a year in facebook status updates – 2009.

January

does believe people should go to the new and improved http://www.redefinemag.com

done did got her laptop infected by a virus. ~__~ BSOD FTL.

February

got a web facelift: http://www.redefinemag.com — and a new arts blog: http://www.redefinemag.com/arts/

is going to be in Los Angeles tomorrow, until the 17th! Holla!

is wondering if anyone would like to go to Peru with her in late March / early April for a couple weeks?

March

is wondering if anyone knows anyone trustworthy who needs a room to stay in for SxSW?

is going to Peru, April 1st through April 23rd. Confirmed, son.

is wondering if anyone else noticed Facebook looks different! Rounded profile pictures, omg!! Bigger fonts!!!!

thinks the Indian holiday, Holi, is AWESOME. ^__^

is pretty sure SxSW is the best shit ever.

cannot WAITTTTT to get back to Seattle where allergies are more or less tolerable and not complete complete death action.

… did I say I couldn’t wait to get back to Seattle? Well, I don’t want to be in Austin, but I don’t want to be here, either. RESPONSIBILITIES. BLACHHH.

It’s funny when you have a sudden epitome on a way to fix something that is obviously wrong, with so obvious an answer it’s ridiculous. Naw mean?

Today I hung out with a 23 year old Australian dude I met at SxSW and an 18 year old super mature and smart (and classically very good looking) British lad. I rarely ever meet and get to know English-speaking foreigners while living in the States. It’s in…

Feeleth so dehydrated…

is headed to Seattle’s Green Festival… for anyone who wants to go tomorrow, if you go to PCC and buy some shit, you get a free ticket ($15 value).

Sometimes you just need a giant 16 ounce cup of cappuccino / hot cocoa mix from — no, not the coffee shop down the street — 7/11. Hail. Yeah. Son. Sure, you’ll regret it later as you are shaking with its sugary nastiness, but the first half hour or so o…

is headed to Mexico City / Peru in one day and seven hours. Here’s to not pulling a “Tony Cordova”. Not pulling a “Tony Cordova” can be defined as, but are not limited to: 1) not breaking arms while arm wrestling, 2) not getting rings stuck on fingers til…

April

was told that her brother’s house has Oreos for consumption, but the Oreos cannot be seen!!!!

is in the Lima airport, at a Starbucks. Ohhh nooeettthh! They’re seriously everywhere. X:

is in Lima, waiting to go to Trujillo, Peru. Lima is just a city, like every other city, but man, is Peruvian cuisine colorful and exciting. But people here drive like maniacs. It’s super fun to be in a taxi, wondering if you’ll get in a crash, but even i…

is going to Huacas Del Sol Y De La Luna today… and then off to the desert. – http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huacas_del_Sol_y_de_l a_Luna

is wondering about how strange it is that I’ve been here for like… three days… and it feels like an ETERNITY somehow. It’s fucking bizarre.

is thinking about how a girl on my flight from Seattle to SF five days ago finished off our 2 hour conversation with one another by telling me that I have “really nice hands” and that she has an “obsession with hands and necks.”

has photos online at http://picasaweb.google.com/veez0ri

helped another teacher teach some 2nd graders English today. We did one class in Spanish and one class in English, teaching kids things like, “What’s your name?” and “What’s her name?” and the class taught exclusively in English did MUCH better than the c…

$569 roundtrip to Iceland from Seattle this summer. Who wants to go

es muy confundido.

is PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY. K thx. Off to the mountains of Peru this evening for Semana Santa!!! Holy Week!

is just a girl.

has new photos from an awesome weekend in Cajamarca, Peru: http://picasaweb.google.com/veez0ri/042009Cajamarc aPeru#

has just been reminded that holy shit… art is better than pretty much everything. – http://www.redefinemag.com/arts/ – http://1988watcher.blogspot.com/

is wondering who wants to go to Burning Man this year… like, for real. This time.

& Mihae received many a love letter this evening from Peruvian men. Here is a note a hot 17 year old Peruvian waiter wrote us before we left: “Cuando vas muy lejos adonde yo no te puedo ver se que vata (?) o extranarte mucho Vivian te extrano mucho quisie…

is forever in love with “Gorecki” by Lamb. One of the most awesome songs ever.

feels like she just smoked at least five cigarettes due to the plethora of secondhand smoke this evening ~__~

doesn’t like secondhand smoke but residual smoke-in-hair is SO GOOD. So good.

is sad to be leaving Trujillo cause the kids are SO cute. ~__~ Want to come back for longer. How to do so logistically…

is Lima-bound tonight. Hello overnight bus.

says: If you’re riding a bus in Peru, reserve the freaking 1st row of seats on the 2nd floor of the bus. AMAZING view (And “Bruce Almighty” in Spanish is amazing, too.)

is in Cusco, and NOT altitude sick! Yay. Mihae is yet to be determined, however.

Cusco / Cuzco is uncharming, expensive, drab, unexciting, and completely un-Peru-like. Machu Picchu may be great, but this tourist trap mecca definitely is not. Just saying.

is tired after a day of hiking up a 3,500 meter (11,500 feet) above sea level mountain because two Peruvian waiters (we sure like making friends with waiters) told us to. Tiring and hard, with some parts of the “trail” actually being giant ladders we had…

is thinking, WTF, BBQ, LIFE, and using the internet while sitting on the floor of our hostel in Cuzco.

actually heard a stranger fart last night in an alleyway and then SMELLED it. That’s SO wrong.

got a tarot card reading today from a Peruvian jungle man nicknamed Captain Jack, while sitting on a giant rock and stuff.

is in the Lima airport… again. Living in Trujillo was SO cheap, but coming to Cusco and Lima is SO expensive!! BAHH! Sapping money like a motherfucker!!

is leaving Peru tomorrow. Already? Is it over already?! :[

is back in the States after a night of 0 sleep and techno music in Mexico City. Thanks, Franco.

is dying of stomach ache! WTF!

is feeling better. Yay for no Mexican flu

is wondering why people would install shit on my computer. Kinda annoying.

wants it all -- brand new socks and drawls -- and I'm ballin every time I stop and talk to y'all. I want it all, all, all, all.

lied a little. Stomach still hurts. :X And it is not reassuring that one of the people I was hanging out with in Mexico City also has had a stomach ache!!! (But I don't have any other flu symptoms, so I'm not going to die, right?!! RIGHT?!!)

can once again think of a zillion reasons to never live at home.

is wondering if anyone wants to pick her up from the airport at 11:00pm on Tuesday. No? OK.

is going to interview Crystal Antlers tonight at the Crepe Place in Santa Cruz. Bands? At a Crepe Place? We'll see how this goes.

is wondering WHYYYYYY WHYYYY STOMACHE WHYYYYY!

is pretty convinced what burned my stomach was drinking a glass of absinthe (when I never drink) on an empty stomach. Finally took medicine, and now it's all peachy.

is thinking four days or so is about the maximum amount of time to visit the parentals in California without going batshit crazy.

is wondering if anyone is going to Sasquatch, cause I'd actually maybe like to go for once, perhaps.

May

is thinking that looking at high school people's Facebook profiles is some Twilight Zone shit.

wants Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits. SRSLY.

is having her patience tested, z0mg.

reckons there's always a lesson to be learned in experiences that test you, but man, it's hard to glean something super positive from someone's annoying the shit out of you.

is gonna see some dags. Do you like dags?

revolutionized nail-cutting this afternoon. Cut your nails outside; never worry about mess again!!!!!!!!! ZOMG!!!!

gives in to Conor Oberst. I had always written off Bright Eyes as mediocre, but dammit, it's kind of good.

is wondering if anyone wants to go with her to either The Kills / The Horrors' show or The Curious Mystery / Ole Time Relijun's show. Both on Friday and free. Hollar.

is going country line dancing or something tonight. They call it 2-steppin? What? We'll see.

is HOLY FUCK, round-trip tickets from Seattle to NYC for $219 and from Los Angeles to Australia for $646. HOLY FUCK ASS!!!!!

just fell in the mud with my Nikon d40 D-SLR. But dude, smoothing concrete is fun (and the camera is okay).

is now officially only one degree of separation removed from Mike Patton (of Faith No More / Mr. Bungle fame). Wee!

is going to Hammingbell, aka Bellingham, for the day...!

recommends that you go watch The Kills and The Horrors, on tour now. They killed it this evening.

needs to need to not want to need.

loves the VH1 show "Daisy of Love." I'm just a lameass.

sometimes wishes she liked alcohol even a little bit. But alas, no.

is an idiot around boys I have even remote interest in, and I will run away prematurely. But hey, if I don't like you, I will talk to you for fucking hours.

... sometimes you think you know, but then find out what you know ain't shit. But it's nice when that can be said in a positive manner. SON!

spent the night at a bar with a fucking banana in my purse. SON!

eats a little too much hummuses!!!

necesita aprender mas espanol :0

was late for the bus but forgot bus money, had to run back home to grab the bus money, grabbed the bus money, kept it in her hands while running down the hill, lost a quarter of the fare in someone's unkempt lawn (where it was never to be seen again), and...

was called by her mother today, and her mother said to her in Chinese: "Your house is actually pretty clean now! But you live with boys, so make sure you wrap up your pads well when you throw them out while you're on your period." To which I replied (verb...

thinks the problem of being a sucker for pretty writing and pretty words is that, more often than not, that's all it is... pretty words... not pretty actions.

thinks may all die a nuclear death... in 2012.

just interviewed Mike Weiss of mewithoutYou. They have a new disc out: http://www.myspace.com/mewithoutyou

has been trying to install a Ruby on Rails environment on the computer all day. ALL DAY. Lord.

is being FUCKED OVER by Google. Motherfuckers. The Redefine website is inaccessible via Firefox without a warning of "vulnerability", and I fixed the errors, but they're still not removing this warning. PISSED!!

June

is up late, being emo. ~o~

: incentive for waking up earlier... $290 round-trip tickets from Seattle to Madrid, including taxes. *WTF*. Too bad I slept in and it got sold out. :L

is going camping in the Olympic Peninsula until Tuesday. Suckaz!!!

... just saw *the* most amazing dance-off ever at Trinity, by a pair of strangers, to dub-step. INSANE. They were *literally* climbing on the wall, crawling on the floor, and doing the fucking splits. In fact, the chick did the fucking splits on the wall,...

had an awesome weekend playing Rock Band, white trash golf? (testicle toss?), eating yummy catered food, and seeing ScM friends from looong ago. Congrats Pwny & Renae, and thanks! Even the sanest of girls is crazy.

is going to Ashland, Oregon for July 4th to watch Macbeth at the world's most awesomest Shakespeare Festival. Hail yessssss, dawwwwwgggg.

totally kind of believes in astrology crap. Do you?

July

was volunteering at Real Change today and Rosette made a joke about my going to bed at 4AM last night because I was watching Michael Jackson videos. That was untrue. Today, however, I am actually staying up til 4AM watching Michael Jackson videos. ~__~ Li...

thinks it's hilarious that *NOW* the FDA says Tylenol (and Percoset and Vicodin) is bad. - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31671172#3 1671172

inhaled too much nail polish, omg... headache galore.

still can't get over the fact that my parents have Facebook. Can they read this?!!! I have no idea!!!

just had a car trunk closed on her head and it hurt like a motherb!tch. If a giant bruise emerges on my face, I'm going to have to pin domestic violence on some lucky person!!!!

battled four nosebleeds today and won. Then again, if they keep coming back, does that still count as victories? Are they all the same nosebleed coming back to life again or are they four separate nosebleeds?!! HMMM?!!!!!?!!!! And if they're separate nose...

+ sports bra = boy... pretty much.

wonders if you would ever read a magazine in downloadable PDF form???? Check yes or no.

is disturbed by how different raisins in the same pack taste from one another Some are so nasty and mushy I have to spit them out!!

hates going through all the CDs we get for Redefine and really realizing how many bands we simply don't have the resources to give the time of day to. :{

spent the last four hours sorting through CDs. Got a couple discs in the mail that seem fairly exciting for me personally: Volcano Choir (JagJaguwar), OKie Dokie (Aagoo), Forks And Knives (Self-Released) and INF (Beats Broke)... WOOHOO!!!!!

is putzing around Portland for the day... what to do, what to do, other than talking to random crazy awesome strangers...

pretty much loves Portland. Seattle's still more beautiful, though. But Portland's more fun.

told Kyle that my house is really super empty because Chris moved out all his furniture. Kyle told me to try doing cartwheels now that I have space. I've been trying to do them... and I'm not going to give up til I actually do a legit one... but what's pa...

It's a bitch convincing people to like you/ If I stop now call me a quitter/ If lies were cats you'd be a litter/ Pleasing everyone isn't like you/ Dancing jigs until I'm crippled/ Slug ten drinks I won't get pickled!.../ Oh I could throw you in the lake/

fucking loves cherries! WHY OH WHY MUST I BE ALLERGIC! WHY!!!

is going to sleep at 4:30am and waking up at 9:00am. WOOOOO!

thinks is unfair that Block Party is this weekend in Seattle (still haven't been!) for a zillion dollars and PDX Pop Now is a free event this weekend. Pish, posh, poosh.

thinks it's kinda sorta fun to live without: a microwave, a television, a bed frame... a clue. Just me, music, hardwood floors, dreams, and a zillion dust bunnies are ADEQUATE!

had a freaking amazing day doing the "Talk To Us" thing in downtown Seattle (imagine Christian women's conference meets Narcotics Anonymous crowd meets Torchlight Parade participants), choosing from 60 FREE CAKES in Seattle Center, high-fiving marathon ru...

... when all the furniture goes away, all the spiders come out to play :/ including the hobos the size of your palm. WOO! This is when sleeping on the floor not so good.

... [stolen from someone else cause social experiments rule.] This is a Facebook Experiment. If you are reading this, even if we don’t speak often, post a comment with a memory of you and I. When you’ve finished, post this paragraph into your own status u…

HOW IS IT 105 DEGREES IN SEATTLE? THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

… damn you, bleeding from the nether regions! I wanted to go swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wonders if anyone knows of good electro/disco-type bands in the Portland and Seattle area??

August

had a memorable dream for the first time in a long time… kid ghosts, kid ghosts, kid ghosts… so plentiful in number they were flying and practically overlapping with each other in my vision. plus feelings of being insane.

enjoys the sleeping positions of the two cats I’m cat/house-sitting… teehehehe! Their names are George and Bert (because of resemblance to a Muppet)… but strangely, they’re both female. (Crazy cat lady in the making?!!…)

is going to hit up the $7-haircut-run-out-of-a-house place I’ve been wanting to try for almost a year now! Wish me lux.

“Your skin is something that I stir into my tea/ And I am watching you/ And you are starry, starry, starry…”

… me: going to tillamook today, never been / rachel: huh / me: what could possibly be confusing about that statement lol! / rachel: cheese / me: yes / rachel: holy shit, didnt know that was possible

is loving the new Portugal. The Man disc, The Satanic Satanist. More falsetto + blues/funk? Sweeeet. – Free MP3 here (not the best song on the disc, though, but whatever): http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/278763095/Pe ople%2BSay.mp3

… “Lovers loving love just like these lovers are loving in love.” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv3z8m1qbOQ

had a fantastical evening with Miss XL consisting of (but not limited to): getting lost in a maze of freeways, taking the LONGEST freeway detour EVER, being hit on by a guy using the classic, “Are you hot wearing that jacket? I mean, you’re HOT, but are you hot?” line, and laughing our asses off when a whole crowd of ridiculous clubbers got, “Low low low low,” in unison because “Apple Bottom Jeans” told them to.

is so very jaded by traditional Christian weddings… receptions rule, though. Fo’ realz.

is officially REALLY bad at frisbee golf. Really good at living off of snack foods, though.

… “A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a horse, of course, that is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.”

should give lessons on being a nomad. August / September / first half of October = PDX -> SEA -> PDX -> SEA -> LA -> NEVADA -> SO-CAL -> PDX -> SEA -> SF -> ????. All rent free. Jea.

… new nomad schedule for Aug-Oct 2009: Portland > Seattle > Los Angeles > Black Rock City, Nevada > Long Beach > Austin > Orlando > Seattle > Portland (MusicFestNW) > Chicago (La Dispute!!) > Detroit (:D) > Chicago > New Orleans (:D) > Pittsburgh > Seattle > San Francisco (Fever Ray/Castro St. Parade!) > New York > New Jersey > New York > Montreal > New York > Seattle…! (Settling down in Nov? Mayhaps. TIPS??)

… despite making films that would lead one to believe the contrary, David Lynch IS in fact Captain Obvious. Gems include, “And I thought to myself that in California, people wear sweaters! So it must sometimes be cool at night or something, because it was kind of a night-time thing, I imagined. And I thought, ‘What a great climate, that it’s warm in the day, and cool in the night — cool enough to wear a sweater!”

… 1) does anyone know if you need to take a GRE to get a Master’s in Social Work?… 2) does anyone know why I keep freaking getting Charlie Horses in my sleep? CHARLIE HORSES *SUCK*!!!

… emo emo emo mo mom oomaoo.

is gonna interview Theo Ellsworth in a hot sec. Awesome. – http://theoellsworth.blogspot.com

presents… a cross-section of Dutch words cuz Dutch is awesome/impossible … afschuwelijk = horrible, beschonken = drunk, droogtrommel = tumble drier, eigenaardig = peculiar, hulpvaardig = helpful, loopjongen = errand boy, natuurwetenschappelijk = natural phenomenon, ooghaar = eyelash, prijzenswaardig = commendable, raaskallen = talk nonsense, schurkenstreek = roguery, verachtelijk = despicable, zaniken = bother

… all of this past month’s Redefine updates in one handy ol’ August 2009 newsletter: http://www.redefinemag.com/newsletters/2009-08-new s.html (you can sign up for future similar updates in the right-hand column of http://www.redefinemag.com)!… … duude. Redefine life is doing good. It is, it is. A horse is a horse, of course, of course.

is pretty godamn satisfied. Bitches. And you need to listen to Leftover Cuties. – http://www.myspace.com/leftovercuties

… I know I just had a conversation recently about how band/musician names really shouldn’t play a role in determining how good he/she/they are, but man, Mac McAnally’s name is pretty funny.

is wondering if anyone in the Seattle / Portland / Los Angeles areas have crazy, super HOT desert weather clothes that they don’t need anymore that they want to give me to wear / demolish / never return (?)

wonders how many of the neighbors can hear me singing my ass off through the open windows. Hahahahahahahahaa.

wonders where I should go from Austin… Boston, Raleigh, Charlotte, Portland (Maine), Fort Lauderdale, Orlando…?? Decisions, decisions. VOTES?

is wondering if anyone in LA has a shitty bike he/she wants to sell/lend me? EH?????

has too much to do and therefore wants to do *nothing*…

… dude, coffee-drinking today has been CRAZY and has kind of sent me into this world where if I sit still for a hot sec I’m reeling into the unknown folds of the universe. Seriously.

is friggin pissed. Got a virus trying to download Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Virus rendered Internet unusable. Now, while trying to clear space on my hard drive to back up data, guess what I find? Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Godammit.

is watching a documentary on noise music called “People Who Make Noise”, and the cats are definitely freaking out in parts.

hates iTunes. I formatted my iPod Touch when my iTunes was set on shuffle and now my songs will only play on shuffle. Anyone know how to fix short of reformatting again?

September

is back in the real world (as real as Los Angeles is, anyway). Hello dry skin and straw hair.

is Austin and San Antonio-bound tomorrow, September 10th, through Monday, September 14th. Holla, Texans! And recommendations, por favor!!!!!

… funny press release of the day: “Name Your Tune is an exciting new children’s music compilation that is made-to-order and personalized for each child. Children will hear their name more than 80 times throughout 14 much-loved songs, such as If You’re Happy And You Know It (becomes If You’re Paul And You Know It) and Old MacDonald Had A Farm (becomes Little Ringo Had A Farm.)”

… guy’s name at the Long Beach Airport (the weirdest airport I’ve ever been to, BTW): Rohan McGee. AWESOME!!!

… one of my new favorite names for a city: Gay Hill, Texas!

equals not impressed by TexMex. TexMex is kinda sick. I’ll take Mex over TexMex every day of the week.

… dude, there’s a PLEASANTON in Texas!!!!!!!!!!!! 30 miles or so from San Antonio!!!!

passed a 5-mile stretch of highway in Houston today in which like, every American chain store had a branch. It was both amazing and disgusting! I’d begun to think that for sure every chain store had already shown up, but new ones kept popping up! Bed Bath And Beyond was like, “Don’t forget about me!”, Kohl’s was like, “I wanna play, too!”, and Panda Express was like, “Eat me!”

… three-hour-long+ adventure on Los Angeles Metro, here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

… actual synopsis for the film “Hood Of Horror”: “The Ghetto can be a scary place. And thanks to Snoop Dogg, it’s about to get even scarier. Snoop brings us three tales of terror from the hood featuring Billy Dee Williams, Method Man, and Jason Alexander. They’ll scare the shizzle out of you.”

loooooves eavesdropping on non-English-speaking humans (that I can understand, obviously)… cause sometimes you get real gems cause people think no one around can understand them!

… funny press release of the day: “Megan Fox is hot. She’s everywhere. And those short shorts and tank top and the black leather motorcycle costume she wore in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are available for all to buy.”

… awesome press quote I just saw on some taxi in Chicago about some theatre show: “Like Cirque du Soleil, but with horses.” — WTF!

… two assholes, at two shows, two days in a row. One racist in Detroit who said the Asian Yale girl who got murdered and stuffed in the wall begged her murderer, “Please no keel me; I sucky sucky for free,” (seriously??) and another dumbass who told Micachu And The Shapes that their music wasn’t music and that he “didn’t pay to have my ears pissed in.” Why so angry, Chicagoans and Detroiters?!!

self-loathes with a vengeance this evening, and to top it off, my electronics keep committing suicide, too. UGH.

… yet another low: MySpace Music is now brought to you by McDonald’s. WTF?

was thinking it was too early to sleep because my computer clock says 11:45pm, Pacific Time. Realization: I’m on the east coast. Dammit.

… MOTHAFUCKIN THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES IN DC, BEEYOTCH!

is so frustrated with myself!!! The airport security workers were totally being a dick to this Spanish-speaking lady and I wanted to stand in and translate, but I kept asking the security worker what she needed to do and he kept ignoring me, so I just stood down. It was so sad! They just wheeled her off in her little wheelchair and she was like, “No comprendo!” and had no idea what was going on :{

October

… Sondre Lerche twittering about Redefine? Awesome!

thinks it’s funny when people (*ahem, Sherry*) get all worked up over sports on TV.

… TONIGHT: Fever Ray in SF!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!

… who wants to make me a cupcake costume for Halloweenie!?

… anyone have experience with podcasting and can chat with me about it?

… funny press release of the day: “Dell [has] partnered with Major League Baseball to offer fans across the nation opportunities to bring their team spirit to their PC. Dell Design Studio offers designs for all 30 MLB teams in three customized levels – Fan, Classic and Die-Hard.”

is gonna be in New York City until the 13th, Montreal until the 17th or 18th, New Jersey until the 24th. Let’s meet up!?

is pissed! Of all the freaking delicious places to eat in NY I somehow settled on a place with THE WORST godamn eggplant parmesan sandwiches ever!! How could an eggplant parmesan sandwich possibly be this disgusting? AND it’s expensive. I’m craving one from Romio’s now. Ugh.

wishes bugs didn’t like biting me so much!! AAHHHHHHH. Three bug bites on the face… mostly no big deal, except for the one around my eye that makes me look like I got punched in the face

wants to eat something warm and hot, but I don’t have any Canadian money left except for $1.11, and I’m leaving tomorrow! I can’t even buy something from McDonald’s here with that! Much less the poutine next door.

being in the Northeast during the fall might be one of the best things ever… so beautiful, aaaah.

… my 16-year-old cousin doesn’t have ANY idea what Schindler’s List is. That’s almost as scary as Lingo’s nephew {?} not knowing who Michael Jordan is. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Social networking does a REDEFINE body good.

… explaining non-meat-eating to 85-year-old Chinese grandpa = impossible. Meat sickness impending. Not to mention they were pork buns, which I hated even when I did eat meat regularly!! ~__x

… wowowow Spaceland venue in Los Angeles!!! Taking word-for-word my article on Nurses for use in their promotional mailer: “By blending everything together in a way that turns layers of instrumentation, samples, and loops into structured tracks, Nurses create underlying backgrounds which teem with life and create a visual musical experience.” FUCKFACES. Where’s the credit!?

is geeking out on music so hard. Amusing finds for the evening: Terrible Records – Ghosts (http://terriblerecordsus.com/blog/wp-content/uplo ads/2009/10/ghosts.mp3), Yura Yura Teikoku – Dekinai (http://girlieaction.com/yurayura/sounds/Dekinai.mp3), Pylon – Beep (http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=down load&ufid=C646D21D51E64387), and finally… this really rad Nesey Gallons album, Eyes & Eyes & Eyes Ago! Yay!

is thinking, in this day and age where music videos are better than ever, why don’t VH1/MTV actually show music videos???????? Certainly they would hold someone’s attention…

just turned in my absentee ballot today, and I actually looked up all the candidates, but I feel like they’re all just about the goshdarn same. They all care about the environment and safety… blahblahblah. So I just went with whatever person seemed like he/she liked public transportation and homeless people the most. Ha!

November

… The Norwegian word “Røyksopp” means puffball fungus (lit. “(a) smoke mushroom”)… now you know!!!!!!!

… ever get those moments where you’re so insanely idiotic that you can scarcely believe yourself? They’re kind of special.

… funny press release of the day: “The Beatles cover [of] “I’m Only Sleeping” was recorded the day “The Beatles: Rock Band” game was released in protest of the idea of great musicians wasting time playing games about making music instead of actually making music.” – AEONs

… “I did not stir, and presently I began to breathe with the dispassionate rhythm of sleep. He listened, that was certain. I listened to his listening. He listened to my listening to his listening. Something snapped. I noticed that I was not thinking at all of what I thought I was thinking; attempted to catch my consciousness tripping, but got mazed myself. ” – Vladimir Nabokov, Despair. <3 <3 <3

… s o m e t i m e s l i f e i s r e a l l y r e a l l y a w e s o m e a n d i t f e e l s a m a z i n g . i feel like i'm onto something.

… loudly listening to music on Mihae Jung's $700 speakers = kinda better than going outside.

… so glad I don't work for a corporation… some corporate politics are truly ridiculous.

… "And we were laughing at the stars while our feet clung tight to the ground. So pleased with ourselves for using so many verbs and nouns. But we were all still just dumb, dumb, dumber than the dirt, dirt, dirt on the ground."

… "My grandfather used to say: 'Life is astonishingly short. When I look back now it is all so condensed in my memory that I can hardly understand, for example, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village, without his being afraid — quite apart from unfortunate accidents — that the whole span of a normal happy life is far from being adequate for such a ride.'" – Franz Kafka (The Next Village)

… three hours in Korea, and already I've been kidnapped and forced to drink beer and chat in broken Korean with two older Korean men (with the pimply-faced one stroking my back / laughing creepily and the other one — although hilarious and drunk as hell — calling me his wife and saying that Xinlei and I would be his friends forever); thank JEEBUS for being rescued by Xtra Large. <3 <3 <3

… mmmm, dreams about Joseph Gordon-Levitt…!!

… day two in Korea consistethed of going to seven different convenience stores to acquire seven types of banana milk and then taste-testing them one after the other. You'd be surprised at the array of flavors. The one with Bart Simpson sucking on a banana and having crazy eyes that looked like spirals was the winner.

… Portland's YACHT (http://www.myspace.com/yacht) and White Rainbow (http://www.myspace.com/whiterainbowwhiterainbow) are in Korea = free comped tickets for Friday night's show ($30 each!). Dunno if I actually like them, but it's not just a concert; it's a concert plus a DJ set by YACHT which goes until 5:00am. UMMMMMMMMMMM, AMAZING? 350 people confirmed on Facebook so far. S T O K E D!

… YACHT = awesome live show.

… I think I've done it. I think I've made myself sick of banana milk. THIS CAN'T BE!!!!!!???

… 2012 = worst movie ever……………… two hours of sheer and utter pain.

got rescued by the cops today. They pushed my car to the Honda dealership. Two of them plus one civilian. Hell yeah.

December

… cars are a pain in the snarse.

… breakfast! It’s what’s for dinner!

… the problem with always making faces or doing weird shit while taking photos is that when you actually need a professional-ish photo for business purposes, there are zero. Zilch. None. Nada. The closest to a passable photo might even be one you took with a Macaw bird on your shoulder. BLARGH!

= dry cereal addict. NOM NOM NOM. (so much better than wet cereal.)

… what’s an awesome name you think needs to be used more often? My vote: WYATT.

… Iceland/Europe in spring, anyone? Round-trip airfare from Seattle for $474…………. including taxes…….?

can’t sleep worth shiet.

is doing a post on Album Covers Of The Year!! Have any favorites from this year?? Anything blow you away?? Share

gets to eat lunch at Google today, heck yeah!!!!!!!! Free fooood come to meeeeeee!

… dude, remember Tomodachis?? And Furbys? Scary the random things you remember…….!

… REGIFTING RULE #1: Remove that sweetly-worded card that’s addressed to you. (Saving mother from embarrassment since 1983.)

… dude, did all of my tape singles get thrown out?!!!!! THERE WERE LIKE A HUNDRED OF THEM!!! Goodbye, childhood memories! You left without saying goodbye!

… 46 rad album covers from 2009! This is the most fun I’ve had writing an article in a while. Enjoy! (PS, Duran Duran is awesommmmmme.) – http://www.redefinemag.com/music/reviews_cover_2.php?artist=46-Fantastic-Album-Covers-From-2009,-Part-One&id=1379

los angeles, wtf, houston, wtf, austin, ok, san antonio, ok.

i’m listening to… tegan and sara’s “the con” album.

$15 cover? wtf. luckily i didn’t have to pay for it cause henry got it. but what the shit?!! i totally had left my wallet in the car initially, too, cause i figured! wtf! who pays cover on a tuesday night! but clearly i know nothing. not to mention the club was in the middle of nowhere (maybe?) in santa monica. took two shots of tequila and got kinda pretty drunk offa that, which is hilarity. friends, friends. henry also got grounded when he was 16 and his parents’ method of grounding was by putting “the club” onto his car. too funny. he also put an art installation / social experimentation project i guess on the campus of his college — and you put in a quarter, and the machine gave you back twenty-six cents. ummm, awesome? other than that, hung out with michael today and yesterday and watched movies and ate sushi, and went to the mall with jeanette and her friend jenn today! oh, and i saw jeanette get a manicure (and pedicure, but i wasn’t really watching that so much) which was weird, and scraping off cuticles kinda grosses me out, not gonna lie. now i’m at jeanette’s house, listening to music, at 2:21am, eating mixed nuts from costco. woo!

oh yeah, yesterday aaron texted me while i was still in austin and was like! there’s this weird shoperotic channel on tv that is marketing an extreme _______ (insert name of extreme dildo), and i was like, dude! i worked for them! funny.

austin was decent, stayed with one of my writers, matt, and did random shit……………. walked around a bunch, drew on the university of texas campus, ate yogurt, chatted with alex for hours from my itouch from a yogurt shop, etc. lot of public transportation and solo lameness. lots of frustration. saw a-ron and co. at the mohawk where they were performing. it was fun. the show had some techy probs and a-ron was losing his voice, but yeah. played the drawing game. got a bong drawn on my leg. it was all good. hung out with the brunettes for dinner which was interesting cause half of them were mega goofy and half were pretty serious. yeahhhhh. and stubb’s bbq doesn’t have vegetarian options really, as usual, but i had some wicked fried okra!! woo!!! from austin, i rented a car and drove to houston because some guy at the nurses show had told me that houston was better than san antonio. he was wrong and sucked.

houston was a fucking weird place which i hated kinda but it was interesting to go to because there was like jack shit there! really nice, new buildings on one street, really super ghetto boarded up buildings on the next street over. weirdness. also passed by one stretch of freeway where it was like every-chain-store-in-america-in-these-five-miles — i shit you not. i was beginning to think there were no more chains possible but new ones kept popping up. it truly blew my mind. i slept in my car in front of an apartment complex really close to the downtown stadiums. no problems with that really other than the fact that i really shoulda taken a shower, and what’s more — the pattern on the seat kinda left marks on skin!!!! also left the windows cracked a smidgen and it started pouring like a MOTHERFUCKER sometime in the night and started raining on my legs, woo! this is total rambling stream-of-consciousness bullshiz. there was this awesome outdoor car wash place in houston, though, called the “humble car wash”, and it was like pretty unfancy and the workers were all these black youths, like teenagers. so funny. i enjoyed it very much, and the sign was all rickity and funny and simple and there were like 15 teens hanging out there washing cars, only there were no freaking cars to wash!!!!!!!!!! took lotsa cool pics (well, some cool pics) and got lost a lot but it was pretty fun in that regard. there was a george washington monument which i tried to check out but parking downtown was absolutely fucking impossible, so i gave up and didn’t actually get to check out the downtown all that much. i also attempted to find a coffee shop to charge my electronics and i could NOT locate one even though i looked around and circled down every street ever. also attended church and found a church recommendation through couchsurfing — a catholic charismatic church — but unfortunately there was not any speaking in tongues. it was a little interesting because they adhered pretty strictly to catholic ideals and customs, but the father himself was so super lax and really kinda funny and kinda was dressed in green and purple, like a football player, kinda, as opposed to a father. interesting. but ultimately because of the lack of speaking in tongues, it pretty much did nothing for me. kinda interesting though cause the praise song they were playing when we got in was one i knew. i forget the name now. moo. oh yeah also ate dinner by myself — a highly-recommended texmex place according to chowhound — and it was kinda weird because it was a sorta party-like atmosphere (think chile’s) but i was alone. i got over that real quick, though, but texmex is not all that good. not particularly down with it, to be honest.

then it was onto san antonio, and i slept in the car again, but drove middle of the night to a rest stop and slept there. it was fine, but a little cold. kinda found san antonio a wee bit charming in a more interesting historical sense. the architecture was cool and the whole feel was less big city and hence more appealing. there was also a lot more mexican, including this outdoor mexican square thing with music and dancing and food, and was even a lot more mexican down to the… i got honked at… at one point, i got honked at by one car that slowed down and honked five times in a row! like hell yeah! i haven’t gotten honked at five times in a row even in mexico or peru! so you win! congrats!!!!! woooooo!!! oh yeah. the alamo fucking sucks. it’s no godamn lie. the shit is soooo pointless. why do people go to san antonio to see the alamo? i’ve no godamn clue!!!!

by the end of texas i was really fucking dirty and desperately needed a shower. luckily i got one really early on in los angeles. woo!

sleeping and brushing of teeth should happen.

or at least taking a nap on the couch before that happens. yeah. that sounds good. yeah.

emo. schmemo.

12:02am – 12:27am
[this is unedited stream-of-consciousness action, written while hanging out on tables outside a library at the university of texas.]

i’ve finished the little pink notebook i carry with me. the adventure with it began on november 25th, 2008, on a walk around my neighborhood in livermore, california. tonight, i’ve finished it on a walk around the fine city of austin, texas. i am absolutely in a confused state of mind. i have absolutely finished off this notebook with scribbles and scrabbles and doodles. wish the last piece would have been one that was satisfactory, but alas, the notebook was finished without a bang — it finished with mediocrity.

at least the rain has stopped. as of this afternoon, the first day of my jetblue travels, i began to crave a kind of domestic living. it’s a post-burning-man thing, and not the best of things when one considers i’m about to embark on a two-month journey traveling around the country. for the first time in quite a while, i feel pretty fucking alone — as if i’m confusd about my focus in life — as if my best friends, or the ones i speak to most, are or were practically all lovers… as though the most intimate parts of me are seen and shed and left out here somewhere… pointlessly, even, in the long run, maybe. and i feel guilty for my pleasures and alone in my struggles, with whom to share it with but those who don’t quite understand? or those who are themselves too invested to hold an unbiased opinion on the matter? i feel blinded by hope — simultaneously confused by reality — to create a concoction of being strung around like a rag doll that’s at once using and being used. mutual needs might be fulfilled in a temporary arena, but one can’t help wonder what the long run, the ultimate picture of it all, is. more often than not, these are of no concerns to me — they rarely pop up in life as problematic. or thought of seriously. cuz ultimately i’m not the type of person that really cares about the future very much at all. i’m generally pretty confident that things will work out in my favor, but on days like today, i’m just thinking what the point of it all is, and it feels like just about everyone’s serving himself or herself in the end.

on days like today, i think that perhaps life is not all peachy and we need only to fulfill our own desires above all else. how we live is selfish and the point of everything we do is riddled with self-serving motivations, and if that’s the case, how can anyone ever really love? what the hell is love, and how can it exist? i hate usually the cynical arguments that even the most basic humanitarian actions of being good and serving others are rooted in a selfish desire to feel good about oneself, but on days like today, i see that… i see it in others, and i see it in myself.

it’s all perspective, really. the same actions viewed one day are rooted in love, the next day rooted in selfishness. i’m ranting like a motherfucker. i feel alone is all, and i’m wondering what i want out of life and where i want to be. where i want to live, what i want to do, who i want to see. i’m feeling domestic. for this very fleeting (i’m sure) moment, i want to be rooted, to be comfortable, to have that pointless fucking disgusting soul-death comfort lifestyle i loathe so much. it’s just for today. it’s just for right now. but for today and right now, being pampered and taken care of and not being alone sounds perfect. the moment and feeling will pass. the eggs are just wanting babies, probably. but i’ve felt off all day without being able to explain or verbalize it correctly. writing is my catharsis. it’s helped me through all things. i’ve written it. i’ve done it. so it’ll be fine. beyond this…

a continuation!

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.

sxsw 2009, austin, day five.

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.

sxsw 2009, austin, day four.

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.

The nighttime crowd.

Obligatory group photo.

Obligatory nasty food.

Obligatory Jeanette-sits-in-the-middle-of-the-crowd photo.

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.

sxsw 2009, austin, day three.

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.

updated dora the explorer! wtf!!!

It’s 4:42am after the first day of SxSW in Austin but this was TOO FUNNY not to post.

UPDATED DORA THE EXPLORER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TWEEN!!!!! WTF!

sxsw 2009, austin, day two

(18:15 – 18:55 = 40 minutes)

Woke up early the next day after a pretty bad night of sleep. Everyone in our hotel room, which was now complete with Micha, Jeanette, myself, Karla, and her friend Jamie, was super tired, I think, so there was a lot of snoring and shit. ~__~ Not so fun. Also, Jeanette, Micha, and I shared a bed, and I found it to be a little bit tight anyway.

That morning, I would have liked to leave wayyy earlier but Jeanette and Micha were taking fooking forever to get ready, so we didn’t leave til like… I don’t even know what time, but at least an hour later than I would have wanted to. ~__~ Especially since we’d needed to check in at the Hyatt first and THEN go onto shows. Like, each of those girls had so many freaking bags… I just had a backpack and a satchel thing, and each of them had like a giant suitcase and another additional bag… and sometimes even more than that. Like, holy fuck! It’s like a four day trip! I don’t freaking understand at all. I also think it’s funny because the amount of clothes and shit that they had are equivalent… or possibly even more… to what my new Australian friend (more on that later) has for his entire two month vacation of the States and London. So what the freck! Unreal!! I don’t understaaaand.

Meet the ladies who took ages to get ready.

Anyway. We headed over to the Cedar Courtyard, where we’d gotten some wristbands from vTech cause it was a Filter party they were sponsoring. Saw this Filipino? singer-songwriter chick named Zee Avi (above). Don’t care for it. Her voice was okay and fine, but whatever. Singer-songwriter stuff not sooooo exciting.

Then Hockey (above) from Portland came on, and Ashley from The Wig was doing PR for them before. Indie dance rock stuff that was cool and interesting initially but got pretty repetitive pretty quick.

Jeanette & Micha.

Then came time to see These Arms Are Snakes at the Radio Room. We took our sweet time looking at Flatstock stuff at the Convention Center, and Jeanette bought some magnets, and then at around 2:00pm, we headed over to the Radio Room to see These Arms Are Snakes. NO ONE WILL BE IN LINE TO SEE THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES, I thought, after last time being in Portland and attending a show that was like, half empty. Turns out that the Avett Brothers were playing at that same venue, though, so we completely fucking missed the show and were standing in line forever to result in nothing at all… nothing at all… nothing at all… :{ On the plus side, I met a couple of cool dudes in line… this one dude from Dallas and this one Australian who I would later see everywhere, discover was taking the same flight to Seattle as I was, and become my new BFF. Pretty much a hottie, too… in the emaciated, black-dyed hair kind of way everyone knows I am so fond of.

Then came… “responsibilities.” This was the day when allllll of these people who I work with were having shows, so first, I think, we headed over to the Flamingo Cantina where the Team Clermont show was, and Judy (my writer and ex-Warm Fuzzy Publicist) happened to be there… so I met up with her and Bill from Team Clermont, and just shot the shit for a while. Twas interesting. Talked to Bill about the state of the industry and how the economy hath affected their business, and I guess it has… in the senses that previously they could have charged two times as much for a publicity campaign as well as worked with better bands during that time… but now they don’t get paid all that much and don’t have as much of a choice in who they work with.

Jeanette entered some dance contest they had to dance to corny musics, simply because they were giving out $100 cards to the Container Store and she loooves the Container Store. She danced for probably half as long as the other people who were already dancing, but she won a gift card, so yay!!

Afterwards, we headed over to the FACT show to meet up with Katy from Vagrant. That was cool, although freakishly, Jeanette had met her on the airplane, which is super weird! I guess Jeanette had picked the fuck out of her brain as well, asking her shit about the music business. FACT is this Japanese punk/hardcore-ish band that sounded better on their disc, in my opinion, than they did IRL.

Meanwhile Sky Eats Airplane was playing at the other Emo’s, and I had been hoping they were at the same Emo’s (or at least connected), but unfortunately not. I would have rather seen Sky Eats Airplane than FACT, definitely, but unfortunately, I missed them ~__~ Oh well. No getting Francesca to draw dinosaurs in my book this year. Last year I’d brought around this little sketchbook and told everyone I met to draw something in it; I’d remembered to bring the sketchbook with me everywhere this year, but had forgotten to ask even a single person to draw something in it. Oops? ~__~

Then it was onto Red Eyed Fly because Jeanette wanted to see Port O’ Brien, who she is obsessed with or whatevers. But first, Viva Voce was on, and I don’t quite understand at all why anyone likes Viva Voce. Sure, their lead lady is cute and can play wicked fucking guitar, but their show was ultimately pretty the borings.

Port O’ Brien bassist?

Port O’ Brien was much better. Their lead singer had a nearly Kurt Cobain-ish raspiness and style going on. For their last song, and their intro song to their last disc, and seemingly what might be their most popular song, they had this box of pots and pans that people were allowed to play with and bang on along with the song. That was neat. There were also these two funny, totally wasted guys who sat in the very front. They were from Seattle, and they basically kept cheering and being SUPER excited because they had missed Port O’ Brien the last time they were in Seattle, and finally! They were catching them live!! In Austin!! The Port O’ Brien dudes were super nice about it, letting them sit on the stage, and talking to them, and making jokes with them. Very cool. Jeanette wanted to talk to the lead singer afterwards to ask him for his autograph, but then nOooOo because she was too shy or something. WEAK!!

Port O’ Brien arms the laypeople with pots and pans!

KAOS!

This dude was promoting Mega-something-or-other.

To quote Jeanette: “I DON’T BELIEF!” (she didn’t really say it like that, but in spirit, she did).

We had a lot of time to kill in-between, so we paid $2 to go to the American Apparel Sample Sale. The shit was not cheap and I found it to be decidedly unexciting and a waste of my $2. Oh well. I actually knew that I wouldn’t be buying anything there before I even stepped foot in there but still I went. Silly!

Finding adequate things for me to eat on my nearly vegetarian diet is not so easy. Finally, after searching around for a while and starving for the near day, I found a MMMPANADAS truck! They sell empanadas… at least they’re kinda like empanadas.

After that, we headed over to Wave to see Death Is Not A Joyride. This shit might be all out of order because it’s all kind of a blur, to be honest. Wine Revolution played before them, and they were pretty much so unmemorable I literally remember pretty much nothing about them.

Death Is Not A Joyride.

Death Is Not A Joyride. (yes, with the period) gave an OK live performance. It was visually appealing but some of the musical intricacies were definitely lost, I feel. Jeanette was so not down with the Bjork-like vocals and super theatrical approach. She liked some British band upstairs called My Side Captain, that I, on the other hand, could not get into at all. It was just boring, typical indie rock.

I’ve found that I have major, major problems relating to the appeal of mainstream indie rock. More on that latter.

After Death Is Not A Joyride., we headed over to Habana Calle 6, to see The Everyday Visuals, who actually finished their sound check SUPER early somehow. They played a good set although it started off a bit rough and slightly boring in fact. Everyone in their band plays like a million instruments each (and the drummer played an accordion, for godsakes!). In that regard, it was pretty exciting. Afterwards, I talked to the lead singer, Chris, and basically introduced myself and said I was to do an interview with them soon. Gina, their publicist, had originally scheduled an interview with me, with them, for Friday, the 20th, but I guess I was retard and was like, “Oh, the interview’s supposed to be Saturday,” so I gave Chris my number and we talked about doing it Saturday instead of Friday. In fact, it was my mistake, because I’d thought the 20th was Saturday, but it was actually Friday. My bad. Good thing the Dredg interview that was supposed to happen on Friday was cancelled, or things would have been slightly rough. (although I did have all the questions ready already).

Jeanette & I at Habana Calle 6.

After that, we gorged on cupcakes. Thanks, Jeanette! The cupcakes were sold out of a TRUCK! A cupcake truck!! The cupcakes were just mediocre, however. :/ They’re no fucking freaking CUPCAKE ROYALE (the only cupcakes I hold any kind of allegiance to, frankly… show me something better!).

Then we moved on to Maggie Mae’s Rooftop to see Freeland. This is where all the fratty looking SxSW people appeared! Their publicist had been harassing me to do an interview, but I’d said no because Adam Freeland’s stuff is soooo electronic, but after seeing him, I kinda wish I had done one, because the performance was SICK, and he seemed like a really nice, really cute old dude. Oh well. It was KINDA a dance party although there wasn’t a HUGE amount of dancing, but there was more than your average rock show (but less than your average rave).

There was a British scallywag who had apparently been following Adam Freeland around, and he was in the front row, repeatedly calling, “FREELAND!! FREELAND!!” and being somewhat obnoxious. He talked to everyone he could get his crooked teeth and grubby hands on about the greatness that is Adam Freeland. Eventually, security kicked his ass to the curb (he later snuck? back in, however… but he was decidedly less chipper).

The venue was odd. To get to the bathroom, you had to cross on up the left side of the stage, which was slightly awkward. Jeanette met a couple dudes and was flirty-face with them.

It was hard to dance with cameras and a million things in my bag. But oh well. They played, “We Want Your Soul” and a buncha Freeland originals, which was cool.

Afterwards, which was around, 1?am? we headed over to this mysterious Ballet venue, which was like, ten blocks to the west of the main downtown strip, and I was rather skeptical that things even xisted there. We got there around 1?30? am? and went straight there… which in retrospect I’m rather disappointed about because Jaguar Love was playing at Cedar Door, and I recognized it playing from a distance… it would have been cool to check out Jaguar Love, even though it’s no Neon Blonde, but it would have helped me imagine WHAT a Neon Blonde performance would be like (as I’ve never even seen the Blood Brothers).

So, we ended up at Ballet, which was this super nice ballet studio that looked more like a two story opera house on the outside than a two story ballet studio. Absurd. An Austin indie radio station was sponsoring the entire vent. The room was like 87 degrees F and really super humid from all the sweat. It was like a sauna. Luckily, it didn’t smell super bad, but yeah.

Death Set played first, but they had massive technical issues, so they played this uber short, somewhat obnoxious set of dancey, trashy, whatever-the-hell-that-kids-are-into-these-days.

So we waited like an hour for Monotonix to set up and then sat in like the second row. They took FOREVER to set up. They finally started playing and there were some brainless dancing jumping bodies that started caving in. Jeanette freaked out as we were sandwiched amongst all of these young, smelly dudes, and she lost a camera lens cap, too. She vacated as soon as possible, and I vacated shortly thereafter. It was funny, though, cause she basically kept saying that she was picturing herself, the 25 year old lady (there were a lotta kids, although there were a lotta people over 21 as well) who was fainting in the middle of the crowd. Haha.

Monotonix drummer, wearing a purple wig that belonged to some concertgoer, which the lead singer of Monotonix wiped his ass with, and then set on the head of the drummer.

Drums. Not music so much as showmanship… that’s a Monotonix show. Who the fuck goes for the music? No one, really.

They go to see half-assed music, and oh yeah, cock and balls of the lead singer’s.

I enjoyed the moshyness or whatever for a short duration, until all of the smelly man sweat congealing on me convinced me that, “No, this is not fun,” although ze good thing about a Monotonix show is that even with all the thrashing and moshing and pointlessness, it’s of ze happy variety, not the punch-in-the-face type (in fact, just about all SxSW rowdy shows are like that, for some reason). In fact, that’s really the best part about Austin… the vibe. The vibe is amazing. Everyone’s there because they want to be there… no one is super pissy and no one is a super dick. Amazing!

After we’d vacated the extreme crowd, we went around the building and found some stairs going upwards, and basically watched the Monotonix shows from up above. It was totally an area we were “not supposed to be in,” but whatever. At one point (while we were still downstairs near the crowd), some lady had her body pressed up against the upper window, and she was like grinding and humping the glass, and all these little boys were like, “OMG HOTNESS!” when really it was kind of disgusting, me thinks.

Jeanette looked pretty peesed the whole time although later she said she was glad to have witnessed the insanity, and how could you not? I’ll be posting a video soon, but this particular Monotonix show actually made me think WTF. The other one I saw was, I mean, okay, “crazy,” but understandable… the end of this one was kinda sorta just straight-up WTF. BTW, there were four police officers called in. They didn’t particularly do anything this particular evening, but they sat and watched, basically. After the Monotonix show, I asked one police officer what he thought about the show. He said that it wasn’t exactly his type of music, but it was okay. Hehe.

This is when the Monotonix show turns to WTF.

By the time the show was over, my feet were massively in pain haha. And despite my saying that that particular morning was the last time I’d be taking a cab, we took a cab. I wasn’t quite sure at the time where the Hyatt was, and I thought that where we were was further from our hotel than the main downtown strip was, but I was wrong… we were actually SUPER close to our hotel, like a… seven block walk, I’d say… but oh well. The cab wasn’t too expensive and we managed to snag it in an area where they were still easy to get, and we passed by a shitload of people who could not hail an empty cab because there were no empty cabs. Suckaz!

Got to the hotel, fucked around on the computer for a while, and then went to bed at like 4:30am? or 5:00am? Wee!

sxsw 2009, austin, day one.

So here is my attempt to FINALLY write up my SxSW journal. This is going to take god knows however long. Forever, I think is the word for how long it’s going to take. GOOD LAWD.
I’m going to time it in fact.

(TIMES)
2:20 – 2:25
17:45 – 18:15
= 35 minutes total

Left for Austin ass early after an evening of watching “Breaking Bad” with Lenny and playing Left4Dead with Alex at his new Bellevue abode. He moved out earlier in the week, much to my surprise! Did not realize he had been planning to leave mid-month, after all. Anyway. Got to the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport for a layover and finally made it to Austin. Waited for Jeanette, whose original flight was cancelled, and unfortunately missed an assload of bands I’d wanted to see… including IMA Robot, Starfucker, and Phantogram. I was pretty bummed about it ~__~ Oh well.

Waited for the freaking bus going to downtown to come. It took it like an hour plus to come when it was supposed to come every forty minutes. We musta just missed the previous bus. Finally got downtown and then decided it would take way too long to catch another bus since it was already 8:00pm, and that’s ridiculous… so we took the cab from downtown to our hotel (Days Inn). The shit had originally been listed under my name, and I’d called in early to see if perhaps Karla could check-in earlier, but before Karla checked in, Jeanette’s friend Micha checked in. So we had five people in one room, although the original listing was for three people. The dude at the counter, though, this super nice cute (in an older dude way, although he wasn’t that old) Korean dude didn’t much care at all that we were superbly breaking the rules. So yay?

So dropped off our stuff real quick and I was basically thinking, “!!! NEED TO GET A MOVE ON!!!” We finally left and waited a bit for the bus to come, but the bus took FOREVER to come and there was a lady at the bus stop who seemed like uncomfortable that I was sitting slightly close to her. She kept moving further and further away on the bench as though I had some hideous disease or something. ~__~

I finally convince Jeanette to walk because it’s such a short walk (less than two miles), and it wasn’t all that bad at all. We walk to the Convention Center and pick up our badges. I’m told that I don’t have video clearance, which I am slightly freaked out (but not overly so) about it for the time being. When I’d gotten approved initially, I’d told them I wouldn’t need to shoot video, but since the idea for video interviews came about, I’d changed my mind (but forgotten to change the press). A chick at the press booth told me to e-mail this lady, and I did at this free laptop station they had there, and told the lady to e-mail back to Jeanette’s e-mail so that we could check her response on her iPhone.

Then we head over to Pangaea. Temposhark was supposed to play, but much to my dismay, I guess they’d cancelled, and The Paper Route had replaced them. Jeanette *REALLY* liked them. They were decent, and had pretty watermelon-colored lighting shining on them (see photo)! Real pretty. I wish I’d gotten closer and taken some better photos, but oh well.

After they played, we headed over to Stubb’s to watch The Decemberists and The Avett Brothers… I’d completely forgotten about Stubb’s and how it housed the big shit, and how there was always a huge line to get into a Stubb’s show, because frankly, I generally avoid large shows simply because they’re not shows I REALLY want to see.

Jeanette in line!

Ze line.

We got in line way early, but heard The Avett Brothers come on, and then it was ALMOST time for the Decemberists to come on when two random dudes came out of nowhere and offered to give Jeanette and I their VIP passes to Stubb’s for the day. The Decemberists was the last show of the night, so they really weren’t missing out, and I guess they didn’t really want to see them, so the guy who offered basically said that they were trying to give it to some people who might really want them. They’d miscalculated the result of their kindness, however, because the pass wasn’t technically enough to get us in; we needed Stubb’s wristbands, too!

So we got to the door and the door lady asks us for our IDs but then is confused because we have VIP badges but no wristbands and that’s not supposed to be possible. Jeanette bullshits some shit about how her friend ____ (forget the name, but it’s a real person) who works for SxSW got them for us. The folks at Stubb’s say that the VIP passes have nothing to do with SxSW, and that Stubb’s gives them out. Jeanette says she doesn’t know then, and this whole time, I’m sitting by, silently, incredulously, totally looking guilty, and thinking, “WHAT THE FUCK! PLEASE DON’T CALL ON ME!” It was like being in middle school again or something.

Like honestly, I’m not even sure how Jeanette came up with any of that shit. The whole time I was like, completely and absolutely drawing a blank on possible things to say. I am a god awful liar and this was more proof of it. These lies and extrapolations that Jeanette came up with simply do not even cross my mind… like, at ALL. At ALL.

Anyway, one worker finally says that he needs to get the manager, and the manager eventually comes and tells us that we’re “all set” and lets us in. Well, alrighty, then. I guess honesty isn’t always the best policy. In we go.

The Decemberists played their new disc in its entirety or near entirety, which I was slightly excited for because I am a huge… or at least was a huge Decemberists fan and basically try to see them every time they come to town. This particular evening was rather disappointing, however, because, in my opinion, their new disc sucks. It’s so generic and lacks all of the unique, slightly goofy, totally poetic Decemberists flair. There was one Renaissance princess-dressed chick with a super lame, super pure, corny angelic type choir voice. She looked annoying, sang annoying, and was boring.

Then there was another chick who totally had a contemporary fashion model haircut, dressed stylish, and you could tell she kicked ass instantly. She had this super fiery divalicious voice and OWNED. The contrast between the two of these women, and the fact that it was both of their first times being IN the Decemberists, made me think that the upcoming album is a concept album in some regard. A brief bit of research, done right now, concludes that yes, in fact, it IS a concept album. The Hazards Of Love tells a story that juxtaposes an innocent woman (the annoying one) with a cruel queen (Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond, aka the awesome one) and the lover, William, caught between. Well. Well. Nice concept and all, but I’m unfortunately rooting for the cruel one, and honestly, most people in the audience were… so is that according to plan? Is it? I’m not sure.

Annoying singer chick desu.

Moving onwards. We didn’t even unfortunately finish that set, which ended pretty awesomely, so I have read, because the songs were just so boring. The Decemberists was comprised of many new members, although the great, cute accordion lady is still around (albeit no longer one of the focal points). As far as the disc goes… not interested. Maybe it will grow on me, or at least there were a couple songs that were decent, but as a whole… blech. Blech. I’m also pretty bummed I only brought my 50mm lens this evening and left my other one at the hotel room, and therefore couldn’t get super good photos, even though the lighting was perfect. Oh well. This photo below is the only decent one I got… our VIP passes got us in the upstairs section so I was directly to the left of Mr. Meloy and just above him. Good view.

Colin Meloy & crowd.

The lowly people at Stubb’s.

After that disappointment, we walked to meet up with Jeanette’s clients at the PureVolume House. They hooked us up with passes to get into that, along with other stuff they were sponsoring. That was pretty neato, I guess, although again, I’m not so interested in the bands that play at those kinds of things :/ We sat around for like an hour and a half chatting… I mostly just chatted with one of vTech’s workers, Tara, and she was really cool. Lives in Portland (along with the other vTech people), only she’s their senior designer and not quite like the others, I believe. We got in some semi-serious conversations about gentrification of neighborhoods and random environmental crap. Weird. Haha… especially since everyone else was like sloshed and talking about lord knows what. I do that a lot, I think. It’s not on purpose, though… that’s just the kind of stuff that interests me…, or something. No idea.

Silly Projekt Revolution Linkin Park Monster energy drink @ the PureVolume House.

Some other vTech workers included their main dude, who basically everyone was following around. He’s Tom. There was also Stephanie, who Jeanette works with a lot on their PR campaigns and such. She was funny, because she was pretty drunk, so she kept listing off the shows vTech was sponsoring, like numerous times, and I was just like… uh huh… ~__~

There were Grandma’s Sweet Teas there and they were not particularly delicious, but they were free. They actually had a buncha fifths on ice and a buncha other alcohol around because they were VIP, and random people kept coming by trying to snag some alcohols, without really even knowing that it’s not ONLY for VIP people, as well. So Stephanie played the roll of laying-the-smackdown-er and laid the smackdown on people who tried to come by and steal alcohol. One particular guy, to whom Stephanie told that the alcohol was only for vTech, kept calling her mean and stuff. Pretty irrational, and he wasn’t SUPER scary or pissed, but he was mad.

Anyway, The Stiletto Formal guys were there, I guess, because they had played there that evening, maybe? It was alright. I didn’t actually talk to them, but I did talk to their groupie friend, Matt, and their lead singer chick briefly, because she came by to talk to Matt and then Tom grabbed her ass because he thought she was someone else, and she’s like, “OMG! I feel violated!” and she was talking really loudly and he was right behind her! And she’s like, “I don’t know what to do now!” and I’m like, “You’ll be okay,” and she’s like, “Okay!” and wandered off. Haha? Matt was talking about how they picked out her clothes for her every day or something. Interesting. He was trying to convince me to go to their show the next day, which I would have, but Jeanette didn’t quite want to because she thought it was embarrassing, cause she’d given her number to their new bassist guy or something. Yeahhhh. So we didn’t end up going. So we were getting ready to leave, and then that Matt guy came back and like, twirled me in a circle and then said, “I missed you so much I needed to give you another hug!” or something. It was kind of just amusing that I was twirled in a circle, like a princess. Or something. O__o

But yeah. Didn’t see any music this evening beyond the Decemberists, which ended at… midnight? So that’s kinda lame. But it’s all good.

Actually, it’s not all good. I’d forgotten that I’d wanted to see These Arms Are Snakes at 1:00am really early on Thursday morning / Wednesday evening, and because of this mistake, I failed to see These Arms Are Snakes… and Jeanette failed to see them as well, because I’d talked up their showmanship SO MUCH and I wanted her to see them really badly since they were one performance that I could GUARANTEE an amazing experience of. Apparently they were going to play a show on Thursday during the day time, but that will soon be met with failure as well…