SXSW

Almost exactly one year ago the Girlfriend and I packed up my car and headed south-by-southwest to Austin, TX for the, uh, SouthBySouthWest music conference. For those of you who don't know, SXSW is something like 1300 bands over 4 nights. Plus a conference, etc. Basically it's any and every cool band you've always wanted to see, all in the same spot.
Well, this year spring break did not line up with awesome Texas band extravaganza, so I have to live vicariously through my more fortunate friends in the industry who get to go for "work."
Or so I thought. Turns out those hipsters at SXSW are pretty, um, hip, and you download the entire showcase artist catalog of tunes. It's something like 750 mp3s whistling at you at the speed of cable modem. So I'll still get to hear some good tunes (late night voicemails from the Austin affilliate notwithstanding).
I won't, however, get to go to the real conference sweet spot, Flatstock. It's a convention hall full of poster artists from across the country. And they have stuff to sell. And they can see me coming a mile away. Last year I only spent $120 because that's all the cash we could pool together. Dangerous. I'll have to make do by visiting the artists' websites, like The Bird Machine and Nokturnal Studio.
Oh well. At least I have a neverending stream of school work to keep me busy.

Also, Austin has the world's largest urban bat colony. You think it's creepy, but it's not.