It was the Friday before school started at the University of Colorado, and downtown Boulder was alive with activity.  For months the town had enjoyed the relative tranquility of student-free summer – parking spaces were abundant, tables were available, the Hill wasn’t littered with Key Lite cans and the omni-present red plastic cups that represent frat life at universities nationwide.  Boulder is a different place in the summer, and when school begins again in the fall our little town starts to feel a bit more big city.  But there was still one more weekend before classes sta

When I woke up on Sunday morning, it was raining.  I was bummed.  Rain at Red Rocks is only fun if the band is playing a song like Red Rain, Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Looks Like Rain, the Rain Song, Rain Fall Down, or Louisiana Rain.  It also seems to work for Under a Blood Red Sky (aka New Years Day), but for different reasons.  When I got to Red Rocks, however, the rain had ceased, the clouds had thinned, and the sun was poking through in places.

I woke up in Grand Teton National Park to the sounds of crazy mountain birds, and was glad not to have been eaten by bears or wolves during the night. The festival itself provides no camping but there is plenty to be found in the park and in the surrounding forests. On the drive to the festival grounds, I saw a moose, and nearly 30 people taking a picture of it. There was a lot to look forward to, and anyway I've seen moose before, so I didn't stop until I hit Teton Village.

At the All Good Music Festival held this past weekend in Masontown WV, the motto by which attendees live by is also the name.  How convenient.  Despite the mantra that anything goes, the festival has been noted as one of the better organized, least problematic, and most entertaining of the summer.

Due to a scheduling mishap by the Disco Biscuits, they had to play during Day 1, which made the festival's lineup suffer tremendously on Day 2 (pictures here). The festival's organizers compensated by making Day 2 free if one held any ticket stub from either Day 1 or any of the late night shows. That saved Day 2's attendance. We can't blame the festival's organizers for this one.