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    Summer Fest Survival

    How I Survived Free Press Summer Fest: Naps, water breaks and decision time — Weezer and Skrillex — or both?

    Tarra Gaines
    Jun 8, 2015 | 6:13 am

    The problem with Free Press Summer Fest 2015, and generally with any kind of festival with multiple stages, is the more spectacular the event, the harder the choices. You have to decide going in just what kind of festival goer are you. Are you a researcher and planner who turns your experience into a highly calibrated attack on the day, or are you ready to float free in a fest and let the music on the wind take you wherever?

     

    When it came time for me to decide before heading out to NRG Park Yellow Lot on Sunday, I decided to pick a few acts I had to see and then wander. This strategy was wise at times, naive at others, but I did learn some valuable lessons to get me ready for FPSF 2016.

     

     Houston Artists Are Made of Sterner Cooling Stuff than the Rest of the World

     

    While many of the performers on all the can’t-miss-lists didn’t make an appearance until the sun dipped on the horizon, most of the Houston acts were scheduled earlier in the day. The cynic in me says this was probably because they weren’t the biggest draws, but my H-Town pride also thinks it was perhaps because FPSF organizers didn’t want to sun stroke out anyone from Portland, LA or Glasgow.

     
     

    Hometown favs the Tontons certainly could take the high temperature and added some sultry musical heat of their own.

     
     

      Hometown favs the Tontons certainly could take the high temperature and added some sultry musical heat of their own. It was definitely worth braving the intense afternoon sunshine to get to FPSF earlier in the day to hear Asli Omar’s lovely wails.

     

     Naps Are Wasted on the Young

     

    However coming in early to hear some local groups did put me in desperate need for a lie down around 3 p.m.. I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one, as I found kids and adults of all ages wilting into the floor of the Fancy Pants or water spray tents. More power to all you power nappers out there.

     

     Beauty Is Subjective

     

    I don’t think I’ve ever looked at Reliant Stadium so lovingly — actually I’ve never looked at Reliant Stadium lovingly — than after seeing the inside of the Port O Potties and imagining all those lovely clean empty bathrooms just a block away. Also, the several METRO buses stationed around the fest as A/C oases were a sight to behold. Perfect opportunity to get Houstonian millennials into a city bus for the first time there METRO.

     

     Sometimes You Should Let the Elements Be Your Guide

     

    True confession: around 5 p.m., with several great bands playing at the same time, I picked The Mountain Goats as my afternoon session almost solely because of their close proximity to a free water and cooling station. I’m going to let water advise me on musical choices from now on because these indie-folk goats did not disappoint and because I learned the valuable life lesson: “Life is too short to refrain from eating jam out of the jar.” I intend to meditate on this lyric often.

     

     Every Crowd Has Its Own Personality

     

    Even though we were all in this together, it was fun to analyze what attendees gravitated to which acts. Electronic duo GTA seemed to have the best in sync bouncing audience, with the requisite one-hand in the air. Skrillex had the most selfie stick abusers.

     
     

      Skillrex had the most selfie stick abusers; The Flogging Molly crowd was the place most likely to see a guy wearing a kilt.

     
     

      Not cool tall guys who kept standing in front of me and waving their sticks around (not a euphemism thankfully). The Flogging Molly crowd was the place most likely to see a guy wearing a kilt.

     

    Meanwhile, electronic music artist Tycho seemed to have the highest percentage of girls in sparkly gold body paint in their crowd, not to mention that one shirtless guy reveling so much in Tycho’s ambient beats that his American flag shorts kept falling half way down his ass. You be awesome you, dude.

     

    I’d also argue that the Decemberists had the most laid back audience, literally, as a small but distinctive portion were pretty much lounging on the asphalt throughout the entire set. This might be because their crowd seemed tied with Skrillex’s for the most times I smelled that distinctive but still-illegal-in-Texas funny smell in the air.

     

     Some Musical Mixtures Should Be Left to Professionals

     

    No matter how efficiently you schedule your own fest experience or how much you flutter through, sooner or later you have to accept you can’t be at two places at once and just choose. This I refused to do when it came to headlining acts Weezer and Skrillex playing at the same time. So what madness did I attempt? Running back and forth between the two stages and between two very different genres of music.

     

    Perhaps some producer could make some musical masterpiece out of the two, but my head still hurts from this sound crash brought on by the stellar performances from the '90s kings of alternative rock and the 21st century master of dubstep. I didn’t drink anything but a gallon of water, but I’m sure to wake up with a musical hangover nevertheless.

     

    But honestly, in the end, totally worth it.

    Although Weezer, shown here, and Skrillex performed at the same time, Tarra Gaines was determined to see both.

      
    Photo by © Michelle Watson CatchLightGroup.com
    Although Weezer, shown here, and Skrillex performed at the same time, Tarra Gaines was determined to see both.
    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    Movie review

    New movie Eddington confronts the chaos of early pandemic life

    Alex Bentley
    Jul 18, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in Eddington
    Photo courtesy of A24
    Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in Eddington.

    The coronavirus pandemic had a profound impact on the entire world, one that has been shown in various ways by movies and TV shows. However, even though a number of productions have attempted to show what life was like during the early days of the pandemic, few have tried to truly reckon with the way lockdowns and restrictions changed people.

    Filmmaker provocateur Ari Aster does just that in Eddington, set in a fictional small town in New Mexico in early 2020 that proves to be a microcosm of the debates taking place worldwide at that time. Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is not a fan of mask mandates or other restrictions imposed by the government, while mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) tries to lead by example in an effort to keep his community safe.

    The men butt heads not just on how to deal with the pandemic, but also over a personal history involving Joe’s wife, Louise (Emma Stone). When news of the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota makes its way to town, it starts a slow simmer among the town’s youth population, putting even more stress on Joe and his small department. Conspiracy theories, white guilt, partisan politics, cults, and more combine to make the community into a powder keg that threatens to explode at the slightest provocation.

    Aster (Midsommar, Beau is Afraid) takes aim at all sides in a film that’s part satire and part thriller. No matter how each viewer reacted to the pandemic, the film offers at least a character or two that will come close to representing their viewpoint. Although opinions may differ, it seems clear that Aster is not portraying one side as “right” or more righteous than the other. What he is doing is demonstrating just how much was happening in a short period of time, and how those things could negatively affect anyone.

    On the flip side, the film also challenges viewers with viewpoints that may not match their own, which can make for an uncomfortable experience at times. The reactions various characters have to certain events range from rational to wholly unexpected, and Aster seems to delight in keeping the audience on their toes the entire time. This is especially true when violence rears its ugly head, resulting in some intense and upsetting scenes.

    Not everything in the film lands, though. A subplot involving Louise and Vernon (Austin Butler), a cult leader who preys on her fears, feels tacked on, with no relation to the film as a whole. In fact, the character of Louise is a misfire in general, one whose purpose makes little sense. Aster also lets (asks?) some actors speak in almost inaudible tones at various points in the film, a frustrating experience in a film as dialogue-heavy as this one.

    Phoenix loves to dig into off-kilter characters, and this one ranks high on that scale. Even if you don’t enjoy what his character does, it’s hard to fault the performance that brings him to life. Most of Pascal’s scenes are with Phoenix, and while he matches Phoenix’s energy, the lower key nature of his character leaves him overshadowed. The nature of the film means few others make an impact, although Deidre O’Connell as Joe’s passive-aggressive mother-in-law and William Belleau as Officer Jiminiz Butterfly stand out in their scenes.

    Few of us would volunteer to go back to the baffling days of early 2020, but Eddington does a great job of examining what was happening at the time and how events united some and divided others. It’s not a feel-good film, but it is one that will make viewers re-examine their reactions at the time and how those influenced the current reality.

    ---

    Eddington is now playing in theaters.

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