Mick La Salle wrote a great article in the SF Chronicle last week about watching the Woodstock movie now, 40 years later. "The experience is surprising - a concert that today looks a lot sadder, a lot grungier, a lot weirder and infinitely less romantic than the cliche may have led us to believe.…Watch "Woodstock" and it becomes apparent that rock 'n' roll had already become a huge commercial enterprise, that some of the acts had become big and jaded and that the party had already been crashed by a lot of not-cool people, calling attention to themselves by dancing very slowly, with wildly flailing arm gestures."I never bought into the Woodstock myth, I thought the movie had no magic. The Monterey Pop Festival was the Real Thing, and Woodstock was east coast promoters trying to capitalize on what was a joyous, unique, spontaneous, life-changing west coast event. Yeah, there was Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Janis (I always thought she was way overrated), but to me the sensation was Otis, Lord what a beautiful m-a-n. Here's his opening that Saturday night (part 1 of 3), the 1st time mainstream American white kids ever saw him. BTW, Otis wrote "Respect," the second number on this clip.
There are over 60 comments to La Salle's article, many of them pissed-off people, Mick treading on their nostalgic toes.
The Dipsea race is the oldest cross-country race in America, 7.5 miles from Mill Valley, Calif. to Stinson Beach. It's a tough course, with 4000 feet of vertical up and down. It's also an age- handicapped race, with older (and very young) runners getting a head start. Here is the first starting group (2 days ago), of 70-year olds and one little girl. She just charmed everyone with her energy and joy, racing out in front of the others.
Rick Gordon, our Macintosh maestro, and builder of all our books, is also a singer extraordinaire. Friday night he performed before a packed house at the Jazz School in Berkeley. Occasion was his father's 100th birthday, and it was called Song for My Father. A wonderful event, everyone in the audience was with Rick all the way.
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