The WELL: inkwell.vue.346: Ed McClanahan - O the Clear Moment

#156: Scott MacFarlane (s-macfarlane) Mon 31 Aug 09 14:55

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:55:00 PDT

When Peter Rowan and Tony Rice played in Lousiville, KY last Friday (Aug. 28, 2009), Ed McClanahan reports that they asked him to open with a reading. Ed read excerpts from his 1972 piece, "Grateful Dead I Have Known" and said that he had a great response from the crowd of over 200 or so. [Read entire topic]

#155: Strangest I Could Find (miltloomis) Sun 15 Mar 09 10:47

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:47:00 PDT

I was out of town for effectively about a month, including the week during which this conversation with Ed concluded, so didn't get around to injecting my comments on answers and on other comments. Let me add that yes, DRT is a landmark book to me. A couple of lesser-known works of the 60s also resonate with me, one being Freewheelin Frank, Secretary of the Angels, as told to Michael McClure by Frank Reynolds; and Be Not Content, A Subterranean Journal by William J. Craddock.

Ed, your piece on the theft of your typewriter from your office in Palo Alto must be added to the Great Snapshots of the 60s album. It perfectly captures the feel of that wrinkled paisley time and the bizarre sorts of characters you'd meet, some not at all the sorts of people that your parents wanted you to be hanging out with, nor that you especially wanted to hang out with either, truth be known. Funny thing, among the characters I ran into along that golden road were a couple of bikers named Yogurt and Raisin. Whether it was the same Yogurt, who knows? Perhaps there were many ...

I will now begin checking out the lesser-known books you mentioned if I can obtain them ... Thanks for a great conversation! [Read entire topic]

#154: Steven McGarity (sundog) Mon 23 Feb 09 08:04

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:04:00 PST

Been a wonderful discussion back up the stairways to our shared past. Thank you. [Read entire topic]

#153: Linda Castellani (castle) Thu 19 Feb 09 15:30

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:30:00 PST

Ed, this might have been the best interview ever in inkwell, and there have been some great ones. It was also my first introduction to you and your writing and now I must find more. I will miss your voice here, the first thing I read every day for the last couple of weeks. Thanks so much for being here. [Read entire topic]

#152: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Thu 19 Feb 09 08:57

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:57:00 PST

Thanks, Ed. Thanks, Scott. [Read entire topic]

#151: Melinda Belleville (mellobelle) Thu 19 Feb 09 07:02

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:02:00 PST

From one Kentuckian to another, Ed, thanks so much for visiting. Thanks so much for being one of the brighter spots in this Commonwealth we love so much but has so much to overcome. You and Guerney and Wendall, et.al. make me proud to be a Kentuckian. [Read entire topic]

#150: Steve Bjerklie (stevebj) Thu 19 Feb 09 02:18

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:18:00 PST

What an interesting, enjoyable discussion this has been, Ed. Thank you. [Read entire topic]

#149: Scott MacFarlane (s-macfarlane) Wed 18 Feb 09 19:47

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:47:00 PST

Ed, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you on Inkwell.vue. The care and consideration, not to mention the time and energy you devoted to engaging those of us on The Well, has been greatly appreciated.

I am delighted that we were able to shine a light on your impressive body of work, and to gain such great insights on your rather amazing network of fellow writers and friends. I'm sure I speak for everyone who participated in thanking you for the opportunity to let us witness, up close (and in such a personable fashion), your wonderful wit and writing.

Let us know when your sequel--The Return of the Son of Needmore--hits the shelves and we would be honored to have you back!

Best of luck in all your endeavors, Ed! [Read entire topic]

#148: Gary Lambert (almanac) Wed 18 Feb 09 19:08

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:08:00 PST

A blast and then some from this end, Ed! As an ardent fan of your writing for damn near 40 (gulp!) years, I've been honored to have you visit our weird li'l neighborhood. Hope you'll come back sometime. [Read entire topic]

#147: Ed McClanahan (clammerham) Wed 18 Feb 09 18:49

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:49:00 PST

Boy, talk about Pranksteresque serendipity! I'm beginning this posting at about 4pm on Tuesday, 2/17/09, and I've just walked in the door from an inspiring protest march, and here, awaiting me, is a question from Scott regarding my story "Another Great Moment in Sports," which is about ... a protest march! Old Man Synchronicity strikes again!

This very day in Frankfort, Kentucky, the capital of this beautiful, beloved, benighted state, several activist/environmentalist organizations, spearheaded by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, joined forces for the annual "I Love Mountains Day" march on the capitol building. About a thousand demonstrators, my doddering septuagenarian self among them, marched up the hill (sometimes I wonder whether I love mountains so goddamn much after all) and gathered on the grand stairway before this grand old building, in which so much horrid, unconscionable exploitation of our fellow Kentuckians has transpired over so many years, to protest what might be the most horrid form of exploitation yet, the hideous practice of mountaintop-removal coal mining.

There were three splendid anti-MTR speeches this afternoon: the first by Louisville's rising young firebrand congressman John Yarmuth; the second a real barn-burner by musician/schoolteacher Randy Wilson (featuring a fine found-poem recitation of a catalog of the names of lost Kentucky mountain streams); the third a gorgeously written, gorgeously delivered speech by (be still my heart!) the oh-so-gorgeous Ashley Judd!

(Ashley, a native of Eastern Kentucky, declared herself a "proud hillbilly" and the mountain country her "spiritual home." She was just smashing in every respect, and she even got us some coverage, at long last, in the local media; the Lexington Herald-Leader--which ignored Wendell's magnificent speech at last year's rally--called Ashley's speech "passionate" and "eloquent." Maybe Wendell just ain't gorgeous enough; he probably just needs to get himself a new hairdresser.)

And coming up in DC on March 2nd is a civil-disobedience protest at the Capitol Power Plant, a coal-fired facility that is a heavy-duty polluter in the District, and produces not electric power but steam to warm the substantial asses of our complacent congress. Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben and Terry Tempest Williams will be the point-persons (Pointsters?) in this demonstration in DC; 10,00 people are expected to be present. Some of us will get arrested, and I fervently hope to be among that happy number.

So what did I bring to the present from the Pranksters and the counterculture and the 60s? Or, as per David Ganz's earlier posting, "Did it matter? Does it now?" Yeah, it did, and it still does--which is why we're still bothering to do it. Resistance to greed and injustice is always relevant.

Meanwhile, feller WELLers, it has somehow become no longer yesterday but today, Wednesday 2/17/09, and time for me to say adieu.

This has been a lot of work--more than I bargained for, to tell the truth--but absolutely worth every minute of it. I love telling these stories, and I've had a grand time telling them, as I'm sure you must've noticed.

My dad's definition of a good haircut was that it oughtn't to look like you'd had a haircut at all, and that's the way it is with stories: one strives mightily to make the telling seem effortless, relaxed, conversational, natural--itself all a big fat artifice. "Effortless," in short, requires a lot of effort.

Scott's fine, thoughtful questions have kept me hoppin', although I don't hop with great agility nowadays; but having a good audience is an absolute essential, and you guys have been a dandy. Those of you who've participated have helped me immensely; just knowing you were out there, listening to what I said and taking my measure as I said it, was heartening and enlivening and inspiring, and I thank you for it. It's been a blast.

xoxo, Ed [Read entire topic]