Austin City Limits Festival is a big deal in the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, and this is the outdoor music festival's tenth year. We went one year and I hated it: paying $90 a day to be locked in Zilker Park in sweltering heat with 75,000 other people, paying $7 for a can of beer, standing in line for 20 minutes to buy overpriced food. Fuck that noise!
But I also love ACL Fest because it brings tons of awesome artists to our fine city. When they shut down the concert at 10 pm every night and the sun-baked families head home to bed, the musicians are just getting started! They go downtown and play shows in bars and venues. Drinks are cheaper and the weather is cooler and the crowds are smaller and you can get a lot closer to the artist.
The video above is the perfect example of that. I took it last night at Emo's Austin where we got to see Theophilus London up close and personal. To have had that close a perspective at ACL, we would have had to fight through this huge crowd of people, and even then we would still be 10 feet from the stage. Did I mention his ACL set was at 12:30 in the freaking afternoon?
I look forward to ACL Fest every year. I just hope I never have to attend it again.
I am loving the Scoot Inn a lot lately! Last Saturday night it was blazing hot, and even though we RSVPed for this event, we decided to say screw it. At like 10 pm it was 90F/32C humidity was at 75%. Not the best weather for an outdoor dance party.
But by midnight it had cooled down and there was a pleasant late night breeze, so we decided to give it a shot. I'm glad we did!
I really enjoyed the stage lighting. It's hard to see in my shaky iPhone video, but they had banks of what appeared to be color-changing fluorescent lights. I think they were actually rows of LEDs covered in a plastic tube.
The event was billed as "Chronic Vibrations". The idea was that local DJs Prince Klassen and DJ Orion were to play a lot of Beach Boys and Dr Dre. Unfortunately, they didn't play much of either (while we were there), but they still got the place moving!
Later that night, Orion tweeted that 900 people came out. Pretty good turnout for two local DJs!
This is the problem with SXSW: no matter where you are, there's always something else awesome going on. Here's an example. Fucking Bill fucking Murray serving drinks at our local watering hole a block away, the Shangri la.
At least someone made this video. Cheers. And TGIF!
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!
It's the time of the week during SXSW when crowds of geeks wearing badges are replaced by crowds of hispters wearing badges. I resist the urge to yell, "Hey dudes, you don't need a badge to walk down 6th street!" I wonder if they shower with those things.
It is amazing how much stuff there is for free. There are so many free events that promoters compete for your attention by offering free booze and food.
Organizing evenings over the next few days is like a part-time job. It gets overwhelming very quickly! We've been compiling gradually over time, and here are some of the free events on our radar.
Paula Dean's Jumbo Butter Warmer
Last night, we went to a party sponsored by a large vodka company at Pine Street Studios (1101 E. 5th St in Austin, Texas). The venue was known as Fader Fort during SXSW 2009. The event ended early, like 10 p.m., but drinks were free and so was the entertainment. Peanut Butter Wolf was there to do his DJ/VJ thing, where he mixes music videos together on two big screens. (It reminded me of a much better version of the Much Music video dance parties we used to have in junior high.)
One room had this cool installation that involved a bunch of light sensitive sound making circuit boards mounted on a table. People were invited to manipulate the sounds. It was hard to tell exactly how you were affecting the music, but it was still fun!
Youtube version is here.
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Growing up in Canada, I was always led to believe that Labatt Blue was a product unavailable outside our home and native land. The main reason for this belief was a Labatt Blue commercial that aired when I was a teenager. I couldn't find it on YouTube, but here's the gist of it:
It's a blazing hot summer day at the Canada-US border. Cars are slowly creeping south through US customs. A 20-something slacker dude is sitting in his front lawn, which somehow happens to be right in front of this huge line of cars. People are sweating their asses off, and he reaches into an ice chest and pulls out a Labatt Blue, glistening with moisture droplets. He cracks it open and takes a huge swig. Ahhh... You can almost taste how refreshing it is through the TV set. He looks smugly at the jealous fat Americans heading back to the United States. Then a voiceover comes in and says, "Labatt Blue, only available in Canada," or something like that.
It was wish-fulfillment for Canadians. They are bombarded with American culture day and night. But most often, they can only witness it. They don't "own" the culture or participate in it in. This commercial was a big Fuck You to America. And it must have worked, because Molson adopted a similar, but more annoying, I Am Canadian commercial a few years later. Those ads turned a generic looking guy named Joe Canadian into a minor celebrity, and earned an even greater place in the Canadian psyche. But I still remember that damn Labatt Blue commercial. Finally, we had this awesome beer to be proud of that they couldn't get their hands on unless they came north of the 49th.
Turns out, it is all a crock of shit.-729817.jpg)
In the above picture, you can see the bottle, purchased at an American liquor store in Austin, Texas was clearly imported. I've got to give them credit for actually brewing it in Canada, even if it was at some factory in Toronto. The label could very well have read, "Brewed in Milwaukee, WI."
But really, how "Canadian" is Labatt? It was bought by Belgian brewer Interbrew in 1995, and the company is now called Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Who cares. Labatt's cultural value remains in tact. When I'm down here in Texas and I crack open a long necked cold one with the proud Blue label, I feel like I could be in any of the Canadian locations depicted in these hilarious Labatt commercials from 1987. Cheers!
Good Wednesday morning! Here's a reason to look forward to the weekend.
- Pour 2 oz tequila in short glass over ice.
- Pour approximately equal parts grapefruit juice and soda water. (Add the juice first.)
- Top with the juice of half a lime and a pinch of salt.
- Garnish with circular lime wedge.
I'm sure it's not the first time someone has made this drink, but I'll take credit for it anyway. It's basically a Paloma with simulated grapefruit soda.
I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of civic pride when one of my favorite brands of beer chooses the street on which I live as the basis a delivery truck ad. Yet another advantage of living just a few blocks from the heart of Austin's entertainment district!
In a city where tacos are as common as burgers, this fast food chain offers an edge over its competitors: frozen margaritas with real Tequila and Triple Sec! I know fast food chains serve booze in other countries, but in Texas, this is the only one I know of that lets you walk out the door with an open container of alcohol. Hurrah!
Every April, San Antonio hosts a ten day extravaganza of TexMex culture called Fiesta San Antonio. The night parade draws more than 500,000 people to the 2.6 mile route winding through downtown. I found it interesting that there's no central ticketing authority. Different sections along the route are sold by different groups. Some Boy Scout chapter was selling tickets to the folding chairs set up along the street in our section.
The "People's Parade" is a perfect example of everything awesome about San Antonio. Public drinking, unhealthy street foods, few white people, crazy Christian evangelists, and best of all, people who just don't give a fuck. It's great because it's all real.
The parade starts just before dusk and runs for hours and hours, until about 11:30 p.m. This video is highlights. I suggest you crack open a nice cold one, maximize the HD video, and sit back for 15 minutes to imagine yourself on the streets of downtown SA.
Donn's Depot is an old bar near our home that we only recently discovered. From their website:
One of Austin's most unique nightspots is housed in an old Missouri-Pacific train depot. Real train cars serve as seating areas, and the ladies restroom is a real caboose! The building that houses Donn's Depot was transported, via train tracks, from McNeil, Texas, to its current location about 30 years ago.
Featuring live music six nights a week Donn's Depot is the venue of some of Austin's most talented musicians. With friendly waitstaff, a full service bar, moderate prices, two dance floors, and a just-for-fun blackjack table, Donn's Depot is a haven of culture and diversity. On any given night you will find an eclectic crowd ranging from students to retirees.
Great place! Cheap drinks, good times, and a mixed crowd. What more could you ask for?
It's not the prettiest drink in Austin but it will fuck you up! This seemingly innocuous purple slush at Baby Acapulco's Restaurant Y Cantina is laced with the dangerously potent liquor Everclear, which is why the menu reads:
Purple Margarita
Our most popular margarita. Not for the faint at heart.
(Limit of 2) $7.25
S. and I went there last night with some of her friendly coworkers and had to draw the line at one each. We were driving home after all, and this is DUI in a glass.
Found this Cosmopolitan-in-a-box product in SuperTarget, just in time for this weekend's release of the Sex in the City movie. And thank goodness they clarified that Alcohol Is In It. Throw that stamp on just about anything and I'm going to buy it!
For anyone who's a fiend of kitsch, beer, and commercial art, what the fuck more could you want? We found this thing in a Salvation Army in North Vancouver, shelled out 20 bucks for it, and lugged it around Vancouver for hours and hours. It was hellish, especially dragging it through downtown malls on a busy holiday shopping Saturday. But somehow it made it through the plane ride home inside a suitcase without breaking and now this piece of Canadiana hangs proudly on our wall, a dedication to all the Molson beers I've consumed in the past 10 years and a conveniently placed mirror to check yourself out on the way to our porch. Cheers!
