cycling through sxsw

I just got back from cycling through a bunch of SXSW day events. Down Sixth street to the east side and back. Saw the IFC studio or whatever it is where Neon Indian was supposed to be playing. I tried to distract the crowd with "Whoa! Is that Ryan Schreiber." I passed the Levi's Fader party and heard some tunes from (a check of the schedule reveals to be) Freelance Whales. I was not part of the crowd. I'm going to see some California hip-hop artists tonight and doing some day events tomorrow. Most of the bands I'm going to see, I've seen before.

There was a mixture of sx hipsters and St. Patty's Day celebrators. I smelled weed and saw lots of fixed gear bicycles with white-wall tires. I was wearing my Levi 507's bootcuts, white Sperry's, burgundy Gucci plastic-framed glasses, my Mae Shi t-shirt reading, "I'm Glad You're Alive" and riding a mid-80's entry-level Bianchi 10 speed, some combination of hipsterisms past and present.

People were wearing badges that had the names of the organizations that they were affiliated with. For a lot of participants, SXSW is as much about the experience of feeling like a taste-maker as it is about the music. I guess this appealed to me at one point. I was a college radio DJ. My airname has appeared in College Music Journal. But my own interests and priorities have changed. I'm trying to have an academic career and don't have the time to spare to get back on the air. I've been involved in a couple of radio station civil wars, and I don't much like how I've acted in them, so that's another reason why I'm not on the air. About four and a half years back (right before I was going to see the New Pornographers), my appendix burst, and my health has become a higher priority. While my eating and exercise habits had little to do with my burst appendix, being reminded that you are mortal changes things. So I'm not on the air and okay with not being a taste-maker. And it's just as well, it's a young person's game and if you stay in it too long, you become the creepy old guy standing alone.

So I'm also not too clued into what's going on. I don't trust too many of the music sites. And there are a lot of other traditions to explore rather than chasing down the latest hyped act who may or may not be a bunch of musical illiterates who have hit on something sublime.

I'll just say that any of you kids thinking about looking up Neon Indian on youtube, instead listen to some of the tracks by Elis Regina and Tom Jobim.

Now get off of my lawn!