Festival review: BFD 07, Mountain View

We went down to Mountain View on Saturday for a music festival. The venue was the Shoreline Amphitheatre. There were three stages: a small stage for local bands, a "festival stage" erected in what looked like a car park overspill for more well known bands on their way up, and the main stage for the big names. The main stage had acts on in the evening, whilst the other two had acts on during the day, allowing you to drift from one to another depending on whether you liked or disliked the band on any one stage.

The weather was blazing hot during the day. I was glad for my cap, and that Ellen remembered the sunscreen. I found it pleasant: you could cool off by sitting on the grass or drinking the huge frozen Margaritas that were being served. There was a good atmosphere, everyone was enjoying themselves.

The smaller stages were easily the best part of the festival. The local stage was surrounded by grass, so if you weren't into the mosh pit, you could recline a bit further back and still have a good view. The festival stage was completely surrounded by moshing fans, who proved that crowd-surfing in the US is still a major sport.

Unfortunately I wasn't that impressed with the main stage. It was immediately surrounded by amphitheatre-style seating, with a huge grassy bank for non-seated spectators to lounge on behind the seats. This wasn't conducive to a good concert atmosphere. Why put seats exactly in the spot where people should be on their feet jumping up and down? It continues to bemuse me that Americans want to sit through gigs. I just don't get it. If people must sit down, they really shouldn't do it right in front of the band. We on the bank were just too far from the stage and didn't feel much atmosphere. The atmosphere improved when the sun finally went down, but by then it was freezing cold on the grass bank which killed the mood somewhat!

What of the bands? I won't bore you with a detailed analysis of each, so here is a pithy summary of those that have managed to stick in my mind for 3 days.

The Good
- Honeycut. On the local bands stage, an electro-dance-funk ensemble who really impressed. Particularly the keyboard player, who did bunny hops for 25 minutes straight during the set. My old Sensei would have liked him.

- Shiny Toy Guns. Electro-punk outfit from LA, who took the festival stage by storm and gave me goosebumps. Excellent.

- Cold War Kids. Hadn't heard of them before, but they were amazing and should be huge. Really different to the generic punk / hardcore going on elsewhere. Props for doing a John Lennon cover.

- Kaiser Chiefs. Best set on the main stage (and flying the Yorkshire flag again), but they just couldn't get the crowd into it, in spite of all their efforts. That's because the part of the crowd who were into it were 1/2 a mile from the stage. Lead singer Ricky Wilson seemed somewhat frustrated with it all.

- Queens of the Stone Age. This was a good set on the main stage - they are clearly excellent musicians. They turned the music up extra loud, which apparently almost killed the people in the seating area, but benefitted us at the back who were feeling totally out of it.

- Bloc Party. Surprised they were headlining the main stage, but then again there weren't any obviously bigger names. I enjoyed their set, and although it didn't sound remotely like the "musical" music they do on their albums, it was still very well played. Lead singer Kele Okereke was good at engaging the audience.

The Bad
- Sum 41. Are they still going? Apparently so. They were crap and swore a lot.

- The Bravery had a shocker - their synth and drum kit were completely out of phase with each other. Apologised to the crowd at the end. Well done for soldiering through, but couldn't they have sorted the problem out?

- Interpol. Played moody, depressing music for 40 minutes, and failed to engage me.

- Social Distortion. Ever heard of them? Me neither, but apparently they're huge over here. I did not like them. The lead singer is clearly from the US, but he tries to sound Irish when he sings. Every song sounded like they were trying to cover The Pogues and doing a bad job of it.

The Just-OK-For-Me-Man
- Every Move a Picture. Opened the festival stage, we only saw two songs, but they were catchy enough. Generic American new-wave rock.

- Silversun Pickups. Sounded heavily derivative of the Smashing Pumpkins. Crowd loved them, but no prizes for originality.

- Scissors for Lefty. Local band who won a competition for opening the main stage. Didn't rate them much musically but they win the prize for having the most random stuff happening on stage. They seemed to reenact the 80s video game Frogger with a giant frog and cardboard cars.

As a direct result of this musical overload, Sunday was an expensive day, as we hit Amoeba Records wielding a credit card!

Out and about with Karen and Duncan

The Shanti fundraising event I’ve been helping to plan took place last Thursday. It was a tough day – I had to make all the Silent Auction signs (about forty of them) plus sort out a number of other things before I even got to the event space. When I did arrive, I was amazed by how beautiful it looked: the Silent Auction displays looked gorgeous, my PowerPoint was running on the back wall, the plants we’d borrowed and the flowers were all looking lovely. It was a very successful event overall, although the co-ordination of volunteers was a bit of a shambles and we didn’t end up with quite enough attendees.

On Friday I had a job interview at a translation company in the attractive Fillmore district. I thought I had it in the bag, because I got on very well with the people there and am really well qualified for the job, but they want me to go again on Friday and meet someone else, so I’m not too sure how it will turn out!

Karen and Duncan, our friends who are immigrating back to the UK from New Zealand, arrived on Saturday. We picked them up from the airport, then went out for a stroll and a coffee. The weather was not nice, though: foggy, windy and really cold. Unfortunately, it was not much better on Sunday either, and I feared that the famous Summer fog was already upon us and that I wouldn’t see the sun again until September. We had a good time doing touristy things, though: went up Lombard Street, ambled through North Beach, had dim sum in Chinatown, shopped in Union Square, took snaps of the Painted Ladies in Alamo Square and soaked up the atmosphere in hippy central, Haight Ashbury. On Monday I went to school in the morning, then met up with Karen and Duncan for a quick trip up Coit Tower. We had dinner in the apartment, then travelled to the Mark Hopkins Hotel on snooty Nob Hill by cable car to have cocktails in the sky at the bar known as “Top of the Mark”. The visibility wasn’t that great, but it was a lot better than the last time Jon and I went (thick fog!).

On Tuesday we got a hire car and headed to the winelands with a brief stop in Sausalito for breakfast. We began in Sonoma with Ravenswood, famous for its Zinfandel, taking in Benziger, the beautiful Château St. Jean and finishing with Serghesio in Healdsburg. We had an excellent dinner at a restaurant in Santa Rosa, where we also stayed overnight in a rather less than inspiring motel. The next day we visited the lovely Hanna winery near Russian River and then crossed over into Napa, stopping at well-heeled St Helena on the way. We took in three wineries in the Napa valley before heading home via Domaine Carneros, a champagne maker with a very flash HQ enjoying lovely views. There we were able to sit outside in the sunshine and have the range of champagnes and pinot noirs brought to us. It was great to go with Duncan, who knows his stuff because he studied viticulture in New Zealand, worked at a winery and is now looking for a job in the industry in the UK.

I’ve really enjoyed having friends to stay, but it’s back to reality now: I need to head to Shanti this afternoon and go to a second interview tomorrow. Still, at least the sun is shining again!

Carnival and barbeques

I’m a bit late with my blogging this week because we’ve had a long weekend too (Memorial Day) and I was frightfully busy at Shanti yesterday. Anyway, what have we been up to? Well, the weather was a bit disappointing: I think the summer fog season is starting, although at least it clears for the afternoon most days. We went hiking in southern Point Reyes on Saturday and experienced the good old Bay Area microclimates – started in thick, cold fog by the coast and moved into glorious sunshine inland over the hill. We did an 11-mile hike (actually pretty easy after Kauai), mainly through woodland, so not as exciting as some of our previous ones. We didn’t see any bobcats this time, but we did see deer and snakes. After the hike, we headed down to hippy haven Bolinas, and enjoyed another delicious dinner at Coast Café. It’s our third visit there, but I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it – it’s so close to perfection, so why go anywhere else? We did eat far too much, though! After dinner, we looked out across the channel at the opening to the Bolinas Lagoon at the long spit of land on the other side, which forms part of the community known as Stinson Beach, musing on whether it would be possible to wade through it at low tide and come to dinner at Coast Café (since I have a friend whose parents own a superb holiday home in Stinson), avoiding a drive of probably at least 10 miles – our musings were inconclusive! Saw a seal swim in, though.

Sunday was the day of the Mission Carnaval (yes, that’s how they spell it!), a wonderful explosion of Latin-American culture in the Hispanic quarter of the city, known as the Mission. It is definitely the best carnival I’ve ever seen: we stood for two hours watching the colourful parade, enjoying the dancing and thudding beats of the samba, and it was still going on when we finally came away. Pretty much every Central and South American country was represented, from Nicaragua to Colombia. We met up with my friend Randan from Shanti there, as she lives in the area, then went to the home of one of her neighbours for a barbeque afterwards, although it was far too chilly to be outside for too long.

Monday was a holiday, so we started with our run to Crissy Field and back. In the afternoon, we headed to the house of a friend of mine from Italian class, Gami. The weather was actually much better: lovely and warm while we sat in the garden (or “backyard”, as they call it) eating barbeque food and being entertained by Gami’s hilarious housemate, Monique. We even saw a tiny green hummingbird! When it started turning cool, we headed indoors and played a really good card game called “Apples to Apples”, before returning home.

As I said, I had a hectic day yesterday – the Shanti event is on Thursday, plus I’ve begun applying for jobs again. Looking forward to the weekend when Karen and Duncan (our old neighbours) visit, though. Photos of the Carnaval are on the Fotki site.

Bay to Breakers

A tiring week: both of us were pretty busy with work, and I volunteered at a charity clothes sale on Wednesday night, which wasn’t actually that inspiring (too many wealthy society women yelling, “that’s so cyyuuute!” all the time). Tuesday evening was pleasant, though: a really nice guy who used to work for Jon was over in San José on business and came up to San Francisco for the evening. We went out to an Asian-Californian fusion restaurant for dinner, then on to our favourite bar, Vesuvio.

Yesterday, we had to go to pick up our race packets for Bay to Breakers, and also put together some costumes. We found a decent party shop and stocked up on silly stuff: a big union jack and a plastic crown for Jon, a grass skirt and Hawaii-themed accessories for me. In the evening, we went to dinner at Mark’s (lovely guy Jon works with), just up the road from us on Green Street, otherwise known as “Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard” after the play that is permanently on the programme of the theatre there. It was really enjoyable and we also got set up for another couple of weekends: someone had two spare tickets going for a big music festival in June and they’re all going camping in Yosemite the week after, so we jumped at the chance to go along too.

Today was the day of Bay to Breakers, the 12 km (7.5 mile) run from the eastern side of the city (Bay) to the ocean at Golden Gate Park (Breakers). We were both a bit apprehensive about it, but there was really no need – it was more of a fun run than anything else. There were bands playing at various stages along the course, crowds cheering and doing “high fives” with the runners on the sidelines, plus loads of people in costumes: we saw a group of Elvises, the “spawning salmon” (a gang dressed as salmon who run “upstream” against the crowd from the end to the start), several bananamen (one eating a banana while running – surely that’s cannibalism?!), wonderwomen, cockroaches, gorillas and naked people! The only thing marring the fun was the cluster of Christian fundamentalists at the start of the race, brandishing their placards claiming, “Got hates…”, followed by a long list, finally ending in “homosexuals” in large letters. As you can imagine, they weren’t getting a warm reception – this is San Francisco, after all! However, it is a scary reminder of what kinds of beliefs lurk in some parts of America.



The race was really slow-going at the beginning, as there were so many people (apparently approx. 80,000 in total!), but I am pleased to say that I ran the whole way, even up the dreaded Hayes Hill, and finished with what I thought was a very respectable time of 1 hour 17 minutes. Jon could have gone much faster, but stuck with me. I was proud of myself, as it’s the longest distance I’ve ever run in my life! I didn’t even find it that difficult, but now I really ache! When we’d finished, we all headed to the polo ground in Golden Gate Park, where there was a big stage, a beer garden and food.

Working, Wii and Mount Tam

Had a busy week with work: lots of freelance translation checking, plus trying to finalise things for the fundraising event at Shanti, as well as going into school (just once this week, though). However, Monday and Tuesday were lovely, warm days, so I was able to take a dip in the pool and top up my tan, too! On Thursday I went to a volunteer appreciation gala hosted by Shanti, and Jon was also allowed to come and meet all the people I’d been talking about. He’s been enjoying playing the Wii – mainly Zelda, which James and Emma lent us. I’ve had a bit of fun with Wii Sports, but can’t get on with Zelda.

Yesterday we went for a nice lunch at Samovar Tea Lounge, then hit the shops, because there were a few things I needed. Of course, I managed to come away with only one of those things, along with several impulse buys, including two pairs of Nine West shoes I found on sale. Jon got treated like a king in Nordstrom and came away with some very expensive, but very good shoes. We then tried to go to big fireworks party taking place on one of the piers. We waited in line for 45 minutes only to find we were in the wrong queue when we got to the front, and would have to wait in two further lines, which we couldn’t be bothered with. Today we were also a bit hapless: we went over the bridge to Marin, with the intention of doing a particular hike, but ended up taking the wrong road. It didn’t really matter, as we found ourselves heading up to the top of Mount Tamalpais. We did a couple of little walks up there, all of which offered stunning views – through the binoculars we could look back at San Francisco and our apartment block. It felt really summery up there too, which was great because it’s turned chilly in the city again.

Hot in the city

A very “San Francisco” weekend packed with new experiences. On Friday, we had the opportunity to go to a baseball game because James, another Data Connection guy, had a couple of tickets going spare. It was the San Francisco Giants versus the Philadelphia Phillies (how unimaginative a name is that?!) at AT&T Park, a really cool stadium in the south of the city with views of the Bay Bridge, Yerba Buena Island and the East Bay from the stands. There were even people paddling around in kayaks hoping to catch a home run ball, should anyone manage to slog it over the boundary. Anyway, we both had a really good time – I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and got into it. It was very uneventful for quite a while, but then the SF Giants upped their game and scored a few runs towards the end, ultimately winning! They deserved it too, after the Phillies displayed some very unsportsmanlike behaviour, making use of the “four no-balls and the batter gets to walk to first base” rule when pitching, to prevent SF batting phenomenon Barry Bonds from taking a hit.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, which we started with our run along the waterfront to Crissy Fields. I was pleased that I did OK, having not gone running for a while – obviously, negotiating those gradients on Kauai helped. I then had to work for a few hours, as I’ve been sent some checking by the translation company I used to work for (I’ve actually had a very busy week, juggling that with my volunteer commitments, which included accompanying the kids to a multimedia museum). In the evening, we headed out for dinner at an Italian restaurant that had been recommended to me, but it ended up being very mediocre. We decided we’d not had enough and took up Emma (James’ girlfriend) on her offer to go out to a bizarre club-cum-house-party in the SOMA (South of Market) district. It was definitely one of the weirder nights out we’ve had, but very “San Francisco” and actually pretty cool. The “house” in question had a roof terrace, lots of widely differing, plushly decorated rooms incorporating everything from massages to karaoke, plus dancing in the largest room with its trippy artwork and drapes. Lots of people were in crazy costumes and the air was thick with not entirely legal tobacco. We met a few people Emma knows there, including a pair of philosophy grad students from Berkeley University.

Today has been a scorcher – 29 degrees, which is very unusual for San Francisco. We took full advantage by spending the afternoon lazing on Baker Beach, on the ocean side of the city near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. When it got too hot, it was delicious to go and have a splash around in the icy Pacific. There were loads of people out and about on the beach, which is clothing-optional at its northern edge! Back at the flat, I went for a dip in the pool in front of our apartment block – this was the first time it’s been hot enough to make me feel so inclined, but it was lovely. We then went out for ice cream at our local gelateria near Washington Square and watched the world go by.

In other news, Jon has bought a Nintendo Wii console, so don't expect any more sense out of him for a while!

Gig review: Arctic Monkeys

This is the first in an occasional series where I will review the gigs we go to. Really I should have started with Badly Drawn Boy a few weeks ago, but I didn't and now I can't really remember what happened. This is mostly for my benefit to record what we've seen, but feel free to read my ramblings if you're interested.

We went to see Arctic Monkeys at the Warfield on Tuesday. The Warfield is a delightful ex-theatre which looks like it must have been built just after the big earthquake a century ago. It has a plushly decorated interior and a large balcony with seats (who wants to sit through a gig??) We were more sensibly located in the stalls area, where the seats had been removed in favour of a mosh pit.

I admit this won't be an impartial review. I love Arctic Monkeys. Not just for their music, which in my opinion is first-rate, but moreover because they hail from Sheffield and really do trade on their heritage heavily in their songs, which are sung with a thick accent and peppered with regional slang and place names. Listening to them is a brief trip home for me, like going back to the schoolyard.

The support band were Be Your Own Pet. I had vaguely heard of them before. They were a bit too much for me. The singer was a blonde with a Cousin It hairdo who rambled incoherently and threw occasional epileptic fits on the floor. The lead guitarist had a talent for being able to play riffs whilst doing backwards tumbles across the stage. We saw them thrash through a few songs (we arrived late) and they were soon off the stage.

Then came Arctic Monkeys. My God, they're so young! By now the Warfield was packed. They are really quite popular over here, and get lots of airplay on alternative radio stations. This was the first gig of their US tour.

Their set was a mixture of crowd-pleasers from the first album and new material from their just-released second album (Favourite Worst Nightmare) which I mostly hadn't heard before. I liked the new stuff - it's heavier and more energetic on average, but with characteristically good riffs and rhythm.

The band concentrated on the music rather than the show, and although their musicianship was excellent, it felt like a rendition of well-rehearsed album versions - they didn't put a new spin on any of the tracks. I would have liked a bit more audience interaction than we got. The singer (Alex Turner) has plenty of Northern charm and the crowd loved it every time he spoke to them - even when he subtly took the mick out of the people in the balcony for sitting down. So more of that please... I had expected that the gig would erupt when they did Fake Tales of San Francisco, but they didn't really milk it enough. Surprisingly, people got a lot more excited when they did When the Sun Goes Down, which has clearly been a huge success over here, as the entire crowd were singing along in faux South Yorkshire accents (which made me smile widely).

It was a bit disappointing when, at the end of the set, the management turned on all the lights, opened the doors and switched on loud Tina Turner music. A bit of a jolt, that. No chance of an encore then? The set seemed short, but the lads did a very professional job belting out track after track without missing a beat, note-perfect. I enjoyed it.