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Sunday, August 23, 2009

For the Movies

"Did you have a good life when you died? Enough to base a movie on?" -Jim Morrison.

For the Movies


Do you remember all our love
Did you get back from what you gave
I see some symptoms of a past that you forgave
You never were expendable
You always made me feel alive
And now we're in the middle of
A transition in our lives
A change of pace could really do some good
She's leavin' an empty case which you're bringing back the show
I'm leaving now

CHORUS
Wake up and see the places
All you got and all you take
You don't have to fall to pieces
You have to prove it
Make up your pretty face
It's a lovely trip, a lovely place
You got one life here to make it for the movies

Do you feel singled out
Do you feel less than all the rest
You know it's interchangeable
The spotlight and the pain
I wanna get on top of this
I wanna build that trust again
And if I give it all I've got
I'm sure you'd do the same

A change of pace could really do some good
She's leavin' an empty case which you're bringing back the show
I'm leaving now
Wake up and see the places
All you got and all you take
You don't have to fall to pieces
You have to prove it
Make up your pretty face
It's a lovely trip, a lovely place
You got one life here to make it for the movies

SOLO

I cannot face the fear in this
I see a place for you and I
And we can make the most of it
Cause our passion never dies
And if you don't believe in me
I'll choose the path and change your mind
And you can take me to your room
Or wherever you may hide

A change of pace could really do some good
She's leavin' an empty case which you're bringing back the show
I'm leaving now
Wake up and see the places
All you got and all you take
You don't have to fall to pieces
You have to prove it
Make up your pretty face
It's a lovely trip, a lovely place
You got one life here to make it for the movies



Fragments

I watched a DVD Saturday night of the movie "Fragments" aka "Winged Creatures", starring Forest Whitaker, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, and Kate Beckinsale. It was good, although it wasn't what I thought it would be.


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Movie Details
A moment of random violence erupts in an ordinary Los Angeles diner. The survivors find that the meanings of their lives have changed. No matter how much their families and friends attempt to understand, these individuals must follow their own paths to recovery seeking to regain trust in a world that now seems chaotic. A story that explores the notion that our lives are fleeting, like birds in flight, like winged creatures.*

*from Yahoo! Movies




At the end of the movie, Dakota Fanning's character Anne Hagen says these lines. I just wanted to share.

In the ordinary world we trust in where things belong. Everything has a place, and believing in that makes us innocent. And through the days under the same sky we hope, dream, and laugh. We find and loose our way. Endings are beginnings, and moments like pieces fit together again.



I also found the movie poster for "Winged Creatures", which I like better than the DVD cover for "Fragments". Just sayin'.


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Saturday, August 15, 2009

It was 40 years ago today...


It is hard to believe it has been forty years. The videos here are not in order of performance; I just wanted to share some of the music and background of this music festival that so many have called life-changing. Could this ever happen again, or was it just a combination of factors that gave it it's magic? I would love to hear your thoughts. Leave them in a comment.

Most people know I am a Hendrix fanatic. The last video is close to 60 minutes long. I hope you enjoy all the music I selected.



The Original Woodstock Poster with the Wallkill, New York location

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Woodstock 1969


Rolling Stone has called it "the most famous event in rock history." The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, on a 600-acre farm in the township of Bethel, New York, from August 15-18, 1969, represents more than a peaceful gathering of 500,000 people and 32 musical performances. Woodstock has become an idea that has suffused our culture, politically and socially, as much as musically. Joni Mitchell, who didn't attend but wrote an anthemic song about it, once said, "Woodstock was a spark of beauty" where half-a-million kids "saw that they were part of a greater organism." According to Michael Lang, one of four young men who formed Woodstock Ventures to produce the festival, "That's what means the most to me – the connection to one another felt by all of us who worked on the festival, all those who came to it, and the millions who couldn't be there but were touched by it."


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Lang met Artie Kornfeld, a Capitol Records A&R man and songwriter, in late 1968, and the two envisioned producing a festival in Woodstock, New York.and building a recording studio there. In search of financing they connected with John Roberts and Joel Rosenman, a pair of young venture capitalists who were already building Media Sound studios, a large-scale recording facility in New York City. In February of 1969, the four men incorporated Woodstock Ventures, Inc., and they began work on the festival. Soon, the conservative townsfolk of Wallkill became alarmed by the growing number of longhairs arriving to prepare the festival grounds, and a number of lawsuits were filed to stop the festival. After weeks of tension, town meetings, and legal maneuverings, Woodstock Ventures were refused permission to produce the festival.The studio project was put on hold so they could focus all their energy on saving the festival. Miraculously, 600 bucolic acres belonging to White Lake dairyman Max Yasgur, in the township of Bethel, New York, were discovered after Lang received a call from a local motel owner Elliott Tiber the day after the Wallkill site was lost. Work rapidly got underway to turn the rural acreage into a concert site with camping areas for 200,000. Three weeks later, during the week of August 11, thousands of people from all over the country began flocking to the festival site.









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By Wednesday, August 13, the lush green bowl in front of the massive 75-foot stage was already filled with some 60,000 people. On Friday the roads were so clogged with cars that the only way most artists could reach the festival was by helicopter from a nearby airstrip. Though over 100,000 tickets were sold prior to the festival weekend, they became unnecessary: The fences and gates were never finished and people simply swarmed over those that were in place. "It's a free concert from now on!" was announced from the stage. As John Roberts later pointed out, "It took us eleven years to break even, but it was a success in every other way."















The music was scheduled to start at 4 p.m. on August 15, and just after 5 it did, thanks to New York-born folksinger Richie Havens. His improvised and rhythmic "Freedom" set the tone for the weekend. "The vibe at Woodstock was an expression of the times," says Joel Rosenman. "Energized by repugnance for a senseless war and for the entrenched discrimination of the establishment, a spirited but nonviolent counterculture was sweeping the country. That counterculture burst into bloom like the mother of all Mother's Day bouquets at Woodstock."










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The occasional cloudburst delayed the primarily acoustic music as Friday night wore on, but eight acts, plus a swami, made it to the stage. Around 2 a.m, Joan Baez closed the first night with the spiritual "We Shall Overcome."



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Saturday boasted the most music of the weekend, starting just after noon and continuing until Sunday at dawn (with Jefferson Airplane performing "morning maniac music," as described by Grace Slick). Highlights included the then-unknown Santana in mid-afternoon, and that night spectacular back-to-back performances by Sly and the Family Stone and The Who. Blues-rock was featured via Canned Heat and Mountain, followed by such legendary California-based artists as the Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Janis Joplin. Sunday featured another long span of music, though violent thunderstorms wreaked havoc just after Joe Cocker and The Grease Band's finale of "A Little Help From My Friends." The music was delayed until late afternoon but carried on throughout the night with more highlights including the Texas bluesman Johnny Winter and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (their second gig). On Monday morning at 8:30, Jimi Hendrix closed out the festival. His magnificent, improvisational version of "The Star Spangled Banner" has come to symbolize the weekend.








Around 10:30 a.m. on August 18, the festival came to an end. The innovative concert film Woodstock, directed by Michael Wadleigh, was released in March of 1970 and took the festival's message around the world. The movie documented a community of a half million people who managed to peacefully co-exist over three days of consistent rain, food shortages, and a lack of creature comforts. "Woodstock is a reminder that inside each of us is the instinct for building a decent, loving community, the kind we all wish for," according to Joel Rosenman. "Over the decades, the history of that weekend has served as a beacon of hope that a beautiful spirit in each of us ultimately will triumph."














Recordings of the music played that weekend still evoke the magic and power felt by those who were there. "It was a privilege to help found something that has meant so much to so many," adds Rosenman. "Woodstock turned out to be a sort of permanent relative of the Family of Man—the adventuresome, kind-hearted uncle you're always happy to see at Thanksgiving and graduation. I'm really grateful that we both ended up in the same family."

Two days after Woodstock ended, the New York Times ran an editorial praising what had happened at Bethel (a reversal from a previous editorial condemning the festival). It concluded with a quote from Shakespeare's Henry V, which seems appropriate upon the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock:



"He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, will stand a-tiptoe when this day is nam'd."



from wiki.woodstock.com




Woodstock Statistics List



2.............Festival births

3.............Deaths (one each from heroin overdose, ruptured appendix and being run over by a tractor)
50,000.....The number of people expected
500,000+..The number of people who showed up




This last video is all of Hendrix's performance.
Enjoy!!





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Monday, August 10, 2009

Daydreaming

I have a close female friend who asked me this question about men. "Do men daydream about women like women daydream about men?" When she asked, I assumed, and we all know what happens when we do that. I have to admit it stung a little at that moment. I wrote my feelings down on a legal pad; just let the words and feelings spill out. My friend is special to me, and I don't want her to ever feel bad. She has taught me a lot about looking at Life with a positive viewpoint.


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I felt like a fool
All day long I've thought of you
Last night you asked me if
Guys daydream about girls.

At the start all girls do,
You ventured to say.
When they meet someone new,
When they think about them... alot.

So what did I do
But go and spill my guts
Told you how I think of you
How you are on my mind... alot.

A pause; then you said
That you don't want me to hurt
At that moment I wished I'd fled
I'm
not the guy you're daydreaming about.