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Re: C-Stone 2002

--- "johnnychapstick at excite_com" wrote:
>  Anything I should know as a Cornerstone virgin? Tips
> would be appreciated, as in where to stay, where to eat,
> what to bring, what to expect, how early to plant myself
> in front of the stage, best place to record etc.
>
1. unless you prefer the benefits of camping in
whatessentially becomes, over the course of the four-five
day festival, a land-fill, it's well-worth the money to book
a room in Macomb at Western Illinois University's conference
center a mere twenty minutes away. Sure, the drive home
after the encore stages at 3 a.m. each night is near
hallucinatory. but if you camp, when it's hot, you sleep in
sweat and dust. when it rains, you sleep sleep in puddles
and mud. the bathrooms are port-o-sans. The showers are
communal experiences in the back of flat bed trucks... and
they turn off the hot water at 10 p.m. At the university,
you sleep in air conditioning. semi-private bathrooms are
near (though my annual roomie and I have a tendency to be
booked on the opposite end of the hall from the men's room,
leading to a daily, mile-long walk of shame) and the drive
in each day is brief and gives ample opportunity for you to:

2. stop at walmart for the things you need. Like bottled
water (cannot emphasize this item enough), ear plugs (next
to water, the second most essential item you can have),
clean socks. or better yet, rugged, comfortable, and
ultimately disposable sandals, micatin, batteries, condoms,
blank minidiscs, rain ponchos, backpacks, garbage bags,
folding chairs, vitamins, analgesics, and fruit roll-ups.

3. get a decent meal on the way in. there are only so many
dust covered subway sandwiches, pizza hut mini pizzas,
ostrich burgers, or turkey legs a person can healthfully
consume. I hear you can actually buy a vegetable or two on
the festival grounds now, but do you really want vegetarian
fare prepared by the same people who are making your lemon
shakes and funnel cakes? Both macomb and Bushnell offer a
decent, small-town variety of places to eat. There's fast
food. a few buffet / salad bar places, a couple of good sit
down restaurants, and (my favorite) grocery store deli's
where you can stock up on good cheap sandwiches, fresh fruit
and veggies, water, sodas, juice, etc. 

4. usually the sound quality at most cornerstone is very
suspect. it's largely staffed by people who do not run sound
professionally for a living. so mixes are often
over-compressed, poorly arranged, and (when all else fails)
turned up too loud. But. He's the guy running the board. So,
the whole affair is mixed to sound the best where HE is
standing. so if you are recording off a microphone, it's
going to sound best back there. and, many times, you can get
a line off the board if you ask nicely and were smart enough
to bring your own patch cables (go to radio shack on the way
in too... get a couple of good cables and connectors /
adapters for RCA, quarter-inch stereo and mono plugs, and
xlr connections. after 100 concerts in four days, however,
ear fatigue is so severe, you can't determine a good mix
from a bad one anyway. Being a short person, I usually find
that the middle to the rear of the hall also offers me a
better vantage point to actually *see* what's going on
on-stage as well. But if you're down front, catching the
stage vibe (also known as sweat from the performer) is
balanced by hearing the sound primarly from stage amps and
monitors and only having a clear view of what's right in
front of you, like the pro-basketball team, who all decided
to come to the show together and stand side by side. Until
they decide to mosh. And you become a small, human hackey
sack. if you still want that spot down front. if it's a
popular artist, get there early, like an hour ahead of time.
Especially for gallery or smaller venue shows. Those fill up
quickly. encore shows, it's easier to get there shortly
before the band starts.

5. Talk to strangers. I've met some of the nearest and
dearest people at CStone. Most are quite uncontrary. Lots of
love. In fact, I imagine heaven is a lot like cornerstone.
Except everything in the "Mall O' Love" is free, the food is
better, and your ears don't hurt as much.

=====
Bradley S. Caviness, Bigwig
Bigwig Enterprises

http://www.bigwigenterprises.com

"Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur."
(Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.)

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