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

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.