More From Meeting of The Minds

Highlights from Friday, November 4th

I received an email the night before from Steve Tolliver of the Trop Rock Junkies, inviting Georgia and me to a breakfast and jam session at the United Street cabins where he and his wife were staying. The hour was a little early, 9am, but a chance to see Steve and some friends play pool side on a beautiful Key West morning made it worth the earlier than usual wake up call. We arrived to find a nice spread of food and pitchers of daiquiris ready and waiting. Pulling up a couple of chairs, we chatted up some of the other invited guests, including Kelly McGuire's "Gal Friday", Sandy Drobiarz-Records, and Fred and Sara Guerrero, owners of  Isla Bella, nominated for Trop Rock Award House Concert Venue of the Year, while the musicians tuned up. Steve played some of his originals, including one of my personal favorites, "Sand In Her Shoes", and guitar-picked along with other musicians, including Trop Rock Award nominees (for Duo of The Year), Steve Johnson and Jimmy Johns, better known as Southbound.

Next stop was Duval Street for the start of the Margaritaville Street Party. We got there in time to catch the Young Rebel Goombas. The Goombas, from my old stomping grounds of Long Island, New York, got the crowd dancing with their upbeat blend of reggae, rock and ska. When they finished their set, we walked right door to La Concha to hear Brent Burns.

Walking back to our hotel to get ready for the worst kept secret on the island: Jimmy Buffett's "surprise" appearance at the Street Party - we caught a few minutes of the Sauce Boss, who was holding court at the Green Parrot.

We also ran into our new friends from the Southwest Florida Parrot Head Club; Jimbo, Tracy, and Brett. Making new, long lasting friends is an important part of MOTM and we wound up sharing many laughs - and more than a few adult beverages - with these three.

Heading back to Duval, area balconies were full and the streets overflowing, but we managed to make our way to a great spot on the side of the stage. Meeting Of The Minds, although it has evolved into a celebration of Trop Rock in general, began as a gathering of Buffett fan club members. There is Buffett music, Buffett t-shirts, and plenty of everything Buffett sings about - beaches, boats and bars. The only thing that is usually missing is Buffett himself. Not on this day. Jimmy played for almost an hour, backed by the full Coral Reefer band.

The event was originally supposed to be Mac McAnally's cd release party. That got pushed aside by Jimmy's visit, but Mac did get to play some of his own songs the next night at the Casa Marina. More on that later...

The finale of the night was the Trop Rock Music Awards back at the host hotel. Attendance seemed a little disappointing - there were, supposedly, 3500 convention attendees, but it looked like barely a third were there to see the awards being handed out. It could have been the chilly night air, or just too many other things goiing on back on the other side of town. Still, the show was fairly fast paced, speachers were short and gracious and the music in between award categories was entertaining (personal favorite was Paul Roush performing "I Wanna Be Howie" joined on stage by Brent Burns and the song's inspiration, Howard Livingston). Great job by the Margarita Mafia (which used the evening to announce they were changing the organization's name to the Trop Rock Association) and congrats to all the winners.

Blogging From Key West: I Tried, I Really, Really Tried....

I promised a number of people - including myself - that I would diligently blog from Key West and Meeting Of the Minds. Then, we got here. From pretty much the minute we put our bags down in our room at the Island City House and rented a couple of bicycles, it has been one non stop whirlwind ride - or pedal, if you will - around the island. As Mr. Buffett would say, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Wednesday, November 2nd: First stop - The Bull (or Bull & Whistle for those who want to be exact) on Duval for the Atlanta Parrot Head Club Welcome Party. Hosted by Joel Oates and the APHC, of which both my wife, Georgia, and I are proud members of. Two-fer-seven bucks Margaritas and music from Jim Asbell & The Tropiholics. A great way to kick off six days of music and mayhem. it was also where we first ran into Kurt and "Achmed", his personal version of Jeff Dunham's dead terrorist puppet. This one welcomed all Virgins (i.e, those who had never been to a MOTM) to town.

We used The Bull as "home base" setting off from there to grab a bite to eat and check out other nearby venues, including a stop at Hog's Breath, where Jim Morris & The Big Bamboo Band rocked a packed parking lot of enthusiastic fans. Back to the Bull for some late night dancing and a couple of nightcaps and home to get ready for what would be a busy Thursday.



Thursday, November 3rd: The Island city House serves a very nice complimentary breakfast in the courtyard every morning. Unless you're Donald Trump, between what you pay for a nice room on the island and necessities like adult beverages during MOTM, you save where you can. So, free breakfast and coffee right outside your room is a no brainer. Fully muffin'ed and java'd, we climbed on our bikes and headed across town to the official convention site - the Casa Marina resort. The ride from the Island City House to the Casa is a pleasant one, down a number of back streets and past a variety of colorful Key West homes. It also takes you past the graveyard, famous for many interesting sites, including the grave stone that proclaims, "I told you I was sick".

Georgia and I arrived at the Casa and encountered something we never seem to luck into back in Atlanta. Looking to register, we were directed by security to the other side of the building, turned a corner and ran smack into a line of people a mile long. We turned to each other and whined in unison, "this is going to take FOREVER". Just as we were about to give up and come back later, when maybe it might not be as crowded, a benevolent Parrot Head standing in the mile long line saw our registration cards and said, "Oh, you have a green one. You're not in THIS line. You can go in THAT one." THAT line, the one she pointed to, was only about five people long. It turned out to be a last name thing, and we - being "M's" - had hit the alphabetical jackpot. Feeling a little bit guilty, but only a very little, we strolled to the head of the pack and before you could say One Particular Harbor, had our wristbands on and welcome bags in hand.

We made a quick spin around the floor, stopping for quick chats with Trop Rock artists Brent Burns and Jim Morris, each of whom were manning their own booths - selling and autographing copies of their cds and t shirts, or I suppose, whatever else any more adventurous soul might like signed, then slid behind the Parrot Heads In Paradise "merch table", where - for the next three hours - we helped sell t shirts, hats and coozies to conventioneers. PHiP is the governing body for the Parrot Head nation, and the one that throws this shindig at mile marker zero every year.

Registration and volunteer responsibilities completed, we climbed back on our bikes and heading back to our room to regroup and get ready to dive in to a veritable smorgasbord of Trop Rock.

First stop: The Rum Barrel, where we catch John Friday and friends and I graduate from Boat Drink U (I have the certificate to prove it). To be continued....

Joel Oates: Suburban Swashbuckler. How YOU can turn your backyard into a Parrot Head Paradise!

Ever hear an artist perform a song and thought, "He (or she) is singing about me!"? Joel Oates has.  In fact, he thinks it every time he hears Jim Asbell's "Pirate In His Own Backyard", found on the Georgia Trop Rocker's "Man Overboard" cd. Only, in Joel's case, the song actually IS about him! "Tankard filled up to the brim, he walks out back to set sail again...Smooth sailing from his captain's chair, his friends and loved ones join him there. He's a pirate in his own backyard."

A true "Suburban Swashbuckler", Joel Oates is a founding member of the Atlanta Parrot Head Club - the original, and therefore oldest, such Club in the country. Like many of us, Joel and his wife, Susan, love the beach and the trop rockin' lifestyle. But, being five hours from the nearest salt water - in the town of Duluth, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta - means they have had to carve out their own little slice of tropical heaven. I spoke to Joel recently and asked him how he built his "harbor surrounded by the city".

What did this house look like when you and Susan first moved in?

We bought the place in 2002. It was your basic suburban backyard, with a cyclone fence around it. It had a pool, a nice garden and flowers, a small deck, but something was missing."


What made you choose it over others you looked it?

As we went around looking at different houses, we would give each one a name, to help us remember it. There is a house Susan and I would rent when we went down to Key West called Fish Gardens. It's right behind Pepe's. Oddly enough, there were no fish at the Key West Fish Gardens, but we liked the name. When we looked at this house, it had a fish pond - stocked with Goldfish. So, this house became 'Fish Gardens'. When we wound up buying it, the name stuck. It's a piece of Key West we were able to bring to Georgia."


So, you buy this house in Duluth, Georgia and it needs a Parrot Head make over. What did you do first?

"We knew we wanted an 'I'm Living on an Island' feel (With a nod to Howard Livingston - Fred). As it turned out, one of the wedding presents Susan and I received was a palm tree. So, that was really the first thing to go in. We now had a pool and a palm tree. That made a statement. We started adding inexpensive little touches like Christmas lights, tiki torches, and some lawn art - pink flamingos. ..


You and Susan like to travel to tropical places. How did that help with the decorating?

"We do like to travel - the Keys, Caribbean. Our honeymoon was in St. Lucia. Now that we had this backyard, wherever we would go, we'd start picking things up we thought would look good; fish, turtles, lizards. Susan got into collecting flat sculptures made out of old steel drums. Little by little, we started adding more and more."


What next?

"I mentioned that the yard had some nice gardens, but we wanted more of a tropical feel. So, Susan started replacing the plants and flowers with ones she saw down in the Keys - that we knew would survive Atlanta winters but would add some color."

How about the deck?

"That was probably the biggest project and we waited almost five years to do that. The house had a small 10' x 10' deck when we moved in. But, we like to throw parties, invite alot of people over, so we knew we needed to expand it.I enlisted a contractor friend - who also happened to be a Parrot Head - and we told him what we were going for, that we wanted to go all out on. He got to work and built us a 500 square foot deck, five times the size of the original."

And the "Tiki Hut"?

"I had an area where I kept my grill. I started thinking it would be nice to have a shelter over it, to keep the rain off.  I wanted it sturdy but also wanted more of an open feel, like a palapa. While the "pros" were building the deck, another couple of friends came over. We'd stand around drinking beer and talk about what we thought would work and what wouldn't."

Sounds like an episode of "King of The Hill", with Hank and his buddies...

"(Laughs) It was kind of like that. It took alot of trips to the hardware store - and alot of beer - but we got it done. Luckily, I live about a mile and a half from a Lowes! We put a cement slab under it, ran electricity to it, shingled the roof - it's actually built to code - but, to give it the island touch, covered it in thatch. Now, I've got my grill, a Big Green Egg smoker, and some other things under there. It's a real outdoor kitchen. I can cook a couple hundred pounds of meat at a time out there. "

Where did you find the thatch for the roof?

"On Ebay. It's real thatch -  came in a roll we could cut to whatever size we needed. Nowadays they also make it out of plastic. It's more expensive, but it's practically permanent. I still prefer the 'real' stuff, though."


Anything else?

"The thing that really 'converted' the yard was when we covered up the hurricane fence with some bamboo we found on the internet. The bamboo came in rolls, is 6 feet high, and we attached it to the old metal fence with 12 gauge wire, so it's sturdy but still allows air and light to come through. And it looks alot better.

We also added outdoor speakers on the deck and pool area, so we could pipe Trop Rock from the house to the backyard".


How much in total would you say you spent to make your Parrot Head Paradise"?

"It's hard to say exactly how much, because we did it little by little over the years, and we're still adding to it. For instance, not too long ago someone gave us a 3' tiki totem statue, then I went out and found another one at Lowes. They cost about $150 each. Overall, the art cost anywhere from a couple of bucks to hundreds of dollars for each piece. Another few hundred in plants. The original palm tree died, so we had to get a new one of those. The tiki hut was about $600 - plus beer for the guys who helped, and the bamboo fence was about $400. The deck was by far the biggest expense."


What about maintenance?

"Other than the usual care and upkeep of a yard and pool? The thatch on the tiki hut needs to be replaced about every three years. I pressure wash the bamboo fence once a year. And, of course, the deck needs to be water proofed and re-stained every few years. That's pretty much it. We do alot more enjoying it than working on it!"

I hope this post inspires some of you to become a "Pirate in your own backyard" (or, as the Brent Burns song goes, put a "Beach In My Back Yard"). As Joel mentioned, he and his wife Susan like to entertain. Among the many parties they host at Fish Gardens is a yearly Conch Republic Independence Day Celebration, which I am very much looking forward to attending.


http://fishgardens.net/

http://atlantaparrotheadclub.org/