Beatniks and Hippies

Experimentation with Other Worlds was big back in the day.

Back in the 1960s, St. Mike (Freddie Santinelli) used his Ampex to record chunks of albums that he bought at Wallich’s Music City and sometimes from rare records dealers.

He would construct a one-hour and sometimes two-hour “trip tape”, his own mix of talk and music and audio odditites, into a guided meditation. At this time, LSD was totally legal, and he had a large bottle of the stuff in the fridge.

His public was the crowd of hippies and beatniks and acid-heads that converged on his office, which was table #2 at the International House of Pancakes on Sunset, across the street from Hollywood High School, and around the corner from the Blue Grotto coffee house, where I did tarot readings from time to time.

The owner of the Blue Grotto was a friend of ours, and Mike often sat at the reading table, sometimes offering his own suggestions about the tarot reading.

I’m starting my videos today with one of my friend Donovan, whom I first met at Downtown Community School, in the company of my music teacher, Pete Seeger.

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zeroids over montparnasse

The thing is, I don’t even have to write much anymore — there’s always a youtube that says whatever it is just fine, like yesterday’s blog, which had three different night show hosts, each stating the obvious: if all Presidents have Total Immunity, why couldn’t Biden send his troops to arrest and imprison, or why not shoot, the guy, before Trump takes office?

Sure, it’s obvious once you say it — sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander — but try to come up with that argument in court, while things are popping. It didn’t come up, but why not entertain the thought. Continue reading