Tags: 60's psychedelia, avantgarde, meredith monk
Tag Archives: 60’s psychedelia
“Celebration at Big Sur”- Baird Bryant and Johanna Demetrakas
28 Mar“Celebration at Big Sur” is a 1969 film documenting the Folk Festival at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA. You can find the entire film in bits on youtube and it’s available as a DVD. In this 9 minute clip, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young perform “Down by the River”. The performance starts at about 49 seconds into the clip, but there is a lot of good vintage hippy stuff before and after the music.
After spending last week travelling the California coast, I’m in total Pacific Ocean bliss. I love seeing all the aerial shots of the coastline in this film almost as much as I love David Crosby’s fringe jacket and Stephen Stills’ geometric poncho. The Esalen Institute is still around. You can sign up for self actualization workshops and retreats through their website.
I took these photos last year at a campground in Big Sur. You can see the bridge in the first photo in the aerial shots. What I didn’t get a photo of, was the terribly cute sea otter that would swim around the cove with a seagull perched upon his little belly.
Robert Breer – Blazes
24 Oct
This experimental animation form 1961 seems to be made of imagery coming from the subconscious… It’s abstractness (of the visuals and sounds) makes it hypnotic, in it’s own “epileptic-ish” way.
Brian Jonestown Massacre – Illuminomi
13 OctA bewitched music video to Brian Jonestown Massacre’s “Illuminomi” made with bits out of legendary director Kenneth Anger’s classic 1964 “Scorpio’s Rising”.
The dark side of psychedelia… Brought to you by Andy Warhol
15 Aug
The pop artist Andy Warhol created in the mid-Sixties the “Exploding Plastic Inevitable”, a series of multimedia shows featuring his experimental films, dancers (and actors) from his Factory, and performances by the band The Velvet Underground, who were managed by him.
The show, as it was seen live, must have been a very trippy, freaky experience. This did fit the experimental attitude of The Velvet Underground who, in an age of the “flower power” and “Peace & Love”, touched darker and edgier subjects in their lyrics and avant-garde sounds in their music.
Gems from the German Psychedelic Underground: Amon Düül II
14 AugThis is one remarkable find in the youtube galaxy: early footage of Amon Düül II performing psychedelic punk freak-outs blended with beautiful shots of a strangely solemn german countryside. As far as I know the camera is operated by a young Wim Wenders.
Bonus track:
It’s All Too Much
25 Jul
A colorful and imaginative clip for the Beatles’ psychedelic song, It’s All Too Much. Have fun in Pepperland :^)
The Daily Psychedelic Video 