By Amy Shaunette

What can I say? I’m an arts editor for The Mac Weekly so obviously I spent the summer recording three albums, selling my paintings and directing plays. I also started my own fashion line and made a replica of a Frank Lloyd Wright building. But whenever I had free time, I tried to catch a few shows, check out new music and go to movies, and that’s what this is supposed to be about, right?In reality, I spent the summer working and watching “Jeopardy.” But away from the time clock and past 7:30, when “Jeopardy” ends and “Wheel of Fortune” comes on, I found time to experience what this world’s got to offer. Here are the highlights:

1. Air, at First Avenue in Minneapolis on May 3

It’s not everyday that Frenchmen Nicholas Godin and Jean BenoŒt-Dunckel of the ambient-electronic band Air grace the United States with their presence, so I was really looking forward to this. When Air walked on stage, it was like seeing God descending from the heavens. With blue stage lights dancing on their crisp white shirts, Godin and Dunckel were glowing. After seeing their dainty faces on so many album covers and posters, it was overwhelming to realize how real they were. Electronic music can be strange live because you realize how manufactured and technology-based it is, but live, Air is organic. I could see what instrument made each sound, which man sang each line, and sometimes they’d warp their voices with microphones, producing robotic vocals. It was unbelievable. Of course, the best part was when a drunk girl slung her arm around my shoulder and danced with me, singing into my ear. She also screamed at the band, “You made my sex life real!” while her drunk frat-boy boyfriend grabbed handfuls of her ass-he’d never heard of Air. But drunk people included, the whole thing was the most beautiful, peaceful experience I’ve ever had with live music, and I felt privileged to be a part of it. My summer could have ended right there and I’d be satisfied. But of course, it didn’t.

2. Props to Lindsay Lohan for starring in two of the summer’s worst movies!
“Georgia Rule” was kind of cute. Lohan played a promiscuous city girl sent to live with her grandma in a small rural town to keep her out of trouble. Instead she seduces a Mormon farmer boy in a very bizarre lakeside sex scene, if you can call it that. Lindsay didn’t have to do any acting in this movie, and judging from the dialogue, the writers didn’t have to do too much writing, either.

Lohan really topped the charts with “I Know Who Killed Me,” a horrible rip-off of “Saw” about a serial killer who kidnaps and drugs hot high school girls and slowly chops them up, but never kills them. Lohan can definitely scream, and her pole-dancing scenes were pretty sweet, but the actual movie was the worst film I’ve ever seen, and I didn’t even watch half of it (I closed my eyes during the bloody scenes). Way to go Linds.

3. Daft Punk at WaMu Theater in Seattle on July 29

If you’ve seen Daft Punk in the past two years, you know that each stop on their tour is a lot more than a concert. Their current set is a giant, and I mean giant, pyramid with light screens on all three sides that display psychedelic colors, photographs and words, including their signature phrase “human after all.” Decked out in their traditional robot suits and helmets, Daft Punk performs inside the pyramid, visible only from the waist up, with the tip of the pyramid hovering over their heads. It’s truly a sight to see. The set is about an hour and half long and it’s continuous-the music never stops. Daft Punk has laced most of their songs together into one long dance mash-up, with some songs overlapping and repeating. It’s a whole new Daft Punk, bigger and better than the Daft Punk we’ve all heard on our stereos. I had the pleasure of seeing them for the second time in Seattle this summer and I was not disappointed. It wasn’t as great as their legendary Coachella Music Festival performance, where the pyramid was unveiled for the first time, but it was still an out-of-this-world experience. Those two robots can do no wrong.