I just got back from one of my lunch-time jaunts to the campus library. I planned to drop off some books and then go grab lunch. On the way I thought I should pick up some marketing or packaging books to give me my first clue on opening my online jewelry store. I’ve been fooling around with a small store on Etsy, called DragonFlytiGirl. My original plan in opening the store front was to earn little money to off-set my craft hobbies. I thought I was a jewelry designer and crafter but eventually found out that my real hobby is buying books about crafting and making jewelry. I feel so virtuous, so creative while I’m reading them, I know I can make the project I’m looking at and that it will be splendid!
Once the book is closed, it starts to look a little harder to do, must get all the materials, make the measurements, sort the beads….Where’s that book again? I tell you for true, in my mind I’m Louis Comfort Tiffany; in my craft room I’m more like Dan Ackroyd’s anal retentive chef.
So there I am in the library, searching for some very practical business titles, but the stacks have a strange lure. The scent of metric tons of books is intoxicating; it makes me a little light headed. The massed titles flash past me as I prowl through the rectangular maze and every fifth book spine seems like a sudden red light. I walk through library shelves like a clown on stilts, start-stop, start-stop, bend and reach, start again. The titles flow around me and it tickles my brain and I want to sit down and read, with a case of spare glasses, until Rod Serling tells me the show is over.
Finally I find the business section, make my selections, and start winding my way back out. Of course I stop to browse the New Book section and find my eye settling on a huge, colorful photo collection. The book is titled ‘Spaced Out: Radical Environments for the Psychedelic Sixties”. The small print promises crash pads, hippie communes, infinity machines, and more.
Now I love to read when I’m eating lunch, it’s the most refreshing way to bi-sect the work day, but I don’t want to plow into something dull. I want some color, some flash, and some easy side-dish to consume along with my cheese ravioli. This book gets four out of five stars and rates The Picture Tour Read.
One point is lost for pictures of scampering hippies and the text, which focuses on LSD mind trips. I wasn’t around for hippies or LSD so I have no nostalgia for that era. However, two stars get awarded for the beautiful graphic design of the book; it’s a stunning visual experience. The other two stars go to the section on handmade housing. These homes were truly innovative, a remarkable range of dwellings built from scrap lumber, clay and mud, fabric, plastic, trees, bottles, and so much more. Some of the homes were completely impractical, yet a few were works of art, living sculpture.
I was left with no desire to strip and garden by moonlight, but I did appreciate the design freedom that sprang up and left its mark on our culture.
Title: Spaced Out: Radical Environments for the Psychedelic Sixties
Author: Alistair Gordon
Publisher: Rizzoli New York
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