woodstock

I was in there somewhere, 55 years ago. I wouldn't meet the Life magazine crew covering the event (including John Dominus, who took these photos)  until years later. And 20 years later, I would write the following reminiscence for the magazine. My memory is even blurrier today than the reproduction of this photo, so I figured might as well reprint it. And oddly, before I was even awake this morning, John Sebastian's "Darling Be Home Soon" was playing in my head. I heard it there and then.

         It’s raining—again—and the meadow in Bethel, N.Y., is empty except for what looks like a gravestone marked with the names of the fated (Janis and Jimi), the famous and the forgotten. From the tape deck in our rented Lincoln booms the soundtrack of Woodstock. “The brown acid is not too good, “ echoes Chip Monck’s voice. I heard him say that 20 years ago right here. But the grass has grown up now, and so have I.

         Remembrances of things past are as tricky as our President was in that year, 1969. Revisionism about Woodstock is rampant—and not only by all the people who claim to have been there and weren’t. Robin Williams suggested a bumper sticker: “If u can remember Woodstock than u weren’t there.” I called up a college friend to ask if he had been there. He said, “What do you mean was I there—I was with you!” Well, he wasn’t. I drove up in a Corvair with some high school friends. I have the reality check: An interview I gave my hometown paper dated Monday, August 18, 1969. But I was already editing my recollection. I didn’t tell the reporter (or my mother) about the guy, high on horse tranquilizers, who held out a handful of pills and said, “I feel really bad, man. Should I take one of the yellow ones?”

         Most Woodstock alumni mention unity, love and mud. You are not the only one to still treasure your ticket. And I am not the only one to have a lasting distaste for crowds. But there were maybe half a million tales in that naked-to-the-elements city, and there is unanimity about only one fact: It did rain.

        Down where the stage was, the trees have drawn closer round the waterfall. When I watched the video, I could hear Richie Havens much more clearly than I could when he sat on that stage. As he sang, “Look there’s handsome Johnny with a gun in his hand marchin’ to the Vietnam war,” I found myself crying. I know now how it came out: How we blew our minds and died in Vietnam. How we wed, found success and grew away from our green years. I look at the photographs of those kids—us—and we look so young and joyful, with fringes flying free. But if I learned one thing back then, it was, as Baba Ram Dass says, Be Here Now.

 

redesign at walmart

 

my totality is longer than yours

Getting set up here  for the big event at 1:54 pm tomorrow. That's when the 4 minute plus totality begins. 

We're basically right before the M in OMG.  Which is why motel rooms are sold out here. And I have the correct beer for the occasion.

 

once again

The more I look at this picture, the more I like it. It was made in Providence. I hope when I get there Monday it won't be snow city. Anyway, I'm posting this same stupid story again.

https://claudiassurfcity.blogspot.com/2018/03/same-old-same-old.html

 

natural enemies?

I have birds. 

Hannah has cats.

Lot of cat lovers in this world. Camilla, 13, is one. (That's Echo; Ember is above.) The artist Ryan, 10 (?),  is one (as is his mama Fanny and granny Donna). (I presume the pic is of Puccini and Houdini.)

But hey.I don't have to feed and take to the vet's. And if they litter I don't have litter!

And BTW, Bill, this post is for you, as the loudest complainer that I'm not posting on my blog. In my own defense, I must say that part of that is I see much better on my phone than computer. Maybe that will change when I get my new glasses and I will reform. 

   And BTW, Bill, those ovoid objects above would be called chicks in Alabama. Here we call them eggs.

new year's eve, y2k

Some 23 years ago, I was interviewing a conspiracy theorist in the Ozarks who was firmly convinced that Y2K would be used as an excuse by the UN to take over the country.

   “Not gonna happen” I told him.

    “The power grid will go down, all the computers will fail, and they’ll close the roads, and the codes on phone poles will direct the UN forces to take over,” he said.

    “It won’t happen,” I said. “I’m going to come out here and spend New Year’s Eve with you, and you’ll see.”

    He talked his mom and dad into moving from Ohio to the Ozark wilderness, where it was safer, and his brother and sister-in-law arrived in advance of Y2K. I did too.

   I had a chateaubriand dinner prepared by a judge friend, and then headed out into the woods to join the family. They were snacking on a cheese ball. I can give you a recipe if you’re too young to remember Velveeta.

     My subject sat on the sofa, his automatic rifle propped next to his leg, as his parents watched TV. As the night wore on, he kept running to the land line or his ham radio to call his contacts.

   “Has the power gone off yet?” he asked. “Highways closed?”

   Nope, nope, nope.

   I had a mobile phone. As the ball dropped in Times Square, it was still 11 o’clock in Missouri. My friends Ed Barnes and Chien-Chi Chang were covering the event for Time magazine. Just after midnight they rang.

   “Anything going on there?” I asked them. Just the usual: crowds, tourists, drunks. They didn’t know why they were even in Times Square, waiting for action.

    When midnight came and went in the Ozarks, it was time to pack it in.

    To the guy’s credit, he claimed to be happy nothing disastrous had gone down.

    To my credit, I didn’t say I told you so. 

 

 

Great American Eating Ceremony 2023

Roll call: fifteen of the regulars. A lot of entertainments have been going on, and the blog couldn't keep up. Will try to do better. But so many pix and so hard to edit! Communications have suffered. Donna took so many good pictures, but which to choose? Will try. . .

 
 

not asking for it

Donna Ferrato took this photograph. When she and a friend, Charlie Shockey, came over yesterday, he opened his shirt, to reveal. . .

So I then encouraged photographer Chien-Chi Chang to open his shirt, to reveal his scars from a recent surgery.

Also in attendance were Donna's daughter Fanny and grandson Ryan. So it was quite the gala!

astral journeys

It only happens once in a blue moon. Sometimes the stars line up, and sometimes they don't. I will be leaving the Ozarks in a week, and the question is, do I come back in April for the twice-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse, which will hover over Thomasville about midday. The pagan in me wants to be here. But it's a long drive here and back to Block Island if the weather is cloudy!

 

 
 

this old house

So it looks like Douglas has sold the tiny, asbestos-shingled shack we bought with his brother in 1980 for, ahem, $45,000, has sold. Not closed yet but soon. That's the shack top left, and it was bought by his neighbor top right, who bought the house from my brother-in-law. So the compound continues to shrink. The two houses I built are at the bottom of the picture, and my brother-in-law built the two in the middle.

  HERE is a link to Douglas's, making it look much bigger than it really is. And beautifully styled out, not to mention renovated, by Douglas's former partner.

   All of his children got to enjoy a last summer at the place, including Simon, a college sophomore.

Adam, a 53-year-old lawyer.

And Hannah and her family, who were staying across the compound at my place.

In other Block Island news, a 200-year-old hotel in the middle of town burned down this week. Fortunately no one was hurt. But town will never be the same. Needless to say, I did not not take any of these pictures, since I have been in the Ozarks.

 

 

siblings

 

Camilla used a picture I took of her and her sibling Isaac way back when at the Goose to do this work.

The siblings spent the summer on Block Island, and while they were there, Hannah visited with her two siblings, Adam (11 years older) and Simon (22 years younger).

 

The three sibling share a father, Douglas, here with his brother, Johnny, at the farewell dinner in Johnny's back yard last night. The family that ate the world.

 

 

wowie maui

I heard about the wildfires in Maui yesterday evening and reached out to my friend John Cassel yesterday evening —his morning—to see if he was alive. He was, but, as you can see, it was a close one. 

    Are you okay?  I texted.

   "Our house is in the middle of the frame with the flames in the neighborhood behind us. Other than that, things are just peachy," he said. 

   "Holy fuck," I said.

   "I believe that is the technical term," he said.

   "We are doing well. Lots of devastation all around us. All day yesterday and through the night until 4 am this morning, our neighborhood was surrounded by fires. "

     Most of John's neighbors, as well as his son, evacuated.  John and his cat stayed.

     "I had my car ready to go with my bug-out bag and sleeping gear loaded as well as a couple chainsaws, in case I had to cut my way out of the neighborhood. I kept walking around the neighborhood to check on the fire line and see if anybody needed any help. Many of my neighbors have lost everything, which is very sad. Fortunately we have a photovoltaic system with batteries so we have had electricity all the way through. Many neighborhoods are without.

    "The firefighters couldn’t fight the fire and 50 mile an hour winds. I think once the winds died down, the firefighters were able to put out the fires. In the moment, the hurricane is moving away from the islands.

    "Finally, at 4 am, I couldn’t see flames in any direction around the house. It was a huge relief, and I finally went to sleep for an hour or so. I’ve been helping out around the neighborhood, cutting down fallen trees and branches to clear the roads and my neighbors' driveways. Fortunately, we have a photovoltaic system with batteries so we have had electricity all the way through. Many neighborhoods are without electricity.
     "My cat kept crying, so I put it in my son‘s room and closed the windows and the blinds.
That helped it calm down. He has been relentless in wanting to cuddle with me. When I went back to work, he followed me into my office and sat on my feet under my desk. If I got up, even for a moment, he would follow me like a dog. I like having a cat that acts like a dog.

    "I’ve loaded up the car with some bedding to take to the donation center. Right now, I’m lying in bed with my cat snuggled up next to me purring like a freight train while I play chess online.
Those are my escapes."

 

   The foregoing has been lightly edited for clarity. Following is a link to the video John shot. https://youtu.be/je8nOyh9ZBQ