4 Reasons You Should Finally Go to Bonnaroo This Year

by kennethebuka57

I’ve been to Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival three times now, and each year is just as special as the first.
In general, I’m drawn to music festivals. I’ve attended Lollapalooza and Pitchfork in Chicago, Panorama in New York, Outside Lands in San Francisco, and, most recently,
Hangout Fest (which I highly recommend). Bonnaroo, however, feels different — like a great music festival, but also a tradition.

Fair warning: Bonnaroo is not for everyone. It’s very hot and humid, so unless you grew up in the South like I did, you could find it intolerable. It’s also not easy to get to, since Manchester, TN, is an hour drive from Nashville. But perhaps the biggest dealbreaker for many people is the camping. Almost all of the attendees camp out on “the farm” (aka the 700 acres of land where Bonnaroo takes place), and unless you opt for an RV or a hotel in town (which means lots of travel time back and forth), you’re sleeping in a tent, by your car, in what amounts to a massive parking lot.
If that all sounds tolerable to you, then I highly recommend going to Bonnaroo at least once, because it’s truly unlike any music festival I’ve ever experienced. Here are 23 reasons it’s my favorite music festival.

1. The Bonnaroo Code

Everyone who attends the festival is expected to follow the
Bonnaroovian Code, which evolved within the Bonnaroo community over the past 15 years. The Code offers six simple rules to make everyone’s experience as pleasant as possible, including:
Consider the community and keep an eye on your friends. If you see someone who can use a hand, offer it. You will make his or her day, and provide an example that will multiply across The Farm.
Radiate positivity. The Farm is an aggro-free zone. Leave your worries at home. For a few days this summer celebrate the best things in life. Smiles, high fives, and random acts of kindness . . . Happiness is the goal.
What’s remarkable is that the code really works. Sure, as with any situation involving lots of people and alcohol, you will encounter a few bad apples, but for the most part, everyone is happy and helpful. When a thunderstorm this year required tens of thousands of people to evacuate and take shelter in our cars, everyone shuffled out jovially and even cheered when one particularly drunk gentleman finally located his campsite.

2. A Love of Live Music

Though Bonnaroo started out as a “jam band festival,” the lineups nowadays span pretty much every genre and draw a diverse group of fans. What unites us all is a love for killer live performances, and the performers really get into that. Even the least “jammy” performers indulge in more improvisation than they would at other festivals and rave about how enthusiastic and fun the crowds are.

3. Ingenious Scheduling

I’m not sure how the organizers do it, but I have never once had to decide between two acts I really want to see that are playing at the same time. The show start times are nicely staggered, so it’s easy to see all the bands you want to see without feeling rushed. And it’s almost as if they schedule the music based on people’s tastes, because rarely do any two shows overlap that might draw similar fans.

4. High Fives

I’m not usually the high-fiving type, but at Bonnaroo, I’ve learned to love it. On your way into the festival or when walking between stages, staffers and attendees are likely to hold their hands up awaiting high fives. Winding through the line to get in, you might encounter a whole row of hands, like a baseball team high-fiving the other team.

Steve Kerr: ‘I feel great about where we are right now’ despite Game 5 loss

by kennethebuka57

HOUSTON — The Golden State Warriors are one loss away from elimination, but yet they sound as if they’re the ones who are a single victory away from advancing to the NBA Finals.
“I feel great about where we are right now,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the Houston Rockets took a 3-2 lead following a 98-94 win Thursday night. “That may sound crazy, but I feel it. I know exactly what I’m seeing out there, and we defended them beautifully tonight. We got everything we needed. Just too many turnovers, too many reaches, and if we settle down a little bit, we’re going to be in really good shape.”
At his postgame news conference, Stephen Curry, who scored 22 points, was asked to explain how exactly it is that they’re in a great position.
“Because I think the way we’ve played the last two games, we’ve played good enough to win and just haven’t gotten the job done,” he said. “So, going home Game 6, the way we played tonight, if we can repeat that, take care of turnovers, just stay mentally locked in on the details for 48 minutes, we know we can get a win. Just with the talent we have on this team and the resiliency and what not, you know, we can get the job done.
“I think we’re excited about that opportunity to go home, to get ourselves back in the series, stay alive, obviously, like I said, then worry about a Game 7. We haven’t been in this position before, this team and teams of old, so it’s a chapter we need to figure out and finish the story.”
Golden State has now blown consecutive opportunities to claim its third win of the series. James Harden was held to 5-of-21 shooting from the field and 0-of-11 from beyond the arc, and the visiting team still wasn’t able to capitalize.
“We’ve been here before,” Curry said.
However, with Kevin Durant as a Warrior, this team hasn’t gone through such a trial.
“Well, that’s good,” Curry said. “We need a new challenge. It’s only right that we do it a different way to set a new chapter. This is good for us. It’s something we’ll embrace.”
In the locker room, Curry and Draymond Green were discussing the vibe of this series and they agreed that it reminded them of the series with the Memphis Grizzlies from three years ago. They found themselves down 2-1 before winning three straight to meet the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals.
When told by ESPN that these Rockets are not the Grizzlies, Green responded assertively: “We’ll be back here for Game 7.”

And when questioned about the team’s inconsistencies of late, Green replied with: “You’d be a fool not to believe me. If you don’t ever believe anything I say, believe this. We’re a group of champions.”
It was an upbeat, confident atmosphere inside the Warriors’ locker room. If the players were livid about their shortcomings, they didn’t show it.
“I think they’re angry,” Kerr said. “I think they know that we could have won this game, could have won the last game. I think they’re sitting in there and they’re angry, as they should be. They’re competitors.”
Durant has struggled in the fourth quarter the past two games, combining for only one field goal. The bulk of his offensive touches have come in the post area and Houston has done a great job of suffocating him in an area of the court that is difficult to survey.
“Yeah, they’re switching a lot when I get in the post now,” he said after scoring a game-high 29 points on 8-for-22 shooting. “I can feel them bringing a guy over, so I just got to make the right play. But, yeah, [I need to] probably mix it up a bit and see where I can get different catches and touches because they’re kind of figuring stuff out for us.”
Game 6 is Saturday at Oracle Arena. Despite the Warriors feeling good about their chances moving forward, Kerr acknowledged this is a bit of uncharted territory.
“This is the worst situation we’ve been in since Kevin’s been here, and we’re two wins from making the NBA Finals. So that’s a pretty good worst situation to be in,” Kerr said.
“We’re right there. We found some things tonight that worked for us. I’m extremely confident that we’re going to take care of business, and we’ve just got to be a little sharper.”
Said Green: “I’ve got a lot of confidence in us living rather than dying, so we’ll be fine.

Police Killed At Least 378 Black Americans From The Moment Colin Kaepernick Protested These Americans deserve to be more than another statistic.

by kennethebuka57

Demonstrators face off with California Highway Patrol officers as they protest the police shooting of Stephon Clark, in Sacramento, California, on March 30, 2018.

When former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in August 2016, it was in protest of unjust police killings of black Americans.

For his courage, Kaepernick lost his job, the NFL lost its mind by forbidding the peaceful action ― and meanwhile, at least 378 black Americans have lost their lives in police killings.

That most recent estimate of black police violence victims comes from data compiled by The Washington Post and analyzed by HuffPost.

Last August, HuffPost reported that based on the Post’s data, at least 223 black Americans had been killed by police gunfire in the year since Kaepernick first sat, then took a knee, to protest police violence. Less than a year later, that number has increased by at least 155 people.

It’s likely that the real number of victims is higher. Between Aug. 14, 2016 ― when Kaepernick first sat out the national anthem ― and now, at least 253 of the people listed in the Post’s database did not have their race confirmed. Furthermore, the database only includes shooting deaths, so people like Eric Garner, a black father who was unarmed when an officer put him in a fatal chokehold, would not be included.

In total, 3,357 people have been fatally shot by police since 2015, according to the Post’s data.

The sobering numbers come just after the NFL announced its cowardly decision on Wednesday to ban kneeling during the national anthem. The league can now fine teams that participate in protests, with the punishment of individual players left up to their team.

In a statement, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that “on-field protests created a false perception among many that thousands of NFL players were unpatriotic.” (He did not seem to understand that silencing a peaceful protest might also come across as unpatriotic.)

Despite the vitriol, Kaepernick did reach out to veterans to make sure his protests were respectful. Initially, the former quarterback simply sat out the anthem, but former Green Beret Nate Boyer says he persuaded him to kneel.

“That’s how it all started with Colin and I, neither of us knew that kneeling would be the result of our conversation,” Boyer wrote in an open letter to both Kaepernick and Trump last October. “Colin wanted to sit, I wanted him to stand, and so we found a common ground on a knee alongside his teammates. I believe that progress and real change happens in this world when you reach across the divide, you build a bridge, you swallow your pride, you open your mind, you embrace what you don’t understand, and ultimately you surrender.”

One person killed by police since Kaepernick began protesting was 22-year-old Stephon Clark, who was shot at 20 times by two officers in his own backyard in Sacramento, California, earlier this year. He was armed with only a cellphone.

Clark’s death sparked a wave of protests across the city. And why not? The killing was sickening, and Clark deserved more than to be another statistic.

But the NFL doesn’t seem to care about that.

Morgan Freeman sorry after harassment allegations

by kennethebuka57

Morgan Freeman has released a statement following allegations of inappropriate behaviour

Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman has apologised to a group of women who have made allegations against him, saying it was never his intention to make anyone feel uneasy.

A total of 16 women have accused the star of films including Se7en and The Shawshank Redemption of behaving inappropriately.
Eight of the women who spoke to CNN said they were victims of harassment or inappropriate behaviour.
Freeman, 80, told Sky News in a statement: “Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy.

CNN reporter Chloe Melas is among those making allegations against the Oscar winner

“I apologise to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected – that was never my intent.”
Eight other women interviewed said they witnessed behaviour they thought inappropriate.
One of the women who claimed she was a victim worked as a production assistant on the set of Going In Style, a bank heist comedy starring Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.
She said what followed was months of harassment at the hands of Freeman, including unwanted touching and comments about her figure.
Among the allegations were claims he repeatedly attempted to lift her skirt.
CNN said the Oscar-winning actor was accused of repeatedly behaving in ways that made women feel uncomfortable on film sets.

Lori McCreary set up Revelations Entertainment with Freeman
Three entertainment reporters told the news channel Freeman made inappropriate remarks during interviews.
One of those was CNN reporter Chloe Melas, who was pregnant at the time and co-wrote the investigation.
She alleged he looked her up and down several times before saying “I wish I was there” and “You are ripe”.
Seven of those who spoke to CNN had worked for Freeman’s production company, Revelations Entertainment, and described an environment of harassment or inappropriate behaviour.
Revelations Entertainment was founded by Freeman in 1996 with Lori McCreary, the current president of the Producers Guild Association.
She has publicly backed the MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
Freeman won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in Million Dollar Baby in 2005 and has been nominated four more times, including as a leading actor in The Shawshank Redemption in 1995 and Driving Miss Daisy in 1989.
He has also been nominated for an Emmy for Revelations Entertainment’s The Story of God with Morgan Freeman.
In 2017, he was honoured with a Screen Actors Guild award for lifetime achievement.

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North Korea seeks ‘peace’ after ‘nuclear site’ demolition witnessed by Sky News

by kennethebuka57

North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test facility pictured before the blasts

North Korea has said it wants to achieve “peace” after Sky News witnessed the apparent demolition of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site.
Asia correspondent Tom Cheshire was the only British broadcaster invited to watch a series of explosions at the facility ahead of planned talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea state media claimed the site had been completely dismantled in the blasts “to ensure the transparency of discontinuance of nuclear test”.
Describing the explosions, Cheshire said: “We hiked up into the mountains and watched the detonation from about 500 metres away.
“They counted it down – three, two, one.
“There was a huge explosion, you could feel it. Dust came at you, the heat came at you. It was extremely loud.
“It blew an observation cabin made out of wood

A satellite image of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site before the explosions
The deputy director of the North Korea Nuclear Weapons Institute told Sky News that the destruction of the facility had been “conducted with high levels of transparency” in a bid to bring “peace and stability” to the Korean peninsula and the world.
The unnamed official added: “The discontinuance of nuclear tests is an important process in moving towards global nuclear disarmament and we will continue to join hands with all peace-loving people in building a peaceful world, a new independent world where the dreams and ideals of humanity are realised.”
A group of about 20 foreign journalists invited on the trip had been given a briefing by the official who shared “unprecedented detail” of North Korea’s nuclear programme, Cheshire said.