The prospects were bleak.
My job was to create a video capturing the first day at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The only problem? The festival hadn’t officially started yet. No White Stripes or Police. No OurStage bands playing on the Sonic Stage. Nothing.
So I marched out onto the dusty campgrounds looking for a story. Not surprisingly, there were a few characters who had partaken of a few too many drinks (mind you it was noon) who provided some sparkling quotes (don’t miss Rawhide Randy telling me he’s “wilder than Al Qaeda and the Taliban put together”).
But it wasn’t until I was told about a booth providing free mohawks that I knew I had a story.
Now it was just a matter of convincing one of my videographers to play ball. To my surprise, the usually i’ll-do-whatever-it-takes-to-get-a-laugh-no-matter-how-childish Matt Watson was not willing to sacrifice his hard-earned locks.
Even more surprisingly, the typically reserved, guys-you’re-really-not-that funny-and-I-wish-you’d-all-grow-up Andy Bertino was game. As it turns out, he’d been looking for an excuse to get a mohawk. Even better, as an avid hiker, camper, and general nature enthusiast (I can’t tell you how upset he was that we didn’t check out Rock City while in Tennessee), he was further enticed by the fact that the free mohawks were being provided by the Energy Action Coalition to raise awareness for clean energy and environmental responsibility.
Now that’s a story!
(Note to Andy’s parents: we’re so sorry your son looks temporarily like a punk/militant white supremecist. At least it wasn’t a tatoo!)
(Note to environmentalists: To learn more about the Energy Action Coalition and the Campus Climate Challenge, check out Richard Graves’s blog.)
