Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A HISTORIC APOLOGY

My mom sent me an article from CNN that let me know the House of Representatives have passed a resolution that apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow. Although individual states have apologized for slavery in the past, this is the first time any branch of the federal government has done so. I don’t know if anyone has apologized for Jim Crow before this point. I actually think that apology carries much more weight. The article I read had this excerpt from the resolution

"African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow -- long after both systems were formally abolished -- through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity,"

I am actually in shock that a branch of the government went so far as to acknowledge this, particularly the part about the long-term loss of income and opportunity. Although I certainly know it to be true, and most people I hang out with know it to be true, many people obviously do not. Many of the comments from the article are a testament to that fact. One of the more common arguments I hear in regard to issues of the overwhelmingly obvious disparity between Black and white America is that it is not a race issue but a class issue. To have the government link the two together is, in my opinion a big deal.

The article also briefly mentioned reparations, as much as I would love to get the current monetary value of 40 acres and a mule, adjusted for inflation of course, I know that is just silly. Come on people, there won’t ever be any reparations. Stop asking for them. Even if there was a legitimate way to decide who would get them our country is broke and couldn’t possibly afford it.

Anyway, I’m happy it was said. Sure it’s symbolic and doesn’t really change anything, but aren’t apologies in general primarily symbolic? I think the acknowledgement of the lingering repercussions is enormous and hope more people take a second to stop and think about what that really means.

Friday, July 25, 2008

THE WORLD IS MADE OF ENERGY

Sunday was a happy day of chillin. We arrived around 2ish so that we could get a good spot for The Apples in Stereo at 3. We got our spot from last year’s festival on the left side of the stage right against the rail. We settled in to wait for things to start. Shortly after we got settled Terrence the Security Guard, who we knew from Public Enemy spotted us and came over to say hi.

“What band are you here to see today?” he asked
“This one,” we replied
“Move to the middle” he said

So, of course, we move toward the middle. He’s right up front telling people to move down and clearing a spot for us front and center. In fact, as you watch the corresponding video from the show you can see how no one seems to be standing front and center, it is because we are very short. In fact, about halfway through the song there is a shot of the crowd and you can see two sets of brown arms clapping; one set has a wooden bracelet. That bracelet is Monica. I am next to her and not quite as brown. I watched this video a bunch of times to catch that. There were lots of beach balls during this show. I kind of hate beach balls. I wanted to pop them but never caught one. I accidentally hit one a few times in trying to catch it. Lame.



After the show we went to sit for the remainder of the evening because we are old and we like to chill. We took turns getting food cause no one likes to sit alone. Jamie’s veggie dog came with multigrain chips, mine didn’t. Racist (hahah). It was a good veggie dog though and I didn’t mind not having chips cause I had a delicious mango smoothie. It was very very hot and even though I drank a lot of liquids I sweated them all out and still didn’t use the port-o-potty!

Les Savy Fav was up next and did they ever put on a show. A big old dude in shiny red drawers is always a recipe for a good show. After them it was The Dodos were very chill, during this time it was very hot and Jamie and I spent much time sitting under umbrellas or setting them up to shade us as we lay peacefully. Sometimes I was all long and would read my book. I later got laughed at for reading my book. I love Jonathan Ames so much. See, there is this game we were playing about spotting all the ridiculous Pitchfork people and I guess reading was worth some points. Star tattoos are also worth points and Monica had the nerve to call points on someone we knew.

In true politically incorrect fashion we decided that the game winning spot would be an Asian/Asian couple. I know, I know, not cool but research has been done, they are rare, particularly at places such as outdoor music festivals. Monica spotted one while she was away from the group but Stacy saw them so she technically won. I also spotted one so I came in second. I think I should have gotten bumped up points for spotting an Asian Man White Woman couple earlier on; they are kind of rare too. Racist.

That’s just rude. Jamie left us to go see Ghostface Killah & Raekwon and I maybe should have gone because as much as I wanted to see M Ward and liked listening to his set, I couldn’t hear all of it because of Ghostface Killah & Raekwon and the bass they were spewing all over the festival. Oh well. After M Ward was Spiritualized, a fine band but somewhat forgettable. Dinosaur Jr. was next, looking as 90s as anyone can look. Even more than me when I wear skirts, tights, and Dr. Marten boots.

Spoon closed the show. They were really boring. Monica and her friend Stacy did some dances. I don’t know if it was because they were trying to get into the band or because they were hating. I was just chillin and kind of sad I couldn’t’ read anymore since it was dark. There was this girl who loved Spoon more than anything ever in life and she was doing all sorts of spastic dances all over the place. We agreed that it was time to go before Spoon was over. As we were leaving we heard Cut Copy on the B stage and they sounded good. Too bad we hadn’t been over there listening. Oh well.

Thus ended my weekend at the Pitchfork Music Festival.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

INVASION OF THE MUD PEOPLE

So I arose bright and early on Saturday morning, like around 10 and started to get ready for the day. I had a poncho and an umbrella stuffed in my bag and a plastic bag to carry them in if they got wet, which was going to happen. I headed down to the festival and got there before Monica but not before her cousins and their ridiculously adorable child. I spotted them and then saw this tiny tot in a sling with HUGE hot pink headphones covering her ears from the concert noises. The headphones pushed her cheeks up to make them extra bumby. When I arrived, Boban i Marko Markovick Orkester was warming up. They played a pretty groovy and fun set. It sounded something like klesmergypsyjazz. I only got rained on a little, not enough to warrant an umbrella or poncho.

Monica arrived in time for A Hawk and a Handsaw. During there set it flirted between umbrella time and poncho time. Then it definitely became poncho time so we busted them out. Ponchos are kind of awesome. A Hawk and a Handsaw were pretty chill; they had an accordion so that is always a good sign. Their music was a mix between calm, crazy, folk, and gypsy. There was a dude in the crowd with a crazy mustache and visors that went over the lenses of his sunglasses HA! Monica and I tested out the frontish area of the crowd for a while and then retreated to the blanket. I mean, we didn’t need to be all up there…yet.

Icy Demons was next, we needed to be all up there for them. Jamie showed up. Yeah Jamie! What a glorious band is Icy Demons. I don’t know how to explain them except to say that they like to have lots of fun and that they make me smile. I will try to explain them; harmonies, dances, percussion, crazy sweaty drummer that Monica wanted to touch, a smidgen of the ridiculous, and lots of bouncing around will have to suffice. During the show poncho time ended and the sun came out. They must have brought the good weather with their cheer.

It was time for some snacks and then we were going to see Fuck Buttons. Snacks were good Fuck Buttons, despite their excellent name and promising description were incredibly boring. We left to find a nice parking spot on the other side of the field for Vampire Weekend. We also managed to catch a good amount of Dizzee Rascals set. That dude was putting on an excellent show. Vampire Weekend’s show…not so much. I hadn’t really heard their music before but I had heard good things…I hope their album is more interesting then their performances. !!! was up next, if you are curious about that band don’t try to google them, according to an article Monica read they are one of the least ungoogleable bands ever. People often call them chk chk chk but I have also heard bam bam bam and pow pow pow. I think I’ll refer to them as exclamation exclamation exclamation because it’s funny. They freaking rocked though.

It was around that time that we noticed the mud people. I suppose that anytime there is rain at a festival you are going to get mud people. These fools were slip and sliding through mud pits. It was disgusting. They had mud mouths, mud bodies, mud everything. I shuddered every time they walked by our nice safe non-muddy blanket. At one point when I was all alone holding own the blanket fort there was some proper mud wrestling complete with a piledriver. I was pretty sad no one else saw it.

The Hold Steady were up next. They certainly put on a show but they aren’t really my kind of band, a little too regular or something. I’m not sure what it was that didn’t move me because they were pretty good. However, other than Icy Demons, Saturday belonged to Jarvis Cocker. He was AWESOME. He got up there in his little suit, although he had to lose the jacket because it was hot, and threw down. At one point we looked to the monitor and saw him singing and dancing, the next second he was on the ground writing like a true star. You go, Jarvis.

Animal Collective was the last band to play. They were supposed to be awesome. Maybe if I had been on many many drugs they would have been. I wasn’t even on beer cause I am terrified of the port-o-potties and vowed not to use them at all, and I didn’t, not once. There was this dude who was on lots of drugs and stared at us with much intensity while we folded up our nonmuddy blanket. After we were done he proceeded to lie down and get kind of trampled. Monica told some people who kind of stepped on him that they needed to leave her boyfriend alone and that he was embarrassing her. It was funny to us but the other folks didn’t get it. We left before Animal Collective was done cause I’m too old for a damn hippie jam band with a light show.

Sunday….

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

WE NEEDED A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD THOSE MF'S BACK

So, Pitchfork (so named for Pitchfork Magazine) Festival was pretty freaking great. Monica, Jamie, others, and I had excellent times. Here’s a little rundown. I had hoped to add video to this but everything was streamed live and is not currently available. However, I bet it will be one of these days. I hope it will be.


Friday-
My one and only reason for being there on Friday was to see Public Enemy perform “It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back”. Monica was also happy to hear Sebadoh play “Bubble and Scrape” and, although I listened to it a few times and thought it was swell I didn’t much care. Public Enemy was what’s up. We arrived at about 6something (they went on at 8) and were able to walk right up to front and slightly (and I mean slightly) off center to chill and wait. We were able to hear Mission of Burma play some of “Vs.”, which was okay. Sebadoh sounded good, until The Bomb Squad decided to tune up during the acoustic part of the set.

Let me just say that the first note from the Bomb Squad reverberated my spleen. We all looked at each other and were like…”uh…earplugs?” We did manage to secure a pair from some security guards and covered them with some torn up medical gown or something of the like that our new friend Hilarie game us. The Bomb Squad didn’t seem to notice that Sebadoh was still playing and they started the show, they had to stop. This caused the more rude and jerky members of the audience to chant, “Sebadoh sucks” repeatedly, which is not true.

Let me just say that many of the “fans” who were there didn’t care dick about PE, they just wanted to see some Flavor Flav, which is bogus cause Chuck D is the man. There were some real fans there though. These dudes to the right of us were like, “man, I remember when this came out, I was in eighth grade and I thought, man, Black people really hate us…and they have a reason!” Monica and I burst into laughter. Another dude said, “It looks like hot topic exploded into a thrift store in here,” and I told him that was the funniest thing I had ever heard. He looked at me and Monica and didn’t reply…maybe he thought we were too thrift store.

As start time neared these same loser fans made the most horrible siren noises ever to signal the start of the album. I wanted to kill them. When the real siren noises came on I forgot about it, cause it was about to be AWESOME. It was around the beginning of the show that security guard James was replaced with Terrence, the most awesome security guard ever. Flavor forgot to come on stage for Bring The Noise, which was pretty silly. He was dealing with his family, who were a bunch of adorable kids who danced like madmen the whole show. We loved them. Then Terrence had Monica take some pictures and video on his phone, which may have been our ticket to later awesomeness. It could have also been that both our group and he were grooving like you wouldn’t believe.

The show was outstanding S1Ws were there stepping in their military gear, Professor Griff had no idea what he was doing there and couldn’t remember his verses but he was cool. Flavor called people out for booing him when he thanked the crowd for making him the #1 reality TV star of all time, “What are you a bunch of ghosts? Booo booo. Why don’t you be proud for a mother fucker?” He had a point. Then he tried to kill us and I wanted to boo his ass too. This fool had the idea to come up right on the other side of the rail to touch the fans. This means we were pressed into the rail and pushed all around. Monica and I threw elbows like crazy yelling at people to back the fuck up. After it calmed a little Monica pulled out her keys, to which Terrence replied “Come on now”. She didn’t have to use them. I was left with a bruise on my arm. Stupid Flavor Flav.

After finishing up the whole album Chuck D was like, “So we didn’t stop with that…we then did this…” and launched into Welcome to the Terrordome HELLS YEAH. He continued with other hits; Shut 'Em Down, He Got Game, 911 Is A Joke,Harder Than You Think, Can't Truss It, Yo! Bum Rush The Show, and Fight The Power to close it out. Freaking awesome. Home, to bed, and more for the next day...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

ITS ONLY TUESDAY AND I'M ALL ABOUT THE WEEKEND

I haven’t had much to say at all lately. Things have been pretty good though. I watched the first season of Mad Men so I’ll be all ready to go come season two. I seriously think that might be the best show that is currently on television. I’m not at all mad at Weeds either. That show is also pretty freaking good.

I’ve been spending a lot of time working on an absolutely impossible jigsaw puzzle. I’m at the point where I feel really excited about every piece that goes in. I only have the middle left but it consists of a bunch of snow covered pine trees. All the pieces are starting to look the same. When the sky is the easy part you know you have a hard puzzle on your hands. The pieces also seem to fit together very well even when they are wrong. I don’t think that is at all fair. If two pieces have matching patterns and fit together they should be the correct pieces. Not always the case with this stupid puzzle.

I don’t know why I like puzzles. I was talking to Friend last night and she was saying how they are completely frustrating and unrewarding. I have to agree with her. I don’t feel all that much satisfaction when I finish one. It’s just done. When I was a kid there were a few puzzles I would do over and over and time myself to see how fast I could get them done. Well, at least one. It was round and had a unicorn on it. It was pretty. I liked that puzzle a lot. I think it may be at fault for me believing that I like puzzles.

This weekend is the Pitchfork Music Festival. I am incredibly excited about going. Monica and I planned out our days pretty well. I think we are actually all set. Schedule is as follows

Friday night three bands will be playing full albums. I don’t know if we’ll get there in time for Mission of Burma playing Vs cause they start at 6. We’ll be there for Sebadoh Bubble and Scrape and Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. It promises to be pretty awesome.

Saturday we have to be there bright and early at 1:25 for A Hack & A Handsaw followed by Icy Demons and Fuck Buttons. We will then switch stages for Vampire Weekend, !!!, Jarvis Cocker, and Animal Collective. It will be a seriously rocking day.

Sunday we don’t have to be there until 3pm for The Apples in Stereo, probably the band I am most excited about seeing. Then M. Ward, Dinosaur Jr, and Spoon. We’ll possibly see some other stuff in there and we’ll eat some snacks while trying to avoid using the port o lets. It will be a good weekend. Luckily I have Monday off work and Tuesday is our team bonding day. It will be a good week I think. Reviews to come.

And songs to be revealed

1. Well its hard enough to get there/ On your own/ And it’s always time to pay the rent/ When you’re home. The Worst trip, Dr. Dog. (BOO MONICA BOO)

2. Are you afraid to go outside/ Are you afraid of what you might find/ baby girl, I understand it/ I seen it too and I don’t recommend it. I’m with You, The Ponys

3.Well it’s all in your mind/ It’s all in your mind/ Well it’s all in your mind/ It’s all in your mind/ and I want it to be. All in Your Mind, Beck

4. Around the world/ Around the world/ Around the world/ Around the world. Around the World, Daft Punk. Identified by Brooke

5. And she was lying in the grass/ And she could hear the highway breathing/ And she could see a nearby factory/ She's making sure she isn't dreaming. And She Was, Talking Heads. Identified by Brooke.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

OLYMPIC FEVER

I have caught major Olympic fever. I’ve been watching the trials like crazy and just can’t wait to see more. I have four main sports for the summer games; gymnastics, swimming, diving, and track and field. It is interesting because even though Figure Skating is my ultimate sport of choice I thin I look forward to the Summer Olympics a little bit more. I suppose it is because I follow Figure Skating year round every year and I get just as excited about a world championship every year as I do about an Olympics every four years. The summer Olympics are new, exciting, things I only watch when Olympic fever hits.

Even though I love the sports mentioned above I know very little about those who compete in them. Sure I know the gymnast twins Paul and Morgan Haam, they competed a few times in Ninja Warrior, and Michael Phelps, the God of Swimming but that is really it. Watching the trials I get to pick out favorites for no reason other than I like their name, the cut of their jib, or something particularly cool that they do. I have already seen one favorite, Raj Bhavsar, not get selected for the Olympic Gymnastics team even though he was the closest one to automatically qualify. He came very close four years ago so I was really pulling for him to get to go this time but it just didn’t happen. Some others have caught my attention.

I’ve saw a perfect dive off the platform from 30 year old Laura Wilkinson. Is there anything more awesome then someone ripping through the water without a splash? It doesn’t even seem possible. I saw world records broken by both Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff in the 400 meter medley. I saw a 400m hurdler fall and knock into Sheena Tosta who somehow still managed to come in third and secure a spot on the Olympic team and in the Men’s 400m hurdles, Bershaun Jackson beat men with legs as long as he is tall (not really) to win the race. I fumed as NBCs HD feed kept shorting out over and over causing me to miss some races.

However, the thing that is possibly the most exciting about the Olympics is to see all the people from the rest of the world who are amazing at what they do and I have no idea who they are. With the games in China, their team should be on fire. I’ll look for strong contenders in diving, swimming, and gymnastics. I don’t know so much about their track skills? It is still great to see everyone come out and perform at the top of their game.

Come 8.8.08 we will bear witness to thrills of victory and agonies of defeat. We will cheer as people we never heard of before awe our senses and win our hearts. If you ask me, it can’t come soon enough.

1. Well its hard enough to get there/ On your own/ And it’s always time to pay the rent/ When you’re home

2. Are you afraid to go outside/ Are you afraid of what you might find/ baby girl, I understand it/ I seen it too and I don’t recommend it

3.Well it’s all in your mind/ It’s all in your mind/ Well it’s all in your mind/ It’s all in your mind/ and I want it to be

4. Around the world/ Around the world/ Around the world/ Around the world

5. And she was lying in the grass/ And she could hear the highway breathing/ And she could see a nearby factory/ She's making sure she isn't dreaming