coachella - friday
I’m back, bruised, sore, tired, covered in sharpie pen and altogether exhilarated with yet another amazing Coachella. To quote Simon’s favorite tattoo sighting (on the ass crack of a petite brunette), “let the wild rumpus begin.”
The experience begins on Friday… Simon has booked our hotel and made the executive decision to get out of town early Friday to beat traffic. Skeely is supposed to be at my place, ready to go at 1… he calls me, he’s doing laundry next door, he’ll be ready at 1. So I walk in to the neighbors house right at 1, ready to go, only to see Skeely sitting on the couch, eating ice cream, laundy still not done, stuff still back at his house, with no idea what time it is. Oh well, a bit of a late start. We head over to meet Simon and Ben at Kate’s house in Culver City, where there is more general lollygagging and waiting around, although at least there was also beer.
We finally got onto the freeway around 2:30 or so… managed to get out of LA without too much traffic, at least for LA standards, but then we hit massive traffic out in the sticks all the way to Indio… lots of other folks had the same bright idea, and there was a fire on the side of the freeway out in Palm Springs… either way, it basically turned what should have been a 2 hour drive into a 5 hour one. Not a good start, although the atmosphere was jovial and it was fun seeing people and doing that knowing nod as you drive by… “yep, we’re going to coachella too…”
Got to the hotel and checked in… Simon scored a suite due to this being his third or fourth year in a row booking there, and some other sort of shady dealings he’s famous for. So needless to say, Skeely and I brought our beers over to his room… Kate and Ben were staying with Simon as well, so a little bit a pre-party…
After we chilled out for awhile, it was time to head out for some of the pre-parties… first stop was the Scary Movie III DVD release party, which was supposed to have food. That sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, just cheese and veggies, but there was an open bar, and a Michael Jackson impersonator… who was strangly shy and didn’t seem to really want to work the dancefloor. Hope they didn’t pay him much.
Then it was off to Graham’s private party… friends of Simon that own a house in Palm Springs, for some unfathomable reason. Simon mingled, while Kate, Skeely and I huddled in a corner and drank more free booze. Well, at least until Skeely was accosted by not one, not two, but three women…
And that concluded the Friday night festivities… back to the hotel, a few more beers for a nightcap, and rough plans to hit the complimentary breakfast bar and a relatively early departure time for the festival….