Some First Feast Optimum Awesomeness

Not all the Armadillos present made it into this pic of 2012 First Feast participants. Old concert t-shirts was this year's theme.

This year’s First Feast gala featured ancient rock and roll t-shirts, comfort food munchies (as opposed to hors d'oeuvres), followed by a course of two hearty salads, before a course of dueling meat loafs, with the usual decadent assortment of sides. Great rock music was enjoyed throughout as the conversations ran the gambit from musical trivia to secret cooking recipes to vacation travel fantasies to the Republican Party presidential race to where we all “earned” our various concert t-shirts. Every t-shirt has its story to tell. But it is up to the human to tell it. So there were several good stories of great memories. Plenty of beers and wines and, of course, port helped sustain the evening.

Jennifer and I arrived at Mark and Eileen’s a little before 4. We got to enjoy about an hour of couple-to-couple time before Clint arrived next. Both Clint and Mark showed off their new digital cameras. Mark got a nice Nikon for Christmas from E, as she is known, his wife. Clint also had a great looking light-weight tripod for his camera. Jennifer wants one for our heavy-duty Nikon D300, so there was a detailed examination of this device, in fine 'Dillo fashion naturally.

In fact, Jennifer and I planned to buy camping supplies at REI and check out the tripods at Wolf Camera on our way into Atlanta. The locations were in the midst of a gigantic metro-shopping complex that included a large mall and numerous mini-malls, shopping centers, restaurants and movie theaters all densely populated near a major intersection of two interstates. It was 3 pm on Saturday afternoon. I don’t know what we were thinking. The economy might remain slow in most of America but in this small few miles of land traffic was packed. You crawled along from stoplight to stoplight. It was difficult to change lanes in the congestion.

Now, we had just commented about how nice the drive was a few minutes before exiting the interstate and inserting ourselves of our own free will into this seething cauldron of consumerism. Yesterday was a beautiful, mild sunny day. It was comfortable enough for me to go there in just my two t-shirts with my CSNY military style Concert Jacket from 2006 as backup. My t-shirts were a Tonight’s the Night shirt that I got at Neil Young’s 2010 Fox concert which fitted kinda loose over a tight fitting, very faded Pink Floyd The Wall t-shirt I bought around 1982 after seeing the movie version.

Some ‘Dillos had no concert-related t-shirt that survived their current bodily state. Some, like me, technically had no genuine “old” strictly concert t-shirts. So, also like me on one shirt but not the other, they wore newer ones. Billy had a “Revelator” t-shirt from the Tedeschi Trucks Band concert he went to last year.

The older t-shirts included Jennifer’s Atlanta Rhythm Section shirt from the early 1980’s. It fits her body fine. Mark saw the Rolling Stones in 1981 and he can still wear the t-shirt with ease. Clint wore a King Crimson Discipline t-shirt but it was a more recent vintage than the original, great album. But, he brought a fine looking t-shirt he can no longer wear featuring Pink Floyd circa 1977 on the Animals Tour. I offered him $50 bucks for it. We laughed.

Justin wore a Grateful Dead t-shirt that required an undershirt since it was extremely tattered with some fairly large holes in places. That shirt could tell waaaay more than just one story. It practically wreaked of almost boundless hedonism. Eileen’s hot muscle style rock t-shirt was from Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA Tour.

Ron wore his college fraternity t-shirt. Technically, the shirt was not t-shirt bought at a concert but, rather, in utterly supreme ‘Dillo style, it came to us from several different band parties and small concerts to which it had been worn. So, it was a t-shirt taken to concerts. In 'Dillo-mind, that variation counts. Justin’s Jennifer wore a baseball style t-shirt that said Say You Will. I never got around to asking her about her shirt but my guess is that it was from a Fleetwood Mac Tour in 2003.

Brian and Diane wore Coldplay shirts from when that band played at Music Midtown last September. I really have to start paying more attention to the Atlanta music scene. We’ve missed Coldplay at least three times through Atlanta now. Kinda inexcusable being a self-claimed fan. Diane said she thoroughly enjoyed the concert. I love the new Coldplay album, as I’ve posted. They are coming back in July. Hopefully, Jennifer and I can make it.

Will wore a Magnolia Fest t-shirt from last year. I had a nice conversation with him about how fun this festival is every year. Back when he first started going only about 3,000 showed up for the multi-day, multi-band outdoor event. Now, it is more like 8,000. He told me that the Allman Brothers performed there a couple of years ago. I didn’t even know they still played together, though, like Will, I enjoy listening to good Allman Brothers music. I had never heard of the festival so it was cool to learn about it. Like I said, every t-shirt has its story.

It was the usual immensely fun evening. Only on this special First Feast night it was Mark who bestowed his generosity upon us not only by opening up his wonderful home to us for a marvelous dinner party but also with the gift of customized bandannas. He designed a cool Cumberland Island Armadillos collection of sayings in a variety of colors. A lot of old ‘Dillo philosophy was on there combined with stuff of newer vintage from the past three years of the Great ‘Dillo Return to the Island. "Optimum Awesomeness" is a new term. Great concept. I totally get it. Thank you Mark…and E.


Brian, myself, and Jennifer sport our new 'Dillo bandannas at the dinner party. Justin is in the background.