The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.
I remember the first ONE MusicFest in 2010. For a first time festival, it was well put together, and had a great lineup that featured Atlanta’s Underground Queen Joi Gilliam, Goapele, De La Soul, and Common. The festival was well spaced, and accounted for the rain that fell mid-festival. In subsequent years ONE MusicFest has called Park Tavern, the Masquerade Music Park, and Aaron’s Amphitheater at Lakewood home. Continue reading →
A “Best of… Foto Fridays” Essay of 2012’s Music Festival travels.
2012 Ranking:
1) Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (Empire Polo Club, Indio, CA)
2) Music Midtown (Piedmont Park, Atlanta, GA)
3) Outside Lands: Music, Food, Wine, Beer, Art (Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA)
A combination of Porta-Potties, Hot sun, VIP Showers, compressed hot bodies, cold, fog, band reunions, amazing covers, crowd surfing, 90’s classics, dirt, dubstep, car camping, road trips, bad artist scheduling, vacation, plane flights, MARTA, BART, gravel, fun!
A super-hot weekend in the California desert where NBA Basketball jerseys seemed to be the uniform, water was the best thing, and music was unbelievable. Enjoy.
San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival is one that combines music, food and arts into a weekend playing out at Golden Gate Park.
Based on last year’s lineup, it was virtually a no brainer. This year’s lineup, though, included headliners who were more established and had decades of success. Stevie Wonder rounded out a group including Metallica, and Neil Young. The major highlight was Foo Fighters Friday performance on the Land’s End stage, where they performed Aurora, from the 1999 album There Is Nothing To Lose. Dave Grohl stated that they performed it especially for Outside Lands, and it was speculated that they added it to their setlist due to the recent tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. Again, Foo Fighters were the shining star of the weekend, spending time listening to my favorite band for the first time, with a fave.
Using Coachella as a measuring stick, the pros were definitely the cooler weather, though by Sunday night the fog easily made one glad that the event was ending. The app was definitely better, and the spacing of the stages was tremendously better than Coachella, where I remember rocking to The Black Keys on the Coachella Stage, and during breaks in play, I heard Explosions In The Sky (who I got to see at OLF) playing on the Outdoor Theatre which was steps away. Only two stages (Twin Peaks Stage and the Panhandle Stage) closely bordered each other at OLF. However, the sets that neatly fit between the hours of 12 noon until 10 left you wanting for more, and the commute back and forth was taxing, as opposed to walking back to your tent and crashing.
Coachella’s car camping, and sets that ran well into the wee hours of the night, morning…take your pick, were a definite added bonus. Also, the diversity of Coachella’s acts compared to Outside Lands 2012 were a bonus that ranked Coachella higher. Other than a sprinkling of Atlanta’s (yeah) Big Boi (likely making up his set from 2011) and a lack luster Santigold set (she killed her set at Coachella in the heat with her energy, but she has me NOT anticipating her Atlanta debut next month), most other acts were similar in genre and nothing really separated the acts.
Listening to people I ran into after the festival, who had been to Coachella, Outside Lands, Bonaroo, and some others, they were not as high on this year’s OLF, due to the lineup, length of show, and the crowds (that they said were the biggest they had seen) though reports said after a certain point fans rushed the entrances and jumped the gates (which would explain why people were running/pushing there way through the crowds.
I cannot rate the festival, simply because on this level, I have been to two, and with the exception of the Foo Fighters, I had seen Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, and Metallica in their own shows prior to this festival.
I am glad that I was able to enjoy the festival. Would I go again, and go without knowing the lineup, yeah, I’d do it, hopefully it will mirror 2011 more than 2012. Just change some of the particulars to better fit the fun.
It has been a few weeks, but I finally got around to my Coachella Photo Essay. A few shots, that I still don’t really capture the weekend, but a post nonetheless. A hot weekend where NBA Basketball jerseys seemed to be the uniform. Enjoy.
Coachella Music And Arts Festival, Weekend 2 2012
Overhead view.
Alarm Clock…HOT!!!
The weekend boarding.
Good thing we rode on day one, before standing in long HOT lines.
AWOLNATION Frontman Aaron Bruno literally surfs the croud during a rousing rendition of their hit, “Sail.”
The amazing Gary Clark, Jr. performing “Things Are Changing,” instant zone-out song.
Feist during her powerful set, before Bon Iver.
SBTRKT Killing “Wildfire” with Vocals by Yukimi of Little Dragon and Drake.
Radiohead Destroying It!!!
The Beats By Dre tent, where we listened to bad Pitbulls songs, on great Dre Audio, and got AIR CONDITIONING!!!
The Do Lab, where they played LOUD Dub Step and sprayed you with waterhoses. Skipped that this year.
Everyone had the same idea, hide from sun, charge your phones.
Santigold after a late morning Sun nap.
Tupac Hologram rising to perform with Snoop.
Way to end…on Earth Day.
A beautiful sunrise, a bittersweet reminder of the weekend.
On the Road Home.
The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.
The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.
The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.
The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.
Other than little bits easily expressed by limited facebook posts, or tweets, I haven’t really expressed many of my thoughts in long form in quite some while. Musically…yes, with the choice of a song. Songs, or anything matching with my current feelings at a given time. So here’s another attempt while playing Stevie Wonder’s Music Of My Mind. Blue Lines – my manuscript that I began 12 years ago, it will always be the initial base of this blog until it’s date of publish, and until it is time to promote my future works. (more below regarding Blue Lines)
Blue Skies – sitting at the Cliff house at Golden Gate Park 1/20/11 staring into the Pacific Ocean, actually beginning that morning, as I peered out into the San Francisco sky. I thought of two very distinct concepts: 1) I was glad that although I love…and I mean LOVE the state of California, that I was glad/happy/content that I was Northern California, rather than L.A. to the south. Especially to experience the clear bay air, and the blue skies that reminded me so much of the smogless days of my youth in Atlanta, Georgia. It has been quite some time that I could remember a clean blue sky. The purity of waking up on a Saturday…the long blue days of the summer. In an unexplainable way, it was almost a religious or spiritual experience, although there were no specific thoughts referencing God or any particular religion or such. 2) Unlike a Hawai’i or tropical island, that this experience was “real,” in a city that I could live and do my work in, although I do not have plans moving in that directions. Well I sat there at the Cliff House, tired from the event the night before, focusing on seeing someone I consider a valued friend (that’s funny that I reconnected with two friends this past week, the aforementioned from school, and then a former intern who is now working in my/our industry and married with children), as I built upon strengthening relationships with the members of my organization all in attendance of this conference. Continue reading →
The manuscript Blue Lines is the fictional coming of age narrative of a young California woman Key Yemaya Walker, and her 2 year growing journey through school, love, and life period piece, written by Kenneth Suffern, Jr., taking place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between the years of 1997 – 1998. Loosely based on true events, and experiences during that time, told through the eyes and voice of the main female protagonist, a freshman first attending the school.
Blue Lines Blog 