This question comes from meeting people who are not giving credit where credit is due. Was Haight Ashbury really a failure? Here is the big question What if Haight Ashbury never happened? How would your life be different today if you had never of heard of Haight Ashbury or the culture that developed out of it? If you were there what would you have done differently?
I think my life would of been hella different, had I invested more time in Dire Straits, than following some junkies that couldnt hold their shit together..
It says you're in SF so I'll ask you a question. Have you been to Haight Ashbury lately? It's pretty much a shopping mall with dope dealers. When I moved out here in 2003 at the corner of Haight and Ashury there was a Ben and Jerrys on one corner and a Gap on the other. Nothing screams "Revolution" or "Sticking it to the man" better then rampant capitalism. Oh the sweet smell of success. After reading "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" when I was 16 I realized that the whole Haight Ashbury thing was just an extension of what was going on in Berkeley, Stanford and numerous other college towns so to put a geographic center on ideas to me is kind of missing the point. If not the Haight then it would've happened somewhere. If John Phillips didn't write a song to promote a festival in the Bay Area the Haight wouldn't have blown up the way it did. Again capitalism enters the picture. People organize festivals to make money. I think the whole thing happened because it needed to happen. Geography had nothing to do with it. If Haight Ashbury didn't happen it would've happened someplace else and my life wouldn't be that much different. C/S, Rev J
Good post, Rev. Capitalism is amoeba-like. Eventually absorbs all in its path. And some would say it cheapens and trivializes any idea--or movement that it can use to its advantage. ' the bad always drives out the good' holds true.
Yes you are right. I think there was quite a bit going on all over the country. I think what makes Haight Ashbury different is that we have lots of archives that allow us to know what happened. We also have many archives of what happened in Berkeley/Telegraph. Not really much else tells us what was going on between 1965-1967 , i.e., in the Lower East side (NY,NY). I agree with your main point though, it could have took place anywhere, and people would have traveled there the same way. As you said it would have had to happen, the pressure of the establishment was becoming out of control for anyone that wanted to hold on to their humanity. On October 6,1967, even the true residents of Haight Ashbury denounced the area as lost to the mainstream, the media image of the hippie was denounced as propaganda, and that signaled the beginning of the exodus. I am unaware of anything of any social significance that has taken place here since then. You are right about Haight Ashbury of today. I am suspecting that the greatest things happened in Haight Ashbury from 1963-1965, there is just no record of it today. Without taking our history seriously, we will remain dominated by the historical paradigm of the mainstream. Speaking of archives, I would really like to hear from anyone who is a historian of the counter-culture, I am currently working in a project that may be able to get you some publicity, PM me.
Church of the Good Earth--'63 an Beyond. check those folks. They're here. You've come to the right place.
My life would be different insofar as I would have wrote a different thesis paper for California history. I wrote a paper paralleling the San Francisco Hippie movement with the California Gold Rush. I would have perhaps a few less cds, and I feel I purchased some weed paraphernalia there but can't remember what at the moment. Also I have fond memories of going to this really quality Indian restaurant on Haight while baked. Reflecting back in terms of a historical and cultural perspective, I am kind of in awe that a big aspect of the hippie movement took place there. Pretty cool that that location was a temporary destination for some of the major figures in the counterculture.
For whatever reason I feel like sharing a couple of songs from a new favorite singer/songwriter who was originally from Detroit: [ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AQGqm2fHBUU [ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vNcIzQk5bEY Granted these were from 1970 but it shows how widespread the dissatisfaction was. C/S, Rev J
