March 14 2014
note: this post was written *white-hot* in response to a horrific traffic homicide in Austin at SxSW festival – i won’t share links to the disaster here to pollute my archive but for context, have added in a forgotten channel if needed / consider this a warning if car accidents are a terror to you as well :(
In my first year *not* at SXSW in seven years, I woke on this strange day of March 13 where so many good things and so many bad things happened in my small world to read the news that last night another bad thing happened.
I don’t want to go into details but March 13 – besides being my older brother’s birthday and the day I presented fck stats make art at SXSW – has also been a day which has seen sadness and tragedy and frustration and confusion in the most profound and tearjerking ways.
Before I heard the news of what happened in Austin last night, I reminisced about a dearly departed whose life was lost around that same hour on that same day two years ago – and when I saw the news all I could think about is my friends at South by. Once I saw the details I realized that I stayed in apartment right across from Mohawk, walked the same blocks and streets around Red River and Ninth, I would’ve likely been at that X or Kurt Vile show at the Mohawk, or hanging out outside getting a giant plate of six dollar barbecue from that stand on the corner.
It could’ve been me it could’ve been you.
After smashing my face on a moped just months ago, I was chilled thinking of the two people happily cruising the streets of beloved sultry Austin on the mopeds and in an instant they were transported to whatever happens next.
I think of the confusion and frustration that this caused so many people: the friends, the families, the hospital staff, the Sx organizers, the venue operators, the musicians – but mostly the people who work so hard and saved and planned all the logistics to make this trip down to see their bands that they love to interact with their peers and to live this remarkable experience and to have those dreams, logistics, dollars, expectations dashed with this spurt of irresponsible chaos.
Support your friends and do not underestimate the impact of witnessing such ridiculous horror has on any one of our minds.
Breathe, walk, take a hike, cry, and be grateful that you are here, were there – breathing, there’s something more for you to do.
Carry-on dear intrepid fans, bands, volunteers, organizers, venues. Do not let such random recklessness delay the important tasks of goodness before you.
I’ve had tussles with the Austin police (no details here) and also been at late-night hospitals in Austin (also no details) and know the strange surreal feeling of going from the most fantastic exuberant emotions to the cold reality of tubes, wires, bills, and blood.
I don’t wish an experience of these rapid changes of reality on anyone – especially as someone who has spent a lot of time in hospitals in the last eight months and witnessed death of a dearest one in the most profound divine manner possible just scant weeks ago.
Our futures are all intertwined with the actions of people we will never meet so the best we can do is intrepidly move towards our dreams and express everything we can while we are in control of these bodies that our minds tote around.
Love and blessings to all in Austin and the families of those afflicted however far-flung they may be – sent on a gossamer thread around the world from my 18th floor recuperation suite overlooking freighters and a gray horizon.