roadtrip2008 post #5: strange fruit and love boat
Saturday was pretty chill during the day. Mainly I tried to sleep into the afternoon since it was going to be a late night. I did journey out just for a sec during the day to visit the building that hosed the bike shop where I used to work. Its a big white house converted for business use. Sure enough it is still there and looks exactly the same, only completely empty. Kind of makes me sad that it is just sitting there lifeless like that. The pegboard is still on the walls and the hours sign / bike company stickers are still on the front door. When I am there I feel like I am visiting a grave site. I have no idea why it hasn't been re-purposed yet.
When I got back to the hut, me and mom decided to try the Cactus Pear we had bought when I first arrived.
We had no idea how to eat this thing so I looked it up. To prepare it, you cut off both ends, then slice it down the center and peel it apart. The results are pretty pornographic:
I thought it was going to be kind of tangy, but it was more like a melon kind of thing. It had hard seeds in the flesh that were useless to try and chew, but the site I found said they were edible and just to go ahead and swallow them. One thing I will say...they could probably use these things to make some sort of bio based clothing dye...the juice is sooo red its like blood. Its thin in consistency but it isn't transparent. I'm glad we tried it, but I don't think I'll be grabbing cactus Pears all the time or anything
Grabbed some more sleep and eventually it was time to hit the Sonic Soul boat party. The weather was sort of confusing. It was pouring down rain one minute, clear the next, but the humidity stayed in the air like a freakin blanket. On the drive downtown I couldn't help but think how bad the condition of the streets are in Baltimore. Seriously B-more, you CAN repave streets you know! No wonder I tore up cars so bad when I lived here.
Luckily I brought an umbrella because it was pouring on the walk from the car park to the boat
Good ol Lady Baltimore. This was not the first time I have been to a party on her.
As soon as I walked up Lovegrove spotted me and we said a quick hello. I figured we could chit chat later because he was knee deep in last minute preparations, and things were running a little behind. Throwing parties never changes. He directed me to the area where you pick up your boarding pass so I headed over there. While I was standing there a guy recognized me and started talking to me, then his girlfriend said, "I know you don't recognize me, but I'll tell you how you would remember me. I'm the one who poured a bottle of water on your head to snap you out of the K-hole that one night at my boyfriends club. Holy crap we thought you were going to die". I couldn't help but laugh! Of ALL the people to run into, and of all the circumstances to be remembered...hilarious. I actually thanked her, because to tell you the truth, she did the right thing that night...I almost didn't come back from that one.
After grabbing my boarding pass, I was cueing in where a line was starting to form, and LG hollered down from the top deck for the security folks to let me on. I was pretty stoked about that because, well, who likes standing in lines? Also, I could go ahead and get a jump on the bevvie action before the bars got crowded.
It took a little while to get the sound set up and get everyone on the boat, but once the crowd was on it was evident that the top deck was going to be where the love was. The turn out was not that high but everyone who DID come was a total head. No wallflowers on this journey. As soon as the sound was going people were dancing!
The Sonic Soul core djs tag teamed the first couple of hours. I'm usually not a fan of live drumming accompanying djing, but it worked pretty well in this case, I think a lot of it had to do with the type of tunes being played. Heres LG rocking some jammy jams:
The last time I was on this boat it turned around just under the Key bridge and headed back in then repeated the same loop. This time when we passed the bridge we just kept on going. My mom told me that some dude threw his three year old baby off the bridge in a fit of rage or something a while ago. Sad.
The bars were on the lower decks so you had to venture down there every so often. They were pretty empty, which really suuprised me because I thought Scottie B and Scott Henry would be a bigger draw. It was good to see chit chat with Scott Henry for a while. I only caught a little of him playing, and he was super on point mixing wise. But the real action was up top. Right around the time the bars closed Sunshine from Dubtribe went on and things really hit high gear. Sunshine (djing) + LG(mic):
He had this delay pedal set up in front of the mixer (you can't see in the pic) that he was running the mic through, and he would get on every once in a while and preach. It had a tap delay so he could sync it to the beat which worked out really well. Oh yeah, it was a vinyl free event...I did NOT expect to see that at Sonic Soul, but I guess technology has taken over everywhere.
By this point people (and me) were pretty sauced and waaay up for it. It was hand in the air moment after hands in the air moment, since the boat was now deep into the return trip portion of the evening. LG hooked me up with some more drink action which was great because the I actually got stuck with a drink ticket that I couldn't use since the bar had closed. On the way into the bathroom I saw the boat captain, and asked him if he would let me drive the boat. he didn't think I was very funny, but LG was in the bathroom stall and heard the whole deal and had a good laugh. I wonder if the boat people get sick of unfunny drunkards doing silly crap.
The music stopped. Hands in the air. Hugs all round. Cheers. Sonic Soul doing it right one last time. But it wasn't over yet. I don't know if it was Lovegrove or Sunshine that chose the final tune, but as soon as the first notes of Aly-Us "Follow Me" started coming out of the speakers, it was totally evident that we were all experiencing one of those -moments-, ...one of those unforgettable chunks of time and emotion that will be talked about long after the music fades. The perfect song for the perfect end. Beautiful.
When I got back to the hut, me and mom decided to try the Cactus Pear we had bought when I first arrived.
We had no idea how to eat this thing so I looked it up. To prepare it, you cut off both ends, then slice it down the center and peel it apart. The results are pretty pornographic:
I thought it was going to be kind of tangy, but it was more like a melon kind of thing. It had hard seeds in the flesh that were useless to try and chew, but the site I found said they were edible and just to go ahead and swallow them. One thing I will say...they could probably use these things to make some sort of bio based clothing dye...the juice is sooo red its like blood. Its thin in consistency but it isn't transparent. I'm glad we tried it, but I don't think I'll be grabbing cactus Pears all the time or anything
Grabbed some more sleep and eventually it was time to hit the Sonic Soul boat party. The weather was sort of confusing. It was pouring down rain one minute, clear the next, but the humidity stayed in the air like a freakin blanket. On the drive downtown I couldn't help but think how bad the condition of the streets are in Baltimore. Seriously B-more, you CAN repave streets you know! No wonder I tore up cars so bad when I lived here.
Luckily I brought an umbrella because it was pouring on the walk from the car park to the boat
Good ol Lady Baltimore. This was not the first time I have been to a party on her.
As soon as I walked up Lovegrove spotted me and we said a quick hello. I figured we could chit chat later because he was knee deep in last minute preparations, and things were running a little behind. Throwing parties never changes. He directed me to the area where you pick up your boarding pass so I headed over there. While I was standing there a guy recognized me and started talking to me, then his girlfriend said, "I know you don't recognize me, but I'll tell you how you would remember me. I'm the one who poured a bottle of water on your head to snap you out of the K-hole that one night at my boyfriends club. Holy crap we thought you were going to die". I couldn't help but laugh! Of ALL the people to run into, and of all the circumstances to be remembered...hilarious. I actually thanked her, because to tell you the truth, she did the right thing that night...I almost didn't come back from that one.
After grabbing my boarding pass, I was cueing in where a line was starting to form, and LG hollered down from the top deck for the security folks to let me on. I was pretty stoked about that because, well, who likes standing in lines? Also, I could go ahead and get a jump on the bevvie action before the bars got crowded.
It took a little while to get the sound set up and get everyone on the boat, but once the crowd was on it was evident that the top deck was going to be where the love was. The turn out was not that high but everyone who DID come was a total head. No wallflowers on this journey. As soon as the sound was going people were dancing!
The Sonic Soul core djs tag teamed the first couple of hours. I'm usually not a fan of live drumming accompanying djing, but it worked pretty well in this case, I think a lot of it had to do with the type of tunes being played. Heres LG rocking some jammy jams:
The last time I was on this boat it turned around just under the Key bridge and headed back in then repeated the same loop. This time when we passed the bridge we just kept on going. My mom told me that some dude threw his three year old baby off the bridge in a fit of rage or something a while ago. Sad.
The bars were on the lower decks so you had to venture down there every so often. They were pretty empty, which really suuprised me because I thought Scottie B and Scott Henry would be a bigger draw. It was good to see chit chat with Scott Henry for a while. I only caught a little of him playing, and he was super on point mixing wise. But the real action was up top. Right around the time the bars closed Sunshine from Dubtribe went on and things really hit high gear. Sunshine (djing) + LG(mic):
He had this delay pedal set up in front of the mixer (you can't see in the pic) that he was running the mic through, and he would get on every once in a while and preach. It had a tap delay so he could sync it to the beat which worked out really well. Oh yeah, it was a vinyl free event...I did NOT expect to see that at Sonic Soul, but I guess technology has taken over everywhere.
By this point people (and me) were pretty sauced and waaay up for it. It was hand in the air moment after hands in the air moment, since the boat was now deep into the return trip portion of the evening. LG hooked me up with some more drink action which was great because the I actually got stuck with a drink ticket that I couldn't use since the bar had closed. On the way into the bathroom I saw the boat captain, and asked him if he would let me drive the boat. he didn't think I was very funny, but LG was in the bathroom stall and heard the whole deal and had a good laugh. I wonder if the boat people get sick of unfunny drunkards doing silly crap.
The music stopped. Hands in the air. Hugs all round. Cheers. Sonic Soul doing it right one last time. But it wasn't over yet. I don't know if it was Lovegrove or Sunshine that chose the final tune, but as soon as the first notes of Aly-Us "Follow Me" started coming out of the speakers, it was totally evident that we were all experiencing one of those -moments-, ...one of those unforgettable chunks of time and emotion that will be talked about long after the music fades. The perfect song for the perfect end. Beautiful.