a blog about the sixties (because they didn't just end with the '60s)
SELECTING TEN NOVELS that sum up the era we refer to as “the Sixties” would be a task worthy of a minor Greek demi-deity. And by the Sixties, I am referring to the whole peace-love-do-your-own-thing counterculture: pot and acid and consciousness expansion and free love—lots and lots of free love—and rock & roll and Zap Comix and you know the rest. READ MORE
THE ECOLOGY SYMBOL has been with us so long that it looks and feels rather ancient. That it resembles the Greek letter theta, which has been around for thousands of years, certainly helps with its look of antiquity. In fact, it is less than fifty years old, another piece of today that originated with the hippie-counterculture movement of The Sixties. READ MORE
IN AN ATTEMPT to reach more potential readers for my blogs, I have taken to answering questions posed on Quora. While the questions posed run the gamut of the rationality spectrum, most of the answers provided by readers are intelligent and articulate. It’s a good site that claims to have more than 190,000,000 monthly unique visitors!
So the question was, “Is there any Beatles song that has influenced the world as much as John Lennon’s song Imagine has done? READ MORE
LOOK AT THIS PHOTO! Is there an image anywhere that says “The Sixties” better than a longishly-haired young man peacefully placing a flower in the barrel of a bayoneted rifle pointing in his direction? This photo was taken in 1967 when few males outside of the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco had grown their hair very long. Consequently, these protestors look so clean-cut, so non-Sixties-ish. READ MORE
THIS IS A CONCEPT SITE—and anyone who was into rock in the ’60s or is a record collector now knows something about ‘concept albums’—whose purpose is to present articles, essays, and pictorials about “the Sixties,” accentuating the positive about the people, music, books, movies, art, and events that occurred then and which live on in fact or spirit decades later. READ MORE
WE SPENT A WEEK IN JUNE at Ocean Shores on the west coast of Washington. It was our first time there, and the first time I had been near an ocean in almost thirty years! While I intended to spend a lot of time in the water—whose temperature was in the mid-50s—and be involved in sundry social activities, I also planned on doing some reading. READ MORE
WOODSTOCK MUSIC & ART FAIR. Just the name of an event that took place almost fifty years ago still conjures images in most people’s minds—regardless of age and often political and philosophical disposition—of youth innocence joy, of music color summer, of endless horizons and possibilities, of three days of peace and music.
And of one-on-one, person-with-person intimacy, of being here now, of intimacy and grokking the moment—even if the moment is filled with problems and inconveniences and even actual hardships. READ MORE
ABOUT FOUR YEARS AGO, I was searching for some images on the internet for an article, the title of which is long forgotten. I stumbled over a site that contained thousands of images, all scanned from underground newspapers and similar alternative and counterculture publications. Black and white to full color, most of them reproduced in what looked like full size! READ MORE
I ENTERED COLLEGE in September 1969. Nixon had been in office less than a year and the war in Vietnam was ongoing. The draft was also ongoing but I had a student deferment. I was, of course, opposed to the war and made my opinion and feelings known whenever opportunity allowed. Such as in my choice of attire.
My standard dress included a pair of Lee’s boot-cut jeans ($2.99 at the Army-Navy Store) and black shirts. READ MORE