I already posted this in a comment on my Coachella Day 1 post, but I felt it was so important that it deserved a proper post, as well.
Yesterday I finally found a web site where you can download an MP3 of the Daft Punk performance at Coachella. The quality is quite good so I highly recommend checking it out.
Now all we need is a DVD of the performance!
Last year’s SIFF film A Hole In My Heart has haunted me more than any of the films last year. I regret only giving it three stars. Although the movie was very fucked up and probably exploitative, it was a great work of filmmaking and definitely deserved five stars.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Container, Lukas Moodysson’s latest film to play at SIFF, will stick with me the same way. But I could be wrong. I gave this movie an even lower rating — just two stars.
I have a bad feeling that I’ve said/written this before, but I honestly think that Container is the most abstract/”artistic” movie I’ve ever seen. There was no discernable plot to the film. There was no music or sound effects (well, until the end when a droning industrial noise a la David Lynch entered the film).
As far as I could tell, it was basically a narrator (Jena Malone of all people!!) reading some sort of a poem written in the first person. The topics of the poem ranged from information gleaned from gossip columns to ruminations on the pregnancy of Mary to dreams of Kylie Minogue (with a nice ass) representing the angel Daniel to collecting boots from a porn actress named Savannah.
The visual images that accompanied the narration synched up with the topic of the text sometimes, but more often than not followed a fat guy (who, I think it’s safe to say, wrote the text that the narrator is reading) doing strange things like taping baby dolls to his face, taking bathes with ravioli, and cross-dressing by wearing a blonde wig and makeup. At times the man is accompanied by an Asian girl (who often rides on his back).
If I had to say (and I’m pretending that I do have to) that there was a theme to the film, I’ll go with my old psychoanalytic favorite: abjection. I really do mean it, though. I think it’d be a fairly straight-forward and obvious reading of the film to suggest that the Asian girl was in fact the “inner girl” that the fat man talked about a few times and tried to express with his cross-dressing. He hated the fact she was inside of him and was not “outside of” him i.e. that his outside was a man and not a woman.
In addition to that basic thematic reading, the visual aspects of the film often focused on garbage and fetuses. Not to be “pro-abortion,” but I think it’d be pretty easy to say that fetuses could be a clear signifier of a desire to abject something. Further, the narrator once said something like, “Stop kicking me or I will get an abortion.”
What this all means, I don’t know. As of right now (less than two hours after leaving the film), I’m left with nothing profound. After A Hole In My Heart I remember feeling sorta dirty and confused — but the film stayed with me. Part of me doubts that Container will have that same affect.
One final note that isn’t about the film: Container was shown at the Northwest Film Forum. The venue was very small. I think about twelve people left during this movie — way more people than during A Hole In My Heart. I think I’ve written this before, but I’ve never left during a movie. I think it’s rude and I think that people should know what they are getting into beforehand. But during Container, it seemed that people who left wanted to make it known that they were leaving. Maybe it was because the place was small and had wooden floors, but it sounded like people were stomping out and trying extra hard to be loud. It was irritating.
I’ve been thinking that Iceland is “the next big thing” for music for quite a few years now. After Sigur Ros proved that Bjork wasn’t the only musical genius hailing from the island country, it seemed pretty obvious that something was going on with the music scene in Iceland.
Screaming Masterpieces (or is it “Masterpiece” singular — SIFF seems to have the name wrong?) starts with the same premise. It’s somewhat of a “Who’s Who” of the Icelandic music scene. Bjork is definitely covered (and interviewed) pretty extensively — which makes sense, since she is probably the most famous musician to come from Iceland.
The documentary also gives us some insight into other Icelandic bands such as Johann Johannsson, Mum, Bang Gang, Apparat Organ Quartet, Slowblow, The Sugarcubes, Ghostigital, Mugison, Amina, Minus, and a few others. (I found that list of artists from the Screaming Masterpiece soundtrack web page. After hearing some of these bands perform in the film, I am definitely going to find out more about Bang Gang, Apparat Organ Quartet, Ghostigital, and Amina. As for Mum, it’s kinda funny that they were in the film since I’ve been looking for their remix of Goldfrapp’s “You Never Know” from one of the “Fly Me Away” singles.
One thing the film definitely confirmed for me about Icelandic music is that it’s very majestic, intense, and ethereal. Even the heavy metal and punk bands created beautiful noise (at least, more so than their American and European counterparts). A bunch of the musicians also commented on the role that the landscape plays in their music. Granted, I haven’t been to Iceland, but pictures of it are pretty amazing, and I can totally understand how the mountains, the ocean, the sky, the northern lights, etc. would encourage one to make such beautiful sounds.
Although Screaming Masterpieces managed to cover a pretty wide variety of musical styles, I was surprised that the electronic group Gus Gus wasn’t included in the film. Their song “Ladyshave” was pretty popular and they’ve released three albums, so I’m fairly sure they are not some totally obscure group. Also, one of the members of one of the bands in the film noted that a sense of family and collaboration was one of the main defining characteristics of Icelandic music. Gus Gus, from what I understand, is something of an artists troupe, so it seems to me that they exemplify this perfectly. Oh well.
Ultimately, it seems to me that the main reason music from Iceland is so interesting and unique is the fact that the population is fairly small. Not even 300,000 live in the country. As one guy explained, if you are a small band you might hope to sell 200 albums or so. You can’t make much money from 200 albums, so rather than trying to make something marketable and whatnot, you just go ahead and make whatever sounds good to you. And for whatever reason, “whatever sounds good to you” in Iceland is better than anywhere in the world?
(As a final side note, I also learned that most of the people who live in Iceland don’t consider it to be part of Scandinavia. I’m debated whether I should edit the Scandinavian playlist on my iPod by removing Bjork, Gus Gus, etc. For now, I’m going to keep it there…)
I’m glad to say that I’ve started SIFF off on a good note. And very apropos, my first film this year was a film about films: This Film Is Not Yet Rated by Kirby Dick.
Basically, This Film is a documentary about the MPAA and it’s often-criticized ratings system. Toward the end, the film delved into a meta-film state where Dick went through the process of having the film rated by the MPAA then go through the appeals process.
Like any good documentary, This Film contained lots of funny stuff (clips from overly sexual movies, witty comments, lesbian private investigators in Los Angeles), commentary from famous people — both intellects (Lawrence Lessig, various academics) and film types (John Waters, Mary Harron, Maria Bello, etc.), and some really probing questions about the subject matter (Why are the members of the ratings board kept anonymous? What is an “average” American parent? Why is violence allowed more often than sex?, etc.)
The film started with the basic question: Why does nobody know who is on the board of people who gives films rating for the MPAA and what qualifications do they have when it comes to rating movies? It turns out that the eight members are kept anonymous so that they are not influenced by the studios (despite the fact that, according to the film, they often consult for a movie after viewing it).
The filmmaker ends up interviewing various private investigators in an attempt to discover who is on the board. He ultimately chooses a lesbian couple who claim that they will do whatever it takes to get the information needed. “Whatever it takes” turned out to be sitting outside the MPAA, finding out who goes to lunch when, tracking down some license plate numbers, making vague but information collecting phone calls to the MPAA office, and tracking down people at restaurants. With the PIs help, Dick is able to give us the MPAA Ratings Board Class of 2005. It turns out that many of them have children well over the age of 20, which begs the question: Why should they be the ones rating films?
This Film also delves into the obviously biased method in which films are rated. Of note: gay and lesbian films get NC-17 ratings for things that easily make it into R-rated straight films (e.g. But I’m a Cheerleader vs. American Pie), violence is not as much of a problem as sex (e.g. dismemberment in Sin City vs. a Maria Bello’s pubic hair in The Cooler), if a film has violence no blood must be shown (e.g. bloodless PG-13 Tomorrow Never Dies vs. bloody R-rated Saving Private Ryan), and military the military should be shown in a positive manner (e.g. realistic Gunner Palace vs. Top Gun).
The audience for this film was great. The Egyptian was totally packed (I forgot that you often have to wait in line for SIFF films, and this line was wrapping way around over toward QFC) and the crowd was totally into it. I’m one of those people who hates it when people clap and cheer during movies, but This Film and the audience had me clapping and laughing and cheering more than any movie I’ve ever seen. The energy of the film is great and really keeps people engaged with what could potentially be dry material.
Following the film we were lucky enough to have Kirby Dick take some questions and give some answers, but I didn’t realize he would be there and didn’t plan accordingly by bringing a notebook to jot things down. The jist of a lot of the questions, though, were along the lines of “What next?” and “What does this all mean?” It seemed pretty obvious that leading up to the film’s theatrical release in September there is probably going to be some sort of grassroots anti-MPAA/ratings movement. We’ll see what pans out.
I gave this movie an “enthusiastic” 5 and I don’t think it’s just because it’s my first SIFF film this year and I was excited. This was a truly great movie and I highly recommend it.
Just the other night Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) 2006 had its kick-off gala. The opening film was The Illusionist. I didn’t go.
But I did end up buying a bunch of tickets for other films. Here is my list, join me if you can!
I will admit, despite the fact that I am seeing more movies this year, I’m not as excited about the lineup as I was last year. I chalk some of this up to the fact that last year was my first SIFF so this year it’s not as new and exciting, but at the same time, there aren’t movies by directors that I absolutely love (like 2046 or Mysterious Skin). But who knows, I’m hoping that I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Watch my blog for reviews (I’ll try to get them up as soon as I can after each film) and feel free to join me and/or comment on all the reviews.
I definitely want to go again, assuming the lineup will be just as extraordinary as it was this year. Although I know some people didn’t really like the fact Madonna showed up, I really appreciate the clash of “high” and “low” culture. (Slavoj Zizek would probably call Coachella a “short circuit.”)
Now that it’s been a month since Coachella and I’ve had time to buy more CDs and checkout some more music, I gotta say that I’m sad I missed the following bands (not that I would’ve really exchanged the acts I did see for these, but it sucks knowing that I missed so much!):
So I guess what is cool about Coachella is that even if you don’t see a group perform, just know that they were there puts them on your radar and gets you interested in checking them out.
Being the geniuses that Katrina and I are, we figured that it would be a good idea to drink before going into the concert so that 1. we could save money on beer and 2. be a little “loosened up” so that the crowds would be easier to deal with.
Once everyone (including Katrina’s friend and her friend) was awake we stopped next door for two six packs of Corona. Then we stopped at Subway before braving the long line of cars to get into Coachella.
Luckily it didn’t take us as long on Sunday (… only about an hour) to get in and park the car. Unfortunately, the spot we had was basically in the middle of a field and there was no shade. We got out our beer and food and headed toward a wall of trees/shrubs at the edge of the parking lot. Most likely, we sat where people had pissed last night, but whatever. I’m sure the sun and heat had dried it up by the time we got there.
Unfortunately we didn’t have a bottle opener. The people at the gas station recommended using a car seatbelt (why they knew this could be a great source of speculation), but that didn’t work. While Katrina’s friend’s friend used a lighter to open one bottle, Katrina and I met some random people who let us use theirs to open our bottles.
After we finished the first round, however, the people with the bottle opener had left. Katrina’s friend’s friend tried to open another with a lighter, but ended up basically shredding off a good chunk of skin on the side of the cap. Despite the first wound, he kept trying, until his hands were quite bloody. At that point we realized that a better solution would be to open the bottle using the edge of a spotlight trailier thing (so it would be like opening a bottle on the side of a counter). That word, but the poor friend still had massively bloody hands.
Oh, and opening the bottle on the side of the spotlight thing caused some shaking of the bottle which resulting in a mini-geyser of beer. I guess that made it more fun?
On the first day I kept thinking, “I hate these people who just come to the festival to hangout and drink and aren’t really there for the bands.” I must admit, I felt that we were sort of being those types of people that afternoon, so I have revised my dislike for people who hangout at the festivals.
It was really fun sitting in the sun with friends and new acquaintances, talking about random shit. Katrina’s friend’s friend was quite perplexed about Daft Punk, and kept asking us whether they were real people or who programmed the robots or what. At one point he said something like, “What is under the helmet?” which then required us to explain that they weren’t helmets, but rather Daft Punks’ heads. I even made a quip that his “helmet” (i.e. head) was a bit crooked. I think that finally got him to realize what special things Daft Punk are.
The first band we wanted to see (well, actually Troy wanted to see Gabriel and Dresden at 1:30 p.m., but by the time we finished drinking it was already 4 p.m.) was Metric on the Mojave a.k.a. evil (due to the whole Clap Hands experience, despite the fact the stage worked pretty-okay for Ladytron) tent. At this point we separated from Katrina’s friend and her friend.
Metric was packed (though not as bad as Clap Hands), but it was late afternoon and the sun was out in full force. (It’s usually between 95 and 100 degrees at Coachella — this year was no exception.) There were two songs I wanted to hear: “Dead Disco” or “Monster Hospital.” After two songs, I told Katrina and Troy that if the next song wasn’t one of those, we could take off and get drinks/shade.
To my surprise (and luck), “Monster Hospital” was up next and I felt quite elated to hear it. But after that I wanted to get the hell out of the sun (we were that far back in the “tent”).
At the next stop at the beer garden Troy ended up taking a nap and Katrina and I made plans to go to the Sasquatch festival in Washington at the end of the month. We also tried to figure out our plans for the rest of the day, but then after getting confused and forgetting the details, we figured it was best to take things one step at a time.
The plan was this: Katrina would go to the Mojave tent for stellastar*, Troy would go to the Sahara tent for Paul Oakenfold, and I would go to the Outdoor Theatre for the Bloc Party. And with that all three split up for the first time.
I ended up standing pretty far in the back of the Bloc Party show. I probably stayed for three or four songs, but I only remember “Blue Light,” “Helicopter,” and “She’s Hearing Voices.” Since “Helicopter” and “She’s Hearing Voices” are my two favorite Bloc Party songs, I figured that I got enough of them and that it might not be a bad idea to check out Paul Oakenfold.
Some British magazine created a list of the however-many bands you have to see before you die. Surprisingly, Paul Oakenfold was on that list. That is part of the reason I figured I should make an attempt to check him out.
It took a while to walk across the field, but I finally made it. Unlike Daft Punk, Paul Oakenfold was doing a DJ set, so most of the music wasn’t his own. I didn’t really recognize the song that was playing when I entered, but the second song was “Ooh La La” by Goldfrapp. I was a bit taken aback by how fucking amazing it was to have The World’s Greatest DJ playing one of your favorite songs as of late almost immediately after you enter the tent. Nonetheless, I totally got into it.
The so-called Paul Oakenfold remix of “Ooh La La” wasn’t really anything special. It used the pretty standard Oakenfold remix template: organs followed by buildup with more organs followed by a pause followed by something of a climax in the organs and start of the most intense part of the song. I loved it nonetheless and wonder if it’ll show up on the net anytime soon.
After “Ooh La La” finished and I didn’t recognize the next song, I figured that since I heard two great songs at Bloc Party followed by one of my favorite songs at Paul Oakenfold, that I should stop over at the stellastar* tent since they were Katrina’s #2 band that she wanted to see.
I think I got to the stellastar* set about two or three songs into it. Admittedly, I didn’t really know them that well, but I know that they did play “Sweet Troubled Soul,” which Katrina had introduced me to just one night before.
Since Katrina had been hanging out in the Mojave tent since pretty early in the day, she was pretty much front and center for the entire thing. Since I didn’t arrive as early, I was probably somewhere around 10 rows of people back. Nonetheless, when, toward the end of the show, one of the band members turned his digital camera on the crowd, I’m pretty sure that I made the picture (and I’m sure Katrina did).
They totally reminded me of Interpol or Franz Ferdinand — both by the way they dressed/performed and by the way they sounded. It was a very high-energy performance and has since convinced me to purchase their album Harmonies for the Haunted and download a few remixes of “Sweet Troubled Soul.”
I met up with a very excited Katrina after the show and we headed, of course, to the same meeting spot to prepare for Madonna. Troy managed to see most of the Oakenfold set (I think, at least?).
Since the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were playing on the main stage (and you could see them from pretty much anywhere), we figured it’d be a perfect opportunity to get food and drink. I got the same vegan humus warp thing that I got the day before in addition to some sort of “super brownie” (I forget, now, exactly what they called it), but it was also vegan (it had carob and raisins!) and very yummy.
Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who had the great idea of catching the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from the beer garden, so we didn’t catch as much of the show (from a distance) as I had hoped. I did, however, hear them perform “Y Control” (my favorite Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ song), so it wasn’t a total bust.
Despite Troy’s initial plans to head to Madonna early while Katrina and I drank, he stuck with us and we joined the huge mass of people moving toward the Sahara tent in order to see Madonna. She was scheduled to start around 8:10 p.m., but I don’t think we left until maybe 7:50 p.m. or even 8 p.m.
The best part about walking over there: On the way over to the tent, the massive Tesla Coil ignited and shot off made massive lightning bolts. It was quite cool and I’m hoping it introduced all the Coachella crowd to the genius of Nikola Tesla.
Even by the time we were pretty far from the stage, it was obvious that the Madonna performance was going to be insane and packed. Katrina decided she didn’t even want to deal with it and took off.
By the time we got into the heart of the crowd, it was well past 8:10 p.m. — when Madonna was supposed to start. After a few false starts (music would change, people got pumped), lots of chanting “Madonna,” and even some booing, Madonna took the stage at somewhere around 8:30 p.m. or 8:40 p.m. (yes, quite late).
She opened with “Hung Up” and the crowd litereally went wild. Everyone moved up probably 10 feet or so once people stood up and/or rushed closer to the stage and packed themselves even closer. We took advantage of the crowd movement to also move in closer, but we quickly realized that we made a pretty big mistake since we couldn’t see anything. We figured that if we headed toward the back we’d be able to at least see over people’s heads, so that’s what we did.
By the time “Hung Up” was over and Madonna had started “Get Together,” we were way in the back and able to see Madonna both in person and on the big screens. Troy tried to sit on a fence thing so that he could see better, but got in trouble (twice!!).
To be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed with the performance. She did three more songs (“I Love New York,” “Ray of Light,” and “Everybody”) and at one point yelled at the crowd for being selfish (since we were in the back, we didn’t really get what was happening or why she said that).
My favorite part was during “I Love New York” when Madonna strapped on an electric guitar (who knew she could play!) and put her hands down her pants a la an overly masculine man.
Once “Everybody” (the fifth song) was finished, everyone assumed that she was taking a short break… but no, the lights turned on and the crew began striking the set.
Mylo was the next band/person I wanted to see, and he was following Madonna in the Sahara tent. So it didn’t really matter to us whether Madonna was really over or taking a break. Either way, we were staying in the Sahara tent, so we didn’t have to worry about accidentally leaving had the awkwardly-ended set been followed by an encore.
Considering how long it took for Madonna to set up, it didn’t take long at all for Mylo to get setup (but then again, when all you need are two turntables, things are a bit simpler). It was also pretty amazing how the tent which contained probably a majority of the people at Coachella quickly emptied out to maybe just under 100.
I was really excited for the Mylo set since his album Destroy Rock and Roll is (so far) one of my favorite albums from 2006. Hell, I did an entire DJ mix inspired by his song “Destroy Rock and Roll.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t really recognize any of the stuff he played. Not to say that it was a bad set or anything, but I felt like for someone who put together such a great album and has done some great remixes (Annie’s “Chewing Gum,” Kylie Minogue’s “I Belive In You,” etc.), the set lacked personality and familiarity.
The screen he had kept displaying the words “Mars needs women” which sort of made me hope he was going to throw in MARRS’s song “Pump Up The Volume” (where the lyric is featured prominately) or something. If he did play a song that used those lyrics, I didn’t recognize it, and part of a fun DJ set is mixing obscure with known material. Oh well.
Troy and I left Mylo early to meet up with Katrina to see the Scissor Sisters. We met at the same meeting place as always, and then somehow I know I spent about 20 minutes watching Massive Attack (I’m not sure what Katrina and Troy did during this time).
I was so far back that I really didn’t get much of Massive Attack. From what I could tell, they had a lot of people and instruments and singers and some fancy lights going on. I think Massive Attack would’ve been much better if I were sitting down and just chilling out, so I headed back to meet up with Troy and Katrina.
We then walked over to the Outdoor Theatre where The Go! Team was finishing their set. Katrina had caught some of them during Mylo and wasn’t very impressed. The only song we all heard was “Ladyflash” (one of my favorite Go! Team songs).
Once the huge entourage that is The Go! Team left the stage, the people for Scissor Sisters started setting things up.
Katrina decided she didn’t want to hang around for Scissor Sisters and took off. That left Troy and I to, again, work our way to get as front and center as possible. Since the Scissor Sisters are pretty popular, this was rather difficult… and in the end we ended up behind a really really tall guy (who kept blocking everyone’s view), so in a way trying to get close was moot, anyway.
Closing out the festival with the Scissor Sisters was amazing. I’ve been hearing for years (and even have their DVD which, in fact, confirms) that they are one of the best ever live bands. Ana Matronic and Jake Shears love performing and really get into the banter and showing off and having a good time
Ana Matronic started the show by evoking some spirit of the moon (which at the time was obscured by clouds!) and the desert and coyotes — and made everyone join her when it came time to howl.
Although many of the songs they played were from their upcoming album, they did the “old favorites” like “Mary,” “Laura,” “Take Your Mama, “Tits on the Radio,” “Comfortably Numb,” and “Filthy/Gorgeous.” I was really hoping that they would do “Electrobix,” but you can’t make everyone happy.
Toward the middle/end of the show, Ana Matronic made everyone take a time-out and introduce themselves to their “new dancing partner.” I forget the name of the guy I met (so bad of me!!), but I am sort of glad she made me meet him since I know that during my dancing/flailing I did bump/hit him a few times.
Before their encore song (I want to say it was “Filthy/Gorgeous”), Ana Matronic did a great monologue about how she wished Coachella could keep going and that they could play way into the night. She explained that she should have Madonna fly in on a helicopter in her leotard and give Massive Attack time to do a huge DJ set and rock out with the Bloc Party and stuff. It was really funny and sort of recapped the entire day of Coachella.
The Sisters ended right at midnight (at that point Katrina was at the Art Brut show, and they claimed that if you play past midnight Coachella is fined due to some sort of ordinance, so all the bands have to stop pretty much right at midnight). We met up with Katrina, avoided Tool, and left.
And that was my Coachella 2006 experience. Summed up: It was great, and I’m hoping to go again. (Now that I’ve learned some lessons and know what to expect.)
The “Coachella ’06” (day 2) pictures are “© Troy Ngo”
I guess you could say that my Coachella story starts with the Ladytron concert in Seattle on Wednesday night or the awesome time I had in San Franscisco visting Brook, but this is called “The Coachella Post,” not “Jason’s Vacation,” so I’ll try to stay on-topic.
My friend Troy and I flew in to Los Angeles on Friday night and hungout with my friend Katrina until around 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. In the morning we had breakfast on Hermosa beach, then set out in Katrina’s resilient silver Jetta for Indio, California.
Not much can be said for the trip down there except that it was pretty stereotypical Californian. There was lots of traffic (on a Saturday afternoon!). We listened to bands like The Faint, Smashing Pumpkins, stellastar*, and The Flaming Lips.
The check-in at the Hampton Inn (part of the Hilton empire) in Palm Desert, California was at 3 p.m. We got there a bit early, but they let us get our room early, so we dropped off our excess baggage and started toward Indio.
When we got off at the first of three exits for Coachella, there were no signs telling us where to go. We figured that the white pickup truck in front of us (with some rather hippie-looking guys in it) was also heading to the festival, so we followed them for a while. As luck would have it, however, the truck was probably not going to Coachella (perhaps it was taking a detour or something?), and after following it for about 10 minutes with no sign of Coachella, Katrina called her friend (who was also on her way to Coachella) who had a friend who informed us that we went the wrong direction on the exit.
We turned back and finally got headed in the right direction, which was pretty obvious by the amount of traffic. At this time it was probably around 3 p.m. or so. The first band we really wanted to see was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and they started at 5:05 p.m. We figured that we’d have plenty of time to get to the festival and find a good spot to see the band.
Yup – we were wrong.
We ended up sitting in traffic for about two hours before we got to park the car and get inside the actual festival. By the time we got to the Mojave tent (where Clap Hands was playing), the place was totally packed and there was no way we could even get inside to see the band (let alone hear them). To be fair, Clap Hands was pretty hyped up (“This year’s Arcade Fire?”), but it still really sucked and they were Katrina’s #1 band that she wanted to see and needless to say, it wasn’t necessiarly a great start to the whole Coachella experience.
So how did we solve that? A stop that the beer garden! It seems the exclusive beer at Coachella was Heineken, so we got very familiar with that beer. After two or three beers (and hearing/seeing some of Kanye West on the monitors on the main Coachella Stage), we were feeling better about Coachella and even decided that we could brave the Mohave again so that we could catch Ladytron (who I had seen only two nights ago!). It is rather weird seeing the same band twice during the same tour. I already knew the opening song (“High Rise”), which two songs made everyone the most excited (“Playgirl” and “Destroy Everything You Touch”), which song reminded me of my friend Stephen (“Cracked LCD”), when they were going to make people clap/wave their hands/arms (“Last One Standing”), and what song would close out the night (“Seventeen”). Despite the déjà vu/repetition, Ladytron does a great show and they have become one of my favorite bands, so I didn’t mind seeing them again. Plus, I think Troy and Katrina loved the show, too.
After Ladytron (when the sun had gone down a bit), we decided that it was time to eat. Katrina and Troy got bratwurst, and I got a great thing called Veggie Delight (couscous, red onion, etc. in a tortilla dipped in hummus) from a place that only served raw, vegan, organic food (and the line was much shorter, believe it or not!).
At that point, Katrina wanted to try to see Eagles of Death Metal, while Troy and I wanted to see Franz Ferdinand. We decided to meet up at this place that was essentially a hippie tent (and which we have a good inside joke name for [which I shouldn’t share]) so that we could get more beer during Depeche Mode since they were at the main Coachella Stage and we could see that from the beer garden.
Part of me wishes that I would’ve been able to get up closer for Franz Ferdinand, but even from quite a distance, they were awesome. We got there around the middle of the set, so we only heard a handful of songs. I recall “Take Me Out,” “Outsiders,” “Michael,” “Jacqueline,” and “This Fire.”
Of those songs, “Michael” and “This Fire” were already two of my favorites, which probably made the whole experience much better. I am also quite proud of myself (and Troy should back me up on this!!) for predicting that they were going to close with “This Fire.” Troy had predicted their cover of “Sexy Boy” (though I’m not sure if he was very serious).
So we met up with Katrina (unfortunately Damien Marley was running late so she didn’t get to see Eagles of Death Metal) and had some more Heineken. In retrospect, I maybe should have tried to rush over to the Gobi tent to see The Juan Maclean (I still feel guilty for missing his show in Seattle in March), but getting buzzed while listening to Depeche Mode wasn’t too bad.
They opened with “A Pain That I’m Used To,” and since that’s one of my favorites from their most recent album, I was excited. But then they went on to play mostly older stuff (I remember hearing “Route 66” and “Policy of Truth”). I would’ve loved to hear more from Exciter or Playing the Angel, but what can you do? We needed to be at Daft Punk before they started at 11 p.m., so maybe once we left Depeche Mode played some more recent stuff.
My favorite show at Coachella, without a doubt, was Daft Punk. Since they so rarely tour (and since they are freakin’ robots!), we knew that the show was going to be great, and probably a close-to-once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I forget what time we got there, but I think we did pretty good getting up close. They played in the Sahara (a.k.a. “dance tent”), which was the largest of the 3 tented areas. I think we were somewhere in the front half or third.
They opened with a vocal exchange “human/robot” which lead into the song “Robot Rock.” When the curtain drew, Daft Punk (as robots!!) were standing in top part of a triangle thing with turntables in front of them. It may be one of those things you have to see to appreciate, but for whatever reason seeing the two robots was hilarious. From that point, I knew we had gotten ourselves into one hell of a show.
The set consisted of stuff from all three of their albums, but what made it really unique was that they mixed songs together – basically mashing-up their own work. I wish I could remember some examples, but I’m sure a thorough set list will be posted online shortly.
The highlights for me were “One More Time” (the first dance/club song that I absolutely loved), “Around the World” (“classic” Daft Punk, and their first major hit), “Da Funk” (another “classic”), “Harder Better Faster Stronger,” and “Technologic.”
I really don’t think it was due to the drinking or heat, but Daft Punk was one of those concerts where I really lost myself in the music. I know it’s cliché, but that’s how I felt. I was dancing, having a great time, feeling the energy of the people. It was amazing.
If Daft Punk or the Coachella people or some ingenius bootlegger doesn’t produce a CD/DVD combo of that show, the world will lose a truly great moment in history. (Perhaps that’s a bit dramatic, but that’s how strongly I felt about the show.)
The only disappoting part of Daft Punk was at the end after the last song (a medley of sorts) and Daft Punk (still as robots!!) left the stage, the little triangle thing they were standing on lit up a few times. This prompted some of us to believe that there was going to be an encore. We were standing next to the lighting/sound setup in the middle of the tent, so we could kind of see that everything was over, but we still thought that maybe there was a sliver of a chance that the robots would do something spontaneous and give us more music. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
Leaving the Coachella field that night was a nightmare. Toward the only exit we knew about (we later learned that there was more than one way to leave), there was some major bottlenecking action, thus making it extremely difficult to leave.
I’m glad to report that the crowd didn’t lose control or riot, but it may have been getting pretty close. There were some people who got so desperate to leave that they climbed through a “wall of trees” (meant as a fence or whatever). The crowd loved this and cheered quite loudly for the first few people, but then it got rather pathetic.
Once we made it to the parking lot, we realized that we managed to park rather close to the exit, which was very cool. We got into the line of cars getting ready to leave, then this evil white truck basically started another line parallel to ours. At first it was just this truck, but then, of course, other cars started following it, which ultimately meant it took us longer to get out just because this jackass thought it was special enough to have its own line.
Oh, and obnoxiously loud music was coming from the truck, so Katrina and I countered it with our Coast to Coast AM cd. I think ultimately we won because it embarrassed all of the closeted Coast fans around us.
Once we got back to the hotel we took our much-needed showers, then waited for Katrina’s friend and her friend to spend the night in our room. They arrived, showered, we talked for a bit (and maybe freaked them out since we told them that I was there to see Tool [which I wasn’t – I hate Tool and I would imagine most of their fans would scare me]) then went to sleep.
I don’t know if you would call this a guilty pleasure or what, but I don’t keep secret the fact that I often listen to conservative talk radio. Now if you read any of my posts about politics, I would hope that it’s pretty clear that I’m about as far from conservative as they come.
That said, yes, I do listen to conservative talk radio. The bad habit started because Coast to Coast AM is played here in Seattle on conservative talk radio station KVI. So when I go to sleep listening to Coast, I wake up to people like Kirby Wilbur or Tony Snow.
When rumors started circulating last week that Snow was the most likely replacement for Scott McClellan, I must admit that I felt a little “in the loop” or something. Like, silly as it is, when they say you feel somewhat of a personal bond with broadcasters/columnists/whoever that you listen to/read on a daily basis, it is somewhat true. I (and millions of other listeners, I’m sure) feel as if Tony Snow is somewhat of an acquaintance (I wouldn’t call him a friend since I’m sure we’d not get along very well in person).
One of the things about Tony Snow is that he tries to be somewhat of a contrarian. Now that conservative talk radio is hardly a small-time operation and everyone knows how influential it is and how tied the personalities are to the Republican party, the hosts seem to go out of their way to disagree with Bush and other Republicans as a way of saying, “No no no, we actually think for ourselves.” (When, in fact, this is all a big smoke screen since they really only disagree on minor aspects of policy and pretty much always share the same overall philosophy but may disagree with the execution, etc.)
Nonetheless, Think Progress has gone and culled some great criticisms that Snow has hurled at the Bush administration (and now they have a good Tony Snow on the issues). I don’t think this is insightful or anything or really advances the debate about issues, but it is pretty embarrassing for the Bush administration — OR it’s potentially to their benefit since it’s somewhat of a sign saying, “Anyone who argues that it’s all ‘yes men’ around here is certainly wrong.”
It’ll be interesting to see how Snow does as the White House Press Secretary. Unlike McClellan, I do believe that Snow will be able to be more involved with policy and that’s probably a good thing for reporters — he’ll definitely have more credibility than McClellan, who only seemed to be able to regurgitate whatever message Bush and his inner circle wanted him to say. (And in a way, I do feel bad for McClellan since Bush and company made him look like a total jack-ass on numerous occasions [“No, no, I spoke to Rove. I spoke to him about — no, I spoke to him about these accusations, I’ve spoken to him”].)
Of course, the most ridiculous thing about Snow going from Fox News to the White House is the fact that it just gives more credence to the argument that Fox has a rather unhealthy relationship with the Republican Party. Now that Snow will be the press secretary, I shudder to think about the level of access that the White House and Fox News will have with each other. I envision a lot of swapping of exclusive interviews for promises to spin a story in whatever way the White House wants. Not that this doesn’t happen already, but with a Fox News former employee being the liaison between the press and the White House I’m sure it’ll only get worse.
So far Did Someone Say Totalitarianism is proving to be one of my favorite Zizek books. It doesn’t use as much pop culture examples (jokes, Hitchcock movies, Kafka, etc.), but focuses more on politics and philosophy and ethics. It’s been a long time since a book has caused me to think so much, and that’s definitely very cool.
I intend (and I know I say this all the time) to do a more in-depth review of the book and comment on some of my favorite/most inspiring passages, but something interesting struck me this morning.
Zizek was discussing how, when it comes to following the law, “doing the right thing [following the law] for the wrong reason [to fulfill pathological desires]” is about as “bad” as you can get. Generally people who do this (and right now I’m thinking large corporations and whatnot) view the law as malleable and something they can change if they exert enough pressure on lawmakers. What happens, then, is that the law is changed so that they can continue doing “wrong things” but still feel good about it.
On the other hand, doing the “wrong thing [breaking the law] for the right reason [to fulfill a higher ethical motive]” is the best thing to do. This would include things such as acts of civil disobedience, etc.
And then doing “the right thing for the right reason” is pretty uninteresting and doesn’t really touch upon any ethical dilemmas.
For whatever reason, this got me thinking about “killing in self defense.” Let’s say that someone was about to kill me and family/friends/etc. and in response to that I killed that person first, thus giving me an “out” with the law since I killed that person in self-defense. Nothing too extraordinary there. Let’s say, however, that the law explicitly allow killing in self-defense and the same situation occurred. I might have to go to jail, but my act would remain quite ethical since I did something (even the “wrong thing” [i.e. killing someone]) for the “right reason” (to defend myself and friends/family/etc.).
So basically, by allowing for these “ethical loopholes” in the law, we’re taking a larger ethical dimension out of acts that people do.
What does this mean in the end? Probably nothing. What does this contribute to the world of ethical philosophy? I don’t know. I’ve never delved into the subject before. I just thought it was interesting how we’ve created laws to remove certain ethical acts from our lives.