#SXSW

March in Texas is wonderful. But March in Austin is even better! The weather is between 65-85 degrees the whole month and we have had maybe one or two days of rain. Its definitely been an added highlight to my glorious Austin experience. This month has been a busy one and its only getting busier. As I do not want to bore you with the details of my everyday, I have chosen to write about South by Southwest.

South by Southwest is an interactive, music, and film festival that goes on for about 2 1/2 weeks. But first and foremost its a music festival. The rest was added in later....I think. I don't know all the facts and history but what I do know is I was in the middle of it. And so I am going to tell you about it from the eyes of yours truly.

So we live on 6th street as I have previously said in my posts. And thats exactly where sxsw was held. Sxsw is the cool acronym that people use. They also just call it south by. So of course I was using those terms right away to look like a local. I was saying things like, "Geez, all these out-of-towners coming in for south by. Whats south by? Duh its this huge music festival called South by Southwest. Yeah, a bunch of celebs will be here. No big deal. Yeah, cause Austin is the music capital of the world. How have you never heard of this? I just hope no one moves here after they've been here. Soooo annoying." I guess because I've been here since the start of January that entitles me to act like I know whats going on. Secretly I had no idea what was going on. I was trying to stalk every celeb that came in to town. I downloaded the sxsw app and was relaying messages to friends who knew waaay more than I did. I am nowhere near being cool...like I used to be....yeah....thats it. Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yes.

Ok. Well, during these few weeks thousands of people were here. Some very, very interesting people at     that. Mark and I decided to take the Metrorail into downtown instead of driving during this time. Its a 3 minute ride from our house and it costs a dollar. Booyah! We are idiots if we don't take that deal. (Side note-I was trying to make this post short....ain't happening. Sorry!) The streets were crowded with people. There was music blaring everywhere. And you couldn't tell who was homeless and who wasn't. All the world together in perfect harmony.

On a Tuesday Mariel, Anally, and I went to this place called Waterloo downtown. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were putting on a show there and it was free. Being new to this whole thing I didn't know what to expect. Basically it was too crowded and we couldn't get in but we heard him outside the chain link fence. So that was cool. I got video of that. Friday Mark and I went to one of his favorite bands called The Flaming Lips. That was a bit weird for my taste....but it was free. Can't say no to FREE! The next day, being Saturday, is when Justin Timberlake was going to be performing at the Myspace secret show. Mariel and I tried getting tickets and we couldn't. Bust. So we took her sister Anally and her friend Julianna with us to explore downtown. After walking around and taking pictures with random street people dressed in all sorts of costumes we found ourselves at the edge of downtown. As we were debating on what to do next, out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge crowd of people. They had lights and glow sticks and boom boxes playing music. They were pulling a wagon that had about 6 speakers bungee corded together on top. It looked promising so we walked right over and marched along with them. The crowd accepted us as one of their own right away. We ended up under the bridge downtown where we had a dance party for about 45 minutes. Then the leader that had a glowing staff told everyone that we were taking this party to the capital. So why not? We marched downtown with the crowd. More people joined as we walked and danced. Artists included Journey, Bon Jovi, Ace of Base, Aero Smith, Backstreet Boys, and a few others. Soon there were hundreds and hundreds of people marching the streets. The cops just waved at us as we walked by. I'm pretty sure this was the dance party for the outcasts of sxsw but I didn't care. Take me to the island of misfit toys party people! There were people of all ages and in all sorts of costumes. We were laughing the whole time. We ended up at the capital where we danced until midnight. About the stroke of midnight Cupid made her appearance. This lady was in a makeshift diaper and had a plastic heart on a string tied around her neck. Under that plastic heart was her bare chest. She shimmied her heart out (no pun intended) and the crowd gathered to see this free spirit shakin' what her momma gave her. After she started to shout "LAST SONG EVERYBODY NAKED!" we left. Now, I know what you guys are probably thinking right now and trust me. I was just as scared as you are. When I told Mark about it he didn't seem to be surprised. He came and picked us up since we had missed the Metro back. When we were in the car waiting at the stop light Mark turns and says, "Look! Look at the crowd of people with the glowing sticks!" I said, "Thats our crowd! Thats who we were with!" Just then Cupid decides to run to the front of the group waving her arms in the air. Besides Cupid, this was all good clean fun. There were kids and families and just everyone wanting to have a good time. Definitely the highlight of my sxsw experience. I mean, its no Justin Timberlake but like I said. This was for the outcasts. I guess thats what Austin is. Just a city of outcasts all trying to be apart of something. Do I sound profound? I'd like to think I do.

Best believe I got picture evidence of the people I saw. Here are a few favs. These were taken everywhere. On the streets, at free concerts, etc. These are in no particular order. Enjoy!

I look 5000 pounds but Ellen don't care