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Okay, here's my political side coming out.....
After finding out about this I became so revolted that I felt like letting people know about it. An innocent man is going to be put to death this coming Thursday night because of a thing called "law of parties". It's a law in most states that says if someone is injured in the act of committing another crime, that anyone involved in the original crime will be held responsible. However only in Texas, it is used in capital cases. In this case, Kenneth Foster was sitting in a car with two guys when the fourth guy got out of the car, had a confrontation with a woman and then killed her friend. Kenneth Foster was 80 feet away and had nothing to do with it. The killer got back in the car and they drove away. Texas then charged the killer and Kenneth with 1st degree murder. How can this be? He's no angel, they had all been out that night and they had committed robberies, but he had no idea that this dude had a gun and was going to do such a horrific thing. Here's a video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwZ5rq3d3XE
also www.freekenneth.com
Texas had it's 400th inmate put to death this year since the death penalty became legal again. It's the most in the country and now with this new, insane law, it will go up exponentially.
Edit on 8/30/07* The TX. Board of Pardon and Paroles as well as the governor actually converted the sentence to life in prison. He's not going to die!! Now, if we could get otehr politicians to listen to us like they did here, well, think of what could be stopped!!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5095416.html
After finding out about this I became so revolted that I felt like letting people know about it. An innocent man is going to be put to death this coming Thursday night because of a thing called "law of parties". It's a law in most states that says if someone is injured in the act of committing another crime, that anyone involved in the original crime will be held responsible. However only in Texas, it is used in capital cases. In this case, Kenneth Foster was sitting in a car with two guys when the fourth guy got out of the car, had a confrontation with a woman and then killed her friend. Kenneth Foster was 80 feet away and had nothing to do with it. The killer got back in the car and they drove away. Texas then charged the killer and Kenneth with 1st degree murder. How can this be? He's no angel, they had all been out that night and they had committed robberies, but he had no idea that this dude had a gun and was going to do such a horrific thing. Here's a video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwZ5rq3d3XE
also www.freekenneth.com
Texas had it's 400th inmate put to death this year since the death penalty became legal again. It's the most in the country and now with this new, insane law, it will go up exponentially.
Edit on 8/30/07* The TX. Board of Pardon and Paroles as well as the governor actually converted the sentence to life in prison. He's not going to die!! Now, if we could get otehr politicians to listen to us like they did here, well, think of what could be stopped!!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5095416.html
The good...so my daughter and I got back from the San Bernadino "Rock The Bells" show yesterday and I have to say that musically it was one of the greatest shows of my life. RATM was supreme- so much raw power, energy and the fans are so dedicated- a beautiful thing. Other groups that have opened my eyes recently like Wu Tang, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill and, my two favorite hip hop groups ever- The Coup and The LEGENDARY Roots- were there! Amazing show and those of you going to SF this weekend will be blown away!
Now the bad.... the treatment of the fans or, in harsher terms, the customers. We all know how big festivals run these days. Hours in the blazing sun, port-a-potties, greasy-gross food, and very expensive water. Fine, we go in knowing this. What is cruel though is giving the fans certain expectations and not following through. First off, they told those of us who had to pick up tickets at will call should park in lot 1 for "easy access". When we got there, we spent an hour and a half in the heat along with no shade waiting to get up to the will call booth. When we got there, it was a madhouse. It was every person for themselves- absolutely no organisation to the very long lines. So after nearly literally passing out from dehydration (we stupidly didn't have water with us because we have never waited so long to get into a venue before), we finally got in. Then, there were many fans who had spent over $150 for "VIP" tickets and really were treated with disdain. For their great deal, they were given a backpack, a pink wristband, a placard that got them nowhere, access to a "VIP" area that had the same crappy food and water at the same expensive prices with slightly smaller lines, and it also got them abusive treatment by security. At dusk, a large percentage of them were told that they could no longer go back to the GA/pit area because it was "full". They were no longer allowed in. Now we were down in that area and i can tell you that it was not full, not by a long shot. These VIPs became very angry and some jumped the barriers and even pushed through the security guards. Well, then many of them were pepper sprayed, maced and or thrown out. That's what their $150 got them. I realise that it must be a logistical nightmare to put on a show of this magnitude however, the promoters should NOT make false promises and charge people exhorberant prices for goods that they can't deliver. Also people should NEVER be treated like animals. They were really degraded- I saw it first hand. I'm positive that many fans acted like a**holes and were dtunk, and just plain stupid. Fine, they got to go. But for the most part, people were well behaved and were just looking for what was promised to them. The frustration grew and RATM was a great, cathartic outlet. Some decided to light bonfires around the venue from trash- including the remains of their $4 plastic water bottles. It was a smelly, cancerous mess. But what do you expect when people are angry?
The parking lot? Don't even ask. All those people who had directed us in at the beginning of the day were gone at 11:30 PM. Needless to say it took some 3-3.5 hours to get out of the lots.
Sorry for the rant. Some of you probably think that I'm just a complaining idiot who has never been to a show before. Partly right, I am a temporary member of the BMW club (bitching, moaning, whining) but I've been going to concerts and festivals since 1980. I still recommend going to see this historic show, just PLEASE don't pay the rip off artists over regular GA prices. It really isn't worth it.
Now the bad.... the treatment of the fans or, in harsher terms, the customers. We all know how big festivals run these days. Hours in the blazing sun, port-a-potties, greasy-gross food, and very expensive water. Fine, we go in knowing this. What is cruel though is giving the fans certain expectations and not following through. First off, they told those of us who had to pick up tickets at will call should park in lot 1 for "easy access". When we got there, we spent an hour and a half in the heat along with no shade waiting to get up to the will call booth. When we got there, it was a madhouse. It was every person for themselves- absolutely no organisation to the very long lines. So after nearly literally passing out from dehydration (we stupidly didn't have water with us because we have never waited so long to get into a venue before), we finally got in. Then, there were many fans who had spent over $150 for "VIP" tickets and really were treated with disdain. For their great deal, they were given a backpack, a pink wristband, a placard that got them nowhere, access to a "VIP" area that had the same crappy food and water at the same expensive prices with slightly smaller lines, and it also got them abusive treatment by security. At dusk, a large percentage of them were told that they could no longer go back to the GA/pit area because it was "full". They were no longer allowed in. Now we were down in that area and i can tell you that it was not full, not by a long shot. These VIPs became very angry and some jumped the barriers and even pushed through the security guards. Well, then many of them were pepper sprayed, maced and or thrown out. That's what their $150 got them. I realise that it must be a logistical nightmare to put on a show of this magnitude however, the promoters should NOT make false promises and charge people exhorberant prices for goods that they can't deliver. Also people should NEVER be treated like animals. They were really degraded- I saw it first hand. I'm positive that many fans acted like a**holes and were dtunk, and just plain stupid. Fine, they got to go. But for the most part, people were well behaved and were just looking for what was promised to them. The frustration grew and RATM was a great, cathartic outlet. Some decided to light bonfires around the venue from trash- including the remains of their $4 plastic water bottles. It was a smelly, cancerous mess. But what do you expect when people are angry?
The parking lot? Don't even ask. All those people who had directed us in at the beginning of the day were gone at 11:30 PM. Needless to say it took some 3-3.5 hours to get out of the lots.
Sorry for the rant. Some of you probably think that I'm just a complaining idiot who has never been to a show before. Partly right, I am a temporary member of the BMW club (bitching, moaning, whining) but I've been going to concerts and festivals since 1980. I still recommend going to see this historic show, just PLEASE don't pay the rip off artists over regular GA prices. It really isn't worth it.