- The Village Chronicles -

Kendal, Josh, and I arrived in Dallas late Thursday night after the ski trip (blogs to come on skiing) and then Josh and I headed to Austin on Friday. I was headed to Austin to enjoy South by Southwest along with Gav and Deuce. Due to past SXSW experiences, the expectations for this year were incredibly high. You have to be very skilled with managing your time during this week because of all of the different activities going on and because it is all happening during the start of the best stretch of sports watching all year. Not knowing which bands will be better than others, we began about a month ago to try and RSVP for about 10 different free shows/parties for those two days. It is ridiculous how much stuff is going on all over Austin during this time. If you pay for anything during this week it is out of laziness or poor scheduling, because along with the music there is free food and beverages to be had.

Friday after watching some bball we headed out in the afternoon to see 3 bands over in East Austin for the Vice Saves Texas party. We were headed to this location for two reasons; we had to pick up wristbands there for another party and because Deuce was wanting to see the band, Against Me. They were very entertaining and were on a whole other level than the other bands there. The lead singer for one of the other bands was a little stumbly-bumbly and tried to jump into the crowd but was rejected and ended up gashing his head on the stage. It was a bad decision on his part, mainly because he got off to a bad start by making some very racial comments that sparked a melee which was only partially controlled by security.

From there we went back to Depew for a little more bball and then left for the I Heart Comix party, but it had been shutdown by the police just like the Factory People Party and various other parties that were non SXSW sanctioned. Luckily we had a backup plan that surprisingly consisted of rappers and DJs at some outside venue. It was an interesting crowd and they had free Fat Tire on hand for everyone to enjoy. We met up with Meg and her friends there and then headed to somebody’s friends house.

Saturday we woke up to head out to this apartment complex off East 6th street. They were having a picnic style shindig with several bands including: an awesome ukulele playing dude and singing girl wearing matching quaker style garb, some band featuring an enthusiastic wash board playing lady who wore gloves, and an amusing Journey cover band. They had free hot dogs, pizza from Hot Mama’s, and Real Ale on tap. From there we went back to Depew to catch A&M dominate an inferior Louisville team and then headed out for the best show of the weekend, Lazer. I’m not sure if you are familiar with Lazer the band, but the Deuce is one of the original members and put on the show of his life, I believe. I own one of there CDs and I never dreamed that they could outperform it, but evidently they are a live band if I have ever seen one. It was great getting to meet the band over at Depew and even better that they were playing at the Carousel Lounge, which happens to be a very fine establishment right down the street from Depew. Lazer’s fans are a very loyal crowd that travels well. When we arrived with the band, Gav and I did our best to represent them well and even convinced one of the fans that Lazer actually would do his Brazilian style engagement party, if the price was right. After Fishboy, the Magic Windmills, and Lazer we headed off to some magazine party, but upon arrival we learned that a balcony had come crashing down and that everyone was sent home or to the hospital. We did have another option which was the Dearly Canadian party. There was some good music there and one of the hand-outs was a giant blow up moose head that will look good in Depew.

Sunday morning Gav drove me to Church and I met up with Kaley and my parents, but sadly I was not able to stay for lunch. I had decided to ride from Dallas to Austin with Josh and he insisted that he could find me a ride home with somebody that was in for a wedding he went to. As promised, he delivered. The only option, however, turned out to be Ros’ sister, who I thought I had met before but it turns out Ros has two sisters (maybe more) and her husband was along for the ride as well. Them not having a radio, along with the terrible traffic resulted in a Jax-style awkward ride home. They were very nice though.

Picnic Time

One of my Christmas presents this year was tickets to see Eric Clapton in San Antonio. Clapton was the only remaining of my living musical heroes that I had yet to see. Clapton's Unplugged album is among the top 5 albums of all time, and that is just a fact. I was able to check his name off that list this past weekend. There was a group of six of us that all had tickets, and so it was a weekend filled with awesome stories.

I had called Big B (pictured right) earlier in the week to make sure he was as excited as I was about seeing Slowhand live, and he informed me during the phone call that he and my brother Josh were going to get tattoos later that night. I convinced B that if he waited, I would get one with them when I came down. So, as I cruised into the live music capitol of the world on Friday night, I was still trying to decide what would permanently mark my body in a few short hours. I had some ideas at this point, but the details were a bit unclear. Nevertheless, I felt confident that I could make a quick decision under the impending pressure of the needle.

I arrived at Rufus, and the tattoo clan gathered in order to gain some much needed reassurance of our theoretical body art. Josh quickly solidified his plans and printed out his Hebrew lettering that would vertically decorate the right side of his rib cage. B simply needed to decide what font he wanted for his capitol letter "B" that was to occupy his left shoulder blade. I still had no idea, but I wasn't worried.

After picking up a few people who wanted to witness the event, we made our way to the parlor of choice, Atomic Tattoo. Josh decided to go first, and I calmly tried to sort things out while B was in a pretty frantic state, scouring through hundreds of font selections. I checked in on Josh, only to to find him riving in pain as if he was having his leg amputated. I told him to "hang in there," and I went back to work. I overheard an awesome conversation between The Ros and Eric (our tattoo artist) where Eric informed her that he recently moved to Austin because Colorado was simply "no place to raise a family."

After roughly 35 minutes, Eric was finished with Josh's tattoo (sorry for not having a pic, but The Ros had a brain-fart) and it was time for me to step up to the inking table. For a while now I have wanted to get the phrase "Dead to Sin" put on my forearm and I even had a font I felt comfortable with, but the placement was causing me much trouble and hesitancy. I simply could not reach a secure level confidence to move forward, so I decided to save that idea for later and move on to the backup plan. I had in the back of mind that if this situation played out as it had, that I would get a verse reference on my hand between my thumb and pointer finger. I proceeded to tell Eric what I wanted, after which he completely crushed my plans by telling me that he could not insure anything that he put on my hand. He said that if something were to go wrong with the tattoo, that I would have to pay to get it fixed. I was devastated at the news. I debated about whether or not to take the risk, but decided I was pressing a little bit at this point. Then I asked for Eric's opinion on my Dead to Sin indecision; hilarity ensued.

Eric proceeded to give me a sermon on the art of designing a tattoo. He was getting a little defensive thinking that I did not respect his profession by not planning to consult him on the design of my tattoo. Simply putting a phrase on your body was not art in his opinion. He told me that the forearm was "prime real-estate" for the placement of a tattoo, and it should be treated as a "canvas," with careful thought and planning. After listening to his rant and trying to convince him that, despite my shortcomings with this whole tattoo/art thing, I was still worthy of his time. I asked him of some possible things I could due to enhance the quality and dignity of my original idea. He got some tracing paper, placed it on my forearm, and proceeded to draw out his creation. I saved his art for the sake of the blog...