Official Seeing Blind Blog

Seeing Blind SXSW 2012 @ Opal Divines 3/15/12

So, Thursday March 15th was a crazy long day for the Seeing Blind crew.  We had a crazy night the night before: we found out that Mr. Dylan Johnson sleepwalks when he is really tired and drunk! I remember waking up after hearing the front door slam and all of a sudden I see Dylan climbing onto the couch with Brian! Brian was like, “Uhhh, Dude, get out of here.”, but of course Dylan wasn’t even aware! He just started cuddling up with Brian. Bwahahahah! Brian had to physically remove him from the couch.

The next morning we found a very suspicious puddle by the front door…

Ahem..so, we had two showcases scheduled for the day: one @ Kick Butt Coffee and then another one right after at Opal Divines.

Kick Butt Coffee was off the beaten path a little, out in the more suburban part of Austin. It had your typical coffee house vibe, with your not so typical audience!  They served tasty brews and had a pretty cool set up with a stage and good system. We played second to last and had a lot of fun rockin’ out in the ‘burbs. I am pretty sure we scared a few small children.

Then it was straight off to Opal Divines. This place was awesome! A HUGE outside patio with a big stage and a wonderful sound engineer named JC. He was this older hippy type dude and I wanted to take him home to Seattle with us. We made it over just in time for Sightseer and Furniture Girls’ sets. They were both phenomenal! The air was electric. Seeing Blind set up and sound checked (chickety check) and then we were off. We were on fire and it felt good. We had the whole place rocking’ out and having a great time.

Then, right before our last song of the set, the manager came out and said that the police were outside and they were insisting that we shut the show down. Some lame individual called the cops on us…a band…playing…music…@… SXSW. WTF? *shakes head in disbelief*. If you don’t like music then why move near a bar with live outdoor music? Especially during South By. We were all a little bummed out but then the sound man came up and high-fived us! He said “Ya’ll should feel great! This is badge of honor, this has never happened in the 15 years I’ve been doing this. You are doing something that scared the shit out of someone…You were up there and you were having fun…you guys have made it, man!”

JC come home with us.

So what to do when the show gets shut down by the cops? Head out to a different bar down the street! We headed to the Crow Bar with the Critical Sun crew and took advantage of the $5 PBR and Fireball whiskey shots until close, then hailed a cab and slid through the door at about 4 in the morning.

F*$% the police, F*$% the police, F*$% ‘em!

We made it to SXSW! We got into Austin on Tuesday 3/13 around 6pm and headed for the condo we were staying at (thanks, girl! ).

First things first: food and beer. We headed to a little taco truck and grabbed some brews next door. The energy in the air was electric: acoustic music pumping out drinking tunes, a word smythe pumping out hip hop on the corner, drunk chics stumbling on sidewalk cracks, everyone looking for some action…

It was hot and really humid! The first thing I noticed were the different birds that are here. Someone said that they are pigeons but they sound like something out of the movie Jurrasic Park! None of us really got any sleep but it was up @ 7am to get ready for our first showcase the next day!

We headed to The Jackalope and Critical Sun Records was already there unloading and setting up our back line. We mosied for a bit, got a couple of drinks and settled in to watch everyone scramble around. It was kind of nice to not have gear to worry about setting up ( we could definitely get used to this ).  It was hot and stuffy in the joint. There were velvet paintings of topless large breasted women, tables and floors browned with age and beer stains and of course a giant mutha’ fuckin’ Jackalope for the drunks to ride. The bartenders looked like they were barely tolerating everyone. StaC from the Furniture Girls and I talked about how the locals must hate this festival to a certain degree. They make out pretty well after raping everyone for money but it must feel like Bumbershoot feels to some Seattle locals.

After chilling for a bit it was time to warm up and get shit going. Before our set people were starting to show up for the free beer we had advertised. It was so hot it was like the inside of a BBQ pit! The sound guy had a few issues with feedback but we fought through it like rock stars. Our set was one power packed tune after another and everyone was having an amazing time! By the time our set was over we were all dripping with sweat and panting like we just had a four person orgy. I looked over at our drummer Dylan once and his head was resting on his snare drum during a break: he looked like a hooker after a long night at work, limp and tired but ready for more.

Then it was off stage and headed to the bar for more booze. What else are you to do when there is free beer? We talked to fans and then settled in for the rest of the Critical Sun Records showcase.

Seeing Blind is in rotation @ Women of Substance Radio! Triple A Show: Thursdays from 5-6 PM Pacific (8-9 PM Eastern)!  Listen!

ALSO: Special rotation this TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 13th: our song “Miscreants” has been chosen for the Women of Substance Radios “What’s on my iPod” show @ 4 PM ET, 1 PM PT! Tune in and check it out! Listen!

xo

~M

I have always wanted to be able to do this! Give someone that look with one eyebrow up. Melissa can do it on both sides! Only one side looks goofy and one side looks sexy. I keep trying but I just look silly. I wonder if this is like when you can curl your tongue one of your parents has to be able to do it too. I wonder if my parents can raise one eyebrow.  I will ask next time I talk to them.

I hope you enjoy watching my attempt. I would love to see you try too

The other day I decided to try to make a screen on my new Yudu machine. In the instructions it said you would get the best results if you used a transparency, but I thought regular paper would be fine since I have screen printed before and it worked. I got the logo printed out and prepared the screen and set the exposure. Then, I went to the bathtub to wash the screen and the part that was burned away was the whole sheet of paper! Shit… Oh well, I guess I will just clean the screen and get a transparency. So I went to clean the screen and realized the machine didn’t come with emulsion remover to clean the emulsion off! My fun screen printing adventure had ended for the day since I had to order emulsion remover from Amazon and wait…

It finally arrived a couple days ago and I cleaned my screen. I went to Office Max to print on the transparency and they said they wouldn’t do it because they thought the transparency would ruin their machines, so I had to print it on my own. Last night I finally tried to burn a new screen with our logo on it and it worked!!!! Yay!

Shirts for everyone!

At night you all see me as Melissa the “rock star”. During the day, I am a kind of rock star, too! I work with a (rock star) 17 year old young man who has a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) as a caregiver/therapist/tutor/driver/nutritionist/slash.  He is most awesome and inspiring and I care about him deeply. We have a lot of fun together when we are not working hard- scoping out the ladies,  playing cards, I take him to special Olympics sports after school, we yell at bad drivers on the road…we are friends.

I will call him Billy, but that is not his real name.

We were working hard on some strength training and cardio yesterday at the YMCA. His goal is to walk across the stage unassisted to grab his diploma at graduation this upcoming June.  Since I started working with Billy in September he has gone from only walking short distances with assistance to being able to walk on his own for one minute. We are getting closer and closer to his  goal everyday.

A typical workout lasts around 2 hours. You see, it is difficult for Billy to transfer in and out of machines etc as he also had a stroke as a result of his TBI so his right side weak and his right hand/arm not fully functional.  During this time, it is my job to run through his routines, make sure he is doing the exercises correctly and motivate him to keep up the pace.  2 hours can be a long time for him and maintaining focus is something we are constantly working on.

We got done with one of these work outs yesterday.  He was sweating and his face was red and shiny and he was proud of himself! I held the elevator door for him as he maneuvered his wheel chair in and some guy came up behind him and made like he was going to push the chair and said something like “I will help you.” Billy said “I can do it.” but I don’t think the man heard him. I said to the man  “No that’s OK, he can do it, thanks.” The man gave me a look of disgust and said “How can you not help him? He only has one arm!” and walked away.

Hmm. Well, first thing I thought was “He actually has two arms, a$$hole!”. Then I thought, “Who the f*ck does this man think he is?”.  I walked after him and caught up to him at the water fountain:

ME: “Excuse me sir, but what  did you just say? You f*cking coward! You say some sh*t like that to us and then walk away?”

A-HOLE: “You heard me! Look at him! He is disabled! Why wouldn’t you f*cking help him?”

ME: “You don’t have any idea what my relationship is like with this young man! How dare say that sh*t to me? It is not helping him to do everything for him!”

A-HOLE: “You don’t care about him! I heard you in the training room, talking to him like he was nothing!”

ME: “We are here to do his therapy so he can get stronger. You don’t know me and you don’t know him! F*ck off!”

I turned to walk away.

A-HOLE: “F*ck you! Do you know what I Do?”

ME: DO YOU KNOW WHAT I DO? I don’t give a f*ck what you do. You are an ignorant piece of sh*t!  F*ck you, you f*cking a$$hole! *^$#^Q(^$(Q#&*&$)Q&%&#*^%&^$W&*

I never did find out what he did.  I have to say, I am intrigued. What could this man do that would explain his behavior? Maybe he’s a professional a$$hole?

Billy and I went downstairs to make a complaint at the front desk. I told them what happened (including my impressive use of swear words) and they assured me they will send someone upstairs to talk to the man.

Billy and I go outside. I wheel him to the car door and he gets up, holds onto the door and gets himself in the car. He closes the door. He puts his seat belt on. All by himself. I get in beside him and just look at him.

Billy says “That man, says “You are disabled. ” I Says “I can do it!” “F*cking dick”. I ask him how it made him feel. He doesn’t respond. He turns up #12 on his favorite rap CD and listens to it on repeat about 4 times. Then he hits the arm rest a couple of times. I let him get out his frustration.

He then turns off the music suddenly and turns to me and says “I am mad. F*cking dick! I said I can do it.”

I tell him that that man looked at him and all he could see was his disability. I tell him I look at him and see Billy, an amazing kid who can do anything he sets his mind to.

I tell him the man was a moron and “don’t let it get to you too much, OK?”

Honestly though, how could it not?

~Melissa

I was finally able to get a Yudu screen printing machine. Now, I can print new band t-shirts on my own. I am really excited because it will give us more color and design options.

This weekend I am going to try it out and see how hard it is HopefullyI can do it! I am a bit nervous. I will let you know what happens

Well the show last Saturday was a success. Herbie (my new light) worked out better than I thought! He is super bright. Cal (our new drummer) did a great job as well. I was so pleased with his dynamics and stage presense. Yay! I love drums!

Jessika