We got up very late and have been fussing around, chiefly engaged in destroying old manuscripts; the early Meeting by the River material for instance. Now we have to go out and see people, including Margaret Leighton whom I like and Marti Stevens who bores me. Bill van Petten called to wish me a happy New Year and to tell me that the new (sixteen-year-old) generation calls itself the Jam Generation. It relates to its parents, whereas the previous generation (twenty-year-old) didn’t. It believes in pilgrimages; hence these huge gatherings as at Woodstock. Bill also says that the newsmen on the Los Angeles Times are very pessimistic about the seventies. They expect organized violence by the blacks. Last night we saw the New Year in with Jack [Larson] and Jim [Bridges]. Several people connected with Jim’s film1 were there; he starts shooting on Monday. We both feel that the prospects of the film look dubious because Jim doesn’t seem to have really thought through the material and found out what it’s about.
