Last weekend was the thanksgiving weekend. The last thursday in November is always the thanksgiving holiday in America. I was lucky enough to be invited home by my American buddy (I could use the term bro for sure but in this context, buddy or mate seems right) to share Thanksgiving dinner with his family. His family home is up in Lawrenceville (about 30-45 mins north of Atlanta) but we drove another 45 odd minutes from there to the rest of his family so we're a decent way out into the country. It was a interesting drive because it feels very country/small town vibe very quickly outside of Atlanta. Plenty of forestry, lots of stand alone little strip shops next to a massive supermarket, scattered little homes and communities. With the sun setting, it was actually reasonably beautiful.
First things first, that stereotype of the American suburbia with their little neighourhoods and cul-de-sacs? Completely true! It felt so American pulling up to different people's houses sometimes in this perfect little neighborhood with all the houses looking the same. I was disappointed that I didn't see white picket fences but close enough sometimes, close enough.
Now the dinner I went to, we counted roughly 22 people there which is a fair amount. And everyone always says all you really do on Thanksgiving is eat...a lot. So can you imagine how much food there was? For starters (or appetizers as they say here) there was about 6 or so different types of finger foods. Mini quiches, spring rolls, little dumplings, things like that. Then for main (or entree here which is really backward. My theory is that because American's servings are so big that their first courses were getting so big that most people were just having a starter and so that became the main course by default) they had not 1...not 2...but 3 turkeys! Plus a honey glazed ham! Oh my mouth practically melted over them after months of microwave meals! And to go with the choice meats was sweet potatoes, potato bake, mac & cheese, broccoli and couscous i think it was, green beans, some green noodle type thing, stuffing, chicken nuggets, corn mix, mash potato, cranberry sauce, gravy and 2 types of bread. That is a lot to fit on one plate! I didn't try it all but I gave it a good shot. Finally dessert (at least this is a universal term this time because who doesn't like dessert? Side fun fact: The trick I remember being told in year 4 to remember the different spelling between desert and dessert is that desert has one s because you don't want to spend long in the desert and dessert has two s's because you always want more of it!), there was pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie (had to try these two types of pie. There were alright but I couldn't have too much of them), cake, banana cake mash thingy, peanut butter brownies (I really don't get the American love affair with peanut butter. Like the week before I went to a free thanksgiving dinner on campus for exchange students and they asked us to bring some food item so it could go to charity for thanksgiving. The top of the most wanted items was peanut butter? I never would have guessed the homeless would want peanut butter more than anything else!) plus a ton of chocolates. By this time, I was seriously full so I don't remember what else there was. Needless to say every one was in a food coma by the end. I can imagine there'd be leftover for days...
Another fun fact, I had to go all the way to country Georgia to try Fosters for the first time. That's definitely a fun one to tell to Americans and the Brits. Fosters is actually brewed in Texas "under the supervision of people from Melbourne". It's an ok beer, I guess kinda Australian-ly tasting but there are much better beers in Australia for sure. Why can't we export more TEDs, a beer Australian's actually drink? Or even VB or XXXX, beers that are actually super local?
One of the kids in the family hosting the dinner does some short films as a hobby and apparently he did one called "Australian chess" which they had to show me. The whole joke being the aussie goes "check....mate" and the yank thinks he's saying "checkmate". Yeah, I guess their's potential humour in that but the funniest/worst thing was the attempted Australian accent! I burst out laughing and asked the people next to me, "Is he trying to go to Hogwarts?". Heads up, British accent != Aussie accent...
Of course the other big feature of Thanksgiving weekend is the Black Friday sales. It's the official start of the christmas shopping period. Some people plan their entire weekend around these sales, some even camp out! The shops open at 8pm on thursday night and often go straight through to midnight friday night! We went to this massive mall (was the largest in Georgia for some time apparently) around 11, 11:30pm. It was crazy busy! Like busier than I've ever seen Indro easily. I was just baffled by how many people there was. And all sorts of people, young, old, families, teenagers by themselves. We saw some people with 8 bags from the one store! The Gamestop store (EB games in USA) didn't open til 12am and there was a queue 20,30m long before it opened with a policemen just for that store for crowd control! Pink (the normal clothes arm of victoria secret) blocked off an entire side of the mall for their queue and told people to go around. The food court did not have a free table! How can people be eating at midnight after these huge thanksgiving dinners??? It was just absolute nuts! When people told me that fights can happen sometimes over items, I physically couldn't imagine it but after going there...these people are stupid!! Some of the sales were decent sales but lots were pretty bad deals (buy one and the get 2nd half off...? That's a little rich I think) I did snag a little 7 inch galaxy tab for $160 (normally 200, normally 230 in australia) which was pretty cool.
The final huge event for that weekend while had nothing to do with Thanksgiving was the final home college football game of the season. And this was a big one. The UGA (uni of georgia) vs Tech game. Huge rivalry, check out one of my earlier posts, it's titled #THWG, it explains the story behind the rivalry. Either way, UGA has had the upper hand in recent times in the football, I was told Tech hasn't won Georgia game at home since 1994 (it alternates between tech and UGA each year hosting it). So because UGA is only an hour or two away, there are pretty much equal UGA/Tech people about, in some parts of town, you would swear UGA was the home team. Couple all this together, last game + rivalry + sellout crowd = massive tailgate!
When we finally got to the game Tech we were up 20-0 which was amazing! The atmosphere was nuts, all the Tech fans were in disbelief that we were playing so well. Of course, I'm sure you can start to see the cruel story about to unfold, UGA get a touchdown just before halftime to go into the major break at 20-7. Blows are exchanged in the 3rd quarter and finally UGA level the game with 90 seconds to go in the final quarter. And of course, they win it in overtime. To be ahead the entire game to lose it in over time is the most cruel way to lose. The cries of "UGA! UGA!" were disheartening....such a depressing end. So close yet so far. The only solace we can take is in the fact that the UGA football team got straight As last semseter...next semester they're working on their curved Os. Hiyooooo!!
Like a true local from Atlanta I say "Next year will be our year..."
I have a few videos that I want to share but they're from random different events so I'll just push through and introduce each one.
The first lot is all the way back from the Homecoming concert on Halloween. The student council put on a concert for Homecoming/Halloween and the two people who performed were Dev & Turquoise Jeep. Dev is most famous for singing the vocals on the song "Like a G6" which is probably the only reason people turned up to see her. I thought she put on a decent enough show considering her relatively unknown-ness, she just cycled through a whole heap of poppy electronic songs that can get a crowd excited.
However, I thought the crowd was pretty poor for her (despite the obvious lack of knowledge by the crowd on proper concert etiquette which I blame the 21 age going out limit meaning there were a whole heap of people there that probably haven't gone out before), which latter became apparent because most people turned up to see Turquoise Jeep. The south loves their hip hop and Turquoise Jeep are as about stereotypical as they come. 5 black guys rapping, dancing and doing other hip hop stuff...It made me feel very white...But it was fun because I just started to make fun of it as I do. Though I don't really approve of the "get 5 girls up on stage, put them on chairs and pretty much give them a lap dance" type thing (just because Chris Brown does it, doesn't make it right)
The next video is from a friend of mine's birthday. He favourite DJ group, Krewella, were in town on the night before his birthday so naturally a huge group of us went and saw them. I knew of Krewella but always wrote them off as mainstream. So it was pleasantly surprising when they put on a rocking show. They had excellent support from CandyLand and Seven Lions (I really liked Seven Lions). The show was at the Tabernacle, a 3 story version of the Tivoli pretty much. It's an awesome venue. Here is Krewella playing out their most well known song, Alive.
The next two videos are from a country music concert I went to. A chance to experience some true southern music. The place was called Wild Bills and apparently has the largest dancefloor in America... I actually enjoyed the country music more than I thought I would although don't see me going to Tamworth any time soon. The one quote I remember that one of the artists said was "There are 3 things I expect to see when I walk into Wild Bills on a friday night. 1) Lots of beautiful women, 2) A lot of rednecks and 3) A lot of drunk people". I figure this sums up the southern attitude pretty well. The first video is country cover version of the song Royals by Lorde which is actually not bad.
The second video is from the headline act for the night, Joe Nichols. I actually managed to snag one of his guitar picks that he threw into the crowd but it must have fell out of my pocket so no dice I'm afraid. The funniest thing about the whole night though was after the last act had finished, they started to play like dance music/hip hop music over the sound system and the entire dancefloor just started dancing. It felt weird to see all these rednecks getting into their country music and then swap it up to dance. We ended up staying dancing for another hour probably, the crowd had thinned out substantially by then but we were just being silly and having fun.
The last video I have is from the college basketball game I went to this week. Georgia Tech vs Illinois. Students get in free and if your one of the first set amount of students in, you can sit courtside as well which we did. It was a lot of fun because the courtside seats meant you had to stand the whole time and get into the chants and everything which I loved (although I'm not sure how much the two girls I was with loved having to stand the whole time...). The best part was Tech coming from 12 points down to win it in the last 30 seconds. Made the finish really exciting which was awesome, great atmosphere. Each timeout, the big band would play one of the chants and all the cheer leaders would be out there doing their thing. It felt like something out of Bring It On! Of course they sang the national anthem at the beginning of the game (sorry Mum, I didn't know how to time the words of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport to the Star Spangled Banner) and they had an odd halftime show of these big dolls coming out and dancing,etc. The video is of the starting 5 for Georgia Tech being announced so you can get a feel of the atmosphere (the crowd filled out as the game went on), see some of the cheerleaders and see how much the players get into it.
A friend of a friend who had lived in Washington DC for many years told me that the one thing they remember about Atlanta was that the food was amazing. So what better way to put this hypothesis to the test? How about a "Taste of Atlanta" food festival, "The food lover's food experience"?
The simple answer? I'll let my current food baby speak for itself right now!
The 12th annual Taste of Atlanta food festival takes place friday night and all weekend. It literally takes over Tech Square stretching about 5 blocks long in total with over 100 different restaurants and businesses taking part. It was huge! So our team, all filled with empty stomachs, set out on a food adventure!
Note to my family: Any Matt Preston-like comments on done on purpose so you can stop laughing at me! :P
The adventure started with a pretty lucky plus. With your entry ticket, you get 10 coupons which are used to buy food within the festival. Once you use up all 10 coupons, you can buy 10 more for $10. When I hand in my ticket to get my bracelet and coupons, the girl without realizing handed me two lots of coupons which had stuck together. I, of course, immediately realized this and thought to myself "walk away, walk away. Please don't realize!" and she didn't so we got 10 extra free coupons! WOOT!
MORE FREE FOOD! :D
Upon entering we realize that some stuff you buy with your coupons and other stuff is completely free so after grabbing a free packet of chips, we realize quite fast that we're gonna need a bag to stock up on. Fortunately 3 stalls down, we see free bags being given by Yelp. The catch? You have to download the app and check in. Now I have no idea what Yelp is or what it does but 10mb later, I had a free bag, sunglasses (which I rocked despite how bad they looked), poncho, lip balm, pen and badges. Considering how much stuff I filled that bag with, worth it.
So after a quick detour to get more free chips and fruit bars (free food, amirite?), we were drawn to a man shouting out "free shots! Get 3 free shots here!". They were giving out shots to this strawberry vodka. It was alright although I wanted to be drinking it all night, very sweet! We were smart enough to spread the shots out throughout the day otherwise things could have been bad! 6.5/10 would take advantage of free alcohol again.
Next stop was a place giving out free samples of craft beer ice cream. I tried the chocolate stout ice cream, it was pretty tasty. The beer taste was very subtle though, more in the after taste but I'm sure if you had a whole tub it would be more explicit. Interesting combination, 8/10 would experiment again.
As we walked along checking out what else the festival had in store, the smells and sights were amazing. Every time you came to a new stall, you'd go "Hmm that sounds tasty" looking at the menu or "Woooah, what's that? It smells amazing!". Like the smell of the BBQ pork grilling was very hard to resist!
First purchase with food coupons came in the form of a Yeah! slider. They smelled really tasty and their special Yeah! sauce sounded interesting. It was really good. Quite fresh tasting patty, not to overdone or oily and the special sauce added an intriguing medley of flavours. 8.5/10 would wrap my mouth around again.
Next food purchase was on the very strong recommendation of our team's French representation, nutella and banana crepes. Oh...my...god. I think these crepes have ruined me for other crepes. It was so delicious. I polished it off so fast. In fact they were so good, we came back at the end of the day and got another one! If you've never tried this combo of flavors in a crepe, you haven't lived. Seriously. 9.5/10 would salivate over again.
Onwards we trekked to more food and my next stop was for some southern fried chicken. I figured it was an iconic southern food and surely this would be the best place to try it. Yes....yes it was. Probably the best fried chicken I've ever had. The skin was crispy and filled with an assortment of complimentary herbs and spices that created a taste explosion in my mouth. The chicken was most importantly juicy, not oily. You could just bite right in and let the food do it's thing in your mouth. This is what southern fried chicken is meant to be like. 9/10 would lament over KFC being not real southern fried chicken again.
Next free sample was some virgin olive oil infused with natural herbs. I tried the garlic rosemary, it was brilliant. Would be amazing lathered over some potatoes and put in a roast! 7.5/10 would think about learning how to cook a roast again
The next stall was probably my favourite just by the sheer number of free samples you could take. It was a sweet tea (that's iced tea to my non-southern friends) called Peace with the corny tag ling "The world's sweeter with Peace". They had two flavours to try, Razzleberry and Georgia Peach. The peach was my preferred choice. But I could only decided after have two samples of each of course, had to be sure! It was so refreshing that we even came back later in the day for more free sweet tea and they had increased the cup sizes to a normal cup size, not just a shot size. Winning! Of course, I had to try each flavour again twice to just make sure the peach was my preferred choice. I enjoyed it so much, it even prompted me to buy some Snapple on the way home to put in my fridge. 9/10 would go back again for four more cups of free samples.
Still plenty of free tastings and samples along the way. Free cans of Monster iced coffee, free samples of Hawaiian bread (very sweet, definitely could not have too much), all added to my increasing stash in my bag. But the next thing to perk my interest was a food van selling "southern influenced gelato". I have no idea how Italian ice cream and southern influences could met and even agree! I didn't try it because it seemed expensive but I still have no idea how those two different types of cuisine could be joined together. If you have any ideas, please let me know.
Further we went on into the heart of the festival. Next major free samples were flavoured natural sparkling mineral water. It was a cool stall because it was inside this little inflatable type room thing which they had called "The Ice Cube". They had four flavours, raspberry, coconut & pineapple, kiwi strawberry and peach nectarine. The coconut & pineapple was my favourite, a nice balance of flavours. 7/10 would probably sneak another free sample again.
Next food purchase was some Chowder Fries. It sounded so southern that I had to try it plus it look rather tasty! Sort of like a baked potato but the potato were fries. It was really delicious, the bacon, the sour cream-esque cream and the sauce which had a bit of a spicy kick to it made for a mouthwatering concoction of flavours. The downside? It was really filling. By this time, I could feel a food baby beginning to form but with more ground to cover and more coupons to spend, we pushed forward. 9/10 would fill up on again.
After finally covering all the festival's grounds and seeing more odd food combinations (fried cheesecake anyone? How do you even fry cheesecake?) we retrod our ground to go back to our favourites and spend our last remaining coupons. Of course, a trip back to the sweet tea place which I mentioned above (it was really refreshing, so much so I didn't have to buy a beverage the entire time I was there!), another nutella crepe (food baby still grows) and to get our last remaining strawberry vodka shots. Unsurprising, this one spot where they were giving out free shots was the most packed and busiest now. Free alcohol will do that to people.
Another stop along the way were to check out three brand new GMC cars. You were able to sit in them and check them out. Felt very weird sitting in the drivers seat of a car but on the left. Very nice cars though. Just opposite this we saw some cheering as a guy took off his shirt, and was given a new shirt by the stall and he put it on. We went over and realised that as it's breast cancer awareness week/month, if you put on their tshirt straight away, you could keep it. After a bit of banter with the girls and guys running the stall (the three girls starting a chant "Take it off!", to which I replied "Woah ladies, 3 food coupons please"), I eventually obliged and swapped T-shirts. The stall was called Twisted Tacos so the T-shirt had a picture of a taco saying "Taco's for Tatas". Classy right? But good cause, and free t-shirt so it's a win win.
The final use of my last coupons on the way out was for an apple creme brulee. Was tasty but a true creme brulee. The best bit of creme brulee is cracking the top open and the top was too soft to do this. Not surprising considering they had to produce them en masse but still, you judge a creme brulee on how satisfying that crack is. 7/10 would spend my last remaining coupons on again.
Amusingly, on the way out they were giving out free cans of diet coke to people. I laughed saying to the girl giving them out, "Oh yeah, you need diet coke after all that food. You couldn't do regular coke!".
I definitely got my money's worth. $27 entry and it meant I had no need for breakfast or dinner. My little food baby is resting nicely. I got a decent haul of stuff, pretty proud of it all.
But the best picture to sum up the day is this classic photo from a photo booth of our team. It was a fun day and a decent way to spend your Saturday.
I just wanted to post this one real quick as it happens. In the College of Computing (CoC), there's a common area for people to work,etc. It's pretty good because TAs (tutors) usually hold their office hours here so you can ask questions and you often see other people in your class here as well. So naturally this is a prime spot for companies to set up shop with their little stand and recruit people with free food. Typically it's Krispy Kreme's, sometimes some PapaJohns pizza or even popcorn. Pretty standard grab and go food.
Today the company ConocoPhillips is on display and their free food? I don't know what you would call it. It's essentially a scone acting as a sandwich with chicken fillet in it. Having the heavy texture of a scone with a fried chicken fillet is the weirdest sensation! To be honest, I'd prefer some jam and creme on my scone but you can't be picky with free food...
Last week I managed to complete a rite of passage as an Atlanta local and grab a burger at The Vortex. This is more than just a burger bar & grill, it's a burger experience. It's been voted Atlanta's best burgers countless times so clearly something is being done right. To begin with the decor is an explosion on the senses yet it blends into one coherent design. From the lighting, to the motor cycles, to the paraphernalia adorned on the walls, it is definitely something unlike anywhere else.
But it is not simple the decor that they are known for. It is the food. 20 some burgers make up a mad scientist like menu of burger creations. I tried a burger called "The Fat Elvis" just for the sheer oddness of it's combination. Beef patty, bacon, peanut butter and fried banana. That is definitely not a combination I would have thought of. Crazy but oh sooooo good. The place has even been featured on Man vs Food where you can get a better look at some of the burgers (including the fat elvis I tried).
See that massive burger at the end, the double coronary bypass? Pfft that's for kids. They have since updated it to a TRIPLE coronary bypass. What does $28.95 of burger get you? Three half pound sirloin patties (so a pound and a half of meat, already beating the "pounder" challenge at McDonalds), three fried eggs, fourteen slices of cheese and ten slices of bacon all with two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of buns plus any other condiments like sauce, onion, lettuce, etc. But wait, there's more! Normally a burger comes with one side, this comes with french fries AND tater tots (potato gems) covered in melted cheese. That's just ridiculous. Does anyone ever even order that? Is the restaurant required to have emergency services on standby when someone does order it? I don't think anyone could even wrap my mouth around that...
This is google image search, I don't know anyone crazy enough to actually order one!
To round off by food eating experience for this blog post, today I managed to check off another Seinfeld reference. Because today felt "like an Arby's" day. Puddy, Elaine's on/off again boyfriend from season nine loved Arby's much to Elaine's disdain and it's hilarious to watch. Check out the references that have been packaged together to look like an Arby's commercial.
Rewatching this after having dined at Arby's is even funnier. They pretty much do roast beef burgers, that's their thing. So when Elaine says "I had the roast beef" is even funnier because she couldn't get anything else! The burger was reasonably tasty but it's American fast food so you really only feel like once every few months or so! But I don't care because as as Sein-fan it's another reference that I can relate to now and laugh even more at now. "High five" :D
Not really. I don't even know what the Charleston is apart from it's a type of dance! And we all know how good my dancing skills are.....
After 8 long weeks of hard work and toil, we were finally awarded a break from classes in the form of Fall break. HAH! Break! Their interpretation of a break is two days without classes, not much of a break but I'll take it nonetheless. Fortunately to help pass the time (or what time we have off), OIE (office of international education) had organised a trip to Charleston, South Carolina for international students. This city is where the first shot of the civil war was fired and was/is a large port city where historically many immigrants from europe and africa would first stop.
One of the few down sides to the trip? We had to be on campus by 7am on a sunday.... My alarm should never be set for before 6am. It's a rule, nay fact. Let's just say it wasn't pretty. Yet I was awoken rather quickly by the fear that I might not being going on the trip at all. For I had booked a taxi the previous day for 6:30am. I am outside waiting and a taxi pulls up at 6:25am very promptly. Turns out, by sheer chance someone else in the building had ordered a taxi for the exact same time and this was her taxi. Minutes flow past, calls are made to the taxi company. A new driver is assigned to me because the driver which was assigned to me, his GPS is "off the grid" apparently. More minutes flow past, eventually a taxi pulls up at 6:54am. Google maps reckons it takes about 7-8 minutes to get to campus from my place and we were told the bus leaves at 7am. So I, firmly let my dissatisfaction known to my taxi driver and tell him I have to be there by 7am. That idea that you see in movies where if you say to a taxi driver "get me there 5 minutes ago and I'll give you $20" is apparently true. He flew through the streets and even pulled up directly in front of my bus to make sure it didn't leave before I could get out. Champion driver, why couldn't he have turned up 20 minutes earlier and saved many a sweaty palms. Thus the adventure begin earlier for me than most.
The drive to Charleston, SC is about 5 hours. That's 5 hours cramped on a bus with next to no sleep...I'll you do the math. Not good. Rest stop at a Macca's (which I have since learnt is a crazy name to the rest of the world to call McDonalds) was much appreciated.
First stop was Boone Hall Plantation, an old plantation which reeked with Southern history. Just even driving through the driveway, I had the Django theme song playing in my head. It was very cool to see. We had a presentation from a descendant of one of the "Gulla Geechee" (West Africa) slaves which worked on the plantation which was extremely interesting to hear about the local culture and hear a story from the other side of the fence. We then had a tour of "The Big House" to get a vibe of what 17/18th century living would have been like, followed by some free time to wander around the grounds. The estate was perfectly maintained and really was quite beautiful in parts yet seeing the houses on "Slave Street" was a humbling reminder of how lucky we really are. Now the three funnies that I remember from the plantation.
1) Food. After 5 hours on a bus, we were all reasonably hungry so when we all got to the parking lot, they unloaded the food and let the bus go park while our tour organiser went to sort out the admin stuff of our visit. So not knowing if where we were dropped off was where we were going to sit and have lunch, we were forced to wait...just looking at all the food. You could have cut the tension with a knife. It was hilarious because everyone was watching, eyeing off the food waiting for someone else to make the first move. Just that awkward standing, a few muted conversations here and there while everyone really had one thing on their mind....food. Classic "find the funnies" moment, love it!
2) After coming out of the Big House, we exited out the back of the house onto the bank of a creak/march type area. It was quite beautiful with the hanging trees and the historical gardens around. Yet across the water was a giant yacht just ruining the view. You could pan around and go southern historical, southern historical, southern historical, giant yacht, southern historical. Just a little reminder how much wealth really goes into these properties.
3) Lastly my favourite, FROG jam. Anyone keen to buy some FROG jam from the gift shop? It's homemade! No, you don't like to eat FROGs? It's just Fig, Raspberry, Orange and Ginger? What a great marketing job. That's up there with getting Moose Droppings from Canada (chocolate sultanas for those who haven't had the pleasure). They also had pumpkin butter with honey which sounded kinda odd to me as well, not the first combination I would have thought of!
One awesome thing I saw on the way from the plantation to hotel. This cracker of a business sign. Absolutely brilliant pun! Which reminds me, my puns were clearly not appreciated, at one rest-stop on the drive, we were missing two people so the organisers were trying to find out who wasn't on the bus. Meanwhile the people at the back of the bus were complaining about some beeping noise coming from the bathroom on the bus. The organiser just told them "we'll find the missing people and then sort of the bathroom noise" to which I chimed in with "Yeah, we need to flush out these missing people"! Nothing! No reaction from anyone! I even did that awkward quiet "That's just a little word play there" to just fully play out the missed joke! Well I thought it was a good pun....
Once checked in to our hotel, we were given 2 options. The organisers had planned on maybe checking out a ghost tour which we could tag along with or do your own thing until leaving the next day pretty much. Having already looked at the 8 ghost tour brochures in the lobby, I quickly gathered there were "tourist traps" and had found a few lads where thought a similar thing so we decided to just head into downtown, grab some dinner and maybe a few drinks. Just check out the vibe. Meanwhile everyone else was keen on the ghost tour. The ghost tourists had called a shuttle service to take them downtown while we had just called a maxi taxi to get us guys in. Unfortunately, the taxis and shuttles all turned up at once causing much confusion so we just jumped into the first taxi. Our taxi driver? Best ever. She seemed like a late 30 something mum but she was making jokes about the other shuttle drivers which were causing the confusion, she was pumping the music, making jokes. She even said to us once found out what we were planning to do "Oh you don't want to go there [where we had originally thought looked central]. I'll drop you off someplace better. Now do you want good food and drinks or do you want to go out with college girls?" Classic!
So after being dropped off where there was "good food and drinks" (see, we took the high road in the driver's question!), we had dinner at the "Noisy Oyster". Charleston is known for it's seafood so we figured why not try the seafood. I had bacon stuffed shrimp (read prawns) which was delicious. I also tried as my side some Carolina Red Rice which is famous in the area. It was like rice cooked in a tomato and sausage sauce, very tasty indeed. We then wandered around the city area a little, went out on the pier (and had a go on the swing chairs they had feeling like little children...but you know, #YOLO....that's sarcasm clearly), had a beer on a rooftop bar that lonely planet recommended and finished up having a drink at an Irish pub watching the Irish there embarrass themselves to the Irish band. All in all, a good night! The funniest part though, for the 35 odd people keen to do the ghost tour? They turned up and it wasn't even happening!
Next morning we headed out to the city again, had some breakfast and set out doing some more sightseeing. The thing I loved about Charleston, was that it was nothing like I expected. Thinking in my head, old civil war town, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the town was much more influenced by it's European history and walking down some lanes, you could have been in a back alley in France or Italy. It was amazing. We did stop off for a tour in one of the early 18th century homes which was fascinating to see the level of detail put into it's design. We checked off the waterfront park, Rainbow Row (all the houses on the waterfront are in different colours almost), the markets and some lovely alleys and churches. We covered a bit of ground. For photos check out my facebook but for the funnies keep reading!
One road sign we found was a picture of a see saw. On first glance, we were utterly confused. Does this mean there's literally a see saw ahead, or is there a bump in the road which kinda resembles a see saw, or is someone having a laugh? Turns out it's their way of saying there's a playground ahead so watch out for children. Not the first conclusion I jumped to but amusing all the same.
Another great find was in the markets, there was a chocolate/candy store which had a whole range of "interesting" truffles. One caught more eye and forced me to find out more. It was simply titled Bacon Love. Turns out they puree bacon and chocolate together and use that as the filling for the truffle! YUM! By two favourite food items put together! For $3, totally had to try it. It was delicious! Couldn't have too many of them but definitely a nice way to enjoy bacon and chocolate, especially if you were like pressed for time and couldn't enjoy the amazing goodness of them separately and were forced to have them together!
Finally after lunch, we stopped off at another chocolate/candy store because the smell simply drew us in. It all looked amazing but I finally settled on the Triple Chocolate Marshmallow. Best of all worlds. So rich yet sooooooo good :D Had to get a money shot!
All in all, it was a great way to spend Fall break. Not only to see more of this huge country. But to spend the time having a laugh. It was great to meet more international students and reacquaint with other international students I had previously met earlier in the term (countries include China, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Switzerland and more!). We shared many laughs, particularly on the bus ride home as were all reached delirious levels of tiredness.
Yesterday is history, today is a gift, tomorrow is mystery.
That is the mantra for the now Tomorrow franchise and I was lucky enough to attend day 2 and 3 of the first edition of TomorrowWorld this weekend at Chattahoochee Hills. This is my report. As far as possible, I will try to recount the weekend chronologically just because it's easier in my mind and then random stuff/opinions will be at the end. Pictures and videos are throughout, if you were to watch all the videos, it will some a little bit of time (maybe 20ish minutes or so) so if you plan to have the full blog report experience, plan your time accordingly. And as a further note to the avid reader planning to watch some of the videos, please excuse any singing you may hear me do... All the pictures are on my facebook but the ones have a bit better context for you.
The weekend started at the Marriott Hotel in the city to get a shuttle to the festival. As the buses to the city are hourly on the weekend and not knowing how long the shuttle process will take, I got there reasonably early just in case. The process was quick as so I was sitting waiting for the shuttle for a solid half hour but it did allow me to grab some extra breakfast from Starbucks. The point to this point? In my waiting, I got talking to a guy and a girl who were looking for the shuttle. They were pretty nice and they introduced me to their other friends and let me hang out with them. This was good for many reasons:
a) One of the guys had been to a stack of festivals as well so actually had a more reasoned experience approach to dance music
b) Got to see first hand the American view on festivals
c) It's better to be with people. Particularly for the first bit, we walked all over the festival ground together so you could take in the sights much better.
In a way I felt bad for tagging along with them so in return I tried to provide usual information. Anyone that's been to a festival with me will know that I'm pretty much a walking guide on the festival most of the time. Lineup, check. Set times, check. Map of the grounds memorised, check. Artist info and bios, check. I think they appreciated my knowledge so I'm glad I could be of some use.
So the festival grounds themselves. Wow. TomorrowWorld is correct. It really was like another world. The bus ride was about 30 minutes and by the time you get there, you're in the middle of no where. Then you turn down this little driveway which winds for about 500 meters and then suddenly you turn a corner and the festival is laid out in front of you tucked into the hills surrounded by forests. The production value was crazy. ID&T (the organisers) packed up all the props from TomorrowLand 2012 and shipped them over so everything had it's purpose. My favourite thing was the walkway through the forest towards the waterstages, just had that feel of another world.
And the stages themselves? Wow, crazy! These are probably the best stages production wise. The mainstage is huge with it's giant book at the forefront. The Q-Dance stage is in the shape of giant scorpion which just looks badass. The Anthem/DirtyBird/Trap stage was like a little temple. Just seriously other world thinking in terms of design. The other thing I can praise them for is the sound design. While working around the grounds, some stages would be leaking sound but only if you were kinda "in between" stages. As soon as you in at that stage, there was no leakage. The levels were just right, no "too much bass" like some festivals fall for. The Trance stage was very clever too in terms of sound. Although it was a small stage in the middle in between two of the larger stages, they had 4 stacks of speakers surrounding the stage area so when you were at the stage, it surmounted to a surround sound effect which was really great!
Clockwise from top left: Anthem/DirtyBird/Trap stage, Mainstage, Q-Dance stage,
Super You&Me/All Gone Pete Tong/Smash The House vs Dirty Dutch stage
So the actual music? After the initial wonder around and soak in a bit of each stage, we made it to mainstage just in time for Yves V (pronounced EV). Yves V is one of the resident DJs for Tomorrowland so I thought it'd be good to check him out. Coincidentally, the beginning of his set coincided with the "open of The Book Of Wisdom". The theme of the festival The Book of Wisdom, it being the theme from 2012 as mentioned above. This festival being chapter 2 in the book naturally. I think this is one of the greatest displays of how far they take the production value. Check out the video below and notice the actors came out and wonder around the stage around the edges. Just crazy. Yves V set itself was pretty decent for a early arvo mainstage set. I wouldn't rush out to see him again but to fill the time early in the arvo on your first day definitely solid.
After Yves V, we took the the shade for a break while NERVO played. It was ridiculously hot that day so the shade and break was greatly needed. This fortunate because NERVO's set was particularly good in my opinion. I wish I could like it, simply for the fact that the girls are Australian. Side point, also they're twins, and they're attractive blondes, it's like a marketing fantasy almost. Having heard their recent BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix and being mildly impressed for not just being "mainstream", I'm afraid this set was "mainstream". It's a point I'll discuss later.
After NERVO, I parted ways with the random friends I made from the shuttle in order to see the people I wanted to see proper. First on the list Mord Fustang. I had only ever heard a few songs of Mord, namely A New World, and I had liked what I had heard so I was curious to see what he had. His set was very up and down. When he was good, he was good and the electro house/brostep drops were heavy and pushed the crowd into energy. But when he was bad, he just went on. There were times when he would just go and on with intros/outros and the build ups were far too long. I got the feeling that he was mixing in a house style but with electro/brostep style music, you need quick edits going to from drop to drop. Considering he was the only "bass-y" act I was seeing all weekend, I did enjoy the set overall. Mord is young and I would be interested to see him again in a few years to see how he's matured.
From there I made my way to the All Gone Pete Tong (cockney for "all gone a bit wrong") stage and sat up camp for the rest of the day. On the bill was Jorris Voorn, Maya Jane Coles & Pete Tong, all house with a bit of techno acts. In a way this was a refreshing experience because I rarely get to check out and stick around at a pure house/techno stage. Not many of my friends share the same passion for the genre (although to their credit, they are learning :p ). First up Jorris Voorn. A Dutchman with a flavour for house and tech-house, he definitely had the crowd moving to a nice groove. Having read rave reviews about him in the likes of DJ Mag and Mixmag, I was pleased that he lived up to expectation. Check out his vibe below.
Next up Maya Jane Coles. This girl has a serious reputation. Dubbed as the "Queen of the Undergound", she is known for the person with their finger on the underground house pulse. With even more rave reviews from everyone, it was a solid 90 mins of house and techno grooves. She earned her title clearly and it was a brilliant warm up for the main event.
"Welcome to stage 4 of the BBC Radio 1 dance music marathon with another edition of the Essential Mix. I'm Pete Tong". These words I have heard many a time week in and week out. Pete Tong is not only THE voice of BBC Radio 1 dance music, he is THE voice of dance music full stop. Support for Mr Tong, pretty much guarantees that you're going somewhere. He is the respected opinion for all things dance almost. So hearing 2 hours of hand picked music that he personally likes is bound to be something special...and it was. It was quality house tunes from start to finish. Even more satisfying, hearing songs that I love but don't hear getting played out that often being rocked out over the sound system. Just like this song, Reverse Skydiving by Hot Natured. I love what the Hot Natured crew/label are doing and this track is mint.
The other exciting thing about seeing Pete Tong, it literally hearing him speak. Listening to his radio show, his voice is hallowed. So just hearing him speak in real life is cray cray. This video is just before he's about to come on at the end of MJC's set. Yep, he has a perfect voice for radio.
And that rounds out saturday. I headed off a little bit early missing the last set of the day because with the heat all day I was done, no energy left. Knowing that sunday had a heap of dancing ahead, I decided to prioritize and head home for some sleep!
Sunday I was much better prepared for the day. Heading in a little later to avoid wasting time for better people to come on and allowing me to have lunch at home to avoid expensive festival food. Sunday for me was all about trance. I was at the trance stage almost all day because it did have a stellar lineup. First up was Norin & Rad. I had seen about 20 minutes of these guys before when they supported Above & Beyond earlier in the year back in Brisbane. They had come on after A&B so when 4am hits in a club, staying the extra hour is hard to justify. Their set here was pretty solid, some great vibes for a 2pm-3pm slot. Because the trance stage was in the middle of the grounds, when the DJs exited out the back, it was just out into the festival so I managed to grab a photo with the guys. I mentioned to them that I saw them in Brisbane, Australia and they replied "No way. That was at The Family, good gig". I was shocked that they remembered the venue for a gig 6 months ago. DJs like these guys tour all over the place so clearly Brisbane really did put on a good show. They also said they liked my t-shirt, they really are Anjunabeats guys!
Next on was Jaytech. Similar story to Norin & Rad. Solid vibes for the early arvo. I also got a photo with him. He's Australian so he liked the flag clearly.
Next was Late Night Alumni. One of the members of the group is Kaskade who didn't play with them this time but he was the reason why I wanted to check them out. Oh was it worth it! A brilliant set but it all stems from their awesome music. The singer's voice, Becky, is amazing and fits perfectly with the soft-trancy style of their music. I loved the set and I already listened to all their back catalog. You should check them out asap, seriously. Not convinced, check out the video.
The next DJ was Tydi. Seeing bits and pieces of his stuff before, I didn't overly care about seeing him but there was no one else really on so thought I would at least check him out. His set was ok, clearly building the tempo for the bigger trance guns later in the night. It passed the time easy enough.
After Tydi, I decided to go check out the some of the vibes from the other stages. Which allowed me to check out half hour's worth of Skream's set which I was curious about seeing. Skream is one third of the dubstep super-group Magnetic Man and is noted as one of the originators of dubstep. But towards the beginning of the year, he said that he was going to turn his focus to house and disco music which was a big shock for the dubstep community. So naturally his set was house/disco stuff but it was pretty decent as well. I like Skream's energy when DJing so it was fun to check him out. I particularly liked this little play around with Daft Punk he did. The blend into the bass line of the next track is pretty good in my opinion so it shows he knows what he's doing with house/disco music.
After a quick bite to eat, it was to mainstage to tick off another top 10 DJ from the DJ Mag Top 100, Hardwell. Lots of big things have been said about this kid so I was very eager to see what he was like. And I can see why he's getting big. He is perfect for that mainstage sound which is so popular at the moment. I can imagine he's a better festival DJ than club DJ because I noticed a trend to his DJing pretty quickly. Mash the vocals of a well known song with some chords, when the vocals finish their chorus, go to a build and then heavy bass drop. While this is a pretty broad generalization of dance music in general, it was similar chords, similar build ups, similar drops which made it pretty obvious. But for a 60-90 min set, he can get away with it but if he was to buckle down and do a solid 3+ hour set in a club, I doubt he could keep it interesting. Plus I also didn't like that with every build up, we were told either by some sample or the MC or Hardwell himself to "put your hands up" or "everybody f***ing jump". Your music should make people do that, you don't need to keep telling them to do it. But that ties into the point that I'll make at the end. I'll admit he is high energy and it is hard to resist some of the drops sometimes so overall a good set but I wouldn't need to see him again any time soon. As a side note, at one point he used the vocals to Thing Called Love by Above & Beyond, I was of course belting out the lyrics, no one around me knew them........................America needs to learn about Above & Beyond more!
Back to the trance stage for BT. I had recently listened to his latest album and was thoroughly impressed with it. I had also read before about his impressive live presence so I was keen to see him. Oh my what a set. Seriously banging from start to end. In a time slot where I was wanting to converse energy, it literally got me onto my feet and onto the dancefloor. The #trancefamily crowd were certainly showing their love for him because the atmosphere was crazy. Great friendly vibes but off the hook. Like Late Night Alumni, check out his stuff. He's a talented man (see his wikipedia blurb) and he has many different types of music. If you saw the original Fast & The Furious or Monster, then you've heard his talents because he soundtracked those films.
After BT's set I quickly hurried to mainstage to catch the last 2 songs of David Guetta to see what he's playing these days. Still terrible live, don't bother. One of the two songs was the first song off his new album...it sounded pretty bland despite having links to being made with the UN or something.... I don't know anymore D.Guetta....
The closing set of the festival was the reason why I got tickets for Sunday. I'll let this video introduce him.
The number 1 DJ in the world a record 5 times. The only previous time I had seen him was amazing. His studio work is amazing. Listening to his latest live album a few weeks ago amazing. He is truly worthy of the title of number 1 DJ. Naturally he killed it. But when you have massive tracks like this, it's no wonder.
Briefly foraying into that point I was going to discuss later, the American influence was clear in Armin's set. Check out his closing song (even for just the pyrotechnics display is amazing! It is the last song of the entire festival after all) and tell me that's not an American influence.
And so the last song was played. The last stories were etched into chapter 2 of The Book of Wisdom and so it was time for it to close once more. I can't do it justice so the last video for the post will have to do. In a way, it seemed more emotional that it ought to be...maybe it'll reopen someday where some other lucky festival goers will get to write their chapter.
And so chronologically, that was TomorrowWorld!
But this is a point I want to discuss, that I've alluded to throughout the post. The American influence on namely the music. Clearly DJs sometimes have to alter their style of set or song choices for different crowds. I would be interested to know how much different their set would be say if they were playing TomororwWorld in Australia. For example, I've seen Armin once before as the headline slot at a festival in Australia. But this set was slightly different, for starters using Smells Like Teen Spirit for his finale. In Australia, his finale & encore were both classic tracks from his latest album. In a way, I actually felt sorry for Armin. The crowd was nowhere the best I'm sure he's seen because most people were left over from Hardwell & David Guetta. When he yelled out "Who's a fan of A State of Trance [his radio show]?" and a mediocre response prompting him to asked again to get the crowd up is a prime example. Any other show he would do, the crowd would be in a frenzy at his question and I think Armin knew it too. The trance stage closed at the beginning of Armin's set so the trance fans (called trancefamily) could get to Armin so the trancefamily was all on my side of the stage. Armin almost only ever addressed our side of the stage, never the other stage, like he knew where his real fans were.
The main point of this little rant is the idea of "EDM" to America. EDM is that mainstream dance music genre where it's heavy bass drop from a melodic build up. Animals by Martin Garrix is classic example, it was on top of the Beatport charts for like 6 weeks straight. I don't like EDM because it's unoriginal, all the music sounds the same yet Americans keep coming back to it. Remember the point I made about NERVO, their set was clearly aimed at the American love of EDM but having heard their other sets, they're clearly better than the set they played. A worse fact is that Americans usually just refer to dance music in general as EDM and take other shortcuts like calling house and techno just techno, and using the catch all bass music term. While I'm not a huge fan of millions of subgenres, I do appreciate at least some respect for what people play and not confusing them with something else. The dance music explosion in the US is new and still young. It's amazing the progress they've made in recent years, that a festival on the scale of TomorrowWorld could even happen. But much more progress needs to be made to even come close to the level of dance music in Europe (I'm believing Australia is more closely aligned with the UK compared to the US here). I guess if TomorrowWorld continues as an annual event it will be a test for how dance music is fairing in the US. America can choose to grow in their dance music appreciation, or they can continue playing the same tunes and dance music will begin to die out in the coming years. I hope it is the former.
The last point I want to talk about is the American festival stereotypes. They're all true! People still dress is bright neon colours like it's 2005. Girls still wear those ridiculous woolly/hairy knee high boot things. People still wear heaps of those candy bracelets. People smoking weed everywhere...I know hate the smell of weed (let alone the act of smoking period). People wearing shirts saying things about Molly (which is actually pretty bad considering the number of drug related deaths there have been in recent times). I'm glad I was able to hang out with those randoms for the first bit of the first day. It allowed me to see how an American experiences a festival and see all the stereotypes first hand.
TomorrowWorld was a unique experience, one of the best festivals I've been to, if not the best. Not just for the production value or the lineup but for the truly international feel. Over the weekend I spoke to Americans (clearly), Irish, Indian, German, South African, Australian (although the guy in the Roosters Jersey didn't like me yelling "Queenslander! 8 in a row!"), Mexican, Venezuela, Canadian & French. Plus the number of flags being flown at mainstage showed how many nationalities. It's an opportunity few people get to be apart of a global community in this way and really shows the ideal of the Tomorrow franchise.
For the 3 days, this is a new land or world. They have their own currency, their own brew, their own post office, marketplace and bookstore. It's not surprising to hear some people wait months to take off their entry bracelet serving a reminder of a weekend that was.
But in a way, this is wrong for it contradicts the Tomorrow motto. For those who have experience Tomorrow, I gladly join you as a Tomorrow local. If you haven't been, I urge to go someday. It really is a one of a kind experience.
Just remember these 10 little words.
Yesterday is history, today is a gift, tomorrow is mystery.....
