(this is a long post, I know, kiss of death for a blog. But just go with it, alright?)

Ice Cube was sitting in the lobby when James Barone and I returned to the Four Seasons Hotel. We had failed miserably at finding an after-party with booze, and resigned ourselves to just chill in the room. After a delicious $35 pizza, James was getting a bit stir crazy, so we decided to venture on down to the dock on the river behind our hotel for a bit.

There were four people already there, and it being a small dock, they invited us into their conversation. Nice young British folk…well, that is, James from Does It Offend You, Yeah? and Jill were great peeps, their two friends were respectively indifferent and a bit douche-y. Keeping true to James’ band’s name, the order of the evening was saying affably rude things to one another. We chatted politics and race relations, cracking wise and calling each other out for our countries’ respective blemishes. It didn’t hurt that Brit James was ornery and bristlingly charming. And apart from being smart as a whip and wicked funny, Jill was incredibly gorgeous. Quite a pair of legs there.

Synthesis James was quiet for the most part, interjecting comments here and there; myself, I tend to be more talkative, and of course I was witty as all get-up. We chatted it up, their friend called me “pedantic,” I told him he’s “a bit of a cunt,” it’s pretty good-natured ribbing all around. After bumming a few of their cigarettes (I relished using the term ‘fag’ in the British sense of the term), another couple wandered over to the dock and asked if they could join us. They introduced themselves, common ‘merican names that I couldn’t quite hear. The Brits recognized the dude from the night before and our group grew to six music geeks, smoking and drinking wine at 4 in the morning.

I know the recent arrival from somewhere. But there are only about a dozen man archetypes here. You can’t throw a rock without hitting some bald, skinny white dude with glasses at SXSW. He’s cool and low-key, and says a few funny, self-deprecating things (“humor is not my strong suit”) before going into a story about how earlier he was interviewing Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols for a radio show. Jones is apparently a world-class whistler (“with theremin-like vibrato”). During their conversation Jones mentioned off-hand that “Hitler wasn’t really that bad a guy.” Then he played a blues song. Pretty weird/funny story. At this point I start to think to myself, “You know, come to think of it, glasses-bald dude looks incredibly like Moby.”

Yep. It’s totally Moby.

As it turns out, Moby is a really, really nice guy. Smart, too. Some people talk a lot of shit about Moby, about how he’s a wussy, a vegan weakling, or whatever. I say fuck that. Moby is down. Way down. I exchanged few words with him as he sat across from me in the circle, but he was cool, man. Still don’t care for his music much, but cheers to him anyway.

I sensed that James Barone was getting antsy and ready to leave, so we got up, and I wished them a good night: “Alright, I’m turning in. It was really nice to meet all of you…” I paused, looked at the douchy-dude. “Except you. You’re a bit iffy.” We left to the sound of laughter and the smell of wafting smoke.

Not that I care or anything, but the Four Seasons lobby is like the lion’s den of celebrity-dom. Roll call thus far:

Billy Gibbons

Billy Bob Thornton

Lyle Lovett

Lou Reed

And just added to the list as of 2:00 AM this morning, ICE CUBE.

People who stay at the Omni or Embassy are BLOWING IT.

End Transmission…

… and the award for this year “best sign (in a cab) goes too:

I caught an amazing set with Daniel Lanois on Wednesday at Pangea. Daniel Lanois - in case you didn’t know is one of the most amazing producers EVER (U2 & Bob Dylan to name a few). Daniel did a track with Synthesis.net favorite Rocco DeLuca - check it out:

Right now we’re held up in a hotel room with a band, Anarbor, two models, a couple hair (Lauryn) and makeup (Shay) people, and one awesome photographer (Barry Underhill), drinking hella Lone Stars and basically making a mess of things (sorry, housekeeping). Look for the photos from the shoot soon in an upcoming issue of Synthesis Digital. Behind the scene photo by Video Matt.

I awoke to try and get some work done down in the plush lobby here at the Four Seasons hotel, bar, grill and bath house, when I happened upon an absurd amount of people milling about. I thought it might just be another wave of tanned and fattened Hollywood hipster types (which makes up roughly 98 percent of the temporary populace of this gem) fresh off the plane, but it turns out that while we were all up in good ol’ room 508, the BMI Showcase was happening down on the grassy knoll banks of what we finally found out is called Ladybird Lake. An ocean of people were down, wincing in the sun, drinking free booze, enjoying free breakfast buffet (the good kind) and watching Kaki King perform. Wish I’d have known so I could take some pictures, but the point I’m trying to make here is that THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE! I know my last blog said something about if you’re not here, fuck you, or whatever, but seriously, some of you should get the fuck out of here. I can’t breathe…

All I’m sayin’ is that if there’s a walkway, don’t stand on it to chat with your friend about your new rad tat or compare the jeans you got for free from the Fader Fort; there are people behind you, baking in the heat and trying to get water. I saw five waiters become forced to spill their trays of glasses due to beligerent scenesters (who, um, by the way…what are you doing at the BMI showcase. That’s a real cred stacker…). Me, I think I’ll stick to downtown…

Plus…you should eat here if you’re downtown. Cheap, but quite delicious.

And don’t ever eat the pizza here. Ever.