{"id":3243,"date":"2017-10-02T17:28:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T00:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=3243"},"modified":"2017-10-02T17:28:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T00:28:43","slug":"vortex-light-man-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/vortex-light-man-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Vortex I Light Man and River"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received a communication the other night. It started like this:<\/p>\n

I did the lights at Vortex.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span>I had PGE come out and erect two lighting towers on top of which we placed a 1000-watt Super Trooper spotlight with color filters. While the stage was being built, we set up by the bathrooms and projected a liquid light show from atop our panel truck onto a white screen we attached to trees while Notary Sojack and River played. We ran out of dope early so we had to make a trip south before the weekend of the convention.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Incredible. I asked him about River. In all my years of researching and gigging this unending far out story, River had never come up as a band that played the festival. In fact, I had never heard of a Portland-based band called River from that era.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After all these years, I’m not too sure that they were all there or if they performed as a complete entity. What kind of music? Beyond my capacity to define.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond my capacity to define<\/i>…that’s about right when it comes to Vortex I.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>River existed though and the light man sent me visual proof. They opened for The Grateful Dead! At a SE Portland club called Springer’s. All ages show. $3.50 a ticket. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He went on:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We were putting on a lot of festivals in those years and it is difficult to remember who played where and when… Bullfrog Lake I, II and III, SkyRiver I, II and II, Buffalo Convention, I was making LSD as fast as I could give it away and memories are muddled a bit!<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The light man wrote up his wild Vortex story on his web site: <\/span><\/span><\/span>https:\/\/www.fallingstarmedia.com<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

There are some historical inaccuracies in his account, and he acknowledged this when I pointed them out, but really, I urge anyone with any interest in the tale of the only state-sponsored rock festival in American history, to read his story. I absolutely needed his narrative in my book about the festival, but as I found out, I heard some of the best Vortex stories after the book’s release in 2004. They keep coming. They probably will never stop. I am happy that people still seek me out and want to share them. There is a magical power in this Oregon story of peace. I only wish I had somehow got it to the attention of a national audience. It deserves it. Now more than ever. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(If you found this post enjoyable, thought provoking or enlightening, please consider supporting a writer at work by making a financial contribution to this blog or by purchasing an NSP book.) <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received a communication the other night. It started like this: I did the lights at Vortex.\u00a0I had PGE come out and erect two lighting towers on top of which we placed a 1000-watt Super Trooper spotlight with color filters. While the stage was being built, we set up by the bathrooms and projected a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,74],"tags":[52,53,54,166,375],"class_list":["post-3243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-coast_history","tag-oregon","tag-oregon-history","tag-tom-mccall","tag-vortex-i","tag-vortex-rock-festival","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3246,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions\/3246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}