We Are the Lottery League

This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.

I was really surprised when I asked some of the editors back in October 2009 who was going to take over the Life & Arts Editor position when the then-editor was leaving. They suggested me. I never thought I had editorial qualities in me but I ended up having more than most so I got hired as the Campus Editor starting in January 2010. I'll spare the long story about how I ended up with that position instead but that position ended up working for me in the end.

I had to learn pretty quickly how to plan and deal with reporters for each issue. And what I learned from that experience is that no matter how much coffee you drink or how much sleep you sacrifice, something is inevitably going to go wrong. A flakey writer forgetting deadline, a difficult writer submitting an article a day before deadline that require a long editing session, a photo that doesn't relate to the story, or a space that needs to be fill in the layout due to bad planning on my end. The possibilities are endless.

This year brought on more stress than anything I have ever done in my life, but I can honestly say I enjoyed it. The fact that I came back every week to put myself back in that situation tells me this is what I want to do. Whenever our adviser Matt would tell us the issue is done at the end of the night and to go home, I left with a worn smile on my face, ready to climb into bed, only to sleep in until 11 a.m. the next morning, and head to Rio Grande Campus to start planning for the next issue. Seeing the final product in newsstands and in people's hands around campus is what made it worth it.

While having an editor's position makes me miss being just a freelancer sometimes, I do enjoy the perks of being an editor. You get first dibs on the cool stories. No more news briefs or rehash of press releases for me! Sometimes the perks were forced on me, but I did get to cover some assignments that were outside my usual comfort level. And you know what, it was awesome.

In 2009, I got a SXSW wristband for Accent Newspaper and in 2010, I was rewarded with an actual badge (which got me on the cover of the newspaper). Sweet. Granted I didn't do as much as I would have liked, but if I get another badge this year, I'm taking full advantage.

Then for the first issue as Life & Arts Editor in the Fall 2010, I applied to cover Fantastic Fest for another writer, but I was rewarded the badge instead. Yay? Not at first. I didnt want to cover the festival, but I had no choice.

It was a fustrating learning experience because I didn't like the way the tickets were handled. How it works is that you have to show up when the Alamo Drafthouse opens the day of the movie to grab your tickets. The place usually opens at 10 a.m., but the seats are first come, first serve. So people were waiting in line as early as 7 or 8 in the morning every day. That's dedication. Unfortunately, I didn't have that dedication because of work and school so I missed out on a lot of movies because I didn't camp out at the Drafthouse.

But I did interview some cool people involved at the festival. The one interview that made me extremely nervous but was actually one of the highlights of my life (which also includes Ryan Reynolds making eye contact with me) was interviewing the cast and director of Hatchet 2. I saw the first Hatchet during one of my horror movie marathons and loved it. It's a hilarious throwback to those '80s slasher films so getting to interview the director was a treat. Kane Hodder plays the killer and also sat in the interview, and even though he is like 10 feet tall and could crush my skull with his weak hand, he was really nice.

Meeting Danielle Harris, though, was a dream come true. It's no secret that I love horror films and the Halloween series is my all-time favorite in horror films. So meeting Jamie Lloyd and Annie in the Rob Zombie remake was crazy. That only happened because of my job.

Of course, I got the fangirl comment out of the way before we started the interview and I think that helped set the mood of the interview. It was basically 20 minutes with the four of us geeking out on horror films and what it was like making Hatchet 2.

By the way, that movie is awesome. Definitely watch it if you're a big horror movie buff or you just like blood and guts thrown everywhere. There's plenty of it.

The same badge situation happened with the Austin Film Festival. I honestly didn't want to do the assignment because it was too time consuming, but I made do with what I could. I ended up seeing great films from independent filmmakers that ooze with potential and sat down with some of them for interviews.

One of my favorite parts of the film festival was sitting in some panels with big names in film like Robert Rodriguez. I learned a lot on story telling which is all very helpful in my career. Because that's what journalists do, we tell stories.

After covering these two film festivals, I realized that those were the break I needed from music and I learned that film publicists stick to their schedules. I got a call from one publicist 10 minutes before our scheduled interview to make sure I could still meet at the designated time we had set. That's impressive. That never happens in the music world. I'm happy if the band shows up.

When Fun Fun Fun Fest came around, I was starting to feel exhausted from covering a festival every weekend and I got sick more often than usual because my body was so worn out. So when I got the email during the Saturday of the festival that I was approved to cover the upcoming Comic Con, I was a little annoyed. I started ranting in the photo pit about how all I wanted to do was relax. I didn't want to cover another assignment.

But one of my reporter friends brought it to both our attention that we are at a great music festival for free, hanging out in the media area with the bands and fellow journalists, and taking photos in the photo pit, and yet we're bitching about how we have to cover Comic Con for free the next weekend with some great celebrities in attendance because we're tired. World first problems.

So I laughed and realized that should be grateful that this is my job, even though it meant I was giving up my social life and sleep and developing a major coffee addiction.

So all in all, I love working for a newspaper. Even though it's a student-run newspaper, it still feels like a professional newspaper (we do win awards after all) and gives me great practice for whenever I enter the "real world." I can't stress enough how important it is, especially if you're a journalism major, to get involved in your school paper.

I took a copy editing class in the Spring 2010 semester and I made an A because everything I needed to know to pass my tests was learned in the newsroom, not a textbook. Journalism isn't taught in the classroom. It's taught through actual experience.

Memorable stories I've did with Accent (in no order):

1. Free Speech Zones

This story gave me a crash course in public relations politics. Yuck.

2. Riverbat coverage

ACC got a mascot this year. I was on the skeptic side asking why on earth does this school need a mascot? We're already having a hard time being taking seriously as a community college. "Go to a real school." You don't know how many times I've heard that out of people's mouth. Joking or not, it's offensive.

But the mascot happened and I was one the lucky journalists to cover the last of the revealing process. I filmed the event when the actual mascot made his first appearance. After editing the video, I'm so sick of looking at anything in purple.

3. Aeropress

I got an email trying to convince me to review this simple coffee maker that is supposed to be great for students. I didn't have to hear more. They had me at "coffee." The company shipped a machine and I got to review it. Another perk of the job.

4. Comic Con

I covered the first Comic Con in Austin. I have to say, it was kind of depressing. ...at first. I got there early on Friday and the moment I walked in, all the celebrities were just sitting there looking bored behind their booth staring at their cell phones. Yikes.

But everyone was approachable and once you mentioned you were press, they let you take photos of them for free (they were charging for photos otherwise). I ended up meeting a lot of celebrities like Ernie Hudson! and that guy who plays Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Actually when the actor Nicholas Brendon introduced himself as Nicky, I got really confused because I was honestly expecting him to introduce himself as Xander.

And when I mean I met these celebrities, I mean I geeked out on them.

5. Fun Fun Fun Fest

6. College Sound

As Life & Arts Editor, I wanted to feature musicians and bands that were also students at ACC. With the 44,000+ students enrolled, you would think it would be easy, right? Nope. That's disappointing. It's free press, people. I know what I'm doing as a journalist (or I like to think). If you're an ACC student and play music, contact me.

Anyway, I did fulfill in finding someone to interview for each issue. I'm relieved that I didn't cover the same type of band. Each College Sound article featured someone in different genres, and two of them aren't musicians but they so involved in the music somehow that it was hard to deny them.

The Steps
Ross DuBois
Avy Gonzalez
Rally Rally
Zoe Cordes Selbin
Pro-Gres

7. We Are The Lottery League

8. SPEAK

This is just one post in my wrap up of the year 2010. If you would like to read the rest, click here to the main post.

January: Free Week
I went to Free Week just to watch some great bands for free and hang out with friends. If a band caught my attention, I would keep them in mind for future coverage. So I had no intentions of actually working with shooting photos, writing reviews, etc.

But after the week was over, I realized I saw a lot of bands that should be shared so I wrote up this quick post with my debut of Twitter-style reviews. Writing a review in 140 characters or less is a great writing exercise I recommend for any writer. You have to be to the point and consise.

February: 200 music interviews
I have an excel sheet that I use to keep track of all the coverage I've done. Yep, I can be that anal retentive. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated since I've posted this blog about reaching 200 interviews. I'm sure if I update it now, I'll be pretty freaking close to 300 if I haven't already hit that mark yet. What can I say? I get around.

March: The Dig performing "I Just Wanna Talk to You"
I fell in love with The Dig the moment I interviewed them. The first thing I heard out of one of their mouths that wasn't "Are you Sarah?" was "There are cute girls over there." See, our interview was at the Parish hours before their show and there were already teenagers lined up at the door.

During their set, I happened to pull out my Flip cam right before they played this song which is one of my favorites. I knew I was in for a treat when band members of the other two bands hopped on stage with them. Such a good song.

April: SPEAK covers "Toxic"
I was trying to refrain from including any SPEAK posts in this but this band affected a big chunk of my year that it was hard to resist. It was this post when I decided that I was actually going to go through with SPEAK for a Year. As I was writing for it, I kept debating in my head if I should just go ahead and announce it or wait until I've covered more shows. I must have click the preview button like 5 times before I decided that yes, I was going to go through with the crazy project.

It was published right before the April show so after the set, some of the guys asked me what was this project I was going to announced. Once they all showed they were ok with it, it motivated me to go home and write up the first post for SPEAK for a Year. I ended up staying up until 2 in the morning getting it all ready.

May: In-depth We Are the Lottery League
This was a fun assignment. It was my first time doing a story like this when I was just a fly on the wall, covering this type of event from beginning to end. I didn't know what to expect, but it came out pretty well.

June: Good in the Sack interview
One of my favorite bands during the APR days was Good in the Sack. Since I worked at a childcare center, I could never wear their shirts at work but man, I loved this band. It's pop punk with tongue-in-cheek lyrics about breakups, drinking, etc. Wow, I just made them sound like Blink 182, but rest assure, they weren't.

The moment drummer Jorge announced the band's return during this year's SXSW, I informed him we were doing a reunion interview. Of course, the band was all in (who could say no to this face?) and after their set, we walked towards the back of the bar and chatted just like old times. Only this time, some of us had less hair and more weight as before.

July: Giant Steps interview
I interviewed James through email to promote his SXSW showcase but once I took on the Spinner job, my time was very limited. Hey, I got paid for Spinner though. I felt bad I didn't get the interview out but once he announced his anniversary show, it saw the light of day.

August: Art vs. Industry interview and Love at 20 interview
I had two interviews published in August and I liked both of them so I'm choosing both.

Art Vs. Industry were some of the nicest guys I've ever met and very knowledgeable on not only music in general but also where they stand with their genre of music. I felt so out of place at Elysium where I interviewed them but they treated me like anyone else even though I was wearing pastels.

With Love at 20, Mike and I met for coffee and just ended up having a very long conversation about music. The man knows what he wants and has planned his way to get it. Why can't more bands be like that?

September: SPEAK
October: SPEAK at ACL
I only posted one thing during September and October and they both have to do with SPEAK. September was a fun one because I got to make fun of dude bros and my October post was about my experience with SPEAK at ACL.

November: NaNoWriMo
I wrote a novel this year.
I. Wrote. A. Novel. This. Year.

It blows my mind that I went through with NaNoWriMo this year and actually made the word count. I've been editing the novel when I'm not watching Veronica Mars or posting things for Red River Noise. I have a long way to go before anyone reads the finish product.

December: Zlam Dunk
Besides the obvious posts with SPEAK singing at my birthday party or the 2010 review for December, this was a fun post to write. I interviewed the band during Wild Frontier Fest in September but only used two lines from it in my article for Accent.

Since we spent most of the brief interview talking about recording, I figured it was time to bring it out for Zlam Dunk's CD release show.

Red 7 is at it again with another band lottery. I had the pleasure of covering the entire process of the first one for Accent and I really think it's a great idea, not only to participate but also as a spectator watching what musical gems everyone comes up with at the final show.

Going under a new moniker this time "La Lotteria," the guys are going for bigger enlisted 16 drummers instead of six as captains of the lottery. As captains, the drummers randomly draw names of their new band members and thus begins the writing process. It's a really simple procedure and with all the creativity and sometimes silliness musicians seem to have, the outcome tends to guarantee a good time.

For a quick recap of how it works, here's a photo slideshow of the entire process I made from the first lottery.

We Are the Lottery League photo slideshow from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

Anyway, so right now Red 7 is taking submissions for those interested in attending, but gotta act fast because once the spots fill up, you'll be stuck waiting for the next La Lotteria.

Here are some rules from Red 7's event page:

1 - No flakes. If you have to work or play another show on the 14th of August, please be considerate of the other 4 people in your band who are going to have to cater to your scheduling needs etc. If you don't think you're reliable enough to get involved, there's plenty of room for spectators.

2 - Flexibility - There's no guarantee this is going to be the hard core band or psych garage stuff you assumed you're signing up for, if you can't be flexible in working with other people and you're not okay with the absolute randomness of who you're playing with, then your ego is going to make the other four people involved miserable too. Obviously, the absolute randomness and forcing people to work together who (under normal circumstances) would never be in the same room together forces your creative juices to work extra hard.

3 - Having your own gear - I can't afford to rent a back line, and this is either going to be a free show, or a very small cover with the proceeds going to HAAM, so you're going to need to bring in your own gear and/or rely on each other to share to make this work.

To sign up, send an email to lotteriaaustin@gmail.com.

If you don't want to read my novel below, here is the audio slideshow! Man, this was a bitch to edit. Just saying...

We Are the Lottery League photo slideshow from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

Trying to fit what I saw during the We Are The Lottery League in the allotted 550 words was not enough. A lot of good stuff was sadly left out so I decided to write a more in-depth recap.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

I immediately wanted to cover the We Are The Lottery League show the moment I read about it on Facebook. What a great idea. 30 musicians randomly forming bands and making music. Sounds freaking awesome. However, the original game plan was to just cover the show and interview a musician or two afterwards. I never thought I would be allowed to follow everyone through the process, but luck would have it that my friend James would not only agree to an interview but suggest I talked to Johnny, who helped put this event together.

After emailing Johnny, I was given clearance to document the entire process from the initial drawing to the final show. Dude, you have no idea how excited I was when I got that email. I've been wanting to do a story like this for a long time and now it was gonna happen. But there was a problem. I sold my camera because I needed the money to buy my new upgraded camera. So I was camera-less. I borrowed a Canon (which I've never used before) and a voice recorder from the Accent's office for the weekend and off I went.

THE DRAWING

I was instructed to show up at Red 7 at 8 p.m. for the drawing. So I rushed over there so I wouldn't be late and no surprise that I was one of the first three people there. You would think that after working with musicians for the past seven years that I would learn by now that musicians are NEVER on time. Ha. So needless to say, the actual drawing didn't happen until 8:30 after everyone showed up and hung out beforehand.

So one by one, each of the six drummers picked the names of their new bandmates. I was a little disappointed that the drawing only took 15 minutes though. For some reason I had it in my head that it would be more eventful than it actually was. Kinda like the NFL draft with people clapping, speeches made and confetti thrown. However, we all got a laugh whenever someone had trouble deciphering Johnny's hard-to-read handwriting on the slips of paper.

PROMO PHOTOS AND BAND NAMES

So now that the bands were set, everyone hung out some more and got to know one another considering they were going to spend the next 24 hours with these people writing and practicing their new music. While that was going on, my new show buddy Devaki shot promo photos of each band and I walked around getting interviews and taking photos of all the action.

As for band names, a lot of silliness was thrown around such as “MazelTov Cocktail” and “Kung Fu P” but once everything was said and done, the six bands names were Vacation Bible School, Black Mike and the Make a Holes, Boner Patrol, So Long, Judas, Drug Sex, Afrobocop and the Tjöõrd Bjöõrglars.

Dont ask me where those names came from as I am just as dumbfounded as you are. However, I know how hard it is to come up with an original name with the million of named bands already out there so I can see how pulling something out of your ass is the quickest way to get that checked off the "Forming a Band 101" checklist.

It was during this time that James' band Black Mike and the Make a Holes and Clay's (Ideal Soul Mart) straightedge hardcore band Drug Sex both gave me permission to stop by their practice the next day to document it. Fain was teamed up with Eric who just recently quit drumming for the Riverboat Gamblers, Darin from The Dugat Project and David who has this awesome solo project called DFI.

And James got a pretty good luck of the draw by teaming up with two fellow friends his progressive band Consider the Source affliated with in the past, Tyson and Josh as well as teaming up with former Brothers and Sisters, David who's had some of the harder rock experience under his belt. So the genre for that band came naturally.

PRACTICE

The event page on Facebook said that bands would start practicing at 11 a.m. Yeah, that didn't happen. I'm not sure when the other bands started working on material but the band I got to hang out with, Drug Sex started practicing at noon. Clay texted me to come by at two p.m. so I could take photos and sit in during the rehearsal. So I headed towards North Loop where they were practicing.

I found the place pretty easily considering Darin opened the door as soon as I got there. He was going out to get something so that was perfect timing. Clay told me to make myself at home as I was walking in and I immediately noticed the typed up lyric sheets on the music stands. Turns out when David went home the night before, he wrote the straightedge lyrics (as they were a hardcore straightedge band) to all the songs and then typed them up for the band. Now that's organization.

So while I was there, I recorded some of the practice to include in my audio slideshow and then interviewed the guys during their breaks. During one of the interviews, one of the guys made a comment about how they wanted to record these songs. Then one of them asks me "what does (my recorder) record in?" I told them in .wav files and it was like a lightbulb lit up in all their heads. After they asked me if it was cool to use my recorder (of course I was ok with it), then another idea came up. Let's have homemade t-shirts along with the cds. So yeah, Drug Sex was gonna have merch. All in 24 hours. Amazing.

After the songs were written and tightened, I produced Drug Sex's first album. And when I mean I produced, I mean I pushed the record button.

As for the other bands, well I waited for a text from James so I could sit in during their practice but I never got it. Oh well. The recording wouldn't have happened if I left.

BEFORE THE SHOW AND THE LINE UP

I rushed over to get to Red 7 on time so I wouldn't miss the drawing for the line. WTF. I'm early again. Seriously, what am I thinking? Anywho, so I spent my time hanging out with the few band members who actually showed up on time as they shared stories with me about their practices. The overall vibe seemed to be that everyone had a pretty easy time coming up with the direction their music was going as well as pumping out music in time for the show. Then some of the bands were showing me their merch and posters they designed for this event. And here we thought Drug Sex would be the only band with merch that night. Rockstars are so creative.

Johnny arrived and wrote names on slips of paper and picked random people to draw the bands for the line up. When he came to me, he asked me after I grabbed a name which band was I choosing... the fourth band or the headliner? I looked at Devaki hoping she would have an idea, I thought about it and then said, “you know, let's do the headliner” and started opening up the folded paper. I couldn't believe it when I saw that the words "Drug Sex" staring back at me. As I was laughing, I ran over to the guys to tell them the news, but in my amusement, I pretty much mumbled what just happened so the guys didn't comprehend at all what I was trying to say. I think they just heard “I... mumblemumblemumble... picked... mumblemumblemumble... your band... mumblemumblemumble... headliner.” I later talked to Clay and Eric about it which Eric told me that he thought I picked them as the headliner since I hung out with them all day, but once I cleared up that I actually didn't know I had their name in my hand when I said we're picking the headliner, Eric's face lit up in amusement.

THE SHOW

Overall the show was impressive. None of the bands sucked. Seriously. The quality of songs were better than most bands' debut shows and I've been to A LOT of those. And those bands had months, even years, to prepare for their first show. That just showed the quality of musicians that participated in this event.

Anyway, the turnout was pretty small but with Vampire Weekend and Girl Talk also playing in town, there was a tough competition for bodies. But nevertheless, those that did show up laughed, cheered, just overall had a good time.

As a reporter, I have to be fair and unbais so I won't choose a favorite. However, if I HAD to choose my favorite band of the night... Man, I have to say Boner Patrol kind of won me over. Come on! They wrote a song about Johnny and had a self-titled song. That equals win.

Drug Sex definetely ended the showed pretty freaking well with the closing cover "Baba O'Riley." The crowd immediately cheered when they heard the first note and sung along and there was maybe a hint of crowd surfing. Drunk people crowd surfing basically means holding someone half-assed up for like a millisecond.

But all the bands seriously were awesome. Seriously.

AFTERSHOW

So after it was all said and done, I walked around getting last minute interviews, final thoughts, etc. All the musicians that participated all seemed to have a good time and many told me they would do it again. I found it highly amusing and adorable that most of the bands hung out with each other the entire night and added each other on Facebook considering most of them met each other the night before at the drawing. Especially Drug Sex. They're like best friends now. How cute.

As for me, I had a great time. This story went rather smoothly. Everyone was willing to talk to me about the whole process and didn't mind when I took their photos all the time. I wasn't used to the camera so I had to use the flash which can be annoying when it's dark and you have this bright light continuously in your eyes.

So thanks to Johnny for letting me tag along. Thanks to James for pointing me to Johnny's direction. Thanks to Mike for letting me interview you days after the lottery when I discovered that none of your quotes that night were useable. Ha. Thanks to Devaki for hanging out with me when the bands were all doing their thing and showing me what later became my new camera. And thanks everyone who participated, especially Drug Sex (Eric, Clay, David and Darin), for letting me be all up in your business for 24 hours.

Side note: This may be my favorite story to write ever. I was surprised when everyone who participated let this awkward journalist tag along through the entire lottery process. Fun times all around. I have more stuff on this story coming up, but for now, here's the story that is published in Accent.

“That’s the whole game,” Erick Sanger said, a participant of the first Austin We Are The Lottery League. “Lottery league is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

Six drummers and 18 musicians arrived at Red 7 on April 9. Each drummer randomly picked names out of a brown hat in order to form bands that would be performing on stage within 24 hours.

After the names were drawn, the new acquaintances took promo photos and brainstormed names such as Vacation Bible School, Black Mike and the Make a Holes, Boner Patrol, So Long, Judas, Drug Sex, Afrobocop and the Tjöõrd Bjöõrglars.

Read the rest at Accent.