RFT № 3 • PERMANENT RECORD
Jerry Garcia - Iko Iko
The Omni • Atlanta, Georgia • 1995-03-27 • Set II
THE PHOTOGRAPH
One Frame. One Moment. One Night.
Fuji Super G • ISO 800 • 35mm Color Negative Film • 1995
Jerry Garcia • The Omni • Atlanta, Georgia • 1995-03-27 • Set II • Grateful Dead
THE PHYSICAL MASTER
Frame 14
Fuji Super G • ISO 800 • 35mm Color Negative • Frame 14
This is the original camera negative exposed at The Omni in Atlanta on 1995-03-27 during the opening minutes of Iko Iko, the first song of Set II.
THE NIGHT
Then We Put the Camera Down and Danced
On 1995-03-27, the Grateful Dead played The Omni in Atlanta. When Set II began, they opened with Iko Iko.
We were photographing Jerry Garcia during the opening minutes of the song. Frame 14 was made during those first minutes.
Then we stopped shooting, put the camera down, and danced.
THE SOUND OF THAT NIGHT
Iko Iko Survived Too
Frame 14 preserved a fraction of a second.
The tape-trading community preserved the sound and posted it to YouTube for the entire world to enjoy.
A soundboard recording of the Grateful Dead's 1995-03-27 performance at The Omni survives in the tape-trading archive. On that recording, Set II begins with Iko Iko.
Frame 14 and the recording preserve the same opening minutes.
SBD • DAT • CDR • EAC • SHN
Grateful Dead • The Omni • Atlanta, Georgia • 1995-03-27 • Set II • Iko Iko
Image credit: YouTube video
More than thirty years later, the photograph and the recording still point back to the same few minutes inside The Omni.
One survives as light recorded on film.
The other survives as physics recorded in sound.
ONE YEAR EARLIER
No Foolin'
On April 1, 1994, Karen and I were back at The Omni for the final night of the Grateful Dead's four-show Atlanta run.
I had attended all four nights.
Work had interfered with Karen's plans, so April 1 was the only show she could make.
Our tickets had come through Grateful Dead Ticket Sales. They were beautiful. Our seats were not. We were in Section 207, Row S, in the highest rows of The Omni.
Somewhere along the way, I asked a simple question:
Who controls the marquee?
I was led to the booth and discovered it was being operated by members of the Grateful Dead's crew. I told them what I wanted to do.
They loved it.
They charged me $25.
During the break between sets on April Fools Day 1994, the marquee inside The Omni displayed:
“Karen will you marry me, no foolin' Love Troy”
She said yes.
Grateful Dead Ticket Sales • The Omni • Atlanta, Georgia • 1994-04-01
The tickets themselves were part of the experience. Grateful Dead Ticket Sales allowed fans to order tickets directly from the band's ticket service by mail. Getting them required following the mail-order instructions, sending payment and a return envelope, and waiting to see what came back.
The tickets were works of art.
The seats were another matter.
A year later, the luck got ridiculous.
SPRING TOUR 1995
Pure Karma
When tickets went on sale for the Grateful Dead's 1995 Spring Tour, we weren't going to leave everything to chance.
We ordered tickets through Grateful Dead Ticket Sales. We also went to Marshall's to buy tickets through Ticketmaster.
At Marshall's, the people waiting for tickets drew numbers to determine who would get first pull from that location's available seats.
Karen drew number one.
First pull.
The year before, we had been in one of the highest rows in The Omni when I asked her to marry me. Now, with our wedding only months away, the tickets started coming out of the machine.
March 26: Section 1R. Row K. Eleventh row.
March 27: Section 1R. Row B. Second row.
March 29: Section 1R. Row G. Seventh row.
All three nights were on Jerry's side of the stage.
For the final night, March 30, we used our Grateful Dead Ticket Sales seats in Section 9.
How did we get seats like that?
Pure karma.
Ticketmaster • Grateful Dead • The Omni • 1995-03-26
Section 1R • Row K • Seat 1
The surviving ticket records a $27.50 admission price and $3.75 service charge, for a total of $31.25 per ticket. Eight tickets at $31.25 equal $250.00, matching the handwritten $250.00 total preserved on the original Ticketmaster purchase envelope.
Grateful Dead Ticket Lottery Artifact
Preserved with the original ticket-purchase materials was the actual lottery ticket drawn by Karen in connection with the March 26, 1995 Grateful Dead ticket purchase. The ticket is marked “100 Parcel Checking – 225101.” It is number 1 from the lottery. The artifact remained inside the original ticket envelope until September 2026, when it unexpectedly fell from the envelope as the March 26, 1995 ticket was being removed during documentation of the archive.
Original Ticketmaster Purchase Envelope • Atlanta Spring Tour • 1995
Karen Burns purchased two tickets for each of the four Atlanta performances for Karen and Troy. The original envelope records the purchase of eight tickets for a total of $250, including Ticketmaster charges.
1995-03-27
Second Row Jerry's Side
The second night put us in Section 1R, Row B.
Second row. Jerry's side of the stage.
We brought our camera and Fuji Super G ISO 800 film.
From those seats, we captured Frame 14.
1995-08-09
The Music Stopped
On August 9, 1995, Jerry Garcia transitioned from life to spirit.
Karen was working at Olan Mills.
I went to Piedmont Park.
Deadheads had begun gathering there spontaneously. There was no concert. No tickets. No plan. Just a family of fans coming together to mourn.
I brought Roxanne, my champion Frisbee dog, with me. She was at the height of her career and had won at the Dogwood Festival in Piedmont Park the year before.
This time, we weren't there for a competition.
We were there for Jerry.
SEVENTEEN DAYS LATER
August 26, 1995
Seventeen days after Jerry Garcia died, Karen and I married.
The ceremony was held at Trinity Presbyterian Church at Howell Mill Road and Moores Mill Road in Atlanta.
Trinity was our family church on the Burns side. When the church was being built, my grandfather helped secure the loan that paid for its steeple.
That made the place where we exchanged our vows part of our family history long before our wedding day.
Our reception was held at Anthony's, a historical home on Piedmont Road in the heart of Buckhead.
It was a beautiful wedding.
And it rained from sunup to sundown.
And we danced.
THE STORM
Its Name Was Jerry
The rain wasn't a surprise.
For days, the weather reports had been following Tropical Storm Jerry as it crossed Florida, truckin' toward Georgia.
By August 26, Jerry had weakened to a tropical depression arriving for this scheduled Atlanta tour date.
Our wedding day.
Seventeen days after Jerry Garcia died, Jerry came through Georgia on the day Karen and I were married.
Maybe he just wanted to be there?
We always like to think that, somehow, Jerry found a way to be present at our wedding.
WHY THIS RFT EXISTS
Our Kids
For more than 25 years, Karen has been the camp photographer for Camp Horizon, photographing children whose lives have been disrupted through no fault of their own.
Children in foster care sometimes move from one home to another carrying their belongings in garbage bags. Things get left behind. Things get lost. Photographs disappear.
But Camp Horizon preserves Karen's photographs.
When those photographs are lost, the camp can return them. For some of these kids, when they become adults, Karen's images are the only photographs they have from the early years of their childhood.
Karen and I never had children of our own.
But for nearly three decades, these have been our kids.
RFT #3 was created to help children who do not have parents who can safely care for them, or who have lost their parents through tragedy, face one of the most difficult transitions of their lives: aging out of foster care with no safety net.
The purpose is not simply to help them leave the system.
It is to help them leave with a path toward a safe and successful future.
Frame 14 preserved one moment from our lives.
We want its next chapter to help preserve the possibilities in theirs.
THE REAL FUNGIBLE TOKEN
Frame 14 Is the Master
RFT #3 is built around a singular physical object: the original 35mm camera negative exposed at The Omni in Atlanta on 1995-03-27.
Frame 14 is not a copy of the photograph.
It is the photographic master from which the image originates.
The negative has remained in the Karen Images archive following processing. RFT #3 establishes its documented identity, provenance, purpose, and relationship to the rights associated with the photograph.
When RFT #3 is transferred to its first collector, Frame 14 will leave the Karen Images archive and enter a new chapter of its documented history.
The physical master will have a new custodian.
The record will continue.
THE TRANSFER
The Master. The Print. The Rights. The Record.
The transfer of RFT #3 is more than the sale of a photographic negative.
The collector receives the original physical master, Frame 14, a curated photographic print produced under the supervision of Karen Images, and the economic rights defined by the RFT transfer agreement.
Those rights include the exclusive right to receive revenue from future authorized reproduction and licensing of the photograph.
Karen Images remains the recognized creator of the work and may continue to display the photograph as part of its portfolio, history, and documentation of the RFT archive.
After transfer, Karen Images does not participate in reproduction or licensing revenue except as specifically provided by the transfer agreement.
The RFT also carries a continuing resale structure. On qualifying future transfers, a contractual royalty is paid to Karen Images or its assigns by the new collector for the duration provided by the agreement.
Ownership may change.
The provenance continues.
PRESENT STATUS
RFT #3 Still Waits
More than three decades after Frame 14 was exposed at The Omni, the original Fuji Super G negative remains in the Karen Images archive.
RFT #3 has never been transferred to a collector.
Its physical master, documented history, and original purpose remain intact.
The purpose established when RFT #3 was created has never been fulfilled because the RFT has never been transferred.
Frame 14 still waits for its first collector.
And so do Our Kids.
CURRENT RECORD
RFT #3 • Jerry Garcia - Iko Iko
PHOTOGRAPHIC MASTER
Original Fuji Super G ISO 800 35mm Color Negative • Frame 14
CREATED
The Omni • Atlanta, Georgia • 1995-03-27 • Set II
CREATION CONTEXT
Grateful Dead • Iko Iko • Opening Minutes of Set II
CURRENT CUSTODY
Karen Images
TRANSFER HISTORY
No collector transfer recorded
ORIGINAL RFT PURPOSE
Created to help foster youth aging out of care without a safety net move toward a safe and successful future.
Frame 14, its documented creation history, provenance, custody, and transfer history remain preserved as part of the permanent RFT record.
© 2026 Real Fungible Token. Built by Karen Images