Austin

Today is Saturday March Twentieth Two Thousand Ten. Have not written in a while not because stuff has not been happening but rather I've been a bit busy here in the great state of Texas. Have only been to a couple of meetings, my ability to operate an alarm clock because for some reason I've missed three meetings because of it. The one meeting I did get to in Austin I met this cool cat who I later hung out with at the Ozomatli show and will look him up the next time I'm in Austin. At the moment I am witnessing some major rainy Saturday morning combat between my nephews and the little one has been admonished to my room to play with legos. The older one was fired up about something, don't really know yet but I am sure he will tell me all about it.

So I got down to Austin in the late afternoon and was checked into my hotel by five. I showered and ordered a steak and before I knew it I was dozing off due to the very comfy hotel bed. I saw that it was nine and decided to hit it early and get up at five thirty to hit the six am meeting. Good way to start my first real SXSW and I'd be ready to see stuff all day. I woke up at two am with severe intestinal distress that lasted well into the late afternoon. I was able to marshal my strength for Motorhead and lasted about two hours. I went back to a newly cleaned toilet, the poor cleaning lady, and crashed again till seven the next morning where I was going to meet the day with an eight thirty aa meeting and see some music.

I was able to make it to the planned meeting that was in a clubhouse a few miles away from my hotel. I met this guy mark who has similar music tastes and is very on my level. Some people, esp people who are into music, I feel almost an immediate connection with. Thats one of the big reasons I love music so much is that total connection you have with someone who is into it as much as you are. Anyway, the meeting was an open discussion and I didn't yap. I went back to hotel and strategized my assault on sixth and congress.

I decided that I would first hit the New Orleans showcase at Momo's on the west end of sixth street. Anders Osborn and a guy from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band were playing with a bunch of other folks. I ended up getting there at about two in the afternoon and enjoyed myself. I decided to head to the lower part of east sixth street to check how these Texans celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. Even tho I never really went out and celebrated the holiday when I was active and I'm not Irish I think that since I'm from Boston I should know about such things. It was what I expected, lots of drunk people with silly hats on. I could deal with about an hour of it and as it was nearing that point my friend from Tabor called me. Scott was one my best friends and business partners in high school. We were thick as thieves and knew each other's secret stash spots. We had a nice little distribution ring going and then he had to go pass out and break his jaw. Ruined everything for awhile and went into negative cash flow. Bad thing to do when you don't have rich parents.

Scott and I were such good friends because he was from the smallest house in Greenich, CT. The first time I went to his house he told me it was the smallest one in his town and as we were passing mansion after mansion we came to this sweet three bedroom ranch in between two huge houses and that was it. So he knew that $$ in product was worth four or five times that in cash. He was an important cog in that wheel and I had to take unacceptable risks when he was in the hospital but such is life. I don't wax nostalgic about drug dealing but that last year and a half when we had shit dialed in was sweet. It enabled two jc penny suits surrounded in a sea of brooks brothers to live like kings. That was the awesome thing about a coat and tie dress code: more pockets.

I met up with Scott and I didn't really tell him what the deal was with me. I don't tell a friend like Scott that sorta shit over the phone. He was pretty twisted from the LA drive and the amount of canabutter cookies consumed on the drive but I was only able to hang out with him for a couple of hours. It wasn't that he was annoying or anything like that he was just looking to hop from bar to bar and flirt with girls. I just wasn't in the bar hopping mood so after a few hours I went back to the hotel after stopping for some chili relleno to go and crashed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

On Thursday March eighteenth I left the hotel at a little past eight in the morning and returned to my house at midnight after watching music and doing other Austin Texas sort of stuff. I saw something like sixteen bands at four venues and even found time to buy a sweet pair of boots. When I get my notes together I am going to write at least two entries about it. It was the best sober music day of my life and it was good to prove to myself that I was able to complete it. I woke up in the next day and drove the four hours back to Frisco so that I could rest my head for a couple of hours. Ludacris and the Black Eyed Peas were playing at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas. Now that was something to write home about.