September 21, 2021
Rebelution
With Kathy gone for the better part of the month as she
bikes across Canada with our friends Tom and Cheryl, I was left to man the home
front. That entails maintaining the house and yard, making sure the plants and
pets stay alive and keeping things to a basic level of cleanliness. It also has
given me a great opportunity to spend some time sorting through all the junk I
have in storage and to simply veg out and enjoy having the house to myself.
There is something comforting about being alone sometimes,
I get t watch what I want, sleep and do chores at my own bidding. But I truly
do miss my wife. She calls or facetimes me
at least once a day and I have been able to follow along vicariously as she
also sends me photos and videos. They are riding about 45-50 miles a day
average, stopping in time to enjoy the mostly small towns and villages in the
Canadian countryside.
I haven’t been doing a whole lot, I did go to my first
concert at the Key West Amphitheater since the pandemic began. I had purchased
tickets long before the pandemic hot and this tour had been postponed from last
summer. It had also changed somewhat as the band that I really wanted to see,
Steel Pulse had pulled out due to Covid concerns.
That left the headliner, Rebelution, a reggae band out of
California that I was not familiar with as well as Kenazmdy and DJ Markie, who
I also had not heard of or about. I almost skipped going altogether but then
thought what the hell, I can socially distance and wear a mask, even though I
was certain that most people would not be. I gave Kathy’s ticket to my friend
Jim who manages the Green Parrot and headed into the show with no expectations,
thinking that if it sucked, I could just take off.
It did not suck. In fact, it was pretty damn awesome. It
reminded me of the amazing reggae shows that were so frequently held on the
beach here when I first moved here. Seeing bands like Steel Pulse, Pato Bantom,
The Wailers, Big Mountain and more was something that happened with regularity
back in the day and it was often the only type of concerts we would get.
And while I was not familiar with Rebelution, it was obvious
that the vast majority of the crowd certainly was and I was truly shocked at just
how large the young hip crowd was, I guess I have’t gotten out much and have
become old and disconnected from an obviously large segment of the Key West
population as it was a largely local crowd. It made me happy to see.
The crowd was as happy and lively as any I have seen in
ages and I think the post isolation portion of the pandemic where people are
just so happy to be out seeing live music was in full force. It was an amazing
show that I really, really had fun attending. I also ran into a number of
friends, which is always nice.
I also attended the first home game for Key West High
football at their temporary home at the school’s backyard. The main stadium is
undergoing renovations so the team is playing at the new field that was
recently built behind the school. Key West, which had lost its first two road
games, won huge 55-0 over St. Brendan to improve to 1-2 on the season.
Finally I wanted to include photos of the two bronze rams
that my employer, RPM Nautical Foundation found this summer in Sicily, Italy.
That brings the total number of battering rams from the front of ancient Greek
and Carthegenian warships to 25 that we have recovered since the project
started. This has been an especially good season to date.
https://rebelutionmusic.com/
