Elitist Protesters

Just wondering–why do you guys think that the wealthier students at elite universities led the student protest movements? Professor Aberbach mentioned a while ago that these were the students that could most readily avoid the draft. Why was it that those more affected by the war didn't protest as prominently? Was it the level of education and awareness? Was it the fact that those who enlisted didn't have that many better options to choose from? I think it was a combination of both, but maybe there was something else...

30 year old revolutionary?

I thought that one of the most interesting parts of the "Weather Underground" documentary was when Mark Rudd turns himself in after years of hiding out and his father comments on this by saying something along the lines of "at 30, you get too old to be a revolutionary". As soon as he said this I immediately agreed. I mean wouldn't it be odd to see an over 30 year old revolutionary preaching to young adults, most of them would probably question themselves as to why this old guy is even approaching them. This brings up another question/idea, it seems as though revolutionary ideals are only passionately carried out by the young. I mean look at those revolutionaries now, Mark Rudd is a community college professor and the others just look like normal aged Americans. Does that kind of passion die with the increase of age? I know the situation is different now from what it was in the 60s and 70s, but those same revolutionaries seem conformist now.

The Weather Underground Organization

By: Holly Di Maggio

After watching the documentary on Monday, I found that the actions of the people in the Weather Underground Organization were very hypocritical. Before they broke away from the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), they believed in peaceful protests and wanted to end the war in Vietnam. Once they realized their strategies were not making progress, the people of the Weather Underground started causing violence against society by planting bombs and destructive protests. It was hypocritical for them to fight for peace in Vietnam by creating violence in America.

Do you think that their actions were acceptable in order to prove their point to the American government?

The Evolution of Psychedelia

As we have discussed in lecture and previous readings, musical styles are neither born nor killed—music evolves and grows as a result of a dialogue between past and present. Baring this in mind, I’d like to evaluate the evolution of the psychedelic musical style. Modern bands still use the psychedelic techniques The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Beatles and Quicksilver Messenger Service pioneered in the 1960s. Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, The Apples in Stereo, The Flaming Lips, and The Shins come to mind as possible examples, but there are tons more! As well as elements of psychedelic rock in virtually all musical styles—I’ve included a link to a psychedelic-influenced rap song--"Solo Dolo" by Kid Cudi (this might be a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea) as well as Neutral Milk Hotel's "King of Carrot Flowers Parts 2 and 3".

Why have bands such as these chosen to use pitch-bending, distortion, droning notes, and abstract lyrics and sounds? Are the modern motivations for using these techniques any different from motivations 50 years ago? Think about socio-political driving forces behind music then and now. Do we still feel the need to warp reality now that we did back then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Ypi_7jVR0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqI_O3kIFHM

What happened to the others?...

In this week's readings and in professor Decker's lecture, we see that there is an obvious shift in the Media as new TV genres emerge. Professor Decker showed us several clips which depicted the characters of the shows. Yet, something that I noticed was that the characters/actors of these famous shows were all white. Is this a coincidence? Or was there still a racial barrier? How do you think people of color as well as other cultures were portrayed by television shows? Do you think they played the stereotypical roles of their race? If you can, give examples of specific shows you may know of.

Student Protests

Berkeley is famous for being the center of student protests during the 1960's. Do you believe that in today's society, such student protest movements would still occur? Are there any issues we face today that are worthy of such student activism and do you believe students today would be willing to fight to solve those issues while facing such consequences?

Subterranean Homesick Songs

With all the small side-mentions this week on Bob Dylan's 1965 piece "Subterranean Homesick Blues," I was thinking about Radiohead's 1996 song "Subterranean Homesick Alien," whose title is very likely a reference to the former.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of Dylan's piece, but there is certainly much instrumentation and interesting bluesy riffs. I do also see in it artistic poetry, with short phrases but read with flow. I wonder if he is commemorating art itself, and perhaps those on the outskirts or underground of society. This would be supported by Radiohead's song, in which "alien," on a literal level, refers to extraterrestrials, but perhaps could be a metaphor for the misunderstood, autonomous artist ("I'd show [my friends] the stars and the meaning of life / They'd shut me away"). Another notable and rather relevant aspect of Radiohead's piece is the unnatural, almost psychedelic effects, like some reverb and bending. I'd be interested in hearing more interpretations of the two songs.

Here is Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues":

Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Bob Dylan

Here is Radiohead's "Subterranean Homesick Alien":

Issues That Still Affect Us Today

While I was reading the course reader for this week I found a couple connections between issues that the readings were talking about and issues we still have today, which I thought was interesting.

The first was in the Port Huron Statement, in which the education system is critiqued, saying that much attention "too, is paid to academic status (grades, honors, the med school rat race). But neglected generally is the real intellectual status, the person cultivation of the mind" (158). This greatly reminded me of the way high school seems to be focused these days. High school students care less about actually learning and more about whether they get good grades, they care less about feeling connected to activities than they do having a list of extracurriculars with which to pad their college applications. So too, it seems, was the case in the public school system of the 1960s.

Also on the topic of education, the statement complains about "the administrative bureaucracy" and "under-financed colleges" (159). As students at UCLA, we surely know that these are issues today, when our university depends on the greater UC system in order to receive funding for our education.

The second area in which I found similarity was in "The Vast Wasteland", in which the Chairman of the FCC bemoaned "Why is so much of television so bad?" (53). In the MTV/VH1 dominated era, we have all seen our fair share of consuming, but ultimately worthless television programming. When I saw this question in the reading, it made me wonder, was there ever an era in which television wasn't bad? What happened to good TV? Evidently, both us and TV-watchers of the 60s have the same question.

Psychedelic Scene from Charly

In middle school, I read a short story called "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, about a mentally challenged man who undergoes a surgical procedure to become a genius. In 1967, it was adapted for the big screen under the title "Charly". As with most adaptions, a number of changes were made, but the most apparent one is the inclusion of the psychedelic scene below. It has no equivalent scene in the original story, so it would seem it's inclusion was merely a way for the filmmakers to take advantage of the countercultural zeitgeist.

The rest of the film is available on Youtube, so you can see how abrupt and out-of-place the scene feels compared to the rest of the movie.

Violent Imagery

In both of the documentaries that we have seen now, a lot of what is described is also very graphic. Both had the same clip, which featured the brutal murder of a man with a shot through the head. Many other violent images were shown throughout both of these documentaries.

What purpose do you think having these images serves? The Weather Underground said that they had wanted to wake up America to the atrocities that had been happening around the world and especially in Vietnam. Do you think these clips served the same purpose for us when we watched these documentaries? What would have been the impact without them?

Let the Sunshine In

For those of you who didn't go see Hair last night I decided to post one of the songs,

"Let the Sunshine In" which is from the very moving last scene. This video is from the 1979 version of the film.

The Velvet Underground

In the "Rock and the Politics of Memory" reading, Simon Frith discusses several different bands that contributed to not only his own musical experiences in the 1960s but the bands that contributed to the sound of the 1960s. Towards the end of this reading, he said, "The Velvets' sound was harsh, loud, unpleasant in its use of feedback and screeching; the Velvet's music was made not out of melodies, hooks and choruses but out of riffs, repeated phrases that built up their effects in layers, made their rhythmic and harmonic impact simultaneously." I found this interesting because The Velvet Underground is one of my favorite bands. I thought the following song illustrated this quote very well:

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

And just for fun, this is a video of a concert I went to last year of another one of my favorite bands covering the same Velvet Underground song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5znTz1MnKF0

The Signifiers

I know we're probably all sick of the signifier/signified ideas from last quarter, but while reading an excerpt from the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Wolfe is describing a conversation he has with a young man in the counter culture and how to these people "Everything in everybody's life is...significant" (17). The anecdote involves the young man trying to open a writing surface and is saying that the fact that they make it open out is an invasion into his life by the people who produced it.

This reminded me of our conversations last year about the 'hip' people who signified on others, who lived beyond the straight and narrow, bland meanings of things in the world and were a level above, and thus hip. This story is similar in that now the hippies, the counterculture, appear to be signified meanings onto objects, things, and events that occur, seeing them as more than what they are, of being significant "symbols" with deeper meaning.

I thought this was especially interesting considering what Professor Decker was saying today in lecture about the Beats (the 'hip'sters of the 50s) influencing and even, in certain individuals, becoming the Hippies of the 1960s. Here is at least one piece of evidence for this idea, both the hipsters and the hippies apparently think in the same way, by signifying meaning.

Literacy and Didion

“I am still committed to the idea that the ability to think for oneself depends on one’s mastery of the language, and I am not optimistic about…an army of children waiting to be given the words.” - Didion

There is something almost noble about this statement, but I'm conflicted as to whether or not I agree. A part of me agrees because the high school newspaper was my life for three years, and I have come to appreciate a person's ability to convey his or her ideas effectively. But I disagree with Didion's statement...because I believe that might have be one of the most pretentious sentences I have ever written.

So basically, I agree in the sense that literacy adds legitimacy, but simply being literate does not necessarily mean an argument is justified.

I guess I'm just wondering what others think about this.

Psychedelic Music and LSD

In the Michael Hicks article "Getting Psyched," he explains that scholars analyze how LSD and the psychedelic music "genre" influenced each other. Professor Fink made a good point when he said that it would be very challenging for musicians to play a live show while on LSD. This leads to Hicks point that some scholars question LSD's influence on music. For instance, "'Drugs may have had a lot to do with the periphery...but not really a lot to do with the music itself.'" I think the answer is that the psychedelic rock movement could not have been as profound of a cultural transformation without LSD; however, there is an important misunderstanding in that psychedelic musicians weren't necessarily always high while performing. Instead, they signified on musical techniques in order to associate a constant connection between their music and the experience of LSD. Essentially, psychedelic rock music was "LSD session without the use of drugs." This tool that musicians have: to use music as a signifier for a cultural phenomenon is a powerful one. Are there other examples of this in the history of music? What are some instances where musicians have created new musical techniques that could be so powerful as to make someone feel like they are not just listening to music, but actually doing something else or transformed into a different place, mindset, era?

The Influence of the Beatles

The Beatles are notoriously known for being the band of the 60's as they had a great deal of influence over the American population. However, do you believe their music was the only influence on Americans, or did the fact that they consumed drugs help contribute to the elevated drug use in America during the 1960's?

Howl

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix; angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dyn."

This is a trailer for the new movie Howl based on the Allen Ginsberg poem and the following obscenity trials. I am kind of fascinated with Allen Ginsberg and the whole Beat Generation; in my eyes, it shakes the glorified, mythologized view of the 60's as fun acid trips and all psycadelic grooviness; behind the glamour, the generation was generally lost and wandering around intoxicated trying to make semblance of their broken lives. At least, that's what the literature says to me. I haven't seen this movie yet, but I think it looks promising.

Buffalo Springfield - "For What It's Worth"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5M_Ttstbgs

This song was written during Vietnam. You can hear, like in some of the other early protest songs, a kind of folksy sound.
I liked the lyrics:
"There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind"

Sincerety v. Irony

So I felt that today's lecture was fairly intriguing and that there was a lot of insight to be gained about music or at least the way we personally perceive it. When I look back on what the professor spoke to us about (ie. the misconception or overlooking of sincerity and irony in music) its pretty obvious all the signifiers and signifieds in songs back in the 60s and even those of today. Nevertheless... how easily we go without registering or paying attention to those song details and implications.
Which leads to me to asking, why?

Perhaps we take things too easily for face value?
(ie. Barry McGuire willingly recorded a traditional folk protest song [looks like a duck, must be a duck scenario])

Or is it as the professor demonstrated, we too often over generalize?
(ie. because PF Sloan was 19 when he wrote Eve of Destruction he was therefore sincere when writing the lyrics [youth = sincerety])

I am currently of the opinion that listeners are under the influence of laziness and therefore neglect the obvious sings and signals in songs.I believe that most listeners willingly concede to taking things at face value in order to avoid putting out effort. And when listeners (driven by man's innate instinct to want to categorize/make order of things) do attempt to decipher songs, it is often in a hurried manner that results in a very basic, generic categorization.

So in other words, laziness affects our perception of music?
And if that true, whose to say that this is only limited to the realm of song?

In more ways than one, I'd like to debate that perception directly correlates with laziness.

From Jan 11 (tuesday reading)

Misadventure Revisited by Richard K. Betts

No Optimism page 6

"For a quarter century no U.S President was willing to let Vietnamese Communists conquer South Vietnam - not even Gerald Ford at the end (Congress forced him to accede to the Fall of Saigon)."

Apocalypse Now Introduction

Lisa, it appears great minds think alike!

For some reason the blog will not let me link the video, so here is the url:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4WJlLNIsyY

In AP Literature, during our Heart of Darkness unit, my teacher showed us the movie “Apocalypse Now.” The movie, which takes place during the Vietnam War, mimics the plot of Conrad’s novella, which takes place in the Congo. Both in the Vietnam War and in Conrad’s novella, the intensity of the foreign setting and the disillusionment with the cause inspire “othering” — discriminating and distinguishing between “us” and “them,” or “Americans” and “gooks.”

The introduction of the movie highlights the contradictions and frustrations of the War. The movie is introduced by a song called “The End,” the visuals are violent and a soldier is lying expressionless in bed. The camera shows his head upside down.

Was Vietnam our Congo? Did we as Americans lose not only lives and money and pride, but our morality? Kurtz, the ivory collector’s last words were, “The horror! The horror!” As far as Vietnam was concerned, what were America’s last words?

Scene from Lecture

As our government began to escalate the war in Vietnam, drug use became more prevalent as a response to the violence abroad. Is the Vietnam War primarily responsible for the rise of the counterculture during the mid 1960's-70's?

"The Times They Are a-Changin'' in Watchmen's opening sequence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-T5Yv2Xb4E

This link leads to a video of the opening credits of Zack Snyder's 2009 motion picture Watchmen, in which occurs a sort of downfall of superheroes, the last of whom are living among civilians in an alternate history, set in 1985. The intro depicts a summary of the past decades and back-story leading up to the alternate history's present time, aided by a recording of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'." Relevant events include, in the intro, coverage of the Vietnam War and hints of tension concerning Russia. But most notably, Dylan's song, very appropriately chosen, beautifully accentuates the narrative of the opening sequence and sets a tone to lead into the rest of the film.

The intro interprets "The Times They Are a-Changin'" in a fairly straightforward way. It follows the song's titular theme and takes the audience through the history of the characters and heavily acknowledges that America, along with the world, is changing in many ways: socially, culturally, politically, and so forth. With the song's flowing lyrical verses and minimal instrumental accompaniment, though, I feel like it could be arguable that Dylan's main messages are indeed relayed predominately through the lyrics themselves. At any rate, Watchmen's opening sequence is wonderfully made and masterfully incorporates Dylan's song, and, in my personal opinion, could very well be the highlight of the entire film.

Did morality begin to play a role in people's attitude of the war? Or why then, do you think there was a shift in support and propaganda?

Vietnam War Opposition

One of the common themes in this course is perception versus the reality of the past. Certainly, we all have ideas in our heads about what the 1960s was like. I have found that by focusing on the social, literary, musicological, and political history of the 1960s this course has allowed me to gain a more accurate understanding of what actually happened. I noticed that Professor Aberbach’s lecture on the Vietnam War further validated this idea. His lecture pointed out that that there is a difference between our modern-day perceptions, maybe even stereotypes, of the opposition to the Vietnam War and what actually occurred. For instance, when I think of the opposition to the Vietnam War, I think of unruly college students dressed like hippies causing chaos. Drugs, protests, peace signs, and long hair all come to mind. But as Professor Aberbach pointed out, there is more to the story. What about the other side of the opposition? A sizeable portion of the opposition to the war included people who wanted to increase the war in order to win or get out. Increasing the war is certainly not what the “anti-war” youth movement sought. Many even felt that although they disliked the war, they also disliked the “counter-culture” element of the protesting opposition. In addition, our Mueller reading taught us that although the opposition to the Vietnam War was more vocal, it was not more extensive than the opposition to the Korean War. I feel like the anti-war youth movement has been exaggerated. Do you agree or disagree? Why? It seems as if the way most Americans perceive the opposition to the Vietnam War fails to acknowledge other components to the opposition. Why is this?

Hearts and Minds: Manipulative or Truthful?

A certain scene in the documentary struck me as making a very powerful statement. It first shows a Vietnamese funeral where soldiers are burying what seems to be a Vietnamese soldier. The soldier's grandmother, overcome with grief, tries to jump into the hole to prevent the soldiers from burying her grandson. It then shows the boy's brother who is staring at his brother's picture crying with desperation in his eyes, wishing his brother wasn't dead. Immediately after, the documentary jumps to an interview with General Westmoreland where he says that the Vietnamese don't place as high a value on life as a Westerner does, that life is cheap and unimportant to them. It seems like this contrast is made to portray Westmoreland as ignorant beyond belief. The placement of the two scenes makes the viewer angry at Westmoreland and shines an incredibly bad light on his character. But on the other hand, maybe the documentary's main goal was not to depict Westmoreland like that, but rather to portray America's ignorance and detachment as a whole to what was happening in Vietnam. Maybe this was truly how most Americans viewed the Vietnamese at the time, as savages that didn't care whether a loved one lived or died. What do you think the overall purpose was, and was it achieved?

Vietnam War

The Things They Carried

After watching Hearts and Minds, I wanted to share this novel. I'm sure many of you have read it in high school, since I read it in my senior year for AP English.
The Things They Carried is a fictional account of the Vietnam war by author and narrator Tim O'Brien. The novel speaks on the horrors of the war and the guilt suffered by American youth wounded from the death and dirty nature of a war. O'Brien is one of those that considered fleeing to Canada but due to his "cowardice" decided to face the war rather than be exiled from American society. The book tell on the attidudes of American youth at the time, of the title of man forced on young boys coming right out of high school and sent off to fight a war. This novel is by no means gloried and gives a straightforward account by a war veteran, despite the title of fiction. If you haven't read it before, I definitely recommend this book; I wanted to share it on Friday but I left my copy at home.

"Hair" RSVP

Rather that trying to coordinate this thing via dozens of back-and-forth emails, if you're interested in attending the performance of "Hair" on Sunday, 1/23 (6:30), please leave a comment to this post. I should have a final price in the next couple days.

"Let the sun shine in!"

QMS Song Download

I've hosted the six parts of QMS's "Who Do You Love" on mediafire. Follow the links below to download:

Who Do You Love (Part 1)
When Do You Love
Where Do You Love
How Do You Love
Which Do You Love
Who Do You Love (Part 2)

Class Blog

Welcome to the 1H discussion section blog! Use this space to post your questions and thoughts relating to course content (weekly readings, lectures, music, etc.), or anything else that you'd like to share with the group (links to interesting articles, websites, videos, etc.). Every week, I ask that you engage in some way with the blog, either through posting or through comments to your classmates' posts.

Happy blogging.