Still more...

This is Sarah, at whose house Pam, Mike and I stayed. She was a wonderful hostess and her house is only a mile and a half from where all the action was, and on a bus line, to boot. Sure beat staying in a motel 7 miles from downtown, like poor Jeff and Robin had to do.

Here's another band we saw whilst out and about.
Economy Team from Minneapolis.
They were a hoot.

One day, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the craziness, so I took a few hours to go to McKinney Falls State Park. Following are some photos from that excursion.






Of course, there was no way I was going to drive all the way to Austin and not make the pilgrimage to the Bat Bridge. Since the bats come out at dusk, it was difficult to get any good photos, but here is the best of what I took. Every night at dusk, people gather at the Congress Street Bridge to watch. It takes about 45 minutes for the bats to finish leaving the bridge in a constant stream. Apparently, when the city of Austin renovated the bridge in 1980, they had no idea that the design would appeal to Mexican Free-Tailed bats. It took the bats a few years to discover it, but when they did, it became a popular roosting site. Initially, many Austin residents clamored to have them exterminated, but thanks to the efforts of Merlin Tuttle of Bat Conservation International, the bats were spared and the bridge is now a popular tourist destination.

This sign seems to me to be a sad commentary on the state of public education in Texas. Thank you George W. "Quite-a-few-children-left-behind" Bush. In case you can't read it, it says
"Want to teach? When can you start?"

On the way home, somewhere in Oklahoma.

Oil wells.

Jesus Christ delivers.... bread!
Funny, I never really pegged Jesus as a mini-van kind of guy.

Another one that's hard to read. The water tower reads "Moore, Home of Toby Keith."
Hell, yeah!

Hmm...

The "Low Water Bridge" in Joplin, MO.

Driving past the majestic Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

That's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed them. The life of a rock star. Pretty exciting, eh?

More from Austin

Today is our daughter Sophie's birthday. Anyone who reads this blog or Ms. Geranium's blog probably knows that Sophie died as an infant. She would be 15 years old today. It doesn't feel right not to be home with my family today. Oh, well. Here are some more photos of the Austin Adventure™.

At a coffee shop, Venice is Sinking from Athens, GA. They were pretty interesting.

Pam is encouraging people to come hear us.

This dude had trouble spreading sunscreen on his back. Looked pretty painful to me.

That's where we played, on the roof of the Blind Pig Pub.

Robin getting set up.

Pam getting set up.

I don't have any photos of us while we were playing, but if I get some I'll post them.

Road trip!

Here are some photos from our trip so far.

Crossing the Mississippi River into Iowa.

St. Patrick's Day in Des Moines.

In the Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma.

The place we are staying in Austin. Sarah's place. That's Pam and her husband, Mr. Pam, sitting out front. It's a good half-hour walk from the center of the action, but it's nice to be able to get away from the noise. Sarah is very nice. I'll try to get a picture of her before we leave. There are these really noisy birds all over the place. I think they might be mockingbirds. They have this call (one of many that they seem to have) that sounds kind of like a car alarm. I think they're mocking me.

The capitol building and a church reflected in the glass.

There is music happening everywhere. Everywhere. Did I mention everywhere? Here's some band playing in a hair salon.

I kept seeing these people on their Segways. I assume they're members of some religious cult.



Last night, Jeff, our keyboardist, sat in with The Silos. You can see just a little bit of him behind the bassist. They were very good. The best band I've seen so far in the festival.



This is the area where we will be playing later today, as it looked last night. Hope to see some familiar faces!



Well, that's it for now. I hope to post some more before we leave, but I've had some difficulty finding access to the intertubes, so we'll see.

Correction

The time for our show today has been changed. We will actually be playing at 5:00 pm. All other information on the previous post is accurate. Tell all your friends!

Motor Primitives in Austin, TX

>>> It's official! <<<

The Motor Primitives will be playing Austin, TX during the SXSW 2009 Music Convention at a Red Gorilla event sponsored by Broadjam.com on Friday, March 20, 2009 at 6:00 P.M. at the Blind Pig.

Uff da, that was a mouthful. I hope it made sense. Anyway, if you or anyone you know is going to be at SXSW '09 (South by Southwest), plan on being at The Blind Pig on Friday, 3/20/09 from 6:00 - 7:00. All Red Gorilla events, including this one, are free to the public.

We'll probably play this song:

A sign of the times.

Recently seen in our yard.

An anonymous art critic wrote "... clearly represents the elusive and fleeting nature of peace in a violent world..."

Another claimed "... signifies the artist's internal conflict over his/her latent Homosexual and Oedipal tendencies, while also drawing attention to the artist's fear of fluffy bunnies..."

A third said "... Dang! It's freaking cold out! Gods, I hate snow! When is spring going to come? I hope those stupid groundhogs were wrong! Hurry up and take the stupid picture! ..."

I just thought it was a cool picture. What do you think?

A tip o' the hat to Pagan Sphinx for her "Shadow Shot Sunday" blog posts, which have inspired me to pay more attention to shadows.

Stimulus, anyone?

Okay, all you Republicans, tell me why you oppose President Obama's stimulus plan. He's already compromised more than I think he should, given the fact that he won the election (had it gone the other way, the Republicans would have called that a mandate) and the Democrats have a majority in both the house and the senate. You say you want more tax cuts. Who will benefit from your tax cuts? Certainly not the unemployed. What is wrong with spending on programs that will not only create jobs, but will also result in services that benefit the country? I just don't understand what the problem is. Spending on infrastructure will have the dual benefit of creating jobs, which will then result in taxable income, and providing the country with much needed services. Tax cuts will not help the unemployed. The nation needs increased spending on infrastructure, which will create jobs and provide needed services, and all you Republicans are voting against it because the plan doesn't include enough tax cuts. Are you people morons, or what?

President Obama has said that we all need to work hard and sacrifice to get through this crisis. I say that the middle class and the working class have been sacrificing for decades, and the people who have benefitted from their sacrifice have been the wealthy. It's time for the wealthy to sacrifice a little. Or maybe a lot. Or maybe a whole lot. I'm so sick of the way it has been working. "Bail me out and screw the middle and working classes!" It's the American Way. I, for one, would find it very refreshing if President Obama told the Republicans to go to hell, that he is going to do what is right for the people, not what will benefit the wealthy. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice.