Monday, September 07, 2009

Monday Mentionables

"Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people Sharing all the world." ~John Lennon

Oh my gosh! I totally forgot to tell you what the September Blog Giveaway prize is going to be! To one lucky commenter this month, I'll send a copy of Dead Until Dark, the first in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (I blogged about it here) along with a couple other books tossed in for good measure, from my stash of books I've gotten from a few of the author tours I've hosted. Sound good?


*****


Saw the movie "Taking Woodstock" last night - mostly because, well, it's the 40th anniversary of the event, and because I live less than an hour from the original site. It was pretty good - a little fragmented, but I suppose the whole Woodstock experience was, so...


I thought the movie did a good job showing the remoteness of Sullivan County, where it took place, and how this incredible influx of people to the small town was completely overwhelming and under-anticipated. I didn't realize they actually shut down the New York State Thruway because of traffic jams from the city all the way up to the concert site!! There's a lot of interesting characters, too, well-acted, from the people who came in to plan the event to the locals themselves. Liev Schreiber plays a war vet who dresses in drag -- he's terrific. So is Emile Hirsch, who plays a messed-up Vietnam vet dealing with this return to the States. I liked the central character, too, the young guy who arranged for the concert to come to his town who's conflicted about being there at all (when he could be either in NYC or San Francisco), and his crochety parents who are running one of the Jewish hotels in the Catskills.

I heard the movie didn't get great reviews, but I liked it, overall. Anyone else see it, or planning to?

6 comments:

barb meyers said...

Hi Allie--Just stopping by to check out your blog and to say hi! Keep up the good work and happy writing! -- Barb Meyers
barb@barbmeyers.com

MJFredrick said...

I want to see Taking Woodstock just because Jeffrey Dean Morgan is in it. But I get the feeling he's not in it very long, so will probably wait for DVD.

Liz said...

As I already volunteer in the musuem I won't see. Heard they filmed it in the actual town of Woodstock and not Sullivan County. I'll watch it when it comes on HBO or Showtime.

Marianne Arkins said...

I really don't plan on seeing it -- not my cuppa. Still, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Have a great week :-)

Unknown said...

I think a lot of the people who didn't like the movie were expecting it to be more concert footage. There are already enough of those films out there. I agree with you, I think this film did a nice job of getting behind the scenes of the event.

Unknown said...

Hi Allie, I haven't seen Taking Woodstock but would like to. We don't go to the movies often, but I do love Jeffrey Dean Morgan, hmmm may have to talk hubby into going.