WYEP music festival and a writing surprise
Oh man, my legs are so tired right now. And my walk to work wasn't any more or less strenuous than normal...I'm just tired. Ah, well.
So! I had a really awesome weekend. After spending most of Saturday doing chores, Mike and I went down to the Allegheny Landing park over on the North Shore for part of the WYEP Summer Music Festival. Our goal: Sinead O'Connor! She apparently only rarely tours the U.S. anymore, and this time around, Pittsburgh was only one of three stops she was making O.o But make it, she did.
The park itself was really nice, a sort of sloping natural amphitheater that rolled down to the river and had a fantastic view of the Downtown Pittsburgh skyline. The sound quality was awesome, the volume was perfect, and I could actually make out most of what she was singing, which was unexpected. Mike and I managed to find a small place on the hill where we could sit (it was rather crowded), and had a decent view of the stage. I even brought myself a picnic dinner: chicken ceasar wrap, pretzels and a Pepsi. It was great :)
Sinead O'Connor has a wonderfully distinct voice, and it was basically her and one other guy both on acoustic guitar, and a girl playing a bass. Most of the songs were from a new album she has coming out this week, "Theology," and I am so going to buy it :) The songs were beautiful and powerful and I just couldn't help but move to them, even though I must've looked strange to the people around me as I rocked back and forth.
She didn't play as long as I'd hoped, but we still got about an hour's worth of music plus a couple of encores. But she apparently wasn't feeling that well so she didn't do any signings afterward. Ah, well.
Mike and I decided to stick around for the final act, a band called "moe." (The period is part of their name!) Our plan was to listen to a couple of songs and then decide if we wanted to stay for the whole act. So while we waited, we chatted about architecture and the Pittsburgh skyline and the "Freedom Tower," the kind of things typical of a conversation with Mike. And like I said, we had a gorgeous view of the Pittsburgh skyline from where we were sitting. As the evening went on, dusk fell and there was this moment where the whole city started to glow pink-orange, partly from the setting sun hitting it and partly from the streetlights all coming on.
Well, moe. eventually came onstage. They were actually a funk/rock/jazz jam band, so the "two songs" Mike and I were going to listen to were actually two fifteen-minute-long jams that went on and on. The sound was fantastic and really got the crowd dancing. By this time it was dark, and even though the park is supposed to be alcohol-free, there was no enforcement, so by the time moe. was in full swing, the crowd was mostly college students drinking beer and smoking cigarettes and pot. I really liked the sound of moe., but I actually spent most of their act laying back on the grass while Mike stood and danced with the crowd. I found that while I was laying down, I was beneath the haze of smoke and could breathe clearly, and also I found out that the people standing all around me were buffering the volume for me. If I stood, the music was almost painfully loud, but if I was on the ground, it was quite comfortable.
It was strange, watching the crush of feet on earth around me. Just as the band started, I felt really aware of the ground and of the fact that we were all dancing on an intensely physical, real planet. Probably it was inspired by Sinead O'Connor's very God-centered music, but I found myself thanking God for the world and for life and for music, for reality and for the things that make reality worth living in. I thought of David and thought that this was probably the kind of scene he'd enjoyed; he was always travelling to music festivals, and they were probably not unlike this one. And though this isn't my kind of crowd, I really enjoyed being there and listening to the music and watching people dance. I felt like I was being given a little glimpse of what his life had been like, and why he loved it.
Mike and I left before moe. was finished, but right when they were winding down, so we could beat the traffic. My ears were ringing all the way home.
Sunday was a good day, too. Unfortunately, Brian wasn't feeling well, so he had to spend most of the afternoon and evening sleeping. But I woke up relatively early, two hours before I had to start getting ready for church, and was inspired by an idea for a Walker story.
For those of you who keep up with this journal or listen to my writing rambles in person, I set myself the goal of writing a new short story set in the Mae Fortune/Walker world every month this year. Well, this month I started writing a story about Teddy, but I kind of hit a wall with it. However, I decided not to force the matter, since this month I also began revising the Mae Fortune novel and had also written another short story, albeit not about a Walker. So even though I technically hadn't reached my goal, I was still writing and making progress. I decided to give myself a break and hold off on Walker stories until I really felt moved to write something, and at this point in the month I decided it wasn't going to happen in June.
So yesterday I woke up with this idea, and just had to get it written. I pretty much worked on it the entire day, except for a break for church, lunch, an episode of Mythbusters, a brief trip to the Strip District and dinner. Somehow I hit a groove, and knew exactly where the story was going. I avoided reading anything else, for fear it might break my mental voice or de-rail my idea. I wrote for two hours before church, and wrote through most of the afternoon and evening until about a quarter after nine in the evening, when I finished. It was shorter than some of my other stories in the Walker world--about 4700 words--but I was really satisfied with it. The sad thing is, it's the backstory for a character who dies in the novel. All the same, it made me happy to finally find out more about him.
Well! Awesome music festival and a completed first draft of a new story! That was an incredibly satisfying weekend :) And by Sunday evening, Brian was feeling a little better, too, so we watched "Kung Pao: Enter the Fist". This weekend--"Ratatouille"! And maybe Cthulhu...?
So! I had a really awesome weekend. After spending most of Saturday doing chores, Mike and I went down to the Allegheny Landing park over on the North Shore for part of the WYEP Summer Music Festival. Our goal: Sinead O'Connor! She apparently only rarely tours the U.S. anymore, and this time around, Pittsburgh was only one of three stops she was making O.o But make it, she did.
The park itself was really nice, a sort of sloping natural amphitheater that rolled down to the river and had a fantastic view of the Downtown Pittsburgh skyline. The sound quality was awesome, the volume was perfect, and I could actually make out most of what she was singing, which was unexpected. Mike and I managed to find a small place on the hill where we could sit (it was rather crowded), and had a decent view of the stage. I even brought myself a picnic dinner: chicken ceasar wrap, pretzels and a Pepsi. It was great :)
Sinead O'Connor has a wonderfully distinct voice, and it was basically her and one other guy both on acoustic guitar, and a girl playing a bass. Most of the songs were from a new album she has coming out this week, "Theology," and I am so going to buy it :) The songs were beautiful and powerful and I just couldn't help but move to them, even though I must've looked strange to the people around me as I rocked back and forth.
She didn't play as long as I'd hoped, but we still got about an hour's worth of music plus a couple of encores. But she apparently wasn't feeling that well so she didn't do any signings afterward. Ah, well.
Mike and I decided to stick around for the final act, a band called "moe." (The period is part of their name!) Our plan was to listen to a couple of songs and then decide if we wanted to stay for the whole act. So while we waited, we chatted about architecture and the Pittsburgh skyline and the "Freedom Tower," the kind of things typical of a conversation with Mike. And like I said, we had a gorgeous view of the Pittsburgh skyline from where we were sitting. As the evening went on, dusk fell and there was this moment where the whole city started to glow pink-orange, partly from the setting sun hitting it and partly from the streetlights all coming on.
Well, moe. eventually came onstage. They were actually a funk/rock/jazz jam band, so the "two songs" Mike and I were going to listen to were actually two fifteen-minute-long jams that went on and on. The sound was fantastic and really got the crowd dancing. By this time it was dark, and even though the park is supposed to be alcohol-free, there was no enforcement, so by the time moe. was in full swing, the crowd was mostly college students drinking beer and smoking cigarettes and pot. I really liked the sound of moe., but I actually spent most of their act laying back on the grass while Mike stood and danced with the crowd. I found that while I was laying down, I was beneath the haze of smoke and could breathe clearly, and also I found out that the people standing all around me were buffering the volume for me. If I stood, the music was almost painfully loud, but if I was on the ground, it was quite comfortable.
It was strange, watching the crush of feet on earth around me. Just as the band started, I felt really aware of the ground and of the fact that we were all dancing on an intensely physical, real planet. Probably it was inspired by Sinead O'Connor's very God-centered music, but I found myself thanking God for the world and for life and for music, for reality and for the things that make reality worth living in. I thought of David and thought that this was probably the kind of scene he'd enjoyed; he was always travelling to music festivals, and they were probably not unlike this one. And though this isn't my kind of crowd, I really enjoyed being there and listening to the music and watching people dance. I felt like I was being given a little glimpse of what his life had been like, and why he loved it.
Mike and I left before moe. was finished, but right when they were winding down, so we could beat the traffic. My ears were ringing all the way home.
Sunday was a good day, too. Unfortunately, Brian wasn't feeling well, so he had to spend most of the afternoon and evening sleeping. But I woke up relatively early, two hours before I had to start getting ready for church, and was inspired by an idea for a Walker story.
For those of you who keep up with this journal or listen to my writing rambles in person, I set myself the goal of writing a new short story set in the Mae Fortune/Walker world every month this year. Well, this month I started writing a story about Teddy, but I kind of hit a wall with it. However, I decided not to force the matter, since this month I also began revising the Mae Fortune novel and had also written another short story, albeit not about a Walker. So even though I technically hadn't reached my goal, I was still writing and making progress. I decided to give myself a break and hold off on Walker stories until I really felt moved to write something, and at this point in the month I decided it wasn't going to happen in June.
So yesterday I woke up with this idea, and just had to get it written. I pretty much worked on it the entire day, except for a break for church, lunch, an episode of Mythbusters, a brief trip to the Strip District and dinner. Somehow I hit a groove, and knew exactly where the story was going. I avoided reading anything else, for fear it might break my mental voice or de-rail my idea. I wrote for two hours before church, and wrote through most of the afternoon and evening until about a quarter after nine in the evening, when I finished. It was shorter than some of my other stories in the Walker world--about 4700 words--but I was really satisfied with it. The sad thing is, it's the backstory for a character who dies in the novel. All the same, it made me happy to finally find out more about him.
Well! Awesome music festival and a completed first draft of a new story! That was an incredibly satisfying weekend :) And by Sunday evening, Brian was feeling a little better, too, so we watched "Kung Pao: Enter the Fist". This weekend--"Ratatouille"! And maybe Cthulhu...?