Yes, Jane Goodall.  Anthropologist.  Gorillas in the Mist…

The last few times I have gone downtown to hang out, I have felt completely out of place.

And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
Wife And you may ask yourself-well…how did I get here?

Rather than infiltrate there social group I feel the need to study it.  This is how I entertained myself during my last two visits to Shangri la (that at the $2.75 vodka tonics).  Not only was I completely amused/confused my the hipster summer wear and handle bar mustaches  but, there was something else that I couldn’t put my finger on. Who are these people?  Where did they come from?  Have they been here all along? How can they afford to drink so much?  Do they build their own bikes?

So last night wasn’t much different. (more…)

So my super genius plan to get myself a date for the 4th was a big FAIL!

After a flood of emails from scary dudes I managed to get it down to 3 dudes who may or may not be weird/creepy (BTW, I also moved my ad from M4W to the strictly platonic area).  I picked the guy that seemed most like my posse and arranged to meet up in Mexico before biking down to the show.

Now here is where it gets interesting. 1) The chosen one broken his phone and the only way to reach him was via email.  2) He had a ticket so I gave mine to a friend. 3)  The day of  (30 minutes before I was supposed to meet him) the concert I received the following email:

hey — change of plans..

i biked way too hard today.. started at 11am, just ended. i’m crazy
sunburned and i need a nap before the show bigtime. massive amounts
of pain. maybe i’ll catch you and the posse at the show?

The only reason I opened my email was (more…)

So this weekend I was out  observing life.  Once again the imaginary bar was raised.  I was staying with married friends of mine.  [BTW. I am fortunate that my friend married someone awesome (it really sucks when your friend marries someone you don't like to hang out with).]

We met in college.  We went to different schools.  We hung out periodically.  He treated me better than anyone I have ever dated.  Yet for some reason we never went there.  He and one other have set the standard.  I see how they are with their wives.  The every day.  Through sickness (there has been lots of sickness) and health.  Through bedhead and morning breath.  Then they kick it up a notch by doing something spectacular (like restoring a broken childhood toy or a kidnapping/surprise vacation). Both of them are the reason that I can’t accept something less.

So after my weekend observing life I decided to delete my online profile.  Sorry Mr. Rudder, it’s not going to work out.  I don’t think I can find what I am looking for on your site.  What I am looking for is not so easily found.

It was Day 7 of SXSW.  M and I were at the one scheduled show for Matt and Kim.  Are we fans or stalkers at this point?  Maybe a little of both?  Anyways, I got to the show early to insure that we were  close enough to eat their faces.   I waited for M by the right speaker (I usually grab a spot by the speaker.  We always pack earplugs and the speakers on the sides of the stage are a good reference point if someone is looking for us).

Post SXSW I was reading Pitchfork and noticed this in their write up of the show…

Matt: “I want to thank the people sitting outside who couldn’t get in, you guys rule.” Then Kim: “I want to thank all the people up front, you guys are incredible.” Everyone was thanked. But there was an ever-so-brief interruption to happy-time– apparently there was something wrong with Matt’s monitors. “I hate to do this during a show but…” he said, requesting a quick adjustment. Monitor problems are common, but Matt knows how it looks when people on stage bitch about their sound. So he offered a snippet of the opening “Sweet Child O’ Mine” lick while the monitors were spruced up. No down time, ever.

Pitchfork missed something in their write up.  I recall Kim saying that there was a certain someone who had the best seat in the house and they didn’t even pay.  Who could that be?

Dumpster Boy by Limorama

While M and I were stuck in the mosh pit, 10HDG was on top of a dumpster (full of cardboard).  He had the best seat in the house.

More later on the Matt and Kim show.  For now you can check out their video of Daylight.  I bet they were wishing the dumpster they climbed into was full of cardboard and not trash.

In my stalking of JGL yesterday I discovered another hidden gem on the interwebs (or tubes as we call them).  hitRECord.org is a little project that JGL has been working on for a few years.  Here’s the description of what can be done on the site

What does it mean, hit record?
Different things… It can be an object, a musical recording that sold a lot of copies. But it can also be an action, to hit record, to start recording, to make a record, be it musical, visual, textual, or anything else. That moment when you hit the REC button, when the tape starts rolling, or the camera clicks, or even when somebody writes something down, it always makes my heart beat a bit harder.

Hit record. A complete sentence in the imperative tense, it’s something I’ve been telling myself a lot lately. When I was younger, my life’s work was to be recorded, but not to hit record. That’s changing.

What do you suppose could change if we all started to hit RECord?

In other words it is a place for collaborations (or mashups, if you prefer).  Everything that the MAN doesn’t want us to do.  But, if enough of us out there are regenerating content, and hopefully breathing new life and perspectives into it on the way,  maybe we can defeat the man one day.

If you haven’t already checked it out, take a peek at the site for RIP: A Remix Manifesto (a documentary created to expose the MANs efforts at stifling the creatives, and perhaps to flip him off.).  The film is undergoing a series of remixes as we speak.  Since day one the filmmaker, Brett Gaylor, has shared his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix.

As always, little readers, stay tuned for a full review of the movie.  Until then I give you the definition of hitRECord. If you’ve got time, go make a little something that will move us a step closer to defeating the MAN.

M and I heart the Pixies.  I am still torn on my favorite Pixies album.  Doolittle or Surfer Rosa?

I was listening to the Pixies at work today and I was reminded that I forgot to post one of my favorite 500 Days of Summer moments. (I know, I promised a full review but I don’t want to write all those spoiler alert disclaimers). Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing “Here comes your man” at a Karaoke bar (My other favorite moment was the dance number.).  He’s so dreamy (He is also 5′10″ and Jewish). If that clip were available I would play it as much as I play On a Boat.

Since there aren’t clips available of JGL, I give you  the Pixies…

I ran into a friend last night and she asked me what was next. Right now I have no fucking clue what is next in the big scheme of things. I hope she didn’t think that I had become enlightened along my journey last year. I would say that I am about 60% enlightened and 40% disenchanted. Maybe it was a trick question.

Honestly, right now I would like mind blowing sex from a guy who won’t give me a disease or cause further emotional/mental damage. That would be a nice next. But that is not my number one priority (it hasn’t been THAT long). In a time of economic decline I know that I should stay put at my current job. Do I want to? Not really. But I also don’t like leaping from one branch until I know exactly where I am going to grab on to. For me, it is much easier to leave a man behind than a job.

If you know me, or have been reading for a bit, you know that I have job hopped quite a bit over the years. The good news is that there is hope. I have been in my current job for almost 4 years. That is longest I have held a full time job. That beats out full time man at 2.5 years. I would say that I am about 70% happy with it. I know that isn’t good enough but I am just going to have to deal with it for a bit until I find something better.

Jobs provide me with a sense of security and they keep the lights on. That has never been the reason for keeping a man around. I don’t know that I could ever reach that level of trust. It’s rare that I let a man pay for dinner. How could I let them chip in on my mortgage? It makes me ill to borrow money from family.

For now what’s next is putting one foot in front of the other one day at a time.

The day started off with a bike ride from “Mexico.”  It was the last day of volunteering on the third floor.  It was also the last day of sxswi  I finally got around to checking my twitter to see what the Canadian dude from last night had written.  The message was actually from someone else.

DailyMarauder@spinsta We have your arrow. Ransom to follow #sxsw

@DailyMarauder Your associate was unaware of the fact that he was supposed to hold the arrow for ransom. You should have words with him.

Nothing else after that. I skipped that core conversation.  I had plenty of work to be done.  10hdg and M thought that I should have scammed free food off of the dudes since they planned on checking out places to eat on Wednesday.

The day went by without a hitch (no more demons in room 10).  We managed to have everyone out of the panel rooms and have the laptops upstairs by 6:30.  I really wanted beer by then.  Unfortunately all the shift leaders had to hang back and have tribal counsel.  It was our turn to decide who would be coming back next year.

I headed back to my house to deal with the angry kitty and bring home some dirty clothes.  When I got back to Mexico I was starving and needed a nap.  I made dinner and passed out watching The Daily Show.  I woke up in time to get my FREE BEER and see Franki Chan spin twice (SXSWi closing party and PureVolume).

Cost of today: $1 for tip (FREE BEER)

Beer credits : 2

DISCLAIMER: I would like to apologize for the use of “e-mon” on many of the the adjectives used in this post.  I am blaming M and 10hdg.  One word. Viral.  I am also skipping the spell and grammar checking.  Not enough time right now.  Maybe after SXSWi

So today we managed to have a nice sunshiney day to ride to the convention center on the bikes.  After the usual welcome to tech crew meeting, I headed back to the third floor.  For the most part things went ok.  Room 10 is still possessed by demons.    Room 8 has some mild visual problems but we were able to get by.

The afternoon sounded promising.  There was supposed to be a fake riot staged by the ARG panel in room 6.  We were also promised that the AVW guys would replace all of the sound equipment in 10.  Bad news: RIot was LAME!  Good news: NEW SOUND BOARD.  M and I took a break from the insanity to play with “rockets” in the hall (They were promotional darts by capstrat.  I may have to order some.)

At the end of the day, we cleared out the panel rooms.  I had a little trouble getting rid of the Brits in room 6.  I had to resort to an old stand by to get them out.  I told them that there was FREE BEER in the park accross the street and at several other venues.  They were a little confused so I had to spell it out.  There are companies that throw parties and they want people to have fun so they make the alcohol free.  If no one comes to drink the free beer it will go to waste.

After the Brits leave I meet up with M and the crew in the hall.  I explain the Brit thing and end up starting a new dance craze at the same time.  We head off to the Rails party to learn more about otherinbox (BTW. beer facilitates learning).   We hung out there and have not acquired enough food credits to offset the beer credits. You might say that we were dunk-e-mon. <social networking experiment> (more…)

The shoes make their first appearance, originally uploaded by Limorama.

I know this is a late posting, but I’m attributing that to a) the 8 second delay and b) being busy finishing my application stuff. This is what 10HRDG and I did for valentine’s day.

We had discussed going out to test drive cars, but didn’t end up having enough daylight for that. Instead we went back to the scene of the crime. We went back to the place where we first went out. (I know, puke, right?)

It was actually pretty cute. Maybe it’s my perception, but I didn’t and don’t feel like we’re over the top with the shmoopy-ness or anything. I mean don’t get me wrong, we are a lot more affectionate when our friends aren’t around, but I’d like to think that in public we’re pretty good at containing ourselves.

He cooked me dinner after, a family recipe at that. It was good. It was a super nice day, we basically just chilled out most of the day. I’m getting less and less scared to admit it, I like him. I’m actually beginning to let my guard down a little around him. I hope I’m right in thinking he’ll stick around for awhile.