Today is a big day for us - we have video, audio and photos from this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival. We took the blog team down for the weekend and amassed a good collection of bits. Oh, and there’s some real music coverage too. So today we will get the most timely material to you and save the more generic stuff for later in the week. I had a great time at the festival in Union Park. I am not the biggest indie-rock fan but I was surprised and impressed by the laid back nature of the festival. I have been to my share of outdoor music concerts and this one seemed to be..oh..what’s the word…easy. Here are some random observations from the final day: The Flaming Lips were the headliner. Seriously, they had trailers and roadies and golf carts and huge set pieces. All the other bands just kind of milled about, but the Flaming Lips were orchestrated. They were the big dogs with the big balloons backstage. No seriously, they had huge orange balloons. And some little kids stole one. When we finished our interview with Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips, two fans yelled for him from behind the park fence. He went over and talked to them.  They said they were huge fans but they didn’t have tickets. An hour later, Carrie saw both fans in the VIP area. Moral? If you don’t have tickets, beg the band through a park fence. I also heard a rumor that the punk rock band F***d Up jumped into the audience during their set on Saturday and the guitar player accidentally bopped a fan in the head. The ambulance showed up whisking the injured fan away. It makes me wonder who’s at fault in this situation- the band, the fan or the festival? I was standing over the shoulder of the photographer from Getty Images in the press tent while he was editing photos.  I kept saying “No, no, pass, no, that one’s good, no, no, YES! use that one.” I think he liked me. There were two kids from SIU’s PBS station in the tent with a shoulder mount for their camera. They said it cost $700. Whaaaa?  I could have made that with some pliers and some leftover piping. Now you know why TV is so expensive. Shoulder mounts. I don’t want to harsh on anyone’s mellow, but Pitchfork is still part of the city and you may not want to de-seed your marajuana on the back of your book while watching the Vivian Girls.  I’m just saying, it makes a police officer’s job a lot easier. And finally, kudos to The Thermals for playing Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Green Day as part of their Sunday afternoon set. It was nice for us middle-aged rockers who were self-conscious and out of our element. I’m talking about you.