Age of Aquarius - Woodstock Celebrated in Second Life

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Forty years ago today, half a million people converged on a dairy farm in Bethal New York for a three day festival that became the greatest moment in popular music history. Woodstock has risen in national memory to mythic proportions; but its reality and true meaning is the subject of much debate, even after forty years. Some commentators draw comparisons of this event with the another event that occurred a month earlier - Apollo 11, the lunar landing, a triumph of the World War II generation, a generation disparaged at the time by the generation of the concert goers at Woodstock. Others point out that while a half million Baby Boomers frolicked in the mud at Woodstock, another half million of their generation were fighting in a lost cause in South Vietnam. The nobility of that cause is routinely denied, if not vehemently disparaged, by a large segment of the Baby Boom generation (pity their moral obtuseness, especially given the hindsight of history). And Boomers still fight that war among themselves. But what cannot be denied is that Woodstock was a significant cultural event, and, while we may argue about its social meaning, what we can celebrate is the music.

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Woodstock was celebrated in a monumental concert in Second Life given by Song-Goddess ArorA Chadbourne. ArorA was actually at Woodstock forty years ago, sitting with her girlfriends directly in front of the stage. Today, in her home studio, she's wearing a t-shirt that was given to her at Woodstock, and that she had autographed there by all the members of the Grateful Dead (she should take that shirt to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or to the Antique Roadshow). The reminiscences and vignettes ArorA shared with us about her experiences at Woodstock were wonderful oral history. For her program, she sang the musical numbers that were performed at Woodstock. Her performance was electrifying. Without a doubt, I was enjoying the best retrospective of Woodstock given anywhere, in Second Life and in real life.

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Apparently, there were a large number of Baby Boomers in the audience (easily identified by their commentary). And I said to myself, "My God, I'm here partying with people who are older than my parents." I thought it amazing that I would be celebrating a happening that transpired twenty years before I was born with people of that far time long ago who were there in person or in spirit. But the music was transcendent, cutting across time and generations. To the Boomers, the music was nostalgic; to me, it was both vaguely familiar and in some ways fresh and awakening. And the energy of ArorA's performance gave me a sense of the thrill and excitement felt by the performers and audience at Woodstock. It was then that I realized how Woodstock should be understood. Let the pundits argue about its so-called 'meaning' in the grand march of social history. Woodstock is best understood on the individual level. What did it mean to the people of the time who were there or wished they were there? It's simple. Woodstock was Youth, Music, Sex, and Drugs - all the makings of a monumental good time in 1969. Youth is freedom, take advantage of it while you can. I'll take that lesson to heart.
. ArorA Chadbourne Celebrating the 40th Anniversity of Woodstock.