The annual reggae festival at the Humboldt/Mendocino County border along Highway 101 has been a tradition of mine for over a decade. To many from Humboldt County it can be somewhat of a family reunion the way that we are able to reconnect with people we probably haven't seen since the prior year's event.
Filming one of my favorite musicians, Gentleman
(Photo by Kim Sallaway)
Of course, this tradition has transformed from a chance to let loose for a weekend, to a weekend full of responsibility since I started working on the film crew in 2004. Every year our crew seems to make better and better videos, which we all are proud of. This year, we were also able to entertain the crowd better with the help of two high definition projectors on the side of the stage (a major upgrade from more primitive projectors used in prior years).
I'm compared to Michael Jordan for all the wrong reasons
The music at this year's event was as good as ever, and I was very impressed with all of the surprise guests. The High Grade All Stars' set featured Mike Marshall, the guy who sings the hook for the legendary hip-hop song "I've Got 5 On It," and, of course, they performed that song and even mixed in some local references in the lyrics. Equipto also made a guest appearance during that set, which made for the first time I've ever seen him live. Some other artists that I spotted who were not scheduled performers were Yami Bolo, and Stevie Culture. The biggest surprise, in my opinion, was the high quality performance put on by the British band "Aswad." You may remember their brief time on the US pop charts with "Don't Turn Around," but unbeknownst to me, they never "turned pop" and put on some of the "most authentic" sounding reggae I heard all weekend. Check out this clip I was on camera for where they play some nice dub:
(Go on Youtube to watch in HD!)
Marcia Griffiths also put on a good show
Festival Atmosphere
One thing that is so fun about Reggae Rising, and all of the Northern California music festivals is the fun, and sometimes odd atmosphere. Many random things can be seen, and heard, it all makes for a great time. Probably the most random conversations/debates I became a part of is how you can't get a DUI on a Segway, only a "Drunk in Public." OK.........
Reggae culture everywhere
The herb smoking puppets (popular with the kids haha)
Disc-Golf backstage
The Couch Story
(It wasn't this couch)
Probably one of the weirdest things I saw all weekend was during Rebelution's set. As I sat in our lounge backstage I saw on our TV a couch being "crowdsurfed" in the thick of the masses. It was one of those things that makes you want to rub your eyes to see if you are really seeing what you think you are. My astonishment drove me to run to the front of the stage, via the quickest route, under the stage! By the time I got to the front, the couch had been set down near the front and people were dancing on it. During intermissions you could find people lounging on it and rolling joints.
Message board (for people who regret getting AT&T cell service)
Side angle of the stage
Right before filming on the back camera
Coworker, Joell, working in the thick of the crowd
One of the best things to come out of Reggae Rising 2009 is how soon we were able to get beautiful, HD footage of the concert on Youtube. Check below for the link, and when admiring the quality of the video, remember that these were mixed live, and there was no rehearsal. We never know what these artists are going to do!
Some people say that there is "nothing to do" in Southern Humboldt County. I totally disagree. This is an area full of events, festivals, and too many outdoor activity opportunities to count. So to those of you who say that Southern Humboldt is boring, I say, "You are boring!"
Snoop Dogg in Eureka
One of the first things I did during my month long stay in Southern Humboldt was use my sister's unused Stephen Marley & Snoop Dogg concert ticket. The venue was Eureka's Redwood Acres Fairgrounds, which, in my opinion, was very lacking in atmosphere. The show didn't sell out, and they weren't selling alcohol so I wonder if they were able to profit off of the show.
Stephen Marley was first and put on a quality set. A fun surprise was that he brought out famous Jamaican performer Spragga Benz to perform with him for three or four songs. Snoop Dogg also had some surprise guests as he performed alongside DPG (Daz and Kurupt). Kurupt even performed a few songs, but Daz didn't rap at all and seemed like he might be too out of shape to rock the mic. Snoop kept it "old school" with a full band backing him, and sticking with mostly old songs. One of the coolest things was when he covered House of Pain's "Jump Around."
Humboldters have somewhat of a tendency throw marijuana buds up to performers, but the way that Snoop interpreted this was interesting. He took matters into his own hands and passed a bucket around the crowd for pot donations not once, not twice, but THREE different times during his show! C'mon Snoop, you're already getting 50K to perform for 1.5 hours, do you really need all the freebies?
A week or so later I went to my Aunt and Uncle's 50th wedding anniversary which was attended by around one-hundred people. The party was great, and with so many family members there, it was like a second family reunion! I was shocked to see that my kindergarten, first, second, and third grade teachers were there. All but one of them remembered my name and it was cool to catch up with them. It was a serious flash to the past!
Later that day I attended my friend from high school's wedding party which was held in the same community of Salmon Creek. In fact, people were pulling into the driveway of my Aunt and Uncle's party thinking it was the other party! Anyway, my buddy did an incredible job organizing what ended up being one of the coolest parties I have ever been to. It was held far out in the Salmon Creek hills where people own multiple, and sometimes hundreds of acres of property. Dozens of people were camping on site, there was a stage with five bands, open bar, pig roast, and more! Probably the highlight of the party was seeing my friend Jessie's band "Fear Mia" for the first time. Their performance was some of the most fun I have seen in a while!
Another very notable house party in Southern Humboldt took place in the Elk Ridge community near Briceland. This party was unique in that it featured electronic-club music DJs, and a fun, rave atmosphere. There were all sorts of colorful visuals hanging from branches, decorating the dance-floor which was surrounded by trees, sitting under an extremely clear summer night sky. This was the first time I had seen a party in Humboldt with such a theme and it was great running into more old friends, and seeing them enjoying themselves too.
Heat wave drove us to the coast
Extremely hot weather drove me to spend a few days out at Shelter Cove with Bullet (the family dog). Shelter Cove is still one of my favorite places in the world.
Up on the old stretch of Beach Road
We went to Black Sands beach, and explored the old Beach Road, which once stretched north from the Black Sands parking lot. It goes without saying that Bullet had a good time, but after running around all day he was limping all night. Poor old guy!
More Shelter Cove beauty
Coming soon, my experience filming at Reggae Rising 2009, including HD footage of some of the shows I shot! It's going to be a fun one!
This summertime stay in Humboldt has really made me feel like I am still a "local" with all of the great events and excursions I have been able to take part in. Last month I didn't plan on arriving back from Japan until the 30th, but I changed my flight ($200 fee) to allow me to leave a few weeks earlier so I would be able to work at a few concerts. It turned out that the concerts ended up not offering enough money for our film crew and I still have yet to be paid to pick up a camera this year! However, I recently heard that I will be working at Reggae Rising, so thank goodness for that!
Cousins descending from my father's side of the family
Humboldt's rural community of Salmon Creek has been the setting for many fun things I have done this summer. The family reunion in June at my aunt and uncle's place was a great event, and nearly all of my father's side of the family was able to attend. The following day a bunch of us were able to meet up again to go to an incredible swimming hole that for my whole life I had only heard rumors of.
Salmon Creek's "Three Falls"
Three Falls is a magical swimming hole in Salmon Creek that is reached by passing through private property. This required all of us wanting to go to meet up with my cousins around half way to the trail-head, leave our car, and hop in the back of their truck since we only had permission from the land owners to take one vehicle.
We rendezvoused at the beautiful Salmon Creek Community School
Loaded up in the truck...
Then hiked through fields
...And through poison-oak-filled gullies
And here was our reward
The picture above is the first thing I saw as I approached Three Falls. In order to get up to the second pool, one must scale those steep rocks to the left of the waterfall. This is not a very easy task, and I have heard rumors of people being frightened to tears climbing these rocks.
Dangerous terrain
Once you get up above the second pool, you are free to jump in!
As you can see, the second pool also has a waterfall going into it. This is also where one can experience the highest jumps in this area. I was the only one of the men who didn't do it and I have no regrets. I have never really enjoyed jumping off of high places, and besides, I have absolutely no health insurance! Up at the third pool, which I have no pictures of, one can really get stupid and swim through caves in rocks (though it must be fun!). Of course, the pool down at the bottom is also very deep, and worth the trip in itself if you ask me.
Flying from the second pool to the first
The Three-Falls 2009 crew!
The last two pictures, and possibly some others were taken by my cousin, Kym. She has more articles on Salmon Creek and Three Falls on her blog.
It is difficult to put into words the sheer relaxation, enjoyment, and satisfaction I am experiencing during my extended stay here in Humboldt County. I was sent here to take care of my dad's house located by the Eel River on a beautiful piece of hillside land. It doesn't take much effort. The most important things are to keep the vegetables and flowers from dying, and keep the old dog and cat happy. Every day I seem to wake up with a clear mind without any concerns, and it lasts through the day. I often take a moment to reflect on how great of a feeling this is.
I sort of think that this relates to the fact that this is the first time in my life that I have not had a plan of any sort. There is no reason for me to be any specific place at any specific time. I have always had school or obligations of some sort that I was forced to mold my life around, but now that I have graduated, that is no longer a factor.
I also think my tranquility here relates to my frustration with Japanese society during my recent stay there. There are so many customs, formalities, and social expectations of people there that seem to make things more difficult than they need to be. I really started to long for "laid-back" Californian ways. Obviously, Humboldt takes this concept to the extreme, and I am not complaining!
I will be back blogging soon with some details and pictures from some of the fun activities I have been up to here. Thanks for reading.
To continue where I left off in Part One, I finally made it to Santa Cruz and almost instantly hit the beach with my friend, Robert, and his dog, Beefcake. The next day, July 3rd, we went bigger and drove north on Highway One for around eleven miles to the beautiful beach seen above.
Looking back south as we started walking north
We basically decided to walk north as far as we could, and it was very rewarding. Within one-hundred yards or so we were the only people around and the terrain was so beautiful!
Flat rocks with occasional red spots
Green moss and red rock
The rocks led to more beach
This rocky ecosystem also had some neat tide pools. We were always near lots of wildlife with all sorts of birds, pools full of sea-life, and occasional seals in the area.
These birds made cool noises
Tide pools
Three starfish
Seal
Passing a "no-pass"
Though we passed a couple "no-passes", we finally got to one that we weren't going to be able to easily get around. As you have seen from my pictures, this was a breathtakingly beautiful spot, and it may be hard to believe, but there was occasional litter to be found so Robert and I decided that as we walked back we would pick up all the trash we found. Robert was taking care of Beefcake so I carried the trash. The first thing we found was a Disney helium balloon that had yet to be popped. I opened it carefully so that I could use it as a bag to carry all the trash we would come across and as I bit into it I could taste the helium as it seeped into my mouth. It turned out that there were at least six of these balloons scattered around the two miles or so we covered on the beach. In all, the trash we gathered was enough to fill up one balloon.
Something that felt really good was almost as soon as we had decided to pick up trash and grabbed that first balloon we were rewarded with good karma in the form of a nice dog-frisbee in perfect condition! It was bright, neon colors, and it seems like there would be no way we could have missed it on the way there, so we figure we were rewarded by the karma police. Check out the video at the end of this post to see Beefcake make a nice catch!
We then went to the beach by the Boardwalk
River meets ocean
The 4thof July
As you can see, Robert stays in a neighborhood very close to the beach, and though his house needs some work, most of the places visible in this picture are worth over one million dollars because of this prime location.
The BBQ was going all day, and through the night
Are old buddy Asha showed up with some delicious bacon-wrapped scallops, but we also cooked sausages, burgers, and corn. Also, In three days Robert and I ate an entire Costco apple pie, and drank many American beers! Yum! I bought the Kirkland microbrews while at Costco. I thought they were pretty good!
Laid-back America
Lots of soccer
Nightfall
All we had to do to see an epic fireworks display was walk down the street to the beach where crazy people were lighting off an incredibly dangerous amount of powerful fireworks! It made for an exhilarating atmosphere, but it was scary at times because it is easy for these types of fireworks to be shot off wrong, which leads to them exploding without leaving the ground. This actually happened right outside of Robert's house, but luckily I was inside, asleep on the couch, at the time. Hey, it was almost 11:30!
Tons of people on the beach
The moon was nice and bright too!
In all, my time Independence Day weekend in Santa Cruz was a blast, and I can't wait to visit there again. California sure is a wonderful place to be in the summer!
All blogs found on this site written before 2009 have been imported from MySpace. Some may not look too pretty, and some of the pictures won't enlarge, but it is a small price to pay to not have to deal with MySpace's primitive blog setup anymore!
I recently graduated San Francisco State University. I majored in Japanese and minored in International Relations, and spent a year studying at Tokyo's prestigious Waseda University. I grew up in a very rural area of Humboldt County California. That remote setting built up a lot of ambition in me to get out and chase my dreams. Thanks for reading!
(Photo by Kim Sallaway)
