austin is the capital

i’m in austin this week. not in taiwan. which is fine, except that i’m still in austin.

no, actually, austin’s quite nice. i was going to post earlier today about how austin was strange, but then my browser crashed, perhaps as a sign. austin’s great! it’s texas that’s strange. but don’t mess with texas, right?

i was told that austin is the live music capital of the world. i’m not sure how they award that, if there’s some sort of competition, or pageant with a swimsuit competition, or of all the other live music cities come together and have a vote at their annual meeting or what. impressively to back up this claim, austin does have sxsw and austin city limits. however, i was also told that austin is the tattoo capital of the world as well, so i don’t know. but if i come home with charlie brown on my ass, then you’ll know.

we did go out to a bunch of bars, and did see several live bands, which were pretty good. so i guess empirical evidence does seem to bear this claim out, albeit with a statistically small sample.

i do sort of feel like i’m the wrong person in the wrong place, though. it’s a great city for music, but i feel like i’ve become too much of an electronica fiend to appreciate it. i was even in austin’s premiere music store, waterloo records, and i just didn’t find that much because they’re really targeting someone else. it’s like when hmc and jo were in london a few years ago, and jo wanted to hear some “acoustic folky music” in one of the electronic music capitals of the world.

there’s either no place like home, or i sold my soul to non-rock and roll.

Posted at October 7, 2004 12:22 AM