Heather Barton

We all have high hopes, dreams, ideas which time, reality and life seem to overshadow.  For example, I had hoped to get the ideas written and posted in January, dreaming I would manage to finish a blog once per month.  But life…. or rather the desire NOT to life intervened and I procrastinated until March. 

It was a difficult year in 2017 watching our government, those in charge of protecting the general “us”, act crazy and betray all precepts of protection for the sake of greed.  But I found a way to do something more than bitch.  Normally, the thing they tell you is to get ACTIVE in politics.  But I’m in Southern California in a very Blue area of the state, so I wasn’t sure what I could do.  Until I signed up for email notices from SwingLeft.org.  This group lists the closest swing seat near you which can be very valuable information if you want to get more active in politics.

I realized the power of the grass roots organizations could work to my advantage.  Everyone talks about voting OUT all possible Republicans this year, but unless you’re actively able to join every campaign that can seem like nothing more than talk.  But there is a way to help…. with money.  The GOP has proven THAT is how you rule in politics and the Sander’s campaign taught us how to use the internet to that advantage.

Basically what I’m saying is every person should decide to donate $10-$20 a month to change politics.  It’s rather easy…you donate $1 a month to 10 or 20 like minded campaigns around the country.  If EVERY person who wanted change did this we could remove the BIG $ influence OUT of politics and perhaps get politicians less dependent on corporations. You might find the website Ballotpedia.org very informative!

So in the interest of this, I got a few names for you.  (I’m just gonna list sames & what they’re running for…look them up, they’re worth supporting)  Paulette Jordan-Idaho governor, Tammy Baldwin-WI Senate, Jay Hulings-TX Congress, Marie Newman-IL congress, Jess King-PA congress, Dan Canon-Indiana Congress, Chelsea Manning-MD senate, Lupe Valdez-TX governor, Conor Lamb-PA congress, Elissa Slotkin-MI congress, Kendra Ferishee-WV congress, Jess Phoenix-CA congress, Zach Walls-IA senate, Pete D’Alessandro-IA congress, Mallory Hagan-AL congress, Cort VanOstran-MO congress, Ben Jealous-MD governor, Chuy Garcia-IL congress, Brendan Kelly-IL congress, Tina Smith-MN-senate, Lindsey Davis Stover-VA congress, Beto O’Rourke-TX senate, .   There are of course, MANY MORE, and research is a pain in the ass….but so are Republicans!  lol

Oh and there are other grass roots ways to support.  Buy a shirt or two from Wildfang or support their Indiegogo campaign to save the last abortion clinic in South Dakota.  Shaun King has started a Real Justice PAC to try to help areas vote OUT discriminatory policing, he’s got boots on the ground support.  Keith Ellison is trying to keep the Progressive Movement going even as Tom Perez the DNC chair is purging Sanders supporters from the DNC. grrrrrrr…

What I’m going to do is send money to a few in my state, then to some southern states cuz they need to CHANGE!!!

I have won many radio concert contests from 98.7 AltRock station.  Although since they changed their contest format, not so much now.  But I did win through KROQ once!  And I will say in comparing the two I’d prefer the 98.7 win.   In summer 2015 I got free tix to see 21 Pilots at the KROQ Red Bull soundstage.  Sex God was hugely excited as this was his #1 band at that time.  Don’t get me wrong, I love them too, just not to that level of fanaticism.

Anyway we get to the venue and realize everyone is waiting in this long line to get in.  We didn’t think we were that early but joined the queue thinking it would move soon.  We were there for almost 30 minutes!  Shocking!  98.7 lets you into the venue and mill about getting drinks, etc, but their venue is a Penthouse off site of the studio.  Anyway, they check tickets and I.D.’s handing out wristbands for drinking while we all wait.  Then finally, the line begins to move!  And as cattle we herd into a small room with a roped off section for 21 Pilots to play.  That section isn’t raised and since we weren’t the first 20 people there I technically didn’t get to SEE 21 Pilots play!  Curse my shortness!

There was free RedBull and you could buy drinks but we opted out since it was noon! lol   Hearing them was marvelous and Sex God was able to see over most heads to the performance.  I was able to watch a smidgen of it through the camera of the guy in front of me filming off his phone!  Ha!   Again, my heel spurs really made my feet pain to just stand there, so once the band finished we didn’t mill about but left the venue.

It was fun, but I won’t be entering any more of THOSE contests…  well, not unless I plan on getting there early and waiting an hour outside!

It is now 2017 and this post is loooong overdue.  And since I just finished Bottlerock 2017 AND Coachella 2017, I better catch up on these music festival posts.  So let’s flash back to 2015….  Near the beginning of that year, I heard about the BottleRock festival and I note…  wow, nice lineup!  Then the Coachella lineup comes out shortly after that and I’m thinking, “Crap…  this lineup sucks!  I’d rather go to that BottleRock one!”

After many days of thought and discussion with Sex God we come to the decision we would sell the Coachella tix & condo space and go to BottleRock instead.   Our logic….the tickets to this Napa festival, in only its third year, were almost half the price of Coachella!  And with a lineup of Imagine Dragons and No Doubt we were itching to go!  So we bought tickets.

We decided to try the renting of an RV instead of a hotel room to see if that cut costs.  (costs ended up about the same)  So at the crack of dawn we drove up north and rented an rv that slept 6 which we then drove to Vallejo where the nearest campground was.  And boy was THAT an adventure! lol  Surprise tolls, worry that the rv wouldn’t fit through spaces, following him in HIS car, getting to the campsite and not seeing ANYONE who runs it to check in, hooking things up, finally getting on the road to the venue, sorting out parking there and the rush of “are we late!” all of it made getting our wristbands and into the place a big huge sigh of relief!  Although to be honest, I’m like that at EVERY festival!

This was our first at the festival so we went to EVERY booth on the first day and tried almost every level of food we could in the 3 days.  Being in Napa there are A LOT of wine booths, but since I’m allergic to wine & don’t like beer I stuck to the only booth that sold mixed drinks…exceedingly overpriced mixed drinks!   Day One had lot of bands on 4 stages and for most of the day we drifted from one to the other as these were many bands we didn’t know.  Honestly we stayed mostly at the Minor stage because it was shaded!  The Bottlerock venue has tons of trees to battle the minor heat (nothing after a Coachella lol) but their grass sucked!  it was mostly long pettled weeds!  But we were truly there to see Imagine Dragons and boy they did NOT disappoint!  Not even as we went deep into the crowd where I usually can’t see!  It was a wonderful Day One!

Day Two had unique challenges even though there were more bands we loved.  Assuming that the northern climes of Napa wouldn’t need me to apply sunscreen proved quite wrong and so I got very sunburned on the face.  Luckily we parked in a mall with a Target where I purchased a wide brimmed hat, which THAT day’s weather tried to blow OFF all day! But the seeing of Knox Hamilton was really fun because we chose them due to them playing at the Minor tent and we wanted to sit and eat our delicious salad and sandwich and as we’re completely enjoying their music, they play their last song with is a hit that 98.7 had been playing.  Those, “Wait!  I know this song!  I love this song!” moments that make going to music festivals so perfect!   I think we skipped Young the Giant and enjoyed Capital Cities and Portugal the Man.  I took a few pictures of Robert Plant for my son but then bailed as he was NO LONGER my era! lol

By Day Three we were old hands at the entire festival.  I learned to buy one overly strong mixed drink and a soda and split it into something I could enjoy for longer than the time the ice melted!  Snoop Dog and American Authors were wonderful.  Brant was determined to get up front for Gwen during No Doubt but I was over the crowds by then.  Having heel spurs was really crimping my ability to stand in a crowd!  So I enjoyed Awolnation for a bit and watched some No Doubt near the sidelines.

Over all we had a lot of fun, obviously, since we’ve gone again twice!   The RV park were we stayed had an RV show that weekend so we actually spent a bit of time Saturday looking at all the fancy models and speculating if owning one was in our future.   Or in my mother’s future as she kinda wishes she could tour the US in one.

In 2014, Sex God and I went to our first Weenie Roast.  We enjoyed it pretty well, but the early bands we REALLY wanted to see were on 2 stages next to each other and short little me couldn’t see ANYTHING.  I missed seeing The Kongos who I really wanted to see and The 1975 and barely saw American Authors!    Then most of the evening artists were a bit older and boring and the seats weren’t comfortable and the food and drinks outrageous.

So…the next year we thought we’d try something different.  We hooked up my computer to my television and watched it live from the comfort of my living room.  And it was almost the best concert experience I’d had!  I could sit when I wanted to and my view wasn’t obscured.  I could dance and use LOTS of space!  There was NO line for the bathroom!  And Sex God and his friend Guy could go for In N Out when they got hungry lol.

Unless the bands truly warrant it, THIS is how we’ll be attending future Weenie Roasts!

Did I not ever blog about the time(s) I went down to Pasadena to watch the Rose Bowl Parade?  I didn’t!?!  Suck a slacker I am….. lets fix that right now.

As a native to SoCal I grew up watching the Rose Bowl Parade on television and while I liked the floats and was so-so  on the bands, I adored the horses.  Cuz, I was a girl…in the 70’s! Hahahaha.  But in my first year at college (1981) at the University of Iowa it turned out the football team (the Hawkeyes) apparently won enough games to go to a bowl and that bowl was the Rose Bowl (Jan 1 1982).  So about 8 of my sorority sisters (I think…it was 8, it HAS been 35 years!) decided to come out to California for the game, since they had somewhere to stay now that they had a Cali-girl in the House. 🙂  I think most of them road-tripped it from Iowa to Burbank and that is their own story to tell, although I remember that Tamara flew in from Chicago.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun showing them MY home town of Burbank.  Joking about how on a non-smog day it felt like the studios had put up a scenery back lot. (BEFORE regulations the air in Los Angeles was downright dangerous) They looked up at our mountains asking if a person could breath up there.  I pointed at the houses replying, “you can live up there!”   And my mother got a call from a patient (a movie star patient) who popped over so Mom could see her child.  My sorority sisters were suitably impressed. giggle.

So one of the many connections my mother had was a patient who let us park our vehicles on their vacant lot just a few blocks from the Rose Bowl parade route.  Where we ended up spending our New Years Eve night….camped out for a prime spot on Colorado Blvd.  We knew the police closed off the streets around 10pm and we were ready with folding chairs and bodies for that moment to fight for our spot facing the parade route.  Of course, so were the people across the street so we ended up acquiring a double row of chairs.  And that’s where we took shifts for the rest of the evening, alternating between sitting guarding the folding chairs (in the pouring rain), and sleeping in the van of my best friend.  I remember one of my over 21 sorority sisters buying me a flask of apricot brandy which I proceeded to sip all night long.  The entire street area celebrated in the New Year.  Yet as it got colder and wetter I remember wanting to throw a curse at every car that drove past us as we huddled under umbrellas and jackets.

I got some sleep between 2 and 5 am and then as my best friend sorority sister traded out a shift with another, I made a suggestion.   I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we went home and got some dry clothing or towels for the rest of the group watching the chairs?  We did have a couple of hours before the parade, after all.   At that moment, in the van were my two besties, one from home and one from the sorority, so they immediately agreed and off we went.  I’m not even sure we did more than leave them a note on one of the other cars in the lot!  We dashed home and first hit my parents hot tub…. ahhhhh….the best defroster of frozen toes was a dip in 102 degree water!   Refreshed and warm we gathered what clothes/towels we could and went back followed by my parents with an industrial thermos of coffee and croissants made by another patient who was a french baker who won a national croissant contest.  Those just melted in your mouth…so good.  There was even enough to share a little with the group around us.

Seeing the floats up close was fun, when the sun wasn’t blinding us.  Seeing the horses crap right in front of us and then watching in horror as the bands would march right through that shit kicking it into the back of the legs of their fellows was unexpected.  And damn… that parade is loooooong.  But, worth it as an experience when you’re 18.

I saw it again in Jan 1999, almost 20 years later under very different circumstances.  A connection through my mother (again) got tickets in the seating for my mother, my husband, I and our two kids.  All the ticketholders had to meet at an offsite location so we could enter the stands together.  The offsite location had coffee and pastries which was good because they marched us to the seating and crammed us in there with very little ability to escape for a bathroom break or anything.  My children each sat on a parent’s lap and while the sun wasn’t in our eyes, it was also blisteringly cold, in the shade, sitting on an aluminum bench.  Even packed in as we were, I was shivering and uncomfortable.

Now in 2016 I’ve found the best way to view the parade.   On  my DVR… at a decent hour… with my coffee and whatever breakfast I’ve decided to make.  Usually alone, because my kids just don’t understand why I enjoy the floats and the horses.