What Possessed Me: May 2008

Friday, May 30, 2008

Dig on this, man

It was the usual Friday night fare. Dinner with Liz. Crank calling Liz's boyfriend. Arguing with an obnoxious and incompetent taxi driver. When we got home, I was ready to assume The Position (prone on the couch with my laptop) but Fauxhawk had other plans.

People, he made me watch a hippie video - a film of the Monterey Pop Music Festival of 1967, where Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, The Mamas and the Papas, and Janis Joplin (among others) kicked off the Summer of Love. Having already been forced to watch not one but two Woodstock concert DVDs and the making of The Who's "Who's Next" album, this seemed cruel and unusual. I like peace and love just as much as the next person, but I've seen more hairy armpits and doobed-out teenagers this week than is strictly necessary.

But then I saw something in the film that blew me away - a very brief clip that captured "action artist" Denny Dent painting a wall while Hendrix performed on stage.

Dig on this cat - watch him paint the vibrations, man! It's an odd kind of brilliance he has. And it's kind of groovy, if you ask me.

Photo from The Daily Mail.