The Great GoogaMooga 2012
May 24th, 2012 by chocko
The Great GoogaMooga (An Amusement Park of Food & Drink) weekend happened last week in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Shout out to Joey Teacups for hooking me up with a ticket for Saturday! Yeah, I know you’ve all heard about the “disaster” that was Googa…spotty cellphone service, waiting on a line for 45 minutes for a bite to eat or for Googamoola, the preferred form of payment at the Beer and Wine Pavillions. Oh no! Would you like some cheese with that whine? This is probably coming from the same folks that will wait on a line for the same amount of time for a Double Shack and fries. Yes, there were plenty of lines, but nobody starved at the FREE event and there were lots of great bands and activities to keep us entertained and distracted from the rumbly in the tumbly. My only beef was trying to get into the Extra Mooga section of the festival, but apparently that V.I.P. Wonderland was only inclusive to the people crazy enough to fork over $250 for the weekend. They all got their tickets refunded due to the lack of heaping plates of food they were promised. Those of us in the lower ranks of the Mooga caste system stayed in the freebie areas where the bands were playing. I caught most of the Holy Ghost! set. Synth melodies and dance music heavy on the hooks got most of the crowd shaking and baking.
A view from inside the Wine Tasting Pavilion. Lots of Sommeliers and Wineries represented. Gitoff…definitely not the scene for the raggedy looking Chocko who was outta there faster than you can say “Pinot Noir.”
This is more like it…and no need for quarters at these machines! I played free games of Ms. Pacman and Burger Time ’til I got dizzy! I also picked up a lot of free bubble gum from the Orbit girls walking around. Score!
There were a lotta hot chicitas in the park lounging out on blankets and noshing and munching. “Hey Boo-Boo what’s in the picnic basket”?
The Urbarn featured watermelon sculptures (nice melons!) and a Seed Bomb booth brought to you by Just Food, an organization that “connects communities and local farmers with the resources and support they need to make fresh, locally grown food accessible to all New Yorkers.” Hooray!
Chocko caught a couple songs by Unchained, a Van Halen (David Lee Roth era) cover band. They ruled! Next time they’re playing, I’m there. Pictured above is Bear Hands at the Hamageddon Stage where the crowd worked off the pounds in the hipster-punk mosh pit. People were walking around with plates of bacon. Chocko got inspired and went to the Porchetta booth for a $7 moist, and tasty, boneless pork roast sandwich. It was pretty small for the hefty price and I housed it in about 3 bites.
The crowning jewel of the carnivore friendly (sorry vegans!) Hamageddon area was the “This Lil Piggy” steel sculpture which featured a whole pig getting roasted and toasted. If that wasn’t enough…flames shot out of that sucker too. It was a sight to behold! Props to the sculptor Charlie Smith and Crew at Sparseland Studios from Atlanta, Georgia.
My adventure ended with some songs by an amazing hip hop band out of Philly, the Roots. Black Thought was cold crushin’ on the microphone, Questlove on the drums is always a sight to see and a pleasure to the eardrums. The rest of the band was super hyped, hopping and running all over the stage. They started out the gates with their version of a Slick Rick song, “La Di Da Di” and dedicated the song to the late, great Godfather of Go-Go, Chuck Brown. They performed some of Kool and The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie” (check out the video below!) and some of the hits including “You Got Me.” Adios and see you next year, GoogaMooga!
Tags: 2012, bear hands, brooklyn, googa, hamagegddon, mooga, prospect park, the great googamooga, the roots
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