Groovy Links & References
While researching my story, my husband Cal and I devoured every book, archived publication, cd, dvd, video or website that related to the sixties. We also made numerous pilgrimages down to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit specific locations. Below are some fun resources we came across in the process:
Sixties & the Bay Area
www.altmanphoto.com/
Photographer Robert Altman’s award winning website
Check out Robert’s fabulous Photo Gallery and order his 192-page book, The Sixties. It’s a gorgeous and important collection of photographs showcasing the swinging sixties in all of the decade’s psychedelic splendor. Altman has a knack for knowing where the actions is—and thank God he brings his camera!
www.haightashburytour.com/
San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury Flower Power Walking Tour &
Psychedelic History Museum
Pam and her crew offer visitors a delightful opportunity to trip back through yester-year and commune with the ghosts of hippies past. As we waited for our tour guide to materialize, I said a little prayer that it wouldn’t be some twenty-something in a hippie Halloween costume. Instead, we got the incomparable Izu and her cutie-pie daschund Benny. So much fun, we went back a few months later and did it again! No hokum here. These are seasoned counterculture participants, lovingly preserving a most precious piece of American history.
www.lovehaight.org/history/
San Francisco & Haight-Ashbury History
This website is a cornucopia of info on the history of SF and the Haight. Dig it and dig in—you won’t know where to start! Also check out their trippy graphics-packed homepage at:
www.lovehaight.org/
www.regentpress.net/oracle/index.html/
The San Francisco Oracle
Check out this complete, digital re-creation of the legendary psychedelic underground newspaper originally published in the Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love - Edited by Allen Cohen
www.rockument.com/Rockument/Home.html
The Rockument Channel by Tony Bove
Rockument focuses on the cultural impact of rock music on the world, and the roots and foundations of rock music and its culture. Its first commercial documentary, Haight-Ashbury in the Sixties, garnered critical acclaim and published reviews that referred to it as “An unflinching, nonjudgmental chronicle” (Wired), “Inspires then and now connections, fulfilling any historical work’s highest calling” (S.F. Examiner), “Truly greater than the sum of its parts” (N.Y. Post). Also includes additional notes on the SF Oracle by the late great Allen Cohen, one of the founders of the paper.
www.rockument.com/Haight/Webora.html
www.amazon.com/Haight-Ashbury-History-Charles-Perry/dp/193295855X
or
www.erowid.org/library/books_online/haight_ashbury.pdf
The Haight-Ashbury: A History by Charles Perry
This former Rolling Stone editor once shared a house with legendary LSD manufacturer Owsley Stanley. Perry’s 1984 book chronicles the history of the Haight in mind-staggering detail.
www.well.com/~mareev/TIMELINE/
Timeline of the Counterculture by Judith Goldsmith
www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet.html
Anti-Vietnam War Protests in the San Francisco Bay Area & Beyond
A very comprehensive timeline
www.diggers.org/
The Diggers Archives
An ongoing web project to preserve and present the history of the anarchist guerilla street theater group that challenged the emerging Counterculture of the sixties and whose actions and ideals inspired (and continue to inspire) a generation (of all ages) to create models of Free Association.
www.wavygravy.net/
The official Wavy Gravy website
Before he was dubbed Wavy Gravy, Hugh Romney stood on the stage of the original Woodstock concert and announced, “What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000!” Flash forward 40+ years, and Mr. Gravy is more active and more effective in the world than ever. Hog farmer – co-director of Camp Winnarainbow – co-founder and board member for the Seva Foundation – Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor – activist clown… These days, Wavy wears (and juggles) more hats than ever.
Director, Michell Esrick has spent ten years documenting the life of Wavy Gravy. Saint Misbehavin’ (released in 2010) journeys from the hills of California to the Himalayan Mountains to reveal the life of this one of a kind servant to humanity. The film blends Wavy’s own words with magical stories from an extraordinary array of fellow travelers both cultural and counter-cultural, revealing the man behind the clown’s grin and the fool’s clothing.
For details about the film, visit:
www.rippleeffectfilms.com/wwwavy/index.php
People's Park & Berkeley
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0Cp3PbzpZY
youtube clip of the Memorial Day March to People’s Park
from the 1990 documentary Berkeley in the Sixties—one of my all-time favorite docs—well worth tracking down!
“This outstanding documentary by Mark Kitchell, six years in the making, is a comprehensive and insightful story of campus and community activism as born at the University of California at Berkeley. Using extensive archival footage and bridging the distance between past and present with more recent interviews, Kitchell shows how a 1960 protest aimed at the House Un-American Activities Committee was the launching point for the Free Speech movement, which evolved into organized opposition against the Vietnam War, support for the Black Panther party, and the feminist movement. No simple valentine to student-demonstration days, the film brilliantly uses contemporary perspective to show how great legacies and inevitable failures were simultaneously born in a charged atmosphere. Not to be missed.”
—Tom Keogh
www.whoopdistro.org
Whoop Distro
Click on “People’s Park Book” to find out how to order Terri Compost’s amazing People’s Park: Still Blooming. This inspired and comprehensive book documents the complex history of Berkeley’s most famous park, featuring oodles of photos and firsthand accounts of events dating back to 1969.
www.peoplespark.org/
The official People’s Park website
Not updated very often, but it’s loaded with great info, photos, and archives.
www.beauty-reality.com/travel/travel/sanFran/peoplespark.html
Unauthorized San Francisco tour website
(but it’s Berkeley, too)
People’s Park info plus excerpts from the original People’s Park book (edited by Alan Copeland and Nikki Arai – published by Ballantine Books 1969) and a great article about the park from Rolling Stone magazine (June 1969).
Music
www.healingvoices.net
Jerry DesVoignes – Healing Voices
Whether working with the MantraVani Orchestra, the One Voice Harmonic Choir or solo, Jerry DesVoignes (aka Rainbow Man) is a uniquely gifted singer/musician/composer. He brings people together, and with fellow musicians, creates magical, memorable events that elevate the soul. Cal and I are proud to call Jerry a dear friend.
www.strawberryalarmclock.com/index.html
The official Strawberry Alarm Clock website
These guys are still rocking and sounding great!
www.skysunlightsaxon.com
Sadly, Sky Saxon passed away June 25, 2009, but his body of music lives on. The Seeds are considered one of the pioneers of punk rock. Saxon also had a solo career as Sky Sunlight Saxon, the Psychedelic Experience, with various musicians backing him as he continued to tour and play as many gigs as he could perform.
www.pameladesbarres.net
&
www.pameladesbarres.com
Pamela Des Barres' websites
—rock’s most infamous former groupie and G.T.O.
Des Barres is the author of NY Times Best Seller, I’m With the Band, as well as three other books, and has written for numerous publications. A friend loaned me her first autobiography over twenty years ago, which I remember loving at the time. When I recently ordered my own copy and reread it, I was delighted to rediscover just what a fine writer Miss P is as well. She now teaches creative writing workshops around the US and is also an ordained minister who performs rock & roll weddings! Check out her websites for other goodies as well.
www.amazon.com/Bill-Graham-Presents/dp/0944993737
Bill Graham: My Life Inside Rock and Out
by Robert Greenfield
I’ve probably read more than a hundred rock books and memoirs over the years, but this is my absolute favorite. I love, love, love this book!
“Rock music promoter Bill Graham and Greenfield were collaborating on this unfailingly entertaining portrait when Graham died in a helicopter crash in 1991. The book's chronological but unusual format—it consists almost entirely of freestanding quotes, without transitional narration—works well. Sources include Graham's family, members of the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and actor Peter Coyote; Graham, shrewd and outspoken, tells anecdotes of his own and never misses a chance to rebut his illustrious colleagues who reminisce here. His tale is the stuff of legends.”
–Publishers Weekly
Laurel Canyon
Below are two wonderful books on Laurel Canyon. Don’t try to choose one over the other—both are well worth tracking down!
www.web.archive.org/web/20080124083125/http://www.laurelcanyonthebook.com/
Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll’s Legendary Neighborhood
by Michael Walker
A fascinating read. If, like me, you wish you’d been there then (Laurel Canyon in the 60’s), but weren’t, this is the next best thing. Walker fills in the decades since with colorful tales and reminiscences by past and current residents of the Canyon.
www.amazon.ca/Canyon-Dreams-Magic-Music-Laurel/dp/1402765894
Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and Music of Laurel Canyon
by Harvey Kubernik
This 2009 book is a lavishly illustrated insider’s look at 80 years of music and culture in Laurel Canyon. A truly gorgeous thing to behold!
Miscellaneous
www.yippiegirl.com
Outspoken blogging and passionate posts on life with the Yippies
by Judy Gumbo Albert. Judy is an original Yippie, along with Abbie and Anita Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Nancy Kurshan, Paul Krassner, Phil Ochs, and Judy's late husband Stew Albert. Judy Gumbo Albert is writing her memoir, Yippie Girl about love, imagination, and coming of age with the Yippies, Black Panthers, Vietnamese, and Weathermen.
