Seattle, Washington - For the Love of Coffee and Music

Though famous for its love of coffee, Seattle does not end on it alone. Seattle was named Emerald City with a rich culture which perfectly defines what it has become today. With an estimated population of 602,000 as of 2009, it had been ranked as one of the most literate cities with the highest percentage of college graduates in the State.

Seattle was settled by the Indian tribes: Duwamps and New York Alki. The city's present name was taken from the name of a chief of one of the two tribes, Sealth. Moving on to the timeline, Seattle has experienced sudden development and downfall a number of times. Their development was caused by the demand of their lumber industry and Klondike Gold Rush. These developments however preceded their downfall which included the Panic of 1893, a period of Depression and the World War.

With their rich culture and heritage, Seattle impressed the world with their performing arts. Among the famous ones include the Seattle Symphony Orchestra which existed for about a century. Other well acclaimed performing arts were the Seattle Opera, Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra and Pacific Northwest Ballet. The city also holds several festivals of chamber music arranged by the Seattle Chamber Music Society. Seattle's music society gave birth gave birth to what is known as the Seattle sound or popularly known as grunge which is a new genre classified under alternative rock. Seattle had been the home of outstanding artists around the world including Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana.

In accordance to their excellence in music, Seattle holds a series of festivals that showcase their talents. They have the Bumbershoot which exhibits their excellence in music and arts, Seattle Hemp fest which is attended annually by about a 100,000 people, and the must-see Bite of Seattle - a gay festival which is also one of the largest in the State. Seattle has a number of Museums and Galleries including Longhouse Museum, Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle Art Museum and Frye Art Museum which is for free. From these places, one will see bits and pieces of Seattle's history, and their excellence in the field of Arts.

You may also want to visit a list of famous landmarks found in Seattle. Some places on the list are the Space Needle, Columbia Center, Smith Tower, the first Starbucks and Seattle Central Library.

Seattle has well developed health and transportation systems consisting of a network of buses for the convenience of the people. They are now, however, trying to break away from automobiles and plan a shift to mass transit.

These facts prove that despite Seattle's downfalls, there are still evident periods of development that is clearly seen nowadays.

Woodstock Music and Arts Festival and the Baby Boomers

The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival was an event unlike anything else in the 20th century. Nearly 1/2 million young people gathered in upstate New York on a hot and rainy weekend in 1969 to watch one of the most impressive musical lineups in history. While what many people called a hippiefest, Woodstock was really both a cultural milestone and an end to an era.

In the late 60's the US was a divided nation...the Vietnam War had put people on two sides, pro war or anti war. We were called beatniks, bohemians, flower children, hippies etc, but whatever we were called, whatever we thought and however we felt, we were all driven by the beat of the music of the time.

Besides the 1/2 million people who converged on the site of Woodstock in Bethel, NY, countless others never made it past the 20 mile traffic gridlock leading to the site. Thousands just abandoned their cars and walked. Helicopters had to be rented to ferry the performers in. After the concert, Max Yasgur, who owned the site of the event, saw it as a victory of peace and love. He spoke of how nearly half a million people filled with possibilities of disaster, riot, looting, and catastrophe spent the three days with music and peace on their minds. Woodstock came at a time when the US was at a crossroad:True believers say it was the "capstone of an era devoted to human advancement." Cynics say it was a fitting and ridiculous end to an era of naiveté. Others say it was just a hell of a party. It was the Age of Aquarius and somehow, it all just fit. Woodstock has not been forgotten. In fact, it's one of the most enduring non Vietnam War related images of the sixties.

As part of the post war baby boom, we boomers now find ourselves in another incredible time, another crossroad. We are the largest group of people ever retiring within a space of just a few years. As the oldest of the boomers are just finding out, it isn't as easy as we thought it would be. The economy is awful and there is talk of cutting our Social Security and Medicare benefits when healthcare is so very expensive.

Legal issues of immense proportions also lay in the path to the golden years of old age. Trusts, wills, estates, guardianship issues, grandparent rights, etc. are all part of the legal maze we boomers must navigate to protect ourselves, our entitlements and our rights.

The Galway Arts Festival Is Ireland's Biggest Arts Showcase

Galway is a city on the west coast of Ireland and is well known throughout the world as being the venue for the Galway Races, a seven-day horse racing festival. And who hasn't heard the song 'Galway Bay' made famous by Bing Crosby?

But in recent years, Galway has appeared on the world stage as a centre of culture and the arts. This is largely because of the success of The Galway Arts Festival which is now a two-week event and is one of Ireland's biggest international festivals.

It was founded in 1978 and over its 33 years it has grown in size and reputation and now showcases many top international artists and Irish performers in music (popular, jazz, classical and traditional), theatre, visual arts, dance, comedy and much more. The Arts Festival has been instumental in putting Galway on the world map as a cultural centre of excellence.

Over the years, some of the famous artists who have featured at the festival include: Philip Glass, Primal Scream, Blondie, Joni Mitchell, The Kronos Quartet, David Hockney and The New York Dolls.

Theatre is a huge part of the festival and every year there are performances by many of the big Irish and International Theatre Companies. Macnas, which was founded in 1986, is a local theatre company which stages performances in the theatre but it has become famous for its street performances which can have up to 400 participants. The annual Macnas Parade at The Galway Arts Festival is a fabulous spectacle which celebrates fantasy, history and creativity on the streets. The local Druid Theatre Company has become a major force in the theatre world and has put on performances all over the world. The Abbey Theatre as well as many companies from abroad put on performances at the festival.

Dance is another major element of the festival and visiting international theatre and dance companies have included The Royal National Theatre, The Royal Court, Michael Clark Dance Company and Hofesh Shechter Dance Company.

In 2010 over 160,000 people attended events during the two weeks and a large proportion of these were visitors to Galway. Some of the highlights in 2010 were: Chekov's 'Uncle Vanya' performed by Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, 'Freefall' performed by The Corn Exchange Theatre, 'Political Mother' (Part dance show, part heavy-rock gig) by Hofesh Shechter Company, The Human League (Synth pop's first international superstars), Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, The Divine Comedy, Rodrigo Y Gabriela and of course the spectacular Macnas Parade.

The 2011 Galway Arts Festival is scheduled for 11th to 24th of July and, despite the country's economic difficulties, huge crowds are expected again. Pop icons of the 70s and 80s, 'Blondie' are due to make a reappearance, having already put on a dazzling performance there in 2008 with Debbie Harry singing some of her great hits including 'Heart of Glass' and 'Hanging on the Telephone'. Other acts scheduled for this year include Bell X1, an Irish rock band with a reputation as brilliant live performers. Another huge act due to perform is US hip hop legends De La Soul who will be joined by the jazz, funk and New Orleans sounds of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

The full programme for the Galway Arts Festival will be announced on May 26th but already it is looking like another great success. Intending visitors would be advised to book their accommodation as early as possible because all hotels and bed and breakfasts tend to be fully booked for those two weeks. Some visitors remain in the Galway area after the festival because the Galway Races, which is a seven-day event comes almost immediately after the Arts Festival.

40 Years Later Hair the Musical is on With the Hairy Revolution!

Los Angeles, CA, USA August 15, 2008. Amongst the protests of antiwar and economic uncertainty growing stronger with no end in site, I would like draw attention to artwork from the 1960's that has made an impact on my life. Remember the day glow posters and black lights? Remember the rock art from The Fillmore play bills we all saved? Remember the image from Hair the American Tribal Love Rock Musical? All these and more will always hang in my mind as remembrance of a time of innocence. Drugs, Sex and Rock and Roll were a part of most of the baby boomers lives when we were not afraid to get stoned and attend an antiwar peace protest. I will always remember protesting the Vietnam War in NYC and a blurry instance of running over the rocks and hills in Central Park when we were chased by police at a Schaefer Music Festival Concert in Central Park. We can all relive the experiences of going to Led Zeppelin, Edgar Winter, Johnny Winter, Black Sabbath, and Grand Funk Rail Road concerts...what a time we had....Quaaludes, Benzedrine, Tuinals, Seconals. Boones Farm anyone? Though the majority of of us are all clean and sober now...it is still fun to reminisce those great days.
The memories I have of the Hippie movement are resonating more today than ever with the revival of Hair the American Tribal Love Rock Musical free concert at Central Park's Delacorte Theater. The message is resonating more strongly with the youth and young adults of the world today than perhaps ever before. When asked recently about the resonance and resurgence of this iconic symbol on today's young adults, the plays legendary producer, Michael Butler, answered emphatically, "It isn't coming back, it never left, Hair's message is more relevant today than its ever been. Over 11 million people have seen the play, an estimated quarter of a billion have heard the music. It's in dozens of productions around the world as we speak. In fact, a third of all American actors have had some association with Hair. Its been a force for good for almost four decades."

The Age of Aquarius times of running around as free as a bird was a time in history when we lived in the moment without a worry in the world. Hair, the first ever rock opera, opened in 1968 and all of us would travel into the city form Long Island and New Jersey to participate in this communal offering giving us an insight into the decade of the flower children which we were all very much a part of. It shocked audiences for its lyrics and subject matter, as well as onstage nudity. The original script contains a nude scene, but it is not essential to the plot and individual productions may or may not choose to include it. The original script also contains some racist language which again, may be edited on today's stage.

As reported recently in "USA Today" the New York based trend forecasting think tank, The Trends Research Institute, found something unique in American history, a new generation looking back in time for inspiration... specifically, the 1960's.

"Hair" grew out of a new downtown ethos embraced by the radical - and charismatic - Joseph Papp, who in the mid-'60s was adding the Public Theater to his New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. After a brief run at a nightclub called Cheetah, the show was picked up by Michael Butler, heir to a Chicago paper fortune. He had it restaged by Tom O'Horgan, and readied for Broadway in 1968.

"As I look through my old posters, play bills, and concert flyers I've collected through the years I have such fond memories of growing up in the 60's. As a young girl living in Southern California life was quite enjoyable. Saving my allowance to buy the latest albums, going to concerts...it was all so exciting. One of my most happy memories is seeing the touring production of the musical Hair...and I still have the play booklet. Over the past few years I have been collecting Hair posters from all over the world, in different languages from different Tribes! The best poster in my collection is the reproduction of the original from the 1968 Broadway opening There is something mesmerizing about the aura photographed around the actors head. I love the colors of this art piece of which promote brotherly love and world peace.".....states Myrle Atchley from Mississippi.

There are many great 60's pop artists; I love Andy Warhol, John Van Hamersveld, Roy Lichtenstein, and Bob Massy. There is something really special about the work that Russoli and Rodriquez created for Hair. They were experimenting the aura technique in photography. When approached by Producer Michael Butler with the idea to create the marketing for the new play, he introduced them to Steve Curry, one of the original actors in the soon to open Broadway production of Hair. The play opened on April 29th at The Biltmore Theater in NYC and sold out every night and ran for 1,750 performances. I was 16 years old at West Hempstead High School when my girlfriend's mom took us into Manhattan to see the show.

Forty years later, I love the art hanging on my wall. Frame and hang and enjoy as art takes you through the memories and the journey of our lives.

Art imitates life and as we witness today's youth letting there hair down and getting that what we lived through in the sixties parallels with what is happening in the world today.

On with the Hairy revolution.