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The Dead is Dead By Ron Miller It is probably one the ironies of life that Jerry Garcia has an ice cream named for him by Ben and Jerry's called Cherry Garcia. Ice cream was something Jerry was not supposed to eat because he was a diabatic. Like most things in his life like playing guitar even though he was missing a finger, eating things he shouldn't didn't stop him although he preferred Hagen Das, but Jerry was an ironic kind of guy and it fits somehow. I can't say I really knew him, although I took my third or perhaps fourth acid trip at one of his concerts. I took so many since then that they tend to run together like the colors of some projected psychedelia that once were shown at "love ins". It was in 1968 and I remember the topless girls, the acid spiked punch, the feeling of oneness, the face paint and the music well. I interviewed him once for one of those magazines that caters to the acne crowd. He was smart, articulate, and funny. We talked about drugs , music and the war and what it was like to be a San Francisco Icon. He said that some drugs were cool but most led to a form of slavery. That playing music was like living. You had to be honest about it and real or you were just playing around not playing. He didn't aspire to being deified. Being an icon got in the way of the music. It made people see him as something he was not. It was just something that came with the territory and you lived with it. How much of what he said in that brief 45 minutes was stuff he thought I wanted to hear rather than how he really felt, I'm not sure of except for those three statements. I don't think...

F L A S H B A C K

	October 2001