everything old is new again

In the summer of 1967, when I was 15, our family summer trip took us to San Francisco. It was an embarrassing time to be wandering the streets with one's parents. I know you've all seen the make-love-not-war photos, so don't worry, I won't get all boomer-nostalgic on you.

My point in bringing this up is that it just occurred to me the other day that we are paralleling the late 60's/early 70's in other ways than the obvious Vietnam/Iraq comparison. Walking around the Haight during the Summer of Love, the sidewalks were papered - literally - from curb to curb with various underground newspapers. They were political, they were poetic, they were psychedelic, and they were free, or at least nearly so. It's funny that I hadn't thought until just a few days ago how similar the feel of that time was to today's lefty blogosphere. Buzzflash, Raw Story, and Truthout: all are linear descendants of the Berkeley Barb, the East Village Other, the Old Mole, the San Francisco Oracle, and the Great Speckled Bird (from, yes, Atlanta, Georgia), only without the funky artwork.