New York Mag's Cover Contest

Who doesn't love a cover contest....I love it when magazines go into detailed explination about their cover selection, and I thought this slideshow was fascinating. In today's digital world, I was so happy to see the subscriber's cover was actually built out of wood and photographed!

My favorite of all of them, mostly because it actually shows our progression througout the decade:

Are You KIDDING ME!

Just read on MediaBistro how French Vogue used blackface in a fashion spread.

Are you kidding me? When did society decide this was an acceptable form of satire or art, because the last time I checked--there are PLENTY of dark-skinned models out there who would have been a better option then painting a white girl in dark paint.

ACL Wrap-up: Sunday

Wow. Great end to the festival. No rain at all on Sunday, but the beautiful grass Austin spent millions of dollars developing was completely ruined. The mud made things a little gross, but didn't get in the way of us having a good time.

We stopped off briefly for B52, but made our way to Heartless Bastards pretty quickly. I love the lead singer's voice---she's got this throaty drawl that just captivates you. Live they were pretty good, but we left after about 40 minutes to wander.

The two big shows for us on Sunday were Passion Pit and Girl Talk. Both were at the 360 stage, so eventually we made our way down there to get decent spots for dancing. Passion Pit was pretty great, but the heat and humidity was getting to the lead singer and they left early. The DJ opener welcomes us to 'Passion's muddy Pit' and that was pretty appropriate. My feed look like crazy monsters afterwards, mostly due to the two hours we spent in this section.

I was addictively playing some iPhone game for an hour until Girl Talk came on. The good news was that everyone else was short. The bad news was it was because we were surrounded by high schoolers, which would suck later as crowd surfers would find our area and then crush them--leading to Teresa's great muddy hat of 09. Right as Girl Talk started, we all swarmed forward and the dancing made the entire pit turn into a 95 degree sauna. Sweat. Sweat. Dancing. JOURNEY! sweat. This was the second Girl Talk experience--and my first inside the swarm near stage--but he was worth seeing twice. It's fun to just abandon all and dance your heart out. Best part was how he would get everyone to wave downward, creating a fan of air to cool down the crowd---I was grateful, the pockets of air that would sweep in at random saved me from passing out.

Our spot at 360 made it hard to get over to Pearl Jam, but we managed to wade our way through the mud enough to hear Even Flow. I don't like being in the back of the crowd though, everyone was talking and made it harder to hear and see what was going on miles away from us. We cut out early, and could actually hear the band better as we walked home.

Concert done.

ACL Countdown: Sunday

Saturday: Less is More Day

So Saturday the chances of rain were 60%, so of course it started raining before we got there. I have nothing against rain at a concert---it weeds out some people and can be fun, especially like yesterday when the temp was around 65 and it was a warm rain.

We got there late, around 3, and saw Grizzly Bear first. This about sums of that show. I don't know if it was the weather, but they were out of tune, hanging out in the back of the stage to stay dry, and not very exciting. It could have been that it was our first stop--we needed something to get us going in the dreary weather, and they totally killed our buzz.

Citizen Cope was next. Great show. We got this nice spot in front of the sound stage and he was amazing and didn't even seem to care his leather pearl snap shirt was getting ruined by the rain. The downpour started around now, but we didn't care---his music made up for it.

We were too late to really get a spot for Bon Iver, but his music sounded great from far away. He also has kinda a low-key repertoire, but his music was so beautiful it pick up your spirits better than anything else.

After a quick gyro, we nabbed amazing center spots for the Decemberists and hunkered down for 90 minutes while they set up the stage. Worth every minute. This would be the second reason I bought my ACL ticket, and I was definitely into it. Also, they are one group where a dreary afternoon only adds to the atmosphere: they played Hazards of Love in its entirety—the folk opera I've been harassing all my friends to listen to—and managed to get the entire album into their hour set. Margaret was impressive, singing high notes in the crappy weather, and Colin Meloy was swapping instruments every song with ease, not really losing the breaks. They've been doing this all summer, the band definitely had the switches down. The show stealer, however, was Shara Worden, playing the Queen. The crowd was totally behind her, and she was getting into it on stage that made her vocals more powerful than on the record, which is saying something.

Having put up with about five hours of rain, we skipped out on Dave and Ghostland Observatory, although the light show for Ghostland looked awesome as we left. Leaving after Hazards was a good move, though, because it psyched me up enough to go out in the warehouse district later, instead of crashing like the night before.

Here's a great shot of my feet when I took my Chacos off--I don't have the Z tan line promised, but a mud tan line is still pretty funny.

Here's what I'm looking forward to today:

• Passion Pit/Girl Talk: My feet will hate me tomorrow, but I plan to get my dance on this afternoon.
• Pearl Jam, they are my mother's favorite band, and should be a fun closing act
• The Toadies. Can't come to Texas without hearing them. It'll be sing-along party three today.

ACL Countdown: Saturday

Friday Summary:

Of course I didn't get there as early as I planned, but we still got to see Asleep at the Wheel. They've been to every ACL since it began---and play old-time country music. It was a perfect 'welcome back to Texas' opener.

Then I split up to see Blitzen Trapper, while my friends saw the Knux. I felt so old in the crowd---lots of high schoolers hanging around this one---but the band was pretty amusing. I thought the drummer--with a Z.Z. Top beard--was intriguing, but after about 30 minutes the energy in the crowd died. A lot of people left to get good spots for the Avett Brothers and I soon followed.

I've been looking forward to the Avett Brothers, and have been listening to their album religiously for the past week, but in concert they weren't the star-powered act I was hoping for. I think the biggest thing was they have this country sound, and look country---and unfortunately in Austin, that's what every college group looks and tries to sound like. Their music was still amazing, but it just generate any strong desire to stick around.

Dr. Dog was next, and well worth trying to get to the front. This is the group I know the most songs to, and was a pretty awesome time. My friend made fun of me for dancing so much---I was like the ONLY one around me---but it was totally worth the near dehydration that followed. I still think my favorite song is "The Rabbit, the Bat, and the Reindeer," although I keep getting those animals out of order when I talked about it. That was their closer--I had a blast at this one.

We wandered over the Phoenix, and tried to meet up with our friends, but the crowd was insane. Not sure why they weren't playing later in the day. The lead singer said he'd never played to a crowd this large before, and was all teary-eyed. We eventually forced our way up to the sound booth, but people were packed in. I need to hear more of their stuff before I get into the band, but it was definitely a nice way to be introduced.

We grabbed dinner and listened to Robin Hitchcock and the Venus 3, that guy is bizzare. He looks like a fatter David Bowie---with the white comb over--and would interrupt songs to go on these (drug-induced?) monologues about how one must 'keep vampirism in the family' and crazier stuff. His music was actually fine, apparently he produced his last album with REM's people, but for some reason I felt ACL wasn't weird enough for him--odd?

We made the decision around now to change up the plan. After Phoenix, and how far away we were, I really wanted to plan ahead a little more for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the end of the night. Instead of going to watch Andrew Bird, we decided to camp out early for the YYYs, and it was totally worth it. Granted, I was behind the three tallest guys who in turn were dating tall women!, but i was next to the railing and could see her really well from where I stood. A fun way to end the night--she's insane and it made for a great closer. They did play "Maps" without any drum, and my friend Stephen was pissed. I agree, the song was missing one of the best elements.

I heard Kings of Leon as we were walking home, they sounded just like they did on the radio, so I'm guessing I didn't miss much.

Saturday's Plan:

• I'm definitely looking forward to the Decemberists the most. They should be playing Hazards of Love in its entirety, something I love--so this is the one I want to get close for today.
• I'll be around the Livestrong/Dell stages most of the day---Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Citizen Cope, are all on my list. Will I get there in time to see Deer Tick? Crap--that's in two hours...
• Ending the night with Ghostland Observatory. I was all convinced Austin folks would folk to Dave Matthews, leaving Ghostland exactly that, but according to Stephen they are huge here. Should be a good closer.