7/27/07
I came around too late for the Coldplay concert, and the Feist concert, but thank goodness I was at least able to stumble over to Gnarls Barkley at the bowl for my first real adventure outside of Marina del Rey, alone, without my faithful parents to save me from falling over or collapsing in pain. It was a bit of a leap of faith, but it paid off as I had one of the first moments where I could just causually meet up with friends and forget that my leg was barely held together.
At this point I'd felt I'd done indie music to death and this delivered the very changeup I needed. Finally something I have little context for and almost no familiarity with, some trippy funk infused jam sessions with Cee-Lo's voicebox blaring over the frantic thunder of Danger Mouse's furious multi-instrumentals and backups. Sort of like a funk version of Penn and Teller, one does more than enough talking for two people while the other never speaks.
I was a bit dissapointed in the lack of energy of the crowd. Yes it was Sunday night, yes we mostly have work the next day, but come on slackers, you gotta reciropcate the energy of the peformers!
August 8, 2008
I've never been that into watching sports on TV, so I couldn't be bothered to watch the Olympics opening ceremony. Instead, it was a good day for a field trip to the La Brea tarpits for the 88Boadrum spectacle. 88 drummers, 88 minutes, starting at 8:08 on 8/8/8. Lead by the noise-rock band straight from Osaka, Japan, The Boredoms.
I was having enough fun just sitting back against the hill watching hipster after hipster jam their way into the park upon the canvas of a beautiful Los Angeles summer sunset in the middle of Miracle Mile. As the sun quickly dropped, the masses of drummers saddled up on the the army of empty drum thrones and before I knew it, a painful cry signalled the start of the festival.
At a concert I usually focus mostly on the drummer, I find them the most interesting to watch as they must dedicate all four limbs into their sound. Here, there were 88 of them, synchronized, flailing limbs all over the place to craft so many experimental beats.
As a bonus, I randomly spotted an Eric Wareheim in the middle of the crowd.
August 14, 2008
What better way to celebrate being able to walk thank the Downtown Art Walk? The second Thursday of the month couldn't have arrived quickly enough. I love it whenever you can comfortably stroll around downtown, late at night, safe within the masses of like-minded artgoers all out socializing and exploring the various open musuems. For a moment it will feel like downtown Los Angeles is a nearly normal, metropolitan, pedestrian-friendly city, so full of life.
Unfortunately I got a bit of a late start on this one, a reminder that some of the best fun is had early, before most people have gotten of work. There were quite a bit of crowds to content with, which meant that a lot of free wine had run dry and many people packed in small museums caused super-high humidity. But when you're among so many friends, and causually bumping into so many familiar faces along the way, you really can't complain.
Every downtown art walk is an experience in an alternative, fantasy downtown that you wish would happen more regularly. The massive sprawl of the city and reliance on a car and other common LA grievances can be left behind while you just stroll around, having a good time.
