For the last stop of our summer road trip, we head to Rome, NY, where a retired Air Force base closed out the millennium by playing host to mosh pits, sexual assault, avoidable death, raw sewage, and fire. That’s right, campers, we’re talking about Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (HBO/Max, 2021). Pack some critical thinking along with your fresh water because questions about how quickly/easily true horrors can become normalized are vital to ask right now. On the main stage, we’re playing a few of the hits: the making and marketing of a collective, the consequences of ignoring systemic issues, the curation of blame, and the strategies of subsequent history-telling. On the second stage, there’ll be appearances including but not limited to: moral panics embedded in generational logic, gender scripts/expectations, machinations of social cohesion, and Merinda’s distaste for nu metal.
Links:
Gina Arnold, Half a Million Strong: Crowds in Power from Woodstock to Coachella https://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/half-million-strong
Demographics of Jan 6 attackers: https://www.shu.edu/news/a-demographic-and-legal-profile-of-january-6-prosecutions.html
Texas Death Breathes New Life Into Professional Wrestling by Colette Arrand
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Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.
Theme music produced with Udio.