By Michael Corcoran
- “The registration line was insane. That’s 20 minutes of my life I won’t get back.”
- “Some band just handed me an album. Haven’t they heard of cassettes?”
- “Do you know where Saturday’s day party is?”
- “Austin learned its lesson from the Armadillo. No way they’re tearing down Liberty Lunch for an office building.”
- “I’m in such a hurry I’m gonna have to grab lunch from a food trailer. Where’s the nearest construction site?”
- “We can either see Mojo Nixon tonight for free or pay $50 to see him next year at the Erwin Center.
- “Let’s just take a cab to Salt Lick. How much could it be?”
- “So, besides the Austin Music Awards, what else are you excited about this week?”
- “They used to be a punk band, but now they play roots music. With punk energy.”1
- “Listen, I paid $20 for this wristband and I WILL get in to see Scruffy the Cat.”
- “I’m not sure, but I think the Spin party is either in room 1703 or 1307.” 1
- “This party’s supposed to be music industry only, but I’m pretty sure those three guys work at Thundercloud.”
- “Don’t be paranoid. You think SXSW is so threatened by our little party they’re going to notify the fire marshal?” 1
- “Holy crap, that’s Peter Zaremba!”
- “SXSW is a good idea, but they’re going to need to rely on the revenue from the Austin Chronicle to survive.”
- “One day this thing might be bigger than Aquafest. OK, I’m wasted.”
- “If you’re cool you call it ‘Southby’.”
- “They need to get someone hip, with an opinion, to keynote. Someone like Michelle Shocked.”
- “Got an idea for our anti-SXSW party. Besides doing a play on ‘SXSW,’ we put ‘We don’t need no stinking badges’ at the bottom of the flyer.”
- “OK, we’ve got this cool party space on SoCo. What should we do in the storefront? A gallery for outsider art? Really?
- “Let’s share a room at the San Jose. Not to save money, but to take turns standing guard.”
I do not miss So by So What even a little. Last year for me was 1999 and it seemed out of control and maddening then. Cannot imagine now and am glad I don’t have to go or want to go.