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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: 1960s

1960s stories: 15 news summaries
MOVIE REVIEW

 Pirate Radio Rocks 
 on Good Tunes, Cast 

Playful 60s love/music comedy is more party than plot

Nov 13, 09 8:56 AM CST
(Newser) - Critics agree that the soundtrack of Pirate Radio can't be beat, and the top-notch cast is a joy. So when it comes to the shaky plot and pacing, some can turn a blind eye:
  • "There’s no denying the comic energy of the cast," Peter Travers writes
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
entertainment • music • film • movie review • rock and roll • Britain • Philip Seymour Hoffman • 1960s • rock music • Pirate Radio • Richard Curtis • Bill Nighy • Rhys Ifans • January Jones

GLOSSIES

 Earth, Wind & Fire Flower 
 Again in Obama's America 

White House concert helps revive popularity

Sep 23, 09 2:29 PM CDT
(Newser) - Earth, Wind & Fire is back on top again in its 40th year, playing stadiums for the first time in a quarter-century. And their resurgent success, the band tells Newsweek, is based on a mixture of '60s idealism and the good favor of the president. Barack Obama has always... More »

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entertainment • music • White House • 1960s • concert tour • Obama administration • President Obama • funk • Earth, Wind & Fire • Verdine White

 San Fran Returns to 
 Its Psychedelic Roots 

Not that any band there would say they knew of a scene

Sep 5, 09 9:42 AM CDT
(Newser) - San Francisco seems to have had something of a psychedelic rock resurgence, though don’t ask any of the bands involved to identify themselves that way. “People are so aware of everything and don't really separate it that much,” a man whose band has the telltale brooding drones... More »

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San Francisco • rock and roll • Grateful Dead • 1960s • bands • psychedelic • Jefferson Airplane • scene

movie review

 Woodstock Not Worth the Trip 

Mixed reviews for 1960s coming-of-age flick

Aug 28, 09 1:08 PM CDT
(Newser) - Taking Woodstock isn’t really about the music: it’s more about coming of age on the outskirts of the festival. Critics are lukewarm about Ang Lee's latest effort:
  • “You can’t deny the smiling mood that wafts through the film like incense,” admits Anthony Lane of
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
entertainment • music • film • movie review • rock and roll • Ang Lee • 1960s • Woodstock • Taking Woodstock

(AP) - Some Americans haven't let go of one part of the 1960s: getting high on illicit drugs. The percentage of Americans age 50-59 who reported use of illicit drugs within a year nearly doubled from 2002-2007, from 5.1% to 9.4%, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported... More »

MORE ABOUT:
baby boomer • drug use • marijuana • 1960s • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration • middle age • illegal drugs

OPINION

 The Music Sucked at Woodstock 


Aug 14, 09 7:06 AM CDT
(Newser) - Woodstock become an iconic event of the '60s, but according to Wall Street Journal critic Jim Fusilli, it was a mediocre festival at best. Major artists like Lennon, the Doors, and Led Zeppelin stayed away, those who did show were drugged up, and sound equipment failed—the whole thing was... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • 1960s • music festival • Woodstock

OPINION

 Woodstock Was a 'Nightmare' 


Aug 13, 09 2:25 PM CDT
(Newser) - Mark Hosenball of Newsweek was at Woodstock, and not only did he not have a good time, but he can’t quite figure out how we’ve “transformed a chaotic mudfest into an epic pageant of peace and love.” Hosenball reminisces about the “massive, teeming, squalid mess”... More »

MORE ABOUT:
entertainment • Barack Obama • Democratic National Convention • hippies • concert • 1960s • rock music • Election 2008 • performance • Jay-ZTV • Woodstock

Tiny Town's Move May Redefine Voting Rights Act

Provision in 1965 act prevents moving polling station

Mar 28, 09 9:27 AM CDT
(Newser) - A Supreme Court case may soon bring about a momentous change in the nation's voting laws, all because a Texas town of 3,500 moved a polling station three blocks, the Wall Street Journal reports. A local official made the switch to a more convenient location, galled that he needed... More »

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Texas • Voting Rights Act • voting rights • 1960s • US Supreme Court • local election

Hoover's FBI
Launched Gay Probe on Valenti

LBJ aide turned Hollywood figure was secretly scrutinized

Feb 19, 09 6:31 AM CST
(Newser) - Before his long presidency of the Motion Picture Association of America, Jack Valenti served as a top White House aide to LBJ. Recently declassified files show that, at the same time, the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover was investigating whether Valenti, who died in 2007, was gay. Although no proof... More »

MORE ABOUT:
FBI • Jack Valenti • Lyndon Johnson • homosexuality • 1960s • J. Edgar Hoover • gays

 Cher to Turn 
 Back Time in 
 '60s Cover Album 

'60s hits will be focus of singer's next effort, she tells Page Six

Dec 3, 08 11:00 AM CST
(Newser) - Cher's next album will hark back to the era that spawned Sonny and Cher, reports the New York Post. The singer plans to cover songs of the 1960s, “a time when I used to listen to music on my AM radio in my Ford Mustang.” She mentions artists... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • Cher • celebrity • rock and roll • Sixties • 1960s

BOOK REVIEW

The Culture Wars, College Football Style

Michigan-Ohio State rivalry illuminates tale of  '60s, '70s upheaval

Nov 21, 08 5:00 PM CST
(Newser) - The cultural disconnect between conservative college football programs and America’s liberalizing culture in the late 1960s and early ‘70s is the theme of War as They Knew It, a book by Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg. The survey of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry (which continues tomorrow) through... More »

MORE ABOUT:
rivalry • Richard Nixon • Michigan Wolverines • New Republic • liberals • Vietnam War • University of Michigan • book reviews • Jonathan Chait • Bo Schembechler • Ohio State University • Ohio State Buckeyes • 1960s • 1970s • conservatives • culture wars • Detroit Free Press • Woody Hayes • Michael Rosenberg

 Paul Wants to Release 
 'Beatles Holy Grail' 

Long-lost experimental track was once vetoed by the other three

Nov 16, 08 3:16 PM CST
(Newser) - Paul McCartney says it's time to release an avant-garde Beatles track that features gargles, shouts, and distorted guitar, the Guardian reports. Recorded during Penny Lane sessions in 1967, the 14-minute Carnival of Light was played publicly only once at an electronic music festival. McCartney, who is releasing his third avant-garde... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Paul McCartney • Yoko Ono • John Lennon • Beatles • George Harrison • Ringo Starr • 1960s • avant-garde • recording

Campuses Shift to Middle
as 'Radical Profs' Retire

Liberal legacy waning with new generation

Jul 3, 08 3:52 AM CDT
(Newser) - University campuses all over the country are becoming less passionate and more businesslike as liberal '60s professors retire, the New York Times reports. The process is expected to accelerate over the next decade as Baby Boomers hired in the great '70s expansion of  higher education move on, to be replaced... More »

MORE ABOUT:
baby boomer • higher education • professor • universities • 1960s • colleges and universities • campus • 1970s • culture wars

 Not an Icon, a Man 

Would civil rights legend be controversial in today's political climate?

Apr 4, 08 6:41 PM CDT
(Newser) - On the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, the Washington Post looks past the legend at the multidimensional figure scholars and King's associates consider his true legacy. ”His challenge was much bigger than being nice," says historian Taylor Branch. "It was even bigger than race.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
race • race relations • poverty • civil rights • Vietnam War • Martin Luther King Jr. • 1960s • Jeremiah Wright • civil rights movement • Taylor Branch

Literary Bull Blundered
and Thrived

Time and Salon critics recall brilliant, failed, iconic Mailer

Nov 10, 07 7:33 PM CST
(Newser) - Egotist, chauvinist, brawler, Mailer battled "a culture subsiding into room temperature," Time says. His work vented "his own inner conditions" as he lurched from fame at age 25 to so-so books to his "brilliant" Armies of the Night in 1968. He made big gaffes—blaming patients... More »

MORE ABOUT:
obituary • literature • writer • Norman Mailer • 1960s

15 Stories


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