Mark's Big Painting for Woodstock '94

In 1993, the library had acquired a new thing, the internet, and, by the spring of 1994, droves of people were coming in to see what it meant and leaving somewhat confused and not at all convinced that it would make any difference at all in their lives. It was thrilling to run a listserv (a very early social network) about Woodstock, and we were hearing from people all over the world who intended to come to the Saugerties festival.  The festival itself was to feature a sort of internet café.  The whole idea was new to most people with the exception of people associated with colleges and universities.  I had email, but my only contact outside of library colleagues was a High School friend and physicist, Rudi Thun, who was at the University of Michigan. 

Mark, who was still very annoyed at the trade marking of the words “Woodstock Festival”,   made a bulletin board display of the many booklets from Woodstock’s past that had the words “Woodstock Festival” clearly in the title, and he composed a time line of the history of festivals in Woodstock.  Next, he created a block print of a dove behind bars, and began his own limited poster campaign that, for the most part, involved leaving many copies in the library.  Soon, Bill, a local tee-shirt entrepreneur and friend to Mark, took the imprisoned dove image and put it on a shirt.  Bill also made bumper stickers of Mark’s semi-provocative sign, “Woodstock Walk to Saugerties Festival” which resulted in a visit by the State Police to check to see if Mark was planning some sort of political action. 

Suddenly, Mark was arrested for taking his bumper stickers out of a local store.  He protested that he had not given permission for them to be sold, so the owners, new to Woodstock, had him arrested.  Bill bailed him out and convinced him to stay a while at his house on Overlook Mountain to cool out for a few days.  When Mark reappeared, he had clean clothes, washed hair, and a new idea.  He had been invited to submit an artwork to the festival, and he had big plans.  He would paint a 20 foot high youthful Buddha with a guitar on his back.  It would be a contemporary design but following all the rest of the color traditions required.

I did not see Mark for days.  When he disappeared, I got worried and went to check his house.  Papers with a detailed design of his Buddha project surrounded him.  (He studied engineering before going to law school, so the design was quite exact.), and on the lawn were four sheets of plywood.  The trouble was he needed help, so Mark Wetterau stepped in with his construction knowledge and tools, and together, they created a structure that could be easily disassembled and moved.  I added a very tall wooden ladder, and the project was launched. 

My brother, Norman, and I stopped by to see how the project was going. Mark was having his own festival on his lawn on Old Forge Road. More exactly, he was balanced precariously on the top of a tall ladder painting while people watched, commented, brought soda and pizza, sat in the grass and enjoyed the scene.  Congo Ritchie brought his drum, and his companion Maxine contributed some paint.  Everyone seemed mesmerized by the unique sight:  Mark on top of a huge ladder painting a twenty foot high, guitar toting Buddha, people sitting in the uncut grass of the little lawn.

Mark was also asking people what they thought the meaning of “Woodstock” might be.  He asked Congo Ritchie his thoughts on the ideal art colony.  Congo said that it would consist of a drum circle around a campfire similar to the events in the Magic Meadow.  The circle would be only men.  Women would have a role in providing cigarettes and beer to the circle of men.  Mark listened to Congo with great respect asking questions and nodding at the answers.

I did not attend the festival.  I don’t like crowds.  Mark told me he managed to go in the festival area a couple of times during the weekend just to check on his work.  It had been placed inside the grounds near stage number 2.  When the event was over, people walked off with a good deal of the art projects.  The Buddha’s head was stolen, but Mark told me it had eventually been returned.  I do not know who ended up with the work. 

When the video of Woodstock ’94 came out, Mark scrutinized the screen for about two hours and finally located a picture of his Buddha.  Placing the videotape on pause, we could see that it had stood unharmed and uncrushed during the general mayhem, rainy weather and mash of humanity. 

The 1969 Festival anniversary is still celebrated by some although the memory of that event as a world-changer is fading.  Now, Woodstock has moved south near the original Yasgar’s Farm, and it is a pleasant music venue with a museum devoted to hippie baby boomers and their youthful styles and hopeful politics.  Woodstock, New York, is still secure in the feeling that it reflects the magic of the hippie era.   On Sundays, a drum circle absent Congo Ritchie and Maxine both of whom passed on some years ago, takes place on the Green and is enjoyed by many.

                                    

Why Don't They Just...

Why Don’t They Just ……………………?

Suggestions for library improvement have been flooding the local paper.  For the most part, these are not new ideas.   Past boards have considered the possibilities for the past decade. 

The idea of revising the appended garage and fair barn is not new but has issues.   A public building is required to solve problems of floor level, fire walls, sprinkler systems, and heating.  There are rules about firewalls and sprinkler systems.  I believe a firewall is required when adding a new structure to an old one.     The difference in floor elevation would have to be solved in order to be accessible. 

Heating is a problem right now.  During my time as Director, we had to replace the furnace twice.  The furnace is up on stilts because it is constantly threatened by water.  I mentioned the ‘60’s renovation cut a basement that intersected an underground stream.  Without constant pumping, there would be about a foot of water in the basement at all times. The stream in the basement problem is very complex.  I am fairly sure there is no easy fix to it.

  

Duct work was cut into the slab that forms the floor of the 1980’s addition, but the architects of the proposed 2009 addition added a utility room. I am sure a revision of the two buildings would require an entirely new take on heating.

Providing staff for rooms that just continue in a straight line is even more problematic than monitoring a separate building that can be closed when not in use.  It would create a librarians’ nightmare.

“Fixing” the present building, especially when it comes to roof modification would require tearing down and re-building.  The nice view of the roof from ground level is purely cosmetic. 

Any good library is a destination within a community.  It fits the definition of “A Great Good Place.” [i] Our library is that place.  Unless it is to attend a scheduled meeting, how many people say “I think I will drop in at the Mescal Hornbeck Community Center while I am in town.”?  Some might say they drop in at the Fire House, but they are members.  Do you plan to drop in at the town clerk's office unless you are going to witness a meeting or pay your taxes?  How many tourists drop by the police station to use the Wi-Fi during their visit to town?

I hope the library board will create a new library space.  Don’t give up.  Community members who think the library board is secretive should be ashamed of their oddly entitled attitude.  Citizens can keep track of things and go to the meetings. Meetings are announced.  When I wanted to understand the Fire Department, I actually went to their budget hearing.  Have you gone to the budget hearings of the Fire Department or library?

---

[i] From Wikipedia:  The third place (also known as third space) is a term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. In his influential book The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place.

Oldenburg calls one's "first place" the home and those that one lives with. The "second place" is the workplace — where people may actually spend most of their time. Third places, then, are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction. All societies already have informal meeting places; what is new in modern times is the intentionality of seeking them out as vital to current societal needs. Oldenburg suggests the following hallmarks of a true "third place":

• Free or inexpensive
• Food and drink, while not essential, are important
• Highly accessible: proximate for many (walking distance)
• Involve regulars – those who habitually congregate there
• Welcoming and comfortable
• Both new friends and old should be found there.

The Woodstock Library. 101 Years Of Community Service.

Hooray!  It is the hundred and second birthday of the Woodstock Library.  This time, let’s see an exhibit of the History of Library Service rather than a bunch of pictures of the library building through the years.  The building alone does not make the library a community treasure.  It is probable that people either love or hate their library depending on the helpful and welcoming nature of the whole library environment. The value of the proposed annex might make more sense in light of the changing nature of library service.  Today’s library is a community destination and gathering point.  No other public building serves this need.  A new building or annex of either modern or traditional design will be equally treasured.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the 5 Library Lane location, and our building has been a brave girl.  However, there is very little of the original building left:  only the librarian’s office in the front.  Everything else has been torn down and re-built.  It is not as “historic” as some think.  The part from the ‘50’s is cement block.  The part from the 60’s is over a basement that managed to cut into an underground stream.  The part from the 80’s, that was built when I was Director, sports not just a flat roof, but a concave roof that is like a swimming pool after even a moderate rainfall.  These additions were built by local firms and designed by local architects.  The 80’s addition went through the whole town process.  With the best of intention, the designs were supposed to work for a library not a residence.  The earlier developments, I remember from my childhood and youth in Woodstock.  The later part, I experienced as a staff member and Director. 

When I was Director, a good deal of time was spent on maintaining the building.  In younger days, staff members have been on the roof to unstop gutters, in the basement wading through water to check the pumps, and called on at any time of the day to investigate alarms.  We have faced an infestation of raccoons, and at least two intruders. 

Before becoming very sentimental about the cute little library of the past, consider the way it really ran.  If you were a newcomer in the 70’s, you would have been greeted by a library with very restrictive policies.   It might interest you to know that prior to 1981; it was difficult to get a library card. Two local references and ID with your local address were demanded.  Even if you owned a house here, without the references and ID, only a temporary card with a fee would have been available.  You could not borrow the more expensive art books unless you had special permission from a trustee.  Forget getting a card at all if you lived at 5 Rock City Road.  That was considered a temporary place, so you could not borrow books.  No cards were given to children.  Fiction was considered frivolous, and unless you were some sort of Henry James scholar and could prove it, you could not interlibrary loan fiction.  All children’s programs were held outside of regular library hours so that the serious readers would not be disturbed. 

The biggest challenge for Library Directors is attempting to understand what is coming at you in the future.  Assistant Director, Judy Fischetti, and I were both professional librarians, and we appreciated and welcomed the changes that came our way during the three decades we worked at the library.

 In our case, it was automation and population change.  The population of Woodstock almost doubled, and most of the people were young and college educated.  They had expectations of their library.  Our Board was progressive, and ready to embrace new ideas and create new policies.  We were early to offer internet access and online access to our collection.  Also, we doubled our children’s services.  

The building was another story.  We struggled to make things work.  We did it with modest and even freebie furniture, extension cords and a very cordial and accommodating staff.  We had horrible shelving and many leaks in the roof (although none as bad as the one Amy faced a couple of years ago).  In spite of the shortcomings of the building, we added more children’s programs, as many computers as possible, Wi-Fi when it became available, and always a terrific selection of books.  In 1987, we added some space.  It was immediately put to good use as seating space for readers, program space, and meeting space for the community. We believed that “…the pursuit of happiness” as embodied in library service continued to be an important part of American life.

However, Woodstock voters absolutely crushed our excellent plans for a needed new library.  Then, to top it off, there was a campaign to vote down our budget.  It was a mean campaign filled with untruth and distortion.  It was Woodstock’s “mean with a high IQ” politics at its best.  It resulted in a yearlong gap in book purchases, and a residual horror of finger pointing and recriminations called “focus groups”.  I retired and have turned my attention to other things, but I am bothered by that familiar slithering chain of distortion and complaint I see in the Woodstock Times.  Remain calm, fellow citizens, and, above all, don’t harm your beautiful library service.

Mark's First Website

            My Yahoo email address is a constant reminder of Mark.  It is the “.geo” at the end of my name that is the link to the past.  It refers back to GeoCities, an early free website.[i]  Websites, “surfing the net”, and staring at a computer screen for hours were all relatively new experiences in 1995. 

            It had been a cold winter, and Mark sat in my office at the little color Mac for hours.  Browsers were a relatively new thing.  Internet Explorer made much more sense to the average person than had Gophers[ii] or even Mosaic[iii].  Mark would sit and click looking for law databases and coming across many other new and unique things such as GeoCities. 

            We both built websites.  Mine was a long rambling text proving the word “Woodstock” had taken on a specific meaning in the English language.  It was replete with citations from newspapers and magazines illustrating my point.  Mark’s was an exercise in HTML (hypertext markup language).  He enjoyed turning his letters into blinking colors, and adding clouds and other features such as links to the Supreme Court.  The actual message on his website was a warning that the site was protected under copyright law.  There was really no other content, but Mark was giving it some thought. 

            He was not neurotypical and could turn his laser mind to one idea.  For a while, it was his quest to discover what one sound when added to a website would gain worldwide attention.  Mp3 files were not common in 1995, but the little Mac was capable of recording and placing sound on the web.  Mark concentrated on this idea for days, asking my opinion over and over while waving his index finger in a circular motion towards the ceiling.

            He first spoke of Schma. [iv] Was I, he wondered, aware of Schma?  I admitted my awareness was sort of limited to the Michener novel The Source[v], and vague references to Hebrew School made by my Jewish ex-husband.  It could be chantable, but Mark thought that idea totally beside the point.  He was searching for the one important sound. Suggesting his favorite mantra[vi] was also not relevant as the implication was obvious.  “Om” was not the sound for which he searched. 

            Finally, as my patience started to fade, I said overall it was my opinion vowels had it above consonants as pure sound.  “Ahhh” was better than “llll”.  “Lah” was nice.  Mark burst into gales of laughter as though I had told him the best joke in the universe.  His laughter was contagious, and I joined in although the exact humor involved escaped me.  In retrospect, it was hearing his laughter that was good.  This jovial episode was the end of our conversation on sound, and we did not speak of it again.

            My endnotes come from Wikipedia, for the most part.  They are there to provide some context in time.

---

[i] David Bohnett and John Rezner originally founded GeoCities in late 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet (BHI). In its original form, site users selected a "city" in which to place their web pages. The "cities" were named after real cities or regions according to their content — for example, computer-related sites were placed in "SiliconValley" and those dealing with entertainment were assigned to "Hollywood" — hence the name of the site.

Ten years after Yahoo! bought GeoCities, the company announced that it would shut down the United States GeoCities service on October 26, 2009, and GeoCities websites actually became unavailable the next day. There were at least 38 million user-built pages on GeoCities before it was shut down. The GeoCities Japan version of the service is still available.

[ii] A system that pre-dates the World Wide Web for organizing and displaying files on Internet servers. A Gopher server presents its contents as a hierarchically structured list of files. With the ascendance of the Web, many gopher databases were converted to Web sites which can be more easily accessed via Web search engines.

Gopher was developed at the University of Minnesota and named after the school's mascot. Two systems, Veronica and Jughead, let you search global indices of resources stored in Gopher systems.

[iii] Mosaic was the first widely distributed graphical browser or viewer for the World Wide Web. It is usually considered to have been the software that introduced the World Wide Web and the Internet to a wide general audience. Once Mosaic was available, the Web virtually exploded in numbers of users and content sites. The success of Mosaic depended on the recent invention and adoption of Hypertext Transfer Protocol by Tim Berners-Lee.

Mosaic arrived in 1993. Marc Andreessen, then in his early 20s, is credited with inventing or leading the development of Mosaic. He developed it at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. Andreessen and others went on to become part of Netscape Communications, originally called Mosaic Communications. Netscape then produced what was, for a while, the world's most popular browser, Netscape Navigator.

[iv] Transliteration:  Sh’ma yis-ra-eil, A-do-nai E-lo-hei-nu, A-do-nai E-chad

[v] The Source is a historical novel by James A. Michener, first published in 1965. It is a survey of the history of the Jewish people and the land of Israel from pre-monotheistic days to the birth of the modern State of Israel. The Source uses for its central device a fictional tell in northern Israel called "Makor" (Hebrew: "source"?).

[vi] OM MANI PADME HUM