Invisible Circus poster, Dave Hodges, 1967

I have never taken Lysergic acid diethylamide, or acid as they say on the street. I don’t endorse revolution (except for our original one in 1776). I don’t own any clothing with fringe or tie-dye. I get up every day, go to work, pay taxes, and keep my front yard neat. I am square. I’m the establishment. But, as you know, I did spend formative years in the Haight during the late 1960s. My parents were never pleased that I ended up so square, but they would be pleased that I love counter-culture culture. I love the colors, the attitude, the optimism, and the naïveté.

In San Francisco, in the late 1960s, a group of counter-culture characters formed the Diggers. This group was a theater troupe and endorsed a non-capitalist society without money. They provided free food service in the Panhandle every day, arranged places for homeless hippie teens to “crash”, and opened a series of “Free Stores”. They gave free concerts with the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and the Holding Company. The Diggers are the originators of some of your favorite sayings: “Do your own thing” and “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”. The Digger Bread, which was baked in coffee cans at the Free Bakery, popularized whole-wheat bread.

The Diggers did not “fall apart,” they evolved and integrated with other groups: The Free Bakery, the Gypsy Truckers, and my favorite Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers, and became the Free Family.

Arthur magazine provided some new knowledge to me about the posters and broadside. Novelist and poet Chester Anderson and his protégé Claude Hayward, created the “Communication Company,” or more commonly, “Com/Co.” According to Claude, the broadsides were “handed out on the street, page by page, super hot media, because the reader trusted the source, which was another freaky looking hippie who had handed it to him/her.” This quite possibly was my mother or father.

Broadside, The Communication Company, 1967-68

poster, The Diggers, Victor Moscoso, 1967 or 1968

The Communication Company broadside, 1967

In honor of Bastille Day, I am posting scenes from the incredible film, Playtime, directed by Jacques Tati. Tati’s Monsieur Hulot films have a running theme of cold modernism and urbanity interrupted by human nature. I’ve never particularly understood the Playtime’s plot. It’s in French, so that’s an issue for me. But, nothing seems to happen. Monsieur Hulot is put in a series of funny situations and the sets are wonderful. I know they are supposed to be cold and sterile. They represent the decay of true non-conformity and human creativity. I, however, love them. So much glass, steel, and modern devices can only be good for people.

Sylvia Adams, 1967

In 1968, my parents moved to a flat on Fell Street in San Francisco. This was the epicenter of the counter-culture movement. I was four, so I don’t know why we moved there. My parents were definitely anti-establishment, but were adamantly anti-drug use. The neighbors above us were band members from Big Brother and the Holding Company. We bought a big Victorian mahogany bed for my grandmother from one of the Grateful Dead guys. I went to concerts across the street in Golden Gate Park’s panhandle. I went to a volunteer co-op intercultural and interracial pre-school. After my father died, I inherited his Fillmore posters. He had them tacked up on the wall in his house with thumbtacks.

I rebelled. I didn’t get older and act out with loud music and anti-social behavior. I recall that I refused to wear jeans when I was five. I wore only khakis or trousers. I didn’t want long hair. I liked my grandfather’s clothes. And it only got worse as I grew older. By the time I was in high school, I was getting regular lectures from my parents about my bad attitude. I was told,  “Your are spending too much time on school activities. There is no need to be so conformist.”

My mother never made apologies about being non-traditional. She made it clear to us that they she was our mother, not our friend. But she was and continues to be endlessly kind. She taught me to value creativity, eccentricity, and beauty. She was direct and pointed out that she wasn’t the kind of mother who waited at home and made cookies. My friends had mothers who made fresh cookies, and insisted on being called by their first names. I’m glad I didn’t. My mother demands a level of respect that would make calling her “Sylvia” seem far too familiar.

Sean, 1969

Fell Street, 1967

Sean and the Volkswagen bus, 1968

Mom

Lenny Bruce, Wes Wilson, 1966

Big Brother and the Holding Company, Mouse and Kelley, 1966

Bo Diddley, Mouse and Kelley, 1966

One of the downsides of living in Los Angles is that we all recognize most locations on television or older movies. It is especially jolting when it’s wrong. For example, on Brothers and Sisters, Kitty Walker lives in Santa Barbara and pops over to visit her mother in San Marino. This is a 2-3 hour drive depending on traffic. Some of my best friends live in Westwood, not that far from me. Nevertheless, it takes planning to visit them. I’m told repeatedly, “Sean, it’s a television show.” It doesn’t change the fact this makes no sense.

I have a friend who just moved into an office on Sunset Boulevard. Harold (Peter Sellers) worked in the same building in the movie, I Love You Alice B. Toklas. Now, when I see him, I tell him this, repeatedly. He usually says, “Yeah, you told me.” I urge him to see the movie, but he won’t. It’s worth seeing. Leigh Taylor Young plays a very groovy hippie who helps transform Peter Sellers. He’s square, and then he’s groovy too. They paint his Lincoln Continental with flowers and “Love”.

I’m not particularly keen on the drug use; I’m square too. But I’ll excuse it because it’s funny. Leigh Taylor Young is unbelievably beautiful and works in a psychedelic dress shop. Transvestites and hippes buy short hippie summer dresses there. I know where this dress shop is too. I like the narration of the trailer including puns such as “Pour it into the pot. Any old pot will do,” and “You’re switched on.”

09 House of the Future

I love plastic. I know it’s bad, and I should demand fine china or beautiful crystal, but plastic works so well and doesn’t break. In 1957, Monsanto’s House of the Future opened at Disneyland. This house is made entirely of plastic. What a wonderful idea. No natural materials, everything can be hosed down, and children can throw things or throw up and there is no damage. The architecture has a “googie” vibe, and resembles 4 mobile homes connected in the middle, but it works for me. The House of the Future thrilled guests for a decade, then it was replaced in 1967. Rumor has it that the wrecking ball bounced off the side of the building, and it was taken apart in pieces. As the narration explains, “The floors on which you are walking, the gently sloping walls around you, and even the ceilings are made of plastics.” Could anything be more wonderful?