more cheap activites in houston

happy daylight savings to all the poor people who had to surrender one hour of sleep last night. i actually didn't notice too much because i slept all day today.

last night i went to two different art shows in downtown. the first one was in a warehouse behind what used to be, and still might be, a greco-roman wrestling training gym. there were some local artists exhibiting and selling their paintings and photos. in one corner, weighing in at 25lbs, was a donation-appreciated (read: free) wine bar with cheese and crackers. in the other corner, weighing in at 400lbs, was a dj setup with turntables and macbook pro playing an interesting mix of 80's music with the odd kraftwerk or flossie and the unicorns track thrown in for good measure. some kids were dancing. some kids were shooting pictures. everyone was having a good time.

after the first show ended, i went to a second show, which was really one artist selling a small selection of her work, at a nice lounge on the other side of downtown. the art didn't really keep us there, but the dj's upstairs and downstairs did. again, they were setup with turntables and laptops, this time playing some old-school house downstairs and some big club beats upstairs. the music selection was pretty good and people were dancing throughout the night.

the laptops made me feel as if i've been living in a time capsule for the last few years though. the dj's i used to go out and see all played vinyl. when i was still dj'ing i played vinyl too. last night, the gigs of disk space opened up all sorts of variety for the sets. instead of spending the afternoon sorting through dusty record bins for an old new order single, you can download the mp3 and play it that night. plus, you don't have to pay for shipping or break your back carrying 50lbs of records. i wish i had all that gear back then.

still, with all the fancy hardware and software, the main dj last night kept trainwrecking and i even heard songs skip. good thing there's still life in it.