August 29, 2004
August 28, 2004
On The Scene at For Day 1 of Street Scene 2004
Some thoughts about Street Scene 2004, Day 1, the opening day of what really was a totally New Street Scene. Just for context, I spent a lot of the day / evening with camera man Braydon and grip Pam, backstage at the Captain Morgan stage trying to wrangle the Street Scene Video Fest interviews I was on the hook to wrangle. I did make my way, a couple of times during the session, south-east, past the Best Buy stage area to Street Scene / Rob Hagey Productions / Time Warner headquarters in the old Wonder Bread building, but only briefly, so my scope of reporting is somewhat limited. But I'll do my best.
First, here's Street Scene 2004, Day 1 Photo album...some pictures I snapped backstage, frontstage, and all over!
Galactic Rocks Day 1 On The Captain Morgan Stage
Now, on to the recap...
Remember, you heard it here first!!! Tomorrow night should be a whole other New Thing!!!
August 27, 2004
The Brazilian Girls Aren't From Brazil!
Links:
Questions:
NCTimes.com: This Ain't Your Father's Street Scene
North County Times - Jeff Pack - Street Scene celebrates 20th anniversary
:
"This ain't your father's Street Scene; heck, it may not be your older brother's. The elimination of the blues and jazz acts, once the fuel for Street Scene's success, may drive away some of the festival's longtime faithful. But developmental changes downtown, soft ticket sales during the past couple of years and a desire to stage a bigger, more professional festival are what drove the organizers' decisions."
What Would A Scene Be Without A Trolley Running Through It?!
I snapped some pictures of the Pre-Street Scene 2004 venue on the way down to the radio show last night, just to get a sense of what this new Scene is going to look like. It was pretty interesting to be driving around where fences were being put up and rows of porta-heads lined the streets like stumpy blue trees...they needed to keep the streets open until sometime today, I would guess (a good reporter would have given you east village dwellers that info). While there will be streets inside the venue, I don't think you'll get the same sense of that at the show since there are no buildings around to give it that 'street' feel. Another interesting feature is that the venue straddles the trolley line, so it will be interesting to see how that is handled this weekend. Enjoy the pics!
August 26, 2004
From The Archives: Street Scene 2003 Photo Album
Here are some pictures from last year's Street Scene 2003, on the day I announced Jazz acts on the Starbucks stage. Some highlights include the different views from the streets as the Scene opened up, my boss working in one of the alcohol stands, the big grass fields that are no more in east village, Jazz 88's J.Otis Williams hasseling the security guards, Mr. Contortionist, Bill McGee on stage, Father Joe Carroll minding the food store, Stone Brewing's Greg Koch, your's truly introducing Carlos X and the Jazz Pigs, hooking up with Wade and Debbie, introducing Gilbert Castellanos at the Jazz stage, and the big screens on the stages (this year?).
What will the new Scene be?
What Do 20-somethings Think of the Changes to Street Scene?
Inigo Figuracion of About.com in Street Scene Turns 20,
"What began in 1984 with two stages on a small section of San Diego’s 5th avenue has transformed into one of the best-known festivals in the country. But there are changes in store for this 2004 edition, and I'm not so sure it's for the better. The management has scaled back the event to two days (Friday and Saturday), and the lineup of musical acts skews to the younger, backward baseball cap demographic...to the point of pandering to the PB crowd. At the same time, the dearth of former Street Scene genre mainstays like jazz, blues, zydeco, classic rock and world-beat music shows the organizers are making a concerted effort to exclude music fans of more eclectic tastes - i.e. older fans. It's a move I question, and frankly, this year's Street Scene has no appeal to me personally. "
There is definitely a lot of sadness and almost anger in most of the articles about the changes in Street Scene this year. It will be interesting to see if uniqueness of being able to discover something on another street just around the corner will be replaced by something different from what seems to look like more of a carnival.
Indigo ends on a somewhat sarcastic note,
"Ultimately, this year's Street Scene changes might mark a new chapter in the long-running event, or it may mark the end. The uniqueness of past events seems to be lost, and now San Diego Street Scene seems like your average street festival, with a bit more well-known acts. Oh well, at least the twenty-somethings will have fun."
Taking The Trolley's Green Line to Street Scene
There's some pretty clear info, including the map below, for taking the trolley to Street Scene 2004. I took the Green Line trolley just last Friday to a game at Petco Park from the Fenton Parkway (Mapquest) station in east Mission Valley. It was a totally pleasant experience from there, but the trolley got pretty crowded as we made it through the valley and headed into downtown. I'm not sure if I'd recommend getting off at the Gaslamp or 12th street stops, but it looks like the Gaslamp stop will only be a short walk to the gate. I'm not sure how I'm getting down there yet, but it may be via the Jazz 88 studio parking lot and the blue line at the curve by SD City College.
Street Scene Interview Assignments Set!
Here are the artists I'll be interviewing back stage at Street Scene 2004. The interviews will be short (3-4 minute), on-camera, and posted in close-to-real-time at the Discover San Diego Street Scene Videofest site. How cool!!
| Friday, August 27 - Captain Morgan Stage
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Saturday, August 28 - Time Warner / Road Runner Stage
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More details on what I'm going to ask as I get the research together. If anyone has any questions they think might be cool for the artists, post a comment.
Street Scene 2004 In SD UT Night & Day
San Diego UT Night & Day Features Street Scene 2004. I'll get into lots of the details a little later in the day, but thought I'd get you some direct links...
"Street Scene is not what it was. It's something new and should be embraced as such."
Gotta love the New!
August 25, 2004
Street Scene 2004 Line-up Updated with Stage Assignments
The Street Scene 2004 Lineup page has been updated since I saw it earlier today. The stage assignments have been made, with 5 bands per stage and Social Distortion, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, and Ludacris headlining the 3 stages.
I'll be interested to see which stage I'm going to be 'assigned' to handle interviews at. If I had to choose, I'd take the Time Warner / Road Runner stage to get to talk to Ben, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Eyed Peas (I dug their SNL performance this year), and Patti Smith. Don't know Scarlet Symphony, but would look forward to it. How exciting!!
Will It Be A Scene Without Drag Queens and DJs (and Streets)?
The San Diego Blog is mulling over this year's Street Scene Changes and receiving confirmation that the queens of the Dragon House and the continuous dance parties of the electronic DJs will be missing this year. I agree with some of the other comments to that post that is seems like a totally different Thing with with only 3 stages, in what looks to be the parking lots next to Petco Park. And what will the Scene be, without the Street? I'm going to take an optimistic viewpoint and treat this like a totally New Thing...and give some feedback on it after I experience it.
Here's the light the Street Scene folks are putting on it,
"The new venue will be Street Scene's largest site to date, roughly doubling in size from last year's 320,000 square feet to almost 600,000 square feet. The location offers an unprecedented level of ease in parking and access to public transportation, while centralizing the festivities in an uninterrupted venue at the heart of downtown."
My biggest question has been how are they going to schedule the bands to minimize the sound from one stage bleeding over to another with the stages looking so close to one another? With 15 bands playing in an 8 hour show both days, are they going to be playing any of these bands at the same time? Maybe some of the early ones might be playing simultaneously. It will be interesting to see how they pull this off.
The Street Scene Moblog - Post Your Picture!
| The Street Scene Moblog captures camera phone pictures posted Live to the web by you and any other Street Scene partyers armed with the latest in telecommunications technology! Moblog stands for mobile weblog and is an instantaneous way to communicate both pictures and text in and to a community of people using the same type of camera phone technology. The latest picture from the moblog is available on The Street Scene Weblog home page and you can click that picture to see all of them. | The latest post... |
YOU CAN POST YOUR PICTURE!
It's as easy as using your camera-enabled phone to send a picture message to an email address instead of another phone (number). Send your picture message to:
(Replace the '(at sign)' text with the standard '@' symbol. The wierd way I put it above is to prevent automated 'bad guys' from scanning this page for email addresses in the standard format and sending more span. Boo span!!)
Most phones have the capability to send pictures message not only to another phone (using a phone number) but also to an email address. Just look on your phone for a way to type in letters instead of numbers in the "To:" or "Send To:" field when addressing a picture message from your phone. The easiest way to do this on most phones is to use your phone's address book capability, add a new entry for The Street Scene Moblog, and add the above email address in the 'email' part of the entry (or the phone number, in some cases). Then, when you snap a picture on your camera phone from in front of the stage, you can quickly address it using your phone's address book, add some witty, nimble-thumbed text to the subject, and post it to the Moblog!!
The Street Scene Weblog Guest Book
Welcome to The Street Scene Weblog guest book! Use the comment link on this post to read what other readers are thinking about Street Scene and this weblog and to post your own greetings and comments. Some of the things should comment on include,
- Do you have any juicy tidbits on Street Scene that you'd like to share with others?
- Your previous experiences at Street Scene and what you're looking forward to this year?
- News about the artists that are appearing.
- Suggestions for the Street Scene or this weblog.
- Anything regarding Street Scene you want to say!
Thanks for reading and participating!!
About The Street Scene Weblog
The Street Scene Weblog aims to...
- Provide news, information, pictures, audio, and other interesting perspectives on this fantastic musical and cultural event, Street Scene San Diego.
- Provide ways for readers of the weblog to become participants in the coverage of Street Scene through mobile camera phone postings on The Street Scene Moblog, weblog guestbook, and weblog comments on all posts.
- Document some of the research and process that happens to put together the artist interview and performance clips that make up Street Scene VideoFest. (And I'm doing some of the interviews this year!!)
- Demonstrate the usage of some of the latest tools for weblogging (both desktop and mobile), news syndication, and interactive communities.
If anyone has questions on what's up here or any and all feedback, post a comment for this or any other entry, or send me (Vince Outlaw) an email at VO(at sign)TheNewJazzThing.com.
And look for the dude blogging with his camera phone at Street Scene San Diego!