Barryfest

No good deed goes unpunished. I firmly believe that. Today would be an example. I was a volunteer at Barryfest. Barryfest is an annual concert (well, it's annual now - this was the first) that is a fundraiser for Mana'o Radio. It's also to commemorate the life of Barry Shannon who started the station with his wife Kathy (who I've mentioned before). Barry died last April.

So I volunteered for anything that didn't involve tools. Well, they were actually swamped with volunteers so I was never assigned a role ahead of time. So if I wanted to I could have just gotten in for free and sat around and dug the music. But no...I have to help. So I showed up early and asked "what can I do?" They were about to assign me to help out backstage with the musicians when this sudden crisis came up and I was just the guy to handle it. What was this potential catastrophe?

Cords.

Yep. Cords. Electrical cords to be exact. Some Einstein decided that the only way to run needed electricity around the park was to run the electrical cords across the only walkway that everyone has to take to get to the venue. Oh, and it's on a hill.
Sure, the cords were bright orange and yellow - and they had a cord cover thingy that, while was only half the size needed, was still bright yellow. Nope this wasn't enough. I was assigned to stand next to the cords and caution everyone to watch out for these stupid cords. I swear, I'm not making this up. I even took pictures. Be forewarned, these pictures are graphic:

People walk down here.

When they trip over the cords, they roll down to the bottom of this hill.


RUN!!! IT'S THE CORDS!!!

So what did I learn from this experience? Uh...well, that people are fucking assholes. I'm wearing a big old shirt with "Volunteer" on the front and back, and these douchbags think it's funny to mess with the cord guy. And I seriously wished that just one...I'm not asking for a lot...just one of these comedians who fake trip over the cords after I tell them to watch out for the stupid cords would have stumbled and taken a header down that hill. See. There is no god.

Oh, I haven't even gotten to the biggest insult. This one couple stop and are asking me some stupid question like if I knew where the bathrooms were (it was stupid because we were 30 feet from them) then they start having this conversation how I look like that guy from the TV...you know on Jim's show. Who? Jim, you know. Jim Belushi? Yeah, that show. He doesn't look like Jim Belushi. No, not him. (turning to me) You look like the brother on the Jim Belushi show, only not as heavy.



Thanks. Hey, while your leaving, watch out for those...uh...nevermind. Enjoy the show!

OK. So I kept Barryfest safe from those cords for 3 straight hours. Finally, I just walked away and joined friends to watch the show.

Stupid cords.

By the way...we live so large in Maui that our ATM's grow in the wild.