Well the sun is shining, there’s the scent of hope and renewal in the air and I can feel the lysergic tingle in my veins, the vibrating cosmic come-on of Spring. Back in the olden days, from about 1983-1990, this’d be the time of year when I’d throw all my crap in the back of my beat-up 1969 Chevy Bel Air and head out on the highway to see as many Grateful Dead concerts as I could. Subsumed by the smell of pot smoke and wet wool, sage and sweetgrass; seeing life through the ongoing kaleidoscope tinge of LSD-colored glasses, hope did indeed spring eternal and enlightenment was always just around the corner and I was young and dumb enough to believe that Love could change the world.Now I’m old enough and wise enough to know that it’s true – it’s just that love (of all kinds from agape to eros) is harder than I had ever thought.

But this is the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love and I encourage all you tastemakers and trendsetters, you hipster fashion kids who set the tone for the city in the summer, I encourage you to make this summer’s theme Love. Rent The Cockettes movie, rent Festival Express, rent the documentaries on Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival. Yes, it all went horribly wrong (see Altamont, The Weather Underground) but there was a moment there were a lot of people really were trying to effect positive change, and not just politically.

The burgeoning Ayahuasca scene in Brooklyn, The Joshua Light Show at The Kitchen and the release of a long-awaited new CD from Sky Cries Mary, one of my favorite psychedelic bands from my ecstasy-and-rave era in early 90’s Seattle, are three things that, in my free-associative mind, indicate a trend, lead us to the point of tipping. The resurgence of Slacker culture, the rise of indie and alternative music like a Phoenix from the ashes, the popular exasperation with this Bush-led ongoing War on Everything makes for a perfect moment to look to the exact opposite of War.