Took a flight from Seattle to San Francisco this evening, because my flight from San Francisco to Peru (with a layover in Mexico City) takes off tomorrow morning, at 7:00am. My friend Mihae’s mom will be picking me up from my brother’s condo at… 4:30am. It is currently 1:23am. Dear lord god. Needless to say, I’m thinking of not going to bed this evening, so I can get some work done, and then just sleeping on the way to the airport, at the airport, and on the plane (a four and a half hour flight). I was HOPING to sleep on the plane from San Francisco to Seattle, but I sat next to a girl who really wanted to talk, which initially was BLARGH but turned out fine because she was pretty amusing. Her and her friend had flown up to Seattle from the San Luis Obispo area for just one day to see Mindless Self Indulgence, because they weren’t playing shows in Cali. Apparently, it was totally worth it. I thought it was pretty hardcore.
Anyway, I thought it was kinda bizarre… because…
The last flight I was on, from Austin to Seattle, I was sitting next to Ryan, the Aussie. I was in the window seat and he was in the middle seat. We had ended the flight with him showing me a bunch of music on his iPod, and then us trying to figure out how to get him from the airport to the Green Tortoise Hostel.
This flight, from Seattle to San Francisco, I was in the window seat and a girl was sitting next to me in the middle seat. Same seating arrangement as with the Aussie, but on the opposite side of the plane. Around the same row, too (I think it was row 26 from Austin to Seattle and row 27 today). She started talking to me, and basically started off the conversation with how she had just flown up to Seattle to see a concert, and that she had been late to the airport and had come from the Green Tortoise Hostel. Then she showed me music on her iPod. WTF!
I should mention that they are of the same style… not the same musical tastes, mind you, but visual style… dark hair, dark clothes, piercings, tattoos.
In the words of Lenny, “The Aussie came back as a chick!”
I mean, the coincidence isn’t SUPER mind-blowing, but it’s certainly coincidental enough where it’s kinda like… whoa.
I was supposed to meet with Jennie & Cynthia for lunch at like 4:00pm, and I thought I could make it for at least a little since I had to meet with Jay about a website at 5:00pm.
At 4:00pm, as I’m about to leave, Chris calls me and tells me that someone wants to see the house — can I stick around? I say OK.
I show the house until 4:20pm, and then decide that it’s too late to head over to U-District and meet up with Jennie & Cynthia because I’d probably only see them for like, fifteen minutes, after all was said and done.
To top it off, the guy I showed the house to thinks the upstairs room is too small and doesn’t want to live in a basement, which is the other option.
Jay calls at 4:40pm and tells me that he can’t meet today after all… right as I’m about to walk out the door to ride my bike to Herkimer.
I think that perhaps now I can meet up with Jennie & Cynthia, so I call them, only to find out they’re just now paying and getting ready to leave the restaurant.
STRAIGHT.
OWNED.
This type of shit happens to me all the time.
(What’s more… I got one of my many nosebleeds just before the guy came to look at the house, and so when he got here, and started looking at me in a way that I thought seemed kind of funny, I asked him if I had any blood on my nose because I had just gotten a nosebleed. He said no, basically… which I later discovered, by looking in the mirror, was a huge ass lie. Which is hilarious because there wasn’t a TON of blood, but he DEFINITELY saw it and CHOSE to lie about it. Bizarre. I wouldn’t ask for no reason, dude.)
I eat vegetarian as much as possible, but it never fully satisfies. The past couple days I’ve eaten vegetarian meals… complete meals at that… but I get ravenous again so fast. BAHHH. Actually, I find if I eat some kind of filler like bread or something, it’s… decent… but I don’t particularly LIKE to eat those things, which makes it more difficult. And chips work, too, but chips are like the bane of my existence because I just like them sOoOoOo much.
On another note, HOLY SHIT. Brown rice pasta is soOooOooO much better-tasting than regular pasta.
My recent diet has consisted largely of:
- Pasta
- A LOT of hummus
- Feta / onion / tomato / lettuce / pita sandwiches (so good)
- Various veggie fillers like spinach / eggplant patties / veggie patties / etc.
- $1 Jack In The Box chicken sandwiches (the anomaly)
- Dehydration
Aye mate, today was an interesting day. Woke up early and ran some errands and then met up downtown with me new Aussie friend from SxSW, Ryan (23), and his hostel mate, Tom (18). To finally fulfill my curiosity, I got to take a sneak peek at the Green Tortoise Hostel in Downtown Seattle, and it’s actually a proper hostel, which I didn’t quite expect in all my years of poking around this fair city here (I’m going to try working “proper” into my vernacular, because shit, it sounds dope when the Brits say eet).
Anyway, we got confused and eventually made it to the transit tunnel (they were unimpressed with my navigational skills, I must say, because I’ve never actually taken a bus FROM the transit tunnel… I have taken buses that dropped me off there, but it was really confusing!), primarily cause Ryan actually for some freakish reason kinda knew where he was going.
The bus ride was fine, and we sat on the raised portion, and talked about where El Corazon was since Ryan was going there for a show soon, and how handsome Tom is (or so Ryan really thinks), and how Ryan was madly heartbroken after falling in love with a girl from the hostel who he’d known for — I’d later find out — 24 hours…!!!!
So, we got into U-District and made it to the Henry Art Gallery, where William Kentridge has some cool installation work on view. Then we shot darts at this one exhibit that has a bunch of dart boards and a bunch of darts. We musta shot darts for like, a half hour. I told them, “We have to go through this entire box of darts before we can leave!” and then changed it to, “We have to hit the bullseye before we can leave!” and they actually kind of took it semi-seriously. So we were there FOREVER and NO ONE could hit the fucking bullseye. It was pretty awful. We’re noobs. Tis how it goes, I guess.
The main gallery was in-between exhibits, so it was closed, which kinda sucked. :[ Luckily, it was a Thursday, and all Thursdays at the Henry are free, so it was all good.
Then we walked around UW for half a minute and they bust out their cameras like tourists, probably cause they are tourists. Afterwards, we were deciding where to go eat, and Tom bust out his TWO guidebooks about Seattle/The Pacific Northwest, and flipped to the U-District section. One had nothing, but the other had these random restaurants, including Flowers, which I was originally going to suggest.
Obligatory reflection pic, in Flowers.
By the time we went to Flowers to eat lunch, it was already like, 12:45. Which, in retrospect, makes me think we were probably shooting darts for like, more than half an hour. We had their buffet type dilly and the boys liked it... Ryan especially cause he's vegan and vegan food just probably isn't that exciting usually, HAHA. Tom is a meat-eater but enjoyed it and kept trying to force himself to eat more plates of food. Eventually, he got a plate of peanut-sauced-up spaghetti (his third plate of food), and I asked him if it was good, and he's shrugged and said, "It's all food now." He's saying this as he's eating fucking strand by strand, slow as hell, looking miserable, but still eating it because it appealed to his, as he quoted, "Protestant work ethic [I'd] inherited from [me] mum.”
Then we finally decide that he needs to eat some rice pudding, because “rice pudding is ‘filler’ food, not real food, and that it fills in the cracks,” so he gets a bowl of that before finishing off his spaghetti. He ate some, didn’t quite like the semi-alcoholic taste of it, and then finally suddenly pushed the bowl away from him and said, “I need to get out of here.” So we left, an hour and a half later.
At Flowers, Ryan was talking about how he’d become a Jew for the Amy chick he is in love with, “even though [I] am an Athiest,” and I was like, “What? You can just turn it on?” and he eventually said he’d do the legwork to become a Jew… on paper, but not necessarily in spirit. Amusing.
It was also amusing, and I’ve noticed this before in Brits, but the Brits LOVE to ask rhetorical questions, like, “This vegetable sure is delicious, isn’t it?” and it’s stuff that you don’t REALLY think you need to respond to, but it KINDA sounds like you need to respond, but you don’t REALLY… and at one point at lunch, Tom asked one of these like, three times in a row! And I just found it to be hilarious. Funny Brits. They’re so likeable!
Afterwards, I decided to take them to Gasworks Park, and the walk ended up being slightly longer than I’d anticipated. I told them that I promised it would be cool but they weren’t really keen on all the walking, I don’t think. It was about two miles, turns out. Oops? I thought it was shorter? Oh well?!
I reckon they liked it by the time we got there, though, cause let’s face it — Gasworks is the dope shit. The walk there was long but fine, and the walk back turned more obnoxious (but still amusing) because Tom and Ryan flirt with each other like motherfuckers. Tom is actually going to be leaving on Saturday (unless he extends his stay), so his new lover, Ryan, is quite sad about that as he will be here by hisself for another five days. :[
Thumbs up at Gasworks!
We get back around U-District and decide to go to Mighty-O Donuts because dammit, it closes at 5pm, and it is not 3pm, and Ryan wants some vegan donuts and thinks those will cheer him up!! He has the address, which is 2110 N 55th St., near Greenlake, but then we see the signs on 55th and 2110 seems like it should be east, so we start walking east. In actuality, we were heading towards 2110 NE 55th St., and we should have been on 2110 N 55th St… but we couldn’t just walk down 55th St. going west… because 55th St. ended before it got to the area where Mighty-O was. So unfortunately, no donuts for Ryan, but I’m going to see if I can pick him up some sometime because man, he really wanted them badly, and kept saying that the day was awesome, even though he was sad, but at least the Mighty-O donuts would top off the day, but they unfortunately never did!
So we walked back down the Ave. and stopped by various music shops (for Ryan) and various thrift stores (for Tom, the ever-fashionable Brit), and finally a used bookstore, my favorite one. Magus, I believe it is. By the end I was kinda like, “Why am I still here?” cause I didn’t need to go to any of those places, but whatever. Took many a pee break in between. I had to pee like a motherfucker for some reason the latter half of the day! Wee!
While Ryan went to Upper Playground, I had a good chat with Tom about American culture, and it was interesting to hear his observations. He basically said that, although it is a contradictory statement to say, the niche groups in America see to be more mainstream. Eventually he clarified this to mean that basically, subgenres are very obvious in the clothing people wear in the States… you can pick out an emo kid or a hip-hop dude very easily, as opposed to in London, where people are more homogeneous. I don’t know if that’s true necessarily in all places in the States, but it does seem like people in London are fairly homogeneous. But I don’t know.
I was very impressed with Tom, though, he was such a mature 18 year old and thought about things to logically and rationally. And he’s obviously smart, because he’s going to Cambridge for a degree in English and is actually bringing around books and reading them on his six month tour of the world (from his first stop, Seattle, to Portland, to SF, to LA, to Mexico City, to Guatemala for a month to learn Spanish, to Peru, and who knows where else). Super, super impressed with the kid… he was basically giving Ryan, who was five years older than him, advice about the girl he was swooning for. At Flowers, he jokingly said, “I’ve known this guy for four days and he’s fallen in love once; I hope not every one of his four days is like this,” but later basically broke it down for him saying, “You’ve barely been in the States a week and you’ve met such amazing people, like myself and Vivian, and you have so much more time to go, so don’t get so caught up about it now,” and, “Sure, you’d get along with Amy well, but there’s plenty of people you’d get along with,” and etc… just really sensible, rational stuff that spoke to his ridiculous maturity level. It’s rare to find kids who are 18 in the States who are quite very mature, and I wonder if Brits maybe are just more mature at 18, or if he’s an anomaly? And he has all these qualities but is very good-looking, too, at least in the classical model sense…
Anyway, I suppose it is weird to write paragraphs about this kid cause it’s not like I have a crush on him — I don’t — I’m just so impressed that a young person can be so put together (god, I sound like an old lady). And it makes me think, “Man, it’s just not fair how some people seem to have it all,” just like how some of the best singers are really good-looking… it just seems kind of unfair.
But then Alex summed it up to the idea that maybe some people who have one good thing to begin with start to work with the other things in a good way because they have the good starting point, and I wonder if that’s true? But I don’t know? Interesting concept, though.
Then I went to eat a sushi roll by myself at a fairly new sushi joint on the Ave., and then walked the almost three miles home to our house. Thought a lot on the way about random shit, including Micah, and how I really hope that his knowing me was good, not harmful, to his emotional well-being. I know he has changed a lot since I met him, starting with getting himself out of that virus of a former living situation, and that he’s actually gotten a job and started socializing with people properly again, and part of me thinks I helped it, and part of me wonders if it would have happened anyway. I don’t know why I thought about that stuff so much.
I also thought about these birds fighting over who got to eat the vomit.
Almost done with these fucking journals, thank GOD.
Woke up, talking to my CS host briefly, and then took off. Everyone had to go to work anyway, so I left without a hitch. I left and started walking downtown. Some sights along the way…
Lots of abandoned places all over Austin, actually.
Then I popped into a Starbucks and hung out to do some work for a while. I’d wanted to hit up some art museums, but it was Monday, and they were all closed, which is ALWAYS what fucking happens when I go to another city, I swear.
I finally decide to take the bus to this Zilker Garden in Austin, which is super easy, and their bus system is cheap as well as convenient. Awesomeness!! So I get there, pop off, and remind myself that one of the reasons I want to go there is to see their cactus garden, but of course, I end up seeing everything BUT the cactus garden. The garden itself was NOT so exciting at ALL. Especially the herb part… it was really pretty unhealthy looking. But whatever. :/ What do I expect from a garden, I guess. They’re NEVER really all that exciting. This trip to these gardens also, I would later discover, filled me with a bunch of mosquito bites — three, in fact, which is a lot given the fact that I was there for LESS than an HOUR. One is also on my forehead and puffed up my forehead huge and left this huge red mark that will HOPEFULLY go away soon.
Yay? A fern in their “Prehistoric” garden area.
More sights from the prehistoric area.
After that, I left, went to another coffee shop briefly (the one Jeanette and I had been to the other day), and worked some more. Some really nice old dude started talking to me about milkshakes and then the greatness that is Austin and its people. Got some food and a banana shake and I was all set for a while!
That place was just a brief walk from the bus stop where I could head to the airport, so I went there at around 3:00pm and got to the airport super early, and security was super lax. Got to my gate and my Aussie friend Ryan was there, so we chatted it up for a while. Then we went on the plane, I passed out the entire fucking time, and then the plane had a connection in Dallas/Ft. Worth. He waited for me, we chatted it up, he got some vegan cookies that he was stoked on, then the plane going from Dallas/Ft. Worth was super empty, so I told him to sit next to me after we had taken off. He showed me a bunch of Australian bands on his iPod, some of which were rather good, and I’m going to make him burn CDs with some music for me.
Got back to Seattle, tried to figure out how to get Ryan to the hostel, and got picked up by Lenny. The end!!
Obviously if you can’t tell by now, these journal entries are lackluster and I don’t give a fuck at ALL. Pretty much just want to get them over with. Haha.
Day five? REALLY? I don’t recall actually BEING there that long.
Slept in and woke up to head over to see some bands at this unofficial party at the Beerland. I believe it was a “Hangover Party” of some sort. Past Lives guys were there and I wanted to talk to the lead singer since I’d just seen him the previous night and talked briefly, but I’m awkward and stuff. Before the show, though, we stopped by Jamba Juice, where I bought something, and Pita Pit, where Jeanette bought something, and we split a meal of Jamba Juice and Pita Pit.
The first band up was PRE, who I’d just gotten an email about to cover. Pretty cool screechy Japanese girl vocals. I dug it. Following them were The Mae Shi again, and Jeanette got a spot front and center in front of their “dreamy” guitarist. She talked to them afterwards to see about setting up an interview but that may not happen…?
The Mae Shi.
The Mae Shi’s funny theatrical guitarist <3
Jeanette’s hot man’s shoes.
AIDS Wolf was on next, who I’d wanted to see. Couldn’t really get into the music all that much. This guy may not have been too into it either, given his desperation for ear plugs (so lucky I’d gotten free Miller Light ear plugs at The Escape Frame show).
AIDS Wolf’s singer. For most bands, this picture would be inappropriate, but for this band, it’s wholly appropriate. Trust.
After that, we saw Champagne, Champagne for half a second, and I woulda liked to see Past Lives again, but we left and walked around Austin for a bit because Jeanette was catching a cab today. Made some stops on the way but nothing huge. We’d pretty much explored the fuck out of that area already.
Jeanette really wanted to lie down somewhere and suggested a nap for both of us, but I said no thanks.
Soon we got back to the Hyatt and she split a cab with people to go to the airport. I sat down in the lobby and did some video editing work, and finally got hungry enough to look for some chow. I got some yam fries, which were $5, but then the waiter said that there was a 2-for-1 on appetizers, so I got some chicken quesadillas. He was super nice and really smiley, which in turn made me really smiley, and I really liked him!
Then when I was finally done eating, he came over, gave me my bill, and said, “Okay, here’s the deal. You’re all set!”
To which I responded, incredulously, “WHAT?? WHY??”
To which he responded, “Oh! How about I just charge you for the yam fries? They’re cheaper!”
To which I responded, “Oh really????”
To which he responded, “Sure, why not?”
To which I responded, “Thanks!” although I was later kicking myself, because I think I initially had scored some FREE food.
Later when he came back and gave me my stuff, I told him he was a homie, and he said he tries to do what he can and that it was a pleasure to have me in there. SHIBBY!
After that, I grabbed all my shit and took the city bus up north to meet my CouchSurfing host. It was pretty easy and a complete straight shot.
Beautiful view while crossing the bridge to get to the bus stop.
Construction can be beautiful sometimes, too.
I was pretty pooped by the time I got there but had to make a little small talk with the residents of the household. The house was slightly filthy but everyone was very nice and my actual host didn’t return til a little while later. I’d initially walked PAST the house because I thought it was a different address (and there were three people playing football outside of the house, so I reckon I shoulda guessed), but turned back and it was in fact the house where people were playing football. On the window was emblazoned, “HOUSE OF NUTS,” with this cute little acorn and leaf pattern. Evidently a former roommate had worked at sign shop. Pretty neat.
The house itself was a total dude house and pretty freaking filthy. I didn’t even really want to talk to anyone either, cause I was real tired, but I had to. And I did. Eventually, they played the new episode of “Breaking Bad,” and I thanked my heavenly stars that I had watched the first two episodes before heading over to Austin. Cause that woulda been devastating! I LOVE THAT SHOOOOOW! They also loved “Malcolm In The Middle” in that household, so on those grounds alone, they must be good peeps.
Crashed out pretty early on this roll out pad thing, which was comfortable enough, but I kept being woken up in the middle of the night by various things… such as… the couple who lived there fighting about Lord knows what, with the girl bitching REALLY loudly… and Will, my host, singing to a country song, but harmonizing and taking his own spin on the song… kind of amusing, awesome, and atrocious at the same time… and then later, the formerly fighting couple watching television. It was a tumultuous sleep, but hey, it was free.
I’m so tired of writing these journal entries, but they must be written, dammit. After I write these, I can FINALLY move onto writing the proper REDEFINE articles about SxSW, hopefully.
This particular morning, Jeanette had to go see M. Ward — indie stuff I don’t think I really care for (though I haven’t given him the HUGEST chance, but hey, I’m listening now right as I’m writing, and I’m pretty much convinced that I wouldn’t have been interested). While she did that, I walked the mile and a half to Red River St. & 12th St., the corner of Waterloo Park, where I’d be interviewing the dudes from The Everyday Visuals and then Death Is Not A Joyride. Both were very cool, although I think the Death Is Not A Joyride. one was perhaps slightly more comfortable because they had a good place to sit still, whereas for The Everyday Visuals we were kinda moving around, trying to find a place where we could fit all five of them in comfortably. They were also not quite as good at answering questions. After the interview, I had them sing some stuff. Check out these videos below to get an idea of the interview and the ditty afterwards… sorry for the terrible, terrible camerawork. I was GOING to buy a tripod beforehand, but they were simply too big to bring along :/ By the way, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I only had a backpack and a sling bag and all the other girls had SO MUCH SHIT.
I was hella dehydrated by the time the guys showed up, and there was no water anywhere close, so I took a swig of Christopher, the lead singer’s Fiji water bottle luckily or I would have died. I told him (via text message) that he would need to give me some water as a tax for their being late to our interview.
After the interview, I walked a bit to get a much-needed bottle of water. The whole trip I was so super dehydrated. When I finally got back, the Death Is Not A Joyride. interview happened, and since they were local to Austin, they found a quieter spot for us to do the interview. Strangely also, there were some people wearing like, marathon badge numbers, doing a scavenger hunt, and they asked Joseph of Death Is Not A Joyride. if he had any CDs he was giving out, cause that was one of the items on the scavenger hunt sheet, I guess. See the video below…
So after those interviews, I headed into the Mess With Texas festival and walked around for a wee bit. I don’t honestly quite remember. Jeanette showed up soon after. I’d waited in line to get a wrist band, only to find out I didn’t need a wristband. I’d walked out of the hotel that morning forgetting to charge my phone and forgetting to bring these CDs I had brought to give to my writer Judy Nelson, so I’d called Jeanette prior to the interviews asking her to bring my charger and the CDs, and THANK GOD, because it turned out I desperately needed to use my telephone.
The crowd at Mess With Texas.
Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down.
So, Jeanette finally met up with me — my phone was dead by then — and then we walked in to catch the latter half of Cursive’s set, and of course, I also saw the Aussie! We kinda pointed at each other open-mouthed and then moved on. Cursive was okay, but I don’t know their music SUPER well, so I wasn’t in love with the set.
Following them was Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down, but by then I had confused my schedule (because I was basing my schedule off photos I’d taken on my camera of my computer screen in the morning). I thought Thao Nguyen was the Vivian Girls, and it was confusing, because I’d listened to the Vivian Girls prior to coming to SxSW, and thought it was a French-ish dude singing their songs. Which is why Thao Nguyen was surprising. She gave a really energetic performance, but I left partway to go to the side stage to see Japanther, even though I’d mistakenly thought I was seeing The Bronx. SO confused, and my times were SO off.
Japanther.
Trash Talk.
After Japanther, we went back to the main stage, and this time the Vivian Girls really WERE on (but still not French dudes… they were still women), and my mind was boggled. I thought they sucked balls, laid down on the grass for a while, and then got up and went back to the other stage, where I thought The Bronx was playing. They were not of course. Trash Talk was playing, and I was further confused because the Trash Talk singer kept saying, “The Bronx are up next,” and I thought he was being funny in some way, because weren’t they The Bronx? But nOo, they were not, and the Bronx WAS up next. Trash Talk was okay metal shit with a singer who ended up bleeding somehow. I was confused, but eventually found a flyer, and it answered some questions; the side stage was behind by half an hour!! The Bronx came up next, and they were pretty solid in my book, probably cause they are a bit more accessible, and the singer was actually kinda funny for a metal thrashy dude.
We had to leave halfway through their set cause I needed to go meet my writer Karla at the Hilton so we could conduct an interview with the Spanish artist, Hyperpotamus. I was PISSED cause I’d been itching to see Crystal Antlers all day, but since the side stage was pushed back half an hour-ish, I had to leave before Crystal Antlers went on. SUCK.
Jeanette walked with me back to the Convention Center area, cause she had to go there to eat some expensive dinner for free with some guy involved with ReadyMade Magazine. I did the interview at Hilton with Hyperpotamus… at least, I video’d while Karla asked the questions. I charged my phone desperately while this was going on, and we initially started the interview inside the hotel, but it was loud, so we later moved it outside. The interview went well. After we did it, it was around 6:30pm, and I found out he was playing a show at the Hilton at 7:00pm, and so I stuck around to see it, since I didn’t actually have anything I was dying to see at that time anyway. His set blew my fucking MIND. It was SO GOOD. It was one dude, a loopstation, and four mics creating music live, and dancing like a maniac in between his beats, and singing… he was like a one man band, and it was amazing. The Hilton was also the perfect spot for him to perform because there was a lot of traffic flowing by, so a lot of people stopped here and there to witness the spectacular event that is a Hyperpotamus performance.
Hyperpotamus in action.
After that, Karla and I walked back towards Waterloo Park and she stopped by Club DeVille while I went back to the park. Freaking Circle Jerks were playing the main stage, which I didn’t care for, but I met up with Judy and chatted her up for a while. Her boyfriend, this scrawny kinda engineer looking dude, was totally into punk and was all up in the mosh pit, and later came back blindly (as he wasn’t wearing his glasses), saying that Austin punks were the nicest punks ever, and that they didn’t want to punch you in the face like NYC punks, but that they wanted to help you up when you fell. Haha.
After that, I left, and was mega fucking hungry, so I stopped by a taco truck for some subpar chicken tacos and struck up conversation with some dude whose band was closing out SxSW. Didn’t seem like the stuff I’d REALLY listen to but I told him I might try to stop by. I chowed down real quick and went to the Mohawk. On the way, I noticed this homeless shelter they have in the downtown area that has like open glass windows and you can look in and see all the homeless people sleeping on mats. Interesting. Not sure why that is.
Past Lives.
Saw Past Lives at the Mohawk and talked to the main singer of Past Lives briefly after to give him my card, just because they seem SO nice as a band, even being formerly of the Blood Brothers and all… so, so, SO nice. They have an interesting, really friendly stage presence. Clipd Beaks was on next, and they were interesting. Not sure quite what to make of them. By this time, it was around 10:15pm, and I wanted to stay to watch HEALTH at 12:00am, but Jeanette wanted to see the Silversun Pickups and they were at a faraway venue — the same venue DeVotchKa and Constantines played last year — but by the time we got there, there was this line already, and while the line wasn’t all that super big, they weren’t letting many people in — particularly not wristbanded people. So we waited for like, an hour and a half for no reason. But the Silversun Pickups suck live anyway, so really, it’s all good.
Tara and Stephanie showed up to wait with us partway through our waiting process, and they had badges but chose to wait outside with us. When the band started playing and we still weren’t in, we decided to try going to the Used show, but that was full as a MOTHERFUCKER, and then went to some ghetto sports bar because they really wanted to get a drink. That was okay. After that, we went to a shot bar, and I drank some gross Oatmeal Cookie shot that was initially good but then made me feel pretty sick. Everyone else got pretty tossed. I was sober-ish. I’d been trying to get people to go to an electronic show since MSTRKRFT and Pendulum were playing, but no one really wanted to do anything except for get drunk, which is fine. The sports bar was super boring cause they were all taking about work, but after that was fine.
Then Tara bought me a hot dog, and we waited in line for a while, but it was hilarious, because the hot dog cooking guy was inside this little booth with grills on either side of him, and he kept burning himself. It was really actually quite amusing… and quite gross… but whatever. The hot dogs were DELICIOUS even though it was a bit TOO spicy for my tastes. Shoulda known, considering the booth was called DIABLO DOGS!!! HAIL YESSSS.
BTW, this whole time in Austin, allergies were DEATH.
Afterwards, we sat down on a curb to eat the hot dogs and met some random people. One guy was really sad and really wanted a hot dog, but we jumped in line RIGHT before the line got really long, and after that the line was absurd, I guess. He came, talked, left, and came back to tell us he was unable to find a suitable hot dog with a short line. Turned out he was from Portland or lived there for a while, so there was some chatting about that. I gave him a business card and he IMMEDIATELY folded it up and crumpled it into a square, which is cool, because I do that too, but I was like, “WTF!” and he’s like, “You weren’t supposed to see that!” and tried to uncrease it back… but that never works. Jeanette tried to feed him her old pizza crust but he wouldn’t have it.
After he left, some dudes came and Jeanette tried throwing pizza crusts into their mouths. They were all bout it, although none of the pieces actually made it INTO their mouths. One guy asked me for my number, but I said it didn’t matter since I lived in Seattle, and he said, “It’s cool, I’ll drive to see you,” and I’m like, “Oh please,” and he’s like, “What? You don’t believe me?” and I’m not sure how the rest of that panned out but he left in good spirits.
Afterwards, I briefly held up a “Talk To Us” sign, scrawled on an old paper plate. No one really stopped other than these three people, two of which turned out to work for a radio station. They were both writers and one gave me his card and told me to email him because he was looking for a good publication to write for. I did email him, but haven’t heard back yet. :[
Oh so some guy had a mini bike, one of those really tiny bikes… and Jeanette tried riding that for a while. It was cool. The guy was trying to lead us to some bar or something with free drinks, but Jeanette left early because she wasn’t feeling good. She said she’d try and make it back on her own. Which is too bad because the guy pretty much was leading us because he’d made friends with her and had gotten her phone number for when he went to California for Coachella… or some shit.
When she left, we were still following the dude, but soon the dude saw someone he knew and went to talk to her, and Stephanie and Tara were like, “We want to go, too!” so they quickly hooked arms and walked away, and the guy was left to do whatever. Not sure when or if he noticed. We walked a few blocks together but then had to part ways.
I headed back to the hotel on my own, and on the way was hit on by some Mexican dude who pronounced his H’s, as in, “Hi,” really coarsely. I’m not sure why. But I heard him speaking Spanish, and then he turned over and said, “Hi,” to me, and I instinctively said, “Hola,” and he was confused and was like, “Hola or hi?” and I said, “Hi.” He tried to pester me forever into giving him my phone number but I said it was useless since I was from Seattle, but he kept trying, and I said no, and then he asked for my MySpace, so I said okay, so he tried to type it into his phone, but he was too drunk or didn’t know how to operate his phone or something. It took him FOREVER to type it in, and when he’d typed it in, it still didn’t work, so I said nevermind and he kept saying, “Give me your MySpace! We can talk!” and I was just like, “It’s okay,” and, “It’s okay,” is pretty much my rejection line ALWAYS because I don’t know how to reject people. It’s always like… “What’s your phone number?” “Nah, it’s okay.” Haha.
Then I walked home more of the way by myself, stopped and saw some street performers, and was in a fucking great mood. Saw a woman in a yellowish cape on the way, and it was of course Jeanette, trying to catch a cab with another girl, so I was like, “Jeanette! We’re like two blocks away from the hotel!” so she’s like, “I know,” and got up and walked with me the rest of the way (which wasn’t that far). She was dying though, I guess, and I later found out she had her eyes? closed? the whole time we were walking back. YESSS.
After going to bed hella late, woke up at 10:00am or 11:00am. Got ready in a jiffy, because I wanted to see Parenthetical Girls ((GIRLS)) and HEALTH. Went to the Habana Calle 6 and missed what musta been the latter half of HEALTH’s set, because we should have been in Habana BAR not Habana Calle 6. The other problem was that we went to get Jimmy John’s beforehand, and while Jimmy John’s was delicious, it was not HEALTH. It is fairly HEALTH-y, however, but that’s not good enough! But man, is their French bread delicious or what!
The main problem with missing a HEALTH set is that I missed my lover, HEALTH’s John Famigletti, in action. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. He’s so hawt. One of these days, one of these shows, I’ll actually talk to him. Someday.
While waiting for The Mae Shi to come on, Titus Andronicus were playing in the side room. Pretty straight-forward, Irish-esque punk. Don’t care for it.
Super theatrical.
SUPER theatrical!
The Mae Shi were on next, and they were super funny and theatrical. I’m pretty convinced their bassist must be SOME kind of theatre dude, because his movements and facial expressions are so damn hilarious… not to mention the fact that he was wielding my lover’s bass because his bass broke.
Jeanette’s hot Mae Shi guy.
The Mae Shi’s crowd.
A parachute the Mae Shi dudes spread out! And I’m in the black and white plaid.
Jeanette had a crush on the Mae Shi’s guitarist. He’s good-looking, definitely, but not skinny enough for my emaciated-man-loving-tastes. I also brought my camera this particular day, but forgot to grab my battery because I was in such a rush this morning, so Jeanette used my camera lens and shot the Mae Shi photos and stuff.
After that, it was onto Stubb’s (and seeing the Australian on the way), because Jeanette wanted to go there for the Spin Magazine party. I’d totally forgotten I was supposed to watch Chairlift right after watching The Mae Shi, but oh well :/ Ended up at Stubb’s for FUCKING FOREVER. The Crystal Method first played, and they were decent. Whatever, though. The Black Lips were next, and they were relatively good, but not exactly my bag. I did get some good shots of them, though.
The Black Lips.
The Black Lips.
The Black Lips. GRILLZ, Y’ALL!
Glasvegas was next, and Glasvegas was a band that Micha had said was super good and that Jeanette really wanted to see. Sucked balls. I don’t understand it at all. And when I say I don’t understand mainstream tastes, Glasvegas pretty much epitomizes my inability to understand. I see nothing redeeming about their music whatsoever. They are like Viva Voce in my book, but worse, because at least Viva Voce has a lead lady who can shred like a motherfucker, and Glasvegas has, as far as I can see, jack shit to offer. Their drummer also sucked balls; she seriously used the same exact rhythm for EVERY song and was staring at her hands the entire time as if she honestly had just learned how to play drums. Her drum-playing skills and abilities are on par with my drum-playing skills and abilities when I practice with Rock Band or something… they’re fucking terrible, in short.
And yeah. Mainstream tastes and my tastes are completely confused and do not maketh the sense together. It’s a bizarre world, I tells ya.
One of Jeanette’s Glasvegas pics.
N.A.S.A. did sets before and after Glasvegas, and it was good stuff.
Echo & The Bunnymen came next, and I wasn’t listening too closely, because I was upstairs talking to this guy named Jify who manages this band and is this pretty good-looking Indian dude. Echo & The Bunnymen were definitely 100x better than Glasvegas, though. Imma tell ya that!
They were giving out free Havaianas at that show because they were a sponsor of the Spin party. Unfortunately, when we got there, they were all out. They also gave out free Flip Mini video cameras, and Jeanette and I walked away for like 5 minutes to sit down and they threw them out and Jeanette was quite bummed. Haha. But at least she won a The Container Store gift certificate the previous day!!! She did also get a free SxSW t-shirt because the Flip Mini people were giving out t-shirts, which fulfilled her dreams of getting a SxSW t-shirt this year. I also got one, but they are super big and don’t actually fit on me. But perhaps it will be my new sleep shirt
Then we did nothing for a while. Metallica was announced as this secret Guitar Hero guest band, so we were trying to stay in Stubb’s… because Echo & The Bunnymen ended the Spin party, and there was an hour before the next party started, which was a Guitar Hero we didn’t have backstage passes for. Needless to say, we were trying to stay in the downstairs floor of Stubb’s to see if we could stick around for Metallica, but we got kicked out after trying to stay there forever. The bouncer / worker guy literally had to ask us like… at least ten times… before anyone moved a little bit. It woulda been cool to see Metallica, but whatever. Just to say that you have seen them, but whatever.
Anarchy on the streets of SxSW!
After that, we went to Jeanette’s obsession, Pita Pit, and then walked all the way back to see The Escape Frame. We got lost on the way there and asked a few people for an idea, but no one had a real solid idea! Especially the police officer and dude at the Fader Fort… they totally directed us in the completely wrong direction. Whatever. The show was at the Independent, which I think is usually not a music venue but an art gallery. Nobody was there except for like, six other people who were not in another band or somehow affiliated with the band. Perhaps fewer. Afterwards, I went to talk to the lead singer to give him my business card and see if he’d gotten my e-mail about their album review. It seems he did not. He asked for feedback. I told him basically that his performance is pretty decent but that his guitarist sucked balls and looked bored as fuck and needed to work on his stage presence. Their drummer was also good, but evidently leaving soon, and he kinda looked like Johnny Depp. Their lead singer told me to tell their guitarist the feedback I’d told him, but I told him that it was wayyyy too mean to say that stuff to his face, and that I wasn’t going to do it. So. I didn’t do it.
Scissors For Lefty’s lead singer.
We left ASAP to go see Scissors For Lefty, and we had to sit at the bar for a while because the previous bands were whatevers. The one downstairs was kinda decent but I didn’t stick around to listen so much. Initially I was confused as to who the members of Scissors For Lefty were because I didn’t recognize the bassist who was totally hot and wearing like this vest with no shirt. I still don’t think I quite recognize him but whatever. The lead singer was funny, spunky. I talked to him afterwards briefly, and asked him if he remembered me, and that I’d done a photo shoot. Conversation like this:
Him: “Of course I remember you! It’s been a while!” (<– a HINT that he knew who I was, although… does it really hint at anything?!!)
Me: “Yeah. Here’s my business card because we’re going to write a review about your show and you should check it out. Do you have any more shows coming up?”
Him: “We have a Lance Armstrong Benefit show tomorrow, but this is the show we really wanted.”
Me: “Well, hopefully that’ll be karmic justice and you won’t get testicular cancer.”
Him: “I agree.” *Hi-five.
The end. Cute. Then off to the Karma Lounge, which was hella far away, to see The Bird And The Bee. My Jerusalem was playing before them, and they were pretty good, although by now I was so tired I just wanted to sit, so there was a lot of sitting and finally standing and then more sitting. They had a lot of members, like, I want to say eight – one of which was this super hot Persian or Indian chick who played bass.
While we were waiting for The Bird And The Bee to come on, Jeanette recognized Perez Hilton and took a photo with him!
Afterwards, The Bird And The Bee finally came on and they had like the lead singer, the keyboard guy, and then three other backup dancers / miscellaneous instrumentalists / singers. Was cool. Sounded really good. I managed pretty much to get to the front row of every show at SxSW, so it was the schiznit.
On the walk back from that venue to our house, I overheard some dudes talking about Seattle, so I started talking to them about Seattle. They were transplants from Oklahoma / Seattle who were moving to Austin and saying how great the city was. They were cool, and one of them was there and had gotten into all of these parties cause his sister was a promoter. I forget names… they were going to see Dredg, though. We were going home. Word.
And it makes me think, “Man, it’s just not fair how some people seem to have it all,” just like how some of the best singers are really good-looking… it just seems kind of unfair.
This guy may not have been too into it either, given his desperation for ear plugs (so lucky I’d gotten free Miller Light ear plugs at The Escape Frame show).
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