it's cool when things all come together. not like having your birthday fall on christmas/hanukah/president's day, but more like when your 7th grade english teacher assigns a 5-paragraph essay on the same book your neighbor gave you as a birthday/hanukah present the year before.
now we at the TCP have been doing this criterion thing for about 9 months and this summer just so happens to be the 40th anniversary of the summer of love, '67, the same summer of the monterey pop festival in rice-a-roni, cali. performers include the mamas and the papas, janis joplin, simon and garfunkel, jimi, and otis redding. a doc had been made for the 3-day music festival by d.a. pennebaker that is, wait for it, in the criterion collection. as clarissa would say, "way cool".
the mont pop fest is easily one of our most enjoyable viewing experiences. before watching it is helpful to know a few things:
- it was one of jimi hendix's first live performances in america, as well as the who's (who's'?)
- clive "endive" davis was in attendance and signed a young janis joplin immediately after
- the mamas and the papas were on their way out
- otis redding killed it
while watching, please notice how there is absolutely no corporate/brand presence.
at around 80 minutes or so, it's short, but it's rare when you can see firsthand the origins of cliches, and this concert gave birth to a good handful (e.g. the who violently smashing their instruments, jimi lighting his guitar on fire). worth a looksie.
