<p> According to the smug opening narration, Ken Kesey \"lit the fuse for the explosion of the \'60s,\"—never mind the Beatles, Dylan or Martin Luther King, Jr. But once past the intro and into the heart of <em>Magic Trip</em>, you\'ll find a fascinating archive and set of reflections on the era. Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney built his documentary around decaying scraps of 16mm footage Kesey (author of <em>One Flew Over the Cuckoo\'s Nest</em>) and his Merry Pranksters shot on their 1964 cross-country trip aboard a psychedelically painted school bus called \"Further.\" As Kesey put it, the trip was taken \"to experience the American landscape and heartscape.\" It was also an acid trip. </p> <p>Naturally, the police in many jurisdictions pulled \"Further\" over (incredibly, the drugs were never discovered); however, judged by the smiling faces greeting it in every town (as captured by Kesey\'s footage), the bus was like a giant Easter egg on wheels—an amusing anomaly at the moment before the definition of \"hippie\" would harden. Hardly anyone knew a counterculture existed, and for many people encountering Further was probably no different than crossing paths with the Oscar Meyer Weiner Wagon. </p> <p>Kesey\'s project attracted the attention of Allen Ginsberg and the Grateful Dead, but Kesey, who saw himself as heir to the pioneering cowboys as well as Jack Kerouac, attracted too many screw-ups and eventually withdrew to the family farm in Oregon. But for him, the long strange trip he took in the \'60s remains an exemplary journey beyond the rut of everyday life in the soulless modern world. <em>Magic Trip </em>is out on DVD. </p>
Ken Kesey's Magic Trip
A Ride through the Psychedelic 60s
