Recovery

The last week is a blurr of crazy travel and excessive couch potato-ness. Seth and I have been recovering from our two-week-crazy-tour from All Good to Gathering of the Vibes. There's been a lot of puttering around and house cleaning, and a few errands for food and such, but mostly, since we got home on Wednesday we've been vegging out watching DVR'd movies, Law & Order, Jeopardy and Robot Chicken. At least Seth and I are in "dragon-shape"...we've each lost ten pounds and tightened up. Thanks Puff.

We're gearing up for Elysian Fields in Boyce, VA this weekend. We met the late, great, Dugald Day at Elysian Fields last year. We miss you so much Dugald, we think of you every day...and hope you're in Elysium now.

Our strength is returning to us day by day; hopefully, by the time this next fest rolls around we'll feel close to our old selves again. Though, a piece will always be missing.

Dugald Day at Elysian Fields III 2010

Gathering of the Vibes 2011 - It's too darn HOT!!

Together for a year!

Both Seth and I are veteran VibeTribe members, and we LOVE this festival. We love the unique Seaside setting, but this fest truly holds a special place in our hearts. I've been attending this festival, what I consider my "hometown" congregation, with my dad Robert FOREVER! Vibes is where Seth really got his start, on his own, professionally. Vibes (in'06) was the last time Seth saw his mom, Pinky, alive...the last time they partied together. And Vibes ('10) is where Seth and I began dating (and consummated our relationship). This Vibes was our one year anniversary.
Maybe that's why, after only having been home a day and a half from All Good, we left Wednesday morning for Vibes. We made good time to CT...though we were kicking ourselves the whole way...All Good is about halfway between Rock Camp and CT, and my dad lives in Bristol. Had we been thinking clearly we'd have left All Good straight for my dad's chilled out THERE for a day and a half then made the 45 minute trek to Vibes. Instead we drove 12 hours straight from Rock Camp, WV to Norwalk, CT to stay with a friend of ours.
Thursday morning, after a load of laundry, some showers, and an hour spent looking for our friends lost keys, we jumped in the truck and made our way to Seaside Park. We stopped at WalMart (evil, but unquestionably a one-stop-shop for all of your festie needs) and picked up the essentials (water, gatorade, redbull, ice, etc) then headed into Vibes.
We checked in at the artist/vip gate...and ran into our first hang-up. Despite the fact that we were billed in the playbill/schedule booklet, they didn't have us in their computers. Luckily, they recognized us as legitimate (we have our own department: The Freaky People Department), called our contact, and got us registered and in. Vibes gave us plain old "camping" bracelets...which would end up causing a number of hassles throughout the weekend. They did provide us with an AWESOME contact person though, Tony....who graciously helped us at every turn. If you ever read this, WE LOVE YOU TONY!
Alright, so now we're checked in...it's hotter-than-hell already, WELL up over 95...and though we enjoyed the air conditioning the truck offered we were anxious to get in to our campsite. However, at every gate we were redirected (incorrectly) because the poorly informed parking staff didn't recognize our Friends & Family parking pass. We drove around the venue and waited in line for 4 HOURS until we nearly reached a security check point at which they demanded $20 for day-early admission. At that we said "uh-uh" and finally called wonderful Tony, who escorted us out of line and through the venue to our proper campsite.
Funny enough, we ended up camping 50 feet and one fence away from where we were camped last year. In fact Seth had argued with a parking attendant (in '10) to camp exactly where we camped this year.
Check out this shot from the CT Post of our campsite: Picture #205

So we set up camp, met our wonderful neighbor, Smilin' Christopher, discovered the friend who's house in Norwalk we'd stayed at Wednesday was camped right behind us, headed into the venue to check out Dumpstaphunk and geared up for some DSO.
Seth jumped into the orange bear costume for his first bear set of the season. I donned my skeleton body suit, and we made our way to Dark Star. We wiggled our way into the front row, we wanted Donna Jean (who was singing with DSO for a special beginning of Vibes treat) to see us, as she'll be our Friday night headliner at Pink Moon III. We raged in the DSO crowd until someone smacked Sethro in the face and the chicken wire innards of the bear head sliced his nose open. It was so hot, even at night, that when we got back to camp Seth was DRENCHED in sweat from head to toe.

 
We were exhausted from All Good, from the drive to CT, from not enough sleep, from the heat, from waiting for hours in line, from our bear set...and even though one of our crew members was on their way an yet to check in...we crashed out in the back of the truck. We knew Alex (the crew member on his way) would have no problems getting in or finding us.

Alex

We were right! When we woke up Friday morning, there he was sitting in camp smoking a cigarette. It was HOT HOT HOT again. I showered off at the misting tent Vibes provided this year. My all-natural bug repellent soap was a real chick magnet under there, let me tell you. By the time I returned to camp two more of our crew members had arrived. Jessi and Slatkin are Cleo siblings of ours...(Cleo is a co-ed literary society on the Trinity College Campus in Hartford...kind of like a fraternity...Seth and I are both siblings there). They set up their tents and coolers while we all struggled to keep out of the sun. I'm telling you, Bridgeport CT (and the whole Eastern USA) had a record breaking heat wave! It got up past 103 degrees!

Cleos at Vibes, (L2R: Seth, Me, Jessi, Slatkin, Tom)

As evening, and some relief from the heat rolled in, another Cleo, an old friend and RCP veteran, Tom found us. We were still waiting on two of our official crew members who were trying to check in (they were ultimately unsuccessful, because of their own shortcomings, and stayed the night in a hotel to come join us on Saturday)...but with Tom we had enough people to dragon! So we headed out for our first set with Furthur. We knocked it out of the park, and returned to camp briefly to collect our heads. We hurried back our for a second set with Furthur, bringing along the heart I'd made at All Good for Phil. Vibes, which began sixteen years ago as "Deadhead Heaven" is truly a Grateful Dead Family party....and you could feel it in Furthur's set. I'm not saying they didn't put on a good show at All Good, but you could tell that they really were "bringing it" for the VibeTribe. My point was proven when Phil not only gave his organ donor speech, but ALSO gave Puff T. a shout-out! While this crazy, life-changing, long anticipated event was going on, I handed the heart to a wonderful gentleman standing at the very front of the stage (within the security barrier). He held it up in front of Phil throughout Furthur's entire encore (Ripple) and laid it on the stage for them. I saw a stage hand pick it up and bring it backstage. I know somewhere in my heart that Phil has RCP's heart. (If anyone has a video of Phil's shout-out, please email it to me at jessicajmola@gmail.com)
We made sure to hit Big Gigantic on the Green Stage with the dragon, to make sure they noticed us, as we hit them after Furthur at All Good.
We got back to camp and I gave Tom a back rub...he'd been wearing the 50lb, makeshift, battery back pack for three sets, and was hurting. Alex dressed up in the red bear suit and went out and did a set. Jessi and Seth and I went for a long walk on the beach, and sooner than we expected, watched the sun rise over the Sound.

It was at our sweet spot on the beach that Jessi and I met two other Jess' and a melodica player. After a fantastic sunrise jam sesh, complete with three guitars, a fiddle, a makeshift drum set and a melodica Seth, Jessi and I headed back to camp for a nap.

We woke up Saturday afternoon in the sweltering heat. As soon as we were alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic(!) we sent out a cast of crazy costumed characters. We were still waiting on two more cast members. When they FINALLY arrived at 6:30pm on Saturday evening; they'd already missed the majority of the festival. They didn't seem to understand that they were expected to work (despite the fact that one was a RCP veteran AND the deal had been explained to them) or why everyone was annoyed and frustrated with them after busting ass all weekend. Needless to say they will not be invited onto the team again.

As soon as the lollygaggers arrived we began body painting. We cranked out seven skeletons, but due to the lateness of our stragglers, we didn't get out before the sun set. It detracted from our skeleton set so hugely that we ran back to camp (gosh, security check points are easy when you're naked!) and busted out Puff T. in our birthday/skeleton suits. Elvis Costello seemed to love the dragon...I could see him staring it down and just smiiiiiiiling! He played a beautiful "Must've been the roses" that melted my heart.

When we got to camp, the latecomers decided they were going to leave (after only one set??). Seth begged them to stay for one more dragon show. Seth, Slatkin, Jessi and I went to sit by the beach to cool off before our Jane's Addiction set. After about fifteen minutes we headed back to camp, only to discover that the latecomers had left...Seth and I were so disappointed.
But we raged it for Jane's Addiction anyway. The crowd was rougher and tougher than even the Primus crowd at All Good...and a few of them didn't seem to appreciate Puff at all. Jane's Addiction didn't quite give us a shout-out, but they skirted around it quite a bit....I don't think they quite knew what to think of us.

We were exhausted, so we brought Puff home. On the way back to our campsite, we passed hundreds (maybe thousands?) of hippies sitting by the beach, all pissed off at the choice of Jane's Addiction as a Saturday night headliner (and vocal about it)...and they DID appreciate Puff!

Puff T. and Kate

Again, once we got back to camp Alex donned the red bear suit and raged the Green Vibes stage for P-Groove. We washed off our skeleton paint and promptly passed out for the evening.
Sunday is always an odd day at festivals, always a very uncomfortable transition back to reality. Slatkin, Jessi and I went on a hunt for an anniversary present for Sethro. I found a beautiful psychedelic print from one of our favorite Vibes artists, Larry Carlson. His wonderful wife Kate runs their booth and always charges our dragon battery for us. The print looks just like [a very psychedelic version of] our mountain here in Rock Camp. It was the perfect anniversary present.
Slowly but surely we packed up camp. We said goodbye to our remaining crew members and finally left Vibes.

All Good XV - beyond this point, there be dragons

All Good was all good! We busted ASS, and raged that mountain! Seth and I left Rock Camp Wednesday morning, picked up Jeremy and Justin in Rich Creek Va and headed to Morgantown. Jeremy fell asleep in the backseat while Seth drove and we listened to 'Jamtronica' on Jam-On. We stayed at the Morgantown Motel. We saw this amazing "rasta-bus" in the parking lot outside our building, so immediately ran down to chill with those people! It was a great 'lot scene' in the Morgantown Motel pre-All Good.
We woke up early the next morning and headed to check in at the Ramada. We were thrilled  to not have to stand in the incredibly long line, since we were checking in as artists/performers. Seth and I got "grassroots" artist laminates and Jeremy and Justin got vendor bracelets. We really need the laminates at these big festies...they make our passage through gates, check-points, and the crowds so much simpler. They tell people "we were hired to do this"...


We met up with some of our caravan, Christian Critzer and his wife Jenn as we were leaving the Ramada. They followed us to Masontown, but we lost them on the way into the festie. We had a "vending" parking sticker on the truck, they didn't.
At the first security check point, we got All Good's playbill/schedule booklet...and there on page 15, was our billing. It still wigs me out that an, albeit brief, piece of literature I wrote was published by All Good! Check it out here!
We got all the way through the check points and back roads, only to end up in the wrong place, unable to get to the RIGHT place. We back tracked to 'gate one', and headed through the main entrance of the festival, escorting Christian and Jenn down Production Ave straight to our camp site behind the yet-to-be-graffittied water bus. We set up camp and relaxed in the heat of the day. Then Seth and Jeremy and Justin and I donned some goofy hats, wigs and sunglasses and went for our first stroll through the festival.
We met some cool cats from NJ over by the ferris wheel, then got our pictures taken as dancing bears (teehee)!

We headed back to camp to do our first real bear set of the fest. Jeremy jumped into our orange bear suit, Justin into the red one, and Christian into the blue rasta bear...I donned my skeleton body suit and roses and out we went!
It was a long bear set, we covered a lot of ground, kept our poor hotter-than-hell bears as hydrated as wee could, and stopped for LOTS of impromptu photo shoots. Everybody loves da bears!
After our crazy bear stint we headed back to camp to chill out for a long while. It was hot, and for 5pm on Thursday at All Good, we were doing really well.

As the sun set we did another bear set, this time heading into the venue rather than canvasing the crazy camping areas. We were a hit, stopping for pictures with babies and babes, old hippies and young ravers. We danced our bear buts off to the sounds of Hot Buttered Rum, then headed back to camp.
While we'd been our bearing it up, two more of our crew arrived. Brendan (and his brand new dragon who we fondly named 'Tronic) and Raph were setting up camp in the dark.

When the John Butler Trio came on we did a set with Puff T. Magic-Dragon...and got a shout out!! To us, under the dragon, it sounded like someone right next to us made the "I hope that psychedelic snail-slug thing is helping the night" comment...but lo and behold it was John Butler!!!
After that knock out Puff set, we went for a round with 'Tronic, the newest member of our glowing family. Brendan was thrilled, he'd been looking forward to blowing it up for STS9. I was on 'Tronic's head, Brendan on the battery-pack-backpack right behind me, various other crew members filling the rest of the dragon out. We raged the second half of STS9 so hard we blew a fuse! Brendan RAN back to camp to get another, and we finished out the crazy set, and the crazy night.

Friday was a whole new day. First thing in the am we body painted up Brendan and Jeremy as metal bunnies. This requires some explanation. All Good bases it's theme every year on the Chinese Zodiac. Last year was the year of the tiger, the year before was the rat, etc. This year, 15, was the year of the bunny. More specifically, according to the Chinese Zodiac, it's the year of the metal bunny (as opposed to a wood bunny or a water bunny etc). So we sent our two male metal bunnies for a jog. They headed straight up the crazy All Good hill into the camping areas. Bradley, another RCP crew member showed up to camp right after they left.

They came back sweaty and smiling and surprisingly body paint intact. They only met a few intolerant festie goers on their jog (receive a few slurs, "faggot" among them). However, we didn't let that phase us. We painted up most of the rest of our crew (as metal bunnies of course) and two of our neighbors as skeletons and "All Good Man". We went and staked out a spot under the red lanterns, organized our body paints and brushes, then I in all my naked, body painted glory started advertising FREE body painting.

Justin decided to opt out of the body painting, for fear of roasting alive in the sun (he has very fair skin) but held the umbrella for us so the rest of the bunnies could have some shade.
After hours of body painting mischief we headed back to camp. Jeremy, Raph and I went to wash our body paint off at the water bus fifty yards from our camp site. That was cute until I'd washed of most of my paint....then I was just that naked chick washing at the water bus cause she didn't want to pay five dollars for a shower.

FINALLY it was time for Furthur. Though they started their four hour slot super late, we were ready with a puppet and a dragon. We got Puff T. Magic-Dragon and Sid Glo out there with the brand new glowing beating heart I made for Phil. We RAGED it...gave Gertrude the Jellyfish a hug from Sid and made our way down to the front during "We bid you goodnight"...expecting a "donate your organs" speech from Phil (and an encore)...but sadly, nothing. The plan had been to hand Phil Lesh the afformentioned heart when he called for the audience to donate their organs. We were bummed out about the lack of speech, but Big Gigantic raged SO HARD immediately, we didn't have time to pout. Sid chase Puff out of the venue and home to camp.





Saturday morning started off hot and slow. We went out for a bear set with Rex Jam, and canvassed the crowd to help raise funds for the local school music and arts programs. We were out in the hot sun for TWO HOURS...and returned to camp completely dead. I passed out immediately until right before our night shows.
We got Sid out for the end of moe. and the begining of Primus. Then we really busted out Puff for Primus...fighting our way through the tough and rough crowd. At one point I turned around at a tugging from behind my vantage point of the first rib, only to see Puff's tail wrapped around a random audience-member's fist. This bro was playing tug-of-war with our dragon! We got a shout out from Les Claypool...although leave it to him to give us a quote we can't REALLY use....something about his manager smoking crack and chasing dragons.
Then...FINALLY...it was time for Pretty Lights....we pushed to get ALL of our glowing cast of characters out there for this crazy bumpin' late night! Sent Sid out for a loop, chased him with Puff T! then sent Brendan and a crew out with 'Tronic. My camera battery gave out before this, and I'm bummed, because there were some great photo ops with our crazy cast of glowing characters! We were all back at camp when he remixed Country Roads, and our crew collectively groaned, knowing we shouldn've been out there for that climax....but we were ALL beat from a crazy weekend (and a CRAZY bear set for Rex Jam).
Sunday was a light day. We did a single bear set, then packed up camp and said our goodbyes (for now). We were all sad to hear about poor Nicole, the young girl who died in a tragic accident Sunday morning. What an awful way to end such a wonderful weekend.
Still, we put our hearts and souls into this All Good show. We blew minds and held hearts. Next year is the year of the "water dragon"....Seth and I are already planning our show for All Good XVI!

An Introduction

This is the OFFICIAL blog for Rock Camp Productions! RCP is a unique production company I help run with my wonderful boyfriend, the founder, Seth Abramson. We tour a Giant Glowing Puppet Dragon Rodeo (Glodeo! for short...) to most of the major music festivals across the country and some smaller local festivals as well. Our tour this summer has included All Good XV and The Gathering of the Vibes XVI so far. Next weekend we're taking our giant glowing family (Puff T. Magic-Dragon, Siddhartha (Sid) Glo, and Dr. Molly Glo) to Elysian Fields Festival in Northern Va and then we're headed to Camp Barefoot!
We live on a ~500 acre family farm on top of a mountain in Rock Camp WV. Seth is a partial owner of part of the farm, but he and I (and our many pets) are the only ones who live here. We're slowly but surely renovating our little farmhouse. From our front porch we have the best view of our main stage.
Oh yeah, we also throw a great grassroots music and arts festival on this beautiful mountain: the Pink Moon Festival (check out our facebook event page here) in honor and remembrance of Seth's late mother, Pinky. Pink Moon is held on Pinky's birthday, September 16.  Last year, for Pinky's 60th birthday party we had EOTO, boombox, Telepath, Archnemesis, Sol, DJ Williams Projekt, the lee boys, yo mama's big fat booty band, the rogan brothers, DJ Rahbee and about thirty other bands. We got a great article in the arts section of the Roanoke Times  right before last year's fest.
This year we'll be hosting Donna Jean Godchaux (formerly of The Grateful Dead), Particle, and a whole slew of national and local talents.

Check this out, from GOTV last weekend: Picture #22