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SXSW Update 2

Man, it's beautiful here in Austin. Fernando & I got up early and did a
little moped repair (grease before breakfast! woot!) which was fun, then rode
over for what was sadly my only Migas of the trip. I met a dude named Pony.
Yup. Fernando & Pony seem to be the nightlife impressarios of Austin.
They have a blog. Check it.

I can see why people love it here so much, and since I'm on the East Side, I
also understand last week's King of The Hill episode about white hipsters
moving into Latino neighborhoods and gentrifying them. It's all post-war
perfect sized houses with cute little lawns. Totally a good vibe of people
working hard and slacking hard.

I've had some interesting conversations with people about what the low cost of
living allows, and interestingly enough, it feels like people are constrained
by the freedom. I really related to that; the lack of structure or need to
hustle (cf: nyc) really led me to become pretty apathetic in my between-
working time in the past. Its a lesson I want to not forget, and being
reminded is helpful.

...

We drove over Waterloo to get our pal Caitlin a wristband (totally ended up
not needed them; all the good parties were no-pay), and I got eat some leaves
at ye olde mecca of Whole Foods. Then off to the belly of the beast off 6th
street, near the convention center around 4 (let's hear it for daylight
savings! woot!) to check out the Fader Fort. Fader & Levis got together to
do a popup store and huge concert space; it was rad. We saw some bands. I
wish I remembered which they were, but I'm sure they were awesome. We snuck
pals in with wristband schenangins. whatever.

I met up with my pal David Peris from the old Sony days there, and that was
really great; he's in Houston with a baby and a Hummer, so we had a lot to
catch up on! There was free beer. I drank it. It was delicious. I got some
skinny purple jeans. I hated myself and laughed hilariously.

Then a misfire. We went to a SXSW official event at Karma, a nightclub, to
see some famous DJ that didn't come on and the crowd sucked and friends of
friends sucked, so we left. Life's too short. We had heard about this
late-night party way the hell out on Cesar Chavez that Red Bull was putting
on, so we trekked the hell out there, everyone got too drunk on Red Bull, and
we danced. The setup was kind of awesome; there was a HUGE disco ball
hanging from the top of a fire engine crane, an airplane hanger, and just
generally felt like a corporate co-opted version of a Burningman party. I was
scandalized at first and felt violated, but then realised that it is what it
is. Not much I could do about it, so I drank their booze, watched Octupus
Project do an amazing show. They asked Henri to be their MC, and he did that
for the rest of the week, and that was really random and awesome.

AND THEN everyone got hungry. And everyone thought it would be a good idea to
have fast food. And I drove to Wendys. And I bought a dozen hamburgers. And
everyone ate one or two or three, and they were f*ing delicious (until the
next morning when everyone was horribly sick, but that's another day!! haha).
We fed the bouncers and the bartenders, pals and more. We were heros. No,
Burger Heros. :P

March 11, 2008 09:44 AM