Monthly Archives: March 2007

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SXSW Night (And Day!) Six

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Friday started out bright and early at around 2, meeting up with the crew at the Little Radio party at the Red Eyed Fly. It wasn’t all that happening, but I did pick up a koozie and a free CD from them. We wandered from there when the music started to make us doze off a bit. We got in to Emo’s at the most perfect time, hardly having to wait in the line that was forming. You know the day is going to be good when you start with Sparks for breakfast:

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The bands we saw were absolutely great. Menomena, Girl Talk, and Peter, Bjorn, and John, the band I’d been hearing all the buzz about.

I really liked the sound of Menomena (Men-oh-mean-ah, not mahnamahna, like I kept saying). Girl Talk I had never heard of, but whenever a guy gets on a stage with just a computer I’m always wondering what he’s really doing up there. It also seems odd to me that all those super scene-y people listen to all the pop music, I pictured them turning up their noses in disgust, but the were all dancing fools. Peter, Bjorn, and John didn’t really do it for me, but I’ll still be checking out the CD, realizing I’ll probably enjoy it at home with some wine instead of at an outdoor stage with a woman talking behind me the whole time and knocking me in the head with her camera. I also will call them PB and J. That makes me laugh.

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*IMPORTANT PART OF THIS STORY THAT EVERYONE SHOULD READ:*

I got introduced to some new friends and we were all just standing in the street when what to my wondrous eyes should appear than PEREZ HILTON, with bright pink dyed hair:

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Does it look like I chased him down and forced a photo? Well, that’s because I did. He’s the most famous blogger I can think of, and he now graces the pages here at somegosoftly.

*END IMPORTANT PART OF THIS STORY.*

People are always taking pictures with the Frost Bank Tower in them, I figured I’d get you all one:

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JC and I then checked out a band here at the outside Pure Volume stage, then met KD, and had some Brick Oven for dinner and saw some of the UT game on our way to the Diesel party. There we saw another great line up: David Vandervelde, The Epochs, Illinois, Matt & Kim, Tokyo Police Club, and Girl Talk again. I would recommend all of that music. The party was great and the (free!) drinks were nice. It might have been a little too much for some people, it got a little dirty in there:

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You may be thinking to yourself, that place doesn’t look very full or fun. It got crazy packed and turned into a giant party, but I took this pic while Girl Talk was on, so everyone was dancing.

Let me show you before he started:

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And then after:

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That’s right, people rushed the stage. Girls were in prom dresses. Everyone shook their moneymakers. Good times were had. Shirts were removed. From men and women. (No pics of that, sorry!)

We managed to make it outside after all that craziness and viewed the phenomenon of the free ice cream truck. It certainly became the hit of the week. It’s sad to realize there’s only one more day of this to go…

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SXSW Night Five

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You can’t handle this. What a week it’s been already. Last night started out perfect. I made it in time to KD’s to see the end of the big Duke upset. We rounded up the crew, bigger and better with friends in town for the shows, and headed out to this party. On the way, we managed to go in two wrong entrances, the first of which scored is free stuff, no complaints. Finally we found the right gate.

How do we miss this:

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if this is right next to it?

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There was also a MOON BOUNCE, in case you missed that on the flyer. I didn’t get a good picture, but if you don’t know what they look like you had a horrible childhood.

There were astronauts.

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Dancing astronauts.

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There was free wine. Chairs. Fun music. We heard Kanye West’s DJ friend. We ran into what I’m guessing made our group total 20 people. I shut my phone off. That may be the smartest thing I’ve done yet. This is us smiling, phone free:

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(we were doin’ ‘uconn’ in that last one, my other CT friend and I)

This is a picture to make snippy mad about having her drinking issues keeping her from meeting us out, she might like monkeys a little bit, and there were some:

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After all the wine and music we could take in one place, JC, KD and I headed out to the Pure Volume party. There were more (free!) drinks, enough to get us all dancing, shouting and screaming.

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And I’m really having a good time meeting strangers and taking pictures. Look how excited they were to meet us:

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The Pure Volume party was an after hours party. They kept the liquor flowing until KD realized she had to be up in a few hours and we made our way back to the car. We may never know what happened at 3:15 that night, but something must have broken, they let us out of the hotel garage without paying. That’s right it was (free!) parking. To go with our (free!) drinks. How can you beat that?

The music report lacks a little substance, but we saw the bands on the flyer, some DJs, nothing that stood out to me. Maybe we’ll work on that tomorrow…

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SXSW Night Four

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This is where the going gets tricky my friends. With the music portion of – I forgot to tell you we refer to this as ‘Southby’ – in full force, we are doing things like, ugh, waiting in lines. It was a whole new scene last night.

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We started the night at our first ‘your name has to be on the list’ party, at a big warehouse, put on by Fader and Stereogum. We were on the list. Woo. We got to see this really great band called Lo Fi Fnk, which was three very, very young boys which I am relatively sure were from Sweden, maybe? They had all kinds of fun musical electronic equipment. As a direct contrast, right afterwards the Meat Puppets performed. I didn’t know I knew them, but recognized some songs. It was decent. They did have more (free!) drinks, but that didn’t tempt me. It was early. Aren’t these young guys cute?

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When they shut a party down, it closes in 30 seconds, so they ran everyone out. Perhaps in the time it took us to get to our car, and make our foray over to east Austin to make a run at the iheartcomix party, everyone else must’ve flown. It was a little bit crowded. As in, we could stand in line with no promise of getting in, or we could find another party. What would you do? So we found another party. I can’t tell you how I got in, where we were, or whether or not we were technically supposed to be…but maybe this looks familiar.

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White tent, red lights, could it be…*gasp*

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Right. So, that was the band Illinois. Here’s a better picture, that guy was pretty cute:
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Rounding out the night we heard The Annuals, which I’m not sure if their ability to play 800 instruments makes up for their odd comments and dull tunes, but they’re pretty popular so what do I know. Also there was Holy F**k, which was more of a DJ set even though it was all instruments, pretty cool.

Well, that about wraps it up, and I have to admit, although I’m only posting about Southby this week all in order, no interruptions, I’m working on much much more, and – I can’t lie…

watching basketball.

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SXSW Night Three

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Well folks, there was the good the bad and the pink haired last night. Starting with the good: complimentary drop off from the KD’s sister, a new bar, hearing a little of the Toadies playing at Stubb’s. The bad: beer = not free. The pink haired: was that not self explanatory?

We got free plastic cups, like we were at Rudy’s, I was excited. Until go home time, and some Austin law that does not allow me to take my souvenir cup with. Unless I have a duffel bag.

I am wondering many things today, like why my head hurts, where a couple bruises came from, and if it’s ever going to get old for all of us to meet up and say things like “We need to go out and drink more often” “How’ve you been? It’s been so long” “I hope we see each other again soon”. I sure hope not.

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We saw music: Zykos, Lomita, Glass Family, The Public… I really can’t recall who was who but I liked all of it. I’m not sure why they liked red lights so much:

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I don’t remember this guy’s name, but he liked the veracity of our poses and wanted to take a picture too:

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And how about one for JC, although I was going to leave it out, since it is completely unexplainable what I am doing:

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SXSW Night Two

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It’s Tuesday. We’ve got at least 4 more days of this. It’s not going to be easy. I get the prize for being the lamest – I just woke up. My co-conspirators have to work. The parties are just going to keep getting better, and my feet are just going to have to deal with it.

Last night started totally different than Sunday night, there was a line to get in the bar and we were there an hour earlier. I’d never been to Side Bar before, but it’s bigger outside than it is inside so that’s where we headed. We successfully grabbed a (free!) round and got busy people watching. I was mainly watching LC’s friends that we met there, since I’m an old married lady that doesn’t get to meet too many nice boys these days. LC watched a young man that was swaying dangerously behind me with a giant kite in his giant ‘man bag/satchel’. We made the mistake of thinking that he’d be normal, and asked what the kite was for, since the Kite Festival was last week. He immediately launches in to a defensive tirade of being able to carry what he wants and LC should just quit hitting on him. Yikes. LC has more successes later in the night, talking to the tallest man ever, and other friendly normal people.

JC – my current favorite person – walked up and said, “Everyone in line was annoying. They were all talking about their blogs. (looks at me) No offense.” As a matter of fact, he was right. Everyone around us was either blogging, reading a blog on their phone, or talking about a blog, or asp, or something technical – except the two guys I overheard debating Diane Lane and Bettie Page’s better features. (?) Made me look like I just bought my first computer.

I made the mistake of inviting one person I knew who’d been at the Toadies concert that night, and brought a dozen already tanked friends, who collectively staged the first “Drama at the Bathroom Line” saga I’ve ever seen. Ugh. They got a little better when I met the band they were with, some nice guys who shared their (free!) beer with me so I didn’t have to wait in line again.

It sprinkled just enough for me to not melt, and to clear out some people. Shortly thereafter, the bar tab ended, and many more took off. We finished up our last (free!) drinks and decided to stop over at Club DeVille. There was a nice couple minutes of talking in the middle of the road on the way, watching the end of the Borat movie, and another drink and another new friend before we headed home. We need our beauty sleep!

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At the various requests of numerous people, here’s the picture, but I’ll allow the computer people to stay and hang out with us…

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SXSW Night One

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There is too much going on to talk about! There was the talking about the Interactive panels, the Twitter phenomenon, the blogging for money, for a career, a worthwhile discussion to be had by anyone. There was a King of the Hill conversation I missed but threw Homies in there anyway. I’ve made it D-elebrity status after talking LC and JA to wear ponchos with my name on them if the rain keeps up. And of course there was the music!!

The rain did not let up. We took that as a challenge. Unfortunately, it made us late and we missed the band that I really wanted to see, Quiet Company. Fortunately, it was a small crowd, so later on we got to meet the band, score the EP, and visit about topics from blogging to tambourine resumes. Which I may soon have one of – to try and get in a band of course – woohoo.

I also talked to Tony Pierce about the panel, the blog world, and everything I missed by not being smart enough to score the badge and browse the panels. I was a little concerned that he’d have better things to do, but he was the coolest for fielding my questions and doling out tips. XXOO.

We forgot our camera, which was completely inexcusable and will not happen again! Promise you’ll get to see first hand all the fun we’re having!

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Well

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UT fought so hard, and almost made a big upset happen. There was a consensus that Kansas wasn’t going to move either way, according to the Selection Show, so it’s fine. Like I said, one guy can’t do everything. They can save it for the tourney, but after watching Bracketolgy, they aren’t going too far. Good thing I have those SXSW parties, I need something to take my mind off the games. So, for the next few days, I’ll be working on my scoring, my brackets, trying to figure out who I think is going to win. It’s almost a lost cause, here’s hoping I get lucky this year.


www.dordt.edu
But for now, I’m on my way to the gym, then hopefully to SXSW party #1, if the weather clears up a little. I’ll keep you ‘posted’!

🙂

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Wii-eally Funny

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Check out

this video

that I found on one of my favorite blogs, Pop Candy. It’s a bunch of ‘elderly’ people at a retirement home that are addicted to the Wii bowling. It’s adorable. They get pretty into it. I’m gonna be like that when I grow up and end up in a home…

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SXSW = Dangerous

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South By Southwest is the craziest thing to descend upon Austin annually. There are people everywhere, all the hotels are full, the bars go nuts. I worked downtown last year and got to see so many secret shows going on and all that cool stuff you only see if you’re lucky, but of course I was working 70 hour weeks and didn’t go to much. I’ve only total been to about one or two shows a year during SXSW. I usually find someone who knows about the good stuff that you can get in without a wristband. Those shows = free alcohol.

I’ve been so good lately about staying away from all that bars and drinking, in particular it was getting old, but more than that, it was empty weight. Now here it is, free for the taking, and less lame because it’s going out to see a show. How can you say no? So, some very awesome people – one in particular who included me – have the skills of trolling the internet for these free parties, held by the likes of Gawker and the LAist and Yahoo. Not only do I like free drinks, the shows are usually great. Last year’s Diesel Party I went to had the Editors, the one band I really wanted to see. This time around, if you remember this very old post that I wrote about BPM Magazine, well I’ve extended my musical knowledge, and will know a ton of the bands I’m seeing, and that’s cool.

So, I have potential plans for this Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, then Friday and Saturday. I really don’t want to not fit into the size three pants when all is said and done, so I’ll be fighting temptation for a week!

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www.2007.sxsw.com

Here’s a link to a neat playlist that has compiled some SXSW musicians. Check it out!