We Get Letters....

From an R.G. Bethany, subject line of "Peace": 

The Movie "HAIR" is Psychological Anti-Warfare at its finest.  Here's how it works.  Two hours of very exciting music and dance.  Nothing bad is said or implied.  Everything is happy.  You will notice alot of movement in every scene. Several things are always moving. You are being conditioned.   Knowing this does not matter.  Then the series of scenes at the end and...BAM.  It hits you hard.  Remember this is Psychological Anti-Warfare.

Me, I'm even more shocked that the movie came out in 1979. After, for example, the first season of Dallas....

Comments

Pro Libertate | April 22, 2008, 2:24pm | #

I think the play goes back to 1967 or thereabouts.

Guy Montag | April 22, 2008, 2:28pm | #

I prefer the subject of "Piece".

Pinette | April 22, 2008, 2:30pm | #

The fact that there is something moving in every scene is evidence of the fact that you are being conditioned? How? Conditioned for what? Are they trying to desensitize me to the horror of moving objects?

Episiarch | April 22, 2008, 2:32pm | #

Just go to an off-Broadway one-man (or woman) play and you'll get conditioned. To hate theater forever.

Grandpa Libertate | April 22, 2008, 2:33pm | #

These danged, newfangled moving pictures make my head hurt! They must use X-ray cameras because you can see through some of those poor actors clothes! Oh, the humanity!

Bingo | April 22, 2008, 2:33pm | #

Psychological Anti-Warfare? What the hell does that even mean... is it supposed to be the opposite of Psychological Warfare?

J sub D | April 22, 2008, 2:34pm | #

Crap play, crap movie, crap music. I give all version negative stars. They even managed to make naked women on stage boring, how the hell can you do that?

Pinette | April 22, 2008, 2:35pm | #

I've never seen 'Hair'. Anybody know what the BAM! is that he's talking about? what hits you so hard?

Mike Laursen | April 22, 2008, 2:36pm | #

Apparently, Milos Forman added an entire plot for the movie version because the stage show has absolutely none.

Bingo | April 22, 2008, 2:36pm | #

Pinette: Appears to be a bunch of hippie shit

Urkobold™ | April 22, 2008, 2:38pm | #

CORRECT THE URKOBOLD IF HE IS MISTAKEN, BUT DIDN'T THE FILM VERSION OF HAIR INCLUDE A YOUNG, NAKED, AND BOUNTIFUL BEVERLY D'ANGELO?

BOUNCY, BOUNCY!

Guy Montag | April 22, 2008, 2:38pm | #

The fact that there is something moving in every scene is evidence of the fact that you are being conditioned? How? Conditioned for what? Are they trying to desensitize me to the horror of moving objects?

Would not be conditioned to buy stuff, the continual fear of the Left. No, must be beneficial conditioning so that you don't buy stuff from da man.

Barry | April 22, 2008, 2:43pm | #

"Me, I'm even more shocked that the movie came out in 1979."
Kind of like CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC; the big Disco movie coming out in 1980, a good year and a half after everybody got sick of Disco.
still, it provided the greatest product tie-in ever: a Baskin-Robbins flavor called CAN'T STOP THE NUTS.(did they even notice that it starred the Village People?)

Naga Sadow | April 22, 2008, 2:44pm | #

Guy,

My many moons of work experience at the Biloxi Coliseum tells me that they "condition" you to buy HAIR merchandise after the show.

shecky | April 22, 2008, 2:45pm | #

OK, who is R.G. Bethany, and why should I care?

parse | April 22, 2008, 2:45pm | #

Crap play, crap movie, crap music. I give all version negative stars. They even managed to make naked women on stage boring, how the hell can you do that?

What happened, J sub D, you saw the play and hated it so much you went to the movie and bought the soundtrack?

Naga Sadow | April 22, 2008, 2:46pm | #

Damn you shecky! You beat me to the thread . . .

*sigh*

Guy Montag | April 22, 2008, 2:47pm | #

My many moons of work experience at the Biloxi Coliseum tells me that they "condition" you to buy HAIR merchandise after the show.

Ah, sort of like the ralleys at Freedom Park in DC where the "anti-Capitalists" are all selling stuff? It is only beneficial when it is their stuff?

Jesse Walker | April 22, 2008, 2:48pm | #

The play was a middlebrow attempt to cash in on the '60s while they happened. The movie was a self-conscious piece of '60s nostalgia. Neither one is especially good, though it's hard not to enjoy the camp awfulness of verses like

My hair like Jesus wore it
Hallelujah, I adore it
Hallelujah, Mary loved her son
Why don't my mother love me?

ChicagoTom | April 22, 2008, 2:51pm | #

Say what you will about HAIR, but Age of Aquarius sticks in my head for days whenever I hear it.

Pro Libertate | April 22, 2008, 2:54pm | #

ChicagoTom,

The Fifth Dimension, right? I kind of like that song, though it's probably unpurged nostalgia.

Guy Montag | April 22, 2008, 2:55pm | #

Say what you will about HAIR, but Age of Aquarius sticks in my head for days whenever I hear it.

Just as cannon fire does mine.

Naga Sadow | April 22, 2008, 2:55pm | #

Guy,

Funny story. I went to the Blue Man Group on the tenth with a friend of mine. Mike Roehm, the DJ, called an intermission and on the screens the text "Buy Mike Roehm Merchandise" appeared. I thought it was funny until my friend was one of the first in the merchandise line to buy his cd. She listened to it on the way to my house and I don't believe she has thought about it since. Marketing works . . . just ask this Bethany person.

J sub D | April 22, 2008, 2:55pm | #

What happened, J sub D, you saw the play and hated it so much you went to the movie and bought the soundtrack?

Actually, I saw the play(sucked) which implies I heard the soundtrack (also sucks). I haven't seen the movie, so I am probably being unfair (and accurate) to assert that it also sucks. Hippies made some decent music, but this ain't it.

Jamie Kelly | April 22, 2008, 2:56pm | #

Say what you will about HAIR, but Age of Aquarius sticks in my head for days whenever I hear it.

Other things that stick in your head:
Knives.
Maces.
Very small rocks.

Matt Welch | April 22, 2008, 2:58pm | #

"Unpurged nostalgia" is a terrific phrase.

Guy Montag | April 22, 2008, 2:59pm | #

Naga Sadow,

Kinda like that nutty lawyer chick from Peru who had been to a Cheap Trick concert the day before our last date and just had to borrow my "Cheap Trick Greatest Hits" CD? I gladly surrendered it so she would get out of my Jeep and had no wish of seeing either again.

No, her name was Rosa Maria, not Bethany :)

kinnath | April 22, 2008, 3:04pm | #

Easy to Be Hard was a worthwhile tune.

robc | April 22, 2008, 3:06pm | #

Other things that stick in your head:
Knives.
Maces.
Very small rocks.

Vomit.
Churches.
Lead.

kinnath | April 22, 2008, 3:07pm | #

"Unpurged nostalgia" is a terrific phrase. would be a great name for a band.

Fixed that for you.

Pro Libertate | April 22, 2008, 3:23pm | #

Sounds like a column: "Unpurged Nostalgia."

Monte Davis | April 22, 2008, 3:29pm | #

It's all so clear now: the closing sequence to The 40-Year-Old Virgin was the Anti-War Master Manipulators' follow-up campaign, setting us up for defeat and humiliation in Iraq just as the original HAIR cost us victory in Vietnam.

Next: how Casablanca caused the sellout at Yalta.

TrickyVic | April 22, 2008, 3:52pm | #

"""Psychological Anti-Warfare? What the hell does that even mean... is it supposed to be the opposite of Psychological Warfare?"""

Probably. Pysch ops are consider a key element in warfare today, not just on the enemy but on your own country. The lesson from vietnam was preventing the loss of support for the war.
Check this article out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?em&ex=1208923200&en=a4ee1c89d3b31d22&ei=5087%0A

Paul | April 22, 2008, 4:01pm | #

The Movie "HAIR" is Psychological Anti-Warfare at its finest. [...]You are being conditioned.

Bada-bing!

MattXIV | April 22, 2008, 4:03pm | #

Other things that stick in your head:

Ticks
Blood clots
Lawn darts

Naga Sadow | April 22, 2008, 4:09pm | #

Now you've started a train of thought for me MattXIV! Who the HELL invented lawn darts? Why? Was he/she high? Did the inventor not realize I would be born someday with a sadistic older brother who just had to throw them at someone, anyone? Guess who that someone was?

Jigga Wha? | April 22, 2008, 4:20pm | #

Blood clots

Dude. That opened up a whole new world of punning for me. Thank you.

Jammer | April 22, 2008, 4:35pm | #

Eh, the play has a kind of nutty musical energy if you have a good cast. As social commentary it kind of flops, using a hammer to get its points across.

The thing I find funny about hippies is their utter dependence on the vast majority of people living a lifestyle they say is so evil. If everyone became a hippy overnight, 90% of the population would be dead in 6 months.

Pro Libertate | April 22, 2008, 4:47pm | #

I liked Jesus Christ Superstar, with that Jesus hippie dude.

I've told this story here before, but when I lived in Chicago in the mid-90s, I heard a DJ say that the Broadway musical was on tour and would be coming to Chicago that summer. With the original Jesus and Judas he noted, apparently without intending it to sound the way it did. Or maybe he knew something I didn't.

searcher | April 22, 2008, 4:50pm | #

Found this on the googles for "R.G. Bethany":

R-49
The effectiveness of a pharmacist-led diabetes clinic in lowering A1C and LDL-C levels
R.G. Bethany, S. M. Loughlin, J. D. Hayes, K. W. Garey, G. K. Rice
Kelsey-Seybold Clinic and the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, Houston, TX
March 31 - April 3, 2006 35
Background: Diabetes mellitus is a group of diseases characterized by high levels of blood glucose resulting from defects
in insulin production, insulin action, or both; and is also associated with serious microvascular and macrovascular
complications. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a pharmacist-led diabetes clinic in lowering A1C
and LDL-cholesterol levels.
Objective: The primary objective of this study is to compare A1C values of patients enrolled in a pharmacist-led diabetes
clinic with those patients not enrolled in the clinic. The secondary objective is to compare LDL-C values of patients
enrolled in the clinic with those not enrolled.
Methods: All diabetic patients who were approached for entry into the Diabetes mellitus Medication Therapy Management
Clinic (DM MTMC) between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2004 were eligible for study entry. Patients were identified
from a database maintained by the clinical pharmacists that contains the names of all patients that were approached for
entry into clinic. Patients with less than two documented A1C and LDL-C values within the following 6-9 months were
excluded. Changes in A1C and LDL-C values between patients enrolled in the program will be compared to those who have
not enrolled using the Student’s t-test or ANOVA. A p

J sub D | April 22, 2008, 6:49pm | #

ProLib -
I liked J.C. Superstar as well. With better music and a proven plot, it beats Hair like a red-headed stepchild,

Pro Libertate | April 22, 2008, 6:54pm | #

J sub D,

The best part was when that Judas character betrayed Jesus. Didn't see that one coming!

Jim Walsh | April 22, 2008, 9:50pm | #

The only thing I remember about Hair is that stupid Cowsills record...

highnumber | April 22, 2008, 11:56pm | #

I won't comment on HAIR, since I have been able to avoid seeing it in any incarnation, but I saw Jesus Christ Superstar in a traveling production featuring the "original" Jesus & Judas sometime within the last ten years. Maybe it was just one of them - I've yet to recover the memory. The album is not my cuppa tea, but it doesn't turn my stomach quite like the staged version did.

Billy Beck | April 23, 2008, 1:13am | #

"...in the mid-90s, I heard a DJ say that the Broadway musical was on tour and would be coming to Chicago that summer. With the original Jesus and Judas..."

I don't doubt that you heard him say that, but I'm pretty sure he was wrong. It was Jeff Fenholt who played Jesus in the original Broadway production. In the mid-90's, he was doing Christian music and Christmas records.

(I worked with him briefly on a metal project called "Bible Black" in the mid-80's, with Duck MacDonald, Craig Gruber and Gary Driscoll. It was rubbish.)

Pro Libertate | April 23, 2008, 10:10am | #

Billy Beck,

He meant the original Jesus and Judas from the movie--Ted Neely and Carl Anderson.

kevrob | April 24, 2008, 12:47pm | #

The only thing I remember about Hair is that stupid Cowsills record...- Jim Walsh

Well, even an ill wind that blows some good. The Cowsills were ripped off on TV as The Partridge Family, which meant that I got to see Shirley Jones dressed like Zatanna the magician.

Kevin