Brooke Takes a Fall

Brooke took quite a header today. Big time crash at three ball: Blood everywhere, quite the mess. This photo taken a few minutes before she ran her 32 MPH pass; something she's been working on all summer. Hope she is back on the water soon.

Scott was in the boat to pluck her from the water...

While Dave and Tony attended to first aid...

It's not fall yet!

A stupid LL Bean catalog came in the mail the other day with Rangeley fall image prononcing "Fall 2005". Fuck you! It's barely July. I'm just poking my way through twenty-two off. Now is not the time to announce fall ANYTHING!

Summertime, Finally

The rain retreats and we have a fabulous (long) fourth of July weekend in store.

Thinking about Graph-Machines

I was given the opportunity to think about graph-machines at the El Capitan Canyon resort near Santa Barbara.

Capped off the trip seeing Stu and having dinner on the town at local legend "The Palace"...

Dube's Pond Slalom Festival 2005

Yesterday we held the first slalom tournament of the season at Dube's Pond. It wasn't the coldest of them all; but it sure wasn't too hot either. A misty cloudy thing was going on for most of the morning. I did surprisingly well my first round, but then I usually choke in tournaments, and stayed true to that in rounds two and three. The sun came out around 3 PM as we were packing up to go home. Lot's of pictures after the jump...


Dube's Pond Slalom Festival 2005
Dube's Pond Classic 13 2004
Dube's Pond Snake Pit Open 2004

Bonnaroo Return

Saturday was great, even the rain couldn't dampen our spirits. Some could even nap...


Saw and heard..

Kings of Leon, Mouse on Mars, Particle, Jack Johnson, Keller Williams, Panic, Trey, DJ Krush

Whew!

On the road back...

This truck was blown off the road near Chattanooga by the wind and rain...

Bonnaroo Saturday Morning

Jeff makes camp and so now there are three. It starts to rain just a little, which is fine, but more significant rain is in the forecast. We see Alison Krauss & Union Station for starters. Then Jurassic 5. Then the Allman Brothers. I mention to Jeff that my teen-age rock band, The Golden Mushroom, was covering songs like “why does love got to be so sad” and “in memory of Elisabeth reed” over thirty years ago! Covering these songs. Thirty years ago. Yikes.

After the Allmans, onto a bit of Herbie Hancock with the funky compressed bass, then over to see Mike Gordon with the Benevento / Russo Duo (really a trio). In what was a Bonnaroo moment, they covered “Foam” and the audience totally got into it. The crowd sang along…

But the foam keeps getting thicker

And it just keeps getting harder

...as if some of them had heard it before. Then Dave Matthews Band on the main stage. I was really impressed with his performance (with Trey sitting in) last year; this year was kind of ho-hum. Good lights, however. And to cap off the day, The Mars Volta. Seriously twisted stuff, but in a good way.

So here it is Saturday morning, spitting rain, gray skies, and two more days of music ahead!

Bonnaroo Friday Morning

The importance of pacing one’s self at Bonnaroo can not be over emphasized. The kind scene and sweltering heat is a catalyst for, well just about for anything. Thursday night we saw the end of Signal Path’s set. Then waited for what seemed an interminable duration for the not-so Perpetual Groove to do their thing. Headed back to camp before Les Claypool came on. Actually was in bed, sort-of-asleep, before 2 AM.

Nice breezy morning so far; anxious for the real tunes to start. I’m either going to see Alison Krauss or Joanna Newsom to kick the day off.

An oh yeah, Jeff should be here soon!

View from Camp Airstream

Arrived and made camp at area VIP-E, check it out!

Bonnaroo Short Final

At the KOA campground a stone’s throw from Bonnaroo. Bibiana is asleep, probably tired of hearing me stress-out all day on the ride down from Martinsville. But now the stress is almost gone. There are all sorts of strange goings-on outside. And this is Wednesday evening at 9 PM!

A busy pre-Bonnaroo Week

First a moose comes up the hill...

Then Heidi stops by...

Then there is frantic waterskiing at the pond...

The rain subsides

Finally it feels like May, well at least May 1st. I love being out on the pond.

can'tneverdidnothin'

Nikka Costa, Fuck Yeah! In the 90's I was so totally into Wendy and Lisa. They knocked it out of the park with the Tchad Blake produced "Girl Bros." Awesome twisted funky shit. Really hard to top that. So I'm smiling now listening to Nikka Costa's latest - played very loud.

Meanwhile, the week of rain came to an end. Brooke and I got out on the water for a short set this afternoon. Only our third of the season. The water temp had fallen to 55 with all the rain. Brrr. But sweet none the less.

Dube's Pond 2005: Day Two

I think Tony's expert driver-coaching will pay off!

Dube's Pond 2005 Season Opener

Give or take, this is like my tenth season at Dube's. Perhaps a week or two later than the average annual opener, today was my first day on the water. After Dave tore his other Achilles last year, Brooke (left below with Margaret in a photo from 2004) has been my lets-go-ski-now! shining influence. Kind of like Chris, but without the schedule-I narcotics. So of we went this afternoon for a sublime set in the not-so-chilly 61 degree water. Just getting 6 at 30 MPH felt great!

Cinco de Mayo

It was five years ago, on our annual pilgrimage to some local Mexican-motif chain lounge, that Nancy introduced us to Melanie. So last night we went out to a slightly more-authentic venue and bathed our clothes in the thick smell of cigarette smoke.

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves

"Eats, Shoots, & Leaves" is the Lynne Truss tome that Lesley suggested I read. Yesterday seemed a fine day to give it a go, and it was OK. I was a little crispy from the night before with Susan, Mike and Diane. But how bumpy a ride should a book about punctuation really be? Plus, all the brit humor made it worthwhile.

The E90s arrive

Well, the local BMW dealer is calling to say they want to sell us a car. Great. I really miss our 1982 Saabs. They were so "Saab"! Too bad GM actually wants to make money. Hey, hold on! They aren't! So why not some quirkly-cool niche AWD hybrid turbo funk thing?

Cool Eatz in Menlo Park

Here in Menlo Park at Chez Cyndi before flying back to Boston in the morning. Someone told me that my flight is exactly three seats overbooked; I should be OK. Had dinner at Flea St Cafe with Cyndi, Phil, Brian, and Becky. Good stuff. Jesse and Francisco rock!

Post-NAB Post-FCCM Post-Tahoe

After two solid days of the ski, drink, eat, and sleep ritual, the weather is has finally given out. Phil left yesterday afternoon when he heard the magic word "icing". Not sure about Becky and Brian's departure, but we had dinner with them at Mamasake last night. I suspect that they want to avoid the rain and scattered t-storms in the area. Thinking that we will have a nice morning here at Plumpjack with Cyndi and Steve, then off to Palo Alto ville.