A really cool soap is the olive oil green Ayurvedic bar soap. You can get it in Indian grocery stores, or some health food stores. I'll bet that has patchouli in it, along with other herbs and oils, and it smells great. Over application of any scent can be invasive to others for many reasons. I think we can all agree that bathing regularly is a good thing.

The 'daily shower' standard is not American. In most of Asia everyone even the poorest people bathe more than once a day. I have seen people in the slums of Kolkata going to the local 'tank' (pond) or city water hose every morning at sunrise and in the afternoon for bathing. They are also way cleaner than Americans or Europeans in their 'toilet' habits. (not going to go into details here...but it makes what we do with paper seem really gross.) Anyway this is off the subject...

I think Patchouli is okay by itself but nicest when mixed with other oils. It's nice that it smells like a Deadshow. But using this or any other excuse to spread all this racist-y hate stuff about people termed 'wookies' is really repulsive and against what the whole Dead scene was like. That 'W-word' did not exist then. But now it is a way that certain showgoers can write off other showgoers because of some way they may appear at first glance. What the hell?? I am as grossed out as anyone by those puppies and prefer to avoid people who smell bad, but to create an entire stereotype made out of these mostly arbitrary attributes? Why???? This judge-y crap does not belong at Dead shows. It makes me sad every time I read it. It didn't used to be like this. Phil said recently (paraphrasing) that magic is available to us at every moment if we are open to it. So why spread this prejudice and hate? People should not have to go into a show-experience with these kinds of negative preconceptions that we created and have propagated. I would start a topic about this alone but I don't want to give this horrid word and concept more attention.

It is great to be clean to dance, for yourself and for others around you.


!