Archive for the 'David Foster Wallace' Category

SXSW

Published on March 16, 2011 in Cool, David Foster Wallace and internet. Closed

new media in the house (in every house)

I’d already decided I wouldn’t be doing the SXSW music festival this year, an activity which requires standing on line for hours to be rewarded with free Lone Star and more standing while four kids from wherever go WAH WAH WAH into their microphones and someone is seriously playing the theremin. My taste in music is two years behind and my back hurts and I can’t be bothered. But then I got invited to do a panel for SXSW Interactive and ended up doing all the fun parts of SXSW — people-watching, hangouts, day party, night party — with more sitting in chairs overall.

 

sweet panel y’all

Highlights: cool guys Tim and Ryan, kimchi tacos, BBQ and sweet dogs at Clay Smith’s, Diplo saying BLACKBERRY IN THE HOUSE at the Blackberry party, touring the DFW archive with the curator of the collection, sitting in the front row for Dave Foley and Michael Ian Black, driving a drunk guy away from 6th to Riverside in the back of my truck after he threw a wad of cash at me, introducing a New Yorker and a Seattleite to Rio Rita’s couches and cocktails, and generally feeling happy and grateful to live in Austin during kind of a strange time in my day-to-day. (AND I think I saw a yellow-rumped warbler, which really elevated this week from COOL to COOL +BIRD.) Now SXSW Music is starting and I’m all SXSWed out and ready to get back to work, which is perfect because there’s always work.

have you seen this bird? he is pretty

Speaking of new media, congrats to the awesome Ann Friedman, who was just hired as the editor of GOOD Magazine but will hopefully come back and see us in Austin more often than not.

This post is about the performance not the politics

Published on March 9, 2010 in Cool, David Foster Wallace and Readings. Closed

The Ransom Center got David Foster Wallace’s archives. They’ll be up in August or so. Field trip down the street. (via)

Last night was cool. I read from AM/PM a little. It started pouring rain on half the crowd after I started one page but stopped twenty seconds later. I also read an oldie, as requested by the gentleman what escorted me. (Texas Tip: Dance with who brung ya.)

The reading also featured an open mic, with ACC students and faculty reading short pieces. One of the best open mics I’ve seen, actual. Took me back to Maggie Evans’s shows in San Marcos when I was most excited about poetry.

Then, Finn & Porter for Restaurant Week. Pecans caramelized and further crisped in the deep-fry. Seabass steamed over a bed of potato flavored with some manner of umami. A trio of brûlées in tiny cups. Fine company as well. Today I have a date with the gym. After coffee. Fifteen more minutes.

Thanks to John Herndon for inviting me to last night’s reading and to Sarah Wambold for making a note about it on the Austinist.

Next week, I’m opening the Whiskey Rebellion with Southpaw. In later excitement, I’m reading with Teleportal for Fusebox in April. And more good news, we got Michael Kimball and Christian TeBordo for Five Things in May.

This week, I’m watching a dog with a spinal injury who needs to be walked in a sling. On our last trip outside, we made friends with a half-paralyzed corgi. Its useless legs were strung up in a rolling cage. Everybody’s just happy to be here.

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