That's BIG Tex to you, bitch.

Today marks the opening day of the State Fair of Texas. Staying classy at the State Fair is a hard thing to do especially when you have mustard on your newly purchased personalized airbrush t-shirt, beer on your shoes and powdered sugar on your face. But hey that's what it's all about. Whoa! Check out how fast that farris wheel is going! Remind me not to ride that thing!
Maybe this year I will garner up enough courage to get on the Zipper, but I doubt it. Give me the Conquistador all day long - but that Zipper.... eesh. For some reason that thing just wigs me out. I will pretty much get on any roller coaster there is, but I cannot force myself onto that summuvabitch. I think it stems back to my adolesence when I rode the Gravitron (in some circles, it's known as the Flying Saucer) at the Howard County fair. It took me about an hour and half with my head between my knees to recover from that - the whole round and round thing doesn't really agree with me.
Alright, enough with boring stories from my childhood onto what everyone really wants to talk about - the food. Without further adieu (sp?), The Stay Classy Dallas Fair Food Preview.

This year's new additions -
Fried Coca-Cola- Basically what we have here is Coke batter balls deep fried then topped with a cola syrup and some powdered sugar. Sounds interesting. I will give this guy props for originality, but who really hears Fried Coke and thinks... I gotta have that - not most. I will try it. ***
Fried Cosmopolitan - This is a deep fried pasty filled with creme, then topped with a raspberry glaze, then skewered... this one is kind of a stretch. I think someone is trying to capitalize on the Dallas douche by calling a fried pastry topped with raspberry sauce a Cosmopolitan, I think I will pass. *- for trying to pass off something that it ain't
Fried Macaroni & Cheese - Battered macaroni balls, exactly how it sounds. This one is right in my wheel house. I will def. have to try this one. My only worry is how the cheese is going to hold up in the fryer, I am afraid the chese will come out at temperatures close to that of a nuclear reactor.****
Fried Pralines - A battered and fried praline. Too easy. Pralines are delicious, of course they would taste good battered and fried. This guy need to take some nods from the Fried Coke guy. *- for originality

Here are some Stay Classy ideas for next year, if you wanna get in on the ground level, contact me this weekend.
Fried Matzoball Soup - We start with a Matzoball, marinate it in chicken broth, then batter it in pancake batter and deep fry it. It is then topped with giblet gravy and Rocky Road ice cream.
Fried Oysters Rockafeller - We start with a fresh oyster, then we wrap in bacon and toss it in Hollandaise sauce, it is then frozen overnight. We then batter it in pancake batter and fry it. It is topped with ranch dressing and anchovies and served with a can of Hawaiian Punch.
Fried Zanex - We start with a rice crispy treat filled with Zanex tabs and gummy bears, it is then wrapped in corned beef and dipped in au jus. Then it is battered in pancake batter and fried. It is served in a bowl of shrimp gumbo.

So there you have it. The State Fair is always a good time and it kinda ushers in the Fall - which I welcome with open arms. Plus we've got TXOU next weekend, which is always great.

Here are some samples of the albums on the right:
Great Lake Swimmers - Various Stages
Archie Bronson Outfit - Dart For My Sweetheart
Girl Talk - Bounce That
"Pimpin' ain't easy..." - Mike Grief

Little Superstar.

What if I were to tell you you can download episodes of The State on itunes, would that be something you would be interested in?

Yes, that's right - today iTunes made the first season of The State available for download from the itunes store. I didn't get to watch The State on the first go 'round due to city of Big Spring banning MTV in my adolescent years, but I am downloading them right now. My video arsenal is growing daily - Lost, The Office, Race to Replace Podcast, and The State. By the way, just finished plowing through the entire Lost catalogue to date. Definitely the best TV drama ever, and maybe, collectively the best tale ever told. Eagerly awaiting whatever they have in store for us next.

Also, here is a sample of the Silversun Pickups, probably my most listened to song of the past couple weeks:
Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye

This is a little belated, but hey I figured a little is better than not commenting at all. This year's ACL was pretty painless - got to the grounds at about 4 each day and left at 8. The first day we rolled up half way into the Wolf Parade set which sounded pretty intense - but not as intense as the solar rays of infared heat bearing down on me. Yes, on Friday it was effing hot. I made the brilliant decision to wear a dark blue polo that day, and I paid for it in salty sweat. We also saw Gnarls Barkley which was pretty sweet - they opened the set with "She Blinded Me With Science" - nerds rejoice. Then walked up the hill to see the great Okkervil River play their set... their set went too long and they got the axe just as they were about to launch into Wesfall - ugg! Then it was on to Thievery Corp. - which was great as well, if sexy was something you could sell, they would be a K-Mart. Ray Lamontagne was next - good as expected. Sloose threw a little jammy jam at his apartment, conversations ranged from Space Docking to McKeroni's Grill (McKeroni, get your ass in here!).
The next day, the weather was much more enjoyable - we saw Calexico, Cheese, and the great Iron & Wine, who put on above and away the best show of the weekend - thus the pic above. He sounded more plugged in than he does on his albums - highlight of the set was a Carribean-jazz rendition of Jezebel. Big thanks to Cody, Meliss, and Peyton for opening up their home to us freeloaders. Melissa's ipod also provided with plenty of Sexybacks, Paris songs, and "Buttons" throughout the weekend. That girl loves her some Top 40.

Space Docking.

New Music :: Annuals.

Annuals are a group of burgeoning youngsters from North Carolina (the frontman, Adam Baker is 19). They don't have an album out yet, but I think it is coming out sometime in late October. They kinda have a sound comparable to Arcade Fire and maybe a little like a cross between CYHSY and Animal Collective, but a little bit more poppy. They are great. Enjoy.
Annuals - Dry Clothes

Sufjan Photos.

Took a few pics from the Sufjan show last night, here are the ones that turned out. It was a pretty cool show throughout - I didn't know he rolled with a band 15 deep... The whole band wore boy scout uniforms and wings. Apparently Sufjan has some sort of fascination with birds - seeing as half the songs he played last night were about birds. He played a bunch of Seven Swans songs - which was fine, but kinda caught me by surprise. He closed the set with Chicago, but teased the theme from "Dallas" before going into it, which was kinda cool.

The monster weekend known as Austin City Limits is peaking it's ugly head around the corner. There was a teatering moment there after the Chicago trip where I was convinced ACL this year wasn't in the cards. But, due to some unforeseen good fortune (free tix), I am now making the trip. Will be in town tomorrow evening - looking to take it easy before the festivities on Friday. There will be some good shows to see by some great bands - specifically : Wolf Parade, Stars (playing at the same time as Wolf Parade?), Okkervil River, Iron & Wine, Ted Leo, Matisyahu, The Shins, and the great Centro-matic. There are a bunch of other bands to see (Gnarls, Ray, Thievery, Lips) but - you've gotta be realistic. Last year we saw about half the band I thought we would. I guess it would have helped to go to more than one day.
The real purpose of this blog is to try to get a little buzz going for two ACL unknowns (or relatively unknown I guess) - both of who are awesome. These two are Ghostland Observatory and Elvis Perkins. Ghostland is from Austin and they ripped it loose at SXSW - this song below is the greatest song ever. Elvis Perkins is from Oregon and is a great talent of the singer-songwriter type. The Ghostland show is at 1 30 on Saturday at the Heineken stage, and they aren't matched up with anyone really great - if you're going you should try and make it out. Elvis Perkins is matched up against The Shins and The Long Winters - so I guess that will have to be a gametime decision. All the non-ACL peeps out there should at least download both traxx - based on their shear awesomeness. The first show I am going to be at on Friday is Ted Leo + Pharmacists - see you there...

Ghostland Observatory - Silver City
Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday

Seeing Sufjan Tonight @ Lakewood Theatre.

Sufjan is playing in Dallas tonight at the Lakewood Theatre - I am super amped! My Brightest Diamond is opening up... this is going to be a superb evening. ACL is just two days away -

Sufjan Stevens - Sister Winter
My Brightest Diamond - Something of an End

Movie Pick :: Slacker.

Over the past couple nights I took in Slacker - I don't know how I didn't know about this movie in college. There should be a city-wide bi-law that you have to watch this movie sometime during your stay in Austin. It is basically Linklater's ode to Austin. This is Linklater's (Scanner Darkly, Waking Life, Dazed and Confused) first film - it was made in 1991 and wow has Austin changed since this came out. West Campus is all over this movie (The Castle is in a ton of shots). Tons of background campus shots and a scene in the Continental Club as well. This movie is kinda hard to wrap your head around - tons of idealist dialogue - it's sometimes hard to swallow. If you have seen Waking Life, you know what I am talking about.
The one thing that echoes throughout the whole film is it's sincerity. The nature of the dialogue is almost as unique as the characters that inhabit the film. If you have spent any considerable time Austin... you can instantly identify characters in the film people you have encountered. You should definitely check it out. It's a solid film, and interesting to see such an intricate study of Austin.

WOW. Chicago was intense! Don't really have time to come up with a bunch of witty banter right now - but I thought I would throw up some of the pics. Expect more details later.

GarzaDance in Chicago.

Pic post and some details of the weekend soon to come.