So much to report...
Camping
The camping trip did indeed materialize. Me and about 8 other knuckleheads went up to this place called "South Cow" near Ukiah, CA. We camped, rode motorcycles, drank Budweiser, burned things, politely tried to dissuade jingoist locals from bringing us all down with war talk, and otherwise did some good old bonding 'round ye fire. For me the high point was discovering a spot along a beautiful lake where we could just pull to the side of the road and jump in the beautiful, clear water. There was a rope swing there, which kinda scared the crap out of me, but I was just stoked to be in there hanging out with some Nature, for a change.
Rival Schools
OK, they have a pedigree, no doubt about it. Burn and GB were fundamental. Quicksand was straight-up, flat-out amazing. I even used to love Iceburn, especially the three-piece prog/hardcore record Hephaestus. But I must admit that Rival Schools did not live up to my own personal hype, and I think a lot of my opinion was founded by their seemingly unneccessary use of multiple roadies and a huge-ass tour bus. They are on Island Records, after all. I still have yet to hear their record, so I'll hold off on further judgement.
Burning Airlines
Now that's what I call Rock 'n' Freakin' Roll, ladies and germs. J and company represented DC in one of the tightest, most precise sets I've seen from any band in my show-going career. The painful irony of their name hung in the air, and we all felt it -- including the band. J almost slunk off the stage with a battered humility, but all in all I think their show was a perfect finale for a theraputic weekend.
Tech BS
I'm pleased that people are making use of the comments system that I put in, although I'm now noticing that the page loads slower, thanks to calls to the CGI script that counts the number of comments per post. My hosting company is also warning me that I'm on a pace to exceed the number of CGI resources that I'm allotted per month. So, I've shortened the number of posts that I list per page to four days' worth. If you want to peep older days, you can always hit ye olde archive. Bear with my experiments, folks.