Is This Interesting?
Thoughts/feelings that just might not matter:
Beware the Ides of March!
Comic courtesy of Toothpaste for Dinner.
Those dudes, those conspirators killed Caesar back in 44 B.C. Was he becoming too powerful? Threatening the Republic?
I don’t know. Don’t care. Not much of a history buff.
But it seems to me that one can relate to and apply this ancient story here and now in 2007.
How, exactly?
By plotting the assassination of some personal tyrant.
Something that has gained too much power in one’s life.
Something that has gotten greedy.
Something that threatens the balance.
Is it television? Well, we could all watch a little less television, but c’mon! Let’s not be crazy here. Save that for a New Year’s resolution.
Is it the day job? Forty hours a week is nothing to sneeze at. That’s a lot of power. But my day job takes good care of me. Income. Health insurance. Some modicum of dignity. Time in the morning to compose this very Gazette!
Friends? Girlfriend? Family? No, if anything, I need to give these folks more power in my personal Republic.
Music? Which part of music? There’s songwriting, practicing, performing, promotion, branding, set-up, tear-down, networking, travel, supporting fellow artists, etc. It is quite the monolith, but it has brought so many beautiful things into my life. I’m not ready to cut back on it just yet.
Food? Uh, no, I think not. I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t enjoy food, sex, and sleep a little too much.
I’ve got it! I shall gather up all my inner allies and slaughter Emperor Magazines!
Sneaky buggers, magazines. In the past year, I’ve subscribed to MacLife, Wired, and NerdTown [not really] and do you know what I’ve discovered? Magazines do not satisfy wants and needs, they only create more wants and needs! By design! Any publisher will admit it.
The articles are NEVER as interesting, lengthy, or in depth as the front cover would lead you to believe.
Ad after ad after ad after ad after tiny article with HUGE PICTURES after ad after ad. Wired only costs $10 per year, but how much more does it cost in the long run, when it shapes my brain to want the latest, greatest, smallest, and sleekest?
It’s like inviting a nasty billboard into my home.
Just because it promises some interesting tidbit of information or entertainment.
I say thee nay! Get thee behind me Satan! I know what you’re up to!
You know what? There’s this thing called the Internet now. I can look up ANYTHING I think of at ANYTIME from virtually ANYWHERE and find vast storehouses of relevant information. So why do I need these glossy chunks of gadget porn littering my apartment, corrupting my impressionable brain?
I do not.
“Et tu, Southpaw?”
Yes, et me.
And Another Thing…
More verbosity with velocity and viscosity:
SXSPaw!
That’s right, friends, it’s that crazy spring break week when everyone screams, “Show your badge! Show your badge!”
• It’s a chance for the local leather-pants-retailers to make some extra sales.
• A chance for Austinites to score some mediocre, drunken scrumpin’ from non-Austinites for a change.
• A chance for bands to walk shoulder-to-shoulder down the street, even closer than they sat in the van on the way!
• A chance for yankee dumbasses to wonder who froze Stevie Ray Vaughan in carbonite on Town Lake.
• A chance for folks to say “I’m gonna come to your…” and “Sorry I didn’t come to your…” within the same hour.
• A chance for young bassists to pick up a brochure for UT and think, “Maybe I should, like, cure cancer instead of layin’ down grooves.”
• A chance for six months of Pitchfork stardom and a lifetime of paying back the record company for a 2-minute CGI video.
• A chance for all of us to visit Los Angeles without leaving town.
• A chance for you to see Southpaw Jones perform THREE TWO TIMES. South by SouthPaw!
Thursday, my debut at the Alligator Grill with top notch talent all around! Sunday, my afternoon debut at Leeann Atherton’s Full Moon Barn Dance!
Thursday, March 15th, 2007
7:00 PM
Third Coast Music @ SXSW
Alligator Grill
3003 South Lamar
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 444-6117
4:55 The Ginn Sisters
5:25 Beth Wood
5:50 Abi Tapia
6:15 Ed Petterson
6:35 Andrew Walker
7:00 Jeff Tveraas
7:20 Southpaw Jones
7:40 Michael Austin
7:55 Steve Carter
Sunday, March 18th, 2007
2:00 PM
SXSW Annual Barn Dance
Full Moon Barn Dance
11241 Slaughter Creek Drive
Austin, TX 73301
Price: $10
The Finest Bands from Austin and Around The World. Two Stages for Bands and Acoustic Acts. 2:00pm – 11:00pm. Real Ones, Pop Up, Zeegrass, Barbara K., Mr. Brown, Topaz, Gary Primich, It’s Over, Leeann Atherton, Kim Deschamps, Andrew Walker, Southpaw Jones, Luna Tart, Michael Clay Band, 100 Year Flood and maybe more TBA.
Online Museum of the Week
Mascot Stalker:
This girl Liz loves mascots. Who can blame her?
Animal Tracks
Paul S. presents the top ten tunes of animal bands:
2. Band of Horses – The Funeral
“i could have picked a couple from this album, my personal favorite of 2006.”
Quotopia
Freshly-picked quotes from the ol’ reference collection:
Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.
Mark Twain
Thank you, come again!
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©2007 Southpaw Jones. All rights reserved.
