SXSW tales - Friday and Sabbath

Another late wake up, and we were off to the Urban Outfitters concert. Shopped Urban Outfitters, then Gio had to leave urgently on a MegaBus.

We then repaired back to the apartment. I prepared for the Sabbath, this time with proper accoutrements like Shabbos Candles, pre-boiled hot water in a thermos, Challah, kiddush cup and grape juice, etc. Instead of starting the party early the people I was staying with decided to actually have a normal meal for once, so the menu included marinated chicken with kale and tomatoes for them, plus challah, salad, and cold cuts for me. The wine was had then as well, all by candlelight (and the sound of "Blue Velvet" on the TV - what a strange movie).

Afterwards, I walked to downtown with an ID in a plastic bag attached to the pants belt, passing immense traffic and numerous revelers, but interestingly enough fewer SXSW attendees, perhaps because they were outnumbered by Friday-night people. Once my hosts arrived (by car), we waited in line to see The Savages with trepidation as badge holders were admitted first. Nardwuar got to bypass the line. Eventually we got in, just before people were about to start climbing the fence.

Savages - Husbands:

Very intense sound.

Then came Youth Lagoon.

Merely okay. Probably an acquired sound.

Looked like this at the concert, right in front of me:

Then, knowing it'd be a long walk, I headed back and accidentally took a shortcut through 6th Street. Much too crowded. Collapsed upon entry to apartment, but cheered up soon, and that Friday.

Saturday - Hosts went to six hours of concert at Urban Outfitters. I prayed, ate, slept, walked around campus to see the bluebonnets. Walked three steps, then stopped, then again, to be able to carry Don Quixote to  a hill and read 150 pages of it. Most delightful afternoon on a college campus ever. Not quite like that, ever, at University of Houston. Walked back to apartment, read some more and waited for hosts to return. They were exhausted, and without Gio it was no fun, so we stayed in and had a "house party" instead of seeing more SXSW acts. Thus, I did not get to see New York Gypsy All Stars, Steffaloo, or TOKiMONSTA. We played 21 questions and just generally vegged. I managed to make a Bloody Mary with some supplies of alcohol and V8, though the Rum Fizz wound up all over the kitchen.

Post-Sabbath analysis - No Eruv is a bummer. The jury is still out on whether it is permissible to carry outside of an Eruv using the emergency 1-2-3-stop method (to avoid walking more than four amot), in a situation other than an Eruv. Lack of Chumash to read the Torah portion is a problem, but if you read at least the first aliyah it's probably better than nothing. Food was fine, plus I brought along a cutting board, knife, candlesticks plus candles for the candlelighting, and also a havdalah candle. The kiddush cup was the top off a thermos (round). I poured the wine myself during the communal meal, and thus all was OK. One problem was lack of napkins, and tearing off paper towels with your elbows is barely a permissible substitute. (And issues with the prohibition of Yichud were avoided with the multiple windows in the house [yes that's an issue too]).

A short interlude for garden items

Spring has arrived in full now, and the mints have exploded with new growth. A shame I didn't repot them earlier because now I have to give up on lots of great new leaves. Yesterday five Juliette F1 tomatoes were planted (on a whim) in the formerly basil hydroponic setup, and a cucumber (bought also on a whim) was planted in place of the mint, which will be donated to the Horticulture Society. We'll see how a non-gynoecious cucumber produces (I hope it is otherwise of course).

The pots were re-arranged, and the strawberry was thrown out (eyes averted) to make way for other plants. The problem is that there still needs to be space for at least one basil plant, to be planted ASAP, and at least one eggplant, and that space is not there. Also an oregano.

During Passover it is forbidden to plant, so I'm doing all the work before Passover.

A real SXSW write-up - Thursday

A late wake-up and off to downtown again, this time over to the eastern/run-down side of downtown Austin. I left my friends waiting for a concert at 4 PM and walked to UT again to take pictures of the campus, practicing focusing with the phone camera and generally refilling on UT again.

One of the many posters
for day parties, scattered
around Austin.

Visited the turtle pond. Also bluebonnets!

 The turtles love to cluster on top of each other in the middle of the very crowded pond, or...

...swim around underwater, or even...

...sun themselves on the ledge. They are rather tame, even allowing themselves to be touched. There are always visitors at the pond, many aiming for that perfect shot.

I wandered over to check the biology greenhouses, noted with satisfaction the great growth of the tangerine tree since last year, and walked on.

The one on the left is shot with a Powershot A630, focal length 7.3 mm at 1/640 and f/4.0. The right is the best of the focusing experiments done with a phone camera, at focal length 4.6 mm, ISO 100, 1/1486s and f/2.4. Neither accurately describes the beauty of that day.

How best to get the concrete
ledge with the building in
the background...

Then it was over to Whole Foods for dinner, with the massive green wall to keep me company.

There are bromeliads in the upper left! How do they do that??

One of many open-topped official party/band buses (there were some seedier ones too)

The last photo is a reminder of what it's like in an actual brick-and-mortar music store (Waterloo Records). You just can't stumble upon the complete set of Jean Sibelius' works on Amazon. (Hint hint.)

Wandered around 6th street again, saw Brothers-in-Law at B.D. Riley's, and discovered their "Sweet Tea Vodka Lemonade" on a whim.

Later saw the backstage of a Houston rapper, Master P, (see review here):

...and payed $5 to see the porch of the place where Gepe had just played. We all took a shortcut across the capital, and played hooky with some streetlights.

A real SXSW write-up - Wednesday

After seeing the posts of the person at whose apartment I stayed at for the colloquially-known "southby", or South By Southwest, I couldn't help but do an actual write-up of the five days spent in Austin. I haven't done something like this for years, but perhaps it will help with writing practice, plus act as a showcase to more fully explain the photos from the last post.

So here I sit at work, reminiscing, listening to the music of a band called Houses, seen performing outdoors at an Urban Outfitters below.

(The music in the link is from their upcoming album to be released in mid-April). When they played I didn't really like it, but now I kind of do.

I stayed at the apartment of a friend's semi-demi-girlfriend (it's complicated), plus the friend and the co-director of Coog Radio, Alex. Plus there were also the roomate and occasionally her boyfriend, so it was a crowded affair. I also spent Shabbat there, the subject of a whole post itself. The apartments were on the campus of St. Edward's University, a small private college with great views of downtown Austin and beyond, as well as plenty of beautiful trees and photogenic buildings. The block I was in had similar enough apartments for me to confuse one with the other, such as when I accidentally walked into 23 instead of 21, found a tv instead of my stuff, and ran quickly away. (Incidentally, #24 gets fresh russet potatoes delivered to it in a bag.)

So, Wednesday I arrived, reading Don Quixote in a Quixotic attempt to catch up with my dad in our simultaneous reading of the great book while waiting to be directed to the proper apartment. A beautiful day, as were all the days in Austin (warm during the day, cold at night, and always windy or breezy).

Once directed, I settled in and shortly thereafter we were off, to a free show/party at a bar called Lipstick, where we heard the end of Goldroom's act and saw all of one of Empress Of's many shows. (Somewhat underwhelming, if only because live acts are so much louder than recordings.) Probably should have stayed for mØ (https://soundcloud.com/mo-7), which seems to be an up-and-coming band.

I then walked up to UT Hillel, where there was a kosher food truck, and had a prepared meal (oh so rare), after which it was back to 6th street.

Saxophone plus pipe? Hmm. 

And on the right we see a rather typical SXSW go-er, always rushing to fit in more concerts.

Evening saw a trip over to the east side of downtown Austin to see Cheers Elephant. Got there a bit early and got this band performing:

Don't remember the name.

And then came Cheers Elephant, who played "Leaves" and a few others. Great performance and I really should have gone to the other shows they had. I've would up purchasing a physical CD of one of their albums.

A major element of SXSW is the food trucks, one of which is seen below. You could spend the entire festival just trying out different products, all day long. Several parks of food trucks were dotted around downtown.

And finally 6th Street at night

The best of the Camera photos

These are from the days I spent in Austin for SXSW, from the Powershot camera. Just a straight dump, since it's so hard to choose.

Two bands from southby

Cheers Elephant - played thrice during the week, I went to the first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2bWESY0pEc

Brothers-In-Law - played once, at a bar called B.D. Riley's, notable for its sweet tea vodka lemonade.  Why this band is not known better is beyond understanding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KJDxTNcDZk

The first SXSW photos