This past Saturday, the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown held a double feature of Napoleon Dynamite and Joysticks. What's so special about these two movies? They both feature Jon Gries, most recently well known as Uncle Rico. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for Joysticks which I've never seen and apparently need to. It was all damn good fun and great to meet Jon.
The Austin City Limits Music Festival 2008 official lineup is here. So much far a Stone Temple Pilots coup d'etat. The boys are back together again. That being said, this year's ACL will once again rock Zilker Park. There's so many different sounds of music under one sky, your not gonna know what to do with yourself. Taking a quick look at the lineup, I've drawn up an initial list of "must see" acts for me.
Additions and changes are bound to happen.
The Austin City Limits Music Festival 2007 official lineup is online. Once again, as always, the diversity of the musical lineup is impressive. This is what makes ACL Fest so special compared to the other major music festivals in America. I already purchased my three day pass a month ago. Here's an initial list of "must see" acts for me.
Additions and changes are bound to happen.
Here we are in April. I can hardly wait for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. This year's ACL Fest will take place September 26-28, 2008. My three day pass was purchased months ago. Awesome! But who the hell is playing? One of my favorite music blogs (Gorilla vs Bear) is already on the case. Have a look, or better yet, have a listen.
]]>Yes, I still need to write about SXSW 2008. Yes, I'm still tired. That being said;
2009 Panel Ideas: Submission Process Begins on June 2
Did the 2008 SXSW Interactive Festival inspire you to submit a panel idea for next year’s event? Excellent – most of the best programming at SXSW comes directly from the online community. So here is how this process wiil work for 2009. We will begin accepting ideas for next spring from Tuesday, June 2 through Friday, July 11. Complete details on what kind of information we will need for the 2009 Panel Picker will be posted on the SXSW website in mid-May. Please check back then – or subscribe to the monthly listserve. Please feel free to e-mail us if you are confused about how this process works. Also, if you are wondering about dates for SXSW Interactive for 2009, they are Friday, March 13 through Tuesday, March 17.
Posted 03/20/08
Went to the Million Musician March again this year. This time I didn't feel like marching so I just shadowed it on my bike and took pictures. It was a spectacularly beautiful day and everyone was in high spirits. I estimate full attendance at something like 1000, same as last year, although there seemed to be more people playing instruments. Someday maybe some of those SXSW slackers will get off their hungover asses and join in. Until then, there certainly seem to be no shortage of folks in Austin who think this is a fun time.
That guy with the Fuck Bush sign came out again. Some old man tottered down the sidewalk, groped in the return-coin slot of a nearby pay phone, then turned to me and asked, "Did they say that about Truman? Or Johnson?" and tottered off. It wasn't until later I realized he was talking about the sign (which, I might add, had an advertisement for Coke - "2 liters $.99!" - on the back) or I would have told him, Why yes. Yes they did say that about Johnson, and a lot of other things besides. Just not out on the sidewalk at 11th and Congress.
Yesterday’s Million Musician March went off with nary a hitch and a good time was had by all. OK, maybe only a thousand showed up, but who wants to try calling it The One-Tenth Of A Percent March?
The route started at the Capitol and went down Congress, detouring over to Red River on 7th and back on Sixth and finally fetching up at City Hall. The detour produced a lot of dazed WTF looks from the South By attendees, or maybe they were more of the “dude why do you want to make that much noise this early in the day” head-holding looks. Either way, for all the invites issued to join in there weren’t a lot of takers.
No serious counter-demonstrators were visible, because who can really take issue with a marching band? Some guy in the background was yelling "Giuliani! Giuliani!" and some aging rocker dude who thought he was Penn Jillette with a bleached ponytail started bellowing “Bush rocks! Go President Bush!” at 7th and Neches. If he was trying for a confrontation it was negated when the 12-year-old next to him slugged him and said, “Daddy, you’re such a butthead.”
In fact everybody all around was trying to keep it mellow, except for maybe the marcher with the big Fuck Bush sign. While he would have fit in fine at any of the earlier protests I’ve been to, he didn’t here where it was too festive for that sort of agitation. It’s just like that old Top 40 song goes: you can’t dance and stay uptight.
It's been a busy past week, especially these past two days. I had some much needed car maintenance performed. The Mustang is running smooth again.
This Friday, March 7th is Day 1 of South by Southwest. I am already low on sleep. Tomorrow morning when I get off of work I'll be racing home for a quick shower and power nap. Then head up to Austin to stand in line for three hours to pick up my SXSW Gold Badge. Unlike last year, this time around I'm only attend the Interactive and Film conference. There are a few free music day shows I want to hit. They are mainly local Austin artists.
Taking photos during SXSW is easy. Writing blog entries, well... last year I did try while SXSW was taking place.
South by Southwest 2007
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock – and given this year’s political climate, you might be smart to – you know that for the first time in a long time a vote in the Texas primary actually counts for something. (For those registered Democrat, anyway.) Likewise you’ll know that last night was the much-anticipated primary.
Big excitement in Austin. Glad to have it over.
Early voting numbers for once seem to have been staggeringly huge, but I wasn’t among those industrious people in spite of numerous opportunities offered and so it was that I found myself waiting outside Ridgetop Elementary on Caswell in the gathering dusk. And waiting. And waiting. The woman in front of me talked pretty much the whole time on her cell phone, to the same person. Her conversation sounded fairly interesting, what I could piece together from just her end. She was worried about being late to band practice but not too much, calling herself the “least essential person there.”
Well good. It always sucks when creativity interferes with the process of democracy.
Actually the wait wasn’t that bad – 45 minutes start to finish. The line began well in back of the 100-ft. boundary, by the big Obama banner, and inched slowly forward and mysteriously never got significantly longer.
While waiting in line, when I wasn’t eavesdropping I amused myself wondering how much the church across the street paid for that banner with the prominent misspelling. Or speculating whether “chruch” means anything in Korean.
Didn’t stick around for the party caucus afterwards and given Heather’s account I’m damn glad. As it turns out my candidate didn’t need the extra effort on my part, not this time around anyway.