No Lily Allen at ACL!

I just heard the news on Ultra8201: Lily Allen has bowed out of this year's ACL Fest!

Lily Allen - 22 (High Quality)
by wonderful-life1989

That's right, Lily Allen: sad face.

Above is the new(ish) video for Allen's single "22," off It's Not Me, It's You. The cinematography is a little unforgiving, but I rather like the gritty low-light throughout.

May I submit a humble wish list of replacements, C3 Presents?

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero
by UniversalMusicGroup

But that one's been rumored for a while.

How about an ever-so-slightly less known gal, like Amanda Blank! (a little nsfw)



Or - THE TWELVES. Played at Canvas Bar for SXSW 2009, and I just caught a minute. A minute of pure rapture, that is.



What about Walter Meego? I can't decide if I detest this video or not, but I do likey his sound.



Your thoughts, dear Reader?

Brazilian Girls: A MySpace page so hip, it'll make you cry

There are few MySpace pages as aesthetically-pleasing as Brazilian Girls' MySpace page, no?

Brazilian Girls came to our fair city in 2006 for ACL, and I really want them to come back. Especially after watching videos like these:




In the meantime, several other Treasure Island kids are coming to ACL this year, like Girl Talk and Passion Pit.

Maybe we can convince Eddie Vedder to steal Sabina Sciubba's pretty white dress, and hold it ransom until Brazilian Girls come to Austin?? I bet he'd be into it.

Countdown to ACL 2009: Dr. Dog

Who doesn't love Dr. Dog? In sound alone, they are like the 21st century's answer to The Beatles.

Dr. Dog My Old Ways


Dr. Dog will be playing this year at ACL on Friday, October 2. I remember seeing them at ACL last year, and falling quite hard for their version of Heart of Races.




Doesn't that video put you in a wonderful mood? And make you want to prance around in homemade masks?

More things that put me in a wonderful mood:

1. Cupcake smackdowns.
2. thisiswhyyourefat.com
3. Watching old My So-Called Life clips.
4. This news story.
5. Chocolate (duh). While on period (double-duh).

Dispatches from AUSTIN CITY LIMITS

Watching news about the economy is making me sad/pissed, so I'm going to show you some pictures from ACL, k?

MGMT:


I was a little far away! Freaking AWESOME show.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, on the AT&T stage:



Oh Conor Oberst....I made soooooo much fun of Conor Oberst when he was Bright Eyes. I know many of you loved him. But I just couldn't take the whiny, warbly-voiced, "I'm special because I'm sad" thing.


There's the Bright Eyes I know and love. Pulling hair 'cause it hurts.

Anyway, now that he's toned it down a bit, I'm really liking ol' Conor. Look at him here, singing Paul Simon:


Doesn't he look cute and playful?


Onto Beck......


Yes, his hair really is that long, and no, I'm not hovering two feet in front of him (I wish). Took that one zooming in on the Jumbotron. But I think it turned out nice.



God, I love him so much. Even though he stopped playing 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, with no encore - kind of lame, Beck! - I still love him. You can especially see the Live with Larry King-like wall going on in the background here.

Beck's guitarist, Jessica Dobson:


I don't know how/why my camera made her all red, but I'm glad that it did.

Jessica Dobson, if you have a Facebook account, you totally have my permission to make this your new profile pic. (Heh, am so cocky!! I would flip out if that actually happened).

Some more random pictures:


Doesn't it look like I'm taking this from backstage. I'm NOT (how funny would it be if I tried to get press access for this blog??), this was just another lucky Jumbotron shot.

Onto the vendors' booths at ACL: These toys are the cutest.


Does anyone know what those are called?

This next one was taken at the MGMT show. I really liked this girl's guitar pick earrings - so very ACL:



I took that one all stalker-style, pretending to point the lens at MGMT while actually zooming in on her ear. I know, it's a little creepy.

Back to the vendors' stands - more jewelry, in the form of pretty pendant necklaces:



I would like to own those. All of them.

Here's a real beauty - my friend Rob and I with our ACL game faces on:


Isn't that frightening?

I'm pretty sure we had just sat down in somebody else's chairs, and were making faces to scare them off. (They didn't come back, so I guess it worked).

I heart ACL.

O Room Service, how do I love thee?

I am happy to report that this morning, an angel entered my email inbox, and she granted me a ticket to today's ACL (i.e. "Austin City Limits Music Festival" for the uninitiated)! So if you read yesterday's post - which is highly unlikely since most of you were - nay, ARE - at ACL already, then we happily have a crisis-averted situation on our hands. Thank you, interwebs!

Anyway. With a few free hours to kill this morning, I decided to have a little fun here in the neighborhood. You see, I have been so inspired by Sarah Dean over at The Year of Living Thriftily - who, if you haven't heard, is chronicling her year of wearing zero new clothes (as in....wearing all vintage, not wearing zero clothes, which I think we can all agree would be a different mission entirely) - that I've been itching to don more vintage duds myself.

Behold. I give you: Room Service!



Every time I walk into Room Service (there are two, by the way - one on South Lamar, and one on North Loop, the latter of which we shall be discussing here today), I freak out a little bit. Why? Well....look how pretty!!!



Now, in the name of objectivity, I should tell you that although Room Service consistently wins both MY love (pant! pant!) AND "Best Vintage" in the Austin Chronicle every year, not all Austinites drool over this comely, kitschy place.

Kelley R. from Yelp, you have the floor:

"I've never found anything here that I'd actually spend money on. It's pricey [O RLY?] and a lot of the stuff is just old crap [der, is resale]. Sometimes it smells funny too [that's actually a good point]. But I do looking at old crap. "

I'm gonna have to call shenanigans on this one, Kelley R. Hear you loud and clear about the smell - like an olfactory cocktail of rose, mothballs, and Grandma's closet - but then, what vintage store does not smell like that. Ditto the presence of "old crap" - is thrift store! A clearing house for old stuff!

But anyhoo, internet sparring aside, let's move onto what delectable items Room Service had in store for us today....


No, I'm not quite sure what that face in the middle is, but I did find a few cute things in this area to try on! These included: A polka dot turquoise skirt, patent leather green flats, and a couple of cotton '80s dresses - wrap-around, horizontal stripes - with shoulder pads happily removed. So with that, I schlepped it on over to the dressing room.

Now guys, correct me if I'm wrong here, but compared to most thrift store dressing rooms, the one at Room Service is downright thrilling. Normally the dressing room area in thrift stores is just a lame siphoning-off of existing floor space, right, with curtains draped in front of makeshift stalls. Not a proper room by any means.



But oh, what a difference we have here! The dressing room at Room Service is indeed it's very own, walk-in space, much more of a "dress-UP" room really. That's the mirror on the right, surrounded by silk scarves and HATS!

(PS - is anyone looking at that black and white number down on the bottom right, with what appear to be wings on the side? Just how much moxie do you have to have to pull that off? Not even the mannequin, it looks like, who has damn near covered her face with the thing.)

Anyway, took some pictures of myself in here playing dress-up. Unfortunately, I am pretty much a TERRIBLE photographer when it comes to taking pictures of myself:



Like I said.......terrible. Do you like how I'm trying to pose?

But at least I got a close-up shot of THESE lovelies!!



Aren't those sweet? I don't know what we would call that, exactly - sunburst? Sunburst on the feet? Either way.....yummy.

Exiting the dressing room, then, I decided to take a quick spin around for home wares. Now, Room Service excels in many areas, but they really outdo themselves in the lighting department. For example, check out this lamp, with what appears to be a sassy little Poseidon on the front:


Don't you love how he is working it against that wave? And, wait, look at his face:



Girlfriend is looking fierce here. In fact, as soon as I took this picture, I kept asking myself...who does that remind me of? I've seen this vestige somewhere?

And then, it hit me:



Ru Paul, of course! Oh Miss Paul...you have neva looked better.

Austinites (by which I mean, ladies), do you like to go thrifting? Is one of my favorite activities, but I don't go often enough. I am partial to Room Service (obvs!), but where do you all shop when you get the vintage bug?

Speaking of bug - I'm about to go brave the little gnats that cluster in big mating sprees outside my front door (isn't it funny/disturbing that gnats mate in orgy-like fashion?), and hop on a bike for this ACL business, yo!

EMERGENCY

Friends:

I don't know how exactly I've gotten myself into this situation, but I remain ticketless for ACL tomorrow!

If any of you are trying to unload yourself of a Saturday ACL ticket, I will:

A) Buy it,
B) Drive to wherever you are and buy it,
C) Drive to wherever you are, buy it, then sing and dance for you...badly.

Don't know if option C is tempting to anyone or not, but do you like Rick Astley? I can do Rick Astley. Actually that's a lie - I attempted Rick Astley recently at a karaoke bar and royally butchered "Never Gonna Give You Up," so, sorry to anyone who was at Common Interest two Saturdays ago, watching - but I do know "Ice, Ice Baby." And the Moonwalk.

If this post describes you, i.e., someone in abundance of Saturday ACL ticket, leave a comment, or alternatively email me (see sidebar). Or send a carrier pigeon! Whatever method you prefer, I WANT YOUR TICKET. Nom nom nom.

Neato mosquito ACL widget!

More ACL fun: White Denim!

So my long lost teacher friend, Mr. Steve, is going to play at ACL this year, y'all!



That's Mr. Steve on the right. Wonder if he remembers me now that he's big and famous. I remember reading in The Onion AV Club: Austin that White Denim was named "Band of the Year" for 2007, which is a pretty big freakin' deal in this town.

I want to tell you guys a story about Mr. Steve, in the hopes that you will all come see him at ACL this year. See, Mr. Steve and I used to be teachers in this after school art program here in Austin for 1st-5th graders called "C-Club" ("C" = "creativity"). We worked at Oak Hill Elementary, and one time, a sort of hapless kid named Jack accidentally threw one of those oddly-textured kickballs up into a tree. He didn't mean to do it, he was in the middle of a game, and was basically losing his sh-t. Like...choking on his own tears. Because his bouncy ball was gone. (And, P.S., Jack was seven, but I can think of many similar situations that felt as, if not more, grave. Like losing keys, or my whole car, when it's late and I'm sorta liquored up and can't find it...for example.) Poor little Jack.

So Mr. Steve valiantly (if not setting the best example) throws over a garbage can - full of garbage! - onto the ground and positions it upside-down underneath the tree. He then strides backwards, all stony-eyed, and makes a running leap for the top of it - it's at least a 4 ft. tall can. Now, I think what he meant to do was "stick the landing," calmly remove said kickball from the branches, and place it in Jack's waiting hands.

But instead.

Mr. Steve did make the top of the garbage can, which immediately and forcefully tipped over onto the dirt, like a face-plant. A face-plant for Mr. Steve and his huge thick glasses. Needless to say, he didn't get the ball.

The rest of the teachers were dying (in laughter), and poor little Jack cracked up, too. He forgot all about the dumb ball, then ran to the monkey bars, still giggling. Mr. Steve got up and brushed himself off.

I've always suspected he did it on purpose.

Beck has a new album, y'all

Beck will be headlining ACL (Austin City Limits Festival) this year, and his new album Modern Guilt dropped today. It is also Beck's birthday. Wanna guess how old he is? (Answer here).

I haven't heard the album, but I thought you all might like Austinist's review of it. What do we think?

"Produced by Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley) and featuring none other than Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Guilt oozes pop noir. Squeaking in at just 30 minutes, the album is a slight addition to Beck's library, but it's a finely-tuned stablemate: Danger Mouse ties up the loose ends that tend to be Beck's stumbling blocks, tightening up the collage approach that the artist has become famous for. The geek chic is still there, but there seems to be a new found focus on the transition."
(Read entire review at Austinist)

I don't know if any Beck album can dethrone Sea Change for me. I remember hearing "Paper Tiger" in some guy's dorm room during college and freaking out (in a good way). Come to think of it, this particular guy and I dated for almost 2 years afterwards. It's kind of a hot album, non?