uncle john's blog

Netheads, Meet the Hyperrusties

Neil Young talks about his online fans in his new biography, Shakeyby Jimmy McDonough, but in this excerpt the subject is mostly his cars and how hard if rewarding it is to work for Young.

by Christian Crumlish at 5/17/2002 01:04:11 PM

New Dylan Song on
Ya-Ya Sisterhood Soundtrack

Preview the song, "Waiting for You," via RealAudio or Windows Media Format (medium quality).

by Christian Crumlish at 5/16/2002 12:26:31 PM

unattributed string cheese jazz fest taper story meme

[author unknown]

Figured I'd share my recent escapades in case there's anyone left that Rama hasn't told in an effort to continue the busting of my balls. On Fri Jazzfest, I was gonna take in my taping rig (the small version anyway) into the fairgrounds to get the Cheese set & maybe a little extra. One of my crew offered to help bring some of the gear in. I taped all the cables & cords I needed to the inside of his baseball hat. I had my mics inside my hat & the deck & preamp inside the waist of my shorts. As we went thru the 1st line of security where they basically just squeeze your chair bags to make sure you don't have a missle launcher, my buddy's hat slides off his head & plops down on the security table, upside down, wires exposed.

Everyone -- me, him, venue staff -- freezes at the prospect of seeing a hat full of ducktaped wires in our post 9-11 world. 1st 2 Jazzfest head security guys (the "purple shirts") then 2 cops then 2 FBI agents (!!!!) all converge on me & my whole crew. They ask for the rest of it & I at first try to ignore it. Then they tell everyone in my group to stop or we're all going to lock up. I don't want to lose the mics at any cost (or see my wife go to jail, I guess) so I fess up & hand over the deck (which was the easiest to replace). While the cops & venue guys argue back & forth about what to do w/ the deck (I don't want to be responsible, you take it. You're the cops, you take it) I slide off my hat with the mics, shove it in my wife's bag, pull out her hat & throw in on. Trust me, my only smooth move of the day. Then the cops tell me I have 2 choices: they keep the deck or I can go to jail & argue about it down there. The lawyer in me wanted to protest (I mean I hadn't even bought my ticket yet & there were no signs to the point where I was caught) but not wanting to be some murderer's nancy, I gave up the deck & retreated to the car to stow the rest of the gear. Then wife & crew went in. I stayed outside b/c I still wasn't ready to totally give up the deck just yet. I found Mr. Purple Shirt & was able to "buy back" my deck from him for $100. He made me go wait by the grandstand til the cops left & then brought it to me. Capitalism at its finest.

It made for great laughs among the taping crew. Thankfully at least 2 tapes were made of the Fairgrounds set.

by Christian Crumlish at 5/2/2002 11:25:58 PM