End of Silence

We had a SXSW meetup of Metbloggers from Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin today at Rio Rita. The main topic of conversation was the trainwreck Mark Zuckerberg interview that had just taken place. In fact, a website to commemorate the occasion was conceived and implemented during the meetup. I just took pictures.

 

Richard Ault, Metroblogger in from San Francisco, asked about more music options after my last post, so here’s some more.

• Faceless Werewolves CD release continues at Beerland (“The happiest place on earth”) – A note of trivia, Randal and Donya, the owners of Beerland also own Rio Rita, the spot of tomorrow’s meetup
• Dale Watson at Broken Spoke – I already plugged Dale Watson, but the Broken Spoke is a legendary country music venue. You’ll have to take a cab from downtown.
• Horse + Donkey and others at Mohawk
• Psych Fest at Red Barn
• Long Center Preview Weekend – 10am to midnight – Join The Long Center for the Performing Arts as we officially open our doors and welcome the community to its new performing arts home. Special guest artists include, MASS Ensemble, The Brewery Troupe’s Crowtations and the Tami Wolfe Duo. Enjoy free programming for the entire family all weekend and catch a glimpse of some of the artists who will take part in The Long Center’s inaugural season. Patrons will have an unprecedented opportunity to experience the behind-the-scenes work that goes into this magnificent facility.

Some of you may have arrived a day or two before SXSW to partake of all that Austin has to offer before things get crazy. We’re not called the Live Music Capital fer nuthin’ brother! Check out some cool stuff available over the next few nights. These are pretty much all local Austin artists and this is a chance to see a longer set with a smaller crowd than next week. It’s a pretty eclectic mix.

Tonight 

• The Dicks at Room 710 – They lost original guitarist Glen Taylor in 1997, but the reunited Dicks are still worth checking out. See some real honest-to-goodness Austin punk history.
• Elliott Smith Tribute Night at Emo’s – Zykos, Lions, Lalaland, Rite Fylers & others
• Mystic Knights of the Sea at Continental Club – Hear Charlie Sexton (yes, of “Beat’s So Lonely” and Bob Dylan backing fame) do roots rock covers with his brother Will and Mike Buck on drums. You can’t say you’ve been to Austin if you haven’t seen a band at the Continental even if it means paying for their overpriced cover and drinks. At least you’re supporting the local economy.
• Dale Watson – Ginny’s Little Longhorn – A hike from downtown, but you won’t get any more real country than Dale Watson at Ginny’s. Just don’t piss anyone off while you’re there.

Friday Night 

• Faceless Werewolves at Waterloo Records – CD Release Party at 5pm
• Sons of Hercules with Pat Todd & the Rank Outsiders and Jesus Christ Superfly at Lambert’s – San Antonio’s garage punk purveyors will push their wares. If you’ve never seen them (and most locals have), they’re a must…if only to see towering frontman Frank Pugilese channeling Iggy Pop among others. He’s got the street cred. His band opened for the Sex Pistols when they swung through San Antonio on that infamous American tour when I was still watching Krofft Superstars.
• Asylum Street Spankers at Momo’s – They of “Stick Magnetic Ribbons” and gospel brunch fame. Made up of many longtime Austin musicians.
• Grupo Fantasma at The Parish

The cutoff time was supposed to be 7:15. I got there at 7:00. There were 100-200 people standing outside waiting for the last voters to finish. It wasn’t very organized. We stood waiting until 8:15 and they were just beginning to allow people in to sign their names for their candidate. My third grader has a TAKS test in the morning, so we bailed at 8:30 without having voted in the caucus. It would’ve been nice if the Obama precinct workers who I saw at 7:20am and were still there at 8:00pm would’ve come up with a plan to organize the lines of Clinton and Obama supporters. They must’ve had the time. The Obama supporters appeared to outnumber the Clinton supporters 3:1.

Three things of note for those traveling to Austin in the next two weeks for SXSW.

1. Weather – Looks like we’re going to have another small cold front later this week before most people arrive and then start a warming trend through the middle of next week and the start of the Music portion of SXSW. It’ll fairly cold Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, but we’ll really start warming up Sunday and into early next week, eventually reaching the high 50s at night and low 80s during the day. Those coming for Interactive will need a jacket. Those in for Music, not so much. Locally, you should watch Jim Spencer on KXAN (the NBC affiliate) or if you have access to TimeWarner cable, Burton Fitzsimmons on News8Austin, the local 24 hour news channel.
2. Maps – Those using Google Maps for navigation, be careful when using the the satellite feature. Google’s satellite photos of Austin are very out of date. As near as I can tell, the ones of downtown are from late 2003 or early 2004. If you look, City Hall, the Frost Bank building and the Hilton near the Convention Center are all still under construction in those photos.
3. Parties – Jeremy’s got a good map of the SXSW Interactive parties. Austin360 has a good list of the side parties for the whole festival.