SXSW (sorta)

The South by Southwest festival takes place every year in Austin, and I've been wanting to go for a while. It showcases new technologies, movies and (my primary interest) music. In order to attend the actual festival you have to buy a badge that costs upwards of $600. Mostly (so it seems) people who have badges are industry folk whose companies are footing the bill. For the rest of us common people, there are dozens and dozens of bands/performers playing all over the downtown Austin area during the festival, from bars on 6th street to flatbed trucks to stages set up on open space. Everywhere you look there are hip young people drinking beer from plastic cups and enjoying the Texas sunshine.

My "proof I was there" pic taken on 6th street - the main drag.

I used to work with Heather in Jersey City. She and her band played in an auto garage on Thursday.

This is Andrew W.K., who put on a good show despite the uncharacteristically cold weather Saturday. This was at a separate free festival called the Mess with Texas Fest.
There was a lot of facial hair this past week in Austin, but this guy's fake sideburns were by far my favorite.

Death Metal pizza?!

Austin is full of under-appreciated talent during the SXSW fest. Exhibit A: Guy playing guitar and harmonica while hula-hooping.

Luminaria Arts Festival

I attended the third annual Luminaria Arts night held in downtown San Antonio this past Friday. It was the first time I've been in a large crowd since moving here (almost 200,000 people attended last year) and parking was a painful ordeal. Other than that, it was really nice - the buildings are lit up via projectors and laser lights, there's all kinds of live music (samba, symphony, jazz, rock) and other random performers, food/bev vendors, along with a convention center-turned-gallery displaying countless artists' works.

This is the best me and my old camera could do:

HyperBubble, my new favorite San Antonio band (although I might have been seduced by the giant simulated-TV stage set):
hear lo-fi blips and hilarious lyrics here: http://www.myspace.com/hyperbubble

And a piece of art that caught my eye:

Pure Texas

Me at the Alamo
Now, New Yorkers have pride ... but do they have their own line of tissue boxes??

This is my roommate's bike that I've borrowed. If you look closely, very closely, you'll see that it's a Shiner Bock bike. Despite what you might have heard, many argue that Shiner Bock and NOT Lone Star is (or should be) the official beer of Texas. There was no competition as far as I was concerned: Lone Star is a lager created by Anheuser-Busch, while a German immigrant named Spoetzl created Shiner Bock. Beer snobbery aside, Shiner Bock just tastes better. So imagine my delight when I noticed that the dusty bike in my roommate's garage bares the name of this local brew!


Bathroom sign in Austin