Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Lollapalooza (more)


It rocked. We saw so many great bands, and now I regret we didn’t get up earlier to see others. I am still going through withdrawal. Patti Smith was so ama-azing. She seemed overwhelmed by the crowd. At one point it looked as if she would cry. Age does a lot for her. She was magic. Iggy Pop hasn’t lost his charm or his stage presence either; during Its No Fun To Be Alone he invited the whole crowd on stage and anyone who could fit was up there. The news reported about 250 people. At the end of the song he introduced the crowd on stage as “the Lollapalooza dancers” and thanked them. Then he said “I would thank God, but he’s not up here”. He’s so cool.

Oh, and I body surfed to Daft Punk the first night. I didn’t want to press my luck any further so I only did it once. It was a riot. The guys around me were so polite because they mustered a group to send me off (at my request natch). Oh yeah! My sister and I decided that the young people today are a whole lot nicer than the young people were when we were young.

And the place was full of technology. There were ATM’s aplenty and other things. Part of any basic survival kit, along with a cash card, water, and a beer, was a cell phone. We made sure each of the kids had one. I love technology. It makes teen sitting so much easier.

The first night my sister, her husband, and I went down. We met the three boys plus my niece at the event. Since my sister’s blackberry is broke and she couldn’t text, I was doing the texting. I stumbled at first with texts like “Wgerf r t” or “We r bw thf snumd stahe” to my son and my niece. They were confused. My son responded with a “What the hell are you trying to say? Are you drunk? I’ll show you how to text later” tirade two seconds after I text him. Hating to be lectured, I text back “I luv u”, which is like “F** you” in my personal mommy language. I finally figured out what was upsetting him so much when my brother in law showed me a message I sent to him. It was basically nonsense. (I didn’t believe either of them when they said I was such a shitty texter till I checked my call log of sent messages and it was true.) I got better as the weekend progressed.

The second day my sister and I went down with the three boys. The boys lost us the minute we were inside the gate. No texts either. I thought my son was not communicating to me because of the texting fiasco of the day before, but I realized that it was because I gave him forty dollars to get something at Portillos yesterday, the restaurant was closed, and he kept the change. Mommy who?

On Sunday we took advantage of cheap parking around State Street. We were a little worried that we were too far away from the park, and in an area that wouldn’t be safe. My sister is talking on the cell phone with her husband, who is telling her that as long as she is walking with a crowd she’ll be fine. She says, “What if we aren’t in a crowd?” "You are the crowd, add the boys", he says. This time we did run into the boys at Iggy Pop and it was like three baby birds all at once, and I’m slapping twenty in my son’s hand and I see my sister give her son money and after they leave my sister mutters “well that hello was expensive”.

And finally, I love Chicago. It is such a great city. The park service and city workers did a phenomenal job of keeping up with services and cleaning up after the crowds; makes me proud to live in the Midwest.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

God, that sounded like a lot of fun. I too love Chicago. The oldre I get I find I don't really like big crowds anymore.

When I was living in Paris my sister and I went to see Paul McCartney and Wings. This was after Festival Seating became de rigueur. As the crowd rushed the front gate, I lost my sister. We had been holding hands and she just disappeared. I had to make a choice, run for the front of the stadium or wait to find my sister. I waited.

It's not clear to me that she would have done the same thing as she loved McCartney way more than me.....your pictures were funny too.

Unknown said...

I think she probably ran to the stage (back then my sister would) ...Me I would wait. Now? I would have run to the stage, my sister, probably waited.

Anonymous said...

I think it's so cool that you crowd surfed. I'm not nearly as bold. I love the pictures though, I'll send you mine soon.