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Epic Fail: Plymouth Ice Festival Complete Disappointment

I'm completely disappointed in this year's Plymouth Ice Festival. So much so that I came home, hit Twitter, and fired off a barrage of tweets about the numerous shortcomings.

 

The 'tude family looks forward to the annual ice carving weekend all year long and we couldn't fathom the incompetence of the event planners and municipal representatives that effectively ruined the weekend for many attendees. Yeah, I'm in a ranting state but I assure you, everyone with whom I spoke agreed that the layout and (lack of) management was atrocious.

So much empty wasted space and steel barricades that screamed "stay out of Kellogg Park" with no real flow through the exhibits and no way to actually view the art without pushing and shoving your way through standing crowds.

Still frustrated and disappointed by the epic failure I sent the following letter to the "staff" at  www.plymouthIcefestival.org:

"I've been a Plymouth resident for 17+ years and have always looked forward to and thoroughly enjoyed the Plymouth Ice Festival. Unfortunately, unless your organization and the City of Plymouth guarantee some drastic improvements, this year's event is the last one I will ever attend and I will encourage my family, friends, and business associates to stay away as well.

Unless you can prove this year's Saturday afternoon attendance was three or maybe four times that of last year, the horrible experience is a direct result of poor planning and execution and not a case of too many people.

Keeping the Southbound lanes of Main St. open to vehicular traffic was completely unnecessary. It may have made it easier on the Plymouth Police Department but it was a major inconvenience and waste of space for festival attendees.

I realize sponsorships are important but on top of the steel barricades, surrounding Kellog Park with an array of Don Massey Cadillacs and allowing festival carvers and workers to park their vehicles in close proximity to the barricades made it very difficult for people to maneuver around the park (notice I did not say "through" as your barricades made that impossible) and get close enough to really see and appreciate any of the carvings.

It's bad enough that you had to surround the park with steel barricades but by not establishing and maintaining a single point of entry and exit with a one-way route, every walkway around the barricades was basically a shoulder-to-shoulder, crowd of people, children, strollers, and dogs trying to move in so many directions that it was practically impossible to navigate the festival except on the extreme peripheral.

This may have been great for the food vendors but when the intention is to showcase the work of talented artists the artwork should be visually accessible, not blocked by six-deep crowds of rude or unthinking spectators that were either incapable or uninterested in pausing for a few moments and then moving along so others could enjoy the show and instead, planted their feet and stood like they themselves were some sort of statues on display.

The Ice Festival has always been my favorite event but your absolute lack of understanding of the expectations and interests of your visitors completely ruined it this year. I may be the only one with enough chutzpah to call you out on this epic failure but I assure you, everyone I spoke with - even complete strangers - shared this sentiment.

I am extremely frustrated by and disappointed in this year's event and strongly recommend that everyone involved in the poor planning and execution spend some time reevaluating the purpose of the festival and the expectations of its visitors. As event planners, you have a responsibility to anticipate and meet the needs of your guests and sadly, this year you did neither.

You owe your patrons an apology and should all be ashamed of yourselves!"

 

The annual event used to be called the International Ice Carving Spectacular. Considering this year's debacle, I suppose it's understandable why it's just an "ice festival"; the only thing spectacular was the magnitude of the planners' ineptitude and failure!

For those that may be intereted, take a walk down memory lane to simpler, better planned and well executed Plymouth Ice Festivals by hitting the links below. 

2004 Plymouth IICS Gallery
2005 Plymouth IICS Gallery
2006 Plymouth IICS Gallery
2007 Plymouth IICS Gallery

 

 

copyright © MMXII Scottitude

 

The Parlotones: LIVE Video "The Stars Fall Down"

As part of my "Countdown to Cleveland", here are The Parlotones live in concert at the Emerald Theater in Mt. Clemens, MI last year.

The Parlotones may well be the best band on the planet. Here's a taste. The tickle and touch are on you.

 

  

There are ten more opportunities to see these guys before they head home to South Africa for one last gig before the epic Dragonflies and Astronauts event. If you're within driving distance of any of these venues you gotta check them out. Seriously.

Remaining Dates on The Parlotones 2011 US Tour

• June 15: Nashville, TN - Exit/In
• June 16: Atlanta, GA - Smith's Olde Bar
• June 18: Columbus, OH - The Basement
• June 19: Chicago, IL - The Double Door
• June 21: Cleveland, OH - The Grog Shop
• June 22: Pittsburgh, PA - The Hard Rock Cafe
• June 23: New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
• June 24: Washington, DC - Red Palace
• June 25: Boston, MA - T.T. The Bear's
• June 26: Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
• July 2: Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Kirkwood Festival
• July 16: Dragonflies and Astronauts

 
 

"...Play on, play on, magic music..."

 

        copyright © MMXI Scottitude

VP Live: Tribute to GLV with Jay From Great Lakes Vapor

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Video: Blue October LIVE Sexual Power Trip - Emerald Theater 10.09.10 (720p)

Blue October ended their Pick Up the Phone Tour With a kick-ass show at The Emerald Theater in Mt. Clemens, MI last Saturday night and while I have several more videos and over a hundred photos to clip and edit I wanted to get something up for all the fans.

While you wait for me to sift though all the audio/visual gems I captured, enjoy the first song of the night, Sexual Power Trip.

 

The Parlotones, from South Africa, opened the show and if you've never heard them, check them out; they are a damned good band. Look for live clips on YouTube 'cause their CDs don't seem to do them justice. The songs are solid and well-crafted but they seem to take on a life of their own when played live.

As much as I hate comparing original artists to other bands, it's the best way to describe their sound in the limited time I have for this post; if you like Muse, Radiohead, or Coldplay, you'll most assuredly dig The Parlotones. 

        copyright © MMX Scottitude



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Learn more about the only effective chemical-free, carcinogen-free alternative to cigarettes and how a personal vaporizer can change your life at

ECF: the world's largest e-cigarette forum

 

        copyright © MMX Scottitude

Which celebrity are you sick of seeing? Who would you like to see more of?

Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay Lohan. Come on, Hef, write the check!

TypePad Conversations » Answer this question!

Girls of Summer 2010: Big Brother 12 Screencaps, Round One

Regardless of what the Farmer's Almanac or your preferred calendar says, summer officially begins when CBS premiers another installment of Big Brother, the greatest guilty-pleasure voyeur-fest on TV. This summer's Big Brother 12 started simply enough Thursday evening with the normal sequence of production segments: meet the house-guests, enter the house one small group at a time, requisite introductions, Julie Chen reveals the newest "twist", and the competition for the first Head of Household (HOH). Three hours later, after the west coast broadcast, the 24/7 Internet feeds went live and that's where everything "normal" ended.

This group of thirteen is probably the best overall cast in years and based on the first 24 hours of live-feed updates, it's been balls-to-the-wall paranoia, scheming, and strategiic planning like we usually don't see until several weeks into the game. Of course, I'm sure the twist has a lot to do with that.

In the premier episode, after Julie Chen asked everyone if they were playing to win and got a unanimous "hell yes" from all the house-guests she explained that twelve of them were telling the truth and one was lying. The producers have placed a saboteur, a mole if you will, in the house and their sole purpose is to sabotage the game for individual players, select groups or alliances, or the entire house. The saboteur is not eligible to win the $500,000 prize but if he/she can remain in the house, undetected for five weeks he/she will win $50,000.

Imagine an invisible snake in a cage full of hamsters; they can smell it, sense it, but they can't see it. A brilliant twist (but after last year's pathetically lame and unforgivably biased "clique twist" almost anything would be brilliant) resulting in scramble city for the hamsters.If you want to subscribe to the 24/7 live feeds or keep up with the action with play-by-play updates, head over to Big Brother Updates and sign up for the feeds or join the forums for all the latest live BB12 updates. It's the only true BB fan-site on the Net and and an exceptional community.

Enough about words, let's turn our focus to Big Brother 12s Girls of Summer: Annie Whittington, Britney Haynes (seen at right), Kathy Hillis, Kristen Bitting, Monet Stunson, and Rachel Reilly and celebrate their assets. We have some real beauties this year and while I personally prefer "real" women instead of plastic ones, those of you with a boob fetish have five pairs of augmented orbs to ogle.

 

As usual, some are not as annoying as their pre-show interviews and bios would imply and some are far more difficult to stomach when they do things like open their mouths, talk, and laugh. Yeah, that's a sexist superficial attitude but these screencaps are all about babes, boobs, bikinis, and my somewhat perverted readers who love them. I can almost hear the reader-angst because this post is more verbose than most screencap galleries but I felt some things had to be said before we get to the girls.

 

Oh, and in case you didn't figure it out, I think Britney is an absolute doll. So far anyway. We'll see how the summer plays out.

Check out the entire gallery of over 100 BB12 Girls of Summer screencaps after the jump...

Jesus Struck by Lightning - Flesh Burns, Skeleton Remains

Oh the irony... "...before, during, and after the lightning..."

As published in the Detroit Free Press:

"A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said." (source)

The article also states "Travelers on I-75 often were startled to come upon the huge statue by the roadside..."

As one who's often traveled that stretch of highway, "startled" is an understatement. It was huge, six stories tall! It was also the tackiest most ridiculously commercial representation of Jesus since people started celebrating his alleged birthday with a fat man in a red suit. And what a stupid nickname. Come on, "Touchdown Jesus"? Really?

Regardless, it was a real-life Buddy Christ, 62' tall. And now it's toast. Literally.

R.I.P., Tacky Jesus.

Rrrrrrrrrreach out and touch flame!

        copyright © MMX Scottitude

Screencaps: Reader Request - Survivor 20: E 02 - Jerri Manthey

The title says it all: a reader requested the ass-shots Jerri Manthey gave us when found "Boston Rob" Mariano (Mr. Amber Brkich) after he was overcome with "the flu and maybe a little case of cry-babyitis" in Episode 2 of Survivor 20: Heroes vs. Villains.

As I explained in my response, I'm using a back-up machine and my captures source is a lower resolution and frame rate and the quality is not on par with my past work but with a little clean-up, they're passable images of Jerri's posterior for the sake of posterity. After all, when a Survivor hottie bares cheeks, I feel a responsibility to grab & share. Jerri's seen better days but, hey, she's do-able.

For more tasty butt-shots of Jerri Manthey, Google her Playboy pics.

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        copyright © MMX Scottitude

Survivor 20 Screencaps: E2 - E6 (5 Episodes)

Better late than never, right? Delayed due to technical difficulties but here's the latest Survivor 20: Heroes vs. Villains screencap gallery featuring five episodes of Amanda Kimmel,Danielle DiLorenzo, Courtney Yates, Parvati Shallow, and Candice Woodcock. Browse the gallery for al kinds of Survivor hottie breasts and butts. You'll be glad you did!

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4:

Episode 5:

Episode 6:

More to come so come back soon. Or don't, your choice.

        copyright © MMX Scottitude