* I wasn’t the only one complaining about the brutal drive into Chicago on Friday. Anyone coming from the East on 90 encountered an hour delay around South Bend, Indiana and a second hour delay in Gary, Indiana. Normally, this drive would have taken 5 1/2 to 6 hours. Friday, it was closer to 7 1/2. Could this have accounted for the sluggish start to the festival?

* Spotted in the crowd were no fewer than six other dudes sporting Sunn O))) t-shirts, and each dude was was bigger, hairier, and beardier than me. This brings up an interesting point. Do hairy, beardy dudes naturally gravitate to the heavy, ominous drones of Sunn O))), or does the music of Sunn O))) make you hairy and beardy? When you compare the price of hair restoration treatment versus the price of one Sunn O))) album, listening to Sunn O))) could be a cheaper, less complicated solution to hair loss. As long as you don’t mind shaggy hair on your arms, legs, face, coming out of your ears, and on the soles of your feet, that is.

*Like last year, I biked to and from the festival from my hotel. This year, the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry was on hand to grade all bikers on their bike locking techniques, and I’m a little disappointed in the grade I received on my Bike Locking Report Card. I got an A for locking for securing both wheels and the frame to the bike rack, but a C for using a 1/2″ cable lock, and a B for only locking my bike to a thin, removable part of the rack. My overall grade was a B-. I’ll try to do better today.