Things to come.

Well I have written enough for one day, so say we all. (See the 3 posts below this one)

Here is a preview of some of the things I will talk about once I get to writing more (anywhere from 1 day to 2 months from now)

Iron & Wine

Sam Beam, what a guy.


I miss what may have been the best part of the entire festival (My Morning Jacket) because I wasted my energy at Metallica's set.
Looks like somebody was willing to make the sacrifice for both.


And Last but don't let him know that...

Kanye... Good morning, no look... it is morning already.

Bonnarood part third

Thursday.
We wake up around 4-5 in the morning, stow some of the gear we got out to sleep, and head over to the festival.

I think the timing was just right as we beat the BIG rush of people whose cars I believe were lined up on the side of the interstate. We left most of the drinks in a spare refrigerator at the manchester family's home and brought enough for about the first day. The car was a little less full since Chelsea left most of her stuff at the house.

We slowly follow the lines of cars as they filter through the entrances to be searched for contra-ban and the like. no hitches so far, nice. We get to the camping area and see all of the cars being directed to line up and set up their camp. We ask one of the volunteers what we should do if we want to do day-camping so that Chelsea can use the car. "Oh, just over there is fine." We head over to where all of the cars are parking/camping. I pull towards our designated space and start putting the pieces together. We have about 4 feet on either side of the car... 1 foot behind the car between us and another car, and a tent place in front of us... there is now way to get the car out of here without running over a bunch of hippies... ... ... I think... ... ... I think we are stuck. "Hey guys..." ... ... .... ...
Brandon goes with Chelsea to talk to some people about what we are supposed to do, but it is REALLY really too late... there are already 2 rows of cars behind us, 4 rows ahead of us, and 20-50 cars in either direction to the sides... we are stuck.

Looks like Chealsea's mom was right to be worried about her getting totally screwed.



Both Zach and I get out of the car, look at each other and shake our heads. Unless Brandon comes back with a crane the car isn't going going anywhere for 4 days.
We start setting camp knowing that the other two are going to come back pretty upset, but at this point there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. We get the tent set up when chelsea and brandon get back and surprise, they are upset. I can't blame them. We talk about it for a while and I am just waiting for it to set in that we can't do anything about it so let's just go forward from here with plan B. Everybody sleeps at the campsite and we try not to take advantage of poor Chelsea.

As we finish setting camp we can feel that it is going to be a hot, hot week.
Hot.

We talk to a couple people in the camps near us, just to be neighborly. We have come from further than anybody we have met so far.

um... we eventually head over to the festival's event entrance.



There are about 10 people waiting there, since there isn't much more to do.
we stay there for about 20 minutes and decide to walk around some more.

We walk around some more.

Time-warp!-> -> ->

It is time for them to open the entrance. Nice.
They open it up and there are more than 10 people waiting. It takes about 45 minutes to get from the point where we are standing in the picture to the archway/entrance.

There aren't as many things going on thursday, so we kind of walk around the place just chekcing out the various wares and boothes that are set up. I find the sweet spot of the entire place, The semi-airconditioned movie tent.

I am still feeling from the two days of driving that should have been 1 day of driving and 1 day of rest. This causes me to lose interest in all of the bands that I have never heard of (Backdoor slam, MGMT, The Sword) and spend a couple hours watching movie shorts that are pretty much boring. Yes, the earth doesn't do well when we abuse it... we get it already.

Brandon and Chelsea leave to see MGMT, I think, while Zach and I get ahold of passes to see the comedians of that day (Mike Birbiglia, Janeane Geraffalo, and Leo Allan).
As we wait int he line for the funny show, we are offered our first pipe of the festival. We are the only uncool people and pass... we are so lame.
Looking back I wish I could have had some for the third part of the show.

Leo was first, he was fairly funny but had some timing problems and I didn't feel like a very good continuity.Not much to talk about really... he had some really good punchlines and was fun to listen to... just not amazing.

Here we have me and Zach having a laff.

Mike Birbiglia (Whom I had never heard of before) was HIGH-larious! This guy is funny. Everybody was having a great time and he made a great impression on me.

Then Came out the star, Janeane... Oh lord, she isn't being funny at all? Everybody is still riding on the jollies from Mike B, and staring at her waiting for some punchlines... or something. Are these inside jokes, because they don't really sound like any kind of jokes. She jogs around the audience, maybe to try to wake herself up... it was pretty sad... nobody was laughing and there was a constant trickle/flow of people leaving... she was bad and she knew it.

C'mon Jeneane! just make fun of George bush and you'll be fine!! I wished I wished... she just rambled about random subjects from pain medication to having sex with a mentally retarded fireman...

At least it was out of the sun.

After the show we leave and get some lunch. Everywhere we go, if you stop and wait in a line you end up talking to everybody around you. There was a really, really friendly attitude during the entire festival. I can't remember seeing any sort of violence other than at the Kanye event (which I will cover later).

A lot of really cool people, as I expected, who were just excited to see a lot of really great performances. This energized me quite a bit and I felt like trying out some new band I hadn't heard of.. But then I ended up here.



Make new friends, but keep the old...
Walked around for a while longer listening to a single song here and there, but nothing special to report so far.

next thing you know it is getting dark, so walk back to the campsite to see if we can't link back up with brandon and chelsea.

We find them and head back to the events to see some sort of goth group, "Vampire Weekend". Not what I was expecting. They were really fun. I was dead tired already, drained from the sun and one really unfunny lady.

Vamp-weekend pumped me back up with one song, and I joined in with the swarm of people yelling and singing along with the band. Pretty cool.


A really fun band. They finished and we walked over to where Lez zeppelin had already started their set.

Yaaaayy...y.....oh. They really are just a mediocre lesbian themed coverband. Hmm. At least they seemed pretty mediocre live.
So we went back to camp.

We stayed outside and enjoyed the cool air. Promised no funny business to chelsea, and figured out a way to have padding enough on the ground for everybody to sleep soundly.

Day 1 complete, push start to continue.

Bonnaroo Too (The drive)

The trip to Teenneessee.

You could set up your tent at the Bonnaroo campsite Thursday near noon, which is what we wanted to do. (Which made me wonder, and ask, "Uh, if Chelsea is taking the car, can we still camp at the Bonnaroo site? It says all over that you get your cars parking space and the 10-15 [I can't remember exactly] foot squared area in front of it.")("Uh... it should be fine, there is day parking..." [uh... oh....kay])

So we Set off tuesday morning with me driving. We went up and took the interstate that goes through wyoming and across the motherland to ... some state over there -> (east), where we take another road that connects to some thing that goes over to the, hey manchester! (This is how directions work in my head, in case you have ever given me directions to anywhere, I am not the best interstate navigator.)

After a couple hours I can tell that I hate driving when it is so very, very bright outside.


I instantly forget how sleeping in a car is ALMOST as worthless, rest-wise, as sleeping in an airplane. So I let Zach take over and pretend like I am going to be able to fall asleep in the middle of the day.



Zach drives for a while through wyoming and it feels like he is softly jerking the steering wheel back and forth but really he is just trying to adjust for the ridiculous winds that sweep over this flat and arid sorry excuse for a state. Sorry Dad/Grandpa.

I don't really get any sleep, especially when we take the time to stop at the worlds largest dust fabrication facility. Show here.



OR when we start our 20 years of The Carpenters Sing-a-long Marathon...



♫... the world lookin', down on creation...♫

Zach was not pleased by the marathon to say the least.
Brandon did what Brandon does best, complained. Juuuust kidding... just kidding Brandon. Just playing, man. But seriously, he complained that Zach was weaving all over the road and was curious if Zach was tired and wanted to take a break. This question come in the following form, over and over it was repeated whenever we are driving, "Hey Zach, are you ok?" "Are you ok to drive, Steve?" ... Like nails on a chalkboard.

I decide that I want to try to sit in the backseat as it might provide better sleeping conditions. Brandon takes over driving and Zach takes a break.
"Oh wow, this wind is crazy!" I wake up (Not really asleep, just forcing myself to shut my eyes...) "Brandon..." "Yeah?" "Brandon, are you feeling alright? You are swerving all over the road!" Me and Zach give a satisfying chuckle. Medicine is a prescription best served to people in a snarky and sarcastic way... and cold.

...

Here is another picture of Zach.



You're welcome.

We drive a lot, and the sun slowly sets behind us. The horizon fades from white to dark blue, and finally black. Our eyes are allowed to leave perma-squint mode and I take up my position as lead night-driver. Brandon gets this wise idea that we shouldn't drive through the night... Pffft. I try to ignore him and hope that he falls asleep only to awake in the golden fields of teenneessee. He stays awake (Of course, you can't really sleep in a car) and it starts to lightly rain. Blast...
Brandon lays another question on me, "Hey I think it is better if we stop and stay somewhere for the night, and then head off again in the morning." My option are: A)... Okay, that is probably a good idea.
(If he feels unsafe then I would have to be a real dick to ignore him.)
We stay at some comfort in, or something... it has a shower, and that pretty much rocked. I really did feel ocmpletely safe at that point, so I was kind of upset since driving at night seems ideal temperature and eye-damage wise.

We get up, say a prayer, and head out on the road again in the morning. (Yes, Willie Nelson was playing at bonnaroo too.)



Oh, We listened to 1984 on the way up which was really interesting but hard to pay attention to and try to sleep at the same time. Interesting book.

We tried to listen to a couple other books on tape but none of them really stuck, so we ended up just listening to music.

Driving back east is a lot more pleasant than driving around Wyoming, and this helped distract us for the last section of the trip.

We eventually get to Manchester and find the house of the family where Chelsea is going to sleep. When we step our of the car we can feel how muggy the air is. This is going to be painfully awesome! The family is REALLY cool, and extremely kind. They offer to let the guys set up the tent in the back yard for the night... and then they say we can crash in the living room on their couches. We follow procedure and say that it is okay, that we will just sleep in a gutter or something, but they insist. "Oooooookaaaay." We enjoy the last taste of air-and comfortable sleep for the next week.

Before sleeping though we go over to walmart to pick up some perishables. The walmart parking lot is covered with festival goers. The entire parking lot, full... at walmart. Seriously.

The single most important item that we (I) had hoped to buy at the walmart is not to be found. Bagels... all the god-forsaken hippies took every last bagel. None left, not even a smashed week old bag of onion-blueberry-oat bagels... Damn hippies.

Bonnaroo - 1

I wanted to write this up sooner, but I was fairly busy looking for work and trying to still hold on to those things which relieved a majority of the stress in my life.
So, now I have some spare time and I will try to get down as much as I can still remember.

-=-

Early in the spring of 2008 Brandon was mentioning something about a music festival he was thinking of going to with our mutual friend Zach. He listed a few of the bands that were going to be there some of which I was familiar, and others that I had only heard of... so it goes with music. Metallica, Pearl Jam, The Raconteurs, Lez Zeppelin.. Oh really?!? oh... Lez... The Allman Brothers (Who ended up canceling, sad), Iron & Wine, Kanye West?, Sigur Ros, The Swell Season, My Morning Jacket, Death Cab for Cutie, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and Aimee Man... to name 12... which is a fraction of the bands that were there.

Chris Rock, Mike Berbiglia, and David Cross (Canceled) were also scheduled.
They would camp out there and spend the weekend (Thursday-Sunday) going between the different stages listening to the groups. It sounded great, but the sounded like brandon wasn't really presenting me with an invitation, so I just told him, "That sounds cool, man." and I thought that was it.

A couple months later it the festival came up again in conversation and everybody who was there was asked if they were interested in going. I definitely was, and so I started making plans and getting ready to take time off from work. Lucky me, I got laid off so I didn't have to take ANY time off! YAY!
Hurray!... Woohoo.

...

Skip to the end... After a few months Bonnaroo was less than a week away. Days before we were going to leave half of the group found out that they couldn't go. This sucked... but there wasn't really anything we could do to help them. So we ended u0p with out final group. Me, Zach, Brandon, and Chelsea (Brandon's GF). We decided to take car because it is of holy make and we knew that it would serve us well. *(spoiler... it did. I love what you do for me.)*

Bonnaroo takes played near Manchester... near? I think it is in Manchester... Anyway, Manchester, TN. So that is a ~24 hour drive, either consecutive hours or whatever...
Chelsea's Mother is afraid for her safety with 3 virile young men such as we, so her mother contacted a friend that actually lived in manchester and arranged for Chelsea to sleep. These plans for her were laid down and agreed upon... then they called me to see IF it would be okay for her to take the care back and forth between the friends home and the festival... So... My option are: A)to say yeah, that is fine I guess.

Lame. I don't want to sound like I am unwilling to let people borrow my car or whatever, but... I dunno... something int he back of my head was telling me that was going to cause a bunch of problems. So I really didn't want to, but they had already made my bed so I lied in it and said I didn't have a problem. *Sigh* Wait to see how that turns out*

This was what I labeled as sign *A1 for things that were going to bother me about having Brandon's Girlfriend there.

... I guess I should give a general idea of who Brandon's girlfriend was without giving it away to somebody who doesn't actually KNOW brandon.

Pros: She is a little younger, and she is perky and chearfull, and she participated in beauty pagents (I can't remember the exact detail, if she was in a specific one, or muliple pageants or what...) Did I say Pros? I meant cons... yeah...Cons.

Real Pros: She knows about video games and movies, so she isn't that bad.



I actually like Chelsea a lot, but I just don't like spending a lot of time around her... Kind of like how I like sunshine, but I can only take SO much, ya know? like when you wake up and the sun is already out (those were the days) and you despise it and wish it were raining.

Chelsea is kind of like that, and on top of that friends don't USUALLY like their friends girlfriends, especially when said girlfriend take up almost all of your friend's time. (You know, like when your friend just disappears and it always 'busy')

Back to Bonnaroo. We make some purchases like snacks and drinks for the ride there as well as for our camp so that we don't go overboard on spending. As long as chelsea is going back and forth between this house and camp we figure she can bring us some cold supplies as well.. So that worked out pretty well.

I purchased a Cal Berkley hat for the single reason of protecting me from the tyrannical sun and I like the color... I only mention this because I am wearing it in most of the picture I will post up, so I am not especially a Berkley fan. One person, as I predicted, walked up to me (drunk) and said, "Berkley, huh?" to which I responded, "Go Golden Bears!" (written on the back of the hat) and then had to explain that I didn't go there, live there, or have any loyalty to the school. Sorry drunk sir.

We made certain to purchase a large amount of energy drinks to help us stay awake when we wanted... to. For me energy drinks have the same energizing effect as a glass of cold water, only I start feeling much more sleepy minutes after drinking one.

Loaded up everything and set off.