Year 5, Boyeeeeeee!!!

I've been sick for the past week. That's my excuse (I know you love excuses). That's why I haven't written about the kick off to Year 5 for portroids. I know the die hard portroid fans will have already discovered all there is to discover about what has happened in Year 5, but for you fair-weather fans, here is the update ...

In 1988, when I was 15, I attended my first* concert. It was me, my sister, and my uncle, and we went to see Run DMC, DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, JJ Fad, EPMD, and a group that I had not yet heard, but who would become from that day, until like ten-ish years later, my favorite ... Public Enemy.

That show changed my young life. PE T-shirts, posters, cassettes, cassingles, 12" vinyl, hats, cds (later) et al defined who I was. My yellow Sony Walkman 9 times out of 13 was playing Public Enemy.

Since 1988, I have not seen Public Enemy perform live. I have tried (and failed), but never succeeded (thus the previous statement of "and failed"). That is, until last Thursday, October 25, 2007.

I would love to go into every detail, but I've been informed that is "boring", so I'll just say that 19 years of fandom culminated in one absolutely awesome experience. Front row. Shaking hands, slapping five, punching it in with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, and Professor Griff while they perform the classics of my lifetime. Two and a half hours of pure entertainment.

After the show, I hung out for a little while because the guy at the merchandise booth said they often come out and sign autographs, but not this night. As I left, satisfied in the show, to walk to my car parked behind the theater, I noticed some people hanging out by the back alley door. I joined them and within a few minutes out came Professor Griff.

Griff was quite literally the friendliest person and he hung out and talked to the small group for about ten minutes. He was hesitant to let me take a portroid of just him, due to it seeming vain, but he agreed as along as we took a picture together, too.

Chuck D came out next and signed everything for everyone and was very cool. He signed some clocks for some people and then when the few guys who had them expressed disappointment at missing Flavor (Flavor Flav had come out very quickly and went straight to his waiting Hummer H3 - because he had his new baby with him), Chuck said "He loves this. It's his thing" and then walked the clocks over to Flavor's H3 and passed them in through the window to have them signed. The best part is that these guys had all taken the wall clocks from their workplaces. I really hope they hung them back up the next day signed by Chuck D and Flavor Flav.

Here's my Chuck D portroid ...

I also got portroids of DJ Lord (who replaced Terminator X in 1999)

and original S1W James Bomb ...

I took some pictures during the show, but I'll post those in a separate entry.

I just want to say one more thing ... if you have ever had an affinity for Public Enemy, you should really listen to their new song "Harder Than You Think". You'll be doing yourself a favor (and those are the best kinds of favor (fav)).


Rick
portroids@hotmail.com


* my actual first concert was the Monkees reunion tour at a supper club, but that's really not as cool as saying it's Run DMC and Public Enemy.