Time to Honor the Hippies:

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS MONTHLY - FREE PRESS

As the American dream bursts like a frothy bubble, we're going to have to learn how to make do with less. Nobody since the hippies have been better at that, so it's time to grab those tye dyes out of the Free Box and flash the Peace Sign again.

For those too young to remember, or too brainwashed by relentless propaganda painting hippies as dirty, dope smoking, know-nothings, judging all hippies by the burnt out ropehead sparechanging in Bolinas, is like lumping biodynamic wine growers with his sidewalk sharing compatriot swilling Mad Dog 2020.

A word of caution to newbie hippies, graying ponytails do not a hippie make. And Free Love was always a scam, The hippie tribe does party like it's 1999, of course, as part of doing more with less. No tribe is more creative at turning less into more, castoffs into fashion, ghettos into artists' garrets. Hippies didn't emerge in a vacuum, but flew like phoenixes from the forge of the mid 60's through the mid 70's.

Not all hippies have long hair now, some are bald. Back then there was a groovy uniform that varied wildly in plumage and aroma. That's a much rarer bird these days. Even local media thinks traditional hippies lark in Bolinas, when the last one left Bo for San Geronimo a while ago.

PSYCHEDELIC TUBER SPROUTS

Beatniks claim hippies were only a devolution of their poetry spouting, bongo thumping, cool cat hipster archetype. Like a sunflower sporting from a potato. The baby boomers born after the last Great War, almost overnight went barefoot, put a flower in their hair, got in their Folksvagon vans, headed off to San Francisco and other hippie hotspots around the world. On the road sprawled into Eastern and Southern realms. Hippies brought back whole cultures to study and practice and perfect. From Yoga to Zen. From Castaneda to McKenna.

When the cities got too grim, as hippie ghettos became gentrified, many fled to the country where the water tastes like wine. Some joined communes, some homesteaded, most gardened or farmed to get more from less. Redneck hippies grew roots in the country and raised hippie kids. Whether living in the country or the city or someplace in between, many hippies tried to blend in, getting straight jobs, did 'cut their hair today', only showing their colours at Rainbow Gatherings and Dead Shows.

Hair does not a hippie make. A willingness to participate, a certain light in the eye, a secret understanding, a relaxed non-competitiveness, genetically opposed to authority not being questioned and eventually subverted if no good answers come forth are aspects of the hippie tribe.

When the War on people who use Drugs other than approved sedating ones put the heat on long hair, most potheads cut their hair, although some grew dreads. No discrimination around the hippie peace pipe. Very few quit smoking, but not every hippie partakes. Those that do created a community wealth generator. The whole natural foods store phenomena, turning vitamin shoppes into bulk, whole food social scenes was funded by drug money. Mostly herb.

MUSHROOM PIZZA TO GO

Organic, natural, whole earth, moonchild, peace and love, freakin' hippies seeded Renaissance Communities across the country from Coconut Groves to Sausalito Houseboats, from Vermont Woods to Sunny Beaches. Each with their own flavor and obsessions. Like some fantastically mutating species of thought and action, an exploding synaptic orgasm of challenges to the establishment slithered out of the hippie egg after their shell imploded some time around '76.

Some blame it on the drugs, some on Disco. Without Vietnam there was no draft to fear, no war to fight, but challenge to authority went viral. Women's Lib, Gay Lib, Animal Lib grew out of Hippie Lib, not civil rights, that movement was as patriarchal, homophobic and authoritarian as the establishment.

Health and Wellness, Alternative Medicines. Raw Foods, Grass Fed Beef originally was just Hippie ######. Personal Computers were invented in a garage by pot smoking hippies, or should have been. No Nukes, Green Power, Bicycle Day, even Bike to Work Week were just hippie pipe dreams brought to fruition by hippie stoners. If pot made them lazy, apathetic or averse to hard work then conservatives should really fear eradicating cannabis as a communist plot.

HAIRY ARMPITS AND ALL

Bad Trips, Guru Cults, Dead Tours, Guatemalan Clothes, Drainbows, Mayan Shrooms, Harmonica Virgins. It wasn't all pretty, but giving birth to the Aquarian Age is necessarily bloody. A more mature hippie, if that's not a complete oxymoron, is the answer to our current dilemma.

Running out of water in Bolinas? Bring back those good ole, dirty hippie days. Can't afford to cut the hair you have left? Don't go mullet, tuck it under a rastaman hat. Foreclosed because of subprime interest rates, no retirement money left in the pension funds? Join a commune, pool your welfare, SSI and social security checks, and eat government cheese, rice and beans with greens from the garden. Live in yurts and teepees again with a composting shitter out back. From Free to Be Me to a Season of Sharing.

Dry Cleaning bills, which need it, hippie entertainment beats cable TV. Nothing cheaper than nude beaches. Walking and Bicycling are more affordable health insurance, at least if cyclists are more visible wearing tye-dyes. Pile the hippies in the SUV for road trips. There's always room for a hitchhiker on the bus.

Any belly who's ever been to a Rainbow Gathering knows how creative and resourceful hippies are at living well with less. Out in the woods or stuck in the hoods, don't fear the hippie next door, welcome 'em to the neighborhood with a lit joint and a sack of purple potatoes.

http://www.coastalpost.com/09/03/29.html

[Peikko 1,575]

That would be irony for you

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

That would be irony for you

How so? Do you mean me personally, or as part of some collective (pun intended)?

[Peikko 1,575]

It would be ironic if post some calamitous depression event that hippies were more suited to 'survive' than other people, considering how they are generally regarded. It tickles my funny bones at any rate.

Oh, and yes, a collective 'you', not you in particular, sorry.

Edited March 17, 2009 by Madame Cleo

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

It would be ironic if post some calamitous depression event that hippies were more suited to 'survive' than other people, considering how they are generally regarded. It tickles my funny bones at any rate.

Oh, and yes, a collective 'you', not you in particular, sorry.

Marin county is just to the south of where I live. I feel comfortable living along the Russian River, and the lifestyle is liberally tainted with hippiedom, among other things. Note, one of the attractions for Lazy Bear Weekend, just eight miles down river from here:

Edited March 17, 2009 by Mister_Bill

[Peikko 1,575]

It's certainly colourful - and not your average tie dye fashion either. I have to say, and I feel so prejudiced saying it, but he looks somewhat 'gay'.

That particular specimen does not look set to survive depression either

Edited March 17, 2009 by Madame Cleo

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

And a little further down river, in Monte Rio, we have the infamous Bohemian Grove, where leading conservatives engage in pagan rituals. It's kind of like Apocalypse Now: The further you go down river, the stranger it gets.

Edited March 17, 2009 by Mister_Bill

[Peikko 1,575]

Living on a river is more exciting than I ever imagined!

[panamania79 2]

It would be ironic if post some calamitous depression event that hippies were more suited to 'survive' than other people, considering how they are generally regarded. It tickles my funny bones at any rate.

Oh, and yes, a collective 'you', not you in particular, sorry.

Marin county is just to the south of where I live. I feel comfortable living along the Russian River, and the lifestyle is liberally tainted with hippiedom, among other things. Note, one of the attractions for Lazy Bear Weekend, just eight miles down river from here:

What is that ?

And a little further down river, in Monte Rio, we have the infamous Bohemian Grove, where leading conservatives engage in pagan rituals. It's kind of like Apocalypse Now: The further you go down river, the stranger it gets.

Apocolypse Now freaked me out !

[Nagishkaw 510]

Far out, man. Can you dig it?

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

And a little further down river, in Monte Rio, we have the infamous Bohemian Grove, where leading conservatives engage in pagan rituals. It's kind of like Apocalypse Now: The further you go down river, the stranger it gets.

I've seen that on one of Alex Jones' video clips where they infiltrate the camp convinced the conservatives are conspiring to end the world with their scared witchuals. lolz <----- pun intended.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Bill, have you seen Sasquatch?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Bill, have you seen Sasquatch?

Not yet, but I do have a friend that is actively hunting him. It takes all kinds, and they all seem to migrate here, for at least a visit, once in a lifetime.

It gets even stranger: (I drive by this place at least 10 times a week)

In a recent (pre-election) People magazine profile on the Obamas, the writer mentioned that a bottle of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay was on the future First Family's Chicago kitchen counter. Kendall-Jackson decided to send the president-elect a few cases of KJ Chardonnay, America's #1 selling chardonnay for 18 years running, for his new wine cellar on Pennsylvania Ave.

Jess Jackson, KJ's founder, says the Chardonnay was a favorite at the Reagan White House. He hopes the wine will bridge the political divide and become a favorite in a Democratic White House as well. (In the past, Presidents have favored American wines at State dinners. Of course, Serious Eats says that Barack Obama reportedly prefers beer to wine, but let's hope he still serves wine with dinner instead of Budweiser.)

Kendall-Jackson says the wine was sent as a congratulatory gift, but one can't help but think it might be a gift of condolence as well, with the shape and size of the economic and social problems that face our next President. When Obama is done celebrating his election, he should have several bottles left to drown his sorrows in once he faces the real work ahead of him.

http://www.slashfood.com/2008/11/08/congra...kson-vineyards/

Edited March 18, 2009 by Mister_Bill

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Bill, have you seen Sasquatch?

Not yet, but I do have a friend that is actively hunting him. It takes all kinds, and they seem to migrate here, for at least a visit, once in a lifetime.

It was a childhood dream of mine...to go looking for Sasquatch and find him. I picture him a gentle giant who loves to party but smells real bad.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Bill, have you seen Sasquatch?

Not yet, but I do have a friend that is actively hunting him. It takes all kinds, and they seem to migrate here, for at least a visit, once in a lifetime.

It was a childhood dream of mine...to go looking for Sasquatch and find him. I picture him a gentle giant who loves to party but smells real bad.

Here is the guy he goes out with's website: http://www.searchingforbigfoot.com

Edited March 18, 2009 by Mister_Bill