Requiem To The Past & Those That Mattered

Pondering.......I've had showings with various images at the prestigious Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana Unvrsity & DavidsonFine Art in St. Petersburg. Florida.

I've given lectures with Tom Constanten of The Grateful Dead about "Life & Times Amidst The Counter Culture. What began as a personal mse evolved into a life's passion and not one person on this planet knows more about those glory days in San Francisco and the subsequent bands and music than myself. Ideally, to teach about that time frame would be a priority and finding a college or high school that can envision the benefits of that endeavor seems imminent. It is a choice I made long ago and we are all here for a purpose and mine is the perpetuation of those sparking days in San Fancisco, the wafts of various fragrances, the burgeoning crowd of American youth in search of personal identity.

The knowledge of noted homes that aren't marked with plaques can only be shown by those who have been there, know the history of those who inhabited the domiclies and what luminaries lived or worked in the buildings. Venues, homes, pillars of the "hippie-esque" ideology and events that are now fodder for various documentaries come to mind and my knowledge in invaluable for those in search of an historian that can add credibility to all those components with a reverence to the past.

We were the first generation to rebel against tradition, unfettered we found that music and universal acceptance was far greater than the lunacy of politics and the stench of yet another useless war in a far away land. What was once perceived as a miniscule fraction of yesteryear’s population became more ubiquitous as The Counter Culture and The Musical Revolution of the sixties became a media frenzy with sobriquets the juxtaposing term of epithets predicated on what magazine or journalist was constructing the editorial. Forty years later the idealism remains, albeit obscured by the passing of time and the less than eloquent description of hippie-dom and those who became the pillars of that concept. Compassion and honesty were once the key characteristics while we, the baby-boomer nomads roamed the highways and byways of America, not exactly the rabble defined by those who ascertain their knowledge from a less than comprehensive research into videos and books that were written by others who weren’t even close to San Francisco and “The Magic” that permeated the area from Masonic to Stanyon during The Golden Age of rock n’ roll. There was much more going on during that brief but epic era than music as poets, activists and the remnants of The Beats quietly co-existed in a sea of neoteric tie-dye and bare feet. It truly was The Age Of Aquarius and long before Woodstock emerged as “The Mother” of all gatherings , the 1967, Human Be-In, i.e., Summer Of Love, obviously orchestrated by Avalon Ballroom maestro Chet Helms and his literary friend, Allen Cohen, would entice 35,000-50,000 to the Polo Grounds to hear poets like Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Lenore Kandel, bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and augmented by the usual suspects synonymous with the psychedelic explosion, Hells Angels, Timothy Leary, Jerry Rubin and Stanley Owsley, noted chemist of those halcyon “daze” who brought his current exploration into mind expanding drugs, commonly known as LSD. Dickie Peterson was around that day and when he heard what Owsley had decided to name this concoction, Dickie moved towards naming his band the same, “Blue Cheer”. These were the people who rallied against tradition, found a better way than the antiquated family expectations and their efforts would eventually be instrumental in Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, The Texas Pop Festival and Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969 and finally culminate in the Woodstock Art & Music Festival in Sullivan County, New York in 1969 on Yasgur’s Farm. Most of these names were also synonymous with The Council For Summer Of Love yet unless traced to some legendary band, their names have been lost into the proverbial sunset. The Oracle paved the way for Jann Werner and Rolling Stone Magazine and it was also the only comprehensive publication that could honestly define what was actually occurring during the apex of Flower Power. Unfortunately, "The Unbroken Circle" is somewhat smaller now with the demise of Jerry Rubin who died from severe injuries after being struck by a vehicle in Los Angeles in 1994, Chet Helms crossed over his personal River Styx in 2005 as did Allen Cohen. It matters not who remains of this celebrated collection of sixties icons, it is now for the survivors to perpetuate the ideology and ethos that exuded from all who boarded this traveling caravan of novelists, poets, musicians and activists so long ago. It was a granule of sand in reference to the hourglass of our lives, a mere moment in the pantheons of time but during those fleeting days of our discontent, the amount of constructive things we were able to accomplish will never be equaled. On a warm, sunny day in the month of July, 2008, a toast to the royalty of yesteryear, to Chet Helms, Allen Cohen, Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg and to Janis, Jerry, Pigpen, Bill Graham, and those we most idolized and admired as children of the sixties. They were unique, gifted and talented and as we pander to the reunion of Woodstock in 2009 and our sojourn “back to the garden“, these faces will be among those in attendance. You are not forgotten.

Cheers
Don Aters - 2008

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	Requiem To The Past & Those That Mattered Pondering.......I've had showings with various images at the prestigious Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, Indiana Unvrsity & DavidsonFine Art in St. Petersburg. Florida. I've given lectures with Tom Constanten of The Grateful Dead about "Life & Times Amidst The Counter Culture. What began as a personal mse evolved into a life's passion and not one person on this planet knows more about those glory days in San Francisco and the subsequent bands and music than myself. Ideally, to teach about that time frame would be a priority and finding a college or high school that can envision the benefits of that endeavor seems imminent. It is a choice I made long ago and we are all here for a purpose and mine is the perpetuation of those sparking days in San Fancisco, the wafts of various fragrances, the burgeoning crowd of American youth in search of personal identity. The knowledge of noted homes that aren't marked with plaques can only be shown by those who have been there, know the history of those who inhabited the domiclies and what luminaries lived or worked in the buildings. Venues, homes, pillars of the "hippie-esque" ideology and events that are now fodder for various documentaries come to mind and my knowledge in invaluable for those in search of an historian that can add credibility to all those components with a reverence to the past. We were the first generation to rebel against tradition, unfettered we found that music and universal acceptance was far greater than the lunacy of politics and the stench of yet another useless war in a far away land. What was once perceived as a miniscule fraction of yesteryear’s population became more ubiquitous as The Counter Culture and The Musical Revolution of the sixties became a media frenzy with sobriquets the juxtaposing term of epithets predicated on what magazine or journalist was constructing the editorial. Forty years later the idealism remains, albeit obscured by the passing of time and the less than eloquent description of hippie-dom and those who became the pillars of that concept. Compassion and honesty were once the key characteristics while we, the baby-boomer nomads roamed the highways and byways of America, not exactly the rabble defined by those who ascertain their knowledge from a less than comprehensive research into videos and books that were written by others who weren’t even close to San Francisco and “The Magic” that permeated the area from Masonic to Stanyon during The Golden Age of rock n’ roll. There was much more going on during that brief but epic era than music as poets, activists and the remnants of The Beats quietly co-existed in a sea of neoteric tie-dye and bare feet. It truly was The Age Of Aquarius and long before Woodstock emerged as “The Mother” of all gatherings , the 1967, Human Be-In, i.e., Summer Of Love, obviously orchestrated by Avalon Ballroom maestro Chet Helms and his literary friend, Allen Cohen, would entice 35,000-50,000 to the Polo Grounds to hear poets like Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Lenore Kandel, bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and augmented by the usual suspects synonymous with the psychedelic explosion, Hells Angels, Timothy Leary, Jerry Rubin and Stanley Owsley, noted chemist of those halcyon “daze” who brought his current exploration into mind expanding drugs, commonly known as LSD. Dickie Peterson was around that day and when he heard what Owsley had decided to name this concoction, Dickie moved towards naming his band the same, “Blue Cheer”. These were the people who rallied against tradition, found a better way than the antiquated family expectations and their efforts would eventually be instrumental in Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, The Texas Pop Festival and Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969 and finally culminate in the Woodstock Art & Music Festival in Sullivan County, New York in 1969 on Yasgur’s Farm. Most of these names were also synonymous with The Council For Summer Of Love yet unless traced to some legendary band, their names have been lost into the proverbial sunset. The Oracle paved the way for Jann Werner and Rolling Stone Magazine and it was also the only comprehensive publication that could honestly define what was actually occurring during the apex of Flower Power. Unfortunately, "The Unbroken Circle" is somewhat smaller now with the demise of Jerry Rubin who died from severe injuries after being struck by a vehicle in Los Angeles in 1994, Chet Helms crossed over his personal River Styx in 2005 as did Allen Cohen. It matters not who remains of this celebrated collection of sixties icons, it is now for the survivors to perpetuate the ideology and ethos that exuded from all who boarded this traveling caravan of novelists, poets, musicians and activists so long ago. It was a granule of sand in reference to the hourglass of our lives, a mere moment in the pantheons of time but during those fleeting days of our discontent, the amount of constructive things we were able to accomplish will never be equaled. On a warm, sunny day in the month of July, 2008, a toast to the royalty of yesteryear, to Chet Helms, Allen Cohen, Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg and to Janis, Jerry, Pigpen, Bill Graham, and those we most idolized and admired as children of the sixties. They were unique, gifted and talented and as we pander to the reunion of Woodstock in 2009 and our sojourn “back to the garden“, these faces will be among those in attendance. You are not forgotten. Cheers Don Aters - 2008
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