Blue Planet Blues Vol. 1 Hitchhiking the Psychedelic Matrix: The Memoirs of Holly Avila (Blue Planet Blues: The Memoirs of Holly Avila)

I just re-read this first volume of Holly Avila’s memoirs in preparation for reading Volume 2, Music Is The Muse, which is out now as of yesterday! As the child of two Baby Boomers myself, I have always been curious about the Sixties (much of what we think of as the Sixties really took place in the Seventies) and what it felt like for them to become hippies and then — in their cases, but not in Holly Avila’s — to be pushed back from the precipice of a new world to become Yuppies and once again make common cause with the Military-Industrial Complex world of their patriarchal fathers that for a brief, shining moment, their generation had so effectively rebelled against. Holly Avila’s story is the story of one who took the road less travelled and held true to the ideals of the counterculture, and so it is a fascinating, healing read for all those of us who have grown up or moved forward from the Sixties knowing that its revolutionaries have been right all along that a new world based on love and art and learning and nurturing IS possible...and that humor is the best and only necessary defense! ‘I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now!’

I’ve known Holly for many years. Some of these stories I had heard from her, and some I hadn’t. It’s great to have it all in a book, chronicling the time before I met her and her adventures on the road. I can hardly wait to read the next one, and I am sure to be in some future book, since we had many adventures together. The one theme that runs through Holly’s writing is love. She has a way of loving people that is unselfish and rooted in love of God and the world. One reviewer did not understand this and just thought she was “airing dirty laundry and sharing her body-disgusting”. Well, she didn’t finish reading and she missed the point. Her loss.I hope everyone who reads Holly’s writing opens their minds and hearts to hear about someone’s search for love and meaning in life.

It's hard to do this book justice. Her writing transports, absorbs and compels, bringing you into her mind and circumstances as she recalls things at a remarkable level of detail, weaving it all together to form a very strong experience of the time through style, culture, and personal meaning. You don't have to be a fan of the 60s to care about this young hippie musician. You might wish you can reach back through time to help her somehow, or at least offer some warnings, but you also feel her strength of vision and the potential of this gifted flower child. Here and there, she speaks from the present, dropping hints of what is to come and who she became. The story unfolds in ways that surpass what you might anticipate from a 60s memoir; expect the unexpected.

I coudn't have said it any better than the previous reviewer, other than is it double the fun to read a memoir like this, when you know the person writing it. When I first read bits and pieces, I knew she had something that would grab most anyone that read it and shake 'em up a bit, make them smile, and often. bring back memories our our own times, trials and tribulations of that period of time. Will anticipate each addition to this saga.

I had the chance to get an early copy and absolutely loved the book! It has had the same effect on me as On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. I loved to read a story of an adventurous woman who lived life fully during the 70's. You simply wish you were there, in the story.

The first of what will be several satisfying and thought-provoking installments Holly Avila’s telling her tale. It is a nearly archetypical 1960s travelogue, beginning then and continuing up to the present. This initial volume, as expected, sets the nature style of her relationships with the source material—fully lived and clearly understood.

It really fun book

I didn't bother to finish it. I know the author. I can't imagine sharing my dirt, & my body with everyone. It was gross.

Holly I loved volume 1 and look forward to reading the rest of them as they become available. I couldn't put it down until I had read the last line. Bravo!