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SXSW scene report: Friday afternoon
I saw Rolling Stone’s David Fricke in the daylight for the first time ever. I was a little disappointed to realize he is a mere mortal and not a pure creature of the night.
Overheard in the Convention Center: “TWO DOLLARS for a #%!ing BANANA?!?!?!?” Also, “Not you. I don’t mean you, I mean SXSW.” I am still puzzling over what could have preceded that remark. Perhaps in the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court decision, it is possible that conventions, as well as corporations, can now be considered people?
After I walked past it about 20 times, I suddenly noticed there is a Chevy Volt parked outside the Convention Center. It looked cool enough to make me forgive Chevy for all those minivans, and the company even sent an engineer, Lane Rezek, to stand around and talk to people about the electric car. He said they brought it down on a truck, since it’s not yet in production, but they have test-driven it in Death Valley and the frozen north of Canada “to work any bugs out.” Unlike regular batteries, the electric batteries are not supposed to die untimely deaths in Austin summers, a nice feature. Just then, a bizarre tribe of guys in platform boots and gray-brown gargoyle-cum-Road-Warrior costumes stormed up to the Chevy Malibu nearby, and turned around to have their photo taken, showing off their thong underwear and bare backsides. Rezek mischievously took out the remote and made the Malibu’s horn honk before any of them got a booty print on it, and they ran off in the direction of Sixth Street, looking like something from a comic book only South Austin icon Leslie could have dreamed up.
On Sixth Street, some scruffy young guys were sitting on the curb, banging away on plastic bins, hoping to get tips, despite an obvious lack of talent that caused the nearby Best Wurst vendor to call out to a passer-by in frustration “Worst drummers in the world!” I smiled at him in commiseration, and he grimaced and said “They’re killing me. It’s good to express yourself — but go somewhere else.” When I walked by again an hour later, they were gone, and I wondered if he’d been driven to bribe them with wurst, since it seemed unlikely they’d take a hint.
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Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: SXSW 2010
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By r
March 19, 2010 10:29 PM | Link to this
Looks like Austin now imports weird. Strange days.
By Dan Frain
May 11, 2011 6:32 PM | Link to this
Parry, we met at Valentine’s @ 64 North Orange Avenue in Otown a long time ago. Your were there to interview John Campbell ; I was there to see an old friend and neighbor.
I thought of you today. John’s name came up and I was trying to recall a line from your review of his second album. Please drop me a line if you can. Thanks!