Last year the University of California at Santa Cruz struck a deal to house and archive 30 years’ worth of memorabilia collected by the Grateful Dead. Last month the university proudly announced that the Institute of Museum and Library Services had given it a $615,000 federal grant to digitize that collection.
It’s been said that every avalanche begins with a snowflake, and in this case the first one fell at precisely 2:38 p.m. on October 1, when the fiscally conservative Club for Growth posted a note about the grant under the headline “Your Tax Dollars at Work.” Maybe it stops there, or maybe it develops into flurries.
Today the Web site FutureOfCapitalism.com gives a hat tip to Club for Growth and notes that the university’s press release says the archive contains, among other things, “materials related to … the Grateful Dead’s highly unusual and successful musical business ventures.”
“If the Grateful Dead were such successful businessmen, why do they need taxpayer help to take care of their old stuff?” FutureOfCapitalism demands to know.
The Web site goes on to suggest that the federal government is pulling a “reverse Robin Hood,” taking money that taxpayers could use to preserve their own personal documents and spending it to preserve memorabilia belonging to Bob Weir, the Dead’s rhythm guitarist.
So next time you feel overwhelmed by the crush of family photos, vacation videos, kids’ report cards, and the like, be sure to blame the members of the Grateful Dead. If they could take care of their stuff, you might be able to afford your own archivist. –Don Troop
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6 Responses to Not Grateful for a Grant to Digitize the Dead
_perplexed_ - October 5, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Better Dead than Red…
heatherdunbar - October 5, 2009 at 3:37 pm
If your academic field or hobby is American popular culture or American folk music, you would be surprised how much excellent source material and links are available in the GD archives. It’s kind of like the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints, you can appreciate and use all their exquisite genealogy resources and pass on the theology.
dgans - October 5, 2009 at 4:30 pm
What a lame, mean-spirited excuse for a news item. Factually insufficient, too.
11159995 - October 5, 2009 at 4:38 pm
FutureOfCapitalism seems blissfully unaware of how often the Grateful Dead’s business model has cropped up in discussions about alternatives to the traditional business models used in the music industry and, by extension, in other media industries. The Dead, indeed, were pioneers in exploring a new model that merits serious consideration as a way to secure, well, the future of capitalism! — Sandy Thatcher, Penn State Press editor (and rock drummer)
bertw - October 6, 2009 at 9:34 am
Club for Growth and FutureOfCapitalism would probably have had much the same reaction to Alan Lomax’s project to record American folk music.
fossil - October 8, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.