My weakness: I am fascinated by the vivid chronicles of the years hippies, when the world turned upside down. It is amazing to think of clandestine support networks that operated even on an international scale. Like those who protected the apostle of LSD, Timothy Leary, after organizing his escape from a Californian prison. Confessions of a hope addictUntamed Page) is written during the escape, which implies – be careful – that ellipses and camouflaged details abound.
The greatest delight lies in finding adventures hippies embedded in unexpected books. As Last Chance Texaco, by singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. A raw autobiography, which reveals what lies behind that image of exquisite bohemianism. From 1969, when she was 14, until she came of age, she regularly ran away up and down the East Coast of North America, from Mazatlán to British Columbia.
Was lucky. When she was detained, she met some sympathetic police officers; Her bitter parents came to the rescue. Meanwhile, she became disillusioned with the coins in common use at the time: “It was evident that my body was the only thing that served to feed me or offer the famous hospitality.” hippy. They pretended that this was the free love but, once they used you, they went back to the old roles from the films of the fifties.”
Last Chance Texaco it has not been translated. Yes it just appeared Walking through crystal clear waters in a black painted pool (The Three Editors), a smiling best of from articles and columns by Cookie Mueller. Famous as an actress of John Waters and cinema underground New Yorker, Cookie also lived in the flowery San Francisco of 1967. Where she met the Family (but not their leader, Charlie Manson), she let herself be fooled by the Satanist Anton LaVey and the most clumsy of his disciples, she was raped by a black militant .
It could have been true or incorporated fantasies: Cookie did not accept that truthfulness ruined a good story. There are other stories that show the texture of what has been experienced, such as the invitation to the Berlin Film Festival, where he goes with the filmmaker Amos Poe carrying drugs… and discovers that at the Zollbehörde (Customs Service) they are rubbing their hands in front of such striking visitors. .
A person with less self-possession would have asked for commiseration, writing a my worst adventures. But the protagonist of Walking through crystal clear waters in a pool painted black She goes for it all: she signs up to travel to the Caribbean on a sailboat crewed by friends with no nautical experience, she survives the stalking of a serial killer, she endures a vacation with a friend in Sicily, where male harassment is overwhelming (“maybe they’re not used to it.” to the blondes of the United States”). Cookie rebels against her fame: “Why does everyone think I’m a savage? What happens is that I stumble upon the wild, which crosses my path.”
Cookie throws herself into the world wide-eyed and experiences the kindness of strangers. In mainland Italy she falls in love with the man who will become her great companion, Vittorio Scarpati. Until they stumble upon the monster of AIDS. Cookie and her husband die at the end of 1989. Following her instructions, her ashes are spread across four continents.
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