sunfest part 1

Life is full of nice surprises. I'm wandering around our venue for the weekend, Sunfest, a water-front festival in West Palm Beach, Florida, just trying to pass time and realize some of my favorite artists are playing the event. Justin (keys) and Beau (bass) and I went down to the river tonight to see Bruce Hornsby play. What an amazing musician! He was a joy to watch but I only stuck around for a few songs because Duncan Sheik was playing down the way. If you've read this blog for a few months, I posted about Duncan's new record "White Limosene". He's a master songwriter with a really unique style but the real treat was that his guitarist was a guy named Gerry Leonard. For those of you who don't know, Gerry Leonard is pretty much my favorite guitarist and has probably had the biggest influence on my electric guitar playing over any other player. It was inspiring to watch him play and I am grateful to have seen him. Check his playing out on Duncan's last four records, David Bowie's "Heathen" and "Reality", and Jonatha Brooke's "Live" and "Ten Cent Wings". He's amazing.

Florida is an interesting place. No one who lives here is actually from here and everyone who lives here kind of looks the same. There's this sort of south Florida image that follows everyone around, this appearance of wealth and prosperity, and it's really unappealing. My experience with people thus far has been unappealing as well. We were getting some dinner tonight and a group of guys were ragging on Justin, who wears eye-liner. I realize he's a guy and he's wearing make-up but it really ticks me off to see people getting criticized in public for whatever reason. Next, a mere child asked me if I had any pot. We asked how old he was and he said 15, which was certainly a lie. The kid then gets testy when I inform him I'm fresh out. My friends and I weren't like that in our teens, were we?

We go to see a movie. The theater is slammed and the staff is scrambling as their computer system is down. The line moves slowly and when I finally get around the corner, I see one employee standing at the window arguing with the guy at the box office window about Mission Impossible, completely disregarding the 80 or so people in line to buy tickets. We buy our tickets and get into the movie 15 minutes late and find a group of teens talking louder than anyone I have ever heard in a theater, no exaggeration. The movie sucks anyway and the company is just grating on us when this guy asks, "would you please stop talking and maybe whispering?" One of the kids responds, and I quote (and apoligize for doing so but I want you to get the effect), "You can whisper my nuts in your mouth." Can you believe that?!? When the movie's over and the lights go up, it turns out the group of kids contains the kid who asked me for weed. It was honestly the worst experience at the movies I've ever had.

As we stood outside the theater, Tiffany and I got into this conversation about a near by bar. We talked about the loneliness of the bar scene, how the entire late night drinking game was centered around sex and false first impressions. We talked about how so many of the teens and 20 something girls near by wore too much make-up, about how so many people wont accept who they are. I like girls who don't wear make-up and don't feel like they have to validate themselves to others simply through their appearance. I'm not saying that wearing make-up or fixing your hair and all that is bad, but I think there's a lesson to be learned. Tiffany, who only wears it when she performs, put it well. She basically said, in short, that you shouldn't have to do anything to validate yourself to anyone, which is by no means an original thought, but truth never the less. To her, it's not spending all kinds of time on her appearance. Again, I'm not saying that girls shouldn't dress up. In fact, it's flattering when you take someone out and they've dressed up because it tells me they care. But at the same time, I would be devasted if she couldn't feel comfortable not dressing up. It's not an issue of cosmetics but rather accepting who you are. I've struggled with this plenty in my life and I hate to see it elsewhere and there is PLENTY of it here in South Florida.

Sorry, that was a rather long and unexpected tangent. I hope everyone has a good weekend. Cheers!