Category: 1960s

My brother was a flower-child… and I saw lots of wild things during the 60s. Dragnet 1966 (Aired 1969) is a good program to watch if you what to get a feel for that time period. I grew up in Woodland Hills near the infamous Topanga Canyon that lead the Flower Children to Pacific Coast Highway. My friends and I would spend hours watching them. They sold incense, candles and hitchhiked all over the San Fernando Valley. It was one long party that lasted 10 years. To remember how it once was and to see what it has become now… is just one of many heartaches of growing up. I was a kid, a witness to these changes.

All Bout A Song – A friend in an old 45.

th (13) — On the flipside B Note: At the end of the film there is a Valley Of The Dolls ending song that is a direct response to the original theme song. The film ends on a positive note for Anne… but this is of course not the case in the book.

Theme song from Valley of the Dolls and I Say A Little Prayer are songs which speak to an individual woman and to all women. The songs speak to all individuals and to all people who collectively struggle with life and finding their identity in this paradoxical world. Also a questioning of our humanity for each other and for something beyond us all.

“Ashley St. Ives: You’re a groovy boy. I’d like to strap you on sometime.” Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

The theme song from Valley of The Dolls had a profound meaning for me as a young woman growing up in the underground music scene of Los Angeles. At that time things like records were not easy to find. Before technology came to make getting things fast there was a time when waiting to see if you could find it was a thrill.

Will I find that old record at a thrift store or will I see that forgotten film on late night TV?

Valley Of The Dolls is a novel by American writer Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966 and the film came out 1967. A quid pro quo for the 1960s.

I read the book, viewed the film, when I could, and found the Scepter 45 vinyl at a thrift store. I engaged it as part of who I was struggling to become as a woman in a male dominate punk rock scene. I played it on a few of my broadcasts ~ Flipside Fanzine KFJC Radio 1984.

Connecting up with the mythos of the film/ book and theme song made my struggle in the world of rock & roll and journalism seem strangely important. I identified strongly with all of the female characters from Jacqueline Susann’s book. Where else was I too find women role models in the world I was part of? It was my continuity with the struggle of women reaching out to me from the 1960s. An echo of a women’s revolution which I feel is taken for granted in our modern times.

RIP Patty Duke.

A Cold Wind in August

A Cold Wind in August (1961) is a low-budget independent film directed by Alexander Singer and adapted from the eponymous novel by Burton Wohl. The film stars a Lola Albright as a mentally unbalanced burlesque show stripper in her thirties who becomes involved in a torrid romance with a 17-year old boy played by Scott Marlowe

Netflix and their unknown B movies always are the best. B movies seem more realistic to me and down to earth. This is a delightful little story about a short romance. A young man Vito is just finding his sexuality and an older woman Iris is slowly losing the charm of a once very provocative and talented life. She is learning to make the usual compromises when her air-conditioning goes out. The father superintendent is too tiered to go to the room where the beautiful woman is, so he sends his son. Papa Perugino is a wise man. He wears his insight on his face at the beginning of the film, and it turns out to be true. I think this film incorporates romance and intimacy very well. It leaves a lot to the imagination but the passions show on the faces of the actors. It is very believable. The characters in the film are earthy and the environment in the city is symbolically hot, and the drinks are extremely refreshing. The ending of this film is predictable but understandable. All and all this film takes you away to a nice little romance that flares up and cools down. I look forward to viewing it again.

Similar to a near death experience and nuclear weapons or B Movies rule!!

http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/paularaymond.html

A transcontinental flight from Los Angeles to Washington DC, carrying three top scientists, unexplained begins a climb to 10 miles up. With all other passengers unconscious, the scientists find themselves in a dimension where time does not exist. There they are put on trial by citizens of the future for their potential involvement in the creation of “the ultimate weapon.” Written by Ray Hamel <hamel@primate.wisc.edu> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054881/

I passed by this film a few times. It is Sunday so I took a chance. I love when I do this because I always find some interesting B movies that are better then most films coming out today. The Flight That Disappeared has that melodrama drive-in movie feel to it. I like that. The message of the film has a powerful anti-nuclear weapons motif. The big film Contact written by Carol Sagon kind of rips this film off, if only indirectly. SO here we go…the future comes to the present, out of time and space, to warn us about the destructive forces of building weapons used in war that are fucking insane. Happily the scientists and lobbyists come to their senses and listen to what has been told to them and destroy all of their notes. I wish this was the case in the real world. The three main characters have a dream, similar to a near death experience, and see the destruction of life on this planet; A scientist, a mathematician and a scientist/ lobbyist. The mathematician is a sexy dame too with a beauty mark above her left cheek. Smart, pretty but not too quick. Sorry no sex scenes in the bathroom and no waitresses with push-up bras.

Just a good old B movie with a profound message to us present day earthlings from the masters of the cosmos. They may be speaking to you!!!

Good acting too!!

Do you ever not like hearing this song?

Ichabod Crane in a 1960s straight legged suite, A bow to Saturn and Jupiter…

1960s straight legged pant suit.

As we approach this year’s Aquarius celebration of Saturn and Jupiter both in 0 degrees Aquarius 2020 December 21^st, I think back upon a time of my life when this song from the musical Hair was immensely popular. I have been watching the two planets hang together over the last couple months. In clear eyesight. Two thousand years from Pisces to Aquarius what will this bring to humanity…? What will tomorrow be like… we sure could use a lot more light.

Mr. Kennedy was a tall grey-haired man. He kind of looked like Ichabod Crane who wore a 1960s straight legged pant suit. He read my poem to the whole class. When the well-read and the popular girls looked around at me, I should have given them my tongue. I should have stuck it way out so they could see it as clear as the sun. I didn’t. I just sat in my seat as I am now…. years later. I was happy to be understood. I still am.

To Mr. Kennedy who taught with kindness.

Paper, pencils, crayons, and watercolors were always around the house. Grandma’s old player piano was in the boy’s room with a pool table. We lived a rustic life. The smell of food, the sound of children, parents and nature contrasted the rather harsh world of a classroom. Going to school was not for me. It was social torture where I turned off, only to turn on during time on the playground.

In second grade I remember Mrs. Bracka shaking me,

“No Holly, I told you do not do that. Put them in alphabetical order!!”

I would just write down any number when it came to math. The smart girl went around the room correcting everyone’s papers. When she got to me, she said,

“You got them all wrong. I will have to give you an F!”

She kept trying to get the teacher’s attention while she was correcting papers; after correcting my paper she went pee all over the chair next to me.

When I got to 6th grade it was about the same. I only watched the clock until kickball on the playground. I was put in the back of the class in the slow learner section and believe me the other kids let us know it. Until one day when Mr. Kennedy asked the whole class to write poems.

He said, “Write about what you feel, write about what interests you or inspires you.”

Mr. Kennedy, who played the song Aquarius over the PA sound system at Serriania Elementary school, woke me up to the power of writing.

This is my first poem.

What will tomorrow be like?

Will there be day or night?

Will it be like today?

Or will there be other planets too,

For us to play.

Will there be rockets taking us to Mars, Venus, or Neptune?

This is what people think about,

If we wait awhile, we will soon find out.

Collaborations are thrilling and I do a trilling dance!

Hudley and Detox !! Steve Human and Tony Malone... — Steve Pfauter (Human), Hudley, and Tony Malone (Both guys from the punk band DETOX ) 2009

A play with words today:

Trilling to resound vibrantly, or with a rapid succession of sounds, as the voice, song, or laughter.

Thrilling to cause or feel a sudden intense sensation; excite greatly.

I was once enrolled in an online course for a master’s program. I found it thrilling to express myself online. My classmates were not so thrilled. I was trilling here and there; on campus and on the internet. They complained of it being too much extra work for them. The class met once a mouth, as well, to discuss and show materials as a kind of personal touch base. I enjoy the online engagement and found it more interesting than meeting in a classroom. I realized at this point that I found a place that I love. Online communications is it for me; MySpace and then Facebook after my experience with online courses. The world opened up to me. I met up with old friends and made new ones. I was reaching out to people from all around the world. I am thrilled about having access to others via the internet. During the 1980s I was was one one of the those geeks who stated to correspond on Quantum Link via the 64/ 128 Commodore computer. At the time bulletin boards were popular but very underground via the computer scene. No one really understood what I found through my Commodore commuter. Most of my friends did not have a clue and thought I was weird. I joined an online group called Midnight Mystics as a host. We went on-line at the witching hour of 12 midnight. It was a place where I found myself inside a mysterious world where I communicated with others from across the country. It was thrilling to me.