The legend of Furthur the magic bus is well known to fans of the authors Ken Kesey and Tom Wolfe, as well as of the bands the Grateful Dead and The Who, and by anyone interested in the history of psychedelia. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most famous American trips, Furthur hit the road again.
Remember 2014? The year started with record cold weather in the U.S. Then the crisis in Ukraine. Malaysia 370 and 200 passengers went missing. About a month later hundreds were lost when a South Korean ferry sank. Two weeks after that the Nigerian girls were kidnapped from their school by terrorists. ISIL gained more and more territory. Israel and Hamas battled at the threshold of war. Almost 300 people were lost when a plane was shot down over the Ukraine. That summer everyone was worrying about the spread of Ebola. In the midst of so much bad news, astonished bystanders all around the US saw a psychedelic bus roll by full of smiling and waving pranksters. Where did this hallucination come from? Fortunately, a documentary was made about it.
It’s obvious once someone points it out. The massive EM festival culture all started with some parties thrown by Ken Kesey. There you’ll find the original collision of trance music, euphoric and psychedelic drugs, multi-media deconstruction and remixing, and wild lighting and projected visuals. There people got all dressed up to enter the dream time. What once was a small party of like-minded pioneers has over fifty years blossomed into an international culture and business.
The first time Furthur the magic bus took Kerouac’s proverbial road — any and every road in 1964 — was like the pulse of a neuron of enlightenment, sending life changing messages throughout a rather stagnant American culture. The popular music of the Grateful Dead and the success of the book Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test were only secondary sources of the revolution of the 1960s. The seed was that bus called Furthur. As Going Furthur shows us, when Furthur arrived at his doorstep, even Timothy Leary and company were taken aback.
So what a beautiful idea Ken Kesey’s son Zane had, to take the bus out again with a new generation of Pranksters to celebrate the half century anniversary. Zane was on that first trip, too. Like that first trip, this one would be devoted to fun, praning, laughter and community building. A reminder that nonsense can have great meaning, that a sense of play is essential for living a good life. Going Furthur has been getting as positive a response as Furthur. With over ten thousand Facebook fans and a long list of festival and special event screenings ahead, including one at Burning Man this year, it seems the adventures have only begun for Furthur and friends.
At first there were no plans for a documentary. But three first time directors joined forces to create this fun film hypnotic with color and loving acceptance. Canadian filmmakers Colby O’Neill and Matt Pidutti, and American filmmaker Lindsay Kent immersed themselves in the world of the Neo-Pranksters. Part of the fun includes visits with original Merry Pranksters George Walker, Ken Babbs, Lee Quamstrom, and Wavy Gravy, and with festival culture stars like Alex and Allyson Grey and Nahko & Medicine for the People. You feel like you’ve just stepped off the bus with them at the end of the trip. I’m delighted to interview Lindsay Kent, a multi-talented filmmaker at the heart of this fascinating film/adventure.
Tamra Lucid: You participated in the Furthur tour in 2014 as one of the Pranksters. How did you first get involved and how did you get the nickname Scribbles?
When I read the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in college, it really stayed with me. I always wondered what it would have been like to be on that trip. Then, in 2014, Ken Kesey’s son Zane started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a 50th Anniversary tour around the country. If you donated a certain amount or more, you could “apply” to be a Prankster, and jump on the bus for a week of the tour. The application went something like, “What’s your shoe size after sex,” and “Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?” When I read that they weren’t planning on making a documentary about the tour, I applied to be a Prankster, grabbed my camera gear and showed up on the first day of the tour. That’s where I met Colby O’Neill and Matt Pidutti, two filmmakers from Canada who had also heard about the tour via Kickstarter. They called Zane a month before the tour began, and eventually convinced him to let them film the entire thing. So we collaborated from there.
About my Prankster name – pretty silly story. We passed around nametags on the first day (which thankfully didn’t last), and I tried to write my name on it while the bus was in motion. I screwed up, scribbled out what I had wrote and used a darker marker over it. One of the other pranksters said “Why’d you scribble out your name? (gasp) That should be your Prankster name!” Then Scribbles just stuck.
How did the old and new generations of participants and fans blend?
Remarkably well. There was a very strong thread that tied everyone together, and that was genuine appreciation of the weird. Young or old, Deadhead or festivalgoer, people brought their own unique expression to the table, and everyone upheld them for it. It was incredible to witness.
The film preserves its gorgeous trippy feeling by avoiding the frustrations of travel: gas station bathrooms, food poisoning, cop stops, the inevitable tour cold. Was Furthur 2014 unusually trouble free, or were there some difficult moments?
For the most part, the trip was pretty painless. We predicted a run-in with the cops at least once, and it didn’t happen. A couple cops stopped to take a photo in front of the bus, but that was it. We also figured we’d experience some breakdowns along the way, but other than a 2-hour setback in Madison, things rolled pretty smoothly. I think some of that can be explained with the intense energy surrounding the trip: the vibe of those who witnessed the bus roll into each event, and what the folks who jumped on the bus were bringing with them in anticipation. It created this powerful force field of positive intention.
All the film credits show a collaborative effort. Your own collaborations included director, producer, cinematographer, film editor, and sound editor. What were the advantages and disadvantages of collaborative directing, filming and editing?
We realized pretty early in the game we were going to have to do a lot of it ourselves, from a budget standpoint. It was the biggest challenge as a filmmaker I have ever experienced, and I’m sure my team feels the same way. Working on different systems (Mac for me, PC for them) and living in separate countries definitely added some extra stress to the mix. But we all brought a unique perspective to it as well; coming from different backgrounds professionally, we were able to weave together a compelling story with a great soundtrack, while not sacrificing the visual aesthetic that was really important to us. We also collectively shared a vision of what it could be from day one, and that helped us get through some pretty difficult moments during the whole process.
Many of the participants talk about the tour being a life changing experience? Was it that for you?
Absolutely, the most life changing experience I’ve had to date. I had been to festivals before and enjoyed myself, but didn’t really get it. I still had a lot of stigma around certain events; my friends like to jokingly remind me of when I called Burning Man “just a rave in the desert.” From the first week on the bus, my perspective shifted. Being surrounded by such an open, expressive and accepting group of people, completely floored me. I quite literally found myself, and figured out how to express that self, during the production of the film. What can be better than realizing who you are, and what you came here to contribute to the world? It’s something that pushed me personally to finish the film the way I knew it could be; the mere thought that it could, in turn, help others find themselves too.
What was your funniest moment as a Prankster, the saddest, and the moment that moved you most?
Funniest moment – that’s a tough one. I’d probably have to say the One Ring Prankster Circus we put on for Sam Cutler’s then-fiancé, Jackie, at her bachelorette party. I was dressed like a rubber duck and threw a pie in a clown’s face up at Terrapin Crossroads, which if you’ve been there is a pretty swanky place. Lots of fun. Saddest moment was, of course, saying goodbye to everyone at the end of the tour. It was so surreal. I knew I wouldn’t see a lot of those folks for a long time, and it was hard. That moment, though, was probably the moment that also moved me the most. It was when I realized we had become a family. Everyone’s tearful reactions were heartfelt and authentic as we reminisced about the summer. It was bittersweet and glorious.
The return of Furthur as a 50 year celebration is rich with callbacks and poignant differences. For example, Furthur 1964 was not drug free. The Pranksters dressed in colorful stripes that looked more like uniforms at Disneyland in the early 60s, not the individualized tribal costumes of the Neo-Pranksters. There was nothing nostalgic about Furthur 1964. Yet the focus of Furthur 2014 was to be a radical dada experiment in inspiring people here and now. Do you think Furthur 2014 accomplished that, or was nostalgia the dominant theme?
I definitely think it accomplished that. There were far more folks who saw her that had no idea the original Furthur tour existed, than the nostalgic ones who did. Some came up to us with questions, and were intrigued with the history. Others just caught her for a moment, but it was enough to stop them in their tracks, and garner a wave or a smile. That was a pretty spectacular thing to witness; that moment of unadulterated joy, confusion or both for so many people. It was a simple thing, but a big thing.
Furthur 1964 rolled through an America that had more in common with 1955 than it would with 1967. Furthur 2014 sometimes looks like Furthur 1964, as businessmen, self conscious students, and surprised smiles and waving hands greet it, but in 2014 Furthur visited conclaves, landmarks, communities and festivals that reflected it. Standing in those communities did it feel like the receding past, the arriving future, or both?
It definitely felt like both. It was fascinating to see how big the Dead community has grown in this country alone. That was a beautiful homage to the past for me, because the band will never be THAT band again; but people still gather in community and celebrate it together. Some of the festivals, especially the ones we attended after the tour, like Lucidity Festival in Santa Barbara and Burning Man, really showed a side of the culture that was incredibly progressive. I saw some immense potential for our future as a society while attending these events. The way people were collaborating to create brilliant works of art, and connecting to speak about, and offer solutions to, important issues we currently face. I think we can learn a lot from these communities about how to move forward from here; and those attending these events are already bringing these values back with them.
Do you find the film is reaching an audience outside its natural fan base?
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at some of the reactions from folks outside the culture. People seem to walk away just feeling happy, like it was a positive experience that’s given them some things to think about. That’s pretty special, especially as a documentary. So many documentaries focus on tragedies or crises, which I feel are very important for people to be aware of. But there’s not too many movies based on actual events that have an overall positive message, that focus on our potential as creative human beings, rather than our pitfalls. Given our social and political climate today, I think there should be more content that reminds us of these things, content that joins us together rather than divides us.
Furthur 2016 is part of the adventure of getting the film out. Has it been different from Furthur 2014? Has the film enhanced the experience for the participants?
It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience, some of the best days of our lives. People’s reactions so far have already made making the film worth it for us. We first showed the film at a Prankster reunion in Indiana; the reaction there was priceless. Everyone loved it. Then we played it for some original Pranksters in La Honda, the birthplace of the Acid Tests, with an incredible crew and bus called Soulistica; we screened it at the Mysteryland Music Festival, where we stood on the original grounds of Woodstock, talking to teenage kids about consciousness; at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors with Alex & Allyson Grey, where we joined them on a panel about creativity, psychedelics and spirituality…so unbelievable. We are so grateful to be a part of this movement that has changed our lives forever.
What happened to Air Guitar? Did he get the job back?
Epilogue! Yes, Air Guitar did in fact get his job back. Then he quit again to backpack around Europe for several months. Not to worry though, he’s got it back for a third time and living happily in Denver. Enthusigasm and Air Guitar are no longer together, but remain great friends. If you’re making it out to Burning Man this year, come see the film Wednesday night at Red Lightning. Air Guitar, myself and my crew will be there!
What other film projects do you have in mind?
There’s a lot more 50th anniversaries coming up for this culture. Next year is the 50th Anniversary of the Human Be-In and the Summer of Love, and 2019 is the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock. I won’t rule out being involved in content for those events in some way; I’d be truly honored to film what I anticipate to be quite spectacular happenings. For now I’m completing a mini-documentary about my experience at Burning Man last year, to share on social media in the coming weeks.
Since the completion of the Furthur tour, I have dedicated my life’s work to the evolution of human consciousness. This work will come in many forms, and I’m very excited to find out what’s around the next bend. Furthur on… 🙂
Upcoming screenings of Going Furthur
