Bumbershoot: Day #2

First off, I should finish off my Day #1 report by saying that Devotchka rocked my socks off last night. They were just amazing live, and I went home a very happy camper, with a mild interest in learning to play the tuba.

Today's Bumbershoot activities started with the Trucks, who are a group of gals from Bellingham, WA. They play keyboard-fueled electro-pop songs about sex. They were fun and I recommend them. I watched a group of teenagers throw rice all over each other during their set. Oh, kids these days!

Up next were the Watson Twins, of Jenny Lewis solo album fame. They were also excellent, but in a different way. Country-folky.

Then I had some time before I had to go to work so I walked up and looked at the visual art stuff. There was a Nick Drake exhibit, and some rock posters. Also, there were portable confessional pods, but staffed with artists instead of priests. There was this thing about kitchen nooks and how they create community, so they had all these nooks and people were in there chatting and doing crafts and being art, I guess. Last, I went to the Miranda July exhibit, Learning to Love You More. Miranda and this other artist give out random assignments on a website and anyone can do them. This one family in Seattle did them all so that's what the exhibit was. The assignments are things like: write your life story in a day, photograph your parents kissing, make a video of the minute after a crime. It was kind of interesting.

I went to work, ate dinner, etc. Then I watched Andrew Bird. Good set.

After Andrew Bird, I could have gone over and watched Devendra Banhart, but could Devendra Banhart entertain me with booty-shaking and a little ditty called "My Humps"? The odds were low, so I went to see someone who could--Fergie. Fergie managed to have three costume changes in a mere 75 minutes. During one of her costume changes, her back-up dancers had a dance battle. There was a Black-Eyed Peas medley that took basically one line from all the hits, excepting of course "My Humps" which got the deluxe treatment. Some of the personal insights that Fergie revealed during the show: she is living her dream; if you are going through a crazy period in life, Fergie has been there too; she likes the word Bumbershoot; she has a friend named Shrek who put her on the Shrek 3 soundtrack.

Here's a fun fact about Fergie that I read in a magazine: she travels with picante sauce and sugar-free maple syrup, and she puts a little bit on each of her meals so that she can trick herself into thinking that she's eating something flavorful or sweet. But really she's just eating lettuce or something.

I'd like to think that maybe Fergie is doing the same thing I am doing right now, blogging before taking a shower and going to bed. But I doubt it.

Also today: I got sunburnt on my shoulders and ate a delicious funnel cake.