Here I Stay Festival 2008: Day One, 25.07.08

We arrived while Il Moro E Il Quasi Biondo were finishing their set, and we put our tents up (and Roberta started to build her stand) while Vanvera was playing at the White Stage. Vanvera was good and enjoyable, but since there was a lot of running to and from the car with boxes and struggling with vegetation involved i can't remember a thing of it. What we did manage to see was Lupe Velez, who played at the Black Stage while we helped Roberta finish setting her stand up. They sounded a bit like Beatrice Antolini but without keyboards, a bit better and doing it for longer than her. Then there was a break for an hour while another band played at the White Stage, but since our stand was next to the Black one we stayed put around there. The next Black Stage band we saw was

Lush Rimbaud

Great job. 4-piece band quoting Fugazi and Disco Drive on the press release, sampled beats the drummer someties struggles to cope with but he needn't because they're doing great. Their Post-prog noise punk with uneven, sometimes oblique rhythms sounds a bit like what the Grateful Dead could have been in the '00s minus the blues, the beards and the embarrassing fans. I'd heard of them before but never seen them live: the former is well-deserved but the latter isn't. Had to resist the temptation of buying their cd.

After that Enon did their line check at the Black Stage, and Dos Hermanos started their set at the White Stage. Since things were pretty slow we decided to close shop and go watch

Dos Hermanos
Dos Hermanos will liven up your birthday party. They will bring girls to your party. They will bring the strongest booze you've ever tried to your party. They ARE your party. And they're sending you to bed without your supper.

More? Standing on his chair, the left half of the duo croons "Da Da Da" into a loudspeaker while Hermano #2 drums an obsessive beat. Obsessive and repetitive, but funky anyway. We don't know how they does it, but they jus' does it.

For fairness, Roberta's opinion was "perfect running-away-from-peasant-lynchmob music". Yes, she liked them too.

After them came Enon, who had obviously made the most of their soundcheck. I didn't take any notes down because i was too busy enjoying the show, but what i can say is that they sounded enormously better than last time i saw them (in Udine, in December, in a cellar), and i had already enjoyed it quite a lot that time.

The sounds were perfect and nice and loud - especially for those of us right in front of the stage. The sheer energy of the trio was something that has to be seen to believed: definitely one of the best bands currently active who you can still manage to see in DIY places like Friulian cellars or the Sardinian countryside. Their setlist (which -in its physical incarnation- i kept after the show and is quite a feast for the eyes) was fundamentally most of the latest album plus most of their previous hits, all played amazingly tight, surprisingly fast and with almost no breaks inbetween. The drummer in particular, clad in a Neil Young squared shirt and sporting a lumberjack moustache, stood out for the sheer energy of his performance. All in all, they played the best possible set and if it had been any better there would probably been a police intervention due to excessive coolness. No, they didn't play Daughter In The House Of Fools. Yes, it was that cool anyway.

Enon's setlist, w/guest

We were positively knackered after their set, so we headed back to our tents and fell asleep in mere minutes completely oblivious to how close the White Stage was and to how long the all-night deejay played.

That's all for day one of the festival. I'm going to skip day two because due to the things that happened that night i didn't manage to take notes on the concerts - or enjoy them, for that matter. But this is a topic that must be dealt with elsewhere.

The italicized comments are the ones i had written down during the festival, sometimes even during performances.

Hereistay Records/Festival official site here

Sardinia. Population: 1,655,677. Eyebrows: 827838,5 (figure it out for yourselves)

Since my feet are finally starting to recover from the long Livorno-Sardinia voyage, to the extent that there are now some parts of them that no longer hurt as long as i don't touch them too hard, i think i'm still in time for writing a post about my stay in Sardinia.
I don't plan to write too much, though, because i wouldn't know where to start nor where to end. The plan is therefore to take the twitter updates i was compulsively sending while on the road and expand on those with images and small anecdotes.
I wish i could embed twitter updates the way Warren Ellis does, but i don't really have the technical knowledge to do that on Blogger.

Background: It was Sunday, the 20th of July and Italia Wave had just ended. It had ended around 4 or 5 AM after something of a staff afterparty and something of a general falling over from exhaustion. So in the late afternoon/early evening we made our way to the ferry, which considering how little we were paying was expected to be of the dirty and dangerous kind, with rusty metal bits sticking out and sailors who have had pretty bad marine accidents ("his face was eaten by the seals, it was. Twice. They had to stick the bits back on with blu-tack" etc). Instead it was a luxury boat of the type where you see people with top hats and monocles. We got to sleep *indoors*. On a carpet, even. I had especially brought some heavy clothes for the crossing as i expected to have to sleep in a segregated corner outdoors ("there's no place left on these decks for your kind, only place available left's the plank") with seawater splashing over me and keeping an eye open for thieves, stowaways and mutiny. Instead, Luxury. Which means i had to lug a pair of heavy winter trousers and a warm heavy sweater in my rucksack for our entire trip through sunny Sardinia in late July. Just my luck.

anyway, on the morning of the 21st we got to Olbia:

Week begins in Olbia, basically an extension of the ferry arrivals ramp rather than a town. The roads are mysteriously uphill both ways.

11:45 AM July 21, 2008 from txt

Olbia is quite the ugly town, apparently existing only as a place for people to get off their ferries and bugger off towards the beaches as fast as they can. We had to spend the whole morning there, coming across nothing but cement, abandoned houses that were probably once beautiful and were now about to be thrown down, and one extremely bizarre church:


Bizarre, indeed. I'm still wondering what those hand signals in the tainted glass are, they look like something out of a Steve Ditko Doctor Strange comic.

Then we managed to bugger off to Alghero, on the opposite coast. A word of commentary on sardinian public transport: There isn't any. There's usually one bus or two a day to and from medium-sized towns, maybe more from larger ones. If there's a bus station there might be timetables scribbled on the walls. If there isn't one, which is usually the case, you're on your own. We had to make it across Sardinia using only public transport, in about five days. It was going to be a long five days.

Day 2, north of Alghero, coral reefs. What is coral anyway? Animal, vegetable, mineral, frenchman?

06:12 PM July 22, 2008 from txt

Alghero is a wonderful place. The camping we found was luckily within very short walking distance from the train station and even next to a bus stop. It bizarrely had the same name as one of the bands i work for, and was probably the best camping i've ever been to (long story short: Things worked). What the hell, i'm linking to it in case anyone needs a cheap and comfortable place to stay in Alghero because i was so damn pleased with the experience.

Day 3 outside Bosa, vegetation draws equally from 50's B-movies and Dr. Seuss illustrations. The rest of the landscape behaves accordingly.

08:03 PM July 23, 2008 from txt

If these ain't Dr. Seussish, i don't know what is.

Exploring natural caves, doing our best not to wake or offend any ancient phoenicio-atlantidean demigods, as usually happens in these cases.

08:08 PM July 23, 2008 from txt

Yes, this is the part that counts as having WACKY, WILD ADVENTURES.

Which reminds me of the time derf and i went to an abandoned slovenian village and accidentally activated some ancient magic stones or something and ended up getting chased out by a legion of cardboard cut-outs. Remind me to tell you about that someday.

Day 4. Leaving Bosa, where the sunbathers are usually gone by 6pm. Not because it's late, just because the sand is actually quicksand.

02:55 PM July 24, 2008 from txt

A word of information about Bosa Marina. DON'T GO THERE. It is that kind of beach you hear about in tabloids and newscasts. Bosa Marina is where you end up when you've been very very bad. It's not just that, it's the kind of place you end up in if yourself, most of your ancestors and a fair amount of your yet-to-be-born descendants have been really really viciously nasty.

Having no web is ok, it's the no mp3s that fries the mind. Hey Steve Jobs, where's my brain-implanted broadband wifi celestial jukebox?

10:41 PM July 24, 2008 from txt

I still stand by this assertion. without permanent connection to my mp3s, i am nothing. Almighty techie guys, what are you waiting for?
It must also be noted that after all that time away from the internet it took me a while to remember what Steve Jobs' name was.

Day 5. Morning: quartz beaches of Is Aruttas. Night: Enon live at Hereistay Festival with @Tostoini. Not bad, Sardinia.

02:56 PM July 25, 2008 from txt

Yep, pure quartz.

These pictures were taken around 7 AM because we wanted to be there before ANYBODY.
Small advice: if you go to the beach in Sardinia at 7AM, the water will be freezing.

From Is Aruttas we made it to Oristano, from Oristano to San Gavino and it was there that Tostoini came to rescue us. We were much darker, had lived in a tent for a couple of weeks, had lost some limbs and had also forgotten what the internet looks like. From there we went to Guspini, where the Here I Stay Festival was being held. More about the bands that played, and more importantly about what happened there, will be told in future posts.

I Hear A Symphony - a photoset on Flickr

"Instead of resting, as i was on the good side of tipsy, i started taking pictures of the very, very rare Pizzicato Five DVD box set which i had recently acquired, and of the images it created on my monitor.
This is probably the nerdiest photoset i have ever made and that i ever will, period.

This series is intended to be viewed as a slideshow."

Taken between 19:26 and 19:31 of Saturday, 29th of March 2008.
The Mp3 of the video pictured is here. (single version - 6.4Mb 201kps VBR Mp3 - Right click to download)

Sardinian posts coming soon, promise.

Snippet

The players: Myself, M. (i know a ridiculous amount of M's, so it doesn't really make any difference)
The place: online.

Her: on the other hand, did you make your blog's layout unreadable on purpose?
Me: Funny story actually, 'cause you can see everything perfectly from my laptop. But then one day, months after changing template, many months after, i opened the page from my home computer and realized you can't understand a word.
Her: hahahaa
Me: What happened next is that i laughed for about ten minutes, then said "perfect" and turned everything off.

(end of anecdote)

(pause)

(announcement)

On Monday, July 14th this blog will be five years old. It was created on Monday, July 14th 2003. I don't know how it's still on a monday and even if you explained i wouldn't understand it. Coincidentally, on that same day (of 2008, not of 2003) i shall be departing for yet another Adventure. Updates from said Adventure shall be quite frequent, 'cause i'm even sort of getting paid to do it. To do the Adventure.
Hopefully i will manage to post again before that, perhaps rehashing one of those 22 (!) post drafts i just found in the blogger basement.

Oh, and i've had a new template for this blog sort of ready approximately since november. I'll actually install it one of these days. Hopefully before 2009.

June 2008: random picture post

Oh blimey, it's june already and my posting is once again at an all-time low. I keep reading good blogs which makes me feel like posting interesting things, the problem is i keep forgetting i have a blog in the first place. That, and i'm busy doing work and stuff. And if i blog about nonsense i feel guilty about not blogging about the interesting things i'm doing and so on. Therefore, to break the vicious circle, i will now post a few pictures i've taken in 2008. Without context or logic, just because i like them and it feels right at the moment. Oh, and as of writing this i have no idea which pictures i'm going to post.

If any one of these is found interesting by eventual readers, just ask and i'll provide context, commentary and eventual related pics.






Um, those were quite boring. Ok, here's a nicer one from a blogpost i've been planning since (gasp!) april 2007:


All this just reminded me that i'm planning to get myself a flickr pro account tomorrow morning. Which means Pelodia wins, damn everything.

First thought of the morning

When people make absurd requests, give them absurd answers and see if they learn from that. (Spoiler: they usually don't)

Also: an anecdote as it was told to me.

"So this one night we were walking through Basel in the middle of the night stoned off our heads, and we suddenly started saying 'Dude, we need to listen to Moondance. We really need to listen to Moondance!' So i found it on my mp3 player and we listened to it six or seven times, and in the end we said 'this is such a Robin moment.'"

And finally: my latest column on Tracklist, featuring plenty of japanese tracks (player at the bottom for non-italian speakers) a couple of which will be quite familiar to regular readers of this blog.

The webmaster loves his parents.

Lunchtime, yesterday.
My Father: I gave the cat a gigantic chicken wing, did he eat it?
My Mother: Yep, gobbled it up. I'm surprised he left the bone.
My Father: Well, that means your cooking must be improving.

Bonus links:
John Cleese Interviewed (Via NewsFromMe)
Stunningly beautiful site where children's drawings are recreated as photographs (Via Neil Gaiman's Journal)

First video of 2008

Trieste, 3:15AM, 1st of January 2008. Cinematic!
Someday i'll learn how to lower the volume on my videos so you can actually make out what's going on. I could also try to learn how to keep a camera straight while i'm drunk, but that would be hoping for a bit too much.

No spoilers.

Location: The bar. Time: this morning.

Him: What? You don't know 30 Seconds To Mars?
Me: Um, no.
Him: They're good. The singer's the blonde guy from Fight Club, remember him?
Me: ...
Him: He was also in that movie about the death of John Lennon: he's the guy who killed him.
Me: Well thank you very much for spoiling the ending.

The more things change, the more they are a meme.

Location: Home, Sofa. The phone rings.
Me: Hey.
Him: Hey R., what are you doing tonight?
Me: It's funny you should ask. I was indeed planning on drinking myself to partial insanity. I was going to do it alone and already have a head start but you're most welcome to join me if you are so inclined.
Him: Um, well, actually we were going out with some friends and wanted to know if you want to come with us...
Me: Can i bring my beers?

And then, suddenly

Crowd inside Teatro Miela before Trabant concert/launch party




The webmaster comes on stage for the encore playing surprise guest air guitar impossible parts. Special thanks to Elena for sending me the pictures and for being the only person this decade who's managed to make me look good in a photo. And to Trabant of course for the graceful surprise invitation.


And this one is from Fallenlady.com.
There's also a video of the event online somewhere but there's no way i'm linking to that.


Crowd outside Teatro Miela after Trabant concert/launch party

And hardly a week after holding a sold-out concert before 450 people and publishing their debut LP, what does Trabant go on to do? They go and win Italia Wave of course. And i can't help mentioning how adorably surprised they are about all this attention, wondering why people want to have them come and play concerts outside their region and giving good reviews a suspicious look because you never know, it might just be an elaborate joke from their friends.

Flashback

Must have been around late 2004 or early 2005

Me: We can't go in there. It's evil.
A.: Robin, how can a shop be evil? People are evil.
Me: Ok, ok, let's go to bloody starbucks.

2'48" in Guča

Sorry, had uploaded this two weeks ago but forgot to link it here. Original text so you don't have to go over to its respective youtube page (and so i can finish this and go off to a party in time):

Recorded on thursday, August 9th 2007 at 22:48, at the trumpeter monument of Guča. Clearly visible are Sandro, Johannes, Dave, a glimpse of Derf, and Chuketti's hat.

A quote.

"I miss congrio. I remember when your father and I were still going out together, in Chile. One time he told me to eat congrio in a big restaurant, it was called El Rey Del Pescado. It was delicious. It was also expensive, i don't know how he could afford to take me there. We were students, and we were poor. Now we're teachers, and we're poor."

-My Mother, twenty minutes ago.

Natural miscomprehensions

1. Tuesday evening, in front of Main Stage. Screaming over crowd noise.
Me: Can you believe that one week ago today i was seeing fucking Dionne Warwick live?
Him: What? You fucked Dionne Warwick??
Me: No, i saw her perform, in concert, live.
Him: Oh.

2.Friday afternoon, at the music and clothing stalls.
Peter Tosh(from a loudspeaker): Legalize it...
Me: Legalize what? Please be more specific.
Her: He said what at the beginning of the song.
Me: But i wasn't here yet! Now i'll never know!

...and a video.

Improvised traditional percussion and dance, Rototom Sunsplash, 10.07.07.
Beware: poor sound. But at least the kora can be made out a little.

Briefly toyed with the idea of distributing Pastafarian leaflets, but that would probably get me hanged and, um, eaten.

Cheers from sunsplash land. Very quick observations since i only have 10min of internet left.
Tokyo ska paradise rocked, if that can be said about ska bands. They did ignore my requests of Rydeen, however. Dammit.
We're camping with a hammock and a swimming pool. Classy.
Today, book presentation. And meeting David Katz. Kind of nervous.
I think i'll go jump into a river to relax a bit. See you later.

Silvia Penide

Performing Como El Agua O Como El Viento at Centro Giovanile Piero Poclen, Monfalcone.
My interview to the artist is coming soon. (i know, i know, they all are)

This really happened.

Yesterday a gypsy stopped me in the street. She wanted to know what brand of shampoo i use.
This brought me to think that i really should have a faq. If i had one i would have had a link to send her to.
So, i'm actually going to write one. Start sending in your questions.

Teenager's delight - a photoset on Flickr

A rite of passage of sorts. At the Large Tree on the night between 21 and 22 may, 2007.
Many pictures were taken, a selection can be found here.
Plenty more content this way cometh.
Slideshow view also recommended.