Alternadad Live

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Mar 082007
 
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I went and checked out Neal Pollack at Bookpeople tonight. He read a few excerpts from the book, Alternadad, a memoir set mostly during the time that he lived in Austin. He read a bit from his blog at the end. He followed the reading with a Q&A which included a question about his reaction to the David Brooks column that slammed his book without actually mentioning his name. Nice.

He’ll be appearing two more times: once at the Rock n Romp at Mohawk on Sunday and once during his SXSW panel on Monday.

I recognized Amanda Marcotte, who made the news recently as the blogger who was hounded out of the John Edwards campaign, in the audience along with Michael Barnett who used to write for Austinist and, apparently, several of Pollack’s old neighbors. From one Alternadad to another, I gave him a copy of my band’s CD. I picked up a copy of the book and he inscribed it “For Tim, there’s nothing in here you don’t already know. Rock On.”

Rock on, indeed. He’s here until Monday. Check him out if you have the chance.

 Posted by on March 8, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Mar 082007
 

For all you out-of-towners coming to Austin from cities where the public transportation system is widespread, you’re in for a shock. Texans love their cars. That being said, Capital Metro is doing several things that are useful for SXSW attendees without cars, so I thought I’d pass them along.

Some of the highlights are:

  • Ride from the airport to the convention center or your hotel for just 50 cents on the Airport Flyer.
  • Save your cab cash for popcorn and beverages by taking Route 3 to SXSW film theaters.
  • Park & Ride free to the Free Dew Concerts at Auditorium Shores March 15 – 17.
  • $1 day passes are available for purchase on board buses and provide unlimited use of trips for an entire day.
  • Ride the free Dillo service. The `Dillos operate north to south between 23rd Street and Oltorf Road, and east to west from near MoPac at Lake Austin Boulevard to Pleasant Valley Road.

SXSW Baby points out that Capital Metro has become part of the Google Transit Trip Planner.

I also heard on KUT this morning about a new service called Dadnab that lets you text your location and get the nearest bus that will take you to your destination.

For example, you can text “5th & lavaca to barton springs & kinney” to austin [at] dadnab.com (You’d type it like an e-mail address with the at symbol and no spaces. I’m just trying to avoid them getting spammed because of this post.) and get back “W 5TH ST & LAVACA ST to BARTON SPRINGS RD & KINNEY AVE/depart COLORADO & 5TH at 02:00 PM/29-SB/arrive BARTON SPRINGS & JESSIE at 02:08 PM”. Their site has more information on how to use the service. Pretty sweet.

 Posted by on March 8, 2007 at 1:29 pm

SXSW Music: Bob Mould

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Mar 082007
 

bob_sm.jpgBob Mould has a post today on his blog about his two SXSW appearances.

He’ll be at Buffalo Billiards for his showcase on Thursday, 3/15 at 9pm.

He’s also playing at Emo’s Annex during the day on Friday, 3/16. He’s on at 4:45pm.

As he mentions in his post, Bob lived in Austin for several years in the mid-90’s. He played ACL two years ago and was one of the last performers at Liberty Lunch before it was demolished.

 Posted by on March 8, 2007 at 9:26 am