a.c.l. II (the remix)

so, yeah…that was saturday for me. rain, flying pigs, and horny big, red, plush dogs mounting my fellow security guards. another day in paradise. that IS where we left off with this thang, right?

i apparently did something right in ol’ v.i.p. area of the main stage saturday night, ’cause i was told that was my post for sunday. and post i did. didn’t move from an eight foot radius from about 9:20 in the morning to about 8:45 that night. but plenty of people i knew came through and hung out, so it wasn’t all that bad…

i got to just perch myself on R.E.M.’s huge pile o’ stuff, and watch the door. not bad. lunch was delivered to us, as was dinner, all from stubb’s. to me, this is a good thing…i actually heard a couple of the folks complain about having to eat bar-b-que for every meal. guess they’re from out of town or something…

the line up on my stage was pretty typical…the shins (typical “the” band, like the strokes, or the hives, or the…), g. love and special sauce (usual funky white boy hi-jinks…always a crowd pleaser, even if the bass player scared the hell out of his agent by damn near pulling a no-show…he came up and asked me if i had seen him. when i fired back, “isn’t keeping track of that sort of thing more YOUR gig?” i got quite a look…and not a happy one), then yo la tengo (i still don’t see what the magic is with these guys, but going off the “alt-indy-rock” crowd in the audience, and hearkening back to my independent record store days, i know why i don’t get it…but at least i got to see a preview of the folks i’ll deal with when belle & sebastian play the backyard in november, right?), then came ween (nice guys…and i like a song or two…but again, i don’t get it. am i that uncool or just that old? (les, if you’re reading, don’t feel required to answer this)), and finally r.e.m. (featuring michael stipe, or as i called him that night (and some of his management thought it was hysterical) ‘mini me’).

fortunately, before i could become the most unpopular man at the festival (the guy who had to tell shitloads of local folk, “i don’t care that your badge says ‘all access’, i’m past capacity up here…you CAN’T get in”) they moved me down to the pit area…so i was up front and center for the whole set. if you saw the big, shaven headed white boy on the jumbo-tron making sure stipe didn’t get sucked into the crowd, that was me. and i went into the set wanting to hear three songs…the great beyond, from that andy kaufman movie, ’cause it had been recorded since the last time i saw them and i LOVE the song; star 69, ’cause that’s my favorite song off monster, and night swimming, ’cause that’s my favorite slow song and i’d NEVER got to hear it live. we went two for three (no star 69, but the two i’d never heard got done). i could live with that.

for that matter, i went into the weekend wanting only four things…good times, good stories for the whore, an r.e.m. shirt, and after i tried it, another bag of that addicting kettle corn. i got it all, and i got it all for free. well, except for the shirt, of course…

i heard all weekend about the celebrities in town…but i never saw them. i even had a nice guy from blender magazine tell me about one or two he had seen between me begging and pleading to get a writing gig with his publication. i gave him the whore’s url and told him to check me out…everybody think warm thoughts on this, okay? a professional writing gig would be a DAMN good thing for me.

the only celebs i met AT the fest other than various members of the aforementioned bands were local…like tito (who might not be a celebrity to you, but if you know you’re vodka, he should be). but then came the after party…and all was well. then came the band members from the stages i DIDN’T get to work. and some of the r.e.m. crew. and mr. undercover brother himself, eddie griffin, who i hear will be making his austin stand-up debut soon. then it was time to take my tired ass home (i reached this point about 3:45 am on monday morning) and pass out. fortunately, i had the foresight to take monday off work…but i did have lunch plans, as was kind of astounded when it was noon, i was at fudrucker’s in s.a., and i was still buzzing. but a good meal there, some good company, and a couple of good cigars at club humidor in the quarry later, and i was back on top of my game…and speaking of game, on the way down to sa i got one of the coolest shirts EVER at the nike outlet. they mean it as a basketball thang, but the kanji tattoo below my waist doesn’t translate to “basketball”…it translates to “pervert”. so keep that in mind when you see me in the white sleeveless that says:

“PLAYER – going to the hole since ’71”

and on that note, i’ll see y’all tomorrow…

Replies: 2 Comments

no…i was behind the stacks for the most part, and when i got moved to the pit for r.e.m., i threw in ear plugs, which i always wear so my ears stay more studio-worthy

sean said @ 09/25/2003 11:03 AM CST

was the music too loud too? that’s another sure sign of getting old. But I won’t make too big of a deal being that you are (weeks) younger than me!

the redhead said @ 09/25/2003 10:19 AM CST