Woodstock

This weekend is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. That means that 15 years ago, when Woodstock II was held for the 25th anniversary, I was busy plotting with socialistboy how to get there. Parental approval was out of the question, obviously, so the schemes revolved around forging scholarship letters to some kind of summer activity in the area. Nothing ever came of it, and I don't particularly regret missing that rather sterile reenactment.

I spent a good amount of my later teen years quite obsessed with the idea of counter-culture and the 60s. I was always disappointed in my generation, lacking any great purpose or movement. In retrospect, I'm pretty happy with having been in on the early colonization of the Web, and the (still!) growing understanding of what random, largely unorganized people could accomplish when given good communication tools. I got to take advantage of the advances in individualism without being burdened by all the baggage of guilt and uncertainty. Hell, with Burning Man I get a bigger, much more intrinsically interesting event on a yearly basis.

But give me a time machine and the summer of 1969 would be my first destination.