The Secretary who Changed the World
& The Legend of Woodstock before the Festival.
The legend and the legacy was set before the festival was envisioned.
It's hard to say exactly where to begin, New York, Somers Point, Montreal, the Woodstock myth began in the Manhattan office of Albert Grossman, the entertainment manager whose stable of acts included one Bob Dylan, folk singer extradonaire on the rise.
Dylan had come in to the office excited recently, and made Grossman sit down and listen to this - "Once upon a time you dressed so fine, didn't you......?"
They knew "Like A Rolling Stone" was a hit right off the bat, without even having to test it on somebody else's ears.
The Byrds had taken Dylan's folkie "Mr. Tamborine Man" and made it a rock and roll song with drums and electric guitars, and now with "Like A Rolling Stone," Dylan was writing rock & roll, and you could sense the direction he was going, and it wasn't to Woodstock.
As the legend goes, Dylan asked Grossman, his manager, about getting a rock and roll band to back him on his next tour, and who would Grossman recommend.
I don't know if they asked her opinion, or if she overheard the question and volunteered her feelings, but being from a small town in Canada, she knew that the Hawk were the best rock & roll band she had ever seen.
Rockabilly Ronnie Hawkins had left the band, and they continued on the road under the name of Levon & the Hawks, after drummer Levon Helm, from Arkansas, the only American in the Canadian band who had toured with Hawkins for years.
Grossman asked where the Hawks were playing and found out that their manager, Colonel Kutlets, had booked them into a nightclub in Somers Point, New Jersey - Tony Marts.
Without ever having seen or heard of them, and based totally on this unknown secretary's opinion, Dylan got the phone number for Tony Marts and gave them a call.
Levon had never heard of Bob Dylan, and when Dylan asked them to back him at Carnege Hall, Levon asked who else was on the bill.
"Just us," Dylan said, incredulously.
So Levon and the Hawks went up to New York and met with Dylan and Grossman and agreed they would get out of their contract at Tony Marts and back Dylan at Forest Hills, a tennis stadium just outside New York city.
Although Anthony Marotta, aka Tony Mart, didn't like the idea of the "best rock and roll band on the East Coast" breaking their contract and leaving before the Labor Day weekend, he let them off the hook, gave them a cake and fairwell party and wished them luck. He called Colonel Kutlets and asked for a new band to replace the Hawks and Kutlets sent Tony a new band, the Detroit Wheels, who had a hit, "Devil With the Blue Dress."
But luck the Hawks didn't have.
When Dylan plugged his guitar in at Forest Hills, the old folkies booed him, but he played on.
Levon really didn't like it however, and after a few gigs he left and went back home to Arkansas.
Then Dylan was in a motorcycle accident, and rumors were he died, or was on life support, and then that he was okay but just really banged up and in seclusion while recouperating.
Word eventually filtered out that Dylan was recouperating at Al Grossman's house at Woodstock, New York, an historic artists community with a history that dates back to the turn of the last century.
Joining Dylan at Woodstock were some of the Hawks, who leased a pink duplex in nearby West Saguarties, and jammed in the basement. Around town they became known simply as "the band," and eventually adopted that name. Their first album, "Music From Big Pink," showed the Big Pink house on the cover, and featured a painting by Bob Dylan on the back. A few of the songs were written by Dylan as well.
Then came bootleg recordings, pressed into bootleg LPs with a plane white cover, known as "The Basement Tapes," ostensibly recorded in the basement of Big Pink, and featuring Dylan, not only singing old and new songs, but talking and telling jokes.
The one joke from the original Basement Tapes I remember, that didn't make it to the official release years (decades?) later, is the story of the Checkmate Coffee House of East Orange, New Jersey.
Dylan says he went there once, and paid for his coffee with chess piece, a rook, and got a knight and pawn for change. Or something like that.
But "Music from Big Pink" and "The Basement Tapes" put Woodstock on the map in the back of a lot of people's minds, a year or so before they began to put the festival together.
And after the festival was moved to Bethel, fifty miles from Woodstock, and The Band performed the festival, both the original town of Woodstock and The Band, got left in the festival's wake.
For some reason, and I think Grossman advised The Band not to permit it, but The Band is conspiciously absent from the Woodstock movie and soundtrack, which is not an accident. I don't think they, The Band, at Grossman's advise, permitted them to use them in the Woodstock film, just as The Band's version of "The Weight" is not used in the Easy Rider film or soundtrack, but a cover band's version. And I think that decision was Grossman's.
Around 1986, after seeing the Band and the Band minus Robbie Robertson, and Danko and Manuel together a few times, I helped arrange for the Band to return to Somers Point for a Tony Marts reunion at Egos, the new disco nightclub that was built on the Tony Mart site.
After we booked the Band, but about six weeks before the show, Albert Grossman, Tony Marotta and Richard Manuel all died within a few days of each other.
The show however, went on. And while they were in town, I got to know Rick Danko, Levon and Garth Hudson a little bit on the personal level.
While Rick passed on a few years ago (after playing the Good Old Days Picnic at Kennedy Park), both Levon and Garth returned to Woodstock and live there today.
The Woodstock museum and arts center is not in Woodstock however, but in Bethel, where the festival was held.
There is no doubt however, that rock & roll history was made when Bob Dylan joined forces with the Hawks - electrified Forest Hills and the music scene, and then hibernated at Woodstock, establishing the Woodstock legend years before the festival.
And it only happened because Albert Grossman's secretary knew the answer to the question of who was the best rock & roll band on the East Coast.
Why that would be the Hawks.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
From Ocean City to Woodstock
From Ocean City to Woodstock
Okay, it's been 40 years, I know, know, and it's always going to be there - a generational milestone against which other major events are measured.
And I did this twenty years ago, when I thought it was a passing fad, and I can't find that clip so I'm going entirely on memory here, but I will do the best I can, spurred on by nudging from my pal Jerry Montgomery, who was inspired to blog his own recollections.
Blog wasn't a word in the dictionary in August, 1969, and the multi-media networks are a major development since the last Woodstock anniversary worth noting.
Just perusing the internet world I quickly realize that others are doing the same thing, and my recollections don't seem to jive totally with what is out there.
For instance, there's the Santana bit about their first album not being out in August, 1969, and that it wasn't released until after they played Woodstock.
Well, that's not the way I remember it.
I remember very distinctly being in a Wildwood motel room with Jerry and Marc Jordan, another good buddy from high school days, and one of them turning me on to Santana, playing what I thought was Black Magic Women, but since that song is not on their first album, it must have been Persuasion, or one of the smooth, thundering Santana songs, putting it on the record player while handing me the album cover, saying, "And Santana is going to be there!. We really got to go to Woodstock."
I knew about Woodstock, having previously had a epiphany like experience the first time I heard the Band's "The Weight" on the radio sometime in 1968. I was living at 362 (Garden Avenue, Camden, N.J.) at the time, and it was a Sunday night, but I don't remember if the dj was Meatball Fulton on the Penn station or Dave Herman on WMMR, where Herman introduced AOR - Album Oriented Rock and changed the world.
Fulton was further out there in Left Field, playing Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart (Trout Mask Replica), so it was probably Dave Herman who played "The Weight," - "take a load off Mammy," you know the song that changed the world, at least for me.
At least it got my attention, and even though this was years before I even learned the Band had been down the Shore at Tony Marts in Somers Point while I was hanging out in Ocean City, but I did know that they had backed Bob Dylan at the historic Forest Hills gig where the folkies booed him for "going electric," and that since Dylan had been in a bad motor cycle accident, their tour together had been postponed and they were all laid back recouperating at a place called Woodstock.
It was an old time, turn of the last century Artist Colony in Mid-state New York, where Dylan's manager Albert Grossman had a home and recording studio. Dylan was holed up at Grossman's house in a cast, while the rest of the Band lived in a pink split level house they called Big Pink in nearby West Saugerties. It was in the basement of Big Pink that they recorded the "Basement Tapes," many of the cuts featuring Dylan. So he was alive! And at Woodstock! This was the legend before the festival was envisioned.
When Jerry and Marc were telling me that Santana was going to be at a rock concert at Woodstock, all I could think of was Dylan and the Band.
And the Band were in the lineup for the festival at Woodstock, Marc said convincingly.
We had all went to high school together - Camden Catholic High School, class of '69, and has spent the previous few years at my family rooming house in Ocean City, but this summer Jerry and Marc were working at a grill on the Wildwood boardwalk and living at the motel a few blocks away.
The TV was on with the sound down, Santana was on the record player, and Jerry and Marc were trying to convince me to go to Woodstock with them for this rock festival.
But I had a real, steady job, flipping pizza on the Ocean City boardwalk, and I couldn't just take off a weekend in the middle of the summer.
Then I got a letter in the mail from the University of Dayton (Ohio), where I was due to enroll as a freshman in September, but this letter said that I was to show up for "Freshman Orientation" the same weekend as Woodstock.
So I showed the letter to my boss, Mr. Anthony Mack, who was then in his seventies, and didn't read anyway, so the letter could have said anything, but I was honest with him about the letter, and he said that I had to go, that my education was more important, but make sure I was back for the following weekend - Labor Day, the busiest weekend of the season. I'd be back on Monday I promised.
Then one day, while I was working, Jerry and Marc started talking with a guy with a napsack who was hanging around Shriver's Pier at 9th street and the boardwalk(no longer there), where all the hippies hung out and played guitar and sang. He was in town to visit his sister, who was working at Cooper Kettle Fudge on the boardwalk, and didn't have a place to stay.
No problem. "Our friend has a house down the street and lets everybody stay there."
When I got done making pizza the four of us went to the 9th Street diner (no longer there) for something to eat, and I learned that Jerry and Marc's new friend Mark Connally from Pittsburgh, was also going to be a freshman at the University of Dayton. He too was going to skip "freshman orientation" and go to Woodstock, so we all agreed we were going, and we made plans on meeting up with Mark Connally there. (Ha ha, but little did we know).
Thursday night, after I closed the pizza place, I hurried home, a few blocks away, and Marc and Jerry and Bob Katchnick, another friend from high school, were there, all packed and ready to go. My 1959' CJ5 jeep with no doors was packed with blankets and camping junk, was parked in the alley, but it was damp and wouldn't start.
My mother came out to say goodbye to us, and when we told her the jeep wouldn't start, she said to "take your father's car."
That's what she said, and we didn't argue.
And we were off, in Dad's relatively new 1967 Ford, a square box car, but since my father was a policeman, it had a sign "County Detective" on the visor, which came in handy when we had to pass people and get past roadblocks.
Jerry says he was driving, and I know I crawled in the back seat and went to sleep, but it wasn't long before we were parked on the side of the road and there was a flashlight in my face from the window. It was a cop, and he was asking me, "Does your father know you have this car?"
Before I could answer, he asked another question.
"Are you going to Woodstock?"
"Yes," was the answer, and it must have been the right one, because he let us go with a simple, "Be safe."
By morning, a few hours later, we were getting really close, because we weren't moving very fast as traffic was getting tight.
As everyone who was there knows, the Woodstock festival was not held at Woodstock, the Arts Colony town where Albert Grossman had his home and recording studio (Bearsville?), and Dylan and the Band were holding up.
The festival, due to the concerns and protests of the local community, was not to be held at Woodstock, but at Max Yasker's farm about fifty miles further down the road.
At some point we picked up a hitch hiker, a fortunious move, as Jerry recalls in his blog -[http://users.section101.com/?page=user_blog&room=jerrymontgomery] because the guy had already been to the site and knew a back way in, down a dirt road and through some fields that emptied out right back stage, maybe two hundred yards to the right rear of the stage.
It wasn't long however, before we were blocked in and parked there for a few days.
It was damp when we left, and wet when we got there, but it only rained periodically, but when it rained, it rained.
Jerry remembers some acid being consumed by some, but not me. I didn't drink alochol or even smoke pot, and may have been the only straight and sober person there.
We did have a leather gourd with some wine that we shared, but for the most part, I didn't partake and should have a clear recollection of everything that happened.
I don't.
I do remember scouting out the scene, walking around amazed at everything, and eventually working my way down in front of the stage where I sat with some strangers, who became my friends, and listened to Richie Havens, who I remember the clearest.
Joan Biez also stands out as someone I actually paid attention to, but some of the bands just didn't interest me - like the Who. I just didn't get it.
After seeing Richie Havens and Joan Biez from pretty close up, I went for a walk around the outskirts of the scene, a big mistake because I never got down close to the front of the stage again.
I remember the food court shelling out all kinds of food, and the port a potties, and swimming naked in the lake with a bunch of strangers, actually just to get clean after a rain storm.
There was the medical facilities, that looked like a MASH tent, and there were helicopters constantly flying in and out and buzzing around above us.
Every once in awhile I went back to the car to see if any of the other guys had checked in, but usually nobody was there, until it got dark and we slept in the car, which at least was dry.
I knew my companions for a few years, having me them at Camden Catholic High School. Jerry lived near me in East Camden, is quiet but has a good sense of humor.
Marc was more serious, a transfer to CCHS from arch rival Bishop Eustice, which was an all guy prep school and basketball powerhouse at the time. Marc had played basketball, but was also pretty smart, and for some reason, transferred to Catholic and didn't play basket ball. He drifted towards me and my locker because I was a radical, politically, a "clean for Gene" anti-Vietnam war activist.
Bob Katchnick, which is spelled phonetically, was a real handsome - Troy Donahue like artist, who has a younger hippie sister, and was good friends with Bob Lodge, another artist - the Two Bobs.
Jerry and Marc were hanging out together and close to the wine gourd, while Bob took off on his own, and was probably doing extra-psychadelic enhancers, and of us all, was probably enjoying himself the most.
I know Mark wanted to leave almost as soon as we got there, or at least go get a motel room somewhere, but we were stuck now, in the middle of a half-million people.
That's more than Napoleon's army, and more people than some countries (Monaco, Lichenstein, and the UAE country that's been named to host the next America's Cup).
Finally The Band came on, the one group that I really came to Woodstock to see, and I couldn't get down close to the stage, but I got as I could to the stage left, and when I still couldn't see, I climbed a tree and laid back on one of the limbs with people walking along a trail below me.
While we never did hook up with Mark Connally from Pittsburgh, I thought it was quite unbelievable when, after awhile, I heard Jerry's distinct voice calling out my name. "Yo! Bill."
And I think I frightened him a little when I answered him from above, hanging on to a tree limb.
I saw the Band and heard them, and now I thought the whole trip was worth it.
But Dylan was nowhere to be seen, on or off stage, and I don't think I was the only one disapointed at that.
By Sunday afternoon, there were still a dozen acts to play, but we were pretty much set on getting out of there as soon as the car could be moved and there was traffic moving.
Mark was anxious to go and it didn't take too much convincing me to get going while the gettin' was good.
Bob Katchnick didn't want to leave though, because some of the best acts were still to come, so he said not to worry and that he'd hitch hike home and see us in a few days. And we didn't argue with him.
We left Sunday afternoon so we missed the Sunday night acts and, of course, Hendrix on Monday morning, but I'm sure Bob Katchnick was there, and I later learned from Mark Connally that he hung around and helped clean up the mess.
I don't remember the ride home at all, but when we got home, I do remember that I never saw my father so happy to see me, and his car, though we were both covered in mud. We didn't realize that the festival had made the national news, or the news at all, until we got home and it was only then that we realized what a big thing it was.
I'm going to have to blend Jerry's Blog narrative with this, to see how it jives, but he's told me that he remembers us getting back to Ocean City late Sunday night, and while Mark jumped in the shower, we walked down the alley and around the corner to the Purple Dragon Coffee House on 8th street (now the Horse Horse Ice Cream Parlor), just to show off our Woodstock mud.
If so, that was the only time I bragged about being at Woodstock, because the next day I had to be back at work at Mack & Manco's Pizza on the boardwalk, where I had to tell everybody that I spent the weekend in Dayton, Ohio at "freshmen orientation."
I would have gotten fired for sure if I told them I had actually been to Woodstock.
When I finally got to Dayton, I hooked up with Mark Connally and we became good friends, and eventually moved into an off campus apartment together.
A year or so after Woodstock, Richie Havens came to Dayton and played a concert at the Dayton Arena. I had seats right down front, and after the show I handed Richie a piece of paper that just said something like "Friend Bill Kelly from Woodstock" and the address of a party.
An hour or so after the concert, the party was going pretty strong, with people in every room, but I was hanging out in the kitchen, when a limo pulled up out front, and Richie Havens got out and asked for me, and joined us in the kitchen. The other party guests didn't believe me when I said Richie Havens was coming by, and I was pretty shocked to see him myself, but he came in and pretended he remembered me from Woodstock, and then proceeded to show us how to roll a joint with one hand, just like the cowboys do when they're riding a horse on the range.
By then I was smoking, and drinking draft beer, and we had a grand old time. Richie is still on the road, playing all the time, and when he's not on the road, he lives somewhere in North Jersey. Havens was interviewed on CNN a few nights ago (it should be on YouTube by now), along with Dick Cavatt, who had interviewed Joni Mitchell and Hendrix, both complete interviews also available. The interviewer kept asking Richie Havens these long questions, and Richie, being stoned, answered real slow in few sylables.
As for my Woodstock friends, Jerry is now a computer guy in the mid-west, while Mark is a lawyer in DC, whose married to a lawyer. After Woodstock, Mark got a scholarship to NYU in NYC, and lived in the Village where I visited him a few times. While there he too had an epiphany, joined ROTC and became a USMC officer after graduation. We stayed friends.
We left Bob Katchnick at Woodstock, and I was going to say that we haven't heard from him since, but now I do remember hitich hiking with a girlfriend from Dayton to Detroit and visiting Bob at Wayne State University. I'd like to find out what became of Bob, and get his Woodstock reminisces but I can't seem to get a correct spelling for his last name.
I really became a Band fan, and caught them performing in Cleveland at the Armory there in 1970, and then in Philly at the Spectrum many times, including tours backing Dylan.
One of the first articles I ever had published (Atlantic City Sun) was the story of how the Band, as Levon & the Hawks, played the summer of '65 at Tony Marts nightclub in Somers Point, where they were playing when Dylan convinced them to leave there to back him at Forest Hills.
Then in 1986 we brought The Band back to Somers Point for the first Tony Marts reunion at the original site of Tony Marts, Egos nightclub.
Tony's son Carmen Marotta, opened a nightclub in New Orleans in partnership with the Band's drummer and vocalist Levon Helm - the Classic American Cafe. Later, Levon and his band from Woodstock, including his daughter, played the Bubba Mac Shack in Somers Point (no longer there) a few times. The last time he played there he was sick, and couldn't sing, but since then, he's beaten the cancer and can now play drums and sing like the good old days. His last album "Dirt Farmer" won a Grammy and he's going to be playing the Borgatta Casino in Atlantic City (August 22) with the Black Crows, who recently recorded a live album at Levon's barn at Woodstock.
In all the Woodstock reminisces I've read over the past week, I haven't seen anything about Dylan, The Band, Albert Grossman, Big Pink or any of the reasons I went to Woodstock in the first place.
So I guess that gives me the opportunity to set the record straight, if I could only remember.
Bill Kelly
August 16, 2009
Browns Mills, NJ
MORE TO COME
Okay, it's been 40 years, I know, know, and it's always going to be there - a generational milestone against which other major events are measured.
And I did this twenty years ago, when I thought it was a passing fad, and I can't find that clip so I'm going entirely on memory here, but I will do the best I can, spurred on by nudging from my pal Jerry Montgomery, who was inspired to blog his own recollections.
Blog wasn't a word in the dictionary in August, 1969, and the multi-media networks are a major development since the last Woodstock anniversary worth noting.
Just perusing the internet world I quickly realize that others are doing the same thing, and my recollections don't seem to jive totally with what is out there.
For instance, there's the Santana bit about their first album not being out in August, 1969, and that it wasn't released until after they played Woodstock.
Well, that's not the way I remember it.
I remember very distinctly being in a Wildwood motel room with Jerry and Marc Jordan, another good buddy from high school days, and one of them turning me on to Santana, playing what I thought was Black Magic Women, but since that song is not on their first album, it must have been Persuasion, or one of the smooth, thundering Santana songs, putting it on the record player while handing me the album cover, saying, "And Santana is going to be there!. We really got to go to Woodstock."
I knew about Woodstock, having previously had a epiphany like experience the first time I heard the Band's "The Weight" on the radio sometime in 1968. I was living at 362 (Garden Avenue, Camden, N.J.) at the time, and it was a Sunday night, but I don't remember if the dj was Meatball Fulton on the Penn station or Dave Herman on WMMR, where Herman introduced AOR - Album Oriented Rock and changed the world.
Fulton was further out there in Left Field, playing Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart (Trout Mask Replica), so it was probably Dave Herman who played "The Weight," - "take a load off Mammy," you know the song that changed the world, at least for me.
At least it got my attention, and even though this was years before I even learned the Band had been down the Shore at Tony Marts in Somers Point while I was hanging out in Ocean City, but I did know that they had backed Bob Dylan at the historic Forest Hills gig where the folkies booed him for "going electric," and that since Dylan had been in a bad motor cycle accident, their tour together had been postponed and they were all laid back recouperating at a place called Woodstock.
It was an old time, turn of the last century Artist Colony in Mid-state New York, where Dylan's manager Albert Grossman had a home and recording studio. Dylan was holed up at Grossman's house in a cast, while the rest of the Band lived in a pink split level house they called Big Pink in nearby West Saugerties. It was in the basement of Big Pink that they recorded the "Basement Tapes," many of the cuts featuring Dylan. So he was alive! And at Woodstock! This was the legend before the festival was envisioned.
When Jerry and Marc were telling me that Santana was going to be at a rock concert at Woodstock, all I could think of was Dylan and the Band.
And the Band were in the lineup for the festival at Woodstock, Marc said convincingly.
We had all went to high school together - Camden Catholic High School, class of '69, and has spent the previous few years at my family rooming house in Ocean City, but this summer Jerry and Marc were working at a grill on the Wildwood boardwalk and living at the motel a few blocks away.
The TV was on with the sound down, Santana was on the record player, and Jerry and Marc were trying to convince me to go to Woodstock with them for this rock festival.
But I had a real, steady job, flipping pizza on the Ocean City boardwalk, and I couldn't just take off a weekend in the middle of the summer.
Then I got a letter in the mail from the University of Dayton (Ohio), where I was due to enroll as a freshman in September, but this letter said that I was to show up for "Freshman Orientation" the same weekend as Woodstock.
So I showed the letter to my boss, Mr. Anthony Mack, who was then in his seventies, and didn't read anyway, so the letter could have said anything, but I was honest with him about the letter, and he said that I had to go, that my education was more important, but make sure I was back for the following weekend - Labor Day, the busiest weekend of the season. I'd be back on Monday I promised.
Then one day, while I was working, Jerry and Marc started talking with a guy with a napsack who was hanging around Shriver's Pier at 9th street and the boardwalk(no longer there), where all the hippies hung out and played guitar and sang. He was in town to visit his sister, who was working at Cooper Kettle Fudge on the boardwalk, and didn't have a place to stay.
No problem. "Our friend has a house down the street and lets everybody stay there."
When I got done making pizza the four of us went to the 9th Street diner (no longer there) for something to eat, and I learned that Jerry and Marc's new friend Mark Connally from Pittsburgh, was also going to be a freshman at the University of Dayton. He too was going to skip "freshman orientation" and go to Woodstock, so we all agreed we were going, and we made plans on meeting up with Mark Connally there. (Ha ha, but little did we know).
Thursday night, after I closed the pizza place, I hurried home, a few blocks away, and Marc and Jerry and Bob Katchnick, another friend from high school, were there, all packed and ready to go. My 1959' CJ5 jeep with no doors was packed with blankets and camping junk, was parked in the alley, but it was damp and wouldn't start.
My mother came out to say goodbye to us, and when we told her the jeep wouldn't start, she said to "take your father's car."
That's what she said, and we didn't argue.
And we were off, in Dad's relatively new 1967 Ford, a square box car, but since my father was a policeman, it had a sign "County Detective" on the visor, which came in handy when we had to pass people and get past roadblocks.
Jerry says he was driving, and I know I crawled in the back seat and went to sleep, but it wasn't long before we were parked on the side of the road and there was a flashlight in my face from the window. It was a cop, and he was asking me, "Does your father know you have this car?"
Before I could answer, he asked another question.
"Are you going to Woodstock?"
"Yes," was the answer, and it must have been the right one, because he let us go with a simple, "Be safe."
By morning, a few hours later, we were getting really close, because we weren't moving very fast as traffic was getting tight.
As everyone who was there knows, the Woodstock festival was not held at Woodstock, the Arts Colony town where Albert Grossman had his home and recording studio (Bearsville?), and Dylan and the Band were holding up.
The festival, due to the concerns and protests of the local community, was not to be held at Woodstock, but at Max Yasker's farm about fifty miles further down the road.
At some point we picked up a hitch hiker, a fortunious move, as Jerry recalls in his blog -[http://users.section101.com/?page=user_blog&room=jerrymontgomery] because the guy had already been to the site and knew a back way in, down a dirt road and through some fields that emptied out right back stage, maybe two hundred yards to the right rear of the stage.
It wasn't long however, before we were blocked in and parked there for a few days.
It was damp when we left, and wet when we got there, but it only rained periodically, but when it rained, it rained.
Jerry remembers some acid being consumed by some, but not me. I didn't drink alochol or even smoke pot, and may have been the only straight and sober person there.
We did have a leather gourd with some wine that we shared, but for the most part, I didn't partake and should have a clear recollection of everything that happened.
I don't.
I do remember scouting out the scene, walking around amazed at everything, and eventually working my way down in front of the stage where I sat with some strangers, who became my friends, and listened to Richie Havens, who I remember the clearest.
Joan Biez also stands out as someone I actually paid attention to, but some of the bands just didn't interest me - like the Who. I just didn't get it.
After seeing Richie Havens and Joan Biez from pretty close up, I went for a walk around the outskirts of the scene, a big mistake because I never got down close to the front of the stage again.
I remember the food court shelling out all kinds of food, and the port a potties, and swimming naked in the lake with a bunch of strangers, actually just to get clean after a rain storm.
There was the medical facilities, that looked like a MASH tent, and there were helicopters constantly flying in and out and buzzing around above us.
Every once in awhile I went back to the car to see if any of the other guys had checked in, but usually nobody was there, until it got dark and we slept in the car, which at least was dry.
I knew my companions for a few years, having me them at Camden Catholic High School. Jerry lived near me in East Camden, is quiet but has a good sense of humor.
Marc was more serious, a transfer to CCHS from arch rival Bishop Eustice, which was an all guy prep school and basketball powerhouse at the time. Marc had played basketball, but was also pretty smart, and for some reason, transferred to Catholic and didn't play basket ball. He drifted towards me and my locker because I was a radical, politically, a "clean for Gene" anti-Vietnam war activist.
Bob Katchnick, which is spelled phonetically, was a real handsome - Troy Donahue like artist, who has a younger hippie sister, and was good friends with Bob Lodge, another artist - the Two Bobs.
Jerry and Marc were hanging out together and close to the wine gourd, while Bob took off on his own, and was probably doing extra-psychadelic enhancers, and of us all, was probably enjoying himself the most.
I know Mark wanted to leave almost as soon as we got there, or at least go get a motel room somewhere, but we were stuck now, in the middle of a half-million people.
That's more than Napoleon's army, and more people than some countries (Monaco, Lichenstein, and the UAE country that's been named to host the next America's Cup).
Finally The Band came on, the one group that I really came to Woodstock to see, and I couldn't get down close to the stage, but I got as I could to the stage left, and when I still couldn't see, I climbed a tree and laid back on one of the limbs with people walking along a trail below me.
While we never did hook up with Mark Connally from Pittsburgh, I thought it was quite unbelievable when, after awhile, I heard Jerry's distinct voice calling out my name. "Yo! Bill."
And I think I frightened him a little when I answered him from above, hanging on to a tree limb.
I saw the Band and heard them, and now I thought the whole trip was worth it.
But Dylan was nowhere to be seen, on or off stage, and I don't think I was the only one disapointed at that.
By Sunday afternoon, there were still a dozen acts to play, but we were pretty much set on getting out of there as soon as the car could be moved and there was traffic moving.
Mark was anxious to go and it didn't take too much convincing me to get going while the gettin' was good.
Bob Katchnick didn't want to leave though, because some of the best acts were still to come, so he said not to worry and that he'd hitch hike home and see us in a few days. And we didn't argue with him.
We left Sunday afternoon so we missed the Sunday night acts and, of course, Hendrix on Monday morning, but I'm sure Bob Katchnick was there, and I later learned from Mark Connally that he hung around and helped clean up the mess.
I don't remember the ride home at all, but when we got home, I do remember that I never saw my father so happy to see me, and his car, though we were both covered in mud. We didn't realize that the festival had made the national news, or the news at all, until we got home and it was only then that we realized what a big thing it was.
I'm going to have to blend Jerry's Blog narrative with this, to see how it jives, but he's told me that he remembers us getting back to Ocean City late Sunday night, and while Mark jumped in the shower, we walked down the alley and around the corner to the Purple Dragon Coffee House on 8th street (now the Horse Horse Ice Cream Parlor), just to show off our Woodstock mud.
If so, that was the only time I bragged about being at Woodstock, because the next day I had to be back at work at Mack & Manco's Pizza on the boardwalk, where I had to tell everybody that I spent the weekend in Dayton, Ohio at "freshmen orientation."
I would have gotten fired for sure if I told them I had actually been to Woodstock.
When I finally got to Dayton, I hooked up with Mark Connally and we became good friends, and eventually moved into an off campus apartment together.
A year or so after Woodstock, Richie Havens came to Dayton and played a concert at the Dayton Arena. I had seats right down front, and after the show I handed Richie a piece of paper that just said something like "Friend Bill Kelly from Woodstock" and the address of a party.
An hour or so after the concert, the party was going pretty strong, with people in every room, but I was hanging out in the kitchen, when a limo pulled up out front, and Richie Havens got out and asked for me, and joined us in the kitchen. The other party guests didn't believe me when I said Richie Havens was coming by, and I was pretty shocked to see him myself, but he came in and pretended he remembered me from Woodstock, and then proceeded to show us how to roll a joint with one hand, just like the cowboys do when they're riding a horse on the range.
By then I was smoking, and drinking draft beer, and we had a grand old time. Richie is still on the road, playing all the time, and when he's not on the road, he lives somewhere in North Jersey. Havens was interviewed on CNN a few nights ago (it should be on YouTube by now), along with Dick Cavatt, who had interviewed Joni Mitchell and Hendrix, both complete interviews also available. The interviewer kept asking Richie Havens these long questions, and Richie, being stoned, answered real slow in few sylables.
As for my Woodstock friends, Jerry is now a computer guy in the mid-west, while Mark is a lawyer in DC, whose married to a lawyer. After Woodstock, Mark got a scholarship to NYU in NYC, and lived in the Village where I visited him a few times. While there he too had an epiphany, joined ROTC and became a USMC officer after graduation. We stayed friends.
We left Bob Katchnick at Woodstock, and I was going to say that we haven't heard from him since, but now I do remember hitich hiking with a girlfriend from Dayton to Detroit and visiting Bob at Wayne State University. I'd like to find out what became of Bob, and get his Woodstock reminisces but I can't seem to get a correct spelling for his last name.
I really became a Band fan, and caught them performing in Cleveland at the Armory there in 1970, and then in Philly at the Spectrum many times, including tours backing Dylan.
One of the first articles I ever had published (Atlantic City Sun) was the story of how the Band, as Levon & the Hawks, played the summer of '65 at Tony Marts nightclub in Somers Point, where they were playing when Dylan convinced them to leave there to back him at Forest Hills.
Then in 1986 we brought The Band back to Somers Point for the first Tony Marts reunion at the original site of Tony Marts, Egos nightclub.
Tony's son Carmen Marotta, opened a nightclub in New Orleans in partnership with the Band's drummer and vocalist Levon Helm - the Classic American Cafe. Later, Levon and his band from Woodstock, including his daughter, played the Bubba Mac Shack in Somers Point (no longer there) a few times. The last time he played there he was sick, and couldn't sing, but since then, he's beaten the cancer and can now play drums and sing like the good old days. His last album "Dirt Farmer" won a Grammy and he's going to be playing the Borgatta Casino in Atlantic City (August 22) with the Black Crows, who recently recorded a live album at Levon's barn at Woodstock.
In all the Woodstock reminisces I've read over the past week, I haven't seen anything about Dylan, The Band, Albert Grossman, Big Pink or any of the reasons I went to Woodstock in the first place.
So I guess that gives me the opportunity to set the record straight, if I could only remember.
Bill Kelly
August 16, 2009
Browns Mills, NJ
MORE TO COME
America's Cup 2010 Ras al Khaimah
Our new friend Ynotoman, reported in his blog:
http://ynotoman.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/ras-al-khaimah-will-hold-33rd-americas-cup/
that "The neighboring Emirate to Oman, Ras al Khaimah, will hold the 33rd America's Cup as landlocked Switzerland has nominated the Emirate for 2010. Congradulations Ras al Khaimah."
"Sitting next to Musandam the event might well come into Omani spectacular waters."
"With 11 wins in 20 starts by Masirah, Oman's racing boat, Oman really should try and put an AC33 yacht and team in for the America's Cup 2010."
You wouldn't even know that there's going to be a 33rd America's Cup regatta if you only paid attention to USA news media, as I have not seen this covered anywhere yet.
This will be the grudge match - best of three races between Swiss and USA only.
BYM Sailing :
America's Cup: Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates selected as venue
http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=58426
The America's Cup Defender, Alinghi, and its yacht club, the Société Nautique de Genève, today announced the venue for the 33rd America's Cup in February 2010.
“We are pleased to announce that Ras al-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, will be the Host Country for the 33rd America's Cup,” said Fred Meyer, Vice-Commodore of the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG).
“This is a venue that offers perfect weather and great sailing conditions for a Match in February; the authorities have shown tremendous interest in, and support for hosting the America's Cup; and the country has experience in organising first-class sporting events such as ATP tennis, PGA golf and Formula One. They will make a purpose-built island available at the Al Hamra Village in Ras al-Khaimah to provide the America's Cup teams, sponsors and fans with an outstanding venue.”
Having won the 32nd America's Cup in 2007 in Valencia with its yacht racing team, Alinghi, the SNG is granted the right to choose the venue for the next America's Cup which is scheduled to start on 8 February 2010.
“Our absolute priorities in making this decision are the prevailing weather conditions and the resulting safety that they bring to both teams,” explains Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth. “We looked everywhere for a venue that suited having good racing for the Match dates in February. We had trained in the UAE in the winter with Alinghi before and in the end we settled on Ras al-Khaimah in particular because of the infrastructure in Al Hamra Village and because it has a great building sea breeze during the day, similar to Mediterranean conditions in the summer, making it good for these boats and safe for all concerned.”
His Highness Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Ras al-Khaimah, expresses his satisfaction:
“It is a great moment for us to host the America's Cup here. It is significant because it reflects how the Emirates have become a place for hosting international events. It is a reflection on what we have achieved in terms of becoming the destination for tourists and trade and industry and is a reflection of our integration in the world at large. This announcement reflects the nature of our country and its aim of becoming host to many nationalities who live side by side in peace. It is a hope and dream that this is the kind of space that we want to have on our globe. It is a great moment for us to host this prestigious event and to welcome all the sports people to the UAE and to Ras al-Khaimah to watch this great event; we are looking forward to its success.”
Background information on the 33rd America's Cup venue
RAS AL-KHAIMAH
Ras al-Khaimah literally means ‘the top of the tent' in Arabic. One of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it covers an area of 656 square miles (1,700km2) and borders on Oman, situated in the southern part of the Persian Gulf. The emirate has a population of approx 300,000 and is ruled by HH Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad Al Qasimi. The Deputy Ruler is Crown Prince HH Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi. The capital city of Ras al-Khaimah is located 45 minutes from Dubai airport and is also served by the Ras al-Khaimah International airport.
THE VENUE
A 22-hectare purpose-built island inside the Al Hamra Village lagoon will host the team bases and all the necessary facilities for the media, the sponsors and the public. The Al Hamra Village is a new luxury resort with more than 3,500 residences on the coast of Ras al-Khaimah.
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS IN UAE
- Motorsport: Formula-1 in Abu Dhabi since 2009 (Hamilton, Alonso, Schumacher…)
- Golf: PGA in Dubai since 1989 and Abu Dhabi since 2006 (Woods, Els, Montgomery, García…); Tiger Woods has designed his first golf course in Dubai
- Tennis: ATP in Dubai since 1993 (Federer, Nadal, Murray, Roddick, Agassi…) and WTA in Dubai since 2001 (Williams, Hingis, Davenport…)
- Sailing: RC44 in Dubai since 2007 (Coutts, Spithill, Barker, Col…) and Alinghi winter training in Dubai in 2006/7
- Football: FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi in 2009 (FC Barcelona, Estudiantes, Auckland City…)
- Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi (completion expected in 2011)
- New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Abu Dhabi in 2009
INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC INITIATIVES IN UAE
- École Polytéchnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is creating a new University campus in Ras al-Khaimah
- Harvard Medical School Dubai Centre was launched in 2004 through a joint effort by Harvard Medical and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) to develop an academic centre for health care delivery, medical education, and research
ABC NEWS REPORTS:
August 5, 2009 (AP)
America's Cup grudge match headed for Persian Gulf port Ras al-Khaimah
By BERNIE WILSON
The Associated Press
Everything leading up to the 33rd America's Cup has been unconventional and surprising, so it figures that the venue might as well be extraordinary, too.
Yes, the stodgy old America's Cup is going to be decided in the Middle East.
Two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland picked the Persian Gulf port Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, as the site where it will settle its bitter feud with American challenger BMW Oracle Racing.
A twisting, two-year court tussle between bickering billionaire syndicate bosses has led to a rare best-of-3 series in massive multihulls for the oldest trophy in international sports. The nautical grudge match is scheduled to begin Feb. 8.
It could be the most extreme, spectacular racing in the 158-year history of the America's Cup. The space age-looking boats are 90 feet long, dwarf their crews, are capable of sailing 2 to 2 1/2 times the speed of the wind and are potentially lethal if pushed too hard.
Alinghi, led by biotech tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli, will sail a catamaran. BMW Oracle Racing, owned by Oracle Corp. founder and CEO Larry Ellison, is testing its trimaran in San Diego. The one-time pals sail aboard the boats they own. Each boat is estimated to have cost well more than $10 million.
Ras al-Khaimah, which literally means "The Top of the Tent," is a little-known, mostly industrial city-state on the southern end of the Persian Gulf. It's not far from the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the UAE from Iran, and is known for producing cement, not oil.
Alinghi officials said Ras al-Khaimah is ideal because of its weather and support pledged by leaders there.
"It's a pretty nice place to sail," Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Butterworth is a four-time America's Cup winner and former crewmate of Russell Coutts, one of the Cup's most dominant skippers who now leads BMW Oracle Racing.
Butterworth said Ras al-Khaimah has a nice sea breeze that reminds him of the Caribbean. Safe weather conditions for the crews and their big boats was a concern, he added.
In a statement released by the Swiss, Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi said it is "a great moment for us to host the America's Cup here. It is significant because it reflects how the Emirates have become a place for hosting international events. It is a reflection on what we have achieved in terms of becoming the destination for tourists and trade and industry and is a reflection of our integration in the world at large."
BMW Oracle Racing officials aren't as enthusiastic. As with many other issues, the Americans are considering going back to a New York court to challenge the selection.
They believe the choice of Ras al-Khaimah, without mutual consent, violates the provisions of the Deed of Gift that governs the America's Cup and the decisions of New York courts. The Americans believe the venue should be Valencia, Spain — which the Swiss say will be too rough for the big boats in February — or a Southern Hemisphere port.
Coutts, Alinghi's skipper in its 5-0 victory over his native New Zealand in 2003 before having a falling out with Bertarelli, told The AP that BMW Oracle Racing will likely send officials to Ras al-Khaimah to gather more information before deciding whether to return to court. He's sailed in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but not Ras al-Khaimah.
"I didn't really know where it was on the map until it was announced," Coutts said. He said the only thing he knows about Ras al-Khaimah was from seeing an animation of the venue on a sailing Web site.
"We're not going to rush to make a decision," said Coutts, who sailed undefeated through three straight America's Cup matches, the first two with Team New Zealand. "We're going to try to find out the information first. Frankly, none of us have been to Ras al-Khaimah. I certainly don't know what's there and what's been planned."
Fred Meyer, vice commodore of Alinghi's backing yacht club, Societe Nautique de Geneve, said UAE officials will build an island to be used by the teams, sponsors and fans.
Alinghi trained in Dubai, UAE, prior to the 2007 America's Cup, when it beat Team New Zealand in Valencia.
"It was a real eye-opener for me," Butterworth said. "We went and watched Tiger (Woods) play in the Desert Classic there and Roger Federer played there that time of the year, so there's a lot of sport going on in that area. I think eventually a regatta was going to happen there one way or the other."
Alinghi is believed to have wanted a port with light wind and flat seas, which could give its giant cat, Alinghi 5, an edge over BMW Oracle Racing's trimaran.
Alinghi is scheduled to use a giant, Russian-built helicopter to lift Alinghi 5 off Lake Geneva on Friday and fly it over the Alps along the Great St. Bernard Pass to Genoa, Italy, for a month of training on the Mediterranean.
The America's Cup got its name after the schooner America beat a fleet of British ships around the Isle of Wight on Aug. 22, 1851, to win an ornate silver trophy that had been called the Hundred Guinea Cup. Since then it has been contested off New York; Newport, R.I; Fremantle, Australia; San Diego; Auckland, New Zealand; and Valencia.
http://ynotoman.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/ras-al-khaimah-will-hold-33rd-americas-cup/
that "The neighboring Emirate to Oman, Ras al Khaimah, will hold the 33rd America's Cup as landlocked Switzerland has nominated the Emirate for 2010. Congradulations Ras al Khaimah."
"Sitting next to Musandam the event might well come into Omani spectacular waters."
"With 11 wins in 20 starts by Masirah, Oman's racing boat, Oman really should try and put an AC33 yacht and team in for the America's Cup 2010."
You wouldn't even know that there's going to be a 33rd America's Cup regatta if you only paid attention to USA news media, as I have not seen this covered anywhere yet.
This will be the grudge match - best of three races between Swiss and USA only.
BYM Sailing :
America's Cup: Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates selected as venue
http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=58426
The America's Cup Defender, Alinghi, and its yacht club, the Société Nautique de Genève, today announced the venue for the 33rd America's Cup in February 2010.
“We are pleased to announce that Ras al-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, will be the Host Country for the 33rd America's Cup,” said Fred Meyer, Vice-Commodore of the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG).
“This is a venue that offers perfect weather and great sailing conditions for a Match in February; the authorities have shown tremendous interest in, and support for hosting the America's Cup; and the country has experience in organising first-class sporting events such as ATP tennis, PGA golf and Formula One. They will make a purpose-built island available at the Al Hamra Village in Ras al-Khaimah to provide the America's Cup teams, sponsors and fans with an outstanding venue.”
Having won the 32nd America's Cup in 2007 in Valencia with its yacht racing team, Alinghi, the SNG is granted the right to choose the venue for the next America's Cup which is scheduled to start on 8 February 2010.
“Our absolute priorities in making this decision are the prevailing weather conditions and the resulting safety that they bring to both teams,” explains Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth. “We looked everywhere for a venue that suited having good racing for the Match dates in February. We had trained in the UAE in the winter with Alinghi before and in the end we settled on Ras al-Khaimah in particular because of the infrastructure in Al Hamra Village and because it has a great building sea breeze during the day, similar to Mediterranean conditions in the summer, making it good for these boats and safe for all concerned.”
His Highness Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Ras al-Khaimah, expresses his satisfaction:
“It is a great moment for us to host the America's Cup here. It is significant because it reflects how the Emirates have become a place for hosting international events. It is a reflection on what we have achieved in terms of becoming the destination for tourists and trade and industry and is a reflection of our integration in the world at large. This announcement reflects the nature of our country and its aim of becoming host to many nationalities who live side by side in peace. It is a hope and dream that this is the kind of space that we want to have on our globe. It is a great moment for us to host this prestigious event and to welcome all the sports people to the UAE and to Ras al-Khaimah to watch this great event; we are looking forward to its success.”
Background information on the 33rd America's Cup venue
RAS AL-KHAIMAH
Ras al-Khaimah literally means ‘the top of the tent' in Arabic. One of the seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it covers an area of 656 square miles (1,700km2) and borders on Oman, situated in the southern part of the Persian Gulf. The emirate has a population of approx 300,000 and is ruled by HH Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad Al Qasimi. The Deputy Ruler is Crown Prince HH Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi. The capital city of Ras al-Khaimah is located 45 minutes from Dubai airport and is also served by the Ras al-Khaimah International airport.
THE VENUE
A 22-hectare purpose-built island inside the Al Hamra Village lagoon will host the team bases and all the necessary facilities for the media, the sponsors and the public. The Al Hamra Village is a new luxury resort with more than 3,500 residences on the coast of Ras al-Khaimah.
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS IN UAE
- Motorsport: Formula-1 in Abu Dhabi since 2009 (Hamilton, Alonso, Schumacher…)
- Golf: PGA in Dubai since 1989 and Abu Dhabi since 2006 (Woods, Els, Montgomery, García…); Tiger Woods has designed his first golf course in Dubai
- Tennis: ATP in Dubai since 1993 (Federer, Nadal, Murray, Roddick, Agassi…) and WTA in Dubai since 2001 (Williams, Hingis, Davenport…)
- Sailing: RC44 in Dubai since 2007 (Coutts, Spithill, Barker, Col…) and Alinghi winter training in Dubai in 2006/7
- Football: FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi in 2009 (FC Barcelona, Estudiantes, Auckland City…)
- Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi (completion expected in 2011)
- New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Abu Dhabi in 2009
INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC INITIATIVES IN UAE
- École Polytéchnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is creating a new University campus in Ras al-Khaimah
- Harvard Medical School Dubai Centre was launched in 2004 through a joint effort by Harvard Medical and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) to develop an academic centre for health care delivery, medical education, and research
ABC NEWS REPORTS:
August 5, 2009 (AP)
America's Cup grudge match headed for Persian Gulf port Ras al-Khaimah
By BERNIE WILSON
The Associated Press
Everything leading up to the 33rd America's Cup has been unconventional and surprising, so it figures that the venue might as well be extraordinary, too.
Yes, the stodgy old America's Cup is going to be decided in the Middle East.
Two-time defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland picked the Persian Gulf port Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, as the site where it will settle its bitter feud with American challenger BMW Oracle Racing.
A twisting, two-year court tussle between bickering billionaire syndicate bosses has led to a rare best-of-3 series in massive multihulls for the oldest trophy in international sports. The nautical grudge match is scheduled to begin Feb. 8.
It could be the most extreme, spectacular racing in the 158-year history of the America's Cup. The space age-looking boats are 90 feet long, dwarf their crews, are capable of sailing 2 to 2 1/2 times the speed of the wind and are potentially lethal if pushed too hard.
Alinghi, led by biotech tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli, will sail a catamaran. BMW Oracle Racing, owned by Oracle Corp. founder and CEO Larry Ellison, is testing its trimaran in San Diego. The one-time pals sail aboard the boats they own. Each boat is estimated to have cost well more than $10 million.
Ras al-Khaimah, which literally means "The Top of the Tent," is a little-known, mostly industrial city-state on the southern end of the Persian Gulf. It's not far from the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the UAE from Iran, and is known for producing cement, not oil.
Alinghi officials said Ras al-Khaimah is ideal because of its weather and support pledged by leaders there.
"It's a pretty nice place to sail," Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Butterworth is a four-time America's Cup winner and former crewmate of Russell Coutts, one of the Cup's most dominant skippers who now leads BMW Oracle Racing.
Butterworth said Ras al-Khaimah has a nice sea breeze that reminds him of the Caribbean. Safe weather conditions for the crews and their big boats was a concern, he added.
In a statement released by the Swiss, Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi said it is "a great moment for us to host the America's Cup here. It is significant because it reflects how the Emirates have become a place for hosting international events. It is a reflection on what we have achieved in terms of becoming the destination for tourists and trade and industry and is a reflection of our integration in the world at large."
BMW Oracle Racing officials aren't as enthusiastic. As with many other issues, the Americans are considering going back to a New York court to challenge the selection.
They believe the choice of Ras al-Khaimah, without mutual consent, violates the provisions of the Deed of Gift that governs the America's Cup and the decisions of New York courts. The Americans believe the venue should be Valencia, Spain — which the Swiss say will be too rough for the big boats in February — or a Southern Hemisphere port.
Coutts, Alinghi's skipper in its 5-0 victory over his native New Zealand in 2003 before having a falling out with Bertarelli, told The AP that BMW Oracle Racing will likely send officials to Ras al-Khaimah to gather more information before deciding whether to return to court. He's sailed in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but not Ras al-Khaimah.
"I didn't really know where it was on the map until it was announced," Coutts said. He said the only thing he knows about Ras al-Khaimah was from seeing an animation of the venue on a sailing Web site.
"We're not going to rush to make a decision," said Coutts, who sailed undefeated through three straight America's Cup matches, the first two with Team New Zealand. "We're going to try to find out the information first. Frankly, none of us have been to Ras al-Khaimah. I certainly don't know what's there and what's been planned."
Fred Meyer, vice commodore of Alinghi's backing yacht club, Societe Nautique de Geneve, said UAE officials will build an island to be used by the teams, sponsors and fans.
Alinghi trained in Dubai, UAE, prior to the 2007 America's Cup, when it beat Team New Zealand in Valencia.
"It was a real eye-opener for me," Butterworth said. "We went and watched Tiger (Woods) play in the Desert Classic there and Roger Federer played there that time of the year, so there's a lot of sport going on in that area. I think eventually a regatta was going to happen there one way or the other."
Alinghi is believed to have wanted a port with light wind and flat seas, which could give its giant cat, Alinghi 5, an edge over BMW Oracle Racing's trimaran.
Alinghi is scheduled to use a giant, Russian-built helicopter to lift Alinghi 5 off Lake Geneva on Friday and fly it over the Alps along the Great St. Bernard Pass to Genoa, Italy, for a month of training on the Mediterranean.
The America's Cup got its name after the schooner America beat a fleet of British ships around the Isle of Wight on Aug. 22, 1851, to win an ornate silver trophy that had been called the Hundred Guinea Cup. Since then it has been contested off New York; Newport, R.I; Fremantle, Australia; San Diego; Auckland, New Zealand; and Valencia.
Monday, August 10, 2009
The Comets Summer 2009
Original drummer for Bill Haley & the Comets, Octogenerarian Dick Richards Boccelli
lives in Ocean City, and when he's in town, hangs at the 4th Street Cafe
with Jody Marks Cigars Kish, and has breakfast at Bayshores II in Somers Point with
Fred Prinz and friends.
I remember in the 70s, John Dean told me about Dick and then introduced us.
The Comets got together for a Dick Clark American Bandstand revival TV show,
and I brought them back to Ocean City to play the Flanders 75th anniversary with
Charlie Gracie, Mike Pedicin, Sr., Robert Hazard and DJ Michael Tearson.
They also played the Bubba Mac Shack at the Point five years in a row around Labor Day, and toured Europe every year, playing before tens of thousands at music festivals, where the fans really know the difference between the original acts and cover bands.
Now they have a regular gig at Dick Clark's Rock & Roll Theater in Branson, Missouri, in the Heart of America, and recently played a show at the Mohegan casino with other classic acts.
The Bowzer was the leader of Sha Na Na, the oldies show that played Woodstock.
Here's Marshall's report from that show:
Dear Friends,
Jimmy Jay, and his BW, Joanne.
brought this beautiful cake, with the title of my new book,
"Still ROCKIN AROUND THE CLOCK."
The Bowzer Rock & Roll Party at The Mohegen Sun was a BIG SUCCESS
with about 8,000 people loving every minute of the over 3 hour show.
After Bowzers opening, the crowd was Rockin to the FABULAS Charlie Gracie, Philadelphia's 1st Rock-n-Roller.
Bowzer then introduced The Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson
who took control and told that crowd Let's Have A Party.
Then Came the Fantastic Joey Dee with The Soul Survivors,
they really hit a home run with Shout.
Then BOWZER Amazed the Audience with his Piano Solo.
Next Came,
Bowzer and The STINGRAYS. They hit a home run with every song
like Hand Jive, and their Dance Contest is always a big hit.
Then Lesley Gore, was a Big Hit with It's my Party and
I'll Cry if I Want To. Closing 1st Half of the Show.
INTERMISSION
2nd Half starts with Bowzer introducing the big talents of SAM THE SHAM,
The WOOLEY BULLY MAN, is always a hit with the crowd.
Then it was our turn, and Bowzer, gave us a great introduction,
telling our ages Joey 75, Marshall 76,(Sept.1st) and Dick 85.
We did SHAKE- ALLIGATOR- RATC- and Dick's Drum Solo w/the Bass
antic's was a BIG HIT.
The Bowzer introduced the wonderful talents of LOU CHRISTIE,
who closed the 2nd half with his great Hits.
BOWZER does his GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART.
And the crowd was VERY HAPPY.
I LOVE YOU ALL
Marshall
Sam McDowell - The Old Smuggler & Iron MIke
Sam McDowell Donates Art to Local Museums
“It’s a great spot to grow up,” says Sam McDowell of Somers Point and Ocean City, where he and his eight sisters and brothers lived, went to school and worked on the beach and boardwalk. McDowell’s memories of the Jersey Shore are reflected in his art, copies of which were recently donated to the Somers Point and Ocean City Historical Societies and Bayside Center.
“I’ve been very lucky and feel I owe it to the people to tell them how nice it really is,” McDowell said in a telephone conversation from his home in Carmel, California.
“I lived in Somers Point, and liked Ocean City very much, the high school, the beach patrol, it’s a great spot to grow up, so I wanted to give something back to the community.”
Sam McDowell, who most people remember from the Smuggler’s Shop on the Ocean City boardwalk at 13th street, was born in Somers Point in 1929 (now 79), and worked as a lifeguard (1948-53 and 58-59) between a stint in the Air Force. He rowed with Tom Oves and Bob Harbough, both of whom own boardwalk grills. He had a whalers boat custom made that he rowed past the breakers every morning in Ocean City, then in Carmel and later in Bequa, an Island in the West Indies where he has a studio he lived seasonally for many years.
Working as an art teacher in Princeton, McDowell spent summers at his boardwalk shop from the 50s through the 70s, where he worked next to Iron Mike the antique diving suit, and sold nautical gifts, including scrimshaw, carvings on whalebone.
While whale bones are no longer legal tender, he began carving scrimshaw on faux ivory himself, and became a scrimshaw trader. At a party in Princeton he met then Senator John F. Kennedy, an avid scrimshaw collector who encouraged him to continue his scrimshaw art work, which are now collector’s items.
“I realized that I could make more money doing scrimshaw than I could teaching or working the Smuggler’s shop,” explained McDowell, so putting everything else aside, he concentrated on the bone carvings and is now considered one of the foremost scrimshaw artists in the world.
Not just a rare, contemporary scrimshaw artists, McDowell has actually been whaling, having accompanied some natives from Bequa, where they are permitted to hunt four whales a year, as they have done for the past two centuries.
”I could row, so they let me go along with them,” said McDowell, “and it was scary, because they do it exactly like they did it 200 years ago. They throw a harpoon into the whale and hope for the best,” going on what they call a “Nantucket sleigh ride.”
Although his scrimshaw earns the bread & butter, his other art work is also popular, and prized by collectors. Some of his paintings reflect his early life in Somers Point, including his family’s Sunny Avenue home that is still there.
Having recently made exact gicle prints of some of his paintings, McDowell gave two of them to each of the local museums, including Christmas Shopping on the Shore Fast Line and Decoration Day on Bay Avenue.
Christmas Shopping on the Shore Fast Line shows people getting off the trolley in Somers Point after Christmas shopping in Ocean City, some holding bags from Talese’s tailor shop and Stainton’s Department store.
Decoration Day, now Veterans Day, has people getting ready for the big parade that ends at the Somers Point beach where they laid wreaths in the water for those who died during wartime. There’s a schooner sailing on the bay with Ocean City in the background.
Accompanying each picture is an essay McDowell wrote explaining what he was trying to convey in the paintings. McDowell’s art is now hanging at the Ocean City Historical Museum and Bayside Center, and at the Somers Point Historical Museum, which is open Saturdays (10AM – 1PM) and Tuesday evenings (7PM – 9PM) and Thursday mornings (10AM-1PM).
Sally Hastings, President of the Somers Point Historical Society, said “These pictures are really special because they capture a sense of family and community that we would like to preserve. We are very appreciative of all that the McDowell family has done for us. Although spread across the country, they have remained a close family and always remember their roots growing up here in Somers Point.”
William Kelly
Billykelly3@yahoo.com
“It’s a great spot to grow up,” says Sam McDowell of Somers Point and Ocean City, where he and his eight sisters and brothers lived, went to school and worked on the beach and boardwalk. McDowell’s memories of the Jersey Shore are reflected in his art, copies of which were recently donated to the Somers Point and Ocean City Historical Societies and Bayside Center.
“I’ve been very lucky and feel I owe it to the people to tell them how nice it really is,” McDowell said in a telephone conversation from his home in Carmel, California.
“I lived in Somers Point, and liked Ocean City very much, the high school, the beach patrol, it’s a great spot to grow up, so I wanted to give something back to the community.”
Sam McDowell, who most people remember from the Smuggler’s Shop on the Ocean City boardwalk at 13th street, was born in Somers Point in 1929 (now 79), and worked as a lifeguard (1948-53 and 58-59) between a stint in the Air Force. He rowed with Tom Oves and Bob Harbough, both of whom own boardwalk grills. He had a whalers boat custom made that he rowed past the breakers every morning in Ocean City, then in Carmel and later in Bequa, an Island in the West Indies where he has a studio he lived seasonally for many years.
Working as an art teacher in Princeton, McDowell spent summers at his boardwalk shop from the 50s through the 70s, where he worked next to Iron Mike the antique diving suit, and sold nautical gifts, including scrimshaw, carvings on whalebone.
While whale bones are no longer legal tender, he began carving scrimshaw on faux ivory himself, and became a scrimshaw trader. At a party in Princeton he met then Senator John F. Kennedy, an avid scrimshaw collector who encouraged him to continue his scrimshaw art work, which are now collector’s items.
“I realized that I could make more money doing scrimshaw than I could teaching or working the Smuggler’s shop,” explained McDowell, so putting everything else aside, he concentrated on the bone carvings and is now considered one of the foremost scrimshaw artists in the world.
Not just a rare, contemporary scrimshaw artists, McDowell has actually been whaling, having accompanied some natives from Bequa, where they are permitted to hunt four whales a year, as they have done for the past two centuries.
”I could row, so they let me go along with them,” said McDowell, “and it was scary, because they do it exactly like they did it 200 years ago. They throw a harpoon into the whale and hope for the best,” going on what they call a “Nantucket sleigh ride.”
Although his scrimshaw earns the bread & butter, his other art work is also popular, and prized by collectors. Some of his paintings reflect his early life in Somers Point, including his family’s Sunny Avenue home that is still there.
Having recently made exact gicle prints of some of his paintings, McDowell gave two of them to each of the local museums, including Christmas Shopping on the Shore Fast Line and Decoration Day on Bay Avenue.
Christmas Shopping on the Shore Fast Line shows people getting off the trolley in Somers Point after Christmas shopping in Ocean City, some holding bags from Talese’s tailor shop and Stainton’s Department store.
Decoration Day, now Veterans Day, has people getting ready for the big parade that ends at the Somers Point beach where they laid wreaths in the water for those who died during wartime. There’s a schooner sailing on the bay with Ocean City in the background.
Accompanying each picture is an essay McDowell wrote explaining what he was trying to convey in the paintings. McDowell’s art is now hanging at the Ocean City Historical Museum and Bayside Center, and at the Somers Point Historical Museum, which is open Saturdays (10AM – 1PM) and Tuesday evenings (7PM – 9PM) and Thursday mornings (10AM-1PM).
Sally Hastings, President of the Somers Point Historical Society, said “These pictures are really special because they capture a sense of family and community that we would like to preserve. We are very appreciative of all that the McDowell family has done for us. Although spread across the country, they have remained a close family and always remember their roots growing up here in Somers Point.”
William Kelly
Billykelly3@yahoo.com
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