shawn avery

here's a heapin' slew of photos from the sxsw music conference... in somewhat chronological order. most of my sxsw activity was wednesday - friday, and these photos are from wednesday and thursday . tomorrow... the rest of the venues from friday, including street scenes. here's leah's tiny mix tapes review of day 3 . i'll finish up friday with a post of photos from a lot of the other folks who came to sxsw from birmingham. SLACKER BAR HABANA CALLE 6 ANNEX YARD DOG GALLERY / SCHUBA'S PARTY BIRD'S BARBERSHOP THE ALE HOUSE ANTONE'S VIPER ROOM @ APPLE BAR

ok so... here's the first segment of photos from sxsw. these are some pics of us en route and at the hotel at various points during the week... tomorrow, i'll post pics from the various venues i visited as well as the bands at the habana calle 6 annex. also, later in the week, street photos and photos taken by others in the group. the bham extended caravan consisted of people representing skybucket records , through the sparks , superphonic records and bottletree cafe , all of which are based in birmingham, alabama. by the way, remember... the entire point of sxsw is exposure. world wide . so... here's the lead track from the debut full length record from through the sparks, lazarus beach . this is the only place you will be able to get the track until it's national release in may. this link is from sxsw.com. so here we go... roadtrip and hotel photos...

tomorrow i'm posting photos with captions, and some of the photos will be cropped and some will be from my camera and some pics will be from my cell phone... and heck... i'm even gonna post some video from a kooky place called bird's barbershop. all i can say is: "fruity-boner." yeah... here's who i ended up seeing, and where i went... tomorrow... big narrative and photos... don't forget to go here for the official blog thingy at al.com . great posts from greg, jody and the blonde half of red blondehead, leah. photos of the showcase have been posted by both leah and traci of red blondehead. the pic on this post was taken by traci. i think the al.com blog turned out well. some entries were funny, some bleary, but all inspired. alas, my list, which is smaller than some because i spent so much time drinking and walking. there's so much that went down that isn't on a schedule... oh and... thanks greg and leah for driving. wednesday - slacker bar : ro...

obviously with 1200 bands and thousands upon thousands of musicians, i'm gonna see some stuff NOT on this list. and i couldn't really expect to see everyone on this list... but i've perused the bazillion options and this looks pretty good. not sure if i'm staying for saturday or not. i'd love to see midlake and the stooges and all of the conference personalities... but whatev'. so... Wednesday, 14 March 2007 06:30PM Keynote Conversation: Pete Townshend (Hilton Ballroom) 08:00PM Donovan (Central Presbyterian Church) 10:00PM Through The Sparks (Habana Annex 6) 12:00AM The Broken West (Antone's) Thursday, 15 March 2007 08:00PM Lords (UK) (Bourbon Rocks) 09:00PM Thomas Dolby (Elysium) 11:00PM MuteMath (Dirty Dog Bar) 11:30PM JESU (Emo's Annex) 12:00AM Deerhunter (Soho Lounge) 12:00AM Bloc Party (Stubb's) 01:00AM Albert Hammond, Jr. (Blender Bar at the Ritz) Friday, 16 March 2007 11:00AM SXSW Interview: Rickie Lee Jones (18ABC) 12:30PM Studio DOs and DON...

so... i think i'm the new musical director for this . and these people are finally going to compile some recordings for a record. i'm one of these people. the weather lately is amazing. more rehearsal with through the sparks tonight. great musicians. it was very nice of them to ask me to play with them at such an important gathering . apparently, al.com has asked through the sparks to write a through the sparks blog on their site , chronicling the sxsw experience. i'm missing yoga tonight. i hope i can make it thursday.

in the march issue of national geographic magazine, there is an article on orlando/disney and the mass suburbanization of central florida (where i'm from). the article doesn't stop with orlando... its a very interesting exploration of the nation and how our concepts of community, consumerism and faux lifestyles are evolving. it also touches on education, traffic, the flux between kerouac and disney's visions for orlando and the new diversity in central florida, which actually surprised me. also, apparently, megachurches are the new black. for those of you who want to read the text version online, here's the link... its only one page. orlando / the new america

new sites are being discovered across the interweb. some with statements, others with downloads... lots of ambiguity. this is how nin is unveiling the new record, year zero. a very fresh approach. the 3rd track from the album was found as a file in a usb jump drive, taped to a poster near a venue in london where nin played. i've been waiting for a mainstream band to realize this approch for a long time. for more info on the new global art as resistance movement, go here... http://www.the-art-of-rebellion.com here's some examples of year zero/ nin findings recently... obviously this will culminate in april. they are leaking tracks... http://symphonyofnoise.com/nails/yearzero http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org the link above contains this obscured message... IN MEMORIAM... The first dirty bomb went off at the Kodak Theater during the 81st Annual Academy Awards Ceremony. Over the next half hour, eight more dirty bombs deployed by Islamic extremists spread a pall of radioactive...