Sandlapper ParrotHead Telegraph
Volume III, Number 4
July 2000
A Charter PHiP Club

"What we don't drink I'm gonna pour on ya"

The Road To Atlanta

No, this is not a review of the latest Bing Crosby-Bob Hope film (as if there could be such an animal). Instead this is about our road trip to the July 15th Buffett concert at Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta. We are completely sold out of bus seats/tickets and all that's left to do is organize the menu for the day. Let's see:

Hamburger Meat ,Buns, Cheeses, Lettuce & Tomatoes, BBQ, Shrimp, Potato Salad, Slaw, Chicken Wings, Meatballs, Rabbit Food, Ranch & Blue Cheese Dressing, Chips, Dips, Desserts

Did I leave anything out? If you have a specialty and would like to bring it along, let me know at the next meeting. We will have two pick-up points on the morning of the concert. The first will be in Love's Plaza on Cherry Road in Rock Hill. Thanks to SPHC member Allison Love, owner of Allison Love's Fine Jewelry, for offering the lot for our use. If you plan on using this pick-up point, please park in front of the old Western Auto store on the right side of the lot. We'll be leaving this lot at 7:00 AM on the dot, so try to be there a little early to get packed up. From there we'll head for Chester and the First Citizens Bank on the JA Cochran By-Pass (that's the Hwy. 72 By-Pass for you non-Chester natives). From there we'll hit the road for Atlanta no later than 7:30 AM so try to be there early as well. Then it's off to Atlanta for an afternoon of tailgating, phun and phrivolity and possibly catch our Head Parrot in concert later that evening. "Sunny Jim" White will be performing live for the Atlanta PHC in the parking lot that afternoon and the Beaches A1A PHC of Jacksonville, FL ( President Elizabeth Teague is also President of Parrot Heads in Paradise, Inc.) will have their own club troubadour performing at their tailgate site.

To make our own tailgate run as smoothly as possible, we'll need our members to volunteer to bring something edible. For instance, Allen Shore has offered to bring boiled shrimp while Susan Dromgoole (PHC of Charlotte) will be supplying us with condiments. Check the list above and let me know what you'd like to bring. We also need tables, table clothes, plastic utensils and a grill or two. And you may want to bring a chair. If you have any questions before the big date, give me a call at 803-327-6009.

"I wrote this song sandin' the ol' mainmast, sittin' in Hurricane Hole, Nassau, Bahamas, about to throw up and the only thing that could get me through was a bottle of Perrier and a Jackson Browne album"

Buffett's Sharks Attack

Attorneys for Jimmy Buffett have struck again, this time ordering a popular web site to be shut down. The web site, Jimmy Buffett Online, was known for its multitudes of downloadable bootleg Buffett concerts. Bob (?), the owner of the site, did not profit from the music on his site, but attorney Judy Dray nonetheless ordered the site to be taken down. To view the new site and read Bob's commentary on his ongoing battle with Buffett's attorneys, go to buffett.musicpage.com. If you decide to write a letter to HK Management in Bob's favor, please do not mention the Sandlapper PHC by name as we are not supposed to have any direct contact with HK Management (Buffett's Management team).

Next Monthly Meeting

The SPHC's next monthly meeting will be held at the Tropical Escape Café on Anderson Road in Rock Hill. The business meeting will convene at 6PM while the regular phlocking will crank up at 7PM. Anyone interested in attending the business meeting to see how we operate is invited to do so. For the first time ever, we will be entertained by Russell Ruckterstuhl, the blonde half of Worthington Station. Kevin Loop, the other half of WS will be out of town that night and Russ promises to throw a few tunes at us which we've never heard WS perform before. As usual, we'll have giveaways & food & drink specials, so come on out the Escape and have a blast with us.

Children's Attention Home Update

On June 15th, the Children's Attention Home of Rock Hill bestowed upon the Sandlapper PHC their Civic Volunteer of the Year Award during their annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. The 7" x 9" engraved plaque was awarded to us for excellence in volunteerism. Also that night, SPHC Events Coordinator Mark Sebastian was unanimously approved as a new member of the CAH Board of Directors. Mark will be reporting directly to the Sandlapper PH Telegraph where news of their progress will be reported monthly. Congratulations Mark!!

2000 PHiP Election Officer

Elizabeth Teague, president of Parrot Heads in Paradise, Inc., called me last week with the news that I, your humble president, was selected to be their Elections Officer for the upcoming PHiP elections in September. My duties will be to mail a nomination form to each club representative no later than August 1st; create a ballot with the names of each person nominated; and lastly, I count the votes as I receive them. Any member in good standing within their local club can run for any office as long as they are nominated by their club. All nominations must be received by me no later than September 1st and must be signed to be considered valid. In October, I will present a slate of candidates as an insert in that month's issue of The Tradewind Times, PHiP's monthly newsletter. All voting must be completed by the close of the annual business meeting at this year's MOTM.

"People ask me, they say, "Where the hell is Margaritaville?" I say it's any where you want it to be"

Where Is Joe Merchant Update


Jimmy Buffett has been working with the Hollywood production team Kennedy/Marshall to put together a movie based on his book, "Where Is Joe Merchant?," a best-selling mystery novel. It remains in development at the moment. Buffett said there have been some recent developments that make him more optimistic about getting the project rolling sooner rather than later. "The movie is still rolling along," said Buffet, "we have a great screenwriter now working on it named Kevin Wade, who wrote 'Working Girl' and a couple of other things. Hopefully we will have a script by the end of the summer." Buffett is currently on the first leg of his annual summer tour. Kevin Wade's other writing credit's include: True Colors(1991) starring John Cusack and James Spader; Mr. Baseball (1992) starring Tom Selleck; Junior (1994) with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny Devito and Emma Thompson; Meet Joe Black (1998) with Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt; And the movie version of his 1992 novel, "Where is Joe Merchant?", has gotten the green light, he says. Buffett, 53, will have a small part as a seaplane pilot but doesn't hanker after a film-acting career. "I'm an instant feedback person. I give people who make movies a lot of credit." The slow pace, he says, "bores me to death." The Illinois State Fair has offered Jimmy Buffett $500,000 net to play at next year's state fair. So far, Buffett's management seems somewhat receptive to the idea and they think at this point, they have about a 50-50 chance of it happening. Tickets which normally go for $20 max for fair shows will probably be increased to $35 for this show. This would set a record for payout to a musical act for the fair. The previous high payout was $175,000 to Reba McIntyre. The fair plans a novel invitation. On Aug. 15 (2000), the night the Beach Boys play, Parrot Heads are invited to the new Key West theme area, where they will videotape fans' pleas to Buffett to come to Springfield.

Buffett's Favorite Bars
from USAToday

Louie's Back Yard Restaurant & Lounge
Key West, FL
"It's right next door to where I used to live. It has one of the best views: You can see the Gulf Stream." The bar area is on a deck, and dress is Key West casual. "I have a lot of history there: I celebrated my first divorce there, and I met my second wife there. No, not on the same day."

The Purple Parrot Bar, Ramone's Village Resort
Ambergris Caye, Belize
"I've been going there for 20 years." The open-air bar next to the pool faces the Caribbean, and the décor includes wooden parrots. The house special is a Purple Parrot (Baileys Irish Cream, dark rum, coconut cream, pineapple juice and ice). Patrons speak English, Spanish and a local patois called Creole. "There's a great mixture of cultures here."

MacDuff's
Norman's Cay, The Bahamas
"It looks like it's out of an Elmore Leonard novel." The island in the Exuma group once was a "stopping point for the Medellin cartel, a cool little out-of-the-way spot." The bar is next to an old landing strip once used by drug runners.

Bars on Staniel Cay
The Bahamas
"I'm not picking just one, because I want to go back there!" The waters off this island 80 miles south of Nassau had a role in a James Bond movie; "you can swim to the Thunderball cave."

Le Sélect
Gustavia, St. Barts
French West Indies
The social hub of Gustavia and "the place for cheeseburgers in paradise. I have a long history there. There are wonderful local people who're my friends, and they hang out here."

Lulu's Sunset Grill
Fairhope, AL
"It's a bait shack and a restaurant on Weeks Bay, where my dad and I bought the bait when he took me fishing." Lucy Buffett runs it. "She's my sister, and her nickname is Lulu. She went to Hollywood, but now she's back." Her specialty is Lower Alabama Caviar -- black-eyed peas, peppers and tomatoes in a balsamic vinaigrette. Other offerings: seafood gumbo, po boy sandwiches, grouper and an oyster bar.

Alabama Jack's
Key Largo, FL
This open-air bar on Bard Sound has "great crab cakes and a great cross section of people, from tourists who don't know any better to people who look like they've just crawled out of the Everglades." Fans range from the biker crowd to Kathie Lee Gifford. It's the place to drink wine and ice-cold beer (no hard liquor served) alongside "people who've decided not to live in the mainstream."

Jimmy Cantler's Riverside Inn
Annapolis, MD
Brown paper on the tables sops up spills at this crab house on the banks of Mill Creek. "I like Old Bay Seasoning and eating blue crabs." Tourists wield mallets; locals use their hands.

"I don't wanna hear that shit in the middle of that 8-track, I wanna hear that one song"

Buffett's Rehearsal Concert - June 2, 2000

Friday June 2nd started out as a normal day in the Robinson household. It was my daughters' last day of school, amounting to nothing more than an assembly with a presentation of songs and perfect attendance awards; my wife was scheduled to work that afternoon at her job in Charlotte; and I, well I was hoping the stars would align and allow me to hit the highway in time to catch Jimmy Buffett's rehearsal concert at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, SC. Normally a 3 hour drive from my hometown of Rock Hill, SC, my youngest daughter Sarah and I made the trip in 2 ½, allowing us ample time to find the perfect parking spot under a 200 year old spreading live oak tree along Montague Avenue. The doors were to open at 2PM and, judging from the line that had already formed at the service entrance, it would be 2:30 before we finally reached Parrot Head Mecca.

Once inside we made our way around the floor of the coliseum renewing old friendships and making new ones. About 15 feet from the stage, the Coliseum set up 12 rows of chairs, 20 seats in each row, with an aisle down the middle. There were no available seats but I wasn't about to worry over this because I knew there would ultimately be a mad dash for the stage area. Sure enough, after Jimmy came out to welcome us and ask us not to post the setlist on the internet, we made our move to the barrier that was set just a few feet from the stage. Last year there was no wall and we were able to snuggle right up against the stage. We were located just to Jimmy's left and right in front of Mike Utley and his keyboard. Amy, John & TC were to our right and Jim, Pete, Nadirah, Tina, Ralph & Doyle were set up to Jimmy's right. Doyle was located where Pete Jim and Mac were stranded last year, while Pete & Jim were brought down to the stage. The outer rim of the front of the stage was painted to look like bamboo while the back drop was the same backdrop used in past tours where beautiful blue skies would change to dark, foreboding storm clouds. According to Jimmy, the backdrop for the summer tour wasn't quite ready and wouldn't be used on this day.

Before the curtain rose, several African drummers came out to the front of the stage banging out a cool rhythm while Heather, belly-dancer extraordinaire, wowed the crowd with her high kicks and earth shattering shakes. The intro ended with back flips from a couple of the drummers and the Coral Reefer Band began the unmistakable sounds of Johnny Clegg's Great Heart. Already the show was looking up as I've always wanted to hear this song. Other songs of note during the show were Jesse Winchester's Gentleman of Leisure, Island, That's What Living Is To Me, Chanson Pour Les Petites Enfants, If It All Falls Down and an awesome version of Treat Her Like A Lady. The skits and stunts were kept to a minimum with only Why Don't We Get Drunk (And Screw) having something tied into it. Jimmy said he was walking down a street in Charleston, having just finished dinner, and passed a bar having a karaoke night when he heard a guy trying to sing WDWGDAS. It was then he came up with the idea to let some of the fans sing the song during the summer tour. Unfortunately, no one from the rehearsal audience got the opportunity to strut their stuff. Other highlights included the acoustic mini-set Bubba did with Ralph McDonald, Mike Utley and Amy Lee. The songs in this set were Island, That's What Living Is To Me and A Pirate Looks @ 40 with Amy Lee providing the parts Fingers would normally play.

The big thrill for me though was helping Jimmy with the opening lyrics to We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About. He called the band to a stop and looked to us ParrotHeads for help with the words. 'Twas a shining moment in the long career of this Buffett fan. This was my daughter's first Buffett concert (she had a great time but still thinks the Backstreet Boys concert was better) and my 36th and I have to rank this show as a definite top 10. There were 7 songs I'd never heard Jimmy perform live and, looking at setlists from the past 10 years, that's a pretty good percentage. Atlanta beckons me on July 15th so it looks like RadioMargaritaville until then.

"She's got hot sweet potatoes and cracklin' bread; Mulligan stew to turn Jimmy Buffett's head; black-eyed peas and them good ol' collard greens. Ya know that nothin' could be finer than sittin' down eatin' at the Dixie Diner"

Pass It On

The best advertising our club can have is that by which spews forth from the mouth. We've never really done a whole lot of traditional advertising, be it in the newspaper or local entertainment rags. Which is why I would now like to ask each of our members to become a Sandlapper PHC Membership Director for a day. It's easy! All of our members know someone, whether they'll admit it or not, who likes the music of Jimmy Buffett. And who doesn't like helping out a charity or two every now and then? So what you do is give this ParrotHead friend of yours an application and tell them about the club.

"And then he ate my sunglasses to show me he was a bad-ass"

Calendar of Phlockings
July 11th	SPHC monthly meeting at Tropical Escape Café, 7PM
July 13th	SPHC concession stand workout at Knight's Castle, 5PM
July 13th	Buffett opens 2nd leg of tour in Atlanta
July 14th	Fingers and Mac MacAnally at the Variety Playhouse, Atlanta
July 15th	SPHC roadtrip to Atlanta to see Buffett at Lakewood Amphitheater
July 18th	Buffett live in St. Louis
July 20th	Buffett live in Indianapolis
July 22nd	Buffett live in Milwaukee
July 25th	Buffett live in Columbus, OH
July 27th	Buffett live in Chicago
July 29th	Buffett live in Chicago
July 31st	Buffett live at SouthHampton College (benefit)
July 24th	SPHC concession stand workout at Knight's Castle, 5PM
August 8th	SPHC monthly meeting at the Summit Restaurant, Chester, 7PM
August 9th	SPHC concession stand workout at Knight's Castle, 5PM
August 17th	Buffett kicks off 3rd leg of tour in Cincinnati
August 19th	Buffett live in Cincinnati
August 22nd	Buffett live in Raleigh
August 23rd	SPHC concession stand workout at Knight's Castle, 5PM
August 24th	Buffett live in Columbia, MD
August 26th	Buffett live in Columbia, MD
August 29th	Buffett live on Long Island
August 31st	Buffett live in Boston
Sept. 2nd	Buffett live in Boston
Sept. 12th	SPHC monthly meeting at Tropical Escape Café, 7PM
Sept. 30th	SPHC's 3rd Annual Endless Carnival Party