ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

What a great story, Suza. Ali-Sun and I enjoyed a great afternoon in the Haight a month ago - everytime we visit SF, we are drawn there.

I had never heard of the Berkeley Barb by name, but have been well aware of some of the stories and myths that it spawned (psychedelic dried banana skins, anyone?). The Wikipedia entry is great, and includes this: The Barb and similar papers were used as a means to obtain eating money by the street people. One could stand in line in the wee hours of the day until the office opened. Then you would show them something you valued, usually your backpack with your clothing, poems and such. If they felt your goods were valuable enough that you would return to get them, they would hand you a bundle of papers to sell on street corners. The paper sold for 15 cents and you got to keep half of that. When all your papers sold you would return to the office, buy back your backpack and another bundle of papers, and then return to the street corner to sell enough to buy some food.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Barb

They still have something similar in San Francisco. It's called STREET SHEET, a monthly tabloid written primarily by homeless and formerly homeless people that provides its readers with a perspective on homelessness that mainstream media simply cannot match. It provides a unique opportunity to its vendors as well: a dignified alternative to panhandling. The STREET SHEET (cover price $1) is given free to qualified poor and homeless San Franciscans, who get to retain 100% of the proceeds from their sales. Last year, the paper celebrated its 15th anniversary, making it the oldest continuously published street newspaper in the world.

BTW, Leslie and I lived a mile or so from The Haight for about 9 years (1992-2001). Great City. Cold.

Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MEJkIVDR-c

the song that best captured the mood that summer was the Turtles' "Happy Together", which had been released in March. In February, the psychedelic band Jefferson Airplane had released their Surrealistic Pillow -- an album that blew away a young Bob Kidney, who later became the lead singer of the Kent-based Numbers Band.

Great personal stories of adventure and self discovery. I love it. I never knew about those town cryer papers existence and how effective their simple mission was.San Francisco is my favourite cosmopolitan to be found lost.

Thanks for sharing. I missed that whole trip. I was on another trip. Had been in a monastery for several years and was working as a priest in a Catholic parish. Life is a trip. Make love, not money, much less war.

Loved the story Suza. I remember fondly the early 70's when a large group of "hippies" come to stay in Ojai. Was one of them you? They would hang out on the arches soaking up life. I was in awe, being 16 years old and having grown up in Oak View (or Oakie View as we called it). The first time I smoked the green stuff was there in the park leaning against the wall of the arches with all the hippies thinking I was cool, instead of the wanna be I was. I also fondly remember riding my bike (stingray-hell to pedal) to Matilija swimming hole, stealing oranges on the way, and hanging out with all the hippies and bikers. I'd then ride my bike back home, clean up and go to work at the Oak View A&W. As teenagers we were miserable in that sleepy little town of gas stations and bars. Now that I look back I realize I have some pretty good memories. Thanx for the new perspective.

Hi Laura, I enjoyed your story too! We felt the same way about sleepy Meiners Oaks. Those A&W Rootbeer floats sure were good! My next installment will be "40 Years Ago in Ojai." When I took the bus back from San Francisco to Meiners Oaks I remember walking home down Rice Road, after being in the City for so many months, and realizing how very, very quiet and beautiful it was.

turn on, tune in and drop-out... ?

wake up, wake up, wake up...

Really,

I agree with the Ole St. Nickle Lid(good joke btw) I'm not sure it's the best thing to be nostalgic for a past that accomplished very little when you look at it. The phrase "turn on, tune in and drop out" was basically the last thing that generation should have been trying to do. I guess first they were hippies, then they became high-powered, coke fueled, beamer pilots who voted for Reagan and now they count George W. Bush among their number ranks. I'm not sure there has ever been a more self indulgent generation and I doubt histoory will be kind once they stop being the ones who program television and radio.

Well I certainly don't agree with much of what you just said FTBB. I like your handle, despite your black and white willingness to negate the achievements of a generation that freed the American population from a war without just cause that took about 50,000 lives and near a quarter of million wounded.

That was only the American casualties, the North and South Vietnamese casualties were in the millions, not including what we did in Laos, in Cambodia. By the way, that war was started by the upstanding generation that spawned the FBB, much like the power circle that makes the president's narrow band of self righteous but damned if they know it, monks of stupidity.

It was my Father's generation that stopped the Nazis and the Emperor.
But I don't paint my father's generation, as a whole, with the collours of those who started the Vietnam war, no more than you should paint us FBBs. for some perceived slights to your being by some of us.Not cool man.

It was the FBBs that made our government implement environmental law, codes, regulations that allowed you and what ever gen you belong to, to have a much better life than you would otherwise have for you and your very own children.

Those children have a better chance of surviving many different forms of cancer today, because some wall sitting pot smoking FBBs went to college, moving on towards a work we all should be thankful for.

You should be thankful that the space age that was started by my Dad's generation, was continued by the FBBs. For your life has many creature comforts derived from my generations research making further space exploration possible. From your modern tv, coffee maker, metal coatings in cook ware, microwave ovens, the circuitry for your cars environmental controls. The list is endless.

What you found so funny in the post above yours was, ironically what was actually taking place back in the day that 'turn on, tune in, drop out' pop phrase was exalted. You see, the people had been given a 'bad rap' by 'the man' when they questioned authority concerning the war and some other issues of the time. Much like those of today who early on criticized the Bush plan for confrontation over rational thinking, partisan dogma over considered evidence, they were attacked. Some found themselves being harassed by the governmental agencies, slandered in the press, without the press at large defending or questioning their being used as accomplices.Their employers contacted by governmental investigators.Indeed, it didn't stop with those outside of government, they exposed one of their own spies for revenge.

They were being overwhelmed by what was going on, and those four who died at Kent State were very much awake the instant before they were shot dead by soldiers, who were there to stop an earlier generations gift to them, to assemble and protest in a peaceful manner against a government, that persistently took advantage with power over those alert to their wrong doings.

I'm a FBB and proud of my generations contributions to this world. ?How would you describe your generation?

Hey FTBB,

How 'bout this - you don't blame an entire generation for Reagan and Bush, etc. and we won't blame yours for road rage, violent lyrics, rude cashiers across America, reality TV, Paris-mania, school shootings....(shall I continue?)

There's enough blame to go around for all of societies' ills. The big challenge is to come together and collectively face these problems head on and try to solve those that we can, not with anger or blame but with fully engaging with one another openly and honestly - across racial, gender, cultural, geographical, and yes - generational boundaries. But perhaps most important is the ability of your generation to try to learn how to avoid repeating mistakes that were unfortunately made in the past. I ultimately have faith that you'll succeed - do you?

Tune in, turn on, drop out. That is the best prescription for a better world today. It is the most threatening one for the Bushies, etc. Fight them all day long, they love you, you help them.

Tune in, turn on, drop out - whoa, you're not giving them more money, you're not working for them, you're not engaging them at all. They've just become irrelevant and powerless. And you've just gotten a life. And you've just pushed delete on the "us and them, good vs. evil" dynamic that drives every sort of war crime and empowers every war criminal, whether it is Mai Lai or Abu Ghraib, or whether their name is Johnson, Nixon, Reagan or Bush.

Tune in, turn on, drop out was and still is perhaps the most powerful prescription for direct revolutionary action ever put out. The failure of the sixties, if there was a failure, and the failure of every generation since, is that more people haven't followed it.

I enjoyed your story - I love SF. I agree, you can't blame entire generations for anything.

I wasn't around (yet), but it sure seems there was a lot more truth and love and community going around back then in the H/A (especially early on) than there is in most places today.

I'll add one more thing. In the background of my thinking when writing above, was the foreground, of those FBBs of the 50s, 60s and 70s, had pushed open for themselves. They sought a closer connection with nature, some with nature and god. This bohemian life is what was ridiculed by many and still is by some. It is this life, I believe by the courageous few, that spawned many of the environmental concepts adopted by society at large. Also, many cottage industries, such as organic farming, that serve to improve anyones life if they so chose to take part.

So if a few still have the courage to over come some ridicule in sharing of a time, a time so influential in their lives, and certainly in yours, mine and our children's, you should sit back, be mature enough see what it is they are conveying to you, it's your history whether you like it or not.

good morning star 'childs'!

look at you -- look at the wondrous postings here -- the spirit of our returning to Mother Nature is strong --

the cycle of the turning has come again, this time for all, for a WHOLE planet awakening to the true 'whole-sum' meaning of love!

aquarius -- the age of empowered 'knowing'! leaving behind the two thousand years of servile 'believing'!

never again to be enrolled in provincial ignorance and perversity ...

As I read all your words, I am smiling,smiling,smiling! I can feel my heart center expanding and the sun shining bright in my chest. Stay close to mother nature and her eternal laws will protect you. The Planet is crying out for human beings to drop-out of the consumer society, live lightly on the earth , tune inward and turn on to the beauty of life.

I like your "reinterpretation" of the mantra, Suza. Coming of age in the 70's and not the 60's, I never could quite wrap my head around the phrase - especially the "drop out" part, which always appeared to me to be more apathetic and non-engaging than I aspired to be. I, like many, misunderstood Leary's meaning and intent. I can, however, fully embrace your lovely translation above.

Thank you LTOR, Namaste.

Great Music Video to celebrate generations... No matter when you were born.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

You see, that's the spirit of Rock 'n Roll! It knows no boundaries. That's just what those people in the old folks homes need!

ElecktroShakti -- Prophecy for Seven Seven --
a Forty Year Echo from 1967, the Summer of Love!

abstracted from the WorldNet, 25 April 2007

Prophecy July 2007

"Child, precious child, this ripe pear represents
Australia and the Epiphany fruit that she is bringing
forth. Sun's holy fire has become a catalyst within
her land for the seeds of revival to bud and flourish.
She is sending holy light to clarify and to save.
She will not allow her Australian children to be
robed in compromise."

"The impact of solar changes on humankind's
evolution." A new future will begin in the four
years from July, 2007 to July, 2011.

"I will set you free from the fear of the control
of men, We will do it, you, I and all others.
Now we complete this."

All the peoples of the world shall be bent and
remember to return their attentions to the Earth.
All the families of the nations shall bow
down and worship the newly returned divinity.

The Church of the SubGenius Predicts End of
the World in July 2007
http://www.clickpress.com/releases/Detailed/24392005cp.shtml

The Temple and the Second Coming : The Prophecy
Points to Christ's Return this Summer .. July 2007

Prophecy 2007
The new Hebrew month of Av; Shabbat Hazon -
Fri, 20 July 2007 at sundown:
Shabbat before Tish'a B'Av
(Shabbat of Prophecy/Shabbat of Vision).

July 2007 -- big beginning of the new 'world-scene'.

July 17, 2007 at 11:11 GMT
http://www.firethegrid.com/eng/links.htm

In Europe the Holy Spirit fire will blossom.
Institutional walls will fall down and be replaced
with walls of love, peace, hope and encouragement.
Religious conforming ways will give way to the
way of nature, of truth and life. Faces of sadness
will turn into faces of joy. Heaviness will turn
into holiness. Signs and wonders will increase
in great proportions. We will see a great song
of glory emerge from the regions of this continent.
Where there has been doubt, hopelessness and defeat,
we will see encouragement, happiness, and delight.
Children will cry out for healthy cities and see
immediate results. The Elders will step forward
and be honoured. Translations and transformations
will become everyday commonplace. The spiritual
realm will return to the vision of all the people.
Prophetic dance will increase and love for a
whole world will be revealed in all undertakings.
Teens will be filled with happiness and hope.
Sorrow will transcend. A grounded spirit of youth
is emerging that speaks for all life on our planet.

In 2007, we endure the final and aemotional 9-month
travail of Saturn's loud transit through Leo — a
fundamental astrological electrodynamic that severs
all relationships and agreements . Under Saturn's
transit of Leo in 1947-1948, British-subjugated
India unvraveled, and partitioned itself into
two new states, the 'multi-Hindu' India and
Islamic Pakistan.

The final transit of Saturn through the last ten
degrees of Leo begins this June and ends in
September 2007. That is when these winds of
change will run deepest.

Lesson's unlearning resound across herstory's
musical measure of 40 years in a karmic echo.
Some say she repeats herself. Today's lessons
will playback forward, back to the future. Pass
past forward picking up all of the portions.
The melodies will be different, as we hear the
layering of the chords for the first time, and
all the melodies are brought together in one
unimagined great harmony.

We will practice the "song" of karma until we
get her story whole, right.

Lots and lots of practicing is coming in the
years 2007 and 2008 for they reverberate with
lessons turned upside down from 40 years earlier
in 1967--1968. 40 years ago, the Young Generation
talked about flower power. Today they will stop
talking and start fueling their industry with
flower power.

Starting in 2007-2008 North Americans will shift
the power from the government/corporate system
back to geographical regions and communities. It
has been seen that the fraud of 'democracy' can
no longer be sustained in an era of universal
communication and inter-dependence.

A true-er democratization of the internet will
be the greatest aevolution, to take place in
these next two years. How we browse and reach out,
how we are FEEL and are "reached" in these 24 months
will define the shape of a bio-techno organic worldbody
redefining all things formerly 'human'. You and your
lightworker, activist, community service partners
worldwide are becoming the living template -- heart,
mind, body, kundalini -- of a loving consciousness,
a being, spanning the planet gaia who has given
her birth.

What names will she be given? Has she been given?
SoverAnia, Mashiack, Ma-shakti ...

Electric, feminine, all encompassing ... this child
of you and I, all-gathering ... a chakra, a shock,
never before imagined or experienced.

Coming to the 'Big Screen', as early as July 2007?

~~
~~~

There are so many things happenings that some might
call 2007 the "century of a year" rather than the
year of the century!

Begun with this year and running through 2008, we
cross a line drawn in the stars between the
"masculine" and the "feminine" of one very long
"day" of a cosmic orbit. This "day" also marks the
end and the beginning of two great ages. Many are
quite enamored with signifying the year 2012 as
the end of time and history as we know it by
calculations and prophecies of the Mayan
Calendar. Events in 2012, however Earth-shaking,
are but an afterthought or a continuance of
what began in 2007--2008.

The events of the Mayan Calendar are happening
right now. Choices are being made, or avoided by
individuals and tribes alike reverberating in
karmic consequences, guiding destiny in the short
term in cosmic orbits of the next 36 years, the
next 2,000 years in the medium term, and finally,
for the long term in the next 26,000 years as a
grand revolution of Earth's cosmic journey!

The 26 Moons of 2007 and 2008 are seeing destiny
take new turns for the entire human race. We now
enter the cusp or verge in past and future herstory.
We will see in the next two years the influence
of the vanquished Piscean Age accelerate its shift
into the vibrations and destinies ever more
dominated by this Aquarian Age. These 2,000-year
periods are but "months" in what is called in
prophecy, The Grand Cosmic precession. That is
the time it takes the Vernal Equinox to precede
backwards from our point of view on Earth in a
complete circle through the twelve constellations
of the Zodiac. It is in Western Prophecy the
largest of all time cycles. Not only are we passing
into a new cosmic month-long "age" but also the
New Year's Eve "party" celebrating a New Cosmic
Year. We are now entering a new cycle of nearly
26,000 normal years. The next 22 Moons will mark
the shift away from the old, male, historic and
childish humanity of the past grand cycle in favor
of the birth of a mature and spiritually balanced
humanity shining with enlightenment in the coming
grand cycle. Human potential encased in 26,000
years of the savage, will at last flower
to Human "reality."

As we can come back to living in harmony with
Earth, there is a more obvious shift taking
place of the direct and personal consequences
in our lives. Starting in 2007, we entered what
is a sunset of the cosmic yang passing into the
sunrising of the cosmic yin through 2008. Near
future herstory goes through this 72 year cycle
of 36 year "day" and 36 year "night" in a 24
cosmic hour period. Putting it another way,
the rhythm or heartbeat of herstory beats
every 36 years.

We have lived in the monofrequency light of
servitude and unconscious procreation for the
last "beat" of 36 years. Now the onset of 36
years of rainbow "cosmic yin" approaches. The
masculine coercive provincialism is over, the
feminine multicultural phase begins. Now we
will nourish and grow what was understood from
the previous wisdoms of the fields of knowledge
of all peoples of all times. How fully we are
realized will in great measure be defined by
the gentility and calm which we bring to the
individual and collective voices and choices,
actions and opportunities taken in these
remaining 22 Moons of the "twilight" between
cosmic day and night.

Dawn of the true morning of the whole light!

Wow! It may take us awhile to absorb and consider all this. Thank you!

"When the Supreme Shakti of her own will takes the form
of the universe and looks at her own throb, then the
Chakra comes into being" (Yogini Hrdaya)

May the Joy of Shakti simply flow.

thank you, Suza!

it was a wonderful journey to be sure,
my trip around the world-net, collecting
these 'there-becoming-here' bits!

Millennium

Our 'First-Summer" is upon us!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JHPP8hThkUE

~~
~~~

oh infinite spirits, great and small,
come hither now, heed our call

sun and smoke, wind and water,
fertile stone, electric laughter

assemble your magicks,
thy awakening tricks

take us from that dark lurking past,
bring on present bright, truth at last

kick away those false legs,
propping up the nothing-ness,
and let us fall into each other,
the all-thing-ness!

spirit, persona, consciousness, heartmind ...

the collective WE connecting ...

connecting ..

connecting .

Let the Sunshine In!

Not sure where to post this but could not see "So We End As We Began...." on the home page...