Lollapalooza Saturday-Fun in the Sun 8/8/09

Lollapalooza, day 2, was a hot time in the old town.  If you don't like the weather in Chicago, wait a day.   We were almost wishing for Friday's cool rains as the sun blazed down, and we filled a spray bottle in a futile attempt to stay comfy.

We have so many fun photos, I'm going to include a smattering throughout the blog, and include the rest on a Snapfish link, here.


We wanted the kids well rested, so we paced ourselves on the middle day and went from 3pm to close.   We made it to the kids area just in time for teen punk band, Care Bears On Fire, 

and special guest artist-- Band of Horses.  We stayed through Ralph's World and the daily Remo drum circle before we made a break for the festival at large.

It was a day for seeing friends.   We ran into Dan O'Conner, our friend who works for Spin Magazine, who was there with his wife and 3 sons.   We saw him solo at the X concert and with the whole family last year at Hideout Block Party and Old Town Folk and Roots Fest.   This time his baby's mobile, and looks just like his Dad already (minus the curly 'stash)!

Sage was thrilled to score one of Dan's super cool, hand made, very limited edition  t-shirts.   He makes them for his family and a few friends at every music festival.

He hand cuts band name stencils and spray paints on thrift shirts.   They're very creative and greatly coveted.

(It features a whole back full of fest faves, including The Raveonettes, in bold type--who were excellent BTW).  Thank you, Dan!!

We also saw another writer friend whose son, Basil, ran up and gave Sage a Vegan cookie.   We used to laugh about the spice kids and say we just need to find a Mama who named her kid Parsley or Oregano.   Rosemary or Thyme anyone?

We saw Du-Jay's much loved first grade teacher, Mr. Z, whom we also hung with last year at Hideout Block Party.   And we spent the day with our good, long time friends, Trevor and his Mom, Lisa, whom we have hung with the last 4 years at Lollapalooza.

They left before the final lottery, but came back past the kids area looking for a falafel, just in time to hear Trevor's name called as the grand prize Gibson electric guitar winner!    Talk about lucky......    You have to be present to win and they were just about to skip to another name when they came running back shouting, "We're here!!!!"   So, see....   Eating healthy pays off.

 
Sage's lucky streak continued as well.   She won a First Act "Fun in a Drum" instrument set and Du-Jay won another Lolla harmonica.

We missed Small Paul and all the artists Paul Frank flew in from California the last 3 years to silkscreen totes and tees.   We got spoiled by all the great swag they always brought.   This economy's really cutting into everyone's free fun!
  

Since there weren't any tees to screen this year, I made dark tee transfer shirts for both kids.   Du is wearing the Tool one I made for him, while Sagezilla's back says "I'm Minnie Pearl" with a Dead Milkmen X eyed cow logo.

The front has a photo turned sketch of her eating ice cream and says EATING FUDGE BANANA SWIRL across the bottom.   Anyone around from the 80's probably remembers The Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl".   Zilla loves it.

Both kids still enjoyed the annual punk hair coloring, rock star photo op stage, delicious Pro Bug samples and prize wheel(The CEO was there with her toddler in arms),

tattoo painting and window art by a muse (our friends--formerly art party--that we made tote bags with last year at Hideout).
   

They paired with The Wilderness, America's largest water park resort, to run a kids concert poster contest to win a weekend stay for 4.

Of course, some of the greatest fun is still free and powered by kid energy--like multi hooping!

One of the best parts of the day was the Rock and Recycle program on Lollapalooza's "Green Street".   The kids both won great t-shirts for picking up plastic bottles and cans.   One full garbage bag= a free shirt, so they worked together to fill 2.
  

It was a positive experience, as everyone cheered them on and thanked them.  And they got to feel like they were really making a difference and helping the earth.   The kids got the shirts and we got two chances to win a Honda Insight hybrid. 

Green Street was also where we got to meet Coco Loco's master carver, featured in prior ChiIL Mama post, "Those Must Be Really Little Sheep".

 We closed out the evening on a heavier note with Rise Against and Tool.   Du got a bit creeped out by Tool's screen graphics that reminded him of Voldemort.   He still enjoyed the music, but opted to listen and not watch.

   Sagezilla was moshing with the twenty something kids next to us.  She danced, spun and bounced till the final notes rang out after 10pm, and charmed everyone around her.
  

We enjoyed time with Dug's former roommate from back-in-the-day, Anna, whom he went to the first few Lollapalooza's with, in the early 90's.   It's so great to hear excellent music and not spend a fortune on a baby sitter, or have to rush home early.   Kids 10 and under are still free at Lollapalooza with a paying adult.

 

Lollapalooza Love Not Dampened By Downpour 8/7/09

Last weekend, at a small fire circle in a friend's back yard, a girl ran up to me and exclaimed, "I have to meet you. What's your name?" When I told her, and asked why, she replied,

"I'm Amber and my boyfriend and I see you guys every year at Lollapalooza. I feel like we know you. We love to see how much the kids have grown and always end up sitting near you guys. This year we didn't see you till the 3rd day and we were saying, hey.......where's the family?!"This year marked the 4th annual Lollapalooza held in Grant Park, Chicago. And the honeymoon's not over yet. Throngs of people flocked to the grounds for another sold out year. And we were among them.

The kids are in a Track E magnet school, and the first day always falls the Monday after Lolla. So, Lollapalooza marks the end of summer, a last hoorah before the kids don their subdued navy blue and crack the books. We always make the most of it.For years, Dug was called by multiple networks and music industry heavy hitters, all asking him to work Lollapalooza, and every year he's turned them down to go with the family. It's our end of summer mini vacation without leaving town, and a chance to see a plethora of our favorite bands.

We got there at 1pm to see Zap Mama. Then we encamped in the kids area for
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Zach Gill (from ALO), Perry Farrell and Lunch Money. Even heavy Friday rains didn't keep the fans away. When the littles complained, we told the kids that neither of them were wicked witches in mortal danger of melting. Then we huddled under plastic ponchos and rocked out anyway.

Perry Farrell performed a couple unlikely duets with LeAnn Rimes, which we had front row center for. Afterwards, Perry signed the kids' Lollapalooza program. He even signed an apple for someone!We stuck it out in torrential downpours till the daily kids lottery. Every child gets one free lottery ticket, but you must be present to win. Sagie's name got called for a First Act Band in a Bucket and Dugan got a limited edition Lollapalooza harmonica.

Sage made use of the punk hair stylists and we all spent the worst of the rains huddled under the nice, dry, Rock and Roll Petting Zoo tent. Dug almost mastered the beginning of Smoke on the Water on guitar, and the kids enjoyed trying out drums, guitar, bass and vocals in the microphone. We closed out the Kidzapalooza area with a wet Remo drum circle.

Then we were off, into the sodden masses, to see The Decemberists and Depeche Mode. The festival grounds were a mud pit, but the rains eased off and we enjoyed a cool, dry evening sitting on our tarp, neat sheet and ponchos.

Depeche Mode put on an excellent show, making us all glad we'd stuck it out till the end. The screen graphics and light show were fantastic, and the band is still tight. Both kids enjoyed dancing, hooping, and putting on gymnastic-glow stick shows for everyone in our vicinity. We were all elated to shed our plastic outerwear.

Then we headed home to cure the dreaded "Fest Foot" with hot baths and showersand get a good night's sleep, so we could get up and do it all over again.....twice.

I ♥ Faces Nostalgia-Sage in my favorite dress from 1972

The photo contest theme this week, at I ♥ Faces, is Nostalgia. Everyone is featuring pictures that conjure up a memory or story.


Mine is a story about a little five year old girl in the year 1972, who loved her red dress and wore it often. When she was in Kindergarten it was her absolute favorite. It's also a story of her Mom, who loved the little red dress, too, and saved it for 37 year! And, she not only saved it, but was able to FIND it in the basement, and pass it along to her granddaughter.

It's also a story of a little five year old girl in the year 2009, who refused to wear any of the 70's dresses, with the smocking, ruffles and tiny buttons, from the time she was 3 years old till the present. Her Mom finally pulled them, with the special outgrown dresses, and was ready to put them back in attic storage, for some future descendant to refuse to wear.

When magically.............the little girl decided she loved the little red dress, too! Despite the fact that it was more of a long shirt length and the top button had to be left open! Suddenly, this summer, it was again, the favorite dress of a little girl. And at age 6, she now adores squeezing into the too small, vintage dress...just one more time... every chance she's got.

A Midsummer Night's Dream--A Fun Way to Introduce the Littles to the Bard

Hot dogs and hot Shakespeare on a midsummer night. It doesn't get much better than that.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most colorful, playful and accessible plays for all ages. The fairies, donkey headed boy, madcap mixups and mistaken identies,

and the silly play within a play, make it easy for kids to find humor in the production, even if the language is sometimes difficult to grasp.
This version was especially kid friendly, as Puck was a puppet.We did our homework before hand, reading several versions of the story, specifically for children. The Magic Tree House Series has one book that introduces Shakespeare himself in rehearsals for Midsummer Night. We'd also highly recommend Bruce Coville's version of Midsummer Night's Dream. It helps if children are somewhat familiar with the storyline, before seeing the play, and can clear up questions while you read together. There are a number of kid friendly versions out there.

We were lucky enough to have a close friend involved with Rosebriar Shakespeare Company in the small Ohio town of Groveport, near Columbus. Dani played a hilarious Quince. We lucked into an outdoor performance where the full moon was visible, over the wooden shack of a stage, long before dusk. Everyone sat on a small hill, and visible to stage left was a cemetery, adding to the ambiance. The closing weekend, they performed in a castle! Midsummer is particularly fun for children, if you can find a production that's running outdoors where kids can picnic and snack. Rosebriar also gave out bubbles to all the kids and encouraged them to blow them during the show. And they gave everyone paper fans, which the kids couldn't wait to have autographed by all the characters. The fans have a special place now among the kids keepsakes.

After the show, we spent the late summer night with our friends, Dani and Tim, who now live in Delaware, OH. Sage promptly fell asleep, but Du-Jay discovered the joys of Wii fit and Guitar Hero.

We have Dani and Tim's old Gamecube, they were awesome enough to share with us. But the novelty of Wii had Du up till 1:30 in the morning cracking up and working out. He was on the floor, laughing at Wii soccer, where characters hurl shoes and panda bear heads at you to dodge.

He took top place in hula hooping, and tried yoga and step aerobics. On the tough balancing games, he shook his fists and said, "OK, TV." and clamoured "One more time." repeatedly. Dani and I drank red wine and enjoyed watching the Dugan show.

The following morning, both kids sang vocals on songs by Phish, Queen, and The Beastie Boys while Tim rocked out on the guitar. Du even tried his hand at bass. Then Tim made us a decadently huge and excellent breakfast, worthy of the 6 hour drive from Chicago.

Thanks for the great hops-spit-tally-tea. We miss you guys!