Scenes from the Weekend: Outside Lands.

Snapshots from Outside Lands... In it's fifth year, this proved to be the most spectacular of the festivals I've been to in Golden Gate Park: Eighty artists, four stages, a comedy tent, wine and beer lands and all of the fabulous food San Francisco has to offer in one place. Yes. Please.



Andrew Bird put a bird on it (Portlandia anyone? Anyone?), well, his fan did.  I was a intrgued by the number of personal "markers" this year such as this one, or the disco ball secured to a broom handle with neon duct tape, the glowing red gummy bear, the happy face balloons, and most of all the number of people carrying bouquets of sunflowers. Though we didn't carry one personally, those around us were a great aid in locating friends in the swarms of San Franciscans enjoying the festival.



Favorite moment: Though we didn't make it up into the "woods" in time to see Jack White play to a small, swooning crowd (who had hightailed it after receiving an alert from @ThirdManRecords), Tom Morello graced us with a lovely short acoustic set, including [a sing-along version of] "This Land Is Your Land"!

If you didn't see The Rolling Stones interview with Tom on Paul Ryan, you should read it now. "Ryan has a whole lotta "rage" in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for campaign contributions."  Thank you, Tom.  I love this too: "My hope is that maybe Paul Ryan is a mole. Maybe Rage did plant some sensible ideas in this extreme fringe right wing nut job. Maybe if elected, he'll pardon Leonard Peltier. Maybe he'll throw U.S. military support behind the Zapatistas. Maybe he'll fill Guantanamo Bay with corporate criminals." (I personally wouldn't wish the atrocities of Guantanamo on anyone, but I see where you're going with that Tom.)

There was something very special about this intimate rebel show.

Wine Lands. Enough said.

This pretty much sums up the energy at Outside Lands. Good times.