Start Here…
BeatHippieRaver? I chose this Internet moniker for myself back in 1995 at the height of the last of those three countercultural movements because I thought then and I still believe now (1) they influenced me more than any of the other cultural movements during my lifetime, and (2) that appellation gives you–and me–an idea of where I’ve come from and gone to in my personal cultural life.
I was born in San Francisco in 1937, the same year as notables Margaret O’Brien, Vanessa Redgrave, Philip Glass, Tommy Smothers, Roberta Flack, Warren Beatty, Colin Powell, Jack Nicholson, Saddam Hussein, George Carlin, Madeleine Albright, Bill Cosby, Hunter S. Thompson, Jane Fonda and Dustin Hoffman, among others. My friend from high school days, composer David Del Tredici is a notable as well. Also, the Golden Gate Bridge, Spam, Superman, Daffy Duck, the Marijuana Tax Act, The Hobbit, and Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs appeared that year. I feel all of their influences, too.
Just a suggestion: Please feel free to go on anywhere in your readings, viewing and making comments here, but I suggest you might want to start out in my How did I get here from there? section, with my “Why Beat? Why Hippie? Why Raver” piece to give you a taste of what’s coming up! And thanks for dropping in!
Will
March 2007
