Happy Spring!

Spring arrives in many guises all across the country. Nice and cool here this morning and got up to 80 this afternoon. It has been very windy all week, so the humidity is low and the weather men keep warning of fire danger.  The trees are starting to bud. No spring bulbs popping up through the snow here, at least not at my house.  No snow and I don't have any bulbs.  I did think that the hard freeze we had killed my little potted Pomegranate tree that "someone" forgot to move into the garage, that one week we had very cold temps.

 Plus, that same "someone" cut it way back in my absence.  However, the past week has shown it is recovering, at least one branch has some new growth. Poor little thing, I hope it grows to it's former size.  We bought it for our anniversary gift about 8 years ago and have managed to keep it alive all this time, So Far.

I've done a fair amount of moping and grieving the past few weeks, but have managed to get out a few times and do some things. We only went to a few of the SXSW festival happenings this year. The crowds just get larger every year and it is less appealing to us to deal with it. Here are a couple of the ones we did get to last week and week end. Getting there, we drove to the train station and took the train downtown.  It was a quite uncomfortable, like being in N.Y. or San Francisco. It was standing room only and in very close quarters. Ewww  It was even worse coming back, but we were on line early and at least got a seat this time.

 

 The poster show was amazing, mostly artwork done for music gigs but some movie posters too. Look at the cute little taxidermy guy that someone swapped for some posters.  The lady there said it was a weasel, but I think the white ones are ermines. Not certain though. He was really cute, if a little creepy.

Renegade Craft Fair is always fun.  They had these paper mobiles hanging from the ceiling all throughout the building. Lots of handmade things and workshop/make and takes.  I only bought some tea and a pretty aqua screen printed scarf.  There was a guy there from L.A.who had some gorgeous screen printed and handmade books.  It is hard for me to resist anything PAPER...but I managed. Now I am sorting through all my stuff trying to find his business card so I can drool over his artwork on his website.

Meanwhile back at the convention center, there was a lot going on there besides the poster show and Music Gear Expo.  There were bands playing on several stages and it got to be a bit much after awhile.  Hubby went to listen to music and I wandered around seeing some of the other sights.
I met these really cute young ladies in line at one of the venues.  I asked if I could take their photo, I thought they were so cutely dressed.  They are Kari from Nashville, and Ella from Atlanta.  Hope you can make out Ellas' huge wooden peace sign earrings. Believe me there were a lot of really cool costumes, most I did not get a chance to take photos of.  Most of these were taken with my cell phone as I need to shop for a new camera.

Yesterdays Clouds, Last Nights Moon

The sky was bright blue and the clouds were crisp where I live. Driving home in the afternoon I can't help thinking of all the dreadful things going on in the world. What does the sky look like over Japan...will the cherry blossoms bloom again in Spring? Will the death toll continue to rise, and how long before her people will feel safe again? The skies over Libya...we can see if we turn on CNN...all the disastrous elements brought about by mother nature, and man as well. I'm actually weary of CNN playing everywhere I go. I don't want to dwell on the bad things, but how can I NOT? It's hard to avoid them. I did receive an e-mail back from one of the sketchbook participants that I sent a message to. He and his family are fine, in Kobe.

Hubby and I needed a small break and so we went downtown. On a Saturday night...during SXSW? What are we, crazy? A friend of ours was playing at a bar that was NOT on 6th Street, so we figured we'd brave it. We saw a couple of acts before his band, and a couple after. We were home by mid-night...so we missed the action on 6th Street and the kerfuffle with the police...only just now heard about it from a neighbor. Too many fans trying to get into small venues, add alcohol..spells trouble! I told you this town gets crazy around it's musical festivals. We love live music, but are not party people...I had one beer, hubby doesn't drink at all. We both felt hung-over from the cigarette smoke and lack of sleep.

We took a walk through the Capitol grounds before coming home. It was cool and breezy, and very beautiful. I could have sat there for hours watching the moon.

I still keep taking pictures of the moon, even though with my little camera, it's hard to get photos that do it justice. I still feel compelled to do it. The moon was huge last night, but looks dwarfed by the capitol.

Spring...renewal, growth, hope for peace and tranquility in the world.

Sketchbooks and SXSW

Still in recovery from a busy, crazy week-end. We usually leave town the week of SXSW, because the entire city goes crazy. Influx of thousands of musicians, film folks, etc. from all over the world. Unless you have been, you can't even imagine what happens. Don't even dare to try to get a hotel room in this town right now.
Anyhow...the main thing that I wanted to see was the travelling sketchbook project.
http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

When we got there at 11 for a 12.p.m. opening, we were told there had been a problem and the opening was pushed back to 2:00p.m. There were already a large number of people milling about in the museum. We left and went to a Teachers rally on the Capitol lawn. Then we went to a SXSW film at another location. When we got back to the museum, we got in line and were the first ones outside the door to where they were having the event. Hubby was peeking through the opening of the door and read the sign with the rules on it. First we had to get in one line and get a library card. Then line #2 to check out a journal, then line #3 to return, then back in the line to check out. There was such a mass exodus into the room that things got all jumbled and people didn't know what to do. The organizers hadn't done a real good job of explaining the system, and I think they were overwhelmed with the amount of people there. My hubby and another guy, who happened to be the two tallest people in the room, began trying to explain and help people out. A lot of people were grumbling about the small size of the room, and the disorganization. No matter, folks settled down, and started getting books. They let you check out two at a time, and you could give a name if you knew they had participated, or a city or a country. Since I was number 2 in line I actually got my first two rather quickly. On my second trip it took me 45 minutes from the time I returned two and got in the other line to check out two more! Then I had to weave my way across the room back to where my hubby had saved us a standing spot in a corner. Then he went to get his two, and so on and so on. We looked at books from people we knew, then just asked for random countries. It was really getting warm and crowded in the room, and it seemed like with this system we wouldn't get to see very many journals. I suggested to the people who were eyeball to eyeball with us that when we each got two books we all pass them around so we could view more at a time. So that worked out well, as long as we got them all returned to the person who had checked them out.

They were amazing, such a variety of styles and from all over the place. We met people close by who had participated, so we got to see their books. I wish I could show you all the books I saw. I started out taking photos and writing down names, but that didn't last very long. Here are some I can show, and I did them in collage style to try and take up less space.
Some have names, some I didn't get. Every person started out with the same size moleskine journal. Some were sketched, some collaged, every page used, some pages removed.

This person was from LasVegas, it was fabric and the pages had been removed from the book and the fold-out pages inserted.


Lenna Andrews- Bradenton, Fla. Know her from online.


Angie Beck from Australia. All postage stamps...see Russell Crowe?


Forgot to write this person's name and location


After I had looked at all the books from people I knew, I decided in light of what was happening in Japan, that I really wanted to see books from there. From that point on, both Hubby and I asked for two from Japan each time. So there we stood, with these books in our hands...praying and focusing on sending healing energy to the people living there, in the midst of this tragedy. Soon, there were several students who had been standing next to us, who did the same. In retrospect, I wish I had stood on the table and asked everyone in the room to do the same.

Kuniko Komaba-Tokyo Japan

This book really touched me. It was entirely filled with ink sketches, each one more fantastical than the next. These are just a few of them. They were really hard to photograph. This one appears to be the only one of the books from Japan I took photos of. One was from Kobe, Japan, and it was all rubberstamped words and quotes, all in Deutsch.

These were just some of the many books we got to look at. I would liked to have seen them all. One of the organizers told us that there were 10,000 sketchbooks that had been returned.

SouthXSouthWest-ing

I haven't had much time to work with my new computer, because the Big One..the SXSW conference has started, and been going on all week. It's big, really big, folks. Like Texas Big. International Big. I do like to avoid the crowds of 20,000 or more, but feel comfortable in rooms that hold 100 to 500 peeps. Have been to a few of the broadcasts in person, watched a lot of it on the internet, and some on T.V. It's definitely the place to see folks and hear amazingly good music and see new film. I won't even mention all the famous peeps that strolled through the lobby of the Four Seasons the few times I was there this week. Musicians, actors,writers, etc. That is just the ones I saw personally. I heard mention of a few I didn't see, but might not have recognized anyhow. But I will tell you this,I came eye to eye, face to face, up close and personal with John Hiatt, as he made his way through the crowd to get into the filled to capacity Music Lounge. I was standing right by the door, helping the manager try to keep folks from sneaking into the crowded room if they hadn't already been granted a seat or a standing spot. He said Hello and I think I grinned and mumbled Hello back. Some guy behind me said, Wow, do you know who that was? Yup..I sure did.

Things are winding down tonight and tomorrow and the city can get back to normal. These festivals are a double edged sword. They bring tons of money into the local economy, but for awhile the traffic is almost unbearable.

It's a lot of fun to live in such a city, where we are exposed to so many performers on a regular basis. There is always a movie or two being filmed around here so there are many stars who are in town on any given day. You never know who you will run into. I am always pleased to find out that the majority of them are just as nice as we think they are. However there are some who are just as nasty as we've heard they are too. That's amusing as well.

Early on before the crowds get so packed, you can see some fine costumes. I got a few shots of some great boots and outfits. These floral ones were my favorite boots. After it gets so crowded you'll only see heads if you are standing or behinds if you are sitting.


Boots everywhere.

Cute cowgirl jacket.


T-Bird and The Breaks. Good local band.