Loy Krathong

Last night I attended the New Year festival at the local Buddhist temple with a few students from the Culture Club I sponsor at the high school. It had been raining so I almost didn't go, but I'm so glad I decided to venture out anyway. The field in the temple complex contained several booths where people were grilling various meats and making other unknown foodstuffs. The girls and I shared a serving of tiny Thai pancakes which contained coconut, sugar, and green onion. That's an odd combination to me, but the pancakes tasted pretty good. I also had a skewer of spiced grilled chicken.

We enjoyed watching the Thai dancing and really loved the beauty pageant. There were seven girls ranging in age from 7 to 13. People voted by purchasing balloons which they then gave to the girls. The girl with the most balloons would win the "People's Choice" award and the money raised would go to the temple fund.

After the students left, I took the paper lotus flower that I had bought and went over to the pond. Some girls helped me light my candle and incense sticks. The candle wouldn't stay lit (gusts and light rain) but I set it loose in the pond and enjoyed watching it drift away. The girls told me to make a wish as I let it go.

Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails

Yesterday I drove down to Austin and met up with Emily at Boo’s house. We went out to eat at Galaxy Café, then Em and I went on down to the Continental Club. We were pretty surprised to see a long line of people waiting to get in an hour before the concert was to begin. It was sort of entertaining to listen to people while we were waiting. The folks behind us had flown down from Canada for ACL.

Inside, it wasn’t as crowded as I had thought it might be so we were able to position ourselves right in front of the stage, Wynn-side, brews in hand, ready for some music. I heard someone calling out “Lucy” so I looked and found Nan from Murmurs (who has a major thing for Mr. Buck and had stationed herself right in front of where he would be standing). Nice to see her again.

The concert was a nice mix of Baseball Project, new and some older Minus 5, Steve Wynn songs, and covers. Scott’s voice wasn’t in top form, I thought, but that didn’t detracted from the passion he puts into every song. They all just have such a great time performing together. Of course I’m envious of Linda Pitmon, since I want to be a drummer when I grow up. Alas. There’s no way I could ever have her rhythm and stamina, not to mention I couldn’t assist on vocals.

As the first set ended, Scott encouraged the audience to come visit with them at the merch table. Em and I were just about the first ones there. We snagged all the Butcher Cover CDs that we had agreed to get for others as well as ourselves and immediately asked Peter for autographs. He was very nice and obliging and just sweet as he could be. Contrary to some reports, he did NOT seem to have gained any weight.

Scott seemed to appreciate the spirit of the Scottie mug that Emily brought for him to autograph. What a hoot. He and Buck were both very nice about signing things and having pictures taken.

That's a picture of me with a sweaty Buck, who only looks like an angry axe-murderer but was actually quite pleasant. I found myself wondering if he's off the booze. His face doesn't look puffy and he wasn't drinking red wine onstage. He had glasses of what looked like lemonade but could have been anything.

The show ended about 1:15 I think, with some raucous covers and a bartender dancing onstage.