All Hail President Barack Hussein Obama

Bow down, fuckers!

Ladies and Gentlemen... It's finally over. The road getting here was stressful, sleep deprived, adrenaline boosting, rage building, drug addled, and altogether balls-out. However, it's time for one President Obama to kick this country's ass into gear.

Just an aside- something that has been bothering me is all this "only in America" talk, because does ANYONE else remember South Africa? Not just a black man--- a black former political prisoner took the reigns over there, so- lest we forget, please recall that one*.

But I digress! PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. I get chills**, do you? Its pretty awesome. What did y'all do on election night '08? I couldn't contain myself and it being such a stressful 8 years leading up to this, I needed to go out and blow off some steam. STEAM. A few of my friends felt the same way and I had a glorious plan. First we would down some drinkies. Craig went with the very appropriate El Presidente- the beer choice of voters everywhere.

From Election Night '08

Then, the most important part of said plan, we headed over to the one place someone can always turn to for fun on a Tuesday night and that is, SWEET, at the Slipper Room, with your pantstacular host Seth Herzog.

From Election Night '08

It was a fun election themed (following the returns)/Seth's bday show, featuring Kristen Schaal, John Mulaney, James Adomian, and Nick Turner- who gave us a fly on the wall perspective of what the DMX interview with XXL magazine (re: who is Barack Obama) was like, which featured these doozies:
Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.

You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!

Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!

Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?

Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.

I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.
Anyways it was eye-opening. Seth's mom, always entertaining, read us an open letter she wrote to Sarah Palin... John McCain stopped by, he sounded pretty agitated.

From Election Night '08

and then Barack Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election. And we partied.

From Election Night '08

A bunch of us flooded across the street to Epsteins to watch the speeches on the big screen over the bar- they had opened up the window/doors and a crowd gathered round the sidewalk too. It was all very awesome.

From Election Night '08

Oh and then there was a motorcycle on fire which can only be attributed to civil unrest... but the FDNY and po'po' came and put that shit out. Actually it was funny cuz all us onlookers were standing there taking pictures and the first time it dawned on me that maybe someone should put it out was when the FDNY came and sprayed it down with some extinguishers. oh yeah... I guess we could have put it out... It's hard to extinguish massive fires while simultaneously taking pictures.

From Election Night '08

Revelers filled the streets.

From Election Night '08

It was pretty awe inspiring, and smiles all around.

From Election Night '08

I for one welcome our new leader and wish our new President-Elect and the rest of us lots of luck. Additionally, the names of those who voted for McCain/Palin should be printed in local papers around the country so they can be all be put into stocks in the town square and publicly administered a soup-can-to-the-nuts.

Oh and when I got home at 1:30am, my Obama t shirt in it's mailing envelope sat on the table waiting to be opened.


Good timing, douchebags. Good timing.

SLIDESHOW!




* did that sound racist? that wasn't supposed to sound racist. it was supposed to sound funny.
** good chills

from the gates of hell... from the gates of hell.

"harmless" space junk makes big splash!

my beef with barack.

Barack Obama has my full support and can count on my vote Tuesday, but it is not without some beef. Back in September I wanted to make a donation to the campaign- my very first financial contribution to any political campaign*. On 9/14/08, I donated the best way I knew how- I bought a t-shirt. As a t-shirt aficionado, I knew the right one the second I saw it on the official Barack Obama Store** site. A classic charcoal grey with the sun-rising (like the dawn of a new day) O for "Obama" logo- twist my arm a little more, President B. Rock.


Since it was a great shirt and I was contributing to the evolution of mankind, I didn't mind spending $25 on the t and $8 or more on shipping fees. What I did mind was that 2 weeks after I ordered it, I still hadn't gotten it. Customer support's voicemail was full and the receptionist was forced to take hand written messages and try to sort them out. 2 weeks later I received an email from them saying my shirt was on back order and would ship as soon as it was back in stock. The next day it came in the mail. Except that it was the wrong size. So I called back and left another hand written message. Eventually I got a call, they would mail me a return postage label, then I could send the wrong shirt back, etc. Anyways, it's erev election day (if you will) and I never got my fucking shirt.

Barack... Dude. Who the hell is running your store? Talk about bureaucracy, I hope this isn't some small example of things to come- because I need affordable health care. Sitting in an office and putting t shirts in a box isn't fucking rocket science. You could have hired a floor full of stoners to do it out of their dorm rooms and they would have pulled it off- you gotta pass the post office on your way to the 7-11, man.

But there are other ways I could show my support. Take for example this go-getter at a Jay-Z/Diddy attended Obama Rally on Monday in Miami.
One attendee, 36-year-old Rebecca Vaughns, said Election Day would be especially sweet for her. The Miami resident, who was wearing a black Obama T-shirt and had a likeness of the nominee shaved in the back of her head, said she had been saving a giant chocolate "O" in her freezer for months, waiting for Nov. 4.
I just wanted a t-shirt.... so, perhaps tomorrow I will make my own t shirt out of green glitter puff paint and get a blue donkey tattooed on my left ass-cheek or drink margaritas and end up wandering off to an election night comedy show. You see that? I can't get too mad at the guy, the workers in his store may be retarded, but Barack Obama supports the Arts.



* While Greenpeace is not a "political campaign" I once gave them $1 for a cool sticker at a Phish show and got a lifetime of mail that was hopefully printed on 100% post-consumer content- but definitely burned fuel in transit.
** there's already a clearance sale! jews, jump on this!

getting a bad feeling about this?

seriously though, when exactly did the mccain camp completely give up? this is just a fucking joke now... he must have told his team that he did indeed sell his soul to the devil in that vietnamese POW camp. he has no fears anymore and only 1 thing left to lose (he already lost his dignity). ugh, someone needs to piss on this fire and just put it out!



james carville is somewhere waist-deep in mint juleps and snorting coke off gary busey's dog pissing himself laughing.

moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1/08, turin, ny

moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1/08, turin, ny

K, so I never wrote a moe.down 9 review but I'm way backed up on posts and the pictures do a pretty great job of representing the entire weekend- and so, some narrative bullet points:

great weekend, great campsite, good neighbors (for the most part)

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Surprise!: JLo (all the way from CO)

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Bison Bladders

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

my Favorite Sets:
Sparrow Quartet ft. Bela Fleck

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Yonder Mountain String Band

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Presidents of the United States of America

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

other highlight acts:
Lynch

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Cornmeal (though that fiddle player would not stop during the moe. jam)
Levon Helm*
Fishbone (fun but I'm not a huge ska fan, so there ya go)
Swampedelica

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Dissappointing:
Benevento-Russo Duo- they were having one of their "noisy" days.

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

moe.? fuck those guys, they suck**.

"security": total assholes this year, we think they were competing for a new multi-year contract so they brought out the "big-guns" so-to-speak. They usually leave the gen-pop alone.

Bear Song:

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Weather: moist. It only rained friday but there was a night-humidity that just nailed us. I think I preferred the dust of '07 over the moist of '08.

Flag: "Dan, you love al so much, you want to poop in his f-hole."

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Politics: al. made a public announcement when Sarah Palin was chosen as McCain's running mate. He also pleaded with the crowd to visit the head-count table and register to vote. Only like 250 people had registered by sunday night. One would hope that is because they had already registered elsewhere, but al. seemed to sense otherwise- hence the pleading. "please. more people vote for American Idol than for the President of the USA and look where it's gotten us... PLEASE... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. it only takes 2 minutes, you can do it on the way back to your tents... PLEASE REGISTER... and then VOTE. PLEASE VOTE."

Rum Cake: Scrumptious but apparently also an ant pheromone... Also, made us miss Kat.

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

M.I.A.: Bach, Jack, Kat (who was at the DNC in Denver trying to pinch Barack's ass), Marty, the DC crew

Furthest Traveled Award: Paul & Megan (Vancouver, B.C.)

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Least Traveled Award: Heidi & 4dice

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Nice to Have Back: Jay

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Nice to Meet: Pete, Rudy, & Clarabelle (welcome to the good field)

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Already met but a 1st timer: Stacy

9/9: a few of us

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Camp get.down: over yonder, didn't see enough of them this year!

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Steve Kenny: did not visit the hospital this year! Way to go, Steve!

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

local bake/produce charity beer tent sale: top notch heirloom cherry tomatoes, homemade pickles, fuck yeah.

Mayor: we were so close to getting NO ONE elected Mayor and then Tits & Whiskey pulled out ahead, beating even BACON. Hopefully NO ONE will win next year and this will end.

Announcements: END THIS! bdays = fine. Someone who's sat through 100 shows worth of announcements should have enough fucking sense to not waste any more time on these fucking announcements. I DON'T CARE.

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

Fun story- so first set of the last night these really really young & massively fucked up kids were standing near us. One turned to me and said, "when they finish the last set, we're going to chant, 'WE WANT moe.down!'." To which I replied, "that chant makes no sense... you're AT moe.down." Then the kid went on to explain that there would be no more moe.downs and that the band was breaking up. I am starting to think I'm the only one who reads the news page. So I had to let him down easy- that not only were the band not breaking up, but they would be playing again in 2009, including moe.down. Yes, really. Yes, I'm sure. Okay, well scream whatever you want, but if you scream THAT, you're gonna look like an asshole.

Speaking of assholes-

dear moe.,
enjoy your break, you absolutely deserve it- and we'll see you next year... in the meantime i'm going to check out some hacks named Ha Ha the Moose & al & the Transamericans... MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE
love,
lynn, sheriff, moe.ville

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

moe.down 9, '08: 9 HUZZAHS!!! Next year must have: Black Crowes, Ween, Wilco, Cake, and a frozen margarita making robot in the vending area.

SLIDESHOW!


*Sounded great from the campsite
** sarcasm. I heart moe. and Rob is dreamy.

From moe.down 9, 8/29-9/1, turin, ny

faber/sidotti, 8/16/08, black river music festival, chester, nj

I owe a number of music reviews, including this one, so it's gonna be short & hopefully sweet.

Lo Faber is the best.

From lo faber, 8/16/08, chester, nj

He played on a sidewalk with Ken Sidotti & John Rango (Echofission). It was totally awesome. Apparently they make mysterious guerrilla appearances in small Jersey bars while Lo is in between study breaks.

Sidotti is a cool-ass keyboard player!

From lo faber, 8/16/08, chester, nj

Get On The Train, baby!

From lo faber, 8/16/08, chester, nj

AWEsOMEneSS! 9.5 HUZZAHS! I only deduct -.5 HUZZAH because I was stuck in a line of traffic behind some jackass in an RV going 10mph below the speed limit on my way to the show and I missed the first 5 minutes (what a dick!).

SLIDESHOW!