i'm sure the hippies are pretty amazed that 40 years ago this june they had declared - in the haight - that the summer of 1967 was the summer of love.

perhaps it was just that. reading the essays of the late, great poet lew welch tonight, written mostly during those wild, turbulent times of the '60s, that welch thought change for the better was just beginning.

being a child born during that tumultuous period of world history, i rebelled against the excesses of peace, love and understanding and turned to the virulent frustrations that borne out punk rock in the '70s and '80s.

now i'm a few days away from turning 40, a poet and man still attempting to learn to become a poet and man. and my attitudes maybe are changing to ask again, echoing elvis costello and nick lowe, what's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding.

and i'm listening more and more to trance, a form of electronica heavy on its insistence of love and harmony. should a track have lyrics, those lyrics are pretty simple to the point of being trite. and then there are the exceptions where the voice, the words and the beat become uplift. lately, i've been obsessed with a track by above & beyond good for me. i first heard this piece about three weeks ago driving home at 1:00 a.m. from watching a movie with some friends as the song closed out above & beyond's radio show broadcast on xm satellite station the system. it was a slower, more ambient, mix than this particular track. but i prefer the remix linked to here. it's got that big sound i so love in trance. and the vocals sound, without trying to sound like a hippie, like love.

then again, perhaps i'm a big old hippie after all.