Photos from Tribal Fest

Just a quick post. Anyone after photos from Tribal Fest you can find them here. Deb and Fee are on page 37-39 of the Friday gallery. And there are some more here.

Museum of Anthropology

Went to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC today. Was pretty interesting with some great exhibits - including lots of totem poles from the Pacific North West. I really liked some of the indigenous artwork. Bill Reid's jewellery and sculpture was a highlight. The tour guide gave a very good overview of the local culture, the impact of British settlement and the relationship between the museum and first nation people. You can download Roozbeh's video of the tour here. There was also a great photo exhibit called A Visual Journey on Memory, Place and Displacement by Jesus Abad Colorado. Amazing, powerful and distursbing pictures around the political violence in Columbia.

Vancouver

Arrived in Vancouver yesterday. Met up with Maree and walked around the downtown area. Ended up having a very nice and a also fairly cheap Greek meal in town. Today walked around the area that Maree and Roozbeh live in North Vancouver (pictured above from the harbour). It is very pretty suburbia. The weather has been wet and drizly. Everything is so green and lush, with lots of beautiful flowers. The whole city is very dramatic with the harbour and the mountains. Also seems to be blessed with a good bus system. There is a Persian community (based around Lonsdale I think), so have just had a nice meal there. Also picked up a nice selection of biscuits and cakes for later. Yum. Plan on going for a cycle tomorrow (weather permitting) or perhaps to the museum.

Foreign Cinema

Well just went to dinner at a place called Foreign Cinema. The food was excellent! It had a courtyard style setup with La Dolce Vita projected up on the back wall. But the really exciting thing was the gallery of Russian film posters from the 1920s. Well I was excited.

Tribal Fest

Just arrived back in San Francisco.

We headed up for Tribal Fest by bus last Wednesday - straight over the Golden Gate Bridge - and arrived in Sebastapol a few hours later. The hotel was quite flashy and green which was nice after San Fran city. Stalls were opened from Friday to Sunday and much tribal shopping was done by Fee and Deb. They performed 2 didge tracks on Friday night to a packed audience - who loved Barb's funky didge piece - and there was an audible gasp as they whipped the flags out! It went down very well and they had people coming up to them as late as the Sunday arvo to say how much they liked it. Rachel Brice and Jill Parker were great as was a lot of other stuff. Some was not so great too, but the whole event had a nice relaxed vibe to it and people were very friendly.

Sebastapol looked like a pretty ordinary suburb / town on the surface - with shopping malls and big cars. But it also had a lot of good clothes and art shops, a couple of very good bookshops and a good record shop too, called Incredible Records. Also the countryside north of San Francisco is very pretty. Much of the weekend was wet, but that was ok. Between Tribal Fest and sleeping in I also managed to read my book on why the US should get out of Iraq and am working my way through a very good book on the Abolitionist movement in Britain, called Bury the Chains

There was also a Roma festival in Sebastapol at the weekend. So on Saturday night a lot of people from Tribal Fest joined their party. There was some great fire dancing (see pic above). There was also lots of circle dancing - which made it feel like a Greek wedding, except the music was a whole heap cazier and there were lots of bohemians and belly dancers. Good fun.

Anyhow off to Vancouver tomorrow. Will hopefully go somwhere nice for dinner in San Fran tonight

San Francisco to Sebastapol

Well I am now up in Sebastapol, just north of San Francisco. Fee got in the other day and all is well. Tribal Fest about to start.

Yesterday Deb and I went into the main part of San Francisco and had a look around. The best bit was taking the cable car. Very touristy, but a lot of fun and a great way to see the streets of San Fran. Also went over the Golden Gate Bridge, which is certainly impressive and picturesque

The Castro & the Haight

Well we decided to walk from the Mission district up to the Castro and the Haight. Day largely consisted of taking in the vibe of these places, checking out the shops and drinking milkshake sized coffee. I picked up a nice ring and nice top. I also managed to pick up a miniature copy of the Onion's Our Dumb Century, having picked up a copy of the actual paper the day before. I also discovered a record store called Amoeba - which had an enormous reggae section. Time was tight and I had to limit myself to quickly picking up a few discounted 7"s. We also spent an hour or more chatting to a woman we met in the park who was out walking her dogs. Weather was nice and people are very friendly. The public transport option back to the Mission was quick, cheap and easy. I like this place.

The Mission

Well arrived in San Francsico late this morning. As soon as Deb turned her phone on we found out that Fee, who was flying with United rather than Qantas, was not going to make it. Her plane was leaving Sydney about an hour after ours, but apparently hit a bird on take off. The flight was cancelled. She wont be joining us for a couple of days now!

We took the BART to the Mission district and checked into our hostel, the Elements Hotel. Its faily nice and has a rooftop bar and cafe, which was able to provide lunch. We then walked around to check out the area. In many ways it reminded me of Newtown or Marrickville, or even bits of Melbourne. Bits are quite lumpen and run down too. Found a good selection of cafes, interesting clothes and second hand shops and so on. Also some good book shops. One shop called Dog Eared Books was excellent. Picked up a book on Victor Serge and also a book by Anthony Arnove called Iraq: The Logic Of Withdrawal. Seemed to be full of other good stuff too.

Alternating between feeling very excited, very at home, and a little tired and jet lagged. Think I will well and truly enjoy San Francisco

Lawless Street

Well did my first full radio show solo today. Two hours of Jamaican music on the Lawless Street, 2RRR 88.5FM. Went fairly well and once I felt a bit more relaxed it was a lot of fun. Thanks to Craig for all the good times, great vibes, opportunity and encouragement. Thanks too to Jase, Dave etc. Be fun to do some more when I get back. In the meantime listen in 4 to 6pm Thursdays as Jase will no doubt be pumping out great shows.

Track list for today's show below.

I’m Gonna Take Over Now - The Ethiopians
Hill & Gully Ride / Mandeville Rd - Lord Composer & the Silver Seas Orchestra
Born For A Purpose (12" mix) - Dr Alimantado
Natty Take Over - Justin Hines & the Dominoes
War (12" mix) - Wailing Souls & Ranking Trevor
Truly (12" mix) - The Jays
Get Ready - (12" mix) - Delroy Wilson
Heart In Pain - Vinnie O’Brien
Jah Love Is With I - Johnny Clarke
Easy Skanking - Papa Tiny
Rain A Fall - Nicodemus
Nah Skin Up (12" mix) - Keith Hudson
Firehouse Barrington Levy Special
Firehouse Fanton Mojah Special
Hungry - Fanton Mojah
Its So Bright - Turbulence
Down In the Ghetto - Bounty Killer
Lovely Day - Chopa Chop
Christine Keeler - The Skatalites
Watergate Affair - Tommy McCook
The Prophet - Slim Smith & Prince Buster
Love Is A Treasure - Freddy McKay
Spawning - Sound Dimension
Big Pussy Sally - Lord Creator
Love A Dub - Ranking Dread
30-60-90 - Jackie Mittoo
Super Special - Lester Sterling

Safe Travel

Well only a week to go to my big trip. As the devouring of music is such a huge part of my life I thought I would post some tips before jumping on that plane.

One compilation that has really worked its way into my head since it came out a few years ago is Safe Travel on the Pressure Sounds label. I'm sure its going to make those long flights a lot more bearable too. It basically collects together some rare rocksteady from the mid to late 1960s - stuff that came out on labels like Caltone and Jontom. Material produced by Ken Lack, Phil Pratt and Bunny Lee. Although the sound quality on this release is not all that it could be, its still sublime stuff.

Anyhow to find out more check

Pressure Sounds

For label scans and more info on the Caltone label

Dance Crasher

For a radio show on the label

Fire Corner

For a podcast of Bunny Lee's rocksteady
(Pirates Choice #29) click on the radio link in the top left corner

Rock-A-Shacka

Getting Started

Well here we go. Time to work out how to blog. Passwords to dream up, domain names and titles. Will this be the easy bit...