Barney B in Tv drama

Recallerama ramble.

I tell this tale because I’ve often had it in the back of my notes for this ‘log that Barney B the eminent graphic designer was of the mod ‘TV generation,’ (in a way that I for instance am not) and that he ‘got’ it, no matter what, before anyone else, by weeks sometimes, but by long times too, and getting ‘TV’ was one of ‘em. It’s what got him so tight with New Wave graphics in the early eighties.

I was watching these two old geezers, Sid Croak and Tom Blather or the like, tout their really hip book with Peter Coyote at the local Booksmith.com on Haight Street last Thursday. They were both a year older than I am, though seemed of a vastly different age, ancient and gnarled.

These two old guys reminded me, with their talk of how the guiding principle of the ’67 era was “Never earn money” or its equivalent, “We’re not in it for cash.” that this was true of Barney B the artist. Of course it didn’t stop Barney from trying at times with fists and tricks to get money from folk. Getting paid by many people is often difficult. Even his gentlemanly benefactor, Justin DeBlanc (who invented the mint confection ‘After Eight’) was a trifle stingy with the check-book. But then its seems to me most people are.

Also, Barney was of the ‘TV’ age, enjoyed watching commercial TV, he saw it with an ironic fan’s eye and used it to enlarge his palette of ideas. The two old codgers were never of the TV generation, though I think Peter Coyote is. Funny that. Good book, check it out.

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