Paul and I started drinking pitchers at a fast rate, mixing in some games of pool as Chris watched and chatted away while standing on the sidelines with a Coke.  It seemed he realized just what he was in for, and laughed and joked about his old drinking days, which is way more than I can say when I hang out sober in a bar.  At noon. 

The rest of the day we wandered around town - on foot, well healed - and let the random tone of the day carry us through.  We came across some thawing frozen lobsters in an alleyway, and a couch that the three of us laughed at - that a Mexican was taking home to his basement.  With the music festival still a day away, out-of-towners were still high in demand, and despite our best efforts of snaking our way through downtown, we ended up criss-crossing the crowded aisles of the new Whole Foods Market, admiring the chocolate fountain and trying whatever free samples we could get our hands on.  The three of us ended up pooling cash to buy the new Lou Barlow CD across the road at Waterloo Records.

After another meal with another picture at waterloo Icehouse next door, we headed south to where Chris was convinced the action was - Jo's Coffee.  On the way Paul and I had to quench our thirst with a brownbagged six pack of tall boys, and soon Chris was off to do some explaining to his wife how his life and professional wasn't altered during our forays at the interactive exhibition.  Paul and I kept drinking, showed off the latest edits from the movie to my girlfriend, and let the night end in peace. 
 

SXSW and Austin's inalienable right to complain When I first moved to Austin, I quickly sensed just how cool it was a couple years earlier.  Like every city that has ever existed, things here changed - cool lcubs closed, coffee shops get bumped from one space to another, and local chains grow up to be behemoth purveyors of natural foods across the planet.  I can't judge for myself, and am as concerned to have the last bastion of coolness and unique identity washed away from the face of Texas in a tidal wave of Republican thinking, development and mindless consumption.  But when I started running into kids barely old enough to drink today waxing poetically about the Electric Lounge, I started to tune most of the complaints out.  And the same holds true for SXSW- now in its third decade of existence, its hard to think of Austin without this one week a year festival of indisputable hipness and music awash with punks and scene makers from across the globe.  Yet, the locals complain and bitch about the already horrible traffic that is only exacerbated by the festival. Get over it folks, this is the one shot you get, and if you miss the opportunity to walk down Sixth Street at any hour during the festival and miss the oddest collection of pretentious hipsters and overdone street punks, you may as well live in Round Rock.

If you didn't own an iMac, you may as well called in sick.


Click here to read Chris Chappell's side of things.


The art of Brian Keeper - stumbled upon at Halycon Coffee.

The boys take a look at this old couch in an alley..
Fortunately, it was already taken by that man.

Real lobsters encased in ice - stinky things really


Free wristbands never looked so cool