Going Tribal--circa 1969

This coming August marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. The world of pop culture has been inundated with tchotchkes and fashions that pay homage to the times. Macy's has a Summer of Love Fashion section, full of fringed purses and peace scarves. Old Navy's annual 4th of July tshirt was a peace-sign flag. Target has a whole paper party and candle set themed to "Three Days of Peace, Love and Music." The trend pundits have been writing about a return nostalgia in marketing and advertising, as we seek to reconnect with comfort and thoughts of a simpler time. This peace cake just showed up on my Facebook feed--a "sign" of the nostalgia for those days.

I am anxiosuly anticipating Ang Lee's latest movie, "Taking Woodstock." When asked about the biggest challenge making the movie, Lee said, “The extras... policing them with their attitudes and even their pubic hair.” Lee set up “hippie camp” to teach the background tribes in the finer points of non-grooming. According to the producer, "Finding skinny extras who who didn’t have gym sculpted bodies was especially difficult. When you think about it, a generation of people who weren’t fat, who weren’t staring at themselves in the mirror all the time, and not shaving everything off down there—it captures the difference of 40 years right there.”

I just bought an original LP recording of the Broadway musical, Hair, marketed as "The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical." "Under the sponsorship of Michael Butler, a resourceful and adventurous Chicago," the liner notes describe Butler, who I remember from childhood as a local bon vivant and scion of a family that owned most of the land that eventually became Oak Brook. Described as "a pagan ritual, a theatrical be-in, a happening and a scandal," the album lists Diane Keaton as one of the original cast members. Hair launched other famous careers, including Meat Loaf and David Carradine, who's daughter Martha Plimpton was conceived during the show.

Interested in a blast of tribal from the past? The full cast of the Broadway revival of Hair will be on the Tonight Show with Conan tonite. Or, if you're in the vicinity of the Boulevard at Element 79, you may be hearing "Aquarius," or "What a Piece of Work Is Man" wafting down the hallways.


source for Ang Lee interview: Brian D. Johnson, Unscreened, May 17, 2009