Lollapalooza

Please enjoy this contribution from "Princess"...

The idea of it sounds great, but the reality of it (for me, at least) was grim. This music festival has many components of what I consider to be bad things. Extreme heat, massive crowds, excessive dirt (this includes dust, gravel, sweat, dirty people, and actual dirt), port-o-lets, and limited toilets with actual plumbing.

We arrived early for Day One, so as not to miss the band "The Fratellis". They were good. Give them a listen. I would have enjoyed them more if I listened to them from the comfort of my air conditioned house. But that's just me. I won't speak for you and your comfort level.

"We" by the way, isn't like the "we" of the Corner. It was an actual group of us. Me, Hottie Scottie, our two children, and my cousin's son who was visiting from Atlanta (holla!).

Everyone was on different thirst-bathroom-energy-music taste-hunger levels throughout the day. To further complicate things, food was available on site in a food court setting. No big deal, except that everyone wanted crappy food from a different crappy vendor. So we wander from vendor to vendor being served by people as dirty and sweaty as ourselves. Not comforting.

So back to the music.

Following The Fratellis we listened to the Polyphonic Spree. They were okay. Again, I was baking in the sun, so I might have been drifting in and out of delirium. We heard some Slightly Stoopid, moe., G. Love and Special Sauce, and Perry Farrel's new band, Satellite Party. Grace wanted to hear Daft Punk, but none of us, including her, could muster the energy to stay.

Day Two began slightly later. My cousin's son returned to Atlanta, so it was just us and the kids. The temperature dropped to a very comfortable level, so I was a little more balanced. We began with Silverchair, then listened to Motion City Soundtrack - I liked them, then we saw Regina Spektor (crappy both times Grace and I have seen her live), and ended the evening with Snow Patrol. Snow Patrol was very good live, but I think the kids got more of a show from the audience. And lots of second hand pot smoke, too. I think that three groups around us lit up at the same time. At least they were mellow pot smokers and not hostile or anything. The "kids" next to us offered me a hit from their pipe. I was pretty surprised that they did that in front of my kids, but I guess it makes sense since they were totally stoned. I, of course, just said no. The girl was pretty funny. She looked at me and said, "it looks like you've had a pretty long day...want a hit?". I will go on the record and say that even without my kids there, I would have said no. I'm too old for that. I immediately thought of the horrors of contracting herpes or something. No thanks. Oh! And before we headed over to listen to Snow Patrol, we stopped in this area that promoted green living and organic stuff. Turned out that Perry Ferrel was doing an impromptu performance, so I snapped a couple of pictures of him. The kids thought he was ridiculous and wanted to leave. Scott was having a "moment", so we stayed.

We returned for the last day and got there in time to see Amy Winehouse perform. Even from a distance I could see that she was unbelievably skinny. So skinny, in fact, that I did not even envy her. That's pretty damn skinny! We moved on to Blue October. During both of these acts, Scott got the kids up close for pictures. They had a blast.

Now it's over. I'm done. Unless someone bestows upon me some fabulous VIP passes, I am not going back. It's too hot. It's too crowded. I guess I don't love "the music" as much as my husband.

Seacrest out.