The CCMA party was held at The Compound in Atlanta. Weird place. Had fun. The tent had fans, but acted like a greenhouse, so it was pretty hot in there. The indoor area had A/C, but they left the doors open so it wasn’t that cool. Really loud; hard to talk. Kind of a weird smell in there. Good dance band. There are apparently secret rooms that some people saw before the lockdown that had large beds and huge monster showers with five showerheads and stuff.
Reminds me of the Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth, TX which had some odd rumors and secrets surrounding it for years—there were tales of rites and rituals and various Magik. Marla and I saw a memorable Horace Silver performance there in 1987. After the waiter stopped by a few times and we hadn’t ordered anything, I called him over, put a $20 bill on the tray, and said, “We’re not drinking anything but water tonight, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get a tip.” He was very happy at this, and offered to move us to a more private table in a darker spot with a better view. We took it, and he was able to put a higher-profile couple in the prime real estate we had been holding down.
Anyway, back here in 2006, the highlight at the CCMA party was a fire dance.
There were two performers, and they had several sequences. It was pretty fun, and they got a big response. I uploaded eight photos. Four of the photos are at standard shutter speed, and the other four are at eight-second exposures. And here is a low-res five-minute movie of one of their sequences.
June 11, 2006