Things I Like

Here are the things that I want/love, just in case you need ideas :)

Lions
Owls
Unicorns
The internet: fuckyoupenguin.blogspot.com, icanhascheezburger.com, lolmart.com
Wii (still need one)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Comics
Bling
Flare
Flasks
Trampoline
Camera
ANYTHING from Monkey See, Monkey Doo-that place has my name written all over it
Pugs
Purses
Steve Madden
Good books about writing
Good books in general
Journals


No booze please!

i am sure i will continue to add more...

{ i can't be here }

I realized last night. I can't sit in a moment of awkward silence. It seems these days that people wear that ability like a badge of pride. I just can't do it. I think between my need to run my mouth and my background as a journalist, I am always either talking or asking questions. Is it really, really necessary to have this ability? To linger with words unspoken? What do you do with the other person while sitting in nothingness? Stare into their eyes, hoping somehow some mist floats by in order to create that lovely soft focus you so in movies? Watch other people go by, mocking them in your head? Thumb wrestle. I realized last night. The only way to get me to shut up is to kiss me.

Good luck with that.

SX Your Face

Lo, though my blog will not hold a candle to Sinclair’s, I will give it a shot. If for nothing else, to get some hits for people searching for bands, lol. Lookout-this one is full of whimsy!!

So last year, I decided to try SXSW again. I hadn’t been in like 4 years, since I exited my part-time gig at Waterloo Records, and thus no longer got a free wristband. I also made the assumption that moving into my mid-twenties meant that I was old and grumpy and could no longer make it through the week of insanity. This year I will be on the verge of my 30th birthday, and really know better.

Last year was a blast. I learned that it really isn’t all that necessary to buy a wristband for the festival, with so much free shit and since the showcases I like are mostly hip-hop and are usually only about $15 and not hard to get into. This year the wristband is once again free, so no complaints on that end (thanks austin.com). I am still looking for the perfect bag and shoes, though, because those are two very key elements. Oh, and I need to buy a new camera.

Some of last year’s highlights included seeing Kimya Dawson play a sweet acoustic set at the Good Magazine party, seeing Elijah Wood “spin” (his ipod) at the Bust Magazine party, almost having a drunken Bushwick Bill pee on me at a hip hop showcase at Scoot Inn, the Ice Cube/Talib Kweli/Jean Grae free show at Auditoreum Shores, and the last show of the week, Cunninlynguists at Prague.

Oh, I almost forgot about one of my favorite moments. I was sitting on a curb on Red River, alone, enjoying a veggie dog from the cart. The wind had kicked up, and I sat there watching the bands loading and unloading gear, people shuffling about with this great look of anticipation on their face, and for just a second I forgot where I was. I actually felt like I was on vacation and thought I was in some other world. It was nice to have that second of feeling what our visitors get to feel when they’re here.

I am already getting excited and a little woozy-headed about this year. Luckily, I know some awesome people who are good at organizing and looping me in. I am eagerly awaiting the artist page, but until then, here is a list of my highly probable sees:

Abstract Rude
Melissa auf der Maur
Au Revoir Simone
Beausoleil (for the Cajun in me)
Busdriver
Cadence Weapon
Camera Obscura
Camplo
Capsula
Margaret Cho
Paul Couture (I interviewed this super cutie last year-his music is infectious)
The Decemberists
Pamela des Barres
Dressy Bessy
Explosions in the Sky
Flosstradamus
Jean Grae
I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness
The Knux (So excited to see them again-highly recommended hip hop)
Lady Sovereign
Jon Lajoie (this guy will funny your fucking face off)
Lil Jon
Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
Katy Perry
Pong
Ra Ra Riot
Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek)
Shout Out Out Out Out

Drink Local

Wow, it's actually been since May since I have posted on my Tipsy Texter blog. I am certainly going to try to get better about that, and in perfect fashion, my first blog back is all about getting tipsy.

Friday afternoon I went to Whip In for Edible Austin's 'Meet Your Local Brewer' Happy Hour (met Susanna there). There were representatives there from some local breweries, including Independence, Shiner, Real Ale, etc. I am always a big fan of drinking locally, as we have so many amazing breweries in the area (and wineries, too, believe it or not), so I was really excited about this. Unfortunately, I was just thinking about drinking and not about blogging, so my notes on this aren't as great as they could be, but I will try my best.

p.s. I am not a beer afficianado, so I do not use words like "hoppy" to describe beers. If I like 'em, I like 'em, damnit. (though I do aspire to be a beer monger someday. and a cheese monger. monger.)

Independence Ale had a great one-the Bootlegger Brown Ale. I always love a good brown ale. Kind of makes me want to take a nap in it. Located in South Austin, these guys give tours and tastings on the first Saturday of the month from 1-3pm.

Black Star Co-Op didn't have any beer there, not sure why, but these guys are doing a pretty awesome thing by creating the world's first co-operatively owned and worker self-managed brewpub. To buy a share/become a member is only $85, and they have monthly beer parties for members and to try to recruit new members. These guys seem awesome and JBee says that the parties are rad.

Saint Arnold, while typically tasty, their Christmas brew did nothing for me. They do brew tours, too, but are located in Houston, so you know, beer road trip.

Ah Real Ale, how much I love you. I've always really liked their Full Moon Pale Rye Ale. I had a little taste there and noticed that the label has changed from the white label to a new, sleek navy one-so be careful if you are looking for this one on store shelves. They also had a new Barleywine Ale called Sisyphus that they make for the winter. It didn't do too much for me, but since it is left in the barrels significantly longer than normal beer, the alcohol content is knocked up to 11%-and i can certainly tolerate that!

So, for my favorite, favorite beer of the bunch, we come to Shiner, one of my regular staples. Their Christmas beer, Shiner Cheer, is super fun. Sam, JBee and I were at Bender bar on Tuesday and I tried it for the first time and spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out what the hell it smelled like. We settled on pineapple, but when I saw the reps at the happy hour, I asked and turns out it was peaches. Mmmm peaches. And pecans. Weird, huh? It's totally yummy, and the bottles are made in Waco, so this is a true Texas beer. Get some before the holidays are over.

Others present were 512 Brew and Uncle Billy's, but I don't remember much about them.

Salud!

OH MY GAWD!!!!

Are you friggin kidding me? Ladies and gents, go ahead and start selling plasma, digging for pennies, signing up at Benchmark, whatever you gotta do. The next 3 weeks are gonna be killer. So, buckle the fuck up-hope to see you all out...


May 29
Tribeza Happy Hour
Free drinks. Free food. Valet parking. 'Nuf said. 6-8pm. Bridges on the Park, 210 Lee Barton Dr.

The Marq's 1 Year Anniversary
They are opening their doors at 7, and I know I read somewhere that there were free drinks from 8-9. I doubt my welcome will be as warm as it has been in the past, but oh well....

May 30
Grupo Fantasma CD Release Party
Sonidos Gold is being released, and GF will certainly make you dance your happy little ass off. DJ Chicken George is opening. Doors at 9. $16.

May 31
Car Stereo (Wars) Get Glowing
My favorite DJ is heading out of the country for a few months (he'll be back in September), but he's doing his last show right with a take off on Kanye's Glow in the Dark tour (minus the $90 price tag)

Brownout!
Another fave band that won't be around this summer (only touring as Grupo). Catch them at low-key Club DeVille.

June 5
Chuck Palahniuk
There are lots of details on this one, so just go to bookpeople.com. I am officially fine with posting this, now that I have my tickets. (Woo-hoo!!!)

June 7
Ring the Alarm
Jah Mighty, Baaby G, etc at The Parish

June 8
MySpace Secret Show
At the Parish. I couldn't figure out who it was, so if anybody knows, let me know!

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA
at Beauty Bar. Yes, I did pee my pants a little when I read that. Yay. That's all I have to say.

June 9
Dilated Peoples, Aceyalone, The Alchemist, 88 Keys
Emo's. Fuck. Yes. $16. (seriously, this big of a show, for $16 and Bun B charged 20? F That.)

June 11
The Rza
Emo's. $19.

June 14
Busdriver
Mohawk. $13.

and oh yes my friends, he's back! Aesop Rock on July 25 at Emos!!!!! don't go to Dallas this time, D.

Nursing wounds and waiting to start again

I am officially smug. Last weekend's recommendation for The Knux show at Beauty Bar proved to be totally on point. The show was truly the shit, with the insane/surreal opening act trying his best to be the 21st Century version of the 69 Boyz, thus creating a truly lasting impression on me and my partner in crime. The weather sucked and sweat was everywhere, but we didn't care; The Knux were the shizzle and I would love to see them again. Don't hate that you didn't get to see them for $5 when they blow up this fall. You were properly notified.

So, I took a break last night, and though I am not fully recovered, the drinking starts again tonight: One of my fave things to do every month is the $10 wine tasting at Spec's South. You get 20 tastes, food samples, and a wine glass to take home for a measly $10. Since I am not much of a wine drinker, however, I tend to get a bit tipsy at this event, so if I were you, I'd turn off my phone around 8:30pm, because I tend to make booty calls around that time. Yep. Though not tonight, because I will definitely be watching the Spurs game after the wine.

Thursday night is Amanda Marcotte at Monkey Wrench Books. She is a badass local, feminist blogger, and her new book, It's a Jungle Out There, is hilarious. She is doing a reading at 7pm, and she seems like she's really fun. I won't be making it to that, unfortunately, because I will be having too much fun doing happy hour and (hopefully) gay bars with Casey and Sinclair. monkeywrenchbooks.org.

Of course I'll post again before the weekend, but if you are a David Sedaris fan, plan your Saturday morning accordingly: he will be at Book People in June, but to be one of the 500 people to actually get to talk to him and have your book signed, you need to get a voucher. The vouchers (which convert into the book) go on sale at 9am. bookpeople.com. Oh, and Chuck Palahniuk is coming on June 5th to UT. Go ahead and remove your hands from your pants and tell your friends...

Kisses,
L:)

Get down with the Get down May 9-11

As many of you know, I tend to spend a good deal of my time (and money) trying to take in all that this city has to offer. Especially if there is booze involved. I keep running across a lot of new blogs and sites that try to spread the word about great events and specials and what not, but none that have really drawn me in. For one, there is a serious lack of all things hip hop in most of these, and a high focus on all things Emo. While I like to have a good cry in my beer every now and again, I mostly want to have fun, get drunk, and shake my ass when I go out. Thus, my new blog.

As I dig through what is going down in Austin for my mobile media job (you can subscribe to that for FREE at go2.com), I come across a lot of stuff that I won’t write about there, so in turn I will post it here. Mind you, you won’t find me at every event, but I will let you know the ones that I definitely plan to go to. If you have a great event that you are going to that you want others to know about, just let me know and I will post, or you can put it in the comments. If you went to something that I posted about, please feel free to post comments as well.

So, my pretties, good luck, have fun, and be safe. Let’s see if I can manage to take my own advice on that last one…

Friday, May 09

Tibetan Monks at City Hall: Glen and I have to spend the day sweating our balls off at the company picnic, so after that is done we are heading to City Hall to see the sand mandala before it is swept away at 5:30. Not sure if we will make it over to the meditation at Auditoreum Shores, or if we will just really need a margarita by then…tibetmonkstour.org

Big Star Burlesque at Emo’s Lounge: That’s right ladies and gents, it’s burlesque like it was meant to be seen: ladies with big tits and big asses gyrating for your pleasure. Tix are $10 at bigstarburlesque.com

Saturday, May 10

Vote for Change Kickoff: Since I will probably actually not go out Friday night (why do ALL of my friends have to work on Saturdays???) I volunteered to go do voter reg at the Vote for Change event. You can still sign up if you want to help out (barackobama.com), and if you are not already a Deputy Voter Registrar (like me), I think they are doing a quick training at 10am. Let me know if you want to go-Sinclair, I’m looking at you!

Voting: Uh, Saturday is the last day to vote if you missed early voting. Yes, there is an election going on right now, and yes it is important. Specifically the bond election. Educate yourself, then get off your ass and vote. Lwvtexas.org

The Knux at Beauty Bar: Mind you, I had never heard of these guys until I saw their info on BB’s Myspace a couple of weeks ago, but they seem cool. And DJ Mel will be there, so bonus… For (I think) $5, I can handle checking them out, as long as the hipsters stay outside to drink their PBRs. Plus, if they suck, I can always head to Plush for Table Manners Crew.

Prague closing: One of my fave Warehouse bars just got bought out and Saturday is the last night for their original staff to be working. Think about it: these folks no longer have jobs at the place that they thought they would, so why do they care if they sell off all the booze for super cheap? That’s just my (hopefully correct) logic. Seems like it will be fun, anyway, and since there is a chance that the new owners will take out the stripper pole, why would you want to miss it?

Sunday, May 11

Last day of “20 to Watch: New Art in Austin” at Austin Museum of Art. Amoa.org

OK, I really want to write more, but I have to get out the damn door. Enjoy your steamy weekend. Hope to see some of you guys around.

Kisses,
L:)

p.s. everything will look much better, videos embedded at whatnot, when i have more time!!!