Pitchfork (Part I)

I love watching cities wake up, especially on a Sunday morning when no one is obligated to start the day buzzing and on an immediate caffeine high. We're in Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival and this morning, breakfast was at Cafe Penelope on S. Ashland, halfway between our hotel and Union Park where the festival's at. It was still early (the festival doesn't start till 1pm), so it was just nice sitting in there watching Chicago slowly stir into wakefulness- only one car whizzing by in that first 20 minutes, a couple of people walking to church, a street bum just waking up, looking around, and then going back to sleep again... Breakfast was really nice too- I had one of the most inventive renditions of Eggs Benedict in a while- Crabcakes Benedict. Less rich than what you'd expect from an egg-centric dish (instead of hollandaise sauce, it was a red pepper ranchero sauce), but just as luscious and substantial. We're not going to need lunch at the festival later for sure...

Speaking of the festival, we got the two-day tickets so we had been there for a while yesterday already. We managed to catch The Futureheads and Silver Jews (Jude wasn't too hot about the latter though, but The Futureheads were a blast!), and DJ A-Trak spinning in the dance tent. I'm not usually into dance music, but I have to say, I really enjoyed what he was doing with those turntables. And the crowd was all grooving and moving to the tracks which added to the intoxicating rush of the whole thing I suppose... Jude and I are really awed by the sheer number of people at the festival to begin with- it's how I've always imagine Woodstock to be like (except without the tie-dye shirts, Jerry Garcia/ John Lennon glasses, and pot - ok, I'm sure there was probably pot somewhere, but not that I noticed...)- people just lounging everywhere, lying on the grass, on picnic blankets, deck chairs, drinking beer, slurping ice-cream [photos to come in a bit]... Just imagine, everyone at the festival reads the website- now that's what I call the power of the internet! People who say online magazines will never work need to get themselves down here man... And $30 for a two-day pass with 40 acts playing, that's 75-cents a pop people! Now, that's what I call a deal!

And best of all, the Flatstock Poster Convention is onsite at the festival too. It's the music poster art and design convention that showcases all these amazing poster artists and their work. Jude & I thought we had died and gone to poster art heaven... We literally had to open up our wallets to contemplate seriously how much cash we could set aside for posters. We're in the process of filling up one of our walls edge-to-edge with all the posters we've accumulated over the years, so we're always on the look-out for interesting prints in different sizes. We bought one already and trust me when I say I don't think we'll be coming back empty-handed today either...

We're going to be out of the door soon for festival part two. Jens Lekman, The National and Yo La Tengo are playing and as long as the rain holds and the humdity and heat doesn't kill us first, I think it's going to be yet another great day :)