'sall Good

Last weekend I went to a super duper fun kids & adults rock fest outside Boston that was put together by the Life is good (® !) folks who, besides making cute t-shirts that hippies of all ages love (you know the Life is good stick figure guy... Jake...he's even in airports now), also raise a lot of money for children recovering from trauma, and specialize in programs teaching these kids how to play 'cause they figure play is a fundamental part of life and good health.

So needless to say, they know how to throw a fun festival. They Might Be Giants brought the house down in the kids' tent while 6 year-olds rocked out on giant beanbags and rubber rocking horses while waving gigantic TMBG foam fingers (for which I was jealous).

The festival was also really well-thought-out as far as practical things, like there was a Tag-Your-Tot booth at check-in for putting a wristband on your kids with your cell phone number, there was a Musical Instrument Petting Zoo, there was a zillion complimentary Wet Wipes at the information booth (duh!) and the food and beverages were affordable ($2 tacos), often organic, mostly local, plus most of the booths were donating 100% of the food proceeds to the cause.

The highlight for me, besides meeting Finn, the Goldfish cracker, was a fairly new artist named Eli "Paperboy" Reed who's from Boston, and if you didn't know better, you'd swear this guy's record came out back in the heyday of James Brown. He is phenomenal -- and I'm still confused about the fact that he's white, but I'm trying to get over it. I hope he'll be at Jazz Fest in the future.

And yet, during Eli's performance, I have to give credit... the entire audience was completely mesmorized by the hearing impaired interpreter who had serious moves. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it.