San Francisco misty morning through my lace curtain - watching Diggers and listening to Surrealistic Pillow [Jefferson Airplane]. Experience of the inner center directly and naively, without the help of religious rites or doctrines, or other communities. Sermon On The Mount ethics that pull Akasha up through the spine to the back of the skull.
The Golden Gate Panhandle: site of The Diggers bubbling cauldron brewing - morning, or afternoon - a veritable banquet of nourishment for the body and soul. Summer of Love
- 1967 dance
Golden Gate Park Panhandle from Oak Street, Cole/Shrader
The tall, impressive Panhandle guardians on Oak Street are illuminated by the golden midday light. Their importance in relation to the Haight-Ashbury blueprint is comparable to the black and white temple pillars at the entrance to the sacred house of spirit. These two columns may represent eloquence via musical themes and the poetic ritual arts. Fashionable botanical companions that reside in the Park acted as structural supports of the hippie arc [during the 60s] while global consciousness began to gain popular support. Our humanitarian curve was best carried over by The Diggers, the City rendition of the
Spirit of Sherwood, the wise and graceful elves in
Tolkien?s Middle-Earth, and the lost boys of Neverland. Their spontaneous 'theater of life' minimized the distance between the performer and the audience, and tried to embrace an entire community [that continued to expand during the Summer of Love.] Arc keystone equations ascribed to the Eldar Race are still monuments to those forever young and happy, the special ones favoured by the gods, who are open to all mystery found in boundless space.
During the mid-60s, this altruistic group was fiercely annonymous, though a few individual names were whispered in the City. To my knowledge, no one ever verified financial backers responsible for Digger funding, though several names did surface from the underground. People familiar with the San Francisco Mime Troupe knew a couple of Diggers, local bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company, Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane contributed to events organized by the Diggers, while others, Buddhists or Hare Krishna folk, were familiar with Diggers who organized the local Food Co-Op and fed groceries to the neighborhood at cost. This was possible because of deals made [with dairy farmers] by Diggers who transported the goods from farm to Haight-Ashbury doorstep, and cut out hiked prices and middlemen. The Food Co-Op answered the cry for non-toxic food and safer household items when people started to read the ingredients on food labels. It was popular to question the status quo. Linda McCartney put out a 'red alert' for women about the red dye/colouring in consumer products, especially make up.
For several years
the Diggers enjoyed their legendary stature without intrusion - for the most part out of respect for them. White Brotherhood also remain invisible to the naked eye and enjoy a secret status, yet function as Bay Area rescuers [like Mother Teresa] with no problem. Only when jounalists began to compare notes did people learn the identity of most of the Diggers, recorded by chroniclers
as Peter Coyote, Emmett Grogan, Peter Berg, Bill Fritsch, Harvey Kornspan, Kent Minnault, Billy Murcott, accompanied by other various and sundry members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
THE INVISIBLE CIRCUS THREE DAYS AT THE GLIDE
San Francisco, Glide Memorial Church
corner of Ellis and Taylor Streets
William Blake: Auguries of Innocence
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
The event formally billed as ?A 72 Hour Environmental Community Happening? was locally dubbed Three Days At The Glide. It was yet another brainstorm of The Diggers and, in conjunction with The Artist?s Liberation Front, the event served to increase the already enormous popularity of Rev. Cecil Williams, pastor of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church...
No publicity or posters were required since San Franciscans communicated the quintessential invitation by word of mouth,
particularly in the Haight-Ashbury. Past, present and future cultures converged at Haight and Ashbury ? an international intersection with a multi-dimensional atmosphere - where it was possible to recognize someone with ?Middle-Earth? dust on their sandals. Fantasy, scifi,
children's bedtime stories, and the unknown were profoundly popular, especially as related to a local landmark such as The Glide, or a ?time window? on Market Street or the breathtaking Neptune/Poseidon Temple on top of the Strawberry Hill waterfalls.
Groups attended day and night - a shared experience of various ?exhibits? were enjoyed all the more with friends. This is the only time I can remember any Church opening all it?s rooms to the general public, allowing people to wander at will through any door and into any area of the Church. Dramatic lighting cast a series of shadows and colorful characters on walls and every one of the ceilings, suggesting genuine spontaneity rather than managed unpredictability. The Glide?s interior space had multi-dimensional atmospheric conditions varying from room to room like environmental bubbles.
The Druids who approached the church might have thought a representation of Yggdrasil had materialized from ether. The production held an ameba aura, similar to the liquid opera-ballet in Star Wars III. A constantly shifting stage had an altered state bouquet that could erase linear time. It could have been there were branches of the great world tree that spread through each level. These boughs were a haven for all the wandering pilgrims who pass from one dream paradigm to another. In the basement were quiet, shadowy silhouettes. Everyone there spoke in whispers, because the flicks on the walls of the downstairs kitchen were projected in the corners of the room. All surfaces were shining metal, surrounded by black or white seating, tables, and d飯r. This was the only room that appeared ready for service in a 24/7 capacity, but in contrast to everything upstairs the environment was the most bizarre.
For every metaphysician who attended, sacred geometry as architecture had been dressed in surrealistic velvet. A jigsaw puzzle, provided by an invisible host, drew guests in to an amusing little test by setting up an inverted stage production. Most theatrical blueprints conform to standard rules: a clean, well-lit approach for a clearly identified exterior and well-manicured garden. The Glide production was a layered aura with all the envelopes defined in accord with the palette of Iris.
Every sphere of influence had a layered effect, some strobe, many like a rainbow scarf of Hera's messenger - the pathway from the heavens down to earth. Every room was extremely detailed, some poetic symbols confirmed by a web of intricate echoes, while others were slow moving, simple, diverting attention with their stark shadows. The variety was curious because each room had a unique climate and personality, but unlike the traditional opening into, or link with, other parts of the architectural design, themes started and stopped at each doorway. The atmosphere felt composed of a series of floating thoughts, historical periods, and patterns unique to each room without a tracker's trail to any other part of the church.
Digger Peter Coyote, now actor Peter Coyote*, did not attend the festivities, yet had a few things to say about some of the people who did contribute.
"Richard Brautigan and Claude Hayward [co-founder, along with Chester Anderson, of the Communication Company] established a printing press in one room, and Richard wandered the floors, observing the madness, and then rushed back to print and distribute special handbills commenting on and alerting others to what he had observed, linking the participants in a prototypical World Wide Web." - Peter Coyote, 1979 Full article
Read Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1998.
A memoir of Coyote's journey through the heart of the counterculture in San Francisco.
Provides portraits of the countercultural stars as well as those who left no marks.
See the Digger's page.
* On July 4, 1967, the Diggers become the ?Free Family?, and in the succeeding months, they disappear, hitting the road. Some of them move to the country. Peter Cohon follows them and changes his name. "In 1962, while on peyote, I had a dream in which I saw myself as a coyote. Seven years later, I went off into the desert with my Shoshone friend, Rolling Thunder. I thought about it and decided to become Peter Coyote. Now, it?s been 31 years, and I?ve been Coyote longer than I was Cohon."
Source: Peter Coyote interview on Christmas, December 25, 2000.
See also
Clown Prince Theory and
Masque Ball.
The Diggers' Free Store, established for Haight-Ashbury residents, was first to feature the "free exchange" system now seen universally at sites like
Swap-o-rama-rama, posted on
The Sundance Channel/The Green. The Diggers' Store policy was essentially: bring something [the pre-garage sale day] in exchange for something. Friends found everything from art to clothing, kitchen supplies, typewritters, etc. and like little 'pack rats' cleared shelf space for new garb, toys, and household objects d'art.
Personal note: The best description would be to compare the event with a classic designer showcase, a home divvied up among consultants and design coordinators, each with palette and pattern, ready to transform every room into a masterpiece. One room was playful psychedelia and next door to it the tone could be almost somber. The effect was an impression that rooms were dressed by different creative teams motivated to highlight a trademark and signature statement. There was never a ?preachy? effect, just warm hospitality and an open house. Home movies were shown in the kitchen with its walls bathed in various shades of gray ? an atmosphere similar to a cross between a silent movie and a North beach poetry reading. Taking the sturdy elevator up was totally surreal. The small compartment was filled with various mailroom plastics, shredded padding and snow. Music came from everywhere and nowhere so the elevator ride was otherworldly and it?s movement left your aura in the basement. When the door opened, one of the rooms was completely filled with packing plastic, streamers and snow, exactly like a scene inside Madison Square Garden in the film Godzilla (2000 Matthew Broderick), only The Glide was filled with people, instead of baby Godzillas, thank God! The elevator itself was somewhat reminiscent of Ratatosk, the squirrel that ran up and down the World Tree, telling lies about the things the eagle and the dragon had said about each other. Every room achieved a different effect of manifested and unmanifested power, so the event succeeded in its effort to open the mind and sensorium of everyone who attended.
~ When I first went to search engines to scan online articles about The Glide I was surprised to find only one article, claiming to be about this event by someone who obviously did not attend. The person concocted an unbelievable story about those who joined in at church (most of San Francisco and the Bay Area) and further lied , saying that people were transported to the beach. There were no problems with law enforcement or anyone else. I urge those who attended this event to post articles with the truth about The Glide Church and events that have been turned into nightmares by fanatics or East Coast opportunists who have never even been to San Francisco the evening I was there. The multi-cultural awakening during the San Francisco cultural revolution is a unique part of California history. Let's preserve the beauty of these very special moments in time, shall we! Sorry if this is a preachy notation - it's the fourth time I've read trash online about wonderful community gatherings like the Three Days at The Glide and I'm wondering who these fruitcakes are - they do not represent Trump 0 - don't confuse the 0 with ignorance, please!
If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.
-Kahlil Gibran
"The entrance of the recording industry into this phenomena, the San Francisco scene, if you will, people speak of it now as the rock n roll business or the music business, and at that time, it was not. People came to the ballrooms without knowing who was going to play, just that someone was going to play.
It was possible to bury the band entirely in the light show, so that no individual was recognizable, and the audience loved it, and the band loved it.
I don?t know what their initial reaction to it was. All I?m saying is, when they brought their money, their energy into it and essentially tried to isolate one element of it, which was the most traditionally commercially packageable,
they brought to it their traditions. And what we were essentially experiencing was a Dionysian phenomena. Nietzsche ? not just Nietzsche, and a number of other philosophers said that art in particular, but basically culture, goes in Apollonian and Dionysian cycles.
The Dionysian cycles are usually this up swelling of the most deep, sensual, and feeling aspects of our being. They can be positive or negative. They can be a Hitler or they can be the Bacchanal, when Dionysus first appeared on the scene and revolutionized Greek culture and had people dancing in the streets, so on and so forth.
The Appolonian culture is that ? Apollo was the god of the sun, and therefore everything that stood the harsh glare of daylight that was measured, that was precise, that was definable, that was ordered, that was hierarchically organized, as opposed to horizontally organized [as the Dionysus pattern was.]
In the origins of Greek tragedy the early goat songs, or whatever tragedies, were played out by the community at large, dancing in the streets, all at the same level, same physical level, not players elevated on a stage and chorus or audience.
The most important aspect of them is that they were, by and large, done in a large circle with everyone at the same plane. As Greek tragedy evolved, and as you got big patrons spending money on big theatres, and so on, several things evolved. One is the stage, a higher stage to elevate, but probably even more important than that was the window on Olympus.
It was the window through which we mortals as the audience look through the windows to see the activities of the Gods on Olympus. And when that evolved, and that was, to a large degree, a function of patronage. Wealthy guy saying, 'This guy can sing better than this guy and I?ll give him some money, and we should put him up here on the stage rather than have him sing down here.'"
?Orpheus taught while he sang and played the lyre, and his singing was so powerful that it mastered all nature; when he sang to his lyre the birds flew about him, the fish left the water and sprang to him. The wind and the sea became still, the rivers flowed upward to ward him. It did not snow and there was no hail. Trees and the very stones followed after Orpheus; tiger and lion lay down near him next to the sheep, and the wolves next to the stag and the roe. Now what does this mean? It surely means that through a divine insight into the meaning of natural events? nature?s happenings become harmoniously ordered from within. Everything becomes light and all creatures are appeased when the mediator, in the act of worshiping, represents the light of nature. Orpheus is an embodiment of devotion and piety; he symbolizes the religious attitude that solves all conflicts, since thereby the whole soul is turned toward that which lies on the other side of all conflict ? and as he does this, he is truly Orpheus; that is, a good shepherd, his primitive embodiment??
-Linda Fierz-David
Other 1967 Events to Research
dates may vary, taken from net
New Year's Day 1967! - Angel's party for the Haight
in the Panhandle - "First free rock concert in Panhandle"
- Seven thousand go "Love Pageant Rally" - The Diggers start free food in Panhandle - continues until March
- Note of nostalgia: The Trips Festival at Longshoreman's Hall the previous January.
Early May Paul McCartney reveals that Beatles have all taken acid
11 Jul Fonteyn & Nureyev busted while dining at Gabriel's sgetti feed in Haight [only time anyone busted at Gabriel's]
They traveled to the United States as part of an international program that supports the arts.
1967 - The road goes ever on : a song cycle / poems by J.R.R.Tolkien, music by Donald Swann ; with decorations
by J.R.R. Tolkien and Samuel Hanks Bryant.
- The road goes ever on : a song cycle / poems by J.R.R.Tolkien, music by Donald Swann ; with decorations by J.R.R. Tolkien and Samuel Hanks Bryant. Houghton, 1967; Here in this book composer Swann gives Tolkien characters Bilbo, Treebeard, Samwise Gamgee, and Tom Bombadil tunes for their ballads of the road. Tolkien approved of this and added a tune of his own, along with a glossary of Elvish terms and lore.
POSTER ART
Local favourites: Psy-style posters by local artists who could capture the atmosphere and tell the festival story include Tribal Stomp for Fillmore auditorium 2/19/66 [Jefferson Airplane; Big Brother and the Holding Company] by Wes Wilson, and Chet Helms who suggested the title and photograph. Victor Moscoso decided to create and distribute his NEON ROSE SERIES which would promote shows and also serve afterward to commemorate the fabulous Matrix shows. Two posters in this timeless series are: Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Matrix, San Francisco, 1967, Artist: Victor Moscoso, Photographer: Lisa Bachelis; and The Doors, The Matrix, 1967, Artist: Victor Moscoso. Soundproof Productions was the first company to produce rock shows at the Avalon after the Family dog's departure. Rick Griffin's masterworks include the Avalon Ballroom poster for the show by Grateful Dead and Sons of Champlin, January 24-26, 1969.
more to follow
Other posters were contributed by less well known artists: The Straight Theatre Grand Opening poster 7/21-23/67 by Frank Melton had a mystic flavour. The earthy art form for Fillmore and Winterland 5/29 - 6/1/68 shows with Buffalo Springfield and Chambers Brothers was drawn by Lee Conklin. Sexy art for Avalon Ballroom concert by photographer Jerry Uelsmann and artist Wes Wilson [Buddy Miles Express and Dino Valenti] on 10/25-27/68 takes a closer look at San Francisco's multi-dimensional persona. A captivating Carousel Ballroom poster by Crazy Arab features surrealistic Dali ambiance consistent with the performance by Big Brother and the Holding Company and Clara Ward Singers, also in 1968.
As for the Civil Rights Movement, most West Coast students felt deep concern for the rights of others, having become aware of the common target practice of the FBI - ignoring those known unAmericans in favor of attacking a vocal 'free speech' community. Many felt the issues facing those not allowed to vote in the South would eventually face the rest of the country. They risked their life and helped Southerners to cast their vote. As far as the story about Civil Rights leaders [Joan Baez, et al] joining the movement to advance the sale of a record to promote a career [University of California textbooks] it is hard to imagine how those assertions can appear. No one can enjoy a financial benefit if cut down while helping people register to vote.
His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
Has grown so weary that it cannot hold
Anything else. It seems to him there are
A thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world.
As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
The movement of his powerful soft strides
Is like a ritual dance around a center
In which a mighty wall stands paralyzed.
Only at times, the curtain of the pupils
Lifts, quietly -.
An image enters in,
Rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
Plunges into the heart and is gone.
Energy Management Question:
What kind of image "enters in the heart" of the panther in the final stanza?
"The specialized terminology of the hippie was either directly borrowed or broadly adapted from earlier American slangs. Many distinctive expressions can be traced, going backwards, to the N.Y. Greenwich Village Beatniks of the fifties, many of whom had migrated to the S.F. North Beach area.
There was sock-and-roller and hipster lingo, popster and cool talk stretching back into the forties, and jazz/jive talk which characterized the underground scene of the thirties. Two elements were carried through all the eras: drugs, which made for a covert, only-boys-allowed club context; and music, whose artistic expression and secret message lyrics were appreciated fully only by the initiated members of the associated social sub-group.
THE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN SLANG, in its 1960, pre-hippie edition, gives
a very adequate definition and historic background for American hip lingo.
For example, here are the entries for, ?far-out,? ?like,? and ?too-much:?
From The West Coast Magazine, an article by Phyllis Fisher [continued] Auras and Alchemy III - Continuing Studies, Searching Auras
Far out far-out adj. 1 Descriptive of or characteristic of the most modern forms of jazz or progressive music; technically, more progressive than cool.
2 Descriptive of or characteristic of devotees of ?far out? music and their behavior; intellectual.
3 Satisfying; capable of arousing enthusiasm. 1956: ?Far-out? is the new hip term of critical approval, superseding the swing era?s ?hot? and the bop era?s ?cool?. A. Shaw, West Coast Jazz. See way out.
4 Extremely; ?gone? or far removed from reality; intent; intense; so much in rapport with, intent on, or immersed in one?s work, performance, ideas, or mode or way of life that one is as if in a trance, and unaware of or removed from all extraneous things.
5 Of, by, for, or pertaining to devotees of far-out music, their fashions, fads, and attitudes. 6 Removed from standards of criticism by being unrelated to or beyond comparison with other things; intellectually, psychologically, or spiritually so cool as to be beyond comparison. Mainly far-out use, some cool and beat use. Cf. Cool.
Like 1 Used at the end of a sentence in place of ?as?, ?as if?, ?it will be as if?, etc. 1956: ?When he dies, I?ll be robbed like. I?ll have no more father.? S. Bellow, Seize the Day.
2 Used before nouns, adjectives, and pred. Adj., without adding to or changing the meaning of the sentence. Thus, ?It?s like cold? = it is cold. Used by jazz, cool, beat groups, making a definite, forthright statement, part of the beat philosophy; reinforced by Yiddish speech patterns.
Too much 1 Beyond logical criticism or comprehension, in either a good or bad sense; ridiculously good or bad. Fairly common c. 1935 jive use; fairly well known general use since c. 1940.
Harlem slang example ~
It follows another another source dates back to earlier collective notes - lines from
Zora Neale Hurston?s Glossary of Harlem Slang.
Cruising - parading down the Avenue. Variations: oozing, percolating, and free-wheeling. The latter implies more briskness.
Granny Grunt - a mythical character to whom most questions may be referred
I shot him lightly and he died politely - ?I completely outdid him.?
Kitchen mechanic - a domestic
Lightly, slightly, and politely - doing things perfectly
Now you cookin? with gas - now you?re talking, in the groove, etc.
Righteous rags - the components of a Harlem-style suit
Thousand on a plate - beans
Trucking - 1) strolling 2) dance step from the strolling motif
Becoming a hippie meant more than lounging in the park and getting loaded. It required that you earnestly acquired the relevant terminology, mimicked the speech style of your peers, and so signaled that you too really understood what was happening, that you had taken that step to change your life from the inside out.
If you could comprehend the concepts of brotherhood and freedom and were aware of the thick and ceaseless reality of the natural world, you had to reject the bizarre and tragic responses of the American culture to that precious reality. You felt very lonely at first, until you realized you were already there, and there was a pretty friendly, socially active place."
In other words, how you talked showed where you were at, and the only rule was not to fake it. Indeed, ?There are linguistic cues by which one who has had the zero(mystic)-experience recognizes another? even the most childish LSD talker can discern from a person?s talk, however erudite and technical or however simple, whether he has taken the drug or not.?
The music of the sixties defined as closely as possible this mystic-style awareness that was necessary to belong. In ?Somebody To Love,? Jefferson Airplane sang your basic message song, with its instructional/invocational lyrics directed at the hippie neophyte, (the ?HIS? of the first line I interpret to mean the eyes of Jesus on Sunday school posters, i.e., to look holy didn?t make you holy):
?I say your eyes may look like his, yeh
But in your head, baby,
I?m afraid you don?t know
Where it is.
Don?t you want somebody to love?
Don?t you need somebody to love?
Wouldn?t you love somebody to love?
You better find somebody to love!?
Jimi Hendrix?s guitar playing kind of arched with sexual passion, and the lyrics were just an added treat. In this song, ?Are You Experienced?? is contained a gentle invitation full of seductive reasoning, by the only black hippie I ever heard of:
"If you can just get your mind together,
Then come on across to me.
We?ll hold hands, and then
We?ll watch the sunrise
From the bottom of the sea.
But first, are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have.."
Possible interpretations:
Have you ever gotten it on yet?
Can you qualify for this job?
Do you know the social ropes?
Have you experienced what we have
Experienced by daring to experience
An altered consciousness? If you
Are experienced, the you know there
Is no way to stay uptight. You can?t
Accept the absurd inherited way to
Function in the USA. We can see
Our parents were really lost on an
Excessive plane. We the children
Are returning to Earth, but gently,
As angels. There is a lot of joy
Floating around and we can feel it,
We can see it, because we?re not afraid.
... Another manifestation of linguistic intensity was the use of hyperbole, an overdoing of description, in an attempt to say, yes, it was greater than I can say, it was more than you can even imagine with your eyes! The best hippie story tellers mastered this exaggerated style when recounting acid experiences. After all, the hippie encountered bizarre situations, quaint juxtapositions every time he stepped out into the street, and the comparisons between him and the straight world were relentless: a lot of material out there.
This emphatic style was achieved through the heavy use of intensifiers: everything was ?really? and ?too much.? Expletives were adopted as a result of the recent free speech movement. (Thank you, Berkeley) because it was certainly absurd to allow anyone else to tell you what to say. Swear words also came in handy to express that extra dimension of emotion that the speaker was always trying to convey.
Informal grammar was a reactionary response to the social regulation of linguistic expression. I know the worse my grammar, the better I felt, as if at last I was speaking the speech of real people, that English class and my parents had never let me do before.
There was an almost compulsive use of pause words, filler words, such as ?like,? ?man,? ?you know.? Their use has been attributed to various causes, such as a stoned and sluggish mind, the fear of commitment. To me, it was a request for reassurance, for approval, as if to say, you do understand, don?t you, you have been there, too, haven?t you? Hippies were peaceful radicals, but radicals, nonetheless, and you can?t get too far on curiosity value alone.
Other linguistic characteristics of hippie speech were lengthened juncture, top-level stress gliding tones and deeply falling intonation. The nature of the lengthened juncture was its unexpected occurrence, where the speaker wanted to make a point, wanted to catch your attention before he would produce the key word. I call them pregnant pauses, true narrative devices.
Falling intonations are one of the most interesting markers of hippie speech, where the last word of an idea unit is dropped to practically below the lowest level intonation. Dr. Honsa (Foreign Languages, U.N.L.V.) relates this affectation to a N.Y. Jewish style: polite, submissive, non-threatening. I can connect this faraway style to the S.F Hippies through the influx of N.Y. Beatniks to the West Coast in the fifties.
The overall hippie style was intentionally casual, deliberately informal. The respectful mode was reserved for addressing gurus and crazies. The style could also be classified as a specific language game, where the participants had to keep signaling their mutual understanding and agreement on mystic experience, drug-related adventures and confrontations with straight society.
"Communication Gap" took on new meaning. Where the awareness of the purity of reality actually prevented hippies from entering in any other language set but their own, hallucinogenic drugs did have a way of destroying common ground. The deep (as in "Heavy") structure of hippie talk was felt by its speakers to be definitely deeper than that of the mainstream American language. There?s that intensity factor, again, pushing ego buttons.
Acid just happened to turn up
As the product of this particular society,
To correct its own excesses.
Gary Snyder
... The key words, as related to an altered awareness, seem to be "Reality" and "Experience." The mystical properties contained therein are all embodies in one word, IT (as in, ?Where IT is at,? ?What IT is all about,? etc.) Michael McClure, the hippie poet and dramatist, put IT all in one poem: Mystic Awareness, Stress for Meaning, The Meditative Power of Language Itself:
"AND it is all perfect, this is really it.
And IT is all perfect, this is really it.
And it IS all perfect, this is really it.
And it is ALL perfect, this is really it.
And it is all PERFECT, this is really it.
And it is all perfect, THIS is really it.
And it is all perfect, this IS really it.
And it is all perfect, this is REALLY it.
And It is all perfect, this is really IT.
From the editor: Tolkien was introduced into the Haight community by Jane Peterson, who eventually became a resident transplant from Berkeley to a comfortable apartment on Delmar Street. Jane and poet-husband Robert rented from Tiff and Marylou Garcia (Tiff is [Grateful Dead] Jerry Garcia's older brother.)
Coming soon: more blues background about R & B hot spot The Both/and - importance of this very popular club has a history of understatement in the movie business of Haight-Ashbury 'bio-documentary articles and tv specials.' If you have any The Both/and photo work or film resource list of 60s style Haight Ashbury life, Summer of Love, or civil rights films, please email TDN and we'll place it in this feature.
The Both/and location was near the corner of Haight and Divisadero. Although it was impossible to get through the door for the evening performance, the club would open the door during daytime hours so genius musicians, such as the great Thelonious Monk, John Handy, and blues guitar John Lee Hooker were heard preparing for the show half way up Haight Street.
