Thursday, July 19
ACL Fest: A 10 Month Retrospective
Before I get to the ACL Fest of yesteryear, I want to remind you that San Antonio sucks. Moving on…
As you know, Austin City Limits is the long running PBS show that features musical acts from Austin. That’s pretty much a guess as I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the show. (But it seems believable, yeah?) ACL Fest is a 3-day outdoor music festival that takes place in Zilker Park near downtown Austin every fall. Though ACL Fest has only been around since 2002, it’s already achieved a level of renown and awareness that makes my preceding explanation of what ACL Fest is to be a complete waste of your time. Sorry.
As recent transplants to the blue isle, Tania and I figured we should check out the festival. And to help us pass the time, Burnsie from the old country flew out. Or maybe he flew down. I forget where he flew from. Point being, he came out here. And we decided to take photos for posterity’s sake…
When Davie got into town Thursday night, we dined at Hula Hut. We pretty much take all of our visitors here. Its combination of waterfront/top location, people-watching, and margaritas makes it an excellent place to kick off the weekend. I normally wouldn’t let a guy with sketchy facial hair paw Tania like this, but I made an exception this time:
Next day, it’s Friday! Day of the festival! Awesome! Let’s get to the festival!! In order to avoid mass traffic hysteria near the park, we’re advised to go downtown and catch a shuttle to the park a couple miles away. No biggie. Wait, what? We have to wait in this long-ass line to catch a shuttle bus to the park? Oh…
We’re getting close to the front. (Who’s this Chuck?)
We’re inside! Yay!! (And we brought water cuz it’s hotter than hell! Yay!!) As I mentioned before, the site of the festival is close to downtown, affording one a nice view of the skyline as one enters the park:
On second thought, downtown is not as close as I thought:
The festival has 6 different stages with up to 4 acts playing at any one time. So, we obviously heard a ton of musical acts at the fest. But photos of bands on stage are all the same. So here’s a photo of Gomez. Soak it in. It’s the only band/stage photo you’re gonna get:
Dude. It was f*cking hot at the Fest. During a break in our intended schedule of acts, we all pined for a nice cold body of water to jump in. Luckily, Barton Springs, a spring-fed 68 degree swimming hole was (and still is!) really close to the festival site. So we wandered over to the free portion of the springs and cooled off.
Wow. Dave used to be in shape. And I used to be “in shape for me”. Seems so long ago…
Went back to the fest and caught more tunes. Over the Friday and Saturday, we heard Gomez, the Raconteurs, Ben Harper, Van Morrison, The Shins, Thievery Corporation, Gnarls Barkley (who they?), Explosions in the Sky, Guster, and Massive Attack. Massive Attack was the closing performance on Saturday Night and they were tremendous. (Not as tremendous as the sight of the 50+ year old drunk guy throwing up next to us during Van Morrison the previous night, but still tremendous.) Good times all around.
They were so good we should do it again this year. Lemme just head over to the website and buy some tix… What the? 3-day passes are sold-out? Single-day Saturday tix are gone, too? Bitches.
In closing, a photo of the sun behind the clouds for which I could not think of a caption. (And know, I really wish I had.)
As you know, Austin City Limits is the long running PBS show that features musical acts from Austin. That’s pretty much a guess as I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the show. (But it seems believable, yeah?) ACL Fest is a 3-day outdoor music festival that takes place in Zilker Park near downtown Austin every fall. Though ACL Fest has only been around since 2002, it’s already achieved a level of renown and awareness that makes my preceding explanation of what ACL Fest is to be a complete waste of your time. Sorry.
As recent transplants to the blue isle, Tania and I figured we should check out the festival. And to help us pass the time, Burnsie from the old country flew out. Or maybe he flew down. I forget where he flew from. Point being, he came out here. And we decided to take photos for posterity’s sake…
When Davie got into town Thursday night, we dined at Hula Hut. We pretty much take all of our visitors here. Its combination of waterfront/top location, people-watching, and margaritas makes it an excellent place to kick off the weekend. I normally wouldn’t let a guy with sketchy facial hair paw Tania like this, but I made an exception this time:
Next day, it’s Friday! Day of the festival! Awesome! Let’s get to the festival!! In order to avoid mass traffic hysteria near the park, we’re advised to go downtown and catch a shuttle to the park a couple miles away. No biggie. Wait, what? We have to wait in this long-ass line to catch a shuttle bus to the park? Oh…
We’re getting close to the front. (Who’s this Chuck?)
We’re inside! Yay!! (And we brought water cuz it’s hotter than hell! Yay!!) As I mentioned before, the site of the festival is close to downtown, affording one a nice view of the skyline as one enters the park:
On second thought, downtown is not as close as I thought:
The festival has 6 different stages with up to 4 acts playing at any one time. So, we obviously heard a ton of musical acts at the fest. But photos of bands on stage are all the same. So here’s a photo of Gomez. Soak it in. It’s the only band/stage photo you’re gonna get:
Dude. It was f*cking hot at the Fest. During a break in our intended schedule of acts, we all pined for a nice cold body of water to jump in. Luckily, Barton Springs, a spring-fed 68 degree swimming hole was (and still is!) really close to the festival site. So we wandered over to the free portion of the springs and cooled off.
Wow. Dave used to be in shape. And I used to be “in shape for me”. Seems so long ago…
Went back to the fest and caught more tunes. Over the Friday and Saturday, we heard Gomez, the Raconteurs, Ben Harper, Van Morrison, The Shins, Thievery Corporation, Gnarls Barkley (who they?), Explosions in the Sky, Guster, and Massive Attack. Massive Attack was the closing performance on Saturday Night and they were tremendous. (Not as tremendous as the sight of the 50+ year old drunk guy throwing up next to us during Van Morrison the previous night, but still tremendous.) Good times all around.
They were so good we should do it again this year. Lemme just head over to the website and buy some tix… What the? 3-day passes are sold-out? Single-day Saturday tix are gone, too? Bitches.
In closing, a photo of the sun behind the clouds for which I could not think of a caption. (And know, I really wish I had.)
Labels: pics, SF visitors
Friday, July 13
San Antonio: Why?
I had this long drawn-out intro to this post, but it pretty much blew (though this isn't any better), and it was preventing me from just coming out and saying what needs to be said. So here it is: San Antonio, without any qualifications and in no uncertain terms, completely sucks ass. Boom. There it is.
This city’s redeeming qualities can be summarized as follows:
And why the hell does anyone live in San Antonio? Did you know 1.2 million people live here? It’s true. More, actually. It’s the 7th most-populous city in the U.S. Yeah. Crazy, right? You’re like, “What? No!! That can’t be! You’re telling me it’s larger than [insert name of city in which a normal person might actually choose to live]?” Yes!! There are more people in San Antonio than in that city you just mentioned. (Unless you said NYC, Philly, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, or Houston. Those are the only U.S. cities with more residents than San Antone. You didn’t mention one of those, did you? That would kinda derail the whole rant I’m on.)
Screw it, I'm derailed. I was going to list a ton of reasons why San Antonio blows, but it was gonna be stupid and lame. And I figure you don’t wanna read too much about some candy-assed Bay Area yuppie’s whiny little foo-foo problems. So I axed it. This way, we can remain friends. I did it for us. I love you.
This city’s redeeming qualities can be summarized as follows:
- it’s cheap as hell
- it’s only 85 miles to Austin
- it’s not Houston
And why the hell does anyone live in San Antonio? Did you know 1.2 million people live here? It’s true. More, actually. It’s the 7th most-populous city in the U.S. Yeah. Crazy, right? You’re like, “What? No!! That can’t be! You’re telling me it’s larger than [insert name of city in which a normal person might actually choose to live]?” Yes!! There are more people in San Antonio than in that city you just mentioned. (Unless you said NYC, Philly, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, or Houston. Those are the only U.S. cities with more residents than San Antone. You didn’t mention one of those, did you? That would kinda derail the whole rant I’m on.)
Screw it, I'm derailed. I was going to list a ton of reasons why San Antonio blows, but it was gonna be stupid and lame. And I figure you don’t wanna read too much about some candy-assed Bay Area yuppie’s whiny little foo-foo problems. So I axed it. This way, we can remain friends. I did it for us. I love you.
Labels: I don't care about Eva and Tony so just shut the hell up already
