A Kind of Innocence We'd Never Seen Before

I wanted the myth of the sixties to be real--that idealism, that sense of a higher purpose. I wanted to believe in something, and I found it in the Dead. Fittingly, renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell found something there too. Despite his extreme distaste for popular culture (he only ever saw two movies, didn't read the newspaper, and hadn't attended a pop concert in decades), he went to see the Grateful Dead and felt “in immediate accord” with them.

The Beat Cafe

The Beat Generation resources

Brion Gysin and His Wonderful Dreamachine

The first dreamachine was imagined and constructed by Brion Gysin sometime in the early 1960's with the aid of mathematician Ian Sommerville. Gysin, an occultist, artist and writer living in Paris, was a close friend of William S. Burroughs (who often receives credit for the invention). Burroughs and Gysin experimented with the dreamachine extensively

Real Artists Creating Great Recordings on Their Own Terms

Real Gone Tom Waits has completed groundbreaking new CD for ANTI- Records--titled "Real Gone"-- out October 5th!