Bumbershoot: Day 1

Now to finally get to the rundown of the grand vacation. From September 1st to September 10th, I was down in Seattle and Portland (the Pacific Northwest if you will) visiting friends and going to concerts. To start off the whole trip, I was in Seattle for Bumbershoot. Bumbershoot is a yearly music and arts festival, full of comedians, bands, film, carny food (as I like to call it), street performers, and much, much more. Needless to say I was excited for it, however I was flying in at 5 am so my excitement was limited...or was it.

After sleeping the entire flight (YES!) I got off the plane and got bags, and then was picked up by Sobo and Erik. Greetings galore, and then we went back towards Redmond, which is where we were going to be staying with Sarah's friend Kelly, who was a most gracious host (she offered to do my laundry when she saw my dirty socks, I mean come on!). Before going back there however, we went to eat at a breakfast place that was rumored to be delicious. It was called the Brown Bag. This is a very clever name, as it references what you will be eating out of for the next few days, because you'll have so much leftovers after eating there.

Left to right, that's a normal bowl, a big bowl, then Sobo's bowl of Diablo, which was either an Omelette or a Skillet depending on how you like it. Needless to say, Sobo got more than he bargained for, as did Erik, and both of them completed about a 1/3rd of their meal. I got Biscuits and Gravy, and it was ridiculously delicious, and I managed to complete the entire meal. Go me! Suck it Erik and Sobo! No less, great way to start the day.

After that, we went over to Kelly's, and we hung out there all morning, with me meeting Kelly and her roommate Tara (who reminded me quite a bit of Natalie Portman) and having a good bit of fun with Kelly's bird Phinneas (or so I think it was spelled). See below for a picture of myself (and Phinneas on my head) with Sobo and Erik off to my side. It was a good time, but about then it was time to depart for day 1 of Bumbershoot, which was my most anticipated day.



First thing was first, sorting out tickets for me. After waiting a good half an hour in line, I got my gold pass together, and we walked around the Festival to check out all of the crazy good food and the massive amounts of things to do. Also, thanks to the gold pass I could go into the lounge and score a bunch of water and soda for Sobo, Erik, and I. We were corresponding with good buddy Marc as well, and he shortly there after came down to join us. Which leads me to my biggest complaint about the first day (besides being incredibly tired and jet lagged)...cellular service was pretty much dead all day. Even though I knew a good amount of people there (Amy, Eric, and Audrey for three), I could not get ahold of anyone all day and saw no one there besides the group I was there with. Now for the savior of the first day, the International Fountain in the center of the Seattle Center. This thing was wonderful, and on a hot day of this sort, it provided the perfect place to rest. Below are pictures of us hanging at the Fountain and the mass of people joining us well later into the day.

Sobo and Erik at the Fountain

Sobo and I at the Fountain

Marc joining us at the Fountain

Mid-day is hot!

So yeah, we spent a lot of time at the fountain as we were hot and tired, and we just did not have the fighters spirit to persevere this day. Which is OK, but I wish I flew in early so I would have been rested. That's major complaint number 2. So was the only good thing from the first day the fountain? No way!

Band of the Day!

The Shins!

Shockingly one of my favorite bands made it as the band of the day, but truth be told I didn't see a ton of bands day one, and they probably would have blown away everyone else anyways. They played a good mix of the new and the old, but leading off with the opening track off of Wincing the Night Away, called Sleeping Lessons, was the best move of the day and it really got the crowd going. They brought it as per usual, and I was very impressed seeing them the second time. Sure they do not do a lot up there, but they sound pretty much flawless and you cannot complain about a band that does that.

Surprise of the day!

The comedy was the savior of the day, if not for the Fountain. We saw Jasper Redd, God's Pottery, and Greg Fitzsimmons do stand up, and they get a solid B+ for overall performance. It'd be an A, but God's Pottery was overly long and a bit one note for my tastes. However, I have to say Greg Fitzsimmons is a genius. The man made me laugh so hard, and it stands to reason that he has won an Emmy for comedy writing and is one of the best parts of Best Week Ever. Massively offensive, ridiculous beyond words, but sheer brilliance. We had a great laugh, and felt fully recharged to carry on further into the day.

Disappointment of the day...

Day one had a range of disappointments. The cellular phone issues, the tiredness, Plus 44 cancelling like big punks, waiting in line for an hour and 15 minutes to see comedy...you name it. Biggest disappointment I'd have to say though was missing out on Aqueduct, Devotchka, Panic! at the Disco, Gym Class Heroes, and Gogol Bordello because we went home early due to tiredness. I don't regret anything else besides that, as I would have liked to see all five groups.

So here is a quick wrap up.

Bands seen: Danger: Radio (terrible), Crowded House (not good either), the Shins (amazing), Head Automatica (reliably great), the Receiving End of Sirens (15 seconds I heard, 15 seconds were good!).

Comedy: Jasper Redd (surprisingly funny), God's Pottery (one note but amusing), Greg Fitzsimmons (god amongst men).

Food: DELICIOUS!

Day one grade: C+

Day one of Bumbershoot was mildly disappointing and set myself up with a questionable taste in my mouth for the whole thing. Was it because of tiredness? Was the mediocrity legit? Stay tuned later to find out!

However, seeing my friends again was awesome. I missed the guys, it was great hanging out with Sarah, and meeting Kelly and Tara and Mike (will come in later) was fantastic as well. So even though Bumbershoot (day one) was meh-dee-ocre, the Brown Bag and the friends made the day as a whole a big time success.