tuba city

After the Chill It's The After Chill

So, following up on my Sunday post, here's some After Chill post-mortem for those who are interested...the unsanctioned cruising festivities were a little different this year, because the town and the 5-0 adopted a clever "co-opt-but-weaken" strategy designed to prevent the all-out cruising. The organizers extended the actual festival to a much later 8pm and closed off West Franklin Street from the get-go....a sanctioned "motorcycle and car show" was scheduled for 6 to 8pm, but all I saw was a bunch of confused cruisers trying to figure out where to go. I was worried that things might not take off, but eventually people seemed to figure out that the entire length of Rosemary Street and most of the roads through campus would work just fine for cruising, cops be damned. By the time it got dark, the After Chill was in full effect, and I got on the bike for some cruising-in-circles of my own.

Before I reveal the jamz findings, some other interesting observations....first, TONS of people ridin' spinners (they don't stop!), much moreso than in past years. And a car without shiny rims was obviously just passing through. Also, once it got dark it became clear that a majority of those Escalades, Navigators, and Hummers had built-in DVD players....some with a TV screen per each seat. I even biked by one driver who was watching porn. That can't be good for one's on-road attentiveness!

As predicted, the song I heard the most was Usher/Lil Jon's "Yeah!" - clearly the jam of the moment if not necessarily the summer. "Yeah!" wasn't an overwhelming landslide winner, but when you add in several "Saltshaker" plays and the fact that I overheard multiple people actually imitating Dave Chapelle's imitation of Lil Jon ("WHATTTT??!? O-KAAAY!!")....well, Lil Jon clearly takes the prize. Especially since a lot of the unrecognizable/indistinguishable crunk sounds that I heard emanating from cars had that trademark Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz beats/production. Perhaps one of these songs was actually the future "Jam of the Summer" that just hasn't been released yet? Who knows. J-Kwon's hot and poundingly sparse "Tipsy" (Track Boyz indeed, yes!!) was another very popular selection, probably not that far behind "Yeah!". But I'm starting to worry that "The After Chill Method" might be becoming more of a trailing indicator than a leading indicator. Maybe next year I'll lobby the town in order to have the festival moved to late May or early June when it can more authoritatively crown a song "Jam of the Summer".

Jamz concerns aside, this event was once again a fun and bizarre look at how a fairly laid-back college town can become utterly transformed into a totally different place for just a single day....I really wish someone would film a documentary about this whole phenomenon. Until that happens, below are some thumbnail pix of my favorite cars (click for larger versions):