The Marin-born author and former WFMU host joins us to discuss 'Morning in Marin,' his history of how Alan Watts, the Grateful Dead, George Lucas, and Philip K. Dick turned one county north of the Golden Gate into a center of postwar American culture.
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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on author David Perlis. David grew up in Marin County and co-hosted Night People on WFMU.
His first book, Morning in Marin, is out now. It follows characters including Alan Watts, the Grateful Dead, George Lucas, Philip K. Dick and many others through America's postwar creative boom.
We talk about why he traded fiction for the true story, the letters of Gary Snyder and Alan Watts, and why young artists struggle to find a foothold in Marin today.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Bola Sete's The Kitchen Tapes, Jerry Garcia and Howard Wales's Hooteroll?, and Carlos Santana's Santana Brothers, each featuring a different song called "Morning in Marin")
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00:00 Introduction
00:57 "Everything you love is from Marin"
01:47 Alan Watts, a Sausalito houseboat, and the ILM credit
03:21 The Marinaissance and Mrs. Terwilliger
04:20 A T. rex on ILM's back lot
05:10 From a novel to the true story
06:46 Coming home to Marin
08:22 Why "Morning in Marin": three songs and a double meaning
09:35 Is the magic still there?
11:27 Never cheap: how artists got a foothold
14:06 Marin's conservative streak and its love of nature
16:55 Letters as sources: Gary Snyder's archive
18:25 Surprise residents: Philip K. Dick, Naomi Judd, and "yellow grass"
19:39 Suzanne Somers, "Come Monday," and "White Rabbit"
21:57 What got cut: MKUltra, Gumby, and the WELL
25:27 Building the book in present tense
27:42 Elsa Gidlow and Anna Halprin
29:54 Philip K. Dick, risk-takers, and real lives
34:02 Behind the rickety gates
36:49 Huey Lewis, Lew Welch, and the last of the Beats
39:20 KDIA and Black music in a white county
41:51 Spiritual seeking, money, and George Lucas
44:08 The case for artistic risk
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Visit David Perlis at → https://daveperlis.substack.com
and listen to Night People on WFMU → https://wfmu.org/playlists/NP
Purchase 'Morning in Marin: Zen, Drugs, and Ewoks on the California Coast' from Heyday → https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/morning-in-marin/
or Bookshop.org → https://bookshop.org/p/books/morning-in-marin-zen-drugs-and-ewoks-on-the-california-coast-david-perlis/f9ee9f6138341cd1
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