It threw me around and left me for dead.
Having a little more consistent free time from work and other obligations has made me turn my eye back to some of my writing projects I've let gather dust. Rich always told me that sometimes the best way to get things going again was just to sit down and start writing and writing and not care for exactly what was coming out as long as it was somehow related and appropriate. That isn't exactly working for me, probably because I've gone over the end result I want to see time and again and I'm just not getting there. So I did the equivalent of creative procrastination - I went back and started editing the first chapters. Hopefully that'll be productive since I haven't really looked at them in months.
Somewhat related: I paid for a new trumpet so I could start playing again, but I've taken that thing out of the case probably five times since I got it. Maybe I should just check to see how expensive it'd be to have my baritone shipped down here. I got the trumpet because I figured it'd be easier to actually move around and wall-to-wall easier to deal with. Also, blue.
It's been fun watching the outraged mobs moving back and forth for the past few weeks over the AIG thing. My blog might be late to the party, but mostly because I get to sit and talk about this kind of stuff all day so the last thing I really feel like doing is coming home and repeating what I've been writing and talking and reading and researching about all day. But I have to say at this point it's turned into a freaking Benny Hill sketch. Watching the American public and federal goverment chase AIG through one door, then the next door opens and the public is chasing the government (who are chasing AIG), then the next sequence is AIG chasing the government and the people are chasing AIG again. It's somewhat darkly amusing to see that the supposed end of the Bush era of no accountability has been stonewalled by the blame game being turned into the blame shell game. Who's responsible for the meltdown? Who's responsible for the flawed bailout? Who's responsible for the lack of oversight? Who's responsible for finding out who's responsible?
This, kids, is not the sexy party I was promised.
The sun was out for most of the weekend - the first really sunny and warm weekend here in Austin for the year. I think, anyway. Decided to take the bike and my pack for some quality time on Auditorium Shore with Sandman. It was pretty relaxing give or take the completely obnoxious asshats overruning my parks and city due to South by Southwest. I will rant about South by Southwest in a moment, but I will first mention 1) the rest of the weekend was taken up with working on the deck and 2) I got a sunburn because my people do not tan, we singe. I've come a pretty long way from getting a rash from direct content with the burning and jealous rays of the burning star nearby, though.
Okay, SXSW. In short, fuck you SXSW. This music festival irritates me to no end because it's hyped as such an "Austin experience" but I'll be damned if you couldn't just uproot the freaking thing and drop it wherever and it would have no impact on the actual event. Local bands are almost completely overlooked by the actual event - chances are if you saw a solid local show it was free and/or not actually part of the SXSW schedule. Posters, backboards and stages are put up just about everywhere, so looking at the press pictures and even passing by some of these venues it's pretty impossible to discern that this is happening in Austin. Finally, the endless crowd of yahoo music snobs provides me with enough rage to fuel a hipster-clubbing tangent that could last well into the fall or possibly through the winter. I think the next person in too tight jeans and too large sleeves I run into is going to catch the unfortunate (but highly refined and concentrated) rage spillover.
This is not to say I think the commercialism and whatnot is unexpected. I'm fine with the fact that Metallica comes to Austin and plays in a highly commercialized venue and everyone buys overpriced hoohah and then we all pour out into the streets to find the next overhyped act. That's fine, that's the music biz. I just hate the fact that I get to hear for weeks (before, during, and after) that the damn thing is "so Austin" and it's all about "giving a voice to up and coming bands!"
Die. Die in a fire. Choke on coal and jump onto a bonfire. I want my damn bars back.
For a second that room was on the moon,
Then everything went black.
I left that house on fire,
And I never looked back.
Somewhat related: I paid for a new trumpet so I could start playing again, but I've taken that thing out of the case probably five times since I got it. Maybe I should just check to see how expensive it'd be to have my baritone shipped down here. I got the trumpet because I figured it'd be easier to actually move around and wall-to-wall easier to deal with. Also, blue.
It's been fun watching the outraged mobs moving back and forth for the past few weeks over the AIG thing. My blog might be late to the party, but mostly because I get to sit and talk about this kind of stuff all day so the last thing I really feel like doing is coming home and repeating what I've been writing and talking and reading and researching about all day. But I have to say at this point it's turned into a freaking Benny Hill sketch. Watching the American public and federal goverment chase AIG through one door, then the next door opens and the public is chasing the government (who are chasing AIG), then the next sequence is AIG chasing the government and the people are chasing AIG again. It's somewhat darkly amusing to see that the supposed end of the Bush era of no accountability has been stonewalled by the blame game being turned into the blame shell game. Who's responsible for the meltdown? Who's responsible for the flawed bailout? Who's responsible for the lack of oversight? Who's responsible for finding out who's responsible?
This, kids, is not the sexy party I was promised.
The sun was out for most of the weekend - the first really sunny and warm weekend here in Austin for the year. I think, anyway. Decided to take the bike and my pack for some quality time on Auditorium Shore with Sandman. It was pretty relaxing give or take the completely obnoxious asshats overruning my parks and city due to South by Southwest. I will rant about South by Southwest in a moment, but I will first mention 1) the rest of the weekend was taken up with working on the deck and 2) I got a sunburn because my people do not tan, we singe. I've come a pretty long way from getting a rash from direct content with the burning and jealous rays of the burning star nearby, though.
Okay, SXSW. In short, fuck you SXSW. This music festival irritates me to no end because it's hyped as such an "Austin experience" but I'll be damned if you couldn't just uproot the freaking thing and drop it wherever and it would have no impact on the actual event. Local bands are almost completely overlooked by the actual event - chances are if you saw a solid local show it was free and/or not actually part of the SXSW schedule. Posters, backboards and stages are put up just about everywhere, so looking at the press pictures and even passing by some of these venues it's pretty impossible to discern that this is happening in Austin. Finally, the endless crowd of yahoo music snobs provides me with enough rage to fuel a hipster-clubbing tangent that could last well into the fall or possibly through the winter. I think the next person in too tight jeans and too large sleeves I run into is going to catch the unfortunate (but highly refined and concentrated) rage spillover.
This is not to say I think the commercialism and whatnot is unexpected. I'm fine with the fact that Metallica comes to Austin and plays in a highly commercialized venue and everyone buys overpriced hoohah and then we all pour out into the streets to find the next overhyped act. That's fine, that's the music biz. I just hate the fact that I get to hear for weeks (before, during, and after) that the damn thing is "so Austin" and it's all about "giving a voice to up and coming bands!"
Die. Die in a fire. Choke on coal and jump onto a bonfire. I want my damn bars back.
For a second that room was on the moon,
Then everything went black.
I left that house on fire,
And I never looked back.