Monday, September 01, 2003

Bumbershoot, Day Three

We caught the 12:30 EMP show again today because it was Radio Nationals. The drummer is a friend of Kevin's and he likes them, so we all checked it out. It was enjoyable and fun.

Then we split from Margot and watched the last two songs of Mary Lou Lord's set before leaving. Kevin and I had nothing else we wanted to see until around 8 and didn't really think it was necessary to walk around all day just for that, so we didn't.

The 15 took us to 65th and 15th Avenue Northwest where we got off and went to Kevin's house for a bit. Then we went to Carkeek Park for about an hour and sat on rocks in the sun, watching the clouds and listening only to the tide. Lovely. Kevin needed toilet paper and I needed organic peaches, so on the way to my house we went to Greenwood Market and then back to Kevin's for his pass.

At my house, everyone was home for about five minutes, at whch time we were suddenly the only people home. Well, Jen might've been up in her room; I forget. But I got to see Graylan, Jana, Chris and Lauren before they all left to go to Trader Joe's and get a movie and Josie before she left for work, which was nice. Graylan ran in and hugged me and picked me up. Hee. We hung out at home for an hour or so before hunger sat in. A hunger not to be satiated by black bean burritos.

With Bamboo Garden as our initial destination, we grabbed the next 74, which was nearly empty since everyone who wanted to be at Bumbershoot probably already was at Bumbershoot. A brilliant scheme, I'd say. We may not be so lucky tomorrow. At Bamboo Garden, we got our delicious all-vegetarian Chinese meal--curried rice vermicelli, mixed vegetables with fake chicken in a taro root bowl and brown rice--and arrived back inside just in time to see the beginning of Rhett Miller's set under the Space Needle. The music was all right--I do enjoy his recordings--but the sound kept cutting out with a loud popping noise. Kevin looked bored in the middle of it all and it was chilly, so we left.

We wandered around awhile looking for something else to see when I suggested we check out the breakdancing. Kevin had no interest whatsoever, but I coaxed him to just come watch for a few minutes. So we did, until I saw that my sister had tried to call twice and I had no reception in the venue. Sad, because it was way cool in there, kind of like watching other people party who know how to party but not in an insulting way to you. It was competitive partygoing, and it was rad. The music was great, some of the dancers we could see did cool stuff and the crowd was one of the most diverse things I've seen.

It turned out Margot was trying to catch the 74 home--according to her schedule--and had left the Evanescence show and her hard-won entrance bracelet behind for the privilege of catching the last bus directly home. She left me an angry message: "I hate your city! I hate your bus system!"

I called her back and wound up shouting into the phone just so she could hear me to give her directions to the appropriate bus stop (the 4). Then I told her to get off at 3rd and Pine, cross the street, and take the 71, 72 or 73 and she'd recognize where she was at some point. I said we'd meet her on the bus, which we did. It was there she told me she had been in the middle of some bottle-throwing festivities, during which one of her newfound friends got a beer bottle smack in the back of the neck, before Cold's set and a girl blew so much pot smoke in her face she had a contact high.

My browser is starting to crap out, or it was, and it's the first Monday in forever that I haven't had to get up at 6 a.m. to go to work. Thank you, organized labor. Today we are all about getting there around 4 to get wristbands for Wilco and R.E.M. and hoping to get into the Sky Church for the Long Winters. Then it's all she wrote for Bumbershoot 2003 and I begin my stint in jury duty.

ETA: A white limo drove by the bus stop we were waiting at outside the EMP. A large crowd of festival-goers was waiting for the bus. Someone in the back seat of the limo rolled down the window halfway and flipped us all off. We weren't sure why--did they hate the festival? Did they have a poor crowd response? Do they have an issue with the monstrosity that is the EMP? We just don't know.

No comments: