Events

[SCREENING] In 1964 George Walker was On The Bus, the psychedelic magic bus made famous by Tom Wolfe’s epic account in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. More significantly, before they embarked Walker procured the spiked sugar cubes that went into the vat of orange juice (not Kool-Aid) stored in the bus’s less than dependable fridge. In fact, Walker, an original Merry Prankster was the guy who suggested that Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest purchase a bus in the first place, as the group planning to take the legendary cross-country trip had outgrown Kesey’s station wagon. Let’s face it—had it not been for Walker’s suggestion there may never have been Wolfe’s groundbreaking novel and The Who would certainly not have recorded something called Magic Station Wagon.    

By 1964 George had also become the main innovator of brightly colored hippie garb before the word hippie was even coined. He relates how he wanted to dress in the neon colors he experienced while taking LSD and discovered a shop in San Francisco that carried a vast assortment of trims and fabrics. Enlisting the clothes-making skills of some female Pranksters, he fashioned elaborately patterned colorful costumes for himself and others. These were worn at the Acid Tests; multi-media happenings that evolved following the bus trip. The house band for these cosmic affairs was an unknown outfit called the Warlocks—soon to be renamed The Grateful Dead. George didn’t stop with wanting to turn his wardrobe on and began to brighten up a bunch of other things, including automobiles.  He tooled around California in a psychedelic Lotus Elan convertible that was completely covered in swirling day glow colors. In the driver’s seat was Walker wearing a matching jumpsuit.

Walker, along with cast and crew members will be in Buffalo on Sunday, July 10 to present the Buffalo premiere of Going Furthur at the North Park Theatre with a single matinee screening at 11:30am. The feature-length documentary opens with a fast paced and visually stunning background story on Kesey, the Pranksters, the bus, the infamous acid tests and more. What commences after is 50th anniversary bus trip in 2014, helmed by Kesey’s son Zane who’s joined by a whole new band of Merry Pranksters (Neo Pranksters). Over the course of 75 days and 15,000 miles this edition of the bus (It’s not the original vehicle) roams the American landscape visiting community events, festivals, tribal gatherings, artist colonies, national landmarks and even a high school where they are joyously greeted by the school band. It’s during the school scene where it’s pointed out by the narrator that the anniversary bus traveled “clean” or in other words, drug free, a necessary decision in a 2014 reality.  Today, it’s hard to imagine that the original bus rolled along in a time when LSD was still legal (not being made illegal until October 1966) and that run-of-the-mill marijuana was the far bigger worry for the riders during that first cross-Country adventure.

This week we asked two of the filmmakers to describe how the Going Futhur experience impacted their lives.

“I would definitely say I was not a part of this culture before getting on the bus,” says co-director Lindsay Kent. ”I had been to music festivals and enjoyed myself and was a literary fan of Kerouac, Kesey and Wolfe but getting on that bus propelled me into a completely different reality; one that I didn’t know existed. The bonds of the folks on the bus, coupled with the community I experienced at subsequent festivals along the way changed me forever.  I felt empowered and uplifted by everyone around me.  Conversations were happening at these festivals; people with high levels of awareness discussing our society’s problems openly together, working with each other, coming closer to solutions in one weekend than we have in years.  The entire experience opened me up to my true potential.”

One of Kent’s co-directors, Colby Rex O’Neill, is inspired by the new generation interested in the movement. “The young people we met along the way were truly inspiring. I have hope and faith in the young people in the world today. We’re smart, we’re thinking outside the box, we want change. Just need a little more walk and a little less talk and I think we can really do something to change how things are. The connections people had on the bus and how the trip has affected their lives—it’s really beautiful to see what has happened from this tour.”