I seem to be taking my husband to the Positivus Festival.

One of the things that surprises me about my life is that I've been to the Positivus music festival in Salacgriva, Latvia more than once. I've written extensively about the festival. I've seen American and European acts there, I've slept (briefly) backstage and I've been out way past the time when the sun came up. (Then again, since the sun comes up around 4 a.m. during the festival, it isn't too hard to stay up past dawn.)

This year my husband Paul Sicard said he wanted to come with me to the festival. I was a bit surprised to hear this.

While @psicard has met plenty of Latvians--and we've had plenty of Latvian houseguests--I'm curious what he may see this year that will strike him as unusual.

While a lot of Americans have passed through the festival as acts, I only know one other American who has gone to Positivus as a plain ol' guest without any official ties to the festival.

Last year at Positivus, I met Tama Carouthers, 25, from New Orleans, who was traveling around Europe when she decided to come to the Positivus Festival.We met just as she was finishing painting her Royksopp fan flag, and was waving it in the air trying to dry the paint.

"It's unique. I love the Latvians, the blond men. It's a beautiful festival, a beautiful vibe, "  Carouthers said.

"This place, it's pretty, its so pretty." Carouthers told me, as I followed her to her tent last summer to stash her newly made Royksopp flag. Along the way we attracted a bit of notice by speaking English with American accents, accents that are still unusual in that part of the world.

Of course, my Kansas-bred, Tallinn-based journalism-professor friend Scott Abel came to the Positivus festival in 2009. Yet since he ended up conducting Moby's Latvian press conference on the fly, I don't think that he counts as a typical festival guest.  Still, I have a vivid memory of walking down to the beach at Positivus with Scott, and drawing a crowd  just because we were speaking American English. We soon went and hid backstage, because it wasn't much fun to be a festival attraction because of our accents.

Praha (Prague) Aug 2, 2011

My brother-in-law is going to Prague for the first time later this month, to do a bit of work for his company. It's his first trip to Eastern Europe. This post is for him.



In August 2011, I had a travel layover in Prague. While the layover has mostly gone the way of the telegraph, the hatbox and the white cotton glove, it still exists, especially when you are trying to get from one out-of-the-way place to another out-of-the-way place. Trying to get to/from the US to Riga, Latvia, one often encounters a layover.

Since I was spending a long afternoon in Prague, my Latvian pal Marija (aka @Swiluma) who used to live in Prague, told me where to go eat in the city.

Knowing that I hadn't been in Prague in over a decade, she sent me on a bus from the airport to the Dejvická metro station (metro line A - green line). Then told me to go 4 stops until Můstek. This is what the stop looks like:




At the metro station, she told me to look for the exit mentioning Stavovské divadlo.

"This will directly lead you to the street, called Provaznická. Just after the exit slightly on right there is a pub Restaurace U Provaznice."

Alas, the Můstek station is HUGE to someone from Austin, Texas who doesn't take the subway very often. I got so very lost looking for the proper exit.* Once I gave up looking for the right exit and just left the station, I got even more lost.

Luckily, it was a beautiful day and I ended up walking around for hours and taking lots of pictures of people taking pictures in this very pretty area of Prague.







Walking around Prague that afternoon, I took pictures of the Prague tourist attractions, and noted that things seem to have cleaned up in a big way since I was there in 2001.**

At the racetrack

Kind of shocked to be spending Friday night at the racetrack, even if it's for a screening of ROAD WARRIOR.

Update: Pictures!

Alamo Drafthouse inflatable screen in the middle of the racetrack!

More about Asheville

Being that I've spent so much time in Asheville over the years, I tend to forget that other people don't have the same visual references that I do for the city. So here's a selection of scenes from (greater) Old Asheville and New Asheville.

To start us off, here's a photo of "Old Asheville vs. New Asheville"

When I got out of the truck to to take this picture, the woman who was leaving the house behind the trashed TV told me I was the third person to stop and take a picture. "Why do you all do that" she then asked me.

I told her that, for me, it was symbolic of the changes taking place in Asheville right now. She then told me about her mother, who had lived in the same spot for 26 years and whose rent was now going up. Don't forget that Gentrification has its drawbacks.

Old Asheville vs. New Asheville in one shot.

 I find it interesting that several times when I was in Asheville, people make remarks to me about "the tourists." I guess that means I'm nearly a local.

Old Time Asheville: 

I don't know when this was painted, but this is the sort of street-side  art that I've seen in Asheville since the 80's.

Pink Dogwood tree blooming on Easter Sunday, at the Pisgah View Ranch

Asheville, NC Has Gotten All Hipped-Up

Dogwood tree in Bloom, April 2012

For the last 200 or so years, my family has been living in the hills around Asheville, N.C. This means I've been going to Asheville ever since I was a baby. While there, I've visited my family, driven through downtown, then visited some more family.

In the late 80's, I started insisting that I be taken to the occasional interesting event in Asheville while I was there. Sometimes it was a poetry reading, sometimes a pottery exhibition. Usually the "interesting thing" turned out not to be so interesting after all, which is good because I usually needed to take one of my great-aunts to the grocery store while I was in town.

A few years ago, I figured out that something was afoot in Asheville. Back in Austin, I was wearing a T-shirt from the Early Girl Eatery which has the words "Asheville, NC" on the reverse side, when I was stopped by a couple of women. They wanted to know what Asheville was really like, because they were thinking about moving there.

Then the couple who used to live across the street from me in Austin up and moved to Asheville, saying that it was a lot like Austin was 30 years ago.

Over this past Easter weekend, I went to Asheville for the first time in a couple of years. Since I've been gone, the city has hit hipster critical mass.

Damn Girl! playing at the Altamont Brewing Company, West Asheville

In less than a week in Asheville--and without disturbing my family activities--I did a lot of things that I never thought I'd do in Asheville. I ate at a Korean BBQ Taco Truck. I went to a Brewery Co-op. I even bought a tiny hat that's the sort of hat that passes for high fashion in the Burningman-ish community.