Tampa Calling

Based on sheer numbers, Bonnaroo is a beast.  70,000 people invade Manchester, Tennessee, making it the 6th largest city in the state for over three days. Now your average Bonnarooian is quite a bit different than   your typical Tennessean — full of booze, THC and god knows what else.  It’s a crazy place.

Where else could you find Jimmy Buffett, Ani Difranco, Snoop Dog, Al Green and Bruce Springsteen? For better or worse, Bonnaroo is biggest and baddest of the American music festivals. With 13 stages and tents, hundreds of vendors, and a pretend Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the well-oiled machine of Roo is now in it’s 7th year and going strong.

Simultaneously a radiant clusterfuck and glorious throwdown, it’s hard to imagine a bigger party. And with any party, there’s always the good, the bad and the ugly. For our purposes here, let’s focus on…

The Good Read the rest of this entry »

This is an annual post that I do on ninebullets.net that I thought I’d crosspost over here this year.

Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquin, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor & Wanda.

Those are this year’s list of hurricane names. There are six lists that rotate and they do not change unless there is a hurricane that is so devastating that the name is retired, then another name replaces it. Today is the official beginning of the 2009 Hurricane Season. Unless you live on the East or Gulf Coast, Hurricane Season probably doesn’t mean shit to you until we’re knee deep in shit and CNN is into full sprint with their 24 hour coverage. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, Photographer Phil and I played Heatwave Hopscotch, skipping from stage to stage, pausing longer at some than at others though never staying long enough to get comfortable in any one place, and having a grand old time all along the way.

We cruised into Heatwave around 9 p.m., missing the monsoon and arriving just in time to catch a snatch of blues guitarist Michael Burks at the Bandshell before we landed in the Cantina for Kinobe and Soul Beat Africa. (Kinobe pictured, photo by Phil Bardi.)

We were in our spot two seconds and one sip into our drinks before we were befriended by a pair of jolly 40ish Bradenton gals (I nicknamed them Angel and Curly), who immediately pushed a few Ace’s Lounge cards on us, then admitted to being friends with the owner. Angel went on to extol all Ace’s virtues (she called it the “Skipper’s Smokehouse of Bradenton”) and about the hotel conveniently located right across the street, the Jimmy Buffett-themed Parrot Inn. You could virtually make a night of it – see a show at the famed Ace’s, stumble over to the Parrot and get a room, hit Bradenton Beach the next day if your head’s still attached. (Angel admitted she’d already booked a room for Red Elvises in October.) Then she and Phil started chatting about photography and her husband’s new hobby of taking pics of the sky through his mega-high tech telescope, and how Saturn was so clear right now that you could see its moons. When Phil ducked away to take pics, Angel latched onto me, and told me about how excited she was to see some world music, the greatness of what we were seeing while we were seeing it, the lady who scooted into the huge spot in front of us and whether she was a temporary or permanent stopper. I ran into Van, spotted a dude who was a deadringer for Donald Sutherland, enjoyed a few songs worth of the warm and buoyant Ugandan music, then snagged Phil and dragged him to the Ballroom. (Many more pics and tidbits after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

I’d rather step on a hundred pop tops than endure a  Jimmy Buffett show, but I hear that some people like him, so I dutifully pass this info along from LiveNation:

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band are back in town for one remarkable performance at Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday, April 25 as part of Jimmy Buffett’s “Summerzcool” Tour 2009.

Tickets go on-sale Saturday, February 7th at 10 a.m. There is a six ticket limit per customer.
Tickets available exclusively at www.livenation.com, (877) 598-8698 (the toll free Live Nation ticketing phone number), Ford Amphitheatre Box Office and participating Blockbuster stores Ticket prices subject to applicable fees.