(click on picture to see more pix)
Every Labor Day weekend in Seattle, there's a festival called
Bumbershoot. It's a music and arts festival. It kicked off on Friday night with a show called "People Talking and Singing". I went to the theatre and scored a ticket last minute as I still have limited Seattle friends and I'm tired of not doing stuff unless I have someone with me...
It was a benefit for
826 Seattle, a “nonprofit writing center that helps students, ages six to 18, develop their creative and expository skills.” (Sounds like a really interesting group - I'm going to check into volunteering for them - they're also in NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. if you're interested).
The evening included readings and performances by John Hodgman (the PC guy from the Mac ads), Jonathan Coulton, Sarah Vowell,
Dave Eggers, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snickett),
Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields, Zach Rogue of
Rogue Wave,
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, Smoosh and the lead singer for Death Cab for Cutie.
John Hodgman was the MC for the evening, gracing the stage in a white suit and his trademark black-rimmed glasses. In famous deadpan tone he introduced his co-host and “rustic companion,”
Jonathan Coulton, who throughout the night, accompanied Hodgman’s dialogue with the rhythmic strumming of his guitar, as well as provided “theme music” for the introductions of the performers. Coulton also sang a song about zombies – a song about two friends really – one who is now a zombie and one who is not. The two friends carry on a dialogue from either side of a door, each trying to convince the other to come around to his way of thinking. The chorus proclaiming, “All we want to do is eat your brains. We’re not unreasonable, I mean, we’re not going to eat your eyes.” (The entire audience was singing along...)
Before turning the stage over to the first performers, Hodgman shamelessly plugged his book,
The Areas of My Expertise, noting that it is the paperback edition and perfect for Seattleites, as it can be “easily rolled up into a hash pipe.”
The first music performer to take the stage (not counting the zombie song of course) was
Smoosh. I had heard a bunch about them recently, so I was really interested in hearing what they could do. They're two teenage (like 14ish) year old sisters - one plays keyboards & one plays drums. They both sing, although the keyboardist is the lead singer. They were seriously impressive - these girls can rock - and not in a 14 year old way. The sound wasn't mixed well, which was sort of a bummer, but I'll definitely check out their album. (Check out the MySpace link above to hear their music.)
Sarah Vowell read a story she had written - she's a hysterical writer - she generally writes about history, but in a really intelligent and sarcastic way (what other historical writer includes sarcasm?) She had the Lemony Snickett guy read one of the roles in the story.
The Lemony Snickett guy (
Daniel Handler) is hysterical! He read a "3 act play" he had written which was acted out by the lead singer of the Decemberists, Sarah Vowell and the special guest
Ben Gibbard (the lead singer for
Death Cab for Cutie). Lemony Snickett is hysterical and pretty twisted... My kind of guy! He also sang and played accordian a few times.
Music was really good too - I wasn't familiar with most of the acts, but enjoyed them. Of course, I know Death Cab for Cutie (they're pretty big now and they're from Seattle), but the bulk of it was new for me.
They passed a bucket and hoped to raise $5,000 (as they had in NYC, Chicago, LA, etc), but we super-liberals in Seattle raised more than twice that! The show wrapped up with everyone singing a song called "Dracula's Daughter" - I'm pretty sure it was written on the fly, but there was a spoken interlude between Lemony Snickett and one of the Smoosh's which was pretty entertaining.
I'm really glad I dragged myself out and wandered downtown to check this out. It was fun, it was different and it gave me some ideas of how I could be helpful to others. It was a good night.
