THOUGHTS ABOUT THE 60’S/THE MUSE

In just a few days my new book, THE MUSE, will be available. For all of those who lived during the era of the 1960’s it will be a very enjoyable read. For those of you who did not, it will still be fun, and it will give you an idea of how the era REALLY “felt” from the firsthand experience of yours truly.

For some reason the 1960’s is a very popular decade to the contemporary society, and especially to the youth and the younger adults. Oddly, they have attempted to, in a trivial and shallow way, romanticize the 60’s for use in their own cultures today. And it was, indeed, a very romantic time to be alive, but NOT for the reasons that are being touted today.

People today are extracting the wrong elements from the 60’s for their romance. They seem to believe that what makes the 60’s wonderful and worthy of their imitation are the more visible and radical things about it: the hippie movement, the anti-war movement, the music, the drug culture … But they are sorely mistaken in those beliefs. Those were the darker experiences that are only known today because, as usual, darker experiences are what get the attention of the media. Those things were not what most of the youth of that day and age were actually experiencing, or putting their hopes and dreams in. And those things were certainly not what most of the youth of that day were exhibiting in their own lives. There were parts of the Midwest where the youth never even heard the word “hippie” expressed. Millions of young people never heard of Janis Joplin or any of the characters that would eventually be manufactured into saints for the modern world. Just because something is blown out of proportion by the media, does not make it a reality.

The 60’s was, indeed, a time of romantic experimentation and discovery. But the REAL and TRUE image of the 60’s was not to be found in pathetic and shiftless rock stars, or in violent agitators stirring up peaceful protests during media invented scenarios. The REAL ROMANCE was found in the every day lives of those who were simply, and peacefully, LIVING within an era that was generating an energy frequency different than any that had ever come before.

Some chose to distort that creative energy into what formed those darker things that made the news, while others quietly joined with the energy and rode along for a few years in their own personal exploration and discovery. THE MUSE speaks little of the darker surface … but goes beneath the superficial tabloid views and shares the brighter TRULY ROMANTIC energy with all those who desire to separate TRUTH from fiction, and who will take the time to read it.The Muse_Abstract

NEW “ART” BOOK COMING SOON

I have completed a new book that is now in the final formatting stages for publication. It should be available on amazon.com before the end of this month (March 2016).

I will not give the title of the book until it in published form, but I will tell you that it is a fun read. A bit different than my other books, it deals with the rather lighthearted subject of ART. Many years ago I was a full time artist living in Southern California. I am still an artist but I now reside in the Midwest, and believe me, my location today and the contemporary times, are MUCH different than what you will experience in the book. The new book chronicles my life during one year, 1968, taken directly off the pages of a Journal which I kept religiously and still keep to this day.

The book is about ART. Not famous artists or famous Art galleries, but young artists coming of age during one of the most colorful eras of human history. An era that will never come again. The book is loaded with photos placed strategically throughout, and it is very hard to put down once you begin to read it.

From the back cover: “A captivating page-turner for those who look fondly back upon the 60’s and especially for all “art people” everywhere. But even if you are not an artist you will love following along with the author as he interacts with the people and events of those long gone times.” 10480171_731914006877199_3268400716327027043_n