Have you seen the new Summer of Love exhibit about psychedelic art and the times that influenced it at the Whitney Museum? In the lingo of the times, it’s a real blast man. Strolling through the exhibit, I began to wonder just what the library’s video collection could offer to those reminiscing or learning about those times besides Hair, a too obvious choice. So here are just a few ideas.
Our movie collection offers such classics as Easy Rider featuring a soundtrack filled with songs of the times and Alice’s Restaurant. The hottest movie of 1967, The Graduate, certainly alluded to the changing times. Later movies such as The Rose staring Bette Midler featured a character based on Janis Joplin and The Doors focused on the life of another 60’s music legend, Jim Morrison. And there are videos on two artists closely associated with the times, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol. Of course, if you like animation, choose the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
Naturally, the collection also includes documentaries produced about the first Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock. For those interested in the life and musical poetry of Bob Dylan we offer No Direction Home and Don’t Look Back. And as I learned at the Whitney exhibit, lore has it that the phrase flower power was coined after the popular beat poet Allen Ginsberg encouraged peace marchers to use “masses of flowers” as a symbol of protest.
So get out your tie -dyed shirt and torn jeans (or borrow them from a hip teenager) and watch one of the films mentioned above.