Tying Up Loose Ends

A lot of things fall by the wayside when you force yourself to post enormous timewastes like this. This post is dedicated to clearing those loose issues up so that we can move forward as a Blog. One big thing hanging over my head is last month's Austin trip, which I was planning to do as kind of a Story in Pictures, but then I realized I had only one good picture, which would make kind of a short story. I will post that picture when I go home for lunch, because it's there and not here at work. It's worth the wait, though. You'll like it.

My trip to Austin was tremendous fun. It happened to be during the second round of the NCAA Tournament (At the hotel I got to watch the entire 2-OT end of the Forest-West Virginia game that was the best game of that whole weekend, adding to the overall greatness of it), and also happened to be during Austin's biggest week, the musical fest known as South by Southwest or SXSW to those who are cool. As you looked at people there that weekend, you just had to know that many of them were actually musical.

We went to Austin to see a band play -- not in SXSW but in a bar that happened to be in the midst of SXSW but was in no way affiliated with SXSW. The bar was a mexican restaurant by day/"Americana" music stage by night. And if you're wondering what Americana is, you're not alone. I was wondering myself. It seems Americana is what used to be known as Alt-Country 10 years ago, but it has grown to encompass anything that sounds down-home or woodsy. The first band we saw was Generic Country, almost Literal Country. It was one good-haired guy with what looked like the recovering alcoholic all-star jug band behind him. Actually, they had an old guy who played the stand-up sttel guitar, and if I were a fan of Literal Country I could see liking it. The lyrics were very plain, and mostly involved workin' hard, drinkin' hard, and lovin' hard. Like I said, Literal Country.

Then the band we came to see hopped on stage. We (and by that I mean my wife Jill, and our friend/her former student Molly, and 2 of Molly's friends from Texas Tech. At least I think they were from Texas Tech. It was me and a bunch of girls, in any case. College all over again.) were there because the guitarist in the band is a former student of Jill's from Rockford Lutheran High School, Dan McMahon. I mention this because I want people to find this blog entry when he gets really famous. Anyway, the band's name is The Wandering Sons, and they floored me with how good they are.

(side note: I just heard thunder, which means that somewhere in my home, my dog is pooping. Now back to Tying Up Loose Ends)

Seriously, I was not expecting this. What do they sound like? As Jyro Xhan would say, see for yourself. It's not hard to describe, it's just hard for me to describe. They sound like a band with the name "The Wandering Sons" should sound, you know what I mean? They're blues-Americana, I guess. I've already established I don't really know what Americana is. Anyway, they're good, and you should demand to check them out. They're based out of Appleton, WI of all places. Can anything good come from Appleton? You decide.

Ok, I just thought of who they sound like -- they're like old ZZ-Top, only more acoustic and with someone who can sing.

If the hotel we stayed at was a brand of coffee, it would be General Foods International Coffees. It was like Pentecost at the complementary continental breakfast, on account of all the different languages that were being thrown down. Quick Hits about Austin, the city:

• The Terrain: Beautiful, green, and hilly. No wonder they call this "hill country".
• The Scene: Built completely around U of Texas and Cool Music. It's fun compared to Dallas, which is built around People With Too Much Money.
• The Traffic/Road System: Unconscionably horrible. The city was layed out by chipmunks, apparently.
• The People: Now, a lot of people were there just for SXSW, but it seemed like a college town, which is always interesting and good.

We made it through breakfast and made it home, and the Wandering Sons came to stay at our apartment for a night. For those of you keeping score at home, that's two cool bands that have stayed at our abode, and none at yours. They are good guys and great at the "music". I'm listening to them right now, and I don't even like old ZZ Top. Part of my enjoyment is no doubt due to the fact that I know the guitarist involved. You always like the bands that involve your friends, unless you are some sort of hyper-objective tool.

Moving way on to the NFL Draft, let me just say that Aaron Rogers holds the ball dorky. I don't know if that's good or bad, but people seem to be talking about it.

Sideways and Zero Day have been sitting in my house for over a week, waiting for me to watch it. I've already whined way too much about having no time to watch the stuff that I want. I did watch the entire first season (8 episodes) of Joe Schmo, which was awesome. My wife says it was cheesy and sappy, which it was, but it was also bizarrely earnest and real for a show built around fooling a person. What happened was, they picked the single most upstanding archetypal American "dude" and created this crazy show around him. He lived with a bunch of actors pretending to be reality show contestants, who all had their storylines that they had to live out in front of the "dude", Matt, every day. It was quite the social experiment, and Matt consistently looked like the greatest dude ever (for example, he gave a trip he had won to another "contestant" because she had been injured in a game). So, when it came time to tell him the truth about the show, all the actors were mortified because they really didn't want to hurt the guy. They all ended up loving him. That's what made the end so earnest and cheesy. It was great, though -- but don't let your kids watch it, for reasons that will become clear during the first game -- "Hands on a High-Priced Hooker". Yeah, it was on SpikeTV, so there are lots of strippers involved in the whole thing.

Meanwhile, on Alias, is the fake Sloane cool or what? This season was kind of spinning it's wheels, and then bam!, fake Sloane. Maybe he's Sloane's brother or something. Or Sark in disguise. Now that would be something, and it's speculation like this that makes the show so much fun. At least once an episode, I should think to myself, "Where do they come up with this stuff?" That's not been happening much this year (although I did think that during the whole "Freeze-dried guy" episode. Finally, they did something really cool, although they just had to bring back that big red ball with it.

And if you notice that AdBar up top moving around and becoming different, don't worry. I'm just experimenting with it to try to a) get relevant ads (unlike the constant barrage of homocon and blog hosting); and b) not cover up anything I want seen. They're now (if Blogger publishes correctly) sort of intermixed between the posts. Until I figure it out, eat it.

I think my work is done here for the day.