Woodstock On Vinyl, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
For last week’s 40th anniversary of Woodstock, I spent a few hours in the studio listening to a vintage copy of the original 3-set Woodstock album on vinyl. Then Liz and I met up with a fellow group of geocachers at the Lake Harriet Band Shell for a potluck and the live music of Woodstock Re-Rocked.
Providence conspired in our favor. Liz’s “parking angels” were in full swing when we drove into the only spot left in the jammed lot next to the band shell. The wind shifted and ferocious bundles of black storm clouds heading straight for us diverted west. We opened our portable lawn chairs, slipped a few flowers in our hair, and rocked out to Santana, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young, Canned Heat, and Jimi Hendrix.
Liz wore patchouli and a tie dye T-shirt. The air temperature was a cool 72 degrees and at dusk we wrapped up in blankets. The Music in the Parks concert event coordinator broke out in her version of Janis Joplin’s Mercedes Benz right before the outdoor screening of an expanded edition of Woodstock. Released on June 9, 2009 in Blu-Ray and DVD, the remastered 40th Anniversary Edition of the film features 19 new performances, adding two extra hours of rare footage.
The Woodstock concert was billed as An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music. The Woodstock “dove” symbol was originally drawn as a catbird.
Here are a few other fun facts that were read aloud at Lake Harriet before the film rolled. (I jotted them down in one of my new pocket notebooks):
- people who abandoned their cars walked an average of 15 miles to the stage
- 250,000 people never made it to Woodstock that day
- 17 miles of bumper to bumper traffic piled up
- $18 was the 3-day price of admission
- 18 doctors saw 6000 patients with 50 additional doctors flown in from NYC
- only 33 people were arrested for drug charges
- there were 15 cauldrons of rice-raisin combo made by Lisa Law and the Hog Farm
- 60 public telephones
- a lone 80 foot stage
- 150 volunteer cops, 346 NYC policemen who volunteered
- 450 unfenced cows
- 600 portable toilets
- 1300 lbs of food ferried in by emergency copters
- cost was $50,000 to use Yasgur’s farm
- 315,000 feet of film was shot, 120 hours straight through
- 1/2 million long distance calls made first day of festival
- 1/2 million franks eaten the first day
In 1996, the movie Woodstock was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” I was too young to attend the concert. But the year I entered high school, the movie Woodstock was released and 400,000 ripples from Max Yasgur’s 600 acre dairy farm could be heard echoing through the halls of Red Land. We are still celebrating the music 40 years later.
Yet I have to be honest — after almost 45 minutes of long, drawn out guitar riffs from the Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, we left before the screening ended. It was already 11:30 p.m. and Liz had to work early the next morning. Maybe I’m getting too old to make it through two extra hours of Woodstock. Still, when we drove by the shadow of the Lake Creature on our way home, we felt peaceful and full from the experience, a Summer night of music in the park with Woodstock fans, old and young.
I’m looking forward to Ang Lee’s new film Taking Woodstock scheduled to be released August 28th. The movie is based on the memoirs and memories of Elliot Tiber. In 1969, Tiber was an interior designer in Greenwich Village. That June he’d been at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Village, when patrons fought back against police brutality, touching off the modern Gay Rights movement.
Elliot Tiber felt empowered by Stonewall but still staked to the family business – a run-down Catskills motel called the El Monaco. He moved back to save the motel and became instrumental to Woodstock by offering a permit and connecting Michael Lang of Woodstock Ventures with Max Yasgur, gestures that would mark his place in Woodstock history.
I want to wrap up with my favorite piece of nostalgia about the concert. The iconic cover of Woodstock was shot by photographer Burk Uzzle, a Life magazine alumnus and a member of the elite Magnum photo agency (Uzzle also shot the funerals of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy). During a year of great violence, the 1969 photo exudes a sense of peace.
The couple in the famous photograph, Nick Ercoline and Bobbi Kelly, are still together (here’s what they look like now). They had dated for only 10 weeks when their photo was taken by Uzzle (unknown to them until the Woodstock album came out). Nick and Bobbi, now 60 years old, married two summers after Woodstock and are going strong.
To me, that’s what Woodstock was really about.
The love.
Woodstock At The Lake Harriet Band Shell, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 2009, all photos © 2009 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Resources:
- Burk Uzzle Biography at Laurence Miller Gallery
- Video of photographer Burk Uzzle – Woodstock Photographer: “I Had a Very Violent Decade” – Burk Uzzle discusses iconic Woodstock photograph on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (original photo in background)
- A Woodstock Moment – 40 Years Later at the Smithsonian – the story of Nick & Bobbi Ercoline (with photos)
- Woodstock concert’s undercover lovers, Nick and Bobbi Ercoline, 40 years after summer of love at NY Daily News – Music (2009 photos of couple)
- History of Max Yasgur’s Farm
- Photographer Burk Uzzle — Woodstock: 40th Anniversary
- Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock at Film in Focus
- Woodstock 69 Festival & Concert Homepage
- Back to Woodstock on Dateline NBC – Story, photos, video of Lisa Law (of the Hog Farm who was there with her baby daughter and helped to feed Woodstock) and an interview with Elliot Tiber
-posted on red Ravine, Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Hard to believe that Woodstock was 40 years ago. I have/had that album that came out. 500,000 people and no violence. It was the end of an era. Nixon was president and the war still raged in South Vietnam. We didn’t know that the era was ending, but that’s what happened. Forty years later we are still wandering in the dark most of the time. Those were the good old days…I had to say it, couldn’t resist.
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Bob, it is amazing that there was no violence. There were a few deaths from drug overdoses. But considering all that was going on there, minimal. I don’t think we ever know how the history we are now making will end up playing out down the road. A bunch of kids planned a music event and it became iconic. They never could have known how many people would show up and that the day would go down in history.
There were some repercussions from that time period — excessive drug use in search of some kind of nirvanna. I don’t feel like they are the same kinds of drugs we are seeing today though — more organic. The kinds of drugs today seem to eat people alive.
Within a year of Woodstock, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix would be dead from overdoses. Along with Canned Heat’s lead singer of Goin’ Up the Country, Alan Wilson.
Liz and I watched the Dateline special on Woodstock 9at the last link) and it was really well done. One man does tours at the Woodstock site now which has become, I believe, a park that people can visit. (Need to check that detail.) He said he doesn’t do drugs anymore. Stopped after all the rock stars started dying in the late 60’s and 70’s.
The stories about Lisa Law and Elliot Tiber are fascinating to listen to. Their roles in Woodstock, their lives today. Thanks for stopping by. Thought you were on your way to Taos!
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BTW, we’ve had a couple of tornados touchdown in downtown Minneapolis in the last hour. Kind of freaky. Lots of damage. They were rain-wrapped so there was little warning. They are down near Portland, Park, I-35. I was just down there last night on the motorcycle on the way to Bloomington. Pouring down rain but all seems calm out here now. Will keep you posted!
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Yikes, QM. Hope it passes quickly. Although, tornados do pass quickly, I guess, and do a lot of damage in a short time. Well, hope it passes without damage.
Fun post. I love the many album covers, esp in the small thumbnail size that you’ve put some of them. So adorable. Hey, that band shell looks kind of like a castle. Does it always look like that? I can’t imagine they did that for the Woodstock revival.
I just got in from the August domed resin gathering. I like those women! It’s so much fun. A big plate of nachos for dinner, and then roll up the sleeves and get to work. Communal art-making is amazing. So efficient. Of course, the host does much of the work to make it seem so effortless for the rest of us.
So I’ll read the post in detail tomorrow and comment more then.
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QM and Liz,
I read this earlier t work but came back to comment. I just saw the tornado thing. Hope you both are safe and sound.
I wanted to say GREAT read QM! Loved reading the statistics. And I didn’t know the cover was done by a Magnum shooter. You don’t get better than that do ya…
Like you, I was too young to go. If it happened now…even with all the great names… I’d worry so much about the designated potty areas…I’d still wait for the movie. Can you imagine only 600 portable toilets for that crowd? Yikes. BTW, I think I’ve seen the movie Woodstock 11 times but then I’ve seen the Concert for Bangladesh 19 times. Both were at the 50 cent show. (No offense to Ravi Shankar, but I took a nap during the sitar portion after the 2nd viewing).
About 6 years ago I went to visit a good buddy that relocated to the Big Apple (she was insane enough to join me for Bangladesh 19 times). Hey! I just realized why I’m able to sit through 6 episodes of Pride and Prejudice back to back! Early training. Anyway, I rented a car and took a day trip to Woodstock. Obviously no more Yasgur’s farm …just a long street full of shops and a few new age hippie-wanna-be’s singing with guitars. I brought my hubby back 2 very overpriced Woodstock T-shirts. This last week he has been alternating them in their very faded glory and telling people he was there at 12! I actually have an old Woodstock poster. I think it has a guitar neck with a bird sitting on the end and maybe a rainbow? Maybe I should ebay that sucker!
And QM, tell Liz high fiver on the parking angel club. I have my own! My sister swears it’s our Dad.
;)H
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QM, hope all is calm today in your neck of the woods. We get our fair share of tornados here & the past week has been hot & humid. Of course this helps to brew up those nasty summer storms. Naturally I worry about more of our trees coming down! I also heard on the news that a building in Harrisburg collapsed due to the storms. Thank goodness it was a vacant building & no one was injured.
I read this post last night. Very good & brought back many memories! I was only 14 at the time, but the music influenced me tremendously. It was a time of love & peace.
I became a Crosby, Stills, & Nash, & Young fan. Oh, & Joe Cocker, etc…gobbling up any record I could afford.
I recently saw a program on PBS which featured many of the musicians from that era. It was a 90th B-Day celebration in honor of Pete Seger & his mission to clean up the Hudson River. Joan Baez was a big part the show & she still looks fabulous! I also saw a program about Woodstock & Richie Haven sang Freedom, which he explained he made up the song the moment he was thrown on the stage.
Some of the statistics blow me away! The Lake Harriet Band Shell is beautiful. Terrific read, QM! D
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ybonesy, yep, the tornados passed. They’ve so far only declared on official touchdown in Cottage Grove. But many think the Minneapolis damage was also due to a tornado touchdown. Hasn’t been officially declared yet. Not sure what it takes. Lots of damage and downed tees. No injuries so far. Sad about the downed old growth trees though. Will really be noticed in that part of the city.
The Lake Harriet Band Shell has a long history (as does Lake Harriet which used to a Sioux settlement before Minneapolis was a city). I read that the Lake Harriet Band Shell has had 5 incarnations, the first built in 1888. A temporary band shell built in 1927 by the Park Board lasted until 1985, 58 years, when it was taken down for construction of the current band shell. The current bandshell was built in 1986 and was designed by Milo Thompson of the Minneapolis architectural firm of Bentz Thompson Rietow. It’s considered a Minneapolis landmark. It was refurbished from blue to light brown in 2004 and a few updates added for sound and concerts.
Maybe I’ll do another post just about Lake Harriet some day. It’s a beautiful area rich with history. BTW, I read that Lake Harriet was named after the wife of Col. Henry Leavenworth from Detroit, Michigan who arrived in this area to build a fort. His wife’s name was Harriet and at that time wives could not accompany their husbands to duty. He first saw the lake when it was still an Indian village. It must have been beautiful with no urban development. It’s still a great area near the heart of the city.
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Just read this over lunch, QM. Bobbi and Nick 40 years later–loved that! And that they’re still together. How cool.
So *all* the police were volunteers? Isn’t that kind of strange? I mean, with that many people, seems like there would have been a stronger public safety response. I think of the Michael Jackson funeral, for example, and how it taxed public resources.
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heather, thanks so much. I’m so happy when you stop by and comment on the photographers I write about. I’m a big fan of photographic history and photographers. So great to find a fellow photog into the details!
It is hard to imagine only 600 toilets. But it makes sense when you think that they weren’t expecting nearly as many people as showed up to Woodstock. And I couldn’t believe that 250,000 never made it, though they tried to get there. It’s hard to imagine that many people on a patch of Max Yasgur’s farmland, isn’t it?
I think it’s cool that you visited Woodstock. I think they have made it a Memorial site now. But it wasn’t when you were there? I read that there is a Memorial plaque, and the field and the stage area remain preserved in their rural setting. Also the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts was built there and opened in 2006. At least that’s what I read. I would love to visit the site sometime. Maybe when I’m in Pennsylvania again I can talk some family members into making the trip. I think it’s a ways from where I grew up, but sill closer than MN!
That Woodstock poster you have is probably worth a lot! I’d probably frame it and hang it up. Maybe you can hang it in your gallery when you are able to open it up again. That’s a great memento. If I had been older at the time, I may have wanted to attend. I was on the fringe of a group of friends who were into it back then. I was a lot staighter and jockier at the time though and wasn’t quite ready to push that envelope. Changed a lot when I went away to college.
I’m going to tell Liz about your parking angels. She’ll get a big kick out of the fact that you have them, too! 8)
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diddy, that PBS concert sounds great. And for a good cause — to clean up the Hudson River. I didn’t know that tidbit about Richie Havens making up Freedom when he was pushed on stage! Joan Baez was one of the first up at the movie at the Lake Harriet Band Shell. She looked so young and that made me feel so old. When we looked around, there were a few people wearing short mini-dresses that were tie dyed and had a ring of flowers on their hair. People of all ages were really into celebrating that night. It was a lot of fun, something that probably won’t happen again in quite the same way.
I’ve always been into Woodstock, both the movie and the legacy of it. When I first moved to Minnesota, I took a class at the U of M on expository writing and chose to write about Woodstock. It was before computers so I had to go do all the research at the library. I checked out a ton of books and sat down to write. I think I got an A which was important to me at the time because I was just starting to think about getting into making writing a life’s work. Of course, I ended up going to art school shortly after and focused on my photography and art for a while. But I eventually made it back to writing. I think Woodstock will always symbolize something bigger for me. Like Bob said, the end of an era.
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ybonesy, yep, still together. That’s one of the greatest parts of this story, I think. That Bobbi and Nick Ercoline are still together after 40 years. They endured through it all. Strong love. It sounded like they were all volunteers that policed the concert. In an interview that Liz and I saw with some police that had been there, they said they were lax and laid back with the crowd. There was really no violence. It seemed like all these elements came together that allowed the event to happen. I guess some would call it karma. It’s odd, too, because there was a lot of police brutality going on during the 1960s against college-aged kids protesting for peace in particular. So it is surprising that Woodstock unfolded the way it did.
Heather, wanted to mention one other thing. The Burk Uzzle show at the Laurence Miller Gallery in NYC ends tomorrow. It’s the 40th Anniversary of the Woodstock photos. Take a peek at that link and you can view some of the photos in the show, B&W and Color. (This one in particular is a B&W variation on the Woodstock cover (LINK). Really fun. They are smiling. In the video of Uzzle, he seems like such a nice guy. Maybe nice guys do finish first.
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Heather, have you ever thought about what it might be like to have a photograph as famous as Burk Uzzle’s photo on the cover of Woodstock?
It seems like the downside is that his photograph pops up everywhere on the Internet without people giving credit to him as the photographer. When something gets that big, and is reproduced that much, it takes on a life bigger than the moment the photograph was shot.
It reminds me of the controversy when Shepard Fairey used that press photo of Obama for his posters. When does the photograph stop being the photographer’s and become the artist’s new work? That has always intrigued me. Especially since many works of art are drawn or based on photographs.
Does anyone else have opinions on that issue? It also extends to writing on the Internet and giving credit to the original post or source you read to write your pieces. Just curious what people think.
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QM,
I actually like the B/W version better on the Woodstock cover. It makes me focus right in on the couple rather than all the color surrounding them. And Yes! I would love to have a photo that famous. It reminds me of Steve McCurry’s shot of the Afghan girl. Those eyes are unforgettable.
http://www.stevemccurry.com
My favorite photojournalist is James Nachtwey. He’s a living legend who’s made great sacrifices (health and personal life) to bring us some very powerful (often very difficult to look at) images from war torn countries. And he’s an award winning Magnum Shooter. If you ever get a chance to see “War Photographer” on DVD, I highly recommend it. It documents his journey.
This is his site and some of his work.
http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/
Two years ago, he was signed up to teach a 3 day class in a photography studio in Venice Beach. I paid the very reasonable fee and waited in a state of terrified panic. I shoot nothing like him and this guy is my hero. At the last minute, he was pulled away due to some disaster so the 10 students never got the chance. I often wonder if I would have been able to breath…or embarrass myself so badly the first day, I would hide the next 2.
He is always out-of-country but lives in NY and just happened to be there on 9/11 after something like a 3 year stint away. The images he shot were an exclusive for Time magazine but I think you can see them on the net. The article was called “Shattered”.
I’m lucky QM that I have a community college in my backyard that ranks about 10th in the nation for photography. They bring in all the legends for lecture and it’s both free and fabulously entertaining…although some of the questions people ask make me want to hide under a chair… I remember one person started an argument with Roberts Freeman about digital versus film. Freeman’s comment ended with something like “so you can super-impose the Pope into your lush green field and make a million” ? I laughed my ass off!
One of my favorite series of photos is from a woman that’s not as well known but up and coming. From that same college I borrowed one of their most talented teachers to hold a class at my little gallery. He knew this woman and we were trying to arrange a show at Anuvue just when the ball dropped. Take a look at the series with her Mother. Maybe it’s just my odd sense of humor…but I love these photos! It’s the portfolio where the icon shows a female Elvis. I also like the aged photos of her daughter and friends on a beach with the rice paper umbrellas. Beautiful, vintage looking shot of the 3 girls. Her name is Aline Smithson. Let me know what you and Liz think.
http://www.alinesmithson.com/site.html
San Francisco has a show right now that I’m trying to make even though money is so darn tight. It’s called “Natural Affinities” grouping Georgia with Ansel…my kinda stuff!
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Heather, I wanted to wait until I had a chance to check out your links before I responded. Wow. Each of these photographers is so different. It was fun to sift through their photographs.
Steve McCurry’s work is pretty intense. I like his quote: “I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out experience etched on a person’s face.” I checked out his blog, too. Remembered that piece about Dith Pran and Haing Ngor returning to Cambodia after filming the movie “The Killing Fields.”
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James Nachtwey’s work is hard to look at. War. AIDS. All the things that we turn away from. But it’s important that those images be documented. I have a lot of respect for that kind of photojournalism. As Nachtwey says, “photography’s importance and responsibility to humanity.”
Incredible B&W images on his website. I like his intro:
“I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.” -James Nachtwey
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Aline Smithson is just fun. I had not seen her work. In her bio she says she is “influenced by the Japanese concept of celebrating a singular object. I tend to isolate subject matter and look for complexity in simple images.” It shows in her work, doesn’t it.
The Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother Series (with the Elvis shot) is a great body of work. And she hand paints the photos, something which is an almost lost art. And the self portraits of her feet (ybonesy, you’d like those) are fun. I like her quote:
“After standing next to the camera for many years, I have discovered that it is behind the camera that I find my joy and passion. Moments, only fleeting in real life, become more revealing and expansive in a photograph.” – Aline Smithson
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Thanks for sharing some of your favorite photographers. You are indeed lucky to live where you do and have access to many photographers at your back door. I should seek out more Twin Cities events that center around famous photographers that come and speak the way I do writers. There is always so much going on, it’s hard to know what to go see. I feel lucky, too, to live in Twin Cities where the Arts are valued and an embedded part of the culture here. Maybe someday ybonesy and I will make it down your way to visit. (I’ll show Liz the links, too.)
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I hope someday to meet all 3 of you and hug you in person. My home is small but it’s always at your disposal. You are always welcome. I’ll put Mike in a tent in the backyard with the cats and show you all the sites.
And if it’s at Halloween, be ready to be put to work!
:^)
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I forgot! QM, 2 photography magazines you can subscribe to: Rangefinder and After Capture…delivered right to your door for FREE! Hey…What’s better than free?
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Heather, I think we’ll have to make our visit on Halloween for sure. I can’t think of a better way to spend the Wiccan holiday than a full blown all out Halloween party. I didn’t know about those two free photo magazines. I’ll have to check them out. I haven’t checked but suppose you sign up online to have them delivered to your door? Are they for technique or about other photographers? Will take a look.
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Oh, getting back to Woodstock, I forgot to mention that Liz and I watched MILK a few days ago for the first time. Boy, was that a blast from the past and revisting the roots of the Gay Rights movement.
It reminded me of Stonewall and what the climate was like for gays in 1969 and 1970 when Woodstock took place and when Elliot Tiber made the trek from Greenwich Village back to his parent’s place and the small El Monaco motel where he grew up.
It’s good to watch historical movies like MILK. Because they remind us how hard we had to fight for the rights that we do enjoy today. We are still fighting to be treated as equals, but much has changed. Some, like Harvey Milk and George Moscone, died so that those changes could happen.
BTW, I thought Sean Penn did a great job as Harvey Milk. It was fun to watch the Extras on the DVD where you got to meet the actual real-life people in the film: Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, Danny Nicoletta who are still alive. Good to hear their perspective.
Oh, and I had forgotten all about Anita Bryant’s anti-gay campaign and Prop 6. We used to wear buttons against her campaign on our jean jackets. Yes, it’s good to remember how far we’ve come. Still a bit further to go.
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QM, yes, sign up online. They interview digital photographers and have them explain their techniques. There’s allot of ads to pay for it, but I enjoy them both.
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That was one of the six or eight movies I watched on the plane ride from Hong Kong to San Francisco back in May. I loved Sean Penn in that movie, and enjoyed the historical aspects as well.
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I currently attend North Kingstown High School, and at my school an 8-10 page research paper on a topic of our choice, is required for graduation. I have chose Woodstock 69′ for my paper. I need to have an interview with somebody for my project. This can be conducted over the phone or even email. If you could get back to me ASAP that would be great.
Thank You!
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lucy, I think Woodstock ’69 is an excellent choice for a research paper. I had a lot of fun writing this post and the paper essay all those moons ago.
I don’t know if you’d really want to interview me because I wasn’t at Woodstock. Though I was greatly influenced by the melding of music and culture at the time, I was a bit young to attend. Everything I’ve written about the event has come from being a teenager at the time of Woodstock and the research I have done subsequently. But if I had been at Woodstock, I would happily do the interview.
The links in this post are excellent for generating ideas and thoughts to help you write your paper though. As far as interviews, I think it would be great to interview the photographer I talk about in the piece who took some of the most famous Woodstock photos — Burk Uzzle.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he might grant you an interview. You never know. Maybe he’s got contact info on one of the links. One thing I’ve found is that if I reach out to writers, artists, photographers about their work, they often respond in kind. Good luck with your paper!
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