Boots in the Oven

SXSWear: The Fashion of the Festival, Part III

It’s time to wrap up this fashion round up. If you skipped parts I or II, I urge you to do a quick review, as there are valuable things to be learned.

Let’s start with an iconic SXSW group. Working together these guys cover almost all of the basics.

Some people just didn’t get the list of approved garments and accessories. They threw caution to the wind and boldly plotted their own course.

This dude was one of my all time favorite finds. If you look closely you can see that he's urging you to Make Dolla'z and unfortunately, you can't see it in the picture, but his hat is big cookie monster face complete with bobbly eyes.

Apparently he’s missing the weather app for his iPhone. It was like 80 degrees out there.

Rocking the Pop Rocks Cupcakes- and Yay I'm 30!

Against all odds (some odds? a few odds? ok it was really pretty easy) I made it to the ripe old age of thirty.  Where, I am told, I am either dirty or flirty. Hmm. You decide.

Either way, it's time to party! And nothing says celebration like having something delicious explode in your mouth! Um. I seem to have developed a touch of the Tobias. Perhaps I should rephrase.

Red Velvet Pop Rocks Cupcakes! Inspired by Heston Blumenthal's impressive Chocolate Pop Rocks Cake, I decided that a similar dessert was needed at my momentous hootenanny.

Since I'm not the biggest chocolate fan (boo me at your peril) I decided to head back to my roots and use fabulous red velvet cake as the vehicle to convey my tiny poppy friends.  That was the easy part.  I used this recipe which is quite nice. I added an additional 1/3 cup of canola oil because the fat content seemed a bit low. I also didn't have cake flour so I used the old cornstarch trick. Perfect.

The cream cheese frosting in this recipe is good too. I did use a half stick less butter and almost a cup less powdered sugar. I substituted the juice of half a lemon for the citric acid. See if you can not eat it by the spoonful, I dare you. It's too late for me- save yourselves!

SXSWear: The Fashion of the Festival, Part II

Welcome back for the second installment of SXSWear! If you missed the intro, be sure to check out Part I.

I’d like to start with a reminder that if you are simply super fabulous, normal fashion rules do not apply to you. I don’t know who this guy is but in my book he’s second only to Eddy Izzard in the executive transvestite category. Love it. (Just found out he's Justin Tranter from Semi-Precious Weapons.)

This guy went out on a branch too, charting his own way, but I’m not so sure how that worked out for him.

I understand that this is an international gathering. However, it is hosted squarely in Texas and if you’re going to wear a cowboy hat in Texas there are some things that you just can’t do. Here's a couple.

SXSWear: The Fashion of the Festival, Part I

SXSW obviously kicked a lot of ass this year-great weather, huge turn out, free food and booze all around.

But did you have as good of a time as you could have? Did you rock the ’09 trends like the player you so obviously are?

For all you scenesters who mock hipsters, for you brave fellows who’ve sprained a calf getting into those skinny jeans, for all you folks who spent an appreciable amount of time matching your sunglasses with your shoelaces (as a joke of course), Boots brings you this special, post festival, fashion round up. (Check out our Italian fashion post for some across the pond good looks.)

Now you too can look back and see just where you fell on the awesome spectrum.

Let’s start with some bands. Bands are kind of their own category because they’re in the performance business. They can go all out and get away with a lot more just for the sake of showbiz.

These guys are awesome.

Nothing like a young lady rockin’ the classic crooner styles of the ‘50’s

This guy. I don’t know about this guy.

Enoteca Vespaio to the Lunch Rescue

A couple of days ago I was out on a wild goose hunt for this new banh mi truck. Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of food on wheels is that it tends to move. Bastards.

Since I was already down south, I decided to stop into Enoteca Vespaio for a quick sandwich.  I haven't been back to this place since I helped to open it and then quit and fled the country. True story.

I remembered the food as being excellent so I was excited to revisit the menu. A brief look at the panini list revealed a new addition since my tenure, a funghi and blue cheese press. Sold.

When the sandwich arrived, I quickly noticed that Enoteca has made some marketing and packaging advances in my absence.  They still had the rustic butcher paper wrapping and the non-descript white bags, but everything was stamped and labeled and the place is even sporting a fancy new website. Nice work guys.

More after the jump-