I have been to over 150 concerts in my life, but nothing came close to the experience that was Lollapalooza 2008 in Chicago's Grant Park from August 1-3.

Some of the world's most innovative, cutting-edge, groundbreaking acts in music today converged in the Windy City for a three day festival that brought in 225,000 fans including myself. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere charged and the music divine.

Across the span of Grant Park near Lake Michigan were several stages featuring up and comers as well as veterans, not to mention booths, food vendors and souvenir stands. It was a spectacle of sight and sound for the wall to wall attendees.

I was in hog heaven. Milwaukee's own Summerfest doesn't even come close to this alt-rock extravaganza; whilst the Big Gig caters to acts way past their prime, Lollapalooza aims for Generations X-Z.

Although pushing forty I felt in my element, enjoying some of the hottest new sounds being made on the planet.

Day One began for me with a 20-plus member band called Bang Camaro. They do a tongue in cheek dediacation to the hair bands of the 80s, and it was hilarious.

The Go!Team are party starters extraordinaires; their music is apt for a pep rally. Their set was high on energy and fun.

I then checked out a new act called innerpartysystem: a Nine Inch Nails -style electronic act that bored me silly.

I enthusiastically checked out 2008 It girl Duffy: donning a red, white and blue outfit and a voice as golden as the summer sun, she performed noteperfect versions of tunes off her hit CD Rockferry.

Instrumental band Explosions In The Sky were intriguing, as was the goofy crazy "gypsy punks" Gogol Bordello.

But Day One's highlight was headliner Radiohead. This iconic British band wowed the massive crowd with old material ~ "Everything In Its Right Place," "The Bends," "Fake Plastic Trees," and others, as well as some of the standout tunes off 2007 In Rainbows. Alas, no signs of their signature tune "Creep," but Thom Yorke and band were every bit a force to be reckoned with.

Radiohead's light and F/X show was nothing short of brilliant. Add upon it fireworks exploding in the sky above the Art Institute, a helicopter shining its searchlight upon the cheering crowd, and even geese flying over at the right moment during one tune, and you had yourself a picture perfect, surreal experience.

Day Two started for me with one of my fave new bands: Britian's The Ting Tings. Lead singer and guitarist Katie White brought the party with such ultra catchy singalongs as "Shut Up and Let Me Go," "That's Not My Name," and "Keep your Head," while drummer and backup vocalist Jules de brought the beats.

Newcomers MGMT make perfect summertime psychedelia, and it was evident in their set of groovy tunes like "Time To Pretend" and "Electric Feel."

I checked out salicious Brit Uffie; her hip-hop electronic numbers are raunchy to be sure, but nothing new compared to some of what is heard booming from car stereos nowadays.

Multi-member Broken Social Scene gave a admirable performance, but I was most enthused to see retro-soul and jazz group Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.

Jones is a true performer: she is witty, works a stage and owns it, and her voice is as good as soul greats Arethra and Tina. She brought it that night, with a sassy, enjoyable set, backed by a brass section, and some awesome rythmn players.

I ended the day with Rage Against The Machine. Needless to say I was not alone.

It looked and felt as though all 225,000 Lollagoers congreated on the south end of the park for Rage's show, and three times lead singer Zack de la Rocha had to stop the set to ask fans to back up because the people at the front of the stage were being crushed.

Lucky for me i was at the back; nonetheless I was almost trampled by the throngs of people pushing, shoving, and moshing.

One girl fainted in front of me and her boyfriend and I carried her to safety. It was scary to say the least.

Still, RATM delivered the goods, much like they did at Alpine Valley a year ago. Their music is politically charged anthems of anger and disdain aimed at our government; songs like "Bullet In The Head," "Testify," and "Bulls On Parade" still sound as raw and killer as they did in the 90s. Guitarist Tom Morello lays down riffs powerful enough to level a tank. And de la Rocha still has a lot to say about the state of the world we live in.

Day Three brought a new hip-hop singer named Kid Sister; she was a likeable presence ~ M.I.A. Lite, if you will.

Brazilian Girls soothed the crowd with their brand of sexy chillout electronica, most noticably the infamous hit "P*ssy."

Black Kids are a party band much like Go!Team, but with an infectious New Wave sound. Their lead singer sounds like The Cure's Robert Smith, and on the single "I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You," they even come close to copying The Cure's playful singles.

Saul Williams brought a razor-sharp industrial sound to the festival: pummeling the sweaty crowd with aggro-rock tunes with a funk edge. He closed with a surprisingly brazebn cover of the U2 classic "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

Then it was time for Greg Gillis aka Girl Talk.

Oh.My.God. If ever an artist provoked a party vibe it would be Gillis. Armed simply with a laptop and dozens of "mashupped" dance hits, the shoulder to shoulder crowd worked themselves into a frenzy.

As the music pumped full volume, a couple dressed as cops let go confetti and rolls of toliet paper via leaf blowers, fans danced onstage, ballons, beachballs and inflatable sharks flew thru the air, and Gillis finished the orgasmic performance by leaping onto a inflatable rubber raft that was carried across the crowd. Un-f**king-believable.

I ended my Lolla experience with my favorite band ever, Nine Inch Nails.

A buff Trent Reznor and his cronies in chaos laid waste to this final day of the festival, with jackhammer precision.

The hits were present: "Discipline," "March Of The Pigs," "Terrible Lie," "Wish," "Echoplex," "Survivalism," "The Hand That Feeds," and their signature tune "Head Like A Hole." The infamous "Closer" received the most cheers, as did a hauntingly hushed version of the classic "Hurt."

Midset the band slowed it all down a bit with some moody ambient pieces off the instrumental CDs Ghosts 1-IV.

NIN's light and F/X show rivaled that of Radiohead's; the imagery was jawdropping, most noticably during the song "Only" when Reznor and band disappeared and reappeared behind a screen of static.

Reznor apologized for a raspy voice, and mentioned how proud he was to return to Lollapalooza 17 years after it began.

If Lollapalooza 2008 was any indication of where this festival can go, I hope he'll be back 17 more years from now.

And so will I...

I Went to the Wisconsin State Fair for the first time as a visitor, and let me tell you....I threw healthy eating out the window for a day, and it was worth every bite.

My first meal was a corn dog , which I believe is a must at the fair, even if you've already stuffed your face with roasted corn, like I wish I would have.

Next came my smore on a stick.  Can I just tell you something?  I think I died and went to heaven with the first bite, if you haven't tried this one, you're missing out.  The marshmallow, chocolate, dough conbination melts in your mouth.  it's much better than fried oreos, I've had those too.

I closed the deal with a scoop of ice cream, but not just any ice cream, this one's called Pirate's Booty.  Weird name, excellent combination.  Think caramel ice cream,  oreo cookies and m & m's.  It was to die for - here I go with the dying again - but it was that good.

That's all I could fit in my belly, but next time I go to the fair I plan on trying the macaroni & cheese on a stick -which i heard is excellent - and the shrimp on a stick, which I still think is just a shishkabob.

Oh, and don't forget to get a glass of milk.  It's only 25 cents a glass, and worth every penny.  I had strawberry and it was good., good.

I don't know where I heard this...but for some reason it is stuck in my head today:

"The only people who should use the "royal we" are editorial writers and people with worms."

I am so overwhelmed right now!!

I just had a meeting at school--I'm signed up to take the most rigorous class the school has to offer . . . on top of two other APs . . . on top of full schedule . . . on top of a college resume, application, essay, etc, etc, etc.

Oddly enough, the problem here is that there's nothing I don't like to do!  Aside from standard school subjects, which overall I like (with math being the exception, depending on what we're learning), there's a TON of other stuff that I love to do!  I don't know how I'm going to be able to drop some of this stuff so I have enough time for the most intense year of school I've ever taken!

1. Basketball/volleyball.  Being part of a team is an experience I don't ever want to lose.  Basketball is one of those things that is so deeply engrained that if I end up having to drop from the team, it's going to be a huge, huge blow.
2. Photography.  There's something about getting the perfect shot.
3. Animals.  I volunteer at the zoo and stables regularly.  I love the people there, I love working with horses and parrots and kangaroos and emus and alligators and snakes and penguins.
4. World events.  I've toyed with the idea of going into international relations, I want to do something to help global warming, I want to help ease world hunger.
5. Writing.  I write stuff on facebook and people sometimes message me individually, saying that they really like the way I present things and the language I use get my point across.  It's almost like an art.  Okay, it is an art.  Speaking of which . . .
6. Art.  Glassblowing, painting, sculpting, drawing, you name it, I like it.
7. Languages.  I don't do it extensively but knowing how words originated in Latin or became changed, or how the Spanish and English and French and Italian languages merge together, all the way down to Cockney slang spoken in east Lodon and how names were "Americanized" when immigrants came to Ellis Island--it's intriguing.
8. Filmaking.  Not like whole length movies, but stuff like news reports or five minute Peace Corps vidoes or things like that--just the timing of the clips, the sounds, the text--the way all of those things work together in well-made clips is just amazing.

So I'm taking three AP courses, three electives, and two miscellaneous courses, on top of all of this, on top of church, plus family/friend stuff . . .

Oh yeah, and somewhere in there I have to eat and sleep.

Who said highschool was the best four years of your life?

Okay, you've had a couple of days to sample what the Wisconsin State Fair has to offer... what's it going to be?  

What's your favorite thing at the fair?

Mine, hands down, pig races.

You?

FINALLY! My first Summer Event in 2 years. I went to State Fair yesterday. There were a lot of people there.

The best thing about going yesterday was I didnt see anybody I went to high school with nor work with.

Another good thing about going as I was walking around was I saw this FINE girl that was working there. I walked passed her once and she walked passed me (with someone that also was working there)

The bad thing about that was I saw her a second time and I was about to get at her and see if I can introduce myself and talk to her for a minute and get her number, I punked out, but for a good reason and my guy I was kicking it with brought that valid point up to me.

I think it could've been better if the clouds in West Allis weren't playing around lightning various amounts of times fooling people whether if it was going to rain or not after it stopped after late 5:00PM going on 6:00PM, but other than that it was OK. I think it could've been more people there and more girls to look at and have better chances, but mostly many of them had boyfriends, looked like they were young, or either just stuck-up.

As for the one girl I was saying about I could've got at; "MAN, I AINT NEVER GOING TO SEE HER AGAIN!"

I just spent time, wasted time, sitting on hold having some recorded voice tell me how much my call was important to them.  If it was so darned important, then why didn't they have a human being tell me that?  After I have labored through an automated call screening system in the quite vain hope that I might get directed to the proper person, can't the companies using these blasted systems at least have the common courtesy to have a human being pop in every now and then to see if there is some way to short-cut the waiting process?  Instead, I get an recording telling me that I'm important to the company.  Well, actually I'm not.

Here's an idea:  HIRE HUMANS!!!  How many of the goofballs that have bought these call screening systems have actually tried to work their way through the system?

Years ago I had the joy of trying to navigate my way through Gateway Computer's system to find the status of my daughter's laptop that had been sent in for a warrenty repair.  I actually ended up going around in a complete technological circle without ever encountering a human voice. I also never got the information that I was seeking and I was never able to leave a message to ask to have someone call me back.  I had to do some fairly hefty dectective work to discover a phone number for Gateway that didn't access the stupid system--or send me overseas to talk to someone who didn't speak English, at least no english that I'd ever heard before.  I finally sent a letter via registered and Express Mail to the VP of Quality Control for Gateway that detailed all of my angst trying to find out what had happened to my daughter's computer.  Ta-da!  A human being (imagine that!) called me back and gave me the information that I requested.  He then apologized all over the place for their worthless call screening system that had no exits whereby you'd talk to a human being.  He then offered to send me a check for $50 as a token of their apology. 

In the end, I hope that something good comes of it.

 We all have commercials that tickle our funny bone. This one is one of my many favorites.  If you have one please share it here.  Just go to YouTube.com and you can find just about any commercial.

Did any of you all know (besides the Web Team and everyone else at FOX 6) that you can log in through the other MyFox Websites just by doing the same thing as we do to log on here (especially if you want to blog)?

I didn't know that until know when I just tried that out.

If you don't get what I mean, try this out:

1. Logout (if you're here on MyFoxMilwaukee). If you're already logged out (and was never
    logged in on here) go to another MyFox website of your choice from another city or
    state.

2. Click on their blogs tab.

3. Sign-In at the top just like you would on here and that's it.

Even though I just noticed that (and I could be REAL LATE about knowing you can do that), I think that is so tight taht you can do that. This blogging stuff gets better and better.

 I suppose I never thought about it this way.

Maybe the lines on parking lots are "suggestions only?"

I'm not the best parker. For that reason, I try to avoid parallell parking and parking next to pillars in garages.

But, c'mon. What's so hard about parking in a normal, outdoor parking lot?

The other day I come out to my car and the person next to me has parked so close--I CAN'T GET IN MY CAR!

I do some pacing, hoping the owner will be right back. No chance.

So, I am forced to crawl into my car from the passenger side.

Picture a giraffe trying to get into a car.

Ok, my school suppies are bought and all labled and packed in the proper backpacks. Is anyone else ready? Have you found the greatest deals that you would like to share? Do you have any weird things on your childs list?

I shopped Walmart all the way and for all three kids got away with $80.00. Not bad since one is in Middle school and his supplies are more expenisve like a calculator (they even sepcifiy the model) and a Gym Uniform. Things like that.

One of my girls need TWO packs of twisty crayons. Last year she didn't even go through one regular pack. I don't get why we have to spend so much on crayons for that convenience. And 48 pencils. How many of you get to the end of the shool year and then your child brings home 40 half used penicils. I hate that.

So who else is ready?

Ok, I have to admit, I am a total dork.....when I go home I LOVE to play Guitar Hero with my family (I'm not a huge video game player, but I do play once in a while).

I used to have an X-Box, but I don't anymore.  I want to get PlayStation 3 - so I can play Guitar Hero of course - but I'm debating on the memory capacity, should I get an 80GB or the 40GB ...any thoughts?

...Who don't have a clue about the internet ...and who mentions Paris Hilton& Britney in the same sentence with Obama.

Every 100 years America creates 3 anomalies........Paris Speaks, Obama's Fame, & McCain's Age.

I learned my lesson about talking to women. Don't go after them. Let them come after you.

Fellas, have you ever tried this "Glance and Look Away" Scene where you look at something you look like in a woman and then they turn around and catch you looking at them?

9 times out of 10 it will work, Now it's no crime in looking, unless you are in a relationship and your Fiance' / Fiancee' or husband / wife catches you; Then you're in trouble. But to all my single fellas out there, you know we can look at whoever we want because we're the men. There is going to be that one time you'll get caught looking and they will expect you to come up to them because you been staring at them a bit too long. That's what we do.

We Glance and Look Away--before we get caught that is... but in the end "how come it's the single fellas always approaching you and not the other way around? When it comes down to the single ladies, why can't it be the other way around?