ACLFest

ACL Fest

I went to visit Alisha and Brad in Austin, Texas last weekend. It was the weekend of the ACLFest (Austin City Limits Festival). I will blog about the time with them in another blog. I took so many pictures, I had to split them up!

130 bands, eight stages, three days.

Here I am at the main entrance. It's my first time! This was the 7th year for ACLFest.

Here's the top of the "info" station.

This is looking towards the AT&T stage with the skyline in the background. How cool!

All weekend long, you saw people carrying around a bag for cans and bottles. You got a free t-shirt when you filled one up. "Keep Austin Weird" is one of the slogans, Keep Austin Green should be another. There were barely any chain restaurants anywhere in the city. During the festival, instead of the vendors you see at other festivals in their little trailers, ACL hosts local restaurants. It's called A Taste of Austin. Each restaurant has a few choices from their regular menu. It was great food!

Friday:

Here I am sampling some BBQ brisket! Yum! It's bigger in Texas.

Saturday:

This was a group called Band of Heathens. They all had their own bands, but would fill in for one another when band members were missing. Soon they created their own sound and joined together to create the one band. They were from Austin.

We hung out at the Austin Kiddie Limits tent with Maddy. (who's birthday was also on Saturday. When I asked her, on Friday, what tomorrow was, she replied, "ACLFest." I had to prompt her to tell me it was her birthday. She knows what's important!) This was the Q Brothers. The brother in the sleeveless shirt is the bass drummer from the movie "Drumline". They were fun!

Here's a group that I had read about in the program, Yonder Mountain String Band. They played at the small tent. It turns out, they were awesome!

Saturday was the hottest day of the three. The temperature was in the 90's the entire time I was there. (I came back to 50 degree weather!) We took a dip in Barton Springs where the water temperature is 68 all year round! I am exlaiming that it wasn't cold. Not compared to Lake Superior, which at it's warmest is only 50 some degrees! I really wasn't cold at all! I was prepared for chilly water, but it was most refreshing!

Saturday evening for dinner I tried the sloppy nachos. They were smothered in cheese and beef! Delicious!

Sunday:

Alisha and I sat and listened to the South Austin Jug Band. Another local band, much like the Yonder Mountain String band, but no jug! They were great! We walked over to hear the Raconteurs, but ended up coming back to SAJB because we liked their style of music better. (The Raconteurs were screaming when we walked over to hear their "music".)

While Alisha and Brad sat over in Austin Kiddie Limits listening to the Jimmies again (we heard them Saturday) Anil, Scott and I headed over to the AMD stage and listened to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. We were about to head back to the Kiddie tent to hear Nicole Atkins, when Gillian said she had a special guest (they did this quite often during the festival) so we waited to find out who it was. It was Alison Krauss. They sang "Go to Sleep Little Babe" from "O Brother Where Art Thou". It was great! The entire audience started clapping along.

Here is Nicole Atkins over at Austin Kiddie Limits. She said we were the most attentive audience she had ever had, which also made us the most terrifying. We were giving her our full attention. It was also the most crowded that tent had been!

The Sunday night headliner/festival closer was the Foo Fighters. There was no other band (like Friday and Saturday nights) so EVERYONE was over at the AT&T stage (I wouldn't mind a new phone for all this free advertising I'm giving AT&T!). We were about a quarter of a mile away from the stage. It was crazy! But fun!

Alisha and me posing for a photo shot!

It was also very dusty! The first day I wore flip flops and my feet got a little dirty. We decided we didn't get sunburned because the dust was a natural sunblock!

Look for my post about Austin!

joining in

What's the hottest topic anyone and everyone seems to be talking about? The election of course. I tend to lean towards the not-so-interested-but-still-votes crowd. I'm not throwing in my two cents, but I am offering you a website so that you can verify your facts before you persuade anyone who to vote for. Check it out. This is my kind of political stand.

By the way, if you're a woman and you can vote, and you're reading this. Go vote. It hasn't even been one hundred years that women have had the right to vote and they fought very hard to get that right. Don't throw it away. Use it.

blue, my favorite color...

You are type: Blue

12 Bl

9 Gr

8 Gl

7 Or

BLUE - To Love and be Loved
Congratulations, you are a primary Blue. Your heart-felt communication style creates peace and harmony in the workplace. You know how to bring out the best in others. Your complete color spectrum is shown above.

Your heart-felt communication style creates peace and harmony in the workplace. You know how to bring out the best in others. As a Blue personality you are gifted with tremendous people skills.

You're a heart felt communicator who has a strong need to make a difference in the lives of other people. This strength is immediately noticeable in the way you make connections and bring out the best in those you encounter. People usually feel relaxed and comfortable in your presence.

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To find out what you are, click here

Have fun! -Emily

Would you like fries with that?

Here it is. The break down. County by county. Do you agree? Do you care what other people call it? My only thing is that I do like Coke over Pepsi. So, in the south after asking for a coke, I'd have to follow up with, "do you have Coke or Pepsi?" They always thought I was weird....

Follow the link to the actual page here where you will find out why they call it a soft drink. (such an obvious explanation, yet I learned something new!)

the Pork Festival

For those of you who grew up in small towns, you can probably appreciate a festival. I grew up where there were several to choose from. The Apple Festival in Niles, where I was born. The Atlanta Earth Festival (Indiana, not Georgia). And the Tipton Pork Festival. As a member of my high school marching band, I marched in both parades at the Tipton Pork Festival. One was Thursday evening, marking the opening of the festival and the other was Saturday, when it was a much bigger parade (about an hour and a half long). The Tipton Pork Festival is known for, well you guessed it, pork. Local, Hoosier pork.

Only recently did I discover that the Pork Tenderloin sandwich is an Indiana thing. It happened when Heather and I went to visit Stephanie at Culver Academy in Culver, Indiana. We dubbed it "Chilton", and enjoyed at lunch at "Luke's" Diner. Not really. In fact I think it was called Rosie's... I can't remember. I was going to get a simple BBQ pulled pork sandwich, and then I saw it. The Pork Tenderloin. As I screeched in excitement, Stephanie and Heather thought I was nuts. That was when I realized they had no idea what I was excited about. This was something that was a monthly lunch staple all throughout my school days. It was part of the Pork Festival. Everyone knows what a pork tenderloin is. Or at least that it's a sandwich. Nope. Only those in Indiana know the delicious-ness of the tenderloin sandwich. That was when I realized not only was this an "Indiana" thing, but also that I had not attended the Pork Festival since 1999. It was time to go back.

The 40th Pork Festival was held the 4th, 5th, and 6th of September. I made it to my parents on Thursday night. On Saturday morning, we had our plans laid out. Dad still helps out with the Hamilton Heights Marching Band, and he left before 11am to go to the school. Mom and I went and watched Skylar play soccer. Then we headed up to Tipton.

The Pork Festival takes place around the Courthouse. I believe that all the courthouses in Indiana were built on a square. The town square, if you will. The four streets that surround the courthouse are completely taken over with food tents, trailers, merchandise tents, and people. The roads are closed around the square, and then closed off for the parade (sadly, I don't remember how long the parade route is... it's not too long unless it's a really hot day)


Our first stop was the Pork Tent. Mom got the BBQ pork sandwich and I headed over to find my Pork Tenderloin. My favorite toppings include: mayo and pickles. I will also eat it with tomatoes and lettuce. As you can see, it is pounded flat, breaded and then fried. And is much bigger then the bun! It was as good (even better) then I remember!

Then we headed over to find a good spot to watch the parade. The weather was perfect. It was in the mid-seventies, small clouds dotted the bright blue sky and there was a light breeze.

There are several bands that come from two counties to march in the parade. I'm pretty biased, but HHHS band looked the best this year! They were the biggest (that was not always the case back in my day), best dressed and sounded the best. We always complained about our brown top/white bottomed uniforms, but compared to Noblesville's all black, I'll take the brown and white all over again!

Here is one of the many Pigs in the parade!

Yup! Even an elk make an appearance. Yes, it's a real elk. Only to an elk can you say, "check out his rack!"

The man in the motorized wheel chair turned before I snapped the picture, I was trying to get his shirt which read, "When Pigs Fly"... And if you can tell, that is a flying pig on his head.

These were spray painted on the ground all around pointing to the Pork Tent! Just in case your nose was confused.

My favorite sight of the day was while we were eating. I was facing towards the outside of the tent. The Italian Sausage cart was very lonely. People don't go to the Pork Festival to eat Italian Sausages. All the vendors who had pork, corn and drinks had long lines. My favorite part of the day was when I got my elephant ear! Yum! Those are my favorite at any festival!

Just so you know, I was going to plan my next festival trip to the famous Popcorn Festival in Valparaiso, Indiana. When I visited the website, much to my disapointment did I find out that it is the same Saturday as the Pork Festival.... Next year there will be some strategic planning.

Here's to Pork, the other white meat