Sputnikfest 2014

Sputnikfest - It's Like Crazy, Man! 

Sputnik 1 went into orbit one month after the publication of On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s stream-of-consciousness autobiographical novel that defined the post-war Beat Generation. Within six months of the launch, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen came up with what has been called one of the most successful “intentionally coined” slang terms in the English language – “beatnik.”  The term described an anti-materialistic literary movement characterized by men with goatees, wearing loose-fitting hooped t-shirts, berets, and sunglasses, who played bongos and recited poetry (these were the "hip cats") – and women who wore black leotards and wore their hair straight and long (the "cool chicks").  The movement struck a chord in a post-Sputnik America suffering the humiliation of losing the first round of the Space Race to the Soviet Union.  This is an open call to all you hip cats and cool chicks to share one "crazy" event with us in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  See you at Sputnikfest - September 8, 2012!  Planet Terry