Woodstock

Fifty years ago, I convinced two friends to take a short drive with me to upstate New York to attend a rock concert. That rock concert was called "Woodstock" and the rest is history.

I took my Kodak Super 8 movie camera along for the ride and shot a roll of film. Actually, I only shot a half roll of film that weekend, but about six weeks later, I made the trip a second time and shot the rest of the roll.

After the film was developed, I cut and spliced the film to compare scenes of Woodstock during and six weeks after the event.

I recently digitized the film and uploaded it to YouTube where you can see for yourself what I saw at Yasgur's farm in 1969.

Enjoy!

My Favorite Space Cadets, 14 or 47 Years Later

Doctors Dave Bowman and Frank Poole

Surfin’: Post-Apocalyptic Hamming

This week, Surfin’ discovers ham radio in the post-apocalyptic world of Robot Monster.

Surfin’: The 500 Club

This week, Surfin’ considers the previous 499 installments of Surfin’.

Zombies at the Movies

My wife and I planned to watch a movie last night.

She wanted something amusing. Zombieland was the only comedy I had on DVD that we had not watched. So that is what I queued up on the DVD platter.

About five minutes into the film, I pushed the stop button. Although Zombieland is a comedy, there was more blood and gore in the first five minutes than I've seen in any film in a while.

I dislike blood and gore zombie films and my wife dislikes all blood and gore films, so we decided to watch a different Woody Harrelson film, The Messenger.

Woody received an Academy Award Best Actor nomination for his performance in this film. I had high expectations and I was not disappointed. The film was very good and Woody's work in the film was Oscar caliber.

On the other hand, my wife did not like the film because it was a "downer."

Getting back to zombie flicks. When I was a kid, I enjoyed them. They were dark and brooding and scared the living daylights out of me without resorting to the blood and gore so prevalent in the current zombie flick fare. I will watch Zombieland at another time, but the blood and gore will not be an attraction.

Surfin': My World Is a Radio

This week, Surfin' views the world through radio-colored glasses.

Go West East, OM, Day Five

I was up at 6 AM and on the road at 7 AM, which is about 2 hours later than my normal Dayton departure.

As I approached Columbus, I decided to take the southern route through Pennsylvania and avoid the construction delays I ran into on I-80 in Western Pennsylvania on Wednesday. In addition, it would be nice to see some new scenery for a change; not exactly new, I’ve been this way before, but it has probably been about 15 years since I did the southern route, so I was up for it.

I was a little surprised by the amount of the toll on the Pennsylvania Turnpike ($10.95 to get from the Pittsburgh suburbs to the I-81 exit near Harrisburg), but it was worth it because there were no construction delays.

On I-81 between Harrisburg and Hazleton, the interstate passes up close to a wind power “farm” and I was very impressed with the size of the windmills; they are huge! The scene of a dozen of these huge spinning beasts in the middle of a Pennsylvania forest reminded me of those Martian tripods lumbering through the Hudson Valley in the 2005 remake of War of the Worlds.

Coincidentally, a few minutes after recalling that scary scene, my sister, Gigi, phoned me to tell me about an episode of UFO Hunters that she had just finished watching! (Thanks, Sis, for keeping me company on the long ride home.)

I arrived home 12 hours and 20 minutes after leaving the Dayton Airport Hotel. APRS coverage was good, but seemed spottier on the Pennsylvania Turnpike vs. I-80.

Traffic was heavy in some spots and almost non-existent in other spots. My gas mileage for the 1600-mile roadtrip averaged 32 mile per gallon; not bad for an all-wheel-drive vehicle with 35,000 miles under its belt.

Every year, after I return home exhausted from the Hamvention roadtrip, I swear that I will never do it again, but time will tell.

Surfin': CQ, The Movie

This week, Surfin’ listens for the sound of “CQ” and other Morse coding in the movies.

Surfin': Getting Heathkit Manuals and Getting Smart

This week, Surfin’ looks for old Amateur Radio manuals online and finds a ham radio in a recent flick.