Garden rocked. Whole weekend rocked.
What a great weekend! leorathesane and I got up Saturday morning and went to pick up our Mount Royal plum tree, "The Professor." Alas, before that, we had to sit through the most useless workshop ever. It was supposed to be about caring for a fruit tree, but it was just this tree pathologist droning on for thirty minutes about things unrelated to anything. The Professor was as glad to be shut of him as we were.
After lunch at Fire Roast (which turned into an impromptu gathering with ytinas, Mr. Tinas, and their rubber mallet), we hopped on a bus and pointed ourselves towards the Walker for Rock the Garden. En route, and once we were in line for the gates to open, we got our moments of smug-smug. Regular smugness can happen at any time, but smug-smug occurs when you get to a large event via bike, public transit, or foot, and wave at the cars you know will be driving around for another hour looking for parking.
Rock the Garden, in a word, rocked. 8,000 people and their blankets crammed onto the lawn around the Walker. I have never seen so many hipsters in one place. So many Threadless and bustedtees shirts. So many hideous dresses that we just knew someone had wasted hundreds of bucks on because someone in some elite boutique called it "cool." So very much pot smoke wafting through the air. The music was amazing; the people- and tattoo-watching were almost as good. We ate tasty falafel from Holy Land (after standing waaaay to long in line for it); we drank oceans of water, but it still wasn't enough; I slathered myself in sunscreen and mostly managed to avoid a burn.
The crowd was unmistakably Minnesotan. The instant the bands hit the stage, everyone felt the need to stand up. And yet, no matter how irresistible the beat, there was maybe one person dancing for every thirty people standing (yes, Leora and I were dancing. Yes, we got a lot of strange looks for it). If you're not gonna move, people, you could at least stay on the ground so the rest of us can see!
Solid Gold was our favorite act. Despite some initial difficulties with mic balance, they were just plain on fire. And they played both Leora's song and mine! Awesome. Yeasayer was terrific, and they played some stuff from their forthcoming album, which was terribly exciting, but some of their songs (like "Red Cave") do not work live. Calexico didn't do their homework; eight thousand local-lovin' Minnesota hipsters would not be impressed by either 1) Tejano mariachi music or 2) how many corners of the globe your band-members traveled from. Of the songs of theirs that Leora and I fell in love with, only "Two Silver Trees" made it into the set, and "Absent Afternoon" and "The News About William" turn out to be far from representative of their usual style. The Decemberists played a fantastic set, and we love their music, but they just didn't blow us away to Solid Gold’s level.
During The Decemberists's encore (which included "The Engine Driver"! Yay!), we started sneaking towards the exit. We were among the first to slip out, boogied to our bus stop, and smug-smugged home, reflecting that we would be nestled all snug in our bed before everyone even made it out of the venue, to say nothing of how long they would spend trapped in their cars, trying to drive the heck away from the gaping maw of Loring Park.
Sunday morning was home-made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, a Father's Day call to dear ol' Dad, and lunch with Leora's fam. Then we came home and laid very, very low for the evening, though I finally got the buckles for my CON costume to a suitable level of aged-looking. Hey, it was a task I could complete while sitting down, staring at the TV screen. I was all for it.
And thus begins another week of living, working, and frantically prepping for CON.