SXSW: The Quest and Conquer
Austin town – you got me. Just as the trip itself lacked any fluidity, and most likely, so will this. What I’ll probably do here is individual blog posts and a quick recap of highlights. The “quick” part I speak of will most likely hurl headlong into a long-winded rant about wanton Austin zombies and tacos, but who’s judging?
Highlight 1. Getting through TSA.
Here was one of three suitcases that looked very similar. Two involving a gross amount of amps, watts, volts and hard wires, another full of lightstands, hardware, tools (and a curling iron.) And then there was my personal bag… batteries, dresses, shoes, and more shoes. My backpack, which had a Wacom airbrush tablet, a mini-hard drive, a laptop, The Rum Diary, and some cords, wires, and Southwest drink tickets.
Of course I checked all 337 lbs of luggage at Skycap (a pricey necessity), but what would happen in the TSA check? Two backpacks and a purse. I (my person + baggage) must have weighed 200 pounds that day, all loaded on top of some old cowboy boots.
They took everything out of my backpacks, while the moaning, groaning security line self-loathed for a minute or two. Shaking the Wacom like it was supposed to open, I found myself again considering their intelligence.
My hard drive. “Whoa, is this a kindle?!” No, moron. I was getting thirsty and impatient. Slightly nervous. My veins contracted and said, “it’s time for a beer.”
The arsenal, all set for take off.
Highlight #2: Austin Airport
Back on the dirt. Waiting at the baggage claim, my brother James approaches from behind, looking Classy with two Tecates stuffed into his pockets. He’d cut his hair a bit, though it still reached his shoulder blades, establishing himself as something of a likeable music maker. We grabbed the bags, and dragged them across the airport until we reached, his van. Not pictured here.
My Brother/Assistant/Chauffeur
Highlight #3 – The Ride In.
Once we reached the van, we loaded up, while loading up:
Highlight #4: My Business trip went on vacation.
The zombies were out early on night one – there was little I could do to fein zombility, so I joined in. Into the night James and I went, and found ourselves at the Scoot in, and evidently 2 hotels and a house party later, we were scooting our way back to the homestead. Our buddy Gian Ortiz from the loudest Austin band there is (Amplified Heat) found us attempting a few games of ski-ball in the middle of the room. It was a miraculous game… in fact, I picked up some taxodermy in-between the two lanes, and much to our surprise, the stuffed thing was sitting on three $1 dollar bills. The games continued.
That night I accidentally punched a girl in the face with a full glass of Cazadores. Since neither of us expected it to happen – a mere accident – we were able to laugh it off and cut our losses. Her hairdo, my refined thirst-quencher.
Gian insisted we remove ourselves and follow him to a friend’s houseparty. I caught some laughing bug, and the rest, all history.
