If I made the movie ...

I have been watching the History Channels documentary of "Woodstock: Then & Now" and looking at images of the organizer of the event ... I kept thinking he reminded me of someone ....

take away that mop of long hair (the kind I would have drooled over as a teenager) he looked incredibly like Mark Walberg or Matt Damon ... but mostly like Mark Walberg.

very interesting stuff ...

not only did they come up with the benchmark concert ... but they had to totally landscape the are for the concert - there was poison ivy & downed trees ... by the time they jumped thru all the permit hoops they only had 27 days to get the area ready, and most of those days were in rain.

Things you may not know:

• many of the traffic problems were caused by people not wanting to wait in traffic, so they simply abandoned their cars in the road making the problem even worse.



• chain link fences weren't secured all the way to the top of the posts to save money, and many people just pushed them over and climbed in.



• band members were flown in by heliocopter because the roads were so jammed ... musicians at first thought the crowds were some strange crop, from the air.



• Cost of actually Woodstock ticket? $8.00! That's it, average price these days for concert ticket (for just one band +opening act)? $60.00



• Concert date & time? August 15, 1969 10A.M. EST



• Official Name: Woodstock Music and Art Fair



• approximently 550,000 people were at the concert at 10am day Opening day -- but they were running at least 3 hours late before it began (the opening band had not shown up).



• the man who went on first had 6 encores - not because the audience wanted him back, but more because the organizers didn't have any other bands ready to go on stage yet.



• the Hog Farm commune appointed themselves security ... and labelled themselves the Please Force (instead of police force) -- interesting bit, Police Officers were often called PIGs during that time.



• Hog Farm commune also began serving food to people for free ... feeding 10,000 people a seating ... but it still wasn't enough to feed everyone there.



• Carlos Santana was tripping on magic Mushroom during their performance ... he reported that his guitar was turning into a snake while playing, so shots of him with his eyes shut while playing wasn't so much that he was 'into his music' he was trying to keep from looking at his guitar so he would freak-out while on stage.



• At the time, Santana was relatively unknown - this was basically their national launch



• Many of the performers managers would not let the acts on stage until they got paid in cash - since there was no gate proceeds to pay them from, and they would not accept a check in case it bounced.



• Peter Townsend cracked Auby Haufman in the head with his guitar because Auby Haufman interrupted their set to protest.



• Exposed the masses to the food staple - Granola



• Joe Cochran's debut - before this producers thought he was black.



• one person died during the event - but it wasn't from violence, one from being ran over by the 'honey wagon' when someone had slept underneath it during the night (okay personal note here - ewwww)...



• Only Crosby, Stills, and Nash's second concert together as a group (don't know where Young was at this point, I think he came later)



• Jimmy Hendrix didn't go on stage until 9am Monday morning after 40,000 people went home - 21 hours after he arrived at the site. he played his version of America for the first time, against advise from the organizers.



• Someone made a giant peace symbol out of garbage bags which could be seen from the heliocopters as performers left.



• Kent State happened just 9 months after Woodstock



• there was no violence at Woodstock - the violence too place in Altamont, CA sparked when someone hired the Hell's Angels as 'security guards', but no one knows who it was who hired them.



• Joni Mitchell was supposed to be at Woodstock - but her 'handlers' decided she wouldn't make it out on time to appear on the Dick Cavett show so they pulled her from the bill

They have tried to re-create the magic of Woodstock several times, but it can never be again -- there was just something there at that time that worked ... not even the Obama inaugaration (despite what the press wants you to believe)

too bad too ...

I had just started school then ... and now I'm too old.

of course ...

I'd ....

never let my kids go to it.