March 2008
Hair
I need a haircut. Any suggestions? No professor though
SXSW 2008
First off, I was pleased by the lesser amount of times I heard people say “South by”
Second off, I had 4 wonderful people stay with me: Ami, Emily, Eric and Michael
Third off, I saw a lot of bands. A Lot:
Brazos
White Denim (x3)
Pink Nasty
The Cool Kids
A-Track
Diplo
The Mae Shi
The Whip
The Shout Out Out Out
The Shout Out Louds
Holy F*ck
Shearwater (x2)
Black Before Red
The Most Serene Republic
The Constantines
The Airborne Toxic Event
Autolux
The Dodos
Eugene Mirman (x2)
Mike Birbigula
Paul F Tompkins
Janeane Garofalo
HUMAN GIANT
Matt Besser and Matt Walsh
The Fun Bunch
Brian Posehn
Aloha
Wooden Shjips
Langhorn Slim
Tiny Animals
Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears
Rogue Wave (x1.5)
The Ting Tings (x2)
The XYZ Affair
The Features
Port O’brien (with 1/2 of Rogue Wave, which explains the x1.5 for Rogue Wave)
Ra Ra Riot
and She and Him.
I probably left a few out. I know I left a few of the comics I saw out, because there were just so many (about 15 total). I left out some DJ sets that I saw, because I never caught their names, and it’s really hard to find info about “secret” parties.
Fourth off I am not linking every single band like Michael did, cause that would take me the rest of my workday.
Fifth off, Paige and Kevin are awesome. Totally awesome. They get a thumbs up from me.
Sixth off, I’ve probably already told you at least a million times, but I danced very briefly with Alia Shawkat from Arrested Development at a Blender After-party. And so there’s no confusion, no, I did not speak to her, I just was standing next to her while A-Track and Diplo did their thing, but we were both dancing like our feet were on fire.
Blog blog blog blog blog
I really hate the word blog. I don’t have a blog, I have a web domain, stop asking me what my blog is. I hate blogs.
With that said. I’m at the Interactive portion of SXSW. I’ve heard the word “blog” about 2,000 times today. It’s sickening.
The event’s going really well, got all my demos setup and running smoothly.
If you’re here, stop by the AMD Bloghaus. Austin Convention Center Level 3 Room 7. You might see me.
I’m getting really excited about the music that is going to be happening this week.
So much stuff, so little time.
BLOG OUT
4×4
Only because it was requested of me by Michael:
4 Jobs You’ve Had
Eckerd Register: First and foremost, when I was 17, I decided that it was time for me to buy my own computer, I went to Eckerd Pharmacy and applied to be a register jockey. I got the job by my own merit and interview taking skills. Right after I was offered the job, my friend’s older sister walked in and was like “hey, there’s Chris, you should hire him if you haven’t already” So I didn’t really need to impress anyone. I quit that job 8 months later because it was supposed to be an after school job, not an 7.5 hour a day 3-4 school nights and Sunday’s job where my co-workers started calling in “sick” nearly every day for a week. It was n extremely hectic job because often I would find myself the sole register person in the back with a line of 10 people inside and a line of cars that I couldn’t see the end of.
Concession Stand (Movie theater) Second there was the Movie theater job (you are right about everything you said Michael, what a great job). I was a concession clerk and never got the chance to move up, because I told them when I started that I quit my last job (the day before starting at the theater) because it was interfering with school. They started pressing me to work more than 20 hours a week, and started getting mad at me when I would say no. I got fired for this. I did get to see every movie that came out in the two months though and would take my father a trash bag full of nearly stale popcorn whenever he would request it.
Hamburger Boy: Third Job of interest: I worked at a sno-cone/hamburger stand few months after the movie theater. I got paid $50 cash a week (and all the snocones I wanted!) to… clean out the stand, and also clean out the grease trap from the grill. Cleaning the grease trap was the most disgusting thing, and this also meant I had to carry a 5 gallon bucket of grease in my car across town to the grocery store he had a deal with to share their grease disposal. My car smelled like hamburgers, I smelled like hamburgers, I never once spilled any grease in the car though, so that’s good. I got fired from that job for… surprise! Not agreeing to work more than the 1 hour a night and 4 hours on Sunday that I worked each week. Why do people lie to you when they hire you? If you tell someone these are your hiring terms, please don’t change them, and then fire the person when they don’t agree with the change.
Professional Quitter: Forth job of interest: Worked at a local Houston Internet company in 1999-2000, that was a fun job because it was the hey-day. Arcade machines in the lounge, foosball, pinball, free drinks, snacks, and all those perks you’ve heard of. The actual job of Phone Tech Support kinda sucked, but it did lead to me pulling one of the greatest work-related stunts I’ve ever done. I decided to go to school up in North Texas, so I had to quit the job sometime in the summer of 2000. I decided I wanted to take a summer off from working, so I put in my notice in late April. My boss knew I was doing nothing all summer, so he offered me a promotion to stay on for the remainder of the summer (me giving him an absolute last day no matter what date). I got a dollar raise and moved to a department where I did less work and worked days instead of nights. My old teammates hated me because I had found a loophole, the company was in a hiring freeze and couldn’t poach employees from one department to another. Later that summer, when I put in my two weeks reminder of my last day, the company took it upon themselves to move me to a brand new department of one (myself, adding IP Addresses into a database) and another dollar raise with the instructions “work as many hours as you want in these two weeks”. I worked about 110 hours in those two weeks, even though I had the addresses added in on day one. I took two hour paid lunches and dinners. All I did while I was at work those last two weeks was download music to my hard drive (brought from home) and watch episodes of south park. You might also say this was the job where I started to become friends with Michael instead of buggy internet spongebath fanboy.
4 TV Shows I’m Watching
This is not a list of my favorite shows, it is a list of literally the 4 shows that are currently airing new episodes that I am watching:
Lost – duh
Breaking Bad – Same reasons that Michael put. It’s simply just an amazing show, you get to see the transformation of a character from a man who just does what his wife tells him to him deciding to be the man he could/should be and make his own decisions.
That Mitchell and Webb Look – Hilarious sketch comedy show put out by the guys behind Peep Show. Just when Numberwang got old and stale…. they revitalized it this season in a way I can’t even describe without giving away the surprising awesomeness of it.
The Riches – Interesting show with Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver playing American Gypsies who happened to assume the identities of a rich family. The show is great, though it’s hard to get used to the two of them with pretty bad southern American accents.
4 Places I’ve Been
Just like Michael, I haven’t really been out of the US, other than some small border town to Mexico
New Orleans – I’ve been here quite a few times, the most memorable was when I went with my friend Cassidy on a road trip that was two weeks long and cost us a total of about $250 including gas.
Orlando – On same road trip went to Orlando to see some family friends and got to go to Disney World one day. Rode 8 rides between the three parks in one day. It’s great going to Disneyworld with a native, they know their ways around. Also they get you in free, keeping your total road trip spending to $250
Las Vegas – I’ve been there twice this year, once was fun and once was for work. My mom took me there for my graduation present and it was awesome. We caught The Second City and hit up just about every casino on the strip.
Nashville – I go here as often as I can. Which is to say three times in my life. It’s a fun town because I get to see a whole lot of people who I never get to see, or at least don’t get to see enough.
4 Musical Artists I’m Listening to Right Now
MGMT – Fun to listen to
She and Him – Beautiful music from an actress who looks a lot like my friend Melissa (a.k.a. extremely beautiful)
123blaston – Sounds like video game music, but is also really cool
Apes and Andriods – If you don’t know them, check them out!
Sorry if you read all that and don’t know me. At least now, everyone knows a little more about me. Lost’s on! Bye