Austin City Limits Festival, day 3

Sunday, last day of the festival. At this point, I'm pretty beat... I did manage to drag my bumm down to the hotel gym and get in a 5-miler.

So, day 3, here's who I saw:
Nakia & His Southern Cousins
Mike Farris featuring the Roseland Rhythm Revue
Xavier Rudd - (rolling my eyes at this one)
Joe Bonamassa
Okkervil River
White Denim
Band of Horses
Foo Fighters

Best of the day goes to Mike Farris - fantastic set, fantastic voice, really tight back-up band. I only heard the last 2-3 songs from Nakia & southern cousins, but what I heard was GREAT - I'll definitely be picking up this album. and Okkervil River was really great as well. Band of Horses - I like them more now that I've heard them live. And Foo Fighters sounded great, but it was a complete mob scene near that stage, so we left after 4 or 5 songs. I'll regret that, I'm sure...

Xavier Rudd - well, folks jammed that tent so tight I was expecting something amazing. Frankly, though, it was musical wanking. I left after 2 songs - just nothing there at all that interested me. So I went to Joe Bonamassa instead and he was good.

Austin City Limits Festival, day 2

Day 2, hot as h*ll. But hey, it's Texas and I don't mind. :-)

So, we saw:
Old 97's
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears
Robert Earl Keen
Spiritualized
Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band
The Black Keys
Iron & Wine (just a song or 2 - way too mellow)

Best of the day - Old 97s, absolutely.... Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings were also great. Interesting note - she used to be in music back in the 70s, but left the business, and while away from singing, she used to be a corrections officer at Rikers Island, and there were moments when looking at her face, you KNOW she didn't take any crap from anyone. :-)

After Festival, we went to dinner at El Sol y La Luna. Yes, same place I went to brekkie on Friday. Also same place I went for late lunch/early dinner on Thursday when I flew into town. Food is great, and they serve a nice cold Shiner Bock.

Austin City Limits Festival, day 1

OK, I'm digressing from running to music for a few posts....

I just got back home from a long weekend in Austin, TX, where I was fortunate enough to enjoy 3 rockin' days of great music, great food, and great weather.

Here's who I saw on day one:
Dan Dyer
Rodney Crowell
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Vampire Weekend
Jakob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels
Jamie Lidell
Bobby Bare, Jr.
Hot Chip
Ryan Bingham
David Byrne
Antibalas

Best of the day, by far, was Rodney Crowell. Houston-born singer-songwriter, played some great songs, new album out called Sex & Gasoline. I also really liked What Made Milwaukee Famous, Jakob Dylan, Bobby Bare Jr., and David Byrne also sounded great, the few songs of his I heard.

Also started the day off right with a great brekkie at my favorite mexican restaurant, El Sol Y La Luna, with 2 of my Dad's cousins. It was wonderful to see them.

I went to the gym last night and did 3 easy miles to get my legs loose. It's amazing how sometimes a 3-mile run is harder than a 10 or 15 mile run.

Anyways, back at it tonight. I'll figure out the distance when I get to the gym.

I head to Austin, TX tomorrow morning for the Austin City Limits Festival, 3 days of music and sun in Zilker Park in Austin. I will do some running when I'm down there, but probably treadmill, just to keep things simple. It's going to be smokin' hot (90-95) and sunny the whole time I'm there. Back on Monday. I should have computer access, just not a ton.

Time for coffee!

Well, I don't really have much to say for myself lately.

I'm running, but probably not as much as I should be, and I'm hating every step of it. I'm dreading the marathon, and know it's going to be a long hard slog - mostly because I'm not training well. Sort of a vicious circle, huh? I could use a kick in the pants! The only thing keeping me going is that I'm running with Fred's Team, and have folks counting on me.

I have 5 miles on tap for tonight.

Gosh, it's pouring out!

Rain of biblical proportions coming down right now, and tons of ugly thunder and lightning too. The sky is already getting a bit lighter, though, so I expect that the t&l will move out quickly. We've had so many sunny dry days recently that I suspect we could use the rain, so no worries...

I was away the bulk of last week on a road trip with the BF. Saratoga Springs, then onto Hudson, NY, then on to NYC for the weekend, including the men's semi-finals at the US Open on Saturday afternoon. Saw the Federer vs. Djokovic match in its entirety, and saw the portion of the Nadal vs. Murray match they were able to play before the rain came (remnants of TS Hanna).

Back now for a few weeks, which is good because my running suffers when I travel. I got in 2 short runs while away, but no long run. Which I'm doing tonight on the treadmill at the gym. I don't mind the treadmill at all, but doing my long run on a Tuesday for the previous weekend pushes next weekend's long run to Sunday or Monday. Oh well, I'll figure it out as usual.

I've been MIA this week. DBF was in the hospital and I was pretty preoccupied with that. He got discharged yesterday, and boy, was he happy to get the heck out of there! :-)

I did 13 miles yesterday (s/h/b/ 14, but I ran out of gas), so SRD today. It's gorgeous out, so will get out for a walk on the lakefront with DBF to keep the legs loose.

Then I'm meeting my Sis and her family at the Fair (it closes today, so must get my last helping of Fair food and rides LOL).

Back at it tomorrow with an easy 5 miles.

Can I also say that I finally feel mentally back in the game? I've been dreading EVERY run lately, and it's nice to have turned the corner from that. good thing, since my marathon is 9 weeks from yesterday.