In an Artsblog post, Annie Burkhart writes, "Phish has a fanatic following, so much so that it’s normal for tickets to sell out three minutes after they go on sale. The possibilities to mobilize the massive community are awesome, and that is just what the founders ofThe Mockingbird Foundation have done. A foundation organized by Phish fans, The Mockingbird Foundation, funds music education programs for children, especially in communities touched by Phish tours. This past weekend, the foundation donated $1000 for instruments to the Atlantic City High School. It’s their mission to grant access to music, but they strongly support programs that integrate student interaction with music. Music is a Phish fan’s fuel; it would be silly to keep it confined to music halls and venues.

Even though we get really pumped over songs with lyrics about running antelopes and possums, we do what we can to spread the groove into communities, and I couldn’t be happier to be a morsel of that culture."

You see every Halloween Phish plays an entire classic album. And rumor was it was gonna be Zeppelin, so the Phearless Phoursome dropped some classic Zep into their set the night before, the 30th. But on the holiday, the album they covered was WAITING FOR COLUMBUS!

HUH?

I bet most of you have never heard of this double live album, when two vinyl discs didn’t even add up to the length of one CD.

What do you do when you don’t break through? RECORD YOUR GREATEST HITS!

Well, Little Feat only had one. But they had all that great music in their catalog that so many people had never heard. And they were big in England. And if you think "Waiting For Columbus" took hold in America, you’re rewriting history. Sure, dedicated music fans now knew who the band was, but still most people knew no tracks. Although as years passed, "Dixie Chicken" became a standard. That’s what perseverance will do for you. Concentrate on cutting something great, not what people want, and you might end up with a cut that lasts, one that truly strikes a chord.

Still, it’s not like Little Feat is the Doors, there’s been no mass renaissance. So it’s utterly AMAZING that Phish played this live album in its entirety Sunday night.

But it’s even better than that. They even employed a horn section, just like the original band, featuring Michael Leonhart of Steely Dan’s band. This was no casual effort, this was a tribute to their forgotten heroes, this was musicians who had to get it RIGHT!"

Phamily Classic, benefitting the Mockingbird Foundation

ZZYZX ponders his next move as the Phamily Classic Poker Tournament gets underway in Atlantic City at the Tropicana Casino today

The current Weekend Poker Update for Atlantic City's Real Deal includes the Mockingbird Foundation's own Phamily Classic among the events to witness, and notes both that it's sold out and that it's for charity.

If you don't have a ticket, don't come. This is real. This is first a music concert, not a free-for-all party. ... Many of the people without tickets have no responsibility or obligation to our scene. They don't give a shit. They act like idiots. They think it's just a party to get as trashed as possible at. We're supposed to be about higher consciousness, not drunken stupidity. ... They can only get away with this crap if you let them. The old slogan is true: if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. ... Listen to the rules, and pressure others to do so.

OK, so maybe I got carried away with the black plague warning with infected prairie dogs for Broomfield, but good authority has it that bedbugs are a problem in AC, even at the Boardwalk hotels:

----- Forwarded Message ----

From: ******************

To: some list

Sent: Thu, October 28, 2010 9:53:07 AM

Subject: BED BUG REMINDER FOR A/C

PLEASE INSPECT YOUR ROOMS FOR BED BUGS IN A/C.

A/C has had major bed bug problems for a few years and the Tropicana (where a ton of us are staying) is loaded with them according to Bed Bug Registry. Most A/C hotels have bed bug problems -- including the Trump, Taj and even the Borgata.The little fuckers hitch rides on the casino buses that take people from urban, bed bug infested areas of Philly, NYC, etc. My guess is the Chinatown A/C bus is probably driven by a giant bed bug in disguise. Combine that with the fact that Atlantic City residents have major bed bug issues, and it's the bed bug perfect storm.

I don't give a shit about you taking home bedbugs. However, I don't want any bedbugs hitching a ride on me after hanging in your rooms once I've certified my room bedbug free.

Here are two articles:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11877871/

http://membracid.wordpress.com/2008/09/18/how-to-inspect-your-hotel-room-for-bed-bugs/

Remember -

1) Put your luggage in the bathtub while you inspect.

2) Don't leave your cloths or bags on the ground or bed. Keep shit on dressers, hung up, on luggage racks or in drawers. DO THIS FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP!

Seriously, I fear bedbugs more than I fear Republicans. Don't take this lightly.

Last night, we rolled out a brand new, baked-from-scratch Phish.net mobile site. You can access the Phish.net mobile at m.phish.net.

Why did we upgrade our mobile site?

1. It's built for any modern mobile device, not just iPhones.
2. It supports deep linking and permalinking.
3. We hope to implement better integration with LivePhish.
4. It supports deployment of additional content and is compatible with our new API.
5. The mobile forum has been updated to use our API, so it will replace our mobile forum site effectively pretty much immediately.
6. The code is simpler and more lightweight.

Mini Technology Update

I want to take a moment to address something as well. As many of our regular visitors know, we've had some problems over the last week with server stability. Rest assured, we are working very hard on fixing those issues. The reality is, our traffic has grown significantly with this tour, so much so that it caught us by surprise. We're working with our host to allocate the appropriate resources and better optimize our equipment to scale for peak demand. We take our job as the core Phish data warehouse seriously, and we want you to know that your data is safe and we hope to continue to grow and cement ourselves as the most officialunofficial place for Phish information.

Be careful out there pholks, especially driving home from shows. It's happened before (why the summer festivals after the Went let people stay on site an extra day before driving), and it happened again after Sunday's show:

According to an article today in the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle:

"Five Ontario County teens were injured, one seriously, in a rollover crash on the New York state Thruway yesterday morning.

New York State Police Sgt Robert Simon said the teens were on their way home from a Phish concert in Massachusetts when the driver, Nathan A. Hart, 19, of Farmington, fell asleep at the wheel about 10:35 a.m.

Hart was westbound when his vehicle drove off the north shoulder, near mile marker 314 in Tyre, Seneca County, Simon said. Hart attempted to move back onto the highway, but the van overturned several times.

Two male passengers from Farmington — a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old — were thrown from the van. The 17-year-old was taken to University Hospital in Syracuse via Mercy Flight and was listed in fair condition today, according to a hospital spokeswoman.