
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 8, 1990                   TAG: 9006080108
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALEX DOMINGUEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BALTIMORE                                LENGTH: Medium

GRATEFUL DEAD BAN ON VENDING BUMS OUT DEAD HEADS

So, like, last summer Ed Duffy was raking the kind buck at Grateful Dead shows selling Central American clothing. Last winter he was pushing his product in a shopping mall, the victim of a ban on vending at concerts.

One of rock music's longest-lasting acts imposed the ban last fall, ending a virtual 25-year party at which fans and vendors set up tent cities before shows, and entrepreneurial neo-hippies hawked everything from Thai jewelry to vegetable burritos.

The Grateful Dead recently opened its spring tour at the Capital Centre in Landover, Md. Some vendors who tried to sell their goods were handled in strict fashion by security guards, Duffy said.

The ban may have signaled the end of a subculture that had grown to include its own language, food and dress.

"The party was over, they admitted that. No more circus," Duffy said. "Now, it's like going to see the Knicks. . . . I was into the scene."

One of the clearest examples of the Dead subculture is its peculiar jargon. Kind is the biggest Grateful Dead buzzword, meaning good or healthy. The term comes from the song "Uncle John's Band," in which lead singer Jerry Garcia asks, "Are you kind?" Dude is used quite frequently and like, is well, like, you know, used almost as punctuation.

"A lot of the scene goes beyond music," said Eric Rittenhouse, who supported himself for two years by traveling to Central America and Asia buying jewelry to sell at shows.

So, dude, like what it all means is that the kind Dead vendors who were styling when they were raking at shows are now scamming another way to keep eating.

Rittenhouse, 32, took a job in commercial property management last winter in Los Angeles. Duffy, 28, spent the winter with his brother, Tim, 25, selling Guatemalan, Peruvian and Ecuadorian clothing and accessories at shopping malls and flea markets in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.

Sherri Greif, 28, has managed to keep running her business, FractalVision, selling psychedelic computer-generated posters, stickers and videos. The ban, however, has had an impact.

"A Dead show is a concentration of people who are really into the kind of art we do. So it's not really the same," Greif said.

Dead Heads say that in addition to putting an end to vending, the ban has ended a way of life. Gone are the super-kind veggie burrito and organic fried rice and the Dead's eccentric entourage. They've been replaced by fast food and department stores.

Grateful Dead spokesman Dennis McNally said he appreciated the fans' commitment to the band, but said the group was not responsible for providing a living for them.

"Over the last two years, the amount of energy that has been put into the outside scene was more social than musical," McNally said in a telephone interview from San Francisco. "While we appreciate the outside activity, it is not a social scene, it is a music scene.

"We stopped allowing vending and camping because facilities and halls with which we had been doing business with for years said, `We love you, but we can't do business with you anymore.' "

Said Duffy: "It was one of the few ways left in America to grow up. "You'd have your adventures. In the old days it was the West. Now there is no West." Dead Heads say that in addition to putting an end to vending, the ban has ended a way of life.

by CNB