folk my life

It's been some time since I last contributed, but hopefully you've enjoyed the wonderful posts by our new contributors Jaime and Jeanne.  I promise that there is some really big news coming this weekend.  But in the meantime I wanted to get a post up on a community event that is occurring.

If you had told me four years ago that I would ever even dream of attending the Folklife festival in Seattle I would have called you a liar.  Having taken a look at the list of 2007 performers there is a reason why.  Well it's four years later and here I am preparing to attend my very first Folklife festival.

Why?  Well, it's free which in this day and age is a true novelty though considering that this is essentially the epicenter of aging and neo-hippie movement I really shouldn't expect anything other than free.

There is another reason for my attendance and that is an appearance by LAKE.  Readers of the blog will know that LAKE is my favorite band and I find it hard to pass up an opportunity to see them live for free.  I hadn't really thought of them as folk until now, I'm still not sure I do as I've also heard them described as indie pop, indie jazz rock, pop-folk-jazz-rock!  I suppose I don't really care how you describe them, indie folk is just fine.

When I saw that LAKE was playing I took a closer look at other bands playing this weekend and found that actually there were a few who I would be interested in seeing.  Angelo Spencer, Karl Blau, and the Curious Mystery are all good bands.

I began to rethink of Folklife not just as a gathering of free loving dirty hippies who have liberated themselves from the constraints of day jobs, deodorant, and shampoo, and I began to think of folklife as a rather hip place to be.

As I write that last paragraph something hits me; I no longer have a day job, in the past two weeks I have forgot deodorant on more than one occasion, and I have loathed taking a shower.  Perhaps I belong at Folklife more than I originally thought.  Perhaps the festival will be just as I expected, and I will not feel like the outsider who has just come to watch his favorite band.  Instead I will completely fit in and be mistaken as one of them.


Every day on the radio I hear stories about how the economy has effected people and that they will not be taking extravagant vacations for, if any at all for Memorial Day.  Well, here is something free, something fun, something hippie, yuppie, emo, hipster, and family friendly.  I suggest that at the very least you look through the schedule of events to see if anything strikes your fancy.

The festival starts today 5/27 and runs through Monday evening.  My personal opinion is that Saturday is their strongest day, but go ahead embrace your inner hippie and stop by.

posted by: brian snider