Ever since I first discovered Butch Walker when he was still with the Marvelous 3, he has become one of my all time favorite artists. I rank him right up there with The Beatles in my esteem (put down the pitchforks!) His music includes some of the absolutely most passionate, emotion evoking music on the planet, some of the wittiest and most clever lyrics, flat out good time rockers, and catchy, infectious hooks. It baffles and saddens me a bit that he is not one of the biggest artists on the planet. I don’t think he has come anywhere near Austin in all the time I’ve been known about him, so take this chance if you can to check him out. I don’t have tickets, so at least go an enjoy it for me!

If you’re interested in getting some experience on a feature film crew, they are still looking for more Production Assistants. There is no pay, but you do get three meals a day and can stay on site if you like (there are a couple of houses where many people are staying and sleeping on air mattresses).

If you’re interested, contact the production office at 512-535-0446 and ask for Lara Gwinn, the Production Manager.

June is Scriptfrenzy month! You or you and a writing partner write a feature length screenplay of 20,000 words or more in the month of June. In my past participation in NaNoWriMo, I found it a great exercise if nothing else and you meet some really great people. It can really unclog the mental pathways and at least get you putting something on a page. It’s all about quantity, not quality, but you never know, you might end up with a decent first draft!

Most people know “Weird AL” as that guy who did some funny parodies. While his parodies set the standard by which all are measured against now, I think he is highly underrated. When I was a kid, it was his parodies that made me discover him but through out the years I’ve developed a much deeper appreciation for him. He is an incredible songwriter and wordsmith with a phenomenally talented band who have been with him through his entire career. His music can be rich melodically and structurally and many times his lyrics are pure genius (though there’s plenty of base silliness to be had too). In addition to his song parodies he also often does “style” parodies where he doesn’t lampoon a specific song but instead a particular band or general style of music. There’s also his legendary Polka Medleys full of popular songs done in polka style.
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I stumbled upon The Just Desserts when I met some friends for dinner at The Cosmic Cafe (a great place to eat, by the way). Not long after we arrived, a woman walked in with an accordion. Soon after, a man arrived with a cello. My curiosity was piqued. In my head I heard Weird Al Yankovic doing a duet of “Another One Rides The Bus” with Yo-Yo Ma (sadly, this particular aural experience never came to fruition and remains only in my head).They set up and started playing a variety of music, all of which was entertaining and very well done. What really caught my attention, though, was just how much joy they seemed to get from playing. The accordion player looked almost in a rapture filled trance of bliss. It was impossible to watch these people play and not just feel good.

As a complete side note that amused me, at one point I turned to my wife and said “In all my 36 years, I’ve never had an occasion to say ‘Hey, that accordion player is hot!’ until now”.

For anyone who might not know, The Sinus Show is much like the cult TV classic, “Mystery Science Theater 3000” also known as MST3K. If you don’t know what that is then I’m afraid you must immediately report for “Carousel” (That’s a Logan’s Run reference, so if you’ve never hear of Logan’s Run…Ah, nevermind).

In fact the show used to be called “Mister Sinus Theater” until there were some legal rumblings from the MST3K camp. The Sinus Show was basically three guys who would give a live commentary over mostly really bad movies. I say mostly because they also did some movies like Die Hard, which I don’t think fall into that category, but are still fun to heckle and skewer.

Sadly, despite all the things I heard about how great they were, I never got around to seeing them. I always heard they were one of the best shows in Austin.

Addition:
The official statement from the Sinus Show:

“After six incredibly fun years the Sinus Show is ending its run at the Alamo Drafthouse. Our last show was January 13th. We are sad to see it end, but we are also proud of the shows we’ve had. Over six years of bad movies, unrestrained jokes and partial male nudity– it’s been a blast and we’ve loved being a part of the Alamo.
We understand there’s plenty of questions– what’s next for Sinus? What’s next for the Alamo? — but for now we’d rather simply say thanks for all the people who have come and laughed with us.

Thanks Austin.

The Sinus Show”

Owen Egerton had this to add:

“I’ve had some of the finest times of my life doing Sinus Shows. Austin is great place to hear people laugh. I look forward to many more laughs in the years to come.”

I had the Queso Flameado at Guero’s. My mouth was a very happy mouth. Not to mention they also had whole wheat tortillas as a choice! Yahtzee! I will definitely be going back there and trying out several more dishes. After that we hit up a lot of the little shops right in the vicinity. I saw so many great things, cool second hand clothes, unique knick-knacks, kitschy tchotchkes and antiques that made me wonder how many interesting stories had been absorbed into their mass. It was a great evening that reminded me of some of the character and other reasons that I love living here. I highly recommend going out as a tourist in your own town from time to time.