Lupe Fiassssssco

I am sleepy, so this is probably littered with typos and grammatical erros. And DEFINITELY full of tangents. Sue me. (<---remember when that phrase was cool? In the 90s, was it?)

Every summer in SLC, there are free concerts put on in Pioneer Park. They're usually your typical little hipster indie bands and the park is crawling with hipster/indie little people. Well I happen to share a music interest with these little people, just not so much their awful fashion sense nor their emo outlook on life. So anyway there was a really great line-up this summer, including the Decemberists, Explosions in the Sky, Bright Eyes, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, etc. The final show was Lupe Fiasco....not so much in the same genre of music as the others, but wonderful nonetheless.

Don't remember who Lupe Fiasco is? Well certainly you remember his hit Superstar a few years ago? Can't embed the video, sorry. Anyway, I'm not going to lie, this is one of only 2 songs of his that I know. The other I actually heard performed on the Colbert Report when he was promoting his new album not long ago. It's just your typical celebrity pretending that they care about social justice and so they have someone write lyrics for them on topics that they actually know NOTHING ABOUT. Nevertheless, they are topics on which I do happen to know a thing or two. And topics that I am fairly passionate about. So I will accept Lupe Fiasco's "effort" at social justice, even if it is probably mostly just to sell records. Because even if Lupe Fiasco might not understand the situations that he's singing about, I do. And ALL I FREAKING WANT in this world is a job where I can contribute my knowledge and effort at bettering this corner of the world. Even if that's next to impossible. I would please like my chance to at least try. Anywayyyys, lyric sampling of his song "Words I Never Said":

"...Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn't say sh*t

That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either

I'm part of the problem, my problem is I'm peaceful

And I believe in the people...

...Now you can say it ain't our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, wheres that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!

And you are not observant 

And you are not a muslim 

Israel don't take my side cause look how far you've pushed them 

Walk with me into the ghetto, this where all the Kush went 

Complain about the liquor store but what you drinking liquor for? 

Complain about the gloom but when'd you pick a broom up? 

Just listening to Pac ain't gone make it stop 

A rebel in your thoughts, ain't gon make it halt 

If you don't become an actor you'll never be a factor..."

But really, you should watch and listen to the whole thing. Those lines just happen to be my favorites. You mean the lines defending Defending Islam? And Palestinians? And finding fault in current Israeli policy? My favorite parts?? Nooooo not Michelle ;-)

AS FOR the evening........We met up with my good friend Joel and his gorgeous super cute lady friend, well....significant other? I'm not sure of their exact romantic title. So I'll leave it at that, since I'm going to post this blog to their Facebook page so they can read it, and I don't want anyone feeling uncomfortable about me sticking an awkward label on them that maybe doesn't apply. Is that right, Joel and Kinsi? :-)

We met up for dinner at a place that I can't remember the name. It wasn't bad at all, just apparently not memorable since I can't recall the name. Then we sat on the grass and chatted for a bit, since this was the first time since I'd seen Joel since he came back from his internship in JORDAN!!! So jealous. Anyway. Some douchebag decided he no longer wanted whatever it was that he was eating, it involved beans that much I know, and threw it on the ground. This was a good distance away from us, but somehow the beans and juices landed on me and Joel. We both thought we felt raindrops. Then Kinsi and Mary informed us that the cold liquid we felt was, in fact, beans and bean juices. Some even landed in Joel's hair. The tragic moment:

Please tell me that you can see the bean juice hanging out in Joel's hair. It was much more obvious, the camera just didn't quite capture it right.

Our primitive attempts to clean ourselves with grass.

We're smiling, but I'm actually quite distressed at that particular moment.

Also, when we were walking into the park through security, we saw a girl whose boobs were coming out of the sides her shirt. She was wearing no bra, and her perky ladies kept sneaking out to say hello to the world. Like a t-shirt cut into a tank top, but the arm holes went aaaalll the way down to her hips almost. Am I painting the picture for you? A large, gappy tank top t-shirt thing, boobs coming via the building exits on the right and the left. It just wasn't even cute. Surprise surprise, public nudity not so attractive.

It took forever to for Lupe Fiasco to finally perform, and there were like 800 million people. Well 37,000 was the count that I heard that night. I'm not sure what the confirmed number actually was. And I'm pretty sure that 36,996 of those people (that number reflects that the absence of the 4 of us) were blowing 2nd hand weed smoke directly into my face. Oh well, it's my excuse for *accidentally* getting high without actually having been naughty and smoked it myself ;-) I'M KIDDING MOM!! Eh, sort of....

Ok so I didn't get high. But probably only because it was an outdoor setting, as opposed to be closed in a small space. Hot boxing is the official term for that, so I was recently told.

Anywayyyy we were not too terribly far from the stage but not close either. Through the determination of Joel and Kinsi, WE GOT SO FREAKIN CLOSE TO THE STAGE! And had I not wimped out, we seriously probably would have made it right up next to it. But oh my holy crap, being caged in by all those drunk smelly sweaty people was a nightmare. SO FUN. But also SO SCARY. I was stupid and kept my hair down, straightened it and everything. Well it kept getting caught in between the sweaty skin of random people and my head was getting yanked around every which direction. And my feet were soon numb after 36,999 people stomped on them. The whole night. As nightmare-ish as that may sound, it was so much worse. But also, totally worth it. Such a blast. I just eventually really just could not breathe anymore, so we tried to make our way out of the maze. Which turned out to be much more difficult than I imagined. Eventually we made our way out. And as soon as we left the crowd, I wished we hadn't. But that was only because I could breathe again and had already forgotten the misery of gasping for air.  The other Pioneer Park concerts were so chill. Based on my previous experience, I did not adequately prepare, in regard to my attire and my hair. Buuuut....all in all, it was a grand time.

Oh oh OH and before I forget, he gave a shout-out onstage to Muslims and Ramadan! And Mormons! The concert was in August, during Ramadan, so at some point he was giving shout-outs to random groups of people, and it went something like this (just imagine as you read the words that I type here that I'm a really cool black guy yelling this onstage to almost 40,000 ppl): ".....and I want to give a shout out to Muslims, and to Ramadan!!! And to all the Mormons in the audience who shouldn't be here tonight!"

At least I think that's what he said of Mormons. Someone should inform him that Mormons are indeed "allowed" to attend large social gatherings at parks. And "allowed" to listen to music. And "allowed" to combine those two activities. The contact high due to all the weed smoking aspect of the night......probably not exactly smiled upon. Anyway, I just like that he gave a shout out to my two favorite religions! One of which I currently actively practice! The Mormon one, that is. Although, I wish I was cool enough to simultaneously be Muslim, too. Alas, I will just have to try to incorporate the wonderful aspects of Islam into my life, but fall just short in that I accept Jesus as my Savior.....and other pretty important stuff too.

Dinner

Dinner

I would have only posted the picture previous to this one, but I included this one and the next in order to show how the binat behind us apparently thought that this was actually their photo-op. Oh and binat = girls. See, I can remember some Arabic still.....HIRE ME DAMMIT DANGIT.

The distance from the stage when we started. I couldn't get a clear one to save my life because of all the jumping. I was forced to jump as well because otherwise I would have been trampled. And jumping makes it hard to get a clear picture.

This was not zoomed. This was how close we ended up. Yeeeeaaaaahhh. Also the only clear action picture of the evening. Again, the jumping (see above for explanation on the jumping).

I want you to scroll back up, and see the before pictures. And then scroll back down and look at this picture. It's just too bad you didn't see an immediate after picture. This is a good 30-40 minutes of having cooled off. Had the picture been taken directly after, my hair would not have yet dried into those wrinkly wave things, it would have still been dripping wet. As would have been my body, since that is the state it was in. Oh and the sweat of other humans, not my own. Well maybe 10% my own. 90% other human sweat.

Pretend that you can tell that this is sweaty. That was the point of this picture. And can I just take a moment to point out that according to the analytics of this blog, at least 5 random ppl from around the globe have arrived on our blog having google searched words like "sweaty backs" because of Mary's awesome post. How weird huh? Well, apparently that's the way to increase the traffic, so here you have it, world.....another sweaty back picture! .....Although I regret that there are no visible salt deposits on my back as a result of my own sweat.

Proof that my poor feet took a beating. Note that the dirt travels quite a distance up my shins. Further note that all 10 of my toes were flawlessly polished prior to this evening. Even further note that as a result of the incessant stomping on my feet for like 1-2 hours straight, 4 of my toenails no longer have polish, and the polish on the big toe right foot has been chipped. Rough night for my feetsies.