RADIO UNNAMEABLE/AFS Doc Night

I was 19 y.o. in 1967, living in The Bronx, traveling 3 hours each day to and from  Queens College and working two PT jobs.  There was little down time  and so a midnight radio show that spoke to rebelliousness, counter culture events and people was perfect!  I did my sleeping on the 3 buses and subways I rode to get to school!  And Bob Fass, the creator and DJ of this midnight radio show spoke to thousands of us when he created hippie events (an Easter Be-In at Central Park and a Fly-In at Kennedy airport in the dead cold of winter) and we all showed up!  And peace, pot, balloons and human warmth was the common denominator.  He did all of this without Facebook. 

Last night's documentary was a wonderful walk back in time with photos illustrating the gritty, edgy New York I loved so much.  Where I began my first social work jobs working in the East Village with runaways and foster care throwaways.  A shout out to Jessica Wolfson and Paul Lovelace for creating this documentary about a man who brought so much culture to so many of us (my first Alice's Restaurant, Mr. Bojangles,  and introduction to Abbie Hoffman and his band of YIPPIES) first came from Bob Fass.  And when he traveled to Chicago for the notorious Democratic National Convention he reminded us first hand that the world was changing and becoming extremely polarized.  We were in a transition which would have us end up in the brain numbing world of extreme materialism where your worth was valued by what you could buy instead of your creative thoughts.

Thank-you AFS for this fabulous film.  When an audience member thanked the filmmakers from the bottom of her heart for bringing her memories of the Be-In and Fly-In right back to her I wanted to give her a hug and stand by her side.  Like I once did in 1967.