craveonline

I haven’t been to that many ‘downtowns’ in my time, but I have to figure one thing; at least three other ‘downtowns’ are easier to drive through than downtown LA. Nevertheless, when my editor called me in the afternoon to ask if I was willing to drive 90 miles, and then through LA traffic in order to get a few spare minutes with none other than Common, I was on my way. Flying down the 10 freeway at breakneck speed (apparently breakneck speed is a little over 75 mph) I made my way as soon as I could. I made excellent time back to my desk at the office to pick up my digital recorder and get the last of my marching orders from my fearless leader (unless of course you’re a spider, then he’s totally afraid of you). It was making my way to downtown that things got hairy.

Apparently, everyday at about five o’clock, thousands of people from all over Los Angeles drive their cars onto the 10 freeway and abandon them for several hours. Seeing this take place I decided to take the streets to downtown. That’s typically a smart move, if you know where you’re going. Exactly. In my case, I had a good idea of where I was going; it was just too bad that that idea wasn’t good enough. I was supposed to meet Common at six o’clock, it’s five forty five and I’m trapped in what seems like the evil offspring of a jigsaw puzzle and a fun house that accosts me with one way streets and dead ends, as six o’clock approached it had become obvious that the city was transpiring against me, what the hell had I done to downtown LA to deserve this? Maybe the city heard that I liked downtown San Francisco better? In a bit of a panic I called my boss. After a few more turnaround’s, I finally found my way. It hurt my heart deeply that my destination was directly across the street from a friends house that I was pretty familiar with, the sensation was like getting lost in my bedroom. What? No, I never noticed the giant park across the street from my friends house (it was always dark when I was over there).

Luckily for me, Common was running a little late as well (that would have made me feel better, but he was from Chicago, I on the other hand, have lived here all my life and therefore had no excuse). I got a chance to walk the event grounds and soak in the positive atmosphere. The folks over at Zune explained to me the importance of the event as we walked past tent after tent of communal activity.

One of several Zune listening stations at the BBQ.

What I was witnessing was a bridging of worlds right before my eyes, as the people from the tech world have begun to grow stronger relationships with the entertainment world. When it was explained to me that a lot of the people in the two industries had social ties, and because of those relationships shows like the BBQ became possible. Who would have thunk (yeah I said thunk) that a guy whose job it is to market handheld media players to the masses might have E-40 on speed dial. Then I saw E-40.

E-40 is a massive man who looks like he might cripple two smaller men just for a morning work out. I immediately thought about the rough and rugged persona’s of rap stars and wondered how much truth there was to those claims when E-40 began to gingerly (that’s right, gingerly) began to move his way through the crowd. I’m not exaggerating when I say that he might have been the friendliest guy there, and that attitude was infectious as it quickly sank in that everyone there seemed like they were really glad to be there. The atmosphere was full of camaraderie as various entertainers, music business personnel, the obligatory entourages, and guys like me all co-mingled. Bun-B (of UGK fame) looked so relaxed and at ease with himself that you would have thought that he was bringing his kids to a family reunion. I’m sure that the open bar had a little to do with jovial atmosphere of the event.

Be here next week for the part two of Dante's story.