White Rob | Red State

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.)

Labels: pics, SF visitors

I've been a little mum the past couple weeks because, honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot going on. It's been deathly slow around here. Occasionally, a tumbleweed rolls through.

Oh, I guess I should mention that Ryan from the old town dropped by for a visit a few weeks ago. We hung out for a weekend, ate and imbibed, watched a little NFL on opening weekend. Standard September fare. Wait. We did something else, though. What was it? Hmm... Oh, I remember.

We watched the local college football team take on some large out-of-state school’s football team. (American football, not “footie”.) You probably didn’t hear about it, but it was kind of a big deal down here. Your University of Texas Longhorns hosted the top-ranked and morally repugnant Ohio State Buckeye football team. It was the first meeting of the #1 and #2 college football teams during the regular season in 10 years. Many thought it was the biggest game ever played in Austin. And 30,000 buck-toothed-, err, Buckeye fans came to Austin from all over the country to support their team of future felons.

It’s weird, though. Thinking about the game now, it feels like it took place a really long time ago. Wait, what? It feels that way only because I slacked a few weeks before writing about it? Oh. That makes sense.

Crap. I took some pictures. Do you even care to see them? It's been awhile. You wanna? Yeah? Cool. Let your eyes eat it up...



A few of the 30,000 Ohio State fans preparing for the game at their weekend compound, Stubb's, a downtown BBQ joint that doubles as a music venue:

Ryan and Tania at the business school tailgate:


Damn, there are a lotta people here. 89,000+. How they all fit into a stadium that seats 85,000, I don't know.




Ohmigod, ohmigod, OHMIGOD!! Matthew McConaughey and Jake Gyllenhaal! Matthew McConnahey and Jake Gyllenhaul! Matthew McKonaughay and Jake Gillenhall! They're here! At the game!!

Wait... are they even friends? Who the hell are those people?


Oh yeah. That's totally them. This is now officially the dreamiest game in Austin's history.


Damn. My Hook 'em was cut off:


So, I sold my extra game ticket to this crazed Ohio State fan pictured here for a few bones before the game. She, uh... she was really into the game. I mean really into the game. I began to worry a little about her sanity as the game wore on, even suggesting that Tania not get so close to her for this pict-...

Holy shit. Rusti? Rusti, is that you? How the hell you been? Is Martin here with you? How's the casa in Alameda? I didn't recognize you when I sold you the ticket. Umm, one question. Why, uhh... why have you been making that face for the last two hours?


It's later in the game and the 'Horns are beginning to suck. Let's gaze at the landmark UT Tower.


The largest high-definition screen in the world. It was originally called Godzillatron. A splinter group has begun calling it Adzillatron. That might be more appropriate. FYI: a stadium somewhere in Asia will soon have an even larger hi-def screen, dropping UT's screen to 2nd largest in the world. Weak.


Ohio State 24, Texas 7. Why did you leave us, Vince? Why?


Ryan, Tania, and I headed downtown after the game for a beverage. We ended up at Speakeasy, which has a pretty tight roofdeck with cushy space for lounging.


Much to Tania's consternation, a good portion of Sunday morning and afternoon resembled this:


We finally left the house in the mid-afternoon to get Ryan some authentic Texas barbecue at County Line. The three of us ate at the original location which has a nice view of the severely overhyped Texas Hill Country. (Though, to be fair, I could not see the entire hill country from the restaurant.)



We consumed mass quantities of ribs, brisket, and sausage until we there was no room left in our tummies. Then they offered us some dessert. So we made some room. (I won't say how.)

Labels: bars, bbq, football, good locations from which to shoot a whole mess of people, pics, SF visitors