music

South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 Days 7 & 8: 3 Movies & 2 Bands

~ A Dude Abikes ~ Leave a comment

I’m sitting in the Elephant Room in downtown Austin, Texas at 10:45 on a Friday night, the second Friday of the huge conference and festivals, SXSW. It’s an underground jazz club — literally — it’s in the basement and named for the prehistoric mastodon fosssil in the stone wall. It’s in between the 40′ acts. Graham Reynolds and Golden Hornet just played his own compositions, a rock / jazz / classical hybrid with trombone, violin, standup bass, drums and him on keys. The cat can play. While people talk and drink, come and go, I decided to post this blog, or at least the beginnings of one.

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Finding Inspiration from Local Authors at One Page Salon in Austin, Texas

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

I’ve written about One Page Salon before, where local authors read from a work in progress.  But after missing one or two in recent months, I biked downtown to be sure I attended tonight.  Once again rewarded by being inspired by fellow writers, having interesting conversations with musicians and other creative people, and in general enjoyed being part of a community of like-minded folks.  Sure, I could write about the election again, but you can read about that elsewhere.  So I’m going to write about writing, and since I rode my bike there, it’s relevant.  Protocol be damned!

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Paul Simon: Poet, Musician, Legend

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 9 Comments

Paul Simon and his band played the large concert Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center in Austin, Texas tonight.  I hesitate to even attempt to review the show, but I can certainly try to put in words the emotions his music evoked and other thoughts that come to mind.  Even that is hard, because he is such an important part of American music for over 60 years.  He’s a winner of countless awards, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, 13-time Grammy winner, actor, had music featured in movies (notably The Graduate) and much more.  There are popular musicians who become famous, but some are at the next level, and he’s one of the greats for sure. Continue reading →

A Dude Abikes in the News, 100-Mile Week & Photo Recap

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

Today the Austin American-Statesman ran a story asking the question What’s the most dangerous stretch of road for bicyclists in Austin?  It talks about the recurrent theme I’ve been covering, bicycle safety.  Hint:  the road is Guadalupe, and I can assure you it’s scary.  Even the parts with a protected bike lane have University of Texas students standing in it idly, without a clue, listening to their headphones.  Other parts have no bike lane, or lots of bumps in the road, and in general it’s narrow with buses and cars passing within inches.

Source:  Stephen Spillman for the Austin American-Statesman

While it seems like it’s horrible carnage out there, the fact is, it’s safer to bike and walk than drive a car.  However, it is very dangerous.  Anyway, the article is by Pam LeBlanc, whose blog Fit City also appears on WordPress.  It has a photograph of yours truly.  It was one of several that ran in a profile the paper did on A Dude back on January 15 called “Can a regular guy pedal 10,000 miles in two Years? This dude did.”  You can go read that after you finish this.   Or finish this first.  Whatevs, thanks for reading!

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10 Ways to Make the Most of South by Southwest (SXSW)

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 4 Comments

Research bands, sessions, films, etc. in advance. If you’re a middle-aged person like me, reading lists of younger music acts is like reading another language: you don’t understand a word. But unless you use the Filter by genre or Listen features on the SXSW app and also Spotify or other music streaming service, you are doomed to wander into random bars and are likely to get stuck listening to something you hate. There are also plenty of Twitter pages and websites that help you with making choices.

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SXSW Day 8: Blood Fest, Doug Loves Movies and Rosemary & Garlic

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

I was going to title this post “A Comedy Podcast, Music Showcase and a Horror Film (Walk Into a Bar)” but then I decided the names were more interesting.  And because many people wouldn’t get the bar joke.  Also it’s really late — so late it’s no longer Friday — and I’m exhausted from attending six bands and a movie about a band on Thursday.  On top of that, the internet seemed to have stopped working so I lost the first half draft of this post.  So I’m not in the mood (for love or for redoing this.)  Let’s just get right to it, shall we? Continue reading →

There Will Be Blog: 77.7 Miles Last Week + SXSW Day 4 with Oscar-Nominee Vera Farmiga + SLEEP Concert

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 7 Comments

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.”  Will Smith in the movie as Chris Gardner from his book The Pursuit of Happyness

The Book: Something Written This Way Will Come

I drafted some notes and put down a plan to write my book that’s been in my head for a while. I still have questions and will need to find both some information and some inspiration about it, but the main thing is to write. Walter Mosley the celebrated author told me to take a year and do it. Leonard Maltin the well-known film critic told me to just write and expand my presence on social media. Mario the marketing guy at the Fox Sports party said I have a story and I should tell it. 151 blog followers are telling me to do it, indirectly at least. Continue reading →

Sunday Summary: South By Southwest, Supplements & Sleep

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

South by Southwest, Sign Me Up!

Today I cycled on down to the Austin Convention Center to sign up for the first time as a South by Southwest (SXSW) volunteer. It was a pretty diverse and interesting group of folks, with lots of crews vying for our attention. I settled on a crew that would allow me to work just during the education portion so I could enjoy the whole rest of the conference. My perk for those 52 hours will allow me to get into the music festival for free (it’s $1,200 to register) and some venues like film, comedy and so on.

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