller – issued its report on CIA activities within the U.S.

The stuff appears to be quite dangerous.

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 23, 2015 - 10:13am PT
You people will bitch about anything! You'll even bitch about free drugs, won't you?
Reeotch

climber
4 Corners Area
Feb 23, 2015 - 10:39am PT
Doesn't anybody think anymore?
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Feb 23, 2015 - 10:43am PT
For the record he hated the Cuckoo's Nest film hahaha

The movie was about McMurtry, the book was about the chief. Maybe that's why.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 23, 2015 - 11:20am PT
I have no intentions of ever seeing the movie version of Notion;
don't want to sully (pardon moi!) the book.

Sully, saw two great plays this weekend: "A Walk In The Woods" and
"The Price". Almost too much culture!
zBrown

Ice climber
Brujň de la Playa
Feb 23, 2015 - 11:32am PT
For what it's worth

Kesey originally was involved in creating the film, but left two weeks into production. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights. Kesey loathed the fact that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by the Chief Bromden character, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson's being cast as Randle McMurphy (he wanted Gene Hackman). Despite this, Faye Kesey has stated that Ken was generally supportive of the film and pleased that it was made.
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Feb 23, 2015 - 12:44pm PT
Robert Mitchum would've been a great McMurphy.
Dave Davis

Social climber
Seattle, WA
Feb 23, 2015 - 07:31pm PT
Have to agree with those who feel that Sometimes a Great Notion is truly one of the great American novels of the 20th century. Nobody quite captures the essence of the northwest like Kesey. Did not like Hollywood's version of that or Cuckoo's Nest, but when does a movie ever do justice to a great piece of writing?
mike a.

Sport climber
ca
Feb 23, 2015 - 09:11pm PT
the kesey house before and after, cheers from la honda happy climbing mike a.
mike a.

Sport climber
ca
Feb 23, 2015 - 09:12pm PT
mike a.

Sport climber
ca
Feb 23, 2015 - 09:13pm PT
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Mar 25, 2015 - 03:44pm PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]BUMP
`
`
`
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Sep 18, 2016 - 03:49pm PT
I have to disagree with the caption of this photo:

See the old timer in the center, in the back, chewing on his glasses? He's on the bus.
Ricky D

Trad climber
Sierra Westside
Sep 18, 2016 - 04:58pm PT
Everyone in that photo is probably dead by now.

Wonder if any ever became experienced before they left?
i-b-goB

Social climber
Wise Acres
Sep 18, 2016 - 05:59pm PT
Guyman's a good dude!
d-know

Trad climber
electric lady land
Sep 18, 2016 - 07:05pm PT
Sometimes I am the bus.


As are you.
F

climber
away from the ground
Sep 18, 2016 - 07:08pm PT
D-know is in the know

.
zBrown

Ice climber
Sep 18, 2016 - 07:12pm PT

'But it's the truth even if it didn't happen.'
-Ken Elton Kesey
i-b-goB

Social climber
Wise Acres
Sep 18, 2016 - 07:26pm PT
zBrown

Ice climber
Sep 18, 2016 - 07:43pm PT


zBrown

Ice climber
Sep 18, 2016 - 07:44pm PT
Free kool-aid

mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Sep 18, 2016 - 09:31pm PT
“A Man Is Known By The Mice He Keeps”
― Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion
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