It was 40 years ago that young hippies watched the sun come up at the Woodstock music festival, an event that spread the message of love and peace, and defined the 1960s.

A new museum opened last year at the site to celebrate the memory of the old dairy farmer in Bethel, NY, Max Yasgur, who welcomed the concert-goers to his meadow, more than a million strong.

These videos help paint the picture of an anniversary mood forty years later. . .

The Historic Park Inn Hotel, along with City National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, will stand together forever, thanks to a group that has claimed victory in its efforts to begin restoration of the collapsing properties.

The Park Inn Hotel was the last of six Wright designed hotels left in the world, after the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was demolished in 1968. Once the $18 million restoration is complete and the building reopens to the public in early 2011, Wright enthusiasts will be able to stay overnight in any of the functional hotel’s 20 suites. The group, Wright on the Park, Inc., named because of the location across from central park, plans a complete renovation of the striking design, including restoration of the distinctive brick and terra-cotta façade as well as the art glass windows.

Read a feature story w/photo from the AP, at USA Today.

Photo from wrightonthepark.org 

Musician and inventor Les Paul, creator of the solid-body electric guitar and a giant in the pantheon of rock and roll, died yesterday at the age of 94. Musicians of all generations praise Les Paul, whose name and mark of innovation on a Gibson guitar will remain a coveted American icon.

He invented multi-track recording, overdubbing, and a range of guitar effects, like reverb, yet it was his innovative guitar playing style, included trills, chording sequences, and fretting techniques that also set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. “I only invented things because I couldn’t find them in a store.”

He used to say he could make anyone in the audience cry using only a few notes, and then he’d begin playing a slow, halting, lilting version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Watch this short documentary by Gibson Guitars honoring the man from Waukesha, Wisconsin (pronounced Wah-ke-shaw) on his 90th birthday. (If you only have time for 60 seconds play the great Coors commercial at the bottom of the page, where senior citizen Les Paul shows the young buck how it’s done.) Photo, above, from the Gibson guitars documentary.

Sesame Street is trying to foster a culture of understanding worldwide using Muppets to teach nonviolence in a Mideast version of the TV show called “Shara’a Simsim.” Sesame Workshop calls this effort “Muppet diplomacy.”

With some funding from the U.S. State Department and guidance from the U.S. producers, a team developed the Sesame program into something uniquely Palestinian, complete with live-action segments filmed in the West Bank and Gaza, a set that looks like a typical Palestinian street and Muppets named Haneen and Karim.

(Part of Christiane Amanpour’s Generation Islam — special reporting about Muslim youth in the Middle East)

Continue reading at CNN.com or watch the video below…