Trick or Treat?
6.12.09 Bonnaroo Late Night (J.Kravitz)
One simple flash animation and the entire community was whipped into a frenzy. Leave it to Phish to fuck with us until the end, and if my supposition is right, that is exactly what they are doing. Yesterday, on Phish.com, the Save the Date map saw California lifted off the map by hot air balloons- supposedly meaning the Halloween festival will not be in Indio, CA- the location that everyone and their mother assumed it would be. Due to all of the hype and anticipation, Indio hotels have been booked for weeks and some fans have even gone as far as purchasing plane tickets to southern California! (Questionable decision making in my book.) But with the airlift of California off Phish’s animated map, everything was thrown into question, and the Phish community turned into an all-out freak scene.
The Mystery
It took no time at all for rumors to begin circulating about the festival’s “real ” location, Datelan Army Airfield outside of Yuma, AZ. These rumors spread like wildfire on message boards and Facebook, and before long, people had RVs on lock-down in Phoenix and Tucson for the festival in the middle of the desert. It made sense- an old military airfield out in the middle of nowhere- much like their former festival sites, and it still fit in with the heavily rumored fall dates that start in the southwest and move up the west coast. Leave it to Phish fans- the most obsessive sub-genre of people on this planet- to get to the bottom of this.
Halloween??
All of a sudden, plans were changed. Whether it was Arizona, New Mexico Georgia, or Vegas- all ideas tossed around the web- it wasn’t gonna’ be Indio. Or was it? To be honest, my initial thought was that Phish was pulling a prank on us. But that thought didn’t stop me from booking 30 footers out of Phoenix and Tuscon just in case! But there had been too much talk about Indio; locals had confirmed the plans, there were all the semantic correlations with the suffering date crop of the region, people in the organization freely talked about it at Alpine Valley- and all of a sudden it fell through? It just didn’t feel right.
My first thought was that because the animated California never got destroyed, pillaged, or blackened- like the other eliminated states- it would somehow survive. Possible clue number two- the design on the balloons had arrows pointing up and down- “What goes up, must come down!”- of course. At the end of all this, when all the other states are gone, California would float back down and be presented as the official site. That’s what I thought, but who really knew? I could definitely picture the band members and Flash animators laughing their asses off as they watched the community spin into a tizzy over the newly-created mystery.
California Hovering Out of Plain Sight
And then later in the day, it was discovered that California wasn’t gone at all, it was in Canada! If you held down the command button and pressed “+,” the animation zoomed out showing California-very much intact- hovering over the lower 48. It was brought up that it might just be a fault of the Flash animation, but come on! If they wanted to take California off the map, they would have- bottom line. Theories, obsession, mystery, hype, adrenaline….this is all part of the Phish game too, and five years later, it was funny to be in the midst of another full-on freak scene! Some things never change.
6.14.09 (J.Kravitz)
Once people saw California hovering over the country, the consensus seemed to shift back to a festival in Indio, but the mystery is still out there to be solved. Regardless of where Halloween ends up- and I’m 99% sure it will be in Indio- it’s great to see Phish’s prankster spirit alive and well in 2009. Taking their fans on a mental scavenger hunt to find the next site, and boosting their heart rates for a while, the organization shook things up on Monday, making the normally mundane start of the week far more exciting.
It’s so great to have Phish back- not only for the music- but for the sheer excitement they bring to everyday life. Nothing else could have caused such a hectic, yet positive, stir in all of our lives yesterday, and that just speaks to the power of it all. Reason number 1001 why the world is a better place with a happy and healthy Phish around. But keep those reservations- wherever you may have them- because who knows what the next twist will bring!
See you in southern California! Probably.
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Phish Thoughts Jam of the Day!
With the new Flash audio player, I thought that I’d add a new feature to the site! Every day I will feature one standout jam to listen to, separate from the day’s post. Sometimes I’ll write a paragraph, sometimes a sentence, but there will always be some quality Phish to listen to every day! You will always be able to download the selection by clicking the orange song header. Enjoy!
Simply put, this changed my life.
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DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:
10.11.95 Compton Terrace Tempe, AZ < TORRENT
10.11.95 Compton Terrace Tempe, AZ < MEGAUPLOAD
Rumors spread faster than a California wildfire that the Halloween scene was shifting to Arizona- and it still might! Here is one show that Phish did play in Arizona back in the Fall of ’95. A sparsely populated affair that served as my wife’s first, Phish brought out a great second set featuring the rare “Mike’s > McGrupp > Weekapaug”, a hot second set “Gin,” and a bust-out in “Crossroads.” I love the ’95 Phish, and this one gets glanced over most of the time.
I: Stash, The Old Home Place, Cavern, The Divided Sky, If I Could, Fog That Surrounds, Acoustic Army, Julius, Sample in a Jar
II: Possum, Bathtub Gin, Mound, Mike’s Song > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters > Weekapaug Groove > Llama, Suzy Greenberg > Crossroads, Hello Ma Baby, A Day in the Life
E: Chalk Dust Torture
Source: unknown (possibly Tascam PE125 > DAP1) fob?
Tags: 2009, Halloween
^ Lol -I was thinking the boar meat in the cooler part was pretty cool too 🙂
@cactus… boar meat is very good. Def don’t overcook it if you plan on preparing some yourself. It gets tough and “gamey” the second you get it past med rare. Wild boar is a very lean animal with little fat, unlike farm raised pigs.
@mitch – i have safari 3.2.2, still can’t see cali. i go to my view pull down and do not see option for changing text size to window zoom. do you know the short cut for window zooming? i used to know it but forgot.
^^safari version 3.2.3
was the boar meat from hogzilla?
http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/vv351/WholeTour/hogzilla.jpg
@ butter
Thanks for the tip.
I generally do not overcook any type of red meat anyway. In between rare to Medium rare is the right way to cook and eat a steak. Plus the steak still sort of cooks once you take it off the grill or pan. 6-8 minutes for a 1 1/2 inch thick steak on medium high heat I found is perfect. In fact I picked up a nice Rib Eye for tonigh that I plan to enjoy later.
Of course chicken and pork must be cooked well, but not overdone. I’m looking forward to eating wild boar very soon.
@ wholetour
Holy shit…now that’s a Wild Boar!!
@butter Awesome, thanks. I’ll definitely use that strategy.
Wow, boar meet. Did you kill it with a spear then put it’s head on display like in Lord of the Flies? 😉
I want to hunt Wild Boar with a spear right now, Native America Indian style.
lol
all this talk of boar meat and prime rib is making me hungry!
On Major event planning logistics
Major laibility policy to cover from set-up and load-in to load-out and clean-up.
State and local permitting successfully accomplished.
Vendors selected, aligned and scheduled.
Local hospitals and police agencies notified and aware of constraints and potential impact to that geography’s resources and traffic flows.
Most venues will not negotiate without the insurance piece given the litigious aspect of modern american society.
It is possible that there could have been two parallel thrusts and one or both struck their targets.
Fall in the desert can be diverse. I have been in 100degrees plus during the day only to sleep outside and find a serious layers of frost on my sleeping bag and the dog’s water frozen in his bowl. That’s AZ at approximately the same lattitude at Datelan. As far as deserts go. the Mohave(Indio) and Sonoroan(Datelan) they are similar in terms of weather aspects for the season.
This a is band about breaking new ground.
In the stangest of places if you look at it right….
@whole tour!
now thats a boar. i killed the three little pigs next to that beast.
^butter
Safari 3.2.3 doesn’t support the feature you’re looking for. Click on the apple in the upper left and click on “Software Update…” and it will find safari 4. You can also go to apple.com/downloads and get it there.
My new favorite youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4MCbyA-fXY
I think this boar has to take the cake though:
http://www.davickservices.com/Monster%20Pig%20Clay%20County%20Alabama.jpg
That Possum>Bathtub from the 2nd set of today’s download of the day is an excellent way to end the work day.
I just got back from camping with a large group and was basically able to sell many of them on Phish throughout the long weekend by playing 2nd set of Camden, Knoxville, 1st set of Bonnaroo with Bruce (since they’re big fans), 2nd set of Deer Creek and Alpine Night 2. Spreading the Phish gospel to people who are open to it really is a phenomenal feeling.
ATTN: Portland Phishthoughts people (Where’s Mr. C these days??)
From Carrie Brownstein’s blog:
—————————-
Here is the plan:
Tomorrow night–Wednesday, July 15th–Portland Phish fans, along with Portland non-Phish fans who want to see if they could ever love Phish, will meet at 8 p.m. at Moon and Sixpence. (2014 NE 42nd Ave. between Tillamook and Sandy)
If you are a Phish fan, please bring along some burned CDs of your favorite live shows or a mix CD with your most cherished tracks. I’ve had countless suggestions as to which YouTube links I should click or which shows I should download, but this meet-up will help both expedite and streamline the process. After all, I only have this one week to fall in love (okay, not really, but for the sake of the blog, yes!).
Thank you and hope to see you there.
— Carrie Brownstein
————-
yeah i saw that selector and i immediatley thought back to what were talking about yesterday. oh yeah same bird flu, same great taste, just with spaces
Anyone notice that Georgia is the state on the Phish-map most under-represented in size? They are all off a little, but they have GA really tiny and crammed under Florida. Is it going to pop out at the end I wonder? Halloween is pretty comfortable down here, temperature wise.
He’s been MIA for a few days now. Hope he’s OK
^^^
I was thinking the same thing
Man, goes to show we are a family
Thank You Mr Miner!!!
and I too hope mr C is ok
told you its vegas. vegas vegas vegas, and miami for NYE. my good friend runs a certain phish website and he told me not to say anything, but i cant contain such valuable information. btw..i took flash animation in school and when its off the screen that far, its a lot easier to drag it up past the window where the viewer cant see it. to make it totally disappear, you’d have to add a couple o keyframes, and who likes extra work these days.
more states knocked out…
Who is that on the pinball? kinda look like Fishman
and just like that Cali seems to be gone!
Just got a text from a buddy that says he saw the last frame of the animation
and……….not sure if I should say this….as its just a rumor and not sure how reliable…