The sky is blue and all the leaves are green. 


The sun’s as warm as a baked potato.

I think I know precisely what I mean,

When I say it’s a shpadoinkle day.

Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo dropped on DVD in May and screened at Bonnaroo in June for its’ third annual unspooling at the Mecca of East Coast Jam Rock music festivals. This year The Roo was barely a “jam rock” music festival with headliners including; Chris Rock, Metallica and Kanye West.  Of course, it was the one and only Les Claypool who stole the show with a triple headed billing on Friday!  First the Colonel came out for a Q and A after our Electric Apricot screening to answer various questions about his cinematic notions.  If you did not already know:

Club Bastardo is the official Electric Apricot store. http://www.clubbastardo.com/

Be sure to check out the combo deals at the CRAP Store! 

And keep an eye out for Electric Apricot this summer at various festivals, brew pubs and beyond.  The film has played theatrically in over 40 cities now, so who knows where it might play next? How about your house? 

Later on Friday at Bonnaroo, Les unveiled yet another cool new version of The Les Claypool Band that featured MIRV on guitar and Tim from Dead Weight on cello. They ripped it on the “What Stage” as we enjoyed the final bits of dry weather. The deluge came down sometime after The Raconteurs and Chris Rock took the festival energy to next level.  After the monsters of rock did their thing the rain was coming down hard like it tends to do during the summertime in Tennessee.  After catching the start of My Morning Jacket’s four and a half hour set I skipped through the mud bogs to The Other Tent where the Colonel was due to play with Gogol Bordello.  Gogol Bordello was coming straight outta the Ukraine and had two flights on Gypsy Airlines cancelled so they were a few minutes late and lucky to have made it to the gig at all.  Before ya know it this new hybrid band started off into a wild theatrical set that paid homage to the one and only Tom Waits.  At the end of the set, Les brought out his high school buddy Kirk Hammett of Metallica for a couple of tunes including “Big in Japan. I will never forget Kirk trading Metallica-lead-guitar-shred licks with the old school accordian player from Gogol while this sexy gypsy girl was dancing with him and giving the full on shimmy shimmy.

The next day Pearl Jam took the highlight for sure although there were countless amazing performances all over the map.  I was excited to see one of my very favorite bands The Morning 40 Federation play at this super cool new indoor stage called “Something Else” that is styled after a New Orleans night club. The Forties played one of the sloppiest sets I have ever seen, but I still loved it and wondered how they could be that drunk by 3pm.  I would highly recommend Zappa Plays Zappa and Levon Helm!  I was really psyched to see old Willy Nelson for my first time! Now I feel like I am officially American after getting twangy with Old Willie. It still baffles me that the old cowboy got busted with a couple trash bags full of weed and mushrooms while touring through south last year.  All the Roo Buzz this year however was about Kanye being late and causing a controversy. He was late, we all should know he is the type of douche who loves to stir people up through his antics.  By the time he came on half the crowd had left and the sun was getting ready to rise, which wasn’t good for his UV Light Show.  Somehow I ended up on the hillside with about 70 associates who turned out one of the finest early morning dance parties I have ever attended.  I bussed out Sunday one happy camper!

Some slightly sad news for me during the summer of 2008 is that there will be no Mindfield Stage at this year’s Lollapalooza.  Fortunately Mindfield will continue on at Lollapalooza with its Text messaging prankster style, but the stage and grand scheme for Mindfield is on hiatus for this year.

The good news is that I am packing my bags and heading to Scotland to support The Rival Theater’s run of Cannibal: The Musical at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival!  Cannibal: The Musical is stepping up for a major international debut at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Frazer Brown at the helm with The Rival Theater Company. That’s right Edinburgh, Scotland and for 20 shows during what looks like one month of thespian paradise.

You can make friends with the UK Cannibals here!

The Cannibal The Musical World Tour continues July hitting Miami, Portland and Long Island. Check back here for major Cannibal: The Musical announcements in the upcoming weeks!  I hope you are having a Shpadoinkle Summer!

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