I received the following from Ras RoJah Steffens yesterday and I thought I’d share it with everyone. In a previous email, he described that there were at least 12 massive celebrations throughout Israel to commemorate the 69th birthday of Bob Marley. It is also noteworthy that February 6 is also the birthday of William “Bunny Rugs” Clarke, who passed away earlier this week. On the day he passed, February 3, I was lucky enough to attend a private live performance by Tarrus Riley w/ Dean Fraser at XM Radio. The vibe was solemn as the news of Rugs’ passing was only a few hours old.
I attended a great celebration last night here in DC with Mrs. Raver, Dermot Hussey, Doctor Dread, Jake Homiak, and the largest gathering of Rasta elders I’ve ever seen in one place. Everyone was in great spirits, the food and vibes were amazing. Of course there were celebrations throughout DC, the most significant being the live show at the Howard Theater featuring Sister Carol, The Itals, and The Archives w/ Ras Puma.
So here is the mesage I received from RoJah yesterday:
“I was finally able to go to L.A.’s annual commemoration of Bob’s earth day at his star on Hollywood Bl. This is the first time I’ve been home on Feb. 6 in 30 years – usually always on the road with my Marley show. We had about a dozen hard-core fans and friends and each spoke about their own feelings (or interactions) with Bob. The one refrain heard over and over was, of course, “Bob Marley changed my life.”
Attached, a couple of pix. In the vertical one Jim Marshall, the Supreme Rasta Collector, is standing next to me.
In the second, I’m reading Guil’s email. The man in the plaid shirt is “Native Wayne” Jobson.”
(If you recall, Dermot recently told us a great story about how he met Bob Marley for the very first time at Dickie Jobson’s house.)
“On the horizontal picture, the man on the left in the black jacket is Arthur Gorson. His picture of Bob is on the cover of “Talking Blues,” and he was the photographer for the groundbreaking essay on reggae by Michael Thomas back in July of ’73 in Rolling Stone.”
“By the way, Son Devon Marley digitized almost 40,000 of my slides in 2011.”
Yesterday we posted my profile shot of Bob smiling and lickin’ de spliff. It’s received over 300 “likes” from our 1,800 “followers.”
LEGENDARY REGGAE 
Man, I gotta know about these DC gatherings!