Blog and re-blog tweet and re-tweet the Dicks From TEXAS and Ms. Hammer!

Janet Hammer wrote the best ass article about The Dicks From Texas and the cd The Dicks From Texas and friends...just read and see... 

Director Cindy Marabito talks about The Dicks From Texas documentary and CD... 

....that's a whole lot of love!

 

Austin Fusion Magazine's RxSM Festival and The Dicks From Texas Review

RXSM’s opening reception last night was not one you would expect to participate in at a film festival. Spiderhouse Ballroom may have been bulging at the seams with attendees mingling and engrossed in film conversations, but above everything else it was a party.

The event started, and ended the night, with performances by local bands. Not your typical local bands, mind you, but ones that have influenced the Austin rock scene for decades: The Offenders, The Bulemics,  Black Irish Texas, El Pathos,  Cunto!, The Beaumonts, The Surlys, Pocket FishRmen, The Flash Boys, Churchwood, The Dickins,  Scorpio Rising,  Jesus Christ Superfly, New Mystery Girl, Brewtality, Inc. and Black Eyed Vermillion.

As the evening approached the main event, the premier of the highly anticipated documentary “The Dicks from Texas,” the crowd became blended between film fans and true Austinites. The documentary was for them, after all, the ones who lived this iconic era in the Austin music scene. The atmosphere expressed that, and the enjoyment of the audience seeing their youth on screen made for one of the best viewing experiences imaginable. It didn’t feel like a festival, it was a night where old friends came together, a class reunion of sorts.

As much as Austin has changed in the last few years, the DNA of what makes this city great is still alive and well. It’s in the people who were part of RXSM’s opening night, celebrating a great documentary about an impactful group of young guys who will always be loved. If the opening night sets the tone for the rest of the festival, this weekend will be one hell of a indie film festival.

Written by Lisa Mejia (lisa@austinfusionmagazine.com)
Images by Micael Monroe (micael@gowestphoto.com)

Week late Chicago/New Orleans timeline

Well, I've been laid up with a bum leg since my trip to Chicago and New Orleans. I would have cancelled the whole thing were it not for a stealthy fine from the airlines and packages. So here goes.

I lit out April 15 with an extremely messed up leg and flare up of my sciatica from loading organic chicken for the dogs. The pain that wouldn't leave times 10!

I had to be at the airport by four so left here with good intentions and quickly realized I was going to have to take advantage of the handicapped amenities. With my 61st
birthday around the corner, was this a wake up call for things to come?

Wicker Park

I arrived at the airport and parked in my favorite lot. They were super nice and said they'd send the shuttle right over to get me so that I wouldn't have to walk a step. I make it into the airport ok and whisk through the Frontier counter with ease. Is that Billy Bob Thornton standing in front of me?

After probably the best meal I will eat in the next five days with a delicious carrot and ginger salad, it's up up up in the friendly skies. Next stop, Chicago-land.

I get in a little after 7 p.m. and start trying to figure out my route to House of 2 Urns.

Cats, of course!

I am so tired and my poor leg is throbbing, so I can't drop in at Society for Arts where CIMMFEST is screening some great films. There are some great films being screened at CIMMFEST this year, but I'm just too tired and
sore to enjoy anything other than a good night's sleep.

I would love to stay over and see Jaco about Jaco Pastorius, the incredible bass player who died tragically so young. CIMMFEST is also premiering Journey of Dreams about the band Morphine which I absolutely love. Sometimes, I just wish I could sit and watch movies all day like I used to do.

from the bus

Seagulls eating burritos

Next day: after a shitty experience at a record store, I'm back on the next bus with 1/2 of the worst Chicago burrito ever and my leg is really starting to hurt. I'd like to do some sightseeing, but options are pretty limited. It was between Lake Michigan and Jane Addams Hull House. I opt for Lake Michigan as the least painful of the two.

I fed the burrito to some gulls and ran out of juice on my
phone. I am super in pain now and looking at about an hour on the bus. Naturally, I miss my stop and have another 1/2 hour wait to catch a bus back to the hotel.

Kickstart me please!

I just started a Kickstarter for The Dicks From Texas. Why, you ask. Well, because The Dicks From Texas is not a Hollywood film, but it still needs to get shown in theaters.

I started filming this film with 16 mm film and wound up finishing on my IPhone. It really was a story that needed to be told, so I told it.

What happened along the way? Well, 27 bands covered 28 Dicks songs and did 'em great. The cd The Dicks From Texas and friends is one of the many perks available for the supporters who want The Dicks From Texas in their town.

Kickstarter Bring the Dicks From Texas to your town is launched and running so please share it.

Good morning, Gary

Gary Floyd modeling with his new Dicks From TX and friends cd's

This morning, I woke up to see this wonderful picture and endorsement from Gary Floyd. Like a lot of other people, I love Gary Floyd and for a lot of reasons. He is kind and thoughtful and also, sassy and funny. He wrote those wonderful Dicks songs and lots of others. Sometimes when I'm feeling scared, I can call Gary and feel better almost immediately.

When I write a lot of my writings, I write like I'm sitting here talking to Gary. It goes way back. Back to when I first met Gary at this dump we worked at called Rumour Hazzit..I always have to spell it, just because it was such a D.U.M.P. They had everything on the menu. I remember Biscuit when he used to cook at the Tavern on Lamar and was apalled at having to fry everything in the same old black-brown rancid grease every day..fish, french fries, everything went in there.

That's how Rumour Hazzit was. I was the bartender, or beer tender, because they didn't even have a liquor license. Gary was the night cook between midnight and four a.m. He'd come in solid drunk from prowling the bars and then falling asleep and having to be pried off the bed by his roommate, Toby Mauldin. Toby would come in with Gary and stand there at the bar and drink. We'd all drink. I even gave beer to the street people who lived on the drag. We were probably rotten employees.

That place had ham, eggs, pizza, enchiladas, hamburgers, everything you could imagine on the menu. They kept closing down and re-opening. Barry Gavin was our manager. When the checks started bouncing, we had to start going farther and farther out to find H.E.B.'s that would cash our paychecks. Finally, Barry, who had a set of brass knuckles was the only one who got paid. He went out to the chicken hawk who owned the place and sold double-wides out north and got his money. After that, we were all out of a job.

Martha and I went to work at Matt's El Rancho #3, a franchise across the street from the Cotillion. Gary went to work at Sebastian's right off campus. I think Barry went to work at Raul's and we all remained close friends all these many years. A couple of years ago, I got ahold of Barry's number and called him. It was like we'd just seen each other the day before. I guess that's was a real friend is, somebody who you don't see for many years and can pick up with, just like that. That's what kind of friend Gary Floyd is.

Welcome to The Dicks From Texas!

Austin, Texas U.S.A.

Everything else in the world has a blog, so I thought it was about time for a Dicks From Texas blog.

Gary Floyd on the drag

Who are the Dicks? Well, sometime in 1979, Gary Floyd started posting homemade fliers around Austin, Texas...back when that didn't get you locked up...advertising a band called the Dicks. Stuff like 'first 10 people with guns drink free' at the New Mars Club.

He met Buxf Parrott and Glen Taylor at Raul's Club on Guadalupe and the Dicks became a reality, or a reality minus a drummer. They met Pat 'Dick' Deason and became a legendary great punk hardcore band whose first appearance was at The Armadillo World Headquarters, lovingly referred to as the Armadildo.

Barry Gavin, Buxf Parrott and Glen Taylor

For over 3 and a half decades the Dicks music and politics has inspired other musicians and thinking people to question the status quo. How many times have you had some horrible boss on your ass and felt like a loser?

Dicks songs like Bourgeois Fascist Pig were bandaids for those of us who felt like losers because some asshole in some double knit pants told us we were useless.


Maybe that's why these records have lived on for so long. Songs like Dead in a Motel Room and Suicide Note have inspired the covers tribute album 'The Dicks From Texas and friends' where 27 bands cover 28 beloved Dicks songs.

Nobody seems to know why these songs and the personality of this beloved band have sustained the test of time. I set out 16 years ago to create a documentary about my favorite band and search for the answers to these questions.

The Dicks songs have seen fern bars, rise and fall of grunge, Cuba throwing open the welcome mat, a couple of bushes and a reagan and still have managed to stay relevant and catchy.

Austin, Texas has changed a lot from the little cowtown where the Dicks and Dicks fans traveled to for the music and lifestyle. The people who congregate here today don't really know about Raul's, Sharon Tate's Baby, Les Amis, Inner Sanctum, Billy Problem and tons of other interesting people, places and things that created the weird in their bumper stickers and tee shirts.

This little blog is for the Dicks and their music, friends and followers, Austin lovers and haters, then and now, happy and sad, alive and not so alive, and all the wonderful souls who made hanging out an art form.