...Happy Birthday Wavy Gravy...(Hugh Romney) - GoFuckYourself.com

AsianDivaGirlsWebDude · 05-06-2011, 11:01 PM

For those of you young enough to remember him, Wavy Gravy will be celebrating his 75th birthday this Sunday!

I met Wavy about a dozen times over the years, mostly at anti-nuke protest events. He is quite funny but also quite wise, and he always has some funny stories to tell:

Quote:

At 75, it's been a long, strange trip for Berkeley's Wavy Gravy

By Martin Snapp
Correspondent

Wavy Gravy, the raspy-voiced 1960s icon who famously announced to the crowd at Woodstock, "What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000," will turn 75 on Sunday.

And what a long, strange trip it's been.

Wavy, whom satirist Paul Krassner compared to a cross between Harpo Marx and Mother Teresa, will celebrate with a public "Birthday Boogie" on Saturday night at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond. It will feature a Who's Who of the Bay Area music scene including Bob Weir and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, Barry Melton of Country Joe and the Fish, Henry Kaiser, Ace of Cups, and Narada Michael Walden.

It's a fundraiser for Wavy's favorite charity, the Seva (a Sanskrit word for "service to humankind") Foundation, which Wavy cofounded in 1978 with spiritual leader Ram Dass and public health expert Larry Brilliant to fight preventable and curable blindness in Asia and Africa.

Wavy, who describes himself as "an activist clown and former frozen dessert" -- a reference to Ben & Jerry's naming a flavor after him -- was born Hugh Romney on May 15, 1936, in East Greenbush, N.Y. Soon afterward his family moved to Princeton, N.J., where one of his neighbors was a kindly old man named Albert Einstein, who took him on daily walks around the block.

"I was only 5, but I still remember that shock of white hair that predated Don King by half a century, the twinkle in his eye, his sneakers with no logo, and, especially, the way he
smelled.

"I've never smelled anything like it since; but if I ever do, I'm going to walk up to the guy and say, 'Hey man, you smell like Albert Einstein!'"

Flash forward 20 years to Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, where he found a job as poetry director at the Gaslight Cafe.

He shared a room above the cafe with a fledgling songwriter from Minnesota named Bob Dylan, who wrote the first draft of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" on an old manual typewriter in that room.

One of the cafe's steady customers was Marlene Dietrich, who gave him a book of poems by Ranier Maria Rilke.

"I still have the book, but I still haven't read the poems," he confesses.

At about this time he embarked on a career as a monologuist, opening shows for John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Peter, Paul & Mary.

His manager was stand-up comic Lenny Bruce, who gave him a new stage name: Al Dente. Bruce also gave him a yarmulke sewn inside a cowboy hat that once belonged to silent movie star Tom Mix "so I could say, 'Howdy, Goyim!'"

Next, he formed a musical review with Tiny Tim and Moondog at a dubious venue called the Fat Black Pussycat.

"We got front page in the Village Voice and a rave review in the New York Times," he recalls. "The next day the sheriff came and padlocked the joint for back taxes."

So he headed out to San Francisco, where he did a stint with The Committee, then moved to Los Angeles, where he taught improvisational techniques to Hollywood actors by day and neurologically handicapped kids by night.

In 1965, when he and his wife, Jahanara (then called Bonnie Jean), were living in a one-room cabin outside Los Angeles with about 40 friends, including fellow ice cream flavor and Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, they all posed for a Life magazine cover photo.

"The landlord freaked out and evicted us, but the next day a neighbor came by and said, 'Old Saul up on the mountain had a stroke, and they need somebody to slop them hogs!' So we were given the mountain top rent-free if we would take care of about 60 hogs the size of Davenports."

And so the Hog Farm was born. Eventually, the Hog Farm moved north to Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, which boasts a lake -- Lake Veronica -- with a raft named George and a 350-foot water slide from Marine World.

In 1969 the Hog Farmers were hired by the promoters of the Woodstock Music Festival to build fire trails around the festival grounds.

"But we convinced them to let us set up a free kitchen, too. When we got to JFK airport a bunch of reporters were there to meet us, and they told us we had been chosen to provide the security, too. I said, 'My God! They made us the cops?'"

By the time the festival was over, Wavy -- or as he was still known, Hugh Romney -- had become the MC.

A few weeks later, he was performing similar tasks at the Texas Pop Festival, where the great bluesman B.B. King dubbed him "Wavy Gravy." And Wavy Gravy he has remained ever since -- except in the pages of the New York Times, which refers to him as "Mr. Gravy."

The Hog Farmers later took the free kitchen concept international working in Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet amid floods and war. With a $10,000 donation from rock promoter Bill Graham they founded the Seva Foundation, which fought blindness in the Third World and now works to prevent health problems in Native American communities.

These days, Wavy splits his time between the Hog Farm and his home in Berkeley, a communal house that he calls the Hippie Hyannis Port. Every nook is filled with books, beads, Buddhas, incense, windup teeth, moose antlers, and Mickey Mouse and Goofy figurines. Dominating the scene is an enormous, larger-than-life portrait of Wavy.

"David Crosby bought it at a flea market. He held on to it for two years, then he mailed it to me. He said he couldn't stand me staring at him any more."
So what's next for Wavy Gravy?

"I don't know. As Tiny Tim always used to say to me, 'Time will tell.'"

I once sponsored Wavy Gravy to speak at my college campus doing his Nobody for President routine:

Happy Birthday Wavy...

Check out Wavy's personal website

ADG

candyflip · 05-07-2011, 04:35 AM

I have a glass pipe that he gave to me about 15 years go now. Its in a box here somewhere.

djroof · 05-07-2011, 05:36 AM

happy b day!!!!!!!!!

C H R I S · 05-07-2011, 05:43 AM

My uncle...... no shit look it up......... Lebrun.....

My family were the founders of tbe hog farm ---FTW

RyuLion · 05-07-2011, 05:59 AM

Looks like someone..
Happy bday!

BlackCrayon · 05-07-2011, 06:35 AM

They're making a movie about him.

http://www.rippleeffectfilms.com/wwwavy/index.php

adanac · 05-07-2011, 07:00 AM

I met Wavy at the 76 rainbow festival in New Mexico... good guy.

AsianDivaGirlsWebDude · 05-07-2011, 08:45 AM

Wavy has touched so many lives in a positive way...

ADG

JFK · 05-07-2011, 09:05 AM

Happy Birthday 'Mr Gravy'

Coup · 05-07-2011, 09:07 AM

get a job you damned hippies

C H R I S · 05-07-2011, 09:12 AM

My grandmother who just passed away was close friends with Wavy as well.

05-07-2011, 04:35 AM	#2
candyflip Carpe Visio Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: New York Posts: 43,052	I have a glass pipe that he gave to me about 15 years go now. Its in a box here somewhere. __________________ Spend you some brain. Email Me

05-07-2011, 05:43 AM	#4
C H R I S Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Marina Del Rey Posts: 10,845	My uncle...... no shit look it up......... Lebrun..... My family were the founders of tbe hog farm ---FTW __________________ C H R I S Retired Porn Veteran BH4L

05-07-2011, 05:59 AM	#5
RyuLion ClubDomCash.com Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: San Diego Posts: 32,176	Looks like someone.. Happy bday! __________________ Adult Biz Consultant A tech head since 1995

05-07-2011, 06:35 AM	#6
BlackCrayon Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Ottawa Posts: 19,631	They're making a movie about him. http://www.rippleeffectfilms.com/wwwavy/index.php __________________ you don't know you're wearing a leash if you sit by the peg all day..

05-07-2011, 07:00 AM	#7
adanac Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Vancouver BC Posts: 97	I met Wavy at the 76 rainbow festival in New Mexico... good guy. __________________ http://www.chipmunking.com

05-07-2011, 05:36 AM	#3
djroof JuicyDevils.gr Owner Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Greece Posts: 25,372	happy b day!!!!!!!!!

05-07-2011, 08:45 AM	#8
AsianDivaGirlsWebDude Purveyor, Fine Asian Porn Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Posts: 38,323	Wavy has touched so many lives in a positive way... ADG __________________ Asian Diva Girls - Exclusive Photos and Videos Asian Diva Girls Affiliate Program (50% ccBill Revshare)

05-07-2011, 09:05 AM	#9
JFK FUBAR the ORIGINATOR Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: FUBARLAND Posts: 67,382	Happy Birthday 'Mr Gravy' __________________ FUBAR Webmasters - The FUBAR Times - FUBAR Webmasters Mobile - FUBARTV.XXX For promo opps contact jfk at fubarwebmasters dot com

05-07-2011, 09:07 AM	#10
Coup 🚨 PBBC International 🚨 Industry Role: Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: /👁\ Posts: 9,932	get a job you damned hippies

05-07-2011, 09:12 AM	#11
C H R I S Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Marina Del Rey Posts: 10,845	My grandmother who just passed away was close friends with Wavy as well. __________________ C H R I S Retired Porn Veteran BH4L