2010-11-21
Home tip day. But first, reminisce back as I haven't updated in a few days.
On the 19th we went to Barnes & Noble which had their 50% Criterion Collection sale. Oh. My. Freaking. Lord. I could have spent more than the $100 that I did spend. Having scoured a shelf for more than 15 minutes, I asked a clerk if there were more. "Certainly, Sir," she replied, adding "There is a lot more on that aisle", pointing to a place where I saw a whole bunch of Criterion C's, their logo standing tall. With LOADS of Criterion DVDs everywhere. So, I rounded up a long list. And really wanted everything, including X's pointing out an Akira Kurosawa box from Criterion, costing $400 prior to the 50% sale. My fingers ached. But then again, it's just my old feeling of wanting something badly, for...well, all the good reasons, but then again some of those films we already own. So I got stuff like Lindsay Anderson's "If..." which is one of my absolute favourite films. I remember seeing it on Swedish public TV when I was about 15 years old, just after discovering my #1 absolute fave film, "A Clockwork Orange"; the vision of chaos erupting in an English private school was wonderful and horrific (the latter due to all the violence). So I "had" to have that. And both X and I were intrigued by a Japanese horror-film called "House", which is supposed to be psychedelic, mind-expanding, scary (duh) and beautiful. Can't wait to see it. Reminds me of Eli Roth's tweet saying something like "I'll be watching this on the halloween weekend!", holding up its cover with a red, glowing scary face, Roth attempting to make the same face next to it. Anyway, we also got "Paths of Glory", the old Kubrick anti-war film, the original version of "The Lord of Flies" and "The Darjeeling Limited", wich I haven't seen.
Endless time later, having bought said films, we went back to Patrick's and then off to see Black Mountain and Black Angels live. The venue, La Zona Rosa, was quite boxy. A cement rectangle in a small building. While sitting outdoors, we met a nice effeminate guy from Florida who talked about loving Black Mountain and Neko Case, mentioned seeing her live at Stubbs this year and how awesome her voice was. He was really nice, and mentioned he probably wouldn't like to live otherwhere in Texas than in Austin as "they probably hang people like me there", and laughed. He recommended an album of Black Mountain with the shark on it, said it's from the band's more psychedelic era, said goodbye and left.
X and I ventured to the Black Mountain merch stand where a semi-sleepy guy sat reading. We got the shark album for $15 dollars and went to The Black Angels' merch stand where an awake and non-service oriented girl sold us all three of their albums at $10 a pop, and we got a sticker for free to boot.
When Black Mountain's sturm-und-drang intro had finished they entered, with a I-am-dead-and-gone-to-the-beyond-looking lead female singer took the stage, long hair and limber arms by the sides, faceless expression, they started. Heavy chords and heavy drums. Great sound, although the drums were mixed very in-your-face. After a couple of songs (one heavy, the other heavy and fast) they slowed down into psychedelidom, which was nice but sort of dragged on. The longer the show went on, the more the girl lapsed into the background and the male guitarist/singer became the front person; even though both of the voices were good, I preferred the girl as hers was more note-sharp and his more retro 70s. All in all: too many of the songs sounded alike, and the folky stuff they did last weren't up to par with the heavy/psych; some songs were, I think, not as well-written as they could have been. A badly written song isn't good no matter how heavy you churn it out, organs on top with reverb and all, y'all.
The Black Angels entered, and had a psychedelic little backdrop from the cover of their latest album. Their songs are, I think, somewhat stronger than Black Mountain's, but not as varied. It's a bit AC/DC in that sense, to rephrase what my dear cousin Zoran said of that band whenever they release a new album: "It's like wearing a new pair of Levi's: you know exactly what you get." But still, the singer's voice is quite special, piercing without being irritating, on key all the time and vital throughout the entire concert. The rest of the band played, flailed and stood firm throughout it all. Not much of a stage-show, but the backdrop and the lights played upon it worked quite well.
After the show we walked a bit by foot (!) and then took a cab to Patrick's, fell asleep almost instantly after chatting with Patrick and Renate who soon followed after.
So yesterday we got up and quickly away for a last meal in Austin, spent at The Magnolia Café on Lake Austin Boulevard. I had a Tony Burger, a massive vegetarian patty in there, with red bell peppers, red onions, a ranch mayo and avocado slices, plus a little salad. Mmm-good. The Magnolia is pretty noisy when it's full, as it often is, but it's worth it. Otherwise, Kerbey Lane is totally awesome and non-noisy.
Gas was put in tank, and car was put on track: after about 1,5 hours on the road, we stopped in Carmine, population 228, where we checked in at Texas Trash & Treasures, a little family-owned store in the middle of nowhere. Very "Tell all your friends about us!" and filled with folky, funky colours. Cattle skulls and angels made of wood and doll parts next to rings made from bottle-caps (I bought one) and pillows. we even got christmas trees made from metal scraps, painted green, red and white.
We arrived at the hotel, and of course Studio 6 had done something wrong: our room had been infested by somebody with a dog (or more than so) that had smelled up the place. They told us about it beforehand though, and so I was ready for it, checked the room out and got another room instead, a smoking room but in comparison with the dog room it was a win on all levels. We dumped our stuff, checked that the lock was working and left for the big Wal-Mart.
Oh, cherished horrid Wal-Mart, thou lookedsth so big. Thou was soesth cheapesth and trampleth on the backeth of the minimumeth wageth workerstheth. And so we got chips, I got an Amy's Mac & Cheese microwave dinner (yeay!) and some bread, we got back to the hotel, ate, watched junk tv and ended with a couple of episodes of "King of the Hill" (epic) and then sleep.
Early this morning: easy freeway traffic, checking in at Hertz which was simple, apart from a bit where we thought our tires would be slashed on entry to Hertz, but our tires would only have been slashed had we entered from the other way. Now, at the airport, waiting for the gate to call us to go in, the speakers saying "Do note, that any inappropriate jokes or remarks about security may end in your arrest."
Ready for entry!