Hillary Clinton was 18 in ’65. By ’75 she and the baby boom generation had their grips on the power class of America. Of course good ol’ boys from the oil rich south, or prim & proper Penelope’s from upper east side Manhattan hadn’t moved on yet. They didn’t know their time was up. In fact, they didn’t believe it ever could be.  But…

The educated and entitled (for the times) youth, came.  With cries of freedom, protest songs & riots, hippy love-ins and new ideas for a better life.  A unique inability to see anyone’s side but their own… but it was hard to deny them their anger.  Vietnam was looming like an enemy cloud for anyone to point at and say ‘yeah?  who are you f”ing kidding?’.

The French Film revolution of ’64 influencing the American Film revolution of ’68… Hopper, Peckinpah, Scorsese, Coppola… making Rock Hudson & Doris Day films feel like Kip Winger and Jon Bon Jovi at a Nirvana concert.

Lorne Michaels taking over late night TV after secret threats from Carson and Milton Berle… Johnny went on for some years still, but there are always outliers. Talents, chameleon enough to make it work. The Milty’s and Red Skeltons, well… they were reduced to variety shows the old timers watched. Running on fumes, but it’s really all that was left for them.

The counterculture captured the love and imaginations of the youth and the world. In politics, film, music, TV, fashion and more. They grew their hair, grew their beards, burned draft cards, burned bras, smoked weed, had intellectual arguments… hell one could say they even influenced The Beatles, and they did!

It was a permanent change of the guard. America had been the way it was from post prohibition until this new groovy period, or should I say 35 years to be exact. To hang on any longer to the traditions of their fathers just made no sense. They saw thru it. It had become creepy, glossy, phony, and ‘on the take’. This culture had to go – Bring in the new!

And here we are now. 2025. Hopper directed ‘Easy Rider’ in ’69. Lorne started SNL in ’75. Easy Rider was 56 years ago. SNL, 50.

Is it any wonder we are experiencing change? If then were now, or should I say if now were then, Lorne Michaels and Martin Scorsese would have been red-faced ranting into bullhorns for us to heed the call of the pork-pie hat politics of the 20’s. Rob Reiner would have proclaimed that ‘life was better with real gangsters like Capone, not slick Hollywood mogul types’.  (and he would have been right!) Gloria Steinem would have insisted we hold onto those corsets and undergarments, and never ever let a man see you without your hair in place!

So life is changing. You can feel it. For some, all the better, and others whole-heartedly committed to making it the worst possible experience ever. Nevermind the young girls and women/mothers slain by coyotes and cartels when they had dreamed to have a new life in the promised land of Joe Biden, with torn-down walls and open doors, yet left to survive the run to freedom on their own.  Nevermind the hard working American tax dollars funding one side of the political spectrum under the guise of a thousand different ‘inclusive’ notions.  Forget money laundering to buy homes like jellybeans for our political elite.  The blatant and down right shameful photo-ops at the border.  The pretense that our media was in some ways fair.  The pretense that Hollywood has been in some ways fair.  The notion that any one of these industries produce an ‘artist’ that would ever give up their careers and give it to a non-binary person of color.  No, no… only your job.  Mine takes intelligence and talent that only “I” possess…

Yes, here we are.  Counterculture, give yourself a round of applause, you’ve had a great run.

Now sit down and shut the fuck up.

🙂