Talk:Californication

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Californication is a portmanteau I first saw on bumper stickers in Colorado, to wit "Don't Californicate Colorado." I don't recall the exact date they appeared, but it was sometime prior to a statewide referendum for support of the 1976 Winter Olympics. That vote occurred on Nov. 7, 1972, when the voters rejected a 5 million dollar bond issue to fund the Games.

I vividly recall the bumper stickers (and some window placards) because of the titillating aspect of the word, and as an impressionable early teen, it is emblazoned in my memory. It also introduced me to politics, because the crusader against the games, Dick Lamm, eventually became governor of the state.

More details can be found at http://www.denver-rmn.com/millennium/1012stone.shtml

Schleprock 21:51, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I have also email corresponded with Governor Richard Lamm, who confirms that the term 'californicate' originated in the Olympics battle in Colorado. I received his confirmation moments ago.

Schleprock 20:03, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

From the Tea Room comes this information: In 1966 Time magazine used the term "californication" in describing the successors to the "Beat Generation" of the 1950's. "The Beat Generation of writing is forget it. Some curly new hair is coming up in Beardsville. The new boys still haven't found a name—The Camp Crowd? The Hallucinogeneration?—but they have brattishly proclaimed their principal preoccupations: LSD, pot, the Spirit of Berkeley, californication, and not fighting in Viet Nam. "

The context clearly refers to it as a 'preoccupation' of the new generation in a list of "things we like to do". The sexual innuendo could not be much clearer, and the "cali-" particle may be interpreted as referring to a style or mode of behaviour popular in California, likely what was later termed "free love", and included public displays of affection and unprotected sex without personal committment. Evidently they were referring to the generation which has since become widely known as "hippies".

131.81.200.91 (talk) 13:57, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Proposed entry has yet to be approved, my apologies for being viewed as Original Research. I believe it speaks for itself on what Californication meant, other than the anti-Winter Olympics slogan in Denver in the '70s : Californication describes the whole USA or the entire world adapts to Californian social trends, political beliefs and cultural values, mainly described as being liberal, progressive, radical (the Left-wing) or innovative was said to have originated in California. Throughout the 20th century, the state of California is foreseen as a place to jump-started a number of social changes or movements: pacifism, environmentalism, health consciousness, globalization, multiculturalism and the post-industrial high-tech economy; to promoted tolerance of homosexual (gay rights) lifestyles, feminism or gender equality, and racial or ethnic minority groups; to heavily influence the national and global political (liberal and conservative) or religious scene (New Age and Eastern religions in the Western world); and overall the hub of trends in "pop culture" such as the latest music, movies, fashion, cuisine and other past or current fads later adopted internationally. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.102.2.206 (talk) 08:06, 31 May 2009 (UTC)