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87.
"The Last Twelve Hours of the Whole Earth" (3pp., photo-illustrated) in ROLLING STONE #86 (July 8, 1971 - UK issue).
A report on the 'Demise Party' held at the Exploratorium at the Palace of Fine Arts in the San Francisco Marina district on June 12, 1971, an event organised by Stewart Brand to celebrate what he thought would be the final edition of the Whole Earth Catalog and its publishing project. "At around 10.30pm, the 'exact nature' of the educational event was 'revealed' in a fell stroke of Brandian genius that at once made everything fall into place… Brand, who had spent the last three years providing the movement with access to tools, was now presenting it with the heaviest tool of all - money, precisely $20,000 in $100 bills - about the amount, Brand later explained, that he used to launch the Whole Earth Catalog."
During the night around 55 people stepped up to propose possible uses for the money, while Brand, dressed in a monk's black robes that had belonged to his father, wrote down each suggestion on a blackboard. At one point someone stood up and said "Let's give the money back to the Indians", prompting Brand's wife, Lois Jennings, to retort "I'm an Indian and I don't want the money."
By early morning more than $5,000 had been either given away or just disappeared, while the remaining amount was finally given to a "wavy-haired man" who proposed sharing information, "developing people (our energy, ideas and friendships) resources for information, communications and educational networks." The wavy-haired man, Fred Moore, thought about depositing the money in a night bank deposit, but then, realising he had no bank account, buried it in a coffee can in his backyard instead. Armed with the idealistic motive of sharing, he subsequently used the money to help fund Resource One, a group of former staffers from a volunteer switchboard and computer programmers who had left UC Berkeley in protest at the invasion of Cambodia. In March 1975 he co-founded the Homebrew Computer Club with Lee Felsenstein in Menlo Park, an influential gathering of electronic enthusiasts and hobbyists whose first meeting inspired Steve Wozniak to create the Apple I.
Also: John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Frank Zappa jam at the Fillmore East; Alexis Korner (2pp.); Doug Sahm (4pp. cover feature); RS interview with Warner Records executive Joe Smith; Jonathan Cott interview with Stockhausen (5pp.); 'Drop City' by Peter Rabbit reviewed; more.
Newsprint slightly age-toned, o/w Very Good.
Price:
£15.00
