inside the wonderful world of vee

oh yes i will regale you with tales from sxsw, i will. i actually think i took too few photos. fux0rz! :[ god, this blog post is going to take forever. i am dreading it already. this is why you always have to write shit down the day of. or else massive skimping.

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***

thursday, march 13th, 2008

slept over at hojo’s on sunday evening and dennis took us to the airport in the morning. flight arrived in houston in the late afternoon, and then we had to take another flight to austin. got there at 6pm. met some old guy on the plane (houston to austin) who said that he moved to austin for retirement. he had just come back from vacation in veracruz, mexico. he was very sunburnt. haha. so very red!!! he talked a little bit about music when he found out i ran a music mag, like willie nelson and stuff. and said austin was the only place in texas he’d live since it’s liberal.

anyway, we got there and was going to stay at koji’s sister tomoko’s house, but she wasn’t off work until like 8, so we had to shoot the shit until then. took the bus from the airport. it took forever to come and was late. :L at the bus stop was an editor from the seattle times and some random musician guy who gave hojo a CD. the musician self-booked a show that was not sxsw-related. afterwards, went to the convention center to pick up our press passes and get photo credentials. blahblahblah. saw that hanson was playing at sxsw. lul.

got to the streets and i still have my bag and don’t have anywhere to put it. we get some food at a taco stand. i like getting weird stuff at the taco stand, so i got a fried chicken taco… it was fucking delicious. i also got a fried avocado one but that was not so good. but man. fried chicken taco for the fucking winnnnnnnnnnnn. hojo went to check out a show and i was sitting there finishing up my taco and a couple of guys came up and were like, “you were so hungry you didn’t even stop to put away your bag?” and i was like, “yup.”

afterwards, hojo wanted to go to a couple of places but i had my bag so i didn’t want to walk around and shit. we went into a couple of bars but /fail and then i was just like this shit is lame and we went to sit in a coffee shop instead. looked up some shows on the internet. then went to tomoko’s cute little house, pictured below!

dropped off our stuff then went to eat bbq at stubb’s. i did as i always do — that is, got a vegetarian plate at a bbq house. werd. pretty good, though. what it was… on the top… fried okra. on the left… mashed yams (i shoulda gotten mashed potatoes but i like to get shit that is weird, what can i say). on the right… cheesy jalapeno spinaches. quite the spicy. the dinner itself was weird/awkward for me because tomoko and hojo were like catching up and i was just like………. zzz.

ever wonder what a piece of wonderbread looks like when condensed? this is what it looks like. the 1″ x 1″ ish square!!!

afterwards hojo and i wandered around kinda aimlessly. went to a couple of shows, kinda. went to a random show at habana calle 6 (outdoors) and it was mediocre. but then we went inside and saw something great.

ANAVAN

and that something great is los angeles band anavan (shit, that shit rhymes). CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO OF ANAVAN. they’re all very good musicians. when i first entered, the vocalist was wearing a helmet and so was the keyboardist. before i knew it, vocalist boy was in his underwear, dancing around and playing drums with hairy man legs, and hugging a pole while singng, and putting his head on my shoulder rofls. quite the good show. if i had to describe their music, i just say “electro screamo.” not sure how else to say it!!! but it was fucking fantastic. see anavan if you get the chance.

why yes and i almost forgot to mention the crazy rotund asian girl who was trying to get on the singer’s jock DURING the show. he was starting to take off his pants and she kept screaming, “TAKE IT ALL OFF!” “TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT!” etc. he ignored her. then during the set she got all close (everyone else was rather far away since the singer likes to utilize a lot of floor space) and was like trying to get all up in his face while he was performing lol. then of course she was the first one to rush over after the set, calling him by his first name. maybe they knew each other, i don’t know, but it didn’t seem like it. it did definitely seem like she wanted his bawlz, though.

this is the inside of that venue, although it is not anavan in this photo. i don’t know who is playing at this time.

SHOUT OUT OUT OUT OUT

it’s quite confusing how many outs are involved in this band’s name, but they were some kind of house electro band with a live band. not too shabby… but it was weird because at any given time, one of the band members would be doing absolutely nothing at all. (… nothing at all… nothing at all… nothing at all…) lol. the keyboardist (not shown in this picture) was a crazy boy who looked funny and was extremely drunk. at the end of the set, he was playing guitar propped up against the wall, like he was half passed out. then he fell behind the stage, with just his shoes sticking out from behind a projector screen. lul. it was weird and funny. like wizard of oz witch stylee.

DIZZEE RASCAL

we didn’t have much to do after that and hojo wanted to see dizzee rascal so we went. prior to dizzee rascal were like three rappers. shit sucked big time. dizzee rascal was okay but i was bored out of my mind. i don’t like jump-up type hip-hop at all. shit sucks. :[ blech. yeah. my feet hurt and the venue was at the scoot inn, which was in the middle of nowhere. shit sucked. and the walk back was somewhat amusing but much too long.

we did however, run into this homeless guy who wanted some money in exchange for a joke. we were without money, but i told him he could tell us a joke anyway. his joke:

***

friday, march 14th, 2008

woke up in the morning and hojo needed toiletries because he had not packed a toothbrush or anything. outside, a homeless guy stopped us and he wanted some change for ‘food’. i bought him a drink — i had an apple juice and a vitamin water. i was hoping he’d take the apple juice but he took the vitamin water. oh well, though. both were alright. lol.

half-assededly covered up graffiti near the cvs, at some recycling depot. and omg! haven’t been to a cvs pharmacy in for fucking ever!!!!

afterwards, called up jason of bangarang because we were supposed to meet up and hang out. so i’ve been talking to randy of bangarang for a while now and i guess he gave jason my number since jason was coming to sxsw. anyway, so we met up with him and we got some food… somewhere… i forget where. as we were at the bbq place, some guy was squeezing new potato salad out of a plastic bag and it looked fucking gross. like playdoh. he was going to run and get some more coleslaw and i was like, no thanks, i will get out of here before i see him squeeze that shit out.

DUB TRIO

not bad. their name was unfitting, but yeah. basically they would rotate between like metal riffs and dub at the drop of the time. i don’t quite remember what their music was like, to be honest. sadface.

afterwards we headed over to the pitchfork party at emo’s for a little bit, where i was going to meet up with judy from warmfuzzy. there was telephone confusing and i had a hard time finding her because emo’s is like, four different venues in one haha. we then decided to meet outside. hojo had gone off somewhere else so jason and i met her and her friend. wOo! they wanted to get some food so we followed them to dirty dog. there wasn’t really any food left, so i had a coleslaw sandwich. haha. it was um, not good. :0

LIAM FINN

they were playing at the dirty dog. judy left early and we agreed to meet up later but that never ended up happening. she didn’t have a wristband so things were hard :[ anyway, jason was obsessed with the pedals the liam finn guy had and he says he’s going to build pedals into a block of wood since i gave him the idea?? lol. anyway, they were an interesting band. experimental and extremely random. :0 they were both spazzy as fuck. spazzy is good.

“TALK TO US ABOUT ANYTHING?!”

see post above for details on this……..!! it should be a separate post from the music stuff because i’m anal like that, i guess.

the hot dog king was there, but he was not dressed up. he should have been. /disappoint.

THE LITTLE ONES

went to see some san francisco band — purely by accident — because they were playing a little bit before the helio sequence. shit was lame. there were sound problems and the mic went out for a couple of tracks, but people there — mostly an older crowd — were super into it. i was not so much down with it. :0 blech. couple asian guys in there, though, which was interesting.

HELIO SEQUENCE

as usual helio sequence was great. i had thought they were playing in the room the little ones were playing in but when the little ones ended and no one came on, i figured there was actually a back room where the helio sequence was playing. it was fantastic even though it took them a long time to set up because the mic was all fucked, and one of the guys in the crowd was being super assholish and anal, and telling them to hurry the fuck up and that it didn’t matter. but of course, it always matters. benjamin weikel is like the best drummer ever, for eternity. i tooketh some hilarious video of his great drumming faces and actions. ^__^

BRITISH SEA POWER

when i was done with helio sequence i called hojo and him and jason were at british sea power at the mohawk. i met them there. british sea power, unlike all the other sets before it, had to of course play like a one hour set. i wanted to die. it was THE most boring show i saw at all of sxsw. i wanted to leave but wasn’t sure where else to go. at least i got a free gross-tasting, overly-sweet watermelon popsicle. at least jason picked me up a pin of a girl feeding a popsicle to a husky… not as good as the one he got of a squirrel riding a horse, but it’s okay. i’ll survive. british sea power is the motherfucking suck. i thought this showing would maybe have changed my mind, but no, it didn’t. i do like their crack-headed looking guitarist, though. he totally looks like a druggie biatch.

after british sea power, we had nothing else to do for a couple of hours so hojo wanted to get some hot dog at best wurst, so as we were walking over to the stand, we saw some guy being arrested by the cops. i took a couple pics through the barricade. while at the barricade, some guy started talking to me about taking the photos and getting good shots, and he mentioned he was in some band. i asked what band. turned out it was two guys from tera melos. then i said, “i know you. you guys are friends with facing new york,” and they said, “yeah.” and then i said, “i wrote a review about you guys,” and gave them a card. and they said they new. the lead singer said, “this might be weird, but i think i may have read that review, and you were in our van?” ahahaha. i guess it was amusing because they had been reading that review and had never met me because i had just silently gone into whatever van they were having the listening party in, and were just like, “who the hell is this girl? she was in our van?” guess that question got answered!!

afterwards we went to go get some waters at the convenience store. blahblahblah. then more talking to people!

RETURN OF THE “TALK TO US”

see next post!!!!

SO DOPP

blargh hojo wanted to check out japan nite so we went there before shit even started. cause he was bored because he was not participating in the talk to us. the show was mer, whatevers. i guess it’s cool that asian girls are in bands and the bass licks were neat but other than that, it was pretty much non-exciting. some person kept shining around one of those scary green lasers. the bouncer / worker tried finding that person but /failed.

after that went to eat some mexican food at… jaime’s?? it was not bad i guess. i got a steak fajita taco or something. mmmmmkoi. and then i was going to go see danger radio but i got there too late. boo urns. i didn’t want to stay around for envy on the coast, so then i met back up with hojo who was trying to get into something else. he failed. we went to walk hella far away to see devotchka. waited in line for like an hour and a half to get in because tons of people were there, trying to see vampire weekend. vampire weekend got out and we were still not inside. in line, talked to some drunken fool with a six pack. haha. it was amusing. he shared one with hojo and one with a guy next to us. then some homeless guy came up and was eyeballing the six-pack (he somehow knew even though it was in a paper bag) and the guy was like, “dude, this is a sandwich my mom made me!” and then as the homeless guy was walking away all dejected, the guy was like, “hey man, i’m sorry, i’m just an asshole. here you go,” and he gave him one. lol. interesting. he talked about how he got his wristband online or something and had to get a hotel also, because that was the deal. blahblahblah. god this journal is taking way too fucking long.

DEVOTCHKA

they were alright. not as good as i had hoped but they did have some elaborate instrumentation going on. unfortunately, they had a mini orchestra which could barely be heard. but man, THEY HAVE A TUBA. how fucking awesome.

CONSTANTINES

they would start off every band here with some little poster with a sometimes witty kind of saying. the constantines one sucked (shown) but the devotchka one was good :0

asides from my newfound love for their keyboardist (feet shown here) who is like, amazingly cute mannerism-wise, constantines were fantastic. one of the best shows i saw, for sure. prior to the show, i had sat down on the ground (second row, middle of the crowd), because i was super tired, and before i knew it some other guy had sat down also. then a few other people, and soon there were six people on the ground! WOOT. i tried talking to the guy next to me but he didn’t quite say much lol. i told him, “thanks for joining us,” and he just kind of nodded. and then he tried to get someone else to sit down but failed. interesting. anyway, those attempts to talk to him were nice though because later when some people left in the first row, in front of him, he let me take the spot. so i was right in the first row, next to this hella old grey-haired guy who was uber drunk and rocking out to constantines. good stuff. but i love the keyboardist. and they closed with an ac/dc cover, i guess. anyway, great performance. that’s all there is to it, really. i’m a fan now.

guitarist playing with a broken hand. pretty hardcore shit.

i wasn’t allowed to leave the menu with a cup of water because it was considered an open container. weak!

then we went home. took a petticab part of the way and the guy almost crashed us twice. he was totally like not paying attention and was in a rush. he dropped us off at like, 6th and red river because he was lazy. and that cost $5 each. bleh. he said he didn’t want to take us the whole way because it was his rush hour. yea, yea.

walked home the rest of the way and it was all good. werd. >__>

***

saturday, march 15th, 2008

god this shit is taking way too fucking long. BAH. i’m getting hungry. woke up and it was late because i had a killer nosebleed which went on for like a half hour. bah. bled all over tomoko’s kitchen and paper towel roll.

THE VALLEY ARENA

went over to emo’s lounge to FINALLY see the valley arena. it was a good show, although maybe not as good as i was hoping. it was for alternative press, which is weird to me still. ummmm. afterwards i talked to warren and chris for a little but hojo was fucking hovering, wanting me to get him into fader fort. which is lame. because i would have really liked to talk to them longer since i probably won’t even see them again, at least for a long time. weak fucking sauce. my fault, though, i should have just asked them what they were doing later and tried to meet up with them again. bah.

went over to the “south by seattle” or… the northwest showcase to get some free food. there was some pretty bomb zucchini mixed with red pepper and some little things with creme cheese and salmon on a piece of pastry. and some meat thing that looked gross, so i didn’t eat it. i would have eaten a plate of that squash and zucchini, though. lol.

THE COPS

the cops, or at least i think it was the cops — that or throw me the statue — were playing at the northwest showcase when we got there. surprisingly good. as far as the crowd goes, maybe hot people like seattle music, because there were a lot of good-looking fools there.

after that we went to fader fort. lame. it was far and pointless, at least for me. especially since hojo’s name WAS on the list too, so i basically left the valley arena for no reason whatsoever. i was kinda pissed the whole time. after that i had to go back to the place i just was watching the valley arena at to see anthony green, so it was REALLY pointless.

DOES IT OFFEND YOU YEAH?

british, or something, electro rock band. pretty good. this seems to be the direction music is headed though. i wonder how oversaturated it’ll get. then everyone will want to eventually return to rock roots. it’s going to be a mess.

ANTHONY GREEN

anthony green is a naughty boy, and while circa survive is great, his solo stuff is just mediocre. that being said, anthony green can do whatever the fuck he wants. he has that kind of cult fan following who will follow his every move without quite thinking twice. what he did end up doing was inviting the whole crowd (or whoever would fit) onstage with him during his last song, and i did manage to get this one good shot. again, though, the music was mediocre.

i was trying to meet francesca from equal vision but she never showed up so i sat around for a while with all the little kids.

ALL TIME LOW

all time low is kind of crude, but i guess people like that. i could care less for their music but i guess they kind of give off a good pseudo-punk vibe or something. i find it to be rather juvenile but i can see how kids would like it. they fucked up on a song, called themselves amateurs, and then they said:

met with jeanette’s friend janet briefly. we went to eat but she was in a rush to leave practically the entire time, so it was completely and utterly pointless. yeah. well i guess it was slightly point-ful because she told me that crystal castles had not cancelled their show, so i managed to see them still. that was good, i guess!!!!!!!!!

after that i walked back towards emo’s to meet up with francesca. finally did. had a brief chat and it was good. turned out greg sieme was with her, and i would have liked to meet him, but it didn’t end up working out :[ walked in the wrong direction to see ole time relijun and that sucked. walked really far. then i went back the other direction and actually it was near the fucking scoot inn. motherfucking boohoo. so far. so so far. i was walking on the way there and some fool stopped by me and he had the most giant hickey on his neck, lul!

OLE TIME RELIJUN

well, the stage they were at made it absolutely impossible to see shit. i literally just saw the top of the standup bass and the top of the singers head occasionally, and nothing more. they would have been very good, though, i think. had i been able to see them. their lead singer also spoke french, spanish, and japanese. lol. amusing. they pulled in such an interesting crowd.

HEALTH

so i’ve heard health and i like their music but i never really expected it to be mind-blowing or anything. well, it was fucking fantastic. from the intro to the end. i can legitimately say i’m a health fan now. it’s funny because while in line for the constantines, people were saying that their music was absolute noise that could not be considered music. and health isn’t even ALL THAT noisy. so it’s hilarious. they were older, though. like 40s. CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THEIR INTRODUCTION.

this day was a good day. lots of shit going on. but all hectic and stuff T__T i wanted to see why? and some other bands but mer.

WIZARDS

i wasn’t paying attention while they were playing, because i was talking to some older graphic designer guy. music sounded okay, not exactly my chip bag. they blew out the power twice, though. hehe.

the venue health, wizards, and ole time relijun played at, which is usually a mexican bar, i guess.

KBN

walked back to japan night and saw some taiwanese electronic band called kbn. it was decent. they invited some buddies up and they were just okay too. yeahhhhhhhhh.

LOOK. SEE. PROOF.

this band was extremely good-looking and had nice accents, because hell, they’re from the uk as we were waiting for them to come on, started talking to some producer from the uk, who introduced us to the band’s managers. this uk guy is now working on producing an album by the harajuku girls — yes, gwen stefani’s back up dancers. i guess he has worked with a lot of big names. look.see.proof. were just okay. pop-punk mixed with like, arctic monkeys type thing almost. it was okay! only a 20 minute set, though.

CRYSTAL CASTLES

crystal castles’ vocalist has recently broken a couple ribs and yet she was jumping around. she was hot. the vibe was amazing. everyone was so into their music. i started off in the second row and somehow ended up in the fifth. met some couple random people who were into health and crystal castles and loved the sets of both. lots of jokes about shortness. met some guy who was also going to finish off his night with mstrkrft. his name was richard. anyway, crystal castles set was decent but i couldn’t see shit, so it was decidedly less exciting. hojo was bored by it and hated the people in the crowd. i didn’t see any real problems.

afterwards, i wanted to see mstrkrft. hojo followed me under the presumption that i wouldn’t get in. i did get in, so he left and did whatever.

ZTRIP

ztrip was extremely random and played all sorts of mashup music. played the pink floyd remix i like. blahblah. during z-trip this guy (pictured) was crowdsurfing for like… i want to say 5 minutes… or at least the duration of a song. people kept pushing him up to the front but the security kept pushing him back into the crowd. he had his middle fingers raised up for a while because well, he was up for so long.

KILLA KELLAH

however the fuck you spell his name. beatboxer who used up time between mstrkrft and ztrip’s set. it was mediocre.

MSTRKRFT

the mstrkrft show was probably the craziest show i’ve actually been to in a loOooOoOong time. which is strange because, well, it’s a house music party. but people were acting like it was a rock show or something. soooooo many crowdsurfers. i want to say at least… 15? and they just kept coming and coming. i got kicked in the head once with a chick wearing giant platform boots, and one guy started falling on me, so that basically my back was supporting his fall. luckily he got caught before he fell the entire way… three people (at least) fell on the ground but most got up right away. one girl who crowdsurfed wearing a mid-length white skirt. one guy who was with mstrkrft. one guy who had a nice camera in his hands and was just taking photos as he was being pushed around (this happened twice). people were like really a lot nicer and more careful with the guy with the camera… everyone else just kinda got tossed around but it was almost as if people respected that he had a camera and wanted to preserve it. cause that’d be a real bummer. lul.

shit kept falling down from the ceiling… not sure if people were throwing it or if it was literally falling from the ceiling. there were rocks and things. i had my arms crossed at one point and giant shit fell down and i guess i caught it. so i mentioned that to the guy next to me — who i later found out was named EJ and worked for limewire — and haha he showed me his arm when the strobes were on and because his arm was sweaty, it was covered with small black rocks. ahhahahaha. it was hilarious. X:

one other girl got wind that there was stuff falling from the ceiling and started being super paranoid about it, pulling at her hair like every few seconds or so.

one other guy said he had saw people throwing ice cubes as well. (there was a balcony up top.)

pretty much an awesome vibe from the entire show… i mean, it was crazy but still good. later on my newfound friend from the crystal castles show found me. he’s going to send along some crystal castles pics cause i was too short to get any good ones. owned.

***

sunday, march 16th, 2008



morning trip with tomoko and her boyfriend to taco fast food stand. woooot. it was yummy. horchata popsicle for the fucking win. best popsicle i’ve had in like my life. best meal during this entire trip too, because this trip fucking sucked as far as food goes. this place was called “el chilito” or something like that. tomoko’s boyfriend was pretty cool. she seems cool too but she like didn’t talk to me as much.

then they dropped us off downtown so we could catch a bus.

but before that, this is like the most amazing thing. on sundays, some church holds a homeless church service for all of the homeless people, with food. this is what i’m doing next time i go to austin. that’s sooo fucking amazing and interesting!!! i thought it was a fucking swap meet. lol.

anyway, while at the bus stop, talked to a guy from the seattle times who is a rock critic. he pointed out a house that used to belong to the founder of rolling stone. interesting. he had crazy curly gray hair that was wild! luckily for us, the bus was on time so we made it to the airport in time. flew out of austin to san jose for a layover.

so let’s just say that the san jose airport sucks balls. to get from terminal to terminal you take a fucking bus. not only a fucking bus, but a fucking poorly marked bus that says that it’s going to long-term parking but really can go to the terminal. needless to say, there were a lot of confused people. we only got wind that the long-term parking bus could bring us to the terminal when i eavesdropped on some guy — also coming from sxsw — asking the bus driver if the long-term parking bus went to the terminal. werd.

even their food court is ghetto.

and apparently now there’s some card you can get?? that let’s you get “in and out of security in four minutes??”

indeed.

getting on the san jose airport flights = outside walking. which is kind of nice and cool, but still somewhat ghetto.

fuck i’m glad this blog post is over. +__+

Esta entrada fue publicada el Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 10:58 pm y está clasificada en la categoria vacation & the outdoors, social experiments, 2008, quotes, photography, food, observations. Puede hacer un seguimiento de los comentarios de esta entrada gracias al feed RSS 2.0. Puede dejar un comentario, o hacer un trackback desde su sitio web.