The Bush Administration’s theme song:
The Captain is Wack. I think he keeps his underpants on through the whole video though. Watch and find out.
A little hip-hop is good on Friday nights… Here’s Del the Funkee Homosapien, in HD!!!
For tonight’s encore video, you’ll have to go to YouTube to watch Saul Williams’ “List of Demands” because embedding this video is prohibited.
Neko Case started it off Saturday at the Mainstage.
The purity of her voice is unreal.
… Something called Strange Fruit at the Fountain lawn.
Ian Moore and his really cool red guitar.
I had my nine-year-old son with me, so I had to leave Ian’s set early to go see this:
Skater dudes are way crazy.
Being the home of Jimi Hendrix, Bumbershoot always features an up-and-coming guitar virtuoso. I just happened to be in the beer garden at the Mural Amphitheatre when Joe Bonamassa came on stage. He did not dissapoint those who came to hear some wicked guitar solos.
The weather was much better than predicted.
While waiting to see Saul Williams, I noticed that many people were sporting feathers on their heads. 
I asked a guy what it was all about, and he said “I don’t know… I guess he wears feathers.”
That’s Saul’s kid in the lower left corner. He was on the stage all night during the looking very excited to be there. He hung out in back and, when Saul’s pants would start to slip down, he would yell “Hey Dad!” and yank up on the back of his pants to signal his dad to pull up his pants.
M. Ward, another guitar virtuoso – of the John Fahey mold, not Hendrix – closed the day for me.
Those of us who live in Seattle would argue that summer ended three weeks ago. The weather here as been pretty awful since the first week of August.
But, it’s Labor Day weekend, and the sun is actually breaking through a low cloud cover. It won’t be warm today, but it probably won’t rain either, so I’m starting my three-day Bumbershoot run in a few minutes.
First up on the must-see list is former Seattleite Neko Case. Later in the day I’ll be seeing Saul Williams (very excited about this show), Nada Surf, and M. Ward.
Photos later.
The latest Saul Williams album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, was released on CD last week. I bought my copy at Easy Street Records in West Seattle, and I could not help but notice that of all the albums featured on the new release rack, it was the only one sealed in one of those anti-theft devices that the cashier has to unlock when you buy it.
If you browse through the rap and hip-hop section of the store, you’ll find that most of the CDs are locked up in those anti-theft devices. Walk over to the rock, folk, pop section and you”l find that nary a one is locked up.
So Saul Williams may sing of a liberated Niggy Tardust…
NiggyTardust: Grippo King, philosopher, and artist. Downright to the marrow, he’s the arrow through the heartless. Sunlight in the afternoon, his shadow travels furthest. Woven through the heart of doom, he’s bursting through the surface. Hardly nervous, suffice to say, he understands his purpose: Threshold King of everything, a comical absurdist. Sometimes when he talks he sings, yet keeps his high notes wordless. Sing along when Niggy sings. Without you he’d be worthless, homeless, Earth-less. Venus Hottentot, up in the circus. Freak Show! Here him speak so properly, ‘cause every word is measured against meaning. Probably scheming to unlearn us. Don’t you call him by his name! White people call him ‘Curtis’.
When I say Niggy, you say nuthin. Niggy. Niggy.
When I say Niggy, you say nuthin. Niggy. “Nuthin”. Shut up.
… but Niggy is locked down in the record store.
You need to buy the album to free Niggy from his crystal cage.
Visit Saul Williams’ website to find out more.
And you can listen to him talk about his art and the making of the album in this YouTube video.