“California is a fine place to live – if you happen to be an orange.”
(Fred Allen, American humorist)

I'll link this observation to the sense of emptiness I preceived while staying for a while in Venice, Los Angeles (see picture above), a couple of years ago.

One of the social milieus I stumbled upon was this weird bunch of people who, while hoping to find a job in the entertainment industry, had this everybody-sleeping-with-everybody type of lifestyle who puzzled me because of its total nihilism and emptiness, or so it appeared to me.

Not that the writers that have lived in LA have greatly contributed to better this image of emptiness and ... blankness, from Aldous Huxley, to Raymond Chandler (with his marvellously depressed Philip Marlowe) and the more recent James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere etc.).

So maybe what Fred Allen said is kind of true.
Only if you happen to be an orange. Or a movie star.
(What about a porn star?)

Fresh Idealism

But I also keep the most beautiful souvenirs of San Francisco, northern California. I was in my twenties and I had never been to SF or America before, to tell the truth. Didn't have to. They simply materialised before me in Trastevere, Rome, in the years between the 60s-70s, with the cute face of a half-Mexican girl from SF, her name Mariza, who worked in an airline company and who totally bewitched me and accepted to share with me a small and cheap flat in via della Lungara. This place soon attracted a long series of eccentric (and marvellous) folks: a gay pianist from Kansas City, a lesbian paintress from Santa Barbara, a Vietnam vet from SF as well, a bit spaced out and hopelessly addicted to alcohol, plus this creative actress from Chicago (the link tells about her) together with many other odd American characters.

Mariza was one of my sweetest experiences, intelligent, attractive and cultured. Those were the days of the hippies who had found in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district one of their homes.

Well, Trastevere (see below Piazza S. Maria) was our Haight-Ashbury. Such an extraordinary place, not yet so trendy and populated by these unconventional expatriates plus by the locals, real Romans beyond belief. In this sort of ancient theatre, ironically enough, I first met young America and its sparkling fresh mind. Not only my English was improved by all that.

But we were not hippies. Being not saints neither there was not much place in our experiences for any nihilism or barren emptiness.

We were full of messianic hopes. Whether our naïve ideals were guiding or misguiding us, it is still to be seen.

Je tiens aussi à préciser que Comboutique est une boutique très fiable, j'ai lavé mon tee shirt Firefox, je l'ai sur moi (et sur la vidéo du Rubik's Cube) et il est niquel ! Donc ayez une totale confiance !

Et pour plus de détails voici le motif en qualité supérieure !

You play as Mark Retro, fresh out of high school and ready for his first job. He can't believe his good luck when Anderson Construction, the largest building firm on the West Coast, decides to hire him on the spot. He's even more surprised to find out that his new mentor is none other than his estranged Uncle Al! In fact, he's so estranged that Mark's never even heard of him, thanks to a mysterious family feud. As you build up the business over Mark's 60 year career, you also follow Mark's life as he marries and raises a family with his wife Norma Jean. Being extra successful in the game unlocks different events that influence the course of his life.

If you're a fan of the Build-a-Lot series, especially Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year, you'll already be familiar with the basic game play. Build in Time takes the same concept and adds to it a bunch of new challenges, power ups, and development additions.

When a customer calls, answer the phone and take note of the order. Each customer will request a home style and color, and later some will want a garage and/or an accessory like a shed or pool. Select the correct house type, and click on an empty plot to send your builders to work. Once the house is complete, select the correct paint color and the target home to get your painters busy. Add the garage and accessories as needed, and move the anxious customer in before she loses patience.

Each level has a revenue requirement that you need to meet in order to advance. Customer's patience levels affect the selling price of the houses. They will pay an extra 5% if they have more than 3 hearts, 15% with four hearts, and a whopping 20% with five hearts! If they reach zero hearts, they will leave, sticking you with an empty lot. Like in real life, some people are more patient than others, so don't be surprised if the Sumo wrestler gives you more trouble than the happy hippie. You can increase customers' hearts by giving them free kitchen appliances.

Is the crew moving too slowly? You can get a crew to move faster by using “click assist” and clicking the mouse rapidly on the house they are building. When the player builds 3 homes of the same style or color, or with the same garage or accessory type in a row or column, “Mega Click Assist” is started. For 13 seconds, you can just click 3 times on something being built to finish it up.

Each level also has special “star scenarios” shown in the top right of the screen. These scenarios include special challenges, such as building certain houses on certain plots or making color matches. The star scenarios are optional, but if you unlock every star in a full decade, Mark will get a special life event. In between each level, you'll have the chance to buy upgrades that improve your efficiency.

You start off with just one building crew and one painting crew, but will have the option of hiring three of each type, as well as optimizing their speeds. There's also a variety of add ons which increase the value of your homes, like gazebos and gardens, along with upgraded house types. You can even hire special service personnel which will save you time, like a receptionist who answers the phones and takes customer's orders, or a home deliverer who automatically escorts the clients to their new digs. You can change your purchases if you decide a different item will better help you meet targets, so the upgrades are flexible.

At any time, you can demolish a building and create an empty lot by choosing the wrecking ball, or else build over an incorrect house. You don't need to wait for the building crew to complete a task in order to change your order. Selected a garage by mistake? No problem – the customers aren't bothered by extra garages, so long as the house is the right type and color, and all the requested items are present.

Users can choose to play in “kids mode” (customers don't lose patience, you can't lose, and there's no revenue requirement to advance), or “standard mode,” so it's suitable for the whole family.

Aside from being addictive and generally fun to play, all of the upgrades affect the dynamics of game play, giving the user a different experience depending on the choices made. The length is good too, taking at least 6 hours or more if you don't replay any levels. Given the number of optional challenges, there's also great replay value. The music and atmosphere change with each passing decade, and there's lots of interesting trivia along the way, so the game play never gets stale.

Despite all the great things about Build in Time, it can sometimes be confusing to keep track of all the requirements when you're building several houses at once, as you need to shift your eyes back and forth across the screen as you play. It's also particularly difficult to beat all the star scenarios, especially the timed levels.

Build in Time is a fun, fast paced, exciting time management game with lots of new twists and plenty of flexibility for players of different skill levels. The time period immersion adds an interesting twist to the story and game play, and there's a ton of upgrades and optional challenges that change the dynamics and enhance the replay value. All in all, it's an entertaining time trip.

Review by Lisa Haasbroek
Gamezebo, Inc.

You just knew it had to happen. A film about George W. Bush. And of all directors, none other than the controversial Oliver Stone, famous for his misinterpretation of the of the famed Zupruder film (the footage taken by a bystander on the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy) used in the movie JFK.

So you just know, the movie "W" is going to contain misinterpretations, butchered facts, and a left leaning eye toward Bush's presidency. Oliver Stone feels he is best qualified to make a movie about the president since he and George W. Bush were contemporaries in Yale University and both served during Vietnam, although Oliver Stone saw combat while Prez Bush did not.

This difference in their level of involvement during the Vietnam war I guess is what gives Oliver Stone the cojones to make his hippie pot smoking remarks like the ones he gave last night during an ABC Night Line interview, in which Oliver Stone referred to the President as a "dangerous man". When asked to elaborate, Olie stated that if President Bush had seen combat in Vietnam, smelled dead flesh, he would've had a different outlook on the war. Olie blamed the President for getting us into 2 wars, I'm assuming Olie is referring to Afghanistan being the first and obviously Iraq being the second.

I cringed when I heard those remarks from the hippie director. I'm assuming then, according to Olie, that a Vietnam vet who saw blood would not have retaliated after 911. Would not have sought out those terrorists responsible for the biggest attack on our soil since Pearl Harbor. Would have laid back and said, hey, I smelled blood in Vietnam so I guessed we deserved it, I'll let this one pass. Now how ridiculous was that statement?

What was President Bush, or any President for that matter supposed to do? We were attacked first. Not the other way around. How quickly Oliver Stone and those who share his koolaid drinking sentiments forget what happened to us on September 11. JP

The yuppie starts to scrutinize every thing I say and do, expecting me to hurt him or fall short in some way. I finally had to let him go. During the break up process I told him he was too focused on work, too ambitious and too materialistic. He acts like he is fine with the break up and even throws in his own reasons we should split. A day or two go by and he starts to call me, over and over again. No messages, no explainations. Also no texts or emails. It's as though he finally gets that I prefer vocal communications. After four days of him calling and calling, I finally return the call. When I call him, he happens to be at work. (I called after his normal work hours- but SURPRIZE! the dildo is working overtime on a Friday night.) He tells me that "he doesn't have time to talk" WTF???

I've talked to him about this before. I have asked him not to pick up the phone if he can't talk. What kind of person picks up the phone just to say hello, I can't talk right now? That's what voice mail was invented for. It really pissed me off. So I didn't bother to hide it when I called him. When he calls back four hours later, he asked if I was "doing better than before" that I sounded "really mad when I was on the phone earlier." Then he has the nerve to put me on hold for almost five minutes.

The two phone calls are a complete confirmation that I am never the first thing on his mind. Everything else comes first. And he wonders why I broke it off? This guy is a waste of my time. I have a friend over and the Yuppie just happens to click back when I am telling him that I am going to hang up. The creep starts yelling at me, "don't hang up, fuck, I had you hold for like 5 minutes, what's the big deal?" Yell, yell, yada yada - I just hung up the guy.

I don't want some uptight guy that yells at me all the time and is focused on his work, he considers that a person's job is 80 % of their life!

The hippie is the exact opposite- as you would expect. Totally laid back, mellow, not in a hurry to do anything. Too mellow if you ask me. We never see each other, and over the course of a couple of weeks, we are texting less and less. Keep in mind that he completely stopped calling as soon as he got my cell phone and was able to text. He is so mellow that he doesn't see much importance in communicating with me or making time to see me. This is before the snow boards season has even hit, just imagine what it would be like then!

I haven't told him yet, but I'm ending that one too. It's not as though he did anything wrong, or is a jerk, I am just looking for someone that can invest a little more time. (And is not that good in bed, so what the point, really?) I'm just not looking forward to telling him. He will take it well, not too big of a deal because we have grown apart since Labor Day anyway. But he is sweet, very sweet and I don't have the easiest time with "nice" break ups.

And the search continues..........

Why do all men like text and IM so much? Is it to keep their hands busy so that they don't play with their dicks all the time?

Sorry I'm not around for now and thanks for your visits. As a new student I'm trying to read more books than I have ever read in my life ( clever ones that require concentration) , come to terms with various types of new studenty things and both learning about and attending things like this:

Music at SOAS Students Union ( clearly not hippies! errr?)

or maybe an afternoon of Gamelan

and in the foyer a bit of this - The World Choir ( turn your volume down before playing this!)

...or a bit of this..in a student corridor....

..or a bit of that ( I saw this guy performing yesterday on the "Oud"..fantastic stuff)

But mainly lots of this: ( the SOAS library full of books and documents in many languages from many eras)

but I will write again soon and maybe delve into the past, the present or the future from my own hippie point of view.

Love and Peace

Born2rant

Hippie es una persona que se adhiere a una subcultura con origenes en el movimiento de contracultura de los años 1960. La palabra hippie se deriva de el ingles hipster que solía usarse para describir a la subcultura previa de la Generación Beat que también tuvo como base importante a la ciudad estadounidense de San Francisco y su distrito Haight-Ashbury. Esta nueva subcultura heredo los valores contraculturales de la Generación Beat, crearon sus propias comunidades, escuchaban rock psicodélico, abrazaron la revolución sexual, participaban en activismo radical y usaban drogas como la marihuana, el LSD y otros alucinógenos para expandir la conciencia.
A fines de los años sesenta en EEUU los hippies constituyeron una suerte de moda juvenil para después quedar fuera de moda pero subsiguientes generaciones de neohippies mantendrían vivo al movimiento como una subcultura establecida en muchas formas y con nuevas generaciones hasta hoy. Pequeños enclaves de hippies originales así mismo continúan siguiendo este estilo de vida, mayoritariamente en lugares rurales.

Los "hippies" a doptaban un modo de vida comunitario, basado en el amor y la paz, renegaban del nacionalismo y de la Guerra del Vietnam, tomaban elementos de religiones como el budismo, el hinduismo, y también de las religiones de los indios norteamericanos. Estaban en desacuerdo con los valores tradicionales de la clase media estadounidense. Consideraban el paternalismo gubernamental, el militarismo, las empresas multinacionales y los valores sociales tradicionales como parte de un sistema que, a sus ojos, no tenía legitimidad.

Filosofía de vida

Los hippies se automarginaban de la sociedad, buscando formas de vida en común en las que la paz y el amor fuesen los valores más importantes. Esto los hizo oponerse frontalmente a la mayoría de las doctrinas, valores y costumbres comúnmente aceptados.

Por sí mismo el movimiento no tenía un carácter ideológico ni político claramente definido, aunque sus ideas y su modo de vida tienen cierta similitud con algunos aspectos del anarquismo, como, por ejemplo, la vida en comunas.

Orígenes

La palabra inglesa hippie deriva de otra palabra en inglés, hip, que quiere decir "popular, de moda". De ese término se deriva la palabra inglesa hipster (un "hipista", que indica a los que pretenden ser hip, los bohemios. En los EE.UU. antes de los años 1960, los bohemios y los hipsters por lo general se envolvían con la cultura negra (por ejemplo: Harry "The Hipster" Gibson y también uno de los más revolucionarios el famoso Miguel W. Larrea) y el jazz. El 6 de septiembre de 1965, en un periódico de San Francisco, el periodista Michael Fellon usó la palabra hippie por primera vez para referirse a los hippies y a los jóvenes bohemios (al contrario de los viejos bohemios de la llamada generación beat). Pero la gran prensa aún tardó casi dos años en utilizar la nueva palabra.

El movimiento hippie tuvo su apogeo en fines de los años 1960 cuando acontecimientos como la Ofensiva del Tet en Vietnam comenzaron a demostrar que la guerra no estaba ganándose[1]. En los años 70 contaban con el desprecio de Nixon por su tendencia pacifista; pero entonces ya esta de su lado la mayor parte de la población de Estados Unidos.

Legado

Alrededor de 1980, gran parte del estilo hippie, pero muy poco de la esencia del movimiento, fue absorbido por la cultura mayoritaria. La prensa generalista perdió interés en esta subcultura. Por su parte, muchos de los antiguos hippies se integraron en la corriente dominante de pensamiento y los sistemas sociales y económicos de los que habían renegado.

No obstante, otros hippies continuaron manteniendo un compromiso profundo con esta forma de vivir y sus ideales. Como los hippies tendieron a evitar la publicidad después del Verano del amor y de Woodstock, surgió un mito popular de que el movimiento había desaparecido, aunque de hecho continuó existiendo en comunidades en diversos países. La evolución de algunas comunas hippies ha dado lugar a las ecoaldeas de hoy, también llamadas "comunas del 2000".

Aun hoy, muchos de estos hippies se dan cita en festivales y encuentros para celebrar la vida y el amor, como en el Festival de la Paz.

Fuente: Hippies

Sitio: Tribus Urbanas

Geschichte ist in den USA entweder ausgeschlachtet und kommerzialisiert oder gut versteckt und schwer zugänglich. In La Honda, dem kleinen Ort in den Bergen südlich von San Francisco, wo Ken Kesey und seine Merry Pranksters in den 60er-Jahren die Psychedelische Ära zelebrierten, steht keine Tafel am Straßenrand, kein Erinnerungsschild, keine Statue. Nichts. Der Autor von „Manchmal ein großes Verlangen“ und „Einer flog über das Kuckucknest“, der sich selbst in einem Interview einmal als „zu jung für einen Beatnik und zu alt für einen Hippie“ bezeichnete, hat hier kein Monument. Aber als Held zahlreicher Texte von Allen Ginsberg, Tom Wolfe bis Hunter S. Thompson lebt er weiter. Und in der Erinnerung der Menschen von La Honda.

„Er war ein netter Kerl“, erzählt Pat, den ich auf der Veranda des Apple Jack’s Inn treffe, „hat in einem Spital gearbeitet, wo er das Acid für seinen Gäste besorgt hat. Die meisten haben damals das Zeug genommen, um zu schauen, was mit ihnen passiert. Kesey hat es anderen gegeben, um zu schauen, was mit denen passiert“. Es müssen wilde Feste gewesen sein unter den Bäumen von La Honda. Kesey befestigte Lautsprecher in den Wipfeln und lud Bands wie The Grateful Dead zu Privatkonzerten. Immer wieder kamen auch die Hell’s Angels, bis es der Polizei zu blöd wurde. Pat – in seiner grauen Mähne hat er einen kleinen Zopf – erinnert sich gern an die verrückte Zeit. „Die Farmer dachten, der Teufel sei in ihre Nachbarschaft gezogen. Sie haben ihn mit allen Mitteln bekämpft“. Kurz nachdem Kesey Ende der 1960er-Jahre seinen Grund in La Honda verließ, wurde das Haus in einem Unwetter zerstört.

„Schreib auf“, weist mich Pat an: „Bush ist ein Arschloch. Die Republikaner sind Arschlöcher.“ Fotografiert will er nicht werden, weil er – wie er sagt – ein paar Probleme mit der US-Regierung hat. „Das letzte Mal als ich wählen ging, habe ich für John F. Kennedy gestimmt. Der hat mich zum Dank ein Jahr länger in Vietnam dienen lassen.“

Tying together cognitive science and social behavior observation, they are a consultancy service that embraces an open source approach. I realize I'm creeping steadily into New Ageiness, but bear with me.

One of their staff members gave me this analogy. Specifically within the context of mergers and acquisitions, folks at the top of the food chain are far removed from the reality of the success or (usual) failure of the business decision. By framing a simple question to those more closely involved in the day-to-day of the merger or acquisition, Cognitive Edge relies on research to gather information and get to the heart of the issues. The simple, unassuming question of 'What decisions did you make today?' allows patterns and meaning to emerge.

Cognitive Edge employs a software suite that provides tools to create a metric for the data and create meaning for their clients. For example, if the employees kept using the same words to answer the question, those words would be tagged and weighted, depending on their significance. Through this process, Cognitive Edge can produce an analysis that standard surveys cannot.

Why is that? For starters, pointed questions in a survey format always infer something, and at times they cause the participant to answer in a way that favors a positive result. However - this won't improve the bottom line of a company - only the truth will. Writing an answer to a question also removes a social barrier. Once can sit comfortably behind the anonymity of written word, as opposed to speaking one's thoughts out loud in front of an audience.

I've greatly over simplifed what Cognitivie Edge does, but if you're still with me and I've piqued your interest, read more about their work in these articles by Dave Snowden, Cognitive Edge's Founder and CSO.

i know this is a horrible picture but i just want to show what i mean ^^

on an actuall person that looks really good, it gives that 60's hippie vibe that is so "modern" now.

Or you can use a bigger headband and use it like this

On guys, the curly hair is irresistible..! But not if the hair is short like this

longer hair looks so much better, like many indie bands have now and frenchmen and Monaco people, Wonderful CURLY hair <3<3

sooo much better.... Now what i am trying to say is, keep your hair long! But not too long, if it reaches your shoulders, crucial!!! cut it!!

//Filippååv

***********************************************************************

I wanna be a hippie...
Wanna grow long hair!
I wanna travel all free...
If not, atleast the lowest fare!

I wanna dress like the hippies...
Like they did in the 1960s!
And live an unconventional life...
Like on the edge of a knife!

If ever I'll be one, I'll be a poor hippie..
I got no dollars, only paisa counting to a Rupee..
I wanna be on a high, like a hippie...
Sad or heartbroken, yet be happy happy!

With no much fanfare...
I wanna marry another hippie!
And as I play with her hair...
Wanna shout Yippee Yippee!

If you wanna join me as a groupie...
We'll be freaky, creepy, crappy!
Anything apart from being so geeky...
Wanna be on the loose, like a hippie! :mrgreen:

It turned out that I actually knew the guy working there.  So I got my beer at the 2-for-1 price even after 7pm (which was their special cutoff).

Anyway, this is where I begin my ranting.  The guys who were playing were nice people.  I had met one of them before and he's a pretty cool guy.  However, they all need to take a lesson in live performance 101: Knowing when to stop.  I enjoyed the first 2 hours of them playing.  The set-list included a lot of good covers that are definite crowd-pleasers.  Sadly, I don't know how many of the tunes might have been original because I wasn't completely paying attention which was mostly due to the delicious Blonde Ale from the Orlando Brewing Company.

Though, after the first couple hours, they ran out of songs.  So, instead of calling it a night, or even busting out into a jam session (which would have been even better), they started playing the same songs over again!

AAHHHHHH!!!

As a musician myself, I appreciate local groups getting their live gigs in and being able to get out there in public eye.  But when they had started the 3rd repeat, I wanted to leave.  Unfortunately, I rode there with them so I was stuck!  So I spent the rest of the hour long repeat session inside talking with the dude keeping the bar.  Turns out another one of the guys there graduated from the most awesome school in the world (Virginia Tech - duh) and we went back and forth about the current state of the Hokie offense.  A frustrating discussion for most Hokie fans these days.

Anyway, when the guys outside finished their set-set, we left and I went home to sleep.

The point: Don't replay the same songs over and over when you're playing somewhere in public.  It's annoying.  It's frustrating.  And it almost makes you look like you aren't totally prepared to be playing a set for that long - actually, that's exactly what it makes you look like.  Also, hippie tea houses aren't all that bad, particularly when you know the guy running it (as long as he's not a hippie).

Don't mean to knock you guys, you sounded pretty good up there.  Just remember this for the next time.

Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be better.  Going to a party tonight - hopefully video of said party posted tomorrow.

~

i saw a hippie today. he was riding his bike, his frizzy, long hair blowing behind him, save for the part that was held down by the string tied around the circumference of his head. he wore a flannel shirt with a tan suede vest. and a backpack. he was pedaling fast, probably trying to get from the 60's to the 70's. i'm not writing about him to mock him. actually i respect him. i wish,  for one, that i had a bike, and two, that i would be brave enough to ride it on major highways. seriously, life would be much simpler if everyone rode bikes, instead of driving cars. granted, it would take longer to get places and we would have to be creative come grocery shopping time. but think about it: less to go wrong with your vehicle. no pollution from cars, no obesity. aahhh. i can dream.

 tonight i plan to make a big batch of pasta e fagioli (it tastes just like the Olive Garden version!). it's such a healthy meal- lots of vegetables (i omit the meat), plus i use whole wheat pasta. and the soup freezes well. i can't wait. it will go great with this lovely fall weather. now all i need is rain to make my night complete. i simply adore rain. (seriously, i would love to live in the Pacific Northwest).

i picked up the first season of Dexter from the library after a friend highly recommended it. i'm excited about it, though i've heard it is rather bloody.

so here's my latest reading queue. some good stuff. any other recommendations?

• Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
• Serve God, Save the Planet by J. Matthew Sleeth
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

i recently discovered that vinegar is one of the best things for your hair. it is pretty amazing. after shampooing, i poured a vinegar-water solution on my hair. it made it smooth, strong, shiny. plus i have noticed that my scalp is neither itchy nor oily- even after day three.  i will never buy conditioner again.

i'm almost finished with Heroes season one. Hiro Nakamura is by far my favorite of the heroes. not only is he just as cute as a button, but he makes a truly noble hero. (actually, pretty much all of them are noble, but he is the best, in my opinion). if you haven't watched Heroes, you definitely need to. today.

well. i better get started on my Friday evening. i'm looking forward to just hanging at home tonight.

have a happy weekend!

Cartel de Wes Wilson y Bill Graham, de 1967.

Las líneas que siguen son un resumen de un reportaje firmado por Jacques Mousseau y publicado por la "revista vanguardista que indagaba en el futuro" Horizonte" (dirigida por Antonio Ribera Jordá) en el número 5 del año 1969, en pleno auge del movimiento hippie. En españa la contracultura hippie y su expresión artística en forma de música, escritura o pintura no se comenzó a conocer hasta finales de los sesenta o incluso ya comenzada la siguente década, periodo en el que la dictadura daba sus últimos coletazos. En relación con la producción musical realizada en españa y ligada al "movimiento" hay un libro interesante escrito por Pepe García Lloret, durante muchos años vecino del barrio de Prosperidad (lo digo por si a alguien le resulta relevante el dato), que profundiza en el asunto con bastante criterio pedagógico.

Cartel de una exposición en la Galería Moore de San Francisco, (1968).

"El Pop Art o el Op Art expresaban la adhesión al tiempo que se vivía, exaltando sus elementos más vanguardistas. El Arte Hippy o Arte Psicodélico, paralelo a la cultura de los alucinógenos (marihuana, mescalina y LSD), de la que hicieron símbolo de ruptura, pero no por ello elemento imprescindible para el proceso creativo, manifiesta su oposición a los valores establecidos. Es una producción que se nutre del Art Nouveau de 1900 y al que también le atraen la mística y la cultura oriental. La filosofía interiorista de oriente y su psicología que profundiza en el individuo, y las referencias a lo fantástico y sobrenatural de la cultura occidental constituyen la savia que alimenta al movimiento. Jerónimo Bosco influirá en estos artistas, así como algunos escritores británicos del estilo de  William Blake, precursor del movimiento Romántico en el siglo XVIII, o pintores  como  Aubrey Beardsley, dibujante inglés del siglo XIX de estilo recargado, típico del momento".

Diseño de Moscoso, 1968.

"Destacan en estas creaciones hipies los colores vivos y la armonía general. A pesar de los contrastes acusados de elementos yuxtapuestos, formando mosaicos de motivos variados, los collages consiguen mostrar una unidad de contenidos. El sociólogo Mac Luham afirmó que la televisión había transformado la forma de ver el mundo, hasta entonces monopolizada por el libro, único medio de conocer la realidad. Estos son algunos de los cinco artistas más importantes del movimiento, autores de pinturas y collages: Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse y Alton Kelly. Los cinco melenudos, barbudos y ataviados según los cánones de Haight Ashbury  (San Francisco)".

Portada de The Oracle (1968).

"Creadores de un arte que ha alcanzado la misma cotización que la pintura tradicional y ha conquistado a los más ricos coleccionistas americanos. . Del mismo modo que en la Belle Époque los artistas cultivaban con profusión los carteles (Manet, Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec, Hucha), para esta generación de pintores su obra más importante es el poster."
(Resumen del texto de Jacques Mousseau, Revista Horizonte, Núm. 5, Barcelona, 1969. Págs. 98-108)

Cartel de Wes Wilson de 1968.

Meta.Live.Nu was selected by the Burning Life organisation to get land access in order to be present at Burning Life 2008.  On show is the experimental 'information-art' installation by Ze Moo:

"Grid Gypsy Camp: Brazil"

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burning%20Life%20(Tigris)/222/222/22

This cross-reality, information-art installation is our reply to this years Burning Man / Burning Life theme "The American Dream". It is partly inspired by the Burning Man festival, partly inspired by the Terry Gilliam movie 'Brazil' (1984), and partly inspired by the article "Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians" by Nicholas Carr. Other inspirations into this interactive mixed media art piece come from various real global social, political and enviromental issues.

Next to this, Meta.Live.Nu at BL 2008 will also present some sculptures by invited artist Herman Bergson.

Meta.Live.Nu special thanks: Tooter Claxton, Arcadia Asylum, Cel Edman, Amanda Dench, Talia Tokugawa, Talen Morgan, Luv Ock, Jamal Mfume, Ryan Linden, DFM RTV INT, De Balie Media, Freeteam, DDS,

Burning Life is a non-commercial virtual festival of Art, Fire and Community. It is the virtual version of the American Burning Man festival and starts saturday 27 september 2008 in Second Life.

* All Burning Life sims close for maintenance: Saturday sept. 27, SL 6:30 am PDT (= 15:30 CEST)
* Gates Open to the public, Saturday sept. 27, SL 9 am PDT (= 18:00 CEST)
* Center Camp stage fires up, Saturday sept. 27, SL 11 am PDT (= 20:00 CEST)

Official Burning Life website:

http://burninglife.secondlife.com

Websites for participants:

http://BurningLife.org (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Burning_Life)

http://BurningLife.info (http://vburn.org)

Other Burning Life websites:

http://BurningLife.com

http://flickr.com/groups/burninglife

http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Burning_Life

.

This post was updated at 5 october,18:10 CEST

More updates coming up!

"So much" vir die reënboognasie vol hippie liefde en dinge...Kan Suid-Afrika weer homself "re-invent" en terug gaan na die tydperk kort na 1994 toe almal verdraagsaam en ordentlik was?  What happened?

So...aan die einde van die reënboog...is daar veronderstel om 'n pot goud te staan.  Ek het die afgelope tyd twee mooies gesien, maar daar was geen goud in sig nie.  Saam met die goud, is daar veronderstel om 'n leprechaun te wees.  Dis 'n klein mannetjie wat skatte oppas.  Blykbaar is leprechaun 'n term wat oorspronklik verwar is met 'n woord wat iets beteken soos pigmy of skoenmaker.  Hulle het die skatte bewaar wat die Dene wou plunder in Ierland.  Die kruks van die verhaal is dat as jy 'n leprechaun vang, hy jou al sy skatte sal beloof in ruil vir sy vryheid.  Hulle kan nie vertrou word nie en is blitsvinnig.  Nog voor die skatte oorhandig kan word, is dié outjies skoonveld...

]]> http://besusbonton.wordpress.com/?p=619 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:07:33 +0000 Matthias Bernold http://besusbonton.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/hinter-dem-roten-vorhang/ Es ist Markttag in Arcata, und die kleine Küstenstadt im Norden Kaliforniens ist noch spezieller als sonst. Auf dem Plaza tummeln sich Gestalten mit langen Haaren, verwucherten Bärten und gebatikten Kleidern. Eine Clown-Yogatruppe stellt sich vor. Obdachlose rauchen Gras und betteln im Liegen. Hippiehändler verkaufen Traumfänger, selbst gebastelte Taschen und vegane Hotdogs.

Neben dem Springbrunnen hockt ein junger Mann, der sich Phoenix nennt. Ärmellose Weste, Grizzlykrallen-Kette auf der blanken Brust. Ein Mädel flicht Zöpfchen in sein krauses Haar, während er Trommel spielt. Phoenix ist aus Tel Aviv. Seit zwei Monaten lebt er in Arcata. „Das ist der beste Platz der Welt. Alles geht zurück zur Natur. Die Leute bauen ihr eigens Gemüse an. Sie fahren Rad.“ Tatsächlich ist die 17.000 Einwohner-Stadt im Herzen des Humboldt County eine Oase des Öko-Bewusstseins. Im Supermarkt prangen auf den Produkten „organic“ oder „Fair-Trade“-Zeichen. Die Einkaufssäcke sind aus Papier. „Wir leben hinter dem Red Wood-Forrest Vorhang“, erklärt mir Carlotta Masterson von der League of Women Voters, die darum wirbt, Wähler zu registrieren: „Alles ist bei uns ein bisschen anders.“

An einem der Stände treffe ich Dana Silvernale, eine Grüne Lokalpolitikerin. Nirgendwo in den USA ist die Zahl der Grünwähler höher: „Leider hört man in den Nachrichten nie von unserer Spitzenkandidatin Cynthia McKinney. Die kooperierten Kandidaten haben die Medien total unter Kontrolle.“

Viele blieben gern länger in Arcata. Manche treibt der Idealismus fort. So wie Phoenix: „Ich muss nach Alaska zu den Inuit. Dort oben schmilzt alles. Die brauchen wen, der ihnen erklärt, wie sie wegkommen. Sie können ja nicht einfach Auto stoppen.“ Andere fliehen vor den hohen Mietpreisen. „Ich kann mir das Leben in Arcata nicht leisten“, sagt Hannah von Democracy Unlimited und lacht: „So viele reiche Leute aus San Francisco sind hierher gezogen. Viele Hippies hier sind eigentlich Yuppies.“

Today I am an irritated hippie and this is the type of thing an irritated hippie might write...

( hope there are not too many typos..it's late)

Yesterday I started my "Freshers Week" at SOAS, otherwise known as The School of Oriental and African Studies.

(* see the comments for a response to this post from the Student's Union at SOAS)

I hope to resist the urge to plug my blog there and to be able to somehow find the time to still write on this site anonymously or relatively anonymously.

I chose to study at the School of African and Oriental Studies ( from hereon referred to as SOAS) because it had the most suitable course for me to study in Music and is easy for me to travel to , plus they were kind enough to give me a place.

I am now beginning to realise a little bit of what I have got myself into because my first impression of  SOAS is that it is like no other University I have ever known and is probably as radical, creative, inventive, political and definitely as idealistic as attending my first Stonehenge free festival was 28 or so years ago.

Going completely off the point:

This is where I will interject something remarkable I heard on the BBC News yesterday, I am sure many of you out there will know far more about this, that archeologists found some chippings of the stones buried in the ground at Stonehenge. I found the reporting very amusing.

The BBC reporter Jon Kay said something about how Stonehenge was a place of healing rather than a place of death ( I never thought it was a place of death I thought it was a cosmic calendar worshipping the sun and a place next to a free festival but never death!).  Then he said the following ...

that  Stonehenge was " rather like a giant A&E dept. for the whole of the South of England". Soon after he said this he spoke to an amused archeologist who pointed out that the stones at Stonehenge were carved so the chippings buried underground were most logically due to that.

Yes , Stonehenge is kind of like a giant A&E department but without doctors, beds, operating theatres, x-ray machines, drips, depressing cubicles,  inefficient underpaid and pissed off admin staff who lose your records,  depressing low level lighting, signs saying " do not assault our staff or you will be removed", arrogant consultants, student doctors who haven't slept for 10 days making life and death decisions or drunks covered in blood on a Saturday night.

Jon Kay has obviously attended the "London Lite" school of journalism. Sorry I'm being mean , actually he is very funny , he could have his own comedy series... he could take news stories and dumb them down to such a level of ridiculousness in a kind of "Brass Eye" style that it would be entertaining. Give him his own show I say.

At the moment I just can't watch tv or listen to the radio because if I hear the silly term "credit crunch" once more  I will scream and throw something irritated by the "1984"- type newspeak. It's a HUGE RECESSION not a breakfast cereal.

...Back to Fresher's week at SOAS

I have been incredibly apprehensive about starting to study there for financial reasons and because it is one of the top Universities and therefore I didn't like the concept of being stuck with some ambitious networking whizzkids or Hoorah Henrys. I like people who are real , down to earth and not on cocaine.

I have to tell you that there are no visible white conservatives attending  as these are erradicated during the selection system.  Boris Jonson should definitely apply . Enoch Powell went to SOAS which is a very strange concept , a bit like Hitler being a vegetarian artist who disliked fox-hunting.

It's still early days but so far there seem to be quite a few hippies, either that or I am imagining  young men who just happen to have very long hair or dreadlocks and dress as if it is 1973. Due to severe hippiephobia and even more not-being-trendy-with-hair-product-phobia Central London is devoid of hippies unless they happen to be tourists . I can't imagine that these students and some lecturers could be anything else but hardcore hippies.

an aside to namedrop

About 8  years ago I actually bumped into a hippie in Notting Hill, or should I say he bumped into me.  He was wearing a red woolly hat and a white boiler suit, looked at me with slightly crazed eyes and deliberately crashed straight into me.  I thought it was a strange thing for a hippie to do but then I was told it was Johnny Depp so in fact it was a celebrity hippie. Typical of Notting Hill even their hippies are rich and famous ..(except for me).

back at SOAS

In the Students Union there is a big angry banner saying "No BNP",and there are political slogans,flyers and posters everywhere. I felt like I was in a timewarp.

I have been to a fair few Universities and colleges full of politically apathetic students who weren't interested in protesting when they got rid of the grants for students, they weren't interested in protesting when they had to pay fees, or top up fees ...of course there were some who protested but  the ones I knew  liked to watch  "Neighbours" or  Jeremy Clarkson, played rugby,  liked to get drunk a lot and the girls tried to look the closest they could to a Barbie doll in case their intelligence made them less attractive to the opposite sex.

The last time I went to a college full of political students was from 1978 to 1979 when I was at the City and East London college in Pitfield Street in Hoxton. It was not an area full of trendy bars  but a place you got mugged by  local gangs of skinheads when walking to and from college.

The students at City and East London  were so political back in 78/79 it was annoying. We were always on strike with picket lines and got on BBC's "Nationwide" for being such lefties. The students were outrageously dressed and outrageously behaved with lots of punks, girls in torn ball-gowns, guys in ripped bondage trousers and chains with septic safety pins through their earlobes.

One of the college closures was so that the dinner ladies got a wage increase. Another protest was due to "guest lecturer"  David Irving coming to the college. In case you don't know him, he was the anti-semitic writer who supported Hitler and denied that 6 million Jews were ever gassed. He was invited several times to speak and we were told by the director that we had to allow him free speech.

Sometimes  I found the politics a bit annoying, we were constantly given tracts about not banking with Barclays, not eating South African fruit , not smoking certain brands of cigarette, not buying this or that , girls were condemned for wanting to get married or have children, or be housewives....well it was like constantly being told off . The wealthier the student's parents the more they hated capitalist pigs. I am sure there is a mathematical way of representing this but I am too tired to think of one right now.

However I am glad that at City and East London college  I was informed about a lot of political issues and without attending this college I would maybe not have heard of David Irving and his misanthropic ideas.

I like to be political now because I feel I know more about life . I don't naively espouse political doctrines . I still don't like being lectured.

The apathy of the majority of students from the mid to late eighties until now has shocked me and how many times I remembered my radical sixth form college and wished that youth was channelling their aggression in expressing themselves politically again and fighting for justice, equality and change instead of fighting one another.

So yesterday at SOAS I felt I was in a time warp. Some things have changed some things have not.

In our old Students Union there would have been anti-NF slogans, in theirs it is anti-BNP. Not a big change. But in our college in 1978-79 the communists and lefties were Jewish. The Jews were seen as the oppressed murdered by Nazis. Now amongst general lefties the Jews are seen as evil capitalists and the Arabs are the oppressed.

I'm not taking sides, I have known very rich Jews and very rich Arabs in London...( on reflection I don't really want to comment more on that subject)

My views are complicated and flexible because issues are complicated and are liable to change.

Yesterday all day long various people were giving me flyers against the BNP, against climate change and to take political action so that the cleaners could get more money. It reminded me of the dinner ladies we striked for 30 years ago.

They were signs everywhere for various weird and whacky  political events and affiliations,  the Hare Krishnas giving out free lunch,  a " Critical Mass" bike protest, the anti-BNP film "Made in England" being screened, women's self-defence classes, Protesting Clowns and more. It took me back to a time before Thatcher drove students into the arms of market forces and replaced Academic Studies with  "Business Studies".

but......

HIPPIEPHOBIA!!!!!

However I was bitterly dispappointed when we had the introductory talk from the Students Union.

The first speaker started off by saying :" You will hear that SOAS is full of hippies" and with his powerpoint he projected a ridiculous picture of an aged obese hippie in a wig, with a headband, a tie-dye T-shirt, flowers and grinning stupidly while making a peace sign with one hand and holding  a spliff in another. The whole lecture theatre roared with laughter , and I laughed nervously looking around at the hippies around me also laughing along . He continued  " Yes, you'll hear it all the time. SOAS is full of hippies but THERE ARE  NO HIPPIES AT SOAS".

I thought "shit" I'm in the wrong place then!

These people are seriously hippie-phobic. I was deeply insulted by the hippie picture and by his speech which continued to defend SOAS against the label of being hippies. Then they had various other Students Union representatives including ones for the Environment , one for lesbian, gay, bisexual and "trans" ( both gender and sexual they explained), the Women's Officers, the Anti-Racism officer who explained that people of all religions and political ideals , races, nationalities , sexual-orientations were welcome at the university and that all minority groups were to be treated with respect. He listed them Buddhists, and Christians and Jews and Muslims and Atheists etc.etc.etc..

WHAT ABOUT THE BLOODY HIPPIES?

I was a hippie having to watch and hear hippies being totally ridiculed by all my fellow students and the student's union.

You total NOTHINGHEADS! ( to borrow a "Treatment" term). Here follows an angry hippie rant........

It might as well have been a feminist University putting up a silly cartoon of a silly Sufragette chained to a railing and saying " there are no feminists at this college and let's make lots of fun of these Suffragettes".

Hippies were at the centre of radical student politics, the anti-Vietnam protests, hippies started environmental groups, the 60s Peace movement, Anti-Racism, the Anti-Nuclear movement, tolerance towards and interest  in other cultures,the gay hippies in San Francisco doing their own thing for gay rights.   Hippies rebelled against materialism and mass consummerism and capitalism and this total NOTHINGHEAD dares to put down hippies as if all they ever did was smoke dope and wear silly T-shirts.

Plus hippies created the best music of the late 20th century and I defy anyone to dispute this.

Psychologists have said how the most Homophobic men are often gay but can't handle it so they beat up gay men.

Well the same goes for hippies.

I now declare Hippies to be a minority group that is not going away with new generations constantly appearing . There are hippies all over the world of all ages and it is a belief system and a political system and I think we should ban hippie-phobics and crimes against hippiedom!

Except as a hippie I believe in freedom and not in labels. So instead of saying we must treat this group well and that group well and not be anti-this and anti-that how about doing something a bit more intelligent?

How about saying " let's just treat everyone with respect even if they are different from us!"

Simple really .

Here are some hippies onstage in 1979 and 250 000 of them in the audience .. If you ever hear a young person in a Led Zep T-shirt insult hippies please refer them to me!

Love and Peace

Irritated Hippie!

Born2rant

p.s. SOAS is full of hippies not sure about the others yet.

Here is a link to another post I wrote if you watch the bottom 2 youtube clips you'll see why I get upset about hippies being put down.

p.s. sorry for calling the  SOAS bloke a Nothinghead! I was angry!

Who killed the hippies?