Coachella No. 14 differed from prior musical adventures in that it was actually more of a "Coldchella" scenario. On Friday the 13th, during the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music Festival in Indio, multitudes of bikini-clad gorgeous young women were downgraded into huddled masses or fleeing streaks as people tried to escape inclement weather. They're doing it all again this weekend, with the same lineup of bands but hopefully less chill.

Good thing there was all that music, presented with German-army precision at two outdoor stages and three indoor ones under open-sided tents, each named for a place best to avoid: Gobi, Sahara and Mojave. Giant video screens from the Coachella Stage (the main stage) were large enough to be seen from the space shuttle. Read more »

Rock 'n' roll never starts on time, but this was really pushing it. One-time 805 local M. Ward -- now a part of that very happening Portland music scene -- was slated to do an interview with The Star to chat about the busy week he's got coming up, including gigs today and April 20 at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio and on Saturday at SOhO in Santa Barbara, the latter another of those ultra-groovy Club Mercy gigs.

The interview has been in the works casually for about a month, but negotiations grew more impatient and hectic this past week. After a few weeks, Ward let it be known that it would be cool to do a weekday phoner -- but that was out because of my day job. So onto Plan B -- an email interview. Even that took a whole week, his answers not arriving in my in-box until Tuesday night. By the looks of things, Ward spent a whole five minutes (if that) on his responses -- but then again, maybe I could've asked better questions. Read more »

They did it nice so they'll do it twice. That's right: This year's Coachella Music Festival will kick off on Friday the 13th of April and run through the weekend, then do it all over again April 20-22. That'll give the recycle guy time to convert the mound of plastic water bottles the size of Utah from Coachella I into reservations to Tahiti.

So, same menu, same venue, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, with the same bands repeating. Thousands of people have paid millions of dollars to see hundreds of bands play out in the desert in the spring, before the onset of that long, hot summer when everyone would die of heatstroke. Both Coachellas sold out quickly, so for those who didn't buy tickets in a timely manner, it's on to the ticket scalpers or whatever polite word they call themselves these days.

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