Thoughts From a Delta 747

Some random, stream-of-consciousness thoughts about the past week or so, offered in no particular order:

Portland: I had my Portland Moment for the day as I was leaving the hotel this morning and encountered a shirtless gentleman walking down the middle of Stark carrying an 80s-vintage boom box. He flashed me a peace sign as we passed each other.

Weather: Despite many people's impressions of the Northwest, it has not rained and the weather this whole week has been outstanding. I'm told that it's seemed to many that this past summer was never going to arrive, but then, starting on Labor Day weekend (and coincidentally upon my arrival) things finally turned warm and sunny. It's actually been downright hot the past few days in Portland, and I haven't seen so much as a single cloud until the skies finally became overcast this morning (and coincidentally upon my departure).

Food: One of the hazards of the full schedule for these festivals is that they left me with no time to eat. I'd catch some breakfast in the morning but after that I'd have to keep making decisions regarding catching the next act or catching a meal.  But since I could always eat another time, but may not have a second chance to see some of these bands (and certainly not in these settings), I'd opt for the next act every time. "I'll eat when I'm dead," I figured, with somewhat flawed logic.

People: I met a lot of very kind, friendly folks, men and women, while I was here, people with whom I could see myself being friends, and the issue of age never came up. In fact, I met several other music enthusiasts close to my age, or at least closer to my age than I meet in Atlanta, and I felt much less like a freak than I sometimes do at home. What I'm trying to say is I think I fit in much better here (the Northwest) than I do there (the Southeast).

The 50,000 "things": Despite what I just said, however, I often found myself squeezed in among a crowd of teenagers, who were generally far more polite and much better behaved than I was at rock concerts at their age. One thing that I realized, though, is that teenage girls, while inarguably cute, are no longer sexually attractive to me; they now look more like children to me than women, which makes the fact that I don't even seem to register on their radar screens that much more tolerable.

Australia: It has been brought to my attention that the band Tame Impala are from Australia, so I stand corrected on my earlier statement from last weekend that there is no good rock music from Australia. Also, there's Sherlock's Daughter, even though they live in Brooklyn now. Having said that, however, Australia's You Am I are still awful.

Legs:  Going to rock concerts requires a lot of standing, including waiting on lines, waiting for the bands to take the stage, and then standing through the performance.  Going to a lot of rock shows takes it's toll on the feet and legs - I was probably standing for anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day, and then walking a mile or so to get back to my hotel some nights.  My legs got used to it, though, and are probably in better shape now than they've been in a long while.

Broken Social Scene:  The festivities may be over, but that doesn't mean the music has to stop. However, even though Broken Social Scene are playing in Atlanta tomorrow night, I'm not going to see them, having just seen them a week ago.  As a Nigerian soccer fan once explained to me at the 1996 Olympics when he walked away from taunts by a Brazilian fan, "I'm a fan but not a fanatic."