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Vacation plans take me up to Bar Harbor this weekend, leaving in an a couple of hours. You won’t see much on the blog until perhaps Sunday night. Until then, stay classy everybody. I’ll leave you with an apropos track by the Mountain Goats.
The Mountain Goats - Going To Maine
I want to take a second to wish the best of travels to my good friend, online mentor, and all around champion of the people, Mr. Colin Ashe. Colin is taking the next long while to see the rest of the world (via Brazil, and then Thailand, and hopefully I can join him next spring in a motorcycle trip from Bangkok to Beijing). He is a tireless advocate of good things, and the States will certainly miss him while he’s out there over the next year or two. His influence in my own life has been most profound, helping me craft an interest in everything from online intellectual property, to Wilco, to Twitter.
Safe travels, Mr. Ashe. I’m sure you all can read about his happenings in true aggregate form via Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Meta.
(Image from Flickr user divertingbailey)
Kanye West’s performance at Boner-Zoo received a lot of flack for its late start time, which depending on who you ask was either due to technical miscommunication between Kanye’s crew and the production staff on the main stage, or simply Kanye being Kanye. Whatever the circumstance (and I for one am inclined to believe it was a little of both), Kanye’s already sleepy start time of 2:45 AM was pushed back to 4:45 AM, meaning the sun was up when the show was supposed to reach its dramatic “Glow in the Dark” peak. This angered many; there’s a pretty fantastic Stereogum thread about the graffiti reactions, including, “Kanye West doesn’t care about ‘Roo people.” Well, today we have Kanye’s reaction. Here it is in its Caps Locked glory.
BONNAROO SHOULD HAVE RELEASED A STATEMENT IN MY DEFENSE BUT SINCE THEY HAVEN’T LET’S BREAK DOWN THE WALLS ON THIS TRUMAN SHOW AND LET YOU KNOW WHAT REALLY OCCURRED!!! FOR OVER A MONTH WE WENT BACK AND FORTH ON WETHER OR NOT WE COULD EVEN FIT MY STAGE AT THE FESTIVAL. ONE DAY THEY WOULD SAY YES… WE’D SEND THEM OUR SPECS THEN THEY THEY’D SAY OK… THEN THEY WOULD SEND SPECS BACK THAT DIDN’T FIT THE STAGE. WE WERE OBVIOUSLY DEALING WITH FUCKING IDIOTS WHO DIDN’T REALLY HAVE THE CAPACITY TO REALLY PUT ON THIS SHOW PROPERLY. THEY TRIED 2 GIVE ME A TIME SLOT WERE IT WAS STILL LIGHT OUTSIDE … I HAVE A FUCKING LIGHT SHOW DUMB ASS, IT’S NOT CALLED GLOW IN THE DARK FOR NO REASON SQUID BRAINS!
Superfly Productions (the crew in charge of the Zoo) would have been smart to issue some form of statement explaining what happened, as left to speculation and Kanye’s opinion they too start to look pretty bad. I have no doubt that it was a combination of Kanye’s insistence ideal conditions and prima-donnaism, combined with Superfly’s tight booking and general ambivalence toward Kanye (one of the very brightest stars on the bill) that caused this to occur. On a personal note, I have worked with many of the stage staff at Bonnaroo before, both at the 2006 festival and at other large-scale festivals, and would not characterize them as “fucking idiots.” They are many things, but not unprofessional.
The backlash is felt towards Kanye, but also towards Superfly - many threads are running on message boards asking what Superfly has to do to redeem themselves. The dedicated Bonnaroo fans often call for a return to its original jam- and roots- driven bills. Most people would agree that Metallica was a pretty awkward choice, and that immediately case uncertainty on Superfly’s ability to put up quality bills anymore.
I for one think the festival’s gone far too big for it’s britches, and you can do much better elsewhere these days. There was no organic upbringing for Bonnaroo, like you saw at a Coachella, which grew slowly over many years. Bonnaroo has always struck me as a bloated festival that can’t figure out whether it’s a Gathering of the Vibes or a Millwaukee Summerfest, and constantly tries to tow the line with mixed results. People attend simply because it’s the largest, and quite frankly, we can do better. We all can see there’s no real shortage of festivals these days. I would urge many to look around this summer and next summer and realize that you don’t have to wait in traffic in Manchester to have a good time.
(image from Flickr user midorionna)
I’m writing this today from a small bagel shop in Kenmore Square, waiting for Oscar to arrive so we can hit up one of the last relics from this square’s glory days: Nuggets. Struck with this square’s history, well known in the area of sports but seemingly forgotten in music, I’m pondering the words of a very influential man I met in New York two days ago.
“Artists aren’t suffering anymore,” he noted in a moment of candor amidst our business presentation, “that’s why there aren’t any great songs.”
His name isn’t important - suffices to say he was a very major player in the 60s and 70s in music, and decades of success have placed him in a prominent office with walls of gold and platinum records. His is a voice I treasured to hear from, overwhelmed at times with the opportunity to sit across the desk from a man I had read about for half a decade. His insight took me aback; I instantly agreed with him, but upon further reflection I realize I was mistaken to do so. This isn’t the case, at least not on a worldwide scope. Artists are creating good songs, and artists are suffering, and many times those two are correlated.The industry just doesn’t find them anymore.
Sorry for the lack of updates today. Work and the peursuit (edit: wow, bad typo) of financing for a new web project I’m working on took me to New York for the day. I did see some fantastic things while darting between offices - most notably, this amazing billboard found in NoHo:
Go team Venture! The Venture Brothers is my Lost. Season 3 has been amazing so far.
Once I got back (a scant couple hours ago) I had the chance to begin catching up on my RSS feeds, but only got as far as this Brookline article from the Wicked Local collective.
Watch out! The Brookline Health Department has issued a Bat Advisory, warning resident[s] to watch out for the winged creatures and to contact health officials if you spot one in your home — even if it hasn’t touched you.
When I go on my gonzo journalism binge to find the meaning of America this summer, I’ll be sure to keep a flyswatter handy as I drive up Beacon Street.
(image from straightedge217)
I spent a good chunk of the day yesterday down by the beautiful nook of Boston where the Back Bay, Fenway, and Huntington line all touch: off of the Hynes stop, down Boylston towards Hemenway Street. It was a lovely day, but something was bugging me as I walked about:
When I lived in this part of the city, from 2003-2005, there were five music instrument shops in the neighborhood. Now, there’s only one. Where shall the next wave of Northeastern and Berklee kids go to get their guitars and drums and such?
This isn’t to say that there aren’t good stores in the greater Boston area, but this corner was a haven for them for decades. It’s sad to see them all go so quickly.
So, here they are. Preserved online for posterity.
Almost two years ago today I was helping the band I was working for put on a show at the Matt Brewing Company building in Utica, NY. The brewery is home to a plethora of old-school New York beers, including Saranac (a beer so popular in the region that the band I was working for name drops it in one of their early songs) and Utica Club, the first beer to be sold after the lifting of prohibition. I can’t stress how much Indie Rock Cred one gets from drinking Utica Club. If PBR is the choice cheap beer for Spoon fans, this is the cheap beer of kids who still listen to 1980s New York No-Wave bands on 8-tracks in 20″ Levis.
As fads of beer go, Utica Club/Saranac has the strange perspective to see the rise in small brewers in the late 1800s (as best documented through the fantastic Big Book O’ Beer), and the most recent rise of microbreweries seen today. They’re sort of a Rip Van Winkle in the beer world, and on a personal note the staff both at the brewery and putting on the concert were some of the best I met the whole tour.
It saddened me to find out yesterday that the brewery lost their entire canning division and a good deal of bottling to a large fire a couple weeks back. Officials are saying a welding incident lead to the blaze, and as of now the entire facility is shut down pending some serious repair. A current reopen date is set as the 30th of June.
My heart goes out to the wonderful staff at the brewing company, and hope you guys can continue distributing great tasting beer as soon as possible (and Utica Club, while you’re at it).
Dedicated stalkers will know I am part of a neat little project with band/roommates Oscar, Stacey, and Jackie: Endless Feature - where we made a stack of every DVD we own and have not seen (regardless if the others have seen it), and all summer long we watch each one and liveblog the experience. A few weeks back we had the chance to see King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a documentary on two men and their quest to be the best Donkey Kong players in the world. We promptly fell in love with this cast of characters and their truly incredible story, and the movie is currently in our top favorites of the summer, along with Bandé A Part, High School Confidential, and (for all the wrong reasons) The Ice Pirates. Here’s the trailer:
The movie tells the story of 20-year reigning DK champion Bill Mitchell, a scratch-to-the-top, take no prisoners character, and Steve Wiebe, a good guy down on his luck and needing some serious validation. The movie’s thrilling conclusion takes place at the Classic Video Game and Pinball Tournament, which is held annually at Funspot in Weirs Beach, NH. The event is hosted by video game scorekeepers Twin Galaxies, a group so professional at fact-checking and ethics that the Guinness Book of World Records crew consider them the official source on world record high scores. I can do little justice in describing the experience - you really have to see this movie to believe it.
As luck would have it Oscar and I were driving home from a wedding yesterday morning in North Conway, NH. Our route home had us passing right through Weirs Beach, on what happened to be the last day of the same annual tournament. Naturally, we stopped in to check it out, and here’s what we found:
I’m back. Thanks for sticking around in my absence. I often wonder how long I could go silent before
people all stopped reading. The trip inspired a few ideas for posts from me, but I want to start with one of the coolest cinemas I’ve ever seen, and a picture of a giant rust lobster (as a side, “Rust Lobster,” should be a followup B-52s song).
Let’s begin, shall we?
Most popular posts this week:
Shooting up to number one pretty fast, considering I posted it today: Berkman@10: Conclusion
2. Berkman@10: Day One: Afternoon
3. Berkman@10: Day Two: Conclusion
The two days at Berkman were so resource consuming, it’s almost hard to remember that earlier this week I was boasting a front-page-in-Digg.
“Strong and content I travel the open road,” as Whitman would say. I leave tomorrow morning for Rockland, Maine and onward to Bar Harbor on Tuesday, before making the trip back to Brookline via central Mass Wednesday. Don’t expect much from here for a couple days, save maybe a few little anecdotes (you probably will see a giant metal sculpture of a lobster, as I know a killer one along the way).
And all good travels need good soundtracks, so I’ve updated the Muxtape accordingly. Click on the tape icon at right or right here.
Best of luck, travelers. I leave you with the most peculiar web error message I’ve seen in a while, taken from a hotel website along the route:
I guess I needed the middle-child of web browsers to use the site. Again, I may not know better, but why would you write an error message saying “your browser is too new?” I feel like the onus would be on the developer to keep things current.
So it goes.
 | Capitol Records and … on Don’t Let The Scam Hit Y… |
 | Andy on Don’t Let The Scam Hit Y… |
| Update: Captiol, Col… on Don’t Let The Scam Hit Y… |
 | Jared on Don’t Let The Scam Hit Y… |
 | Colin on Bon Voyage, Colin |
