[H]

Sometimes the nicest gift you can get is the word ‘HIPPO’ incorporated into a piece of art work. Ethan gave me a piece of art that he created, it’s a wonderful, beautiful piece. His work is so detailed, so full of tiny surprises. I get it home and start staring at it, looking for all the neat little messages, and there it is. ‘HIPPO’ on the fridge. You’ll be able to see it in November.
Thank you, Ethan.
Also, thank you for an incredible, wonderful weekend.
First off, Rita was so scared of my hurricane ass-kicking technique that the could not even be bothered to show up in Austin. Most I got were a few bands of curved clouds, the very outer edge of the hurricane. Not enough to provide any relief from the sun, just enough to remind us that it exists.
Austin is insanely hot. Upper 90’s over the weekend, 106 on Monday. It was like an oven. And so dry and dusty…I’m still coughing up mudballs.
But the shows!
Saturday:
* Death Cab for Cutie: Rocked in their seattle emo-nerd way.
* The Fiery Furnaces: Eh, not bad, but then I was passing out in the shade by the Starbucks stand. Man I never drink Frappuccinos but I totally had one then.
* Jet: Pointlessly fun. Completely forgettable but definitely a good time while you’re there.
* Bloc Party: I was not convinced, people kept telling me to see them. Ethan brought me to see them. I was then convinced. I’m sorry I had not checked them out before.
* Oasis: Okay, seriously, why the fuck are these guys even alive? I am positive there is SOMETHING in the Geneva Accords about them. I have to disagree with Ethan here, they are not even a fun-to-watch-trainwreck kind of thing. Hey, Noel, why don’t you shit another powerchord onto the stage because there obviously isn’t enough crap festering at your feet with those lyrics you write. God, I really hate Oasis. Live Forever? Fuck you, just die. (yeah, that feels better)
Sunday:
* Arcade Fire: mmmmm French Canadian pop! Fun to listen to, moderately rock-outable, chief lyric is “woooooo-ooooooo-ooooo”. I didn’t know much going in, I’m not unimpressed, I’ll probably catch more of them later.
* The Decemberists: For my money, the best goddamned show I saw. Period. I loved them anyway, then they get up there and make us squat down silently and later make us scream like we’re being eaten by a whale!! Could you love them any more? NO! GOD, I LOVE NERD-ROCK MORE AND MORE EVERY DAY.
* Franz Ferdinand: Again, great fun! We watched them through a thick thick haze of Austin dust! I will forever equate them with bbq brisket sandwiches and my 8 millionth beer. Sorry guys, I was hungry and inhaling my food at the time.
* The Black Keys: We caught about half their set. Not bad, worth checking out again. The intense heat made it hard to hang out for long. We were exhausted. This leads us to…
* Tortoise: Don’t know who they are, don’t really care. They seemed to be some sort of chill percussion thing. Don’t care. What I do care about is that I got to grab a lawn chair at ‘The Beach’ and completely pass out for a half hour. God, that was so nice. After 2 days, many hours in the intense heat and sun it was so nice to find relief after sunset. We relaxed, pulled it together, got some Ben and Jerry’s and headed over to…
* Coldplay: I’m not a fan (sorry, Lily). Ethan determined they were U2 without the politics and Radiohead without the pain. Just not a fan. We caught a few songs and I will say this, I may not care for Coldplay but at least I could rock a little to the music. I could not even do that with Oasis. I couldn’t do it with Oasis because they sucked so very very hard.
We got out of there, headed home to the AC and cool showers and relaxation.
Let’s see, good food all weekend, good company, falling in love with Simon Pegg’s hair in “Spaced”, Katamari Damacy, Sonic, lots of coffee. And let me give a shout out to the inventors of the AeroBed!
WOOOOO
Tomorrow, big news about Lily!