1). Not to be confused with the Official Woodstock Cash-O-Rama 94, on or near the site of the original festival 100's, and perhaps 1,000's gather each year for reasons known only to themselves. Well, the original site, Max Yasgur's field, is usually the location for the spontaneous gathering of many campers around the August anniversary every year. But this year, under threat of arrest, the site was off limits. The uptight current owner will have no part of the magical past of this muddy (usually) hill. Ironically though, this guy supposedly doesn't really even own the place since the person he bought it from supposedly forged her dead boyfriends name on the deed, unbeknownst to his wife etc... whatever...So, there's a guy who bought Max Yasgurs old barn and some property a mile or so away and he's a real freak I guess, and decided to throw a giant gathering on his land. But, the NY State Supreme Court said "no", but there seems to already be a couple of thousand people there, plus the owner guy picked this weekend to like fly to Mexico or something. So there wasn't anything anybody could do to stop the 100's of food and merchandise vendors, 80 bands (well I know at least 2 got to play), and a mess of hard core hippie freaks from partying and crashing out for three days, or a week,..or two...
2). The entire event was put on free of charge. I don't know who paid for the stages, the musical gear, lights, power, etc... But it was nice to be invited to a huge free party. The production was exactly what you'd expect for 1) free; 2) nobody in charge; 3) everybody stoned out of their minds. We arrived 9:30 pm and caught the last 3 numbers of some band. When we left at 2:30 am it was during the 1st song of the next band. Many items previously only available outside your local Grateful Dead concert were being sold by many vendors. In the true hippie spirit, most of them were happy to rip you off while smiling at you and expecting you to be grateful there wasn't any imperial sales tax. Like the vegetarian pasta Lenny had, "hey, I never said it had any vegatables in it, but there's no meat it in, 3 bucks a glop "
3). An interesting collage of weirdness prevailed. Half naked hippie chicks lose their innocent beauty when they are missing more than a few teeth however. Yikes! Forget losing your mind, the real problem of turning on, tuning in, and dropping out is that 28 years later you ain't got a tooth left in your head! Remember kids, brush every day. There were many stages set up, each with it's own flavor. The Troubadour's Historical Society meeting attended by resurected bohemians was conveened in one, and a bizarre program of beat poetry, mixed with flute solos, and the occasional heavy metal ballad emanated, kind of.... Too bad there was a band set up 50 feet away cranking out thrash versions of Credence Hits. But don't step back! You'll get burned up in some sort of pagan ritual consisiting of a couple of Xenaesque belly dancers surrounded by drummers and flaming torch juggling tripping maniacs. I believe they were part of some cult that worships duct tape and cardboard. Taking shelter from one of the typical wind and lightning and rain storms in Max Yasgur's old barn we saw a very strange band performing an odd droning number(several actually). The lyrics apparently were "smoke marijuana" repeated for 25 minutes over a detuned guitar drone. The lead "singer" looked like some yiddish guy with no teeth, so the song sounded more like "mooookkke maawahawawa..".
- by terra incognita back?
Or to another random thought
awholelotofreallyimportantstuf