Michael Stipe(r.e.m.) at the Isle of Wight concert: He's blue! I like it

[CottonBear]

link to BBC story and pics about the Isle of Wight and Download festivals: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4087734.stm

[Deja Q]

1. OMG, it's Robin the boy wonder in a business suit!

:wow:

[AlienGirl]

2. I saw R.E.M. live once

Michael Stipe is an incredibly beautiful man.

Tucker

[CottonBear]

3. He and I both live in Athens, GA. I've met him. He's very polite.

He and r.e.m. are very genuine and nice people. They do so many good things for Athens. They donate a lot of money to Democrats and charities. Michael is a very good artist too!

My husband's band opened for r.e.m. back in the 80's!

Michael's sister Linda is very beautiful too! She studied sculpture at UGA and she sings as well. She has a beautiful voice. She used to have a band called Hetch Hetchy. I worked with her for a while at a pizza restaurant while we were in college. She moved away from Athens for a long time.

[AlienGirl]

6. Lucky!

Though I don't know what I'd say to him if I had the chance...

Tucker

[CottonBear]

7. You would just chat w/ him.

Mr. Cotton Bear knows all the r.e.m. and other Athens bands people. They are jst like him: artists/ Musicians/ Writers. We were all here at the same time. some of them just made it bigger than others, but the "others" are still rocking. In Athens everything is cool and low-key.

The music, art and theater here is amazing.

When my friend, Rick Fowler, had a benfit concert, Bill Berry played his first solo gig apart from r.e.m. to benefit the Tourettes's Syndrome charity.

But, you know, at the end of the day, they are just fellow UGA grads/Art School grads/ Athens musicians/artists/ Athens residents (at least to us.)

My advice: support your local artists(music/art/theater/film).

Peace. CB

[AlienGirl]

9. You're right, I would...

We'd probably talk about politics. Maybe about Weird Stuff.

Tucker

[CottonBear]

11. Politics, environment, music, art, theater....

all good topics of conversation here in Athens, GA. Even weird stuff (that would be me!, according to Mr. CottonBear!

There ae many good people here in Athens Athens is the sum of us all at any one moment!

[AlienGirl]

12. By "weird" I mean paranormal!

[CottonBear]

14. I understand! Ghosts and sprits are common here.

My horse lives in a pasture next to an Indian Mound. There is a powerful energy that springs from that place!

[AlienGirl]

16. Cool! I grew up in a haunted house.

Currently I'm most interested in reincarnation and the big question of how consciousness hooks into the physical brain.

Tucker

[CottonBear]

18. How was your house haunted?

I believe that one is reincarnated relative to how one interacts w/ one's fellow creatures. You must be kind and understanding during birth, life and death and reincarnation.

[AlienGirl]

19. Lots of weird noises

Drawers opening and closing, footsteps on the stairs, things found moved from their normal places, stuff like that.

From what I've seen, reincarnation's pretty random--some people can be real SOB's and come back in lives that are just fine. :shrug: The only karma-like thing that seems to work is people will re-encounter those they had strong feelings about.

Tucker

[misanthrope]

8. Has he bathed yet?...

...The other guys in the band used to make him take his own transportation for a while because he was so malodorous.

[CottonBear]

10. Really? We are all malodorous here in the Southern weather...

relative to everyone else! Get over over it. Sometimes (if you don't have AC in the car or in the house) then one must take 2 or 3 showers per day. It is incredibly hot and humid here. But, you know, we are NOT stinky. We just move slowly and chill out at local bars w/ AC or retire to the river for a relaxing canoe trip w/ a 6-pack of beer and then later have some fine GA BBQ after our river trip.

edit: I am relaxing in my AC house. I spent 3 hours in the GA heat w/ my horse. then retired to the "bliss" of AC, although I've lived w/out it for many years before. Slow down and have an ice tea or a cold beer.
Peace and Love. CB

[misanthrope]

13. I live on the Gulf...

...so I know it's pretty damn hot and humid. I also know that when you take a shower in the summer, you need at least two towels afterward because you inevitably break out into two sweats after you get out of the shower and initially dry off.

I also know that if you bathe at least once a day, you don't reek when you break out into a sweat.

I also remember, back in about '89, seeing separate interviews with Mike Mills and Peter Stipe watching one of their videos and narrating it for the interviewer. Stipe would say something to the effect of "Here we have this house because it's a symbol of the decay of the soul under the pressures of post-modern angst," and then it would cut to the Mills interview where Mike would say "Yeah, there was this old house out in the woods in Athens and it just seemed like a convenient place to shoot," then back to Stipe saying "Here we had this dog come in to represent the suppression of the collective unconscious in a world where the hunger for communal identity is unrequited," and then back to Mills casually saying, "Yeah, then this stray dog just wandered up so we were like 'That's cool, leave it in I guess,'" and on and on.

It was pretty funny.

[CottonBear]

15. Exactly! Both replying to the sweat/heat/humidty and artistry!

"...so I know it's pretty damn hot and humid. I also know that when you take a shower in the summer, you need at least two towels afterward because you inevitably break out into two sweats after you get out of the shower and initially dry off."

Hello misanthrope! No one else can understand the South without the weather.
Peace and COOLNESS to you! All of Sothern music and art and literature has connections to our climate.

Peace.. CB

[CottonBear]

17. What video was that? Mr CB & I are going to an Athens '75-'85 reuinion

and we should be knowledgable of these videos. During that tine, many of us had no TV, or no cable TV (didn't exist pre-MTV) I was a country hippy chick then. :)

[misanthrope]

20. Couldn't tell you...

...off the top of my head. I'm guessing maybe "End of the World." Something with a kid playing in a derelict structure.

I kind of fell off the R.E.M. bandwagon after "Life's Rich Pageant." I liked their earlier stuff; "Murmur," "Reckoning" and "Life's Rich Pageant" were hallmark albums, in my opinion, but they grew monotonous and repetitious to me after then.

I did like that tune "Leave" from "Adventures in Hi-Fi," though.

[Kire]

4. I thought I finally figured out that I wasn't gay.

then I saw R.E.M. live

[CottonBear]

5. Hi Kire! If you're ever in Athens, GA, you'll feel at home here!

We are a cool town. Be what you are, what you want to be, what ever! :)