The Rebirth of the Hippies
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 10:33 am
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainmen ... es/397739/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
“That was my problem with the whole thing,” says Joe. “There’s no growth for people if they’re continuously on drugs. It started out with all this higher thinking—expanding your mind to become more conscious of what’s really going on in the universe. But once the drugs took over, all of those big ideas disappeared.”
The Death of the Hippies
The photographer Joe Samberg remembers how drugs destroyed the Telegraph Avenue scene.
“What I find really interesting about this picture is the people standing on the sidelines,” says Joe. “The guy on the right, with the Dutchboy haircut, is trying to be a peacemaker. Then you go all the way to the left, and you see this guy in a tie-dyed shirt just kind of like, ‘Ho hum, this is interesting,’ smoking his cigarette. Then there are the three black girls holding onto each other, really pulling for the black guy, Archie, to win. And then there’s one of the young white girls, Vanessa—the thing that seems to fascinate her is how the black girls are so anxious about the fight. Archie did win the fight, incidentally, but really, both of these guys just sort of collapsed from fatigue.” (Joe Samberg)
Left: Kids walk up the steps of the “Telegraph Hilton,” a run-down boarding house above a clothing store called Rag Theater. Right: Two guys trip together on the curbside. “My dad sent me $200 a month, which I used to pay rent for an apartment my brothers and I shared. I managed to eat for almost nothing. There were places where you could get rice plates for a dollar, and a lot of days, one of those was all I ate.” (Joe Samberg
“You see these kids drinking Southern Comfort? Those two bottles appeared and disappeared in what couldn’t have been more than two minutes. These kids were 13, maybe 14. But they just consumed anything that would come their way.” (Joe Samberg)
Left: A Christlike figure perches on a garbage can. Right: A top-hat-wearing local character called Groovy (since deceased) parades down the avenue with some of his many friends. “There was still this spark of an idea of a new society, a better way to live. But all of that was on the decline.” (Joe Samberg)
Protesters tear down the chain link fence surrounding People’s Park. “In our house, there were always socialist publications lying around,” says Joe. “I read them all and I understood it all. I just never really believed in it to the same extent as the rest of my family.” (Joe Samberg)
Over time, Joe says he watched “mind-expanding” drugs give way to more and more heroin. “I never had the wherewithal to be a full-fledged drug addict,” says Joe. “I never had enough money. And I was never willing to sell my camera.” (Joe Samberg)
more...
“That was my problem with the whole thing,” says Joe. “There’s no growth for people if they’re continuously on drugs. It started out with all this higher thinking—expanding your mind to become more conscious of what’s really going on in the universe. But once the drugs took over, all of those big ideas disappeared.”
The Death of the Hippies
The photographer Joe Samberg remembers how drugs destroyed the Telegraph Avenue scene.
“What I find really interesting about this picture is the people standing on the sidelines,” says Joe. “The guy on the right, with the Dutchboy haircut, is trying to be a peacemaker. Then you go all the way to the left, and you see this guy in a tie-dyed shirt just kind of like, ‘Ho hum, this is interesting,’ smoking his cigarette. Then there are the three black girls holding onto each other, really pulling for the black guy, Archie, to win. And then there’s one of the young white girls, Vanessa—the thing that seems to fascinate her is how the black girls are so anxious about the fight. Archie did win the fight, incidentally, but really, both of these guys just sort of collapsed from fatigue.” (Joe Samberg)
Left: Kids walk up the steps of the “Telegraph Hilton,” a run-down boarding house above a clothing store called Rag Theater. Right: Two guys trip together on the curbside. “My dad sent me $200 a month, which I used to pay rent for an apartment my brothers and I shared. I managed to eat for almost nothing. There were places where you could get rice plates for a dollar, and a lot of days, one of those was all I ate.” (Joe Samberg
“You see these kids drinking Southern Comfort? Those two bottles appeared and disappeared in what couldn’t have been more than two minutes. These kids were 13, maybe 14. But they just consumed anything that would come their way.” (Joe Samberg)
Left: A Christlike figure perches on a garbage can. Right: A top-hat-wearing local character called Groovy (since deceased) parades down the avenue with some of his many friends. “There was still this spark of an idea of a new society, a better way to live. But all of that was on the decline.” (Joe Samberg)
Protesters tear down the chain link fence surrounding People’s Park. “In our house, there were always socialist publications lying around,” says Joe. “I read them all and I understood it all. I just never really believed in it to the same extent as the rest of my family.” (Joe Samberg)
Over time, Joe says he watched “mind-expanding” drugs give way to more and more heroin. “I never had the wherewithal to be a full-fledged drug addict,” says Joe. “I never had enough money. And I was never willing to sell my camera.” (Joe Samberg)
more...
