Poshdeluxe

ok ok ok so i’m writing this blog post over again.

i *hate* recreating posts, cos no matter what i write, i always fear that the first version was better. which, you know, is strangely conceited. like, “sorry, guys, this entry is but a ghost, a PALE IMITATION, of my amazing, articulate and incredibly illuminating first draft.”

anyway, i’ll try my hardest to give this last day of sxsw its due, cos it really was a fantastic day.

the weather on saturday was pure, sparkling spring, so i drove with my windows down to austin java, where i met my old rice pal, jen hitt. jen hitt! jen and i spent countless hours at the RMC, pouring our souls out over coffee. she now lives far away from me in dc, but we have a tradition of seeing each other every year at sx. last year we only managed two minutes around midnight in front of emo’s (not exactly quality time), so i made sure we could share at least one meal together. jen is an incredibly radiant, eclectic and warm person, and it did my heart good to see her again. look how happy we are together!

i planned on spending most of my day at the home slice pizza party, which is always super happy and relaxing (not to mention the fact that tasty pizza is readily available). plus, it’s fun to walk down south congress during the festival, cos there are always tons of visitors and artists and musicians and kids all out and about. celebrities tend to cluster around soco, and i was *desperately* hoping to replace my perez hilton sighting with someone like, say, drew barrymore or carrie brownstein (she was in town as an NPR reporter!).

i arrived at home slice about midway through a set by le loup, a group i’d heard a little about (and i liked what i heard). they were actually fantastic! they just seem like a ragtag band of merrymakers, like if the boxcar children discovered arcade fire.

le loup: we are gods! we are wolves!

here’s a picture of the overall party area, so you can see why i like it so much.

it’s so idyllic and breezy and… sunny. v. sunny. as a pale child of the shadows, i made a beeline for the shade in the back so that i wouldn’t explode under the direct sunlight (but yes, dad, i was wearing sunscreen!).

next up was a band i’d never heard before, the morning benders. they weren’t bad, but i think my favorite thing about them was the lead singer’s pink rimmed sunglasses.

by this point, jessica and matt had joined me in the shade (they, too, are Ghost Children of the Night). after the benders set, we were all LUCKY ENOUGH to receive a free cd from some random dude! oh yay! ok, seriously, free cds are like, the new coozie. and when was the last time you were REALLY EXCITED about receiving a FREE COOZIE, often featuring the brand of yr FAVORITE RADIO STATION? exactly. although free cds do make good coasters, so i guess they’re even more like coozies than i thought.

matt shares my opinion.

i was really thrilled to see the watson twins again, cos the last time i saw them, they looked absolutely ADORABLE. they were on tour with jenny lewis, so there was this whole classy40s vibe going on with their wardrobe. their outfits this time weren’t quite up to par, but i found their new stuff to be lovely and easy on the ears.

watson twins: just like heaven

seriously, home slice really delivered (HA) on their musical line-up this year. usually there’s one or two bands at a day show that i wish would KEEP IT DOWN a little so i can catch every single fascinating word my friends have to say. but the music at saturday’s show was incredibly pleasant and fun, including the last band we saw, the spinto band! i actually don’t know the spinto band super well, but their song, “oh mandy,” carries a lot of memories for me, so when they played it, i got excited and did a little dance.

spinto band: oh mandy

the four of us (henri had shown up towards the end of the watson twins) decided to take advantage of the tasty business at home slice, and we snagged a table by the front window. it was the perfect sx meal– light hearted, banter-y and v. silly.

matt, do you get that response a lot from people?

matt actually took flossy from me and proceeded to take candid (read: unflattering) photos of all of us. i actually do love this close-up of henri, caught in mid-expression, with some guy’s face on the other side of the window.

don’t you LOVE IT when people take pictures of you when you’re eating? ah well. i try to be honest on this blog, so here’s me, doing what i do best.

during our meal, i just happened to get a text from my friend jordan, who just happened to be having people over for margaritas and who just happens to live near soco. obviously, it was destiny! since i’m such a planner pants, i rarely get the opportunity to take advantage of spontaneous fun, so visiting jordan was an absolute treat for me.

plus, this girl *knows* her margaritas! look at her, squeezing real actual limes instead of using frozen limeade like some people i know.

not only can jordan make great margaritas, she also makes boxes for worms to live in and digest her compost. or something. i’m not sure how it all works, but i like the idea of happy worms living in a box together.

jordan’s patio provided the perfect respite from all of the sx crayness. i honestly believe that lounging on a porch with friends is one of the finer pleasures in life, and this afternoon was no exception. you know how, every once in a while, you realize with 100% certainty that there’s no other place you’d rather be, in the whole world? yeah.

jordan’s friend brought his super sweet goofy dog, who really REALLY reeeeally wanted some pizza.

can i has pizza?

as night began to fall, henri dropped me off in front of st. david’s church downtown so i could see jacob golden and m. ward. i was *bursting* with anticipation for this show, which of course meant that… i couldn’t get in. OF COURSE. you know, every year there is just ONE show that i can’t get into, and all things considered, that’s not so bad. but i had made it this far without being denied, and i was secretly hoping that i had broken the spell but… no.

that’s ok, though! i had a plan B! cos i am a prepared sxsw pantser! i walked down the street and got into maggie mae’s so i could see david bazan! easy peasy.

david bazan: don’t cry, i’m not gonna hurt you

whenever i see david bazan, i really want to give him a hug. he’s just so earnest and scruffy and quiet and sweet and sad.

next up was jim noir, who i have never heard of. but i know he’s on barsuk, cos this was the barsuk showcase. and i also know that he really likes america and the royal tenenbaums.

i mean, he’s from manchester, so maybe that explains it.

as you can see from the picture, i totally made it to the front row AGAIN! cha-CHING!!!! i was of course driven by a higher power, and that power was matthew caws. nada surf was up next, and since i’d been in the front row before, there was no going back. plus i wanted to make sure matthew saw me in case he needed my number. or you know, advice on where to eat tex mex.

and YES i realize i’d already seen them and some people might think that’s a waste of sxsw time but those people have *obviously* never heard “blizzard of ‘77″ while driving in the dark on a sad, lonely night.

it was totally worth it, obviously.

even though matthew caws was wearing the same exact outfit as the night before, and i saw him sweat a lot that night, and i was just kind of curious about if he had access to a washing machine.

the set was acoustic, so their show sounded different than the one at cedar door, but it was still just as dynamic. the highlight for me came when they performed “blankest year,” which was pretty much the anthem for pants world over the summer of 2005. add in the fact that we spent a lot of time at maggie mae’s that summer, and i was hearing the song there, LIVE, five feet away from matthew caws… wow. the whole audience sang along and pumped our fists in the air and our straining voices and the music collided into one triumphant, jubilant, racous roar.

this, THIS is why i come back to sxsw, year after year after year.

nada surf: blankest year

my night had definitely peaked, but it wasn’t over yet. jessica and matt picked me up and we drove together to the red bull party to end out the night. by this point, i was already a tired pants, but jessica and matt manage to look pretty awake in this picture. oh right. they were drinking red bull.

jessica was excited to see talib kweli, who performed around 1:00. the party was waaay more hoppin’ that it had been on wednesday night, but we scored chairs (need i remind you of my skills) and sat against the balcony for a good view of the show.

amazingly enough, henri had survived his three-going-on-four nights of red bull hosting and came by to say hello. check out that hoodie… what a hipster.

even though i like talib kweli, i was totally distracted by this super cool light screen on the left side of the stage. i could NOT stop staring at it.

so matt and i decided to head down and take future facebook profile pics of ourselves against the screen. many, many other people had the same idea, so there were lots of “charlie’s angels” and “does it look hot if i press myself against the screen and raise a leg?” posing going on. matt and i went for more classic modeling.

matt also did his little sxsw dance in front of the screen.

he did this dance in different places throughout sxsw, which you’ll see in a minute.

here’s me, in the “i’ve had a great time but i’m cold and sleepytime tea and can you take me home please?” pose.

it’s a good feeling to be exhausted from enjoying goodness, you know?

so thank you, sxsw, for another fantastic fling. i’ll miss you, but i’ll see you next year. pinkie swear.

to conclude, here’s a video that john made with footage from all of our festival days, including matt’s special form of “dancing.” i think it conveys our experience, which was, in a word, awesome.

South by Southwest 2008 with Pantsworld from John Harney on Vimeo.
LINKS

it’s easter weekend! usually i do an entry about cadbury eggs, but this year, i can’t compete with the cadbury creme egg interview (it’s on one of my new favorite blogs, thanks msw!).

and of COURSE i have to mention peeps. have you guys heard of peep duels? hello, #1 thing to do this weekend.

henri sent me this v. well-written piece in salon on the decline of “good” celebrity gossip. check it out.

a melted ice cream truck!! ha ha ha!! thanks, matt.