Admittedly I was probably a bit young for the actual Summer of Love. I was 12 in 1967, which is the year they are using as the 50th anniversary. In that summer I was between 6th and 7th grade and going to a Catholic school. Not much chance of free love or drug culture there, although I suspect some of my classmates might have been more adventurous than I. Anyway, my husband was four years older than I and that made him a teenager at that time, not in Catholic school for sure and definitely more experimental than I was. He was very interested in seeing some of the Summer of Love exhibits around San Francisco so we went to the DeYoung Museum to catch one of them before it ended on August 20.
In front of the museum they had street signs depicting the difference in the last 50 years:
In the entryway there were tons of button messages on the windows:
Once inside there were rooms and rooms filled with the clothes, posters and other artifacts from the Summer of Love.
Some of these clothes I would love to have. Perhaps I am a hippie in spirit after all!
Love the fringe on the jackets
and the big bell sleeves
I can imagine this being very heavy to wear for a long period. No wonder she is sitting!
I want this dress!
And this coat
Jerry Garcia's Hat
Cool boots, no?
There were pictures of the rock and roll groups of the times:
Jimi Hendrix
Santana
Grace Slick and Janis Joplin
There were signs explaining different aspects of the culture and significance of sayings:
And posters, posters, posters:
These were in a black light room and were kinda cool the way they changed shapes.
There was a whole room with posters covering every spot on the wall and ceiling.
In fact, to be honest my husband was kind of disappointed in the exhibit. He thought that it was too focused on the posters, clothes and photographs. We did not pay the extra to get the audio tour and maybe that would have made some difference, although I don't really see how. Everything had plaques with a description of what was being shown so we could read all about it, rather than listening to someone tell us the same thing. There was a room with bean bag chairs and music playing so you could sit down and get the feel of what it was like to experience a concert but I think if I had tried to sit on one of them I wouldn't have been able to get up - these old bones you know?
The hippie
I dressed the part, don't you think?
It took us about an hour or so to go through the whole thing. When we were done we drove around the actual Haight Ashbury district and I got a few pictures of interesting sights:
The real street sign
Painted building
?Drug culture?
Not the Painted Ladies but still kinda cool houses.
Not quite sure what goes on here but I made my husband go around the block so I could snag this photo.
He took pictures of a few of the different houses he lived in when growing up in San Francisco. That was not one of them :) All in all it was a very fun day.
What do you think? Were you a hippie at heart? In San Francisco during that time period? Love to hear about it!
We had two adventures this weekend! Friday night we went to The Mountain Winery and saw the Fab Four, a Beatles Tribute band. They were pretty darn good. They were very accommodating and allowed pictures so I was able to get some very nice shots.
Of course we took the "Concert Photo" that we always take at our concerts.
They were introduced by "Ed Sullivan." This guy was pretty funny as an impersonator.
They really try to make you feel like you are listening to the Beatles, complete with period appropriate costumes.
While the performers (Ron McNeil (John), Ardy Sarraf (Paul), Gavin Pring (George) and Joe Bologna (Ringo)) play all their own instruments and actually do the singing, I think that Gavin looks very close to George Harrison and Ron McNeil is a pretty close John Lennon. Ardy Sarraf has Paul's mannerisms down pat and at times resembles Paul. Joe Bologna (IMHO) does not look at all like Ringo but he does a pretty good job of playing those drums and getting into the act.
I had never seen this at the Winery before but there was a "signer" for some hearing impaired people in the audience. She was really good at getting the energy into her signing and was almost as much fun to watch as the show itself.
Here is "With Love from me to you."
I tried to get some pictures of each of their costume changes.
"Ringo and John"
"Paul and George"
"Ed Sullivan" making a reference to Richard Nixon not looking so bad these days as a President.
I think my favorite of their costume changes is the Sgt. Pepper's Band. The costumes are so colorful.
You can see here that "Paul" has on two pairs of pants to be able to make the quick changes.
Here's a bit of Sgt. Pepper:
Very moving rendition of "Imagine," complete with the lighting of the crowd's cell phones. Perfect message for the things going on in this world.
"George" did a moving rendition of "Here Comes The Sun." Don't you think he looks a lot like the Beatle? My husband was disappointed he chose that song as opposed to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
If you like the Beatles and have never seen the Fab Four, I would definitely recommend the experience. It was the perfect intro for our next adventure, a trip to San Francisco to see the Summer of Love Expo at the De Young Museum. That post coming soon!
How about you? Like the Beatles? Got a favorite song? Share!
I am finding it so easy this month to get my pictures in for the 365 project. I am sure it's because I have a prompt to work with every day thanks to Susannah Conway and the August Break. I'm going to have to put my mind to it and look through past challenges and get some prompts ready for next month. Here we go:
#226 - Vintage - I started an album of my family and then I found a lot more pictures to include. I have to get with my mom and have her tell me who is in some of them and about what time they were taken. I want to preserve these memories for my kids.
#225 - I crave...A nice warm slice of blackberry pie. Raspberry would work as well. I may have to break down and get one otherwise I might start eating things I don't want just to compensate. We all deserve a treat once in a while, right?
#224 - Love note -- I carry these in my wallet. They are each well over 20 years old, the handwritten one is the oldest. I wish I had put a date on it when I got it. I've written about the Love Angel before. I am very lucky to have such a romantic husband!
#227 - Dragon - This program is taking away my transcription work. I realize it is of value to people with disabilities and arthritis issues but for the doctors to do their own dictation is just not fair! On the up side, since I am not spending all my time typing reports anymore, I have time to create and blog. If I can start generating some income from that, life will be great!
#222 - Lavender - I love this desk caddy from Totally Tiffany. It makes it so easy when I am in the middle of working on a project to put my things in the holders. It keeps it easier to clean up after also since I can corral the scraps in there as well. It will be good to use if I go away to do a crop too since space there is always limited.
#228 - Favorite color - I like so many colors and color combinations. Most of the time I gravitate to oranges but I loved the way these two came together on the wipe I used to clean some stamps.
And that's it for another week. Can't believe it's the middle of August already! What do you think of my pictures? What's your favorite color? Anybody need a transcriptionist?
