A Sixties Kind of Guy

About Me

I am an old hippy at heart--who is in love with the technology of this new millenium. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, of Italian descent(Sicilian and Neopolitan) I lived for 10 years in Colombia, South America (where I became fluent in Spanish) and eventually moved to Miami, Florida to attend the University of Miami, from which I graduated in 1971. Miami has since become my home,and, although I have been to many other cool cities, I enjoy my life in Miami, and will most probably remain here. I have a very varied background and many diverse interests. I can lay claim to some interesting "firsts": I was the first American radio disk-jockey in South America, as well as being the first person to teach Astrology at Miami-Dade Community College. I owned and operated the first metaphysical bookstore in South Florida which was called "The Philosopher's Stone" which I set up and maintained for two years in the Coconut Grove section of Miami (which was often referred to as the "Groovy Grove" back in those days) from mid-1971 until the end of 1972. You may not believe this, but, I came up with the idea of having natural quartz crystal pendants hanging from a silver chain, which I had custom-made for sale in my store back in those days. After closing my store (I really didn't know enough about running a business-I was, after all, a hippy who had majored in Psychology!), I became the assistant manager of a crazy, funky clothing store that happened to be right down the street from where my store had been, which was called "The Joint", and whose logo was a giant paper-mache representation of--you guessed it--a joint, which hung from the awning in front of the store by picture wire. My job ended about one-and-one-half years later, when "The Joint" was closed down "by order of the Internal Revenue Service" one day, because of the perpetually stoned owner's failure to pay the IRS $60,000 dollars that was owed for quite some time. It was at "The Joint" that I had some of the most memorable experiences of my working life: With my long hair, beard, and bell bottoms, I would go to work every day wearing a badge that said "Lou the Leo--Assistant Manager" wherein I would spend the better part of my day keeping the salespeople busy while I attended to all the cutest female customers, many of whom I would lure back to my apartment by the evening. My job at The Joint happened not only after my failure at my first business, but also simultaneously after my failure at my first marriage, which was extremely traumatic for me, and has left me with an emotional scar to this very day. "The Joint" turned out to be just what the doctor ordered: minimal responsibility, a very "hip" environment, freaky coworkers, and all the rebellious,free-wheeling "chicks" that a 26-year-old Italian hippy full of testosterone living in the era of "free love" (with nothing worse than gonnorhea to worry about) could ever hope to meet. Unbeknownst to my perpetually stoned boss, I actually implemented a "streaker's contest", in which willing females disrobed, in full view of the sales people and of customers and in broad daylight, and ran merrily throughout the store for 60 seconds, in order to win a free tube top and pair of bell-bottom jeans of their choice. Needless to say, I was heartbroken when I happily went to work that fateful day, and found that sign across the door from the IRS, signaling the end-to a major degree-of my extended adolescence. This led to my collecting Unemployment Compensation for almost 1 and 1/2 years (!), until my very last check, when I was at the Unemployment Bureau picking up that last check, and the nerdy clerk behind the counter noticed that I had a B.A. degree in Psychology. It turned out that there just happened to be an opening for an "Employment Counselor" at their sister agency (the Florida State Employment Service)which required only a B.A. in Psychology and no experience, and the next thing you know, I had my first professional position, working a real job, whether I liked it or not. I remained there for over 7 years, until, having tired of low-level work in a government agency, I had returned to studying for my Master's degree, and, earning a M.S. degree in Human Services (Nova University--graduated in 1983, with a 3.9 cum average)I was able to obtain a sweet position as a college career counselor at Florida International University. As the "Coordinator of Employer Relations" in the Career Planning and Placement department at F.I.U., in addition to counseling students vocationally, I was also in charge of the on-campus recruiting program, which brought employers onto the campus to advertise their company's positions at Career Fairs and conduct personal job interviews of soon-to-be-graduating students. After almost 6 years at F.I.U.--and having earned a second Master's degree in Exercise Physiology--I entered the Medical Field as a Vocational Rehab Counselor, working for a special nationally famous clinic run by the University of Miami School of Medicine on South Beach, counseling malingering Worker's Compensation recipients and attempting to "guide" them back into the world of work. After two years, the position of Vocational Rehab Counselor was phased out, and I found myself on the Unemployment line for the second time in my life. Unable to find suitable employment for 3 months,and just at the point that I was seriously considering an opportunity to go live in Japan for awhile and teach English, I was offered a position with my present employer as a Social Worker in a rehab hospital, working with the elderly, where I have been for almost eight years. In and around those jobs, however, I managed to run four 26-mile marathons, earn several ranked belts in three different styles of Karate, become a fairly proficient body builder, become quite proficient as an astrologer and numerologist, and teach those subjects in the Adult Education departments of various public schools and at M.D.C.C. Being a natural teacher, and loving a captive audience (since I am a very typical Leo) I also taught courses such as "Dealing Creatively With Divorce" (I have a fair amount of experience in this area!)and "Contemporary Sexual Issues" (...and especially in that area!). Years later I also taught English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)in the evenings at a prestigious Brazilian-owned school in Miami, infusing my class presentations with the pizazz and true showmanship that goes with being a classic Leo! Needless to say, they'll never forget me at that school. About three years ago, I also managed to produce and host my own television show on cable television in Miami: "We Are Not Alone" which was a talk show devoted to the serious investigation of the UFO phenomenon--another subject that I have been intensely interested in for many years. As a result of the experience which I gained having had my own TV show, as well as having been a principal actor in two nationally televised commercials (in Spanish--as a full-blooded Italian-American who happens to speak fluent Spanish and can easily pass for Hispanic, I was often selected for commercials aimed at Hispanic audiences) I made the acquaintance of the past executive producer of the "Heraldo" show, and may be working with him, towards the end of 2000, when he will be producing a show right here in Miami. The show will actually deal with families in crises, and, according to my producer-friend, it will "do for the Counseling field what Judge Judy did for the legal field".

My Online Life--Back To the Future

Having finally gotten into computers and the Internet earlier this year, I must confess that I am totally enthralled with the awesome vastness and power of the World Wide Web. Are you aware of the fact that there's more information on the Internet about UFOs than anything else except for pornography? (That's a fact.) What initially got me into computers, by the way, was my prior involvement in Astrology. My girlfriend, Eileen, who I've been seeing every weekend for the past 19 years(!)and who is very proficient at desktop publishing and graphics on a Mac, also has a PC at her home in the Kendall area. I became aware of a very advanced Astrology software program late last year and, on a lark, decided to send away for "Solar Fire 4", just for the hell of it. Actually, I had not been really involved in Astrology for almost ten years at that point in time, and, I thought that the convenience of being able to perform the tedious calculations that are necessary for casting the various types of horoscopes that astrologers are interested in, at lightning speed, would re-ignite my former passion for Astrology. That incredible (and very professional) Astrology program not only re-ignited my interest, but it made me aware-firsthand- of the awesome power of computers. By January of this year (2000) I found myself popping one of those AOL "500 hours free" CD's into that CD/ROM drive, and, within no time at all, became thoroughly hooked on the Internet. What I am planning on doing in the very near future is to build a website dedicated to "The Sixties". To me, the "60's" largely pertains to the years from 1965--1975 in which humanity took a giant leap forward in consciousness and life for many became an experiment in new ways of relating to others and viewing the world. For this reason, the "Sixties" was an era that had a profound influence on my present consciousness and which I remember with great fondness. I am proud to have been a part of that controversial era, and to have derived from it the many wonderful experiences and memories which have shaped my present way of being. Having been a college student during the height of that marvelous era (1966-1971) and, having passionately embraced the entire countercultural experience and lifestyle (wait until you see some of my photos!) I feel that there are a lot of Baby Boomers out there who will appreciate my website. Since I already have bought a domain name, keep your eyes posted on my website--it's URL is www.timesare-a-changin.com, and I should have it up and running by August of 2000. It will contain lots of links to other cool sites which I've found that should be of interest to those of my generation (and to any of the subsequent generations who may be curious to gain some insight into where some of their present ideas may be based), plus, one unique feature, which I can't tell anyone about, that I haven't seen anywhere else on the Web which I think will make my site particularly popular with all of my fellow "freaks". (In case you're too young to have been a part of the 60's counterculture, or just weren't involved-other than superficially-the term "freaks" or "heads" was used amongst ourselseves, rather than "hippy", which was really a product of the un-hip media at the time. (I'll never forget that moment, back in 1968, while traveling towards Boulder, Colorado and San Francisco on a "turn on, tune in, and drop out" pilgrimage in my Volkswagon van with flowers painted all over it when, having stopped at a little coffee shop for some breakfast in Ogallala, Nebraska with three other "freaky" friends of mine, I overheard someone that was at the next table say, "They're hippys--I saw one of them once on a street corner in Lincoln!" Equally memorable, was the time 20 years later, when the young son of a neighbor of mine, sitting on the steps leading up to my condominium apartment tried to engage me in conversation and referred to me as being "from the Sixties". That was the first time that I was made to realize that I was the product of a special time in history--that my having endured the shallowness of the "disco" era had not been completely in vain. Apparently, my neighbor's son hoped to hear cool stories about a bygone era, which, to his generation had been glorified and was often spoken about in almost glowing terms. I remember my own amusement as he listened with rapt attention as I recounted stories about my cross-country travels in my VW van, living on the commune in Colorado and "crashing" at the "pads" of other friendly "freaks" that were encountered on the streets of San Francisco, experiencing peyote with a "tribe" of hip young Indians in "the Haight", not to mention the sharing of many "peace pipe" offerings with numerous other "freaks" who flashed peace signs at us from the road as we made our way to visit friends in L.A. (Like Washington--and unlike Clinton--I cannot tell a lie: I most certainly did inhale!)

My Interests

2001-A Space Oddessey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Clockwork Orange, Night On Earth, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Contact, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Sixth Sense, Woody Allen Movies (both silly and serious), Falling Down, The Game,Mask (w/Cher), The Serpent and the Rainbow, Resurrection, The Three Miracles, Crossroads, Skin Deep, Dog Day Afternoon, Straw Dogs, Marathon Man, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Blues, Crossover Jazz, World Music, New Age Music (anything by Enigma!), Jean-Luc Ponty, John Lee Hooker, Santana, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Rait, Tina Turner, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steve Winwood, Eastern Philosophy/Mysticism, the UFO/Extraterrestrial phenomena--and the international "secret government's" cover up, Astrology, Numerology, and other Occult sciences, Parapsychology, the mind-body connection and alternative medicine, Cosmic Consciousness, altered states (both natural as well as artificially induced), NDE's (near death experiences), the psychologically and physiologically-based concommitants of exercise, social psychology and anything related to belief systems and alternative life styles, human sexuality and the etiology of sexual fantasies, the psychology of advertising/commercials, my wonderful "old hippy" girlfriend-and soulmate- of 19 years, Eileen, and my soon to be 30-year-old daughter Vanessa (I can't believe it!)who lives in Asheville, North Carolina, who, with her degree in Journalism, is beginning a new job as an editor for a local internet service provider. (Vanessa, incidentally, is a Sagittarius, whose name-although agreed upon by both parents-was strongly influenced by me, with numerological considerations in mind: her "expression number" was carefully calculated to be the same as my own-the #3-which is the number of self expression through words!) last but certainly not least, my most recent area of interest lies in the ubiquitousness of the Internet and its perfect synchronicity with the Age of Aquarius as well as its power to bring all minds together and provide incredibly fertile ground for human creativity and the sharing of knowledge.

My Favorite Links

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