Last year, it was a matter of reliving the Summer of Love, as the city of San Francisco attempted to recreate the gentle revolution of yore by giving the counterculture a big old hug. The few remaining Beat poets and psychedelic musicians took their place in Golden Gate Park to perform for legions of acid-antiquarians, later-day hippies and token members of Native American tribes. Forty years after the summer of '67, the intersection of Haight and Ashbury is marked by a Gap, the young vagabonds littering the streets come packing trustfunds and most of the flower children are sucking on mutual funds and mocha lattes. Still, the nostalgia that came with the revival made the entire city feel all fuzzy again (although that may have just been all the drugs).
Now it's Chicago's turn to stroll down memory lane. Of course our brush up against the hippie counterculture was a bit harsher: The 1968 Democratic National Convention. But who doesn't love a good riot every now and again? The Chicago History Museum explores the political turmoil of this time, the music it was set to and the culture that embraced it in a three-part lecture series. Tonight, Terri Hemmert of WXRT will lead a discussion about how the effects of all that rock and roll--both immediate and residual. As punctuation, Hemmert will employ the Captain Blood Orchestra. The group will perform a ninety minute set of the music that fueled a movement. Those that aren't able to make it tonight can still catch the bus. This weekend, the "Magic Bus" will traverse the sites of 1968's most pivotal moments. We're assuming the event is BYOL(SD).
Hey, maybe next year we can have yet another Woodstock. Or better yet, Altamont.