Townes Van Zandt Book Reading on Dec 5
The Forrest Four-Cast: December 4, 2018
The latest version of “A Star is Born” is packing in moviegoers this season, drawn in by the compelling saga of a fading musician struggling with alcoholism and drug addition who falls in love with a young singer and launches her career—to say nothing of Lady Gaga’s stunning film debut.
For another look at the all-too-familiar tale of an artist battling addition, check out Harold Eggers, Jr’s new book, “My Years with Townes Van Zandt: Music, Genius, and Rage.” He will be at BookPeople in Austin on Wednesday, December 5, at 7 pm for a reading and signing.
Van Zandt’s issues with drug and alcohol contributed to his early death at 52 in 1997. The longtime road manager and producer for this musician, Eggers (pictured above with the subject of his biography) writes that “other people locked themselves away and hid from their demons. Townes flung open his door and said, ‘Come on in.’”
Eggers describes Van Zandt, a member of a prominent Texan family, as “an enigmatic troubadour, whose deeply poetic music was a source of inspiration and healing for millions but was for himself a torment struggling for dominance among myriad personal demons.”
Van Zandt “often stated that his main musical mission was to ‘write the perfect song that would save someone’s life.’” Yet despite his own massive talent, he inevitably found himself on a relentless path toward self-destruction.
At BookPeople on December 5, Eggers will be in conversation with Kathleen Hudson, an author of two books on Texas music, and a Professor of English at Schreiner University. Austin musician Hector Ward will perform a few of Van Zandt’s songs.
Finally, find more fantastic music-focused content at SXSW in March 2019. This programming occurs in three different tracks: “Making & Marketing Music” (March 12–16), “Music Industry & Culture” (March 12–16), and “Touring & Live Experience” (March 12–16).
And remember that you can save a stone cold $300 on registration fees for SXSW 2019 if you buy your badge before end of day on Friday, December 7.
More Austin events for the week of Dec 3
Dec 3: Intro to the Austin Media Scene
Dec 3: Lightning Learning — Sponsored by uShip
Dec 3: NetDevOps Meet Up
Dec 3: Product League: Leveraging User Research for Better Products
Dec 3: Introduction to User Experience Design
Dec 4: SXSW Office Hours at Capital Factory
Dec 4: Austin Forum on Cities & Technology
Dec 4: Free Frontend Crash Course: HTML & CSS
Dec 4: Capital Factory Accelerator Info Session
Dec 4: Austin Advanced Deep Learning Meet Up
Dec 4: Data Analysis Info Session
Dec 4: Introduction to Digital Marketing
Dec 4: Introduction to Data Analytics
Dec 4: Keyholder 2018: She Is Key
Dec 4: Capital Factory Winter Job Fair
Dec 4: Bose AR Coding Workshop — Day 1
Dec 5: Bose AR Coding Workshop — Day 2
Dec 5: Ignite Startup Workshop
Dec 5: AUSOME — Austin Online Marketing for Entrepreneurs
Dec 5: Unleashing Intelligent Automation Across the Enterprise
Dec 5: Austin Design Sprint Meet Up
Dec 5: Galvanize Data Science and Web Development Info Session
Dec 5: Code in the Brewery Presented by St Elmo & General Assembly
Dec 5: EmacsATX Meet Up
Dec 5: Intro to Python: Predict the Box Office
Dec 6: Community Manager Breakfast
Dec 6: Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs Venture Expo
Dec 6: Laravel Austin Meet Up
Dec 6: Austin eCommerce Meet Up
Dec 6: User Experience Design Immersive Info Session
Dec 6: Web Design Immersive Info Session
Dec 6: Data Science Immersive Info Session
Dec 6: Medical Device Summit
Dec 7: Deadline to Save $300 on SXSW Registration Fees
Dec 7: Sputnik ATX Launch & Learn with Live Oak Partners
Dec 7: Galvanize Austin — Data Science Graduation
More Upcoming Austin Events
Dec 10: TechMap / Entreminded Holiday Party
Dec 11: How to Execute on a Business Idea when You’re Working a Day Job
Dec 11: Smart Series: Powerful Goal Setting for 2019
Dec 13: Hiring and Workplace Culture for Nonprofits
Jan 24: Silicon Hills News 2019 Austin Tech Calendar Party
Jan 26: Level Up Games Austin
Jan 26: Smart City Saturday Teen-Only Hackathon
March 8–17: SXSW 2019
May 7: Philanthropitch Austin
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
