graven.images

Comfest Day 3.

I lucked out and scored a parking spot on 2nd. Walked a few blocks and I was back in the land of drum circles and didgeridoos. The weather held out all weekend. A mild breeze today. Foot traffic was slow but steady. The talk of the day was *some kid got stabbed the other night in Gooddale Park. I walked past the eyeroll enducing pile of BYOB on the way back to the booth. There was an impressive pile of wine and hard liquer bottles piled up. Seriously, it wasn't as bad as a stroll through OSU campus. Wait, that is bad. Moving on, I spent more time checking out bands than I thought I would.

Vegas 66 was your run of the mill rockabilly act. Made me wish the Cowslingers still played out. One of the guys from the Means has a new band: Vespin. I was really there to check out the Sick Thrills who were great. If I had the time and energy left, I would have went back for a t-shirt. Meanwhile, I missed some goings on over in camp ferret. Kinda surprised someone wanted their body painted that late in the fest. I don't know if I'll continue the face/body painting next year. You never know unless you try it out. The colors I found at the costume shop were run of the mill colors. Nothing like what I was seeing walking around the show.

What I did get to see was a golf cart hauling it past some folks on the lawn behind us. The guy hit a bump or something sending an unsecured chair flying in the direction of one of the ladies. There was almost a fight between the volunteer and one of the guys in that group. It got smoothed out but it could have gone south quickly.



The wrap up went even smoother this year. I was home by 10:30. Next year, I think I'll take Monday off. It's fun but exhausting.

As in life, things are never work safe. While I think I caught everything, you may want to view this at home. Comfest comes with a PG-13 rating. I was kind of bummed the belly dancing shots didn't turn out but oh well. Now on with the slideshow.

*update: The kid died of a self-inflicted stab wound. Apparently high as a kite. This points out many things. 1) the event is so huge, it's beyond the cops control. They could shut it down if this gets more noise. If more events like this happen, the cops just might. Again, it's a crowd thing. The more people you have at an event, the more variables there are. Far worse than BYOB, drugs are prevalent throughout the festival. Mainly pot, but other psychedelics are in use. I'm guessing this kid popped some acid. Haven't heard the toxicology yet, but I'd say that what he was on. 2) because of the shear bloat of the festival, encouraged by the organizers, I'd agree with the alt-weeklies and tell the organizers to step back... way back out of their box and analyze what they've created. Mildly organized chaos. Saturday's crowd was the largest I've ever seen. Since I've started going to this in oh... 10 plus years, I've watched it grow into a monster.

Other fixes:
- Rethink that freaking program! The one with the crappy Crump pastiche on the cover and interiors. 2/3rd's of the Comfest program really ought to be limited to the website. Start a blog. The only thing people care about are the band listings in the back which also needs laid out better. A list of vendors would be nice (with locations). I'm sure the bands would appreciate more of a paragraph write-up (with web link) in the program. Rather than a 'wacky' haiku description of their sound.
- From an outsider's perspective, this show is a Disneyland version of what was the `60's/`70's era. A lot of the causes that are presented miss the mark on the apathetic crowd that attends this show every year. While I'd love it if people took some of the causes seriously. The way they're presented comes off like a trip through Pirates of the Caribbean. People don't protest like they used to. I blame tv and the internet. These should be going on year round. Not on a weekend where you have a bunch of pervy men looking for free 'titties' by the body painting booth. You're delusional if you think most of the people there are there partly for the protests and causes. People come there to get hammered, listen to bands, and cruise the vendor booths.
- Someone on the CU board had a good idea, and that was to move it to a State Fair weekend. It will never happen, but it's a good idea. Moving it out to a farmer's field seems appropriate. Ironic that the festival promotes change but shuts down any attempt to change their festival for the better.

Day 2 of Comfest.

Good times at Comfest. More people. More flesh. Some random volunteer high fived me on the way in. 'Happy Comfest'. The exotic animals were kept to a minimum. This is the most I've been away from the booth so I'm not up on the crazies quota for the show. I did get one burnout the other night that started chatting me up. Didn't buy anything. The talkers never buy anything. I missed a couple of bands at the Off-ramp as I got to chatting the time away. Friends from out of town turned up today. The face/body painting kicked up a notch into the lower lands. Dara tried to get me on my cell but I was already on my way over to check on the booth. I should have made a point to check and see what the other facepainting crew is charging. I way undercharged the lady by $25. Oh well. The paint held out but it was clear I'm going to need bigger tubes for that stuff. The timing was surreal as Ian had set up to play some kids songs in front of the Red Rover booth.

Par for the course, the crowd was insane for Saturday. I've snapped a few pics of the crush of people. For those that have never been to this show, here's an idea of what I'm talking about.



Of the bands I did see were Bird & Flower, the Kyle Sowashes, and the Main Street Gospel. I missed the Floatation Walls, Karate Coyote and the Lindsay. I was within earshot of it, hanging out by the Jolly Rodger flag. The Floatation Walls set sounded great. I may pick it up today at the Band booth. Briefly checked out Tintonton's set at the end of the night. By the time I got there it was half over. You could hear the throb from yards away. Busy day with the bands. Sunday's lineup is more uneven than usual. If one were to skip it, they wouldn't miss anything. I might surprise myself and find something listenible around there.



Tips on parking: if you have any hope of parking close (offstreet), go early. I was able to find a spot at 10:30am. A couple of my friends had a good idea of parking their ride somewhere far away and biking into the park. Sunday might not be so bad. Pride was last week but there's still Comfest, Origins and some stupid Clippers homegames to contend with. Parking is $5 higher than it should be.

Comfest 2009. Day 1.

It was, earmuffs Dave, hot as balls today. It rained last night and the humidity is off the charts. Par for the course with Comfest. I definitely saw a shower and pounding back Gatorade in my future. Impromptu fits of Billie Jean played in the background. Everybody at the booth sold some stuff. Checking the stock, we're low on XL and LG tshirts for Brainbot and SPB. Plenty of mediums and small tee's. There was a little Comfest Bingo action.

• a friend of mine unintentionally flashed his junk in my eyeline. Love the guy to death but knowing him, this was inevitable.
• fishboat was eaten. For two years solid I've been hearing about this Fishboat. Don't believe the hype. It has to taste better after a couple of mugs of Comfest beer.
• I saw two ex-ladies at the show. Never really dated much or this would be way higher.
• I think ironic cross-dressing is on a comeback at the show.
• Our booth is within earshot of the I Wish You Jazz stage. Out of all the spots they could have placed us, this is the ideal one. Today there was an unnecessary 15 minute take on Walk Like an Egyptian. This came after they took Panama for a spin. That's right, Van Halen's Panama.
• I had one dude try to hard-sell me his crappy dvd he made that, of course, was about pot. You're just delaying me from the experience of fishboat. Why do you hate fishboat?
• So far I haven't had to call the nice costume people for a supply run.
• Saw my first Steampunk couple walk by. If you didn't know, Origins is happening next door at the convention center.

Saw a lot of musician friends and ex-coworkers. Good rule of thumb: If I'm not at the Panel booth, I'm at the Off-ramp Stage.




At some point, the Comfest fold moved all the Tom-friendly bands to one stage. A short walking distance from a twist-cone trailer. Bands I checked out today were TV Eye , Grafton, and Sandwich (Ron House's new band).

I've washed the hippie off of me. Time to crash. I'm hoping tommorow isn't as much of a broiler.

Ever since we started up this booth business at Comfest, I've joked about taking up 'face' painting. Well last year we got confronted by  two confused women that came into the booth needing painted. It dawned on me that, hey that's money walking out the tent. Skip to a year later, I'm in a local costume shop to score some body... face paint. I get a strong conservative vibe as they immediately pounce on me. All the makeup and face paint is right by the register. This is how I come to find out that Micheal Jackson died. The shop owner blurted it out as they were selling me the stuff. Wait, Micheal Jackson died? This came to me totally off the grid. Old school. There's something appealing about that. For once in a decade, I find out a piece of major news not on the internet. Sad news but still.

That's how I like to remember the Man in the Mirror. Before his life completely derailed into freakshow terrritory. My childhood spent off the grid. We didn't have cable so all there was was the radio. Kenton radio operates five years behind everyone else. Hearing a new cut off of Thriller was an event. Fuzzy childhood memories of Jackson 5 and Globetrotter cartoons blurring together. Then Fat Albert came on like a hot dump on camera. I never liked Fat Albert. I didn't like Scooby Doo either. Anyway... Jackson at his pop peak hit at the right time when I was a kid. All the weird crap didn't register. Now it's all in your face. I know more about Christina Aguilera than I care to. I'm not even trying and I know what's going on in Jon & Kate. Baaaah, you kids and your Girl Talk records. (shakes fist in the air).

RIP Micheal.
_______________________________________

On a lighter note, Comfest begins tommorow. Resiliantly still in Gooddale Park. What is it going to take to get this behemoth in a bigger venue? The BYOB issue?? Area residents are really tired that it's gotten so big that it spills out into the neighborhood. Talking to a coworker today. One of his buddies leaves his house for the weekend. The weather looks like it will hold out till Sunday. There will be painting of things, and I'll get my twist cone fix.