For some reason or another, a couple of weeks I got into the mood to hear and absorb all that was Greendale, since I didn't do such when it was at the table first time round.

I ordered the book for $5 (new) on amazon Zshops, and the cd for $5 with a dvd second disc. Listening to the album again and I dig it. I know some of you bashed it (rparis), but I like it. The book is beautiful btw. The dvd that accompanied the cd I was surprised to find was a complete concert of the album, which is pretty damn cool. Still yet to see the movie, but its on my netflix.

Yep... an unrecognized classic. Even the stoopit film that documented (Shakey Productons!) overcame its frayed edges and broad brushes with the depth of its feelings. Sometime a pure heart overcomes everything else, or at least that's what the hippie dream (and Blake and Keats) would tell us.

A Greendale's song cyle was as pure a version of Neil's uniquely pure heart as you'll ever find. Look for his acoustic version of all the songs in a concert in Amsterdam...

Greendale = Half Moon Bay = struggle = peace. No one really cares about America anymore.

I found myself both annoyed and impressed with Greendale. There's not much hookage to hang Neil's hat on, but the integrity of the project is undeniable.

I'll take Greendale: The Concept over Green Day: The Concept any day, though.

What intrigued me was not so much the music, as I sipped from that glass when it first came out, but rather the multimedia that surrounded it. I wish more musicians would embrace such techniques.

HEY, MR. CLEAN...YOU'RE DIRTY NOW, TOO!!!

yep. I watched the film about a month ago. Neil's still a hippie after all these years (even after the Reagan support in the early 80s).

Stupid thread smoking out all the aged hippies...

I saw the film on its "preview night" downtown Santa Cruz... Neil and Peggy... he looked like he wanted to cry... not from the ego gratifying response, but, I think, from the residual bt powerful sense of community, of actually trying to heal Mother Earth collectively and connecting that impetus to a simpler, perhaps artificially created past, when family values meant individual efficacy, not Rightist politics and born-again elitism. Grandpa shaking his hands at the mediaifilled sky indeed. This year's war brought to you by Clear Channel.

And the show at Shoreline with all the NeilsKids in the high-school-community-theater homely rain dancing. I'll be a sucker for these (now increasingly rare) principles of community and reconciliation and grounding in ethical orientation to the earth. Maybe it's just like a telethon with Jerry's Kids.. sentimental crap... but with a quavery tenor, a passionate melody, and an angry guitar hungry for truth.