Pageant of the Nuggets

          So. Our last day at Bonnaroo. We slept in a bit, getting up at eleven or so and just relaxing. Around noon, I dropped the final tab from the batch of lucy I've had for a while. Following another ice cold shower, we meandered over to What Stage to snag a decent spot. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis gave a fantastic performance with a predictable set list, though I wish they'd included "Wings". These guys were all on their game -- Macklemore commanded an enormous stage presence, Ryan Lewis did his part pumping up the crowd, and the backup rapper and trumpet player were top shelf material also. Their set ended as a light rain began to fall, which was fitting. Brian and I sat down to wait, with Kendrick Lamar's set only an hour ahead. The sun beat down relentlessly, as it has all week, and we were lucky that Brian had found a squirt bottle last night. Before long, Kendrick Lamar appeared on stage and the crowd went nuts again. This, too, would be an excellent hip-hop performance, if a little on the ghetto side. Kendrick saved the best for last, delivering an incredible freestyle sans beat or music at the very end of his set, and I have to admit I was wowed. His rapping was solid and his DJ adequately skilled. However, it did get old when he had the audience sing his songs for him, and repeatedly yelling, "Wave! Wave! Wave! Wave! Wave!..." became pretty silly. I'll pause here to note that my experience today has been different from other experimentation I've done. I've spent less time on revelatory musing and more on just enjoying myself, though I think that the last tab may have been somewhat of a dud. Two of these rare reflections: grass as a surface rather than a plant, and how two of the sweetest words in the world are "poetic justice."
          We obtained gifts for our fathers and for Iris, snagged a couple of huge free t-shirts for ourselves, and visited the Adult Swim space. Along with a booth where you could wear a unicorn head and jump to pop balloons, there was one of those inflatable planetariums, designed to look like A.S. character Meatwad. We got into the second to last show of the day, and a nonsensical, music video-esque creation called "The Adult Swim Pageant of the Cosmos" was projected on the ceiling. I expect that some of it would have been genuinely scary to someone who was tripping balls. We made our way to A$AP Rocky next, but it was total dreck and we left after two songs. For some reason -- and despite his lack of hip-hop abilities -- A$AP's are the most fanatical and pushy of fans, so I'm more than happy that we skipped out on this set. Instead, we dropped by Which Stage very briefly to catch a song or two by David Byrne & St. Vincent. Happily, they played one of my favorite Talking Heads tunes when we arrived, "Wild Wild Life". Finally, we resolved to see Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers for at least a few songs; I particularly wanted to sing "Free Fallin'" with several thousand people. A few moments after Petty and his band took the stage, a storm crashed down, pelting rain, lightning and all. I do like a bit of Tom Petty, but not enough to stand in the rain for an hour. At least I got to sing along with "I Won't Back Down" as we headed back to the tent to relax and get our stuff together.
          Quotes of the day:
"Ten dollar joints! Ten dollar joints!" - a weed vendor at Macklemore
"Who needs nuggets? Nuggets nuggets nuggets!" - another weed vendor at Macklemore
"He asked if we wanted some molly, then did a little dance like this. He had this mask on, and then he went, 'Bwahahahahaha!' and ran away. I was like whoaaaaaa." - random girl
"You pretty, but you smell like shit. You know it's a festival when you drive on and say, 'Whew. It smells like musk and weed!'" - Macklemore
"People say, 'Macklemore, it's messed up that you're wearing these dead animals on stage.'... ... No it's not." - Macklemore
...
Brian: "Do it through the eyes of R. Kelly."
Me: "It would just say 'ladies' over and over again!"
...
Me: "Imagine if grass could think."
Brian: "Right? It'd be like, 'Fuck you guys!'"
...
Me: "He did not fuck Calpurnia!"
Brian: "It was in the extended version."
...
Brian: "Do you feel it Andy?"
Me: "Yeah, from over there."

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis raising a ruckus.