crankyuser

Let the healing begin

losangeles.craigstlist posting, via souris:

Straight male seeks Bush supporter for fair, physical fight - m4m

I would like to fight a Bush supporter to vent my anger. If you are one, have a fiery streek, please contact me so we can meet and physically fight. I would like to beat the shit out of you.

this is in or around anywhere is fine by me

What's Up, Coachella?

I went to my first Coachella this year. I'd heard about how well organized they were, but was totally amazed by their use of texting to send set updates. Every hour or so we'd get an update like this:

Fr:WhatsUpCoach
Updates:
7:20 Coachella PIXIES
8:10 Outdoor RAPTURE
7:30 Sahara LAURENT GARNIER
6:55 Mojave MOVING UNITS
6:55 Gobi LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

The running joke became, "What's the sound of 100,000 hipsters checking their text messages at once?" Someone would buzz; they'd check their phone. "Oh hey-- what's up, Coachella?"

This was a really great plan until we realized that the area's sole cell tower didn't scale well to 100,000 people. Our set updates essentially became, "HEY! Kraftwerk was playing an hour ago, it was great! Hope you made it."

I pinpointed two areas in the entire field where I could check my text and voicemail, but couldn't actually send. Despite having full reception, I seemed to be on an analog network and unable to send text messages. I spent about six hours on Saturday soloing and looking for my friends. Sunday we stuck to a buddy system; I hung out with Jeff and Jane in our protective beer garden, shuffling from one end to the other to see different shows. Far from the stage -- but also the underage masses -- we were somewhere between "intelligent rockstars" and "old farts."

For those who care about that sort of thing, here's the travelogue!

Saturday:
Radiohead, Pixies, The Rapture, Death Cab for Cutie, Trail of Dead, The Stills, Kraftwerk, Stereolab, Junior Senior

Sunday:
The Cure, Flaming Lips, Air, Belle & Sebastian, Le Tigre, Basement Jaxx, BRMC, Broken Social Scene, Paul Van Dyk, Adam Freeland, Dizzee Rascal

My favorite shows were the ones with good visuals, ie Radiohead and Kraftwerk. I've heard Radiohead's show was the same as last year's, but it was all new to me. The video work, with their multipart display and stiff, surveillance-cam feel, was excellent. They and Kraftwerk both used loops of video to sync to repetition in the music, similar to some of the themes in Michel Gondry's work.

The bands I would most like to see again are The Rapture, Broken Social Scene, and Adam Freeland, who all had a hell of a lot of energy. I was disappointed by Death Cab for sounding too similar to the cd and being whiny, and the Flaming Lips for being over-produced and making me suspect that they were just lip-syncing to the cd.

We stayed in a condo owned by my friend Chris's family, who live nearby in a retirement golf community. Five people in a 2BD/2BA duplex was quite nice! Sitting on the back patio smoking, we'd look out on the rolling hills, hear a whiff and a "Fuck!" then see a resident drive past in a golf cart.

Sunday we left early, before The Cure finished their set. We had gotten in late that day, so we were parked close to the exit. Rockstar parking = long walk, but quick exit. We had stocked the car with food and water, learning from the previous night where we had nothing to eat or do other than wrestle in the grass -- I taught aikido moves and pins, adding to the harmoniousness of the wrasslin'.

We struck out for the west, and LA. We made good time, ate at Denny's, and returned our cramped car. At check-in, our kiosk had an error message up, which we promptly used to access the start menu and various other functions of the XP system. Afterwards, we walked past the TSA meeting in the lobby, only to be told at security that we had to walk back and get our passes inspected.

We slept on the terminal floor and through the plane ride, and took a limo back to the city (cheaper than two cabs). I showered and went to work, went to aikido, and passed out around 11. Very tiring, but well worth the cost.

Pictures!
Reconaissance shots
NOTE: I still haven't figured out where to permanently archive photos, so these may move soon.

Jeff's share, with a video of the tesla coil in action, soundtrack by Air!