Photos by Barry Z Levine,Still Photographer on the Warner Bros. Academy Award winning Film, Woodstock), Written by Linanne Sackett, Foreword by Wavy Gravy

Photos by Barry Z Levine,Still Photographer on the Warner Bros. Academy Award winning Film, Woodstock), Written by Linanne Sackett, Foreword by Wavy Gravy

THE WOODSTOCK STORY eBOOK celebrates the 50th

Posted: May 3, 2019 at 11:05 am | Author: lsackett | File Under: Book, Uncategorized, Woodstock | Tags: , , | Comments Off on THE WOODSTOCK STORY eBOOK celebrates the 50th

Here we are, fifty years after Woodstock.  We’ve just published THE WOODSTOCK STORY eBOOK, a Woodstock 50th Collectible.   “The Woodstock Story eBook” brings the hard-cover coffee table book to life with hundreds of active links to the celebrities, their lives, stories and music.  Now you can be virtually there, to share this piece of American history and to preserve it with your own collectible copy.  It examines the spirit of Woodstock today, with first-hand observations by me as the Still Photographer on the Film “Woodstock.” The film, by Warner Bros. won an Academy Award® for “Best Documentary Film” in 1970 and later in 1996, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”   This collectible eBook, written by my wife, Linanne G. Sackett, is the most complete compendium for all those who attended Woodstock, for all who wish they could have been there, and for all who want to better understand the impact of the Woodstock Generation in today’s parallel world.   It’s being sold on Amazon.com, Apple iBooks and being distributed across the country and the world by PGW of Ingram.

Our coffee table hard cover version, the basis for the expanded ebook version, received rave reviews from many individuals and reviewers. “The authors have created an intimate time capsule… an incredible all-access pass to the music and art fair that came to be known solely as Woodstock…Because Woodstock is told through a collage of photos, song lyrics and rhyming text, it also has a homespun scrapbook vibe, which feels right for recounting a personal communal experience… the peace and love essence of Woodstock rings out loud and clear and like Sly and the Family Stone ‘taking them higher’ here the authors likewise reach for the sky.” -Kirkus Reviews

 

WE’VE BEEN ON A LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Posted: March 3, 2010 at 7:04 pm | Author: BEEZEEL | File Under: Uncategorized | Comments Off on WE’VE BEEN ON A LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Larry Johnson at Woodstock 1969Phew.  Hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since my last post.  We’ve been from Maine to California, with lots of stops in between on tour with the Heroes of Woodstock.  We’ve become friends with Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish, Harvey Mandel (aka, The Snake) of Canned Heat, Sam Andrews of Big Brother and The Holding Company, Sofia Ramos, who does the Janis Joplin parts, and many of the members of Ten Years After, Jefferson Starship, Canned Heat, Tom Constanza of the Grateful Dead, and Nancy Nevins of Sweetwater.  We’ve played dusty fields in Livermore, Me. and fancy halls like the Greek in LA and the Mountain Winery in Redwood City, Ca.

And tragically, at the end of January, we lost our dear friend, Larry LA Johnson, who was nominated for an Oscar for Sound on the Woodstock documentary and was responsible for me being on the crew of that fabulous film. Larry, who was Neil Young’s right hand man for nearly 40 years, suffered a massive heart attack at the Marina where he docked his boat just as he was about to drive Neil’s son to see a hockey game.  His death, mercifully, was instantaneous, and he died in the presence of two people to whom he was close.  The news came as a painful shock to me and to all of Larry’s many, many friends.  There was a joyful memorial service in San Mateo where there was nearly as much laughter as tears, a fitting tribute to Larry’s creative and eventful life.  We will all miss him terribly.

THE WOODSTOCK STORY eBOOK celebrates the 50th

Posted: April 15, 2009 at 9:02 am | Author: lsackett | File Under: Book, Uncategorized, Woodstock | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on THE WOODSTOCK STORY eBOOK celebrates the 50th

 

Here we are, fifty years after Woodstock.  We’ve just published THE WOODSTOCK STORY eBOOK, a Woodstock 50th Collectible.   “The Woodstock Story eBook” brings the hard-cover coffee table book to life with hundreds of active links to the celebrities, their lives, stories and music.  Now you can be virtually there, to share this piece of American history and to preserve it with your own collectible copy.  It examines the spirit of Woodstock today, with first-hand observations by me as the Still Photographer on the Film “Woodstock.” The film, by Warner Bros. won an Academy Award® for “Best Documentary Film” in 1970 and later in 1996, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”   This collectible eBook, written by my wife, Linanne G. Sackett, is the most complete compendium for all those who attended Woodstock, for all who wish they could have been there, and for all who want to better understand the impact of the Woodstock Generation in today’s parallel world.   It’s being sold on Amazon.com, Apple iBooks and being distributed across the country and the world by PGW of Ingram.

Our coffee table hard cover version, the basis for the expanded ebook version, received rave reviews from many individuals and reviewers. “The authors have created an intimate time capsule… an incredible all-access pass to the music and art fair that came to be known solely as Woodstock…Because Woodstock is told through a collage of photos, song lyrics and rhyming text, it also has a homespun scrapbook vibe, which feels right for recounting a personal communal experience… the peace and love essence of Woodstock rings out loud and clear and like Sly and the Family Stone ‘taking them higher’ here the authors likewise reach for the sky.” -Kirkus Reviews

PANAMA, FLORIDA, AND KIRKUS DISCOVERIES

Posted: March 7, 2009 at 7:39 pm | Author: lsackett | File Under: Travel | Tags: , | Comments Off on PANAMA, FLORIDA, AND KIRKUS DISCOVERIES

I headed to Panama in February, just in time for the pre-Lenten Mardi Gras, called Carnavale in Panama. Everyone said that the best Carnivale in Panama was in Las Tablas, a little town in the Azuero Peninsula, which about four hours southwest of Panama City. We arrived on the day Carnivale began, the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, to find the little town of Las Tablas overflowing with people, vendors, and water trucks. The big thing about Carnivale is to drink beer, watch the floats (mostly sponsored by politicians or cell phone companies) and get sprayed with water from water guns, or giant water cannons connected to 40,000 gallon tanker trucks. It isn’t that we weren’t good sports about it all, but the biggest thrill is being jetted with huge water cannons, soaking you to the skin, and practically not having a good tailor. While the tankers and their henchmen (mainly good natured boys and girls, just out to have fun) spray the crowd remorselessly, individuals, sporting personal water cannons worked us over. Luckily, we had the foresight to bring along a change of clothes in the parking lot in which we were packed, and after toweling off and changing, we were as good as new. If we only liked beer as much as the mostly teenaged crowd, we’d have had a fine time. As it was, I wanted to videotape, and had brought my canmera, but the only way to shoot video was in little snatches, with Linanne warning every time one of the four tankers around us, huddled in the town center, turned their water hoses in my direction. Even though I had wrapped the camera in a plastic bag, and clutched it tightly closed, it was miles away from all my other destinations and was all I could do to keep it dry. One slip up, and the camera would have been History. So after just a little more than an hour, it was off to Los Destiladeros and relaxing on our chaises on the porch overlooking the beach. Later for them was our matra, and thought one of our goals was too far home from a shjope.l

OUR FIRST BABY ARRIVED JUST FOUR MONTHS AFTER OUR MARRIAGE

Posted: February 25, 2009 at 7:26 am | Author: lsackett | File Under: Book, Woodstock | Tags: , , | Comments Off on OUR FIRST BABY ARRIVED JUST FOUR MONTHS AFTER OUR MARRIAGE

NOW, our newest baby is here!  The Woodstock Story Book was the product of Linanne’s fertile imagination and belief in me.  From the very first time she learned that I was the still photographer on the Academy Award winning film, Woodstock, and from the first time she laid eyes on my slides, she insisted that I had enough images, and a wide enough range of images, to do a book of my own.  In the beginning, I demurred, not believing enough in myself, but her constant encouragement, her sending my photos to be converted into high quality Tiffs, and her creation of our web site, Woodstock Witness.com, made me a believer.  Now, for the 50th she has updated the book with an expanded eBook version – THE WOODSTOCK STORY eBOOK.


And as of 1 February, our newest baby THE WOODSTOCK STORY eBOOK is also available for the world to see on Amazon.  Publishers Group West of Ingram is distributing both books across the nation and the world. So check it out, and order a copy or two for yourself, or as as gifts for  friends. We’ll even autograph the hard cover from our website – www.WoodstockWitness.com.  
Join in on OUR blog about those heady days of summer, amidst the run-up to the 50th anniversary of this great event.

Woodstock: Fifty Years After

Posted: February 14, 2009 at 9:32 am | Author: lsackett | File Under: Book, Woodstock | Tags: , , | Comments Off on Woodstock: Fifty Years After

Barry Z. LevineIt’s hard to believe that 50 years have passed since those days in August when 500,000 of us gathered in Max Yasgur’s field to celebrate our music, our bodies, our beliefs, and our lives.

Certainly much has changed for me.  Back then I was a bead-wearing, pot-smoking, long-haired hippie.  And now look!  What time hath wroth.

As this is written, I’ve published, along with my lover, a 154 page hard cover book, The Woodstock Story Book and recently the eBook version, The Woodstock Story eBook, an account in photographs and text of those wonderful days, and I invite you all to check them out on Amazon or at my website, www.WoodstockWitness.com.  It was clear to me, even as it was going on, that Woodstock was a special event, one that couldn’t be duplicated.  So my experiences were from the point of view of an on-stage photographer.  Those in the audience had a totally different point of view.  So let me know what you saw and felt.  And ask me any questions you might have.  I’ll do my best to answer all.