SXSW '10 (part deux)

There was more to sxsw than big butts and whataburger (not much more though). Here's some of the rest:



Stoic gentlemen^^^

Thursday Tucker and I went to the Cedar St Courtyard and saw Minus the Bear and Uffie. Neither was as good as I would have liked, but for free, outside on a beautiful day with Roomie; I can't complain. We went to Fader Fort after and saw Chew Lips which was as good as I hoped. I don't know if these pics are from that day or not, but we're at Fader in them, probably drinking lots of free drinks.

and another ^

One of my favorite photos, surprise public passion in the background...bonus!

Friday was a bit scattered. I think everyone was a bit burned out from Thursday night and the chaos in general. Why would we be burned out? Well.

1) We caught a bit of Jonah Matranga at Plush during the day. My babe and I slowed danced...it was the sweetness.

2) After we saw Chew Lips at Fader, Fucked Up played. I could have cared less, but some of the dudes were pretty psyched. They got all jazzed and ready to go out for more.

3) We decided to head over to Shangri-La (one of my fave bars on the east side).

4) On our way there we overheard GZA of Wu notoriety and Tucker and Sam Welch promptly hopped the fence (sorry Zoe!). The rest of us headed to Shang and waited for the story.

5) According to them it was "fucking mind blowingly epic." So there you have it. EXCEPT. Not an hour later we hear rumors that GZA is inside Shangri La (we were sitting outside on the patio). WTF? THEN...as we're leaving, Tucker decides to buy a hot dog. And another, for Mr. Bill Murray, who just, you know - kicks it with GZA at ShangriLa. Remember that flick Coffee & Cigarettes? Remember who was in a vignette together? RZA, GZA, and Mr. Bill Murray. Here is a really short, really rad article my friend Zoe wrote about meeting GZA & Mr. Murray at sxsw (cute pic too).

P.S. Bill Murray was bartending at Shang as well. And he's a mustard kinda guy.

6) I can't quite remember the order of events, but I know we ended up at Plush again at some point to watch Look Mexico play. I made the mistake of buying Rachel a shot. That really didn't work out so well.

7) We walked over to Silhoutte for some BRLSQ dance party action, ft. Cubic Zirconia. That walk took quite a long time (see above: buying Rachel a shot). So by the time we got there it was a full-on rawking rompus.

After all of that we were a bit mixed up by Friday. The boys had a couple shows to play, so Tucker and I met up with intentions of catching jj (didn't happen) and lissie again (missed her by 20 minutes). We went to the Camel loft, were we missed Lucero by 10 minutes, but we did get to see someone. I don't remember who know, but I know I was hyped. Tucker? James? A little help here.

We sort of wandered a bit, and then I think we headed over to the French Legation to catch xx. We ran into Spencer, Sam, Zack and Gob and started making our way over to Fader for The Very Best instead...who were nearly The Very Best of the weekend. If you haven't listened to them, do it here.

I don't know what else we did Friday night. Anyone?

Saturday. Windy. Gray. Wet. Suck.

We got up early and went to Rachel Ray's BBQ at Stubb's. Free food, weak drinks (free) and free music (that was mostly ok). Bob Schneider (great), Rachel Ray's husband's band (suckfest.com/suck), Dr. Dog, Jakob Dylan & Neko, and She & Him.

Dr. Dog @ Rachel Ray's party at Stubb's.

We pretty much did that all day, and it was pretty great. We caught Foot Patrol and that was amazing. Haha. They rule. We all just relaxed after, and then kicked it into overtime for a dance party at Plush.

Sunday. Boo Hiss. The day I was dreading all week. The Last Day.

Wait a mintue. Does this girl work for American Apparel? No effing way ^^^

Sunday was beautiful, so we went to the trailer park for tacos.

Favorite photo of the week ^^^

Taco Time.

***Please keep in mind: This all happened weeks ago and I was drinking a lot during this time. If these details are not 100% spot on, please forgive me.

SXSW 10

Unlike Roomie, I didn't take 10,000 photos (I made that number up) during sxsw. I wish I had.

It was an absolutely
insane
amazing
sleep-deprived
Whataburger
boozy
music-y
full of friends week.

Sunday (a couple days before music sxsw officially started) we had Sunday Dinner (Austin Edition). Grilled burgers and turkey burgers by our pool with Rachel (who I work with), our friend Ryan, Crystal, Tomas and their roomie Ben; Jenn, me, James, and Erin & Ellen (two very sweet ladies we met through James). After we all went up to Beerland to catch a few bands James had booked...Brother/Ghost & Zorch. We also wanted to see this girl Ryan had made out with a few nights before that he told us about. She flaked.

Monday I went and saw Little Dragon play at Emo's with my friend Jill. I didn't get 1 good photo, see here are 2 bad ones that are still pretty.

Tuesday I could hardly contain my excitement as it was the day everyone was getting to town.
Tucker, Sam, Ryan, Hicks, Mikey, Travis, Kyndra, Espada, David, Nick, Sam Welch, Gob, Spencer, Katie, Christian, Jesse, Tito, Danell. and on and on and on and on. SO many people.

That morning I went to one of my station's broadcasts...saw Ashley Greene do an interview, watched The Sheila's and Bob Schneider (rad local bands) and drank too much coffee. Went to work, and then finally escaped.

Ended up at The Parlour, cause this band I've heard of was playing a show.

Also got to watch Guns of Navarone, which is a fantastic band that James manages. Super good dudes, really talented.

Wednesday:

Espada and So Gold played the Wednesday day show at Beauty Bar. I was only there for a little bit, but it was great.

Prior to Beauty Bar on Wednesday I stumbled upon Ms. Lissie at the Paste party. Promptly called Tucker and made him come over. It was really lovely.

After that we walked over to Plush together to catch these goons for a day show. We missed Military Special and We Became Actors, seriously bummed I didn't get to watch either of those great bands.

Mayhem Wednesday night. It was like a miniature dose of burn-out from their time on the road and the chaos of the first day of south by being over. I really thought everyone was going to punk out early. Instead, we took over Red Fez for a mega dance party. I've got no photographic proof, but it was dance craze. Thanks to Kellen for saying "Damn, these Minnesota kids know how to party."

So. That was Day 1 (and pre-south-by).

Gimme that, that butt

Never know what you're going to see in Austin.

Fader Fort.

SXSW.2010.

Austin: Weeks 3 & 4...It's been a Month

So. I've been living in Austin for a month. Actually, a few days longer than that. Trip out.

I think I've done a really terrible job of staying in touch...I need to make more of an effort to make some phone calls and make sure you're all doing well (and if you're not we can talk about that too). I'm trying to refrain from new-city-blues, especially because it's sxsw next week and Tucker, Sam, and Ryan, Travis, Jake, Kyndra, Christian, Jesse, David, Espada, Nate, Spencer/Nick/Sam...and MANY more Minneapolites will be invading ATX. It's also hard to have the blues when the sky is so blue...and sunny...and warm. I hate to rub it in, but it's been really beautiful the past few days.

Jenn, James and I have been pretty busy pretty much every day...it's pretty cute actually. We've been cooking dinner together or for each other a lot and eating on our porch. Jenn got a job!!! She started yesterday...a really rad looking restaurant not far from our house. James is pretty much slammed all the time with booking and promoting shows, and he just started managing artists as well. Work is going really well, I have a few different events that I'll be managing assigned to me now (Father's Day Olympics (hahaha), a 5k event on the lake, and a community outreach drive to get people to donate fans for the elderly/underprivileged). One really terrible/really awesome thing about work is that there is always free food around. This morning I was eating chocolate covered strawberries and bagels for breakfast. FML. I'm gonna get so fat if James and I don't start running more (which I try to get out of daily).

So enough of all that. Here's a photo recap of the past two weeks:

Sunrise on our drive to Austin...Jenn and I were getting a little goofy by this time^^^

Night we got to town. We went out and had a few drinks for my birthday ^^^

Sweet sweet Crystal joined us! ^^^

I was MEGA excited because there was a Lord of the Rings pinball machine!!!

See how happy I am???

Jenn, posing it out ^

James doing the same ^

Again ^

Sam played at Plush the next night. Thanks to Cory for the guitar.

and Thunderbird the following night (thank you to Elliot this time).

James' mom came to visit last weekend and we went to lunch at Oasis. This place is a fucking trip. A 20-30 minute drive, some of which is really pretty, brings you to a richy suburb with nothing around it. Drive to a cliff, eat at the biggest restaurant I've ever been to (at first it looks really ritzy...then it looks like a GIANT Chi-Chi's. So odd. They had all of these huge stone sculptures everywhere. Native American chicks riding eagles, a little boy and a dog, a mermaid doing a head-stand...weird. They also had a charicture artist there, and a girl selling jewelry near the gift shop. SO WEIRD.

Anyway, the food was good.

James' mum (Mama T). (Note: I dubbed her Mama T before I knew Taylor).

The lake ^^^

Awwwww.

HAHAHAHAHA. and then there was Bert. >>>

I met Bert through my friend Ryan. James works Saturday nights, and Jenn was out. I met up with Ryan and Bert at Barfly, which is nothing like MPLS' Barfly...more like a long, skinny CC Club. We ended up downtown for some cheap drinks and shuffleboard...and a bit of celebrity. Every jock dude in the bar and on the street asked to have their photo taken with Bert...it just got weird. And by weird, I mean awesome.


Sunday:

We had ourselves a nice little Sunday afternoon. Ikea, grocery, unpacking, Sunday Dinner. Jenn was nice enough to secure my new plant in the backseat. Upon closer inspection it didn't matter, because Jenn and I (mostly me) had picked out a fake plant. WTF? It looks so real!!! And I'd been in IKEA for 2 1/2 hours already, I think I was delusional by the time we made it to the plants.

Other great thing about Sunday ^^^ is that I found my favorite yogurt at the grocery. I was really scared, because I had been here for a month and hadn't seen it yet. This is my awesome computer with a really cool spreadsheet...just so ya know what I do all day.

Anyway. Friends coming for south by...can't wait to see you.

The rest of you...I'd like to learn of your travel plans soon.

xoxo.