The other problem for me is that I have nothing to ride for distance now.  My new project is purposely geared low, as it’s intended to be an about-campus bike.  It’s also got a small frame and big, heavy components, so it’s terribly inefficient.

Events like this also bring my fiscal irresponsibility into sharp focus.  I’m terrible with money - I don’t budget, and I’d much rather trade money for fun experiences than save it up.  So, no new bike for Joe right now.  I’m going to use that money for something bigger than a bike.

• 1/2 eggplant
• 1 zucchini
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tomato
• 12 baby carrots (or so)
• Ground Mustard
• Chopped garlic
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 450F.  Slice the eggplant and zucchini in half, then cut into 1/4 inch slices.  Line the bottom of the pan with them.  Chop the tomato and onion, layering over zucchini and eggplant.  Add the carrots.  Season with everything, then pour olive oil over the vegetables to coat.  Roast for 50 minutes.

Awesome.

“Like Hell you are.”

“What?”

“No one is ever actually sorry for squeezing closer to the stage. You don’t need to apologize to me.”

“It’s just that we really love this band, man. You understand.”

“Of course I understand. I’d like to be as close as possible, too.”

“Sweet, thanks. You want some wine, man?”

“Absolutely.”

And just like that, we’d gone from almost enemies to best show friends. I learned about their lives: a Navy jet pilot trainee and a finance guy for a Chicago automotive company. They invited me to an apartment after-party, and then we jumped for joy together for an hour. That’s the power of pop music: it creates kinship with people who’ve never met. It’s an inexpressible energy that I shared all day with different people; it’s a power I’d forgotten, and it erases cynicism with pure, unfettered joy.

That was the story of my entire Lollapalooza experience: pure, unfettered joy. Randy’s landlords/housemates were incrediby welcoming, although not so friendly as their Cardigan Corgis, which are dogs so cute that they make a run for my love of cats. When I get a pet, it’s going to be a hard choice between a Corgi and a friendly cat. It was fantastic to see Randy again, too. We had a lot of thoughts and music to share, and we also shared a great meal at Leona’s after Lolla. Having such a great companion made the concert experience, even if we only got together for a few select shows.

The concerts, as stated above, blew me away. I didn’t expect Matt & Kim to be as joyous (sorry, but it really is the only word to describe the day) as they were at 11:45 in the morning, but from jokes about ‘dipping your pen in the company inkwell’ to incredibly bouncy anthems about nerding out and loving your life, they opened the day in fantastic style.

I’m From Barcelona deserve their own post, but they’ll just get a paragraph for now. From the instant they came out on stage (all 18 of them!), you could tell that they were as excited to be playing for us as we were to be listening to them. It was an hour-long party. We jumped around. We threw balloons to each other like volleyballs. We waved our arms all in unison. At one point, we all counted down and 2,000 people bounced as one to the poppiest of pop. That’s what a show is all about: happiness, joy, and enthusiasm. I hope they come back to the US again, even if they get split from Huus-Ton to Cleev-Land, as the Swedish accent says.

The Hold Steady were the absolute top of my day. Like I said, they turn enemies into friends and make you love being alive, even if you’re a reformed ex-Catholic from muggy, buggy Indiana with too many bad choices in your past. You. Must. See. Them. It is not an option. It is essential.

Maybe I’m just jaded from seeing too many Spoon shows, but I guess I just know what to expect from them now. The set was well-considered, well-executed, and powerful, but it didn’t contain any surprises. I had a great time there and made some fast friends up on the rail as we fended of crowd-surfers’ feet, but it was more of a come-down, a perfect cool-off to an incredibly exuberant day.

I’m still coming down. Perry Farrell, no matter what you’re like as a person, you know how to pull a festival together, how to make a day great.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day.  There’s a possibility of afternoon thunderstorms and it’s going to be in the 80s all day.  I’m going to wind up bringing both sunscreen and an umbrella, taking no chances.  I’m excited for the lineup I’ve planned, though!  It’ll start out a little twee with Matt & Kim, but things are going to rachet up fast with the 29-member I’m From Barcelona Swedish music collective.  I hope they bring the whole band.  All in all, the music is going to kick my ass - I’m going to be jumping up and down for something like four straight hours bouncing from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to The Hold Steady to Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Spoon.  I don’t know if I’ll have enough energy left at the end of that for Interpol or not.

I’m apparently just all about trying to die from exhaustion this week.  First my double-up bike ride, then a Lollapalooza weekend, then the Great Apartment Move-Out.

I wound up riding 37 miles yesterday on one quart of water and two granola bars.  When I got home I crashed so hard that I wound up just laying on my bed, eyes open but unfocused for an hour.  I don’t even remember if I had any thoughts at the time.  Still, I’m sort of psyched that I can still jump on the bike and do 37 miles in an evening, even if it totally wipes me out.

Better and more interesting people than I have written about the ridiculous farce of a life that frequently accompanies the “full time” American work week. A typical day goes something like this:

• Get up and shower. (if you wake up on time)
• Drive to work.
• Work all day (or waste time online while trying to look busy)
• Leave work at 5 (if you’re lucky)
• Get home.
• Make dinner.
• Congratulations! It’s now 8 or 9 PM, generally considered to late to do much outdoors.
• Go to bed, or you’ll be too tired to repeat it all tomorrow.

Note, of course, the lack of leisure time associated with the lifestyle. There are a few ways to alleviate some of the pain. Some of them are commonly taken, some aren’t. You could sleep less (very popular). You could buy your dinner so you don’t have to cook it. You could come in earlier and leave earlier. You could just stop trying to have a life outside of work.
There are also some key methods that would go a long way towards improving the situation, ones that frequently aren’t available to people. They require a lot of change to implement, but the more I think about them, the more attractive they seem.

Live Near Work. This eliminates or greatly reduces your commute. Depending on how you make your living, this may or may not be practical. For engineers and tech workers especially, this is hard to do. Most large technical companies locate in out-of-the-way places that they can push to give them large tax breaks. I don’t know about everyone, but I live in a city because I like the surroundings so much more than the pseudo-suburban wasteland that surrounds my workplace. Consequently, I spend about 1.25 hours in the car every day. I don’t think it would be worth it if this were anything more than a 3 month job. I’d love to see some cities start attracting high-tech jobs back into the city proper in more than IT and universities.

Telecommute. A variation on 1, but worth its own section. This is an option that’s more available to technical people, whereas a shopowner has some obvious problems. Even if you work in a lab, I’m willing to bet that large portions of your work involve documenting and planning. Lump this work together into one day every week or two and do it at home. Missing the stress of the commute will be worth it. This does require a strong work ethic to keep you on task and a flexible workplace culture. So many workplaces allow this now, though, that you’d be foolish not to take advantage of it.

Work less, Do more. The forty-hour work requirement is a usable, if largly useless metric for employee productivity. If you’re salaried, you’re being paid to get things done, not sit at your desk. At least, I hope that’s the case. If not. It’s impossible for most people to stay focused for eight hours straight. French worker productivity (with a legally mandated 35 hour work week) is higher than it is in the US. If you have an open, smart work environment, talk to your boss about giving this a try. You may be surprised by extra motivation and productivity.

The difference between these three methods and the ones higher up is that these might actually make you happier and even a better employee. I’ve been thinking a lot about my problems with my job this summer, and I think that if I was telecommuting occasionally and felt comfortable leaving when I’d accomplished what I needed to, I would’ve felt much more sanguine about the whole experience.

You will never sail a raft across an ocean or start a band composed of your children.  Ok, you may try the second one, but your children will hate you.  This guy is so cool his kids LIKE being in his band!