Turn On, Tune In

I watched and dug the recent PBS doc on Woodstock, which they released for the festival’s 50th anniversary. (It’s on Netflix, if inquiring minds would like to know.) I have my own dramatic history with Woodstock. My mom and uncles were there (see below for the vintage pic of Nancy Sherowski and her brother Dick cold chilling on the stoop of their dream machine. This pic incapsulates a sweet kid-like happiness that I love. I want to be friends with them. I wonder if they have a CBD doobie we could all burn in the parking lot? Anyway.

The narrative we’ve been fed from Woodstock is that it was a disaster of traffic and mud. A “rock crisis” attended by a half million burnouts. And yet this documentary reveals the story of kids taking care of each other, of event organizers abandoning their business agenda to let the event pop off, and of a conservative farming community reaching out and welcoming the counterculture in a time when the sociopolitical schism was, arguably, as tragically fucking massive as it is today.

I was inspired by this story, needless to say. Especially now. Especially at a time when most young people would rather drop out and nihilistically live through their phone screens. Now more than ever we need, and cannot have, a Woodstock.