Now you’re back in the neighbourhood
Sunday, 23 March, 2008
Friday 29/2/08
The day that only comes in a leap year. Ben needs the car so I catch public transport in. At work, I'm working on the last article that's part of my responsibility for The Briefing. I call the author and apprise her of the situation. It's also the last day of the month and there is a tonne of stuff to do as well, however I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that e-news won't be out on time, given it's been redesigned.
I go to visit the doctor at 2:30 and it's an hour-long wait (as usual). Not sure what the point of making an appointment is. Anyway, it turns out my cholesterol hasn't changed that much; it's only dropped by a tenth of a point since I almost completely changed my diet. She thinks it's genetic and that I should go on medication. *Sigh*.
I don't have counselling that afternoon so I stay until about 6 when Ben comes and gets me. I'm completely exhausted. Fell is having surprise drinks for his birthday but I cannot face hanging out with people, so it's just Ben and Josh who go; I stay home and watch Buffy.
Saturday 1/3/08
I am zonked so I sleep in and spend the day trying to install Movable Type 4.0 on our new server. I try about three or four times and cannot work out what's wrong. It can't be the server because other Dreamhost users have managed to do successfully. By the end of the day, I'm tearing out my hair and feeling very stupid.
After chatting to Ben, I come to the conclusion that this course of action is a dead-end and that I should just go ahead and install Expression Engine instead (which I know works) and learn how to use it because we were always thinking we might switch Hippocampus Extensions over to EE anyway.
Sunday 2/3/08
The day of St Jerome's Laneways Festival. Tickets to this gig were our wedding anniversary and Valentine's Day presents to each other, and I was looking forward to hanging out with my favourite person all day doing his favourite thing (listening to music), even if I was a bit apprehensive about what it would be like attending my first outdoor music festival.
It started around 12 but we weren't interested in the early acts so decided not to go in until about 1:30 or so. We ran into Yvonne and Cameron at Circular Quay, then had a quick lunch at McDonald's. The area around Reiby Place was completely cordoned off with security fences covered in black plastic so outsiders couldn't see in (but they could hear that something was going on). As we approached the entrance, we saw a small group of girls anxiously wondering how they could get in, and felt a bit smug because the entire festival was sold out and they didn't have a chance.
There was pretty strict security on the way in. They asked us for ID and checked our bags (but, despite their website saying no recording equipment—camcorders, digital cameras, iPods, etc.—weren't allowed, they didn't seem to check too rigorously for those things as I saw many people with digital cameras once we were inside). Little Red were playing on the Park Stage (there were four stages set up in different locations within a block radius: one in The Basement, one at the end of Bulletin Place, one at the end of Reiby Place and one on the corner of Loftus and Bridge St). But we didn't stay to here them. We ducked into The Basement but weren't taken enough by Rudely Interrupted to stay.
Devastations were playing on the Reiby Place stage, and we sat there up the back next to the wall of a building behind the sound desk for a while listening to them. When they finished, we moved forward—as close as we dared for fear of ruining our ears—for Manchester Orchestra (who weren't bad) because Ben wanted to get a good spot for Okkervil River. (Okkervil River clashed with The Panics, but we chose to see Okkervil because The Panics are Australian and there will be other opportunities, whereas Okkervil are from Texas). One of the guys from Okkervil River—one of their lead guitarists who wore a black leather jacket with roses embroidered across the back of his shoulders—stood near us watching Manchester Orchestra and, at one point, bumped us and apologised which was very nice of him. Meanwhile, I was contending with the teenage girls behind me who kept bumping me as they danced, singing along out of key.
When Okkervil River came on at 2:50 pm, there was a surge towards the stage but we managed to stand our ground (despite the crazy teenage girls). I have to say, I wasn't really into them before this (even with listening to The Stage Names several times) but seeing them really made it all click for me and I totally enjoyed their performance (even if their lead singer is a total looney!) They had a lot of energy, they worked well with the crowd—even those way down the back—and you could see how much the entire band was into it, even in the quieter numbers like “A Girl in Port”.
Post-Okkervil, it seemed like everybody was trying to get to the Park Stage to see Stars (who I had grown to love in the month or so of listening to In Our Bedroom After the War and Set Yourself On Fire leading up to this). We found a fairly decent spot with a good view of the stage near the cannon (and, unfortunately, near a garbage bin). There were two festival attendees sitting on the ground, and everyone around them were giving them dirty looks because they kept accidentally spilling their beer on people's legs. The looks got worse when Stars finally came on. Two security guards even came over and told them to stand up (but after they left, the two promptly sat down again). Here I learnt the first rule of festival-going: don't sit down in the crowd while the band is on, no matter how much your legs are killing you. If you need to sit down, go somewhere else.
Stars were wonderful but, in my opinion, poorly miked so you really couldn't hear the gorgeous, simple textures of Amy Millan's voice. I could feel the crowd getting a bit restless and I wondered if it was because of familiarity with the material. They talked through the slower numbers (which is so rude!). I was glad they played “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” and “One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Remains Dead” and “Elevator Love Letter” (Ben's favourite Stars song).
After Stars, we moved over to the grassy area because Ben's legs were killing him. The grass was wet and littered with rubbish, but we found a not-too-gross clear spot and I left Ben sitting on our bag (which was just full of warmer clothing and water bottles) while I went in search of food. I got a hot dog and a Portuguese chicken burger and chips, and we devoured them as hastily as we could, then realised why the rubbish all around us wasn't in the bins: when you're in a crowd, it's next to impossible to get to a bin. So we ended up littering too.
Broken Social Scene were up next. The Laneways organisers had lumped all the Canadians in together—something which they were just thrilled about, given they all play in each other's bands. (Feist, plus members of Stars, are in Broken Social Scene.) On the grass, we didn't have a very good view of Broken Social Scene but I didn't mind too much because I wasn't so into the music (and hadn't studied up on them at all). Plus we were behind the people with the crates (who, once the music started, stood on the crates) and there were people smoking near us. So I didn't really enjoy that set at all.
We moved closer to the stage for Feist but so did everyone else. (At this point, we ran into Joe and his wife Carly. I thought it was the first time I'd met Joe properly but he said he's met me before this (why do I have such a bad memory for names and faces???) But despite the crush (and we really had to stand our ground for this one; I was so glad Ben was standing behind me for this set and not a bunch of dancing off-key singing smoking teenage girls), I had a really good view of Feist (even when this girl got her boyfriend to hoist her up on his shoulders and all these people threw rubbish at her to get her to come down because she was blocking their view), there were no smokers near us and I didn't get bumped too much. Bliss! And Feist was amazing! She mostly did songs from The Reminder—“I'm Sorry”, “I Feel It All”, (which I never really liked that much before but really loved it then), “My Moon, My Man”, “Mushaboom”, “The Limit To Your Love” (which is one of my favourite Feist songs), “Sea Lion” (where the looping completely stuffed up—what a shame) and, of course, “1234”, the song everyone seems to know her for (because Apple used it for their iPod Nano ad). Feist was definitely the highlight of Laneways for me; I thought she was just magical. But once again people talked through the slower numbers.
Neither of us were super-keen to stick around for Gotye and Ben wasn't feeling too well from all that standing, so we went and got chips and wandered over to the Reiby Place stage and caught The Presets just as they were about to do “Are You the One?”. We came back and watched Gotye for a while, and I was very impressed at his ability to be a completely one-man band (playing the drums for a bit, singing, playing keyboard, wandering around the stage) but all of that made it hard for him to engage with his audience. We left a couple of numbers before the end of his set and walked down to Circular Quay to get gelato from Gelatissimo. I thought I had a free cone but it turned out to be only for a single scoop. Then we caught the train home.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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