Sierra Nevada World Music Festival @ Boonville

[Drunk Monk]

I left home around 10:30PM and rolled in around 1:30AM to find two of our stalwart nite krew as the only ones still awake and eager to help me set up my tent in the dark. They changed the layout of the venue, eliminating a camping area we called the back 40, which made things much more crowded. Staff was supposed to park at a nearby high school and get shuttled in, but we did a little work around, so I could make an easy escape.

It was delightfully mellow this year so I'm just going to talk about food and music.

We ate astoundingly well. Jah Med's director just came back from AK with a fresh scallops and halibut for appetizers and fish tacos. We have two vols from the culinary academy to set us up. SNWMF provides decent hippie fare, fresh fruit parfait (cuz everybody luv parfait) and bagels with some odd hippie schmear for breaky, lunch was veg sammiches (some had to run out to get turkey to add) and dinner was stuff on rice (some sort of bean salsa one night and some sort of curry the next night). There was a ton of food. I probably gained a few pounds.

Friday flew by and I barely engaged any of the music. I wanted to catch Femi Kuti, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The dancehall was good and we went until 4 AM or so.

Saturday, I was more targeted. I was eager to see Michigan & Smiley, my 1st dancehall duo. I got into them just as they were fading, but had seen them a few times over the years and they were still interesting. This time, they were reduced to back up chorus singers as some young guys, dressed as rasta cub scouts, took the leads. That was weird. I totally missed my ol' favs the Abbyssinians because I got stuck in a CPR recert that was supposed to only be an hour and went for 2 and 1/2 hours. Caught a little of the Heptones and they were cool, somewhat nostalgic. I was eager again for Sly & Robbie, but they didn't really move me - they need a good front person and they didn't quite have it. Then Michael Rose, of whom I'm a huge fan. He hadn't been through in seven years. But he didn't grab me either and I found myself bailing out of his set about halfway through to get to Stone Love in the dancehall. SL always satisfies and they dropped a new Jr. Gong track near the end of their set, which was around 2 AM.

I went to sleep at that point. I had a long drive home to get back for Dad day.

All in all, a very enjoyable show, but more for the company of Jah Med and the adventure of it all.

[Drunk Monk]

Another grand weekend. It was so mellow that I didn't even have to break into my gloves. Brother LB was there too, along with Lady LB, so there was plenty of mischief afoot.

There were five acts that I really really wanted to see. Here's some short reviews:

Skatalites: Wikipedia said that 3 of the original 11 were still with it, including their double bass player Lloyd Brenett. It's all about Lloyd for me. Unfortunately, wiki lied again. There's only two and the new bass player does regular electric bass. So this was very disappointing.

David Rodigan: Master selector DJ threw down. A lot of people complained that it was too much like a history lesson, too many pull-ups and stops, but as DM is a student of reggae history, he loved it. "Don't forget your history. Know your destiny" ~Marley

Albarosie: DM got into his sound a few years back and has been eager to see him. Dm almost bought tickets for his first U.S. tour a few months ago. It was rather disappointing. He was good, but unable to capture the hardness of his first CD.

Fat Freddy's Drop: A dub horn band from NZ. Quite good and the headliner, although it was unseasonably chilly and people were tired, and needed something peppier, not stonier, including Dm. But still, they were very good and Lady LB loved them.

Stone Love: JA's finest soundsystem threw down too. Towards the end, it was all about Jr. Gong, classics and the new Naz collab. Wee Pow spun some new Jr. Gong track, but he sped it up so it sounded like a dancehall jackhammer so all that could be heard was the melody and the lyrics were completely unintelligible (a typical dancehall spin).

Here's some random nonsense notes, just for color - I might decode these later, I might not:
vendor refugees ~ fancy snuggling ~ tidepool delicacies ~ "Only 4 hours on site and I already have to change my pants!" ~ abalone and hard boiled eggs ~ sissy rap/sissy nobby ~ N20 enemas ~ That rope dart tinfoil umbrella spills light like a ladle onto DMs tent

Hopefully LB will chime in on this, but it's highly possible he has no memories of the event beyond waking up sore and sticky. :twisted:

[Drunk Monk]

...it preserves my memories like crib notes which I can review just prior to the next show. That way, it looks like I have some sort of functioning memory banks.

I leave for Boonville again tomorrow. I'll report back sometime next week. Wish me luck.

[Haggis Killer]

Ok.... Good luck!

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

What HK said! mt117 mt119 mt110 mt100 mt091 mt075 mt044 mt034 mt035 mt026 mt030 mt033 :vom: hock: :roll: :x :oops:

[Drunk Monk]

all in all, a good show. give me a few days to piece it back together and i'll have some manner of doom report...

[Drunk Monk]

Dm survived yet another one, this time completely unscathed (unless you count the naggingly sore, raw, torn-up, used & abused, burnt, shredded organ that used to be dm's windpipe, but dm has no one to blame but himself for that). Let's see, rewinding to the very beginning, on Thurs, dm got up late, packed haphazardly, bid his family adieu, deposited his paycheck, got gas, dropped $80 on liquor (guinness foreign export, mcewans red ale, smithwicks - which form red, green & gold labels, coincidentally, and some 13-year balvanie double cask). The ride up was gorgeous - never seen it so green. There was a glorious array of wild flowers all the way up. Despite warnings of the 3 o-clock roadblock, dm wound up tailgaiting truck and tourist, headed up to boonville, and never even got the open opportunity to speed into a speedtrap. In fact, it was an exercise in patience. Dm arrived in good time (1:30) and set up very close to his spot last year, in the junkyard affectionately called 'yaard' (yaard is a JA slang for kingston's poorest section, the tenement yard, which is a sprawling slum of corrugated steel shacks and driftwood, built in an old sewage channel - to be from 'yard' is major street cred for JAcans). There was a cut-up tree in his old spot, so he parked it right next door between an auto chassis propped up on oil drums, a refrigerator corpse, a tarped display of vintage chainsaws (sadly bolted down) and the ass-end of a huge trailer. As soon as dm was settled, it began, the constant assault on his lungs and liver. It was moving from one mmomment from another, refreshing the brewski in between, after all, all that was to be done was to assist the rest of the crew in coming in, a task dm could tackle quite heavily under the influence. the mmed movement has spawned greatness at reggae shows - out of control mmmadness actually, and for a mmedaddict like dm, it's like mmmecca. dm was dressed with a black-collared shirt and cap, which gave him a very official, almost cop-like appearance with the bald head, which freaked out several jahmedders. one young jm responder was shouting 'it's not right, it's not right!' the weather was perfect - sunny, yet a cool breeze, so hot enough to reduce nachette fashion to skimpiness, but not hot enough to make one crave shade and water. dm didn't stay up too late on that first night, although truth be told, he doesn't quite remember how late that was. dm had packed poorly, not much food, not the right clothes, but a fair amount of cash as he had just been to the bank, but being on a budget, dm hoped not to spend anything. he only bought a tara magnet for t and a heart-shaped chunk of himalaya salt (for baths) for s, but that was it. at first, he was scrounging for vittles having only brought some leftover vegan carrot cake (which was about to be tossed out because it wasn't very good) and a granola bar t gave him that was given to her at the gymno pool party for no rational reason whatsoever. but then the onslaught came. food, Food, FOOD. jm treats it's vols really nicely with lots of food and snacks, even two vols from the culinary academy to prepare more food. that, on top of the copious beer (one guy brought his own keg of homemade ale, which was delicious, dubbed jah med ale 2011, and drunk completely by fri) and the copious mmed, it was another weekend of gluttony for dm, so much so that dm is still hungry because he stretched the walls of his stomach to accommodate more than usual. eat, drink, smmoke, stroll, repeat. there really weren't any psych calls, so dm just indulged in the gluttony. strangely, dm didn't really engage the music or the vendors. constant taste tests and samplings of mmeds of all kinds, bud, hash, oil, tinctures - dm even tried his first salve which didn't have much of a notable effect given the mmmass gluttony. dm left his notes at home so he can't really remmmemmmber much more from fri, except having a crimminal ammount of fun. a whiskey duel with the doc was a draw. dm's 12 year balvanie was smooth as butterscotch. the doc's 12 year peat monster (that was the title) was bitingly good, robust and a sharp contrast. a good duel for sure. on the extreme negative, a major portion of Yaard was given over to a band - rebelution - which sucked. the band was young, pop reggae (bubblegum reggae one jm vol called it). dm actually had backstage passes and watched them until he could stand no more. once the spliff was finished, the crew moved on to find something better to do. they turned yaard into a frat house. there were two beer pong tables, speakers, lots of groupies, another keg (they kept inviting dm to drink with them, but it just wasn't his scene). it was dreadfully annoying. at 4:20 am, LBso was serving up pancakes at that vendor's booth to a dozen of us nitekrew. for some reason, she decided dm's pancakes should be breast shaped, but that totally failed with her attempt to make batter nipples. nevertheless the thought was surely appreciated. after that, dm went back to medical for a call - a bad cut, possibly severed tendon, and the sugar crash had dm nodding out in his chair until several people said 'go to bed' which he did. all in all, dm was in an odd mood for the show - somewhat reflective about it all and what it means in the grand picture of dm's life. In dm's notes on SNWMF there was mention of 'Skrotalak' which is to be the name of a villain in some upcoming work. It was actually something LBsol said about scrotal lac(erations) when she was in PA gross out mode. That's wincing for ya. She told dm another story about having to remove a splinter from a young girl's clitoral hood that... One missed note: on Thur, dm had a checklist of the psych krew arrival times so he could aid and abet (assist) the incoming and knowing the inundation of mmeds, a checklist is handier than trying to constantly access mmmemory banks. Upon dm's 3rd of 4th check, he noticed the checklist was stained by mmed oil, rubbed off of a cookie he didn't quite finish and that struck him as really funny at the time - more evidence of the mmmad scene emmerald triangle reggae can be. Anyway, there weren't too many calls for psych. There was one psycho issue, but it was more of a police thing as the perp was intoxicated and decided to drive off and then return in his rv so when the cops had him, it was a dui. Not much psych could do - he wasn't really high anyway. he was just an ass. There was also this drunk chick that broke her ankle. she left the venue, had surgery where a plate and half a dozen pins were inserted in her ankle, then returned to the show. now, what kind of fool comes back to a show after that? it was absurd, a blatant cry for attention playing that sympathy card, which was completely absurd. Other than that, it was a grand time ... too short really, but too long in a way too.

I'm getting a little burnt out on the scene, mostly because despite all the fun, i wasn't moved by the music or particularly inspired by anything. It was great to see JM friends and hang out - that part was too short - but my take on the scene has been about seeking that muse, the quest for the holy muse. I'm getting more from my training now and feeling my connection to RM/JM fading a bit...I'm still committed to both causes, but not as committed as before. Again, I feel I have less stake in it all.

[Drunk Monk]

mmed = medical :weedman:

[Drunk Monk]

I leave in a few hours.

The story so far (more for my benefit than yours, faulty mmemory and all):
06: The skillet and the cast iron stove
07: Cutter/biter
08: The wildfires, the stabbing, the krew feud and the meningitus. In retrospect, I didn't really describe how insane that got.
09: Delightfully mellow
10: Another Grand Weekend
11: Gluttonous

I'm upping the ante and bringing my family, plus a school friend of T's. You just got to wonder what kind of parents would send their daughter with DM to a music festival, but actually, this has happened several times before. We took T's friends to Furthur, Harmony and Gaia. FWIW, Dm gave a two-session talk on drugs for T's 7th grade class a few weeks ago. It went really well and T's class now thinks Dm is the coolest dad ever. The teacher was very impressed and hopes that it will become an ongoing addition to her annual drug unit.

Rain is predicted for tomorrow. That would suck.

I need to get back to the office by Monday morning.

[Drunk Monk]

[Drunk Monk]

Well, now I'm a little post-festival sick, struggling to get the last pieces of work done on this issue so I can go home and crash. I went up on Thurs and hit site at about 4:20. It was a lovely drive and I secured a decent space and tucked my car away nicely. It was cloudy, windy, chilly...sprinkled a little on Friday. I packed totally wrong and struggled to stay warm by layering everything I brought. I didn't really engage the music on Friday. I was too preoccupied with getting S&T set up. I did catch a little of Third World, which didn't impress me at all. S&T came up with a friend of T's on Fri. S was stressed from a horrible gridlocked drive and just wanted to crash. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the main stage, village stage and dancehall were cranked up higher than ever - painfully high even for DM - right when she tried to go down. Plus there was a guy practicing his drumming right next to her tent. And a car alarm too. Later that night, she retreated to main med, which is an inclosed building. So I was left with the girls, who, after discovering the JAH Med munchy bar, stuffed themselves w/mini-cinnamon buns and pub mix. T's friend had brought some LED glow teeth, and I found myself escorting them about late at night, as they worked off their sugar high. Funny, taking underage girls out for walkies at a music fest has taking on new meaning. Later, I absconded with the 'psych' wheels, which was a golf cart decorated with a tiki motif, and cajoled one of my crew members to take the three of us on a drive of the perimeter. The girls enjoyed that immensely. It was a lot of fun. After I got them down, I dove into the dancehall where David Rodigan was spinning. He threw down what I wanted to hear - Make it Bun Dem - my fav track of 2012 so far. I'll leave you with that for now:

[youtube]PR_u9rvFKzE[/youtube]

To be continued...

[Drunk Monk]

Saturday was mellow, warmer, yet still cloudy. S had made up her mind to escape that afternoon and take the girls to the coast, but not until the afternoon. They were good enough to break down their sleeping bags and such so all I would have to do would be to take down the tents. I left them up to secure the real estate - didn't want some snoring neighbor to move in right next to me - it was bad enough that night listening to some friends have sex in the adjacent tent. I took the girls out for more walkies, although during the daytime, they could really do as they pleased. They got some earrings and henna tattoos. T got three reggae stickers: a lion of judah, one that said 'irie vibe' and another that said 'love > fear'. Those are for her suitcase for her UK trip next month. I told her that she might get searched for pot with those so she shouldn't carry any. She thought that was funny. I got them packed up neatly and immediately after they hit the road, Dm initiated an honorary single malt toast to JAH med's medical director doc, who was in Italy. Dm has had a single malt duel going with him for years now and in his absence, he brought a 12 yr bottle of glenfiddich that a cute competitor gave dm at KFTC20YEARS. It was way below dueling standards but those drinking it wouldn't know. So several shots were slammed, followed by a wicked binge of smmoke. Just can't take the collar off dm like that. Turn me loose. We had friends doing stage set up, so we found a great spot on stage left, in the gear truck to hang out. Saw LKJ and Jimmy Cliff. LKJ was ok. Jimmy is still great, still Jimmy. Someone told me he was 78, which I repeated without checking, but he is in fact, 64. I also miscalculated on my lammys, which were in honor of two friends, the former director and a former doc of RM, who are born the same day as Haile Selassie. I thought it was 6/23, but it is in fact, 7/23. No one called me on it. After that, it was Stone Love in the dancehall, which was entertaining. DM wound up partying way into the night. There were two soundsystems in the lot, one was a molly fest and lame, the other was being thrown by some associates and was bumping. It was freaking packed, elbow-to-elbow, under a camo canopy. Not sure when that got shut down exactly but dm was there when security came in. After that, he stumbled back to his tent and crashed.

[Drunk Monk]

Sunday I just loitered about until I left. One of my krew had blocked my car in, which pissed me off, but I was out of the venue by 4:20ish. It was a long drive home, with two annoying traffic jams. On Tues, my throat felt like it was being stabbed by icepicks and I was sick by Wed. I thoughtfully shared my cold with S on Fri. We had comp tix to Mickey Hart's show at the Fillmore on Sat, but had to bail (I was also invited to the red carpet premiere of Death Grip, an indie martial arts flick I helped out, but turned that down because of Mickey). S had to bail on the Women's Gymno finals, which was really disappointing. Today, I'm still coughing like a cat with a dreadlock hairball and rethinking my commitment to the nite krew.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

tQ had a nasty cold before she departed for parts south. She left the cold here in the house and I found it on Saturday. Good times.

[Drunk Monk]

Summer colds suck.