Viva Las Vegas 7

Gold Coast Hotel & Casino

I hope you're not busy this weekend, because you're going to the movies! Good (and bad) movies abound and we must participate in true American fashion with a display of fiscal democracy. Atlas shrugged and Ayn Rand shed a tear of pride.

1) Mayor of the Sunset Strip
2) Dogville
3) The Ladykillers

View of Mt San Jacinto from the Airplane

DAY 8!!! The Marathon is now in the 26th mile...........

I slept until noon, thank God. Packed my bags and then a large posse of us (Wanda, Vicky, Alex H., Norma, Heidi, Sabrina and the other Alex) went to lunch at Las Manitas. After lunch, we went to see the Flatstock concert poster exhibition at the Convention Center, both Alex and Wanda bought posters.

At 3:30pm Super Shuttle showed up to take me to the airport and off I went. At the airport, I had a nice chat with Tom Ward of Fat Wreck before our respective planes took off.

Lucky Laura picked me up at LAX and we went to dinner at Aki in Long Beach. I went to bed around 1am and woke up on Sunday at what I thought was noon, but I realized a bit later that I had not set my clocks back to Pacific Time. OopsÖ Now I am exhausted and it is really midnight PST Sunday.

Afternoon ñ The Spin Magazine Party at Stubbís. As I arrived The Killers were on their last two songs, not enough to give a report. Next up was The Von Bondies who played fun, rhythmic, bordering on monotonous rock. For all the hype surrounding The Von Bondies and for all the involuntary bouncing that I did during their set, I could not remember a single song or melody or chorus after they left the stage.

The highlight of the afternoon party set was The Hives, who do live up to all the monumental hype. On this hot and muggy afternoon, in the backyard of Stubbís BBQ, Swedenís golden boys were dressed in white suits with black button up shirts and white country bow ties. The Hives were fun, sassy, peppy, and dressed to kill or least dressed for a good heat stroke. Where their fellow countrymen, T(I)NC, are overly political, The Hives play kick ass, catchy rockíníroll all the while jokingly injecting politics into the mix. Ha! And you just thought the Scandinavian Invasion was just about lots of great hard rock bands? Ha! They love themselves a whole lot of politics, too.

All jokes about the Dr. Weapons of Mass Destruction and his too long bass solo in the middle of ìI Wannaî aside, The Hives did a damned fine job and are a damned fine band.

5pm ñ The Spits at Beerland ñ free show. The Spits are good punk from Seattle in the same vein as the Briefs. How come Seattle and the Northwest gets all those great bands and we only have the Stitches? The Pervz need to move to LA...

7pm ñ Dinner at Louieís 106 with Wanda, Alex, Mike Coyle, and Adaline. Excellent food and excellent company. Huge thanks to Mike.

9pm ñ Emoís Jr. ñ Pistol Grip ñ Pomonaís contribution to street punk/oi! consistently plays good shows and never fail to please the crowd. As usual, all the cute girls were plastered up against the stage to ogle the singer. The Texans were a bit timid to start a pit until the Unseen guys decided to do it for them.

10pm ñ Throw Rag ñ Rock up close and personal. Throw Rag puts the Pyscho in pyschobilly, even though they are not pyschobilly, but more punk(abilly) at its best. They one up the Cramps at 165 m.p.h.

The perils of being a reporter at a Throw Rag showÖas I was taking the above notes during the show, washboard & spoons player, Craig, noticed I was writing, he took offense. He demanded to know what I was writing which I did not hear. So, he demanded again more loudly into to the microphone, ìWhat are you writing? Stop that!î I shook my head, which I donít remember doing but Julie Wanda insists that I did, and then Craig dragged me up on stage protesting all the way. He took off the washboard and put it on me so that I could play it during ìPlease Donít Touch.î I tried to escape twice, but Craig would not let me go. At all. I made the best of it by *attempting* to shimmy during the chorus and play the spoons along the washboard with the drummer. Yikes!

11pm ñ Emoís Jr ñ The Briefs ñ Seattleís punk rock finest have signed with BYO. This showcase was particularly punk and thrashy. Unfortunately, I had to leave 3 songs into it to trot across the street to Emoís Annex for Flogging Molly.

Flogging Molly was so packed out that not even badges were getting into the show, so Blue got Steve and Steve walked Alex and I into the show via the backstage and drum riser as the band was playing. We stood on the accordion playerís side of the stage and Alex commandeered my camera to get lots of photos.

Flogging Molly was excellent. The crowd of fans and music industry folk went wild for their brand of Irish/Celtic rock/punk. The highlight of the set was ìDrunken Lullabies,î which has been getting quite a bit of radio airplay here in SoCal.

12am ñ Emoís Jr. ñ Manic Hispanic - Gabby and the boys hit it hard, hit it often, and hit in on the head of the nail. Punk rock cholo style was well received by all.

1am ñ Club Deville ñ Flametrick Subs ñ I lasted 2 songs before I pooped out.

Thursday, March 18, 2004

Keynote: Little Richard ñ blogged it.
Lunch at Las Manitas with Wanda, Vicky Pepper, and Alex.
Alt-Weekly panel ñ blogged it.
Trade Show.
Peer meeting: Buyers / Agents with Alex and Andy Roe. Good.
Late afternoon: hang out at hotel.
Dinner at Stubbís with Alex.

Highlights of the evening showcases:

8pm ñ Javier Escovedo at the Hard Rock CafÈ - Very good straight up melodic rockíníroll. ìSee You Aroundî was a stand out song with good guitar and great harmonies. A very little person, around 2, ran up and pumped her fist during the last part of the show.

9pm ñ BR5-49 is back in fighting strength after a couple rocky years. I ran into Jay McDowell, the band's former bassist who now is a filmmaker and videographer, in line outside of Antone's. Jay was very excited about his short film that won an award at SXSW Film 2004 and his upcoming baby.

Long hair is back in the best possible way all over Austin and on BR5-49ís drummer. To quote Alex H (although he says this about women)Ö hot! hot! hot!

What's this? Only one bad movie? I think it's a record for quality in cinema. Enjoy it while it lasts and stop seeing that Jesus movie. Give mere mortals a chance.

1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2) Taking Lives
3) Intermission

Save Java Lanes Petition

For further information, please see the Barflies.net Feb 12 posting "Goodbye Java Lanes?", check in on the Lotta Living board under the topic "JAVA LANES in Long Beach - Is it too late?", or Adriene Biondo's article at recentpast.org

Great Quote from the afternoon Alt Weeklys and Other Uses for Wood Pulp panel:

"I am a writer, not in the music industry." - Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader

Peter wants his columns to first be entertaining and illuminating. He does not feel he is a "member" of the music industry, he feels that the story and good writing is more important than to be a scenester or to have the industry like him.

"The grass may be greener on the other side, but it is just as hard to cut." - Little Richard

Wanda, Vicky Pepper, Alex and I are currently in the Little Richard opening keynote conversation at SXSW Music 2004.

Little Richard is 70 this year, while he has all the fire he ever did, but it is now tempered with rhyming wisdom.

"I was a country boy from the thickets. It was thick. "
"I've been around a long time, long enough to become a legend."
"People say, 'You can't bring God in.' But I do. I give God the glory. I don't care what religion you are, you got to have God."
"I am going to tell you, get your music together."
"Take time to sign your own checks, or you won't have nothing left to sign. I wish someone had told me that, when I woke up I had nothing left to sign."
"Rhythm and Blues had a baby called Rock'n'Roll."
"When I came up they did not play any black records on pop radio. I was the first played."
"That is exactly how it goes, so do it good, if you can't do it good, then don't do it at all."
"Music is the thing that will bring all of us together."

Dave Marsh, "Good Golly Miss Molly: Did having a ball mean what it means today?"
After much banter, Little Richard replied, "Having a ball now means sex, back then it meant a dancing, having a party."

The evening started with a delightful dinner at Gueroís, one of my favorite Austin restaurants. I swear that I could eat Mexican food every day of my life, or at least for five days straight in Austin. We raced out of Gueroís to make it to ìThe Portrait of Billy Joe,î a short documentary on the life of singer/songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, the musician Willie Nelson calls ìmaybe the best songwriter today.î Told through concert footage, family photos and personal testimonial, the film touches on Billy Joeís life, loves, and loss (he recently lost his wife, son, and mother), and his personal triumph through the music he loves.

Vicki convinced me we should see Jessi Alexander next, so we headed to the Fox & Hound.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My photos and commentary on SXSW 2004 Days 1 -4 can be found over at Black Phoebe : Ms. Jen.

Starting today (Day 5) through Saturday (Day 8), I will post photos and commentary from the Music portion of the conference here at Barflies.net.

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The Boom Chica Boom Go Go Dancers at the SXSW Interactive opening party at Frog Design last night.

On Tuesday night, March 16th, Guerilla Monster films is having a South by Burlesque party featuring Velvet Hammer troupe at Elysium, 705 Red River, Austin - 7pm.

According to this CD cover that I found on the sidewalk while walking down 4th St. in Austin this morning, Floyd's not dead. I am very relieved to hear this, as I just saw Floyd at Bowling and am looking forward to seeing him this upcoming week at SXSW Music showcases.

Starting next Wed., March 17th, Miss Wanda and myself will be blogging the news, events, and fun stuff of the Music Portion of SXSW 2004. In the meantime, I will be giving daily updates of the Interactive portion of SXSW 2004 over at my BlackPhoebe blog.

Due to overwhelming requests by men folk in the last two weeks who asked me if I would...Yes, I will be doing a "Boys Gone Wild SXSW-Style!." So, if you are a male, will be at SXSW, come find me and my camera... ;op

The fun is about to begin!

Interactive - March 12-16
Film - March 12-20
Music - March 17-21

Austin Convention Center
Austin, Texas

Best wishes to all of the Barflies.net folks who are attending! :-D

This week is a tough one. We finally have some good movies being released and I wasn't sure how to rank the top three. I guess it depends on what you're in the mood for. So in my best Moviefone voice, I give you my picks:

For a supernatural thriller, press:
1) Secret Window
For an action thriller, press:
2) Spartan
For a dark romantic comedy, press:
3) Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

Three. That's all we get. Three. At least it's a good three. I would be having a fit if it was a bad three.
It's not a great weekend for movies, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

1) The Reckoning
2) Starsky and Hutch
3) Hidalgo

The Barflies.net and Alex's Bar bowling teams met up last night to thank Ms. Jen for all of the hard work and dedication she selflessly puts into organizing our lazy butts and getting us to Vegas each year. We are constantly amazed by her patience and generosity! As a token of our appreciation, with the help of Tink, Wanda, and the folks at Java Lanes, Jen finally got that one last pin that she never seems to be able to knock down ;-)