charz2k

After twenty-one years of life a few things have been made clear. Love sucks (and I'm serious), music is the ultimate good, and free alcohol is always nice.

For spring break 2006 I attended SXSW in Austin. I saw 57 bands and drank cheap (if not free) beer often. I enjoyed myself. All the while, my ex-girlfriend of five years was getting married somewhere (a rushed ordeal that won't last but that's not as comforting of a thought as it seems). Please, reader, note that I didn't go to SXSW for a diversion, I knew what was coming, I knew SXSW could help but I went because I wanted to go. Note also that I still love this girl (this could probably be inferred from the article). Anyway, I had such a good time at this shit that I never even thought about what was going on in Houston (my hometown/location of said girl's marriage) (too many parentheses). Let me tell you, thats a strong testament to the ass kickery (fucking lame!) of SXSW. OK, maybe the thought struck me once which probably resulted in a detectable shift in my demeanor, but that's only natural.

So what needs to be communicated here is life. And by life, I mean the good shit. Life is pretty good shit (the quasi oxymoron is intended). Life's essence exists in near- tangible form at SXSW. You can hear it floating around. It is fun. You can spend your time wandering around looking for free shit to hock for crack or whatever, (my friend did this- it's fucking idiotic), or you can do just the opposite of that. You can put the experience first and let the free shit come to you. Watch as many bands as possible. Life is about experience. You're going to die, pal. I'm sorry to tell you that because it kind of sucks, but it's true. You're going to die with only your experiences and your memories, not with that free t-shirt. I banked many experiences this week (and a few free shirts as well, incidentally). Plus...I got drunk!

Ultimately SXSW ellicited some very different feeling in me. It's a much better feeling than the one that it replaced. Liberation replaced sadness. I'm fucking liberated, bro, and I can't quite explain it. All I know is that good, genuine fun is to be had out there. The world's a motherfucker but it spins off these really nice bits sometimes. Life is good shit.

Also, I have a new girlfriend as of yesterday (hey Jessica). I'm gonna' have sex with her once for SXSW. So, yeah, I'm feeling groovy.

So, we have this new website called "charz2k". I don't really know why it's called that either. I just write for it. I guess we're going to tell you our opinions on culture and music and stuff. Art is so personal though. I've always been of the opinion that music criticism is absurd. It's impossible to communicate something so personal as music and feelings that stem from it. So, look, don't take me too seriously. I do have impeccable taste in music and if I like it, it must be good. I usually only listen to good music. Although sometimes I like bad music. I'm an idiot, ask my friends. I'm only doing this for the money.
-Danny