THE SIGNAL from David Katznelson
“I don't believe in a lot of baggage. It's such a nuisance. Life's too short to fuss with it. And it isn't really necessary”― Hugh Lofting
Today in 1967, in my home town of San Francisco, in the park that I grew up hiking around in, a magical event took place that jump-started the hippie movement and the Summer of Love: The Human Be-In. The Be-In was a reaction to the law making LSD illegal, creating a common ground for the beats, the hippies, and the radicals to get together, love one another, and drop some prime Owsley White Lightning. It was a passing-of-the-torch moment from one counter-culture to another with Allen Ginsburg, Laurence Ferlinghetti and Gary Snyder sharing the stage with The Grateful Dead and The Jefferson Airplane (some of the event can be viewed here). Dizzy Gillespie was there…Jerry Rubin was preaching. Just incredible.
The national press was present reporting to the outside world the sites and sounds of a new way of being, and many minds were blown in many different ways (the United Press headline: All Kinds of “Kooks” Gather for “Happening”).
“C’mon people now…smile on your brother…everybody get together…going to love one another right now.”
For a Generation X’er who grew up in the shadow of the flower power era, that part of history has such a romantic feel to it…almost forgetting that there was a heinous war going on which was such a driving force. This idea of bringing your family…and incense…and flowers…and animals…and being together to celebrate something bigger than the self, something communal…an ideal that we can make a collective positive difference. Just thinking that on this day in history this crazy invitation was put out to a whole city…a whole Bay Area..and beyond…still gives me inspiration that we CAN create light from the darkness. This taste that the present day has stained in our mouths can be rinsed out with manna-dew and sweet elixirs. And vaccines. And great music and poetry and camaraderie.
There is much speculation of what the new world will look like when we are finally able to be together again. Maybe it will look a little bit like that moment of time in Golden Gate Park—more diverse this time around too—when we usher is a new period of awareness and do it in a welcoming, joyous way.
Mississippi ratifies and raises its new state flag over the state Capitol for the first time
File this under: It is about time. I am not sure whose God we are trusting here, but regardless, it is a nice flag with a lot of blue (s) in the center hopefully helping bring in a new era for the state.
It was so nice seeing this article. I met Howie when I was 16 working at KUSF and years later got to work for him at Reprise. I used to call him from the Lowell High public telephone asking for free 415 records…telling him I would write about them in the school paper. At Reprise, he was the one who OKed my signing of Nick Cave and The Texas Tornados. He was the one who demanded that we not only release the NEW Boredoms record but reissue their first one. He focuses more on his political blog than music these days, but I am sure if I talked to him he would be still good for a conversation of what great recordings are being released right now…
Berthe Morisot, Impressionism’s Most Relentless Innovator, Is Finally Receiving Her Due
“Widespread recognition is arriving over a century late for Berthe Morisot, a true innovator who died at the height of her promise. She was a founding member of Impressionism, whose marquee names counted themselves as both admirers and friends. But, unlike her peers, whose more experimental inclinations were tempered by a need to please patrons, her canvases bear vivacious brushstrokes and unusual figuration which nearly leapfrogged Impressionism to abstraction.”
Capitol Studios Shutters Its Mastering Division
This is just devastating news and the end of an era. There was not a better experience than to bring your mix down to capital to have it mastered by the masters. Hear their stories while they worked their magic. My favorite one came from working with one of the people who mastered all of Yoko’s records. He told me that the Beatle who would always come down to Capital to say hello to the workers there was John Lennon. He would cruise the hallways, go to the mail room, thank everyone. Just a great guy. So the mastering guy in question was putting the finishing touches on one of Yoko’s records when John walked in. After hearing a few notes of a particularly atonal song, he chided the engineer to finish the work quickly…he had heard enough of the record. Suddenly Yoko walked in, and John lit up, “Honey,” he said, “glad you’re here…the record sounds great!”
Tim Bogert Dies: Bassist With Jeff Beck, Vanilla Fudge, Cactus Was 76
There are many who say it was Tim Bogert’s bass playing and Carmine Appice’s drumming on Vanilla Fudge’s hit You Keep Me Hangin' On that ushered in a whole new era of heavy. RIP.
THE BRIDGES
by W. S. Merwin
Nothing but me is moving
on these bridges
as I always knew it would be
see moving on each side of the bridges
only me
and everything we have known
even the friends
lined up in the silent iron railings
back and forth
I pass like a stick on palings
the echo
rises from the marbled river
the light from the blank clock crackles
like an empty film
where
are we living now
on which side which side
and will you be there
