Raw For Lent Days 28-31 SXSW edition!

Tuesday Day 28:

I woke up at 4:30AM, and attempted to down a green smoothie.  You should know I'm not much of a flyer.  I took some anti-anxiety meds, and conked out with Miss Steve, then woke up in AUSTIN!

We arrived very early and it was very cold, so we wandered around looking for a credit union for a while, and I picked up a Cashew Chai beverage at Snap, which was the only raw thing they had besides juice.

We wandered into Maggie Maes on 6th, and got to talking with the bartender, who distills Korean whiskey.  I got his info and will definitely pay him a visit in Brooklyn when I am next there.

From there, we hit Mohawk and saw:
Lemuria (RIYL Del Cielo) - a female fronted, but otherwise somewhat generic unimpressive pop-rock band
Beach fossils (RIYL The Cure, New Order, lots of spring reverb) - who were PERFECT for a sunny afternoon show



Chelsea Light Moving: (RIYL Sonic Youth, Slint) Thurston Moore's new band with Samara Lubelski.  Given Lubelski's style, I just assumed it would be more like A Thousand Leaves/Murray Street era, but turns out, this was more Sister, Confusion is Sex old school noise punk with some "prettier" elements.



CLM became overwhelming for Miss Steve so we ended up grabbing our luggage and bouncing to meet Kyle, then hit up Whole Foods for dinner.

Dinner, lesigh, I wish our Whole Foods had a raw bar.  I did marinated vegetable salad and "Tuna" salad, which was a little overly oniony for me.

Walked past either Guards (RIYL Fun., Burning Hearts) or Ghost Beach (RIYL Neon Trees, Dinosaur Feathers, the soundtrack to Weekend at Bernie's) playing, stopped and listened for a minute.  They're both pretty decent.

We tried to get into Viceland-Mohawk-Antone's and all were wristbands only! Things got a lot tighter this year for credentials.

We met up with Juan Huevos and Shirlette at Halcyon Lounge, then went looking for food-- at midnight thirty, which landed us at Bikini's on 6th, which is a sad, sad bar.  It basically ended our night.

Weds Day 29

I fixed myself a breakfast of Qia and shake, and good thing because the "Food Co-op" I entered sold like...cheetos.

We headed uptown to this Urban Outfitters party that had free pizza and free beer (god, being raw sucked there).  Got to see:
Mount Moriah (RIYL Cat Power, the Shivers) in full for the first time.  That's kind of embarrassing, but it was super great and mesmerising.


Icky Blossoms (RIYL CSS, Animotion) who I have been listening to a lot leading up to SxSW.  The soundguy definitely struggled to balance them and they front-loaded the set with songs I don't love, but they recovered and won over Steve and Kyle with the woahwoahs.


The boys wanted to see Spider Bags so we bailed before Nu Sensae (RIYL Hole, Mika Miko) and Icono Pop (RIYL Shampoo, Kenickie).  We headed over to Gypsy Lounge for the Sailor Jerry's party where they had Tattoo Darts (bad idea) and caught Spider Bags (RIYL Hunx and his Punx, loud and drunk dudes), then inexplicably hung around for Natural Child (RIYL the Dukes of Hazzard Soundtrack) who were a super twangy bummer.  At that point, I was also mad hungry and crabby.

We hit Whole Foods for dinner, where I hit the raw bar again, this time trying raw pad thai (HOLY YUMMY), avocado kale salad and a hail merry tart.  Felt human again.

I peeled off from the boys and headed to Oil Can Harry's to check out Bentley Mode and SOOKEE can rap, man!  NC/Deutschland Representing!


On the way across town, I popped in at Avenue and caught The Away Days (RIYL Coldplay, We Were Promised Jetpacks).

Finally made my way to the Saddle Creek showcase:
UUVVWWZ - (RIYL Deerhoof, but think they're too poppy) NOW HAS a signer!  The addition of this dancing signer just adds a whole new amazing dimension of weird to the live show. Singer (Emily? Met her after the set, but was engaged in conversation with someone else) was magnetic, can really sing and I was pretty mesmerized by the show.


Big Harp (RIYL Noah and the Whale, but think their records are too "polished") featuring members of The Good Life/Bright Eyes touring section and Art in Manila, the whole is definitely less than the sum of its parts.  Good example of road warriors who can play the hell out of instruments...but can't write very good songs.
Pujol (RIYL Jay Reatard, Zeus) - better than I remembered, tight as fuck, garagey and a great sense of humor
Icky Blossoms - totally a night time band.  Killed it.

Thurs Day 30:

Telekinesis fail!  I misread the showlist and got us to a show just in time to see...Chelsea Light Moving.  Whoops!

We wandered over to DeVille's which was sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery and saw:
Widowspeak (RIYL Lush, Sarah Records)- they had rad tour jackets and played dreamy shoe gaze like with a singer like a somber Jill Sobule
Bleeding Rainbow (RIYL Tiger Trap, but think they're too poppy) - liked reading rainbow better as a name band just noisy sound terrible.  the sound overall that day was not good, but I felt like I was being aurally assaulted.
The Soft moon (RIYL Joy Division) the songs are good but are more for a headphones alone or sexytime thing than a fun afternoon outdoor party.

We left to try and get a foot in at the Brooklyn Vegan show at what used to be Emo's
Metz (RIYL Minor Threat, Punk-o-Rama) very loud/aggressive.  They made me feel old
Cloud nothings (RIYL: Sunny Day Real Estate, The Replacements) rocking out lots of new stuff, and god do I love this band.

We hit up a restaurant for dinner which was NOT GOOD.

Got to Merge showcase early:
Barren girls (RIYL The Donnas, but think they play their instruments too well) dressed like 80/ glam rock groupies, struggled to play forgettable 3 chord pop punk songs, keyboardist looked like someone just told her that her puppy got run over by her mother.  I know this sounds really sour grapes, but seriously, I'm still at a point where I would cut someone's achilles tendon to sign to merge/play an official showcase at SxSW for a reputable label and I am just not seeing what Merge sees in this band.
William Tyler (RIYL fingerstyle guitar)  Hey guy!  You play fingerstyle guitar well and have a thing about Heaven's Gate. Good for you! (hired gun syndrome!)
Mikal Cronin (RIYL Ty Segall, Kula Shaker without the arrogance) good psychy 60s style rock
Mount Moriah again
Telekinesis (RIYL The Rentals, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists)  - adorable.  I was essentially blinded by my desire to spend my days with this man and the warm memories of touring to the records.  Played a lot of new songs so it sounds like the new one will be pretty darn good!


Friday Day 31

I spent the morning at the MEOW luncheon and learned about MEOW Con, which is at a terribly inconvenient time (either my cousin's wedding or ROMBA interferes with it).

Headed to BD Riley's for the Full Irish Breakfast:
Squarehead (RIYL Wavves, Beach Boys) rad straightforward rock, with a twangy, beachy feeling I wouldn't expect from an Irish band.

Delorentos (RIYL Arcade Fire, Deleted Scenes) uncomplicated lots of harmonies pop rock.  They were fine, but are obviously pretty famous in Ireland
Funeral suits (RIYL Futureheads, Wolf Parade) electro infused "epic rock"
Ash (RIYL Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Stereophonics) thought-packed pop rock songs with interesting touches

Headed to whole foods for dinner and had the pad thai again, this time over a salad and got into a chat with some of the other folks at the "restaurant."

Last, I tried to go see DIIV (whose SXSW tantrum was not cute, btw) and Joy Formidable, but the show was wristbands only.  Instead, I went over to Mohawk and saw:
Spider Bags (again? really?)
Widowspeak (again!)
Dawes (RIYL chode rock, southern style) - but mostly just overheard them
2 songs from Ducktails (RIYL Real Estate, Vampire Weekend) who Kyle said were the worst but I thought they were okay

then we went home so we could wake up 4 hours later. :)

Thx SXSW, it was fun!

Raw for Lent 32-37

Saturday Day 32:
Guac and salad
Salad at Piedmont

Sunday day 33:
I have no idea.

Monday day 34:
Kale Chips
Guac and salad

Tuesday Day 35:
Kale Chips
Guac and salad

Wednesday Day 36:
Kale Chips
macaroons
Almond butter tart
Guac and Salad

Thursday Day 37
Cantaloupe protein shake with lemon juice
Salad and guac

This has been a mad boring week, but basically I go to whole foods daily and buy salad and guac and then eat it because I am lazy.

Raw for Lent: Days 25-27:

Saturday Day 25:
Woke up and snarfed the Ying Yang cookies from Luna's...I prefer the Hail Merry ones because they are smaller and more consistent, but they're similarly delicious.

While doing work around the house, I had a pear, a banana and some sauer kraut.

At work, watching the Duke UNC game, we snacked on snap peas.

Late night was a grapefruit and some cashews.  It was, overall, uneventful.

Sunday Day 26:
Had a pear on the way to work, then hit work hard!  On the way home I managed to drop some dollars at whole foods (whatever, things were on sale) and cut up a cauliflower and made some guacamole to eat with it.

Had a very productive band practice (Come see us on Saturday the 16th at Bull McCabes Moustache Contest!), then met the new roomie, who seems cool enough.  Went out with this kid NN who, for all intents and purposes is CB's deepest competition because he is a regular person who is quiet and maybe too nice or too concerned with being nice, but I like him and swear that if I hadn't had this recent crazy magnetizing experience I'd probably have done something shameful.  But, hooray sobriety.

We had dinner at Dos Perros and knowing everyone who serves there is amazing.  Also, I really want to go back when I can eat something besides a salad with guacamole again because the new vegan dishes look bangin.  NN and I wandered the bars a bit.  I took a gamble, taking him to the Fed, but I knew in my heart I had nothing to worry about.  The evening was very nice with the exception of the small slip of taking a piece of gum, just didn't occur to me that I shouldn't until all that sweet sweet xylitol hit my tongue...

Got home and finished my cauliflower and had a Hail Merry tart for dessert.

Monday Day 27:
Made 2 batches of mega green smoothie:

Batch 1:
Head lettuce
Tomato
Cucumber
half pepper
Lemon juice

Batch 2:
Head Lettuce
Tomato
Celery
half pepper
Lemon Juice

and also housed another hail merry.  I slept super late-- almost til 12 today with all the blinds open.  Put together my bookshelf, getting kale chips going.  Trying to figure out what I'm bringing to SXSW and am being encouraged to bring only a backpack but god, that seems like not enough things, particularly when you take into account food and toiletries.

Handful of cashews late in the day for a boost as I continue to house Green smoothie (ounces upon ounces!), as well as some sauer kraut and guac with flax crackers.

Raw for lent Day 20-24:

Monday Day 20:

Just another day.  Mom is here, we went for a walk to Fosters to get her some coffee, then I came home and made a banana/strawberry/kale/hemp/maca/cacao/epic protein shake.  I used that italian style kale which has a stronger flavor than the regular stuff, but it was still cool.

We hit up Classic Treasures and saw some really nice pieces but nothing that will be my record table.  Replaced my roommate's bananas that my mom mistakenly ate. :)

Practiced for March 16th night show with the Jos.  Need to learn the words to all these darn songs!

Late lunch, cut up a cauliflower and had it with broccoli, watched some downtown abbey (still can't get into it), then met LY for dinner at Sage.  I had a tropical salad (arugula, avocado, cabbage, hearts of palm) which was tasty, but not as big as I remembered.  Maybe I just got spoiled by that ridiculous Atlanta place.

Came home and watched The Queen of Versailles, and weirdly, just felt bad for the lady because her children saw it best: David Siegel does not love her, or his kids.  He loves success.  Forget that.

Tuesday Day 21:

CHARLOTTE!

Mom and I hopped in the car around 10.  I fixed us green smoothies for breakfast (Kale, Parsley, Celery, Tomato, Orange Pepper, Lemon Juice), then went to Ikea, which is nicer than I thought it was. I actually really liked the aesthetic and would totally use their stuff if redoing a room in my house in the future.  I got a nightstand, bookshelf and a new rug.

Following Ikea, we went to South Park Mall and looked at all the expensive clothes at Hermes and Neiman Marcus. I grabbed an unsweetened Lemon Sage Lavender tea at Teavana for a little pick me up.
For dinner, we drove to Old Charlotte and hit up Luna's Living Kitchen.  Luna's is small but cozy and our waiter was new and kind of feckless, but nice enough and we got (most of) our food eventually.  We had:
Sprout It Out Salad - delicious, dressing wins my heart.
Divine Bowl - I didn't realize entrees came with a huge side salad with that bangin tahini dressing, but even so, the bowl was great.  Mimicks a thai style curry.
Lemon Wildberry cheesecake - by far the highlight of the meal.  This was the best raw cheesecake I've ever eaten.  My mother clearly agreed, because I have never in my life had to fight her for my share of dessert.  It was light, airy and very tart, just a dream.

We stopped at Concord Mills on the way home so I could outlet shop for some shoes and a new skirt, then arrived home, where my mom also expressed her newfound love for Hail Merry Macaroons and asked if I wanted one for a bedtime treat.

Wednesday Day 22:

I dropped mom off at airport then had my take out Lunasagna for Bfast!  This was probably the best choice, and one I should've just made but man, raw lasagna is such a cliche.  Theirs was flavorful and the mushrooms added a nice "meaty" texture to it that I dug.

Later in the day, after building one piece of Ikea furniture, I had some of that not-so-great anymore raw cheesecake from whole foods and a hail merry chocolate almond tart.  Super sweet tooth, I know.

I had a grapefruit for dinner before Pub Quiz, where I totally HOUSED the classical music round but it didn't matter because everything in the last round was impossible.  We got 3 right and managed 2nd place.  The boys were a little flighty for various reasons so I left early.

When I got home, I did mango/cashews for evening snack and watched some West Wing.

Thursday Day 23:

For Breakfast, I pounded some lemon cookies from Lunas, then cleaned the room a little before heading to the barn.  I lunged Jazz before the lesson (Supposed to start at 3) and we didn't mount until about 3:30, because at the last second I switched bay horses.  I do not love riding the one I ended up on, but he's still a good dude and easy enough.

On the way home, stopped at Earth Fare and bought a bunch of stuff.  Snack was guac and flax crackers.  I went to work at 8pm, and nobody was there.  Nobody was out either, so I went home to continue cleaning up.  About an hour later, I got a text from CB about hanging out, so I had some snap peas and kombucha, finished what I was doing and went to meet him at the Fed.  We stayed out pretty late, which was crazy given that I am sober, but it was still fun.

Friday Day 24:

Woke up and ate some more sugar snap peas before driving out to Fuquay to hang out with CB again.  Got done there just in the nick of time to house a little Guac and flax cracker before work, then headed to help out at Blu.

It got pretty busy and I definitely earned my salad.  After work, I went out and drank water at Surf club with friends.  Late night I ended up having a mango as a snack then hitting the hay.

Raw for lent: days 18-19

Saturday, Day 18:

Accomplished very little.  Foodwise, was mango, cantaloupe, kale chips, some cashews.  I didn't realize how little I ate yesterday until just now, but I spent a lot of time writing a stupid paper.

Sunday, Day 19:

A pear and a few dates for breakfast at work, then came home and made the protein/banana/cacao/raspbery shake action.  My mom came into town and took me on a whole foods shopping spree which essentially ended in me buying a bunch of sweets!

Dinner was guacamole with romaine made into tiny delicious burritos and a dessert of a couple of macaroons.  Had band practice, watched trading spaces.  Got a big day tomorrow and then maybe on Tuesday a trip to the Charlotte Ikea!  My mom was like "Charlotte!  They have a Neiman Marcus!"  And I am like, of course my mom knows the location of every Neiman Marcus in America.  But hey, it could be fun seeing the Queen City again.  I heard they've got a pretty sweet raw foods spot out there.

This lent has been pretty uneventful compared to previous lents that have always included a sweet March tour.  I'm a little bummed that no tour has happened, but SxSW is still coming!  So in honor of its glory, I've made mixtapes of Icky Blossoms, Christeene, Cloud Nothings and Ash.  Yes, I know not to expect Cloud Nothings.

Raw for Lent: Days 14-17

Tuesday, Day 14:

Got up and went to last day of class.  Skipped breakfast, I know, shame on me.  It was an awful icky day.  Stopped to pick up some layering tanks at old navy, then came home and made some "sushi" -- lightly food processed cauliflower "rice" with nori, cukes and avocado as well as some unpasteurized nama shoyu (which is, btw, so much saltier for some reason...probably because it was like, fizzy when I opened it).

I also tore into some of this mayan chocolate stuff that tastes kind of like coffee, it's very bitter.  Not awful but not my fav.  I had about 3 pieces before giving up.

I realized I had run out of savory sundries and still can't bring myself to just drink my protein like a good girl, so I ran out and bought some kale chips, "cheesecake" celery, kale and lettuce to snack on.

So, I ate the kale chips and this RAWesome raw cheesecake that is so delicious that it gets to live with Hail Merry in the world of "things I would eat all the time anyway" then passed out from being old.

Wednesday Day 15:

Hit the gym, this is 1/3 of the way there y'all!  Foodstuffs for the day include: honeydew melon, cashews, mango, sauer kraut.

Thursday Day 16:
Another morning of gym time, then some chocolate macaroons.  Dinner became a protein drink with 1 T maca, 2 T cacao, 4 scoops epic, 1 T hemp seed, 1 banana and 1 C raspberries.

Friday, Day 17:
Morning made an exact replica of last night's protein drink dinner. and took my midterm which was way harder than anticipated.  Snack was Kale Chips.  Passed out at 8pm.

I also wish there were an easier way to get photos up in this blog.