BabyBoomReview Announces New Video Competition

BabyboomReview launches a new You Tube competition--video your own album, movie and book review
More points if you do it against a historic site like BabyBoom co-founder, Mike Peters did at Abbey Road Studios, in London's St Johns Wood neighborhood, close to where both founders lived in the 1970s..





Send in your videos to You Tube and send us the link at bboomreview@gmail.com

New Podcast Explores Suze Rotolo's Relationship with Dylan

I discussed the memoir Suze Rotolo published recently entitled A Freewheelin Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the 1960s with Chris Hale--a well known author and film director and regular contributor to BabyBoom Review. There is both a tender and a dark side to the relationship with Rotolo and the memoir allows us to see both aspects. Rotolo's honest self aware account of her relationship with arguably the greatest singer songwriter
of our era reveals the difficulty of being a proto feminist in the 1960s when the expectations for girlfriends of famous artists was to simply be available and not complain about your second string status. We discuss these tensions in the context of Dylan's the evolving relationship--and how their affair marked a turning point in both young people's lives. The podcast is roughly 25 minutes--give it a listen and let us know what you think by emailing us at bboomreview@google.com..

You can listen to the podcast by going to http://babyboomreview.podbean.com/ or clicking on the tab marked "podcast" on the
babyboomreview website. You can also while there listen to interviews with Rick Perlstein and David Hajdu concerning Nixon and the later Dylan relationships with Joan Baez and Richard Farina respectively.

Invitation to Write and Get Published On the 1960s

Invitation to Contribute to a Different Kind of Sixties Publishing Project: Voices from the Sixties: Baby Boomers' Experiences and Reflections 50 Years On

If you lived through the 60s and - better yet - are one of the few who can remember it – then we have a project for you! We are in the initial stages of negotiating with publishers to bring out an anthology of essays that will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1960s through individual stories describing some key moments that made the writers aware that they were living through interesting and possibly historic times.

OK, you have some questions. Go ahead -

So what counts as important? Clearly you define that for yourself. You don’t need to have met one of the Beatles or spent time with Jerry Rubin, walked with Martin Luther King or witnessed the Kent State shootings—you just need to be able to write about a moment when something crystallized in your mind. Call it an “epiphany” or just a plain old thought—that here was some history occurring in front of your eyes and one day you might look back on it and tell your grandchildren. It could be the time you were beaten up for having long hair, the moment you listened to the first ________ name your band, the moment you saw racist/sexist language or actions in a new light, as not simply racist but as unacceptable and important enough to demonstrate against.

Now what counts as connecting with current readers? Here we have to be even less prescriptive. It will be up to each writer to suggest for the reader as vividly as possible the way a particular moment changed him or her and to comment on how it might have led to a new way of seeing or thinking or acting. So to paraphrase Orwell, who says in one of his essays if any of the “rules” gets in the way of good writing – we will waive them in a heartbeat!

What length are you looking for? Contributors should shoot for between 500 and 2000 words.

Will I get paid for my work? Needless to say, we would do some revenue sharing from the publication with our writers.

When do I need to submit by? We look forward to hearing expressions of intent (with a brief outline of what you intend to write) by December 15th 2008

How do I find out more?

To find out more details and ask any questions, please get in touch by e-mailing us at bboomreview@gmail.com

Latest Stock Market Crash Causing Retirement Rethink for Boomers

There are many ways to rationalize away the loss of a few trillion dollars in retirement income the boomers were expecting and it seems from latest news reports that we are now past this stage and into something new--an advanced type of spin control -we are now being told by Dr Ros Altman that "traditional pension products and policies are outdated and a major rethink is needed as baby boomers approach retirement."
Who knew?
Dr Altman provided her insights at a recent Kings College London forum where she remarked that "concerns of where to turn for financial advice are accelerating because of the current market turmoil." Professor Simon Briggs, director at the Institute of Gerontology at King’s College London, added (conveniently enough) that “Rather than seeing retirement as a social death sentence, boomers are much more likely to see retirement as a time in which to develop those parts of the self that have been neglected while building a career and raising a family.” Professor Briggs believes "retirees are in a state of transition rather than stagnation, according to patterns of leisure time and consumption in retirement."

Now there is something for boomers to feel jolly about!

Boomers Just Like Their Parents?

Another account as to why boomers are ending up like their parents--this time based on a Keele University survey
of boomers in their 50s

Dr Leach said: 'Most have fairly modest aspirations, hoping at best to maintain current lifestyles and activities provided health and finances permit them to do so. 'The range of lifestyles is greater than would have been the case with previous generations but there is little evidence of alternative models of consumption.' She said the surveys showed that only around one in 20 of the hippie generation now uses the alternative medicines which were the height of fashion in the 1970s.

Rather than following alternative lifestyles, the baby boomers are the generation obsessed with their houses, the report said. The explosion in home ownership since the 1950s means a third own their homes outright, half have mortgages and one in six have second homes. 'Home improvements form a significant part of boomer lifestyles,' the report said. 'So does increasing value of homes, especially in terms of using housing to fund retirement.'

But the credit crunch now seems more influential on the situation than any distinct boomer cultural attitudes--as the study suggests:

"The harm done to expectations of income from their homes by the credit crunch adds to other financial pressures that early generations did not have. Four out of ten of those in their late 50s still have children living at home. More than a third are also supporting grandchildren, for example by paying for childcare, and around half spend some time or money caring for their own parents. "

New Neil Young Documentary

UK Young fans are in for a treat--according to the UK rock magazine Uncut a "new hour long Neil Young documentary entitled "Don't Be Denied" is to air on BBC Four next month and Uncut has seen a preview of it.

The BBC documentary is the first TV special with the reclusive singer, and includes two new interviews with Young, nine months apart in New York and California.

Screening on October 31, the documentary also looks back over the singer's archives, with some great never-seen-before archive footage from Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse as well as solo performances."