So... What next?

20/03/2010

March 12th till March 21st is when SXSW takes place in Austin. It is a huge event festival, combining interactive technology, film and music at the same time. We're talking about a festival like no other. The whole city turns into one big venue. People rent out parking lot to turn them into concert halls. Tens of thousands of people start flocking into Austin and we end up living in the middle of a gigantic concert venue. It's terrific and terrifying at the same time.

On the last saturday of the events, I went to shoot some bands playing at a free event downtown. By the time I got there, Andrew W.K. was coming up on stage. Once he began to sing, I immediately got a good idea of what kind of music all bands were gonna be playing, and so will you after seeing a couple of the photos below.





I climbed up a tree to have a perfect clear view of the stage and despite the freak cold that had attacked Austin that day (and that day only), it was well worth it.

After this fella, it was time for the headliners to make their appearance. Now, have you ever heard of the band called "Gwar"? If not, google them and you'll get an idea of who they are.
In brief, it is a rock band that made its appearance during the 80s and immediately took the crowds by surprise with their "intense" and "creative" stage appearance.







What we have here is a group of guys dressed up in huge, sci-fi, horror costumes (one of them was wearing a strap-on that had an amputated turkey leg for a penis) who perform all sorts of obscenities on stage, while singing trash metal and spraying fake blood on the crowd that is going wild!





The show was hilarious. Their music... not quite my cup of tea...

M.

10/03/2010

About three weeks ago, D. and I were invited to pose for a figure drawing session. The costume theme was to be along the lines of caveman/cavewoman and Sparta.

Neither of the two of us ever misses out on things like this, so we gladly accepted, we prepared our costumes and off we went.

Within a time frame of two hours, we switched between a number of poses, varying from being one minute long to 10 minutes longs.
Here are some of the ones we did...







And here is one of the sketches done by one of the designers.



We had some good laughs, did our silly thing once again and I learnt something new: G-strings are seriously uncomfortable!!!

M.

14/03/2010

...so I decided to share these thoughts with you.

It's been already a month that I've been back to Austin and my life is slowly taking some sort of shape and form. Everything is working out beautifully and every single day feels new and exciting. I must say, some aspects of life here are not as easy as I would have expected, but all in all, I can't complain.

The weather is beautiful and it's incredibly pleasing to drive down a road amongst nothing but trees, with the windows winded down to allow the breeze on to my face, just to go to a water-front cafe and do some work on my laptop.
I have discovered how accessible the river is to go kayaking on it. Being inside a small kayak on the river, while still located in the heart of the city and gazing up to the tall buildings is absolutely surreal.
I have many new, good friends who constantly introduce me and invite me to new, fascinating activities and help me achieve my goals.
Every day I discover something new about me and explore a new aspect of living.

I am proud to be able to say that I currently live in what seems to be *by far* the most inspiring, alive and joyful city I have ever lived in!

Considering all this, how can I not be happy? :)
You should all come and visit me and see for yourself what I'm talking about.

For now, I will leave you with a photo from last friday's burlesque show, at which my friend M. asked me to participate as a guest appearance. Actually, I was more like one of her stage props...


It is exactly what it looks like! :p

M.