know your onion, trombone shorty and yeasayer too
we started out at uchiko for social hour. it used to be like a real bargain with discounted prices on select menu offerings, but now the social hour food seems to be reduced portions at reduced prices; or half the portion for half the price. so the price is mostly the same. but they kept us happy by gifting us some items and also complimentary desserts for Pi (3.14) day. the food there is good, really good. the place was packed by 6 pm on a monday night.
our friend ben enjoying his complimentary and controversial dessert.
then cmoore and I raced downtown to try to get into a sxsw event. a "pretty girl on the street" had told cmoore about a "free, no badges required show with free drinks". she told him it was at the moody theater and yeasayer was playing. I was skeptical. yeasayer is pretty popular and everybody and their friends/relatives would want to get into see the new acl studio- moody theater, especially with free drinks! sounded too good to be true.
so we raced down, prepared to wait in line for hours. after about ten minutes of standing in line, security gave us the bad news. this was not a public party. they assured us all that there was ZERO chance at getting in w/o an invite or badge. they explained that bill gates was hosting and those were the rules that would be strictly enforced.
cmoore produced the newspaper with the details of the "free" party that was given to him by the pretty promotion girl on the street.
cmoore: see, it says it RIGHT HERE! FREE!
me: that newspaper there?... it's the Onion...
cmoore: yeah?
me: you know everything in that magazine is untrue, a whole newspaper based on lies
cmoore: (long hard thought) F%$#! F*%^$!!! (he went on to insult the onion, the bands and bill gates using many sentence enhancers coloring up his tirade)
went for a walk so he could calm himself, things got weirder
we found this really comfy outdoor lounge with free iphone charging stations and a solar powered carousel. cmoore was really PO'd and insisted on telling everybody his thoughts on the onion and bill gates. we shared a bottle of sake with some people there and one guy explained that we gave up too easily. "Jedi powers and confidence will get you in, I will go back with you, and I will get you in that door" he informed us. we finished the sake and decided to give it one more try with our jedi friend handling security. then our jedi friend explained "I need to use the restroom real quick, when I get back we will smoke a J, then if you don't get in, at least you will have smoked a J". cmoore and I looked at each other, we wanted in, by jedi powers. we had not mentioned wanting to "smoke a J" with this guy that had claimed to have jedi powers. the jedi went into the restroom and we dashed, without the J smoking Jedi in the porta-potty.
back at the moody, the line was LONG and security still tight. we sat on a park bench and sulked. cmoore continued to bad mouth the onion and bill gates, getting louder all the while. he used his iphone to try and find an alternative sxsw party. then, our luck turned.
we found the 3rd annual Downtown NOLA party hosted by the new orleans downtown development district was just a block away Cmoore is really here on Lousiana Film business so this was a good fit for his future expense report.
the lucky lounge, and drinks were free! our ship had come in! we were lucky!
trombone shorty with big sam's funky nation put on a smoking hot show. I wasn't missing bill gates's oniony party one little bit! I was happy!
I even made friends with the hostess, LaSwanda.
indians made an appearance. the excitement level in this party was pegged!
we left, made our way to the parking garage across from the bill gates' party we couldn't get into. we could hear the music from the street. we walked closer and then we heard a voice. it said, "the direction you are going in, is the right one". whispered by a guy standing at the bottom of the stairs, this is real jedi stuff here, no j-smoke
and there you have it! we kept walking in that direction and found ourselves in the moody theater for the yeasayer party. instead of standing in line for hours, we had attended a kick-ass party up the street. talk about having your cake and eating it too.
the moody theater is so amazing, I've heard all about it. but it was so much more than I even imagined.
no caption necessary
there is a flourescent digital forest scene, all around the theater. giant digital animals would walk by and graze. even the drummer had a hard time keeping his attention on his kit as he was watching the deer walk behind him
I've got a bunch of pics of the drummer checking out the digital forest creatures, too funny. and we all got free cornucopia popcorn on our way out the door.
