Culture Fiend

Jonathon Brilliant labored for six days to create “The Bumbershoot Piece.” The 20,000 wooden coffee stir sticks were held together merely by tension and a Brilliant mind.

The Seattle Street Biennial brought some of the city’s most prominent graffiti artists from the streets to the festival. The pieces were custom made for the Bumbershoot by over 35 artists. Curator NKO says “the art represents a good balance between what actually happens on the street and what can happen.”

Emily Ferguson colors at the The Portrait Challenge, where people create their own interpretations of anonymous and celebrity portraits. This project began in 2002 at the Frye Art Museum when artist Ryan Molencamp and friends were bored one day.

Once completed, the piecemeal pieces are uploaded to The Portrait Challenge’s Flickr account. Go Team CoCo!

The 2010 work by Erika Simmons, “The Ghost in the Machine,” finds a new use for the pile of cassette tapes in your basement. Lauryn Hill should take note.

Femme fatales of Circus Una dominated the high wire at Bumbershoot, revving up the crowds with their motorcycle madness and acrobatic antics.

“Every year has been something special,” says ten-time Bumbershoot-goer Andy Henson, “and it’s usually something I least suspect.” Henson sorts out his schedule with the festival’s handy phone app while waiting for a comedy show at Intiman Theatre.

Doug Benson of Super High Me fame crashed the comedy show to tell the crowd that he has “proved through science and filmmaking that marijuana is not as bad as McDonald’s.” Benson said he wrote down his lines because he smokes a lot of pot. We get it Benson. You’re high. All the time.

Morgan Murphy, staff writer for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, opened her set with the deadpan disclaimer, “I’m not a lesbian, I’m just sad, which reads the same way.”

Brace yourselves for a throw back. Chris Hardwick, originally the cohost of MTV’s 90s gem Singled Out, poked fun at his hillbilly roots. The Tennessee native now appears on Chelsea Lately, a show where “less famous people make fun of more famous people.”

Comedian Jamie Kilstein, of Citizen Radio Live, spoke passionately in favor of gay marriage and belted out the ditty “Christian Side Hug.”

Local bluegrass band the Maldives drew the biggest crowd short of Saturday’s mainstage acts Neko Case and Bob Dylan.

The End 107.7 hosted an intimate acoustic session with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The ten-person bohemian-esque collective performed three songs punctuated with the sounds of trumpets, tambourines, accordions, guitars and maracas.

Lead vocalists Jade Castrinos and Alex Ebert belt out their hit song “Home.”

The Decemberists opened up the highly anticipated mainstage Saturday evening. An autumn chill was in the air when lead singer Colin Meloy advised the crowd to “take a minute to snuggle the person next to you – but not in a creepy way.”

“Thanks guys for helping me out,” said Tacoma native Neko Case who seemed to have arrived unprepared to Bumbershoot – borrowing a guitar from Visqueen, a guitar strap from the Decemberists, and foot pedals from Bob Dylan’s sound techs.

Sorry folks, this is the best we could get in the madhouse that was the Bob Dylan show. Apparently getting photo credentials for Mr. Zimmerman is on par with finding the Holy Grail.