Monday, September 29, 2008

Welcome to the family Kai!!!!!
My cousin and his wife had a beautiful little boy on Saturday.
Congratulations Keith and Gilat!


Sunday, September 28, 2008

More ACL Day One


ACL has a section of shops in between the music stages. As Sarah and I were walking around, I saw this shirt and knew I had to get it for Jim. Not only does Jim like these type of shirts, but it is UT orange. Jim was excited for his new gift.



Since I am to lazy to correct this photo (and the couple others like this), you'll just have to turn your head a little. Or I'll just tell you... the next band up is Delta Spirit. We didn't know anything about them, but we decided to go see them when What Make Milwaukee Famous did a cover of one of their songs. They weren't bad.. nothing spectacular.







Next up is Hot Chip. I had no desire to see these guys, but the group wanted to go, so I followed. I was intending on leaving them to go see Slightly Stoopid (on around the same time on a different stage) but after a song or two we all decided to leave. They are a techno type band. They didn't float my boat or the rest of the groups, so we move on.








I came across this guy while waiting in the port-a-pottie lines. I mean seriously.... where on earth do you buy clothes like this. It seems like he tried just a little to hard to be "different"



Lunch.... there were lots of great options for eating. Quite a few high scale restaurants were in attendance. I had hopes of trying some of them on this day, but I ended up going with brisket nachos from Stubbs. (or was it Salt Lick??). They were FANTASTIC! The jalapenos were for Jim... no way I would eat all of those.

There is something about a band that incorporates musical instruments like the trumpet and trombone that draws me in. I heard about this band a few months ago and was excited to see them. I heard about half of them, since we spent the first half over at Hot Crap (oops.. Hot Chip). Good band!


Kelly made a great purchase,,, a little parasol. The sun was hot and beating down on us all day. I put on plenty of sunscreen (luckily I did not get burned at all). Hindsight... I should have bought myself a parasol but then it would have been one more thing to carry

This balloon was in the middle of the festival and was lit up at night.. pretty cool! I don't have any good pictures because I only had my little camera with me and no tripod. I'll post some, but I'm warning you... they are only "okay".



I wasn't sure what to expect with N.E.R.D... I knew I wanted to see them, but I have limited exposure to their songs. The other choice was David Byrne (Talking Heads) which Jim stayed behind to watch. Orly and I went to N.E.R.D. It was so much fun! Orly and I decided that we were going to get as close as we could. By now the crowds were building (I'm guessing people got off of work, then headed to ACL) so it was pretty busy.









After N.E.R.D, we met up with the group to head over to Mars Vulta. As you can see in the picture, there was a lot of dust and crap in the air. We carried a lot of crap with us from each stage. I think that is why my back hurts today.





The AMD stage.... we were way in the back for this show. None of us really cared where we sat since we spent most of the day maneuvering around people and their chairs to find the best spot.





This is the ATT Blue Room stage.... I think Swell Season was playing over there





Neat light show that was going on in the middle of the festival





Overall we had a really good time on the first day. I was so freaking tired once we got home and really dirty. Especially my feet, since I wore flip flops. I took a picture of my feet but it doesn't do justice.... they were really dirty.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Austin City Limits

We spent a fun and music filled 8 hours in a field in Austin yesterday. Friday was the first day of the Austin City Limits festival, there are a total of 3 days. We saw a lot of good music (some blah music), maneuvered around a ton of people, trekked from stage to stage with all of our shit in tow and of course had to use the wonderful port-a-potties that were all around the venue.


I took a lot of pictures (imagine that) and I tried to take a picture of the music schedule so I would remember which band was which. Here are day one pictures......



Walking to Zilker park (where ACL is hosted)



ACL wouldn't be complete without a Leslie sighting. Leslie is the town transvestite who has a better ass and legs than I do. Bitch. He constantly walks around downtown Austin in very skimpy panties (typically it is more like a thong). He is a small celebrity :o) Austin's way of keeping it weird.



Jim and Orly


First show of the day.... "What made Milwaukee famous". My first time seeing them... not bad!



Crowd at What Made Milwaukee Famous... this was at 1:30... already a HUGE crowd


Sarah and I


Kelly and her $6 wine (ACL is not a cheap experience)

Orly and Jim

Vampire Weekend... Best show of the day

In the middle of the first day... Orly, Sarah, me and Jim with downtown Austin in the background. I think this was taken around 3pm.

I still have a ton more pictures but I need to go get ready for day number 2!! Stay tuned... LOTS more pictures to come!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Pecan Street Festival


I love going to the Pecan Street Festival to people watch. I also like window (or I guess it would be "tent") shopping because I rarely buy anything. I love seeing the creativity but I either don't want to spend the money on the item or that it isn't my style. I lucked out and parked at a parking garage that I haven't parked at before. I had some fun taking pictures before I even left the parking garage :) There is a kaleidoscope of things to take pictures of at the festival. I'm a bit of a chicken and won't openly take pictures of people. I worry that some people would think it was an invasion of privacy (and in a way it is). I realize that professional photographers and journalists take pictures of random people every day, but I just can't do it. At least not yet...

Mushroom yard art.. kind of cute, but the kids would kick these over and break them.


Bongo's... for your inner beat master



I love her hair! See, if I had the balls I would have loved to take a couple of pictures of her from the front. She was very pretty and had a distinct style that would have been fantastic to photograph.

In the parking garage... it is a little fuzzy. I had to change the settings a little because the flash kept going off. And of course I didn't hold it still enough

Graffiti tunnel.... this area smelled like piss. Bad piss. Piss upon piss. You get the idea. However, it was a cool tunnel and I felt the need to take pictures,, while holding my breath of course. It is possible that it was bat piss that I smelled because I kept hearing a high pitch squeak.. and lots of them. I think they nested in the cracks of the stones of the bridge.


Fairy yard art




Downtown Austin


Viewing the parking garage