July 26, 1999

As you read this, crews are probably working overtime clearing up theshattered syringes, lost shoes and soiled adult diapers that are the remnantsof Woodstock `99. The second engineered echo of the original Woodstock is atlong last over--the original an overwhelming fury of history written in mud,the latest an excuse to sell some pay-per-view subscriptions and to get KurtLoder out of the city for a weekend.

Whatever its intentions, it was definitely an event, these 250,000kids gathered at an Air Force base in New York, if not a cataclysmic culturalone than at least living proof that we young people can reach out and touchour collective pop history every once in a while.

More than anything else this weekend, I was creeped out by John "MTVor infomercials, it's all the same to me, just get me a paycheck" Norris onSunday afternoon, describing Limp Bizkit's set of the night before as anevent tha! t could have become, and I quote, "Altamont `99." It's one thing totoss around cultural landmarks like so many New Orleans party beads; that'sthe kind of coverage one has come to expect from MTV. If nothing else, theyknow how to frame an event so that it seems like pop history is being made ona weekly basis, at everything from a Britney Spears concert to a MarilynManson party.

But to invoke one of pop music's most ugly scars, in the shadow of arekindling of one of its shining moments, was pretty disgusting. I could bewrong--I wasn't there--but I can't see how a crew of white-bread, suburbanitewannabe hip-hoppers getting hit with some trash can equal the Hell's Angelsbrutally stabbing Rolling Stones fans as Mick Jagger looked on with adetached horror. Big props to Norris for snatching the coveted Nasty MixedHistorical Metaphor Award for July.