“Yesterday, I went with my friends Matt, Dana and Juan to the Treasure Island Music Festival. The three of them got into San Francisco at 3 am Saturday morning, due to the fact that Matt insisted on seeing Aesop Rock that night in San Luis Obispo. That makes sense I guess, but Aesop was also playing at the festival. And, Matt had already seen him three times. Whatever though. Matt never claimed to be a good decision maker.”

After a short night of rest on a newly purchased Aero bed, my friends awoke to me getting into bed with them. I learned this technique from my brother George, and have always thought it to be the nicest way of waking someone up. It says, “Hey, rise and shine. Don’t rush it though.” After George’s technique failed miserably, I resorted to something I learned from my niece Georgia– sticking feathers up their noses.

After a quick BART ride, followed by a long walk, followed by a charter bus, we made it to Treasure Island. The island is very strange. There are a lot of deserted buildings, things in disrepair, unkempt patches of grass, and no locals to be found. It’s basically like a Bakersfield suburb during an RC Cola sale at WalMart.

Right as we were walking into the festival, I noticed a tent with posters for sale. I immediately recognized the posters as those done by The Small Stakes, a one-man, Oakland based design firm that did the 2007 poster for the Treasure Island Music Festival. I’ve admired his work ever since I saw it in a book called Fingerprint, so it was especially cool meeting him and browsing through his stuff in real life. He was a really nice guy, and I bought a poster he did for Stars.

The concert was every thing I’d hoped for. Aesop Rock was the first one we saw, followed by Hot Chip, Foals, Goldfrapp, TV on the Radio, and finally Justice. I won’t go into details about how great the shows were, but suffice it to say that it was well worth the cost of admission. I just wish I’d remembered my pacifier. Seriously, last time I saw so many kids with pacifiers I was backstage at the Santa Maria Spearment Rhino. Heyo!

I liked a lot of things about the whole day– talking to 19-year-olds about how they smuggled in their ecstasy (in their boots), backing up a churro with an ice cream sandwich, hearing Juan complain about how sweaty he was after wearing a hood all through Justice– but my favorite part must have been when we were recounting all the great concerts we’d been to. I think we’re up to eight amazing shows/ festivals, and I can’t think of a group of friends I’d rather have fun with. Eh, I take it back, the churro/ ice cream sandwich combo was my favorite part.