2010 June | Glenn Ward

Around the world in 80 Raves – Chapter 7 – Woodstock

We began the longest section of the trip so far and headed for Woodstock travelling through the night. The bus stopped around ten in the morning and we all got off to eat in a little silver stylish diner. The surrounding landscape had changed overnight, it had now become hilly and it looked a little more like woodland. I had a chicken burger to start of the day and then we sat outside and waited for the crew to finish doing what they needed to do then a quick stop at Walmart for some supplies and back on the bus on our way to a campsite for the evening. We arrived mid afternoon. There was a river nearby so we spent the afternoon paddling in little two man open canoes and we got to travel to the launch site in a bus just like the school bus on the Simpson’s which for me was more of a highlight than going paddling. Back at the site the owners had pitched some tents for us but we had no intention of sleeping in them as we would be travelling through the night again, but it looked good on camera. We had one on one interviews for the rest of the evening and took it in turn to do the barbeque. Once everyone had finished we met around the barbeque, got the guitars out and had a good sing along. Even though we didn’t actually camp it was a cosy experience all sitting around the campfire in the woods with other family groups around us but it had to end at 3:00am to get to Woodstock in time.

I slept most of the journey wondering what Woodstock would be like, obviously in the past it has been one of the most famous events in the world and we were all expecting to re live the Woodstock that everyone talks about. We got there around 4:00pm and made our way to the site, it was on a long straight road with fields either side as we got closer there were more and more tents and people and noticeably a lot more mud. We started to get kitted up for what we now expected. Joel being the genius he is gaffa-taped shopping bags to his feet. I put my old trousers on but although I only had one pair of shoes was not putting bags on my feet for anyone. Bill dropped us off near the entrance to the field. I was expecting it all to be the best festival I had ever been to with a huge atmosphere. Instead I got thousands of stoned hippies in a field that looked like it had been freshly ploughed with a barn in the middle that they were calling main stage. I felt a little conned but hey I’m at Woodstock and not many people can say they’ve been there, mind you if they saw it not many people would want to go there. It was a good laugh though, in the sense that there was a lot to laugh at. In between dodging the deep sections of mud we got talking to a few nutters and listened to a lovely tie die enrobed women with a banjo singing to the heavens how great god is and how the flowers make her feel really happy, which was lovely. And the bloke dancing in front of the stage well he looked like there was a force was trying to trip him up but he was having none of it, he would stay on his feet no matter what. Back at “main stage” Joel and Boppa was talking to the organisers about getting up and playing a few songs. Unfortunately not until tomorrow though which meant we would have to come back in the morning. We left sort of late afternoon, everyone was cold and wet and we had “Wild Wild West” on DVD back at the bus, which seemed to be calling our name. Although I am glad I experienced it, I probably wouldn’t be tempted to go back and as my trainers were covered in shit and I needed to walk around Manhatten tomorrow, When Joel and Boppa went to play there to songs I didn’t bother. I do feel a bit guilty though if I had have gone I would have doubled the amount of spectators at centre stage.

We left Woodstock around midday after the boys had fulfilled their life long dream and played in the barn at the shit-ridden field to an audience of one at Woodstock. We picked them up from the entrance where the annoying teenager had been waving on cars shouting go on, keep going for the past two days now. I don’t know whether he thought the drivers would forget to keep driving down the straight road if he wasn’t there but they seemed to be doing ok.

More 80 Raves
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter One – The proposal
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Two – Ready for the off!
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Three – Miami
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Four – Daytona Beach
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Five – Myrtle Beach
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Six – Atlanta
“Around the world in 80 Raves” Chapter Seven – Woodstock

The pitfalls of social media and online recruitment methods

I am running a pilot to monitor the success of new media approaches to recruitment while recruiting for my assistant. During the research process I came across a few findings that were worth a note.

The flip side to recruiting on the Internet, despite the fact that a particular platform does not represent a true overview of a countries demographic, but what does? is the simple fact that even those using conventional practices for recruitment for vetting. It makes a lot of sense! In the past you’d get references to discover whether your candidate has a good work ethic, is not going to create problems etc but social media is quicker and provides a more rounded summary as the candidate has not chosen the referee who speaks on their behalf and in many cases are more open with there posted information. The problem lies with the discarding of candidates for reasons you have discovered via these means, it might not necessarily be the HR department doing this but the individual departments conducting the interview process who are taking an unnecessary risk on behalf of the company. Fair enough if you discover someone is a drug taker, criminal etc but what if discover the candidate is planning a pregnancy, has an alternative sexual preference etc and they are discarded. If you have decided to do your online research then be sure the reason the candidate was discarded can be back up with valid reasoning and in many cases proof of this.