if you're a rememberer: it's such, it's such a perfect day

I don't really know how to start this post, because all I keep wondering is

Have you ever smelled mud? I mean really been surrounded by it, tromped in it, inhaled its smell with every breath? No? Well, it smells bad. I mean bad. Well now let me ask you, have you ever been surrounded by mud, inhaling its foul odor, but had a smile on your face, chills running up your spine and been on the verge of tears? No? That, my friends, is what I experienced at All Points West on Sunday.

It was a beautiful stormy Sunday, complete with thunder and strong gusts of wind. I was in Long Island staying with my brother's girlfriend's family for the weekend. We had gone to the beach on Saturday. Enter blissful day #1. It was my first day all summer where I closed my eyes and felt summer. I mean, felt it. Felt the sun slowly color my skin a darker shade (eh, burn it a tad), felt the chill from water splashing up on me from an agitated shore, felt sand in my toes (and all up in my clothes the rest of the day). I felt the air blowing through a car window and back out the sunroof and watched the sun bid us farewell beyond the horizon. Summer. A perfect day of summer.

Enter Sunday. Wet, stormy Sunday. All Points West is a music and arts festival (the 2nd year of it) at Liberty State Park. I lucked out (understatement of the year) and was invited by my brother's girlfriend because her family had an extra ticket. The skies magically cleared as we drove into the city, loaded up with parkas and towels and ready for the worst. We took the ferry from Battery Park over to the park. Enter mud. Mud mud mud mud mud. The poor grass didn't know what it had coming. Enter my brother being inventive and sporting this look the rest of the day.

Enter laughter, lots and lots of laughter.

We lucked out and weaseled our way into the VIP bleacher seats by the main stage since the parents had VIP tickets, the other six of us did not. Prime seats for admiring people embracing the mud. We caught the end of Silversun Pickups, followed by Elbow (if you don't know of them, you should. They were quite lovely, in the easy to love British kind of way. Check out One Day Like This but don't judge the song from the blah video).

Then we patiently sat for the 45 minutes that it took an impressive number of stagehands to transform the stage for Coldplay. And then I noticed this guy

Who I then noticed was sitting next to this girl

Who I really wanted to talk to, but she decided to go watch MGMT.

Cue Life in Technicolor. Cue chills and me being on the verge of tears. I don't think that's ever happened to me at a concert before. But Coldplay, you have the power. And I want to meet the genius who designs their shows. I always am awestruck by the lights at concerts. Really great music can become that much more powerful with effective special effects and lights. I just love it. Go you, Coldplay stage designer extraordinaire.