STARS
Some of our favorite art installations are ones that play with their environment. There’s something transformative and magical about altering a space most people are already familiar with. Maybe it’s the Cinderella-like nature of it all that makes it special. Art installations are, after all, fleeting things. For a few days or weeks the ordinary becomes the extraordinary and then suddenly, as if the clock has struck 12, the magic is gone. The magic Lee Eunyeol has created flips the very Earth and sky itself.
It’s amazing how often we miss out on something that’s right in front of us. It’s not often we get to see the stars vividly, but they’ve been surrounding us since our existence. The lights that shine down on us are billions of years old, sometimes from stars that have long since flickered out. Talk about a missed connection. It’s no wonder, then, that when a photographer captures the night sky, we stand in awe. Our sky is the ultimate light show.
The Canadian indie-pop quintet, Stars (Soft Revolution), have released a video for their latest single, "Changes". Directed by Jaron Albertin, this journey through Toronto's Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre follows a nude woman running, dancing and exploring herself, physically and soulfully.
Spinner.com reported lead singer Amy Millan saying, "This video is based around the idea of changes that we feel deeply and personally, but which also seem to bear the weight of the world." She continued, "The dancer's changes are strange and otherworldly. We watch as change is forced upon her, and how she learns to live through it, as fate demands."
So I know this is a little "far out", but I did want to bring this down to earth. I was watching ABC News last night when I heard mention of the Hubble telescope discovering a green blob on the outskirts of another recorded galaxy about the size of our own. Reportedly this "thing" is giving birth to new stars and all the green stuff they'd noticed is oxygen around each little million year old new-born.
So in honor of this new discovery, I wanted all of us to dust off some of our beautiful green accessories and give the Universe a beautiful congratulations as it gives birth. I can imagine that we might just see a small correlation of these events amongst us, from new celebrities ("Stars") emerging, to even new people popping up to "star" in long awaited scenes in our own lives. So from those emerald earrings, jade necklaces, to even green agate stone bracelets, pull out that green bling and connect Glam Damn It!
Probably one of the best indie acts to come out of Canada, Stars, fueled by the eloquent tag-team vocals of Torquil Campbell and Amy Milan, is continuing their fall tour at Terminal 5 in Manhattan on September 24 after their June 2010 release of their fifth studio album The Five Ghosts.
"The Five Ghosts is lyrically the darkest thing we've ever done," frontman Campbell said in an interview. "There was a lot of being haunted going on when we were making the record. Chris had a strange experience of being haunted in the hotel room that he was staying in when we got together in Vancouver to write. Chris ended up leaving his hotel room after three days in the middle of the night and never going back because he claimed to be being haunted by this entity who was under his bed. So right from the beginning of making the record, we were sort of freaked out. As the year went on, I lost my dad, and a lot of things kept coming back to us and reminding us of ghosts, you know, that your life is filled with ghosts, ghosts of the past and ghosts of other worlds."
The Sunday Snapshot:
The festival set-up, sound and acoustics, as well as operations were extremely professional. It's obvious they have done this before. I loved how they had two stages by each other with back-to-back shows. I parked it at the Budweiser/Playstation stages for most of the weekend due to the line up, but it was incredible to see 10,000 people stacked to see the headliners on the BMI stage. Kudos Lolla.
Sunday Musical Delights & Awards:
Chiddy Bang: Award for Band Best Listened on a CD. I was personally pumped to see Chiddy play. My friends produce their music videos and I have been rocking to their cool remixes/raps for a bit now. Think, Girl Talk meets Drake for their vibe. I was sadly disappointed in the live bit, but I still like them a lot. But the electronic Perry’s stage was a sick addition to the festival. We would be visiting again.
Here is what we loved most about Saturday at Lollapalooza 2010. I wish I was still there!
In addition to the green scene at Grant Park, there were some really cool sponsorship and brand presence situations in the mix. Toyota was giving away cold bandanas and headbands (much needed with the hot temperatures). They always had a line to their tent, which I’m sure got them some good exposure. Another great sponsor was the water filling stations; I know I spent a lot of time here. AOL provided free WiFi, for those of us working during the festival, this was clutch. A fun one was the Q101 Hammock Station, where you could actually take a break and lay in the hammocks for a bit. It’s always enjoyable to see brands and companies giving out products and services that are super beneficial to the festival goer. Giving a consumer something they can really use during the weekend is really going to stand out for marketing purposes.
Completely pumped for this festival, Lollapalooza managed to blow me away. Not only with the talent they had this year, but as an event planner, I was even more impressed with the set-up and operations they had in place. If you missed our live Tweets from the festival here are some tasty tidbits from the weekend. Catch us tomorrow for Saturday's recap:
Friday:
We arrived in Chicago around 7am from New York, took a nap, and proceeded to the event around 4pm. Other than grabbing my media pass (which was like a mile away from the entrance) I was immediately impressed.
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