At some point i will elaborate into an almost book-length description of my visit to monticello ny this weekend.

I slept in my stationwagon after the shows and karaoke were all done and dawn tried to re-arrange the universe.

I arrived at All Tomorrow's Parties and realized who-all was playing, I hadn't checked with any real scrutiny beforehand, just trusting their judgement. Ten minutes after i checked in, Iggy pop took the stage and ripped through an amazing re-creation of his stooges record.

I'm overwhelmed even thinking about the weekend and everything that took place. Somehow Ron Jeremy, sitting in the bar,ended up being audience to my dancing until dawn to quality 60's music. A dance marathon that was 15 years overdue.

Sunday was my birthday. I started it out wondering if I shouldn't leave early because I had come alone to the festival and I didn't want to spend my birthday without a friend. But something told me to stay for the early evening show and it was there that I saw Hannibal do stand up. He ended up rescuing my birthday.

Jim Jarmusch's EP for SQURL is amazing. I got a copy of his cd from him after his q and a with thurston moore. The greatest oversight by ATP was that Jim Jarmusch's band didn't play. My only complaint about the weekend was the soundmen were criminally ruining sets by mixing the whole thing too loud and EQ-ing the s#$% out of the low end so that every kick drum hit or low bass note hummed and ricocheted all over the tin can of a room, making my clothes vibrate from the aftershock. The mounds of PA covering every inch of the stage were enough to bring down mt everest with one whack on the E string. Crumbling to dust any semblance of the band's intended sound. I overheard some Quebequois guys in the audience lamenting, in french, the sound and the placement of the PA.

It was with great regret that i had to leave the hall partway through a lot of sets as the overblown mush made it impossible to enjoy a great many of the bands.

My wish for ATP is that they truly represent the sound the band wishes to achieve. If the drum doesn't hum and vibrate to begin with, then don't give it new qualities. Just because some engineer made high tech EQ-ing gear doesn't mean it should process the whole sound of the band into an unrecognizable state.