Welcome to Claes Place. Sean Claes is a Content Manager and Social Media expert who has worked as a Journalist, Photographer, Event Planner, Consultant, Marketer and Copywriter. He's got over 20 years of experience advising small business and musicians about their marketing and social media.
Austin singer-songwriter-bandleader Shelley King, who was presented with a limited-run Gibson Acoustic Elvis King of Rock guitar to mark the start Friday, April 19, of her yearlong term as 2008 Texas State Musician, the first woman so appointed, celebrates in the House Chamber with (l to r) Texas Music Office director Casey Monahan, Texas House Committee on Culture, Recreation & Tourism chief of staff Todd Kercheval and Texas Commission on the Arts marketing and development director Gaye Greever McElwain.
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HUNDREDS OF GARAGE SALES IN KYLE NEIGHBORHOOD ON APRIL 26
The Seventh Annual Plum Creek Community-Wide Garage Sale
By Sean Claes
I love garage sales. The thrill of the hunt, the agony of going through all of the crap to find that one item that makes it all worthwhile. The whole thing makes my heart go pitter-patter. I like going through the newspaper and planning a route in order to hit the most before 9:00a.m.
Well, if you're anything like me, you should get your warpaint on and come out to Kyle, Texas on Saturday, April 26 for the Plum Creek Community-wide Garage Sale. Currently there are over 1,500 homes in the neighborhood, so you can be pretty certain there will be a few hundred garage sales going on.
What will be sold? Who knows… but this event brings in professional garage sale shoppers in from all over Texas. OK, I may be stretching it, but Plum Creek has done this every year for seven years and my mother-in-law comes each year from South Texas. It's amazing what she finds.
In 2005 she got caught up in the sale and I lost her. Eventually I found her shopping about a mile down the road from the house. In the 20 minutes she was missing, she scored a sewing machine, food dehydrator, three Disney videos, and a mound of children's clothes. It's hard to be angry at a woman with $300 worth of stuff that she got for $20 in under a half-hour. She's a pro.
Test your skills in Kyle Saturday April 26 at the Community Wide Garage Sale. Sales start about 7:00a.m. and are over around 1:00p.m.
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Plum Creek is a 2,200 acre master-planned community located on the west side of IH-35 in Kyle, Texas, 17 miles south of Austin.
To get to Plum Creek:
a. IH-35 to exit 215 (Kyle Parkway/ FM 1626).
b. West on FM 1626
c. Left on Kohler's Crossing
d. Plum Creek is on your left-hand side.
For those who aren't in the know, I'm a member of the Kyle United Methodist Church. We're currently raising money in several different ways to pay for our New Life Center that is currently under construction. If you know me... call me up and I'll tell you the whole saga that has transpired while the building of the New Life Center has been occuring.
2008 Kyle United Methodist Washers Tournament @ Front Porch Days
KUMC will host a Washers Tournament at Front Porch Days at Fergus Park in the Plum Creek Neighborhood on Sunday, May 4, 2008. Forms and entry frees are due by 12PM on May 4th with Players Meeting at 12:40PM.
The tournament begins at 1PM. The fee is $30 per 2-person team. Half ($15) of each $30 entry fee is a donation to the Kyle United Methodist Church (KUMC) Building Fund. The remaining half of the $30 entry fee will be spilt among the top winners.&
The prize pool will award 35% to First Place and 15% to Second Place. Third Place will receive a non-monetary prize.
Questions? Please contact Amanda Brown via email at amandabrown89@gmail.com or call 512-801-9072. Early registration is appreciated.
Every year I wait patiently for the New Music Tipsheet's FREE list. It's a gathering of many of the day parties and showcases that don't require a badge. Here it is: http://www.newmusictipsheet.com/sxswpartylist2008.pdf
Download your copy now. It doesn't include Texas Rockfest... so.. print this out and write that on the back of each page....or download the new issue of INsite (last blog) and take it with you too.
Oh my dear lord… the party is ON and it is FREE in Austin, Texas this March. The Ninth Annual Heart of Texas Quadruple Bypass MusicFestival (aka Texas Rockfest) is coming March 12-15, 2008 and INsite is sponsoring this year along with Guitar Hero III. Not only is it going to be a blistering amount of music (over 160 bands on four stages) we’re also bringing you the chance to join in a Guitar Hero competition (or just play for fun at one of the three tents).
If you’re not a Guitar Hero Champ (I’m a three button chump myself) don’t worry, stop by the INsite booth at the Guitar Hero Stage (613 Trinity) and register to win a copy of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. No skills necessary (except for spelling your name and contact information).
The stages this year are as follows: Guitar Hero Stages (313 E 7th), The Spill on 6th (212 E. Sixth Street), Merkaba (14106 North IH35 ), and Rock City Icehouse (1-35 @ Hwy 290 in Lincoln Village)
Below you will find links to the individual day's shows... please feel free to browse. Schedules are subject to change (dollars are subject to change too).
Yeah.. it's a little spammy... but my sister sent this to me and I thought it was a hoot.. so I share.
THE SPOILED UNDER-30 CROWD!!!
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears With their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning ... Uphill BOTH ways…
Yadda, yadda, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, There was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it… and how easy they've got it! But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it! I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet . If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!! There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter with a pen!
Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever!
And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!
Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when itCame to channel surfing! You had to get off Your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You cou ld only get cartoons on Saturday Morning.
Do you Hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK For cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire ..
Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.
That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!
OK.. I'm not the biggest computer geek... but I can't believe I missed this interview. In May 2007 Macintosh CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates were interviewed at D5 by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg
So... I turned 35 on February 5, 2008. There was a birthday party in my honor at The Red Eyed Fly in Austin, Texas. The line-up was great.... Boston band Say When played as did Austin bands Language Room, One Eyed Doll, The Banner Year and Adam Donmoyer and the Naughty Bits. You really should have been there.
So... Adam Donmoyer, who opened the show, surprised me by writing a song for me. To explain the backstory... I often use the phrase "That Rocks Like Slayer." Now.. I didn't originate the phrase... but I did get permission to use the phrase from Tom Araya (metal legend and lead singer of Slayer).
OK... so I had my camera on video and I was able to capture the song on video.... so I bring to you the first ever performance of "Sean Claes Rocks Like Slayer."
I was told about this video that The Black Eyed Pea's Will.i.am produced... so I jumped all over the Web to look up information about the people in the video... (which I have links to who they are at the end.). I originally found it on dipdive.com/, but I also found information on youtube.com, imdb.com, and a variety of places...
VERY INTERESTING.
I share.
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Produced by the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am and directed by Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan's son.
Yes, We Can! - Si, Se Puede!
Song & video, featuring a star cast, by Will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas. Inspired by Barack Obama's 'Yes We Can' speech.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.
We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --
