California Roots Festival @ Monterey Fairgrounds

[Drunk Monk]

Stephen Marley sound check 



Prolly go radio silent when the crowd wakes up again

---

Damian sound check!

[Drunk Monk]

Saturday
Sun came out for a good chunk of the afternoon.
2 JMers go down - both long time friends - one to stupid shrioom sample and one to life (thought it would be good medicine but it got rough). 

Burning spear sucked - my fav reggae legend and they couldn’t get the spotlight to work. Major tech fail. He ended early and thanked the lighting tech on his out to clearly state it was bulssshit

Stephen & Damien delivered. Best show so far of 2024. They had an insane flautist who took reggae into somethwere so fresh. And a heavy metal guitarist who totally switched the tone of the show for his solo, and Damien’s son YG she absolutely killed it. The grandson of Bob has an insanely fresh take on roots & dancehall

The Doc & Gene safety meeting switched gears because doc wasn’t feeling well, then I took it too the younglings and brought Hoel & Toch in the mix for soemdrunken lightsaber dueling. Good night - kinda glad Tara went down early and didn’t see dad’s drunken lightsaber.

---

Goddamn generator is running real close and there’s a light shining on my tent. Been struggling to crash after countless whisky shots and a massive lightsaber duel. Too wired. Prolly had too much caffiene with the get weird drinks.

[Drunk Monk]

Had to get up to pee - extra bothersome because I’ve been teasing my psych partner about bringing a trip tip portable toilet
Then remembered a YMAA task that needed attn b4 mondsy

[Drunk Monk]

And we’re awake again. 

Now to pick up the pieces from last night…

[Drunk Monk]

Dammit

A bird shit on me

[Greg]

I thought in Asian cultures that was supposed to be lucky.

[Drunk Monk]

Everyone says lucky but I didn’t feel it.

Sunday was relaxed. Barely left camp. Hoel had a dead battery (11 years old) and after numerous jump attempts, we bought a new battery and installed it.

A few odd calls I did mostly to keep moving and awake.

Still disdain rebulution. 

Nice safety meeting after. 

Good vibes, mon.

[Drunk Monk]

And we’re awake again

Now to get back to the default world…

[Drunk Monk]

Home.

Doing laundry…

[Drunk Monk]

Laundry is done and I'm completely unpacked. Sorted my gear. As always, my first festival packing was sorely lacking. 

Reread my broken posts. Between my crosseyed state at the late night / early morn posting times (only time I could get access without the crowds overloading the towers) and my poor thumb typing - so many typos. But I kinda like it that way. 

There were actually 3 vols who went down on Sat. Hoel's son got taken out by a weird shotgun dab rig (took out a patient later and Hoel knew what to do because of that). Svet misjudged her whiskey and became disassociated. I'm her oldest friend there but it got too intimate so I had to pull out and let our JNK queens take over. And the third had a head cold - another old friend who's been with CR since the RM daze - that cold affected her shroom attempt. She has bad luck with psychedelics. 

There was a glittering gal with JM who dosed almost everyone. Glitter is hippie herpes. Never do it. The portapotty was glittered. Reminded me of that old saying 'you can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter'. I had this vision of a short story I've always wanted to write about a post-apocalyptic festival where the zombies all move like skanking reggae fans, only you can't hear the music - only they can and that comprises their zombie shuffle. The first symptom of festival zombieism would be glitter erupting like a rash. 

Fri 5.7 miles
Sat 5.3 miles
Sun 3.9 miles

I've been working between sleepy spells. I took this caffeinated power bar I got as a free sample and it got me bussing for a few minutes, but then dropped out on me. 

Stacy rearranged all the living room furniture. I think she does this to mess with me. In my tattered state, it's like rearranging furniture on a blind person. 

Feel good on the whole though. It's a busy week so I best get back to it.

[Drunk Monk]

One more thing - almost lost Legbone.

[Drunk Monk]

I have many tokens of Legbone - random skull toys, the real skull, the pendant that carries his ashes, other odd things if I look - but the one I use the most is the Leatherman Skeletool that he gave me for being Best Man for his wedding to Sylvia. It's my EDC, but I haven't been carrying it lately because I've been going to some things where I've had to go through detectors. But I clipped it in place for this, mostly because I couldn't find my camping Leatherman. 

I have a pattern to where I wear my gear. I need my tools where I can access them without thinking too hard. On Sunday morning, I could not find my Skeletool. I searched my tent thoroughly to no avail. Later in the morning, while I was in the process of letting go of my attachments to it, the Doc asked if anyone lost their Leatherman. He had found it on the ground in the middle of our medical camp. I have no idea how it got unclipped. I'm interpreting it as Legbone reminding me to be mindful. He never made it to Cali Roots. He would've loved it. 

The knuckle of my right pointer finger hurts, as if I punched something, but I don't think I did. Hurts to type. Sucks...

[Drunk Monk]

[Drunk Monk]

And the Cali Roots chaos has begun. 

Our self-care supervisor is having conniptions because she didn't get her crew list in on time. Same with our kitchen crew. These are the two simplest jobs. Neither supervisor will be there this year so perhaps it's a FOMO sitch. They've asked us to cut 2 of our confirmed crew. Our CMO offered to renege on two of his providers but if we cut docs for self-care and kitchen, I will seriously question JM's priorities. I think he's bluffing. 

Nevertheless, there's been a flurry of emails and texts in a flailing attempt to resolve this. Fortunately, I have prepared for this and gotten all my heavy lifting work for my day jobs done already, just to keep my window open for such chicanery. 

Cali Roots soon come...

[Greg]

Matisyahu is still a thing?