Friday, April 24, 2009

What We Do On A School Night
Percussion in the Park
Domy After Dark

Kicking off the 2009 Fusebox Festival. Graham Reynolds and about 40-50 musicians took over the band shell at Woolridge Square Park (also known as Sabbath in the Park, Park) and banged out a percussive symphony that ran the gamut from outer space dual xylophone (vibes? I don't know any of these correct terms), multiple steel drum, um like, all sorts of things to bang on original compositions to a radical interpretation of a Beyonce song, (though I'm not honestly sure which one it was).

Anyway it really went down and then we went to Domy. (Sorry uh I wrote all that a lil tipsy last night at 1 a.m. Lemme try and figure this all out here. Captions, possibly a story, and such.)


Yeah so check the link above for all the great events happening with the Fusebox Festival over the next ten days. Looks quite cool.

And tomorrow, Saturday morning at 11 a.m. I am DJing THE CHILDREN'S STAGE at Art City Austin. That's right. Music for the kiddos! I have the two hypest hype girls in hype land so come out and say hello! Bring yer youngstaz. (Full disclosure - my wife booked the kid's stage. Come support!)

Art City Austin 2009 will be held along Cesar Chavez Street from Colorado Street to Lamar, including the S. 1st Street Bridge.

Then Bavu Blakes is on at 2:45 p.m. RIGHT WHEN I HAVE TO PICK UP JEAN GRAE FROM THE AIRPORT! Epic FAIL on my part.


But whatever, there's SO MUCH going on in Austin this weekend. I love springtime in ATX!

Summer too, where my swim time at?






Anyway man word to Graham Reynolds, his Golden Arm Trio and everyone who hit the Gazebo at Sabbath in the Park, Park (We been Grandfathered in and yes the sticker is still there).


This dude was totally killin' it. ALong with another dude I should have gotten a photo of.

But at events like this, I just hate to be intrusive. Know'm talm bout.


Thanks to Faith and Sun-Jue for the heads up on this rad event.



But boo to them for not coming to DOMY with us CUZ IT REALLY WENT DOWN!

Tim Kerr (formerly of the Big Boys, Bad Mutha Goose, Lord High Fixers, local Austin legend, Punk Rock God, Funk Maven, Musical Maven, um, just one of those dudes of all dudes, curated this Art opening/showing at my favorite book/toy store, and called it Friends. I pasted all the info from the Domy website in the post below so I won't totally attempt to explain it. But I'll say this, as I tend to say when things go down, man, IT REALL REALLY went down up in there.

Keg of Lone Star, all that. Anyway...


My children love this store and I love that they love it. Instead of buying the Barbie's we see on the TV, we go here and get Droplets and kooky little monster toys. Also books.


I am not totally sure who all these people are, I would have liked to ask, but they just didn't stop. I saw Tim Kerr stand up for like 2 seconds and snapped a shot of him, but other than that, they just jammed all night. Elena even danced with me a bit...


I mean, you're looking at Austin Music History Lesson #1 here. If not #1, very close to #1. Dude has backed and helped more young artists than I could ever name. A truly inspiring dude.




It was really goin' down in there.




As my girls "shopped."


My girls and the man Russell of course.


Eva took this one... She may need HER own opening one day...


And this one. RAW SKILLS! Screwed and Chopped photos like her daddy.




My boy Russell runs the show there and we had a little chat last night about how much we love Austin. Miss Houston in a lot of ways, but freakin' love Austin. The air, the music, the events, the laid-backed-ness (new word alert). We were gushing a slight bit. Also, I was slurring a slight bit. Anyway...


Dudes were partying though.


The big man Dan (right) and friend.


See I told you it was really goin' down.


She gone be working at the Devin, Jean Grae, Invincible, Latasha Lee, Staci Russell, Eyeris, Crop Diggie show on Saturday night at The Scoot Inn and wants you to come out.


Know how I'm talm bout?


I think this is the woman behind this. Anyway, like I said I had a few beers by then, but yeah, I wanna make New Era hats with Sublime Stitching.


Eva wanted to get the "Monster with the cigarette," but um, not yet girl.


I would not mind having these.


Tim Kerr from what I hear has more toys from Japan than I have records, tapes & CD's combined. I'm feelin' that.


The kids would not take a photo with him so this fine lady obliged me!


See, it was really goin' down in there and you missed out.

You gotta listen to me, I'm telling you I know where it's really goin' down.


Eva took this one too. LOOK AT MY LIL GIRRRRRLLLLLLL! And her backpacker daddy.


This is on the wall at Domy.

And this is all part of the exhibit that you should go check out in the next few days. DOMY is on Cesar Chavez just like one block east of I-35. GO THERE NOW!


And help me figure out something to read on the plane MOnday, cuz I couldn't do it in all the madness of the EVENT.








This was in the bathroom, I mean, is in the bathroom. Capricorn's really do do it like that, I'm serious.






Yeah so. It started getting late and I had to get the kids home.


Word to all my KNITTA'S out there in the street's though. Real talk, I am feelin' the KNITTA'S!


O.K. SO I guess here is the story part. Not much of a story, more like me gushing over someone again as I tend to do. But seriously, it was such an honor to meet Ms. Cynthia Connolly. Back in my teenage years, I of course followed pretty much everything Dischord Records did. (uh yeah, this was before Twitter so we had to WORK to find things out and get music. Up hill, both ways.) The DC scene at that time to me was like, divine inspiration. The do it yourself punk rock ethic was defined and refined in those days, in that town, and she was one of the main forces behind it. Fostering and documenting a dynamic scene that I don't think could ever be duplicated.

Her book Banned in DC came out in 1988 and I remember seeing the ad for it in Maximum Rock and Roll and pre-ordering it even. I sent my money order with a little note that said "I'd be really honored if you'd sign the book for me." Or something, and she did and sent a little note along with it. This is what I'm talking about. While you are out clamoring for "sponsors" and attention, there's people doing everything themselves from start to finish. Taking the photos, publishing a book, mailing out said books, and even sending a nice little note. These were the ethics I was brought up on and I feel real fortunate to have been able to learn such things merely by paying attention to great people.

Anyway, from her website RE Banned In DC: "Photos and anecdotes of the DC Punk Underground, first published in 1988 as one of the first documents/books of the American punk scene. Featuring 450 photos of bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Rites of Spring, Gray Matter, 9353, No Trend, Government Issue, Void, and many more."

It's a FINE document. Also, I have been listening to a lot of old VOID records lately.

So yeah, was great to shake her hand. And she's a great phtographer of course. CHECK HER SITE OUT! I wasn't using a flash and she was asking me what ASA I was using and I had to explain to her that I really know nothing of such things, I am just a picture taker. She is the photographer. But I mean, shit, it worked out.


I mean this one's a lil blurry but, if you've been following this blog, you are used to that.

After a quick search it appears that neither Tim Kerr, nor Cynthia Connolly are on Twitter. I may need to re-evaluate my participation in such a thing. Cuz I have a feeling I am starting to embarass myself and I need to pay more attention to this thing.

So then we left and as we drove up I-35 and took the 2222 exit, traffic was backed up like hell on the feeder and 2222 and 290 were closed by the cops, and we had no idea what the heck was going on but the Southbound lanes were a parking lot and it was quite a mess. So I turned on the news after I got home and it turns out a teenage girl was killed in an SUV roll over after being hit by a semi-truck. Like 5 other kids were seriously injured.

And so I sat and pondered my own children as I resized these photos and went to bed thinking about what I need to do to um, well, keep them alive and well.

Also I didn't have that many beers, I just threw those comments in above for effect, and yeah, also as an excuse for forgetting everybody's names. HUZZAH!

See you at the Scoot Inn Saturday night????





WE MUST!

4 comments:

Ellen Briggs Stansell, PhD, RYT said...

Beautiful photos!

FYI, a lot of us musicians play Tuesday nights at Rio Rita at a jam Tim started. If the weather is nice we're out back on the patio.

April said...

I love this post.

Pushermania said...

AWWWWW I need to spend more time at Rio Rita! Thanks so much for the comments. You in ATX this weekend April??? I'ma look for you at the Children's Stage!

Frozen Atlantic said...

Epic post. That funky lil' japanese monster was the highlight of my day.

But whatever happened to FORCING kids to pose for hilarious and terrifying pictures? That's how I was raised, anyway.

And look how I turned out. @_@