I need to talk to more than Just Americans. Feel free to Pm me.Would love to have friends from uk, only passed through on my way to Spain, but it represents for me a place to somehow and in away call home. May sound weird but maybe I'm thinking about Jimmy Hendrix getting his ultimate break there, where guitar players are respected far more than in US. About me: I started playing guitar at 18, and was part of three bands in the 70's. I arrived in NYC in 1969, february 22. My art was posponed and music took over since that was what was happenning then. My second band was with the sound-man from CBGB, and the band was called Piramid. Was I a hippie? My only music was rock and roll, and I did not care so much about my appearance or personality, as much as about my playing. I think that took more of my mind than anything else, and I felt something needed to be changed. The very same thing that obsessed me (rock) I was forced to give up since I realised that a person needs to have experiences, so sadly and perhaps not, I gave all music to travel, read, meet people, join cults, accept gurus,etc. (the sixties were thining out and we didn't even know it, but felt it very strongly). After years of that, I came back to it all in 1989, while I was still with my woman partner who had been with me for four years, moving about all over the states and taking her to all the places I had been alone or with other travellers. I began buying slowly all I needed and still continue to build my own recording studio one item at a time. After breaking up with this most wonderful woman, I did go back to California for the last time where one can wander at wil, and took the longest trip on bike over a ridiculously tall mountain range called Big sur, and that trip somehow changed me. It's hard to explain, it's maybe what some writers would call the meeting of your own death. I wrote all this in in order to have some topic that you may wanna talk about or ask about. Hari
Hello and welcome to the UK hippy forums I don't know if any of us are really that cool, but we like to chat
You're more than welcome to talk to me, although most people choose not to, because they think I have a "bad attitude". I assure you that once you get to know me, I'm a nice guy...Atleast I think so.
Hello Hari, sounds like you've had a few adventures on your travels, what "cults" did you join? There's a massive taboo attached to them so it'd be interesting to hear about them from someone who's actually been there.
I can do that. Give me some time to access my memory about those places. The word "cult" has been used in a negative way after David Koresh and other foolish people committed suicide, and that is understandable, but to gain a different kind of experience, it is a wonderful way to add to your life. I should say it used to be...like hitchiking was. Now, these dayss I don't think it's healthy to do either... at leat not here in America.
One group of people I would met everywhere, were all long-haired and bearded, and wore a white robe and white headbands, but everyone smoked both Buggler tobacco and weed daily. Food was given to us freely in restaurants, and we moved on constantly, Sometimes people had buses, vans, and other times no vehicles. Sometimes in two's threes or "so-highs" or solo. Absolute strict vegetarianism was a hard rule, but not even for health but for love of the life of animals. I joined them in 1980 in Florida and kept running into "brothers" all over the states- mostly in California until the end of the eighties. The rule was to move on, but sometimes there was camping for over a week in one place; maybe in a desert near a river where authorities would not be a problem. Leaders were very strict and that was the part hard to tolerate.
Sometimes sincerity, a good sense of humor and originality can be taken for a bad attitude. I dig original people.
Hi Hari, a question for ya Do you think there was one moment what really brought an end to the good vibes back in the day? like one day you thought "it's over"
hi hari....... man am that cool infact i look like a fridge freezer ......nice to see you to see you nice arty:
Bob Dylan would probably answer that with: "It was exactly sunday morning, July 17 1972, at 3:00 am" (jockingly). Like the sun goes down everyday and then darknesss comes over the world, all changes happen slowly and with a mix of the old and the new, until the new overshadows the old. In America this is noticed in every decade, while in some countries like Spain, things stay pretty much the same or in ruins, or worshipping the old. Which is better, is hard to tell. The world and the decades that pass one after another have too much to offer, and we should like it all, the changes, and what remains the same. Both are useful. Everything has its value and its purpose. If you prefer the values of another era no one can force you to drop them, though they may persecute you for it if you don't adjust to thew new quickly. Yet if you play your cards right, you may decide to keep your style without fighting the new, and you may become a shinning light instead, and others will follow you willingly in the ideas, and then that becomes an extention of the passing era instead of a new radical idea altogether. One era with a good principle may give birth to many others. The new age movement was going on at the same time as the disco era, and instead of dancing in discoteques, they danced in rented churches. Instead of fancy expensive shoes they took of their shoes to dance. Instead of alcohol, they smoked weed in the intermissions. Instead of a DJ they had a gracious dance teacher as host. These were a combination of mothers, yuppies, ex-hippies, musicians, or simply average office workers. They shared ideas like, different types of massages, interest in free dance, philosophies, religions,yoga, gurus, camping, travelling, and of course dating. Other extentions were groups of people in communes, wether steady in one place or travelling everywhere in small groups, having some rules specific to that group, borrowed from what had been learnt back in the sixties. Change is impossible to arrest, and it is the brother of time. Always be ready for change and be prepared to take the next bus. Don't fight too hard (or at all) to maintain what must be dropped. Keep your values, even though the uniform or names must be changed. Peace.
