Putting the high in High Line
Apparently, there is something going on in New York at the moment called the High Line Festival which, according to Gawker, is THE festival of the year. Despite the fact that I subscribe to 475 blogs via feed reader, I hadn’t actually heard of it. Maybe I skipped over the hype because I once saw a documentary about the High Line and couldn’t figure out what the fuss was about. So how did I find out? I happened to find myself there this evening.
See, I went to see Air and TV on the Radio with some friends and that’s where I spotted all the “David Bowie presents the High Line Festival” posters. It didn’t seem to change anything about the show, I don’t think. If you don’t know Air, they are a gentle, trippy, ethereal, electronic band. What did that mean for me? Lots of pot smoke irritating my contact lenses. More spacey lights than the laser show at the planetarium. Mellowness.
Since we were sitting in record label seats, we ended up just behind David Fricke from Rolling Stone. You can always recognize David Fricke, even from the back, because of his Joey Ramone frame and never-changing shapeless 70’s hairdo. No one wanted to say out loud, “that’s David Fricke, isn’t it?” and so we Blackberry’d it to each other. Because we’re just that dorky. (Speaking of dorky, the first time I ever sat near David Fricke I didn’t know who he was, and my boyfriend at the time insisted he was in the Grateful Dead. We bet on it, he went up to David Fricke, asked him if he was in the Dead, and Fricke laughed and said, obviously, no.)
So I know what you’re thinking, “this is all a lovely story, Becca, but, uh, WTF is the High Line?” Why, it’s weed-infested former subway tracks! Doesn’t that deserve a festival? David Bowie seems to think so. Everyone says you have to walk along the High Line to understand its peace and beauty, but since almost no one’s allowed up there I’m not sure how you’re supposed to do that. You can read more about it here. I tried, but I think all the Mary Jane smoke killed my brain cells.
(Photo by ianqui @ flickr)
In conclusion, see Air. They were triptacular.
Actually you may know them if you’ve seen any of ten or more commercials in which their music has been used. Like this one, from a Nissan ad.
