Summer Camp 2012 - The Weir, Robinson, Greene Acoustic Trio

Drawing Done by Stephanie at Summer Camp 2012

The Sun Shine stage was just starting to fill in when we arrived an hour early. With a signed copy of my trans-realist, sci-fi novel, ‘Scarlet Begonias’, in hand, I sidled up to the sound board guys to see if they could slip it to Bobby after the show. I started with the camera guy, but he only had a press pass and wasn’t part of the crew.  Then I leaned over the railing to ask the guys tweaking knobs at the board. They said that they were just hired techies with no backstage access at all. It seemed that reaching my target was going to be more difficult than I’d anticipated, especially after the ease with which I was able to connect with Keller Williams earlier in the day.

I walked to the front of the stage which was crammed tight with a sea of photographers, so I stopped at the far right side where two security guards were positioned. I asked them if they’d be able to give the book to Bobby.  They said no, but another guy heard me asking and told me that he’d see what he could do. I thanked him, and he disappeared into the restricted access zone.

It was getting close to show time, and I’d left my family back by the Ali Babba Kabob stand a half hour ago, so I decided to give it just one more try. I spotted another guy who looked like he had access to the inner sanctum. The first guy hadn’t come back yet, so I asked this one if he could give my book to Bobby. He said he’d try and scurried off with the signed copy just as the crowd was standing up to welcome the trio onto the stage.

The wind blew Bobby’s hair, now grey, as he stepped up to the mike with the unassuming saunter of a seasoned rock star. I felt a surge of excitement that brought back memories of the 40+ shows I’d seen in my twenties when the breeze would tousle his hair in just the same way.

Eleven songs, most of which I’d seen performed by the Dead, comprised the hour long set that felt strangely distant and moved at a tempo slower than any I’d remembered. They started the show off with Truckin’, a selection that I found disappointing since it’s played on the Grateful Dead channel on satellite radio so often that the station’s name should be the Truckin’ channel.

And although the songs were expertly executed, I was missing the connection with the audience that was always present when I’d seen the Grateful Dead in the past. Maybe it was the fact that the majority of the audience (most likely born just a few years before Jerry died) had missed the opportunity to experience the intimacy that had developed between the band and their dedicated fans. Or maybe the connection was there, but the music wasn’t loud enough back by the falafel stand where we were sitting to be fully engaged (I never had to protect the hearing of an 8 year old kid back in the day). Or maybe I just had poke around the unfamiliar ensemble a bit and make peace with the fact that, with only one member of the Grateful Dead present, it wasn’t fair to judge this acoustic trio against the heady remembrances of the long, long ago.

So I plucked out the juiciest bits and am leaving the rest for further consideration:

Iko Iko - I’ve never heard a version I didn’t like.

Deep Elem Blues –Whenever the ‘song-which-shall-not-be-played-so-often’ comes on the radio, I switch over to the Blue Grass channel where I sometimes hear Deep Elem Blues being played by a bunch of picking maniacs. The frequency of this occurrence struck me as quite improbable, and I sure do love me some improbability, so this song made me happy.

Uncle John’s Band –I made my daughter walk up to the sound board with me for this one because I used to play it on the open-mike circuit in Chicago. The harmony vocals were spot on, and it felt really good to sing along.

Not Fade Away – I couldn’t help but feel sad during this one since it was obvious that fading had indeed occurred. I was brought to tears when I heard this song for the last time in 1995 (April 2^nd, The Pyramid – Memphis, TN) because it carried the eeriest sense of imminent release, foretelling the future with a subtle reluctance to fully commit to the message in the lyrics, despite the desperate appeals being chanted from the audience.

All things considered, there’s still no better way I could imagine spending an evening, and I am grateful for the experience. 

Summer Camp 2012


Thursday


We arrived at in Chillicothe at 3:30, too late to catch Caravan of Thieves scheduled to play at the Campfire stage by the entrance of the dusty campgrounds. The check-in process was relatively painless, and by 4:00 Greg was dragging our wagon, bungie corded to overflowing, toward the main Shakedown drag. AfroZep, a Led Zeppelin cover band with a percussion army, played the Immigrant Song to welcome us to our new home.


The afternoon heat hadn’t been subdued by the overcast sky, and a strong wind was blowing the dust from the paths into our eyes. It was a powdery dust that would plague us for the next four days. I heaved my rucksack higher onto my shoulders and we set out to select our campsite.


I requested that we stay in the wooded area by the Camping stage, but Greg pleaded for us to keep moving toward higher ground, remembering how flooded it became in 2004 before we were evacuated due to a tornado warning.


We finally settled in front of the Soul Shine stage and set up our tent as the wind picked up and the sky turned darker to threaten a repeat, but my phone told me we were safe, so we trudged on. Chloe sat on tarps and flaps to keep them from blowing away, and soon our $60 tent was erected. Note to self - Investigate $100 tents next time.


By the time we’d tested out the facilities, bought snacks, and chugged Gatoraides while walking the length of the grounds – it was already after nine and the sun was starting to set. We caught the tail end of Trichrome at the wooded Camping stage and then trudged through the dust to the Star Shine stage at the far north end to check out Cornmeal. By eleven we were ready to call it a night.


Armed with a roll of toilet paper, I scrubbed the port-o-let seat for Chloe, not yet tall enough to execute the acrobatic feat of hovering over the stanky hole while keeping your shorts from touching the floor (note to self – buy one of those camping toilet tents for next time), and then we crawled into our tent to add the first layer of dust to our bedding.


Since our tent was just outside of the Soul Shine stage, we were treated to the Chicago Super Jam from 12-3am, hosted by Zmick & Old Shoe with special guest – Family Groove Company whose bassist, Janis Wallin, I met at a bass workshop on Sunday.


We woke early on Friday, and sought out the air-conditioned bathrooms on the opposite side of the grounds. They were gloriously clean and even flushed. Greg paid his $3.00 to shower (I opted to wait until Saturday to fight my dusty, tangled hair battle), and then we were off to Shakedown to see our breakfast options.


I dropped my phone off at the phone charger lady, and then we waited an abnormally long time for Chloe’s $8.00 pancakes. I wasn’t hungry, so I paid my $4.00 for the first of an insane number of iced teas and lemon shake-ups.


The first band of the day was moe.. We were early and sat in partial shade in front of the soundboard. When the Earth rotated to face the blistering, non-time sun, we bugged out and headed to the shaded back of the Moon Shine stage area located on the far South side of the campgrounds.


After settling in at the tree line, we were told that poison ivy had been spotted and to use some weed (don’t remember its name) if we broke out in a rash. We bugged out again started to walk back around the fence to the grass in front of the woods. Three people noticed our evacuation and jumped up to hold a breached section of the fence down for us to climb over, giggling with happiness that they could make our next five minutes more enjoyable. It was then that I remembered why I love these kind of festivals. The people are different, the mood is different, everyone is happy and helpful. When I grow up I want to live at a festival (Chloe doesn’t share that opinion).


More to follow…
       

Off to Summer Camp

Stephanie is off to Summer Camp.  We will get no posts from her for a short while.  But I asked her to tell me about this Summer Camp music festival.  She invited me along but I'm too boring, hate camping and have too much going down with the kid's last days of school.  I do miss going to Dead shows with Steph but I was never the music festival lover.  The Dead shows were different.  (at least to me)  Stephanie loves them and I'm glad she gets to go to this one.  Here's what she had to say about the whole thing...

I'm off to Summer Camp 2012 (http://summercampfestival.com/) tomorrow with Greg and Chloe.  I'm very excited.  We haven't been to a big multi-day festival since Bonaroo 2009. At Summer Camp, you have to park your car at the festival entrance and then haul all of your camping stuff to your site.  It's cool because the scene inside is more magical without all of the cars, but it's a lot more work to get setup, and you have to travel REAL light. We learned our lesson the first time we went.

There was a tornado warning. Everyone had to packup all of their stuff in five minutes and rush everything to their cars.  There were 50 mph winds and hail. We brought Chloe (she was 9 months old). I was rolling her stroller through mud puddles with our sleeping bags hanging off of my neck and a duffle bag sitting on the stroller canopy over her head. Greg was carrying everything else.

We got special treatment since we had Chloe and got to hang out with the bands in the "safe" structure (the only structure), before the parking lot to wait until Greg got the car packed up. They gave us hot chocolate. I like being a girl.

The main bands we are going to see this weekend are: Bob Weir's acoustic trio, moe., Umphry's, Primus, Jane's Addiction, Keller Williams, ...

Brian Markovitz from www.deadheadland.com asked me to take a few pictures and write a couple of blurbs about the weekend. He tried to hook up a press pass, but I think it was too late to make it happen. I'll still try to get an interview if possible, and I definitely want to find a way to get a copy of the book to Bobby.

I want to use my phone to tweet cool stuff here and there, but I don't think they will have charging stations, and I don't know if I will even have wi-fi reception there - I'll try, if not - I'll dump it all when I get back.  I wish you were going too!


Thanks Steph!  When Stephanie returns she has promised a full review of the festival.  I look forward to hearing all about it.  Even if I am too lame to go.  :)

What are your biggest fears?





I think I’m afraid of success. The prospect of it scares me, mostly financial success – getting money drunk and not managing the earnings properly – or becoming gluttonous to the point of desensitization, or having financial success, and then loosing it. 


This happened in 2006 when I found myself unemployed, paying two mortgages (one on a house that was being trashed by non-paying renters), and didn’t find a suitable job for six months. Being forced to be frugal, after having loads of discretionary cash, was a sobering experience – but the experience made me appreciate good steaks and leather seats all the more once we dug ourselves out of debt.


I think I need to re-read Shakti Gawain’s book, ‘Creative Visualization’, to put the success of ‘Scarlet Begonias’ and the concept of abundance into perspective. I didn’t expect to have the number of sales (before Kindle availability) and web site visits in the first month of publication.


I’m planning to use the profits to fund Chloe’s college fund and mine and Greg’s retirement fund.  If I don’t see the money, I won’t fear it.


Even more than success, I’m afraid of conflict. I’ll do just about anything to avoid it. In the 13 years that I’ve been with Greg, I think we’ve only had one or two real fights, and they occurred sometime in the first two years. I do, however, fight with my 8 year old daughter, Chloe. I find her unhappiness excruciating, and she knows it. She’s become an emotional terrorist – actually she’s been one since birth.


And even more than my fear of conflict – of an inability to diplomatically resolve them - or of knowing when to swallow my pride and when to stand my ground, I fear that I won’t conquer that fear before Chloe is a teenager. She’s not the boss of me!

When Would You Go?

If you could time travel...WHEN...would you go?

 

I feel like I already answered this question.  I could swear I tried to anyway.  I don't think I want to actually TIME TRAVEL until I can workout Robert A. Heinlein's (All You Zombies) Paradox. 

 

"'—All You Zombies—'" chronicles a young man (later revealed to be intersex) taken back in time and tricked into impregnating his younger, female self (before he underwent a sex change); he thus turns out to be the offspring of that union, with the paradoxical result that he is his own mother and father. As the story unfolds, all the major characters are revealed to be the same person, at different stages of her/his life.

 

http://home.windstream.net/dwrighsr/Heinlein/AllYouZombies.html - A chart that tries to map out the paradox.

(Note: this might make it appear that there is a 2-dimensional time continuum, but that is not the case. The various lines are simply separated for demonstration purposes. Furthermore, the diagram can be thought of as being the viewpoint that a fifth-dimensional observer would have. All of the first four dimensions, 3 space and one of time are contained in the lines going back and forth across the page and we are looking at them from the next higher dimensional viewpoint.)

 

This paradox currently reinforces my opinion that there is no such thing as TIME TRAVEL, only PERCEPTION TRAVEL.  And I could really swear that I've already answered this question once already!

 

Now, I can ignore my opinion and pretend that I really believe in time travel (like the excellent adventure of Bill and Ted) and try to pick a date in the history or future that I am curious about. But I really don't have the desire, because where ever I go, there I am. And I like I Am-ing right here, right now.  I used to want to go further...but I think I am there.

 

OK, I know you still aren't happy with my answer.  Let's say I decide that I want to go forward in time when we all have bionic bodies that never wear out. Think about the implications...

 

Did you ever read 'Jitterbug Perfume' by Tom Robbins?  I just realized that I was strongly influenced by this book, much more so that I'd ever thought.

 

"The universe does not have laws. It has habits. And habits can be broken".

http://dagsrule.com/tom_robbins.html

Dead Shows

Today I want to know more about Stephanie's interest in the Dead.  After all the book is titled Scarlet Begonia's after one of their best songs (IMO).  So I asked her to tell me about her favorite show/shows or favorite moments.






I know I’m kind of rambling, but it’s just stream of consciousness. A funny thing about that Las
Vegas show was that I met a guy named Vince who came to the show from San Diego with a girl
who was the ex-girlfriend of my boyfriend’s frat brother. Anyway, I’d been reading the Carlos
Castanedas books like a fiend and was in the middle of ‘Journey to Ixtlan’ and was all jazzed up
on talking about dreaming and finding my hands and stuff, and this guy Vince “got it”. After
that night I never saw him again. Years later, Kim (you) were working at Bed, Bath, and Beyond
and said that you worked with an artist who used to live in San Diego and I knew right then that
it was the same guy – and it was


------------
Another particularly stellar moment that came to mind was version of ‘Matilda’ played at
the Pyramid (Tennessee?) in 1994 or 1995. There was a guest drummer and my mind was
completely blown away – I’ve never heard it again since then, but I’m pretty sure they were
whipping up some mighty magic there. If anyone has a copy, I’d love to check it out.


------
GD Ticket Stub – 1991 Las Vegas (copied from internet, mine were mail-order)

Sam Boyd Silver Bowl
April 27, 1991
Las Vegas, NV US
__________________________
Touch of Grey


Walkin' Blues
Friend of the Devil
Mexicali Blues
Maggie's Farm
Loose Lucy
Cassidy
Might as Well


Sugar Magnolia
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Playin' in the Band
Uncle John's Band
drums
space
I Need a Miracle
Black Peter
One More Saturday Night


The Weight


April 28, 1991


Notes: "Casino Space" during "Drumz" - last "Sunshine Daydream": 07-16-90 [61] - Carlos Santana opened


Set List:


Jack Straw
Candyman
Wang Dang Doodle
Althea
Me and My Uncle
Big River
Bird Song


Foolish Heart
Saint of Circumstance
Crazy Fingers
Truckin'
Deal
drums
space
The Other One
Wharf Rat
Around and Around
Sunshine Daydream


Box Of Rain

Next Book?

Today's question for Stephanie is:  
What would you do differently if you were to write another book?  Her response gives us some cool insight into her writing struggles and what she's learned.

I started working with an editor, Jennifer Baumer, after I’d been writing ‘Scarlet Begonias’ for about a year and found out that I’d written the first 150 pages using a frack’d up point of view.  I was using a 3^rdperson narrator, but I wanted to be inside everybody’s head at once, and that just isn’t allowed.  So, I ended up assigning each chapter to a character, and allowed my narrator to be privy to the contents of one head per chapter.  I also only allowed the reader to hear the internal chatter (written in italics) of a character if it was ‘their’ chapter.  I spent months of backtracking and cutting in order to clean up the POV issues.

Also at around the 150 page mark (after cleaning up the POV), I bought Noah Lukeman’s book ‘The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide To Staying Out of the Rejection Pile’ (or did you buy that for me?  yes).  This book made it abundantly clear that I had to re-write the first 150 again.  I started with the first five pages, and re-wrote them for about a month.  Sometimes I would spend an hour on a paragraph.  But, after implementing the POV lessons and the lessons from Lukeman’s book (as well as those from ‘The Elements of Style’ by William Strunk, E. B. White and Roger Angell), I had transformed myself into a real writer.

So, for my next book, I think I can trim about a year or more off of the 3.5 years it took me to write (and re-write, and re-write) this one.

One thing that I won’t change is the need to craft and stick to an outline. Without it, I would have been a rambling idiot.  When I started, my outline had about 25 chapters, each with distinct settings, characters, and a basic description of my goal for plot development.  I initially kept my chapters short, and only tried to accomplish the goal of moving the story forward, not caring if the dialog was shallow or my sentence structure sounded like a 5^th grader was writing it.  My goal was to write five pages per chapter, which was a very realistic goal on a chapter by chapter basis.  And then, before I knew it, I’d written 125 very crappy pages!

But, once you poop out those first 100+ pages, and let it just be stinky poop, then you’re really rolling.  It’s all downhill and super-fun after that.  I love editing.

OK, another thing that I would change is to be more organized.  I wrote on my laptop on the train and copied stuff to a flash drive to save at work so I could email it to my editor and emailed little blurbs of wiki research to myself and rammed post-its into my backpack with single words to jog my memory about something (my memory is AWFUL). After writing this, I realize that it just won’t be possible.  I am a scattered writer – period. Even now I have a bunch of email addresses, and a website, and facebook, and linked in, and create space, and the cosmicpals blog, and twitter – staying organized is very hard.