Summerfest 2008

Why I love the idea of Summerfest: In the span of one hour on a random Thursday night during the biggest music festival in the world, you have to choose between Alejandro Escovedo, Ingrid Michaelson, and Marie Digby. Later that same night, you'll get to choose between Gomez, Gavin DeGraw, Lucinda Williams and the Plain White T's. All for a flat entry fee of $15.

Why I find Summerfest very trying in practice:
1. The crowds -(See pic)


2. The technical difficulties -

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Summerfest, Unplugged - Boom boom go the lights for almost three hours

3. But perhaps most importantly, the escalating beer prices! Grrr... -

WISN 12: Price of beer goes up for Summerfest 2008

Borders Live at 01 series

When people lament the imminent demise of the brick-and-mortar bookstore, I cry a little inside. If not for bookstores, there are so many wonderful things I would never have discovered, like Chuck Klosterman, the QuirkyAlone movement or, perhaps most importantly, tons of great music.

Bookstores that carry CDs are some of the best sources to find out about new and promising artists - next time you're in one, keep your ears open and see what they're playing.

Borders proves this point beautifully with its new online series, "Live at 01" - a series of live performances and interviews filmed in Borders Store #01 in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Each episode features a single artist or band playing acoustic versions of about five songs and speaking thoughtfully on the art of crafting music. Some of the artists so far include Rickie Lee Jones, Patty Griffin, Gomez, Joss Stone, and Ingrid Michaelson. Right now, I'm rocking out to the Magic Numbers (if you don't have time to listen to the whole episode, make sure you hear "Take a Chance," my favorite Numbers song, and no - nothing to do with Abba.)

Even better, the episodes are free and downloadable, so you can take them with you everywhere you (or your iPod) choose to go.

Check back often for updates, it seems like they add eps pretty frequently.

(Btw: They also have interviews with authors and filmmakers as well!)