End of Silence

Hard to believe it’s been a whole year, but it’s true.

We’d like to celebrate our move from infancy to toddlerhood with as many of our friends as possible. We’ve picked Casino El Camino as the scene of the crime this Friday, October 14th at 5:30pm. We’ll stay at least ’til 8pm or later depending on how things go. So come on out and meet some of the metrobloggers in person. We’d love to meet you, otherwise we’ll be stuck drinking and talking to ourselves again and nobody wants that.

It’s been a while. We weren’t sure you were coming back. Hope you stick around for a while.

Being a native Texan, I’m used to the heat. In fact, I generally like it. I moved to NYC for two years in my early twenties and ended up moving back here mainly because not being able to more than one block away left me with a subtle but perisistent feeling of claustrophobia and the lack of sunlight and cold temperatures really had an effect on my mood.

Especially after this past weekend though, 72 degrees and overcast never felt so good.

I’ll have photos up tonight. I think I got some decent shots at Bob Mould and Rilo Kiley. Until then, check out Ray’s flickr page. He’s got some good stuff. I only attended the last day, which was the hottest, my luck. As reported earlier, yesterday was, in fact, the hottest day of the year. The two locations of record, Camp Mabry and Bergstrom Airport, recorded 107 and 108 respectively. I’m sure there will be more calls to move this festival into October. The organizers shrugged it off last year claiming that the heat was a fluke. Well, guess again, we topped it this year. Global warming or not, I can remember going to UT football games in late September in the late 80’s/early 90’s and having to wear a jacket.

From what I can gather from those who attended all three days, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, and The Frames were some of the notable performances of the weekend. We only caught the first few songs of Coldplay, but it sounds like they made a good showing. I checked out Rilo Kiley and Bob Mould close-up and watched Wilco and Tortoise from the comfort of my umbrella-shaded chair on the H-E-B Buddy beach. Our kids spent a fair amount of time in Austin Kiddie Limits with Joe McDermott and Biscuit Brothers. We watched some of the festival re-cap on News8Austin when we returned home last night and were surprised to find a crowd shot that included our two kids and a friend.

I’d heard a lot of good things about Rilo Kiley and was suitably impressed. The lead singer is quite the instrumentalist, switching between guitar, keyboards, bass, harmonica and percussion throughout the set. The band apparently spent Saturday tubing down the river in New Braunfels. Their Austin City Limits taping will air on October 8th on your local PBS affiliate if you’d like to check them out for yourself.

Bob Mould’s performance was good. It didn’t quite have the energy of some of the other shows. There were a few miscues as well. He started off the set with a few Sugar tracks, followed by three or four from the new album, including Paralyze, which is one of my favorites, but was played a little too fast. He broke out several H

We’re only three days out from the “relly big shew” and it’s time to go over what we’ve learned, class. First, let’s examine history lest we be doomed to repeat it. I had two posts last year recapping my first ACL. The tone is a bit cranky. I made good on my threat and only bought a pass for Sunday this year. On the other hand, I’m still paying more that I would have if I’d gotten a 3-Day Pass when they were first released, so that shows you how smart I am. I did try that first morning, but even with a cable modem connection, I was unable to get through.

I dredged up a few more recap and tips posts from Jon and Adam and some good advice here. ACL Festival has their own here.

As I mentioned last year, if you’re trying to meet someone there, you’re best bet is to agree on a predetermined landmark and time. Cell phone usage was impossible last year. I was able text message though. The other tradition is come up with some sort of flag or totem that stretches at least 10 feet into the air. The problem is coming up with something sufficiently original so as not to be confused with another group. Yes, there are that many of them.

It looks to be almost certain that Rita will make Saturday a wet affair You can bring an umbrella and I’d recommend bringing the allotted two factory-sealed water bottles no larger than 16 oz. You can check out the list of stuff you can and can’t bring here. It looks like they’re allowing chairs again, but only in designated areas. I didn’t have as much of a problem with the chairs as some people did. We’ll see how that goes.

As far as the food, it looks like many of the same vendors. It’s nice to see that they’re sticking with the locals. I’ll be camped at the Hudson’s On The Bend booth. The Hot & Crunchy Chicken Cone and the Venison Sausage Wrap are the shit. If you’re from out of town, try a cheesesteak from Texadelphia, but you have to get it with the mustard blend sauce, trust me. Amy’s Ice Cream is also not to be missed. Go with the Mexican Vanilla.

Anybody else have anything they want to add?

I noticed a headline in today’s Statesman as I was waiting to get my morning caffeine dose. Apparently, someone in this year’s Hands On A Hard Body competition in Longview snapped during the competition, walked to a K-Mart across the street, threw a trash can through the front window, went to the sporting goods section, got a shotgun and some shells and proceeded to shoot himself in the head.

There’s an unfortunate typo in the description of the contest, but I’m not sure if it’s the Statesman or Longview News-Journal’s fault or if it’s only in the online version.

In this annual contest, contestants try to keep one hand on a new truck at a Nissan dealership in Longview for as long as possible. The winner gets the truck. Last year’s winner hung on for 117 consecutive hours. This was the contest’s 13th year.

Rules:

• There are 24 competitors.
• Contestants must live within 100 miles of the Longview area.
• No gun chewing or nicotine products allowed.
• No leaning, squatting, sitting or lying down.
• 5-minute breaks every hour. Every eight hours, there is a 15-minute break.

Update: I guess I should’ve taken a screenshot, becuse they’ve fixed it. It was there. Really. I’m not that sick. No, really.