In the Park 2006

[eggwards]

So we're in Austin for Austin City Limits Festival 2006. So far the festival has been sunny and hot, but not nearly as hot as it was the last two years. The grass is greener this year, and more lush, and there's more water stations this year, but since the heat is not quite as oppressive, and the breeze is up, we haven't been going through all of our bottles of water. I think it's supposed to be warmer today, so we'll see how it goes.



I don't think I actually saw a band yesterday. Sure, they were there, but generally I was far enough away that they looked pretty small. No big deal, none of our little possies seemed to really mind. Much of the time we seemed content to just listen, gab a bit and to look at the shirtless hotties in the audience.

Bands Chris and I heard yesterday:
Guster
Stars
Gnarls Barkley
Gomez
Thievery Corporation
The Tragically Hip
then we hopped back and forth between John Mayer and Van Morrison both were good, though Van was much more subdued. Both had large crowds, but they really turned out for Van Morrison.

At various times we were surrounded by Jamie (dwdsevenbelow) and his friend, Mike (austinmike) and David (davidtx), and hotty Jared (geisel). We also ran into Ben (qualitykill), Nakia and Roger over at John Mayer's set. We knew that Scott (xkot) was over at the AT&T stage waiting for Van Morrison, so we never saw him, but he should be at the Magnoila Cafe this morning for our bear brunch.



We flew the Bear Flag all day, attached to my chair, which was having a hard time dealing with my weight. We'll probably throw the chair away at the end of the festival. We got a smaller flag this year, and it flies great and is easily visible. We could hear other people around us on their cell phones trying to explain it so they could meet their friends. Dog Paw? Brown stripes? Still, friends found us, and we attracted several other bears and cubs strolling the park. alphaschnitz's brother and his girlfriend also found us in the crowd.

More today. Now i just have to keep my arm from getting further sunburned than it is now.

Comments

[texaspenguin.livejournal.com]

Hey...can I meet up with y'all at that flag? :)

I'll be at Magnolia this morning as well.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

It was good finally getting to meet you properly. Come on by anytime.

[cubziz.livejournal.com]

I have noticed a lot of bear flags of late. I feel old because I remember buying my original Bear Flag direct from Craig Byrnes.

But I suspect there's a second generation of cubs/bears who are finding the bears flags now.

Wonder who is making them these days since Craig's out of the biz?

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Chris said that the flag had Byrnes name on it, so I guess he still gets some royalties. It was a regular polyester knot fabric, much like any other manufactued flag.

Second? I'd say third. The bear movement's about 20 years old, right? I don't know when the flag was first adopted, but you have bears and cubs of all ages these days, from 60 to 20.

[cubziz.livejournal.com]

Per Craig's site (Bearmfg.com) the flag was started in 1995. So it's bearly (bad pun, I know) 12 years old.

Now as for the bear movement... depends on who you talk to. Folks in SF claim 30+ years as bears were an outgrowth of chubs. Folks in NY claim 20+ years as bears were an outgrowth of leather clubs. Who knows. ;)

But that's cool.

Reportedly Craig released the design to the public domain. I still have the message he sent to the BML back in... 2001? (I think.)

There's a big debate over whether he owned the rights or whether the club it was designed for had the rights. He solved it, as I recall, by just releasing it as public.

[andrewhime.livejournal.com]

Man, Stars is fucking great, can't ignore them...

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

It was a nice set. It was good, but not one of the best - perhaps it was because they played in the hottest part of the afternoon. Many bands get a little loggy. Of course they had the best line - "This next song is about having sex to kill someone. Maybe someone should do that to George Bush."

Still, it made me want to get some more of their studio albums.

[andrewhime.livejournal.com]

They are Canadian and not very into that Bush guy.

Genius!

[bendawg.livejournal.com]

What a brilliant and fun idea to fly the bear flag! :)