Hip E. arrived in Austin yesterday for the South by Southwest musical festival. The rest is the opposite of silence.
______________________________
HIP E. (3/18; 2:30pm): There were so many ridiculous hipster scarves on the plane to Austin. I’m steeling myself.
PETE (3/18; 3pm): Hip E., what’s going on? A running Jo-Tel commentary abotu SXSW would be good.
HIP E. (3/18; 3:15pm): Actually I was thinking on my way over here that I would do a blog post about how I was NOT going to be liveblogging SXSW, since that’s what everyone else does. Anytime laziness can be edgy, call me Miles Davis.
HIP E. (3/18; 8:10pm)(text message to Shark): Boys Noize in 15 minutes. :)
SHARK (3/18; 8:12pm): Don’t ever write a smiley face emoticon to me in a text message ever again.
BMK12000 (3/19; 8:49pm): hip e. is sleeping. “the dazzled” is the best song ever.
HIP E.: (3/20; 1:45am): I slept from 7:30 to 9:30, alright?? I’m old. But I got back in time to burn the place down at King Khan. Deepa, do you know him at all?
BMK12000 (3/20; 7:50pm): a note to the ladies: as cool as it may be to wear high-waisted shorts during this budding summer–and given the ubiquity of the look this weekend, it’s quite cool–it’s four times more unflattering.
BMK12000 (3/21; 9:57pm): hip e. is carrying around camel crusher menthols in a parliament light box.
STYLISH SIDE PONYTAIL (3/21; 10:00pm): and it totally impresses the ladies
HIP E.: BMK and I just got back from the new movie Knowing. Nothing I can say will convey what watching this movie is like. Ebert compared it to Dark City in calling it “frightening, suspenseful, intelligent and, when it needs to be, rather awesome” and giving it four stars. It’s a live-action version of a South Park episode based on the Nicolas Cage movie Knowing. BMK did the slow clap afterwards, got some quality laughs.
BMK12000: knowing = evangelical christian theology + junior high “astrophysics” + kabbalah center numerology + aliens + nicholas cage. by the way, we entered the alamo drafthouse with andrea, jordan, and rene. hip e. and i were the only ones left when the lights went on. as hip e. said afterwards, “it’s like in an action movie when a few people get off the train right before it explodes.”
-The Jo-tel
10 responses so far ↓
Hip E. // Mar 19, 2009 at 1:28 am
Shark did not actually send me that email. Although he should have, because that show was great and he was not at it. Although Boys Noize did have an a-little-too-extended chill section in the middle of the set, where he kept building up and building up, and then went straight back to the chill section, where I was like [analogy put off until I am sober enough to decide whether this is a good thing to put on the internet]. Fuck it I’ll just blog more tomorrow.
But while we’re at it, PETE, why not blog the rest of the text messages I sent tonight.
P.S. I only put the smiley face in order to emphasize the fact that Shark was going to bed early in preparation for work while I was in the second row of a Boys Noize concert in Austin, TX.
Kristin // Mar 19, 2009 at 12:21 pm
You can listen to SXSW live on All Songs Considered
http://www.npr.org/music/sxsw/index.html
Goooooooooooood
Hip E. // Mar 22, 2009 at 10:54 am
man that first comment was salty.
PETE, I’m really hoping that by hook or by crook you saved or recorded the text messages I sent you with the name of every band I saw this weekend. Cause there is no way I’m going to remember without it.
SXSW is my favorite music festival. I’ve gotten really tired of the giant music festival in a park. Bonnaroo 2003 was really great, but I’ve heard that it has gotten a little more commercialized since then, and also it was partly great because Jereb & Snake drove an RV across country and got the best site in the campground for us. Sasquatch, despite being at the Gorge, still suffers from the ills of the other big festivals – standing and walking all day long in the hot sun, getting exhausted and dehydrated, expensive beers and waters and food, short sets by every band, lots of people standing around not dancing at each show because they’ve never heard of this your favorite band, the fact that while the lineup is always amazing, you only actually get to see about 4 or 5 of those bands because of logistics, etc.
At Outside Lands last year I thought of my $100 ticket as just a ticket to go see Radiohead, which worked out perfectly because everybody that tried to go see some other bands that afternoon before Radiohead came on ended up standing about a mile away at the other end of the Polo Fields.
But enough complaining. SXSW is great because it’s spread out over most of a week, and you don’t have to buy a $100 ticket to each day. Most bands play anywhere from 3 to 10 shows over the span of it, which means that for any band that you absolutely must see, you can definitely make it happen. The earlier in the day the show is the smaller the crowd. Everything is in bars, alleys, backyards and parks so almost every show feels intimate. The key thing for me is that you don’t feel trapped in there. You can leave at any time. If you’re flagging at 3pm you can just bike home and watch tv in the dark for an hour and meet everybody up at the next show. I would say you can leave the club and grab a bite to eat at a normal restaurant, except for the fact that in downtown Austin there is a six block area where every single storefront is a bar. Honestly – I forgot my cheap shades and for the first two days (after losing the ones BMK12000 lent me) I was still squinting along and wearing hats because you’ll walk past 50 or 60 bars before you find a corner store that sells postcards and sunglasses.
I guess this is turning into my SXSW blog post. What else happened? BMK and I got pulled over on our bikes yesterday and issued citations for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign on the UT campus. The cop was a smug asswipe. I’m not paying. I managed to leave one of my favorite t-shirts in the world in the park yesterday while rearranging my backpack to collect some of our empty beer cans. My main goal for my remaining time here is to rally a few people to go swimming at Barton Springs this afternoon. More to come.
PETE // Mar 23, 2009 at 6:12 pm
BMK and Hip E. Decide to see “Knowing.” A short play.
–
BMK: Whew! What a week! The … the …
Hip E.: The music!
BMK: Yes! The music!
Hip E.: And the dancing. Oh, how we danced! I wish it would never end!
BMK: Saaaaaaaay. Just because it’s Sunday night, that doesn’t mean our fun has to stop!
Hip E.: … You mean …
Both: “KNOWING”!!
Both: You ‘know’ it!
Both: JINX!
Both: You owe me a Coke!
BMK: You know it’s directed by the same guy who did “I Robot,” right?
Hip E.: Du-uh. I only watch “I Robot,” like, every single day almost!
BMK: I think we need to see it. Right now. We OWE it to ourselves. No other activity we could engage in would be a more fitting end to this A-MA-ZING week!
Hip E.: Agreed! Let’s go! … Wait!
BMK: What?
Hip E.: They serve Coke right?
(Laughter)
[fade music: "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day]
~fin~
Thrill // Mar 24, 2009 at 2:43 pm
zing
Pants // Mar 25, 2009 at 4:34 pm
bravo, pete.
Pants // Mar 25, 2009 at 4:35 pm
er, PETE.
bmk12000 // Mar 25, 2009 at 4:40 pm
for the record, we went to see “i love you, man” but it sold out three people in front of us. so it was “knowing” or “watchmen,” and sophistocated side pony vetoed “watchmen” then proceeded to leave twenty minutes into our chosen film.
still, i am pretty sure hip e. and i will not ever meet another person that has seen the movie. which, in its way, is interesting.
Deepa // Mar 25, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Patsy is taking 5 of her middle school angsty students to see Knowing on Friday. The privileged group grows!
Thrill // Mar 27, 2009 at 10:36 am
They’ll probably love that shit, though; it’s a Catholic school.
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