Fork....

i should step up and take some better pictures of bands huh? the spotlight was bright at the show tonight. Soilwork got a weak NYC response. I thought they were pretty good but I dont think the crowd knew what really to expect? i guess? maybe? throwdown were pretty good after some minor glitches. i got to hang with jose, alisha, munzo, and new friend jason from nonelouder.com go to the website and click on jose iguanalogs. he has this camera where he can record bits and upload them on the spot. i know there is the one with the post show wrap up and another from post show meal with jose, alisha and company at the diner that i didnt attend.
So SXSW has come and gone. I have to say, i enjoyed it alot this year. I took the title working vacation kinda loosely. This year though was so overloaded with day parties it got confusing to a point. There was no real quality time spent at anyone venue or showcase. There were a few here and there that had some amazing line ups. Im going to try and do a bit of a wrap up little bit at a time. maybe i will do one day at a time. NOOOOOOOO not rehab or AA, but write about one day of austin at a time.
so..... with all this said here is wednesday:
got up early for flight out of newark. it was a 10 am flight which allowed for plenty of time to take the train out. usually when i fly i would go out of any nyc airport but when i can i like to go from newark. it cost too much to take a car service these days and if i can save a buck for the company, im all for it. alisha stayed over the whole week i was gone taking care of lucy. she actually thought that she could steal lu's love from me. silly! we did agree that she does answer more to pretty girl than she does her own name. might make sense since i call her that often. anyways, im out commuting to the airport. I dont mind the train but sometimes it can get frustrating. the tram from the rail station to the airport terminals itself are hellacious. note to anyone who takes it, ALWAYS LEAVE ATLEAST 15 MINUTES FOR YOU TO GET FROM THE STATION TO THE TERMINAL. this thing moves at a snails pace. then on top of that the security line is outrageous. i did make the flight with 20 minutes to spare. on the flight sitting across from me was this guy i knew from the work neighborhood. we really didnt know too much bout one another but enough to chat for a bit. I slept a great portion of the flight so when i did finally wake up there was enough time to chat small talk and get off the plane. land in austin, wait 2 hours for jason and tom to arrive. while waiting for their arrival at the airport it becomes like a whose who of the music industry deplaning every few minutes. this year sxsw had its biggest attendance and something like 1500 bands playing in 5 nights. its almost impossible to not run into people from all over. anyways, familiar faces, small talk, catch up the boys arrive. we took a cab to the hotel and decompressed for a few before heading to the convention center to pick up our badges. whats a convention without a "sorry, we cant find you in our system" GREAT! A short moment later they are like, oh, youre bambino, as in john bambino. YES!!!!! "ok, sorry, we just had you as bambino" this is great cause i actually emailed for a name change earlier in the week. they were gonna put john bambino but i made the claim, hey, calling me JOHN bambino is like calling Madonne louise ciccone. i guess it flew :)! haha. So off from the convention center we're off to meet up with a friend for dinner. we went to this place called the iron cactus. I actually got tossed from there 2 years earlier for tossing ketchup over a few tables grenade style. as usual jason is there to save my ass and pay for the damages. anyways, this experience went incident free. after that i met up with another friend for a drink at a bar where mr lifto from the jim rose circus sideshow was tending bar. I was like, this guy looks familiar. and then it struck me, its MR FUCKIN LIFTO! this guy would lift cinder blocks with his cock. pretty crazy. anyways, he fulfills my drink order and i catch up with some friends, get a lil sauced and play tarzan with the palm trees in the garden. seriously. i met some soul who was almost in tears cause she wasnt going to get into the vampire weekend show on friday. I had a laminate but honestly didnt think i was going to make it. in retro i shouldnt have given it away. i heard they were giving out some sweet schwag bags. oh well. i passed it up and gave this girl my laminate. eh, i was being nice? wasnt even trying anything. i didnt get it, so what was i missing. anyways, karma points? bah! anyways, moving along im off to check out the indegoot showcase with god fires man, parlor mob and bo bice to name a few. btw, bo is super cool dude. when he came to the office the guy walked around to every desk introducing himself. super guy. anyways, God Fires Man plays. i then go off to meet up with some friends at the tee pee records showcase. while there i met up with the spv crew (g, jon, nina, kim, and alex). we throw a party with them every year down there and we have a great working relationship with them. their cool people on top of it all. Ive known them all for a long time and in this industry these days nothing really seems to ever be constant. anyways, constantly good to see them. on my way out from there to go back to see bo bice at the indegoot party i was standing out front of the venue waiting for someone to come out and head over. im standing there, having a smoke and this homeless guy comes up to me with this brand new blackberry. brand new! its verizon, i dont use verizon, but damn! this guy comes over and says "hey man, ten bucks and a smoke and you can have this blackberry" meanwhile the phone is ringing and this guy cant even figure out how to answer it. 10 bucks, sure why not. i quickly thought that hey, maybe i can resell it later on for a quick few hundred. just as fast as that thought came to mind i had the other thought of, hey why dont i be nice and return it. the phone is still ringing. Tim is callin. now mind you this is in the middle of sixth street in austin. every year during sxsw they close off the whole stretch of sixth street. its like mardi gras i guess. its best way to express it i guess. I have a clip a friend made of the trip. i will have to post that in another blog or this one if I dont forget.
I didnt forget: http://www.napptime.com/sxsw08_wrapup.html (I have a slight cameo on the right side of the screen during the old 97's)
.........so tim is still callin. i answer it. apparently tim wasnt tim, it was the girl who lost her phone outside the club and going crazy trying to find it. so i tell her where i am and to come get it. she comes over and has this look that i guess is priceless in appreciation. the karma bank savings account builds! NAH, IT DOESNT, i just think so. she goes to hand me 20 bucks. i said, nah, dont worry about it. i did ask for the 10 bucks that i did pay for it though ;) is that wrong of me? i would have asked for a smoke too to be greedy but no one smokes anymore. get the hint? maybe not. hopefully soon i will. so im off to bo bice. bo is a great performer. really is. i truly think his demo goes to bed at 10 or 9. whenever idol is over atleast. there was only but 20 to 30 people in this huge tent. at least i got a good show. more drinks followed along with a few old friends into the later hours of the night. In typical sxsw fashion i roll in at 3am. 3 am little do i know will be the earliest night of the week. off to bed........

im sure i missed a few other points. ill get back to them while writing more in the days to come.