Coachella

Travel: Palm Springs, CA
Bands: Of Montreal, Gillian Welch, Tilly and the Wall, Silversun Pickups, Arctic Monkeys, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Jarvis Cocker, Sonic Youth, Bjork, Regina Spektor, Hot Chip, New Pornographers, Peter Bjorn and John, MSTRKRFT, Andrew Bird, The Decembrists, Kings of Leon, The Arcade Fire, Blonde Redhead, LCD Soundsystem, Cornelius, Tiesto, Explosions in the Sky, Against Me!, Soulwax Night Versions, Junior Boys, CSS, Konono No. 1, Kaiser Chiefs, Willie Nelson, Jose Gonzalez, Crowded House, Air, Happy Mondays, The Lemonheads, Rage Against the Machine

This was my third year going to Coachella. It was also the first year that Coachella has expanded itself to a three day festival. I have to say, I think I like the three days - it makes it more of an undertaking, more of an experience. Slightly less whirlwind, and a bit more considered. I can't say for sure, but I have a hunch that the set times were a bit more spaced out than they were in other years. There seemed to be less going on at any given time, but I can't say for certain.

it was definitely more crowded, though. But, really, not by much. There was always some place you could go to get away from the crowd, and the place is big enough to handle it. Except for the Goby and Mojave tent, the stages all can handle plenty of people, so it's rare you want to see something and can't. Well, it's basically impossible, actually, to want to see something and not be able to. Worst case scenario is that you're standing in the back, outside of the tent, and there's some sound bleed.

And ah, the sound bleed. It's funny. That's usually the first thing people ask me about Coachella - "isn't there terrible sound bleed? I'd hate to be hearing one band, and hear a bunch of others in the background." and I used to answer - honestly - that sound bleed wasn't a problem at Coachella. And it wasn't. But this year it was. It was a serious drag, actually. Not so much that I wouldn't go back but enough that I would warn people against it.

There are three reasons why the sound bleed was worse. First, every year I've been going they've been mucking about a bit with the main stage sound - trying to make it not so loud that it overtakes all the other stages, but loud enough that people 200 yards back can hear. They've tried various things. Last year and the year before there were serious phase problems on the right side of the stage. If you wanted really good sound on the main stage, you'd go to stage right. This was still true this year, but the sound was noticably improved on stage left, and I'll wager that had an impact on the sound bleed overall. While I remember last year being able to hear "maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs after Daft Punk were done on the dance stage, this year hearing "Under the Bridge" by the Chili Peppers was way more pronounced, though maybe I'm imagining all this and I just hate the Chili Peppers' song more.

The second reason the sound bleed was worse, I think, was straight up poor planning. Willie Nelson played on the main stage while Placebo played on the outdor stage. oof. Annoying. And then one set round later, you had Air on the outdoor stage with Manu Chau Radio Bemba Soundsystem on the main stage. oof. Two quiet bands at the same time would have been a lot more clever. Air were basically unlistenable.

But really, these two reasons have always sort of been there, and they ebb and flow through the years. What made it worse this year was the inexplicable addition of some sort of mad max-style geodesic dome dance arena smack dab in the middle of the whole fair, which insisted on playing thumping, bumping techno the whole fucking time. Now, don't get me wrong, lord knows I spend a fair amount of time in the dance tent, but that's just it - there already IS a dance tent that holds some 10,000 people. Why do we need another dance DOME, which holds MAYBE 1,000 out of 110,000 people, that just mucks up the sound for EVERYTHING. You can hear it from EVERY stage. Performers even complained about it from the main stage. It's a pointless, stupid addition that needs to go.

That being said, I really do think that Coachella stepped it up a notch on the art this year in a good way. Every year the art has felt like a sop - some sort of hackneyed attempt at making the place look underground. This year it felt more fully integrated, interesting, and copious. I dug that, I have to say. Gave the place much more of a fair vibe.

So last night as we were wrapping up, I was reading the New York Times blog coverage of Coachella, and I think he did a pretty good job capturing the spirit of it. It really is something special, in a weird way, even though it takes a fair amount of contrivance (is that a word?) to get there. I loved his line about a swirling sea of ankles, dreadlocks and breasts, because it's really pretty much dead on. Coming from New England, me and my compatriots (gurlonthewing, _lambchop_, emmascully and an LJ-less friend of Emma's named Sea) were all struck by just how much SKIN there is. Bikini tops everywhere, some people basically out like they're at the beach in nothing but bikinis. No nudity - save for a few mid day flashes of Breast that _lambchop_ and I caught in the dance tent - but man, californians. It's crazy. Tanned and oily and shirtless and pantless and dirty and sweaty and wow is it weird. It's so antithetical to our New England lifestyle, but I have to admit I do think it's pretty great. And for us it's a pretty awesome way to kick off the summer, or spring, at least. It hit 106 this year and man, I don't feel like there's a frozen bone left in me. I have been thawed and am ready for the summer.

One thing that struck me about the NYT blog, though, was that he spent his time in a different coachella than I did. And for me, coming off of SXSW this is very interesting. He went to some party house sponsored by DKNY and met celebrities. The selfsame blogger commented on SXSW while I was there (and by the way, NYT, I will do his job for free if you offer me credentials - compare and contrast our blogging! You know I'm better!), and at SXSW he and I were virtually at all the same places: the fader fort, the filter party, this secret party that secret party. Indeed, at SXSW I totally outhipped him, thanks to my man-in-the-hipness correspendent modern_youth. And he wrote from that point of view at Coachella as well. Perhaps uninentionally, even. He talked about sponsorship, and virtually everything he was referring to was in the over 21 drinking area and the VIP area. The only sponsorship at all you see @ Coachella, being under 21 or not bothering with the drinking and vip areas is that the only soda you get is pepsi.

The point I'm making here is that I am a bit of an industry snob - I received maybe 10 party invites prior to Coachella for secret shows and lounges and parties. But i didn't bother. I didn't even bother picking up a VIP wristband that gets you into a special area where you can, apparently, be marketed to. I didn't feel the need. Scarlett Johansen was there, and Paris Hilton and the Jackass boys and Jessica Alba and.. and.. and.. but lordy, who cares. Who cares if you run into anyone? Who cares if you see a celebrity. Who cares if you get special access? Coachella is a fun, fascinating time without it. Three days in, and I mentioned to Judi during Willie Nelson's set "esus I just cannot stop people watching. And it's so true. It's unlike anything else. It's inauthentic in some ways - so it's not like burning man or any of the mini burning men or something out of my sister's scene - but it's got it's own thing. There is a massive contingent of people there hellbent on getting fucked up for three days and having a good time, but honestly you barely even notice them if you choose not to.

But yeah, there's something special about it - the NYT blogger totally hit the nail on the head with the subtle sponsorships - as an advertiser I think I'm drawn to that, though I am also more or less convinced all of those sponsors won't get their money's worth - save for American Spirit Naturals, who are, by the way, the most savvy marketers in the US. I think it helps that it's a hundred miles from nowhere. Sure, probably some 30,000 Los Angelites commute to the thing, but the bulk of us are out there for three days, giving it a UK festival vibe that I don't think Austin City Limits or Intonation or Lollapalooza or Sasquatch can match. Though I haven't been to any of those yet, so we shall see.

We spent a lot of time talking about fashion. It's so unique and weird at coachella. It's like a pastiche of counterculture and a refusenik runway show simultaneously. There are a million wannabe-tough-looking kids in T-Shirts emblazoned with "The battle of Coachella" by Rage, but you don't feel like you're at the warped tour or anything. Last year it was Tool, so it was those same dumbetalheads, but the year before it was Bauhaus and New Order and there were a million goths running around. Goths were hard to find this year. The entire female population under the age of 20 seems to believe that if you are wearing a bikini bottom and not panties, your skirt length is irrelevant, and sitting cross legged is perfectly acceptable. EVERY kid has a tattoo now. I thought *I* was being rebellious not getting any when I was a kid, but i swear, now if you don't have a tattoo you'd be considered as underground as fuckin Jandek or something.

All in all, though, I love it. I'll go again. I'm getting better and better at concocting the perfect plan each year. Last year was better in that we could walk. This years accommodations were top notch. I am pretty sure we can combine the two next year. Let me know if you want in. It's gonna be awesome™.

Friday

Friday we were shooting to get to the festival in time for Silversun Pickups, but by some miracle, we got in way early. We took a good back roads route to the festival that I had learned two years earlier, and ended up in parking lot number 4, which, for our purposes, rules. The walk is 0.7 miles to the gate, but whatever. We had hard tickets so we didn't have to stand in the will call line, that is clearly out of control. I had to stand in it last year and it sucked. Ticketaster fucked up my order, and they clearly did fuck up many of them, because they had been sending out warnings for weeks. Luckily we had our tickets, so in we went. We got the lay of the land and tried to pick up schedule booklets, but they were out of them alread. Um, okay, 4PM on the first day and you're out. So we wandered from stage to stage tacking pictures of the schedule boards and writing things down so we knew where to go. We walked by Of Montreal as they were starting, and listened for a second, but didn't really get too into it. I have a whole theory about them and Elf Power and the Apples in Stereo: people want so badly for Neutral Milk Hotel and The Olivia Tremor Control to still be around that they keep these bands in business because it's the best they can do. Well, that and the Decembrists (oo burn). I loved loved loved E6 and I even liked a few Of Montreal songs at some point (Nikki Coco especially), but I just don't feel it anymore. Then we passed by Gillian Welch and listened a bit because my sis is a big fan and she sounded awesome and I made mental note to go see her somewhere where there isn't thumping techno seeping into the tent.

(as an aside, that's my whole philosophy of Coachella - it's Rock Tourism at it's best. Five stages, go in circles, see what you like, make notes, check it out later. Separate the wheat (Hot Chip, Soul Wax, Gillian Welch) from the chaff (Lily Allen, CSS).)

So we finally settled at Tilly and the Wall. NBF spangleyrocks had mentioned them at SXSW so I thought I'd check them out, and they were a rollicking good time, I have to admit. Go see them when they come to town. Check.

We popped into the dance tent, and my schedule says Dave Guetta was playing, but really we popped in there so Emma and Sean could get the lay of the land. And then we headed to the main stage for Silversun Pickups who are getting better all the time and were really good and were playing in the exact same spot as Snow Patrol two years ago so I guess this means they'll be huge in two years. Go see them while I still can. Check.

Moving on, we skipped Amy Winehouse, because that empress has no clothes, and started our strategic plotting to get up front for the Chain. This involved Judi and I splitting up from everyone else and heading up front on the main stage for the Arctic Monkeys, as phase one of jostling for position for the Chain. This turned out to be an awesome move, because despite my not liking the Arctic Monkeys on record, my hunch was confirmed and they were a great live band. Fast, fun, lyrically smart and insanely catchy and manic. And um... they're 21. WTF. How is that possible.

They ended and Judi and I pushed up front even more, getting to be about 10 people back on the main stage for the Jesus and Mary Chain. I know they're playing in New York soon, so I don't wanna ruin it for anyone going, so skip ahead.

They were AWESOME. Oh my god, okay, so the crowd wasn't in love with them, that i could tell from way up front, and Jim and William just stood there, but, then, they always just stand there, don't they? They were very clearly freaked out about being there. After the first song (which was Never Understand for crying out loud), Jim says "woah, this is fucking weird" and it occurred to me how weird it must be. I mean, how many people were even going to their shows @ the end there? Maybe 500 or 1,000 in a city like Boston or New York? And here they are in front of 100,000 people. WTF. They must have been freaked. And it showed. And up front the energy was low from the crowd because they weren't giving anything to us. But I didn't care, cuz I expected that, and holy hell they played better than they have since the freakin' Rollercoaster tour, and honestly, it was the best set selection I have ever heard of them ever doing. WTF. They played "Head On" second, which didn't get the crowd amped, and I think at that point they were like "all right, whatever, these people aren't going to react and we're not going to react let's just play." They played Happy When it Rains, Teenage Lust, Reverence, Snakedriver, SIDEWALKING, oh, oh, but lest ye think it was all the hits, they played SOME CANDY TALKING, Blues from a gun, Cracking Up, Far Gone and Out, oh man, I can't remember what else I was in a sea of people standing there, and I was fraking the fuck out, probably embarrassing judi immensely but oh man that was like the greatest show ever and aug stone get your act together and go to the new york shows. Jim looks good, WIlliam is fat and doesn't sing, Loz is awesome on drums and the other two dudes do their thing. Oh and then Scarlett Johansen walked on stage and sang the backing vocals for Just LIke Honey. Huh. I thought it was SIster Vanilla, but apparently I was wrong. Oops.

So then we went to the outdoor stage to see Jarvis. And he got started late and I got really stressed because I wanted to make sure the crowd got to hear Black Magic and Running the World because they are the songs that sway people to like him, and he was 20 minutes late and doing his banter thing (which is genius, and his banter was s funny as it was on Monday in New York), and I got a bit anxious, but then he fit them in and delivered and it was awesome and yay Jarvis!

Then we got dinner at my favorite spot - where you can get food and sit in the food area behind the outdoor stage and eat and watch a band - and watched Sonic Youth, who were heavy on the Daydream Nation, not surprisingly, but awesome as always. I tried to call my sister and wish her a happy birthday, since Sonic Youth was playing, but I only got her voice main.

And then to the main stage to see Bjork who was awesome except she had some overly arty videographer that wouldn't just show her on the screens but kept showing these interminably long shots of some dude using a touch-panel midi controler that lit up in an admittedly beautiful way but jesus there are 100,000 people here, and only like 4,000 of them can actually see bjork in person up close so how about you just put her on the screens, mmkay?

ON ANOTHER NOTE: There were absolutely NO screens for the Outdoor (second) stage this year, which SUCKED. Coachella please bring back the screens for the second stage they are vital. I was super disappointed about that, and made that stage, which was formerly my favorite stage, kinda useless.

So, yeah, Bjork ruled, she played a few new songs but mainly old, and I really hope she comes to the opera house again.

We left and headed home, making our escape from Bjork to house in under a half an hour, because we had rockstar parking and a good route. I stayed up for... maybe two hours waiting up for heather who was getting dropped off by some friends. Her delay really reinforced to me how awesome our route was. It was so awesome I'm not going to tell it to you.

We did some awesome grilling of hot dogs and burgers before bed, and drank champagne and watched For Your Eyes Only on DVD, which I purchased earlier in the day from Albertson's if you wanna borrow it.

Saturday

Saturday we got up and made awesome breakfast burritos - which we did every day we were there. mmmm breakfast burritos. We got to the festival a little late - I had wanted to see Roke Erikson, and we got there so I could have caught maybe the tail end of two songs, but judi was into Regina Spektor, who was on at the same time, only she was on the main stage, right where you walk in, so since she was right there, we watched her, and she was great. Two thumbs up. Then we went over to the tents to watch Hot Chip, who were also awesome in a dancetastic kind of way. I'd go see them and stay if people danced. Then we checked out The New Pornographers who kindly opened with my favorite song (the spanish techno one) and played the other song I like (the no no no no one) before I got bored and wandered around with Heather to see Peter, Bjorn and John, who kindly played their two hits in the five songs we watched. Would have stayed longer because they were awesome but I have tickets for the paradise show soon, so time to roam! Hit the dance tent and saw some boobs and listened to MSTRKRFT for a while, which was hilarious and awesome, and then I took Heather to Andrew Bird, since she was unfamiliar (though, on reminder, she had seen him open for the Magnetic Fields back when he was solo) and he was awesome and great just like at SXSW and boy I can't wait till he tours with that band. Then we checked out a bit of The Decembrists before remembering I didn't like them, and then headed to the main stage and endured The Kings of Leon (who were, I must admit, not awful, but were by no means good), in order to get up close for the Arcade Fire.

And here we come to the meat of it. The Arcade Fire. This is, now, the second time Judi and I have seen The Arcade Fire in the desert at Coachella. If the 2005 show was a statement that these guys were going to be a band that mattered and that there was something more, this one was roughly akin to the second coming. I am now seriously wondering if there is any other way that the Arcade Fire can be seen OTHER than in a field with 100,000 other people who are all completely ensnared in it. Say what you want about this band, but grown men were weeping. People of all walks of life, all stripes and colors were freaking the fuck out. I am 35 years old and I have seen nothing - nothing - in my life that has brought people together in such masses as much as this.

I've heard bad things about the NYC church shows and the London shows. I am not surprised, both because the ambition of what they were trying to do up there - even if just from a sound mix point of view - was radical and I can't imagine a bunch of New York hipsters in a church embracing this band, life, their neighbors, and everything else wholly and completely. Also because they probably needed to practice a bit.

Whatever it was, that shit was WORKED OUT. Oh my god. Seriously. I am a cynical man, and I felt euphoria akin to a hit of E for about half the show. Every time I start to think how depressing Rage Against the Machine was and how awful and what a terrible negative message they are imparting and how reductionist and violent and dreary they are, and I start to fear for the future, I think of those 100,000 people watching the Arcade Fire and all of the sudden I feel all right about the future. Somebody send that band to the middle east.

Okay, okay, I'll stop. But... wow. Lordy. So then we took our euphric selves over to the Outdoor stage and checked out Blonde Redhead, and man, don't they get better every year. holy hell. Wow. Their whole show was like one extended vamped coda crescendo to the end of the Arcade Fire.. the mmmaaaaanananananananana..... BOMP. That ends a good rock show. For 40 minutes. YES.

Then over to the dance tent for an hour long dance-a-thon with LCD Soundsystem. MAN WHAT A NIGHT. He got the kids - all 20,000 of them or so, dancing like there was nothing else to do, and it was awesome. Tribulations, especially, but the new songs kept everyone going. Except for his totally weird choice of closers, that "I love you new york but you're bringing me down" song and um, I guess he was fulfilling some childhood torch song fantasy, and people still seemed to like it, but I guess that's E for you. Psyched to see him at Avalon.

And this is where our groove ran out. There was a misprint in the schedule, and the Rapture didn't go on immediately after LCD Soundsystem like they were supposed to, and not knowing when they were gonna go on, we went over and sat around for 40 mins until Cornelius went on. And Cornelius was cool, but by that time we had lost our emergy, and called it a night after not too long.

On the way out we watched and listened to Tiesto who were ridiculous in their silliness and deep house ambient stadium techno or whatever. Still, tough, I think it might have been worth checking out if you could get to the front of the stage and there were 40,000 people knackered on E dancing. That would have been funny. But instead we went home and grilled more and watched The Fifth Element and drank more champagne at our awesome country club.

Sunday
Sunday we took it easy and lollygagged around the house reading after our obligatory breakfast burritos, but somehow we still managed to end up at the festival earlier than the other days, in time to catch the last half of Explosions in the Sky, which was awesome. At that point we split up and I went looking for my friends - Baily, Car Baum, whoever. My highly scientific approach of going to each beer tent, twice, didn't work, probably because Baily and Justin had VIP wristbands and I did not. In my explorations, though, I saw about half of Against Me!, who are totally not my thing but were good, and then saw Junior Boys who were awesome, and then discovered Soul Wax Night Versions which I know nothing about but was totally awesome live techno played by five gentlemen in white linen shirts of the riviera variety and to that I say WELL ALL RIGHT. I liked them a lot. Then I checked out CSS cuz Justin likes them and they were awful. Ew. No offence but not my thing, even before you can hear what they are saying. Their Daft Punk cover is pretty cool, though. Then I checked out Konono No. 1 and felt all worldly and erudite as they banged on their drums, and then checked out the Kaiser Chiefs and thought "huh so that's what they sound like. I don't like them" and would think now "well at least I saved some time going and seeing them at the middle east or something" except today I remembered that had, in fact, already happened.

Then I met up with the gang and we watched Willie Nelson, who was wonderful and Willielike and had funny new songs and didn't play On The Road Again but he did have his sister, brother and son up there with him so that was cool. Then we tried to go see Jose Gonzalez and we watched like 5 songs but the stupid sound bleed from the dumb techno dome made it hard, though he did play "heartbeats" so that was cool and his girlfriend - that other chick who sings for Zero 7 that I saw play with them and was pretty good - was up there with him so that was cool.

Then we went back to the main stage and watched Crowded House and felt all in the moment when they played "Don't Dream it's Over" and mused about how much like the new Wilco they sound. Like A LOT. Forgot they had another hit in the form of "Something So Strong" so we went wandering and checked out a bit of Girl Talk who was doing his thing just like always only with a much bigger stage. You gotta be in the right state, I think, and we weren't.

We settled down for dinner and Air in our outdoor stage dining area, only Air were 20 minutes late. Wait, no, like 30. At first this was okay, because it allowed us to hear "Something so Strong," which was nice, but then it just went on forever. And by the time they went on some super loud band was on the main stage, and we only had ten minutes before we were gonna go see the Mondays, so the sound was so quiet but there wasn't time to go up front. That was super sad. They sounded good, but we could only last 3-4 songs.

Then we went to the dance tent for the Happy Mondays. I was careful to not over promise the mondays, and cautioned everyone they could suck. Finally the lights went down and out walked TONY FUCKING WILSON, on a cane, who introduced them. Bliss.

The mondays were sand Bez, and Shawn is super fat and bald now. Both of these facts make his habit of standing back and not doing much seem all the more weird and kinda boring, but in their defense, the band sounded great, they played the hits, they got the crowd going, and Shawn woke up as the set went on. He also get props for smoking pot on stage during "Kinky Afro." They played Step On, of course, and Hallelujah, and Loose Fit, etc., etc., and ended, in an ode to Tony no doubt, with 24 Hour Party People, so that was cool.

Then we all met up (everyone had wandered off during the mondays to see Ratatat and Teddybears, and who can blame them?) to see the Lemonheads

The Lemonheads were awesome! We couldn't stay too long, because we absolutely wanted to get out of there before Rage Against the Machine incited a riot, but Evan's still got it. He looks good, the songs were awesome - we got "It's a shame about ray," "Confetti" "My Drug Buddy" and a couple other oldies in the 9 or so songs we saw. It was enough for us to know that when he comes by, we should go see him. And that is the point of Coachella.

So we left during Rage. Oh god, what a travesty. It sounded exactly like Rage, so I guess if you're into that thing, cool. The night before as we were walking out, Tiesto had this ridiculous spoken word piece going on about life and humanity and connections and we all thought it was so painfully bad. But Tom's rant was even more ridiculous. Painfully embarrassing. Lemme see if I can capture it. Oh, no, I can't, exactly. He was going on about how there's a system out there, a corrupt system* that is designed and engineered to cheat, destroy, whatever. You know how it is. But the part that really got me was when he said "If you put them up to the trials of the nazi war criminals, every us president since harry truman would be found guilty and would be hung and tried and shot." I am very sure about the order of that - hung and tried and shot. "the current president is no worse. he should be hung and tried and shot." I am not messing this up. Those were his exact words. To a crowd of 100,000 impressionable, drunk hoodlums, Tom Morello or Zach or whoever the fuck it is with that annoying voice - even when I hung out with them I could never bring myself to care who did what in that band. Um, anyway, in front of 100,000 impressionable fans, let's say, they literally said our president should be hung... then tried... then shot. Okay. I suppose because you put the word "Tried" in there, this is somehow making you better than the manifestly evil people you are criticizing? Or is it because they are manifestly evil that you are allowed to be the one to advocate capital punishment WITHOUT TRIAL of an elected official? and somehow this doesn't make you as bad as him? Aside from the incomprehensible ridiculousness that EVERY president since truman should have this happen to him. Um... because FDR was so much better than Truman? WTF? Also I know I'm flying (literally) without Wikipedia here, but if I recall correctly, the Nuremberg trials didn't all end in capital punishment, did they? One must assume those are what he's referring to with his "trials of nazi war criminals." Elther way, I am reasonably sure the subjects of the nuremberg trials were not hung AND tried AND shot. I am also reasonably sure that if, through some quirk of space and time, Jimmy Carter found himself on trial at Nurmeberg, he probably wouldn't have ended up hung OR shot, let alone both. Jesus.

I generally think of Rage Against the Machine as a comically pathetic joke, and, I must admit, still do, more or less. But the hypocrisy of their railing against capitalism is pretty rank. (they were selling shirts for $25 at this event, and I'll wager neither that nor the high six figure fee that they got for the gig went to charity. I'll also wager their anti-death penalty (I recall some embarrassing mumia episode with them in the past), except, apparently, when it comes to the like of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Tools.

Oh wait, that was last year.

Anyway, we left before they finished, got home in 20 minutes, ate way too much grill food and other food in an attempt to finish up our groceries, drank modelo especial (YES!) and went to bed.

We never did make it to In N Out burger. I was still full in the morning. And then goodbye, friends! Goodbye awesome country club! goodbye old people in golf carts! Goodbye 23 swimming pools! Goodbye Betty Ford Center (it was right next door!) Goodbye rockers!

* as an aside, I am constantly fascinated with utopian and radicals immutable beliefs that there is some sort of system out there holding them down. For what it's worth, for all my dealings, many or not, with politicians, and people in positions of power, I can discern no system, plot, conspiracy or scheme. Just a bunch of people trying to deal with the chaos that is life, with varying and conflicting degrees of success. I much prefer Jarvis' insight into said individuals: "Cunts are still running the world."