Kanye West doesn't care about festival goers

I went to Bonnaroo.

It was awesome.

I could tell you about how I was 20 feet away from Tegan and Sara or how I was 30 feet away from Jack Johnson.

I could tell you how Against Me! made me fall in love with rock and rage.

I could tell you how Drive-By Truckers' early morning wakeup call (It was 12:45 pm) made my heart pound.

I could tell you how Chris Rock made me laugh.

I could tell you how Metallica made me bang my head.

I could tell you how B.B. King wasn't as good as I'd imagine he would be.

I could tell you how Jack Johnson is perfect on a summer evening, as the sun is going down and the breeze is picking up just slightly.

I could tell you how Pearl Jam made me fall in love with them all over again.

But, I won't.

Instead, I'll tell you that what I learned from Bonnaroo is that Kanye West is, pardon my language, kind of a dick.

And how I'm never going to one of his shows again or buying any of his albums or supporting him in any way.

The Dude and I didn't stick around to see the Kanye West debacle. After Pearl Jam (who, by the way, only went over 45 minutes...), we caught a few minutes of Sigur Ros and a few minutes of Lupe Fiasco before trekking back the hour to Nashville.

When we arrived at the 'Roo on Sunday morning, nobody was talking about West's show. Nobody. I figured that that meant that it was either really good or really bad. It wasn't until the next day that I read the Spin story I linked to in the last paragraph.

I'm not sure who's fault it was that things turned out the way it did. And I don't think it was very nice of the artists who played the next day to call him out (I'm looking at you, Rogue Wave and Robert Randolph) without knowing the whole story either.

Then West puts this gem on his blog. I can understand his passion at wanting everyone to get their facts straight, but not once does he say "I'm really sorry that things ended up this way." If he had, I might've been able to retain some respect for him.

Instead, it was just more of the 'it's everyone else's fault! not mine!' we've come to expect from him. It's more finger pointing, more hating, more playing the victim.

More inflated ego.

As Chris Rock said, 'it takes a lot of Kanye injections...'

I can respect West's position--if you have something you do well, you want to the opportunity to do it. Putting West on at 7:45 opposite Jack Johnson was a bad idea for a lot of reasons, not the least of which (as West himself points out) is that you can't do a glow-in-the-dark show in the daylight.

I can also respect the fact that, as mad as they were, the audience had no right to damage West's equipment or his stage. If he is to be believed, the stage was so wet that he risked falling. Think about what a disaster that would've been...

But this whole refusal to take responsibility isn't sitting well with me. West says it's PJ's fault. West says it's Bonnaroo's fault. Bonnaroo refuses to issue a statement taking responsibility. Everyone is passing the buck.

West had the opportunity to mend fences and build bridges and yada, yada, yada. But he didn't. He couldn't be bothered. Bonnaroo simply didn't matter that much to him.

So, yeah...I'm kind of done with Kanye West for a while.

Two books I read recently, or, Mrs. Dude is lazy

I could write a separate post about each of these books. But I won't. And you can't make me.

1. Animal vegetable, miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

It took me all of May to read this book. I'm not sure if that speaks well of Kingsolver's ability to draw me into her story or poorly of her inability to keep me hooked. I enjoyed Kingsolver's story of moving her family from Tuscon to Virginia and, in the process, deciding to spend a year growing as much of their own food as possible and supplementing what they couldn't grow with locally produced food. Each chapter documents a month in her family's life, as each month presents different challenges for the family. Additionally, each chapter contains a short piece by Kingsolver's husband, a biologist, and her eldest daughter, a college student.

I enjoyed the book, but sometimes felt like Kingsolver was nagging me to make better decisions about my food consumption. If you enjoy the book, though, be sure to visit Kingsolver's website for more recipes and information.

2. Lock and key by Sarah Dessen

I love Dessen's writing, and this book is no exception. I will say, though, that it's not the best jumping-off point for those who have never read anything by her. What I love about Dessen's style is its lightness. She is more interested, it seems to me, in exploring the connections that people have rather than the issues they face. In this case, Dessen tries to do both and it doesn't work as smoothly as it could. Still, I found Ruby and her family to be engaging characters. And I was sad when the book ended. I did end up wishing that she'd spent more time working through the plot from the beginning instead of including so much exposition and then racing to finish the story. Overall, though, it was everything I'd anticipated it to be.