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August 07, 2005
Newport Folk Festival
Saturday I went for the day to the Newport Folk festival with my friend Brian. Hot sun: We baked for eight hours on the grass listening to music. The festival rolled right along, most of it pretty good. We saw the Holmes Brothers, Ray LaMontagne, Dell McCoury Band, Bela Fleck acoustic trio, Patty Griffin, Richard Thompson, and the Pixies acoustic. I also caught a little bit of the excellent Foghorn Stringband at the Strings tent. Incredible this Old Time revival, isn't? Theirs was the most attentive and enthusiastic audience there.
Parking was no problem, and it was a mellow and enjoyable scene. I liked Richard Thompson's show the most, followed by Patty Griffin, Bela Fleck, and Dell McCoury. Openers Holmes Bros. left me a little cold, as did Ray LaMontagne. I didn't know the Pixies really, and can't say they did much for me, acoustic or plugged in.
Posted by John at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2005
The Plough and Stars (continued)
I heard a rumor that the bar closed due to problems with their lease after some new people moved in upstairs, two floors above, and complained about noise. Excuse me, but when you move in over an established bar, I kinda think that the noise comes with the place. Friggin yuppies.
*****
Update and mea culpa (added 9:50 a.m.): fact checked this story while walking along Mass Ave. this morning and saw that the building only has one story, no apartments above it. So...who know where that story came from. Some guy told me. Maybe he meant somewhere else. Good thing you weren't relying on me for real news, huh! So, which bar closed because of complaints like this? Oh, lousy memory, damn...
Posted by John at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)
¿Quién Diablos es Juliette?
(Eng: Who the Hell is Juliette?) This is a charming little mock-mocumentary (!) by Mexican music video director Carlos Marcovich.
The best summary I've found is here.
The film makes Cuba look very appealing, Italian sex tourists very much not (they look like the Germans in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, except noisier). It's a very reflexive and self-referential film about the life of a Havana teenager he met and cast while filming a video there. Features everybody as themselves, in particular 16-yr. old Juliette Ortega and her family and the gorgeous Mexican model Fabiola Quiroz.
I used to understand some Spanish. Man, those Cubans talk fast!
I watched it while halfway through the novel Dreaming in Cuban. It took me a long time to get into the book; the film propelled me into it more deeply, I think, and I ending up liking the novel in the end.
Posted by John at 12:22 AM | Comments (1)
August 02, 2005
Dennis Oil Can Boyd, July 4th
I finally developed my pictures of Oil Can pitching for the Brockton Rox at Campanelli Stadium against the Bangor Grays, July 4, 2005.
Posted by John at 11:48 PM | Comments (0)
Thunder and lightning
Great storm last night. Woke me up. Huge flashes, sometimes quite close. I honestly can't remember the last time I experienced a storm like that. Growing up in Maryland, they were regular fixtures of summer nights. Much later, the year in Mississippi, I went through a lot too, although they were tinged with the anxious possibility of an accompanying tornado. I would wait for the sirens, which occasionally went off. The last couple of summers in Ithaca, NY, were too cold and rainy to generate many thunderstorms. This one in Boston last night was like a roller coaster: probably quite safe, lots of shake and bang. After a big t-storm I sleep like a baby.
Posted by John at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)