Bonnaroo 2009 – Day 2

Friday, June 12, 2009

Because it was so humid, if you weren’t awake by 9 a.m., the heat woke you. And being outside of the tent wasn’t much better than being inside, since the wind hardly blew.

Friday was probably my favorite day at the festival. I honestly don’t remember exactly what we did before we left for a show around 4 p.m. I think, though, we walked around, looking at different booths and camp sites.

Around 4 (I swear it felt earlier than that) we headed over to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Um, this was my nice view:

I could only see Karen O’s yellow pants and some of Nick’s hair flopping around.

After sweating through a couple of songs, we left to watch Grizzly Bear. We stood in mud puddles for a few more songs and then left to the Troo Music Lounge, which is, as it turns out, where we should have been the whole time.

We missed the beginning of Heypenny’s set, but not much. They were very, very energetic and fun. They also did an amazing cover of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” which I still think they should record as a b-side or something.

Right after them, The Features came on. It was incredibly hot and I had finished all of my water. The sun started to shift and even though we were in the front, under the tent, the heat still got to us. Anyway, they were uh-may-zing and the crowd was really into it.

I thought being right next to the speakers would make the sound a bit muffled or too loud, but it wasn’t a problem. The sound guy took forever with soundcheck, though, so maybe that had something to do with it.

I think after that we went back to our site to get more water and came right back. That’s one thing about festivals, amusement parks and events held at stadiums that I don’t like – they won’t let you bring your own provisions. Instead, they want you to buy half a cup of ice and a dash of beverage for $5.

Around 8:30 p.m. we were back at the Troo Music Lounge. We got there early so we could get a good spot to see Justin Townes Earle. We sat through most of Jets Overhead’s set. At one point, a drunken guy went past the barricade and onto the stage, dancing across the speakers, asking for something to drink. He was eventually escorted out, but it was funny.

After Jets Overhead finished their set, Phoenix was doing an interview with Spin to the left of the stage. I remember them saying something about Americans looking exotic. I told Michael this was probably as close as we’d get to them that night… (I was right.)

While we were waiting for the next show, we sat by a tree and listened to Lucinda Williams play. One guy was meditating while she sang “You Took My Joy.”

 

And another guy fell asleep.

More and more people started crowding around, so we nabbed our spot up front. One of the guy’s next to me chain-smoked and kept rocking the barricade, which got on my nerves.

Some people up front knew who Justin was, and some older guys behind us said they came just on a whim, because the Troo Music Lounge generally has cool acts. “Is this Steve Earle’s boy?”

Cory Younts wasn’t there, which Michael was a bit disappointed about, but he really liked the show anyway. I could hear him singing behind me the whole time.

Either before or after the encore, Justin told us to be safe, which is what Matt from The Features said earlier, except he had said something about there being a lot of crazies out there. I don’t think I ever ran into any, but I did see a lot of guys wearing kilts and skirts…a lot.

Michael wanted to meet JTE afterwards, so he did that. Then we quickly went over to That Tent to see Phoenix. We had 30 minutes before they came on, but the closest we were able to make it to the stage was about halfway. The ground was really soft in that area, so the dirt/sand kept sloshing around. Again, it got really hot under the tent, and not too many people around me knew the words to any of the songs. It was really, really fun to watch the rest of the crowd sing the “hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey’s” in “1901.”

 

Michael liked them, so that was the second musical conversion of the day (the other being The Features). They finished around 12:15 a.m. and we headed back to the tent. I kind of wanted to see Public Enemy, but we never did.

More photos and videos here.

Bonnaroo 2009 – Day 1

This is the first of four Bonnaroo 2009 posts. I’ve been meaning to do these since June, but never did. Then I meant to do it again in December, after I got my B’roo 2010 ticket. Well, here it is.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

It was my first time at Bonnaroo, and I went with my older brother, Michael. It rained on and off that morning, so we had to load our stuff into the truck in the garage.

We took some back roads to Manchester and didn’t run into any traffic until we got to the turnoff to Bonnaroo. I think it took us an hour or an hour and a half waiting in line. People walked up and down the road either wanting to sell you something or just flat-out asking for money. Some wanted you to buy a tie-dye t-shirt, some wanted you to buy food and some kids just wanted you to help send their choir/chess team/whatever to Washington, D.C. The key is no eye contact. The wait was so long for some people that they ducked into the nearby bushes to go to the bathroom. It was either that or walk all the way back to the Kangaroo gas station.

We finally made it in, got our stuff sort of searched and claimed our spot. It wast hot and humid. We looked at the schedule and decided to wait until that night to see some stuff.

It started raining when we went to see some shows. We waited for-ev-er in line to get searched and admitted into the stage area. There were so many mud puddles around the tents, ready to snatch your shoe (and possibly your leg) if you dared to cross their paths.

We went to see Those Darlins at the Troo Music Lounge. They were at 8:30 p.m. They were pretty energetic. The crowd loved them, especially some drunk guy in the front. It started to rain harder, so we jet on over to This Tent to see Chairlift.

Michael didn’t know who Chairlift was, so I kept trying to tell him, “You know that song from the Apple commercial – the ‘I tried to do handstands for you, I tried to do handstands for you’?” He didn’t know what I was talking about until he heard ”Bruises.” Chairlift was supposed to come on at 10 p.m., but for some reason it was later than that. It was so crowded under the tent. I think some people were just trying to get out of the rain. The stuffiness started getting to some people, I guess, because two folks in the crowd passed out. After that second girl fell over and woke up not knowing what happened to her, we decided to get on out of there.

That night it rained so much. I don’ t know when it stopped. I woke up in the middle of the night cold and wet. Turns out the rain was leaking into the tent. It went through the tarp, the tent, some trash bags (which, for some reason, I thought would help…), a sleeping bag, two beach towels and my clothes. Michael’s side was completely dry. We huddled in the left side of the tent for the rest of the night, and he finally switched spots with me. Come morning, my pants were still wet.

Long time, no type

I’ve been away for a while. First out of laziness, busy-ness, and then I didn’t have Internet for a week, and then I was out of town (where Internet and phone service is nearly unheard of) for another week.

I’m back, though. I don’t know how much I’ll keep up with this. Since the last blog I’ve written two more articles, became news editor, got a personal story chosen for an online publication, graduated, enjoyed time with the fam for holidays and helped my dad hook up a water pipe to his shop building.

I’m sad for the break to end, as I’m not quite sure what I’m doing this year yet. Technically (and according to some), I’m returning to school…but I haven’t heard anything back from the university yet, and when I checked the three classes I could take, without being declared, two of them were full and closed for registration. The third and open one was management. I’m not taking that. Now, I know there’s probably a way around this for me to get into those other two classes. I could probably talk to the professors and get permission from the department, or something, but… I don’t know. Honestly, it’d be fine either way for me. Get the classes = all right. Don’t get the classes = a nice break. I’m supposed to sort out some of the mess tomorrow. 

I also need to write thank-you cards. I’ve been putting that off for quite some time. My goal’s to get them sent off on Monday. Not sure what I’m doing for the one I got from an aunt who sent me three crinkled $5 bills inside a birthday card for graduation… When I talked to her on the phone, she seemed to not remember sending anything and said she’d send a check. My dad blames her medication.

Anyway, I’m also going to recap my 2009 Bonnaroo experience for four days, which I’d been meaning to since…well, June.

I wish I were Rip Van Winkle

I finally got some sleep Thursday morning. I had been going to bed around 3:30 a.m. the four previous nights (or days?). Although those 11 hours of slumber felt good, I was still tired when I woke up. I think it helped restore some of the sleep-deprivation damage I had done.

I slept in again this morning, but whenever I sleep it makes me feel a bit guilty, like those minutes or hours should be filled with writing essays or studying. With graduation around the corner, most people just ask me if I’m excited for it. I can’t think about Saturday, though. I’m worried about Monday.  Once Monday’s over, I’ll be worried about Tuesday, and Thursday will be looming ever so closely.

This coming week will be busy up to the very end – papers, final exams, transcriptions, meetings, office work, workshop, magazine project, job logs, interviews, on-campus event and newspaper articles.

It’s times like these that I wish I were Rip Van Winkle…except for, you know, the whole deteriorated-family thing.

Should’ve included this in my SM plan…

…except I’m not sure that it’s strictly social-media related (unless maybe some random facts were shared in tweets, or something).

But companies (including you, Dove) should put basic background information and stats on their Web sites, um, probably in the About Us section. Dove’s owner, Unilever, had some information – albeit, minimal – about Dove, but it wasn’t too helpful.

This lack of information always bugged me, especially when I was citing Web sites for research papers and couldn’t find any information on the author, publication date or anyone else who was supposed to be in charge.

Me and my big mouth

I always do this. Someone will ask me to do something and I’ll nearly always say yes. And nearly always afterwards I’ll think, “I shouldn’t have done that.”

Today was no different.

I’m already freaking out about graduating in a couple of weeks. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do after graduation. It’s easier when you’re in high school: you graduate and go to college. But once you graduate college, there’s no definite. So at the last minute, I decided to go ahead and take a couple of graduate classes next semester. (Though, I was mostly coaxed into doing this by my dad.) And I suppose I’ve decided to major in mass communication, although the course names seem frightening. It took me until my junior year to officially declare an undergraduate major; what else would I pick?! The only other subject I’d enjoy is English, but I don’t know that that’d get me anywhere.

Anyway, I wanted to know if I was still going to school so I can see if there were still writing positions at the two on-campus publications, which I’m currently writing for, before they’re gone. I just checked with the student-run paper and not only can I still write for it, but the upcoming editor asked me to be the new news editor. What did I say? You guessed it: Sure (with a little hesitance, mind you).

The thing is, I still want to write for another campus publication that’s a bit more relaxed with deadlines, so there wouldn’t be too much pressure to hurry and get a story out. I don’t think I can juggle classes and being a news editor. The title sounds nice, but not the responsibility. If only there were enough lackeys for me to put all the stories on…

I don’t have the position yet, though. I have to interview, but I’m thinking I might just have to bite the bullet and remain a staff writer, or something.

Self-esteem workshops for boys?

If Dove’s Men + Care products became more widespread like Dove’s other products, would a self-esteem workshop for boys be made since there’s one for girls? Would it be appropriate?

This is one of the reasons I think Dove’s Men + Care products would work in the U.S. If Dove were to sell a line of men’s personal care prodcuts, audiences, I think, would expect Dove to also create male versions of the Real Beauty campaign and workshops. The broadening of the brand would just be too much.

Whaaaaat?

The other day my brother pointed this video out to me. It was airing on a country music television station.

What the mess? Margaret Durante covering Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody”? I don’t know who Margaret is, but she shouldn’t have covered this in the first place, nor should she have made it a single.

Dove…for men?

I was originally looking for a video I had found the other week that a YouTuber made about a male version of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, when I came upon this:

 

 

It’s a video (not quite sure if it’s an ad) of men being asked what comfort means to them.

I had no idea Unilever, the company Dove belongs to, launched products for men in Italy in September 2009. It’s called Dove Men + Care.

Although I think this is a student project, could Dove Men + Care create a self-confidence campaign (similar to what my last Dove post was about) geared just toward men? Could DM + C really become the male equivalent of the “standard” Dove?

 

 

Unilever wanted to broaden its demographic for soap products. According to CosmeticsDesign.com:

A brand spokesperson for Unilever Italy told Cosmetics Design that the main aim in this decision was to ‘tap into Italy’s growing male grooming market, starting in the two segments that the Dove brand is already known for: deodorants and body wash.’

 According to MarketingWeek.co.uk, the brand’s target audience is “over 35-year-olds.” The shower gels and deoderants come in two types: Extra Fresh and Clean Comfort.

Daryl Fielding, the woman who’s credited with creating Dove’s campaign strategy for Real Beauty, said, “The essence of the brand is about honesty and not conforming to stereotypes of beauty. That essence is eminently usable for a men’s brand.”

In addition to Italy, Dove Men + Care is also in Belgium and the Netherlands. The Marketing Week article says Unilever has ”no imminent plans for a UK launch.”

Would this product be better suited for European countries? Would it work in the United States, or will the machismo mentality make it difficult for consumers to dissociate Dove as a women-only brand?

That’s not my headline

Earlier this week I went to a “Black in America” forum on campus. It lasted a little more than two hours, but it was fun. Plus, there was food, and I hadn’t eaten anything all day.

Jeff Reid, executive producer of CNN’s “Black in America” documentaries, and Reggie Bullock, independent filmmaker of “A War for Your Soul,” showed some of their works and talked a little afterwards.

At one point, the audience stood up and, in unison, read this passage about not being afraid to be brilliant, great and successful. It seemed very motivational. We even chanted “I am valuable. My body is valuable. My mind is valuable. And my dreams are valuable” several times.

Everyone I talked to was really nice and, to me, it seemed like the whole point of this forum was about motivation, self-help and breaking away from constraints (whatever they may be) to better oneself.

However, when I checked the article, which was published today, the headline mentions how it’s about fighting racism. Personally, I didn’t think racism was much of an issue. Sure, separating from stereotypes was part of it, but it was never about one race, or a group of races, against another.

It’s one thing for readers to think the typos and punctuational errors are all mine, and another for them to think I created that title, believing that’s what the whole story was about.