Dennis Hopper Has Prostate Cancer

Dennis Hopper recites Beatnik Poetry in a 1964 episode of Petticoat Junction.

Actor/ Director Dennis Hopper best known for his Role as Billy in the classic 1969 film Easy Rider (which he also directed), Rebel Without a Cause (1956), and his role as King Koppa in the Super Mario Brothers Movie, has been diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. He is currently receiving treatment for the disease.

According to reports the 73 year old actor and 1960s counterculture figure was also hospitalized last month, exhibiting symptoms resembling those of the Flu. It is not known if that incident was cancer related.
Lets hope this storied character actor recovers.

This Date in History

LSD Becomes Illegal in the United States in 1966.

Buntastic

Angela Bunt, of Buntology; created a recent documentary of the Wormtown 2009 Festy in Greenfield, MA I too was there (only for a day due to the fact I had to work the next day)on the weekend of September 18-20. Really heady stuff, cool jams, and an altogether vibrant scene.

Anyway she made this short documentary capturing the atmosphere and hot performances there from such bands as 'Playin Dead' and even has some chat time with the 'Rubble Bucket Orchestra' (both performances I was present at). The below video is just a five minute sample of the thirty-four minute documentary.


Watch wormtown 2009 final copy.wmv in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

RIP Mary Travers

Mary Travers of the 1960s Folk group "Peter, Paul, and Mary" died at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut after complications from chemotherapy relating to a long battle with leukemia. She was 72 years of age.

BoxoJams: Arlo Guthrie

Here he is performing coming in from LA, from the 1970 documentary movie. This weekend marks the 40th Anniversary of the Woodstock music and Arts Festival.

Michael Lang

Speaking of Woodstock, here is me with Music producer and one of the chief figures who made Woodstock possible, Michael Lang during a stop at the Odyssey Book store in the center of South Hadley to promote his new book "The Road to Woodstock".

Woodstock Goes Satelite

This month it will be four decades since the three day concert and festival that shook the world and marked the high point of the 1960s counterculture.

Now, Sirius XM satellite radio has announced that it will dedicate Sirius channel 16 to three days of Woodstock recordings, coverage, and conversation.

In the meantime though, above is Jimi Hendrix at the 1969 festival wailing out a rendition of the star spangled banner on his guitar, the way only Hendrix could.

This Date in History

On July 24, 1965 Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" entered the top charts in 1965 and would endure as a classic anthem for decades to come.

This Date in History

The classic film Easy Rider Premieres in 1969.

A Piece of Woodstock is Coming to the Valley

Just discovered the other day that Michael Lang, one of the young architects behind Woodstock, which brought together a cornucopia of revolutionary rock and folk acts to the quaint rural upstate New York landscape as well as legions of young and idealistic, and sent forth a tremor of bemusement, joy, and wonder; will be swinging by the Valley.

He will be appearing at the Odyssey Book store in the center of South Hadley to speak about his latest book "The Road to Woodstock: The Man Behind the Legendary Festival", on Thursday July 23 at 7PM.

This Date in History- July 12

Today is the birthday of Cheech Marin, one half of the classic pot smoking screwball duo Cheech and Chong.

Mexican Americans from CheechAndChong

The Story Behind an Iconic Woodstock Photo

This coming August will mark four decades since the incredible event that captured the imagination of a generation and the amazement of everyone The Woodstock music and arts festival in Bethel New York.

The New York Daily News had a piece this week on Bobbi and Nick Ercoline, the two lovers standing wrapped in a blanket in the famous photo that appeared on the cover of the event's record album In it, they reveal their memories of the event, why they believe the photo was chosen and became such an iconic image, and what they are doing now.

Related Items: Also affixed to the orginal print version of the article, is a litany of websites, books, literature, dvds, films, and of course albums to soak up some of what Woodstock had to offer for three days in that sleepy New York town.

This Date in History

Actor Richard Roundtree (best known as "Shaft") born this date in 1942.

This Day in History

In 1940 Beatle's Drummer Ringo Starr was born.

EX- Secretary of Defense, Vietnam War Architect Robert S McNamara, Dead at Age 93

Ex- Secretary of Defense, Mind behind Vietnam War Robert McNamara (1916-2009).

Robert S McNamara, the man who served as the Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and was one of the staunchest early advocates of U.S millitary action in the Vietnam War, and was often compared to one of his equally sardonic and arrogant successors Donald H Rumsfield, has died at the age of 93.

McNamara became a lightning rod of critics for his conduct of the U.S involvement in Vietnam, and although the massive financial aid to the South Vietnamese had its origins in the later years of the Truman administration and the South Vietnamese economic system as well as the introduction of U.S advisors began during the Eisenhower administration; McNamara helped implement the policy of dramatically introducing 16,000 additional military advisors during the Kennedy administration and into the Johnson administration, where he advocated and helped design sustained air attacks and the introduction of U.S forces into the conflict.

Though one of its earliest and most stalwart proponents and the public face of the war, McNamara later had mounting doubts about the war.

MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - Robert S. McNamara, the cerebral secretary of defense who was vilified for prosecuting the Vietnam War, then devoted himself to helping the world's poorest nations, died Monday. He was 93.

McNamara died at 5:30 a.m. at his home, his wife, Diana, told The Associated Press. She said he had been in failing health for some time. His death was first reported Monday by the Washington Post.

For all his healing efforts, McNamara was fundamentally associated with the Vietnam War, "McNamara's war," the country's most disastrous foreign venture, the only American war to end in abject withdrawal rather than victory.

McNamara's tenure also saw a number of other foreign policy and military events during perhaps the most challenging and dangerous days of the Cold war era. He was Defense Secretary during the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion, helped guide the world through the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the point in which the possibility of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States was at its most highest point of danger, and saw the implementation in 1963 of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the first nuclear test ban treaty between the two cold war superpowers.

During the Johnson administration he headed the Pentagon when the Vietnam war and protest of it reached a fever pitch, saw the introduction of U.S Forces into the Dominican Republic, the capture and return of the USS Pueblo, and the 1967 Six Day War.

In 1968 he left his post after seven years, serving as one of the longest U.S Defense Secratary's in U.S History to become the President of the World Bank, a capacity in which he served through four administrations from 1968 until 1981, as he hearalded increased foreign aid to impoverished countries and in the 1980s championed a nuclear freeze.

Though he hesitated to come out and directly criticize the Bush/Cheney administration on the War in Iraq, he met with them twice and even hinted at his opposition at one point.

McNamara was one of the last surviving members of the Kennedy administration.

(Image from wiki media)

Related Items: If You want to see a dramatic account of the decisions made in the early years of the Vietnam War centering on those in the Johnson administration, chronicling their disasters rise and fall check out the 2002 HBO film "Path to War".

This Date in History: July 3

On this date in 1971, The Doors singer Jim Morrison was forever silenced when he died at the age of 27.

This Date in History: The Beatles

In what would become one of the hallmark anthems of that generation, the Beatles first perform thier new song "All You Need is Love" on television on this date in 1967.

No Direction Home

This cool comic book frame of Bob Dylan.

H/T: Where the Blog has No Name

On This Date

On June 16, 1967 the Monterey Pop Festival took place. Here is Jefferson Airplane performing at the event.

Belated Birthday

Just found out that yesterday was the birthday of the great bard and master of song Bob Dylan.