ACL Fest: Weezer is a band, not a sound resembling laborious breathing

How does that song go? "If you come to San Francisco/Be sure to wear a flower in your hair."  If you come to ACL Fest, put a bandana over your nose and mouth or you'll be coughing up mud for a week.

acl fest 2005: day 3, originally uploaded by catalinamarr.

This post will do nothing to help my cause to get my friend Galia to move to Austin.  Regarding the recent ACL Fest, AKA "the Dustbowl of 2005", here's the round up from the blogosphere:

SimplyGreg, like most people, I suspect, spent most of the festival:

"concentrating on who I could pimp myself out to in order to score some shade...

"...Thank god for sweat glands? But, there was a little wind, not much but a little bit. That, coupled with the feet stomping of a hundred thousand people or so, and what you've got is a dust bowl or dust party."

looters, originally uploaded by Tigole Bitties.

Nikki at Random and Uneventful was, "shocked that it was so dusty because I thought that surely the tablespoon-sized drops of sweat pouring off me and my friends would help wet down the field, just a little." 

She also has words for Oasis' front man Liam: "you're not nearly as cool as you think you are. Take off the f****** hoodie, it's 90 degrees in the dark." Complete post here.

 

Sanity Island posted a survival guide and apparently a bandana to keep the dust out your lungs is essential ACL Fest gear.

mummy boy, originally uploaded by sheeshoo.

Bryce from Minneapolis discovered Alejandro Escovedo, but not at ACL Fest. "Nearly brought to tears," he says, by Al's performance.  Bryce, check out the albums Gravity or Thirteen Years the next time you need an elegant soundtrack for a month-long binge or a last shot at absolution.

"Let me also say now how great the city of Austin is. It was strange and wonderful to be in a town that was a total hippie, leftist, college enclave in the middle of Dubya country. We met so many friendly Austin people and the whole town really gets behind the festival. Even 50 year old Widespread Panic fans were talking to us about Coldplay and The Arcade Fire and all the other ACL festivals they were at in the past. Just super friendly."  --says "Fake Century" from Brooklyn

And note to our friend from Brooklyn:  Las Manitas is not the ONLY place to have breakfast in Austin.  The breakfast taco is practically a national dish served everywhere from truckstops to fine hotels.  Ask one of those friendly locals for the best place to go the next time you're in town.  Oh, and the locals would also recommend less walking when it's 108 degrees.  And more sunscreen, particularly for your English friends.

But fret not, Galia, there's an unkept secret to surving the heat in Austin. Please see "The Secret to Surviving Summer in Austin."