Warped Factory

Whatta weekend.

I'm running on zero sleep because in our constant efforts to save the world (one animal at a time) we're housing a cat with an upper respiratory infection. Which drives our dogs nuts. Which means they don't sleep at night. Which means neither do we.

Saturday we caught up with Ryan (of Valient Thorr) and hung out at the Warped Tour all day. His set was a blast. VT have a whole cultish philosophy that goes with their music. They're from Venus, you see. So, uh, when the lead singer took his shirt and drenched all of the sweat out of it and drank it, it had something to do with their alien-ness. They also rocked the fuck out. Honest to God, if Ryan weren't my friend, I'd spend money to go see them. It's not a disappointment. They're awesome guys as well. Very friendly and happy to be playing music still, which is nice.

We also caught a couple of very interesting non-headliners. Two standouts were Gogol Bordello and Bedouin Soundclash. Gogol Bordello were this weird Gypsy punk band replete with strange outfits, accordion, and fiddle. They really rocked. I've seen lots of bands sweat, but none quite like that. Bedouin Soundclash were a dub band, and just for the uniqueness of their sound, they really stood out on Saturday. Their cover of 'Johnny Appleseed' by Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros didn't hurt my feelings, either.

We also got to see the Offspring. I have to admit, I'm not the world's biggest Offspring fan. They're fine. Nothing really mind-blowing or annoying. Ryan hooked us up and we got to stand on the stage behind the band while they played. That was pretty fun. There must have been 3,000 kids in front of us. Believe me, I'd rather see the Offspring on the stage with the band than down in that hellish gravelpit with a bunch of sweaty 15 year-olds. They also made a stark contrast with VT's 'happy to be playing' philosophy. I wondered what happened when bands are setting up and it takes them 20 extra minutes to come out. What the fuck are they doing? Well, apparently the Offspring stand there, smoking cigarettes. Whatever.

The other big event (other than the bloody mucus from the cat) was that we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with friends last night. I have to say, I really hated the original movie. I know this blows some people's minds, but it was completely treacherous to the book. The book meant a lot to me when I was a kid. I read everything Roald Dahl wrote, which was a lot.

One thing struck me watching the movie (which was good, and faithful except for a foray into Willy Wonka's upbringing which was never in the original story). It really seems appropriate that this story was written halfway through the last century, when factories still existed in the Western world and were seen as something positive. The whole plot of the fairy tale is that the kid wins, and gets to go to a factory.

Man, if you tried to tell some kid today that they're going to a factory, unless it's a Playstation factory, forget it. It seemed strangely anachronistic that a factory would be a focal point of a children's story, as if it were only something that could have been written before the age of globalization, inc.

If Dahl had written the story today, I just don't think it would have the same impact. Factories are a dying breed. Here in Chicago, Fannie Mae closed up and headed south. In addition to being hog-packing capital of the world, Chicago used to have several candy factories (none of which were as fantastic as Wonka's). The Ferrara Pan people are still visible off the Eisenhower. Wrigley Field, where the cubs play? They used to make Wrigley gum here in Chicago.

If written today, the Oompa-Loompas wouldn't have been imported, Wonka would have been encouraged by his corproate shareholders to move the entire factory to Loompa-Land, where England's strict labor and environmental laws would be a children's fantasy. Probably England would have granted him a tax credit for increasing England's export-import ratio. You get the point. It's a distinctly 20th-century story.

But man, it's one of the books that made me love to read.

Onto the week.