When I post pictures from www.Space.com or www.Hubblesite.org it's because I believe you need a larger grasp of reality.
When I post music it's simply a chance to help you remember some of the great sounds that have come and gone through your life.
This morning, while reading the newspaper, I discovered that my Thyroid doctor, Boris Catz, passed away on May 2.
On October 13, 1976 a total thryroidectomy was performed on me at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles California and I woke up in the recovery room to Dr. Catz asking me what I had been doing to make my vocal chords ten times their regular size.
On October 10, 1976 I was at the Oakland Coliseum experiencing the Grateful Dead for the first time as they opened a daytime concert for a little band known as The Who. It was a Bill Graham series of concerts called A Day on the Green.
http://archive.org/details/gd76-10-10.hollwein.vernon.11670.sbeok.shnf
I just YouTubed the date and the link above is a complete audio of the Dead portion of that show.
If you blow up the second picture a thousand times you will see me about a quarter of an inch from the stage.
Now that Dr. Catz has passed away I think it's ok to explain why my two hour Thyroid operation actually took 5 and 1/2 hours.
The tickets to the show had been purchased back in the spring of 1976 long before there was any thought of a thyroid operation. I was being treated for a hyperactive thyroid but my first doctor simply didn't know much about thyroid problems and the medicine prescribed was wrong and I developed a goiter sometime before the summer of 1976. My mom heard about a thyroid doctor in Beverly Hills and I went south to meet with Dr. Boris Catz. My standing heart rate on my first visit was 185. Boris asked me if I had run from Northern California. He immediately put me on Inderal and told me to do nothing for the next few months except eat and sleep. I stayed with my mom and basically just chilled. It gave me a great opportunity to write, pray and meditate and for the first time in my life I actually put on weight and went from 165 lbs to 190 lbs in just a few months. My heart rate dropped to about 120 and treating the thyroid came down to two options. Start being treated with radioactive iodine or have the thyroid (goiter) removed. Dr. Catz highly recommended the complete thyroidectomy because radioactive iodine could affect my reproductive system. At the time I wasn't really using my reproductive system but I did have high hopes for future moments along those lines.
In September Dr. Catz scheduled the operation for October 13. I called my friends up north and told them I probably wouldn't be able to make the show and that they should sell my ticket. A week later they called me and said they couldn't find anybody and that I should just come up on Saturday and drive back on Monday. Since I had been extremely dormant for almost three months I figured it would be ok to take a short break before I had my throat sliced open.....so on Friday the 8th I drove up to Marin. Saturday night I went to sleep early because our plan was to leave at 5am for the Oakland Coliseum where it was first come first serve for the infield. I remember waking up around 4 and discovered that it was quite cold outside so I put my clothes on over my pajamas.
I then went into the living room and my friends were wide awake and were sitting on the couch looking at the coffee table like it was the Grand Canyon. On that table was a lovely plate with six small tablets. The name Ozley came up and while I probably considered it a bad idea I nevertheless made a decision that might have been the wrong decision but a decision made is a plan laid and the moment came and went with two of those tablets entered my mouth and quietly slipped past my large goiter and entered my blood stream.
I'm pretty sure I took the acid much too early in the day. The show wasn't going to start until 10 am and The Who had to follow The Dead and I had no idea that The Grateful Dead liked to play for 3 or 4 hours.
I do remember visuals starting while waiting for the gates to open at 8 am and I also recall the run to the grass in front of the stage was exhausting once the gates opened. There was a lot of pushing and shoving but most people were wearing tie-dyed clothing so it was quite colorful. I hadn't done anything physical in quite awhile and I still had a fairly rapid heart rate but while breathing hard the colors got stronger and stronger and that helped to calm me down.
We ended up about 40 feet from the stage....dead center. Remember this was my first (and last) Dead concert and the first 20 songs were actually mellow and grooving was pretty easy. Grooving is what we did in the 70's and although it sounds silly now.....grooving really explains the feeling one has while on two tabs of Ozley's work listening to the beginning of a Grateful Dead concert. It's really one of those "you had to be there" moments to understand the concept of grooving.
What song changed grooving to active dancing participation? I'm not really sure, but things started picking up and what happened next was substantiated by my friends on the ride home. Jerry Garcia started a rock and roll rift and every 20 seconds the following words came out of his mouth.
"COUGH IT UP"
I swear I can still hear it today....and every time he sang "COUGH IT UP" I coughed.....and I coughed in beat with the song and he got louder and my cough got louder and people started to back up and within a few minutes there was an empty path to the stage and Jerry was on the edge and there was a circle of people around me and I started taking off my clothes and of course under my clothes were my pajamas.
It's important here to remind you that I'm a natural born rock and roll dancer. The Who were my favorite and there had been previous moments over the last few years that my dancing had been fully responsible for having sexual encounters.
Back to the moment with Jerry.......
I was absolutely convinced that I was going to cough up my Thyroid so that I wouldn't have to have my throat cut in three days. The image of my overweight body in PJ's had to bring some people down but my mind was focused on the task at hand and I was convinced that the goiter was on its way up and out.
ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED
WHICH IS TRULY ONE OF THE MAJOR COMPONENTS OF HALLUCINATING ON GOOD CLEAR OXLEY LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE.
Why isn't it called LAD?
Back to the dance with Jerry.......
The last couple of coughs were so loud and strong that it actually scarred some people and the song finished and next thing I know there were a couple of Dead chicks holding on to me and telling me to just relax.
Small moments of affection, from women during aggressive hallucinations, can make everything smooth and very groovy.
I remember being led up to the concession counter and all I wanted was a couple of cups of ice.
The girl working behind the counter told me they couldn't sell ice only and I said I'm paying the full price but I don't want the Coke. She once more told me that she couldn't do that so I ordered two large Cokes with ice and proceeded to turn the drinks upside down with my hands saving the ice as Coke poured on the counter, which caused a big commotion but I remember shouting something about her not seeing Five Easy Pieces and maybe next time she'll focus on the issue.
To be completely truthful................ it might have been Pepsi.
By the time I got back to my spot in front of the stage I was quite spent and next thing I remember The Who is being introduced.
As my favorite band started playing I sat cross legged on the grass not moving a muscle with a very sore throat....and the funny thing is I didn't notice a lot of dancing going on around me. It seemed like the entire infield had peeked during the Dead and now it was just time to groove.
I know I'm probably making this part up but The Who didn't play very long and swear I heard Roger yell...."Fuck em" and they left the stage after a very short set. It turns out that it's not a good idea to follow The Dead when 80 percent of the audience are Deadheads.
On the way back to Marin one of the guys I was with said the exact following words....."dude, you are a better dancer than Mick Jagger but that coughing thing scared the shit out me." And the other guy made a comment about my pajamas and that he was glad they didn't come off but when I started undressing......the PJ's made him laugh so hard he almost threw up.
The next day I drove back to LA and two days later I woke up looking at Dr. Boris Catz and answered his question with the only answer that made any sense.
"SINGING"
Right after Jerry Garcia passed away I ran out and bought one of his ties.
It all comes around
and gets
neatly
tied
together
I'm not saying that I still hallucinate but I honestly believe that Dr. Catz looked up Jerry Garcia the other day and asked him to explain what the hell he was doing singing that "COUGH IT UP" song on October 10, 1976 to a silly young man.
Jerry most likely just looked back at him and said......"chill dude.....here take one of these."
By the way Internet Archive is a great site if you want to hear actual shows from the past.
Michael Timothy McAlevey
I then went into the living room and my friends were wide awake and were sitting on the couch looking at the coffee table like it was the Grand Canyon. On that table was a lovely plate with six small tablets. The name Ozley came up and while I probably considered it a bad idea I nevertheless made a decision that might have been the wrong decision but a decision made is a plan laid and the moment came and went with two of those tablets entered my mouth and quietly slipped past my large goiter and entered my blood stream.
I'm pretty sure I took the acid much too early in the day. The show wasn't going to start until 10 am and The Who had to follow The Dead and I had no idea that The Grateful Dead liked to play for 3 or 4 hours.
I do remember visuals starting while waiting for the gates to open at 8 am and I also recall the run to the grass in front of the stage was exhausting once the gates opened. There was a lot of pushing and shoving but most people were wearing tie-dyed clothing so it was quite colorful. I hadn't done anything physical in quite awhile and I still had a fairly rapid heart rate but while breathing hard the colors got stronger and stronger and that helped to calm me down.
We ended up about 40 feet from the stage....dead center. Remember this was my first (and last) Dead concert and the first 20 songs were actually mellow and grooving was pretty easy. Grooving is what we did in the 70's and although it sounds silly now.....grooving really explains the feeling one has while on two tabs of Ozley's work listening to the beginning of a Grateful Dead concert. It's really one of those "you had to be there" moments to understand the concept of grooving.
What song changed grooving to active dancing participation? I'm not really sure, but things started picking up and what happened next was substantiated by my friends on the ride home. Jerry Garcia started a rock and roll rift and every 20 seconds the following words came out of his mouth.
"COUGH IT UP"
I swear I can still hear it today....and every time he sang "COUGH IT UP" I coughed.....and I coughed in beat with the song and he got louder and my cough got louder and people started to back up and within a few minutes there was an empty path to the stage and Jerry was on the edge and there was a circle of people around me and I started taking off my clothes and of course under my clothes were my pajamas.
It's important here to remind you that I'm a natural born rock and roll dancer. The Who were my favorite and there had been previous moments over the last few years that my dancing had been fully responsible for having sexual encounters.
Back to the moment with Jerry.......
I was absolutely convinced that I was going to cough up my Thyroid so that I wouldn't have to have my throat cut in three days. The image of my overweight body in PJ's had to bring some people down but my mind was focused on the task at hand and I was convinced that the goiter was on its way up and out.
ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED
WHICH IS TRULY ONE OF THE MAJOR COMPONENTS OF HALLUCINATING ON GOOD CLEAR OXLEY LYSERGIC ACID DIETHYLAMIDE.
Why isn't it called LAD?
Back to the dance with Jerry.......
The last couple of coughs were so loud and strong that it actually scarred some people and the song finished and next thing I know there were a couple of Dead chicks holding on to me and telling me to just relax.
Small moments of affection, from women during aggressive hallucinations, can make everything smooth and very groovy.
I remember being led up to the concession counter and all I wanted was a couple of cups of ice.
The girl working behind the counter told me they couldn't sell ice only and I said I'm paying the full price but I don't want the Coke. She once more told me that she couldn't do that so I ordered two large Cokes with ice and proceeded to turn the drinks upside down with my hands saving the ice as Coke poured on the counter, which caused a big commotion but I remember shouting something about her not seeing Five Easy Pieces and maybe next time she'll focus on the issue.
To be completely truthful................ it might have been Pepsi.
By the time I got back to my spot in front of the stage I was quite spent and next thing I remember The Who is being introduced.
As my favorite band started playing I sat cross legged on the grass not moving a muscle with a very sore throat....and the funny thing is I didn't notice a lot of dancing going on around me. It seemed like the entire infield had peeked during the Dead and now it was just time to groove.
I know I'm probably making this part up but The Who didn't play very long and swear I heard Roger yell...."Fuck em" and they left the stage after a very short set. It turns out that it's not a good idea to follow The Dead when 80 percent of the audience are Deadheads.
On the way back to Marin one of the guys I was with said the exact following words....."dude, you are a better dancer than Mick Jagger but that coughing thing scared the shit out me." And the other guy made a comment about my pajamas and that he was glad they didn't come off but when I started undressing......the PJ's made him laugh so hard he almost threw up.
The next day I drove back to LA and two days later I woke up looking at Dr. Boris Catz and answered his question with the only answer that made any sense.
"SINGING"
Right after Jerry Garcia passed away I ran out and bought one of his ties.
It all comes around
and gets
neatly
tied
together
I'm not saying that I still hallucinate but I honestly believe that Dr. Catz looked up Jerry Garcia the other day and asked him to explain what the hell he was doing singing that "COUGH IT UP" song on October 10, 1976 to a silly young man.
Jerry most likely just looked back at him and said......"chill dude.....here take one of these."
By the way Internet Archive is a great site if you want to hear actual shows from the past.
Michael Timothy McAlevey
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