*warning long read, on drugs*
That sucks. It's really fucked up when people die at concerts/festivals. Bonanaroo and maybe coachella are probably the biggest festies today and or the biggest/most sucessful commercially of the modern age.
Woodstock of course was considered the greatest music festival in history, despite the fact there were multiple deaths, including some poor kid who was run over by a tractor while sleeping in his sleeping bag on the ground.
If you have seen any of the many documentaries on Woodstock (I love documentaries, I've seen a few) there's footage of people standing at the pay phones that had probably 100+ people in line at all times calling their friends telling them to come down there that it was free and no one needed a ticket, ultimately causing a lot of chaos and overwhelming amounts of people and traffic. It truly is the most extravagant musical festival in history.
Deaths/violence and anything that is negative and brings negative vibes to a concert of festival is truly unfortunate and goes against everything these events are held in the name. Peace, positivity, love, community, and just a place to love and appreciate life, maybe even have the best or one of the best times you've ever had in your life, or something you do annually that you look forward to like a kid looking forward to Christmas. There have been a lot of incidents at various festivals in the past 40-50 years, including rapes/violence/fires at the 1994 Woodstock that completely ruined Woodstock and why they never did another one.
The worst such incident I can think of is when The Rolling Stones held a free concert in California dubbed "the west coast woodstock", offically called Altamont.
Unlike Woodstock this concert was advertises as free from the get go whereas woodstock inevitably became "free" when an unimaginable amount of people showed up and converged on Max Yasger's farm and destroyed all fences etc. preventing people from entering without a ticket. In theory this could have been the greatest festival in history, better than woodstock. It was completely free and had The Rolling Stones headlining and many great performers, and given the fact that Woodstock already happened people knew what to expect or thought so and it could have had more influence over the culture than Woodstock, which is still as prestigious today or more than it was when it happened and even by people who might be "square" or not involved in the psychedelic "scene" they acknowledge the significance of as the greatest and most important possibly in the history of music. This could have been the ultimate way to end the ultimate decade, and ended up being regarded as the polar opposite.
This concert was completely free and they ended up getting The Hells Angels to work security there and a violent altercation broke out between members of The Hells Angels and a black audience member and he was beaten with pool cues and shot and murdered. This obviously went against everything the psychedelic way of thinking embraced and was completely shocking (especially for people who were tripping their socks off no doubt).
I have watched pretty much all the documentaries about psychedelics/the 60's, seen all the movies, read some of the books, and numerous times this festival/incident has literally been referred to as the end of the peace and love era. A complete devastation to the entire "revolution" and "movement" of the 60's.
If that single event had never happen and that event was considered sucessful like woodstock or better yet if it had taken it to the next level and was better than woodstock, it could have completely changed the course of the entire psychedelic scenes progression and the historical view of that era.
Woodstock is considered the peak of the 60's, like I said in many publications/documentaries/etc. this (it was in 1969) was considered by many to mark the end of the 60s and the "peace and love" era. Woodstock was one of a kind and no music festival before or after that has that kind of prestige about it. This event if things had gone differently could have had infinite potential to influence the culture and ultimately the world we inhabit today but instead was a tragic end to possibly the most legendary and mythical decade in the history of man kind.
It is truly tragic when people die because the very nature of these festivals is a celebration of life and anything negative happening that takes away from the positivity and good vibes circulating the festival. My thoughts go out to their families. I can't imagine the devastation the family and friends of those individuals must have suffered when finding out their loved one died at Bonnnaroo. Even though I never met these people I shed a single stream of tear from left eye, out of respect for what these festivals stand for and the tragic loss of bright young lives.
Good vibes to their soul I genuinely hope they are in a better place. Doug Stanhope (one of my favorite comedians) does a bit where he criticizes the fact that people who follow certain religions cry and mourn the deaths of their loved ones, when the chosen faith they follow dictates that if you lived your life in accordance to the laws and morality of your chosen religion, your soul will pass on to heaven when you die, and you are "in a better place" when you die. Stanhope's point is that if his friends and family also follow the same religion (which is most common with family) then in theory it would make sense to "celebrate" the death of someone or be happy for them and even throw a party, because that person is in heaven, a better place.
You don't get jealous at your co-workers or friend when they follow their dreams or get a better job or get married or move away, do you? If you genuinely care about someone then you want them to be happy, and you want the best for them. My interpretation of this Stanhope bit (I also saw it for the first time on a large dose of mushrooms so I was super analytical) is that hypothetically millions of people who subscribe to the various religions who's follower believe your soul moves on to a "better place" or heaven, maybe a place with 13 virgins, maybe on a white cloud at some pearly gates, whatever ones chosen faith may dictate as what they believe to be complete truth, they should be happy, even ecstatic that their loved ones have moved on to this place.
In alignment with this theory, funerals should be like going away parties and ultimately it is selfish to get upset at the loss of your loved ones (though understandable, especially if you were young and it was your parent(s) or if it was someone that died entirely too young) because aside from atheists and followers of religions who believe in reincarnation they should technically be happy for you because you are in a better place.
It's hard to lose someone you're close to because you obviously miss that person and in most instances you don't ever think your friends or family are going to die and when it happens out of nowhere it is obviously a devastating feeling and the shock of the unanticipated loss of a life can be completely shocking and depending on who it is and the role they played in your life (mother, father, best friend etc.) along with the loss of their company and being their to depend on it completely can throw off the dynamic of your own life, sometimes more severely then others.
Although this is completely understandable I was fascinated by Stanhope's bit (could have been the 4.5g of mushrooms) because even if you aren't completely dedicated to one type of religion you can still believe that your soul passes on to a better place when die.
For me personally who I was baptised Christian but never even went to CCD or had a first communion/confirmation and never went to church aside from funerals. Experiences I have had with psychedelics, mainly LSD, salvia, psilocybin, even 2C-E plus various psychs + N20 have truly given me a powerful inclination towards being optimistic about the awe inspiring infinite potential of life and existence and the reality that by definition of infinite itself.
Infinite as a concept, as a mathematical value, as a physical possibility, and the reality that is a possibility, which we are capable of understanding without actually understand at all, is paradox. Infinite defies the laws of mathematics and physics which are the governing laws of our existence and entire understanding of the universe which to me is sufficient evidence to genuinely believe that anything is possible and that it is more than likely higher forms of intelligence exist and that "souls" are real and there is more to "life" then just what you experience in the vehicle of your human body and from my lengthy (endless really) thoughts and ponderings and logical analysis on the likeliehood of an "afterlife" and various mystical and devine concepts is continuously reinforced to me and my personal instinct and logic by fact in that our known universe is infinite, while distance, mass of planets, stars, astroids, and everything in it is measured and governed mathematically and by their physical properties while existing in an all encompassing space that is the only thing we know that defies the laws of math and physics.
The fact that we exist in a completely paradoxical existence gives me great hope as someone who is not affiliated with any religion and harbors no concrete beliefs of what happens when you die, based on if you lived your life in according to the guideline of the different morals and rules that the various religions (which are all contradictory of each other) I take this knowledge as sufficient justification in being entirely optimistic about what lies beyond.
To wrap things up though, for those who wholeheartedly subscribe to these religions the Stanhope bit makes perfect sense, if they truly believed that to the point where they believe this to be fact, which most/all of them do (i.e people that interpreted the bible literally) death should be celebrated.
Find the special "No Refunds" by Doug Stanhope, its the perfect thought provoking comedy to watch on a psychedelic. I was actually having a bad trip on shrooms and usually i don't and just watch T.V when tripping (I was alone too) I went on on demand to find anything to watch (something comforting) and put that on and it seemed like serendipity and completely turned my trip around too, it was like fate guided me to that special on on demand, and up until then I had only seen Stanhope on The Man Show years ago, I didn't even know he was a comic.
In closing, R.I.P to the poor music fans who died at a place that's supposed to be a safe environment where you feel most alive and ideally at total peace. Not even just Bonnaroo but to all the fatalities from concerts and festivals over the years, I am going to end this post, light up a joint, and genuinely transmit good energy/vibes and take a moment of silence and genuinely hope these souls have carried on to a better place of indefinite divinity and flawless, unconditional harmony the likes of which our mortal minds can't even fathom.
--------------------
baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVZBTAYm3rw
Edited by PsilocybinMike (06/13/11 09:23 PM)
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