After a few hours of digging the vibe, I turned to Zann Zsuzsannika, who brought me to the annual Artista Party at The Block in Petaluma last June and said to her, I feel like I’m surrounded by all the folks who got away with it.
Old friends, classic psychedelic music, and a dance floor full of illegal smiles.
Where Does the Truth Lie? Barry Melton, Natalie Martel,
Peter Albin, Banana, David Aguilar
Smile on your brother right now
STEVE BROWN’S FLASHBACK JAMS
In our printed version, I promised more of Steve Brown’s Flashback Jams. Here are two
generous helpings. Fair Warning: Like his Artista counterparts in Marin County, Steve
Brown (native San Franciscan, resident of Pacifica) does not offer title graphics. Not a
one. He shot film of the San Francisco music scene going back to when he was a very
astute teenager. But as for words on the screen telling you who’s playing with which
band when? As his co-producer on many of the shows in the Jams, I can tell you we
just didn’t have that guy. The guy (gender neutral) who could put words on video.
Anyway, you will see footage from the A.R.T. (Artist Rights Today) Benefit for San
Francisco Poster Artists at the Gift Center Pavilion in San Francisco on March 22,
1989, featuring Jerry Garcia & Friends (i.e. John Kahn) with Bob Weir as a surprise
guest, as we mentioned in the printed version. Also featured were Country Joe
McDonald, Dinosaurs Merl Saunders, Pete Sears, Nick Gravenites, and Animal Mind.
The show presented the art of the legendary Big Five: Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse,
Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso and Wes Wilson. In the Flashback Jams, Alton Kelly
explains why he and Stanley Mouse sometimes misspelled words like Grateful Dead
and San Francisco. (Spoiler Alert: “We didn’t know how to spell shit.”)
You will also see some sweet video of Bobby and Bill Graham at the one and only
BAWIM (Bay Area Women in Music) State of the Music Industry Address sometime in
the ‘80s, as best as I can recall.
Ramblin Jack Elliott is in there with the Bay Area’s own slide guitarslinger, Roy Rogers,
meeting for the first time, singing and playing on a boxcar in a never-finished movie
about Bonnie & Clyde. There’s film from the first ever outdoor rock ‘n’ roll festival, the
KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tam in 1967. And a
whole lot more…. But as for who’s playing in what band when and where, maybe we
should have a contest….
Steve Brown’s Flashback Jam Part 1
Steve Brown’s Flashback Jam Part 2
ARTISTA GANG
And as for the Artista Gang, there’s not much I can say about them that they haven’t
already said about themselves, beginning with this:
“Artista really began in 1978 at the Peanut Gallery in San Rafael, California. It was home to resident Artists Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelly, Victor Moscoso, Pat Ryan, Dave Sheridan, Tim Harris, Larry Noggle, Linda Miller and Enid Hanson. In October of ’78, they had a joint show at the gallery entitled ‘The Concrete Foundation of the Fine Arts Show’ which was a rousing success. The following January they did another show at the Zamora Gallery In San Francisco, which Dave Sheridan and Pat Ryan did the art
for. It had a Dragon on it squeezed from a paint tube, holding a lightning bolt. This was the Birth of Artista.”
There’s much more on their very entertaining website, ArtistaGang.com, with some far-out music from some of their even farther out parties. Yeah, these OGs have been getting away with it for a long time and they’re still going strong, even if there are a few walkers and canes in the mix.
But here’s the kicker. The final reason I popped for a black satin jacket and said you can call me Sports Desk wasn’t just to wear the badass colors. It was the rules:
NO RULES.
