Saturday, December 06, 2014

Altamont Free Concert 45th Anniversary - media coverage

Not a gargantuan flood of news media content on Altamont on its 45th anniversary, this weekend.  The news media pieces below range from moderately thoughtful to containing all-new outright falsehoods.  

I've come to expect dashed-off articles for various rock 'n' roll web sites - but the ones matching that description are not bad.

The most surprisingly, in not a good way, are 2 pieces from the BBC and from NPR.

It just shows top-notch media outlets need better content pertaining to Altamont. And also provides motivation for me to jam on my 2 forthcomings documentaries: "The Night Before Altamont" radio documentary, and Altamont 360° film documentary. 

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A couple of weeks ago, I pitched a 2-minute story on the night before Altamont to NPR's "Weekend All Things Considered."  The structure and some of the language in the piece that aired today, produced by Arun Rath, is the same as what I pitched to them.  However, although the NPR piece is diametric to my proposal and approach---a cartoon of rock/cultural history---inaccurate, uninspired, reductive, stale, and cynical. I was told if NPR did go with a piece from me it would need to be "perfect." I suppose theirs could be technically perfect, but....the title is misspelled. And one of the quotes attributed to Mick Jagger is...Keith Richards. In addition to producing my own work, I do hope in the future to be able to provide media outlets like NPR with better Altamont content.

Remembering Altamonte: The Rolling Stones Concert That Went Awry 


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Altamont at 45: The most dangerous rock concert
This piece is just not up to the Beeb's usual standards. It contains falsehoods, and reflects sloppy research. Hells Angels with lead hammers on the ends of pool cues?  There are so many flaws in this article if it were on paper I'd use it and some ammonia to clean my cat box.


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45 Years Ago: The Rolling Stones’ Altamont Speedway Concert Ends in Homicide


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8 Big Reasons the 1969 Altamont Festival was a Tragic Disaster


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