This afternoon, some friends took a cab out to the Church of the Friendly Ghost for a Chunklet magazine party. Their cab driver was a hippie cowboy who told them that all the bands playing SXSW sucked; Stevie Ray Vaughn is the real deal. Then he gave them some marijuana and they all smoked together. In the cab.
One of those friends later saw Har Mar Superstar making out with a girl in our hotel elevator.
Maybe I was hanging out in the wrong places today.
My day started at the crack of noon with an interview with the aforementioned Be Your Own Pet. We sat in their van for twenty minutes talking about fat pets, quitting school and paintball. I felt really old.
Back at the convention center, I hit up the Brian Wilson / Smile panel featuring Brian Wilson (duh), Van Dyke Parks (producer/arranger/singer/songwriter/Smile lyricist), a guy who wrote a book about Wilson, a guy who made a movie about Wilson, and Alan Light from Tracks magazine (full disclosure: I write for Tracks) moderating. Brian Wilson was wearing his SXSW laminate around his neck. Maybe he needed it to remind himself of who he is. OK, it wasn’t that bad. Sure, he looks so fragile and like he’s constantly teetering on the edge of a breakdown, but he answered the questions quite lucidly, if a bit curtly. The air was thick with Brian Wilson trivia and fanboy obsession, particularly during the audience Q+A. Not surprisingly, all of the people who asked questions were men.
OK, I’m falling asleep. More later.