New novel, "Slipknot," features a county sheriff who is also a Deadhead. He quotes GD lyrics throughout, while solving the murder of an ecologist. Dennis McNally wrote one of the cover blurbs: “A hardcore Deadhead county sheriff is my idea of good law enforcement. Slipknot happens to be a darned good mystery where the Grateful Dead stuff is central and real.” Officially out Nov. 1st.

It is me, actually, Gary McKinney. The publishing house is tiny and has no marketing budget to speak of, so they've ask me to do some posting. It's kind of embarassing to tout your own book, but it really is very good. Certainly Dennis wouldn't have blurbed it if he hadn't liked it. Like him, a lot of people are interested in what I've done with this theme. And it's been great for me as an author, because I've been a Deadhead since 1969 (Springer's in Portland), and it was so much fun to immerse myself into this character's (dead) head. Among other things I had fun with was interpreting the lyrics via this character and bringing them into everyday life situations that so many of us can relate to. Thanks for taking notice!

That book will be on my list to read!! :)

thanks for the heads-up! (And yeah, Dennis is not in the habit of praising stuff he doesn't like, so good for you!)

You asked me "who would you say have been Watts' successors in popularizing Buddhism, Zen and the Tao? Any recommendations?"

A huge question for me because there is so much on this flowering of Buddhism, Zen and the Tao over the past 50 years. Kind of like someone asking us to recommend a book about the environment.

Watts and his contemporary Christmas Humphreys did a lot to open the doors for the west to Buddhism. D.T. Suzuki wrote volumes on Zen and translated and was very important and an influence on Watts and Humphreys.

I would say that the next wave after them were the teachers that came to the U.S. and to Europe and the folks that studied in Asia, mainly Japan at first. In Zen, Shunryu Suzuki founded Zen Center in San Francisco and wrote, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" which was very influential. Also very important in U.S. were Taizan Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles and
Katagari Roshi in Minneapolis, both of whom have books that are out and I relish. These three were all Zen priests from Japan.

Then of course there was Gary Snyder, the central figure in Jack Kerouac's the Dharma Bums. Many of the beats were involved at some time either directly or indirectly in studying, practicing and popularizing Zen and/or Buddhism. Snyder and Ginsberg lived it.

Another important book was Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps which had short versions of many classic Zen tales and also Koans which are a type of Zen riddle to open your mind beyond rational thought.

Then there were the first American students to become Zen teachers or priests and to write. The earliest in the 60's was Phillip Kapleau and his "Three Pillars of Zen". Also Robert Aitken has many works out and is my main teacher’s teacher. I highly recommend anything by him.

End of part 1

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
Wiliam Blake