This is going to be an odd post, but I have something I need to get off my chest. Some people believe that humanity will see its doom on 12/21/2012, but I disagree. I don't think we'll even make it that far. Picture this: My Morning Jacket at the beautiful Greek Theater in Griffith Park on a clear summer night during the peak of the Perseids meteor shower. Sounds like a dream come true doesn't it? It could have been. It really could have been.
Instead this concert experience was an absolute living hell for me, so let's start from the beginning. Griffith Park is tricky to get into. The only way to get to it is by cutting through a rich residential area, and when you have a couple thousand cars trying to get to the same place, it can become a traffic nightmare. I wait in a line of cars for a good half-hour. I get up to the girl in the yellow jacket who takes the money and I notice that parking is a bit more than I expected. There were no signs posted beforehand that said how much, I would have easily turned around and hit up an ATM if there were, but there weren't and now I'm stuck. Parking was $15, when I added up all of the cash I had in my wallet and spare change in my cup-holder I had $14.50. I explain my situation that I didn't see any price signs before hand, and if she would be kind enough to let me park I would get money from the venue's ATM and pay her back. This bitch without even blinking says she's sorry and that I would have to go all the way back down into Los Feliz and get money at a gas station. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Sure, shame on me for not having enough change, but when it's a discrepancy of fifty cents, have a heart, take a breath and understand the situation someone else may be in and have a fucking heart for your fellow man. It's amazing how people who are given the smallest amount of authority let it go straight to their head. After fighting with her for a good minute, I concede and head back down the mountain and manage to park somewhere in Los Feliz, a good mile or so away from the venue and begin to walk back up the hill. I stop in at a gas station and get more money along the way before I begin literally hiking to this concert. I have completely missed opening band Avi Buffalo by this point, and as I reach the venue I hear My Morning Jacket take the stage and open with my favorite song, "At Dawn" It sounds absolutely stunning, wish I was there to see it. I wanted to walk right up to the girl in the yellow jacket and just go ballistic on her. I wanted to walk right up to her and hurl fifty cents in her face and scream "Was it worth it? Was it worth it bitch!" But I took a breath and headed into the venue. I figured that it was over, that I would calm down and listen to the soothing voice of Jim James and all would be well.
Nope. I end up sitting next to two drunk fat chicks who kept screaming "Jim James!" like he was Robert Pattinson or some other teen heartthrob. I'm all for being excited at a concert, but if your shrieks drown out the music then we have a problem. One of these girls kept bumping into me throughout the night and giggled "I'm sorry" every single time. I told her, "Don't worry about it." What I really wanted to say was, "Well, maybe if your girth didn't take up two goddamn seats we wouldn't be having this issue" Needless to say they annoyed me to no end. After My Morning Jacket finished their first set, I couldn't take it anymore and sauntered back down to Los Feliz.
All of this is really is unfortunate, My Morning Jacket could have been a great concert, maybe one of the best of the year. The setting was immaculate and they were absolutely spot on. But I was too distraught over the fact that a measly fifty cents sent me into a tailspin.
In hindsight, I don't even care about the situation, it's the bigger picture that really gets me depressed. If we, as a society can't let our egos down for a second and have compassion for each other over something as trivial as say fifty cents, if we let something as minuscule as that get in the way. Then we're fucked.
Be better to each other.
My face last night.
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