Month: April 2004

I normally order a soy chai latte in the morning. I like getting the soy chai from Starbucks because they use vanilla-flavored soy. That way I’m getting all the spicy flavor goodness of chai, plus the vanilla flavor, and the low-fat and healthy soy lovin’.

The other day, though, the barrista (he was a guy; does that make him a barristo? Just curious) asked me if I wanted cinnamon or nutmeg on my chai. And, after a microsecond of reflection, I realized, that, yes, of course, that’s exaaaaaactly what I wanted: cinnamon. The perfect flavor to add to the vanilla/spicy chai combination. Mmmmmm.

So, this morning, because I wanted caffeine instead of whatever stimulants chai has, I ordered a soy latté, instead. And I decided to try the cinnamon sprinkles on top of that.

Meh. It’s not nearly as good as the soy-chai-with-cinnamon. Oh, well, I was feeling experimental, anyway.

After posting last night, I called my friend in a panic, telling him that we weren’t going to stop, that we were going to drive straight through, because there was no way in Gehenna that I was going to miss Radiohead.

Luckily, he was able to talk some sense into me. The gates on Saturday open at 11 AM, so it was obvious that Radiohead was going on stage at 9 PM, not 9 AM. Which makes a bucket load of sense, considering.

Man-o-man was I tired and cranky yesterday. Not thinking straight.

Oh, right, here’s the set list. See, what confused me is that the times for each stage are listed in reverse order. It’s not my fault, really. The fact that I was already grumpy has nothing to do with it. Honest.

I’m packed and ready for my trip. Some of the odds and ends that I’m bringing:

• Sunscreen (I “tan” like an Englishman (in other words, I don’t)
• My Maglight
• Two Cuban cigars (Cohiba longs)
• Running clothes and shoes
• A Sharpie (for autographs — Coachella is supposed to have a high celebrity count)

…I don’t know, I can’t think of anything else to bring. I’m bringing one long-sleeved technical shirt, and one pair of jeans, just in case. But I expect it to be warm and dry the entire time. I could be wrong, I suppose…

What might also be interesting is what I’m not taking: my iBook. You have no idea how this tears at my soul, not bringing it. It totally sucks, having a portable computer and yet not bringing it on this trip… aargh. But it would suck more having it stolen.

I am, of course, bringing the iPod. But, as I said a week ago, I am not letting it out of my sight. Sight, hell — it’s not going to be off my physical person the entire trip.

The plan for tomorrow: Be well-rested. I work from 7 AM to Noon, go pick up the rental car, go home and get my stuff, get some lunch, pick up a few last-minute items, and pick my friend up from school around 3 PM, then head south.

It’s about a 17-hour drive, which puts us pulling into Indio, California around 8 AM Saturday. Hang on, let me check the website….

Roly-poly fuck! They posted the set times, and Radiohead is playing at 9 AM on Saturday! Looks like I won’t be able to catch a nap between arrival and the first show! I am not going to miss Radiohead, and, more importantly, I want to enjoy listening to Radiohead, so… man. I hope being in better shape is going to make up for being old.

They’ve put up a map for the Coachella festival. It shows where all the important things are: food, beer, shade, and, most importantly, where the bands will be playing.

Almost the first thing I noticed is that they’ve added Beck to the lineup. Cool! I’d read that last year he just showed up and started playing with another band. He must live close by or something.

Wonder if he’ll be playing stuff from Sea Change? That would be cool…

Here’s the link to the Snopes page about sneakers on power lines.

Bottom line: there doesn’t seem to be any one specific reason for the sneakers. We’re all a bunch of copy cats, it seems.

Update: This is in reference to my previous post. – 7 May 2009 BAM

Update:

My friend informed me that his professor is very strict. The professor would fail anyone who misses two or more classes, and my friend has missed one class already due to work. He doesn’t want to fail, and I don’t blame him.

So my focus has shifted to enjoying the bands we do get to see.

I so need a vacation. Am looking forward to this little road trip very very much.

An urban legend I’ve heard for years now concerns those pairs of sneakers that are often dangling from power lines. I’ve heard it said that those are gang signs, marking their territories. I’ve never known how to read them, and, in fact, I’ve never done any research on whether or not that particular legend is even true or not.

It could make sense, I suppose. Maybe it was true at one time, but as the story filtered out to the ‘burbs people began doing it for other reasons. Who knows? (Well, Google probably could tell me but I’m feeling lazy tonight.)

Consider that it’s true, though, for just a moment. What, then, are we to make of this:

What kind of trendy gang would hang Starbucks cups from the power lines?

I guess my ‘hood is caffeinated. Yo.

I talked to a friend today, who is really into indie music, and I showed him the website for the Coachella festival. There were a lot of bands playing that I’d never heard of and wanted his opinion of which ones were “don’t miss” bands.

He went totally nuts over a bunch of them — sadly, they were all playing on Sunday, the day I won’t be there. Unless I can convince my friend to stay for the second day.

Of the bands playing on Saturday, he liked Radiohead (but not overwhelmingly), and gave grudging respect to The Pixies for their reunion tour, but pointed to Death Cab for Cutie as the only band to seek out.

The bands he went ga-ga for on Sunday were: The Flaming Lips, Air, Belle & Sebastian, Basement Jaxx, Le Tigre, and Pretty Girls Make Graves. He said that if someone’s never seen The Cure live that would be a good show; he would see it but only if they weren’t up against one of the others (unlikely since The Cure is Sunday’s headliner). He’s kind of jaded that way. Which is one reason I asked him.

I really really want to talk my friend into staying through Sunday…

Behold the genius that is Christopher Walken.

Update: I’ve updated the link to point directly to the video. Embedding was disabled by request of the artist. 7 May 2009 BAM