Art Shop Spotlight showcases the weird, wonderful, and different in More Moe's on the fourth floor.This week: The Berkeley Barb!The Berkeley Barb was an underground, counterculture newspaper founded by Max Scherr in 1965. It was published every 2 weeks for 15 years, and covered some of the biggest issues in the Bay Area of the day: from the free speech movement to Vietnam, from the fight for civil rights to the election of Richard Nixon.From the Barb's website:"The Barb mixed radical politics with psychedelic art, guerrilla comics, local happenings, opinions, reviews, advice, personal ads, and frequent calls to protest. It offered its readers an unabashed alternative to the conformist mainstream press. At a nexus between Free Speech and the Sexual Revolution, the Barb trumpeted the irrepressible passions of the American counterculture." Compared to mainstream newspapers of its day, the Barb had a unique look and tone that made it a clear part of the counterculture of the sixties and seventies in Berkeley. Compared to today's journalism, it provides a fascinating time capsule to a place and time those who weren't there can only imagine. For those who were, it is a blast from the past that is sure to bring back lots of memories.For more information on the Berkeley Barb, visit the page about it on the Berkeley Historical Society website. Every issue of the Barb is digitized and available online here.At More Moe's, we currently have dozens of issues of the Barb that are available for perusal. Each issue is priced $10! Look and see what pieces of history you can dig up!
