Running to help

That's our Mayor, Lee Leffingwell, as Batman. It's a fitting choice of superhero for him because this is a bat-oriented city. The reason these folks are addressing the press dressed up like this is to promote the CASA Superhero Run on Sep. 30. CASA is "Court Appointed Special Advocates" and their purpose is to help abused kids to get into a safer situation. The motto of the run is "Every child needs a hero, but abused children need superheroes." This video is just too darned cute.

2011 CASA Superhero Run from CASA of Travis County on Vimeo.

On Oct 20 there will be a differently-themed run called the Austin Thong Jog, held in honor of the memory of Leslie and benefiting the homeless. This is the first one, so there's no archived footage, only this little promo.

A bit less dressed than the first event, but probably more dressed than this annual World Naked Bike Rise that Austin participates in every June.


The Thong Jog happens at the same time that MrB likes to ride his bike (in costume) in the Tour de Fat Parade so we might miss the underwear spectacle. I can't run or jog (with this misbehaving foot of mine) and never could ride a cycle with fewer than 3 wheels - so I'm pretty much a freak and a permanent spectator, but I'm glad for the folks who do get to play along.

My Beatle jacket

We finally watched "Living in the Material World," the Martin Scorsese documentary on George Harrison. First, it's really excellent, and not simply another entry in the huge pile of Beatle documentaries. This one has more in it, especially about the music itself. It's a 'duh." See it if you are a Beatle fan, music fan, or interested in the sixties at all.

The reason I'm posting is because it shows George Harrison wearing a jacket that made me hit the pause button and go to the closet.

It looks almost exactly like the matching jackets that my mother and I bought during the same time frame. They were wool (of the scratchy kind), stitched together with some kind of wool yarn, and lined with either silk or satin, I don't know which. They were from Greece, and we lived there at the time.

Ours were both turquoise in color, but I wish I knew what color George's was. I haven't found any color pictures of it. I am not sure what happened to my mother's jacket. I probably gave it to a cousin after she died. I was unable to transport her entire collection of things across the country.

Life is full of weird coincidences.

Rock Star vs. Zombie

ACL Festival Day 3

Sunday

little hurricane (whole set, near front center rail)
Got to this stage by Rock Island in order to maneuver into place for The Greencards. This is a good band with a configuration like White Stripes: guy on electric guitars ("Tone") and girl drummer ("CC"). Their band tagline/self-applied genre is “dirty blues.” CC threw her sticks to the crowd, and there was a big scuffle over one of them right by us. One man tackled another one and they both landed hard with our backpack underneath them! Luckily nothing in it was broken. We manage to yank that free, and since the area was rather cleared then, I was able to easily grab my territory. The man on the bottom continued to hold onto his prize drumstick for dear life while the man grappling on top of him refused to give up, despite security guards promising him that they’d get him another one. Totally crazy.
The Greencards (whole set, front center rail)
This is one of our favorite bands. We’ve been seeing them as often as possible since 2003. Incredible instrumental work, songwriting, and vocals. They never fail to make our day. They are amazing.
Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses (front rail far right, whole set). Bingham is hot as a firecracker right now. He worked on the Crazy Heart soundtrack with T-Bone Burnett and co-wrote "The Weary Kind". Over the past year it's won him an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, Critic's Choice for "Best Song," and Americana Music's "Artist of the Year." First time for us to see him live was on Sunday. The video below is from that very event. The film crew with Malick, Bale and Bennett was there again backstage, there were sightings of the actors (in fact, you can see Haley in the video below, the pretty girl in the black camisole). They filmed MrB a lot (close up crowd shots) and maybe Blueberry too. I was keeping my head down for the camera.
We headed for home after Bingham. We had sunburns, hurting feet, a mile yet to walk to the bus stop, and Monday morning, 4:30 AM coming around too soon.

ACL Festival Day 2

Saturday

A little more rain fell, and it was wonderful even though we were out in it. Alison Krauss & Union Station restricted stage seating to her band's guests (which included Robert Plant and Patty Griffin - I think the cat is finally out of the bag on this local celebrity couple) so we watched from the front. Beautiful show. I sooo love this band and everyone in it.


After AK&US, we went to the tented stage for
Gillian Welch (and David Rawlings). Gillian has played this festival a couple of times previously, and they put her on one of the big stages. For some reason they didn't this time. The smaller stages at ACL, especially if the acts are somewhat acoustic, fall victim to really awful sound bleedover from the other stages. I have been front rail center for a small stage band before, and could still hear the band from another stage equally well. This thing is the elephant in the room, performers put up with it because they are troopers, and not enough audience members complain or if they do, it doesn't make any difference - the festival will sell out.

Anyway, here is Gillian and David: The Revelator

And here is the band that was playing on the nearby stage and was scheduled to continue for another half hour, the first half of Gillian's set. Skrillex: "Kill Everybody"

She went out on a limb and had them postpone her start time until Skrillex was finished. It was sooo much better that way for everyone, but it delayed the stage schedule and some people may have felt inconvenienced by that.

Here is a bit of prime ass-holery from Billboard Magazine's tweet:

The aged + child crowd in Gillian Welch tent seems not amused by the rave happening across the way at Skrillex. #ACL #dealwithit

Deal with it? So it's perfectly alright to have both those performers going at the same time and place? It takes nothing away from the listening experience of the acoustic, quieter performance? Our only problem is that we are old? Or there are kids in the audience? (there are all ages in ALL the audiences.) This is the opinion offered by a representative of a MUSIC magazine? #assholejustdoesntgetit #goodongillian

My Morning Jacket was the headliner we chose for the night, and again, did not really attempt to get close. It was a beautiful night, and little damp and cool and cloudy, unlike the nights we've had here for several months when it might still be 100° out. Most of the crowd was at the other end of the park, so we had the opportunity to have some space around us, look up at the sky without feet stepping over your face, and dance in big wide circles (like nobody was looking). They sounded really good. They've been around for awhile and never caught on with me, but I'm ready to listen now. Nothing like an old new discovery.

ACL Festival Day 1

We had the kind of passes that allowed us into artist backstage area as well as limited stage-side seating. These are wonderful to have because you can recharge your psychic batteries (as well as your *literal* batteries) in a place that’s not a marching throng of sweaty humanity. They also have free (for tips) beverages, snack food, somewhat air-conditioned restrooms with flush toilets and actual soap+water. These things make a LOT of difference, and we are grateful to our friends for this gift.

I like to see my favorites, but also really like the opportunity to see someone I've never seen, and in some cases I might not have even heard of them. Just walking by the back of the crowd doesn't count, gotta stay for at least a song.

Friday Highlights

Ha Ha Tonka (3 songs, front)
Good indie band from Missouri. Yes, that's right. Our old stomping grounds.

Delta Spirit (whole set, stageside)
Have been wanting to see this band for awhile. Don't have any of their music but plan on changing that. It was great to be able to watch them from the stage.While we were there, we noticed below us that one of the cameramen below us (we are on a kind of railed catwalk) is totally obsessed with this gorgeous blonde and keeps filming her instead of the band. Well... these things happen. More about her soon...

Cave Singers (2 songs, tent stageside)
Have seen this great band before, but got there too late to get a good viewing spot, and the side seating had obstructed views PLUS bad sound, so we moved on.

Ray LaMontagne (2-3 songs, side rail)
Everybody has heard Ray's music. It's been used in television shows and I think) commercials. Very soulful, great voice.

Bright Eyes (whole set, stageside)
Had never seen this band before. An exciting and intense show. Here’s a zoom-in of center stage.Lead singer Conor Oberst about to crowd surf. I love this one because of the facial expressions in the crowd!
While standing in line, the woman ahead of us mention that the “Tree of Life” guy was making a movie here, so that explained the previous 'groupie-ogling cameraman'. The woman being filmed on the stage for Delta Spirit was Haley Bennett, and during Bright Eyes, the movie crew came striding down the center aisle of the crowd and proceeded to enter the stage from the (audience) left. Here is one of my shots, and we didn’t figure out who the actor was from that distance... and, in fact, did not until Monday...... which is probably a good thing because I probably would have melted on the spot. Here is someone’s video of them as they were preparing for the stage approach:


We missed all but one song by Gary Clark Jr. for that bit of excitement, but he is a hot local gee-tar player so we hope to catch him soon in Austin somewhere.

We didn’t make the most of the headliners at the festival, mainly because the only way to get close to the stage is to “camp out” there for many, many hours during the day. I have done that plenty of times, but not this time. Stageside viewing was not available for Coldplay, so we watched about half of it from way back on the lawn in a throng of people. Other than the in-person laser light show, I think I would just as soon watch on Palladia or ACL-TV if I can’t get close to the stage. Anyway… Day 1 was a blast, and a tiny bit of rain fell, which made us all ecstatic.

Here’s a collection of links about this still super-secret Terrence Malick film starring Christian Bale that was filmed at ACL-fest.

Superhero Hype <---- check out these great photos!
Collider
NY Mag
IFC
The guy (on twitter) who got the candid video
First showing

(I did not care for Tree of Life, but will have to see this one - just because...)

Science is cool

Pendulum waves! Read more about this little phenomenon here at the Harvard University Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations site.