Weekend round-up post

Sorry about the lack of posting. I've been really busy this weekend, though naturally I haven't gotten one damn thing done I intended to do this weekend. I did manage to see roughly one million bands play, though. I also got to have lunch with a high school friend and her husband on Saturday. They were down from D.C. to go to a cousin's wedding and so I took them to the sort of restaurant that can only crop up in Austin--Mr. Natural, a vegetarian Mexican food restaurant that actually has really good food.

Austin may be the easiest town in the country to be a vegetarian in. Oh, I'm sure that other cities have tons and tons of vegetarian food, but those cities probably don't have the benefit of being smack dab in the middle of Texas, where eating is a holy activity and where a bunch of different strains of Texas and Southern cultures and their foods comingle. Add to the mix that there are like 3 restaurants for every person here, because this is a town where everyone is single, doesn't cook ('cause it's almost pointless for one or even two people) and needs lots and lots of places to meet up with friends. And then add in that a huge percentage of people are vegetarians. You pretty much have to have some vegetarian dishes on your menu if you want to capture the lucrative market of young, single people--even those who eat meat have friends who don't, meaning that they will favor places with vegetarian dishes. It's inspired a lot of creativity.

While we were dropping my friend and her husband back off at the hotel, we passed the bride and her entourage as they swept out on the way to the wedding's location to finish getting dressed. They breezed passed us with serious faces, well as serious as one can look with your hair in curlers, under a scarf. They were toting giant tackleboxes full of make-up and duffel bags full of hair supplies, contemplating their task of dressing, make-up and hair with a mix of determination and giddiness. They were artists and this was their gallery night.

The rest of the weekend was dominated by shows. And of course the people-watching at shows. Last night we went to see Ben Bell and the Stardust Boys at Ego's, a show that had an eclectic crowd--older people from the neighborhood (Ego's is a hole in the wall with the crappiest parking in town), a flurry of young women drinking wine and tequila sunrises, the usual crew of goofy musicians, a gaggle of college kids who weren't there to see the show and us. Ben was in full guilty pleasures mode, and we got to hear covers done in western swing style of everything from "Staying Alive" to "Wish You Were Here". It turns out that disco translates really well to western swing.

We left after the show, while a bunch of indie dudes that looked like they had just happened to wander in started actually setting up on stage. It caused me to wonder if those guys went out of their way to look like they just stumbled in there, or if they were really just stoned and therefore couldn't look like they had a purpose if they tried. We went to Beerland and saw the Ugly Beats, a band that may not be doing anything really new but makes you not give a shit because they are so damn good at what they do.

And now I've got a pile of laundry and some reading and non-blog stuff to catch up on.