Camp Bisco V

Greetings. It has been a while. Slowly I've recovered from PRW (Post-Ragbrai-Withdrawal) and am experiencing academic purgatory, where my grad school fate (really, just my schedule) will not be decided until Tuesday at 4. Even more importantly, season 3 of Arrested Development will be in our hands some time next week, and until then I have to bide my time and watch season 1 again. Heh heh. Actually, Heidi hadn't seen most of it, so I have an excuse, John. Oh, and we're also streaming the Emmies tonight, but largely because Conan O'Brien's the host. Love him.

These past two days Heidi and I were attending the Camp Bisco music festival in the Catskills - more specifically, at the Hunter Mountain Ski Lodge in Hunter, New York. There is nothing more bizarre than 48 hours of nonstop disco/electronica in a foggy, mountainous setting with ghostly ski lifts and slopes and a lot of mud and hay and hippies who happen to like disco/electronica music best. I mostly sat, watched, and didn't dance except during Infradig's set. They were, after all, the reason for our presence. Brother Dave managed to get us two free passes at the last minute, and knowing that this would be our only chance to see RJD2 and the Roots and to spend quality family time with one of our favorite siblings, we hightailed it out of Boston. The wind was at our backs and the rain upon us as we crossed Massachusetts and into upstate NY.

RJD2 was first in line. I had no idea he was small and white and from Ohio. He was the spitting image of Covenant's John Davis, Kara Cadwell pointed out, and I concurred, but his mannerisms also mirrored Sufjan's - avoiding eye contact, smiling shyly, concentrating wholeheartedly on the task. What am I doing, though, comparing everyone to Sufjan. This was Camp Bisco V! Sufjan seemed millions of miles away. Anyway, I was happy to discover that I recognized most of RJ's material, most of which came from "Deadringer" and "Since We Last Spoke," the only two albums I've heard. During our analysis with Infradig after the show, we decided we'd rather hear him in a dark club somewhere. The looseness of performance and the atmosphere left something to be desired. The Roots also performed that night. I had never seen live hiphop before, and I was very impressed by them, though I wish I could learn to really love good hiphop all the time, not just some of the time. Dave, Heidi, and I concurred on this. They put on a good show, but more significantly, they had a different sound from all the driving-bass-beat monotony of the other house music bands that we heard the rest of the weekend. Infradig was different, too, and I don't say that because I'm related or because I've heard them a thousand times. About 50 people showed up to their show (in the "dance hall" of the lodge!) and all loved it, particularly when they found out they could get a free EP.

I'm a little tired of dirty hippies and live jam music, but overall I had a swell time. Infradig is always a fun band to hang around. Josh Green is especially good at talking to strangers. I need to take a few tips from him.

P.S. I didn't even see the Disco Biscuits, for whom the festival is named and even though the played about 5 times. Also missed Thievery Corporation, but I don't know them at all, so I guess I'll have to introduce myself through Limewire.