Free Republic

Soon it will be 50 years since Woodstock. Not sure what surprises more: the fact that seminal cultural event is coming up on a half-century or that some of its featured acts are still touring. Wasn’t rock ‘n’ roll a youth movement? Didn’t The Who’s Pete Townshend write the immortal line “Hope I die before I get old?” and sing it at Woodstock? Answers: Yes but not anymore. And yes Pete did, indeed, sing that line from “My Generation” on the third and last day of Woodstock on Aug. 17, 1969. This week, The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts...

October 29, 2010 The Great Unwashed By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS A DAILY shower is a deeply ingrained American habit. Most people would no sooner disclose they had not showered in days than admit infidelity. But Jenefer Palmer, 55, of Malibu, Calif., cheerfully acknowledged recently that she doesn’t shower or shampoo daily and doesn’t use deodorant. Ever. No, she does not work from home in pajamas. In fact, Ms. Palmer, the chief executive of Osea, an organic skin-care line, often travels to meet business contacts at the five-star luxury hotels where her line is sold. They might be surprised to read...

'Taking Woodstock' set to start Emile Hirsch, Demetri Martin to star in Ang Lee pic By MICHAEL FLEMING Focus Features will begin production late this month on "Taking Woodstock," scripted by James Schamus and to be directed by Ang Lee. Lee's ensemble cast includes Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton and Liev Schreiber. Pic is an adaptation of the memoir of Elliot Tiber, who played a role in helping the historic 1969 music fest unfold on his neighbor's farm (Daily Variety, April 22). Less than a month ago, Focus had been thinking about postponing the start of production over concerns that a...

MINNEAPOLIS - Shrouded in black, with a bandanna masking her face, a self-proclaimed anarchist slips into her combat boots and dashes through town, tossing a Molotov cocktail here, launching a bowling ball there. The YouTube video is more parody than threat: The flaming cocktail ignites a charcoal grill, and the bowling ball knocks down pins instead of crashing through a Navy recruiting office window. But as the video fades to black, the message on-screen is clear: "We're getting ready. What are you doing?" With less than 10 months to go before the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St.Paul, activists are already...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Republican John McCain contrasts images of Woodstock and his years as a Vietnam prisoner of war in a new television ad that pokes fun at Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton. The commercial, set to air on New Hampshire television Thursday, decries a proposal, since scrapped, to spend $1 million for a museum in Bethel, N.Y., site of the August 1969 rock festival. Clinton and her fellow New York senator, Chuck Schumer, had backed the plan. The ad highlights McCain's criticism of excessive Washington spending, reminds voters of the Arizona senator's decorated war record and also shows...

The communist, pro-terrorist group International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) seems to realize they are facing a hot LZ on March 17. ANSWER has made significant changes in their plans since their initial announcement that they would hold their ‘antiwar’ rally at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Last week they changed the location of their rally from Constitution Gardens (East side of the Vietnam Memorial) to a park one block west of Memorial on Henry Bacon Drive. Yesterday, ANSWER announced they are only going to use the Henry Bacon Drive park as a meeting point for their...

Andrew Purcell reports on why US rock's reaction to the Iraq war has been dominated by the old guard. Neil Young's latest album, Living With War, was supposed to be more than a collection of protest songs. To optimistic critics of the occupation of Iraq, it heralded a tipping point - the moment when the silent majority would finally make itself heard. One month on, as the album slides down the charts and George Bush's approval ratings climb steadily off the floor, the disappointment is deafening. Impeach the President is not the anthem the anti-war movement has been waiting for,...

Fox News obtained this footage of a liberal news agency employee out there with all his fellow hippies, light'n up a J, playing hackey-sack, not taking a shower, whatever it is those hippies do. This loser actually said on camera he would not talk to FOX and that he worked for a new agency. But remember folks... those evil republicans and "neo-cons" (ie Jews) control the media!!! Download the video at the this link

A certain quiet seemed to gather over Berkeley on Thursday morning. As President Bush was inaugurated for his second term, it seemed many in Berkeley could only sit and watch in displeasure. The same was not true for a group of protesters who gathered at the Downtown Berkeley BART station. Armed with the poem, “Let America Be America Again,” by Langston Hughes, those gathered at the BART read the poem again and again, played music and read their own work and that of others. “We are listening to dea d language from D.C.,” said Al Young, a Berkeley poet and...

NEW YORK - Out on the street with protesters, there are environmentalists, pacifists, even some capitalists - selling anti-Bush T-shirts, of course.      But to Republicans here, the great unwashed sweating in and blocking the streets, are defined in one word: Democrats.      ``Frankly it reminds me of why I left the Democratic Party,'' said former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer. ``I used to be a Democrat and I turned instead to Ronald Reagan's upbeat optimism instead of the negativity and the liberalism and the protest movement of the Democratic Party. It wasn't my cup of tea.''      Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie...

DAVID CROSBY AND GRAHAM NASH ANNOUNCE THEIR CANDIDACY FOR JOINT PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE VENERABLE PAIR ARE RUNNING ON THE PARTY PARTY TICKET Shelburne, VT, July 21, 2004: David Crosby and Graham Nash have thrown their respective hats into the ring for the Presidency of the United States, entering an already crowded and diverse field with their bid on the Party Party ticket. What distinguishes the Crosby/Nash candidacy is that theirs is a campaign for a “Joint Presidency,” where the two will share responsibilities on an alternate day basis. When asked who would be named their...

The Santa Cruz anarchists who rent basement space from the Resource Center for Nonviolence have been told to leave. The reason? A clash of philosophies, said Kyle Sirman, at the Anarchist Infoshop. Incompatibility, said Bob Fitch, a Resource Center official. The anarchists have ``been unable to create a continuity of safe and welcoming atmosphere,'' said Fitch, who manages the property. But Sirman said Fitch told the group there was too much traffic and not enough personal hygiene. Some of the complaints, Sirman quoted Fitch as saying, ``had to do with us smelling.'' The Resource Center sells books and bumper stickers,...

Of Hippies and Hipsters Ashkenaz Center Has Gone From Activists’ Mecca to Hot Spot for Multicultural Music Groundation’s lead singer Harrison Stafford, wearing a turban, says the band has played at the Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center six times By ARLET ABRAHAMIAN Contributing Writer Tuesday, February 10, 2004 A wall of smoke and relaxed faces greet you as you enter the West Berkeley theater. The band lounges around the back room with their friends, smoking joints while preparing to go on stage, and the smell of burning incense sticks protruding from the walls blends with the marijuana smoke....