3/12/08 Austin Beauty Bar

We stopped at the Czech Stop in West on the way to Austin.  Ron and Suke had never been there and wanted to make sure we stopped there again on the way back so they could stock up on kolaches (Czech pastries).  I wrote a song about that place once and gave them a recording of it.  The town has a big festival and Myron Floren and Brave Combo have played there along with many other accordion players.

bravecombosimpsons.jpg brave combo on the simpsons

It’s a great town.

SXSW registration was overwhelming. Ron and I went to register while Suke and Dave looked for a place to park the van.  At one point we were going up the escalator and Ron said, “Do you feel a knot in your stomach?”  “Yeah, I do.”  I’ve never seen such a concentrated cool contest as I did there.  Not that everyone was trying but enough were to make me feel like I was in high school again.  I saw a group walk by that looked as if their manager made them go to a stylist before registration.  They looked very uncomfortable as if their stylist was mom.  From clowntown.  I saw my friend, Will Johnson, and everything was better.  The registration was very easy, too.  It was very organized.

Afterwards we went to Charlie’s house to hang out.  Charlie makes t-shirts in his garage.  He’s really good at it.  We had an order with him and they look really good.  To kill more time, we watched Blazing Saddles.  I won a trivia night in Belfast one night with my keen eye for the great Cleavon Little.

austin1.jpg Charlie photo by suke

 The Beauty Bar was run just like registration.  They were a well-oiled machine.  They helped us load in and load out.  Really nice people.  It was a bitch trying to park the van but we found a place 10 minutes before set time.  I saw my friend, Erica, who was in the band after us, The Faceless Werewolves.

We had a good set.  My sustain pedal went out halfway through and luckily Suke brought his soldering kit with him, fixing it the following day.

Afterwards, I wanted to watch The Faceless Werewolves but we had to get our stuff in the van and get out of there. 

We went to a bar outside of the festival and I saw another friend from working there.  We drank beer and watched the Spitzer news.

austin2.jpg the late Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder

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