Wow. You really knocked one out of the park with this chapter, Michael. Too bad the park has been rented out all week to SXSW, with entry exclusively for badge-holders, owners of drilling rigs in the Gulf, and registered lobbyists, in that order.
The Mob tactics you referred to in this essay brought back fond memories of the founders of NYC's New Music Seminar, Joel Webber and Mark Josephson [both no longer with us]. Lois and I were members of Austin's Music Advisory Committee in the mid-1980s, along with Roland Swenson, Ed Ward, Louis Meyers, Nick Barbaro, etc., which sort of paved the way for the creation of SXSW (and left the group before SXSW and moved to Los Angeles). In LA, Lois worked for Mark & Joel for a music seminar there at the historic Roosevelt Hotel. [A few corrections here since my original reply, with input from Lois] When Lois and I went to NYC to pitch my first novel (the predecessor to Rock Critic Murders] to publishers, Mark took us out to dinner in Little Italy, pointing out where various Mafia capos had been assassinated and regaling us with various other tales of the East Coast crimelords. They were nice fellas, New Yorkers to the core, and, as such, loved their Mob mythology.
Year 1: completely off my radar - went on a UT Biology field trip to west Texas
Year 2: Did SXSW as it should always be: Made my own 'bill' e.g. club hopped to my heart's desire. Typical itinerary - Continental Club, Hole in the Wall or Cactus Cafe, or Austin Outhouse, wrap up at Antones sometime the next a.m.
Year 3: the excrement hits the propulsive cooling device. Hit Continental Club mid evening and it was stuffed well past the gills. My gals, Laurie and Adrienne, laid down the law: "David, we serve YOU 50 odd weeks the rest of the year. This week it's about THEM (point to the VIPs, badgers, etc.). Come early, stay as long as you want, but once we're full, we're full and no cut-sies.' e.g. I lived through what Michael writes about. So for the rest of the weekend, I chose the best compromise e.g. the most acts of the evening that I wanted to see/hear and accept the filler.
Year 4: You want SXSW, you can have SXSW - me, I'm done - and going off to grad school certainly made the exit easier.
I loved my years as a SXSW volunteer, not even sure how many years I did it, 10-15? Made a lot of friends doing it too. I will never forget volunteering at Antones’s one evening, I must have looked too happy and having Louis Black tell me “SXSW is not for us to enjoy” and walked away. I would would very long hours to get my platinum badge and try to enjoy part of the conference.
The first spring that Zona Rosa under Gordon Fowler and Bruce Sternberg
was open, SX came begging on their knees to us to participate. We told them to eff off. We’d do our own shows and make money hand over fist instead of the paltry return we’d get from being a SX venue. I forget who played but the house was as packed every night, we made money hand over fist and laughed at SX all the way to the bank. Of course, we spent about 99 cents out of every dollar we made pursuing GF’s artistic visions for the place but that is another story for another time.
I loved my time working there. The Texas Tornadoes filmed their first video there. As lowest member on the management ladder, I got to site manage the shoot, which lasted 26 hours. You can see the video on YouTube, Who Were You Thinking Of? Bruce is the broom guy at the very end. I invented Tabasco Fritos that night. Sprinkled basket of Fritos with healthy dose of Tabasco sauce for a snack but the sauce sogged them out and I then left them under the order pick-up counter heat lamp and forgot them. When I checked them later, the Fritos had soaked up the sauce and were nice and crispy again. Delicious! Beat Chili Cheese Fritos by a country kilometer. Frito-Lay should have struck a deal with the McIlhenneys to make those Fritos. Boy could I tell stories from those first years at LZR.
I couldn't stand it when the TV news bobbleheads and those influenced by them started to say "South By" -- similar to "So Co" -- too uber-hip for my ears. What, you lazy, overpaid, self-important dweebs can't manage to speak four syllables? When did baby-talk become cool?
Then it permutated into variants like SX Who the Eff Cares?. SX Get the Eff Out of My Town. SX Eff Off. SX Assholes Don’t Move Here. SX Austin Ain’t Disneyland. SX Eat Shi’ite.
That’s what I can remember of what all I called it; depending on my mood, when I worked at 4th and Guad and had to go east to get home.
SXSW is at it again. The current Austin Chronicle online looks utterly dominated by SXSW news blurbs and promos, too. As always.
I got fed up with it all in about 1993 and haven't attended since. Oh, wait, except to see the Katydids/Susie Hug and the Pretenders in about 2005 I think, and KT Tunstall in 2011, but that might not have been a part of the SXSW insanity.
That's so funny, the cease-and-desist letter. SXSW has become so wrapped up in their corporate shilling that they have become the absolute opposite of rock and roll. Can you imagine if in, say, 1987, we had told them this is what they would become?
Wow. You really knocked one out of the park with this chapter, Michael. Too bad the park has been rented out all week to SXSW, with entry exclusively for badge-holders, owners of drilling rigs in the Gulf, and registered lobbyists, in that order.
The Mob tactics you referred to in this essay brought back fond memories of the founders of NYC's New Music Seminar, Joel Webber and Mark Josephson [both no longer with us]. Lois and I were members of Austin's Music Advisory Committee in the mid-1980s, along with Roland Swenson, Ed Ward, Louis Meyers, Nick Barbaro, etc., which sort of paved the way for the creation of SXSW (and left the group before SXSW and moved to Los Angeles). In LA, Lois worked for Mark & Joel for a music seminar there at the historic Roosevelt Hotel. [A few corrections here since my original reply, with input from Lois] When Lois and I went to NYC to pitch my first novel (the predecessor to Rock Critic Murders] to publishers, Mark took us out to dinner in Little Italy, pointing out where various Mafia capos had been assassinated and regaling us with various other tales of the East Coast crimelords. They were nice fellas, New Yorkers to the core, and, as such, loved their Mob mythology.
Man, I never paid that close attention. Yikes! You can't fight City Hall, kids,
My annual SXSW reshare.
Year 1: completely off my radar - went on a UT Biology field trip to west Texas
Year 2: Did SXSW as it should always be: Made my own 'bill' e.g. club hopped to my heart's desire. Typical itinerary - Continental Club, Hole in the Wall or Cactus Cafe, or Austin Outhouse, wrap up at Antones sometime the next a.m.
Year 3: the excrement hits the propulsive cooling device. Hit Continental Club mid evening and it was stuffed well past the gills. My gals, Laurie and Adrienne, laid down the law: "David, we serve YOU 50 odd weeks the rest of the year. This week it's about THEM (point to the VIPs, badgers, etc.). Come early, stay as long as you want, but once we're full, we're full and no cut-sies.' e.g. I lived through what Michael writes about. So for the rest of the weekend, I chose the best compromise e.g. the most acts of the evening that I wanted to see/hear and accept the filler.
Year 4: You want SXSW, you can have SXSW - me, I'm done - and going off to grad school certainly made the exit easier.
I loved my years as a SXSW volunteer, not even sure how many years I did it, 10-15? Made a lot of friends doing it too. I will never forget volunteering at Antones’s one evening, I must have looked too happy and having Louis Black tell me “SXSW is not for us to enjoy” and walked away. I would would very long hours to get my platinum badge and try to enjoy part of the conference.
The first spring that Zona Rosa under Gordon Fowler and Bruce Sternberg
was open, SX came begging on their knees to us to participate. We told them to eff off. We’d do our own shows and make money hand over fist instead of the paltry return we’d get from being a SX venue. I forget who played but the house was as packed every night, we made money hand over fist and laughed at SX all the way to the bank. Of course, we spent about 99 cents out of every dollar we made pursuing GF’s artistic visions for the place but that is another story for another time.
I really miss Gordon's La Zona. It was a fantastic place to eat well and hear good music. Too good to last.
I loved my time working there. The Texas Tornadoes filmed their first video there. As lowest member on the management ladder, I got to site manage the shoot, which lasted 26 hours. You can see the video on YouTube, Who Were You Thinking Of? Bruce is the broom guy at the very end. I invented Tabasco Fritos that night. Sprinkled basket of Fritos with healthy dose of Tabasco sauce for a snack but the sauce sogged them out and I then left them under the order pick-up counter heat lamp and forgot them. When I checked them later, the Fritos had soaked up the sauce and were nice and crispy again. Delicious! Beat Chili Cheese Fritos by a country kilometer. Frito-Lay should have struck a deal with the McIlhenneys to make those Fritos. Boy could I tell stories from those first years at LZR.
Maybe I will blog some time about my experiences there.
I couldn't stand it when the TV news bobbleheads and those influenced by them started to say "South By" -- similar to "So Co" -- too uber-hip for my ears. What, you lazy, overpaid, self-important dweebs can't manage to speak four syllables? When did baby-talk become cool?
As one band member termed it back then, South By So What...
Then it permutated into variants like SX Who the Eff Cares?. SX Get the Eff Out of My Town. SX Eff Off. SX Assholes Don’t Move Here. SX Austin Ain’t Disneyland. SX Eat Shi’ite.
That’s what I can remember of what all I called it; depending on my mood, when I worked at 4th and Guad and had to go east to get home.
That’s what we said at the time at LZR.
Like the Green Bay Packers, SXSW is the thing that Texans love to hate.
You pretty much nailed it.
I assume people have seen this news item? https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2024-03-11/sxsw-sent-cease-and-desist-letter-to-organization-leading-army-sponsorship-protest/
SXSW is at it again. The current Austin Chronicle online looks utterly dominated by SXSW news blurbs and promos, too. As always.
I got fed up with it all in about 1993 and haven't attended since. Oh, wait, except to see the Katydids/Susie Hug and the Pretenders in about 2005 I think, and KT Tunstall in 2011, but that might not have been a part of the SXSW insanity.
That's so funny, the cease-and-desist letter. SXSW has become so wrapped up in their corporate shilling that they have become the absolute opposite of rock and roll. Can you imagine if in, say, 1987, we had told them this is what they would become?
I love that the misogyny in the lede image goes uncommented on. Just the biz, amIrite?
Write more about this, Sharona...