Book Diary #2: Sylvia Plath-The Bell Jar

"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." 

Book Diary #1: Jhumpa Lahiri-The Lowland

"Most people trusted in the future, assuming that their preferred version of it would unfold. Blindly planning for it, envisioning things that weren't the case. This was the working of the will. This was what gave the world purpose and direction. Not what was there but what was not." 

Arctic Monkeys @ VOLT

When I finally go to see Pulp, The Stones Roses and Blur on Sziget a good decade or two after their heyday, I could not help feeling just a bit left out- they were a generation or so older than mine, and when I finally got around to listening to Blur's first albums with a serious ear, they already felt like history. Great music, undoubtedly, but something that reached me with nostalgic delay. It then quickly dawned on me that if I searched for the band that would relevantly chart my musical coming of age, I could only come up with one answer- the Arctic Monkeys. 

I clearly remember the first articles I read about them in the British Council library's NME copies and my modem slowly coming to life to buffer their first tracks on MySpace. When I first lovingly sported the band T-shirt for which I had to move smallish mountains, the questions mirrored their first EP: Who the fuck are Arctic Monkeys? I grinned and said, I think one day you'll know. 

The day is now- last Sunday at VOLT every second kid was wearing a band T-shirt (But only two people had the old design, like mine, and we duly smiled in recognition at each other.) They love the band, but seemed slightly taken aback by some of the older tracks- this is their Blur and Pulp, the band they discover at the height of their glory and fall in love with that one album that is a synthesis of all that came before.

The concert was hardly flawless, Alex Turner might have been a bit too Elvis high on something for the general taste but for me, they're the one band that still sends giant butterflies to my stomach when I see them live- bands come and go, genres become popular and fade away, but in 50 years' time, if I make it, I can see myself feeling that rush of being 22, and finding the band that can be forever 22 with you. The Arctic Monkyes, they r mine.

The Eye of Summer

The Sziget Eye is back in the city centre landscape, from where it will move to the Island itself come August. Since Budapest has plenty of vantage points, but no other permanent wheel, hopefully it will be back next year too, so we can get used to saying, oh, they're building the Eye, summer is here!

    And here's the view of the Island from the wheel's first year:

The Usual Suspects of Sziget

Every year when the Sziget line up starts taking shape there'll be a bunch of moaners complaining that oh, it's the same acts all over again. There's no pacifying them- pointing out that maybe these bands are liked by the majority of the audience doesn't work. 

Getting a bit more sophisticated and suggesting that major UK festivals also rotate pretty much the same headliners year after year doesn't do the job either. Hell, Glasto tried to break the mold and put on Beyonce and Metallica and that kind of backfired- just go for good old Kasabian instead and you'll be just fine (a hint to Sziget organizers here about whom to bring back next year from the usual lot). 

There's also the fact of some bands being better festival bands than others- there's a way of getting silly to Prodigy that won't really work with some newer, more groundbreaking acts. Other bands technically only work at festivals- I see no other use of Madness, to be frank. And then there's Korn. They'll always have the die hard fans to crowd the main stage area to the sounds of doom- which is quite lovely for those who want to breathe more freely at one of the smaller stages. 

So here we go with the list of bands I'll be delighted to have back this year.

Okay, delighted might be an overstatement for Lily Allen, though she definitely was just that when she actually got to headline in 2009, something no other major festival graced her with. Her new album might not be her best, but her older material is absolutely festival compatible.

One cannot be not excited by the Manics. No band that can open their set with Motorcycle Emptiness and close it with A Design for Life will ever get boring. And of course there's not resisting a Welsh flag with a fiery red dragon.

I remember the times when I actually spent the better part of a scorching hot day with my claws locked onto the front row fence to watch Placebo.  These days I'd rather lounge in the spritzer area and watch them from a safe distance. We're getting old, Brian's getting old too, but no one can deny that Pure Morning is one hell of a song and few tracks can beat the festival meanness of Infrared.

This here is Ruben Block. He is awesome. His band Triggerfinger are on the Main Stage Sunday afternoon. You have no excuse not to be there.

The new Wild Beasts album has constantly been selected into the best record lists of the year so far and they also graciously survived a frantic 5 PM heat last time around, so they sure deserve a headline spot on the A38 stage this year.

La Roux's debut album blasted onto the electro scene with the likes of the infectious Bulletproof- and then she promptly disappeared. She's back this year with some fine new tracks and shares the fate of Wild Beasts in getting a more adequate spot- her moody electro was not best fit for an afternoonish main stage, but should work wonders late in the evening on A38.

Postcards from the Top

A pretty view is hard to beat, but the good people of 360bar made sure the rooftop terrace itself doesn't look half bad either.

Those Magnificent People of VOLT and their Amazing Accessories- The Sunday Edition