theme song: the times they are a-changin'

[mellowtigger]

Remember back before the multiple ongoing and escalating crises when I would post about science stuff?  Like plants communicating with each other, new and greener battery technology, a proposal for a crewed interstellar spacecraft, and even a whole new continental rift opening before our very eyes.  Fun times.  I miss those days.

Meanwhile, I stopped shaving altogether that first week I had to work from home.  I won't shave until I've received a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2.  My beard is growing in nicely now, and it's almost entirely white.  That, plus the extra weight, and now I'm starting to get a serious "santa vibe" from my image.  I mentioned it during a Teams videochat with my coworkers on Monday, and we all got a good laugh.  Someone took a screenshot and sent it to me to use as a new profile photo.  So I am.  I'm even thinking of finding some rose-tinted glasses and maybe a rainbow colored rasta hat, and just go full-blown hippie santa until this is all over with.

So, I'll leave you with today's theme song from Bob Dylan.

Watch on YouTube

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

Stay safe out there.

Comments

[bitterlawngnome]

I find myself very conflicted about people wearing Rastafarian signifiers, especially non-Rastafarian people. For most of my life it's been a profoundly homophobic subculture of profoundly homophobic Caribbean culture that did its part in killing someone I considered family. "One Love" ... unless you're gay.

[mellowtigger]

Ouch. I didn't know about that association. Can you think of any other headgear that makes people immediately think 1970s hippie culture?

[bitterlawngnome]

Headbands and bandannas were ubiquitous.

[mellowtigger]

I do now require a headband when doing yardwork, otherwise the copious sweat just falls all over my glasses. A tie die kind of headband might work for me.
https://www.junkbrands.com/products/60s-summer-headband-bbl?lshst=collection
https://www.junkbrands.com/products/peace-headband-bbl?lshst=collection

I was looking at these hats, but for a full-blown hat, I just feel a burning need for something a whole lot floppier. Dunno why.
https://www.hippieshop.com/collections/mens-headwear/products/rainbow-woven-hemp-hat
https://www.hippieshop.com/collections/mens-headwear/products/rainbow-tie-dye-hemp-hat

P.S. Ooh, almost all of these images make me smile. Not sure I want any of them just for me, but maybe I could take a plain ol' big straw hat and decorate it to my liking.
https://www.designtrends.com/fashion/hat-designs/hippie-hat.html

[bitterlawngnome]

Those are IMO all nice, and all period.

[foeclan]

Wow, you're getting downright fluffy. :)

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, and it's softer than it used to be too. I've never used beard oil before, but I am this time. I assume that makes the difference. And in another 4 months, it'll be twice as long. We'll see where this ends up. I'm past the worst of the scratchiness. Still trying to avoid chewing the upper lip hair. Not quite over that bad habit yet.

[brian_bogue]

slightly different topic but Bob Dylan looks painfully young in that video, of course that was, what, close to 55 years ago or longer?

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, the YouTube description on the upload claims it's from 1964, which is 3 years before I was even born. So, yeah, 55 years is about right.

[brian_bogue]

yes, I was 11 when the whole folk, protest music and first physcadelic music thing and for that matter culture hit

[mellowtigger]

That's one thing that I miss about the current political crisis and protests and riots. Where's the unifying music that threads this common mood into a plain story that captures the imagination? It seems almost eerie that it's absent. I mean, Randy Rainbow and other satirists do great work, but that's not the same thing as a visionary art that leads us forward.

[brian_bogue]

the folk, protest music of that time had three things going for it that made it more noticeable that is missing now, then they had coffee houses by coffee houses I don't mean Starbucks so it got more exposure to audiences. There were small specialty publishers so records and albums could get it more circulation, social media is not a good substitute for those two, and sadly it was mostly white music performers and listeners who popularized it.