bonnaroo highlights
i took very few pictures at bonnaroo.
sorry.
my camera was running low on batteries, they didn’t want them inside centeroo (where the musics was) anyway, and i was focused on other matters, so…
here’s the view from our tent when i woke up friday morning:
those are just a handful of the homes of the 80,000+ people who descend upon the otherwise deserted tennessee farm for three days of chaos and music.
and here’s me, after walking around all day friday, and acquiring a new piece of headwear to protect me from the sun. because no one wants to put on as much sunscreen as would be required to actually prevent blistering. so i decided to enlist material support. by sunday? i was wearing long sleeves. place was like a desert. heat and dust and tons of people higher than kites and in desperate need of hydration. fun times.
here’s my short list of highlights from the weekend:
- meeting our underage friendly neighbors from connecticut, one of whom used “phatty” at least ten times a sentence, as a general descriptor of the awesomeness of the universe entire.
- being able to loan an extra tent to the people a few cars down from us who were missing their poles. good karma from hour one.
- seeing richard thompson and feeling time stop and texting jeff when vincent black lightning was playing.
- john paul jones came out and played mandolin with gillian welch and david rawlings. it was an awesome moment. but honestly? she was super cool all on her own.
- renee taught me to play some card game with gold involved, and i could do it!
- regina spektor and damien rice both kept me wrapped around their adorable, beautiful, charming, subtle, sweet, nuanced fingers, even though some would say i should have gone to hear ziggy marley and ben harper. i don’t regret it.
- sting on a big screen with 50,000 screaming onlookers is indeed impressive.
- the flaming lips are a joy to behold. and dance to. with no restraint. and bonnaroo is brilliant because there are so few places on this earth where one can walk from the flaming lips to gov’t mule to sasha and john digweed all within the space of a night and then strike back to your tent with the sun coming up and the world feeling like a glorious marvel.
- at one point some jokester walked by us muttering under his breath “plutonium!! weapons-grade!! depleted uranium!!” as a commentary on the black market. it was amusering.
- bobby weir was there, and a bunch of hippies who came only for him. it was awesome. he played come together. and we did.
- many of the not hippies were there for widespread panic, about whom i knew very little. they put on a damn fine show. consider me schooled by the younguns. ;)
- i made two new friends of rather different stripes, but i hope to remain in touch with them both.
- as we were packing the car, we learned that our neighbors had never heard of hair. the musical i mean. we played it. they laughed. it was the campiest scene Ever. and awesome.
- on the way out, we groundscored a baby pool for jarien, a couple buckets, a sleeping mat, a decent pair of boots, a bunch of stuff i did not even process but renee found room for somehow, and, i kid you not, a four-foot tall red stuffed animal with a cardboard sign around it’s neck that proclaims: “Feed the Dragon!”
so quite the weekend, eh?
:)
on with the show!