Bumbershoot Day Two
I had every intention of getting up and getting to Bumbershoot earlier yesterday but couldn't resist the allure of lounging and catching up on some TiVo in the morning. I stopped for a latte downtown and got to the festival in the early afternoon. Made plans to meet up with Ray and Christine to attend Mike Daisey's Monopoly monologue later so I spent a while just wandering. Caught the tail end of Electric Shades of Blue's set, a 70s-style endless rock number called Riverside. Electric Shades of Blue's members are all about 16 and very good, but I couldn't keep myself from laughing. These kids have found their parents' Cream, Zeppelin and Rush albums. Still, they rocked their chosen style. Afterward, the long-haired lead singer shook hands and hugged squealing girls at the edge of the crowd while the bassist humped equipment off stage. Isn't that always the way?
Got in line a little late and just barely made the cutoff for the "Best of SIFF - Jury Awards" film program. I didn't see any of these films during SIFF itself, so I was very interested in catching this program at Bumbershoot. First up was a great animated short, FUMI AND THE BAD LUCK FOOT. Just delightful, really had the audience laughing. Next up was RINGO, a western musical mash-up told the story of Lorne Green's Ringo (a #1 hit from 1964) through clips of John Wayne and Roy Rogers. From there we went into the sad documentary LOT 63, GRAVE C about the 18-year-old black man murdered on camera by Hells Angels (providing "security" for the show) in front of the stage at the Rolling Stones' Altamont concert. Rolling Stone ran a piece on the killing back in 1970 that's online now. It's a short documentary that doesn't get into anything more than the fact that the incident happened and the young man's unmarked grave. I'd very much like to know how the killers were acquitted when the killing was caught on camera but the film doesn't go there. MARVELOUS, KEEN LOONY BIN brought the mood up again with a surreal cartoon of faceless (or legless or armless...) people, balloon-headed monkeys, and giggling baked goods. Then BEFORE DAWN brought us back down with a grainy, grey, oh-so-Eastern European tale of dreams and dashed hopes in a Hungarian field. Beautifully shot, no dialog, but sad in that old Cold War desperation way.
I enjoyed a few delicious fair-food snacks (roasted corn, piroshky, ice cream in a waffle cone) and met up with Ray and Christine for a while. We wandered by the Bumberella stage where Common Market was playing. Common Market and the Blue Scholars share DJ Sabzi in common so we stopped to listen for a while, then headed over to get in line for Mike's monologue where we met up with John and Jenny. I'd also seen Mike Daisey regulars the Grubbs earlier in the afternoon and they, too, were at the show. Mike's work was tight and finely honed. As part of his monologue he referred to Ray by name a couple of times. It was kooky to be in the audience surrounded by people who were hearing about this "Ray" character when I was there sitting right next to him.
After Daisey's performance (which ran long), I split off from the group and made a mad dash over to the main stage (for which I had earlier picked up the extra-special, super-secret limited pass that would allow me to get in and which I had told numerous begging children that yes, I really did intend to use the pass myself) because the only other thing I really wanted to do was see the Blue Scholars. What I hadn't counted on, even knowing that Daisey was going to overlap their show a bit, was the crowd of people already lined up to see Kanye West (who I could give a shit about) milling around in my way, clogging up the check points and whatnot. After finally, finally getting to the venue, finding a seat and sitting down, I hear, "And now we'll close it out with this last one...." as the Blue Scholars sang their last song and said goodbye to the audience amid a roar of cheers. I briefly held out hope there might be an encore or something more, but no. I'd missed everything. I turned around and left, disgusted with myself, and decided to go over to the nearby McMenamins to have a proper non-fair-food dinner and a couple of pints that cost less than $7 each (and taste better). The Daiseys and the Scott Tyneses turned up there as well and I had a fine time with them the rest of the evening before catching the last bus home.
In mere moments we'll be leaving to pick Kate up from her dad, her triumphant return to Seattle after a summer spent mostly in Canada. School starts Wednesday, but I'm hoping today that Kate will want to spend the last day of summer at Bumbershoot with me.
Got in line a little late and just barely made the cutoff for the "Best of SIFF - Jury Awards" film program. I didn't see any of these films during SIFF itself, so I was very interested in catching this program at Bumbershoot. First up was a great animated short, FUMI AND THE BAD LUCK FOOT. Just delightful, really had the audience laughing. Next up was RINGO, a western musical mash-up told the story of Lorne Green's Ringo (a #1 hit from 1964) through clips of John Wayne and Roy Rogers. From there we went into the sad documentary LOT 63, GRAVE C about the 18-year-old black man murdered on camera by Hells Angels (providing "security" for the show) in front of the stage at the Rolling Stones' Altamont concert. Rolling Stone ran a piece on the killing back in 1970 that's online now. It's a short documentary that doesn't get into anything more than the fact that the incident happened and the young man's unmarked grave. I'd very much like to know how the killers were acquitted when the killing was caught on camera but the film doesn't go there. MARVELOUS, KEEN LOONY BIN brought the mood up again with a surreal cartoon of faceless (or legless or armless...) people, balloon-headed monkeys, and giggling baked goods. Then BEFORE DAWN brought us back down with a grainy, grey, oh-so-Eastern European tale of dreams and dashed hopes in a Hungarian field. Beautifully shot, no dialog, but sad in that old Cold War desperation way.
I enjoyed a few delicious fair-food snacks (roasted corn, piroshky, ice cream in a waffle cone) and met up with Ray and Christine for a while. We wandered by the Bumberella stage where Common Market was playing. Common Market and the Blue Scholars share DJ Sabzi in common so we stopped to listen for a while, then headed over to get in line for Mike's monologue where we met up with John and Jenny. I'd also seen Mike Daisey regulars the Grubbs earlier in the afternoon and they, too, were at the show. Mike's work was tight and finely honed. As part of his monologue he referred to Ray by name a couple of times. It was kooky to be in the audience surrounded by people who were hearing about this "Ray" character when I was there sitting right next to him.
After Daisey's performance (which ran long), I split off from the group and made a mad dash over to the main stage (for which I had earlier picked up the extra-special, super-secret limited pass that would allow me to get in and which I had told numerous begging children that yes, I really did intend to use the pass myself) because the only other thing I really wanted to do was see the Blue Scholars. What I hadn't counted on, even knowing that Daisey was going to overlap their show a bit, was the crowd of people already lined up to see Kanye West (who I could give a shit about) milling around in my way, clogging up the check points and whatnot. After finally, finally getting to the venue, finding a seat and sitting down, I hear, "And now we'll close it out with this last one...." as the Blue Scholars sang their last song and said goodbye to the audience amid a roar of cheers. I briefly held out hope there might be an encore or something more, but no. I'd missed everything. I turned around and left, disgusted with myself, and decided to go over to the nearby McMenamins to have a proper non-fair-food dinner and a couple of pints that cost less than $7 each (and taste better). The Daiseys and the Scott Tyneses turned up there as well and I had a fine time with them the rest of the evening before catching the last bus home.
In mere moments we'll be leaving to pick Kate up from her dad, her triumphant return to Seattle after a summer spent mostly in Canada. School starts Wednesday, but I'm hoping today that Kate will want to spend the last day of summer at Bumbershoot with me.
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