I had so much fun with that last book review I decided to do another one!

I just finished reading "Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life" by: Elliot Tiber with Tom Monte.
The book is about the life of the author Elliot Tiber, the man who played an important role in making the great Woodstock concert happen; this book is not just about the concert, it's about Elliots' journy in discovering who he is as a person, a tale of self-discovery and the risks we take to uncover who we are.
He starts the book off by displaying the life he led before the concert in all its' blemished glory, from his Russian-Jewish immigrant mother who walked through the snow from Minsk to New York with the Czars' warriors after her (a story she enjoys pulling out to guilt-trip her already cowed son) , his quiet father who worked every day of his life with little to no time to himself, and the El Monaco resort motel the three of them run.
The author also tells of his journy as a young gay man durring the late fifties and early sixties; in telling this we get a not very well known chapter of our nations' history, we learn about gay culture and how the Gay Liberation Front got its' start with the Stonewall Riot. It is durring this volital time in history Elliot must embrace this large part of who he is, or destroy himself if he can not.

Then comes the concert, and we learn of its' fabeled beginnings and the true story behind it.
Contrary to popular belief the concert Woodstock was not held in Woodstock New York; it was held in White Lake New York, and this sparked the outrage of many of the locals who didn't want thier town to be over-run with hippies, sexual deviants, and degenerates of all sorts.
Ignorance, bigotry, and the out-right challenging of the status-quo cause the towns-people to do all they can to stop the concert from coming, trying to take away their permits, splashing anti-Jew slogans on the walls of the motel, and threatening Elliot and his parents with out-right violence if they do not stop the concert. But as history proudly shows, peace and love won out over hate and fear.

This concert was truly a time of peace and love, yes, drugs and sex were involved in great quantity, but what is amazing to me is it was all done in the sprit of love. That feeling never leaves throughout the weeks leading up to the concert and at the concert itself; all the people are one and leave your anger and hate at the door because they are not wanted here. If you were straight, gay, bi, white, black, yellow, red, man, woman, or anything in between you were accepted; for that time you could be yourself and be loved unconditionaly for it, and isn't that what we all want out of life?
It's a time I wish I could have been a part of; a time when a great Change was happening throughout the nation if not the world. Back when being a hippie ment more than a fashion statement, back when people were serious about making change happen, when they did something about it and let their frustrations be known.
The Woodstock Nation was far more than it seemed; it proved that peace and love are possible if we all are willing to give it a try, and remember that we are all human at our core and that's what really matters. Leave the rest at the door because it's not wanted here.

I guess this stopped being a book review and more of a soap-box, but it was such a moving book; funny, sad, shocking, and eye-opening all at the same time, well worth a read. Even if you quell at the thought of reading about a gay mans' experiences in the sexual underground the whole of the story far out-weighs the startaling sexual admisions, with both the famous and non-famous of that time. The characters as well are fantastic to read about; the charismatic Mike Lang, headman for Woodstock Ventures who never seems to worry or get frazzled about anything, Elliots' raging immigrant mother, the many colorful hippies that make up the Woodstock Nation, and the fabulous Baroness Von Vilma, a six-foot two transvestite dominatrix, a sergeant under the General George Patton, *the* General Patton durring WWII.

Please read this book; it's a wonderful story and really proves that often truth is stranger than fiction and gives you a glimps into a moment in our countries history that is wrongly over-looked.