Hipster Shrapnel

I decided to start my day in the comfort of my jammies (BTW. Jammies are for wearing at HOME!).  It was awesome. M’s wish for rain came true this morning.  Pros: No dust today. Cons: Wetness and possibly mud.  Never fear little readers.  Pitchfork was streaming the fest.  I got some work done, tweeted with @g_ack about the benefits of “working” from home, and streamed Crooks from the orange stage.

I decided that I didn’t need to be at the fest until 2ish so I could be there for We Were Promised Jetpacks.  I managed to work on my Foxy Brown Jumpsuit while streaming Soul Khan, a little bit of SPEAK, and some Le Butcherettes.  The downside of getting to the park late was that my prime bike parking at the Long Center was gone.  I had to park in the bike jungle.

After the requisite bag search (BTW. A camelback is a small backpack but not all small backpacks are camelbacks.  Take that security lady.  I have a children’s backpack) and pat down I made it to the park just in time to get a good spot at the orange stage.  We Were Promised Jetpacks came in to melt faces and bring back the sunshine.  M managed to shoot part of their set from the pit.

I stuck around the orange stage to catch Mates of State.  I hadn’t seen them in a while so I figured why not.  They managed to bring a cool breeze and rain to the orange stage.  My experience was slightly marred by the dude that decided to park himself in front of me to take pictures of Gosling.  Seriously?  Leave the man alone.  Not even the site of the tiny Mates dancing it out in the back of the stage could restore my happiness (P.S. they were adorable).

Next up, Blue Stage to catch the end of MNDR.  I hadn’t planned on checking them out but it was on the way to the media area.  Not bad.  I was debating whether or not to stick around for Austra when I ran into Angeliska and Hipster girl (Her name is Corinne, but after dubbing her Hipster girl I can’t go back).  I had to get my picture taken with her.  I told her I she was a favorite of mine and Scout’s parents.  She laughed.  We parted ways when Austra started playing (witchy trance is not for me).

I hit the media tent afterwards to find M and 2.0.  We managed to score a quick interview with Sean, the bassist from We Were Promised Jetpacks.  Then we split up. M and 2.0 covered Kid Dynamite on the Dark Stage and I headed to orange for the end of Ted Leo and Architecture in Helsinki.  Both bands were full of energy.  Sadly, the sound guy was not so good.  During the Architecture set, I saw several bandmates using some strange form of sign language to get the guys attention and try and fix the sound.    Luckily they put on a good stage show.  They even threw in a cover of Londonbeat’s “I’ve Been Thinking About You” (I had a million flashbacks of the early 90s).

After the showI headed off to the blue stage to catch some of Del the Funky Homosapien.  Not bad.  A bit crowded.   I met M back in the media area to come up with our end of fest strategy.  We were both tired.  We decided to make an attempt at covering Flying Lotus (and we met a checkered man on the way).  For some reason the entrance to the photo pit was closed off on one side.  We hunted around for awhile with another photographer only to find out that they weren’t letting people shoot.  Back to the media area.  We could listen from there and sit down with a beer. I scored a free veggie dog from Frank.  Normally I avoid faux meat (the texture freaks me out), but I was pretty hungry and it was free.

I closed out the night with Diplo.  I was safe inside the fenced off media area.  I didn’t have to deal with the raging hipsters jumping around and throwing stuff.  I saw someone crowd surf on an air mattress during the Flying Lotus set (how did that get though the bag search and pat down?).  There was no way I was going out there.  As usual, Diplo was hot (but not as hot as this).  I don’t care what M says.  I had my DJ goggles on.  DJs are HOT!  I bailed when the sound of Slayer destroying the orange stage started to bleed over into my area.  It was time to ride home and be clean.  Once again I had to get assistance to free my bike from the rack (damn you hipster for putting your bike on top of my bike).

I am home and clean now.  Enjoy the unedited slideshow of my day. M took a ton of photos on the BAC. Stay tuned.

Unknown Man in Tights

2.o asked if I was having fun.  Yes, I am.  I am just tired and unable to express my happiness right now.  I need that energy to keep moving.

I attempted to catch up on a few things at the house before heading down to the park.  I cleaned my house, cooked my breakfast, crammed for our T-Bird and the Breaks interview, and made it to the park by 1:45.  I started my day out at the Blue Stage T-Bird and the Breaks.  Wise choice.  I needed a dose of funk and soul if I was going to make it through another day of dust and hipsters.  I’ve been digging their latest album and their live show didn’t disappoint.  I danced with my camera behind the railing and M was in the pit.

Next it was off to the Orange Stage for Joy Formidable …and spotting the Unknown Man in Tights.  He should have a cape.  I was sad I missed them during SXSW.  Today definitely made up for that.  M managed to hop in the photo pit to shoot for a little while.  I was perched at the railing absorbing a great day and a great band.  I never thought I would say it, but that lead singer is on the same happiness level as Kim, of Matt and Kim.

After their set, M and I headed back to the Media tent for our interview (I hope to get that posted along with pics from the show sometime this week if Scout behaves.).  The interview was great. We wrapped it up in about 15 mins and discovered someone had left us a delicious meal of Homeslice Pizza. Whoever you are, Thank you.  I will now use that money I would have spent on food for beer.

We managed to get to M83 with enough time for M to hop in the queue for the photo pit.  I didn’t get there soon enough to be super close to the stage but I had an ok view.  It’s a different experience when you are part of the crowd.  You get to meet someone with one of those snapp capp soda savers on there beer when you do that.

After the show M and I had a “work” meeting in the media area.  Yes, there was beer involved.  We are hoping to get another interview in tomorrow. After the meeting I attempted to see  Lykke Li.  No such luck.  I ended up biking home and I streamed the rest of Spoon’s set on the interwebz (Thanks Pitchfork).

So that’s a wrap for day two.  It’s time for bed. Enjoy the unedited slideshow of my day. M took a ton of photos on the BAC. Stay tuned.

Unknown Caped Crusader

After a slight hitch with wristbands (too much to write down right now), we kicked off our fourth Fun^3 Fest.   I met M and 2.0 at the park (Bike parking is a bit of a cluster) around 2.  We watched the sheeple and planned our evening.  M and I took a stroll around the park to see if my plan to jump between blue and orange was feasible. Slightly cumbersome, but I was game for the challenge.

We managed to locate a few key things on our trip.  Media area, water refill station (Did I not say, “Bring an empty water bottle”?), cell phone charging station…  We checked out the food vendors (I could hardly think about food after ingesting my first course of festival dust).  We determined that the cheapest entree was the $4 Frito pie.  After grabbing fries from Aquarelle (BTW.  Fries + festival dust = not so good)  and charging M’s phone, we hit the beer tent.  WHAT? $9 for a beer?  Oh wait, it’s 24oz.  That’s 2 beers in one can (This is where that coozie becomes useful.  Next year I am going to have these…)

Now it was time to get to work.  We hit the orange stage so we could check out Heartless Bastards.  I am not sure what the sound guy was thinking.  With the amount of bass you would think that we were rollin’ though the hood with a low rider and spinning rims.  After M shot from the pit we moved to the other side of the stage to watch the Thermals set up (We also found our first caped crusader of the weekend).  I wasn’t going to miss them this time (some of you may recall the last time I saw the Thermals).  It was a great set until the hipsters kicked up all the dust and started crowd surfing.

After hitting the port-o-potty labyrinth, I headed over to the blue stage to catch the rest of Franki Chan.  I was a little scared that Franki had completely changed his style.  There was an untz, untz, untz… blaring from the speakers when I walked up.  It was just a phase.  He mixed in my summer skate jam of 1985. ” I’ve got a crush on you” by the Jets.  I remember collecting Kool Aid points to get their cassette and seeing them at the fair grounds in New York.

Big Freedia was on stage next.  She didn’t have as many dancers as last year, but Meg and Chris’ favorite was there.  Hipster Girl!  In addition to the usual stage show, I had the pleasure of watching Franki Chan’s reaction.  There was also an appearance by Ryan Gosling (Mr. Gosling, why weren’t you shaking your azz? Oh, you are filming a movie) . There were probably a few more celebrity appearances but I didn’t have time to find out.  I wanted to see Reggie Watts.  I saw him at the Fusebox Festival this Spring and was blown away.    I wanted to have fun.  Unfortunately some dudes decided to push to the front and start smoking. Apparently they didn’t get the memo that it wasn’t polite to smoke in a tent.  Reggie restored my happiness by mocking CYHSY singing Satin.  Hilarious.  He said it was too happy.  Like they were singing about Seitan.

I left Reggie to check out Public Enemy and managed to catch the end of Four Tet‘s set.  Four Tet sounded great. Public Enemy, not so much.  Riddle me this,  If you were a sound guy, running boards for a rap artist, is it not important to have vocals in the speaker?  I bailed and went to see the end of Passion Pit‘s set.  Their sound guy didn’t hate them as much.   I don’t know what it is about that band when they get on a big stage with lots of blinky lights, but they certainly deliver. I had another childhood flash back. Flashing lights + synth pop managed to conjure up my first Disney Electric Light  Parade.  I forgive them for that subpar performance at Emo’s a few years back.

We left the fest at during the encore to avoid getting trampled by sheeple.  I am glad I didn’t go alone.  My bike was wedged under 3 bikes.  M and 2.0 had to help free it.

So that’s a wrap for day one.  It’s time for bed. Enjoy the unedited slideshow of my day. M took a ton of photos on the BAC. Stay tuned.

A lot of my recipe posting  has to do with my latest quest to revive home ec.  I made a deal with a co-worker of mine to track my food spending habits (grocery and restaurant) for the month of October (I also recorded my grocery consumption on a calendar for future reference).  I told her I spent $200 a month or less on food purchases (we decided that alcohol fell under entertainment).  She spent closer to $500 between restaurants and grocery.  I told her that I cook most of my food. It’s nice to have someone else cook your food, but I like the fancy stuff if I go out.

Now that the month is over I tallied up my receipts and reviewed my food calendar. I’ve cooked some great food, hoarded a bunch of leftovers and spent $191.  If it weren’t for M’s fancy birthday dinner at the end of the month I would have been under $200.  But it was Olivia, so it was more like $225 with my entree and food sharing.

So, what now?  My co-worker is going to try and do better with her spending.  I am going to continue to prove that cooking is not a chore.

Time/money saving tips:

• If you have time to cook, cook more than one meal.  You dirty the kitchen once and you have leftovers to reheat.
• Cook the time consuming stuff when you are chilling in the house.  I cook brown rice at all times of day.  Who cares if it’s 9:30pm?
• Buy your veggies cut up (fresh or frozen).  The alternative is to cut veggies on grocery day if you have free time.  Store them in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to use them.
• Hide stuff in the freezer.  Just about everything can be frozen and then thawed at a later time (if you aren’t sure, freeze a tablespoon or so and see what happens).  This will extend expiration dates on dairy products,  keep baked goods and nuts from going stale.
• Buy it in bulk if you use it a lot.  I have a Costco membership and use it often for spinach, eggs, cheese, oil, and butter.  If it is too much, split it with a friend.
• Buy fruits and veggies in season.  They are cheaper that way and you add variety to your diet.
• Cut back on trips to the grocery store.  The more trips you make, the more you spend.  My sister said that she spent much less when she ordered her groceries and had them delivered.
• Keep your pantry stocked with staples.  Flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pasta, rice, canned goods.  This will keep you from making extra trips to the grocery store.

I will add on to the list over time.  Stay tuned.

I posted about casseroles a while back.  They are the best gift you can give to someone who appreciates a home cooked meal.  I surprised my friends with enchiladas one Friday (mostly because I wanted them and it takes just as much time to make a pan full of them as it does two).  I made them Thursday night, brought them to the office and hid them in the back of the fridge, then reheated them at their house.

What’s in them?

• Frozen spinach
• Black Beans
• Salsa (I used the HEB fancy salsa “Roasted”
• HEB  mexican blend cheese
• sauteed mushrooms
• frozen zucchini
• frozen red bell peppers

Yes, I see you rolling your eyes at my use of frozen veggies (you should be excited that this isn’t a vegan recipe).  Well, if you have time to shop for good produce, and invest time in cutting all of those veggies, go for it. I try to buy fresh veggies when they are in season, otherwise I go frozen.

Instructions:  This is one of those dump it in a pan recipes that works well with drunk cooking.

• Preheat oven to 400
• Drain the black beans and toss them in a pan with about 1/3 jar of salsa (the rest will be used to top the enchiladas before cooking)
• Toss in the frozen veggies.  You are done cooking when this stuff is defrosted. Add in 1/2 the bag of cheese (the rest will be used on top of the enchiladas) and the mushrooms
• Assembly: Coat bottom of baking pan (I like the pyrex ones that have a lid) with salsa (don’t forget to save some for topping).   If you are using flour-based tortillas, fill them and toss them in the pan.  If you are using corn, they will crumble if you don’t wet them with something first.  I suggest salsa.
• When you are done, spread the rest of the salsa on top of the echiladas and sprinkle on cheese.
• Toss them in the oven and bake them for 20 minutes or the cheese is melted and the edges are browned.

I recently discovered My Drunk Kitchen.  I’ve been cooking and drinking for years.  The key is to have 2 meals going at once to avoid drunken disasters. Also, pot pies have 2 temperature settings.  Cold and lava.  Please be careful if you plan on drunk cooking then consuming these pies straight out of the oven.

The plan was to make veggie pot pie.  I remembered to take the dough for pie crust and pizza crust out of the freezer before I went to work.  The biscuit dough can go in the fridge.  The pizza dough should be placed in an oiled bowl so it can rise again.  I usually leave it in a climate controlled place (microwave).

When I got home uncorked a bottle of red wine (my new favorite from Costco is called Secreto) and started on my pot pie filling.  It isn’t completely drunk safe so do that first. You should also preheat the oven to 425 and take that pie crust out of the fridge. (more…)

It’s time to bust out sweaters and coats and make some soup.  It was also time for me to clean out the pantry and figure out what was in the zip-lock bags in the freezer.

This week, vegan “cream” of broccoli soup and lentil quinoa crackers. Yes, vegan.  With fall breezes come allergens.  With allergens, the mucous builds up.  Dairy products become the enemy.

Ingredients

• Can of white “northern” beans
• vegetable bouillon (I highly recommend the “Better than Bouillon” that comes in a jar.)
• ~4 cups broccoli florets (I used frozen)

Cooking

• Drain white beans, cook on low with 1 can of water and ~tbsp bouillon
• add 1/2 the broccoli florets and cook until broccoli thaws (yes, I use frozen veggies as a timer)
• Let mixture cool,  and puree it in the blender (or food processor).
• Chop the remainder of the broccoli (I used the blender)
• Combine the mixture,  add salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick, you can add water, soy or rice milk.

Crackers

This week’s freezer excavation yielded Lentil Quinoa Biscuit dough.  I had intended to use it as pot pie crust but I had a little left over.

Dough Ingredients

• 1 c.  white flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 6 tbsp. vegetable or grapeseed oil
• 2/3 c. Rice Milk (you can use water if you don’t have rice milk)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa (this time I cooked the quinoa with lentils and vegtable stock and added savory spices)

Preheat oven to 425. Mix all ingredients together.  Add more flour or rice milk to even out the texture of the dough. Roll the dough out on a floured surface until it is about 1/4″ thick. A this point you can use it as pie crust or crackers.  For crackers I used a heart shaped cookie cutter and placed the cutouts on an oiled cookie sheet.  I brushed oil on the top of each cut out and sprinkled them with sea salt.  Bake for about 10 mins (or until they are browned).

Today’s game plan:  Resolve the conflict in my Fun^3 Fest schedule.  Somehow I managed to listen to most of the Orange Stage artists in between bouts of infant rage (I am beginning to understand why the day care I used to work at didn’t take kids under 6 months).  Seriously, it would be a good day if I could get the schedule done, tame the rage in Ms. Crankypants, and find a pair of brown leather boots that fit my 13.5 inch calves.

So, I didn’t find boots,  I managed to reduce the rage, and I figured out most of the my schedule.

My Friday depends on how soon I can get back from the office, change, grab my stuff and bike down to the park (Downhill almost all the way).

• Step one: Orient myself with the park and get to the Blue stage in time to hear Car Stereo Wars.
• Park exploration and maybe catching Jim Ward on the Orange Stage.  I hadn’t heard of him before and I had a chance to listen to some of his stuff this afternoon.
• Cloud Nothings on the Orange stage.  Another recent discovery.
• At this point I will know if I am hanging at the Orange stage for the long haul (Heartless Bastards, The Thermals, Black Joe Lewis, Okkervil River, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Passion Pit) or attempting to split my time between Orange, Blue, and a splash of Yellow (Heartless Bastards, Thermals, Upright Citizens, Franki Chan, Black Joe Lewis, Big Freedia, Spank Rock, Reggie Watts, Clap Your Hands, and Public Enemy.)    If the stages are spaced like last year, or the media pass allows you access to a path free of sheeple, I think I can pull this off.

Saturday’s Schedule needs work.  There are a lot of early afternoon bands that I don’t know.

• T-Bird and the Breaks on Blue
• Joy Formidable on Orange
• Dan Deacon on Blue then camping out on Orange (Ra Ra Riot, M83, Girls,  and Lykke Li)
• Back to Blue to finish the night with Major Lazer.

Sunday may be a light day.

• Le Butcherettes on Orange (another recent discovery).  I may stay for Asobi Sesku or leave and come back for We Were Promised Jetpacks and Mates of State.
• Now for the tricky part.  If all is right with the universe, I will get to see Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Architecture in Helsinki, Del the Funky Homosapien, Flying Lotus and Diplo.  If  Blue and Orange are too far apart, I am skipping Architecture in Helsinki and going straight to Del and camping out at Blue until the end of Diplo.
• I am skipping the festival closers.  I wasn’t impressed with Odd Future.

I recently received an email request to post about Sweet Leaf Tea.  Specifically about  the winner of their Grannyism Cap-Off Contest being local Austin resident Angela Buraglia.

I know you remember the last time someone asked me to check out/promote their product.  Lucky for Sweet Leaf, I have been a fan of their teas and lemonade for a long time (not too sweet and HFCS-free.  The web-sites were pretty cool (and I needed something to distract me from Ms. Crankypants’ morning rage).  The contest was to come up with new sayings to go under the cap.  I had forgotten that they had those.  I’ve been purchasing Sweet Leaf in the plastic bottle for ease of beverage toting (BTW. Did you know that they have an area on their site  devoted to the use of Sweet Leaf as a mixer?) .

Back to Angela.  She has a whole site devoted to the Granny-isms.  I like the fact that she dug the product before the fortune.  I have the same relationship with Magic Hat beer.  The fortune is an added bonus.  My internet search showed the opposite is true for some Dove chocolate fans.  They dig the fortunes more than the chocolate (Great marketing trick.).  One blogger wished for higher end chocolate with fortunes.

Another Austin blogger  has taken the fortune thing one step further by blogging not just the fortune but about the fortunes.  . Allison Wright of Not-a-Fortune shares and muses on fortunes of all types.

After surviving another bout of infant rage (Thanks, Scout) I think Fun^3 Fest will be a breeze. Bring on the inconsiderate hipsters who dare to mosh to shoegaze.

They launched a mobile app.  Sadly it is not for Android users. I will be using my grid schedule on Google docs.

Apparently the  app features:

• Complete band listing for festival and aftershows along with custom user schedules
• Users able to filter by day, stage, and time
• Mobile ticket purchasing
• Complete band bios and links
• A custom Taco Locator [I would like a good beer locator or a clean port-o-potty locator]
• Fully integrated Instagram functionality.  Please tag your photos from FFF with #funfunfunfesttag photos to be featured in app feed
• Transportation maps for parking, shuttles, bike valets, bus routes
• Fest maps with directions to mechanical bulls, wrestling rings, comedy tents, food, first-aid, and rock and roll
• Complete information area with FAQs, directions, hotels, contact info, and more

The fest is 9 days away and I am still figuring out my game plan.This weekend I will load the little backpack up with the usual survival gear.

Useful Festival Gear:
Very few people are prepared for an all day outdoor festival. Granted, there are a few unallowables. But still, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pack a few things.

• A medium size bag to carry all your stuff and free swag (your friend may or not be willing to be your sherpa). M and I usually carry small backpacks.  Ladies, please avoid the oversize handbags and go with something low profile that will not bang into other people while you are dancing it out.
• Tissues – also useful when the port-o-potty is out of TP
• Hand Sanitizer, moist towlettes, wet wipes and/or face wipes.  The dust made me feel dirty, like Pig Pen.
• Visine/Eyedrops-  Sooo much dust.
• Sunscreen- There will be less shade at Auditorium shores.
• Sunglasses- for sun and dust.
• Earplugs – who wants to lose their hearing?  They are especially useful if you want to get up close to the stage. I prefer the reusable swimmers earplugs. I bring disposable ones too, it is a good way to make friends.
• Camera – with extra memory and a charged battery (nothing professional unless it is your job).
• Cash – The ATM might run out of money.
• Empty water bottle – staff might prevent you from taking in water, but they can’t stop you from bringing an empty bottle. You can usually find a water fountain or restroom to fill it up.
• Coozie- Most of the time the beer chicks are somewhere in proximity distributing them. Never when you need them though.
• Chapstick
• Sweater/Sweatshirt- It’s good to dress in layers. By the end of the night you will be glad you packed it. I usually stick a hat in my bag for that reason.
• Bicycle-Good luck finding parking otherwise.
• Walking Shoes- Go practical before cute.  You will be standing long hours and you will have more ground to cover this year.
• Bandanna or kafiya to wear around your neck or to cover your face if it is dusty.
• Grid schedule: Seriously. If you want to make the most out of the fest, you need to block out your time

Transportation
Seriously kids, parking near the Fest is not going to happen.  South of the river around the fest and the parking garages that are close are being used by Palmer Center and Long Center’s events that weekend, so they will NOT be available. DO NOT PARK IN THE BOULDIN CREEK NEIGHBORHOOD UNLESS YOU LIKE BEING TOWED.

• Bikes – Organizers promise plenty of bicycle parking on site.  I will be biking to the Fest.
• Public Transit/Park and ride- If you can not walk from your parking area, or bike, or choose not to, please consider our FFF Fest shuttle service.  Details are on the web site