WATKINS GLEN

Phish have just announced plans for a three-day festival called Super Ball IX over the 4th of July weekend at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York. The festival follows the original Clifford Ball in 1996, followed by The Great Went in 1997, Lemonwheel in 1998, Camp Oswego and Big Cypress in 1999, IT in 2003, Coventry in 2004, and Festival 8 in 2009.  Like previous Phish festivals, the event will include numerous activities, attractions and art installations in addition to a series of performances by the band. Camping and travel packages will be available.

Terrapin Landing

Phil Lesh posted this on Furthur's forum:

We're taking the first steps to make a long time dream- a permanent musical home- come true. We are purchasing a building in Marin, and plan on remodeling it to feel like an old barn; we're calling it Terrapin Landing. We will continue with Furthur while making music at Terrapin Landing when we are at home.

The music will be varied, featuring:

Phil Lesh & Friends (continuing the tradition of revolving lineups, including old as well as new friends)

West Coast Rambles, based on (and blessed by) Levon Helm's historic Rambles

Album night- we pick a favorite album or two to play live

Telstar night- we put together a band for free form improvisation

Sing-alongs to monthly Sunday morning gospel music

Trivia nights

Monthly big band night

Seminars with local musicians and artists

Our goal is to create a vibrant community gathering place: beautiful, comfortable, welcoming - for members of the community to commingle and enjoy good music.

- Phil Lesh

West Coast rambles?  Album nights?  Count me in.  I've been to Levon Helm's Ramble and it was one of the coolest nights of music I'll ever experience.  Can't imagine a version with music from the Dead.

Obama angers half of NYC commuters

It's not everyday that you are driving on the FDR and see one side completely empty.  In fact that never happens except in I Am Legend.  Today however we were driving home to find a deserted FDR Northbound and I started considering pulling a U-turn in fear of encountering Will Smith; instead the President of the United States passed 10 feet from us.  I should have taken the opportunity to stop him and explain my theory on police waste and how their ineffectiveness actually contributes to traffic.

The Gold Of Sunshine

Whistler Blackcomb 2011

This year's ski trip was one for the record books.  And that's putting it lightly.  Choosing Whistler one year after hosting the Olympics was the perfect call...the village, which is the best of ski areas in North America hands down, was in top form.  It started snowing as we drove in on Sunday evening and didn't stop till Saturday morning.  Around 4 feet in 6 days.  No lines whatsoever all week.  From Spanky's to the unbelievable trees, the skiing couldn't have been better.

We started off in Seattle, where I met Pete and Nate.  Powell was flying in the following day to meet us in Vancouver; he was already enjoying a week in Jackson Hole and decided to double it up.  After waking up to see my flight out of Laguardia delayed and putting me into Seattle later than the concert, I quickly rerouted to JFK and made it out to the west coast as expected.  After Nate and Pete grabbed me at the airport, we continued back to Clark's apartment in downtown Seattle.  The first song to come on in the car was Crosseyed and Painless, a good omen for the week to come.  Once we got to Clark's it was a fast turnaround before heading out for the night.  We went towards Key Arena where the Clapton concert was being held and went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Pesos...great food and Dos Equises everywhere.

The show was sick; we met a few characters and enjoyed watching the legendary guitar player kill it not far from where we were sitting.  Clapton doesn't switch up his setlists anymore, but that's acceptable for a man that's 65 years old and probably has more music history running through his veins than any other musician alive today.

Eric Clapton - 02/26/2011 - Key Arena, Seattle, WA

Key To The Highway

Going Down Slow

Hoochie Coochie Man

Old Love

I Shot The Sheriff

Driftin'

Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out

River Runs Deep 

When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful 

Same Old Blues

Layla 

Badge 

Wonderful Tonight

Before You Accuse Me

Little Queen Of Spades

Cocaine

Encore:

Crossroads

We took a quick break midway through to go find a....garden?  Who knows, but someone kept asking how we could find the garden and to this day I am still speechless.  Luckily we returned right in time for Layla, which was surreal as always.  Afterward we went to Kell's for the remainder of the night and proceeded to watch Nate purposefully destroy any glass he could get his hands on.

The next morning we woke up to field a call from the lobby requesting that Nate return the couch pillow he stole the previous evening.  I returned with the rental car around 9am, after having a brief heart attack while driving back and looking down to see I was going 120.  Luckily the speedometer was in kilometers (thanks for the heads up Avis).  When I got back to get everyone moving, Nate had to ask a typical Nate question, "We're going back to sleep, right?  Powell can wait for us in Vancouver."

Nate's antics were met with disgust, and we packed up and hit the road 30 minutes later.  The drive up was pretty uneventful, aside from the mountain pass around Mt. Baker that got a little hairy.  

Idiot!!

We crossed the border without incident, although I could tell the Customs agent didn't trust Nate in the slightest.  Powell arrived in Vancouver shortly after us and we met him with the rental car.  After a quick stop at the cafe, we had our GPS unit take us on an ill-fated trip around the city in search of the perfect oyster bar.  Pete, Powell and myself simply wanted a nice restaurant with fresh oysters; Nate demanded a dining experience full of pure excellence.  So after Nate nixed the first two places, we scrolled down a few pages on the GPS to select another random target, which took us over the bridge to the other side of the bay.  Luckily on our way over, we spotted Monk's, which just looked like the perfect place.  Surely enough, after an inspection that would have given the Health Code administrators a run for their money, Nate allowed us to enter the premises and enjoy what had to be the best oysters we could have found.

Komo Gway, Chef Creek, Satori, Fanny Bay

Powell made the remark that he could still taste the oysters on the drive to Whistler...which not only tells you how fresh they were, but also why we developed a theme of gluttony for the remainder of the trip.  These things were so good...full salt water taste and great dipping combinations.  We continued on to Whistler after Monk's, and although the weather was pretty poor, we still got to enjoy the incredible drive out along the water.

We stopped in Squamish to load up on food and booze for the week, a wise choice that would end up saving us a lot of money - money that was definitely spent elsewhere on this trip.  After leaving Squamish, the rest of the drive was pretty slow as it was coming down hard and our rental car wasn't exactly the most solid vehicle for the conditions.  Nevertheless we made it to the village around 8pm and checked into the Whistler Village Inn and Suites, our home for the week.  Being back here for the fifth time felt awesome and it was like coming home in many ways.  The village was relatively quiet as it was Sunday night, but the intense snowfall was very encouraging for the day that lay ahead.

After an early wakeup, we walked over to the Blackcomb base and got our tickets for the week.  We went straight up the first two lifts and hurried off of Solar Coaster in a sprint to get to the glades near 7th Heaven.  First run of the trip and we get this:

Cat track towards 7th Heaven and the glades

 Pete ripping through the trees

With the early morning sun still rising and fresh snow everywhere, it was instant euphoria.  Nate and Powell then went to 7th Heaven to wait for the lift to open, while Pete and I decided to catch one more run through the trees.  While waiting, Powell encountered a few whiskey jacks that seems to take a liking to him.

After this nonsense, the lift opened and we enjoyed lap after lap through the pristine winter wonderland that is 7th Heaven.

 Powell's first tracks

Natron incoming

The day was absolutely perfect; we got some sun and the snow couldn't have been better.  We hiked Spanky's in the afternoon and got a preview of where we would later come first thing Thursday. 

What a day

After skiing we began our daily ritual of hitting the sauna/hot tub, then resting a bit before a night of overindulgence.  Our first night's choice came via Powell as we hit Mongolie Grill.

Although we encountered a bit of a line, the food was great and we all were well fed to say the least.  Afterward we went to Tommy Africa's, which was the supposed Monday spot.  The club was behind the supermarket and sure enough it didn't disappoint.  It was 80's night and there were freaks everywhere.  Many people had/were getting their faces painted and you had to assume someone would end up taking the plunge.  Sure enough, Powell emerged from the night with facepaint in the form of smudged whiskers.  Hit cat obsession had cleary carried through on this trip.  We also became familiar with the Australian contingent and got to understand the territory we'd be dealing with for our time at Whistler.  A fake accent was definitely considered although never implemented unfortunately.

The next morning, Nate slept in as the non-crumbs got up to ski Whistler.  We had some overcast weather but the conditions were still good and we got another morning of great tracks.  We hit the Peak chair right away and lapped that a few times.  Powell hit the cliffs towards the base of the chair, launching a couple 20 footers in what would precede a larger drop later in the week.  After heading over towards West Bowl, we went to the other side of the mountain and skied Harmony and Symphony for a while.

The trees near Harmony were great, pretty steep and not too skied out.  We ate lunch outside at the base of the Symphony, with reggae music playing from the lift shack and a nice view of the Whistler bowls...life doesn't get much better.  We got in a full afternoon and hit Longhorn's after skiing for some apres action, and also to await the arrival of King Nate.

After a huge plate of nachos and a few pitchers, we hit the grocery store square and Amsterdam Cafe for the first time that week.  Amsterdam quickly became a favorite and we would return many a time during the trip.  Tonight's restaurant choice was Sushi Village, a classic Whistler village spot that's been around forever.  When we left for dinner around 9pm, we had a nice ride going to say the least.  Our meal was thoroughly entertaining and delicious.

Unfortunately our nice meal was ruined when Nate suggested we play credit card roulette.  Of course in our state, no one was shying down from this challenge, and thus someone was staring down a $250 bill.

Fortunately fate played its role and Nate got stuck with the expense.  It was a justified end to the somewhat troubling ordeal that managed to repeat itself again later in the trip. Wednesday morning brought more snow and high winds.  We headed back to Blackcomb with the hopes of heading straight for Spanky's.  Instead, we got to the base of the Excelerator Chair to see that the entire upper mountain was closed.  Still, Powell continued to keep the energy high, clapping his poles together and screaming, "Welcome to Narnia!" as we proceed to the Crystal Chair.  The ride up on this 3-person lift turned out to be rather terrifying as the winds pushed the chairs on near-collision courses with the lift poles.  Not long after we all made it off the top, they closed this lift as well.  We decided on hitting the Outer Limits trees, which were fresh and steep.  A little near-encounter with a rather large cliff sent us scrambling back up the hill and towards more tracks, but the skiing was awesome.

We hit the cat track back towards the main face, skied the 7th Heaven trees for a lap and then went all the way to the bottom.  At this point we took a look at the map to see even the mid-mountain Solar Coaster lift closed.  With limited options, we decided to call it a day and rest up for what was sure to be a huge Thursday.

We took a trip around the village that afternoon and did some serious chilling.  Dinner tonight was homemade and after some laundry, I ended up taking it easy; Nate as you can see did not take it easy.

We woke up Thursday knowing that the upper portion of Blackcomb hadn't been skied since Tuesday.  A quick trip up the gondola and to the Excelerator chair brought us to the Glacier Express.  The signs showed Spanky's still closed, but we headed up the chair anyway with the intention of lapping it until they did open up the hike.  As we got to the top of the lift, we saw the first people making a sprint towards the ladder, and we knew they had just opened it.  We joined the race and traversed over to Ruby Bowl.

The lap down Ruby was probably the most memorable run of the trip.  Fresh snow up to our waist at points and a steep, untouched face the whole way down.  We went back up and did our next trip down Sapphire, which was a little more intimidating at parts as we couldn't see the ground in front of us, suggesting cliffs everywhere, but we found some tracks and followed them down a relatively easier route.

After two runs down Spanky's, we headed right back up Glacier Express, but this time to hit the t-bar up towards the entrance to Blackcomb Glacier.  We hadn't yet skied the full glacier and it's always cool to get back there and take in the enormous scale.

We skied late into the afternoon before stopping for lunch at the Glacier Creek lodge where we'd gone all other days at Blackcomb.  Our bodies were pretty beat at this point, so we had a mellow couple runs over near 7th Heaven before heading down close to 4pm.  A full day to say the least and in my opinion, the best of the trip.

We all decided on taking Friday off, so we knew Thursday night could be a big one.  One more dinner in   We settled on doing a bit of a bar crawl, starting off at the Beagle where we watched ski movies and talked to no one - including each other.  Next we hit Longhorns, where we had the place to ourselves but that was fine as they had a dart board.  Nate and Powell ended up besting Pete and myself, most likely due to some trickery by Nate.

We then wandered back towards the center of the village and looked for our next option.  One place we hadn't yet hit was MAXX FISH.  I didn't recognize the name, but it was next to Amsterdam and we decided to try it out.  Nate got a little flirty with the bouncer even though there was no line.

When we got inside and made our way downstairs, I immediately remembered the space.  It was a dungeon-like club with a dance floor and bars in every direction.  Car bombs were ordered immediately and Powell proceeded to control the party from there.

Mistro Powell

We woke up late Friday, our first day of being able to sleep past 8am.  With nothing on the docket, we decided on further exploring the expansive village and seeing what the day brought us.  Nate unfortunately opted for a different choice and went to Starbucks to study for his math test or some shit.  So Pete, Powell and myself headed out and wandered in and out of seemingly every shop in the village.

Our friend's dreams shattered

We also checked out the Olympic Plaza and Brewhouse, which is where we intended on having dinner.  They had a number of varieties of their own brews and we each tried out a different type.  Although a cool place, we decided on rerouting elsewhere due to the price.  We went all the way down to the Marketplace before turning around and heading back to go towards the base of Whistler.  As we walked past a sign for Avalanche Pizza, Powell asked if we maybe wanted a slice, and with that was born the Pizza Barcrawl. 

The pizza was delicious and it reinvigorated our afternoon in many ways.  Next up was a trip to Bill's for some Buckhunter and pool.  The Buckhunter proved to be extremely haggard and old, one shot to kill and that was it...so pool it was.

After Bill's, we hoped upstairs to Fat Tony's Pizza for another slice, this one just as good.  We capped off the adventure with a quick stop at Amsterdam.  It was a successful afternoon.  The snow started to come down hard as we relaxed at the hotel before dinner, waiting for Clark as he made his way up from Seattle.  We went back to Amsterdam intending to get burgers, but a long wait forced us to consider other options, and Nate suggested Earls.  This turned out to be a great choice, albeit just as expensive as the Brewhouse, so our change of plans didn't exactly save any money.

Weird guy at Earls

Mid-dinner, Nate decided to harass some other tourists and waved two poor girls over to our table.  A smooth pickup line by Nate..."I couldn't help but notice you staring at us"...was met with confusion, but they actually stuck around and put up with the nonsense for a minute.  To cap off dinner, Nate once again suggested credit card roulette; unfortunately, this time Pete took the fall.  At this point Clark had just pulled into town and we met him right around the corner at our hotel.  Another quick pregame before turning around and heading back to Bill's.  The scene there wasn't very good, so our stay was shortlived as we went to Amsterdam, and then once again MAXX FISH.

Saturday morning was a brutal wakeup, but we got up and out by 9 and began our accent up Whistler.  It looked like it had snowed a lot overnight and sure enough, there was just shy of a foot of new snow at the top.  We got to the base of Peak chair to witness insanity.

Two people at the top of Air Jordan to start.  They both stood up there for a while before the first guy dropped - he did fairly well, having no prob on the first cliff and skiing off the big drop before crashing down below.  The guy above in blue did not do so well, messing up the first cliff and basically tumbling off the big one...scary moment.  He seemed to be ok though.  Up next was a brigade of lunatics launching themselves off the cliff formation below Jordan's, the long ridge of various sized options that Powell had hit earlier in the week. 

We saw a guy do a corked 7 off the main waterfall, going probably 60 feet down the hill. Powell informed us that he intended to do the waterfall as well, and I assumed that he meant something similar to Tuesday's action.  Instead he actually did mean the center of the waterfall, and Pete and I stood at the base to witness this epic entertainment.

This drop was at least 50 feet and you gotta love hearing the crowd react from the lift line.  Powell said it was a little rough but he skied away unscathed.  Nate tried his luck on a smaller cornice but did well, only to eat a bit of snow on his runout.

The two warriors recovering

We then headed back towards the Harmony trees and skied there for the remainder of the morning.  Lunch at the midmountain lodge on our final day was a treat as the food is amazingly delicious.  We skied one last run after lunch down through Stefan's Chute and the West Bowl.

It was getting towards the end of the day Saturday, so to cap off the trip we took a ride on the Peak2Peak gondola, a new invention in the last 2 years and a pretty sweet ride.  At one point you are 1,300 feet above the valley floor.

Our last run down Blackcomb was right under the Peak2Peak as we got a few last views of the unbelievable terrain we'd been enjoying for the week.  It was bittersweet but then again, the end of ski trips always are.

We had a quick turnaround tonight as we needed to make a deadline for an oyster deal.  Dinner on the final night was at Bearfoot Bistro, a fine dining experience that we would certainly make the most of. 

84 oysters, champagne and 2 orders of poutine - gluttony at its finest.  They kept bringing different sauces until we had at least 10 varieties on the table.  A perfect final feast for the five of us to enjoy.

"You just spilled oyster juice in my champagne"

After our huge dinner we went back to the hotel for a few before going out for the final night.  Our first stop was our last visit to Amsterdam.  To avoid letting reality setting in of it being our final time here, Nate kept it quick - "5 car bombs and the check please"

We decided to hit Tapley's Pub, a locals bar near Bill's.  It was an appropriate end to a great trip.

Darts and ski movies at Tapley's

The next morning sucked, with Powell and Nate leaving pre-7am and me following a little after.  I got to the airport at noon to find my flight was delayed till 5:30pm.

Crumb alert

Fast forward to 4am and who knows how many more delays later, I finally landed at Newark...made it home, showered before Powell emerged and we headed for our 5:45am train.  As we walked through Grand Central, we passed the famed Oyster Bar, and with that we had one last reminder of the epicness that had just gone down.  Until next year...see you in Jackson 2012.