Save Your Money, Don't Go to the Show

I spent the weekend down in Milwaukee for Summerfest. The trip was a lot of fun, although the fest itself was somewhat of a disappointment. I planned to go Thursday through Saturday to see Rise Against, The Offspring, and Barenaked Ladies, but ended up only going on Thursday for Rise Against. The festgrounds are huge, but at least there are a lot of places to get food and water unlike some other fests I've been to. And every year Summerfest boasts an impressive line-up--but that's where the positives stop.

As a venue, Summerfest is the worst I've ever been to. Several stages had benches all the way up to the front of the stage, and everyone stood up on those benches during the shows. This meant that the only people who had any chance to even see the stage where those standing. It also meant fewer people who could fit into the same sized space. Most importantly, it meant that there was no moshing or dancing of any kind. Just half-assed hops on the benches, which were claimed early on so the only people who could watch the bands where those who'd been guarding them the past six hours. To quote Rise Against's lead singer Tim McIlrath, nobody should have to spend a Rancid show on fucking benches. And the same goes for openers Riverboat Gamblers and Rise Against themselves. These are not sit-down bands. These are get sweaty bands.

But if anything, the show at least increased my respect for Rise Against. They put on an amazing show despite the venue, and McIlrath denounced the benches and the changing, corporate-sponsored face of Summerfest from the "Harley-Davidson Roadhouse" stage. (I'm probably misquoting here) "This isn't about motorcycles, or beer companies, or the fucking military recruitment booth that's trying to send you off to war. This is about music." If only it were true--maybe if I'd been a hardcore enough fan to spend the whole night staking out a place on the benches, I wouldn't have felt this way, but I could never find a place in the crowd where I felt like I was experiencing the concert. And that's not how a person should feel watching their favorite band.

I ended up bailing out of the crowd altogether and sat back with Melissa and Sarah, watching it all on the large screen. Like I said, they put on a great show nonetheless, but the Summerfest experience left me feeling empty. If I'm going to end up watching the performance on a screen, there's no point in paying $15 to park and $10 on food and drinks at Summerfest when I could just as well stay home and do the same more comfortably. It simply wasn't worth our time to go back.

That being said, the highlight of the day ended up coming after Summerfest. Sarah took us to the Safehouse, a spy-themed Milwaukee bar that wins the "coolest place ever" award. We didn't know the password, so we had to prove our secret agent status to get in--but I won't say anything more about that. It's something that needs to be experienced (like a great concert). We explored the bar (it's surprisngly large) and even found a secret exit (not to mention the best vodka lemonade I've ever had). If you ever find yourself in Milwaukee in the summer, skip Summerfest, but don't even think about skipping the Safehouse.

We spent most of the rest of our time in Milwaukee just enjoying the fact that we didn't have anywhere to be--we watched the first 5 or 6 episodes of Dexter and still haven't decided what we think of the show (but we can't stop watching). We tried to stop at a cafe just down the block from Sarah's apartment, but they were just closing as we got there. All in all, Milwaukee was a good time--just not for the reasons I'd expected it would be.

Confession Time:

I haven’t been reading like I said I would.  I did finally read An Abundance of Katherines, which was a fantastic read.  It’s one of those books marketed as “young adult” that actually is enjoyable for everyone (although it seems a lot of those books have that ability).  But I’ve been pretty lazy in the reading department otherwise—I never finished Mindfulness (I like it, but nonfiction is always harder for me to finish for some reason).  I am about halfway through The Dharma Bums, which to be very general is a book about hippies.  This is the next book I need to finish, although I picked up a book at a used book sale a few weeks ago called The Well of Lost Plots that derailed me for a bit.

The Well of Lost Plots takes place in a world where an FBI-like agency exists to patrol fiction to prevent characters from escaping their books.  The Well of Lost Plots is where unpublished fiction goes to die—some of it is high-quality stuff that was just never read, but most of it is poorly written drivel.  The main character is hiding out in the Well and on a day-to-day basis has to deal with incomplete settings, flat characters, and world-destroying grammivores.  It’s essentially a book written for English majors or grammar nerds and some of the gags and references are downright brilliant.  It’s actually the third in a series, and I managed to find the first, The Eyre Affair, on BookMooch so I’ll start at the beginning of the series.  AFTER I finish The Dharma Bums. 

So I’m not doing so hot on the reading side.  As far as writing goes, though, I’m doing pretty well (for me).  Despite some setbacks, I’m still updating By Riverside weekly at the very least, and now that the summer’s beginning to fall into a rhythm I’m making time for some other projects I’ve been putting off.

Musically, nothing much to report.  I haven’t had a chance to hang out with John since last week, so it’s hard to say if anything will come of it.  But I am working on becoming a better guitarist and actually learning entire songs instead of introductions, and getting rid of my performance anxiety.  Also, I should pull my sax out and play it one of these days.  It’s been over a year, which is longer than I’ve gone without playing it since fourth grade.  Crazy.

Catching Up

Alright. So here's where we're at.

This summer, I'm doing an independent project that will go towards my English major called By Riverside. I'm going to be heading down to Riverside Park 2-3 times a week and interviewing people to get a feel for the community and share stories that may otherwise never be told. The profiles will be posted blog-style at By Riverside, and it'll even be updated regularly, unlike this personal blog. This is the biggest project I've ever taken on, and so far everyone's been extremely supportive. If you haven't checked the site out yet, please do--although, if you're not from the area, it won't really have much significance to you. My hope is that by the end of the summer I can build up some sort of readership--I've got a handful so far, and I'm hoping the group will expand.

I had the idea last summer, actually, and toyed with it all winter long before realizing that I could probably use it for college credit (it's officially listed on my transcript as "New Media Production"), but that's only extra incentive--I wanted to do the blog anyway, and this ensures that I'll actually stick to a posting schedule. So check out the site and let me know what you think.

In addition to that, I'm also starting some kind of musical project with my friend John, so that should be fun. Between that, the site, and working 40 hours a week, so far my summer has been busier than my semester. Which is kind of strange for me. And there's also that whole wedding planning thing.

On top of it all, I finally gave up laptops and built myself a desktop a couple weeks ago, and promptly got addicted to Mass Effect. Plus I still have this blog to deal with, and I was hoping to get some fiction done this summer as well. September's coming too quickly.