Rothbury on the 4th of July

It's halftime at The Dead concert in the Rothbury Music Festival so I thought this would be a good moment to re-cap some of today's highlights and to post some photos.

GIRL TALK

This 24-hour time frame started with a frenetic 90-minute set by Girl Talk. Right before the show, some guy said GT “goes ape shit” while on stage. His assessment was close, as GT – whose real name is Gregg Gillis from Pittsburgh PA – incited the whole crowd to go ape shit in one big, bouncing dance party. It’s 2 a.m., do you know where your parents are? At that hour, who gives an ape shit?

GT commands that he is NOT a DJ. Instead, he is the leading innovator in the relatively new “mash-up” music genre. Gillis’s art takes samples of popular commercial recordings and mixes-and-matches and overlays seemingly mismatched songs into high-powered dance tunes that go in unpredictable, surprising directions. (Pop-up Michael Jackson riffs got the largest crowd reaction.) He creates clever, sometimes ironic, audio/musical collages. The crowds love GT. Recording conglomerates hate him.

I’ve always liked mash-up music genres and performers. Most recently The Nortec Collective has grabbed my attention. And I still greatly appreciate the early works of Dread Zeppelin, the reggae band fronted by an Elvis impersonator singing Led Zeppelin songs. You can hardly get more mashed up than that. Check ‘em all out, starting with Girl Talk.

GIRL TALK DANCE PARTY, 3 A.M.

THE DEAD

Tonight at Rothbury, we have the main attraction. Not Dread, but The Dead. This is the only stage going right now at Rothbury. The traveling Dead Heads are here. I talked to a guy from the East Coast who – like so many others – follows this band everywhere, Jerry Garcia or no Jerry Garcia. Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann quickly drew a crowd while visiting his art exhibit here at the festival. People were thanking him for all the memories. Tonight, from the looks of it, will be another good memory. The band is jamming in good Dead fashion.

BILL KREUTZMANN(right) GREETS SOME FANS

ZAPPA PLAYING ZAPPA

Zappa Playing Zappa performed earlier today with an impressive set of – what else? – Zappa tunes. Guitarist Dweezil Zappa (below) led the band through a rousing set and adding one more relentless performance to Rothbury’s relentless musical weekend. This festival’s reputation has grown with each quality performance and we still have one more day to go.

ZAPPA PLAYING ZAPPA

MY FRIENDS ON THE 4TH OF JULY

Below are photos of concert goers dressed for Independence Day, 2009.

MISS AMERICA

MR. AMERICA

HIGH FLYING WOMAN

DEAD AMERICA

MI STATE POLICE PATROL (Note the Bubble Light on Top)

One more day! Should be fun.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Flogging Molly Flogging Michigan at the Rothbury Music Festival

I’m kicking back for the moment here at the 2009 Rothbury Music Festival in Rothbury, Michigan, waiting for super masher Girl Talk to come on stage at 2 a.m. and close the first full day of this remarkable festival. If you’re too cool to make plans and sittin’ around this holiday weekend, my recommendation is to grab your basic camping gearing, pack lots of loose change for the two-day ticket price, and drive over here in the morning. This world-class Michigan music event – in its second year – should not be missed if at all possible. Join me in partying like it's 1969, but without the free booze, drugs, and sex.

The crowd here – something like 30,000 strong? – was described to me as the children and grandchildren of Woodstock. And by the looks of it, I agree: socially-conscious, youthful, easy-going, doo-rags, a few dreads, and lots of tattoos – plus great taste in music. Okay, I don’t quite fit the demographic – tattoo embellishment never needed – but having grown up in The Nasty, I’m still down wit-it. Still, at my age, I have the small weekend goals of (1) having fun, (2) covering the event as a blogger, and (3) getting home on Monday with my dignity. I’ll take two out of three if I can convince a crowd to make an old man happy and just once body surf him across the crowd. That would make a great video posting, dignity be damned.

Good Golly, Flogging Molly

I already know one of my highlights of the weekend will be the performance of the Irish band, Flogging Molly. They are known to many for their high-energy Celtic-rock. They were know to me, personally, as the band listed on the obnoxious green t-shirt worn often by my bud, Lansing activist Chris Singer. I’ve got to say, the praise heaped on this band by Chris was well-deserved..

Flogging Molly took the stage mid-day and lit up the crowd with an impressive 90-minute set, songs familiar to everyone except me. The crowd and the band traded on the energy of the moment. The mosh pit in front was sizeable and a few people – no old guys – surfed across the crowd. I walked away determined to download all their music and you may soon see me wearing a green obnoxious Flogging Molly t-shirt (not).

Hangin' Backstage with Flogging Molly

That’s it for now. Looking at the clock, Girl Talk goes on stage in 90 more minutes. I’ll be there, camera and Red Bull in hand.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

My Friend Efren: A Video Redux

[Toggle HQ on/off for better video.]

INFO TO CONTACT

GOVERNOR JENNIFER GRANHOLM HERE.

Let me tell you about my friend Efren Paredes, Jr.

A Rogue’s Gallery Plus One

One night in early March 1989 in St. Joseph, Michigan, the grocery store manager at Vineland Foods was murdered and the store robbed. Five suspects quickly emerged in the police investigation. Four of the suspects were named in a phone tip received by the police. The phone tip, it turned out later, was made by the father of a fifth suspect. The suspects were composed of a 15-year-old Latino honor roll student – Efren – and the others a rogue’s gallery of thugs affiliated with the grocery store. Facing charges that could easily lead to life sentences, who do you think the thugs fingered – with constantly changing and conflicting stories – as the trigger man, or boy? Your American pedigree is confirmed if you guessed the 15-year-old Latino honor roll student.

The prosecutor did not hesitate to prosecute Efren to the fullest extent of the law with all the trimmings of American-style justice: A whirlwind trial, flavored with sensational coverage in the local media; totally circumstantial evidence, a chunk of it supplied by the plea-bargained thugs; a tainted jury foreman; an unbalanced legal system in a community known – then and now – to be tainted with racial overtones, and…well, fellow American, you can probably fill in other aspects of the story. I encourage you to read the jaw-dropping details of the case here. Ann Rule could not have written a more twisted true-crime tale than this.

Twenty Years Later

It’s been twenty years. Efren sits in prison, where he grew up. He self-educated himself in prison and has a commanding intellect. He has led an exemplary life in prison and is well- respected, to the point that even prison officials support his release (a very rare stance for prison officials). He is supported by respected wrongful-conviction experts and by many others across the country. Effectively, Efren has never been in trouble – before his trial or after his trial.

During the last 20 years, two of the murder participants were released from prison in 2005. One served only 6 months in a juvenile correctional facility. The other suspect was not charged at all. Finally, two of these criminals later committed other unrelated crimes.

At a parole hearing in December 2008, the former prosecutor of the case admitted to be without a good explanation for Efren's motivation for committing the murder, guessing it was a “thrill kill.” Law enforcement officials decorated this weak theory with words from some rap lyrics purportedly found in Efren's school locker. The circumstantial evidence is even thinner now than it was 20 years ago.

The Keys of Justice

Michigan continues to be a state that convicts juveniles – a vast majority of them minorities – and locks them up and throws away the key. There is no hope for rehabilitation, no hope for redemption. And, if you did not commit the crime, almost no hope for justice.

The Michigan State Legislature is currently considering House Bills 4518 and 4594-4596, which would end the practice of throwing way the keys on juvenile offenders. Opponents of these bills are currently painting a false and mis-leading – not to mention, desperate – campaign claiming these bills will give violent criminals an easy get-out-of-jail card. Don't believe it. The bills give juveniles convicted of crimes eligibility for a parole hearing after serving more than 15 years. Eligibility for a parole hearing is far from a free pass. I encourage you to read the bill summaries here and to contact your State Rep and State Senator in supporting these bills.

Finally, the keys of Justice are also held by Governor Jennifer Granholm. She has the power to commute sentences and to grant pardons. I've personally gotten to know Efren and I know, like some many people inside and outside of the prison system, that he is no threat to society -- never was and never has been. Please join me in contacting Governor Granholm by phone, email, or letter, in respectfully asking for justice for my friend, Efren.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

[Text abridged from my posting from May 29, 2009.]