|
What Happened To The Underground Newspapers Of Yesterday?
Did you ever read/see any of the great underground newspapers of the late 1960's - mid 1970's in the US? There was The East Village Other (NY), The Great Speckled Bird (ATL), Black Panther, Berkeley Barb (Berkeley, CA), LA Free Press, The Paper, of East Lansing, Michigan, and many more?
Also, in that same vein, was The Last Whole Earth Catalog. It was a Hippie Sears catalog and more and could be found in most every home. It was all about survival, metaphysics, learning to grow organic, live natural, how to build a shelter and it had the best books. Stewart Brand (Burning Man) was the founder. We've still got one around the house someplace.
I was a faithful Speckled Bird reader. We bought these most of the time from people on street corners in Atlanta; on the corner of 14th St, where all the other freaks hung out. As surely as you'd see a Bird vendor around there, you'd also see someone selling flowers for a small fee to wear in your hair or wherever. And you knew who was selling "what" "where". And someone was in a doorway playing guitar; a few bumming spare change passing by. All waiting for the next musical, sexual, or pharmaceutical experience.
Many college libraries have some of these newspapers on Microfilm. And some are for sale on Ebay. With the internet, I realize those papers may never appear again, but why are there no equivalent websites? I ask you, "Where is that one great liberal balls-to-the-wall website that has it all?" Music, protest and boycott info, great clothes, in-depth interviews, or please pardon me... sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll?
|
