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Tonight I'm watching the Riverboat Gamblers perform at Emo's for the last time. Aww. The downtown location doesn't officially close until Dec. 30, but knowing me, I'm probably not going out again until Free Week.

And it also makes me sad because this is the last show I'll see with my BFF Marlee for awhile. She moved to Colorado a few months ago, so I gotta cherish these moments whenever she's in town. I have yet to find someone who appreciates music just like I do, and she just had to leave Austin for job opportunities. You mean I can't stay in wonderful Austin and struggle as writer while working in retail for the rest of my life? Oh, adult responsibilities.

But tonight we will have fun, because after all it is the Riverboat Gamblers and that band never lets me down. Unfortunately, the bassist Rob will not be in attendance because of sad family news. However, the original bassist/founding member Patrick Lillard will fill in instead.

Anywho, I've seen a lot of shows at Emo's. I loved the intimate setting the inside stage provides. I won free tickets from Spin Magazine to see The Constantines. It was crazy packed so I sat on the bleachers in the back of the venue (anybody else miss those?). The crowd knew it was time for business when the band raised their instruments when they started playing the first note. The entire set was intense. It's still one of the most memorable shows to this day.

I saw The Bronx and Mariachi El Bronx for the first time on that stage too. I remember when Von Iva didn't finish their set because the singer couldn't finish her vocal duties. But that was also the same night as the Spiro's shooting so because of that, the show ended early. I went home early and that saved me from a bad situation. So hey, at least there's that.

Man, who else? I can't even begin to list all the bands I've seen or interviewed there. A lot of local bands held their CD releases there or opened for a bigger headliner. I remember squeezing inside to check out the free shows during SXSW. I remember freezing my ass off at the outside stage during previous Free Weeks. Oh yeah, I saw Glassjaw, Thrice, Tyler Hilton and Zykos on that outside stage. All for different shows, of course.

I'm sad Emo's downtown is closing, but at least we still have Emo's East (although, I haven't been there yet). I am curious to see how the closure will affect the Free Week and SXSW crowds though. Emo's East does have shows scheduled during Free Week, but I gotta plan to stay there the whole time if I attend any of their shows. I don't know about y'all, but I like to bounce around throughout the night. I've discovered some great bands that way. In the meantime, I plan to have fun at my last time at Emo's tonight.

I can’t believe 2011 is already coming to an end. Where does the time go? 2011 was an interesting year for sure. I’m not a fan of top 10 lists, mainly because it’s hard for me to rank anything, so instead here are some highlights.

Bittersweet goodbye: SPEAK for a Year
Yep, the project that took over my life in 2010 is finally over. And it’s weird. On one hand, I’m sad. It’s like an end of an era. When I held that issue in my hands for the first time, I felt like I had just given birth and then gave the baby up for adoption. I put so much into this project that now that it’s done, I don’t know what to do with myself. On the other hand, I’m happy it’s done. I finally got to show the result of all that hard work and now I can move on. Although, who are we kidding? I will never move on from this band.

But I’ve been thinking about this… those that know me know that whenever I discovered a new-ish local band, I tend to cling to them and basically become their biggest cheerleader. It usually starts with an interview. Then I get the CD and that CD just becomes a drug that I can’t get enough of. Then I start going to as many shows as I can.

This has happened on many occasions with Firekills, The Drawing Board, Bankrupt and the Borrowers, Fireants, Oliver Future and most recently, SPEAK.

You can tell who my latest “baby band” is, which I mean in the most endearing way possible, by the sheer fact that I won’t shut up about them. Could be worse. If it weren’t for these bands, I would probably annoy my friends with conversations about Hanson and Glee (although, this season of Glee has been very hit or miss).

So basically what I’m saying is that since I’ve cover the local music beat for almost nine years (geezus), I’ve seen a lot of bands’ first shows, gotten their first EPs and full-lengths and gave them their first interviews. I’ve kept up with their growth afterwards.

SPEAK for a Year was the first time I documented this trend of mine extensively. Yeah, it’s over and I’ll still attend SPEAK shows when I can and turn into a fangirl whenever they release anything new, but there will always be a new band that grabs my attention.

On that note…

Best band discovery: Equals
As I mentioned in my post about them here, I was not expecting much from this assignment. I thought it was going to be in and out. I interview the band. I write the story. I move on.

Instead, I found myself listening to the album a lot. I hung out with the members a couple of times (of course, it didn’t help that the drummer ended up in one of my classes). And I ended up going to a lot of their shows. It felt like I was slowly starting Equals for a Year, because after all, that’s how SPEAK for a Year started, but I’m not. Though who knows… 2012 hasn’t started yet.

But all this was a complete surprise to me. It wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t create such damn good music and gave me one of the most entertaining interviews I did this year. This instrumental band won over a generally pop-centric music fan. That’s a big deal, y’all.

Getting my associate degree
I also didn’t expect to say I’m an ACC graduate this year. Hell, I didn’t expect to say I’m a college graduate, period. But I am and I’m the first in my dad’s immediate family to do so. It’s a pretty good feeling.

This only happened because always-curious me happened to glance at my degree audit and saw that I only needed one class to get a degree. Shoot, I’ve come this far, might as well go all the way.

I went to advising to see what I needed to take. I applied for graduation and now I have an actual college diploma. It’s insane to think I finally have a degree. Better late than never, right?

My family didn’t get to celebrate this achievement as much as we would have liked because immediately afterwards, I had to pack before I left for PCF11 the next day.

PCF11
When one door closes, another one opens. I applied for TCCJA’s Journalist of the Year award towards the end of the spring semester. The chosen one receives a 10-week paid summer internship for the Corpus Christi’s Caller Times. And I was devastated when I didn’t win.

But weeks later, I discovered I was one of the 30 journalism college students picked to study at Poynter Institute’s 2011 College Fellowship (PCF11) in St. Petersburg, FL. Whoa. I still remember when I got the email. I was waiting at the bus stop to start my day of interviews when my phone informed me “You got mail.”

I was in shock that I just put my phone back in my purse and told myself I’ll deal with this later. My main concern was figuring how on earth was I going to pay for this fellowship. It was a lot of money. But thanks to the support of my family and friends, I got there and had enough money to take care of all my expenses.

But we all know the rest of the story. I met 21 BFFs for life and spent two of the best weeks of my life. I’m ready to go back. I definitely miss the fellows and free coffee.

But mostly the fellows.

Backbeat Magazine
Being an editor for Backbeat Magazine was… an experience, but I learned from that experience, and it was nice to hold that debut issue in my hand knowing I had a huge part in putting that together. Not many people can say that.

Plus it came out sooooo pretty!

Good job team.

NBC’s The Voice
I briefly watched the first season of American Idol with Kelly Clarkson, but that’s where it ended with singing competitions for me. So when I found out my then-roommate, Tje Austin, was going to be on NBC’s The Voice, I tuned in to see him. Of course, the moment Karissa found out, I was assigned to write a story. Tje welcomed the opportunity.

Once the show started, I found myself immersed it. Because there were other Austin contestants, it seemed that a lot of people were talking about the show too. Tje and I would have intellectual conversations (and sometimes debates) after each episode, and we became more than just roommates. We became good friends. Aww.

Through him I interviewed other contestants, including the winner himself, Javier Colon, who by the way is one of the nicest guys ever. My favorite memory from that interview was watching him catch up with Tje on the phone.

I witnessed how this show affected Tje and his music career and yes, an article is coming about that. Mainly because I’ve had to tell the same story over and over again when people find out. “Your roommate was on The Voice!?! What was it like?” It was pretty awesome.

Becoming a Bobcat again
So I’ll be honest. I was not supposed to start at Texas State this semester. I hadn’t applied for financial aid, because I was still waiting for the school to accept me back. ACC took forever to send my transcript. I made them wait until my final grade came in after graduation in May, but still I think it took over a month for Texas State to get my transcript and process it.

As soon as I got accepted, I rushed through the financial aid, advising AND registration process. Luckily, they still had money so close to the first day of classes to cover my tuition. The catch was that I had to enroll in a minimum of 12 hours, which I hadn’t done in a very long time.

Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep this semester and pushed my coffee addiction to the limit that I might seriously need to enroll in CA, but I adjusted accordingly.

Meeting Jason Dohring
I MET JASON DOHRING! And his face was super close to mine! Ah-maz-ing.

That weekend was seriously the best weekend of my life for sure. I don’t need to rehash that here though. You can read my nerdy blog post here.

Hanson

Yes, I finally saw Hanson perform live at this year’s SXSW, which you can read here. Fifteen-year-old Sarah is very happy about that.

Page One: Inside the New York Times

I can’t believe I almost forgot to include this movie on this list. I freaking love this movie. I first saw it during SXSW and seem to watch it every chance I get. A lot of journalists’ dream is to write for the New York Times. I know it’s one of mine. It’s the freaking New York Times.

And watching this movie gave me hope for the future of journalism during its current state of evolution. Journalists aren’t one-trick ponies anymore. We have to know how to do more than just write an article, thanks to the Internet. So this film gave me some hope.

But seriously, any journalism nerd will love this movie. I love getting that peek behind the curtain, seeing the reporters conduct interviews just like I do: waiting for sources to call back, trying to get them to open up, balancing the phone between their ear and shoulder while they type their notes as quickly as they can (spelling errors and all) during phone interviews.

They’re people just like us. The difference here is that they work for the New York Times.

Albums of the Year (in no particular order):
Mother Falcon “Alhambra”
Sphynx “Human Beast”
SPEAK “I Believe in Everything”
Equals "Equals”
Marmalakes “Even Clothed”
Final Exam “Final Exam”
Payne “Late Night Thoughts”
Quiet Company “We Are All Where We Belong”
The Couch “Old and Touchin’ Blue”
The Nouns “Party With The Nouns” (This also wins Best Album Cover.)

The final chapter of SPEAK for a Year was published in UWeekly yesterday. It feels surreal, because now it's officially over. Granted I still have a lot of material from the interview that could still be used, so maybe it'll see the light of day eventually, but SPEAK for a Year is officially over. What do I do now?

Click here to read it at UWeekly.

Here's the video for "81" that was mentioned in the article. You can't see me (but you can hear my camera beep in the beginning), but I was standing on the left side of the camera getting eaten by ants while they filmed the performance part. The things I do for a story.

Here are the links to all the blog posts for SPEAK for a Year:
January through April
May
June and July
August
September
October
November
December
2010 in Review: SPEAK
SPEAK for a Year is over. Why am I here?

Or go through this timeline with all the blog posts, articles, photos and videos.

Again, special thanks to SPEAK for letting me do this project. It's definitely one that will define my writing career.

It’s amazing how powerful music can be. One song can trigger a memory and place you exactly in that scene when that song was playing: what you were doing, what you were feeling, what you were wearing, etc. Like hearing “Don’t You Forget About Me” brings me back to my first SPEAK show at Antone’s, Vitamin C’s “Graduation (Friends Forever)” reminds me of duh, high school graduation, and KoRn’s “Blind” reminds of me watching my friends’ high school band cover that song at the park’s amphitheater. And of course, on the flip side to that is there are certain songs I avoid because it brings back unhappy memories I never want to remember again. Again, music is powerful.

One recent song I seem to be listening to over and over again is “Rivers and Roads” by The Head and the Heart.



I was one of the 30 journalism students from around the globe picked to study in St. Petersburg, FL for Poynter’s College Fellowship in May. For those that have seen me since I’ve been back know that this is ALL I’ve been talking about.

It was heaven for a journalism nerd like me.


Seriously, look at all that coffee.

We got hands-on training from some of the great minds of journalism and learned anything and everything about journalism.

I arrived at the fellowship two days after graduation, one week after classes were over, and two weeks after my last issue of Accent Newspaper went to press. Even though, I was exhausted and feeling burned out, I was still excited to embrace all I could learn about journalism.

Working with the other 21 fellows, our two leaders, Al and Sara, and the revolving door of Pulitzer-winning journalists and editors who led sessions or hung out to answer any questions we had gave me that motivational spark I needed again.

When the two weeks were over, I found myself ready to come back to Austin and put all the information they shared with us to use. I wanted to write again. I wanted to produce more videos. I wanted to go back to work, but that also meant saying goodbye to the fellows. And saying goodbye to them was definitely one of the hardest goodbyes I've ever had to do.

“A year from now, we’ll all be gone. All our friends will move away. And they’re going to better places but our friends will be gone away.”

They warned us on the first night that we would become close friends, leave with tears in our eyes, and while most of us doubted that and just shrugged it off, they were right. Being the sensitive girl that I am, I choked up when I said goodbye and gave everyone a hug before I left and the moment I walked out of the newsroom for the very last time, I lost it.

“Nothing is as it has been and I miss your face like hell. And I guess it's just as well, but I miss your face like hell.”

When you spend that much time with people - during deadlines, workshops, assignments, karaoke, newsroom dance parties – 24/7 for two weeks straight, you become somewhat of a family. A silly this-needs-be-a-reality-show family, but nevertheless, a family, especially with people who dedicate themselves into the same thing you love just as much as you do.

“Been talking about the way things change and my family lives in a different state.”

Now that we’re all dispersed all over the world working at jobs and internships, I still keep in contact with the fellows on a daily basis. I don’t know how the previous fellows did this without social media. Without Facebook and Twitter, my cell phone bill would be ridiculously high from going over my minutes.

“And if you don’t know what to make of this, then we will not relate.”

Just having “Poynter fellow” attached to my name has now opened many doors for me, even before the fellowship started. And it was the fellows that helped me sort through all the decisions so I could select the right one best for me. Before I came home, I thought I was going to be stuck in Austin struggling as a freelance writer while working at the bookstore forever. That’s not a bad thing, because let’s face it, Austin is amazing, but leaving everything behind for a steady journalism job is a scary thought. However, knowing I have 21 friends out there who will welcome me in open arms makes this idea seem a little less scary.

“Rivers and roads, rivers and roads, rivers ‘til I reach you.”

So the point of all this is that one of the fellows, Adam Kemp, made a video after we left Florida. He stayed behind because his flight was the next morning and during his alone time, he decided to make a video to crack us up like he always did. Instead, this turned into a tribute video of sorts.

I was in my hotel room in Alabama with another fellow Lisa Carter when I first saw it (we drove 20 hours to and from Florida together). I remember lying in bed with my laptop on my lap and the moment I saw the clips of the other fellows, I cried again. Yep, I’m a marshmallow.

But now this song “Rivers and Roads” will always remind me of my time at Poynter. The tone and lyrics of the song perfectly describe how I feel about the best two weeks of my life. The two weeks I spent with the 21 friends I will definitely carry with me for the rest of my life.

Goodbye Poynter - PCF 11 from Adam Cooper Kemp on Vimeo.

Entertainment Weekly may have already claimed him as an early favorite, but Javier Colon and I, believe it or not, actually share one thing in common. We have both shared living spaces with The Voice contestant, Tje Austin. In fact, the moment we started our phone interview, we spent a good 10 minutes talking about Tje's junk food habit. Ever read “The Babysitter’s Club?” Tje is Claudia.

This is why I love my job though. Because from the moment Javier covered Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” during his blind audition, I, with the rest of the world, was rooting for him and there I was weeks later on the phone with him. Of course, I’m on Team Tje, but Javier is a close second. After all, he did manage to impress all four judges by having them turn around as well as receive two standing ovations from Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.

In the end though, Javier chose Adam.



But did you know that Javier originally cancelled his initial audition? That’s right. We may not have discovered that soulful voice if he didn’t feel better that morning. Thursday before his Saturday audition, he called his manager to cancel the audition.

“My voice was really shot that morning,” said Colon. “I told him to cancel it. He said ok.”

However, when Saturday came, he felt better.

“I was like you know what, I really should do this. What else do I have going on? This is an opportunity,” said Colon.

Luckily for him, when he called his manager to see if he cancelled the audition, it turned out that his manager forgot.

“I was like ok, good. Then I’ll go. So I ended up going that afternoon and here we are, which is crazy,” said Colon.



Javier had a record deal with Capitol Records and released two albums with them years before The Voice audition. While to most musicians wanting to make it, a record deal is a dream, but sometimes there are compromises that come with that contract.

“We had a couple of things that we didn’t necessarily see eye to eye on,” said Colon. “They wanted me just to be a straight ahead R&B guy, and I love R&B. It’s a part of what I do. It doesn’t necessarily define me.”

Even though the label and Javier eventually parted ways, he did discover that one of his R&B albums landed in the hands of a fellow contestant, his own roommate Tje Austin.

“When I did meet Tje, we had a pretty funny exchange about him having an album from a guy named Javier. It was kind of awkward because I was like yeah, that was me,” said Colon. “It was pretty cool. I wasn’t necessarily expecting anybody to know my stuff and I was flattered that he had heard my music and that he actually had one of my CDs.”

The second portion of the live show is going on right now as I type this and Javier will perform (hopefully after this is published). Even though our mutual roommate is back in Austin (he lost to Nakia in the battle round), Javier is ready to tackle his performance.

“I’m excited to go back to the single song format. You get to go up there and you get to sit down and rip into a song. I feel good about that,” said Colon. “I’m excited just to be up there and share some songs with the world. Where I get to, at least, share my interpretations of these songs with the world.”

Curtis Grimes, one of the four contestants on The Voice from Texas, is a country song waiting to be written (if it hasn’t already). According to his bio, he walked away from a baseball scholarship for a girl, and like every country song, after she broke his heart, he picked up the guitar to sing about it.

While yes, his southern charm and the twang in his voice give him more of that Texas edge, there is more to Curtis than being a small town country boy. Although, I do read the things he tweets like “Love you boo” in his southern drawl. (@CurtisGrimes). It tends to happen after I have to hear his voice over and over again during the transcribing process. It cracks me up.

For those that saw the last episode of the battle rounds two weeks ago were probably as shocked as I was when Curtis took off his cowboy hat like a gentleman and kissed his competition Emily Valentine. I guess opposites attract?

Turns out though, it was staged.

“Basically, I told Emily, hey, let’s do that because at least, we’ll get talked about the next day,” said Grimes.

And boy, did they. Twitter was a-buzzing with people wondering “are they or aren’t they?” Some websites such as TVLine were amused by the kiss whether it was a set-up or the real deal. People were talking.

“It went over well,” said Grimes.” A lot of people ask me if we’re dating though.”

Before the kissing stunt, Curtis joined Cee Lo Green’s team during his blind audition even though he performed another judge’s (Blake Shelton) song “Hillbilly Bone.” Even though Blake didn’t turn around, Curtis was still happy with the outcome.



“Before they added Blake, Cee Lo would have been my choice,” said Grimes. “I thought if anyone would turn around that Blake would, so I was looking at his chair the whole time. I just saw the light flash and then I looked over to Cee Lo. (I thought,) oh ok, well back to square one.”

Even though Cee Lo and Curtis come from two completely different genres, Curtis welcomes the other perspective.

“It’s cool. He’s got a lot of ideas as far as influxions and how to go about doing a song or the feelings and the emotions behind the singing,” said Grimes. “I’d like to spend more time with him and work with him.”

Tonight Curtis will finally get his chance to perform during the live show. While I don’t know what he’s singing, he did mention on twitter that it’s a rock song turned into a country song. I wonder if that will get the people talking again.

This is why I love SPEAK. At their last Austin show, the guys teamed up with orchestral rockers Mother Falcon and revamped their cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic." As I told Jake (SPEAK's drummer) before the show, they appeal to the band nerd in me.

Like I need to explain it to you people. I did follow them for a year. Just watch the video.

SPEAK and Mother Falcon covering "Toxic" from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

I filmed this video back in April when the pianos were still around town for "Play Me, I'm Yours." You can get more details about it here. Yes, I know the video says May. I didn't fact check before I rendered the file. Lesson learned.

This was fun to shoot, but a bitch to edit. I worked on it during what little downtime I had during my two-week fellowship at Poynter. But I got it done the night before I left!

Sphynx performing "Swagger" from Sarah Vasquez on Vimeo.

This was an interesting story to do. Nick let me hang out with him for a night and answered every question I threw at him (which was a lot). I didn't think this story would pan out, but it ended up working at the end. Can't wait to see how it looks in print. Yes, that's me in the photo.

During a typical night on 6th Street or during South by Southwest, one might overlook, in their drunken stupor, the group of people hanging out on one of the corners with bikes and cabs. These people are pedicabbers and they are there to provide a ride. But unlike taxis, they ride a bike instead of a car.

Nick De Cesare, a pedicabber, graciously gave UWeekly an inside look into his job one Saturday night. During the year, he usually works on Friday and Saturday nights, but during special events such as ACL and SXSW, he’s on his bike a lot longer.

However, his job hardly interferes with his studies at Austin Community College.

“I do all my school work during the week and I do this on weekends,” said De Cesare.

Click here to read the rest at UWeekly.

I feel like a proud mama. After being one of the very few that did multimedia for Accent Newspaper, I was thrilled when other reporters showed interest producing more for Accent. Naturally, it's been a goal to produce more videos and slideshows for the website, but we just didn't have the manpower or knowledge to do it.

The original plan for this story was to have Era on camera while I filmed behind the camera. But when it came time to film, I handed it over to Edgar. How are they supposed to learn right? So I pretty much came for the ride (or should I say, walk), and guided them through the process as well as filmed with my new camera. Sadly, none of my footage made the cut, and that's because my schedule never lined with up Edgar's to give him the footage, but my photos were used instead.

Anyway, here's the footage all put together by Edgar. Usually I just post stuff I've created, but I was so impressed by the outcome, especially under the windy circumstances, that I wanted to share it here.



Read a little more about "Play Me, I'm Yours" here at Accent.

A side note: of course, everyone in Austin took advantage of the pianos downtown to create videos, myself included. Let's just say I have another video in the works. Can't wait to share!