Reflections On Time / Austin Tx.

I'm in Austin for SXSW. It's a beautiful town with very friendly people  and mostly all are into the festive energy . I came here, like many , just to enjoy the scene ... the music and the craziness of all these people out for a "good time" and to be a part of something , perhaps a happening or maybe something bigger than my little world . Since I'm an older guy I don't exactly fit in with the young party-down crowd but that's also because I choose not to get drunk and howl at every opportunity as if I were part of the show .
But of course , we are and I do believe in applause , even exaggerated hooting if something really moves
me .  So , I am enjoying myself  and will probably be investigating many new ( to me ) artists after I get 
back home .  For now though I wanted to say a few words concerning our sponsor , or  the "commercial" aspects  of the big Austin shindig .  I don't think anyone is kidding themselves that everything costs money and to notch it up a little ,  that all of our actions have consequences  . Now , I don't  get the sense that I'm walking down a carny mid-way with the obligatory cons and hawkers but there is no doubt that this production is about trying to sell.   I suppose because I'm not an industry insider that I don't understand the whole deal and how people come from all over the world to spend money here , thus stimulating the local economy and that when a record label throws itself an insiders' party ( one of which I attended )  just to garner some exposure , maybe a little press  to gain some national attention  it's all seen as the way it works .  If it's all about priming the pump then my guess would be that Austin is about as flooded with industry money as the downtown streets are choked with  day-old  fliers  and posters swirlen' in that devilish  prairie wind  .  So , I don't know ... I saw , and heard Lucinda Williams at  Moody's Friday night in what was billed as 'Ten Years of Lost Highway'  , that's records of course and the whole show was great , probably the  highlight of my time here , esp. the hour or so that Brian Bingham and band spent on stage . Still , there was that huge 'Lost Highway' logo bookended by these even bigger BMI  logos . And then there was Lucinda .  She tightrope walked the stage with a kind of hypnotic grace , seeming oblivious to the crowd and yet careful to acknowledge that we were all there . She started out by thanking the big cat who introduced her , ( ...and then on the eighth day God created Lucinda ... ) , and of course thanked her record company for letting her make the kind of records that she wanted to . But my sense of it was that this was sort of required payback and that all the artistic licence that is offered is a trade-off  and in a sense Lucinda is as stuck in the game as the barkers down on 6th St.  But of course they don't write such soul wrenching paeans to love as she does which is why I'm buyin' what she's sellen' , not them , uh , unless it comes with  smokin' hot babes , and did you say 'free beer' ?