Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
I will try to get this out and explained the best I can in the short time I have (I am swamped at work after 5 days off)
When we last left Kramer, he was camping in Mrs. Fuller’s field, ticket in hand and all was well.
Wednesday night before roo, Teine had a party at his house. When my wife and I got there, Kramer wasn’t there. About 2 hours in, he came running up to me, all smiles, happy as can be. He had checked into one of the gates and had on his bracelet, and in hand, had his program, map, and free CD. He was in!
The party went well, we all had a great time and the music rocked (Excellent Job Joel!!). The next morning my wife and I went and checked in and got our bracelets (round noon, thurs) we had not seen Kramer since the night before.
About 1:00, Mrs Fuller rings my doorbell and asks me if I had seen Kramer, I told her I had not since the night before.
Her brother in law is the guy selling ice that Kramer had been working for, he tells her that Kramer came by that morning awfully bummed because security had cut off his bracelet that night and escorted him off the premises. I was a bit shocked and of course pissed! I thought Kramer had stayed at Teine’s all night after he checked in.
I tell her the story of how inforoo all got together and bought that ticket for him, and she got HOTT!! This is the lady who has been leasing her land to roo for the past 4 years but did not this year. She has all the phone numbers to the big wheels.
So she leaves on a mission and I call Teine. Kramer was in fact at his house at the time I get the full story.
Apparently, Kramer went back to the roo site. For why, I do not know, but he did. As he was attempting to walk into the camping area (right next to the “church” no less) security stopped him and said “Hey your that guy Jim Tobin doesn’t want on the property” He is like, I have a bracelet. And they said well, your trespassing, we are calling the cops. And they do. The cops tell them if they want him arrested for trespassing, they have to come to the station to fill out a warrant / complaint.
So they tell him he can either go to jail, or let them cut off his bracelet and leave the property. So he lets the cut it.
Now back to Thursday. As we are leaving to walk up to the roo for the inforoo camp meeting, MRs fuller and Jeff Cuellar (from AC Entertainment) comes rolling up on one of those golf carts right in front of my house! (This lady is a bulldog!!) They ask if I know where Kramer is and I tell the he is at Teine’s house. We talk for a minute and they (Jeff) get the full story from me. He was quite surprised at how Kramer acquired his ticket and was upset himself at how security treated him. So we all head over to Teine’s (who only lives on the other side of the neighborhood) to find Kramer.
When we get there Jeff call Tobin directly on his cell phone and I am standing right next to him when he does.
Of course I only get one side, but the conversation goes something like this:
Hey Jim, yeah Jeff here, so what about this Mr Kramer? Uh huh, Uh huh, Uh huh, well, we’re gonna go ahead and take care of him, OK. OK Jim, we’ll see ya.
And that was it! He told Kramer to meet him up at the trailer and he would get him a new bracelet.
So we all walk toward the trailer and about 5 minutes later, Jeff comes back on a empty golf cart and drives Kramer up there and gets him his bracelet. Afterwards he tells us and Kramer, “don’t worry, no one will mess with you now, just keep your nose clean”
After that, everything was fine!
We did have one security guy yell at us n the way home Thurs night who said, “hey Kramer, you don’t have a phucking bracelet, and started laughing. Kramer then held up his arm and showed the bracelet and kept walking. The immediately stopped laughing!
I saw Kramer off and on throughout the weekend at least once everyday and then about 11:00 Monday morning, Teine brought him over to my house to pick up his puppy (we ended keeping her until roo was over) and we made him sign that said “COLORADO PLEASE!!!”
He hopped into the back of Teine’s truck, backpack, tent sign and puppy in tow and I watched him ride off down the road.
That is the last I saw off him.
Best of luck to you Jesse J. Kramer and thank you for what you brought to me over the last 2 months. You were a breath of fresh air, in a stale air town!!!!
Good luck sir!
And that is it. Hopefully I will see him next year.
Chris
PS: I will tell you guys the story of how he and Anthony split ways when I have a chance to sit and type even more. It is as crazy as all the other stories.
When I met Kramer I realized he never wanted all this. He just wanted to go to roo. After talking to him for a bit at the meet up I was blown away by his low-key approach to everything. He and dmbfanintn told me the story above and I was shocked by how far the Tobin jacka$$ went to ruin his weekend. It was crazy. I got the feeling that he was kinda upset by all the attention surrounding him. When I asked how he felt by all the goings on with his story he said simply "I just wanted to go to Bonnaroo." Nice guy, very appreciative of all that people had done for him. So thank you inforoo for all you've done to help him out. What should of been a pretty funny story about some hippie sleeping out for roo months in advance, working for a ticket and going home, turned into the crazy mess we all saw.
I wouldn't so much say "upset" by the attention, but definitely "shy" about it. We did come to the conclusion that, perhaps, what set off the problems was him making the paper (3 times no less!!)
I forgot about his "spider incident" at The Motet. It just made me laugh.
Kramer was passed out/napping on a pad during The Motet's set and I glanced down only to see a freakish looking spider sitting on his stomach. I stammered and took a swipe, but it made a mad dash for his face and as a few people gasped, Kramer woke up and brushed it off frantically. Then teine jumped into action and took care of the eight legged invader!
For those who are interested, I email Jeff Cuellar PR for ACEnt. about his involvement with Kramer. Here is the email, Jeff's reply and my re-reply. If he follows up again, I will post that as well:
Jeff,
Once again, thank you for, and congratulations on, a wonderfully successful festival this year. We had a wonderful time and I know it is because off all the hard work the staffs of AC and Superfly put into making that way!!
I wanted to tell you a little bit more about the Jesse Kramer situation as I fear you may have only gotten one side of the story.
I do not know if you were aware that Kramer came to Manchester with a traveling partner, Anthony, who did in fact get a job on set-up working under Jim Tobin. Kramer did not because he did not have his SSN card. I met Kramer simply by stopping where they were camping and saying hello and asked if they needed anything.
I got to know him much better over the course of the month he was here as well as Anthony and it was very apparent from the beginning that they were two totally different characters.
In an attempt to make a long story short, I guess the trouble really started after Kramer and Mr. Tobin got into an argument over Kramer getting a job. I understand that Jim got quite irate when Kramer said to him “whatever man” after he told him he couldn’t work. (I have heard from many that Mr. Tobin likes to make sure everyone knows who the boss is!) Mind you this is after Jim told him to go to the SSN office and get proof of his #. Kramer walked to the office in Tullahoma, almost 15 miles got the sheet proving his number and then returned to find out it was for nothing and that he wasn’t being hired anyway. I ended up taking him, and helping him apply for a lost card, had it sent to my house and it arrived last week, so now he has it.
The first trouble that was really stirred up was when Kramer was kicked out of his camping location right next to the church (at Jim’s order) there was a young lady camping with them who had to move as well. All their gear was packed up and ready to go. I personally went over there and helped Kramer pick up HIS STUFF ONLY and load it into the back of my SUV. When we left, the girls stuff was still on the ground right were it was. Kramer was with me until late into the day as we were trying to locate a new location for him to camp. Many people along Bushy Branch talked to us that day and can vouch for this. At some point during the day, the girls stuff was taken, or thrown away, who knows, but I know for a fact Kramer did not take it.
Even still, Jim (or someone) had the cops go over to his new site, on private, non-bonnaroo, (Mrs. Fuller’s) property, 5 cops with their guns drawn on him woke him from a sleep to hound him about the girls missing stuff. This is where the trouble really heated up.
It was learned later that his traveling partner (whom he has since parted ways with) was actually guilty of stealing at least two items. The set up crew has a female forklift driver they all call “Evil”, Anthony stole her pocket knife. He also stole Kramer’s credit card and he was seen with a cell phone matching the description of the girls’ who’s stuff was stolen. I believe he was the thief and was blaming it on Kramer to keep the heat off himself. If I am not mistaken, he is still working for the set-up, tear down crew.
When myself and a group of internet friends learned of Kramer’s ordeal, we took up a collection and bought him a ticket. We thought, if he had a ticket, he couldn’t be hassled anymore.
I was especially upset when I heard Thursday morning that security had cut the band off his wrist, that was like them taking OUR MONEY!!
I am aware of all the things he has been accused of and am certain that he is innocent, especially of stealing the girls stuff.
The reason I point this stuff out is because the other day when you and Mrs. Fuller came to my house looking for him and we walked to the other side of the neighborhood, after talking to Jim and telling Kramer that you would take care of him (thank you by the way) you told him that he was treading on thin ice and that ONE MORE slip up and he would be gone. It sounded to me like perhaps you felt as though he was guilty of these things and I wanted to let you know that it was certainly not true! There were no previous slip ups.
Kramer left Monday morning with the masses and I have not heard from him since. The feeling among those who knew him well around here was that he pissed off the big boss man, and the big boss man was going to do whatever he could to flex his muscles and make him miserable up to and including stealing his wristband and kicking him off site for no reason.
THANK YOU JEFF, for seeing things rationally and un biased and making everything work out well in the end. If there is one thing I have learned about you over the past few years, you are one hell of a public relations guy, you do your job extremely well.
Thanks again, I am already looking forward to next year and feel free to contact me if I can help in any way locally.
Best Regards
Chris Taylor
Then he wrote back:
Chris,
Thank you very much for the explanation. If there is one thing I have learned over the years is that there is always two sides to every story and usually the true story is somewhere in between. I do want to clarify one thing, Jim is not the one who had Kramer kicked off the Church property, that was actually me. I had received complaints from the Church so I asked Jim to ask him to find a new place to camp. The whole situation with Kramer sounds like a big miscommunication and misunderstanding but I do know he was not a problem the rest of the festival and hopefully enjoyed himself. Thank you again for the kind words and if you do ever talk to Kramer again tell him he is always welcome to attend Bonnaroo. Have a wonderful summer and I will see you next year.
Jeff Cuellar
Bonnaroo Community Relations
Then me:
Thank you Jeff, I too believe the “3 sides to every story” idea.
Regardless of who made him move his original location, the problems started afterwards anyway.
Misunderstanding was certainly the most prevalent factor in this mess.
He was really a kind-hearted individual who never asked for anything, everything he received from the people around here was given out of the goodness of their hearts.
I am thrilled to hear from YOU that he is welcome at the festival and if I ever cross paths with him, I will certainly let him know.
Keep doing as good a job with this as you have been, I am sure we will be seeing you guys here in Manchester for many years to come. (All-good is celebrating 10 years this year)
Great Job Jeff, see you in a year!!!!
Chris Taylor
Yes I kissed a little booty, but hey, this is the man that gives me free tix every year, AND if not for him, Kramer would have been phucked.
it's common knowledge now that Kramer wasn't going to Roo with the mentality that he was going to get handouts and a free ticket... the guy wanted to work for his ticket... so badly that he walked 12 miles to the SS office to get his paperwork together... he was not trying to scam people, he was not looking for the generosity that he recieved, he just got it, which I personally think is a beautiful thing.
He thought he lost it, he found it in Antony's wallet after they got into it because Anthony was so phucked up one night, I think Tues night before roo, the he pissed all over Kramer and the indide of the tent.
they go into a huge fight and anthony chased Kramer around the field with a flaming logs from the fire. Then he threatened to burn the tent down with the puppy and all their stuff inside.
at that point Kramer laid him out, popped him a good one, and he took off.
Kramer found his wallet and chucked it out into the field.
Later, Anthony came looing for it and he told him he didn't know where so Anthony left again. that was the last time Kramer or any of us saw anthony.
Kramer went out into the field and found the wallet, looked thorugh it and found his credit card that he thought he had lost in San antonito.
who kows if the credit card was even valid, the point is, his friend and traveleing partner stole it form him!
Yeah I wanted to type out the whole story but haven't had the time.
When Kramer was sitting in our garage telling us about it, we were laughing our azzes off, even though it isn't a funny thing, the story itself was hilarious!
The bad thing is, Kramer had spent 3 hours at my place the night before washing all of his and Anthony's laundry. That very night is when the pissing incidnet occured and he pissed all over all of thier clean clothes.
Then to top it off, when Anthony left, he took ALL their clothes. When Kramer came to my houose the next day all he had was the clothes on his back.
I hooked him up with a few pairs of jeans and a few shirts, but still, he took everything!
I'd already seen LIGuy at that point, so I must not have seen him. It would have been cool to meet the others. Ah well. Still had a blast at that show.
it is a shocking story, but as you said, there are 3 sides to all stories. you must be a gambling man because there is no way in hell i would have a traveling hippie bum in my house around my children. for all you know he is a cold blooded killer and anthony is tossed in the lake.
but thanks to all for smiting me for having an opinion. that;s what bonnaroo is all about, right?
there's no way i'd let my children around someone who judges AND stereotypes people before they even give them a chance. Travelling hippie bum=cold blooded killer ?
your fears and judgements confine you. From what I now know of you, you must be an uptight corporate tool, right ?
Post by wbennettjr on Jun 22, 2006 15:47:02 GMT -5
Now now..as Michael Moore has carefully explained, we live in a culture of fear. We are bred to believe the worst about others. whosnotwo is simply reflecting a cold reality - there is a lot of bad in the world and we are led to believe that anything can happen to us at any time.
Not exactly the 'Bonnaroo spirit' of course, but not that unusual either.
Just because we are manipulated by a culture of fear, doesn't mean we have to succumb to it. We create the world in which we live. Give strength to the fear of stereotypes, and no doubt, the stereotype has grown. Give hope and live hope. Accountability---the finger points both directions. Now excuse me, I've gotta buy duct tape before the terror alert increases.
there's no way i'd let my children around someone who judges AND stereotypes people before they even give them a chance. Travelling hippie bum=cold blooded killer ?
your fears and judgements confine you. From what I now know of you, you must be an uptight corporate tool, right ?
fears? who said anthing about fears? i was stating a fact. a traveling hippie goes from festival to festival (so he says) accepting handouts. there is a possibility he will cut you up and eat you. i, personally, would not take that chance with my children in the house. on the other side, he could have been jesus or santa clause or for first pet. sure, maybe i would toss him a steak as i drove by, but that is it. I know/ have known people like him. they are nothing but bad news and give bad vibes. look at the huge ordeal he caused. you may say 'it wasn't him, it was jon whatever. kramer was not doing anything wrong! he is the spirit of bonnaroo, blah blah blah.' Bull shit. he was nothing but trouble. but kudoos to those that helped him so you could feel better about yourself by coming on the board and bragging about it. you probably donate to save the whales, too.
I try to define myself by what i give. Try to tread lightly, etc. Does it make you feel supreme to tear down what people try to do to help, be it the whales or Kramer ? Perhaps a hippie whale raped you as a child. Perhaps you fear that you don't give freely enough, so you must tear down those that do. Make sure you teach your kids how to fear free spirits so that THEY don't feel so bad about THEMSELVES. Show them how superior they are to the world around them. They won't ever need someone's help who won't judge them. And the tables will never turn on them or you. You live in a perfect world where no one has ever helped you despite what they might have thought of you. Teach them how to give CONDITIONALLY-and call it love. Or not to give at all-even better. You don't have to speak of fear to reak of fear-little man.
Last Edit: Jun 22, 2006 16:27:44 GMT -5 by reehash - Back to Top
And by the way-I didn't give to Kramer. Not that I wouldn't have. I just didn't. BUT I CERTAINLY HAVEN"T SEEN ANYBODY WHO DID PARADE IT AROUND FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT. Nor do I believe that Kramer asked for any of this. Spreading misinformation to make yourself look righteous only outs you from behing your veil of fear. Let some love into your cold cold heart.
Now go throw a steak at someone---you kind soul who has such a grip on the spirit of Bonnaroo.
I'm so glad it was turned around on tobin the terrible. Mrs. Fuller rocks! I can't imagine what would have happened to poor Kramer had no one been watching his back.
It's always amazing how people the Tobin can abuse the power that they have. I really hop Tobin doesn't get the gig next year.
I never spoke ill of Mr. Tobin and always thought there might be another side of the story. I tried to give him the beneifit of the doubt but after hearing that it is very apperant that he was just abusing his power.
whosnotwo is a moron and we should leave it at that. i wouldnt leave my son with anybody i didnt know. and you shouldnt either. but to say that you shouldnt have someone in your home around your kids because of the way they look is ridiculous. and for the record id rather have kramer around then a priest. your a judgemental prick whos probably lived their entire life in there republican parents suburban basement. have an original thought. meet some poeple that live outside fot he box. i think youll find that on the whole they are a far better group of people then your average sububrban moron.
it is a shocking story, but as you said, there are 3 sides to all stories. you must be a gambling man because there is no way in hell i would have a traveling hippie bum in my house around my children. for all you know he is a cold blooded killer and anthony is tossed in the lake.
but thanks to all for smiting me for having an opinion. that;s what bonnaroo is all about, right?
In the infinite words of Woody the Cowboy:
You, sir, are one sad strange little man!
And for the record, I have NEVER given a single smite since I have been on this message board.
Oh and I just realized someone has smited me, may I ask who and why??? Perhaps because I got on a message board and "bragged" about helping people????
By the way, I DO NOT give to the save the whales;
But my wife does!!! ;D ;D
Last Edit: Jun 22, 2006 17:47:02 GMT -5 by Deleted - Back to Top