For those of us who grew up hearing songs like "Blowing in the Wind", and others that marked the era of folk music, protest music, and other things, you will certainly be familiar with the music of Peter Paul and Mary.
Last night, I was fortunate enough to see a concert given by Peter, and Paul, without Mary, who is/was very ill, and unable to perform. She was at her home in Connecticut--I believe that she has Leukemia, and Peter said that she was suffering from the effects of (something to do with a recent bone marrow transplant).
While the concert was a lot of fun, it was easy to see that the primary performers, Peter, Paul, and their back up bass fiddle, and guitar players, were all getting old too. The Bass Fiddle player was nearly unable to walk onto the stage, and Peter, and Paul, helped to support him to his place on stage where he played the large bass, all the while hooked up to his oxygen tank. The other guitar/mandolin/banjo player, sat through the show performing without expression on his face.
It's possible that I missed some of the finer nuances of expression and feeling shown by all of the performers--I was, after all, in what a friend of my has described as the "nose-bleed section", and even with my binoculars, I couldn't see everything as clearly as I would have liked.
Yet, Peter's voice, was clear, Paul's was clearer, and it sounded wonderful to hear them singing some songs I hadn't known, and others that were very familiar. Tom Paxton joined them on stage toward the end, it was also nice to see him, and he too has advanced into his older years while retaining his clear voice.
I'm glad I went. I wish I'd taken advantage of the proximity of the summer schedule of performances at Wolftrap in earlier years, still, no regrets. Next year I'll try to go.
Lila
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Woodstock: Again....Sunday 16 August 09
...with all of the media about Woodstock of 40 years ago, I started to think about the "40 years ago" part of it--what was it 40 years ago that made Woodstock so unique, at that time, and in the memory of those whose lives were touched by it?
Today I think I figured out part of the answer--JOY--Woodstock was a moment of JOY in the timeline of the era--a major blip in the timeline that expressed a moment of pure Joy that permeated throughout the crowd, the world, and stayed with them--and had an impact on everything else that came later in their lives. And the JOY spread beyond the immediate environment of the concert into the world, and endured through time....
Self-standing JOY. JOY--just because.
The JOY of the moment was joy that had nothing to do with the politics of the era, the struggles of the peoples of the world, the differences among people, the similarities that they hoped to achieve, the unity of the moment among the thousands of people who were there....It was JOY....shared JOY that remains in the memories of those who were touched by the events of one set of unique few days at a concert that is forever known as Woodstock.
Today I think I figured out part of the answer--JOY--Woodstock was a moment of JOY in the timeline of the era--a major blip in the timeline that expressed a moment of pure Joy that permeated throughout the crowd, the world, and stayed with them--and had an impact on everything else that came later in their lives. And the JOY spread beyond the immediate environment of the concert into the world, and endured through time....
Self-standing JOY. JOY--just because.
The JOY of the moment was joy that had nothing to do with the politics of the era, the struggles of the peoples of the world, the differences among people, the similarities that they hoped to achieve, the unity of the moment among the thousands of people who were there....It was JOY....shared JOY that remains in the memories of those who were touched by the events of one set of unique few days at a concert that is forever known as Woodstock.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Woodstock memories: Saturday 15 August 09
...like I said, I wasn't there, would like to have gone, yet the fact remains, I didn't get there, but, I did see the traffic jams that it generated south of it. And the rain...
I saw more pictures of the crowd on the news last night; pictures on the news showing the field, today, green, and beautiful.....
So, "Woodstock" has become a cultural item--something of great significance--an icon--one of those things that everybody seems to know about--a major event in the history of our country. Efforts to re-create the spirit of the concert never quite succeeded--in that way, Woodstock was unique--nothing else even compared.
There's been a lot of talk about the fact that the crowds were largely peaceful, that there was almost no violence, despite shortages of water, food, shelter.
As a social scientist, I analyze such images as the scenes from Woodstock, and sometimes I see some interesting things that are beyond the "obvious". I'm going to look at the new documentary soon, at least I believe it's an update, improvement, of the original movie made from the time of the concert. It should be interesting to find out what I see, or think I see....
Lila
I saw more pictures of the crowd on the news last night; pictures on the news showing the field, today, green, and beautiful.....
So, "Woodstock" has become a cultural item--something of great significance--an icon--one of those things that everybody seems to know about--a major event in the history of our country. Efforts to re-create the spirit of the concert never quite succeeded--in that way, Woodstock was unique--nothing else even compared.
There's been a lot of talk about the fact that the crowds were largely peaceful, that there was almost no violence, despite shortages of water, food, shelter.
As a social scientist, I analyze such images as the scenes from Woodstock, and sometimes I see some interesting things that are beyond the "obvious". I'm going to look at the new documentary soon, at least I believe it's an update, improvement, of the original movie made from the time of the concert. It should be interesting to find out what I see, or think I see....
Lila
Friday, August 14, 2009
Woodstock: 40 years later. Today is 14 August 2009
No, I wasn't there. I'm not sure how that got started, I wasn't there.
Not that I wasn't there in spirit; I had to go to work on Monday morning--I was between sophomore and junior year of college, and I had to work during the summer.
So, let me back up a bit. I WAS in northern New Jersey; I didn't have a car, also had no money. I did have a (boy)friend who said he wanted to go, and I wound up going to our family's summer house in northern NJ for the weekend.
Traffic was horrible. I'd never, then, or since, seen such traffic in northern NJ. The roads were packed. It was gridlock--everywhere--and also on the way back on Sunday evening.
And everyone was "watching", "listening" for news about the concert at Woodstock. You could feel the tension in the air....At least from my perspective, and also among my lake friends, that weekend.
I took the train/bus to work on Monday morning. I bought a copy of the New York Times, which was ten cents at the time, and read the Times article about the concert, and all that was happening.
I remember doing that. I wished I'd been able to get there, but it wasn't going to happen, being that I was also being monitored/supervised by my parents who took extra note about my whereabouts that weekend, maybe to insure that I didn't slip away and try to get a ride to the concert. That wasn't going to happen either, so I just endured the weekend, and went to work on Monday morning.
The news: I seem to remember a rush for the TV talk shows and news shows during those few days of the concert, and the days afterward (probably the Late Show with Johnny Carson, since I was at work during the day), getting people to talk about "what had happened" at the concert that was now being referred to as "Woodstock". I remember seeing Crosby, Stills, and Nash on one of these shows, as they excitedly talked about their experiences--every other performer who I saw here and there, was also equally animated--"something" had happened, something that made "it" different from what had gone before.
Time would now be reckoned as being BEFORE, and AFTER Woodstock. Sure, the DURING Woodstock time had happened, and it had been filmed, and would become analyzed, and pondered over, yet "that", was a part of the AFTER time, and would happen later.
I wonder sometimes what would life be like, for ME, had I gone to Woodstock.
Probably not much different, then again, if I take a turn in my imagination, I can see some other possibilities that might have been reasonable. I'm still the same person I was back then, albeit a whole lot more knowledgeable about many other things that I had no knowledge of then, that didn't exist "then", and I wonder if those things would have happened too....I'll never know. Then too, I don't believe in spending too much time mourning things past--the future is so much more promising, and interesting.....and that's the direction I'm going.
Lila
Not that I wasn't there in spirit; I had to go to work on Monday morning--I was between sophomore and junior year of college, and I had to work during the summer.
So, let me back up a bit. I WAS in northern New Jersey; I didn't have a car, also had no money. I did have a (boy)friend who said he wanted to go, and I wound up going to our family's summer house in northern NJ for the weekend.
Traffic was horrible. I'd never, then, or since, seen such traffic in northern NJ. The roads were packed. It was gridlock--everywhere--and also on the way back on Sunday evening.
And everyone was "watching", "listening" for news about the concert at Woodstock. You could feel the tension in the air....At least from my perspective, and also among my lake friends, that weekend.
I took the train/bus to work on Monday morning. I bought a copy of the New York Times, which was ten cents at the time, and read the Times article about the concert, and all that was happening.
I remember doing that. I wished I'd been able to get there, but it wasn't going to happen, being that I was also being monitored/supervised by my parents who took extra note about my whereabouts that weekend, maybe to insure that I didn't slip away and try to get a ride to the concert. That wasn't going to happen either, so I just endured the weekend, and went to work on Monday morning.
The news: I seem to remember a rush for the TV talk shows and news shows during those few days of the concert, and the days afterward (probably the Late Show with Johnny Carson, since I was at work during the day), getting people to talk about "what had happened" at the concert that was now being referred to as "Woodstock". I remember seeing Crosby, Stills, and Nash on one of these shows, as they excitedly talked about their experiences--every other performer who I saw here and there, was also equally animated--"something" had happened, something that made "it" different from what had gone before.
Time would now be reckoned as being BEFORE, and AFTER Woodstock. Sure, the DURING Woodstock time had happened, and it had been filmed, and would become analyzed, and pondered over, yet "that", was a part of the AFTER time, and would happen later.
I wonder sometimes what would life be like, for ME, had I gone to Woodstock.
Probably not much different, then again, if I take a turn in my imagination, I can see some other possibilities that might have been reasonable. I'm still the same person I was back then, albeit a whole lot more knowledgeable about many other things that I had no knowledge of then, that didn't exist "then", and I wonder if those things would have happened too....I'll never know. Then too, I don't believe in spending too much time mourning things past--the future is so much more promising, and interesting.....and that's the direction I'm going.
Lila
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