lifestyle SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2015 Tamara Gray waits with other Grateful Dead fans for the gates of Soldier Field to open. (From left) Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bob This undated file photo shows Weir and Jeff Chimenti of The Grateful Grateful Dead band members Dead perform at Grateful Dead Fare Thee (from left) Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Well Show at Soldier Field on Friday in Jerry Garcia, Brent Mydland, Bill Chicago. — AP/AFP photos In this June 30, 2015 photo, a banner of an Al Hirschfeld caricature of the Grateful Kreutzmann, and Bob Weir. Band members hangs over the Field Museum’s famous Sue, the most extensive Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever found, as part of a Dead exhibit in Chicago. Thousands truckin’ to Chicago for final Grateful Dead shows he Grateful Dead is closing the lid on its storied half-century “Yes, my wife and I are coming for the Saturday and Sunday and signed by longtime Dead artist Stanley Mouse to pricey “More than anything this is going to be a celebration of the whole of concerts this weekend in Chicago, where a museum has shows,” said former comedian and avowed Deadhead Al Franken, hotels. Hotel bookings are up more than 120 percent from last Grateful Dead thing, the camaraderie, the outlook of life,” said Bill Tcaptured the band’s prankster heart by displaying its arti- who now represents Minnesota in Washington. “To me they repre- year’s July Fourth weekend, and the rates are 77 percent higher on Stanley, who is a director of the Gantz Family Collections Center at facts, skeletons-and-roses iconography included, in the shadow of sent a big part of my life, they are a touchstone for a long time and average, according to travel booking website Orbitz. the Field Museum. He’s attended more than 100 shows, including a world-famous dinosaur. Soldier Field, which was the last place they still are.” The centerpiece of the Field Museum’s exhibit is Garcia’s Garcia’s last one. He not only recalls those “magical” experiences, legendary guitarist Jerry Garcia played with the band before his The Democrat began seeing the Dead about the time he was favorite guitar, “Tiger”. On Tuesday, fans wore the same look of but the loneliness he felt when he was in the mountains of death in 1995, is hosting the final three shows of the short “Fare getting out of college in the early 1970s, and later became friends wonder on their faces as one sees in the people looking at the Tanzania in Aug 1995 and received an airgram from his girlfriend Thee Well” tour in what the remaining core members - rhythm with Garcia and other members of the band when they appeared skull of Sue. “This is history,” said Rebecca Ostrega, a 49-year-old that read, “I hope you are sitting down. We lost Jerry.” guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh and percussionists Mickey Hart on “Saturday Night Live,” on which Franken was a cast member. “I Deadhead who brought her 10-year-old son. They both wore tie- “Everybody here was able to call the person who turned them and Bill Kreutzmann - say will be the last. still listen to them pretty much every chance I get,” he said. That so dyed Dead shirts she bought at the museum and she had pur- onto the Dead (but) I had no one to reach out to,” he said. This The lakefront stadium, just south of the Field Museum and the many older fans are coming in may help explain why the city chased several of the Mouse posters. weekend, though, he expects all those old feelings a Dead concert bones of Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex, will be a sea of tie-dyed heard few complaints after it nixed the idea of overnight camping Tickets for the main attraction - where Trey Anastasio of Phish used to elicit to return: “People are going to be walking past, shirts, and the sounds of bootleg concert tapes will fill the air in sites near Soldier Field. will tackle Garcia’s guitar parts alongside keyboardists Bruce thinking, ‘Look at those old hippies. I’ll be grateful when they’re the parking lots. Certainly, there’ll be young people who never “I would not even have a car back in my San Francisco State Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti - were no higher than $199 at face val- dead.’” — AP saw Garcia play among the tens of thousands of fans, but they’ll days (and) I would find people to hitch rides with and find homes ue, both through the old-style mail order system or Ticketmaster. likely be outnumbered Deadheads who display more than a to sleep on the couch or on the floor,” said Rick Wolfish, a 59-year- For those seeking to get into the sold-out shows, tickets on the touch of grey. old partner in a large accounting firm in Burlington, Vermont. secondary market StubHub ranged from $295 to $5,000 for one Many of those who followed the band around decades ago - “This trip I’m flying to a concert and staying at a Hilton hotel five night, with an average price of about $600. Wolfish paid $200 total and can recite the exact number of shows they’ve seen as easily as blocks from Soldier Field.” for three nights behind the stage - a “miracle,” he said. Albarn musical they can their Social Security numbers - have become lawyers, Deadheads are shelling out for one more Saturday night - from No matter the price, fans say it’s worth the chance to recon- accountants and, in at least one case, a member of the US Senate. $100 Dead-themed dinosaur posters at the Field Museum created nect with both an important band and the family-like community. whisks ‘Alice’ into the virtual world troubled teenage girl who seeks refuge in a fan- Tongan king crowned in traditional ceremony tastical online world is the star of a new musical Aco-written by Blur frontman Damon Albarn to mark the 150th anniversary of “Alice in Wonderland”. upou VI was formally crowned King of Tonga Hundreds of school children sitting on traditional Loosely based on Lewis Carroll’s book, “wonder.land” is yesterday before thousands of people including mats, formed a guard of honour as the robed King being performed at Manchester’s Palace Theatre until heads of state and dignitaries from around the Tupou VI and his wife, Queen Nanasipau’u arrived at T July 12 before moving to London’s National Theatre and world, capping a week steeped in traditional rites. the Free Wesleyan Centenary Church for the ceremo- the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris next year. The rock Because it is taboo for Tongans to touch their king’s ny. The celebrations were to continue in the evening opera-style musical opens in the bedroom of Aly (Lois head, a retired Australian minister was flown in to per- with a Tupakapakanava - the lighting of torches along Chimimba), a complex teenager who is in conflict with form the televised crowning. The new king also the coastline - and will end on Tuesday with a military her parents and picked on by classmates who post becomes the 24th Tu’i Kanokupolu, an ancient Tongan tattoo. insulting messages on social media. title that pre-dates the monarchy by centuries. To escape, the girl connects, via her smartphone, to Celebrations and ancient rituals leading up to the Deep Respect for Tongan Monarchy “wonder.land”, a brilliantly-coloured virtual world based coronation began last Saturday with a Taumafa Kava, Although Tonga has economic problems including on the “Wonderland” of Reverend Charles Lutwidge a traditional ceremony in which Tupou VI drank the high youth unemployment, most of its citizens have Dodgson, whose pen name was Lewis Carroll. The pixel- mildly narcotic kava drink to confirm his title as king of deep respect for their monarchy and the lavishness of lated world invites Alice “to achieve your ideal,” where- Tonga. The historic rite - in which about 150 nobles, the coronation was not a concern. Auckland-based upon she creates “Alice”, a beautiful, intelligent and wearing traditional ta’ovala mats around their waists, Ofa Taufo’ou, who returned home for the celebrations, loved alter-ego who embodies the qualities she sat in a circle to drink kava from coconut shells - told Radio New Zealand that Tongans valued their believes herself to be missing. launched seven days of street parties, black-tie balls, royalty and culture. “I don’t have the words to explain The first scene sets the tone with Aly tapping on her fashion shows and feasting before the king was how much it means to me to have royalty, and to have keypad while digital images of “wonder.land” are pro- crowned by Australian D’Arcy Wood. this occasion,” he said. jected on stage, with the Cheshire Cat becoming a giant “No Tongan citizen can do it as it is forbidden for a Wood said Tonga’s affection for their monarch was virtual tom cat. In bringing the story into the digital age, Tongan to touch the king’s head,” the 78-year-old deeply entrenched in their history. “The monarch rep- director Rufus Norris hopes to explore how new tech- retired Methodist minister said last week before flying resents for them continuity and security - a symbolic nologies have reshaped social relations and how mobile to Tonga from his home near Melbourne. Wood was role which unites and reassures the people.” Tonga’s devices have become extensions of people’s aspirations. born in Tonga when his father worked there in 1924 monarchy can trace its history back 1,000 years and by It is also a study of the tribulations of adolescence and and met the new king when he was Tonga’s High the 13th century the nation wielded power and influ- the difficulties of forging an identity.