Bjork was INCANDESCENT at Coachella.
Loved that mega-funky mushroom-turban she wore for Earth Intruders, the opening song. Under that, a skeleton-themed shift that swirled well in the wind, echoing the fluttering of many a flag.
The sorceress closed out her set with a fierce techno-punk anthem, already Youtubed:”DECLARE INDEPENDANCE / DON’T LET THEM DO THAT TO YOU”
Other lines about “making your own flag…flying it higher, & higher & HIGHER”. Not exactly sophisticated political analysis, but unusual for Bjork in being a fairly blunt political commentary, methinks. The stage was peppered with flags of varying shapes & sizes, with organic, mystical imagery. A kabbalistic Tree of Life, sideways. Vertebrae, radiolaria. Each of the horn-players appeared to have a small flag attached to their back. I liked the organicity. Evocative, nothing too literal. I like to read a ‘gaia mythos’ agenda into it all — why not?
I’ll be expanding this post periodically (tho not saying much about the rest of Coachella. 5 hours driving from LA, two hours to crawl two miles in the parking queue. And no funny signs like the entry to BlackRockCity. But Bjork made it all worthwhile. IMHO, Coachella is a humongous, impeccably organized money machine for the indie youth of the aughts… [he says cynically… <& no, I didn’t run into Cory Kennedy, or Scarlett Johansen, … tho we did bump into Ray from The Coup, and DUH!, did not think to ask to get us backstage! Oh, & while name-dropping, found ElizaJane in the parking lot, who showed us a demo of her forthcoming music CD.>] 
granted, thanks to Philip Blaine, old-school LA rave promoter & burner, they do PAY some of our Burning Man artist-friends [Sid! LT! Nairb!] to place their interactive art, Tesla coils & fire sculptures there… [Corndog’s spiral labyrinth was sweet–the only place at the festival it seems people could safely smoke a joint! Loved those alchemical glyphs you had to crawl on in the final loop! Flickrs by Brash77.] The DoLab’s flower-tent garden was a nice touch too).
As I write, the final hours of Coachella are streaming on
AT&T’s Blue-Room–
Rage Against the Machine
closes out the evening in a few hours–
Tom Morello gets to call for Bush impeachment in front of 60,000 screaming kids, but, being a nice predictable pop-leftist, probably won’t even mention 911, or
Loose Change–which, ironically, the vast majority in the crowd have probably seen. At least, I’ve never heard him mention 911 on his oh-so-PC radio show.) If you dig into pirate bit-torrent sites you can probably find ripped versions of the whole Bjork performance–not to mention the entire new album, according to rumors on the Internets.
Is there a better channeler of Gaia-Sophia alive today than Bjork? Hmmm…
“IF YOU FORGET MY NAME /
YOU WILL GO ASTRAY…”
“YOU COUNT THE CENTURIES
I BLINK MY EYES
YOU SEE CONTINENTS
I SEE THE ISLANDS
. . . I AM WHY”
PS–Earth Intruders’ video from SNL.
PPS–Xeni Jardin’s BoingBoing coverage of Bjork and the Reactable, & other touch-sensitive gizmatronix used in the performance…
PPPS–Bjork keyboardist Jonas Sen is blogging the whole tour.
PPPPS–I see Wikipedia has an extensive entry for the new Volta LP. Appears the Independence track is an homage to some obscure island somewhere. . .
PPPPPS–Thanks again to Agent Alezzandra for companionship, and driving the whole way home! If only I’d taken my minidisk & bootlegged the show! Way to start a birthday day!
Founder/publisher of the LA Weekly, Jay Levin is back on the scene with a 
The people at MaybeLogic Academy - once affiliated with Robert Anton Wilson — have posted their new schedule:
The Beehive Collective
