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We overslept a bit, and have to get ready and moving so we don’t miss anything at the music festival. Ryan doesn’t want us to take the camera since they might not allow it inside, and it’s pouring ass rain right now. Sorry, but it looks like tomorrow’s update will be lacking pictures. I’ll get some stuff from last night up later as well.

Peace out.

Update:

Wow, we are assholes for not taking the camera. Not only were cameras allowed, they were encouraged. Shit.

The Flaming Lips were fucking bad ass. Wow.

We were hurting pretty bad from the previous night. The enchiladas Dan and I had for dinner on night 2 were (and still are) ripping us apart. The 16 gallons of alcohol likely contributed some too…

We had a nice dinner at Whole Foods, which happens to be based here in Austin. It’s huge and the food counters are awesome.

Regardless of the fact that we were not much more than shells of people by this point, we headed out once again.

Ryan’s apartment.

Since Ryan works for a parking company, we were able to easily park in the crowded downtown area.

We went directly to the Key Bar, which I mentioned yesterday as the place with great, great drink pours. It took us a while to accept that we were probably just killing ourselves.

We got settled. For a Friday, it wasn’t that busy. I guess it was only about 10pm by this point.

Yeah.

We really weren’t trying very hard to take good pictures.

But we started feeling pretty good, yet not quite packed with energy.

That guy in the background bought us a round of drinks right when we were about to leave.

And then we started talking to some locals. They were very cool. Here is one of them.

Roger, the guy who bought us drinks earlier, came over and hung out as well. He bought us more drinks. At some point, he got up to use the bathroom and we never saw him again. Good guy. He was from Las Vegas, out here for the Austin City Limits festival.

We had a lot to drink. Again.

But the bill was suprisingly low and we didn’t complain.

And then there was a tiny car. A “Smart Car”. I guess it’s smart if you have a shoebox for a garage.

This is at the Molotov. The squishy floor bar from the previous night. The locals (Matthew and Valerie pictured here) headed over there. It was already about 1:30am, so we didnt’ have much time to get comfortable.

More of the squishy floor bar.

Hooray, we’re not dead yet.

Ryan questioning Valerie as to why she must turn this bar into a “house of lies”, after declining to prove her awesome “popping” dance skills.

Don’t forget to check out Day 2 part 1.

Oh my god. We all thought we escaped last night without any consequences. This was not the case. Holy crap.

Anyway - after the coffee shop, we went for dinner. Originally we were going to eat at Stubb’s, but there was a huge line due to Thievery Corporation playing later in the evening. We ended up at a nice mexican food place. They made guacamole right at the table. The food was good, but probably a bad idea in retrospect.

Upon leaving we saw a homeless guy with a rasta dog. He let us take his dog’s picture.

Frost Tower was looking pretty cool with its lights on.

We then went to The Blind Pig, which isn’t really that great of a bar, but has a nice rooftop patio.

Dan was enjoying himself.

I also was happy to be getting started.

Then some Playboy playmate made an appearance. They made people move out of the area and she had body guards. She’s in the red in this picture, which I took without being too obvious. Then I realized she takes her clothes off for money. I realize this picture is useless.

Wee went to a bar called the Red Fez, which had a lot of blue candles for some reason. I actually intended this picture to be blurry, unlike all the other ones.

Dan and Ryan probably thought about doing gay things to eachother.

And I continued to stay on the other side of the camera until I let my guard down.

I liked this picture because it turned out so badly.

After that, we went to an nice outside bar with a nice mist machine and lots of fans (it was still hot out). For the first time in Austin, I was blown away by the pour I got at a bar. The glass was literally filled to the top. This was great, and all three of us ended up getting one.

The bar I just mentioned was called the Key Bar. It was awesome. Shit, another really blurry one. Eh, whatever.

We had a great time and probably destined ourselves for a horrible tomorrow.

More blurry pictures ahead. The next bar had a weird squishy floor on the roof. See, now I didn’t realize the pictures were actually turning out like this - this is what I saw the whole time.

Ryan tried to convince us he had a gun in his apartment, and Dan and I called him on it. We then followed that up by saying he would never, ever own a real gun. He won’t. Here’s his “I totally will guys” look.

Next we went to Whisky Bar. I’ve never been so amazed at how small a drink can be. It was like $6 for a thimble full of anything. Dan and Ryan danced like pricks while I took pictures.

Eventually I joined in as well.

We had to leave.

To get to the after hours club, we cut through the middle of a block via an alley. The following sequence took place (warning, vomit uncensored):

Fucking awesome.

The after hours club wasn’t too busy, and the picture turned out terrible. Oh well.

And that is all. More tomorrow.

The Calm Before the Storm
Ooooookay. Day 2 started off innocent enough. Dan and I met Ryan downtown for lunch. It was hot as christ.

The architecture was pretty cool.

I like this place’s name but we didn’t eat here. I’m already boring myself with this update, but wait until later, it’s gets better.

This guy is totally Texas.

I guess this guy is too. Oh yeah, there are lots of blurry shots. My bad.

The hamburgers here were goddamned delicious.

Ryan was all dressed up for work and I was still wearing the same clothes as last night. I don’t care. Dan is in a lot of the pictures. ?? What?

We didn’t actually go in, but we felt sophisticated for just a split second anyway.

This is the Texas Capitol building. Without the Capitol, Texas would be “texas”. See what I did there.

These statues represent our valiant struggle to gain independence from Sri Lanka in the early 1980s.

The grounds were nice. Sorry, I know this is boring. I’ll pick up the pace.

Here is where the politicians hold pit fights to see who gets to make laws and stuff.

So Dan and I kicked it back at the apartment for a few hours and then we all went back downtown to attempt to kill ourselves apparently. We took a bus because that’s what they are for.

We went to a nice little coffee shop/bar in the warehouse district. We got a little overloaded on coffee and that was okay.

That thing in the background was pretty cool.

Afterwards we walked toward a huge pile of bars for food, then drinks. This is where all the pictures go from daylight to darkness, so I’ll continue with the second half in a bit.

Preview:

After a badly planned Tuesday night left us withered and weak, Dan and I left for Austin, TX from the comically small San Luis Obispo regional airport. I had to throw away some body spray, and Dan made his mother drive all the way back to the airport to pick up his cologne. We took our gel-based deoderants on the plane and nobody noticed we were breaking the law by doing so.

We had a quick stop in Phoenix and then found ourselves in the worst plane legally flying in the entire country. Everything was velcroed on to the plastic and styrofoam plane chassis, and the seats were carpet samples glued to plywood. They gave us each two packs of mini pretzels.

Ryan met us at the airport and we were excited to be off the plane, done travelling, and I suppose happy to see Ryan.

Because the area is pretty flat, this overpass here allows you to see all the way to Canada.

You can just barely see downtown Austin off in the distance. This is the last picture from the car, I promise.

We quickly changed cleaned up and went to grab a drink. On my last trip here, we went to a nice little bar with live music the first night I was in town. Ryan and I decided to take Dan there, since it’s close and reasonably priced.

There was this absolutely awesome band last time. It was mostly the guitarist - just awesome. Much to my surprise, they were playing when we walked in. Dan liked them too, and it was a great start to the trip. I wish I knew their name.

We got partially drunk on Jameson shots and were having a great time.

Then I took a picture of Dan.

We continued with a few more shots and alcohol and yeeeeaaah.

Having eaten nothing but very crappy airport “icecream” all day, it was dinner time. There’s a great little pizza place on the way back called Homesplice. Great name. We ate and figured out what our plan was for the next day.

Then Dan peed behind a dumpster at a junior highschool and it was funny.

Pictures of Ryan’s apartment and our second day in Austin coming later.