Saturday night at the Ag Hall was just about the perfect, uniquely-Vineyard kind of get together, with lots of friends and familiar faces coming together to enjoy some music, as the station celebrated, well, just being alive.
We reached our goal of raising $600,000 to keep the station afloat and online, and we were very thankful for the community effort and relished the opportunity to thank folks in person.
Jess had the great idea of setting up a "Tech Table" where we could show listeners different ways they can listen and connect to the station, if they've never listened online.
I spent a good chunk of the night there, showing folks how to load the App on their phones, and demonstrating some of the simple devices you can buy to make car-listening easier.
One of the very-Vineyard things about this event, was that many people brought their kids---an event at the Ag Hall automatically implies a warm, friendly environment that you'd feel perfectly comfortable letting your children run free in.
Somewhere later in the evening, when the music, no doubt, had lost interest for a few of the kids, I found myself surrounded at the Tech Table by a group of youngsters who didn't need the technology explained to them---they wanted to use it.
"Can we listen to hip-hop on this?" "Can you turn this on?" "Do you have 'Gangham Style"'?"
So that's what Laurel came upon when she snapped this picture. Me, trying to locate Katy Perry's "Firework" on my phone, so I could play it for the kids:
While it was most certainly a family event, there were also folks who did brown-bag it. And when one fairly tipsy gentleman careened through the front door later in the evening, I was happy that we'd hired a cop.
It's always good practice, if you've going to have a large crowd, to have a police officer on-hand. And the strapping young Tisbury police officer (who was covering for a West Tisbury officer/friend), was dispatched immediately to ensure that the large man bumping his way through the crowd and the walls was going to sit and listen to the music, peacefully. (He did)
A few minutes later, I took a Tech Table break and headed into the bathroom. Right behind came the officer, shutting himself in the stall next to me.
I heard the faint sound of music.
Now, I'd been in the bathroom earlier that night and hadn't noticed any music or P.A. It wasn't Muzak. It was definitely coming from in the room.
I recognized the melody too.
"Careless Whisper." The Wham! song.
The officer didn't look like a Wham! fan. But who am I to judge?
Listening more closely, I realized it wasn't the Wham! version. I could hear Rufus Wainwright.
Oh yeah, Rufus Wainwright did "Careless Whisper" with Ben Folds.
Well now I had a very new perspective on this officer. He was doing his detail, and rocking out to a Wham! cover on his headphones. But it was this hip version that I remembered can only be found on the Ben Folds boxed set---so only a real music junkie would know about it or have it on their . . .
Wait a minute.
I took my own iPhone out of my pocket.
And the music got louder.
Yeah, the music wasn't muffled because it was coming from the officer's headphones in the stall next door. It was muffled because I had "pocket-dialed" my own iTunes library and was inadvertently playing songs from my pants.
I'm sure the officer has great taste in music. But I think we can all rest easier knowing the local police force is probably not the one rocking out to Wham!
Hear the song on Youtube.
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