Zappa On Freaking

[Greg Montalbano]

Steelhead writes:

>It's hard to imagine Pynch hanging out with Dylan and that mycologist
>extraordinaire Gordon Wasson (a former vp of JP Morgan and Company) in the
>mid-60s and not using LSD, mescaline, or psilocybin. But anything's
>possible. Of course, it's kind of cheap to simply "record" someone else's
>trip when the experience was so easily had.

Not so hard to imagine, really.  There was a good deal of
cross-pollinization going on back then;
a number of folks he is known to have hung with were known to be "drug
users" (as the term was defined back then);  also, the general atmosphere
and attitude towards "amateur drug testing" was 
a lot more relaxed (especially among many of the folks he was "hangin' " with).
Besides -- TRP does much more than "record someone else's trip";  he does a
generally EXCELLENT job
of describing and USING the point of view and perceptual skew of a person
who has a more-than-passing familiarity with certian types of chemicals.

>And Greg M...How do you know Ursula le Guin is "straight?"  She lives a
>couple blocks away, run into her at the coffee house (Hawthorne Cafe...not
>the ubiquitous Starbucks) occasionally. And I would never describe her as
>straight. She's certainly not straight sexually. And as for drug use...Her
>father, Alfred Kroeber was an anthropolgist. And we know "they" are famous
>for tasting the forbidden elixirs.

Are you asking if I could testify in a court of law that she was not an
illegal drug user?
Yes, I could -- I have no problem with lying under oath.

I was just stating my best judgement of her drug habits, based on long
familiarity with her writings (fiction and otherwise) and reports from some
folks who have known and/or worked with her.

But now that you mention it ... she was ALWAYS championing Phil Dick as one
of "America's best
writers" -- something going on there?

(Say "hi" for me the next time you run into her at the Hawthore).

~G~