Normally I love my boss, Jeff Barringer of kingsnake.com. He's a great guy, flexible, enthusiastic, quick to notice and praise innovation and hard work, and always understanding about family and animals coming first.
But he lives in Austin and is a techno-geek from way back, and he went to South by Southwest, and I'm absolutely never, ever speaking to him again. It wasn't so bad the first few days, when he was at the interactive component, where I gather blogging was the big topic. I was sorry I wasn't there, but I could live with it. But then the music component started, and every night he called me on his cell phone on his way home from listening to all these great bands, and I began to feel little twinges of envy and think maybe I'd misjudged him all this time and he really was a jerk after all.
And then he sat in the front row at the Pretenders concert and sent me photos while it was happening. Technological wired wonderfulness aside, I think that's just mean.
Anyway, the GOOD thing that came out of this is that Jeff finally got motivated to start blogging. Over the years I've worked for him, I've told him he should blog, but it took SXSW for him to bite down on it. He has some interesting things to say about the pet industry and reptiles and I hope he writes on those topics in the future, but so far he's recounted some great stories from SXSW, including some pet related stuff and those damn photos of Chrissie Hynde. Check it out.
One of my fondest (and clearest) memories of the mid-80s was attending a Pretenders concert in Nashville, TN. A number of still-vivid pictures of that concert still reside in my mind. Most, but not all of them, involve Chrissie Hynde (there are a few others of Martin Chambers and his drums...).
Within a short period of time I saw the Pretenders, the Eurhythmics, and the Talking Heads in the old auditorium in downtown Nashville. The Talking Heads concert was general admission so I was able to experience that one right up front by getting in line early.
But Chrissie Hynde and her band are etched forever in my mind.
Posted by: Mara57 | 20 March 2006 at 03:21 PM
The Pretenders are here in Vegas this Saturday. We were going to go, but the concert tickets were a bit pricey for the venue. House of Blues has so many great bands with tickets in the $25 range that I was just too cheap to pay $65. I'll wait another 10 years, Chrissie will still be great, and I'll think $65 is a bargain :)
Posted by: Leigh-Ann | 22 March 2006 at 02:39 AM
I've been reading your blog off and on but I'm not sure I've ever posted a message before but had to just chime in about SXSW. (I too am getting into the blog frenzy and just set mine up tonight.
Anyway, I live in Austin too, and really enjoy the live music during the festival each year. I had been planning on going to the interactive part and hoped to get in on some of the free concerts this year but it didn't work out that way. (I spent most of last week nursing a back that decided to go out...not sure where, just out!) So instead of going out to hear the music, I opened my back door one night and listened to the free concert downtown. Ok, ok...I'll admit it, I *did* have to use my imagination to fill in the silence between the heavy bass beats! But, with the drugs I was on (prescribed!) it was almost like being there...almost! Arghhh...and to think Jeff had front row seats for the Pretenders. Christie...think we talk him into taking us along next year? ;)
Posted by: Therese | 23 March 2006 at 01:17 AM