A great friggin show. The performance was mind-blowing and the crowd was awesome with a strong Texas contingent. I loved it. Before I get back to work on my dance moves, here is an attempt at a setlist. I think it’s complete but probably a little off on the order:
Piano Man
All You Rock & Rollers
Stranger Lovers
Vibrate
Sad Sad City
Edge of Town
No Place For Me
Midnight Voyage
Move With Your Lover
Shoot ‘Em Down
Dancin’ On My Grave
Heavy Heart
Robotique Majestique
The Band Marches On
Silver City
Rich Man
HFM
Also, an impressive set of photos of the show by “Madeas” is live on Flickr. I recognize these from the photographer who was standing right in front of us. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate people hauling their gear into these shows and putting their stuff up on Flickr for everyone to enjoy. It’s rock photography at its finest.
If you haven’t heard, I am really into this Austin duo called Ghostland Observatory best described as synth-soul indie rock. They kicked off their tour promoting their latest album Robotique Majestique at the Austin Music Hall. For one of the more rockin tracks on the record, they were joined by the University of Texas marching band. I doubt the show in New York later this month will live up to this:
That rocked. I have watched it at least three or four times but as a result my eyes are starting to itch. Must be all of the ‘horns signs.
Also, I think it’s somewhat ironic that the only other school-marching-band-in-rock-music-history moment I can recall is the USC Trojan marching band with Fleetwood Mac.
I spent a long weekend in Austin visiting old friends in their new homes and celebrating birthdays. Yeah, I’m not the only one turning 30 this week… The hospitality was solid and I was glad to be in some warm(er) weather especially when the first real winter storm hit NYC last Friday. I was also fascinated by the rapid development consuming the metro area. It maybe more dramatic to someone who only visits once, maybe twice a year but Austin is a whole new city from when I left it in 2002.
Naturally, the new buildings downtown have altered the skyline but there were just as many - if not more large building construction sites close to and around downtown. New apartment and condo buildings have sprouted up everywhere along the I-35 corridor. I heard even Lance Armstrong has a residential tower on Town Lake under construction. I wonder if there are plans to paint the whole thing yellow?
I spent some time in North Austin as well, where I felt slightly disoriented the entire time. From my memory of the area circa 2000, it is unrecognizable. Unless I was looking at Texas highway signs, the consistent patterns of commercial and residential developments were confusing me to really get a sense of my point on a map. Then again, I am very directionally challenged and I am looking for excuses to get an iPhone before it goes 3G. The compass on my key chain may not be enough.
One thing hasn’t changed and that is the quality (and quantity) of food. Freebird’s still serves my favorite burrito. Polvo’s is still the best Tex-Mex I’ve ever had. And there is nothing quite like BBQ in Austin, even a place like Rudy’s that doesn’t have the clout of a Louie Mueller’s, Kruez or Salt Lick. But maybe my favorite thing to do is visit grocery stores like Central Market or just HEB where the produce sections seem larger than most of grocery stores in Manhattan. And everything is abundant, fresh and cheap (brings tears to my eyes).
I love Austin and I always will. But I felt the distance that has come between us. Perhaps both the city and I have grown up and become less…weird.
I was just listening to Ghostland Observatory - Dancin On My Grave
Today, I was alerted to this page on the Texas DOT website where people can vote on the next license plate design. The current license plate design is on the ballot although it is in last place for votes.
I chose the “traditional” plate, since it’s clean, not gaudy and very legible.
The rest of the selections are horrendous. Which makes me wonder what kind of resources Texas and the other states put towards designing license plates…
So I did a little hunting and found this website which contains complete current and historical galleries of license plates here and abroad. It’s an impressive collection and worth browsing through to see some of the more iconic designs, such as New York’s “Lady Liberty 100th Anniversary”, North Carolina’s 1983 “First in Flight”, and Virginia’s 1976 “Bicentennial” plates.
Who doesn’t love playing the license plate game?
I was just listening to Puscifer - Momma Sed
I loved watching Ghostland Observatory’s performance on Austin City Limits. They’re freaky good and definitely from Austin, TX. The ACL folks were so impressed, they released this performance on DVD. Here is a clip from the show, while it lasts, on YouTube:
This year, I spent Thanksgiving away from family and with friends who might as well be family. We had a great dinner (for which I supplied the requisite side: cornbread dressing), which was accompanied by good food, drinks, company, Trivial Pursuit (90’s edition) and the Cowboys beating the Jets 34-3.
New York is an interesting scene on Thanksgiving in that it actually gets quiet for a day. It’s not quite Will Smith in the I Am Legend previews that have been lynching the TV lately but still a little eerie and suspicious when you’re walking around the city. Of course if you’re out for a more typical 4am curfew, you can greet the Black Friday shoppers arriving in the city and lining up ready to feed at the trough.
Walking down Broadway through the 20s the next day, I noticed some sketchy-looking guys putting out boxes of random retail product on the sidewalk to move. A crowd would collect around each one until it was sold out and the ravenous shoppers would move on to the next one. It could have been socks or iPhones, but I think just the prospect of getting a deal — never mind how the product came to be in an unmarked shipping box on the street — was enough to attract customers.
My own consumerist thirst - which is rarely quenched - has never been enough to get me out on Black Friday not to mention enough to scope out the Red Hot deals I witnessed on Broadway Ave. For that, I am thankful. And a short list of other stuff like my 5 senses and my health, my family and friends, my career and employment.
Oh and I am also thankful for Dennis Franchione’s resignation, delivered in the press conference immediately following Texas A&M’s win over Texas for the second year in a row.
Texas fans will be quick to point out how that win is nothing compared to a National Championship that they won in 2005 against USC with Vince Young, blah blah blah… But in a year in which Missouri is the #1 team in the nation going into the Big 12 Championship game as an underdog to #8 Oklahoma — not to mention A&M’s mediocre season — you take what you can get.
I was just listening to Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas