It is a summer of weddings for Alicia and I. Kicked off the year with Tushaar and Kristin's wedding back in April (pics here, here and here). This was the first Indian wedding they had ever had at the Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod. Was also the first Indian Wedding I had ever been at. I wish I rode in on a white horse at my wedding, damn it.
Then onwards to Paul and Margaux's wedding this past weekend in the Hamptons (no pics yet). The Hamptons is a great place to study the uber-WASP in their native environment - for example, there was one guy at the wedding ceremony who was wearing a blue blazer with bright green pants and a bright green tie. Also, the reception was at the Maidstone Club, and there were at least ten of us there who were Jewish, which I think may be a new record for the club.
And why must airports suck so much? On the way back, I realized that flying from JFK-SFO may be the worst combination of airports in the country - we first had to sit through a line of 30 planes waiting to take off at JFK, then we had to pull *out* of the line for a route recalculation (apparently involving slide rules). We finally took off, got in only an hour late to SFO. But upon arrival, of course we had to wait the requisite 30 minutes before any luggage arrived at the baggage carousel, and when it did arrive, they of course ignored the premium tags.
JFK is just overloaded and the Air Traffic Control system is massively outdated (of course, if it was private...). At SFO, on the other hand, it's just that the baggage handlers are really, really, really slow.
Went to see Arcade Fire on Friday night at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. I hadn't really ever listened to them before - Joe suggested going to the show. I like Arcade Fire, although the Greek Theatre was a tough venue for them. Murph came because he had heard from a friend that their show at Austin City Limits was the best show he had ever seen. The Greek Theatre show was not the best show I had ever seen. But I could easily see how in a smaller, indoor venue, they could really rock the house. They have a very big sound.
So what does it take to really rock the Greek Theatre? I think the energy level in the crowd needs to be really high - everyone needs to be dancing. This is a challenge, if not an oxymoron, for an indie-rock band. Indie rock is too cool to dance.
Daft Punk will rock the Greek Theatre at the end of July. But a very, very different band.