CHARMING NOISE | SXSW 2014 (A RECAP)

Another SXSW has come and gone. Over two weeks ago, I know, but I've got a lot on my mind. It's always hard to visit Austin for me. It reminds me of how much I love that place, and how much like home it feels. It hasn't help that while I was in the midst of my post-Austin blues, I found out that I didn't get a job that I had really wanted. Being unemployed and away from home has been hard, and made harder by the fact that this winter was so cold and snowy, but hopefully with spring on the horizon and, even more hopefully, new job opportunities around the corner, things will be looking up soon.

Without further ado, here's my short recap of SXSW 2014:

+ drinks at blackheart + brussel sprout salad at east side king +

+ gelato at dolce neve + pizza at homeslice +

Just a small snapshot of all the food that I ate while in Austin. 

+ 6th st. before everything began + house of vans show on wednesday +

+ south bites trailer park + more pre-crazy 6th st. +

Austin is so beautiful. Especially when it's not jam-packed full of people.

+ outdoor stage at cheer up charlies + eagulls at house of vans +

+ ema at under the radar + gems at under the radar +

We saw a lot of great stuff. So much that I frankly can't remember it all. Highlights were EMA, GEMS (who we ended up seeing twice we liked them so much. They also win the 'most attractive band' award), Eagulls, Future Islands, Connan Mockasin, Yellow Ostrich, Small Black... the list goes on. 

Of course I can't write a post about SXSW without mentioning the horrible incident that happened this year. I don't really think that it was a result of how insane the festival is getting in terms of size (although it's obvious that that's a whole other issue), but it's a tragedy and I hope that accidents like these remind everybody how ridiculously dumb it is to drink and drive.

On a lighter note, the festival was a lot of fun, but yes, so so so packed and a little out of control. I can't blame people for wanting to come though, Austin is pretty great. 

BLUE SKIES, GOOD FOOD

A recap of yet another trip to Austin. Can you tell that I escape from Minnesota as often as possible? As  you may have already guessed, it has been a rough year. Going from a city that I loved where I was working in my field (a feat in itself these days, as writing jobs are hard to come by) to a city that I'm less than thrilled about where I am feeling very adrift career-wise has been hard, but I know it's just one blip on a much larger path. Thank the dear sweet lord we are moving to the East Coast this summer, to a place that will hopefully offer a lot more culturally and give me somewhat of chance at finding a decent job. But back to Austin. The weather, even though it did manage to skyrocket up into the 90s, felt like pure perfection to me as my dry winter skin sopped up all of that beautiful Texas humidity. I drank enough coffee to fuel most human beings for a year, and ate more than my share of food. That kimchi ramen from East Side King at Hole in the Wall, made we wish that I could just have an ESK trailer in my backyard. The other images are of Zilker Park, which I rarely ever spend time at when not attending Austin City Limits, but we took my parents' dog out for jaunt with his fellow four-legged friends and I couldn't get enough of the sprawling green space after living in a wonderland of grey snowy slush for the past five months. 

The weather managed to get into the 70s this past weekend in Minnesota, and I was so happy that I wanted to cry and hug every person on the sunny Minneapolis streets on Saturday. Let's just hope it sticks. Edit: The high today is 44... sigh.

I hope the few of you that read this blog are well! Let's hope that May is the start to a great summer. 

SXSW | FOOD

Cocktail at Drink.Well // Taco at El Primo // Pork Belly Sandwich at East Side King

Well, it took about a full week to recover from the energy suck that is South by Southwest. It was extremely fun and extremely exhausting all at once, like most great things are. I spent last week trying to catch up on sleep and feeling a little bit like death for the majority of the time, but after plenty of food that would not appear on the food pyramid, and way too much chipotle, I'm ready to get back on track with productivity and eating foods that occur in nature. The music talk will come later this week, but let's start with the second best part of SXSW: the food. This year was a particularly good time for eats because Paul Qui (Top Chef winner and adorable genius) curated SouthBites over on Rainey St and Driskill, and despite being a bit of a trek, we managed to eat there twice. My boyfriend had a run-in with some mediocre BBQ, but every other morsel that entered out mouths was beyond delicious. Unsurprisingly the winner of the whole trailer park was East Side King, which I ate at both visits. I had a pork belly sandwich (pork belly, pickled veg, some sort of mayo, Hawaiian-style roll) which I still have dreams about and the Kara-agé Kimchee Yakisoba which I could have eaten a vat of. All in all, it was a food lover's paradise. 

WEEKENDING

coffee, coffee, and more coffee / sushi at kome / manicure

Sometimes I feel like my travels revolve around coffee... probably because they do. While back in Austin, I drank a lot of coffee, ate a lot of food, and soaked up the 70 degree weather. It was dreamy. 

I don't know about you, but I am incredibly excited for Thanksgiving! It will be my first time cooking the whole meal, and while I am intimidated (see: incredibly intimidated), I am eager to test out my skills. Happy short work week everyone! 

WEEKENDING

spyhouse / magers & quinn / blackbird / pork bun / peanut noodles

I have to say that I definitely enjoyed my long weekend, which is probably evident by the fact that I didn't get back on here to post about it until today. Having just moved to Minnesota, we don't know much about our closest metropolis, Minneapolis, so we decided to get out and explore. On Saturday we found, I kid you not, our dream coffee shop. I always thought that Austin would hold my favorite cafe to laze at (I love you Houndstooth), but Spyhouse officially wins the award for best ambience. I could literally rhapsodize for days about how perfectly homey this place is, but I'll refrain. On top of being beautiful the coffee and confections were topnotch. Needless to say, I'll be back (I'd be there everyday if it weren't for the whole being 65 miles away thing). The rest of the day involved a badass bookstore, a great record store and a crazy good meal at Blackbird.

On next weekends agenda? A Rembrandt exhibit and copious amounts of espresso.