podpolia

If more people reacted to crime the way this family did, I think it would be safe to say that there would be much less crime in this country. Just like the applesauce guy from yesterday.

Yet another link sent me by my dad: senior Philadelphian knocks out robber with jar of applesauce. I don’t think I have anything more to say about that.

My Dad emailed me an article today about a Mexican historian and doctor who has been re-investigating the cause of the plagues that wiped out millions of native Americans shortly after the arrival of the Spanish. It’s possible that at least one of the plagues was not a European disease at all, but was one native to central America. It doesn’t go into as much detail on the epidemiology side of the story for my tastes, but it’s definitely worth reading, particularly if you have read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (and even if you haven’t, it’s a good introduction to some of the concepts.)

Well, I think I’ve finally gotten around to writing up my trip to Cornerstone. I left Sunday morning, and drove about halfway out on Sunday, spending the night with family in Indiana. Finished the ~830 mile trip on Monday, arriving at Bushnell in the afternoon, and setting up camp. Luckily, I ran immediately into two guys I hung out with last year, so I ended up not really being by myself at all that week — something I had been wondering about, as circumstances prevented me from having contact info from everybody from last year.
Monday passed mostly uneventfully, as shows really didn’t start until Tuesday. I didn’t go to any shows Tuesday either, as I didn’t have a schedule for them (Tooth and Nail day isn’t technically part of the festival, in some obscure way). I’d have gone to see Spoken and Project 86, but oh well. The people camped downhill from me Monday night moved out Tuesday morning, for some reason, and another group moved in. We got to know them a bit, but didn’t spend too much time around them at first. Instead, I spent Tuesday afternoon driving the hour or so west to the corner of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. I always enjoy getting to see the Mississippi river, and browsing through fireworks stores just inside the Missouri state line.
Wednesday Greg and I met some new people who moved in down the row from us. We helped set up their tent, and started hanging out with them. That evening I went to see The Wednesdays and The Remnants. Both of them played a good show, although The Wednesdays seemed to have a better stage presence.
Thursday morning started the seminars. The first one I went to was on Kierkegaard, followed by one (given by the inimitable Cliff Williams) on Nietzsche. That one was particularly interesting, as I’ve read some Nietzsche and the seminar was mostly discussion. Later that afternoon, I went to one on A Canticle For Leibowitz given by David Dark. It was an interesting literary discussion, even though I haven’t read the book for a number of years. I’m now planning on re-reading it. This was followed by the next seminar on Kierkegaard, which I fell asleep during propped up against a tent pole.
Thursday evening was street punk night at the Underground stage, and so I saw the end of The Last Hope, followed by The Havoc (and their new band, Spades and Blades) and the absolutely incredible Flatfoot 56. Once again, Flatfoot was the musical highlight of my week. Hopefully Joel will send me his video of Amazing Grace at the end of their set — imagine 2,000 punks in a circus tent with their arms around each other’s shoulders, swaying back and forth while singing Amazing Grace a capella, and then the band starting up and the entire place turning into a gigantic mosh pit. It’s always lots of fun.
Thursday night was the fireworks, which I watched over the lake with the girls down the row and their friends from school who were also there. I had helped cook supper for myself, Joel, Greg, and various of these other people earlier that evening as well, although it’s difficult to fry roshti when you don’t have any oil or butter or anything. Anyway, the fireworks were fun.
Friday I spent the morning and early afternoon going to Macomb with 7 or so other people from down the row. We had a good time wandering around the downtown, including stops at a playground (where I climbed a tree), a tattoo parlour, a coffee shop (in which one of the guys with us uncovered a dusty old out of tune piano and started playing and singing, actually to the approval of the other customers) and went to a pizza place for lunch.
I didn’t go to see any bands Friday, but I could hear the MxPx and Relient K shows from my campsite, where we spent the afternoon hanging out with the people in the camp down the hill.
Saturday I’m fairly sure I wandered through several shows, but I can’t remember for the life of me what they were, and the online schedule doesn’t seem to help. Probably these were shows at some of the non-official stages. I spent the morning hanging out with the group that moved in next to my tent on (I believe) Thursday, went to see the third seminar on A Canticle For Leibowitz, hung out with the group down the hill through the afternoon, listened to Flyleaf, Project 86, and P.O.D. from my campsite, and during the Day of Fire and Pillar shows wandered off to find food. Ended up eating 3 personal-pan pizzas from Pizza Hut that evening.
Sunday morning I packed up the tent, loaded the car, said my goodbyes, and drove to Indiana, where I spent the night with relatives again. Then Monday I drove from Indiana home to Pennsylvania. I was really worn out, and had trouble staying awake for parts of the trip, but on the whole I seem to be getting better about not being sleepy while driving. I certainly got enough practice over the past week and a half.
On the whole, I was gone for eight days, and drove a total of over 1800 miles. Met a whole bunch of new people, got a bunch of cds, a pretty nasty sunburn (which is now peeling), and a brand new appreciation for just sitting here doing nothing. On the whole, it was a lot of fun.

I’m finally home from Cornerstone. It was a good time, and I’ll have to write a post about it at some point, and maybe put up pictures. Too tired to do that right now though.