Austin July 25

During the day I finally got to visit that toy shop near a Buffalo Exchange, near the Villas, near Guadalupe, near downtown. Somewhere. They had everything a five year old me would want.

Our night started after Wolf Parade. We got dropped off around Fifth street, Fidel, Erik, Sarah and I. We didn't have much money so we decided to walk the streets until something cheap came up. Our first stop was Bayou. I've never felt so black in that place. They had High Life on tap and once we hit the dance floor everyone ditched the dance lights. Of course, everyone and their grinding partner whispered about us. And there was a black paraplegic smoking weed.

Everyone had nice dance moves. We then went to the Troubadour where some guys were mcing. We asked the bartender if she had any deals. Of all the deals she remarked, ONE DOLLAR LONG ISLAND ICE TEAS was tattooed to our synapses. I bought everyone, like, three rounds or so. Do you know how many calories and how much alcohol comes in a Long Island?!

We again got in the groove of the atmosphere. Everyone was very drunk, in particular, Erik.

Fidel with the lovely bartender whose name I forgot. At two we left and headed to Wendy's off 35 to meet up with Priscilla our ride home. Sarah was speed walking while we all tried to catch up. Erik was in bad health and passed out at every stop from there on.

Sarah with a stomach ache after a salad and nuggets. That's what she gets for being a free spirit. So Priscilla picks us up in her truck and Fidel and Erik lay on the bed, or was it me? Passing a few exits on the freeway and we run out of gas. We manage to get off an exit and I get out and Fidel and I start to push the truck, on drive. Finally on neutral we start to push it to the next turn when a cop shows up. Open containers and a drunk passed out Erik. Fidel sweet talks the cop and tells us of a nearby gas station but doesn't help us at all. We push the car to an empty parking lot.

So Fidel and I collect, like, ten empty water bottles and walk and jog to the gas station which turned out to be, like, a two mile journey. We returned and drove to a gas station where we asked Erik for gas money. He said he couldn't though we were present when he broke a hundred dollar bill earlier in the night. We're all pissed off at Erik. We go to Sarah's friends house and feel uncomfortable. Erik passes out again. We decide to leave and leave Sarah there. Now its just Fidel, Priscilla, Erik and myself back at Michele's place. Erik passes out and so began our revenge.

We did a lot of things to Erik. Any nothing seemed to phase him. By the time we finished it was six thirty a.m. The list of things we did to Erik go as follows:

1 Placed keyboard at high volume next to his face till the batteries were exhausted.

2 Played guitar next to his face, accidentally elbowed his face.

3 Cut his [favorite] shirt with scissors.

4 Cut his hair, then placed said hair in an envelope that we later lost and then found.

5 Poured lotion on his face and ear.

6 Almost lit his face on fire with hairspray and lighter.

7 Converged frying pan and spatula to make the loudest noise ever. (We were crying.)

8 Put hot sauce in his mouth.

9 Two frying pans converging.

Austin July

These are the boyz of the caravan for the weekend. But I stayed the entire week and dressed like a father figure, just button up shirts and boat shoes.

Sarah and Michele. Michele made us potato tacos at Matt's place. Matt is an awesome guy with the body of a fireman. Was that gay? This is Michele pre-hand burn.

This is Michele post-hand burn. She was going to dump the oil but her hand was too heavy and bam! Apparently mustard does the trick.

Walking, it actually takes place in Austin. So do kerchiefs on men.

Fidel, Michele, And I went down to Barton Springs and saw the pretty downtown at night. We also caught some geese, or something in the water.

This ominous picture is of the famous Matt Skiba. The Trio were fucking awe. They played a lot of songs from their Asian Man releases and closed their encore with Radio.

American Steel. A great example that punk can have a charming face.

Jumping off a three story bridge. Sarah and Fidel jumped off and I took the footage. Erik was thrown off.

This horrible picture is of Wolf Parade. Before the show, we hit the road to "Chief City" as Erik calls it and we got effing tea-ed up. I was a mannequin at the show trying not to tip over, or fall asleep. It was a good show and Erik bought me two Lonestar tall boys, yum. A side note on Austin shows. Nobody ever fuckin' moves. And if you try to stir shit up everyone marks you as a traitor to their evening. One example. At Alkaline Trio, Sarah tried to move closer to stage within the crowd and she almost got in a fight with a few stocky scene girls. Its a punk show, bitches. El Paso definitely has better crowds and response to bands.

These were just a few highlights of my week long trip to Austin. I took a lot of pictures and now I like Kanye West. I have to thank Michele for that. And she has satellite radio so we got to listen to a myriad of punk, ska, and soul. I also want to thank my long time friend, Chris Lea for showing us a good time and making the best BBQ ever. The man makes his own BBQ sauce!

OH, I also got into a car accident, my first. It was a head on collision. Everyone was fine and traffic had no problem in honking at us a few seconds after the crash. Some asshole maneuvered through the crash site. I wish I had my camera!

HEALTH

"Fun to the tenth power!"

"An inspiration makes for a good bedfellow."
"A different kind of sweat; something to melt your scratched mirrors."
"Loud."
"Kick until the cows come home."
"This is their life and we got front row tickets. Someone slap me 'cause I'm dreaming."

"Punk rock is knocking at your door; tell that drunk to fuck off."

"Best El Paso show in a long time. And it was just a minute drive from my house!"

Rain

Bret is in town. And when I thought my alcohol and drug consumption would be receding to boredom, that burly man at the airport changed it all. His first day back we cruised the Crews, did alcohol, witnessed shit-kicker parties, and other stuff Mom would disown me for.
Its starting to rain in El Paso. Its a breath of relief from the goddamn wet backs. So one time I was going number two and a scorpion was on the tile floor, inches away from a sting. I forgot if I flushed, and I forgot if this really happened to me.
I went to a rave in the desert. It was the first time drinking after the extraction of my wisdom tooth; two more suckers to go. Stella went well with the mediocre house music. Above: Sean and his upper body, and cousin Quisa.
Friends can get tuckered out with the right motivation. And then there's hard drugs to keep everyone else alive and pacing.
After months I've found the black and white setting on my camera. Very film noir, eh?!
This stump is the remnant of our biggest tree in the backyard. You can find much parallelism and inspiration to life from simple things in your house.

I've been listening to a lot of new music and rekindling my spirit with some fan favorites. My top five albums/bands of now are as follow:

1 Ghostland Observatory
2 Broken Social Scene - You Forget It In People
3 The Kooks
4 The Black Lips
5 Death From Above 1979

My top five black jokes:

Oh, I couldnt online. Jk