Lollapalooza – Day One

I know this is old news, but I’ve been traveling for the last week and a half… so lay off me. I’ll try to make up for my lack of posting this week.

I only went to the first day of Lolla, but I wish I would have caught the rest of the weekend, especially What Made Milwaukee Famous. Oh well, there is always Austin City Limits Plus, I was leaving for Boston, so who am I to complain…

It was a beautiful day at Grant Park, evident from my stunning photography (hah!).

Anyway, here is what I caught and my thoughts:

Manchester Orchestra – waited for over an hour to get in… huge line wrapped around Grant Park, only caught a song or two

The Go! Team – pretty good live show – Ninja, the lead chick, is like a little kid on red bull. Btw, there is a Hot Chip Remix of Ladyflash on the single that is worth checking out.

Louis XIV – just OK… he was wearing a suit and it was effing hot out, felt warm just watching…

Mates of State – my favourite of the day… not too many people so I stood close. They are definitely talented and enjoy what they are doing. I listened to them over and over while I was in Boston – I’m almost sick of them now… If you haven’t listened to them, please do so… for me

Bloc Party – underwhelmed by their performance – but then again I was expecting way too much. They were on at six, but it would have been better if it were dark… plus they were on the huge AT&T stage – it was hard to feel the energy… Nonetheless, I love Bloc Party and I enjoyed it.
CSS – a lot of energy, same with the crowd – pretty good live show

Radiohead – absolutely packed… again, would have been better if it were dark the whole time. When it was, their set was pretty cool. I guess I am just not that into Radiohead… at least not as much as those who got in at 11:30 and sprinted to their spots at the AT&T stage

…I love music festivals

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The Arrival of Summer

I know it sounds ridiculous to say summer is just starting, as it is almost August, but I am finally feeling my typical summer high spirits (often reffered to by friends as ‘Summer Brett’). For some reason they were stalled this summer – they commenced as usual this spring with red soxx spring training and opening day, but were beaten back by my thesis and my hustle towards graduation. Although being in China for a month following this was probably the best experience in my life – so far – it was not so good for my summer spirits. Returning to the States in June, I felt a bit of a counter culture-shock. Everything seemed so trivial; I hated the simplicity, the lack of challenge and discovery that was omnipresent in Shanghai and Beijing.

I think I now realize that what is best is to seek a balance between discovery and assurance. Still, if I am to lose this balance, I hope to always lean towards discovery. My biggest fear is complacency, to possess a level of comfort and guarantee that inevitably shields any individual from life’s experiences and from their personal potential. I realize I may not be following my personal philosophy by staying in Minneapolis during my gap year, but I am simply keeping in mind the near future of law school tuition and high costs of living. Besides, I still have a lot planned for gap year – regardless of where I am working – and hope to continue to challenge myself (Japanese lessons?!?!?).

I think this realization has been at the centre of my recent high spirits. I am also golfing more, which has a direct correlation to my attitude (sorry, I don’t have SPSS here, so bear with the excel-style chart):

I was also going to make one that had my golf score as the dependent variable, but I’m too busy lazy and it would simply be a straight line, with no statistically significant correlation between my performance on the golf course and my overall happiness

I am pretty much done with the work week already, which has improved happiness indicators. Tomorrow is our company golf outing, so I’ll be hitting up the links all day. Apparently it is my birthday tomorrow (I didn’t forget this year , so I am celebrating my youth – celebrating my birthday the night before, as is my tradition – with a twilight round of golf. But this year I am also celebrating my age (I usually mourn after my birthday…) by taking a little break from work. After the company golf outing I am going to make the drive across Wisconsin to Milwaukee (I might go out if anyone is around on Thursday night… let me know) for the night before heading to Chicago on Friday. I am hopefully going to check out Northwestern and U Chicago Law Schools, catch lunch with my cousin, and hit up Lollapalooza – I just printed my ticket!!! I am definitely looking forward to Bloc Party, who I’ve wanted to see for a long time… Also looking forward to the Go! Team and Mates of State – here is my schedule, let me know if you want to meet up at all.

I may have planned too much for one day though, as I need to get back to Milwaukee for a 7 AM flight to Boston the next morning… wish me luck!  I haven’t been to Boston for a couple of years so I am quite excited for this leg of the trip, even more so because I will be checking out perspective law schools while I am there. Then I have a flight back to Milwaukee where I’ll see my aunt and uncle and then back to Kiel, WI – the little city that does BIG things - for the annual Kiel picnic and some long-deserved Schwartz’s, my all-time favourite restaurant (possibly in a tie with Village Wok). I think I will need to get another round of golf in while in Wisconsin as well…

All of this driving in the next week or two might kind of suck (if you know me you know how much I hate driving/traffic/automobiles), but I do love to travel, so I can set aside my distaste. I am hoping to check out Austin City Limits in September and am considering driving, although flying would probably be a better idea.  If anyone else is interested, let me know – I am willing to do just a weekend trip, as most are still in school =P  Also hoping for Sydney and Spain within the next year (maybe Shanghai again…) – any suggestions for finding cheap flights???

I’m taking a camera along the journey, so expect more flavourful posts when I return

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AL Wins!

I want to write, but I can’t think of anything important to write about. Thus, I am writing about the All-Star game last night (even though I fell asleep and did not see the end of it). I knew the AL would win anyway (NL is terrible, btw), so I wasn’t too focused on the game.

I was disappointed to see the Yanks fans booing Pap. Once a year an opportunity exists to put aside our competitiveness and hatred for each other and you ruin it by misunderstanding Pap’s comments and sheepishly holding onto the NY media’s misconceptions. Your actions were simply immature,. Yet, they act to further re-enforce the stereotype of ignorant baseball fans followers. Pap actually praised Mariano – what are you so upset about? I guess it is just in Yanks fans’ nature to unquestionably follow the lead of a few media knuckleheads.

Anyways, I’m excited to head to Boston in two weeks. I think I should get a feel as to whether or not I would enjoy studying there for three years. Still, I’m also excited because it should be wicked fun. I am first driving to Chicago to check out Northwestern and U Chicago – and of course Lollapalooza I think I will also make a drive up to the annual Kiel Picnic when I get back from Boston. It should be a great summer week.

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