Run! The Hippies are coming!

This blog thing is harder than I originally thought. Blame Comcast and college football blogs for my lack of posting. The Comcast IT department uses the same restrictions that Communist China puts on its firewalls. It is what it is. Anyway about a month or so ago I went to see Bob Weir and Ratdog with Keller Williams at Chastain.

I know I just lost half of the people that are reading this, so we’re down to three. Without having to dive into a musical history lesson Bob Weir = like 1/6 Grateful Dead, and Keller Williams is not the realtor. They are a brand of what many term Counter-Culture music or as I like to call it Hippie music. Not too many of my friends like this type of music, other than Huskette (the girl formally known as Waugh Happened) I can only think of two others and my brother.

These bands typically play concerts that center around the music rather than the spectacle of the band itself. In other words their main goal is to entertain the crowd with their music, not antics. The dead is obviously one of the forefathers for hippie bands, so I thought it would be cool to see one of the original members live. At the concert I realized why I like these bands more than others is not just because of the music, but also because of the people that come. I intend to dissect the different kinds of people that I saw and further the stereotypes people have. Let's play…

The first group I will analyze is the hippies of the dirty, old type.

These fellows are the types that were at Haight-Ashbury when things were real. These hippies were the first ones to make the jump from pot to acid and haven’t recovered since. The kind of people that call themselves earth children and things of that nature. While certain bums can look like old hippies it is important to note that old hippies are not bums. They are either roadies who sleep in cars or slummy hotels on the road or are versions of older townies that tend to congregate in small, funny, smelling structures usually found in transitional neighborhoods. These guys are usually entertaining to watch and generally harmless.

The next group of older hippies is the type that is productive and gives back to society in whatever it is they might do. These are the people that were really into the music when they were younger and still listen to it on the way to work via an 8-speaker stereo system. Everyone knows this group they are universally known as yuppies. They mean no harm but are easily identifiable and usually are fun to point out. Full disclosure, I plan on being a yuppie and it neither saddens nor excites me.

Younger hippies are in it for several reasons: they want to find themselves, they are rebelling against their parents, or they legitimately like the music. Central to all of these reasons and the biggest help to accomplishing said reasons are drugs, mainly the psychedelic variety. Some of these youngsters are only in it for a place to go and do as much as possible to destroy as many brain cells as quickly as they can. There isn’t really anything wrong with this group they usually grow out of it. What sucks is when you run into them at a show and they can’t move or are freaking out. While it can be fun to watch you never want to deal with someone who has the artificial strength of ten men. At a festival earlier this year there had been a kid who had apparently gotten some bad acid. As the story goes he was butt naked, busy throwing his own poop on peoples RV’s and tents. He also was shredding people’s tents and using his finger nails to leave scratches on cars and diesel pushers. This would be a crazy enough story if it had been after a night full of drugs and drinking, but it occurred at 3 in the afternoon just solidifying my point a lot of these kids just get into the music to get totally f-ed up.

Now I’m going to point out one action that a sub-section of the “hippie” group does do that sticks with me and that I sincerely disprove of. This is bringing children to shows. The venue does make a difference, as I could see it being ok if there was a concert in the park during the day that might have a family feel to it. What’s not ok is this:

That is a baby in that stroller that was only 10 months old at the time this picture was taken. While I commend the father’s dedication to his child to at least have him in a stroller, it made me sick to watch this guy’s actions. He smoked numerous bowls and even walked away from the kid a couple of times. The child’s mother (at least I assume who it was) showed up at the beginning of Keller Williams show and immediately left to I guess go back to the front.

The guy told me they were from Johnson City, TN which leads me to believe they were following the band around the southeast. As I mentioned before good for you if you/ your girlfriend/ your buddies want to follow the band, but why would you take your baby with you. It seems at some point basic human responsibility would say I have to put this child’s interest in front of my own. Raising a child and touring around with the band are not conducive to one another. I’m no developmental psychologist, but it seems to me that children need some type of structure in their early years to be able grow into a healthy (mentally and physically) adults. Sad to say this is not the first time I’ve seen babies at a show. This is truly the one thing that really pisses me off. I know I sound a bit like a hypocrite after my initial argument defending the roadies, but so be it.

I don’t consider myself a hippie per say, but rather a fan of hippie music. I like the concerts because they are fun and you never really know what to expect I think this a reason that I love jam music. No song will ever be the same unless it's played from an album, there is so much experimentation and the artists really change the song depending on however they feel at any given show. Take the Allman Brother’s song “Whipping Post” I was at a concert where they played the song for over 30 minutes, if you listen to another version it could be 10 minutes or even an hour if they were into it. Part of the experimentation element comes from having different quests play with the band. I can’t really think of another genre of music where the front man for another band could show up on stage and start playing with whatever band you are there to see. I think it has something to do with the respect that all of the artists have for each other. Part of this comes from the different covers of other artist’s songs that jam bands play. A song that you have listened to for years will sound completely different when another band plays it only increasing the awesomeness of said song. I could go on and on about all the reasons these are just a few. To get down to it the real reason I like jam music so much is because…I can noodle like nobody’s business ( that’s dancing for you hippie haters).

Hear ye, Hear ye!

Hello cyber subjects...Huskette here with an extremely important message.

For those of you who have been patiently awaiting a new blog posting full of witty commentary on the life and times of the Husk and his travels, you're in luck. I've been authorized to reveal that new posting will in fact be screaming through the world wide web this very evening. Not to hype it up (or make it weird), but you're not going to want to miss this eloquent specimen of blogging marvel...I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

Huskette
(I'm the prettier one)

Please note: The reason for this delay in posting is that an evil employment empire to who the Husk trades his time for money has blocked this socially intuitive site from his access during the hours under which he is sequestered.

And that's all she wrote....

The twilight zone

As I was finally getting my hippie concert blog together I stumbled across another blog that will shock and awe you. Apparently Ann "I will destroy anything not like me" Coulter is a little bit more liberal than we thought. She is in fact a Deadhead, something that can't get any more left wing. I do admit she is an attractive crazy, even though she kind of scares me.

UGA Draft Day 2018

This kid is gonna be the one we snatch out from under Pete Carroll and USC. The song really adds to Cody's achievements. Don't worry a longer post is really coming I swear.

Cody's runs

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Here I go again...

In case you haven't figured out I love on-line videos here is proof.

I came across this in my daily surfing. While reliving my childhood I remembered my poor buddy Bear had never seen this video due to cable TV deficiency as a child. I love it, you love it, bear will love it, Chuck Finley former hurler for the Indians does not.

The "pop" 40 rant

I know that I said that the next post would be about and hippies and I can only imagine how excited you were, but we’ve had some technical issues with the pictures so the aforementioned blog has been put on hold. Instead I give you tweenies, pop-stars, and why some CDs should only be listened to in private.

Tuesday night I went to see The Fray with Gomez as the opening act. I really like Gomez which was the driving force for me wanting to go the concert (I recommend giving them a listen if you haven’t already done so), and I have the Fray’s second album so what the heck.

I’ll start with this; Gomez should get on their bus after the next show and leave the Fray wherever they are. They need to be like “we’ll see you in Dallas” and then head to LA. I knew the Fray was a bit poppy, but this thing definitely felt like being at a middle school dance. The weird thing was it wasn’t the Fray’s music that was necessarily poppy, but rather the environment. Lots of families were there which I guess is a good thing, but once again Gomez really isn’t what I’d expect a family of four to listen to on the way to grandmas. For that matter neither is the Fray if you break down some of their lyrics. I’m glad kids are interested in music but how do you explain a song about a recovering addict (How to save a life) to 12-yr old? Anyway let the rant continue.

It was such a weird dynamic, as I mentioned there were families, but also lots of people that got off of work on a Tuesday and proceeded to get as drunk as possible. I mean c’mon it’s a Tuesday people have to work on Wednesdays! What were they thinking don’t theses people have jobs?!. Here are a few examples:



A) During one of the slower (and I guess sadder) songs a guy who looked like he was in his late twenties just started crying. He was sobbing into some chicks shoulder. There are three scenarios for his crying: he was so out of his mind drunk that the song just really got to him, he was so drunk the song reminded him of a sad event in his life, or my favorite he was so drunk he thought that was his best way to hook up with the chick he was using as a Kleenex. I hope it was the last one, an unorthodox method to be sure but not one that I could dismiss as one that I’ve never seen anyone use.



B) Then there was this chick that got to her seat about 3 minutes before the show started and was so drunk that she literally had to roll herself over the empty row of seats in front of us. Then after a lot of effort was able to stand for long enough to chug an airplane bottle of what appeared to be vodka before spiking it, raising her hands and screaming about how awesome the Fray was. After all of that exertion she plopped herself down in her new seat for a well earned string of smokes that she took down to the filter every time, a performance I had not seen since DP’s kid and his nephew got together. It was at this time that I turned to Waugh happened and predicted a stomach reversal. The party girl then proceeded to search the ground for something for about 20 minutes. After being entertained for long enough I offered assistance and it turned out she had misplaced her smokes. I looked for a good 10-15 seconds, and then gave up hope. Party girl then stood up, and lo and behold the smokes fell out of her lap, awesome!



C) I had gone to buy beer and satisfy my addiction for t-shirts, when I came back to my seat and some chaach had his feet on my chair. The professional ass-clown then jokingly told me I couldn’t sit there like we were buddies or something. I retorted that he couldn’t sit in his seat, like we weren’t buddies because we most definitely were not. After I had sat back down, he wanted to talk to me about the Mike and Angelo’s t-shirt I was wearing. Thinking if I just told him where the bar had been he would leave me alone, no dice. After the old Buckhead came up he just wanted to talk about clubs and how disappointing it was the clubs were gone, and how awesome Makos was and blah blah blah. When the Fray busted into a cover of the Shakira featuring Wyclef song Waugh happened and I decided to leave. The guy behind me then went off about us leaving in the middle of the show and how that wasn’t cool. It was then that I realized there is no reasoning with an idiot and best practice was to ignore him.

As we were leaving I was reminded of how great a place Lakewood is for underage drinking. Walking through the parking lot to the car we passed a Georgia State Patrolman and his golf cart (that’s just funny) busting what looked like a 14-yr old girl and boy. All I caught of the conversation was:
GSP: where is her brother?
Scared shitless 14-yr old boy: he is down the hill, sir.
GSP: you better get his butt up here, cause she’s about to go to juvi.
Wow the drama was intense, as we were driving out a kid that I assume was her brother was in a dead sprint up the hill. That had to be a tough call to mom and dad.

After all of the events of the concert I realized that my dogging of the Fray for being poppy probably isn’t all that fair. While it is true they sold out I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have done the same thing. Plus they got my $18 for their last CD that from here on I will only listen to by myself or with Waugh happened as I try to force tears hoping she will make out with me.

*If you are unfamiliar with Gomez check out these videos. Two really good songs and the videos are kind of cool. Also if you listen to music at work check this website out www.pandora.com it’s pretty cool. It takes musical qualities from an artist or a song you enter and caters a radio station to your taste.


This is my favorite Gomez song "Whippin' Piccadilly"



This one is "See the World" very cool video

If Limp Bizkit was a football team

This is a direct result of me having too much time at work. These kids are all going to grow up to be d-bags. This might be a result of an overzealous booster club or a bunch of high schoolers that don't have access to cheap beer, whatever the cause its one of the worst things I've ever seen. This crap would have never happened at The Wood aka The Academy. I really like the digital effects at the end.



To my growing legion of fans don't worry a better post is coming, the breakdown of a hippie concert!

Hey Sailor!

I visited San Francisco a couple of weeks ago to visit my friend Clint. You can read about some of fun here. What didn’t make it into Clint’s post is his love of sailing; the only problem is he doesn’t have a sailboat.

On the way to Alcatraz he confessed his love of the water. Poor Clint, in all of the places he has lived he has never had the opportunity to be a seaman, but now that he is in San Fran the time has finally come.

I’ve compiled a list of reasons of why Clint needs a sailboat (or catamaran, but that’s another argument)

1) Rent: Clint is currently renting a small apartment. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice for one person, but for what he pays he definitely should look at other options. If Clint buys a sailboat he can live on it and have views like this:

Compared with this:

I’m just a simple man, but I like the first view better. In addition to the views he would have equity in something. My understanding of real estate is if you own it not only will you get tax write-offs, but you can sell it for more than you paid for it, apartments not so much.

2) Gas: When I was out in the “City by the Bay” I noticed gas prices were through the roof. According to AAA gas in San Francisco averages $3.40. Clint works at the airport so he driving close to 30 miles a day. Bottom line he is burning through some gas. Let’s look at the alternative; sailboats run off of wind, which last time I checked was $0 thanks to old Mother Nature. The airport is right next to the water so it would be easy to tie the boat off and just walk across a runway to get to his office. So right there the sailboat is paying itself off.

3) Status: Everyone knows that we are judged by society on our possessions. I can’t think of a better “look how well I’m doing” symbol than a sailboat, well a plane would be better, but that’s not an option. As we were cruising over to the Rock I couldn’t help but notice all of the sailboats and think to myself “wow look at all of those wildly successful people”. Another benefit is you can look down on other boat owners that use only gas powered motors, and call them ruffians since they obviously aren’t classy enough to use the traditional means of boating.

Besides money and power that go along with status there is the obvious respect of the opposite sex or same sex, whatever it’s San Francisco don’t judge.

4) Recreation: Clint is a pretty active guy, so he needs a hobby other than drinking and smoking. He talked about wanting to get into sea kayaking while I was visiting. While I agree sea kayaking would be cool, think how much cooler sailing would be. Let compare:

While Barb, the sea kayaker, looks like she is having fun if you look at the people on the sailboat they are laughing about a sea kayaker they just rammed. For Clint’s recreational safety I think the sailboat is a better choice. If he still wants the sea kayak he can strap it on deck and dabble with it in shallow coves.

These are just a few reasons why Clint’s most important decision to make is what he should name his sail boat, my personal choice would be The Don’t Come a Knockin’, but that’s a discussion for another day.

You gonna eat that?

Yesterday the Nathan's hot dog contest went down. Congrats to Joey Chestnut for dominating 66 dogs, his performance is impressive. The reigning champ Kobayashi suffered a "reversal" as the announcers put it, if you don't know what I'm talking about just watch the video.



After watching the competition I couldn't help but think about how the rest of the world just looks for fodder like this competition to hate us. Oh well I'll have mine with spicy brown mustard.

husk

The best outcome to a series of events...

This is my first attempt at blogging and it is not the typical initial effort. My decision to write a blog has come from a desire to share my thoughts and writing with whoever will read them. I have no real purpose other than to write some funny things, pose thoughts, or reflect on daily events. It is with a reflection on an event and the effect it initially has had on my life that I start my effort.

Today I learned that Chris Benoit, a professional wrestler, was found dead in his Fayetteville home. Along with Chris, his wife Nancy and his 7-yr old son Daniel were also found dead. Chris was supposed to have wrestled at a pay-per-view event on Sunday but had to cancel due to a “family emergency”. It is now apparent that the “family emergency” was the murder of his wife and child. The tragedy ended with Benoit’s suicide which was probably the best outcome of the series of events.

As many other boys and young men, I enjoyed and to a degree still enjoy, watching professional wrestling. As a kid I can remember waking up on Saturdays to watch Sgt. Slaughter and Hulk Hogan. This progressed into my teenage years and became more of a social event with my friends. I’ve always likened wrestling to “soap-operas for boys”, and it gave me and my friends that watched something to talk about. Through high school I went to several events and watched even more on television.

It was during these years that I first started watching Chris Benoit. I’ve always known wrestling was more of a dramatic event than that of a sporting one. This is not to take away from the acrobatics and athletic things that wrestlers do, but more to illustrate that there is a show side and a talent side to wrestling. I liked Chris Benoit because he didn’t really “do” the show side of wrestling. He didn’t do interviews, he didn’t take the mike in the ring and launch into a diatribe about his opponent, and his matches were never really over the top. With Benoit, there was some validity to the sport. When he came out it, was to wrestle not to blow smoke, the crowd cheered him for what he did, not how he acted. It is because of how he acted in the ring that this tragic event seems harder to take. Benoit seemed so straight edge, its surprising to think his personal life was not like his wrestling career; straight forward and to the point with no complicated story lines.

It has only been in recent years that I can honestly say that a famous person’s death has affected me. To children death just means someone is gone, your emotional ties really aren’t that strong unless the person was close to you. As a child when a celebrity passed away it was hard to understand why my parents wanted to watch the news report or comment on memories of the person. As an adult I now realize what my parents were feeling. It is not grief, at least in the way we grieve for a family member, but rather a grief for ourselves, the realization that the people that we idolize and put on a pedestal are really no different from us when it comes down to it. With Chris Benoit it is even more disturbing to think that he allegedly committed a heinous criminal act, an act that we believe can only be carried out by the lowest in our society. It is on this that this celebrity death may affect me even more in that I looked up to this person in a way, and now I feel let down to a point. It takes the idolization out of fame and heroes and is a truly sobering thought. I guess this is part of becoming an adult, realizing that our heroes are no different from everyone else, that they are subject to the same tragedies as the rest of society.

I apologize for the disorganization of this initial effort and I promise get better. I also promise that this somber posting will not be the typical post that I will put forth going forward. Please feel free to comment, criticize or whatever else.

husk