Monday, May 30, 2011

The pros and cons of South Korea

While I've only been here about 2 weeks on my trip I have observed several things about the Korean society, both positive and negative. Overall my feelings a positive but I felt a list like this would give others a good sense about the country and what to expect if they do happen to visit.

Pros:
Money - The Korean Won not only goes far in this country (a good meal with drink is usually around 8000 won or so, $1 is about 1000 won) but tax is almost always included in prices which are mostly rounded to the 1000.  The custom of tipping that we are so used to in the states is also nowhere to be found here, making your money stretch even further. The so called T-money cards which are loaded for transportation are also extremely efficient, Korea is closer to a cashless society than almost any in the world.

Public Transportation - Although not without it's negatives the transport system here is Seoul is amazing. The subway system blows anything else in the states away, it is well organized, super clean, fast, and cheap. Even as a foreigner it is easy to navigate as long as you know where you are going. Also taxis are way cheaper than in the states, I'd say probably half the cost. There is also a massive bus system that goes all over the city and it only costs 900 won to ride in most cases (around 85 cents). The subway system is the best though, it is mind blowing.

Safety - Never have I traveled somewhere, or even lived for that matter, where I felt so safe. While I cannot find exact statistics on it there is no doubt that this is a far safer place than the US. I've heard stories of people leaving their belongings behind in places, even their wallets, and coming back hours later to find them untouched. It probably helps that there are cameras strewn all across the city, but if it keeps people safe then it's hard to disapprove.

Food - While a bit tough on my former vegetarian diet the food here is delicious, interesting, and cheap. It is very meat centric, usually meals consist of some cut of meat which is grilled at the table. With that come side dishes from basic salads to the infamous Korean dish kimchi (a fermented vegetable usually cabbage or radishes). Often the meat is wrapped in lettuce leaves and dunked in various sauces, or in others (as in shabu shabu which I really like) it is cooked in a broth mixed with vegetables. Oh and there's definitely lots of garlic, which I love. Just last night too I had probably my favorite meal at this all you can eat tuna place where they bring you fresh sashimi cuts of delicious tuna. I still eat fish back in the states, so even though this was the most expensive meal I had at around $20, it was probably the most satisfying. While they could stand a bit more variety I definitely think the food here is a major positive about Korea.

Girls - Holy hell there are an amazing amount of attractive ladies in this place. Almost everyone wears high heels and shorts skirts, legs are on full display here. Girls get done up to go just about everywhere, and a part of the scenery I must say it is enjoyable.

Terrain - Even though Seoul is an absolutely enormous city you are never far from nature, as you can see mountainous terrain all over the place. You feel much less boxed in than a city like New York. There are lots of parks and beautiful sites around to see amongst the huge buildings (although I will say the architecture here is rather drab). If you want to see a good view of Seoul and the surroundings check this video I shot up in Namsan tower:


Friendliness - While plenty of people won't approach you being a foreigner that still hasn't stopped a few from coming up just to ask if we needed help (sometimes I must look pretty lost). In some cases if you ask for directions people will actually take you to where you want to go rather than just pointing it out. And anytime you buy something from a store or are served in anyway you are always greeted by a smile. Definitely can't say the same thing for your average convenience store employee in the states. Also I recently discovered the "information" girls around certain parts of town who are just there to answer questions people (mostly foreigners) may have about the given area. Does such a thing exist anywhere in the states? Maybe but not as prevalent at least.

Bath houses - Pure relaxation and comfort, althougt surely not everyone's cup of tea. Jimjilban's are Korea bathhouses where you can go to shower and relax amongst hot and cold tubs, saunas, get a massage and even sleep. Certain parts are segregated by sex because they are fully nude which at first may seem a little weird but when in Rome as they say. After a night of drinking nothing feels better. I've been to 2 different ones at this point, the second one was a lot more involved at had this great heated room with the bed of hot rocks you could lay down on. That was in the coed part, which everyone can go to after the bathhouse and throwing on some relaxing pajama style clothes. And after the hot room hitting a cold room was invigorating. When finished you emerge feeling better than at any other point during the day. It's like a public spa that costs $6, awesome.

Public bathrooms - Koreans probably think nothing of it but living in America so long it really stands out. Why is it so hard to find a public restroom in the states? Even in big cities like New York I don't see them at most subway stops, and almost anywhere you go is for customers only. Sometimes they even say employees only! Here they are everywhere, very easy to find especially if you know where a subway stop is. Maybe it's due to the lack of homeless people of which there are hardly any. Seriously though America should catch up, I guarantee there is a direct correlation between the amount of public restrooms and public urination. 

Cons:
No trashcans - I'll start this list off with a small gripe, but what's with the lack of trash cans in this country? People are often encouraged to throw their garbage on the ground because someone will pick it up later. Sometimes your best bet of finding a trashcan is a public restroom. At least when you do find them there's a series with different ones for recyclables and the like.

Substances - I rip on the US drug laws often, but being over here I realize I should feel lucky. Alcohol and nicotine are what is condoned here, marijuana and other drugs are heavily criminalized and looked down upon. I could write a lot about this but it is my belief that other drugs can have much more positive effects on people, their well being and world views can be changed and improved. Alcohol has more negative effects, not saying I don't enjoy them often times but they can not do the good that others can. I can only hope one day this world will wake up and recategorize the dangers of different drugs as the British drug czar famously did in 2009 before he was fired. And Korea is WAY behind Britain in this issue. Plus Soju gives you terrible hangovers. But when that and sub-par beer is all that is readily available people end up drinking a lot more than they should. Korea has a very high alcoholism rate as a result (11th I believe I was told, although I couldn't find exact figures).

No dryers - While it is nice that the most of the small apartments here have their own washing machines it seems that almost no one, even big places, use dryers. Rack drying ruins your clothes, making them brittle and scratchy. And towels are just awful. I guess if you grow up using small rough towels your whole life you don't really mind but man they don't know what they're missing in a big, fluffy towel.

Music - The music here is terrible. K-pop (as Korean pop music is dubbed) is lame and almost all your hear besides American music. Being from the states we are spoiled with musical  (and people) diversity, but there is no convincing me their music is good. Derivative and lame through and through. In fact the best song I have found here is a comedy "joke song" called Itaewon Freedom which is pretty good in it's own right. Check it out, but just remember it's all WAY downhill from here:


Public transportation shuts down at midnight - For as good as the public transportation system is here it's a pretty big fail that the subway and buses shut down at midnight. If this happened in New York there would be riots. And even in big cities like Chicago some of the lines shut down but not all of them, they just run slower. Often this means on the weekend people stay out drinking until 6am when everything opens back up. Madness.

Lack of diversity and individualism - This is my biggest knock on Korea. In some ways it is hard to fault a country for being what it is, but never have I visited somewhere in all my life that exhibited such homogeneity throughout their country's peoples as if it was a good thing. People of different nations are looked down upon, I'm all for a feeling of nationalistic pride but here it is very close minded. Some in the US exhibit this trait but I would consider them less intelligent than the average Korean. When I ride the subway here I am usually the only white guy doing so. This is also NOT a country that promotes individuality. What results is a culture of productive followers who look and act alike. There is no real counter-culture here, and that really shows in their music and general attitudes of always trying to act like everything is sunny and great even when it is not. It is then no surprise that Korea has the 2nd highest suicide rate in the world currently (according to wikipedia which places Lithuania number 1 and the US 39 for comparison). When you aren't encouraged to by yourself and feel how you feel it puts great strain on your person. There is immense pressure on school children to succeed, I've heard stories of kids freaking out over getting 98% on their tests because their parents will punish them. That's just one example, and while the US could learn a lot from Korea's schooling system the Korean people could learn a lot from the States' emphasis on individualism and our free thinking society.


While I could probably think of a few more things to add to both sides of this list these are the original things that stood out to me. I also want to be clear that even though I wrote about a lot of negative stuff I still think South Korea is a great country and am very glad I visited. They have done great things with their society, but they could benefit a lot form loosening up a bit and being more accepting of other cultures and ideas. So if you get a chance to visit Seoul and the surrounding areas you should go for it. If you come from the US though you will most likely find a place that is not as different as you would have imagined from the big cities of America, but is lacking in many of the things that makes places like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and even Nashville so great. For now that is all, I'll detail more of my personal experience later but I just felt like writing this first.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Korea trip part 1

It is something else over here. Tuesday I left Nashville and after nearly 25 hours of traveling I arrived in Korea. The airport I flew into was Incheon, which is a neighboring city of Seoul. Seoul is the capital of South Korea and is the 2nd largest city in the world (or 9th depending on how it is measured concerning the surrounding areas, regardless is is fucking enormous). A couple of my friends who are over here teaching English were nice enough to meet me at the airport and show me the way to the city.

The first thing I noticed was how amazing the subway system is here. It makes Chicago's look like a toy, it's sleek and new and each station is massive. After arriving at my friend JP's place I dropped my bags off and we headed out for some drinks. Alcohol is widespread here, unfortunately the beer they serve on tap here (mostly Cass) is subpar but the Soju runs plentiful. Soju is distilled from any things such as rice and potatoes and has a flavor similar to vodka just slightly sweeter (and less alcoholic at around 20%). It is also cheap as hell, a bottle normally runs between 1000 to 3000 won depending on where you order it (think of 1000 won as $1). Needless to say I got pretty drunk on my first night, especially factoring in the jetlag and lack of sleep I was experiencing.

I woke up feeling a bit woozy, being slightly hungover and on the other side of the world will do that to you. Once we collected ourselves my friend Adam and I (who was also visiting from Nashville) headed out into downtown Seoul to explore some of the sights. We were trying to find this river walk but got kind of lost so we ended up in this temple-like sanctuary with an impressionist art museum in it (I later found out it was called Deoksugung Palace). We wandered around a bit more after that just taking in the views of the city. It is an interesting juxtaposition of a place, this huge city surrounded by mountains and filled with a mix of Korean shops and restaurants as well as Americanized businesses such as 7-11's and Taco Bells.

It was about time to head back and grab some dinner with my friends, and wow here comes the meat. I'm a semi-practicing vegetarian back in the states, I eat fish on occasion but never mammals. Just a personal choice which I may explain more later but here it was clear going that route was not an option. My first major meal consisted of a pile of meat (some cut of pork I believe) which we cooked on a grill at our table. When cooked the meat was wrapped in lettuce leaves and dunked in various sauces with a little garlic thrown in there. And of course lots of Soju on the side. Gambae!

We went out drinking some more after we ate and after a few drinks my exhaustion was really catching up with me at this point. I nearly fell asleep at the bar, so after a bit we grabbed a cab and headed home because we had an insanely busy day lined up for Friday, which I will explain about as well as the rest of my weekend in my next blog entry. I was also hoping to finish my Coachella reports before all this started but I lost a huge chunk of what I wrote on the plane over here for some unknown reason so that's going to have to wait. Not that anyone should care but myself, but I do want to get it down at some point before I get. C'est la vi. I'm in Korea now, for 2 more solid weeks.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A change of pace

Time for a break from the music reports. Things are changing around here, I haven't even really had a good time to finish my Coachella recap, my mind is definitely preoccupied with all the changes taking place in my life right now.

First let's start with something fun. I purchased a new camera recently, a pretty serious DSLR (my first ever) I plan to use both for movies and for photography which I am starting to get more into. It's the Canon 5D Mark II, definitely a big step up from my little point and shoot Canon that I take to shows. Thing is a beast, and it does shoot incredible video but definitely lacks the complete package of a nice video camera. The lack of auto-focus I can deal with in most instances, but not being able to change any aperture or image controls when rolling can be annoying. Also the lack of an articulating screen hurts the overall usefulness of the camera, but I'm still learning. My first video on it is due out soon, May 17th probably, delayed in many parts because my inexperience with the camera (and lack of lenses) really showed in a lot of the stuff I shot. But with a couple of new purchases (most notably my Canon 100mm 2.8 L macro lens, fucking amazing) and some more shoots I'm getting in the groove. Still a big change, but a definite welcome addition to my arsenal. Here are a couple of random photos:
macro nail


Melba
Part of the reason for acquiring new gear was to distract me from the other shifting realities of life. Getting a bit personal here, but I've been dating the same amazing girl for nearly 5 years now. If you know me personally then you know who I'm talking about, if not then you'll just have to imagine. We've lived together in different places for almost 4, the past year in her Mom's house back in Nashville which we were renting from her. Were being the operative word, as currently we are just about moved out of the place. Moving always holds a special kind of suck in life, but never has it been this terrible. For this time the move is taking us to different places. While I'm staying put (for the most part) she's moving to New York for grad school. And while I completely support her choice and the new path this will lead her down I cannot escape the fact of how much it sucks. Distance may be something we need for a while, we have talked about it before, but as the reality sets in it is still very hard to accept.

Which is probably why it's a good thing I've got a lot of stuff going on while all this is going down. I'm about to embark on my most serious travel expedition of my life. It's nothing really that crazy, as I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to foreign travel so it doesn't take a lot to make it a serious endeavor. I will be exploring a new continent and hopefully distracting myself from the tough to swallow changes in life with new experiences. On May 17th I will leave for Korea where I will rendezvous with friends from Nashville who are working there teaching English. I don't even know exactly what I'm going to do, mostly I just hope to see new things and get a different perspective on life. And also to take a lot of pictures, you can bet that beast of a camera is traveling with.

So distractions are in order, I feel if I stick around Nashville right after she leaves I'll be miserable. Better to be moving around. Plenty of that going on, I'm currently in North Carolina with said amazing girl on a mini-vacation before we depart. Then on to Chicago for my brother's graduation for 4 nights. Return on Monday, hopefully wrap up some work which has been hanging over my head for a bit. Then Tuesday it's off to the other side of the world. A definite change of pace this will be.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Coachella 2011 report: Day 1

Coachella has now officially cemented its place as my favorite (and I think the best) music festival in the country. This was my 6th year attending and looking back it definitely has to be my favorite (2008 is a close second). If you've never been I can't stress enough how much you should if you're at all into the festival thing. Get your tickets early, because it will sell out super fast. It only took 6 days this year and probably will take even less next.

Now in it's second year of using a car-camping system with ins/outs between the festival and camping, as well as making the only ticket available a 3-day pass, it has now attained the all-inclusive festival experience it was lacking in previous years. The stunning setting combined with the top-notch booking spanning just about every genre (still could use more quality hip-hop though) and sprinkled in with beautiful is to me paradise. If you haven't been you really must experience it at least once if you are at all a fan of these types of experiences. Be forewarned though you will need to get tickets early, it sold out in a week this year when tickets went on sale after the lineup was released. 2011 has been the year of the quick music festival sell-out, I would be stunned if Lollapalooza doesn't sell out (lineup comes out tomorrow, look for Young Man on the lineup!) and Bonnaroo most likely will as well. Despite the sell-out this year though Coachella did a fantastic job of dealing with the crowds this year, which got totally out-of-hand last year with some 15,000 people sneaking in or using duplicate tickets. Last year Coachella took 2 steps forward and one back. This year they didn't take any back, and like I said before Coachella officially put itself at the front of the pack of US festivals.

Even though the festival happens Friday through Sunday the journey really begins on Thursday, with travel from Nashville Los Angeles (thank you southwest for the direct flight and 2 free bags, clutch for camping gear) then the drive down to Indio, CA. And a journey it is, meeting old friends and new as we formed the biggest Coachella camping group since I have been going to the festival and finally headed into the camping area. Waiting in line and checking in was a bitch but it could have been worse I guess, took a solid 3 hours to make it to our designated camping zone. After setting up it was basically 5am when we got to sleep, and so began a theme for the weekend of short rests between long days. At 9:30am it's rise and shine, even a good shade setup doesn't keep the heat out. Then you can kind of nap in the shade or the car for a bit, but by noon we were itching to head in and get things started.

Walking in early on the first day early is a unique experience, seeing the grounds clean and empty before they get trampled and trashed by tens of thousands of people. Friday was the perfect weather day, warm but never unbearably hot. First thing we wanted to check out was Tokimonsta, an awesome electronic artist on Flying Lotus' label I had seen at SXSW earlier the year. Her set was a lot of fun and a great way to start the weekend, dipping into samples ranging from Jimi Hendrix to TV on the Radio mixed with laid-back electronic beats. The Sahara tent looked awesome this year, with help from the Creator's Project. Great way to start the weekend.


Black Joe Lewis & the Honey Bears was next, a blues band I knew little about but had been reccomended by a friend. It was a fun show to check for a while, definitely had some James Brown vibes but it wasn't enough to make me miss !!! who was to play during the latter half of their set. We chilled in the back for a little while and headed over to the Outdoor Theater to meet up with some friends and go see !!!


If you don't know about the music/antics of !!! (pronounced chk chk chk) I highly recommend you check them out, a great dance rock band in the vein of LCD Soundsystem but more kooky. The lead signer Nic Offer is a wild character with some of the best dance moves ever. Not in terms of grace or composure but just for pure the inspiration to get down and groovy. This was my 5th time seeing them and they have yet to disappoint, everyone in the crowd was dancing around despite the intense sun beating down on us. You must check out their records and show if it ever comes around you, so much fun.



After the !!! show we needed a slight breather, we wandered around the grounds for a bit to get some food and check out some of the sights. Next on my itinerary was Omar-Rodriguez Lopez of the Mars Volta and At the Drive-in fame. I used to be a huge At the Drive-in fan, a lesser one of Mars Volta but I do really like their first album even still. Seeing this show was interesting as it turns out Cedric Bixler was part of his group, a member of both bands with Omar. It was so tragic when At the Drive-In broke up, they were definitely one of my favorite hardcore bands ever, and this show was in some ways a painful reminder of how much I missed them. The show was at turns brooding, hard, and psychedelic but they just didn't capture the magic that was At the Drive-In or much less the Mars Volta. Still glad I saw them though.


It's kind of unfortunate I had to witness a Skrillex set twice this year, dude is just not a good DJ but his popularity is sky-high. I swear I could do about 80% of the stuff he does "live" and I'm not a talented DJ by a long shot and his song selection was obvious (sorry Warp 1.9 was played out several years ago, much less in 2011). The tent was crowded and hot as fuck but really I was there to see Odd Future next, and give them another shot after the SXSW fiasco I had witnessed 4 weeks earlier.

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. OFWGKTA. Perhaps the most random acronym to have caught on so quick as if late. The stage was set, albeit a bit late and perhaps a tad big (why they were put in the Sahara dance tent remains a mystery to me), but Coachella could have been a ground-breaking show for Odd Future. They've been tearing up the independent rap-scene lately, and they've got a (potentially) long career ahead of them considering not a one of them is even 18 yet. And to be honest maybe that's the problem here, their immaturity shows and not in a good way. The show started out with a bang, "swag" and "golf wang"chants abound as they launched into "Sandwitches." The momentum was quickly lost though as the group struggled to get their rhythm going, it was hard to distuguish who was rapping at times especially when backing tracks could be heard so clearly. I'm sorry but I just can't take any rap show seriously that uses the vocal tracks of the raps played over the live rapping. I don't care who you are, it's just never going to work. We stayed for about half the show and decided to go check out the last half of Cee-Lo's show.



This was probably the most disastrous run of Coachella, as Cee-Lo was a whole different kind of train wreck. Despite showing up 25 minutes into his set he had not even started yet. He did take the stage soon after we got there, claiming that his flight ran late and he had just arrived. I'm sad to say the show couldn't ever really get off the ground from there, he seemed pissed and complained about his early set time. Seems his travel should have been handled a bit better, he knew when he was supposed to play. Of course he still sounded great, but you could tell he wasn't bringing his A game. It got so bad that they even cut his microphone off at the end, which definitely did not go over well as he left the stage while the band continued to play. At least I got to hear him play one of my favorite tracks off his new album:



After Cee-Lo on the mainstage was Lauryn Hill, we scooted up to get a good spot for we had never seen her before. Obviously the woman is a near legend, her work with the Fugees and on her Miseducation album coupled with the mystique of her being so out of the spotlight this decade. I was very curious about what her set would be like, I'd heard both glowing and completely dismissive reviews of her performances, blaming lateness and weird song restructuring as one of the main problems. I will say though I really enjoyed her set, although with the insanely large band up there with her (I think about 18 people!) sometimes I couldn't help but feel they were there to distract from the fact that her voice has taken a tumble in recent years. Granted she was at such a high level back in the day, but the reworking of her songs often sped them up and didn't allow her to vocalize them as maybe they should have been. Still though I enjoyed the vibe, hearing some of her classic tunes was pretty amazing even if they didn't sound as I remembered them.



Next on our list was Sleigh Bells but we had a little time to kill so we walked by one of the tents on the way and checked out Kele, an artist I had never heard of before or at least so I thought. I came to find out afterward that he was the lead singer of Bloc Party, which makes sense but I definitley didn't put together at the time. His vocals were sharp and he sounded really good with his band, soulful rock and roll emanated from the stage and even though I knew none of his work (as a solo artist at least) I was drawn in. Props to Kele, I need to grab his solo album soon. We stayed for a good chunk before we headed to the adjacent tent for Sleigh Bells.



And what a noise fest they were. If you don't know Sleigh Bells I wouldn't be too surprised, because while they've become really popular over the past couple of years (they played Coachella last year too) they still only have one album of material to speak of. A doozy of a record that is, Treats is a whirlwind of sonic ear-fucking with intense, distorted guitar sounds accompanied by poppy vocal stylings. The final product is unique and definitely not for everyone, especially in the live setting, but I was totally enthralled by their show. It was better than their last at Coachella IMO, granted I was way more familiar with their material at this point but I think they were also better at playing it as well.



Next up in the same tent was Cut Copy, and as soon as Sleigh Bells ended we didn't hesitate to move up in the tent and stake out a great spot. GOOD DECISION! Cut Copy fucking killed it. It is hard to put into words how good their show is, the energy and sheer joy through out the crowd was absolutely sensational. Every song was a hit, people were jumping up and down going bonkers and the energy was nearly unmatched all weekend. Check video below for an example. I was sad to have to leave even one song early but we had a date with the Chemical Brothers.



So I won this ebay charity auction that ended just a few days prior to Coachella that included 2 VIP tickets and a chance to meet the Chemical Brothers. I had been eying it for a while and in the closing moments I sniped it for a relatively reasonable price, about what VIP tickets normally go for. And being that it was a charity auction to help out disaster relief in Japan made it all the more gratifying. I can honestly say this experience certified this as my favorite Coachella day ever.

We met up with the label head of Astralwerks who was to have us taken backstage to the Chemical Brothers trailer. I was slightly nervous at the prospect but Glenn made us feel comfortable off the bat, super cool guy. Once both the Chemical brothers had arrived (they're not really brothers) we made our way inside their trailer. They offered us a drink and their whole crew was really accommodating, conversation flowed nicely and we riffed on how much we disliked the Kings of Leon. Seems they were a sore spot for both of us, their crew were described by the Chemical Brothers' as one of the least accommodating they had ever had to work with, definitely a poor representation of Nashville hospitality. And remember these guys have been touring since the 90's, so they've dealt with A LOT of different artists and their respective crews. All in all it was amazing experience, we hung out for half an hour or so and they were cool enough to grant us a photo-op before we went on our way.


At this point we were totally on cloud nine, especially considering we still had some great music to see. We were able to check out a little of the Aquabats which was a great moment of ska-infused nostalgia, but it was a bit hard to focus at the time. I was really pumped about seeing Nosaj Thing next, so after a couple of songs we made our way over to the small Gobi tent to rendevous with our friends.

And Nosaj Thing rocked it, definitely met my expectation which I had raised pretty high after watching some live videos of the guy. His down-tempo vibe really fit my mood and he used a great collection of original music with samples woven into the mix. It was in the vein of Flying Lotus' performance last year, not quite as epic but a very similiar vibe. I particularly enjoyed his mix of Portishead's Wandering Star. A great lead-in for the main act of the night.




What else is there for me to say about the Chemical Brothers at this point? Having seen them play one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen only 3 weeks prior I knew what to expect, and meeting them just moments before cemented my belief of them being some of the best/coolest musicians on the planet. Their show is nothing less than art, it takes you on a journey and everything is crafted from beginning to end. The only thing that kept this show from being quite as epic as their Ultra show was they had to cut it short due to the asshole Kings of Leon crew and the imposed curfew, which luckily they were allowed to break a little. It was unfortunate they had to start about 30 minutes late, and maybe this caused some people to leave early or not stick around for the whole thing. But those who did were handsomely rewarded.

The Chemical Brothers really have tapped into something. They inspire both dedication and joy in their followers. Long-time followers were well prepared and new believers were made as they launched through a collection of tunes spanning many ranges of emotion. At turna joyous, beautiful, intense, awe-inspiring and even at times bordering on frightening, their music careened throughout their brilliant career while back-dropped by some of the best visuals I'd ever seen. So good in fact I've been inspired myself to cut together a full-length video of their set from all the fan videos out there on youtube. Hopefully they do not mind, it is their content but here it is presented directly from the fans' point of view. It's also an excuse for me to relive the experience again, something I hope to be doing for a long time. Check out the first part here, and see also the dedication of some of the audience members who set out to glow the place up. You'll see what I mean:


If you want to check out my of the videos visit my youtube page, and go ahead and subscribe while you're at it. Overall it was a mind-blowing way to end likely my favorite day at Coachella ever, and if you made it this far through this long entry then hopefully you've begun to understand why someone like me would spend so much time at these type of events and even want to create on of his own one day. Hopefully soon that will be a reality and not just a dream. For now though I will continue to experience and write, and the other day recaps should come a bit quicker because there was just so much to say about this one. And it wouldn't have been half as special without the Chemical Brothers as a part of it, so big thanks and love to them. Go get their new album Further NOW if you don't have it. Spectacular.