machete was fabulous. somehow i ended up convincing patrick and tatiana to come to the picnic yesterday, and so we all went, even if we did show up six hours late, with their kitten -- frankie -- in tow. before i knew it, other friends started showing up: first alex, who came prompted by a phone call from denise, and shortly thereafter denise, johnny, and xavier.
the two bands we happened to see before machete were less than forgettable, so i won't go into that part of the story. i was milling around with ed while the friends hung out on a blanket on the grass, and i asked him to point out justin, machete's singer, to me. he was sitting with some skater boys that xavier had been checking out, and he was the most nondescript one of all in a gray UM t-shirt and long black shorts. shaved head, sharp chin, small sad eyes. that's him? i said. ed was amused.
but when machete started playing he changed into a completely different person. not that he was a showman in the least, very much the opposite: he didn't stray from a one-foot radius of the space where he initially chose to stand. but he was all over the guitar and the guitar was all over him: it was an intense performance to say the least. i could hardly take my eyes off him, although the rest of the band was pretty amazing in its own right. they tore through six or seven songs, including a versus cover, and then night fell and it was time to pack up and leave the park.
alex left and the remaining six of us went to barnes & noble, where denise and johnny have a long-running scam going. they swindled an $80 gift card in record time and bought us all frappucinos, which we sipped while laughing at an enormous, elaborate book of french cartoon porn johnny found lying around. (what a thing to leave lying around a coffeeshop!) denise, johnny and i headed to the music section and i stopped in my tracks and swooned before the sigur rós display, so johnny picked up one of the cds and put it on the gift card.
(i've had "svefn-g-englar" on loop in my mp3 player, but i forbade myself to download anything else so the album as a whole wouldn't get lost in translation, so to speak, once i did get it.)
i'm starry-eyed over this band. they make me want to renounce my citizenship, pick up and move to reykjavíc, and... ok, i have no idea what happens after that, haven't thought that far, but who cares? if i win the lottery between now and october i will go see them in their homeland, and that's a promise. (i think i'm newly obsessing.)
i was just assailed (!) by a horrendous thought. if i hadn't wasted all those airmiles on the ill-fated trip to see mark, i could go to chicago and crash at andrew and abby's and see sigur rós at the vic. wow. i must have done something really shitty around this time in my past life, because the bad karma has been relentless this summer. c'mon mr. pollard! what are you trying to do to me?
there is so much music lovin' in my life right now, after a months-and-months-long drought, that i almost don't know what to do with it, or myself.
denise also made me listen to gorillaz yesterday in the car over some recreational smoke, and although i was expecting a lot more hip hop and a lot less damon albarn, generally i liked what i heard. although deltron 3030 it ain't. but.
so after this weekend i should be set for the long week ahead, of physical therapists invading the house and endless proddings to jobhunt and fax, jobhunt and fax, jobhunt and fax.
