Whole Earth Catalog

The Last Whole Earth Catalog

The Whole Earth Catalog was the coolest thing ever. They did want $5 for it, which was like 'two hours of pushing broom' so I put off buying a copy until they threatened to discontinue it by calling this issue 'the last'.

I spent hours pouring over this massive volume. It was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. Wikipedia sums it up nicely:

The magazine featured essays and articles, but was primarily focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, "do it yourself" (DIY), community, and holism, and featured the slogan "access to tools".

Eventually I noticed there was a story written in the margin of the pages that continued from one page to another. It was an amusing tale. All I remember of it was that one of the minor characters drove a silver Alfa spider and maybe wore a silver jump suit. Anyway, the story was Divine Right's Trip by Gurney Norman. You can buy a copy of the book from any of the regular book sellers. Or you can read it off the Whole Earth website, but it means downloading a huge jpeg image file for each page. Or you might be able to buy a copy of the catalog off of Ebay. Kind of spendy for old newsprint. 

Via Detroit Steve

Curious thing about King of the Road (linked above). I found an exact copy of the video, except this one has the fan girls screaming like you'd hear on Beatles videos. I can understand if someone took a recording and added the screaming, but is it possible to remove the screaming and make the tune come out clear? I suppose the audio guys have any number of tricks up their sleeve that would enable them to do this.