Beatniks, Surfers and Hippies - Open Thread 7/14/16
Where was I? Oh yeah nattering on about visual art and pissing and moaning about the google. I'm getting to the part I love, the punch line of this silly endeavor.
1956-1970's (roughly as the art it bleeds and builds on what went berore)
Beat artist's who like the beat poets were zen, cool and into the mystic
Morris Grave a painter is the painter I find in my minds eye whose art is what they were about. He died in 2001 and his works spans many decades His work is to me the essence of beat.
Born in Fox Valley, Oregon in 1910, Morris Graves was a leading proponent of the Northwest School, which he helped to establish. He was the last survivor of a group of four artists called "Mystic Painters of the Northwest" by an article in a 1953 issue of Life magazine.
More Morris...
The wounded wilderness of Morris Graves
is not the same wild west
the white man found
It is a land that Buddha came upon
from a different direction
It is a wild white nest
in the true mad north
of introspection
where 'falcons of the inner eye'
dive and die
glimpsing in their dying fall
all life's memory
of existence
and with grave chalk wing
draw upon the leaded sky
a thousand threaded images
of flight
It is the night that is their 'native habitat'
these 'spirit birds' with bled white wings
these droves of plover
bearded eagles
blind birds singing
in glass fields
these moonmad swans and ecstatic ganders
trapped egrets
charcoal owls
trotting turtle symbols
these pink fish among mountains
shrikes seeking to nest
whitebone drones
mating in air
among hallucinary moons
And a masked bird fishing
in a golden stream and an ibis feeding
~on its own breast'
and a stray Connemara Pooka'
(life size)
And then those blown mute birds
bearing fish and paper messages
between two streams
which are the twin streams
of oblivion
wherein the imagination
turning upon itself
with white electric vision
refinds itself still mad
and unfed
among the hebrides
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Chet Baker- Rome 1956
The Surfers
I chose the surf culture in southern California because their artists bleeds into and are a bridge to the hippies. In my minds eye I leapt from The Beats to the surfers. They were a sub culture movement that mixed up a strange brew of art and music. They wove strands of varying cultures into their eclectic yet selective brew. They drew from many visual and musical influences to create the sights and sounds of the late 50's early 60's surf culture and I guess movement.
Rick Giffin
Griffin was born (1944) and raised in Palos Verdes, began surfing at age 12, and learned to draw by copying Mad magazine cartoons. As a high school freshman he charged 50 cents to sketch wave-riding surf characters onto T-shirts; at 16 he illustrated a price list for Greg Noll Surfboards in exchange for a new board; in late 1960 he met John Severson, who had just published the first issue of Surfer magazine, and agreed to produce a cartoon strip: "The Gremmies" was published in the second issue of Surfer; "Murphy and the Surfing Contest," the first in the Murphy series, appeared in the following issue. With his beaming smile and mop of sun-bleached hair, Murphy was quickly accepted as a favorite surf world mascot; he made the cover of Surfer in 1962, and he was featured in each issue of the magazine until late 1964.
Murf the Surf from Griffins early days at Surfer Magazine.
Comments
Oh my!
Those willing to stretch the imagination, to go against the grain, to reach out for possibilities. When Peace, Love, Dope became Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll, things took a turn for the worse.
Maybe we're seeing a rebirth, I notice it in the hair of the young people. The crewcuts belong to the cops, again.
worse than the crewcuts
are the shaved heads. Any cop who shaves his head should immediately be fired. Because this is the message he is sending: I am de-evolved beyond your capacity to imagine. And I have this pepper spray, and a beat-stick, and an electrifying taser, and some handcuffs, and a couple of guns, and I am going to use them, and every day, in every way.
There is a reason why they put hair on the heads of the humans. Because the naked human head is vomitously ugly. The only person in the history of the humans with a shaved head who should not have been made to put a paper bag over it is Sinead O'Connor. The exception that proves the rule.
Good OT, shaz. Here is some Chet Baker. Sending in the clowns.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0M2EVFq3ds]
oh—
and last year they (re-)opened a psychedelic surfer gallery down in Laguna Beach.
wow! i like that.
cops with shaved heads...
this only applies to cops. I know a lot of nice people with shaved heads.
But cops....they're on steroids, you know. And, besides the rage, they get these big muscles which pushes the hair right out of the top of their heads, leaving them bald.
their steroidal heads
are big and swollen and bald and bulbous. And their testicles, they are the size of pistachios.
As one with hair, and lots of it,
I can't say what I'd do if I lost most of it. Maybe I would shave the rest off.
But ya, with cops it gives a different look. Remember when that started, the military haircut, shaved head look. About the same time the "serving and protecting" business took a right turn to where its at now. Guess they figured they'd look the part.
That's the key to the universe, hair.
[video:https://youtu.be/2Dn9Zn9Simc]
Funkin' A
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
I agree
There is a reason why they put hair on the heads of the humans. Because the naked human head is vomitously ugly. and I will go one further Imo it gives that de-evolved look to all that shave their heads.
Thanks for the Chet tune
I wanted one that had him playing his trumpet but the video I used was from '56 so i went with that.
Heh
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
jiminy chrismas
Proving my point. ; )
Big Al ,sex, drugs and rock n roll
can easily include Peace and Love especially if dope is added to the mix.
Throw a Welsh poet into the mix and you got it all.
My favorite seed sifter
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
That's some nice art Tim
How does it sift seeds? Pardon my idiocracy here.
It's a double album
Place your produce on one end, create an inclined plane and toss the produce.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
yes
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQR9e9qq-5Q]
Ahhh I see now.
And the young people say, "seeds?"
Album?"
Mountain Girl,
a.k.a. Carolyn Garcia, is responsible for this sinsemilla Wrongness. Which involves literally torturing the plants.
I did not know that.
I remember when sinsemilla became popular. Oh wait, maybe I don't. But I do remember the seeds in the Mexican weed. Seeds and stems, and tea and rolling the seeds and stems to get that final hit or two. Three fingers, or maybe four.
Sin semilla is two words. It's Spanish.
Sin = without (pronounced seen); semilla = seed (pronounced se-mee-a). Didn't know if you were aware of the meaning.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Amazing the things you learn
after all these years. Gracias.
De nada! :)
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
We just used
a big wire strainer for the Mexican weed. The hippie house I lived in communally had an old refrigerator with a separate un-cooled vegetable bin on the bottom. It was always filled with cheap Mexican pot.. When it almost gone we would roll and smoke all the seeds and stems.
Some old hippies singing an old weed song.
Those were the days my friend,
we thought they'd never end.
Love that song. Subversives to American youth.
More torture than vaporizing them?
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
A Seeds Album
a cut anyway. Cut? Vinyl's big in these days at least in SE Portland. I'm buying a Jack White bright yellow turntable and dusting off my LP's.
Huffpost Headlines ATM
HUFFPOLLSTER: Clinton Leads Trump Nationwide By Just 4 Points, NYT Poll: Clinton, Trump TIED Following FBI Email
and
Donald Trump Heads Into The Convention With Barely Any Campaign At All
Many of the numbers listed for his state offices don’t even work
So Trump ties Clinton without even trying. What do you suppose will happen if he starts trying? Or, more likely, SuperPACs start running ads on his behalf once the convention is past, and the RNC does its best to fill in the gaps left by their nominee's lack of a campaign.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
I saw that latest "poll" and had a chuckle at how
absurdly fake they're making it. Nothing happens and all of a sudden IT"S TIED!! going into the conventions. If that doesn't tell people what's up I don't know what will.
Walter Anderson and the Tango
Hey Shaz,
I always like your art essays. Your western artists made me think of a southern coastal artist from Ocean Springs MS – Walter Anderson. Decades ago I saw an exhibit of his prints using the backside of wall paper – large panels using a woodprint design filled with colored paint of fairy tale stories. Blew me away and I've been a fan ever since. Somehow I'm draw to outsider art, and love his work from the 50's and early 60's. Here's a bit from wiki -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Inglis_Anderson
His focus was on nature and the things around him.
This looks like a road here at home
The Mississippi coast in Ocean Springs looks this way.
And how about this artistic way of protest? Argentines Tango Against the Government (1 min)
A different kind of protest happened against the government of Mauricio Macri, against the increase in the cost of basic services... a kind only Argentines would be able to pull off
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF_eCLeVZhI]
Dancing in the street!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks Lookout
I have never seen this artist's work. I like it! I also love the tango protest.
Clinton vs. Trump:
There are times I too would accept Trump over Clinton - gosh I can't stand the Clintons, either one of them.
But then that's where my focus has been. When I peel my eyes away from the Sanders/Clinton campaign, I realize that I hate Trump equally on a visceral level.
However people end up coming down come election day, I think the left needs to think Trump thru a bit more than, for instance, I have yet to do to date. I imagine I'm not alone in my focus to date on Sanders vs Clinton rather than Trump vs Clinton.
I do this: I see some folks minimizing the threat posed by Trump. Leaving Trumps' threat relative to Clintons' aside, if Trump was our only choice, how would we feel about him?
For myself, I'd be utterly appalled and would see him as a piece of a larger puzzle where right wing populists are popping up all over the world, from Britain to Spain, from France to Hungary, etc.... Even in Nordic countries.
It seems to me that the world is on path to replicating the 30s economically, institutionally, rhetorically and politically, and where I think a technocracy (see Eurpope) has already made more inroads than in the 30s using tools at their disposal that technocrats could only dream of back then.
We live in scary times, and I really don't think we should minimize the threat of both right wing populism combined with firmly entrenched technocrats (ie, the opposite of "democrats") who now posses far more powerful tools to maintain their status than the world has ever seen.
Will Clinton "fight the power"? Of course not, but she's also not committed to destroying some "rights" we currently posses merely to impress some of the worst elements in our society, ie, the crazy, armed, rights wing lunatic fringe.
For myself, I haven't decided if I'll vote Clinton. But I don't think we should treat what's happening in the world in regard to folks like Trump popping up everywhere lightly.
Here's a bit by Yanis Varoufakis - not my favorite video by him, but can't find my favorites right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIjfyGIO4xA
so the
Science Men are having a Shock that these people known as organ-grinder monkeys, they use stone tools to crack open cashew nuts. And then they eat them. And they've been doing this, for more than 700 years.
Eventually, the Science Men, they will figure out, that these organ-grinder monkeys, they also created and maintain Faceborg, and run all the governments.
this is
a useful exercise, from the poet Lew Welch, who is sometimes associated with the beats:
if you haven't seen this short short about Eric and Peety
do yourself a favor and take a look:
“There are moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory… ”
― Lawrence Durrell, "Justine"
Thank you peef for the lovely, heartwarming 'rescue' video
about 'Petey.'
(Our Cockatiel's name, as it is.)
I'm gonna post this excellent video at several other blogs/journals, and Tweet it.
I think that this video illustrate's 'perfectly' the words of Ms Wong in my SOSD sig line. BTW, I hope you post another video of your furbaby. I'm even thinking about trying my hand at making a cell phone video of 'the B,' to post at EC's CC. (I've never attempted to use that function, for whatever reason.)
Excellent OT, Shaz--thanks!
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and, therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
National Mill Dog Rescue (NMDR) - Dogs Available For Adoption
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
you are welcome molly
i will upload a video for you, promise!
“There are moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory… ”
― Lawrence Durrell, "Justine"
I Like your sig line
and your rescue dog video. Nice to see here at this OT pf8.
Sorry my OT was late
this morning. I had trouble connecting last night. This morning I tried to revise and add some stuff and low and behold it seems to have posted itself. The Hippies will have to be in the next installment which will also cover the pop artists.
Here's the end of it as best as I can recollect.
Surfers.....more Rick Griffin from Surf Magazine
Hopi Mask
Surf's Up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song
Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
A children's song
Have you listened as they played
Their song is love
And the children know the way
Brian Wilson
Coming attractions for next time
Andy's shoes
Morning shaz...
I published it for you.
Thanks JtC
Don't know what I did to the image editor last night. I'm sorry you had to publish it. Like you don't have enough to do. everything works fine today. I finished it in a comment using my history. Next time i will do better.
Not your fault...
we were having some issues with the site last night for a couple of hours, that probably caused the image editor to act up.
I forgot to add
one of the songs I had in mind.
i figured so
from this line in your piece:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjVWyJT03tY]
A cat sits until it is tired of sitting, then gets up, stretches, and walks away.
since this is an open thread...re: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
she's walking back those comments about Trump, sorry she made them. Too bad. If she were as tough as Cheney she wouldn't do this and Trump would apologize for getting in the way of her comment.
she put them
out there. She spoke truth. She goaded the choleric shithole into squirting some of his usual diarrhea: "Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot - resign!" Now the story is off her. And can move on to the next strings of filth to drool out his anus.
The Hairball fired a Supreme
Your fired! This is getting beyond surreal. My tin foil hat is telling me he's trying to blow it. Just when you think this circus of an election can't get any more insane it does.
what an opportunity! Surfers! The Supremes? Here you go!
from the documentary (that's right!) "Beach Ball" comes the title tune. This documentary has everything! Boys, girls, surf terminology, boys with wigs, Kookie (or is that "Wild, Wild Winter"?), hilarious speeded-up footage as the boys hurry to the venue, the Walker Brothers (!), hot rods. Wow, eh?!
no really! Here's the title tune!
This is even better! Because the Supremes were really into the surfing culture. They had fewer non-surfers in their group than the Beach Boys did.
i was bummed
when they cut from the true-life documentary film Lady Sings The Blues the scene where Diana Ross and Richard Pryor shot up while hanging ten.
you can find pretty much anything on the internet
I can't find the footage but the script lives on!
Billie: Hey, Piano Man! Here comes a heavy!
Piano Man: Cowabunga!
Billie: Might as well get one in.
Piano Man: Don't go over the falls, now, "Noodle Arms"
Billie: Don't worry, I ain't no grommet.
I worked in a West hollywood Deli
called The Posh Bagel where another non famous Brooklyn Deli Man fired Diana Ross as a customer. He threw her out cause he did not care who she was, she was just to rude to wait on. The staff cheered him as we had all gotten the 'Do you know who I am? I'm a Supreme, so make it snappy' routine.
Do you understand?
This is Shah's theme song. Nobody likes math so he is their garbage math man
scary song ; 0
I long suspicioned that Ms. Ross was a snoot. Thanks for the confirmation.
If you said Less than or Equal, that would be true even
if none of them surfed.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
i don't know
what that means. It seems like maybe a math thing. When you have the math, you always hurt my brain. ; )
Only one of the Beach Boys ever surfed and there were 4 of
them, so 3 didn't surf. There were 3 Supremes, so even if none of them surfed, they could claim to have no more non-surfers than the Beach Boys.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
nope,
not helping. Still the brain-hurting. ; (
Good thing your not
married to Shah he's a waliking math machine. According to him it's the stuff music is made out of. Like Quasars. He is handy as I never have to do math. I just use him like a calculator. He's a human proportional wheel.
if i
were married to shah, I would point out that he has it reversed: that it is math, that is made of music. ; )
it's just getting started
Wait'll he fucks Lolita Hairball, live and on stage, at the convention next week.
I don't think he's trying to blow anything but himself. Like your typical Nazi, he believes himself genetically superior to the ordinary run of humans; and so, like another mobbed-up wise guy, believes he can sweep to victory doing it "my way." And he may be right: that he can ride the rubes and the racists, all the way, his way. Particularly given his wild-eyed shrieking dumpster-fire of an opponent. But he is not right about his "superiority." In truth, he is the most un-evolved human to seriously seek the presidency since Strom Thurmond. A man, like The Hairball, also a rapist.
Thanks shaharazade
for your thoughts on these two soulful, mystic and totally cool artists. Having lived as part of the SoCal surf scene way back when, it's great to see a nod to Rick Griffin, who I knew and worked for in the mid 70's when he and another artist, Terry Lamb had a company called Artists at Large, where I silk screened their designs on t-shirts. By then Rick had made the natural progression into the hippie scene and done plenty of artwork for the Grateful Dead, too. He was an amazing artist and human being, cool, cosmic, far out - who sadly passed away too early in 1991.
Rick Griffin art
A lot of those old surfers, musicians and the spirit of that era still live on the north shore of Kauai
"So it goes."
Kurt Vonnegut
Rick Griffin
is one of my favorite artists. Tune in for my next art OT where I will feature his art from 1966, Zap comix to his Jesus period. He was my sufer brother's roommate in an old Echo Park house, while they both attended Chouinard art school.
Am looking forward
to your next RG feature. With such a massive body of great work to choose from it can't be easy to pick and choose. Thanks mucho for the Memory Lane trip, shaharazade!
"So it goes."
Kurt Vonnegut
I lived behind Big Daddy Roths shop as a kid.
He did some awesome stuff, mostly hot rods and surfing.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Rat Fink!
Was that behind his shop on Beach Boulevard, earthling? Big Daddy was bitchin!
"So it goes."
Kurt Vonnegut
Beatnik Bandit
Naw, on Slausen in Maywood
Circa 1957
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
He had a shop
on Beach Blvd in the 70s that we'd drive past after cruising Whittier Blvd on Friday/Saturday nights.
Ed Roth's Rat Fink
"So it goes."
Kurt Vonnegut
100 th Anniversaryryryryry of THE seminal work on
ddddddd + aaaaaaa
Hugo Ball's Dada Manifesto, 7/4/1916 phhhhhhhhhhhhhhht!
Is that surreal or what?
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Thanks Shaharazade
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Thanks Shaharazade
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Looks like progressive twos, as befits a
progressive site.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Ratfink.
Da da da da da da.
Thanks for posting this.
Shaharazade-
I am loving this series you are doing, thanks!
Peace and Love ~
Murph
Yes, Murph
have seen your name here and there and wondered...
"So it goes."
Kurt Vonnegut
Well you would
seeing as how this Ot is starring your username. Glad you like it. I'm getting up to the point where all the fun begins, seeing as how I lived through it.
Troll dolls and all? I guess so.
Way better than cooties! why, I don't know. I do, conquer child fears. And here we are with grown-up fears.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Here a song to blow
your troubles (and worries) away.
Wind was a childhood fear of mine. I got it from seeing movie The Wizard of Oz. Grown up fears need to be blown off cause they do nothing add to the bad energy that's flying around.
Another goofy song about flying around the world. Once last year when I was freaking out and full of fear my granddaughter a wise old soul wrote on my kitchen blackboard " Don't Worry. Be Happy'. So get right in your car and fly around the world.