mud, trash and music

First off let me say, that I am getting old. Went to the Lowlands Music Festival this weekend and discovered that I just don't like the big festival thing anymore. I had a great time, don't get me wrong, but if I had to dodge one more drunk 17 year old, or eat one more overpriced bread and cheese gut-bomb I was going to hurt someone.
I take that back, the food was really good. There were Asian food tents with Indian curries and fried rice, but it was all overpriced and small. They did this weird thing where you change Euro for these little tokens so it's harder for you to grasp how much money you're actually spendng, especially the non-Euro users. I allowed myself 20E a day, which I think was pretty reasonable and that worked out well.

We got a ride over to the festival with some British friends of Sera and Mike's (who I'm housesitting for) and that was a blessing. They were very sweet and gung-ho about meeting up at different points during the weekend. The unfortunate thing was that I didn't get up in time to do a good shopping trip and pack a cooler of food. But such is life abroad. We pitched tents in one of several camping areas. I don't know how we got so lucky, but our camping was as close as you could get to the music site without hearing it, so I was happy about that. Mike and Sera had gotten out their camping gear for us - bless them. It didn't include sleeping pads, but the ground was soft from the light rains that have been going on here in the last few weeks. So Friday, ate some hash cookies for the first time in about 15 years. It really isn't my thing. They kicked in after about an hour, and all it really did was make me feel spatially disoriented. I suppose it just isn't my thing. That day I saw Zero Seven, whom I highly recommend you get on iTunes and listen to. They were great. Also that night, Fun Lovin Criminals, (they were okay) Finnish emo-rockers HIM - who had some formulaic but good songs, The Veils were great, I wish I'd been able to hear more of them, Snow Patrol and Hard-Fi were both disappointing. Watched the film Factotum (Matt Dillon in a semi-autobiographic fil about the author Bukowski) and then danced my ass off until 4 in the morning at one of the 24hr DJ tents. It was pretty out of control. It was also packed and very, very dirty. By the time we arrived Friday around 2pm the entire road in and the camping areas were literally trashed. I guess that because the festival has people that clean up the trash every night, everyone just feels free to drop their trash wherever. It got pretty gross. Some of the food tents sold chicken wings and ribs, and people dropped their plates full of bones to the ground as they finished eating. It got to the point on Saturday that one couldn't even sit on the ground anywhere without sitting on trash, and the picnic tables were few and far between for the amount of people there.
Saturday, woke at 10am to a fairly quiet camp (I suppose hangovers were partially responsible, as everyone drank 27/7). Decided to skip tai chi (in the trash) and take my time getting cleaned up and ready for another day. The sun was shining brightly, so I put my slightly damp shoes out to dry. Headed into the festival grounds and spent the morning checking out the extra-musicular activities. There was a truck (most of these things were ala Burning Man installations) where they had this place that you stuck your head into (Josh did this) and it videotapes you screaming your head off for 30 seconds. Supposedly these people are building a database of screams. So in a week, they send each participant an email with a URL and they can go to the site and see/hear their scream. Hopefully you can see other peoples. That would be really amusing.
Also there was a little internet dome, but it was clear plastic with no windows and right out in the sun, so it was about 100 degrees in there. Not even interested. There were these two characters traipsing around in these really amazing costumes. They were saxaphone aliens. I'll post a pic once I figure out how to do that here. Give me a day or two. They were cool. I heard about a randon clown cafe that set up in the middle of one concourse, but I didn't see it. Apparently, there were about 10 cafe tables spead out in a line down the middle of the wide walkway from one stage to another, and at each table sat a clown. But none of the clowns were happy. It was the sad clown cafe, I guess. And they didn't interact directly with people, but if you put a lit cigarette in their ashtry, they'd pick it up and smoke it. I think maybe the fun was seeing what you could get a clown to do. I wish I'd seen it.
Music on Saturday: Urban Dance Squad, who were either past their prime, or I just don't like their music, a really fantastic dancehall-reggae artist named Ziggi, a bit of Ministry, but damn if Ministry live is just not all that interesting to me. Perhaps I'm nt their biggest fan. It was what you would expect, all noise and distortion, but I must be getting old, I wasn't into it. On to Michael Franti and Spearhead. This set was worth the entire cost of the weekend. They were fantastic. Musically, emotionally, politically. They have such a strong message and an amazing vibe of love and oneness. It sounds cheesy but it wasn't. It was powerful It was one of those shows you come out of with tears in your eyes, feeling inspired and all of the possibilities. I love Michael Franti. And talk about hot.
Leaving hot and on to The Raconteurs, Jack White's side project. As you might imagine, the brilliant songwriting of Jack White, as interpreted through another, more complete band, it was awesome. With rain starting to fall, we went and broke down the tent, for a quick getaway after Scissor Sisters (who were not as glam as I'd hoped but good) and Massive Attack, who were brilliant according to the ig fans we met on the train on the way back to Amsterdam, but I thoguht they were (sorry!) kinda boring. Again, I'm not the biggest downtempo fan.
Getting back to Amsterdam was a huge pain in the ass. Fortunately we had this Dutch couple translating signs and instructions for us. Missed the last shuttle to the train station by ten minutes,(11:20pm) took a taxi, caught the last train towards the City. Had an hour wait at some random train station, got into Amsterdam at 3am. Once we said where we were going, none of the taxi drivers would take us because it was so close. So we walked the 10 minutes, but damn if a ten-minute walk doesn't feel like forever after walking most of the last 4 weeks and carrying camping gear.
So, yes, I'm feeling old. There are more aspects to the physical exhaustion that are TMI, but suffice to say, I'm staying in the flat all day watching movies and updating the blog. I woke at 2pm today, to find that it had been raining since about the time I got back. Feeling very happy that I put myself through the return trip last night, as I would have woken to mud city this morning, and I did that too many years at Ren Faire. Thank you, not again.
So let's see, Ash asked what the rest of the itinerary contains. Let's see, I think lots of little trips into Holland. The Dutch couple from last night offered to show us around their town, which is on the list already. There will be at least one day trip to Belgium, maybe two. Once my sister is here, I'm not sure. She and I may rent a car and head off to explore...
I'm seriously trying to get to Burning Man. We'll see if that comes together, but I want to. I'm flying back into Boston on the 28th, so I'm going to try to make it work.
If anyone reading this blog is driving to Burning Man between the 28th and 30th, and doesn't mind stopping near Reno to pick me up, that might help!
Love to you all!

added photos: the Lowlands Crew, first day. And one half of the festival grounds from the karaoke lounge, the only place to sit that wasn't trashed and drink free bottled water. I didn't want to leave it.