travel: March 2004 Archives

I'm about to be in transit, making my way from Austin to San Antonio for CCCC, our big annual convention. I'm trying out Ecto for the first time, since my uplink time promises to be fairly limited. I've held off blogging offline, in part bc I haven't bothered to track down the tools for so doing (although I really only need SimpleText, I suppose) and in part bc I can be compulsive about blocking out a set amount of time for blogging without letting it blur into the rest of the stuff I do. So much for that. We'll see.

Spent the last day or two resting up post-SXSW, picking up Bruno Latour's new book, buying some decorations for my apartment, doing laundry, sipping margaritas with Jenny and Diane, deciding that Deadwood is worth at least a couple more episodes of my attention, rooting against #1 seeds and for Syracuse, and storing up as much sleep as I can for San Antonio.

All in all, a good beginning to my trip.

Well, it only took a couple of days for SXSW to kick my ass. As we were making our way over to Stubbs last night for Polyphonic Spree, we passed by Elysium, where two women were handing out the following:

I'm nothing if not easy. Jenny and I headed out tonight and started at the Elysium, so as to catch Tsushimamire. It was actually a pretty fun set, and I recognized about half the words to "Camaboco," thanks to hours spent watching Iron Chef. (means "fish dumplings," does Camaboco...) We stuck for a bit to catch the first few songs of Kokeshi Doll, but made the mistake of moving up towards the stage, right in front of the speakers. Ouch.

Jenny forgot her wristband (we had to turn around, go back, and get it).
I forgot my camera (hence no concert shots).
We both forgot to bring a band schedule.

In short, neither of us was especially primed for a full night of shows. We trekked over to Mekong River, a good Vietnamese/Thai place, and I had a noodle bowl. Having already begun yawning, and then with a belly full of noodles, it became clear that I wasn't long for this evening. Jenny dropped me off and headed over to a shindig at Owen and Jodi's place, where she is as I type this. Shiva is racing around and poking through my suitcase, and I'm leaning towards an early bedtime.

Feeling a little more frisky tonight, as I wore my comfy shoes in lieu of a new pair of sandals. Jenny's got a rundown as well, or at least she will once she's finished typing over there.

I don't know that I've ever experienced quite the range of music that I did tonight. First off, we went to Hole in the Wall to see Ongoing Wow, a band with two of the three Mister Sinus guys, the drummer for They Might Be Giants, and a solid improv set that was a lot of fun.

After that (and a quick trip on the #1 bus), we tried to get in to see David Cross, and quickly learned that orange wristbands did not put us at the top of the SXSW food chain. We got to Emo's, got in line, and found that only badges were getting people in. Damn industry wonks with their stinkin badges.

Next, street pizza.

Then, we went to Exodus, where we caught TV on the Radio, whose CD I'll probably be picking up tomorrow. Good stuff. We were going to stay for Calexico, but would have had to wait through a tweener, and so took off for shows unknown. We ended up at Stubbs, where I thought and claimed (mistakenly) that Polyphonic Spree was playing tomorrow night. Fortunately for all of us, I was wrong and we were there.

Not the best picture. Sorry about that. I think I screwed up the settings on my camera (in other words, took it off idiot-proof auto).

I'm now safely ensconced in the Republic of Texas, and by 10 am this morning, I had gotten more sun than I'd managed in nearly 3 months in NY. Very nice. Sunny and 80.

The flights themselves involved much delay, apparently rooted in some sort of Chicago weather issue. It was an extra two hours before they'd let my flight from Syracuse take off, and another two hours of delay before my connector to DFW. Ah well.

This afternoon, Lori and I drive down to Austin and submerse ourselves in SXSW. Wish us luck...