I saw the 2010 Summerzcool Tour final date at BankAtlantic center last night (27 Feb) with Evan, Brenda, Greg, Gaby, Mom, and Karen.
We started at Renegade for and early dinner. We were there at 515, Karen followed two minutes later, John and Liz right after that. Evan and Brenda brought up the rear. I’ve only reviewed Renegade about ten times in my blog and it’s still just as good as ever. John and Liz attended dinner with us while Greg and Gaby didn’t. I had the Native Plate this time and while the ribs were excellent and tasty, they were a tad greasier than usual. I managed to finish my entire meal, something I usually can’t do there because the portions are so big. Everyone but me had take-home bags.
Mom and I got to the BAC and the lot was damn near full. If you’ve ever been to Buffett you know most of the people got there at 2pm and have been drinking heavily ever since. I ended up finding a spot near A52 because someone had packed up their tailgating stuff to go in. It was around 715pm. $30 for parking if I didn’t mention it.
Mom hadn’t been to this type of Buffett show before, so the parking lot was a bit overwhelming for her, I think. It’s like a huge football tailgate where people are having twice as much fun and ten times as drunk. One guy had put together two igloo coolers, two sets of wheelbarrow wheels, a pair of bicycle handlebars, a motor and made a train. He was riding the first cooler and drinking from the second. I do not believe this is legally qualified as ‘drinking and driving’
You’ve all seen the closet alcoholics who have the funnels with a tube that forces booze down their throats, right? This crowd had then but the funny one was where there was a uniformed Sunrise police officer pouring in the bottle of booze (Vodka or Gin as it appeared to be or maybe crappy white rum?) for the guy because he couldn’t do it himself.
Karen — who came in elsewhere — saw someone come out of the bushes. I won’t share what they were doing but I’m just saying…. Others were handing out free samples of food and drink. Nice. We were way too full to partake.
We went in and the rocket scientists had the ticket collection booths so far in they were blocking the swag line and it was causing issues. We checked out our seats, took a lap, and then finally (20 minutes later) the rest of the lot began showing up.
The whole time before the opening act, there was the usual platoon of people throwing t-shirts, playing with beachballs, using the bamboo basketball hoops, and otherwise having fun. The set was minimal. You’ve seen it before. Stage, bamboo beach theme, three large screen displays — two on opposite sides for the people in the cheap seats, and one for backdrops.
Promptly at 8pm his Holiness, the Head Parrothead, came out and introduced Ilo Ferreira who did a fifteen-minute opening set. He was excellent. From me that’s high praise because I’m usually critical of opening acts. How good? He’s a male Nadira Shakoor. Really.
The beachballs continued, as they did throughout the first half of the show, as Parrothead-in-Chief, Buffett took the stage at 817pm. He spent the whole show running his songs as part of the “Summer School” scene from class to graduation to diploma, and so on. Some of the connections were really weak, but that wasn’t the point.
He also talked about this being a hockey arena and how he was playing on ice. He had a few words to say about Team USA along with some video clips of the Olympics hockey. Apparently, he’s a fan.
The most entertaining part of the show wasn’t the show. It was the “lady” in front of us who was quite literally too drunk to stand. She got up, swayed about, and fell back down into her chair, usually with the help of her seatmates. In spite of this, she continued to drink more and more. Long about mid-show she lost the ability to kholdeep her head upright, and like a newborn, it just lolled from side to side and front to back.
Post show, there was beer on my jacket. Lots of it. Dry cleaner for that. Courtesy of the guy behind me. Ass.
We left at the end of the first encore because we knew there was only one song in the second. Normally I don’t do that, but this was one of the drunkest crowds of any show I’ve ever been to, and we didn’t want to be on the road with them. Greg and Gaby were first out before the encore. The rest of us were out as Brown Eyed Girl wrapped up
Evan provided me a link to Buffet World (I’d never heard of it) to get the missing songs from the set list below. I wasn’t able to remember them all or in order.
OPENING SET:
01 Lage Nom Ai
02 License to Chill
03 Summerzcool
04 Pencil Thin Moustache
05 Conky Tonkin’
06 Son of a Son of a Sailor
07 Boat Drinks
08 Volcano
09 Cheeseburger in Paradise
10 Come Monday
11 Wings
12 It’s Five O’clock Somewhere
13 Rhumba Man
14 One Particular Harbour
INTERMISSION (Short one, too!)
SECOND SET:
15 My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink and I Don’t Love Jesus
16 Cuban Crime of Passion
17 Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
18 Last Mango in Paris
19 Let Me Love Again (an Ilo Ferreira song)
20 Gypsies in the Palace
21 Surfin’ in a Hurricane
22 Southern Cross
23 A Pirate Looks at Forty
24 Margaritaville
25 Fins
FIRST ENCORE:
26 Nobody From Nowhere
27 Brown Eyed Girl
SECOND ENCORE:
28 Tin Cup Chalice (Solo Acoustic)
One of Jimmy’s most underrated songs is Gypsies in the Palace which he did. The first bit he did in the “style of Leonard Cohen” and it was a very interesting take. I’d like to hear him do the whole thing like that. This concert was good, classic Buffett. Welcome home, Jimmy. Don’t stay away so long next time. (His last visit here was 2-19-2005 which I also attended, I believe.)
You all saw Google’s awesome SuperBowl ad about a guy falling in love. One of the better ones in terms of actual art in years. Someone’s done a brilliant take on it involving computers. Same music, same concept, different search terms. Check it out.
Suzie-Q blogs this item. It’s a real excerpt from a sex education article for girls from the 1960s. Yeah, the 1960s. It’s not that old. I don’t have words to describe how amusing I found this. Does anyone know where this woman is or how I can find her? Nice laugh. Thanks Miss Q! 🙂 A larger version by clicking, full size on her website. Go take a peek and give her a comment of thanks for that great bit.
Stan hasn’t made my blog before. I’ve known Stan for decades. It’s his first appearance but this video is the funniest commercial of its kind I’ve ever seen. It’s by Axe body wash and called “Wash Your Balls” which should give you all the warning you need.
[Video link temporarily missing]
Once again, the Miami Herald made an IT’S error in today’s print story about last night’s horrible Heat game. The Herald really needs to hire some editors who know grammar. This is a regular occurrence, but I no longer write and complain because last time I did they wrote back and argued with me that they were right. They were not right. Period. Now, I just mock them. (Sorry, Rob, Dave, and anyone else at the Fishwrapper, but your paper has some flaws that continue to get worse.)
If you use Open Source programs from Linux to Open Office to Gimp to Drupal to WordPress to anything in between, you really need to read this article because you could be affected. It’s from London’s Guardian newspaper, a reputable source. In it, “an influential lobby group is asking the US government to basically consider open source as the equivalent of piracy – or even worse …. the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group for organisations including the MPAA and RIAA, has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil, and India for its Special 301 watchlist because they use open-source software …. Special 301 [is] a report that examines the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights around the planet – effectively the list of countries that the US government considers enemies of capitalism.” I was going to write a long analysis and then add that here, but I don’t think that’s necessary. This is just obviously insane. One recommends you do not take this lightly and keep a careful eye on developments.