Saturday, May 07, 2005

Birthdays and Close encounters

Some notes on the first week of May. the weather has been gorgeous!

April 30, 2005

Time for Eeyore's Birthday party and the weather could not have been better! The drum circle is cosmic. You can spend hours in that without even noticing. It's food for the soul.

First visit to the new Alamo on South Lamar to see the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Laughed a lot. Did not disapprove on the handling of the material for the most part. I think Ford was a bit wrong [marvin sigh] but enjoyed it.

May 1, 2005

Van Wilks and Jeff Carroll's joint birthday party (it's been a birthday weekend if you count Eeyore) is an annual event that we enjoy (thanks for the invite, Van). It's very laid-back and the music was excellent. Dave Sebree and Van played together and it was absolutely awesome.

May 4, 2005

Went to see Jedd Hughes at Stubb's. It was a free show, and really excellent. He plays really good guitar and is a talented songwriter. I think this may be a big year for him, but he is still really unknown in Austin. The Greencards were in attendance as I thought they might be since their schedule looked open and they play in Austin on Friday. I am really excited for them, they are starting the big tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson later this month and good things are going to be happening for them in a big way!

May 5, 2005

This morning I got President Clinton's autograph. I got in the line at 6:30 am for 9:00 am doors. There were maybe 150 people there already. The Secret Service arrived in their fleet of matching white Chevys and stationed them around the block. One car unloaded its spiffy-looking, sunglassed ear-wired suits right in front of us. When they walked away I couldn't resist turning into Bart Simpson for a moment with an expression of "That was cooo elll" (Well, it's very sexy and exciting) Next was the parade of police accompanying the bomb dog -- they, and another Secret Service white car went into the secure gate.

They were being extra secure for this, reneging on the allowance of getting up to 5 books signed to only allowing one per person per time through the line. Luckily I am too poor to afford more than one so it was not a problem for me. Also we were not permitted to carry so much as a set of keys into the signing area -- everything got checked in baskets and our bodies screened for metal. I'm glad they are being careful. I'd hate to lose another President I love to some nutjob (not that I believe in the lone gunman theory from 1963, but that's another topic), especially in Texas.

People seemed to be having similar reactions when they got to the third floor signing room and could see Clinton standing there. GASP. Geez, that's actually Bill Clinton standing there, one of the most famous people on earth. All I could think of was WOW that's really him! And it was. I wanted to giggle, but didn't. He shook every person's hand and greeted each person, and did it 1300 times. It's a huge book, and I hope I can find time to read it this summer.

Tonight is First Thursday, so we went down to South Congress. Shook hands with Kinky Friedman, who is running for governor (and why the hell not?). We landed at Jo's Coffee, which is usually my preference for First Thursday, and listened to Gary Primich while having a veggie BBQ. Tonight he had Mike Keller with him, so that is an extra special treat. Mike is one of the best guitarists around this town.

It was a beautiful night, and sufficiently weird. It was Cinco de Mayo, but Guero's didn't have any specials on margaritas. $4.50 for a small (but strong) one.

No comments: