Legal appeal May 2, 2008
But there's a larger and subtler surprise: A show conceived in the Eisenhower era is, for all intents and purposes, a harbinger of 1960s counterculture, the kind of anti-law enforcement, pro-Bill of Rights template that Abbie Hoffman might have scripted. Note first the story arc of every script, which encourages us to rejoice not in the unmasking of the murderer (who is sometimes sympathetic) but in the vindication of the prime suspect (who is always sympathetic). (Salon)
The Saturday Inside Scoop Apr 6, 2008
Herbert Hoover has gone over to Abbie Hoffman. A solid red state has turned blue. (Oregon Sports -- Rivals.com)
'Monkey Warfare' approaches laughs from the left Apr 4, 2008
"Monkey Warfare" - the title comes from the late counterculture clown prince Abbie Hoffman - finds a tatty comic bliss in inertia. It says the more you try to change the world, the more the world rolls right over you and keeps moving on. (Boston Globe)
April fool! The purpose of pranks Apr 1, 2008
The 1960s activist and prankster Abbie Hoffman reportedly divided practical jokes into three categories. The bad ones involve vindictive skewering, or the sort of head-shaving, shivering-in-boxers fraternity hazing that the sociologist Erving Goffman described as "degradation ceremonies." Neutral tricks are more akin to physical punch lines, like wrapping the toilet bowl in cellophane, depositing a massive pumpkin on top of the student union building, or pulling some electronic high jinks on a... (International Herald Tribune -- Health)
Recreating '68 Mar 31, 2008
Riots started by so-called peace activists included thug Black Panther founder Bobby Seale, David Dellinger, chairman of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, Rennie Davis and Tom Hayden, members of the Students for a Democratic Society, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, leaders of the Youth International Party (those lovable YIPPIES), Lee Weiner research assistant at Northwestern University, eight civilians known as The Chicago 8, and John Froines, a professor at the... (Human Events Online)
Modern do-gooders Mar 22, 2008
Next to them, Barack Obama looks like Abbie Hoffman. It also means they are not that interested in working for big, sluggish bureaucracies. (International Herald Tribune -- Ed/Op)
Harriet Casdin-Silver, 83; holographic art pioneer Mar 15, 2008
Ms. Casdin-Silver, who once traveled to a protest march in Washington, D.C., with her friend and fellow Worcester native Abbie Hoffman, took creative cues from the changes unfolding around her, straining at technical and artistic constraints. "I think she was very open-minded," said her other daughter, Karen Stefani Silver of Dorchester. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- World)
'Chicago': A look at Summer of Love's reckoning Feb 29, 2008
Abbie Hoffman, a 1960s counterculture activist as seen in Brett Morgen's "Chicago 10." The docudrama uses a combination of animation and archival footage ... Then there were the Yippies, represented by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin - counterculture pranksters who turned every waking moment into anarchist improv. (Boston Globe)
Great message lost in 'Chicago 10' Feb 29, 2008
The re-enactment, from court transcripts, uses motion-capture animation and voices of actors including Hank Azaria as Abbie Hoffman and Mark Ruffalo as Jerry Rubin. But the mix of archival footage and animation is numbing. (USA Today -- Life)
A Bit Of A Trial Feb 29, 2008
Hank Azaria is entertaining as Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman - a political performance artist who is misleadingly portrayed as a visionary anti-war leader. Mark Ruffalo plays his more restrained collaborator Jerry Rubin, but the animated footage is largely dominated by the late Roy Scheider as Julius Hoffman, the judge who infamously ordered co-defendant Bobby Seale (Jeffrey Wright) bound and gagged after Seale insisted on his constitutional right to represent himself. (New York Post -- Entertainment)
CARTOON COURT Feb 28, 2008
A complicated mixture of archival footage and rotoscoped performances, Chicago 10 focuses on the ill-fated day when a crowd of thousands descended upon the convention and the ensuing trial that brought Abbie Hoffman, with his merry band of satirists, into national regard. There was no camera in the courtroom, but the transcript still exists, so director Brett Morgen decided to restage the events with a handful of noted actors (Hank Azaria, Nick Nolte and the late Roy Scheider among them) and... (New York Press)
Film greenlights in limbo Feb 28, 2008
Only Sacha Baron Cohen had been set to play Abbie Hoffman -- and is now looking at summer or fall start date -- when the prospect of an actor's strike should be in the rear view mirror. Says one production prexy: "The studios are sick of it, and the actors are tired of being out of work. At the same time, we're all prepared for a de facto strike. Everybody is designing their production schedules to anticipate an interruption.". (Variety)
84 comments Feb 25, 2008
Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin are dead. So is Spiro Agnew. (Human Events Online)
Walter Bowart, 68; cofounded underground Manhattan newspaper Jan 17, 2008
It reported on the exploits of many figures who became icons of the psychedelic era, including Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman, and Allen Ginsberg. "It was a radical alternative to the Village Voice; it was very irreverent," said Paul Krassner, the satirist and cofounder of the Yippies who ran his own counterculture journal, the Realist, from an office near Mr. Bowart's on Manhattan's Lower East Side. (Boston Globe)
Walter Bowart, 68; co-founder of the East Village Other Jan 13, 2008
The paper reported on the exploits of many of the figures who became icons of the psychedelic era, including Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg. "It was a radical alternative to the Village Voice. It was very irreverent," said Paul Krassner, the satirist and co-founder of the Yippies who ran his own counterculture journal, the Realist, from an office near Bowart's on Manhattan's Lower East Side. (Los Angeles Times)
Continuereading Jan 5, 2008
Just a week after Cohen announced he had retired Borat--following the success of 2006 movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan--he has been signed to star as '60s hippie satirist Abbie Hoffman in The Trial of the Chicago Seven. Hoffman found fame during the Vietnam War by playing pranks to campaign against the conflict. (Hanford Sentinal, CA)
Sacha Baron Cohen in Spielberg's 'Seven' Jan 3, 2008
London's ''Sunday Times'' reports that Steven Spielberg persuaded the actor to play Vietnam War activist Abbie Hoffman in DreamWorks' ''The Trial of the Chicago Seven ... (FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES) Sacha Baron Cohen will play 1960s Vietnam War protester Abbie Hoffman for The Trial of the Chicago Seven, a project Steven Spielberg is developing for DreamWorks, according to London's Sunday Times newspaper. (Entertainment Weekly)
We predict a riot Jan 3, 2008
British comic Sacha Baron Cohen looks set to star as 60s activist Abbie Hoffman in fact-based drama for Steven Spielberg. The as-yet-untitled production will focus on the anti-Vietnam war protests that wrecked the 1968 Democratic national convention and the subsequent trial of the Chicago Seven, of which Hoffman was a leading member. (Guardian Unlimited -- Film)
Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen to work for Steven Spielberg Jan 3, 2008
In The Trial of the Chicago Seven, Sacha Baron Cohen will portray Abbie Hoffman, a figure from the 1960s counterculture, who used a series of pranks to campaign against the war. Baron Cohen is expected to be paid about $6 million for the film. (Melbourne Herald Sun)
Borat actor to star in new Spielberg movie Jan 2, 2008
Cohen will take the role of anti-Vietnam War activist Abbie Hoffman in The Trial of Chicago Seven, UK newspaper The Sun reports. The British comedian recently announced he will retire his fictional alter ego Borat, a clueless TV reporter from Kazakhstan, as well as his Ali G character, a boorish wannabe gangster who lives with his grandmother. (Ninemsn)
Treasure Trove Jan 2, 2008
January 2, 2008 -- STEVEN Spielberg, who is directing a biopic about Abbie Hoffman, might want to get in touch with venerable radio host Bob Fass, who has hundreds of hours of interviews he conducted with the radical activist back in the '70s. "He would call in every night during the week and sometimes stay on the entire show," said Fass. (New York Post -- Gossip)
Baron Cohen joins Spielberg's 'Seven' Jan 2, 2008
British actor would play Abbie Hoffman in film ... British thesp Sacha Baron Cohen, who just came off a role in DreamWorks' "Sweeney Todd," has been attached to play Abbie Hoffman in the pic, according to a report in London's Sunday Times. (Variety)
New copyright law starts Web storm Dec 12, 2007
Better to take in a live show, or better yet, go steal a book like Abbie Hoffman told you to do. I just wish our Government could get it right and not simply copy the U.S. Now that's ironic. (Globe and Mail)
Boomer class Dec 4, 2007
Abbie Hoffman, "Looking Back on Woodstock" from Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture (1980). Jeff Greenfield, "They changed rock, which changed the culture, which changed us," New York Times Magazine, 1975. (USA Today -- News)
ATL actor gets cookin' in the 'Office' Oct 3, 2007
He s somebody who s replaced [1960s counter-culture radicals] Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Also, Entourage, definitely and CSI: Miami. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
ISSUES & IDEAS Sep 23, 2007
Peace activists nationwide share outrage - 09/23/2007 - MiamiHerald (The Miami Herald)
Beloit bridges the professor-student gap with a list Sep 22, 2007
The 70 items on the Class of 2011 list range from trite consumer references to cultural and historical events; the alleged deficiencies of our generation are that for us, Pete Rose has never played baseball, Abbie Hoffman has always been dead, and that we never saw Johnny Carson alive on television. . (Yale Herald, CT)
Sen. Norm Coleman Sep 12, 2007
He was the Abbie Hoffman of the sleepy Long Island commuter college. "Hofstra's pretty milquetoast, but he was the campus radical," recalls Peter Schmitt, who often sparred with Coleman back in their college days and is now the Republican minority leader of the Nassau County Legislature. (City Pages)
On the Road, and Jack Kerouac, still inspire young and old Sep 2, 2007
In one of his last published works, the essay "After Me, the Deluge," Kerouac rejected Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and other revolutionaries said to be carrying on in his name. "I'm not a Tax-Free, not a Hippie-Yippie ---- I must be a Bippie-in-the-middle," he wrote. (North County Times)
Carroll Rogers' beat blog Aug 25, 2007
The entry titled "Change of scenery good for Braves," and any of the comments about it. Commenting is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. M-F. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Sports)
No Berlin Wall mars this Mindset Aug 21, 2007
So, too, has activist/provocateur Abbie Hoffman, founder of the Youth International Party (the Yippies, who gave a political spin to hippies). Nief and McBride pore over headlines, chat up teens and consult the history books to develop a list drawing on politics, entertainment, celebrity, technology, media and advertising. (USA Today)
See the full list Aug 21, 2007
For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always been dead. 1. (USA Today)
Television icon succumbs to cancer Aug 14, 2007
Also thrown into the mix were guests such as burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, transsexual Christine Jorgensen and visionary architect Buckminster Fuller -- as well as a string of politicians and newsmakers that included Richard Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and antiwar activist Abbie Hoffman. Griffin also traveled to do filmed interviews with such notables as philosopher Bertrand Russell in London, actor Sean Connery in Cannes, and French sex symbol Brigitte Bardot in... (Sun-Sentinel.com)
Gordon Bishop: A dedicated friend of Indonesia Jul 31, 2007
He befriended some of the period's best-known and most colorful personalities, an eclectic group ranging from Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol to Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg. His travels took him to Mexico City, Paris, Amsterdam, Jerusalem, Jakarta, Kabul and many other cities. (Jakarta Post, Indonesia -- Features)
Elizabeth Edwards Will Give Up Tangerines to Fight Global Warming... Jul 25, 2007
Just like Abbie Hoffman, who realized what a friggin dunce he was and ultimately offed himself because he couldn't take it anymore. This is no joke. (The Drudge Report)
New DVDs: Premonition, Hills Have Eyes 2 Jul 17, 2007
The impressive lineup of interviews in the documentary include Andy Warhol, Hunter S. Thompson, Abbie Hoffman, William Burroughs, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Joan Baez, Bono and Johnny Depp. The two-disc set also packs a huge range of extras, featuring Ginsberg reading some of his poems, visiting Jack Kerouacs grave with Bob Dylan and offering an exhibition of his photos. (MSNBC -- Movies)
America's new political center Jul 3, 2007
Abbie Hoffman begat Ronald Reagan; Timothy Leary begat John Ashcroft. Just as the counterculture railed against free-market capitalism and traditional morality, a resurgent political conservatism which would exhibit its own excesses emerged to preserve and defend them. (Christian Science Monitor)
Dr. Feelgood Jun 27, 2007
There hasn't been a comparable joker in the left-wing deck since Abbie Hoffman went underground. But while Hoffman played the media, Moore uses it to play fast and loose. (City Pages)
Levitate the Pentagon Jun 19, 2007
Yippie icon Abbie Hoffman, who defined The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as "Beethoven coming to the supermarket", later recalled that "at the height of the American Empire we had all the bombs, all the cops in the world - and it was all ours - the Cadillacs, the two-car garages, the split-level ranch houses" ... Abbie Hoffman dropped in to visit the malignant structure, measured it, got arrested - but also got a lot of free publicity. (Asia Times Online)
Johnny Depp 'Digs' Che Jun 4, 2007
Gushed Kai Kracht, West Germany's version of 60's radical and uber-hippie Abbie Hoffman. We studied the great revolutionaries of our century: Lenin, Mao, Che (apparently none of these governed from above. (Human Events Online)
California: UC Irvine embroiled in Mideast debate Jun 4, 2007
These tactics utilized by some of the young people there on campus kind of mirror the tactics of (self-identified anarchist) Abbie Hoffman in the 1960s, he said. What can you do to draw the maximum amount of press attention. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
The U.S. vs John Lennon Jun 2, 2007
John Lennon, who had recently taken up residence in New York with his wife, Yoko Ono, was due to make his political debut on the same platform as the yippie Abbie Hoffman and the Black Panther Bobby Seale. The event was a benefit concert for John Sinclair, an activist sentenced to 10 years in jail for giving two marijuana cigarettes to an undercover police officer. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Forty years on, summer of love still lingers May 25, 2007
But Abbie Hoffman, who along with LSD pioneer Timothy Leary was the high priest of the movement, was more sympathetic. We didn't end racism but we ended legal segregation,' he said on the 30th anniversary of the event. (Monsters and Critics.com)
The happiest place on Earth? May 23, 2007
1970--300 hippies, lead by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin take over the park. Eighteen are arrested. (Newsday -- New York City)
SUMMER OF LOVE: 40 YEARS LATERThe party gets out of hand May 23, 2007
" It was not only a time of protest against a war on the other side of the world, it was also a time of protest, for some, at home. After the 1965 Watts riot in Los Angeles, the nation's ghettos awakened to a new, more militant brand of black leadership. Across the bay in Oakland, young blacks armed themselves for self-protection and some recognized, in the hippies, common social goals. David Hilliard: It was this counterculture movement. You're talking Timothy Leary, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman,... (San Francisco Chronicle)
Ex-senator guilty May 23, 2007
1985: Traveled to Nicaragua with Abbie Hoffman and Johanna Lawrenson as part of the effort to stop American support for the Contras. 1986: Came in second in the Democratic primary for U.S. Congress. (Seacoast New Hampshire)
R. EMMETT TYRRELL JR.: Retro wrath on the hustings Apr 6, 2007
He perished after jaywalking across Wilshire Boulevard after becoming an "entrepreneur." And the Yippies' other co-founder, Abbie Hoffman, also has had his obituary filed. After years on the lam for a drug trafficking charge (entrepreneurship fetched him too) he committed suicide in 1989. (Washington Times)
Grand Theft Politics: Apr 5, 2007
Duncombe notes approvingly how the Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman pursued an "explicit strategy of mythmaking" when he dreamed up the mock-serious levitation of the Pentagon during a massive, though otherwise run-of-the-mill, anti-war rally in 1967. In our current moment, Michael Moore's documentaries may not be fair and balanced, but they make us laugh and cry, and they also sell tickets. (Slate)
Without draft as target, Iraq anti-war protests lack intensity of Vietnam era Mar 21, 2007
The Vietnam era featured larger-than-life figures - Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon, Muhammad Ali - and colorful provocateurs such as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Hoffman masterminded the attempt to levitate the Pentagon in 1967; both were at the center of protests that sparked clashes with police at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. (AZCentral -- News)
War Demonstrators Descend on DC Mar 18, 2007
It was there that anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman led the masses in chants, with the fanciful goal of levitating the building. Saturday's march was the main event in anti-war demonstrations around the country. (Time.com)
Michael Medved Mar 14, 2007
Back in the glory days of the 1960s, the beloved hippie hero Abbie Hoffman penned a liberationist manifesto called Steal This Book. Radicals and revolutionaries have always devised comfortable euphemisms to describe the act of theft: liberating or boosting or collectivizing or nationalizing private property, or simply taxing the rich. (Townhall.com)
Judge: Cops Can't Video Purely Political Protests Feb 16, 2007
The judge said the city had violated the Handschu guidelines, named for the lead plaintiff in a case that included 1960s radical activist Abbie Hoffman and others as plaintiffs. "Solely politically based investigations are flatly prohibited by the guidelines," the judge wrote. (CBS New York, NY)
Judge bans routine NYPD videotaping of political protests Feb 16, 2007
He said the city had violated the Handschu guidelines, named for the lead plaintiff in a case that included 1960s radical activist Abbie Hoffman and others as plaintiffs. The guidelines date to 1985. (Newsday -- State)
Letters: Don’t try skimping on needed sleep Feb 14, 2007
It s the story of Abbie Hoffman, who was a patriot and American hero in the time-honored tradition of the Boston Tea Party. Where/who are the Abbie Hoffmans of today s generation. (Corvallis Gazette Times, OR)
Attorney defends civil rights background Feb 1, 2007
Well-known for his defense of high-profile, controversial clients, including the "Chicago Seven" and University of Massachusetts at Amherst student protester Abbie Hoffman, attorney Leonard Weinglass defended his decision to represent a Cuban man sentenced to life for espionage last night at Suffolk University Law School ... In his speech, Weinglass detailed his most infamous trials, speaking proudly about his defense of 14 UMass Amherst students -- including sixties-era protester Abbie Hoffman... (Boston University Daily Free Press, MA)
Graydon's Work In Progress Jan 31, 2007
GRAYDON'S WORK IN PROGRESS - Pagesix - New York Post Online Edition. Wednesday, January 31, 2007 Last Update: 10:45 AM EST. (New York Post -- Gossip)
The search is on at Sundance Jan 22, 2007
Chicago 10, made by The Kid Stays in the Picture documentarian Brett Morgen, uses real footage of political prankster "Yippies" Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin but also animation and voices by Nick Nolte, Hank Azaria and Jeffrey Wright to re-create the court scenes, of which no footage exists. "I wanted to make a film that mirrored 'yippie,' " Morgen says. (USA Today)
Actors enliven Sundance documentaries Jan 20, 2007
Chicago 10 director Brett Morgen had endless archival footage of street protests and defendants such as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman discussing the events in public. What he lacked was a way to incorporate the trial, until he came across a comment from Rubin that the courtroom saga was a cartoon show. (MSNBC -- Movies)
Redford Says Bush Owes an Apology Jan 20, 2007
It s the story of the 1968 Chicago trial of Tom Hayden, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale et al that made the late William Kunstler a star attorney. Chicago 10 is not actually a documentary. (Fox News -- Views)
'I think we're owed a big, massive apology'... Jan 19, 2007
Director Brett Morgen's documentary looks back at the notorious late 1960s trial of anti-war activists including Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, known at that time as the "Chicago Seven.". Reuters 2007. (The Drudge Report)
Sundance Film Festival Jan 13, 2007
There is, however, a lot of buzz swirling around Thursday night's festival opener, "Chicago 10," which recounts the tumultuous 1969 trial of eight anti-war activists, including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale. Directed by Brett Morgen ("The Kid Stays in the Picture"), the movie's blend of animation with archival footage and such voices as Nick Nolte, Jeffrey Wright, Mark Ruffalo and Liev Schreiber, arouses hope among attendees that the rest of the festival will be just as insurgent in... (Newsday -- Entertainment)
Don't limit free speech to zones Jan 11, 2007
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said in 1919 that "the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic." And in 1970 Abbie Hoffman, an anarchist, said "free speech is the right to yell 'theatre' in a crowded fire." These two geniuses set up boundaries of free speech and at the same time showed just how ambiguous those boundaries really are. What remains true about free speech is that it is still a... (The Crimson White, AL)
Book recounts New Haven's Black Panther trial Jan 7, 2007
Protest leaders such as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were heading to New Haven for a massive May Day demonstration over the trial. Some agitators threatened to destroy the city, while a Yale student named Hillary Rodham was among those trying to keep the peace. (Newsday -- State)
