Franti! W/ Spearhead, in Eugene, May 24, 2009

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Humanity has advanced...not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.

-Tom Robbins
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I love Michael Franti & Spearhead. They're probably my favorite current band. I was at their show last night at Eugene's Cuthbert Amphitheater. (Here's a video if you haven't seen this band before: Time To Go Home)

The Cuthbert is a very nice, outdoor venue, located just east of downtown Eugene in the broad expanse of Alton Baker Park. Near the Willamette River and next door to the University of Oregon's Autzen Stadium, the amphitheater (which sits amidst open fields and large trees) was made better this year by the recent removal of the old, uncomfortable wooden benches and having those benches replaced with more grass (festival seating) and fixed, comfortable chairs. It is already a beautiful venue but the new changes enhanced it that much more. For music venues, creating an atmosphere that enhances their concert experience is as important as the quality of the music. Which is why Horning's Hideout makes for such pleasant shows.

The Cuthbert is used no more than 5 months of the year. So in those 5 months... it gets used frequently. For years tho' it went under utilized. Concert management from my eyewitness experience is not an easy business and plenty of folks lose their... shirts. But the Keseys keep bringing in quality acts and I'm sure they really appreciate bands like Franti's, which bring a large, money-spending crowd.

The nice thing about Spearhead is that their message is so community oriented. Family friendly and peace oriented these are folks who come to experience the Spearhead vibe. And it is an infectious vibration. Hippies, yuppies and just plain folks - folks from all walks of life - become like one, moving to Spearhead's driving rhythms and playing off of Franti's intense energy. Few shows' audiences are so animated as a Spearhead crowd. These folks dance, sing along and when Michael says to "PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR," everybody puts their hands in the air.



Because I work as part of Harmony Event Medicine's crew, an audience's vibe can be the difference between day and night for us. With a Franti crowd, there will be no fights. Someone may (did) get too drunk but they don't make waves. Unlike some shows we work... for us, a show like this is fun. Way fun.

So more pics, less words. Here's Michael Franti and Spearhead:











As I was taking these I kept noticing the light changes on the raised arms and hands of crowd and I saw them how I wanted to see them in an image... and heck, I was pushing my ISO to 1600 (ISO is the same as ASA for film) and even then it's just my years and years of shooting that allows me to shoot hand-held at slow speeds with confidence. And with a digital that confidence is boosted knowing I can shoot my ass off and I'm not spending anything other than time so... I shoot and shoot and shoot... and all that shooting allows me to come away with a select few better-than-good images. So I wanted to capture those waving limbs, those dancing digits and celphone cameras in motion. Pretty cool what I ended up with...





And I know I'm just putting these out here to the wwwonderful wwworld of the wwweb, but folks, please, if you use my images, give me photo credit whn you can, please. I appreciate Spearhead allowing people to shoot photos and I'm a promoter of their music so... as they share their music, I share my images.

Oh... one last thing. Michael was talking about our troubled times and he acknowledged those of us out here who are un-employed or under-employed. Well Michael, ummm... you know you guys should have a photographer... (nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean?)...














(Michael brought this young lady up fom the crowd near the stage. She was sooo jazzed, grinning from ear to ear and she got a kiss. If anybody in Eugene knows her, here's her pic)





Many thanks to the many good folks who work hard making sure shows are safe, friendly experiences for concert-goers. I've grown so used to working shows I can hardly go to a show just to go and hear the music. Thats just... boring. I like knowing what happens behind the scenes. The perspective is so much different between patrons and staff.

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And today is Memorial Day. Remember the vets and let's bring the soldiers home. A shout to my daughter's friend Ryan Fling serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq (a likewise greeting to all of Ryan's peers - all you GIs - no matter in/on which particular swamp, desert or iceberg you've been stationed, they're all great places!).


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“Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul”

- Plato

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Summer...

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“The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use. But the bee . . . gathers its materials from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own.”

~ Leonardo da Vinci
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Somebody please tell me that summertime is the season to be busy... holy cow...

Gardening, work, the kids, work, baseball season, work... and I'm so far behind in getting my garden worked. I know summer eves go late but after standing and walking all day on the job I'm tuckered out and motivation to keep working is hard to find. But I'm getting there, I've planted trees, blueberries, flowers, dug new beds... but never got the vegie garden in so I'm guessing that it will be a job of preparing that in the fall for next spring.
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The Eugene Emeralds' season has started and it is revitalizing. There is something very special about baseball at this level of the minor leagues. The players are very young, most just out of college, a very few fresh out of HS. But they have a dream. And we here in Eugene are lucky with our old Civic Stadium. It is a beautiful old ballpark facing out from homeplate to the southeast with the south hills in the background. But it is the people... the kids especially... that make it a joy to spend 2 or 3 hours watching a bunch of men hit a ball with a stick (they're hoping they can hit the ball) and running around. And for a photgrapher a ballgame is a wonderful event to shoot. Here are few from a recent game where the players wore pink uniforms on a night dedicated to a local cancer fund:




(l to r) Austin, Colin, Dave, Jaxen, Dawn, Olivia and Connor



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I worked a show at Eugene's Cuthbert Amphitheater the other night. After working all day I was looking forward to seeing Taj Mahal. One of my longtime favorite blues musicians, Taj Mahal is someone I've never seen live. But I was so tired I didn't stick around for the show. I did however take my camera so that I could get some pictures of my friend Amy Wray's husband, John Shipe, who was the show's opening act after the original scheduled opener Susan Tedeschi had to cancel. I met Amy Wray when she joined the (too) short-lived Airship Radio Theater (see my post on ART here) and I somehow along the way enticed her into joining Harmony Event Medicine as one of our volunteers (Amy is a nurse). I had never met John and hadn't heard his music. I'm glad I got a chance to hear him perform and to take some photos. He is a talented young man, check out his website and listen to his tunes...





It was interesting that evening because we had the Eugene PD plus at least one Lane County Sheriff deputy on patrol both inside and outside of the venue, plus we reportedly had ATF bomb sniffing dogs go thru before the show's patrons entered. All the extra security (?) is because Eugene is hosting the Olympic Games track qualifications down at the U of O's Hayward Field. While the political nature of these Olympics has slipped waaaay below the public radar screen I didn't even try to get a press pass so I could do some photography at this nationally prominent event. And I love track. I haven't taken photos at a track meet since I was an under-motivated, under-achieving runner in High School.

Speaking of which... next summer is my 40th HS reunion... an event in August I'd really like to attend. There are many, many folks I'd like to meet up with again. 40 years... wow... my how time flies. That was so many lives ago.
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I managed to get out in the woods for another day of stalking waterfalls a week or so ago, here are a couple of images from that hike. God, I love Oregon's forest (I hope it shows):







Plus these from here at the farm, where they have been bailing the recent cut of the fescue (these are 6 string, 1,000 pound bales):







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My last blog post was a bit different than my usual trivial bantering (like today's post) and it drew both praise and criticism. If ever you have comments feel free to email me or post them here. I've a tough hide and can handle disagreement and critics. In fact I'm better at dealing with criticism than praise. I'd love to hear from you. It would be nice to see some visitors fill in those big blank areas of Africa and Russia. Maybe I'll need to do a post on Darfur and the old Soviet Union. Not that I enjoy writing on depressing topics but I remain amazed that tragedies like those ongoing events in Africa can remain so... unchanged and ongoing. Another subject I'll be tackling soon is the rise in veteran suicides. Did you know we now have more vets committing suicide each year than have died in all these years of George Bush's Iraq war? As a vet I can go there (criticizing the Bush war) without too much personal angst or worrying about those who are die-hard Bushites.

On a last note... we had a set of thunderstorms pass thru last night and I would have enjoyed shooting some lightning photos. But... dead batteries in the camera cancelled that. However this evening holds the promise of more, so... I'm hoping.

Until next time

Kay sh'nuk sh'ma
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“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi