SXSW Middle

3/19/09
Alarm going off sounds exactly like a foghorn (what you get when you buy your alarm clocks from Goodwill), slam that snooze button, and over to Alamo Lamar for the morning movie. Alexander the Last is a very good and enthralling flick, from one of my favorite new directors (Joe Swanberg), about a newly-married couple in their twenties. On a tear, speed-walk over to Alamo Ritz, make it in for mozzarella sticks, Coke, and It Came From Kuchar - an awesome, funny, and profoundly entertaining documentary about the legendary underground filmmakers, the Kuchar brothers. Only film in the festival that I forgot to pay my food bill in the theater due to sheer involvement in the movie. The thing is, there are a lot of docs made about interesting people, but interesting people don't always make interesting docs. You have to have a charismatic and completely peculiar subject to make a great doc. In addition to this one, the films about Slavoj Zizek come to mind. A fitting end to what would be the end of my SXSW film fest experience.

Hit a bit of a wall, energy-wise, so home to shower, over to Cafe Caffeine, and over to Fran's for a free burger, Sante Fe beer, and music. (During SXSX, almost every club, bar, restaurant, cafe, store, and body shop offers some sort of musical entertainment, some times accompanied by free food and drinks.) Listening to the soft folk sounds of Golden Bloom, I want nothing more than to have everyone pour beer all over each other. Open the taps. Not in an angry or mean way, but purely care-free, let's make a mess on this hot day. From here on out, all decisions made at random at the last minute. Hop on first bus north on Congress - it's the #1, so if I want to make it to Cheap-o Records to see Kevin Seconds and Kepi Ghoulie, I'll have to walk. Lots of traffic makes bus go slow, so off that damn bus on 7th and Congress. Over to Side Bar to meet Eric and Lacey and friends. They're winding down so we walk back across the river for the free concert on the shore. Phil informs me via phone that tallboys are $5. Walking by Threadgill's, I hear an awesome song ("I Walked with a Zombie"), so Eric and I ditch the others. Turns out its Roky Erickson with Okkervil River - awesome - and we hear their last two songs. Over to the gas station for 24 ouncers, into some condo to sit on some random stairs and chill. We get talking and miss the whole concert at the shore. Meet up with Lacey to go to Zax, then back across the river. Then into a place I'd walked by before and never thought I would be inside as long as I lived in Austin: the ultra-swanky Belmont. But hell, I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and they let me in without a cover, so up to the rooftop terrace to order an only moderately expensive beer and hang with Nick and friends. Got tired, walked home.

I don't want to be in a band that's trying to "make it"... I don't want to be a pipe-dreamer. I want to keep making movies, but never ever make them in L.A.

3/20/09
Foghorn alarm, smash the snooze, cereal and OJ, Cafe Caffeine. Over to Hoek's for lunch - death metal pizza. Noontime death metal becomes early afternoon hardcore at Red 7. Wow, Ruiner is one of the best hardcore bands I've seen in a long time. Meet Liz, Larry, and Amy and Mike (in from Boston), and let the Lone Stars flow. Then more death metal: Darkest Hour is a very good band, but I don't like it when bands tell me what to do (clap for this, scream for that, etc.) or lie about having only one more song when they surely have planned for two. Then, Dillinger Four was awesome, and Paddy was perhaps as funny as ever in his euphemistic translation of drugs into cereals, for the little kids in the audience. The Bouncing Souls were great too (especially their yacht rock cover of "Hybrid Moments"), but honestly, not too many can follow D4, and the Lone Stars were adding up, making me tired.

Up north for delicious BBQ at Rudy's, with Mexican Coke (I believe they use real sugar, thus making their colas sweeter) and cream corn tasting like dessert. Eventually made it back for an Ace Pear Cider at Red Eyed Fly, and then off on my own. Made the masochistic decison to walk 20 blocks up to Spider House, even though I was quite sure the Stalkers weren't playing there until tomorrow night. And they weren't. I just felt like walking. So, #1 bus back home, make a plan for tomorrow, end a long day, and wait for the foghorn to render the day anew.