Cultural revolutions

Maggie's Farm had a couple of posts last night on the "Summer of Love" and Woodstock, keying off this essay by Cinnamon Stillwell, which in turn links to Ted Nugent's look back at the Sixties. As you might expect, the Nuge didn't much care for all that hippie stuff:

While I salute and commend the political and cultural activism of the 1960s that fueled the civil rights movement, other than that, the decade is barren of any positive cultural or social impact. Honest people will remember 1967 for what is truly was.

There is a saying that if you can remember the 1960s, you were not there. I was there and remember the decade in vivid, ugly detail. I remember its toxic underbelly excess because I was caught in the vortex of the music revolution that was sweeping the country...Death due to drugs and the social carnage heaped upon America by hippies is nothing to celebrate.

Sadly, because of all the hype and distortion laid down by the media, some of us who came after the "Woodstock generation" had to learn those lessons the hard way, and the learning is still going on today as the damage persists. I sometimes wonder if the popularity of anime and manga, the product of a far more structured culture than ours, is due at some level to a desire for that structure and a rejection of the hedonism of the Sixties that persists today in so much of our pop culture.

Cultural revolutions

Maggie's Farm had a couple of posts last night on the "Summer of Love" and Woodstock, keying off this essay by Cinnamon Stillwell, which in turn links to Ted Nugent's look back at the Sixties. As you might expect, the Nuge didn't much care for all that hippie stuff:

While I salute and commend the political and cultural activism of the 1960s that fueled the civil rights movement, other than that, the decade is barren of any positive cultural or social impact. Honest people will remember 1967 for what is truly was.

There is a saying that if you can remember the 1960s, you were not there. I was there and remember the decade in vivid, ugly detail. I remember its toxic underbelly excess because I was caught in the vortex of the music revolution that was sweeping the country...Death due to drugs and the social carnage heaped upon America by hippies is nothing to celebrate.

Sadly, because of all the hype and distortion laid down by the media, some of us who came after the "Woodstock generation" had to learn those lessons the hard way, and the learning is still going on today as the damage persists. I sometimes wonder if the popularity of anime and manga, the product of a far more structured culture than ours, is due at some level to a desire for that structure and a rejection of the hedonism of the Sixties that persists today in so much of our pop culture.

plans coming together and other optimistic bs

The estimator from Berger (one of the local Allied Van Lines affiliates) showed up this morning bright and early, looked at the piles of boxes and stacks of books, and quoted me a price of about $3500 for the move. About a third of this is labor and packaging costs for boxing up all this stuff, which makes me think I ought to call a packing party for August 8 - just me, some friends, some tape guns, and a lot of cardboard boxes. I don't think the other movers are going to be too far off from that price, but we'll see what they say. Still need to get Merry Maids or somebody to come over next week (or the week of the move) and help me get the place cleaned up.

I am drafting the invites for the farewell party to be held on the 10th. I'm not posting the details here, because I'm not inviting everyone on my f-list. Some of you live out of town and, frankly, some of you in town qualify more as acquaintances and co-workers than friends. That's right: It's my party and I'll snub who I want to*. The job is slightly complicated by the fact that I have -broadly speaking- two sets of friends who don't intersect that much, which means if I'd delegated the invites to stuckintraffik or jolest's SO, some people would be left off the list, and that would be bad. I expect to have the invitations in peoples' e-mail boxes by tomorrow morning, the intarwebs willing.

Tonight I'm having another estimator over and then running downtown to catch the Rakehell crew in performance at the Bedlam Theater. You ought to come too - it's only $8 with your Convergence badge or the coupon.

*Yes, this is a Bored of the Rings reference, but unlike Dildo Bugger I am not celebrating my departure with crates of army surplus explosives. Lauren would be Very Unhappy, and this would be Bad.

plans coming together and other optimistic bs

The estimator from Berger (one of the local Allied Van Lines affiliates) showed up this morning bright and early, looked at the piles of boxes and stacks of books, and quoted me a price of about $3500 for the move. About a third of this is labor and packaging costs for boxing up all this stuff, which makes me think I ought to call a packing party for August 8 - just me, some friends, some tape guns, and a lot of cardboard boxes. I don't think the other movers are going to be too far off from that price, but we'll see what they say. Still need to get Merry Maids or somebody to come over next week (or the week of the move) and help me get the place cleaned up.

I am drafting the invites for the farewell party to be held on the 10th. I'm not posting the details here, because I'm not inviting everyone on my f-list. Some of you live out of town and, frankly, some of you in town qualify more as acquaintances and co-workers than friends. That's right: It's my party and I'll snub who I want to*. The job is slightly complicated by the fact that I have -broadly speaking- two sets of friends who don't intersect that much, which means if I'd delegated the invites to stuckintraffik or jolest's SO, some people would be left off the list, and that would be bad. I expect to have the invitations in peoples' e-mail boxes by tomorrow morning, the intarwebs willing.

Tonight I'm having another estimator over and then running downtown to catch the Rakehell crew in performance at the Bedlam Theater. You ought to come too - it's only $8 with your Convergence badge or the coupon.

*Yes, this is a Bored of the Rings reference, but unlike Dildo Bugger I am not celebrating my departure with crates of army surplus explosives. Lauren would be Very Unhappy, and this would be Bad.

"Remember, X is a variable."

Well, that was eight dollars well spent. qob and the rest of the Rakehell put on a good show at the Bedlam tonight; X Shakespeare Plays In X Minutes was a good combination of parody, stand-up comedy, geek references (there were at least six changes rung on Hamlet) and an occasional reference to the works of that great Klingon playwright, William Shakespeare.

Of course between the play and hanging around afterward to chat with tjstriker and the cast, I didn't get home until a few minutes ago, which means no invitations sent out tonight. So I'll do it tomorrow. That sounds like a pretty good idea to me!

Another moving company rep is coming by in the morning to give me an estimate; the one who was supposed to be here after work phoned it in this afternoon and didn't impress me a damn bit. That fellow may have quoted me the lower of the two prices I've heard so far, but he didn't listen very well and made some pretty questionable assumptions, which I didn't care for. Anyway, tomorrow will be my last day at work, ending a little early and finishing with a happy hour/dinner at Ike's. I've got most of my stuff out already, but I'll take the Sportage in tomorrow so I can pick up some paper boxes for the move as well as remove the last of my stuff - about half a box worth of coffee cups, water bottles, and miscellaneous stuff. Right now it's time for bed, since 0600 comes entirely too early.

"Remember, X is a variable."

Well, that was eight dollars well spent. qob and the rest of the Rakehell put on a good show at the Bedlam tonight; X Shakespeare Plays In X Minutes was a good combination of parody, stand-up comedy, geek references (there were at least six changes rung on Hamlet) and an occasional reference to the works of that great Klingon playwright, William Shakespeare.

Of course between the play and hanging around afterward to chat with tjstriker and the cast, I didn't get home until a few minutes ago, which means no invitations sent out tonight. So I'll do it tomorrow. That sounds like a pretty good idea to me!

Another moving company rep is coming by in the morning to give me an estimate; the one who was supposed to be here after work phoned it in this afternoon and didn't impress me a damn bit. That fellow may have quoted me the lower of the two prices I've heard so far, but he didn't listen very well and made some pretty questionable assumptions, which I didn't care for. Anyway, tomorrow will be my last day at work, ending a little early and finishing with a happy hour/dinner at Ike's. I've got most of my stuff out already, but I'll take the Sportage in tomorrow so I can pick up some paper boxes for the move as well as remove the last of my stuff - about half a box worth of coffee cups, water bottles, and miscellaneous stuff. Right now it's time for bed, since 0600 comes entirely too early.