Joshua A. Solomon. First brush with Dead: hearing my counselor play Friend of

the

Devil on his guitar, Camp Timberlane, 1978. First brush with Live Dead: Alpine

1981. That same year I first picked up the guitar and began amassing tapes.

1985: Met

my future wife. Subject of our first conversation: The Dead (and why they

suck).

1986: First setlist pool. (10 songs, $1. Tiebreaker: # of songs.) 1993: Helped

form the Bay Area Tapers' Group. 1994: hid Dead song acronyms on the cover of

Nature.

For a science bio, see http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/personnel/jsolomon .