blakerson.com

ACL Festival (n.) - a really, really big 3-day music festival that happens every year in Austin. Over a hundred bands show up to play. And the number of people who show up to see said bands is probably immeasurable. Seriously, this place was people-tastic. So I took myself out there to see a trio of awesome: Gnarls Barkley, Thievery Corporation, and John Mayer.

I was wayyyy in the back of the crowd for Gnarls, but they definitely rocked the house and Cee-Lo was one energetic mofo.

Then I made it up to the front row for Thievery, which was a bit.. interesting. I was in the middle of a huge weed haze, thanks to the fact that everyone else who was there to see Thievery was a massive stoner. The actual group is only two DJ's but the live band has about 6 more people in addition, not counting the 7 or so vocalists who came on stage to perform different songs. It was the vocalists who probably surprised me more than anyone else. I'm not sure if all those people were the actual ones who recorded the original tracks - except the three Rastafarians, those guys were definitely the real deal.

A while later came John Mayer, who just released his new album a few days before. He's got practically a whole new lineup in his band, including some really experienced old guys on the keys and backup guitar. JM's gone blues in his new stuff, which made for a really odd combination of that and his old poppy acoustic songs during the show. I still don't quite know what to make of the show; it just didn't have a coherent whole to it. I do know that the man's got talent and he's an even better guitarist than he was when I saw him as a freshman.

I also know that it is, in fact, possible to walk home from Zilker Park all the way to West Campus.

First, I was in the UT paper! Here is the story about how UT got named the #1 school for gaming by the Global Gaming League. I was quoted in my current capacity as the president of the Texas Gaming Association.

Oh, that, and this Plan II chick I know won a million dollars on TV.

update: She won the $1m BY CASUAL ONLINE GAMING. This means by playing Bejeweled and Spider Solitaire, she has outearned every American pro gamer of all time, including Thresh.

Today was the first day of senior year. (Again.) Once again, I get to play the grizzled old upperclassman who's been everywhere, seen everything, and treats everything with an air of jaded malaise. This time around, though, I know the drill. (Damn, is my last year of class boring, unimpressive and anticlimactic.) I know that this feeling goes away and in 12 months' time we'll all be freshmen all over again. (Assuming the LSAT goes as well as it needs to.) Yes, goodbyes will happen, but I've since learned that the truly special people stick around. (I can't stop listening to My Bloody Valentine, and the song 'Sometimes' stuck on repeat reminds me of Gabriela, the girl on the NYC train.) As happy as I am here, I can't wait to get out of this place. (They say college is the best years of your life - they obviously haven't found themselves alone in a strange place - sometimes 4 minutes is worth more to your heart than 4 years.) I've been here (senior year) before, but somehow it was more fun last time around. (I miss having tournaments and LANs every weekend.) I've come incredibly far in 3 years as a person. (But not far enough to stop me from continually having identity crises.)

Bring on senior year - after all, it's at sunset when colors are the most vivid.

I've dropped the scholarship search. I know I sound crazy to not want to go after a free ride to a great school in a great place, but truth be told, grad school ain't really my thing. The final straw was when the applications asked for a research proposal - in other words, I'd have to know exactly what I'd be working on two years from now. One whole year of my life for one paper. That sounds incredibly painful to me.

On the other hand, life in Japan and law school both sound like a whole lot of fun. So I'm chasing my heart, which means I'm back to studying hardcore for that little LSAT thing that goes down in a month.

You guys know I'm not the type of guy who defines blogging as just linking to other crap on the net that some schmo thought was cool at work one day. But I'm linking something here because it does a perfect job of explaining what I think is wrong with the American entertainment establishment, and why I don't feel a single pang of guilt about not paying for any of it.

Worldonfire.ca plugs a new Sarah McLachlan track. Not at all why it's important. The premise of the video is that it had a $150,000 budget, but the money all got spent elsewhere.