hippies

Media Hype and the Myth of Ageless Baby Boomers

Paul Kleyman

At the same time, the media’s appeal to older Americans too often translates into marketable nostalgia for the Sixties (cue PBS pledge break here!) and with fiftieth anniversaries, some of them truly historic (the Selma march, the moon landing, three shattering assassinations), and some of more questionable gravity (Woodstock, Altamont, and, yes, the Summer of Love). My view, from more than a half-century in the countercultural epicenter of San Francisco, is that the headlines have largely missed the essential stories of (cue The Who) “M-m-my Generation.”

Seattle: The Myths & Reality of the Emerald City

Snapper S. Ploen

Rising like vertical lines of steel against a backdrop of evergreen mountains and dark water, Seattle has a popular reputation for being a high-tech city with some very granola roots. Hosting the headquarters of a number of powerful, global corporations such as Starbuck’s and Amazon.com, Seattle and its vast metropolitan area – which runs mostly along the edges of Puget Sound and Lake Washington – is the largest urban center in the Pacific Northwest and it single-handedly sways the politics of the entire region. While most people think of grungy hipsters, delicious coffee or overcast skies when the name ‘Seattle’ is mentioned, one may wonder: How much of this is accurate and how much is exaggeration? 

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