I haven't been posting because I've been too busy, but things have been good.

The Conjunto Festival en San Antonio was, as expected and as usual, a great damn time in all ways. The music was phenomenal, this year had some particularly good bands. All I missed was the opportunity to dance since my lovely wife was not there. The music was made for dancing.

I have some great long clips I need to figure out how to shorten so I can post some parts of them. I thought there was an editing function for the videos but haven't discovered it yet. I have one incredible 17 minute clip of Ruben Vela playing without pause when he turned 72 on Saturday night, which I think was the highlight of the festival. He was, quite simply, kicking ass. I am really stoked the sound came out because of course it was superhumanly loud. But I have this new little HD camera and it works incredibly well.

Here is a brief polka played by Los Badd Boyz del Valle at the very start of the festival, I think the 2nd band (hence the light crowd). I have never seen them before. Turns out that despite the name they were a great band. After they played this they played a medly of all of the major styles in the Valley which was a tour de force. I liked this little bit because it was an old timey sound without the full conjunto. I was standing really far back in this instance, but the sound is good.



Good times were helped by the fact that we figured out the San Antonio bus system, which allowed for greater cold beer consumption at the festival. Also capitalized on the suggestions of some locals for food on the west side. So if you are talking nonstop conjunto music, cold beer, and dozens of firstrate tamales for breakfast, what else, exactly, does one need?