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September 18, 2007
in austin and everything after...
when i was a kid i was never allowed to watch much television. my estranged father bought us a little black & white television one christmas - probably because he knew mom wouldn't like it - and after much cajoling and pleading we finally convinced mom to let us watch the occasional saturday morning cartoon or the dukes of hazard or something. this lasted for awhile until mom fell under the spell of one bill gothard (those chalk talks can be pretty convincing) and then one night she caught me watching wonder woman without permission and the tv went away. along with mom's long pants. i don't think mom ever really understood that i was in love linda carter/wonder woman - and that she would be the first of many unattainable women i would love hopelessly over the years. *sigh*
ironically when we moved to hollywood, fl in 1979 mom married a man who owned his own television repair business. and there was great rejoicing - until my brother and i realized that he too was not a big fan of the boob-tube (his words) because everything that came out of its rich mahogony recesses was subversive big goverment brainwashing voodoo. at the time we lived in an apartment directly above his television shop. and it was torture. until we figured out there was cable down there and we snuck down late at night and discovered the wonders of forbidden fruit. and suddenly we found that we couldn't live without all the glory that it held and thus began an epic war with the parents to let us watch.
public television was a logical starting point. and it was a battle we won fairly easily because my brother and i were in an oil painting class at the time. and it was pretty hard to find fault with bob ross or the crew from this old house for that matter. sadly bob ross' mildly maniacal musings were not enough to inspire any of joy of painting in my young heart and the painting lessons quickly went by the wayside. but a love for public television remained. i don't know how old i was when i first discovered austin city limits but i was instantly hooked. it came on every saturday nite at 9 and it pretty quickly became something that i never wanted to miss. which is odd - because back in those days the vast majority of the performers were traditional country types and i didn't really have any affinity for country music - (aside from a minor obsession as a toddler with glen campbell's rhinestone cowboy.) my mom would invariably roll her eyes and say "how can you listen to that stuff?"
i don't know. i think the reason i became hooked was because i loved music. and there was just something magical about that show. the smoky haze that hovered over the crowd - the fake plastic trees - the intimate setting. it all seemed so impossibly romantic to me. and i always wanted to be a part of that. so when i first started compiling a list of things to doe before i die - going to austin city limits was pretty high up on that list.
and last thursday nite i boarded a plane hurtling through space toward texas to fulfill my dream. wondering if i'd packed the right outfits and how would i be able to choose between wilco and my morning jacket and could this ever come close to meeting my expectations. and i was pleasantly surprised when it actually did. over the course of three days i got to see so many bands i've been dying to see. i finally got retribution for the arcade fire fiasco and wilco finally played red eyed and blue live and in concert. and in the process i discovered the genius of andrew bird and the wacked out crazy energy of ghostland observatory...and wow. i missed bjork but bloc party spoon lcd soundsystem and blonde redhead and the national (especially the national) rocked so hard i never had any time to feel any regret.
okay i might regret my unfortunate tan lines slightly - but these are the sacrifices that one must make for the sake of the 3 day outdoor rock 'n roll music festival where it's so hot speakers and rv's spontaneously combust. and in the midst of a rockin' weekend we still managed to find time for romantic candlelit dinners at shady grove and one too many cocktails at the totally bad ass peacock at 2 a.m. - not quite puking at ihop at 4 a.m....floating barton springs...playing a tambourine with my ass...even that girl from colorado lived up to the hype. the rest of my life is totally going to suck by comparison.
| By young_christopher | 7:15 PM
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Comments
Posted by: tim at September 24, 2007 1:14 AM
Posted by: Nick at September 24, 2007 5:52 PM
Posted by: Janna at September 25, 2007 1:08 AM
Posted by: young_christopher at September 26, 2007 4:21 PM