Grateful Dead

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I say do keep on rolling, my old buddy. Are you an expat or a native? Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.

the closest encounter i have with a GD experience here is leather belt's buckles and wallets with the logo on them in shopping malls :) i often ask the sales ppl if they know what the logo stands for and i get similar replies: it's a skull, you know .. dangerous :) electric :), n im like well do you know the grateful dead? reply: sorry sir, no undersatnd you! anyways, i have my son's room painted in blue and red with a big poster of Skeleton's from the closet, actually it was his wish for the colors choices and it worked for me. The tunes are playing often in the background of my apartment and some times loud enough to grab my kids attention and they rush in the room dancing like teddy bears. I speak of the dead quite alot and tell my friends and wife about them but they keep dragging me to the hip hop scene, which is olright, i mean i respect and love music in general but the dead is like that saying of Hermes: "The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding". I often find myself walking alone in the black muddy river. GD has been a great companion for my mind at times of stress and sorrow, happiness and highs. It's actually quite a lonely scene but sometimes that's the beauty of it, it amplifies the meanings of their songs. Forgive me if i took this seriously but i'm trying my best to reflect a clear image. A couple of times I stopped hippies with backsacks passing through and asked them if they were heads :) lol, desperate eyy? but i found out that not all hippies are deadheads! anywho, i think i talked too much for now, i'll elaborate more upon receiving your responce. keep on rolling.

tell us about being a Deadhead in Dubai, where few of us will ever travel, I expect.

salam, beside myself, the only other deadhead that i know here is me :) been looking 4 any 9yrs now, almost gave up. limme know if your out there.

that u dont accept pms.sorry for bothering u O°L°O....!!!!Peace on earth ...Frankly

Salaam princeofthenile! Hamza El Din--now that makes sense. I am a longtime Hamza El Din fan (though a longer time Deadhead). Hamza El Din was present at a Sufi retreat where a friend of mine (and Deadhead) "took" shahada. But I don't know if Hamza El Din was a member of that Sufi order or whether he was just a guest. In any event, many thanks for providing this information. peace...

mazeppa,The Egypt shows were arranged by Hamza El Din, who was a Nubian oud player, may Allah bless his soul. He passed away a few years ago,but I was lucky to meet him once in Cairo in the late 90's. Hamza was a friend of the Dead and I am told he performed with them a few times.A friend of mine (an American sufi) knew Hamza very well and i remember he didnt think Hamza was affiliated with any specific sufi shaykh or way. I myself am a Naqshbandi sufi from Egypt but have been living in Canada for the last 8 years. Our Shaykh taught us that even the process of uttering the word Allah with respect alone has huge blessings, so I believe the Dead are blessed for recording this album and singing the words and making others to sing along. May Allah bless us all....

I am aware that "Blues for Allah" was a tribute to the murdered Saudi King Faisal (band friend and Deadhead). About 15 years ago now, I saw a film about the Egypt shows and I swear there was something in it about an Egyptian shaykh who was another friend of the band and Deadhead. Maybe I dreamed this; but my recollection is that this shaykh (who may have been connected with a sufi order) helped to arrange the Egypt shows. Does anybody know anything about any of this?

I must say that when speaking of the Middle East I always leave out Israel for some reason. Sorry about that. I have met many Israelis around the world and most are open minded and very interesting people. I work with an Israeli in Africa and he is very serious about his religion and I always try to throw a curve ball at him like how can he explain extraterrestrial life etc and he always accepts these ideas and says that his religion does not reject such realities. Anyway, where there are open minds you have a good chance of finding a deadhead! Also by the way when i used to travel with Phish i had some friends that were from Israel, but i have since lost contact with them. Peace

I know there is a VERY kind Deadhead in Bahrain named Khalid. I met him there about 10 years ago. We electrically celebrated the Day's Between on the beach in Qatar with some great Jerry tapes. He's kind of hard to miss, about 6'6", and drives a huge Land Cruiser with a custom made Dancing Bear spare wheel cover. He's originally from Qatar and used to work of Gulf Air. Khalid, if your out there get in touch!