When Alpha Blondy left the Doce Lunas SoundStage, packed up their amps, put the mics in their Pelican cases, and bid farewell to their hosts here in Jaco Costa Rica the behind the scenes drama begins to unfold. Here we obtained a press release which is posted in full without edits:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WORLD REGGAE CONCERT NEWS

OH THE IRONY! WAR OVER U.N. PEACE AMBASSADOR AND REGGAE SUPERSTAR ALPHA BLONDY

ALPHA BLONDY RIOT IN CARTAGO, COSTA RICA

700 concertgoers took to the streets in Cartago Costa Rica throwing rocks and bottles at Picacho’s Paradise and breaking windows last Friday April 31st. American Promoter Chris Diforte was jailed and is now released but barred from leaving the country pending the clearing of his substantial debts and further investigation of allegations of fraud. Picacho’s has filed a lawsuit against Todoticketcr.com for their failure to pay the promoter money due on the self-fulfilling prophecy that he will not pay his bills. DoceLunas is also filing suit against Todoticketcr for failure to pay monies due and repeated breach of contract.

CBI/DOCELUNAS SAVES THE TOUR: ALPHA BLONDY RUNS FULL 90 MINUTES THROUGH HEAVY RAIN STORM ON THE FOUR STAR HOTEL’S COVERED OUTDOOR STAGE 

Having heard from the radio rather than the “man” himself, that American promoter Chris Diforte had moved the show from their venue under rental to Dominical six hours from any major population center one week from the scheduled DoceLunas appearances May 1 and 2, the DoceLunas promoter CBI scrambled to to save the show. CBI made contact with some music industry heavyweights in the US, to help smooth over fears and concerns created by the unexpected changes. more…

Tonight we have Alpha Blondy playing live at Doce Lunas here in Jaco, Costa Rica. Many fans who love Bob Marley feel Alpha Blondy is the closest living performer who provides excellent music, vocals, and his message via lyrics is genuine. How Doce Lunas lined up such a top performer remains a secret but this hidden hotel located in Quebrada Seco is by far responsible for most cultural and musical events of any significance.

Alpha Blondy is scheduled to play tonight and tomorrow night at Doce Lunas. For posterity and google, the Alpha Blondy concert dates are May 2 and May 3, 2009 in Jaco Costa Rica at Doce Lunas

Tomorrow night here in Jaco Ray Ruiz will be playing at a local Cuban nightclub called Congas. This new live music scene is in the old Fusion nightclub. All of us here in Jaco cannot help ourselves when people ask for directions. Take a left where Fusion used to be…. When will Jaco or any of us start to say, “When you get to Congas turn left” “Uh, okay but where is Congas?” “Where Fusion used to be” “Cool; now I got it…” It seems nobody who has moved into that place cannot wipeout the forsaken nightclub name from local memory. Anyhow, I have no idea who this Ray Ruiz singer is but he is supposed to be very good. Sorry I am negative in the Cultural IQ tonight. If you try to say Ray Ruiz with the proper Spanish accent, make sure Spanish was your first tongue so you do not embarrass the expats here in Jaco, it is a real twister hearing the Cubans say it. more…

Surfers and surf vacation fanatics can be proud that Costa Rica now ranks as one of the top 5 places in the world for being the cleanest country. Below is an article about the findings of a recently published study by Yale and Columbia.

The Universities of Yale and Columbia have published their collaborative study called 2008 Environmental Performance Index (EPI.) The study uses over 40 metrics which are collected from each country and then compiled to produce comparative results for ranking purposes. Costa Rica ranked for the first time in this study in the top of all countries in the world. To give this perspective here are the top five in order of performance: Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Costa Rica. The USA ranked 39, Mexico 47, and China 105

Some east metrics for industrialized countries to achieve high numbers on are the water quality or water stress metrics. Given that most industrial nations have infrastructure to support itself, the ability to provide clean drinking more…

My house must be sitting on top of some sort of Godzilla creature whom moved tonight at 7:12pm and last week sometime in the night. So when he moved tonight, I thought I would check the IRIS Seismic monitor with all of their flashy colored circles that indicate “areas of activity.” Well, it showed many flashy circles but nothing in Costa Rica. I wonder if someone forgot to pay their ICE bill at the seismic monitoring station in Heredia. Nahhhh that would not happen here in Costa Rica.

Maybe everyone else is just as self-doubting as I am. If the news didn’t report the earthquake, it didn’t happen. It must have been a leg spasm that threw off my equilibrium, which made it feel like the earth just shook. However, I am not one to believe in coincidences because at the same time my leg spasm the chandelier moved. Hell I ought to see a doctor, this here spasm is causing all sorts of trouble for me. I had better make an appointment to see the doctor as soon as possible. Unless, of course the news reports it was an earthquake after all and not my leg spasm.  Wouldn’t that be a relief to know that Godzilla was not living under the house.

Reports are sketchy at this moment, but according to sources last night Sean McGraw was killed last night in a tragic auto accident. Apparently, Sean was returning home last night and his car went off the side of the road in the Dominical area whereas his car flipped and he was ejected. Same source said, that police officers were traveling behind him were on scene moments later but he had died.

The highway along the Dominical – Cortez corridor is relatively new but has no shoulder along vast stretches of this highway and the drop is very steep making this road very dangerous to travel.  

Sean was the father of two young children, a girl and a boy and a husband according to his bio on realtor related site and was 35 years old.

Here is his biography from We Love Costa Rica:

Sean was born and raised in Wisconsin, U.S., and attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Prior to real estate, Sean founded and managed a commercial fishing operation in northern California for five years. After arriving in Costa Rica in 1996, he began his real estate career by co-founding Dominical Realty. In 2001, the company obtained a Coldwell Banker independent franchise.

In 2004, they partnered with another Coldwell Banker franchise in Costa Rica to become the Master Franchise holder for the entire country of Costa Rica.

As a member of Costa Rica Real Estate Association of Realtors, Global Associations of Realtors, and U.S. based National Association of Realtors, the Master Franchise has already grown to seven offices throughout the country, with several more currently in process. Additionally, the Coldwell Banker Dominical Realty office has grown its commission revenue to over $2M annually.

Sean is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys surfing, scuba diving, snorkeling, hiking, camping, fishing and exploring. His favorite quote is from the movie A Bug’s Life: “First rule of leadership: everything is your fault.”

The last real estate books Sean read were The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller et al., and Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson.

Sean McGraw had many friends here in Jaco and around Costa Rica. He was a well liked guy and people had only good things to say about him and he will be missed. We offer our condolences and prayers to his wife and family.

Here is a link to Sean’s blogpsot