Yesterday (since I didn’t get around to posting this last night) was another fun day of crowds and music, made even better by the sudden appearance of actual sunshine, something we had been sorely missing on Saturday. Unfortunately, at some point during the day I hit the wrong button on the camera and severely overexposed a good number of the photos I took — though I have to admit I like the way some of them came out in the end.
We didn’t have as many acts that we were really planning on seeing, so much more of the day was spent just wandering around and sightseeing.
Every year I’ve been to Bumbershoot, these marionettes have been out front, just outside the entrance by the EMP. The work on the puppets is incredibly intricate, and the puppeteer does some wonderful work. Each puppet is a musical performer (I’ve seen Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in the past, this one was performing an Eric Clapton song, though it doesn’t look much like Clapton to me), and is their most intricate marionette — twenty-four strings, if I remember correctly.
There’s a giant magnetic poetry board set up by the Northwest Court jazz stage. Most of the creations were the usual amusing and somewhat nonsensical things you often end up with, but this one I actually liked. Kudos to whatever anonymous person came up with it.
Embrace the blue sky
beneath these gorgeous stars
and melt as you soar and fall.
Please always sing, young child,
and believe sad music
We ran across the same piper that we saw yesterday, only today he had been joined by another piper and two dancers. I got a good laugh out of this picture when I got home — between the hands-on-the-hips pose and my catching her just after a leap into the air, there’s a definite “Superman” effect going on in this shot. Apparently, in my universe, cute women in Scottish outfits have super powers and can fly. Somehow, I’m okay with that.
After some time spent sitting at the International Fountain and watching people play in the spray (and taking a lot of pictures that will need some work in Photoshop), we went over to the Main Stage for Liz Phair. I don’t really know Liz’s music that much, but Prairie had heard nearly every song that Liz played through friends. The sun was a bit much for us right out in the main area on the arena field, so we took up spots over in the bleachers. Far too far away from the stage for me to get any pictures of Liz (and, technically, there’s not supposed to be any photography in the Main Stage area anyway), but a great spot for peoplewatching. One couple was playing frisbee right in front of us, and this girl was amazing — not only was she dancing non stop to the music while tossing the frisbee back and forth, but she did it the entire time with her coffee in her hand. How Seattle can you get?
I’d wanted to check out DJ Cheb i Sabbah, so after a while we found our way back over to the Bumbrella stage and found a nice open spot on the grass. Great, great music here — perfectly mixed Bhangra (Indian dance music), with a live drummer adding extra percussion over the mix, plus some very attractive belly dancers. While none of my pictures of the show came out, we did have fun watching the people around us. This family was camped out just a few feet away from us, and the little baby was incredibly cute — bouncing along to the music, and every few minutes, worming her way into her mom’s lap, lifting up her shirt, and planting a big kiss on her mom’s tummy.
Back up at the Northwest Court (quick hint — there are restrooms in the art gallery building just behind the Northwest Court stage that have much shorter lines than anywhere else in Bumbershoot), we caught the very tail end of Vienna Teng‘s performance. Really beautiful piano and vocal work — unfortunately, we arrived late enough that they were completely sold out of her CDs. A bit of a bummer, but something to look for in the future.
Next up on the dock was the Mexican-electronic-hip-hop-rock group Plastilina Mosh. Another group I’d never heard of before today, but with that mix of styles in their description, I figured they would be worth checking out (last year, I stumbled across another Latino-electronica act, Kinky, and really enjoyed them). While they sounded good, they also sounded loud, and by this point in the day, both Prairie and I were starting to wear down. We hung out long enough to get some pictures, and then decided that it was time to wander out of the direct line of fire of the speakers and assess our situation.
Then came the one slight bummer of the day. I’d really been looking forward to seeing the evening’s big act, Public Enemy. Unfortunately, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was really starting to wear down. If Bumbershoot had been the only thing planned for the day, we might have been able to stick it out, but I was also planning on being sure to hit the weekly fetish night at the Vogue, as it was likely to be my last Sunday night out for at least a few weeks (next week I’ll be in Anchorage, and then once I return I’ll be starting my new work schedule, and will need to adjust my sleep schedule so that I’m used to waking up in time to be at work at 8am on Monday morning…once I’m adjusted, I should be able to head back out again, but until I know that I’m not going to oversleep on Monday morn, I need to force myself into bed at a more reasonable hour). So, knowing that we had a few hours before Public Enemy hit the stage, and that we were planning on hitting the club for a few hours later on that night, we decided that it was time to behave like responsible adults and find our way home.
Y’know…growing up and being responsible really sucks sometimes. ;)
So, I missed out on Public Enemy, which was a bit of a bummer. But still, the rest of the day was another good one, we had a fun time at the Vogue later on that night, and all in all, it was another good day. Can’t really ask for too much more than that, I’d say.
Update: All of yesterday’s pictures (even the overexposed ones) are now added to the photo gallery, they start on page 14 of the Bumbershoot 2004 album.
“Be My TV” by Peace, Love and Pitbulls from the album Peace, Love and Pitbulls (1993, 4:23).