South by Southwest is upon us once again here in Austin, TX. For those unfamiliar, SXSW is a huge festival split into music, film, and technology conferences and brings thousands of people to Austin every year. The events are well worth the price of admission, but my favorite reasons for attending are the networking opportunities and parties.

It can be difficult to decide which SXSW parties are worth your time, so this year I’m making it easy: I’m throwing my own unofficial day party. Bull Moose & Covert Curiosity Present is a partnership between music blog Covert Curiosity and my company, Bull Moose, and we’re going to be rocking it for six straight hours with seven bands!

The lineup features HEALTH, Hacienda, The Strange Boys, Ume, Golden Triangle, Shapes Have Fangs, and Garotas Suecas. Everything is happening on Thursday, March 19th at Aces Lounge on 6th, kicking off at the crack of noon.

Get more info and RSVP on the Bull Moose home page.

Before you get worried, he’s fine, but my younger brother Josh was in a car wreck earlier tonight. Another vehicle drove him off the road, forcing him straight into a telephone pole. Josh, the tough kid that he is, stumbled out of the car and ran after the other driver, trying to catch a glimpse of the license plate as he fled the scene.

The other driver got away. There was a police officer twenty yards away who somehow missed the entire thing. To top it all off, Josh just got a new (used) car last week. His previous one was totaled when another person hit him.

I hate the overwhelming feeling of absolute terror when you hear something like that. A loved one in a horrific situation. My little brother. Fear, anger, helplessness. Josh is alright, though. Danger averted.

It’s unsettling. The nagging feeling that I can’t always protect those around me. The reminder that someone I love could be gone so easily, so quickly, without warning. All the questions that follow that thought. The need to rely on Someone else.

It’s Christmas Eve in Texas and all is as it should be: The sisters are in the kitchen preparing for tomorrow’s feast, the young’ns (and old folks) are fast asleep, and I’m relaxing with the dogs as Christmas music plays in the background. I’m a sucker for the holidays. I love the food, the family, the lights, the music, the coldness, candlelight services, everything. I even have certain images associated with various Christmas songs. For instance, whenever I hear “The Christmas Song” I get a warm feeling and envision dancing with that special someone alone on Christmas Eve, the fireplace crackling in the background, the lights twinkling, the snow falling… I’m hopeless, I know.

Back to reality. The house is full, so this is the luxury suite that I will be occupying tonight (notice the bottle of wine on the dresser in case of emergency):

Merry Christmas y’all!

There are things in this world worth fighting for, nay, worth dieing for. Every man must find the cause which he believes in so strongly that even the thought of death becomes secondary to defending it. Only then can he truly live. I’d like to introduce you to one of the most selfless people that I’ve ever known. Even more, I want you to hear the story of his life focus, of his discovery of the one of the most vulgar modern atrocities… and I want you to join in the fight to stop it.

After being heavily involved in a grassroots movement spawned by a documentary on child soldiers in Uganda, Sean Carasso went on a six-day journalistic trip to central Africa to gain information and distribute donated shoes. He finally left four months later. Sean managed to intermittently update an online blog throughout his journey and wrote an incredible post detailing one of his experiences. Through email and the internet, that post reached over 30,000 people and has sparked a movement of its own: Falling Whistles.

Many of us have heard the stories of the child-soldiers. Invisible Children and stories such as A Long Way Gone have been groundbreaking in granting us glimpses into their tortured lives.

I had heard. Known. Cared. I had even reacted and raged. But when these boys told me of the whistles blowers, the horror grew feet and walked within me.

I cannot describe to you the pain and anguish that I feel through reading the story, or the anger at the inaction of the governments of the region. It’s heartbreaking. Often I ask myself, “What difference can I really make?” But there is hope.

Change starts with information. Read the story. Get informed. Pass it along. The first step is bringing light to the issue and not allowing ourselves to pass it over as just another “African problem.” This, and every issue like it, is a problem of which the responsibility to address lies on all of humanity.

The Falling Whistles organization is currently working with two locals who escaped, created successful lives of their own in America, and then chose to return to their homeland to help those left behind. All monies received are being sent to support their day center for children, a facility that provides for some of the most basic needs that we take for granted: shelter, water, food (when it’s available), and loving human contact. They also employ an art-therapy curriculum to help the rescued children relieve some of their buried emotional scars. This is the first step in helping these kids regain control over their lives.

We can stop this.

–

Visit Falling Whistles .com and read the story now.

Two-thousand and seven descends upon us, and as I look back I take note of what changes the year past brought with it. A New Year’s kiss had, one missed… a couple of very, very interesting relationships and friendships realized, and a few of which are uniquely dear to me… two different universities, one huge change… a brake in, a burnt down house, a car landing on the roof… many key firsts… turning 20… Voodoo Fest… Texas football… my first television appearance… great philosophical self-exploration… amazing siblings… a new dog… Robert Frost… Nietzsche… Fite Nite 06… Destin, New Orleans… sublime highs and devastating heartbreak… Austin…

2006 brought so much with it, but each year continues to be the best one yet. May yours be as wonderful as I believe mine will be.

I may have failed to mention that I went to the Voodoo Music Fest in New Orleans this past weekend!!! Two full days packed with over 65 bands playing all day and night, Bourbon Street, and the complete New Orleans experience: incredible. Unfortunately, I broke my camera halfway through the trip, but I do have about 50 pictures of the trip.

The group consisted of my buddy James, his friend Josie, my friend Katie and myself. We went up Friday, stopped by Baton Rouge to have lunch with my uncle, and then checked into our hotel in the late afternoon. After unpacking, we headed to the French Quarter and then on to Bourbon Street for the first night. To make a long story short, we saw fight and arrests within the first five minutes, went to some crazy bars, so how dirty the place is, and got into our own 15-person brawl… all on the first night, which was supposed to be ‘light.’

The next day was full of all kinds of awesome concerts. Every type of music was represented, from the Brazilian Girls, to Shooter Jennings, to the mother f*ckin Red Hot Chili Peppers. Speakin’ of which, we rocked out HUGE to the Chili Peppers from the VIP early on in their set (the headlining act of the festival) which we snuck into. After the two-hour show, the Chili Peppers put on an hour-and-a-half encore, including a 30 minute jam session with The Meters and a 20 minute finale rendition of ‘Give It Away.’ Such an amazing performance!

After another crazy night–in which we didn’t leave the bars till 7am–we chilled out for the first part of the day, just lounging on the grass listening to the bands play. The highlights of the afternoon were the Drive by Truckers, My Chemical Romance, Blue October, and of course The Flaming Lips. The Lips put on one of the most unique and sensory-overloading shows that I’ve ever scene. It’s indescribable… made me feel like an 8-year-old again, perfectly enjoying the ecstatic moment and at peace with everything. Ask me sometime, because it’s too much to explain here.

Such a great trip, the stuff college is made of… Music, crazy concerts, road trippin’, alcohol, and girls… Definitely see the Chili Peppers and/or Flaming Lips if you get the chance, I know I will. I’ll never forget the experience of Voodoo Fest ‘06!

If you watch tv, you might have heard of a little show on NBC called Friday Night Lights, based on the movie of the same name by Peter Berg and produce by the same. Well, in episode two, there is in fact a close-up of yours truly as a stunned football player learning of the fate of one of his teammates. Go to this link and then watch part five. Short, but sweet.

More shots uploaded. OU sucks, by the way.

This past weekend was crazy… To summarize, school is overwhelming but awesome, I amazingly got a ticket to the Texas-Ohio game, a car landed on my neighbor’s roof, I tailgated all weekend and had the most fun at the game, then that night was interesting and the following was completely enjoyable… So much to write about.

Let’s start with the ticket. For the big games at UT, if you don’t purchase seasons ticket and only have the student pass, you go into a raffle of sorts to get a ticket. They hand out roughly 20,000 wristbands with numbers on them, then they draw a random number and that person is the front of the line. Since there are only 2,000 available tickets, and very student can buy six, you better be damn near that number to have any chance of getting a ticket. Well, I was 26 BEFORE the number, so I was at the absolute end of the line. I had a plan, though.

The morning that tickets were to be actually bought, I showed up at the ticket office dressed in orange with my dog, Cain, also dressed up. I carried a sign that read “will do trix for tix” and flirted with every girl there in an attempt to get a ticket. (As a side note, tickets were sold for anywhere from $300 to $2000.) Well, I lucked out and one girl decided at the last minute to buy me one! She ended getting the very last six tickets, making it even more amazing that I got one.

On to the car fiasco. Friday night I went out partying, then to sixth street, then to tailgating, and I got home around 4am. I was sitting in my room when I heard an something come flying down the street and then two extremely large crash sounds, the unquestionable sounds of a bad auto accident. The easiest explanation is this: the driver came down my street going about 80mph, swerved to the right, which is where my house was, then overcorrected to the left, went up onto the grass, and he hit a curb which is what got him airborne. He actually clipped through someone’s dining room, hit a car parked in the driveway and then rolled onto the roof. To see pictures, click here. Definitely something you don’t see every day! And the driver, amazingly enough, only suffered a smashed left leg.

The next day I crawled out of bed around noon and we invited over a bunch of friends to get warmed up before we went tailgating. We had a keg for lunch among us, then jumped on a bus down to campus. I could elaborate on the day, but it would take forever. A few things of note: Auzzie chicks, the gong, shotgunning in the street with cops, tackling an Ohio fan and wrestling in the middle of the tailgaters, free food, jumping on the stadium roof to steal back my sign, burnt orange everwhere!

Needless to say, the result of the game was disappointing. So much so that I don’t even want to get into it here. But be sure and check out all the new pictures I uploaded. Till next time…

No time for the internet, I’ve been soo busy just loving everything about life in the ATX at the UT…! Classes are moderately tough, lots of homework, but great profs and classmates… Austin continues to amaze me with all the wonderful eccentricities that it contains… New friends are great, old friends are awesome… Philosophy, psychology, more philosophy… First Thursday rocks my face off, Barton Springs is freezing, the days are beautiful, and the nights are a blast… And Ohio is gonna get its ass kicked this Saturday! Party starts tonight at midnight and doesn’t end until we kick those sons-of-a-bitches out of Texas!

My computer is broken once again, but I’ll be uploading a bunch of new photos whenever I get it fixed… Until then, just know that there is WAY too much going on to write about. I love it…