Thursday and Friday

Do you love long-ass blog posts? Apparently I do.
This is the first of two blogs about my trip to Chicago and of course Lollapalooza.

THURSDAY
Left the beach early Thursday morningo go to Chicago. Feifei was really really excited to show me her beloved city. It was cute.
CHICAGO IS GRAND. So many different cultures and types of people. I love it. Close access to everything you could possibly ever want. I WANT TO MOVE HERE. Feifei and my amazing pledgepal took me around to India/Pakistani town, Greektown, UIC Campus (where Feifei goes and incidentally very close to where Katie went to HS), Pilsen(Latino neighborhood), Little Italy. Which were all totally not touristy and genuine and awesome. The food is amazing.
I heard somewhere from someone today that there are going to be 250,000 people were going to be at Lolla.
I like the L. It's nice to not be underground.
When we were outside a bus stop at UIC waiting for a ride to Pilsen, we saw 4 people dressed in casual medieval garb, fighting with foam swords. We LOLed, tried to be discreet about taking their picture. They saw us and invited us to learn to swordfight. I think we were all itching to say FUCK YES, but declined out of embarassment?propriety? But we ended up going to to them and learning swordfighting. Harder than it looks. Really enjoyed the sight of Feifei looking crazy, yelling "I AM ARAGORN!" and lunging. Got scared when I realized that my insane cousin was lunging at me. We swordfought and chatted with them for like 45 minutes, missing three buses. AMAZING.
Caribou Coffee needs to be in VA. All over VA. All over my life.
LOVED everything about today. Life is looking UP.

FRIDAY
Had dim sum with Feifei, her friends, Katie, and Francesca, the Pollards gorgeously nice and sweet Italian foreign exchang student. Chinatown here is so much better than DC.
There was a steady drizzle all day. Katie and Francesca were freezing n the late afternoon and had to leave. After I left Katie and I went to Feifei's friend's apartment for a dinner party. MOST DELICIOUS FOOD I've ever had. Bar none. authentic and beautifully plated. I felt very grown-up.

• So Lolla. So many Camelbaks. Wonder what's in them.
  
• Other Lives: Sound just as great live as they do on their record if not better. We got there late-ish and only heard the last two songs including "Black Tables," obvious last song choice. Beautiful and haunting and Jennifer Hsu on cello is just heartbreakingly gorgeous. Sad I missed most of the set but confident that they will blow up soon and tour everywhere. Hopefully.
  
• There are like 15000 Porta-potties here.
  
• Hey Champ: unexpected surprise, never heard their music. Fun, dancey, electro-poprock. Really good stage presence and a good amount of improv, something that was sorely missed the rest of the day.
  
• White Lies: SEXY. All one can do is stare sometimes. I hadn't done much research on them. But I'd listened and loved their album, To Lose My Life, but I'd not known that they were British and extremely attractive. So what if the lead singer has an almost-mullet and the drummer has an awful bowl cut. They're British, hot, talented, and named Harry, Charles, and Jack. They were a serious band live. No one on stage cracked a smile the entire time. Instead it was an hour of smoldering, sexy, almost-mullet-filled instensity. Fantastic set. Sad they didn't play "Nothing to Give" (the M83 remix is awesome). Would have loved to hear his voice without much instrumental interference. Sexiest band I'd ever seen live.
  
• Bon Iver: We thought that we could just turn around and walk the 300 ft. to the other stage in the same field and get a decent spot. FALSE. Like 250000 people had the same thought. No idea Bon Iver was so popular. Apparently they are. Catherine Melton's sister texted me, which was really nice. Tried to find her but unsuccessful, of course. Bon Iver was very good, we were just like half a mile away from the stage and it was hard to concentrate on the concert because we were standing in puddles and people were constantly moving around us. I feel like Bon Iver works better in a smaller venue anyway.
  
• Fleet Foxes: skipped Ben Folds, waited at Playstation stage for an hour to be close to the stage. The band members arrived, cheery and heavily bearded. Beautiful live. They harmonize so fucking well its amazing. Of course everyone had a seizure when it came to "White Winter Hymnal." But the real highlight for me was when the rest of the band members went off stage for my personal favorite "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" done solo by Robin and his guitar. GUH. Mindblowing. Especially considering that he woke up with a high fever.
  
• Andrew Bird: So I started documenting today while awaiting Mr. Bird. Katie and Francesca had left after "White Winter Hymnal" and I stayed at the stage for another hour after Fleet Foxes to wait. Got front row to the left. The stage setup was really cool to watch because they had all these like huge fake record speakers in different colors. I was tired. My feet were so incredibly sore. And then Andrew Bird came on stage, picked up his violin, and I died. There is something I'm sure that all concert/music addicts all feel I'm sure. A feeling. It's like when you're kinda close to the speakers and the music starts playing and pulses out from the huge black boxes. It pulses your chest cavity and your windpipes and something turns on, and you're entire body is suddenly vibrating with not only the music but something else too. A kind of calm electricity. And you close your eyes a few moments to just listen to the music filling your body and feel that feeling. It makes you feel lucky to be there, alive. I love it. Such a high. Ok that all sounded really cliched and cheesy and dramatic but I feel it. That was basically the entire Andrew Bird set. I was so happy I could have cried. He's just a perfect man. I get excited just thining about him plucking the violin, the guitar and then whistling like only a perfect man could whistle. And when he actually plays the violin, its the most soulful sound ever. Damn. I just got the shivers thinking about it.
• Today was worth the 3-day pass money alone. I feel trapped because I want to see so many artists, but its impossible. I missed Manchester Orchestra, Ben Folds, The Virgins, Crystal Castles, Peter Bjorn & John, Of Montreal, Kings of Leon, and Kid Cudi. Sad.
  
• I HATE BEING SHORT.
• MY FEET ARE KILLING ME.
• Let me know if you want a program. I'll get you one.