SXSW 2020 Cancelled: My Thoughts

“Those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it.” ~ Anonymous

In the first time of its 34 year history, SXSW Festival is cancelled due to concerns about COVID-19.

The news came today from Mayor Steve Adler.

When asked about the ramifications of this historic decision, Adler said that “the ramifications are secondary to ensure we are safe as a community.”

In recent days, there was a petition signed by thousands of people who wanted the city of Austin to cancel it to begin with. However the following day the local newspaper would report that the city of Austin would press forward with plans of keeping SXSW active.

Looks like they bowed to the will of the public hysteria and changed their minds.

Yet I cannot help but wonder if the city of Austin is actually thinking about the long term ramifications that are going to come because of this decision.

Hotels get booked a year in advance for this event. The moment it ends one year, is when they start booking rooms for the following year. You cannot find a hotel anywhere to stay in throughout the city of Austin. It just does not happen!

Another thing that I have thought about are the local venues who were expecting a rise in sales and business.

I have read on social media that the UN-official SXSW events, some are going on as planned. But again, sales will probably not be as they were if the OFFICIAL SXSW event was going on as they are.

I’ve been told that the city of Austin has really done a number on many venues and businesses that are located in the downtown area.

For one example, a venue along infamous Sixth Street recently has been hit with a drastic rent increase. One that I have discussed in past blog posts as I have attended live music shows there.

When rent goes from $10,000 a month up to $25,000 a month, how does the city expect any business to thrive??

The cancellation of SXSW 2020 will definitely be felt by those businesses and venues who are experiencing these ridiculous rent increases.

Downtown Austin in the long run will be going through some changes.

Local people are pretty upset right now. And rightfully so. And if some how the city of Austin pushes against the UN-official events, then I suspect that all hell will break loose.

But I have to personally take a step back from all of this. 

All year long, I have been waiting for certain local bands to post their SXSW events. Whether official or unofficial. And nobody that I know of said anything. Not a word!!

So therefore, I am not planning on attending ANY events at all. Even before this cancellation was announced. In addition to that, I’m still healing from several surgeries that I went through last November. And I would not be in very good shape to attend to begin with.

So what’s the good in all of this?

I had to stop and think really hard to answer that question.

First and foremost, the traffic. I am sure that traffic will be bad enough during that time. And I am sure that people who had planned to come will be defiant and come any way. But the traffic will be far less than usual.

I wondered about the parking. Commonly on any given weekend (or any given night for that matter) parking can be anywhere from $20-30. But during SXSW Festival, parking goes $40-50 and way up!! Will the city of Austin keep things as usual or will they still continue to bleed people dry?

I personally have not heard of any cases of COVID-19 in the city of Austin. So as it stands right now, the hysteria continues to win over the minds of people. I believe that most people are smart and know how to take care of themselves and not get sick. Just like during the flu season.

There will come a day when these “secondary ramifications” will eventually down the road become “primary” and the city of Austin will be in a giant world of hurt.

Cancel the Cancellation

“Do not just look at your boyfriend as just a boyfriend. Look at him as a friend, too.”~ Vanessa Hudgens

I do not honestly recall how long ago this news story was, but there was a man who had secretly recorded his telephone conversation with big time internet provider AOL, and he recorded the miserable conversation that he had to endure when AOL had realized that the purpose of his call was to CANCEL his services with them.

I don’t remember just how long he was connected with them but it was at least twenty minutes to a half an hour.

The longer it took, the angrier he became. Eventually, he was screaming and shouting and everything else in between before AOL finally bid him adieu and he was able to hang up satisfied.

Just as this man had suffered because he wanted to cancel, so did I recently with another business.

My experiences are finding that most if not all online dating websites are in reality, all the same.

They operate in the same manner and they attract the same clientele day in and day out. Just because you’ve decided to leave one dating site for another doesn’t mean that the quality of those people are going to honestly change.

This morning, I was alerted to the fact that someone had sent me a personal message through one of these online dating services. I haven’t been to it in such a long time. So long of a time, that it took nearly an hour to remember what the heck my password was to sign in to be able to read whatever message was waiting on me.

As I opened up the website, I didn’t even bother to really look to see who had contacted me. I went straight to the message.

“I keep seeing your name on other dating sites. Man, you must be lonely and desperate!”

That was it. That was the all-important message. And it was very rude, in my opinion. 

I decided to go and check out this woman’s profile while the fires in my mind steadily began to burn.

The “About Me” section was very aptly named and filled out. Whomever this 24 year old woman was… the entire profile, including the “About Me” section, was about HER, HER, HER… and HER.

But then she provided links in her “General Info” section. Links to about a dozen and a half OTHER online dating websites and was apparently her personal profile.

And “I” am the desperate and lonely one??

So I came to the decision to cancel. Not because of the 24 year old woman but because I simply never really use the website for what it is there for. Seriously though: an hour trying to remember what the password was. That is speaking in volumes.

And that’s where the insanity started. I attempted to simply cancel the account online. But then “A survey” came in the form of a pop-up and would not go away until I had filled it out. And this took several minutes to go through, as they were questioning what was wrong and why I was making the decision to leave their site. 

Just about the time that I thought that I was done, I was put through the process of chatting with one of their representatives in a quick chat log box that popped up in the corner of the screen. And it was a very persistent bugger. I clicked OUT of it. And then I would receive an error message and a new one would come up.

I probably should have went for the power cord at the back of my computer at this point, but it didn’t come to mind until much later. Instead my mind went through questioning whether or not I contracted a computer virus through all of this garbage.

More time wasted chatting with that person, that which I assume was really a bot.

And then I just clicked off the browser entirely. Within moments, the telephone rang and it was someone representing the dating site claiming that “we had a lost connection and so we looked up your personal information to be able to speak with you.”

Wow… privacy violations, anyone?!?!?!!?????

I felt like that guy who had to deal with AOL all of a sudden. But I didn’t lose my cool like he had, I stuck to my guns and only honestly answered about six questions and anything else that was asked, I told them to refer to my previous remarks.

For future reference to anyone wanting to cancel their online dating accounts and have to go to through with this: THEY DON’T LIKE THAT!!!! I am guessing their attention spans are not that great. I am only speculating though.

So a grand total of 3+ hours to get this thing cancelled. Starting the clock from the time I read that rude message by that 24 year old to the time where I felt that the job was done. 4 hours if you count the hour wasted trying to remember what in the world the password was to get into the website to begin with.

Ahh, life. You are something else!!!

Cancellation Prone

“The moving finger writes, and having written moves on. Nor all thy piety nor all thy wit, can cancel half a line of it.”~ Omar Khayyam

For most of my adolescence and young adulthood, I had always considered and thought that a cancellation was based on something more than it actually was.

Throughout my high school years, I was THE KING of no-shows, no calls, being stood up, and downright cancelled at the last possible and final minute.

Not that I was the one doing the cancelling but rather I was being cancelled upon!

I recall asking a girl in high school if she wanted to go out for some ice cream after a vocal performance in which the entire town was going to be attending. Yes, I asked her out on a date. And I even explained that she and I would both be performing in our perspective choirs and therefore afterwards, all she had to do was drive the both of us to get ice cream and then after we were finished, drop me off at home.

My parents were not that willing to believe that it was going to happen. My father stayed behind, until he and I were the only bodies left in the auditorium nearly an hour and a half after the ending of the performance.

I didn’t even cry or get upset about it. It was like I was actually expecting it to happen and then it did. The worst part of it was that I had a class with that girl the next morning and she would be forced to deal with it. The only optimism that I received was my father telling me that I didn’t have to spend any money and I still had that money in my pocket for something that I might really and truly want later on…. OTHER THAN taking a girl on a date.

That next day in class, I did receive the explanation that she was told to come straight home from her parents after the performance and she didn’t want to get into further trouble at home. But I received nothing in notice of this and I could have saved myself the humiliation of standing there all alone with my father and gone straight home or done something different.

I didn’t say anything to her. I didn’t point the finger. I just nodded and never brought it up again. Until now.

Throughout the rest of my adult life, I began to wonder if the problem was who I was. Particularly when it came to the areas of dating and relationships.

I knew that I would be rejected by many. But I was confident that eventually a NO would turn into a YES. And at times, I would receive that YES. But again, only to be cancelled on or stood up and without any good reason as to why they never showed up.

I just couldn’t understand the why. And I began to blame myself for it. Was I coming on too strong after the woman agreed to the date? Was I in some way, being a total and complete douchebag because I finally found someone who would say YES??

Fast forward to these past months of 2013.

I’ve been up and knocked down so many times that its not worth counting the times I’ve dusted off and got back on the horse. I’m just glad that the horse never runs away when I get knocked off of it!

These past few months I have been going through it all over again, in one capacity or another. And yes, being rejected really sucks. Its not fun. And it hurts…. really hurts.

But I am done with the self-blaming.

Most recently I have made effort after effort after effort to expand my social life, only to find myself with the ending results that I experienced in my youth. And these were not even circumstances in which dealt with dating or relationships.  So I’m also done with the butthurt.

She simply never told me why she stood me up until she was forced to deal with the confrontation the following day.

To be fair, there are times in which a cancellation must happen because of circumstances that come that are beyond our control. And we must deal with that. I get that. I’ve always known that. But I’ve always excused people’s behavior to be just that.

One must really take into consideration what people are doing to you, when they are continually cancelling on you for a myriad of reasons and/or excuses.

I believe in giving people a second chance in these situations because simply shit happens. But if the shit is constantly draining, then you should really think about the kind of person you are dealing with and realize just how long you are willing to put with that stream of shit that they keep pouring out. How deep are you willing to let it get??

And if you are easily manipulated and controlled, just like I was in high school, then you too will eventually be up the creek with no paddle.

As for me, I can probably give people a chance or two but no more. After that, I must think about the kind of person that I am messing with and see for myself whether or not they are just full of excuses or just cancellation prone.

For myself, having gone through it practically my entire life…. I’ve adopted the “one and done” method. Its basically goes with the expression of fool me once, shame on me.

There are better people out there in this great big world who are worth far more than the people we are attempting to connect with. People who are willing to give to you what you need and open to receive what you are willing to give to them in return.

Those who do not fit inside that category? Think to yourself: Do you REALLY need them??? The answer is probably going to come out as NO. So rid yourself of the anguish. Don’t cement yourself in a place where you are going to be stood up and cancelled on all of the time. Don’t be like I was in high school!!! Its definitely not a picnic.

So here I sit, thinking about those who have put me through this process in most recent times. Ready to shove them into the rear view mirror. Opening myself to different and new opportunities with other people.

One and done, everyone. Are you ready??????