Even More Kesey Tributes Page
Thanks to everyone who sent stuff in honor of Kesey.
If it's not on the site yet, it soon will be...Rick
From "The Duke" by way of IntrepidTrips.com
To Uncle Ken's family and all Pranksters everywhere,
My deepest sympathy and sorrow on the loss of a great man and writer. I
only met Ken once, at the Hunter Thompson lecture in Eugene, 1991, (I was a
student at Lewis and Clark) but he invited me onto Furthur II and was very
hospitable. I met Kit as well, tinkering with the sound system. I was
tripping, but I think they were playing James Brown. My clearest impression
was of a burly bear of a man who radiated compassion, strong yet with a
gentleness about him. We only talked for a few minutes, but in that short
time, he made me feel welcome and accepted. He didn't act like some big
literary hotshot or celebrity, just regular folk. He was kind enough to
give me a lift out to the farm, where he told me to "just make myself at
home".
In an age when infotainment and conformity are the norm, Ken was an affable
rebel, multi-talented and always creative. I feel as if a member of my own
family has left us...
Anyway, I just want you all to know that I share in your loss, yet still we
retain our great memories. He may not have remembered me, but meeting him
was one of the highlights of my life.
My deepest sympathy in this time of sorrow...
From Egan by way of IntrepidTrips.com
Hey-a Ken,
I wrote the first draft of this letter on Friday. I wanted to get in
touch with you and I was wondering whether or not this website would be a
good way of getting my words to your eyes. My name is Egan, by the way.
I'm a student right now at a big university, (Northwestern - theatre major)
and I wanted to tell you about this performance that I'm writing and
performing. It's called "Furthur and Back Again: Ken Kesey in Eugene."
And, I think it's pretty obvious, it's a one-man show about your life. I
was writing you to ask you if that would be okay. Whether or not you'd be
comfortable with a young kid using your life and experience to express
something he thought was important. My professor, who assured me I didn't
need your permission because the project was attatched to a credit course
and because I wasn't charging admission, gave me some fancy University
stationary on which to write you - you know, to add some legitimacy. I
wanted to tell you about, even though I didn't need rights, because if you
had said that you didn't want me to do the show, I swear to god, I wouldn't
have done it.
A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in front of a microfiche viewer and
I cried for the first time in a very, very long while. I was reading your
open letter to Timothy Leary in Rolling Stone, 1970. "The revolution is
over and we have won." That did it for me. I told you about that in the
first draft, too. Because I wanted to thank you for breaking down a wall
that I had built up for some years. I mean, to perfectly honest about it,
Ken - I really wanted you to think I was genuine and intelligent and worthy
of performing some bits of your life. I didn't want you to think I was
just some disenfranchised academic without passion; also, I didn't want you
to think I was some neo-hippie who didn't understand how the world had
changed since the 1960's, and was desperately clinging to a tattered copy
of Kool-Aid Acid Test. But, I guess that stuff doesn't matter any more.
Because there's no use trying to show you what I am not. All I can do is
try to let you know what I am, and to thank you for halping me learn a
little bit how to be. I started working on this performance because I
needed your guidance. I needed a guru. And your words did it for me.
Even though I've never met you, you have been one of my greatest teachers.
I drove through Oregon in late August, and while I was driving through
the Southern part of the state on I-5, listening to Dylan's "Pat Garret and
Billy the Kid" soundtrack, I got a call on my cell-phone and found out that
my grandmother had died. It was rough, I have to tell you. But out there,
in the Cascade mountains, I knew something I couldn't have known anywhere
else. I think it had something to do with Grace. And it made me need you
that much more. Because I know about all the time you spent living out
there. And I figures, well, maybe I'm cooped up in Evanston, Illinois -
but Kesey wrote things from that place. And he knows the things I knew
when I was there. And I hoped you could relate a little of it back to me.
But now - well, I don't know. I gave the university stationary back to
my professor. And here I am. I didn't know you, but I've been a little
lonlier since Saturday night. But - this is the big part - I'm not afraid.
My life, and this world where war is on once more, don't scare me. And
that's because of you. I hope, maybe, in my performance - I can make some
other people feel a little bit of that. I want you to know that you have
lifted fear from a life. And that's more than I could ever hope to do in
my own life.
I'm wondering if your family and friends are gonna build you a box and
put you inthe ground the way you did it for your son. I hope so. That's
what's ultimately right in this world isn't it? Taking something from the
earth and then putting it back the way you found it. And when that's true
you gotta know that nothing is over. So, I'm breathing easy in my
lonliness.
I don't know about what's happening to you right now. I don't know if
maybe you're trading stories with Cassady or your son. That's a pretty
romantic notion, but somewhere back there I'm hoping for it. It's not a
long time that we have here, with each other, and maybe it's wrong to think
that we have more time after we're gone. I wasn't gonna tell you this in
the first letter, but now I will: I'm in love, Ken! Yeah. You've helped
with that, too. There's this dynamite girl out here named Erin. She was
actually with me up in Oregon, and I want you to know that she sends her
regards to you.
Well, I don't know what else to say. Other than I know one day I'll be
back in those lovely Cascade mountains, and I'll wave to you as I wave at
nothing. The winter's coming on, and it'll be a little colder without you.
But don't worry about that. It's alright. So, since I won't be hopig to
get a letter back from you anymore, I'll just wish you good fortune and say
good-bye. Good-bye, good friend that I never met.
There's still a lot for the ones that are left to do, but it helps to know
that the revolution is over and we've already won. I hope God has angels,
and I hope they're singing for you. I won't make you any promises, but I'm
gonna try real hard. That's all I can do. Try real hard. And, maybe,
someday, up there in Oregon, you'll catch wind that some kid from Chicago
has done something to help people, and you'll know you were his guru.
Good-bye. I'll miss you.
Don't forget.
With my deepest respect and admiration,
From E.H. by way of IntrepidTrips.com
Ken Kesey and
friends came to Kansas City on February 1972 for a University of Missouri
Kansas City Symposium "Perspectives on American Culture" and in the process
formed the UDDER Party. Here are Ken's thoughts from the program notes:
"Who wants to take a train back and forth every day from one schizophrenic
life to another." from The last Supplement To The Whole Earth Catalog"
"Concerning today's movement, Mr Kesey has stated, 'Yet, while there's no
gainsaying the steadfastness of of the workers neither is there any getting
around the fact that the industry has suffered some depressions. I have
watched faith fly high and fall in shreds, in impossible shreds, in the
course of an hour. Movements moving like a fleet of Diesels were to be
discovered a few miles further on in steaming, cracked-block and dirty
carburetor dejection. Wise young Davids with a people's future in their
pouch set off against Molech's Goliath and were busted halfway to the
battle in the bus station toilet, tying off with their slingshots.' "
That was then....E.H.
From Mark by way of IntrepidTrips.com
Can I offer my warmest sympathies at Ken's death? I have been inspired by
all of his novels, and quite a few Rolling Stone articles, and was
privileged to meet him a long time ago at the Adelaide Festival in South
Australia. I'd bought a copy of Cuckoo's Nest to have him sign it, and
rather facetiously asked him for a dedication that said something
"improving" to a state-employed psychologist. He wrote "Improve the
State". We also chatted briefly about our shared love of the Grateful
Dead, and he proudly showed me his Deadhead belt buckle. He was happy that
afternoon, full of creative ideas, and I think surprised by the number of
Australians who admired him and his work.
I have been inspired by his singularity and sense of fun for most of my
adult life. They are what make us individual, and thereby human. I
appreciate his way of taking the piss out of institutions, and his ability
to laugh at the mantle of authority assumed by those wishing to bully
others. These are gifts he shared with Groucho Marx, and which Ken showed
need to be made relevant in every era. And by jeez we need them now.
May whatever it is that brings love and warmth into the world look over you
all at this hard time, and I hope that the wishes of millions of us from
around the world bring you comfort.
From Robert by way of IntrepidTrips.com
I remember going down to the village to see kesey one night about 25 or so
years ago, leaving my middle class queens existence to see the great guy that
opened up my mind and spirit in so many ways and so many times. Man it was
great to be around him even for just that one night. I remember he told a
story it went something like this. Hey even if you've got some crummy job at
least its a crummy job that you're smokin hash at. Enjoy and observe. Man
he was great and 25 years later I'm going to get back in touch because of him
today. god bless you all and keep on truckin love always
From Larry by way of IntrepidTrips.com
I am saddened deeply to hear of ken keseys passing but im sure hes in new
frontiers and doing fine.I had wanted to teell ken kesey that i had ordered a
movie of the bus trip when he took orders for "pay later". That was so great
a thing to do.I got my movie but had to return it because of what happened.
after watching it the first time i had an experience of seeing physcadellic
patterns and it was brief so i blew it of.I watched it again later on and
thre doors really flew open and i experienced some heavy physcadellic
visions.I am mildly clarivoyant and i pick up things sometimes and this was
the case.it was from the inner self i experienced this.Now wether youll think
aha,..a a looney here! No thats not the case.I just picked up that vibe from
viewing the tape so i returned be cause i couldnt deal with it.I had wanted
to tell ken about this but i never did.Ive not been into lsd so got no
history there but what i saw was fantastic aand scary.too heavy for me. And
no i dont believe there was acid on the box or something like that. The doors
just flew open.I wanted to tell who ever reads this because i wanted to share
it for what ever its worth.Ken kesey was a geniuos, a great writer, and a
real pioneer.He must have not had much fear.Not in the regular sense as most
people do. I had hoped to get some art work from ken but that may not be
possible now.Something to have that was a moment of ken kesey to treasure for
the rest of my life.Well i told you of my experience and got that off my
chest.Im sure where ken is now he sends his love to you all. With deepest
respect and love to you all and my condolences "ferther on".
From Pat Scanlon
Though we never met the man, please allow me to share with you the profound, wonderful, personal influence that KK was in our lives. We loved him. He was our favorite author. (We=me, my husband and my son).
Well, first off, I fell in love with Skip (my husband) when he introduced me to Sometimes a Great Notion during our courting in 1977. Skip gave me that book to read and I knew that any man who was excited about that book was a man I wanted to know better. Both English literature geeks, our idea of heaven was a well-structured, beautifully written work. So we bonded over this novel. Oh, the characters, the plot, the themes, the style: this was the best thing we had ever read. (It still is. I turn to that book when I need inspiration the way some people turn to the Bible.) We married and went on to have a son, a huge KK fan also. As lovers, my husband and I delighted over reading aloud to each other our favorite passages that KK had written. Over every campfire we read "Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear", each of us reading the voices of our favorite character. KK has been a bonding of our loves over the years. We sought out every scrap of information about him and written by him as time went on.
Please allow me to share a little story about KK that reveals so much about this big man. Skip had called KK just to say hello around 1979; they talked on the phone for quite a while. Around 25 years later...a friend of ours met KK while he was doing a speech. The friend proffered one of KK's books for autographing, mentioning it was for Skip. KK immediately remembered the conversation from about 25 years prior, and made mention to that conversation in his very kind inscription of the book, complete with autograph, for Skip. We were astounded that he remembered that conversation from so very long ago and was so kind as to make mention of it in his inscription.
Students of literature will be reading KK's works centuries from now. He lives on through his works. I hope this thought sustains you, his beloveds, in the dark hours that come when you miss him. Our hearts are with you, his friends and family. I just wanted to add that you may not know us but we grieve with you.
From Howard Oresky
It was the early '70's, the very early seventies and I was fresh back from a pilgrimage through Europe and Africa. I was a "creative" writing major at Queens Collage, in Flushing, New York .. just a couple of stone's throws from the Worlds Fair site so beautifully captured on the Pranksters Volume 2 vidie .. focusing on the '50's writers and scribbling my ass off all week and trying to make it to the Bowery & St. Marks Place Church on time for the open readings held there. I was a student of John Titell's - just a bundle of hair, energy & chemicals with a voice and a sponge-like consciousness. I had the pleasure of crossing paths with the larger than life Ken Kesey (and his merry band of "associates") at a few of the marathon readings going down at the time, sharing a reading, experiencing a vibe, sucked into a feel .. and have never been the same since. On the East coast it had been Leary and Millbrook for us , the young seekers, and tuning in and dropping out .. very different than the Kesey/Prankster explosion that was energized, grounded in the real and the now, & much more palatable to young crazies more interested in pranks on this plane than spiritual rituals. I'm still blown away to think of the magnitude of Kesey's influence and the hugeness of his contributions. I'm still indebted to him for all the intangibles he added to my existence and appreciation of all that had been taken for granted. For the sensitivity he added to my words and my feelings. The world will never again have the same flavor or texture, and I'm sad for the young ones growing up without a Ken Kesey to help them define Freedom and break down barriers, and help set up roadmaps to new levels of consciousness. Prank on !
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