Still over a week until I get on a plane:
#140Five Things I’ve Already Packed:
Dude, I love my blog. I can share my life, thoughts, typos and photos with ease in one place. I love my Twitter account. I am mainlining everything there is on the internet about the Olympics. I’m learning things about technology for free. I follow npr and cnn news to feel smarter. I love mental floss. I love knowing what my friends in San Diego and Austin are up to.
As I prepare for another annual trip to Austin for my favorite week of the year, I am getting a little nervous about SXSW. When I first went with KD and LC, I thought I was getting in a secret club. The emails that went around had a small number of names at the top. You didn’t forward to someone who wasn’t deserving. I had to pass a test (kidding). There were free parties for people who loved music and SXSW but were in the cool kids club that weren’t going to pay for it.
Today, as I look through the 20 people I’m following on Twitter that have tags like ‘freesxswparties’and ‘sxswforfree’I’m seeing they have thousands of followers. There aren’t that many parties. Or venues that fit that many people. At least not that I know of. Last year there were parties we couldn’t get into, we’d just sigh and move on. We’d show up earlier and earlier to ensure we got in to see who we wanted. And there weren’t that many Twitter/facebook invites.
This year everything is on facebook. There are a dozen blogs and sites with links to the rsvps we used to have to hunt down. Anyone can see it. Should I be nervous? I am. I haven’t even booked my flight because I’m thinking about going early for the interactive parties I usually miss just to make sure that I can get in and around.
Saw this over at WalMart a little bit ago. I’m thinking, “Hmm, a burnt orange giant van for two grand? Sounds good to me.”
Put these on the front…
We’d have a niiice ride to Pasedena. Like this blog, I see orange, I think Texas.
For a while there when we lived in Austin nothing was more fun than looking at houses. MK had a Real Estate license, we had two other couples that would join us – looking for all three families, and when MK was making more money we were imagining paying top dollar for giant houses on acres of land. There was no limit to the time we’d spend out on weekends checking out 3000 square foot and above homes debating whether a pool or a four car garage was more important. We must have gone in every house that was for sale over a period of a few months.
We looked far and wide and realized that although we weren’t sure what we wanted, we weren’t finding it. Thus began our attempt to find what was missing by trying new cities. We drove around Seattle occasionally but didn’t really think it was for us either. The first time we were in San Diego we browsed the internet and learned that living in the greatest place on earth comes at a premium. So in Park City the idea came to us to find a house there to settle in and continue to live the beach lifestyle that we love by renting. I’m a big fan of this one. MK might have forgotten it.
Lately MK’s gotten the idea in his head that we need to buy something in San Diego. I’m not sure what this is all about. But after the time that has passed and the price difference from what we saw in Austin and what that computes to here – I’m so over it. For a ton more money, we’re reduced to condos and forclosure houses. Miserable ones. It stopped being fun when the questions now are like “Where would we take the laundry?” and “Think duct tape could fix that?”.
It’s not exactly like we think we deserve a house like this (no, really – click the link and look at that place) but something liveable would be nice. I hope MK gets over this silly idea instead of putting us in the wrong place!
We got off to a little bit of a late start Saturday. By the time we got downtown, LC had let us know not to bother with the 5 block long line at the Rachel Ray show. We took our time and enjoyed a lunch at the Brick Oven and headed over to the Mohawk Hot Freaks Showcase.
Boy were we glad we did. KD, SB, RB, and I picked the right place at the right time (again!). I got frisky with the door guy and finagled a crazy extra amount of extra free drink tickets. Yum. JC showed up and met us, and some of KD’s friends. We saw the Vivian Girls, Viva Voce, Camera Obscura, and Peelander-Z. Peelander-Zis the band you see three hundred pictures of. Maybe it was the 50 PBR’s, but their show was pretty hilarious.
JP and JC suggested that we go see the Gay Blades, a band that had played the Midgetmenshowcase Wednesday that I sadly missed. So we headed over to the Jackalope after joining up with DW. It was there I met my sister in law for the first time. Super exciting! We got along so well we didn’t even notice some band had canceled and there was no music. Oh well! The afternoon was a blast - my favorite kind of let’s all just go with the flow day. The Gay Blades music and showmanship was great and I was excited to be running around town in the great weather.
Click here for the ton of Saturday day show photos.
Everyone went their separate ways for the night and KD and I decided some home cooked food and a break sounded good. We headed to her place and not only caught the end of a close UT game, but saw the fireworks over Auditorium Shores for a show there right from her place. It was pretty amazing. A short snooze later we decided to check out the iheartcomix party, with a lineup that included Popo, Jaimie Fanatic, Maluca, and Diplo. We tried our best to ignore the strange surroundings, the weird crowd, and the warm beer, but couldn’t handle the awful sounding music and the wait in between sets. We made it to until about 2 and called it a night, sorry Diplo. That’s two years in a row I couldn’t hold out for you…We were glad to have made it out, but there are no photos, as there was not much to photograph. As far as I’m concerned, it’s best that we made it back out even if it was a bust, or we would have always wondered…
Friday KD dropped me off right on time to walk right in to a door with no line, where I could go inside and meet all the boys, get a wristband for all the beer I could drink for $2, and listen to more fantastic music. Yes, I went in. Yes, I got the wristband. Yes, Club Deville can sure throw a day party!
A few silly conversations and Tallboy PBR’s later, we saw a great lineup: The Obits, American Analog Set, The Thermals, and The Hold Steady.All good stuff. Other highlights of my day included seeing more old friends, watching the boys make everyone’s mouths drool by ordering a pizza, and switching from tallboys to normal size beers, but realizing that would mean a four-for-one plan would be set in place. I didn’t get a picture of the group, but I’ll find you one. We were the party, that’s my favorite!
Here’s the link to the Friday Day photo set.
I ran out to see my favorite band, pH10, on their way to setting up, and met up with LC, JA, etc at Side Bar and saw a band called Deer Tick. (Thanks, LC!) It was adorable. Look at the pictures. They are young. And fun.
Friday night KD and I met up with JC and finally remembered there are places to eat that don’t get busy, you just have to hunt for them. We ate at Saba, and super happily SA and JM ran over to say hello. We all ran in to the craziest bar party ever just to be able to have a drink and visit. It scared JC so much he went home- but it was exactly what I needed, a drink and loud music trying to get you excited. No one’s fault it wasn’t very good… SA and JM happened to be meeting up with a friend at the same place KD and I were headed – so I got to run into a friend from kickball – which you know is a long time ago since it was one of my first blog posts! We hung out for a bit and watched the few bands and WB also met up with us. Then it was time for Honeyclaws, a band I really enjoyed last year. It was fun to see how much they’ve improved and how they came together and adapted to better suit their individual styles.
WB gave in since it was late but KD and I made it all the way across town for the greatest performance from pH10. With a limited time to set up and rock out, they did just that. I couldn’t be happier to have such talented friends! We also caught i45. Fun stuff.
Here’s the link to the Friday Night photo set.
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Creativity is continual surprise.
